Nitric oxide (NO), as a bioeffector to improve chemosensitivity by reversing multidrug resistance (MDR), is highly attractive for developing combinational delivery systems to deal with MDR tumors, while it is highly challenged by the stability and controlled release of NO during the pathway. Here we design and synthesize a cyclic nitrate trimethylene carbonate monomer (NTC), followed by ring-opening polymerization to prepare amphiphilic biodegradable polycarbonate-based copolymers as polymeric NO donors with tailored contents. The copolymer with desirable molecular weight is readily self-assembled to biodegradable micelles (NO-M) with a uniform size of 130 nm for highly stabilizing NO donors at the physiological conditions, while triggered NO release from micelles is performed at the intracellular reduction conditions. More importantly, NO-M shows superior inhibition of P-gP expression to enhance the chemosensitivity of multidrug-resistant MCF7 cells (MCF7/DOX R ). DOX-loaded NO-M (NO-M@DOX) realizes fast DOX release at the intracellular conditions, resulting in more intracellular DOX accumulation and higher antitumor activity mediated by the reduction-triggered NO/DOX release and NO-induced MDR reversal. Furthermore, the in vivo results show that NO-M@DOX effectively suppresses the MCF7/DOX R tumor growth by a combination of directly NO-induced therapy and NO-mediated enhanced chemotherapy; meanwhile, the treatment with NO-M systems have much fewer side effects.

No abstract

Dendrobium huoshanense, a traditional medicinal and food homologous plant, belongs to the family Orchidaceae and has a long history of medicinal use. It is reported that the stem of D. huoshanense has a variety of bioactive ingredients such as polysaccharides, flavonoids, sesquiterpenes, phenols, etc. These bioactive ingredients make D. huoshanense remarkable for its pharmacological effects on anti-tumor, immunomodulation, hepatoprotective, antioxidant, and anticataract activities. In recent years, its rich pharmacological activities have attracted extensive attention. However, there is no systematic review focusing on the chemical compositions and pharmacological effects of D. huoshanense. Therefore, the present review aims to summarize current research on the chemical compositions and pharmacological activities of D. huoshanense. This study provides valuable references and promising ideas for further investigations of D. huoshanense.

The respiratory system holds crucial importance in the biology of vertebrate animals. Injuries of the respiratory system caused by viral infections (e.g., by COVID‐19, MERS, and SARS) can lead to severe or lethal conditions. So far there are no effective treatments for respiratory injuries. This represents a highly unmet clinical need, e.g., during the current COVID‐19 pandemic. Nanomedicines have high potential in the treatment of respiratory injuries. In this review, the pathology and clinical treatments of major respiratory injuries, acute lung injury, and acute respiratory distress syndrome are briefly summarized. The review primarily focuses on nanomedicines based on liposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, polymeric nanoparticles, and inorganic nanoparticles, which are tested in preclinical models for the treatment of respiratory injuries. These nanomedicines are utilized to deliver a variety of therapeutic agents, including corticosteroids, statins, and nucleic acids. Furthermore, nanomedicines are also investigated for other respiratory diseases including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma. The promising preclinical results of various nanoformulations from these studies suggest the potential of nanomedicines for future clinical management of respiratory viral infections and diseases.

Abstract A simple, accurate and sensitive method of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with diode array detector was established to identify Xinfeng capsules and systematically evaluated its quality, based on chromatographic fingerprint integrated with the similarity analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis and the quantitative analysis of multi-components by single marker (QAMS). In this study, 18 peaks were selected as the common peaks to evaluate the similarities among different batches (S1–S10) of Xinfeng capsules samples, which were manufactured in the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine with a three-year span. Compared to control fingerprint, the similarities values for 10 batches of samples were more than 0.90. Moreover, by analyzing the reference of astragalus, the chromatogram of astragalus was developed, and 10 common peaks of astragalus were identified. More importantly, simultaneous quantification of three markers in Xinfeng capsule, including Calycosin-7-glucoside, calycosin and Formononetinaldehyde was performed, the three constituents showed good regression (R > 0.999) within linear ranges, and their recoveries were within the range of 97.6–101.5%. The validation results showed that the developed method was specific, accurate, precise and robust. This study demonstrated that the developed method offers an efficient, reliable and practical approach for systematic quality evaluation of Xinfeng capsule.

No abstract

The title mol­ecule, [Fe(C5H5)(C16H11O4)], consists of a ferrocenyl moiety and a 4-methyl­coumarin group linked through an ester unit to one of the cyclo­penta­dienyl (Cp) rings. The two Cp rings are virually parallel, with an angle between the two least-squares planes of 0.74 (16)°. The distances between the FeII atom and the centroids of the two Cp rings are 1.639 (2) and 1.652 (2) Å. The conformation of the ferrocenyl moiety is slightly away from eclipsed. The dihedral angle between the coumarin ring system and the ferrocenyl ester moiety is 69.17 (19)°. π–π stacking inter­actions involving the benzene rings of neighbouring coumarin moieties, with centroid–centroid distances of 3.739 (2) Å, consolidate the crystal packing.

The confusing use of Polygonati Rhizoma (PR) and Polygonati Odorati Rhizoma (POR) poses an unpredictable threat to the health of consumers. Sensitive, nondestructive, rapid, and multicomponent techniques for their detection are sought after. In this study, a low-cost, short-wavelength (898–1668 nm), and handheld near-infrared (NIR) spectrometer combined with multivariate spectral evaluation methods was used to establish calibration models for identifying PR and POR. NIR spectra were treated with a standard normal variate (SNV) before performing chemometric approaches. Then principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) were tested for calibration model development. The PCA results showed that spectral differences existed between the two herbs. However, the evaluation techniques could not separate them with the required accuracy. The PLS-DA calibration model, on the other hand, could separate the two herbs according to their spectral information with the prediction accuracy of >98.3%. Thus, it has been proven that a rapid, green, and low-cost method to support on-site and practical inspection through a handheld NIR instrument has been established to identify PR and POR and ensure the safety of the clinical medication.