Multifunctional Actions of Ninjinyoeito, a Japanese Kampo Medicine: Accumulated Scientific Evidence Based on Experiments With Cells and Animal Models, and Clinical Studies

Herbal medicines are currently employed for the treatment of several types of diseases, and also employed for the improvement of Quality of Life (QOL) of patients over the world, in particular, in Asian countries. In Japan, a Japanese herbal medicine namely kampo medicine has been prescribed for the improvement of QOL of patients. Ninjinyoeito (NYT), composed of 12 herbal plants, is one of kampo medicines and used for helping recovery of diseases and improving several symptoms that suffer patients such as anemia, anorexia and fatigue. Recent scientific research approaches to kampo medicines with cells and animal models enable to prove that NYT has multiple functions for improvement of symptoms. Also, clinical studies using NYT support such actions to be widely used for the improvement of symptoms that reduce the QOL of patients

Onset Temperatures for Superconducting Fluctuations in Te-annealed FeTe1−x_{1-x}Sex_x Single Crystals: Evidence for the BCS-BEC Crossover

Recently, the superconductors' community has witnessed an unsettled debate regarding whether iron-based superconductors, in particular FeSe and FeSe$_{1-x}$S$_x$, are in the Bardeen-Cooper-Shrieffer (BCS) - Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover regime. Nonetheless, one particular system, FeTe$_{1-x}$Se$_x$, has been less investigated in this regard owing to the screening of its intrinsic superconducting properties by the inevitable iron excess. Herein, the onset temperatures for superconducting fluctuations ($T_{scf}$) are investigated by measuring the magnetoresistance (MR) of Te-annealed, high-quality FeTe$_{1-x}$Se$_x$ ($x$ = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4) single crystals. The results reveal very high $T_{scf}$ values for these crystals. Particularly for $x$ = 0.4, $T_{scf}$ reaches approximately 40 K, which is 2.7 times larger than $T_c$. This indicates that the superconductivity of the FeTe$_{1-x}$Se$_x$ system is well within the BCS-BEC crossover regime.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, and 1 table. to be published in JPS Conference Proceeding

Optical biosensor differentiates signaling of endogenous PAR1 and PAR2 in A431 cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Protease activated receptors (PARs) consist of a family of four G protein-coupled receptors. Many types of cells express several PARs, whose physiological significance is mostly unknown.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here, we show that non-invasive resonant waveguide grating (RWG) biosensor differentiates signaling of endogenous protease activated receptor subtype 1 (PAR₁) and 2 (PAR₂) in human epidermoid carcinoma A431 cells. The biosensor directly measures dynamic mass redistribution (DMR) resulted from ligand-induced receptor activation in adherent cells. In A431, both PAR₁and PAR₂agonists, but neither PAR₃nor PAR₄agonists, trigger dose-dependent Ca²⁺mobilization as well as G_q-type DMR signals. Both Ca²⁺flux and DMR signals display comparable desensitization patterns upon repeated stimulation with different combinations of agonists. However, PAR₁and PAR₂exhibit distinct kinetics of receptor re-sensitization. Furthermore, both trypsin- and thrombin-induced Ca²⁺flux signals show almost identical dependence on cell surface cholesterol level, but their corresponding DMR signals present different sensitivities.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Optical biosensor provides an alternative readout for examining receptor activation under physiologically relevant conditions, and differentiates the signaling of endogenous PAR₁and PAR₂in A431.</p