Multicenter Clinical Randomized Controlled Trial and Network Pharmacology Analysis of Zhenzhu Qingyuan Granules for the Treatment of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease

Objective To evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of Zhenzhu Qingyuan Granules through a clinical randomized controlled trial and to analyze the potential action targets and pathways of this formula using network pharmacology.Methods Patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease(GERD)of liver–stomach stagnant heat pattern who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were randomly divided into the control group and the observation group.The control group received oral rabeprazole,whereas the observation group were given Zhenzhu Qingyuan Granules in addition to the rabeprazole.The treatment duration was 8 weeks.Clinical efficacy was observed in both groups after 8 weeks.Network pharmacology was used to analyze the action targets of ZhenzhuQingyuanGranules and the genes related to GERD,and core targets were inferred.Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analyses were conducted to explore the potential mechanisms of this formula.Results The clinical research results showed that the total effective rate in the treatment group was 92.68%,compared with 70.00%in the control group,with a statistically significant difference(p<0.05).After treatment,both Chinese medicine syndrome score and endoscopic score improved in both groups compared with before treatment(p<0.05),and the treatment group showed greater improvement than the control group(p<0.05).Network pharmacology identified effective components of Zhenzhu Qingyuan Granules for treating GERD,including quercetin,luteolin,andβ-sitosterol,with potential action targets such as tumor protein 53(TP53),protein kinase B(AKT1),and tumor necrosis factor.Conclusion Zhenzhu Qingyuan Granules can significantly improve clinical symptoms in patients with GERD of liver–stomach stagnated heat pattern,enhance clinical efficacy,and have high safety.This formula may exert therapeutic effects through multiple targets and pathways.

Genome-wide identification and comparative analysis of Cry toxin receptor families in 7 insect species with a focus on Spodoptera litura

Cadherin,aminopeptidase N(APN)and alkaline phosphatase(ALP)have been characterized as Cry receptors.In this study,comparative genomic analysis of the 3 receptor families was performed in 7 insects.ALPs and APNs are divided into three and eight clades in phylogenetic trees,respectively.ALPs in clade 3 and APNs in clade 1 contain multiple paralogs within each species and most paralogs are located closely in chromosomes.Drosophila melanogaster has expanded APNs in clade 5 and were lowly expressed in midgut.Cadherins are divided into 16 clades;they may diverge before holometabolous insect speciation except for BtR and Cad89D-like clades.Eight insects from different orders containing BtR orthologs are sensitive to Cryl A or Cry3A,while five species without BtR are insensitive to both toxins.Most APNs in clade 1,several ALPs in clade 3,BtR and Cad89D-like genes were highly or moderately expressed in larval midgut of Spodoptera litura and the other six species,and several members in these clades have been identi-•fied as Cry receptors.Expressions of putative 5.litura Cry receptors in the midgut after exposing to Bt toxins were also analyzed.

Fabricating a hollow cuboctahedral structure for N-doped carbon coated p-n heterojunctions towards high-performance photocatalytic organic transformation

The application of semiconductors-based photocatalysts in organic transformation has been limited by the low light utilization efficiency and the rapid recombination of photo-induced charge carriers.In this paper,we have successfully fabricated a hollow cuboctahedral nanostructure(CNNCH),which is composed of N-doped carbon layer and CuO/NiO p-n heterojunctions.The hollow structure in CNNCH can effectively favor the light utilization through the multiple light reflection and scattering.The separation of photo-induced charge carriers can be highly improved by the exitence of charge transfer pathways between the p-n heterojunctions and semiconductor/N-doped carbon layer interfaces.Due to the above advantages,hollow cuboctahedral CNNCH as the photocatalyst has behaved high performance towards the photocatalytic cross-dehydrogenative coupling reaction.