Licorice is a common herb which has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries. More than 20 triterpenoids and nearly 300 flavonoids have been isolated from licorice. Recent studies have shown that these metabolites possess many pharmacological activities, such as antiviral, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antitumor and other activities. This paper provides a summary of the antiviral and antimicrobial activities of licorice. The active components and the possible mechanisms for these activities are summarized in detail. This review will be helpful for the further studies of licorice for its potential therapeutic effects as an antiviral or an antimicrobial agent.

Nanodrug-based cancer therapy has been actively developed in the past decades. The main challenges faced by nanodrugs include poor drug loading capacity, rapid clearance from blood circulation, and low antitumor efficiency with high risk of recurrence. In this work, red blood cell (RBC) membrane camouflaged hollow mesoporous Prussian blue nanoparticles (HMPB@RBC NPs) are fabricated for combination therapy of cancer. The stability, immune evading capacity, and blood retention time of HMPB@RBC NPs are significantly enhanced compared with those of bare HMPB NPs. Doxorubicin (DOX), as a model drug is encapsulated within HMPB@RBC NPs with loading capacity up to 130% in weight. In addition, DOX loaded HMPB@RBC NPs show pH-/photoresponsive release. The in vivo studies demonstrate the outstanding performance of DOX@HMPB@RBC NPs in synergistic photothermal-/chemotherapy of cancer.

!Licorice is one of the oldest and most frequently used herbs in traditional Chinese medicine. It contains more than 20 triterpenoids and 300 flavonoids. In recent years, a lot of studies have reported that the active compounds isolated from licorice possess antitumor, antimicrobial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, immunoregulatory, and several other activities that contribute to the recovery and protection of the nervous, alimentary, respiratory, endocrine, and cardiovascular systems. In this paper, nine different pharmacological activities of licorice are summarized. The active compounds responsible for these pharmacological activities, the molecular mechanisms, and in vivo and in vitro studies are listed in detail. Furthermore, the clinical therapeutics and toxicity studies of licorice are also discussed. We hope this work can provide a basis for further studies concerning with the safe and effective use of licorice.

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Objective: NUT midline carcinoma (NMC), a rare type of squamous cell carcinoma, is genetically characterised by NUT midline carcinoma family member 1 (NUTM1) gene rearrangement. NMC can arise from the lungs; however, there is no standard for the management of primary pulmonary NMC. This study aimed to confirm the clinical features and report the treatments, especially with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), and outcomes of patients with primary pulmonary NMC. Methods: A retrospective review of patients with primary pulmonary NMC was performed in the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University between January 2015 and December 2018. Clinical manifestations as well as radiographic and pathological findings were recorded. Whole-exome sequencing (WES), a predictor for ICI response, was used to determine the tumour mutational burden (TMB). Treatments, especially by immune checkpoint blockade, and patient survival were analysed. Results: Seven patients with primary pulmonary mass (four men and three women) with a mean age of 42 years (range, 23-74) who were diagnosed with NMC according to NUT immunohistochemistry staining were included for analysis. One patient had a rare fusion of CHRM5-NUTM1 by tumour sequencing. A wide range of TMB (1.75-73.81 mutations/Mbp) was observed. The initial treatments included chemotherapy (5/7, 71.4%), surgery (1/7, 14.3%), and radiotherapy (1/7, 14.3%). Five patients (5/7, 71.4%) received ICIs (programmed cell death protein 1 [PD1]/ programmed cell death ligand 1 [PDL1] monoclonal antibody) as second-or higher-line treatments. The median overall survival (OS) was 4.1 months (range, 1.5-26.7 months). Conclusions: Patients with primary pulmonary NMC have a poor prognosis and chemotherapy is often preferred. Checkpoint immunotherapy is a good option as the second-or higher-line treatment. TMB seems to be not associated with OS.

With the immunoregulation potential, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been used for tissue regeneration by relieving inflammation in the injured tissues. When this repair process is interfered by immune disorders or pathological angiogenesis, the delays in corneal epithelial wound healing can lead to a persistent epithelial defect. Stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs), which carry abundant bioactive molecules from stem cells, have provided an alternative to regeneration therapy. In this study, we aimed to investigate if EVs from human placenta-derived MSCs (hP-MSCs) could ameliorate alkali injury of the cornea in the mouse model. 33.33 μg/μL EVs in 10 μL PBS were applied to the cornea. Repeat application three times, and 100 μg EVs (in 30 μL PBS) in total were administrated per day for two weeks. Our results revealed that EVs from hP-MSCs had preferable functions including enhancing proliferation and anti-inflammation and suppressing apoptosis of corneal epithelial cells. Furthermore, hP-MSC-derived EVs ameliorated mouse corneal wound healing by inhibiting angiogenesis and inflammation. Taken together, our current data suggested that hP-MSC-derived EVs have the beneficial effects of corneal wound healing, which provide alternative cell-free therapy with great practical value.

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Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a group of inherited neurodegenerative diseases characterized by the progressive photoreceptors apoptosis. The N-Methyl- N-nitrosourea (MNU) is an alkylating toxicant which could induce photoreceptor apoptosis resembling that of the hereditary RP. However, the detailed process pattern of this degeneration remains poorly characterized. We systemically explored the topography of the photoreceptor degeneration in the MNU treated mouse, and related these spatial data with the time-dependent characteristics of retinal pathology. These temporal topographic data delineated sequential scenes of the progressive photoreceptor degeneration in the MNU treated retinas: focal photoreceptors showed different vulnerabilities to the MNU toxicity and displayed a distinctive spatial- and time-dependent progression. Moreover, the positional asymmetry between the retinal quadrants firstly provided instructive information about the unique toxicology properties of the MNU. Further mechanism study suggested that the up-regulation of Bax and Calpain-2, rather than the Caspase-3, should be responsible for the asymmetry in the MNU induced photoreceptor degeneration. Together with the comparative sensitivities to the neurotoxicity of MNU between two photoreceptor populations, these topographic data would facilitate the standardization of analytic parameters related to the MNU induced RP model, and enhance its application in the therapeutic explorations of human RP.