In a multicenter randomized double-blind study we demonstrated that Qiliqiangxin (QLQX), a traditional Chinese medicine, had a protective effect in heart failure patients. However, whether and via which mechanism QLQX attenuates cardiac remodeling after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is still unclear. AMI was created by ligating the left anterior descending coronary artery in mice. Treating the mice in the initial 3 days after AMI with QLQX did not change infarct size. However, QLQX treatment ameliorated adverse cardiac remodeling 3 weeks after AMI including better preservation of cardiac function, decreased apoptosis and reduced fibrosis. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ) was down-regulated in control animals after AMI and up-regulated by QLQX administration. Interestingly, expression of AKT, SAPK/JNK, and ERK was not altered by QLQX treatment. Inhibition of PPARγ reduced the beneficial effects of QLQX in AMI remodeling, whereas activation of PPARγ failed to provide additional improvement in the presence of QLQX, suggesting a key role for PPARγ in the effects of QLQX during cardiac remodeling after AMI. This study indicates that QLQX attenuates cardiac remodeling after AMI by increasing PPARγ levels. Taken together, QLQX warrants further investigation as as a therapeutic intervention to mitigate remodeling and heart failure after AMI.

Treatment with a Tianqi capsule for 12 months significantly decreased the incidence of T2DM in subjects with IGT, and this herbal drug was safe to use.

The photosensitized reductions of 4-cyanobenzylmethylphenyl sulfonium tetrafluoroborate (1-BF4) by 9-phenylanthracene, 2-ethyl-9,10-dimethoxyanthracene, or perylene excited singlet states gives quantitative yields of phenyl methyl sulfide. Fluorescence quenching and the quantum yields for product formation, as functions of [1-BF4], give bimolecular rate constants (0.58−1.6 × 1010 M-1 s-1) for reaction of the excited sensitizers with the sulfonium salt. The limiting quantum yields, corresponding to infinite [1-BF4], are 0.65−0.77 for the three sensitizers, revealing significant inefficiencies in the photoreduction. These inefficiencies are assigned to the partitioning of a sulfuranyl radical intermediate in a two-step associative electron-transfer mechanism.

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