Simultaneous Determination of Seven Sesquiterpene Lactone Glucosides in Ixeris dentata by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Coupled with Tandem Mass Spectrometry and their Antiviral Activities

Ixeris dentata (Thunb. ex Thunb.) Nakai (Asteraceae), a well-known edible vegetable in Asia, contains various bioactive secondary metabolites, including sesquiterpene lactones. In this study, a high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) method has been developed and validated for simultaneous determination of seven sesquiterpene lactone glucosides isolated from the roots of I. dentata. In addition, these compounds were evaluated in terms of their antiviral activities against coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) and human enterovirus 71 (EV71). The developed method was validated in terms of linearity (R-2 > 0.9996), precision (RSD < 2.24%), accuracy (96.30-102.77%), and stability (RSD < 1.94%) and successfully applied to the quantitation of the I. dentata root samples collected from six different regions of Korea. The content of sesquiterpene lactone glucosides varied significantly based on the region. For the antiviral activities, guaianolides with an ester group at C-8 (compounds 6 and 7) showed the most potent activities against CBV3, while germacranolide (compound 5) showed the most consistent antiviral activity against both CVB3 and EV71. The method was validated to be simple and reliable to simultaneously determine seven putative bioactive sesquiterpene lactone glucosides, the substantial chemotaxonomic markers, in I. dentata root samples.1

Children's Preference for Compositional Balance: A Developmental and Cross-Cultural Study

213 p.Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1997.Analysis of the verbal responses revealed almost the same tendencies found in the test scores. In addition, it suggested that the second developmental spurt, the cultural difference, and the gender difference are more likely emotional than cognitive.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

Agencification and Performance: The Impact of Autonomy and Result-Control on the Performance of Executive Agencies in Korea

Agencification, the practice of creating semi-autonomous public bodies based on a contractual relationship with a parent government, has spread across the industrialized and developing world. The main principles of this NPM-based reform are autonomy and result control. This study uses regression analysis with data from forty-four executive agencies in Korea to examine the effect of these factors on organizational performance. The results show that both human resource management autonomy and financial autonomy have statistically significant negative relationships with performance, whereas systems for performance evaluation and rewards for result control are significantly and positively related to the performance of executive agencies in Korea

Public–Private Partnership: Participants’ Experiences of the Web-Based Registration-and-Management System for Patients with Hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus

Hypertension and diabetes mellitus, which induce cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, require government intervention. In South Korea, the web-based registration-and-management system for patients with hypertension and diabetes mellitus was operated as a pilot program. This study explored the experiences of the 71 participating medical centers in G city, South Korea, of using the web-based registration-and-management system for preventing and managing hypertension and diabetes mellitus. After the survey, 40 physicians participated in interviews, and the recorded interviews were analyzed and classified into three categories: participation motivation, participation experiences, and suggestions. The study participants participated in a national pilot project with different expectations. Similar to the survey results on participation experiences, the satisfaction from a patient-care perspective was high, but there was an excessive burden of administrative work from the perspective of primary-medical-center operations. In addition, the suggestions included strengthening systematic education, continuous maintenance, broad project application, and improvements to the system. The system needs to be unified and simplified, the project continuity needs to be secured, and the application of the system to other regions and medical centers needs to be considered to induce public–private cooperation to reduce the amount of administrative work, which is currently excessive

Tacrolimus Improves Therapeutic Efficacy of Umbilical Cord Blood-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Diabetic Retinopathy by Suppressing DRP1-Mediated Mitochondrial Fission

