Current application of metabolomics in the elucidation of processing mechanisms used in Chinese materia medica: A review

Processing, a key characteristic of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), enhances the efficacy and safety of Chinese materia medica (CMM) in clinics. It plays an important role in TCM. Studies on processing mechanisms involved in CMM promote the development of TCM. However, most studies on the mechanisms used for processing CMM do not reflect the holistic theory of TCM because they are based only on analysis of some specific  chemical components and biochemical indices which do not support the TCM characteristics of network target and multicomponent therapeutics. Fortunately, the perspective of systems biology is consistent with the holistic theory of TCM. Metabolomics, a key tool in systems biology, has been widely used to investigate the processing mechanism of CMM for many years. In this work, current applications of metabolomics in elucidating  mechanisms used for processing of CMM were systematically reviewed and discussed in terms of changes in chemical components, toxicity and efficacy of CMM before and after processing. This work provides researchers a clear and concise reference on the current application of  metabolomics in investigation of mechanisms used in processing of CMM. Moreover, this work provides a guide on how to investigate the  mechanisms used in processing of CMM, based on metabolomics. Keywords: Chinese materia medica, Processing mechanism, Metabolomics, Holistic theor

Quality comparison of traditional Chuanxiong produced in Dujiangyan City and Sichuan ProvinceC and Chuanxiong from other areas, based on analysis of volatile oil, total alkaloids and total ferulic acid contents

Purpose: To compare the qualities of Chuanxiong from different production areas (authentic and traditional production areas in Dujiangyan, Sichuan Province) and other non-authentic production areas, as well as different germplasm sources, using a combination of methods. Methods: A fingerprint spectrum of volatile oils was established, and the qualities of the chuanxiong samples were compared using gas chromatography (GC), while gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC -MS) was used to analyze the chemical compositions of the volatile oils. Results: There were significant differences in the chemical compositions of volatile oils of Chuanxiong from different plants. Most of the qualities of Chuanxiong were higher after transplantation to the germplasm nursery at Dujiangyan, Sichuan. There was increase in the contents of total alkaloids and total ferulic acid in some chuanxiong transplanted to the germplasm nursery. Conclusion: This is the first study that compares the quality of Chuanxiong from different producing areas using a combination of  several methods. These methods are feasible and effective, and the results provide a reference for research on standardization and quality control of Chuanxiong. Keywords: Chuanxiong, Volatile oil, Total alkaloids, Ferulic acid, Fingerprint, Dujiangyan Cit

The roles of environmental variation and spatial distance in explaining diversity and biogeography of soil denitrifying communities in remote Tibetan wetlands

The relative importance of local environments and dispersal limitation in shaping denitrifier community structure remains elusive. Here, we collected soils from 36 riverine, lacustrine and palustrine wetland sites on the remote Tibetan Plateau and characterized the soil denitrifier communities using high-throughput amplicon sequencing of the nirS and nirK genes. Results showed that the richness of nirS-type denitrifiers in riverine wetlands was significantly higher than that in lacustrine wetlands but not significantly different from that in palustrine wetlands. There was no clear distinction in nir community composition among the three kinds of wetlands. Irrespective of wetland type, the soil denitrification rate was positively related to the abundance, but not the α-diversity, of denitrifying communities. Soil moisture, carbon availability and soil temperature were the main determinants of diversity [operational taxonomic unit (OTU) number] and abundance of thenirS-type denitrifier community, while water total organic carbon, soil NO3- and soil moisture were important in controlling nirK-type denitrifier diversity and abundance. The nirS community composition was influenced by water electrical conductivity, soil temperature and water depth, while the nirK community composition was affected by soil electrical conductivity. Spatial distance explained more variation in the nirS community composition than in the nirK community composition. Our findings highlight the importance of both environmental filtering and spatial distance in explaining diversity and biogeography of soil nir communities in remote and relatively undisturbed wetlands.</p

Population Redistribution among Multiple Electronic States of Molecular Nitrogen Ions in Strong Laser Fields

We carry out a combined theoretical and experimental investigation on the population distributions in the ground and excited states of tunnel ionized N2 molecules at various driver wavelengths in the near- and mid-infrared range. Our results reveal that efficient couplings (i.e., population exchanges) between the ground state and the excited states occur in strong laser fields. The couplings result in the population inversion between the ground and the excited states at the wavelengths near 800 nm, which is verified by our experiment by observing the amplification of a seed at ~391 nm. The result provides insight into the mechanism of free-space nitrogen ion lasers generated in remote air with strong femtosecond laser pulses.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

松本歯学 第45巻 第1号 表紙・目次

This study, under zero initial condition, aims to characterize the reachable set bound for a class of neutral Markovian jump systems (NMJSs) with interval time-varying delays and bounded disturbances. To begin with, the time-delays are considered to be mode-dependent while delay mode and system mode are different. By utilizing free-weighting matrix method and reciprocally convex combination technique, an ellipsoid-like bound is characterized for the concerned NMJS with completely known transition probabilities. Based on the provided analytical framework, the case of same delay mode and system mode is also handled. Then, benefitting from a group of free-connection weighting matrices, the reachable set estimation issue is tackled for the NMJS involving mode-independent time-varying delays and partially known transition probabilities. The theoretical analysis is confirmed by numerical simulations

Denatured-State Conformation As Regulator of Amyloid Assembly Pathways?

Additional file 1: Figure S1. Disease incidence of ginger bacterial wilt. Figure S2. The rarefaction curve of samples. Table S1. Soil Physicochemical Data. Table S2. The top ten Phyla of samples. Dataset S1. Discriminative taxa analyzed by LEfSe in all samples