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Epimedium total flavonoid capsules (ETFCs), a traditional Chinese patent medicine derived from Epimedium brevicornu Maxim., have been used for centuries to treat primary osteoporosis and are associated with kidney yang deficiency symptoms. Based on the “kidney-brain axis” hypothesis, previous study demonstrated that ETFCs can improve the cognitive function of MCAO rats, and the mechanism may involve the inflammatory response. However, little is known about their therapeutic components and scientific connotations. This study systematically investigates the anti-neuroinflammatory material basis and the mechanisms of ETFCs, integrating UPLC-Q/TOF-MS and UPLC-TQ-MS for chemical profiling, quantitative analysis of key components in rats′ plasma and brain, along with network pharmacology and activity verification. As a result, 65 components were identified. Metabolite profiling showed a total of 130 xenobiotics, highlighting the extensive metabolic transformations. Pharmacokinetic studies showed that primary flavonoid glycosides were quickly absorbed, while secondary glycosides exhibited slower absorption and elimination. In brain tissue, both prototype glycosides and secondary glycosides reached their peak concentrations rapidly, with Tmax between 0.25–1 h, while the prototype glycosides were eliminated after 8 h and secondary glycosides exhibited a secondary peak at 6–8 h. A network pharmacology study revealed that prototypes in blood may play a therapeutic role through targets including AKR1B1, PDE5A, and PTGS2 (COX-2). The LPS-induced BV-2 cell model confirmed ETFCs′ constituents showed inhibitory activities on pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion, mRNA expressions of IL-6, TNF-α, COX-2, iNOS and could down-regulate the protein expressions of COX-2 and iNOS. This research lays the foundation for the further development and utilization of ETFCs.

Abstract Background Acute viral myocarditis (AVMC) is an inflammatory disease of the myocardium. Evidence indicates that dysbiosis of gut microbiome and related metabolites intimately associated with cardiovascular diseases through the gut-heart axis. Methods We built mouse models of AVMC, then applied 16 S rDNA gene sequencing and UPLC-MS/MS metabolomics to explore variations of gut microbiome and disturbances of cardiac metabolic profiles. Results Compared with Control group, analysis of gut microbiota showed lower diversity in AVMC, decreased relative abundance of genera mainly belonging to the phyla Bacteroidetes, and increased of phyla Proteobacteria. Metabolomics analysis showed disturbances of cardiac metabolomics, including 62 increased and 84 decreased metabolites, and mainly assigned to lipid, amino acid, carbohydrate and nucleotide metabolism. The steroid hormone biosynthesis, cortisol synthesis and secretion pathway were particularly enriched in AVMC. Among them, such as estrone 3-sulfate, desoxycortone positively correlated with disturbed gut microbiome. Conclusion In summary, both the structure of the gut microbiome community and the cardiac metabolome were significantly changed in AVMC. Our findings suggest that gut microbiome may participate in the development of AVMC, the mechanism may be related to its role in dysregulated metabolites such as steroid hormone biosynthesis.

Abstract Cotton plant provides economically important fiber and cottonseed, but cottonseed contributes 20% of the crop value. Cottonseed value could be increased by providing high value bioactive compounds and polyphenolic extracts aimed at improving nutrition and preventing diseases because plant polyphenol extracts have been used as medicinal remedy for various diseases. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of cottonseed extracts on cell viability and gene expression in human colon cancer cells. COLO 225 cells were treated with ethanol extracts from glanded and glandless cottonseed followed by MTT and qPCR assays. Cottonseed extracts showed minor effects on cell viability. qPCR assay analyzed 55 mRNAs involved in several pathways including DGAT, GLUT, TTP, IL, gossypol-regulated and TTP-mediated pathways. Using BCL2 mRNA as the internal reference, qPCR analysis showed minor effects of ethanol extracts from glanded seed coat and kernel and glandless seed coat on mRNA levels in the cells. However, glandless seed kernel extract significantly reduced mRNA levels of many genes involved in glucose transport, lipid biosynthesis and inflammation. The inhibitory effects of glandless kernel extract on gene expression may provide a useful opportunity for improving nutrition and healthcare associated with colon cancer. This in turn may provide the potential of increasing cottonseed value by using ethanol extract as a nutrition/health intervention agent.

