Current Issue
Vol. 14, Issue 10, 2024
Table of Contents
ISSN2095-1779
CN61-1484/R
Editor-in-Chief: Lang-chong He
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The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor technology is a novel optical analysis method for studying intermolecular interactions. Owing to in-depth research on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in recent years, comprehensive and specific identification of components and target interactions has become key yet difficult tasks. SPR has gradually been used to analyze the active components of TCM owing to its high sensitivity, strong exclusivity, large flux, and real-time monitoring capabilities. This review sought to briefly introduce the active components of TCM and the principle of SPR, and provide historical and new insights into the application of SPR in the analysis of the active components of TCM.
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miR-135 is a highly conserved miRNA in mammals and includes miR-135a and miR-135b. Recent studies have shown that miR-135b is a key regulatory factor in cardio-cerebrovascular diseases. It is involved in regulating the pathological process of myocardial infarction, myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury, cardiac hypertrophy, atrial fibrillation, diabetic cardiomyopathy, atherosclerosis, pulmonary hypertension, cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease. Obviously, miR-135b is an emerging player in cardio-cerebrovascular diseases and is expected to be an important target for the treatment of cardio-cerebrovascular diseases. However, the crucial role of miR-135b in cardio-cerebrovascular diseases and its underlying mechanism of action has not been reviewed. Therefore, in this review, we aimed to comprehensively summarize the role of miR-135b and the signaling pathway mediated by miR-135b in cardio-cerebrovascular diseases. Drugs targeting miR-135b for the treatment of diseases and related patents, highlighting the importance of this target and its utility as a therapeutic target for cardio-cerebrovascular diseases, have been discussed.
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Ferroptosis is a newly discovered form of cell death that is influenced by iron levels and is triggered by cellular metabolism and excessive lipid peroxidation. Epigenetic regulation plays a crucial role in the development and progression of diseases, making it essential to understand these mechanisms in order to identify potential targets for drug development and clinical treatment. The intersection of ferroptosis and epigenetics has opened up new avenues for research in drug development, offering innovative strategies for combating diseases. Recent studies have shown that epigenetic modifications can impact pathways related to ferroptosis, potentially leading to organ dysfunction. Despite the increasing focus on this relationship, the role of epigenetic regulation in drug development remains largely unexplored. This article explores current research on the interplay between epigenetic regulation and ferroptosis, delving into their regulatory mechanisms and discussing the effects of existing epigenetic modification regulators on diseases. Additionally, we highlight ongoing research on epigenetic factors involved in targeting ferroptosis in cancer, providing new insights for the development of cancer treatments.
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Glycans associated with biopharmaceutical drugs play crucial roles in drug safety and efficacy, and therefore, their reliable detection and quantification is essential. Our study introduces a multi-level quantification approach for glycosylation analysis in monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), focusing on minor abundant glycovariants. Mass spectrometric data is evaluated mainly employing open-source software tools. Released N-glycan and glycopeptide data form the basis for integrating information across different structural levels up to intact glycoproteins. Comprehensive comparison showed that indeed, variations across structural levels were observed especially for minor abundant species. Utilizing modification finder (MoFi), a tool for annotating mass spectra of intact proteins, we quantify isobaric glycosylation variants at the intact protein level. Our workflow's utility is demonstrated on NISTmAb, rituximab and adalimumab, profiling their minor abundant variants for the first time across diverse structural levels. This study enhances understanding and accessibility in glycosylation analysis, spotlighting minor abundant glycovariants in therapeutic antibodies.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a kind of viral pneumonia which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 has been marked as the third introduction of a highly pathogenic coronavirus into the human population after the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome coro-navirus (MERS-CoV) in the twenty-first century. In this minireview, we provide a brief introduction of the general features of SARS-CoV-2 and discuss current knowledge of molecular immune pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 on the base of the present understanding of SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV infections, which may be helpful in offering novel insights and potential therapeutic targets for combating the SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The recent pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 has raised global health concerns. The viral 3-chymotrypsin-like cysteine protease (3CLpro) enzyme controls coronavirus replication and is essential for its life cycle. 3CLpro is a proven drug discovery target in the case of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Recent studies revealed that the genome sequence of SARS-CoV-2 is very similar to that of SARS-CoV. Therefore, herein, we analysed the 3CLpro sequence, constructed its 3D homology model, and screened it against a medicinal plant library containing 32,297 potential anti-viral phytochemicals/traditional Chinese medicinal compounds. Our analyses revealed that the top nine hits might serve as potential anti- SARS-CoV-2 lead molecules for further optimisation and drug development process to combat COVID-19.