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of blindness in diabetic patients. Umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells (UCB-MSCs) are emerging as a promising new drug for degenerative disease associated with diabetes. Recent studies have shown that high glucose-increased excessive calcium levels are a major risk factor for mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mtROS) accumulation and apoptosis. This study aimed to investigate the role of high glucose-induced NFATC1 signaling in mitochondrial oxidative stress-stimulated apoptosis and the effect of tacrolimus on the therapeutic efficacy of subconjunctival transplantation of UCB-MSCs in a DR rat model. High glucose increased mtROS and cleaved caspase-9 expression in UCB-MSCs. High glucose conditions increased O-GlcNAcylated protein expression and nuclear translocation of NFATC1. Tacrolimus pretreatment recovered high glucose-induced mtROS levels and apoptosis. In the DR rat model, subconjunctival transplantation of tacrolimus-pretreated MSCs improved retinal vessel formation, retinal function, and uveitis. In high glucose conditions, tacrolimus pretreatment reduced protein and mRNA expression levels of DRP1 and inhibited mitochondrial fission. In conclusion, we demonstrated that high glucose-induced O-GlcNAcylation activates NFATC1 signaling, which is important for DRP1-mediated mitochondrial fission and mitochondrial apoptosis. Finally, we proposed NFATC1 suppression by tacrolimus as a promising therapeutic strategy to improve the therapeutic efficacy of UCB-MSC transplantation for DR treatment

Neuraminidase inhibitory activity by compounds isolated from aerial parts of <i>Rhinacanthus nasutus</i>

<p><i>Rhinacanthus nasutus</i> (L.) Kurz (Acanthaceae) is known as traditional medicine for the treatment of various diseases, such as cancer, fungal infections, herpes virus infections and several types of skin diseases in South-East Asian countries. In this study, eight compounds <b>1–8</b> were isolated from the aerial parts of <i>R. nasutus</i>. The structures of compounds were determined by the spectroscopic methods, including 1D and 2D NMR. The isolated compounds were evaluated for neuraminidase inhibitory activity. Several lignans, 2,3-bis[(4-hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxyphenyl)methyl]-1,4-butanediol (<b>5</b>) and 8,8′-bisdihydrosiringenin glucoside (<b>6</b>), significantly inhibited neuraminidase activity, which was comparable to the positive controls, mangiferin and oseltamivir. In addition, a structure-based virtual screening against neuraminidase using bioactive components was demonstrated.</p

Diarylheptanoids and Flavonoids from <i>Viscum album</i> Inhibit LPS-Stimulated Production of Pro-inflammatory Cytokines in Bone Marrow-Derived Dendritic Cells

Three new diarylheptanoids, (3<i>S</i>,5<i>R</i>)-3-hydroxy-5-methoxy-1,7-bis­(4-hydroxyphenyl)-6<i>E</i>-heptene (<b>1</b>), (3<i>S</i>,5<i>S</i>)-3-hydroxy-5-methoxy-1,7-bis­(4-hydroxyphenyl)-6<i>E</i>-heptene (<b>2</b>), and (3<i>S</i>)-3-hydroxy-1,7-bis­(4-hydroxyphenyl)-6<i>E</i>-hepten-5-one (<b>3</b>), four new flavonoid glycosides, 3,7,3′-tri-<i>O</i>-methylquercetin-4′-<i>O</i>-β-d-apiofuranosyl-(1→2)-<i>O</i>-β-d-glucopyranoside (<b>4</b>), 7,3′-di-<i>O</i>-methylquercetin-4′-<i>O</i>-β-d-glucopyranosyl-3-<i>O</i>-[6‴-(3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaroyl)]-α-d-glucopyranoside (<b>5</b>), 7,3′-di-<i>O</i>-methylquercetin-4′-<i>O</i>-β-d-glucopyranosyl-3-<i>O</i>-[(6⁗′→5⁗)-<i>O-</i>1⁗′-(sinap-4-yl)-β-d-glucopyranosyl-6‴-(3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaroyl)]-α-d-glucopyranoside (<b>6</b>), and (2<i>S</i>)-5-hydroxy-7,3′-dimethoxyflavanone-4′-<i>O</i>-β-d-apiofuranosyl-(1→5)-<i>O</i>-β-d-apiofuranosyl-(1→2)-<i>O</i>-β-d-glucopyranoside (<b>9</b>), and 17 known compounds were isolated from the leaves and twigs of <i>Viscum album</i>. Compounds <b>1</b>, <b>4</b>, and <b>19</b> significantly inhibited LPS-stimulated production of TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-12p40 with IC₅₀ values ranging from 0.09 ± 0.01 to 8.96 ± 0.45 μM. (+)-Medioresinol (<b>13</b>) showed inhibitory effects on LPS-stimulated production of IL-12p40 with an IC₅₀ value of 2.00 ± 0.15 μM