Abstract Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays an important role in chronic inflammation associated with several diseases. Many plant extracts have nutritional and healthy benefits by down-regulating VEGF expression, but there was no report on VEGF regulation by cottonseed extracts in any biological system. The objective was to investigate cell viability and VEGF expression regulated by gossypol and ethanol extracts using lipopolysaccharides (LPS) as a control. MTT, qPCR and immunoblotting techniques were used to monitor cell viability, VEGF mRNA and protein levels in mouse RAW264.7 macrophages. Gossypol dramatically reduced macrophage viability but cottonseed extracts and LPS exhibited minor effect on cell viability. VEGFb mRNA levels were approximately 40 fold of VEGFa in the macrophages. Gossypol increased VEGFa and VEGFb mRNA levels up to 27 and 4 fold, respectively, and increased VEGF protein. LPS increased VEGFa mRNA by sixfold but decreased VEGFb mRNA. LPS increased VEGF protein in 2–4 h but decreased in 8–24 h. Glanded seed extracts showed some stimulating effects on VEGF mRNA levels. Glandless seed coat extract showed increased VEGFb mRNA levels but its kernel extract reduced VEGF mRNA levels. This study demonstrated that gossypol and ethanol extracts differentially regulated cell viability and VEGF expression in mouse macrophages.

The benefit of cultivated land use is an essential indicator for measuring the optimal allocation of cultivated land resources and the high-quality development of agriculture. Taking Shiyan City, Xiangyang City, and Suizhou City in Northern Hubei as the research objects, this paper presents an evaluation index system for cultivated land use efficiency from the perspectives of ecology, economy, and society. The entropy TOPSIS method and the obstacle degree model were applied to estimate the cultivated land use efficiency and identify obstacle factors in the three study areas from 2010 to 2020, and the results were as follows. (1) The comprehensive benefit level of cultivated land utilization in Northern Hubei showed an upward trend, and the individual benefit levels of cultivated land utilization in different cities were significantly different. Xiangyang City had outstanding economic performance, Shiyan City had the fastest growth rate of ecological benefits, and various benefits of Suizhou City were “steady”. (2) The fluctuation ranges of the obstacle factors for cultivated land use were relatively large in the Northern Hubei region. From 2010 to 2016, the effective irrigation index, land-averaged fertilizer input level, agricultural input–output ratio, and per capita income of farmers were the main factors restricting the improvement of cultivated land utilization efficiency in Northern Hubei. During 2017–2020, the per capita pesticide input level, per capita grain output, forest coverage rate, land output rate, and agricultural mechanization efficiency became the main obstacles restricting the improvement of cultivated land-use efficiency. (3) All cities of Northern Hubei should take measures according to local conditions, implement specific policies to address the restrictive factors of cultivated land use, improve the level of cultivated land-use benefit in the region, and promote the coordination and unity of the economic, ecological, and social benefits of cultivated land use.

In order to study how to promote the collaborative innovation of green building projects of construction enterprises, this paper establishes an evolutionary game model of suppliers’ participation in collaborative innovation of green building projects of construction enterprises under government governance. Through a numerical simulation, our research analyzes the influence of government tax preference, government infrastructure construction, and environmental pollution punishment on the behavior of the government, suppliers, and construction enterprises. The empirical research shows that the government’s tax incentives will continue to encourage suppliers to choose collaborative innovation. If the government’s short-term tax incentives are small, construction enterprises will evolve in the direction of midway betrayal. When the government’s long-term tax incentives are large, construction enterprises will evolve in the direction of the collaborative innovation of green building projects. Furthermore, the government’s infrastructure support for suppliers to participate in collaborative innovation of green building projects of construction enterprises will encourage suppliers and construction enterprises to choose green building projects for collaborative innovation. With the continuous maturity of green building projects in the construction market, the government has evolved from positive governance to negative governance. The government will take the opportunity to give up infrastructure construction and turn to other supporting policies. Lastly, a low intensity of environmental pollution punishment makes it difficult to promote the construction enterprises to evolve in the direction of collaborative innovation. A moderate intensity of environmental pollution punishment can encourage construction enterprises to evolve in the direction of collaborative innovation, while high-intensity environmental pollution punishment can encourage construction enterprises to choose the direction of midway betrayal. Environmental pollution punishment has no significant impact on suppliers’ selection of collaborative innovation of green building projects in the short term.