The recent pneumonia outbreak caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is posing a great threat to global public health. Therefore, rapid and accurate identification of pathogenic viruses plays a vital role in selecting appropriate treatments, saving people's lives and preventing epidemics. It is important to establish a quick standard diagnostic test for the detection of the infectious disease (COVID-19) to prevent subsequent secondary spread. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is regarded as a gold standard test for the molecular diagnosis of viral and bacterial infections with high sensitivity and specificity. Isothermal nucleic acid amplification is considered to be a highly promising candidate method due to its fundamental advantage in quick procedure time at constant temperature without thermocycler opera-tion. A variety of improved or new approaches also have been developed. This review summarizes the currently available detection methods for coronavirus nucleic acid. It is anticipated that this will assist researchers and clinicians in developing better techniques for timely and effective detection of coro-navirus infection.
The development of pharmaceutical analytical methods represents one of the most significant aspects of drug development. Recent advances in microfabrication and microfluidics could provide new approaches for drug analysis, including drug screening, active testing and the study of metabolism. Microfluidic chip technologies, such as lab-on-a-chip technology, three-dimensional (3D) cell culture, organs-on-chip and droplet techniques, have all been developed rapidly. Microfluidic chips coupled with various kinds of detection techniques are suitable for the high-throughput screening, detection and mechanistic study of drugs. This review highlights the latest (2010–2018) microfluidic technology for drug analysis and dis-cusses the potential future development in this field.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a family of endogenous, small (approximately 22 nucleotides in length), noncoding, functional RNAs. With the development of molecular biology, the research of miRNA bio-logical function has attracted significant interest, as abnormal miRNA expression is identified to contribute to serious human diseases such as cancers. Traditional methods for miRNA detection do not meet current demands. In particular, nanomaterial-based methods, nucleic acid amplification-based methods such as rolling circle amplification (RCA), loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), strand-displacement amplification (SDA) and some enzyme-free amplifications have been employed widely for the highly sensitive detection of miRNA. MiRNA functional research and clinical diagnostics have been accelerated by these new techniques. Herein, we summarize and discuss the recent progress in the development of miRNA detection methods and new applications. This review will provide guidelines for the development of follow-up miRNA detection methods with high sensitivity and spec-ificity, and applicability to disease diagnosis and therapy.
Recently emerged SARS-CoV-2 caused a major outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and instigated a widespread fear, threatening global health safety. To date, no licensed antiviral drugs or vaccines are available against COVID-19 although several clinical trials are under way to test possible therapies. During this urgent situation, computational drug discovery methods provide an alternative to tiresome high-throughput screening, particularly in the hit-to-lead-optimization stage. Identification of small molecules that specifically target viral replication apparatus has indicated the highest potential towards antiviral drug discovery. In this work, we present potential compounds that specifically target SARS-CoV-2 vital proteins, including the main protease, Nsp12 RNA polymerase and Nsp13 helicase. An integrative virtual screening and molecular dynamics simulations approach has facilitated the identifi-cation of potential binding modes and favourable molecular interaction profile of corresponding com-pounds. Moreover, the identification of structurally important binding site residues in conserved motifs located inside the active site highlights relative importance of ligand binding based on residual energy decomposition analysis. Although the current study lacks experimental validation, the structural infor-mation obtained from this computational study has paved way for the design of targeted inhibitors to combat COVID-19 outbreak.
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are a class of carbon allotropes with interesting properties that make them productive materials for usage in various disciplines of nanotechnology such as in electronics equip-ments, optics and therapeutics. They exhibit distinguished properties viz., strength, and high electrical and heat conductivity. Their uniqueness can be attributed due to the bonding pattern present between the atoms which are very strong and also exhibit high extreme aspect ratios. CNTs are classified as single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on the basis of number of sidewalls present and the way they are arranged spatially. Application of CNTs to improve the performance of many products, especially in healthcare, has led to an occupational and public exposure to these nanomaterials. Hence, it becomes a major concern to analyze the issues pertaining to the toxicity of CNTs and find the best suitable ways to counter those challenges. This review summarizes the toxicity issues of CNTs in vitro and in vivo in different organ systems (bio interphases) of the body that result in cellular toxicity.
Phyllanthus species plants are a rich source of phenolics and widely used due to their medicinal properties. A liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) method was developed using high-pressure liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS/MS) for the identification and characterization of quercetin, kaempferol, ellagic acid and their derivatives in ethanolic extracts of Phyllanthus species. The chromatographic separation was carried out on Thermo Betasil C8 column (250 mm×4.5 mm, 5 μm) using 0.1% formic acid in water and 0.1% formic acid in methanol as the mobile phase. The identification of diagnostic fragment ions and optimization of collision energies were carried out using 21 reference standards. Totally 51 compounds were identified which include 21 compounds identified and characterized unambiguously by comparison with their authentic standards and the remaining 30 were tentatively identified and characterized in ethanolic extracts of P. emblica, P. fraternus, P. amarus and P. niruri.
