Search

The globally distributed American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) is considered a pest, but it has been widely used in traditional Chinese medicine. In the past, the American cockroach's genome a...

Breast cancer is the most common female cancer with considerable metastatic potential, explaining the need for new candidates that inhibit tumor metastasis. In our study, betulinic acid (BA), a kind of pentacyclic triterpenoid compound derived from birch trees, was evaluated for its anti-metastasis activity in vitro and in vivo. BA decreased the viability of three breast cancer cell lines and markedly impaired cell migration and invasion. In addition, BA could inhibit the activation of stat3 and FAK which resulted in a reduction of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), and increase of the MMPs inhibitor (TIMP-2) expression. Moreover, in our animal experiment, intraperitoneal administration of 10 mg/kg/day BA suppressed 4T1 tumor growth and blocked formation of pulmonary metastases without obvious side effects. Furthermore, histological and immunohistochemical analyses showed a decrease in MMP-9 positive cells, MMP-2 positive cells and Ki-67 positive cells and an increase in cleaved caspase-3 positive cells upon BA administration. Notably, BA reduced the number of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in the lungs and tumors. Interestingly, in our caudal vein model, BA also obviously suppressed 4T1 tumor pulmonary metastases. These findings suggested that BA might be a potential agent for inhibiting the growth and metastasis of breast cancer.

The globally distributed American cockroach (

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary malignancy of bone and characterized by an appendicular primary tumor with a high rate of metastasis to the lungs. Unfortunately, there is no effective strategy to treat osteosarcoma in current clinical practice. In this study, the anticancer effects and potential mechanisms of nifuroxazide, an oral nitrofuran antibiotic, on two osteosarcoma cell lines were investigated. The results of the antiproliferative activity in vitro showed that nifuroxazide inhibited cell proliferation of UMR106 and MG63 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Interestingly, nifuroxazide showed low toxicity to non-tumor cells (HEK 293 T). In addition, ROS-mitochondrial mediated apoptosis was observed after treatment of nifuroxazide. Moreover, nifuroxazide could significantly inhibit osteosarcoma cells migration and invasion via p-Stat3, MMP-2 and MMP-9 mediated signaling pathway. Taken together, our results suggested that nifuroxazide could be a promising agent for osteosarcoma treatment by inhibiting cell proliferation, inducing cell apoptosis and impairing cell migration and invasion.

The purpose of this review is to elaborate the role of Periplaneta (P.) americana L. in modern and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and compare the use of the species in these two forms of medical treatments. From searches on Google Scholar, PubMed, and Web of Science databases, studies were identified involving TCMs with P. americana, which have a history of use over several thousand years, and demonstrate how extracts from this insect play a role in the treatment of diseases through antibacterial, antiviral, antitumor activity, and enhancement of immune function. Extracts from P. americana have not been fully developed for clinical use because the active components have not been completely purified or their molecular mechanisms thoroughly understood. The development of extraction technology in modern Chinese medicine has revealed that many extracts from P. americana are able to play an important role in the control of diseases such as cancer. Drugs such as ‘Kangfuxin Solution’ and ‘Xinmailong Injection’ are now widely used for gastrointestinal ulcers and chronic heart failure, having achieved beneficial curative effects in clinical studies. Based on this, the information from studies of P. americana in TCM and modern medicine should be combined and their respective advantages applied. This review provides an overview of the role of P. americana in modern and TCM and thus contributes to identification of further applications and area requiring drug development.

Sichuan Hill Partridge (Arborophila rufipectus) is a globally endangered species endemic to China. However, the genetic diversity of this species was poorly studied due to lack of molecular markers. We used 454 pyrosequencing to discover microsatellites from the A. rufipectus genome in this study. A total of 6280 di-nucleotides, 8139 tri-nucleotides, and 11,987 tetra-nucleotides with sufficient flanking region for primer design were screened with in silico mining. Ultimately, 18 tetra-nucleotide polymorphic loci were first identified and used to examine the genetic diversity in the Laojunshan population. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 5 to 13, observed and expected heterozygosity varied from 0.292 to 0.917 and 0.722 to 0.909, respectively. These results revealed that this endangered species' genetic diversity as not as low as expected. However, a heterozygote deficit was found in the Laojunshan population. We proposed that the management should focus on increasing the connectivity of remnant patches and fragments to increase the opportunity of greater gene flow among fragmented populations of A. rufipectus. This is the first time that polymorphic microsatellite markers were reported for A. rufipectus. These markers provide a valuable resource for future population genetics studies and for the management and conservation of this species.

A precise and sensitive LC method was developed and further validated for the determination of enantiomeric purity of (S)-N-[2-(3-{trans-4-hydroxy-4-[5-(pyrimidin-2-yl)pyridin-2-yl] cyclohexylamino} pyrrolidin-1-yl)-2-oxoethyl]-3-(trifluoromethyl) benzamide (PF-04136309). Baseline separation with a resolution higher than 1.8 was accomplished within 40 min using a CHIRALPAK AD (250 × 4.6 mm; particle size 5 μm) column, with n-hexane:2-propanol (70:30 v/v) as mobile phase at a flow rate of 1 mL min−1. The eluted analytes were subsequently detected with a UV detector at 260 nm. The effects of mobile phase components and temperature on enantiomeric selectivity as well as the resolution of enantiomers were thoroughly investigated. The calibration curves were plotted within a concentration range between 0.01 and 1 mg mL−1 (n = 9), and recoveries between 98.17 and 101.28 % were obtained, with relative standard deviation (RSD) lower than 1.44 %. The LOD and LOQ for PF-04136309 were 3.59 and 11.54 μg mL−1 and for its enantiomer were 3.39 and 11.28 μg mL−1, respectively. The developed method was demonstrated to be accurate, robust and sensitive for the determination of enantiomeric purity of PF-04136309, especially for the analysis of bulk samples.

Annotation of the Mylabris aulica mitogenome. (DOCX 21Â kb)

Annotation of the Hycleus marcipoli mitogenome. (DOCX 21Â kb)

Annotation of the Lytta caraganae mitogenome. (DOCX 21Â kb)

Codon usage in mitochondrial genomes of seven meloids. (DOCX 27Â kb)

Annotation of the Hycleus phaleratus mitogenome. (DOCX 21Â kb)

Summary of multiple alignments of tRNAs in meloid mitogenomes. (DOCX 15Â kb)

Annotation of the Epicauta tibialis mitogenome. (DOCX 21Â kb)

Annotation of the Epicauta gorhami mitogenome. (DOCX 21Â kb)

Annotation of the Hycleus cichorii mitogenome. (DOCX 22Â kb)