BackgroundMethyl Jasmonate (MeJA) could promote the opening of sorghum florets, but the molecular mechanism remains unclear.ObjectiveWe aimed to investigate the molecular mechanism of exogenous MeJA in promoting the opening of sorghum florets.MethodsHybrid sorghum Aikang-8 was selected as the test material in this study. Sorghum plants of uniform growth with approximately 20%-25% florets open were selected and treated with 0, 0.5 and 2.0 mmol/L of MeJA. Totally there were 27 samples with lodicules removed were obtained at different time points and used for the transcriptome analysis using the BGISEQ_500RS platform.ResultsThe results showed the sorghum florets opened earlier than the control after the treatment with exogenous MeJA, and the promotive effect increased along with the increase of exogenous MeJA concentration. The number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in plasma cells increased with the increase of MeJA concentration, whether up- or down-regulated, after the exogenous MeJA treatment. Besides, the number of metabolic pathways was also positively correlated with the concentration of MeJA. GO and KEGG analysis suggested the DEGs were mainly enriched in starch and sucrose metabolism-related pathways (i.e., LOC8063704, LOC8083539 and LOC8056206), plant hormone signal transduction pathways (i.e., LOC8084842, LOC8072010, and LOC8057408), energy metabolic pathway (i.e., LOC8076139) and the α-linolenic acid metabolic pathway (i.e., LOC8055636, LOC8057399, LOC8063048 and LOC110430730). Functional analysis of target genes showed that two genes named LOC-1 (LOC8063704) and LOC-2 (LOC8076139) could induce the earlier flowering of Arabidopsis thaliana.ConclusionThe results of this study suggest that exogenous MeJA treatments could induce the up- or down- regulation of genes related to starch and sucrose metabolism, -linolenic acid metabolism and plant hormone signal transduction pathways in the plasma cells of sorghum florets, thereby promoting the opening of sorghum florets.

Nuclear factor erythroid 2 related factor 2 (Nrf2) belongs to the cap ‘n’ collar basic region leucine zipper (CNC-bZIP) transcription factor family, and is activated by diverse oxidants, pro-oxidants, antioxidants, and chemo-preventive agents. Transcriptional regulation of a battery of detoxifying and antioxidant genes by Nrf2 has been shown to be important for protection against oxidative stress or chemically-induced cellular damages. In our research, we cloned the full length CncC gene from the Spodoptera frugiperda, named as SfCncC. The cDNA of the SfCncC consists of 2652 nucleotides that include a 2196-nucleotide open reading frame (ORF), encoding 731 amino acid residues, and 239- and 217-bp non-coding regions flanking at the 5’- and 3’-ends of the cDNA, respectively. Sequence analysis indicated SfCncC has the conserved domain (CNC-bZIP domain and a tetrapeptide motif, ETGE) character of Nrf2 and showed high identity compared with the CncC/Nrf2 from other insect and vertebrate species. Over-expression of SfCncC can up-regulate the transcription and activity of the SOD gene in Sf9 cells, and the RNAi of SfCncC in Sf9 cells and larvae of S. frugiperda can dramatically reduce the transcriptional level and activity of the SOD gene, as determined by real-time quantitative PCRs. So the SfCncC is involved in the Keap1-Nrf2-ARE pathway, acting the same as the transcriptional factor Nrf2 in vertebrate, and plays a role for host cell defense. The functional characterization of SfCncC provides the fundamental basis for us to further understand the regulatory mechanism of anti-oxidants and anti-xenobiotics in S. frugiperda.

Plant hormones play important roles in regulating every aspect of growth, development, and metabolism of plants. We are interested in understanding hormonal regulation of floret opening and closure in plants. This is a particularly important problem for hybrid rice because regulation of flowering time is vitally important in hybrid rice seed production. However, little was known about the effects of plant hormones on rice flowering. We have shown that jasmonate and methyl jasmonate play significant roles in promoting rice floret opening. In this study, we investigated the effects of auxins including indole-3-acidic acid (IAA), indole-3-butyric acid (IBA), 1-naphthalene-acetic acid (NAA), 2,4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D) and 3,6-dichloro-2-methoxybenzoic acid (DIC) and abscisic acid (ABA) on floret closure of four fertile and three sterile varieties of rice. The results from field studies in three growing seasons in 2013-2015 showed that the percentages of closed florets were significantly lower in plants treated with IAA, IBA, 2,4-D, DIC and NAA and that the durations of floret opening were significantly longer in plants treated with the same auxins. The auxins exhibited time- and concentration-dependant effects on floret closure. ABA displayed opposite effects of auxins because it increased the percentages of floret closure and decreased the length of floret opening of rice varieties. The degree of auxin-inhibiting and ABA-promoting effects on floret closure was varied somewhat but not significantly different among the rice varieties. Endogenous IAA levels were the highest in florets collected shortly before opening followed by a sharp decline in florets with maximal angles of opening and a significant jump of IAA levels shortly after floret closure in both fertile and sterile rice plants. ABA levels showed an opposite trend in the same samples. Our results showed that auxins delayed but ABA promoted the closure of rice floret regardless of the varieties.