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Lentinan is a clinically approved immune modulator and its anticancer and immunomodulatory bioactivity is found to be dependent on its triple helical conformation. Therefore, the development of rapid and convenient method for determination of bioactive lentinan with triple helical conformation holds great promise for the quality control of lentinan healthy products. In this work, an aniline blue fluorescent method was optimized and established to accurately and rapidly detect bioactive lentinan. In the presence of lentinan, the fluorescence intensity of aniline blue with 404 nm excitation and 492 nm emission dramatically enhanced within 15 min in pH 10 glycine-NaOH buffer solution, which allowed the analysis of lentinan in a very simple and fast manner. The method allowed for the sensitive determination of lentinan in the range of 1 to 60 μg/mL with a detection limit of 0.25 μg/mL. Notably, the protocol exhibited excellent selectivity for the determination of triple helical lentinan over other saccharides. The method was successfully applied to the detection of bioactive lentinan in health tonic solution, which demonstrated the method had great potential for quality control of lentinan contained products.

Jie Mei,1– 3,* Jing Ma,2,4,5,* Yuwei Xu,4 Yuanyuan Wang,6 Minghua Hu,6 Fangli Ma,6 Zhihai Qin,1,2,4 Rui Xue,1 Ning Tao2 1Medical Research Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, People’s Republic of China; 2Key Laboratory of Protein and Peptide Pharmaceuticals, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 3College of Life Science & Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China; 4College of Life Science, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 5School of Basic Medical Sciences of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, People’s Republic of China; 6Infinitus Chinese Herbal Immunity Research Center, Infinitus China Company Ltd, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Zhihai Qin; Ning TaoKey Laboratory of Protein and Peptide Pharmaceuticals, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 15 Datun Road, Chaoyang Area, Beijing City, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail zhihai@ibp.ac.cn tao@ibp.ac.cnIntroduction: Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) promote tumor progression; thus, drugs that can modify CAFs need to be identified.Methods: To test the effect of cinnamaldehyde on prostate CAFs, the 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide assay was used to determine their survival. When spleen cells were treated with CAF supernatant, the proliferation of T cells was inhibited as determined by flow cytometry. After cinnamaldehyde treatment, this immunosuppressive function of CAFs was partially reversed. To explore the molecular mechanism, Western blotting and the quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction were applied, and TLR4-dependent signaling pathway-related protein and mRNA levels were quantified.Results: Cinnamaldehyde acted on the TLR4-dependent signaling pathway, altering the function of CAFs such that its supernatant no longer inhibited the proliferation of T cells.Conclusion: These data indicate that cinnamaldehyde can modify the functions of CAFs, which may be helpful for treating tumors. Cinnamaldehyde can suppress CAF T-cell inhibition.Keywords: cinnamaldehyde, cancer-associated fibroblasts, prostate cancer, TLR4

Polygoni multiflori Radix Praeparata (PMRP) is a traditional medicine used for nourishing essence and blood in China. However, it is unclear which PMRP compounds are responsible for its hematopoietic effect. In this study, spectrum-effect relationship was used to discovery potential hematopoietic compounds. The fingerprints of 20 PMRP batches were established by HPLC and the hematopoietic effect was determined using red blood cell, hemoglobin, hematocrit, and platelet indexes in aplastic anemia model mice. The spectrum-effect relationship between common peaks and hematopoietic efficacy values was established using gray relational analysis and partial least squares analysis. Spectrum-effect relationship results showed that peaks 21 (emodin-8-O-(6´-O-acetyl)-β-D-glucoside), 15 (2, 3, 5, 4'-tetrahydroxystilbene-2-O-di-glucoside), 16 (cis-2,3,5,4'-tetrahydroxy-stilbene-2-O-β-D-glucoside), 11 (unknown), 20(unknown, 12 (epicatechin), 29 (carboxyl emodin), and 31 (emodin) in the fingerprints were closely related to the hematopoietic effect. This work successfully established the spectrum-effect relationship between PMRP hematopoietic effect and its fingerprints, which can be used to explain the material basis for the PMRP hematopoietic effect.