Analysis on medication rules of traditional Chinese medicine for postpartum abdominal pain

Background:To explore the medication rules in traditional Chinese medicine for treating postpartum abdominal pain by using data mining technology.Methods:First,according to inclusion and exclusion criteria,the prescriptions for treating postpartum abdominal pain were collected and screened by referring to the Dictionary of Traditional Chinese Medicine Prescriptions,CNKI,Wanfang,Vip database,Chaoxing database,CBM and other databases.Then,the traditional Chinese medicinal materials were analyzed by ancient and modern medical cases cloud platform.Results:295 first prescriptions were included,involving 248 kinds of traditional Chinese medicine,and the usage frequency of traditional Chinese medicine reached 2,189 times.The efficacy of the top 22 herbs with the highest use frequency is mainly tonic drugs and drugs for promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis,mainly with the nature of warmness and spiciness,and the channel tropisms mainly include liver meridians,spleen meridians,and heart meridians.The association rule analysis shows 17 high-frequency traditional Chinese medicine combinations with the support≥0.1 and the confidence≥0.8.Three new drug combinations were obtained through cluster mining;both of them took supplementing qi and nourishing blood,promoting blood circulation,and removing stasis as the main treatments.Conclusions:The basic principle of treatment is strengthening the body’s resistance to eliminate pathogenic factors.Therefore,when treating postpartum abdominal pain to promote postpartum recovery,it mainly combines the drugs for benefiting Qi and nourishing blood,invigorating blood circulation,and eliminating stasis.

The wound healing potential of collagen peptides derived from the jellyfish Rhopilema esculentum

Purpose: Wound represents a major health challenge as they consume a large amount of healthcare resources to improve patient's quality of life. Many scientific studies have been conducted in search of ideal biomaterials with wound-healing activity for clinical use and collagen has been proven to be a suitable can didate biomaterial. This study in tended to investigate the wound healing activity of collagen peptides derived from jellyfish following oral administration. Methods: In this study, collagen was extracted from the jellyfish-Rhopilema esculentum using 1% pepsin. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and fourier transform infrared (FTIR) were used to identify and determine the molecular weight of the jellyfish collagen. Collagenase II, papain and alkaline proteinase were used to breakdown jellyfish collagen into collagen peptides. Wound scratch assay (in vitro) was done to determine migration potential of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) covering the artificial wound created on the cell monolayer following treatment with collagen peptides. In vivo studies were con ducted to determine the effects of collagen peptides on wound healing by examining wound contraction, re-epithelialization, tissue regeneration and collagen deposition on the wounded skin of mice. Confidence level (p < 0.05) was considered significant using GraphPad Prism software. Results: The yield of collagen was 4.31%. The SDS-PAGE and FTIR showed that extracted collagen from jellyfish was type I. Enzymatic hydrolysis of this collagen using collagenase II produced collagen peptides (CPi) and hydrolysis with alkaline proteinase/papain resulted into collagen peptides (CP2). Tricine SDSPAGE revealed that collagen peptides consisted of protein fragments with molecular weight <25 kDa. Wound scratch assay showed that there were significant effects on the scratch closure on cells treated with collagen peptides at a concentration of 6.25 μg/mL for 48 h as compared to the vehicle treated cells. Overall treatment with collagen peptide on mice with full thickness excised wounds had a positive result in wound contraction as compared with the control. Histological assessment of peptides treated mice models showed remarkable sign of re-epithelialization, tissue regeneration and increased collagen deposition. Immunohistochemistry of the skin sections showed a significant increase in β-fibroblast growth factor (β-FGF) and the transforming growth factor-βi (TGF-βi) expression on collagen peptides treated group. Conclusion: Collagen peptides derived from the jellyfish-Rhopilema esculentum can accelerate the wound healing process thus could be a therapeutic potential product that may be beneficial in wound clinics in the future.

Design strategies of Pd-based electrocatalysts for efficient oxygen reduction

Oxygen reduction reaction(ORR) occurs at the cathode of fuel cells and metal-air batteries,but usually suffers from sluggish kinetics.To solve this issue,efficient electrocatalysts are highly desired.Palladium(Pd)-based nanomaterials,as the most promising substitute of platinum(Pt),exhibit superior activity and stability in ORR electrocatalysis.The delicate regulation of the structure and/or composition shows great potential in improving the electrocatalytic ORR performance of Pd-based nanomaterials.In this review,we retrospect the recent advance of Pdbased ORR electrocatalysts,and analyses the relationship between nanostructure and catalytic performance.We start with the ORR mechanism and indicators of ORR performance in both alkaline and acidic media,followed by the synthetic methods for Pd-based nanoparticles.Then,we emphasize the design strategies of efficient Pd-based ORR catalysts from the perspective of composition,crystal phase,morphology,and support effects.Last but not least,we conclude with possible opportunities and outlook on Pd-based nanomaterials toward ORR.