Efficacy and mechanism of methyl salicylate in the enhancement of skin delivery of herbal medicines

Objective: To elucidate the molecular mechanism(s) by which methyl salicylate enhances the skin delivery of herbal ingredients with diverse lipophilicity.Methods: The toxicity of methyl salicylate on skin cell lines was evaluated using the MTT assay. The Franz diffusion cell method was used to measure the permeability enhancing activities of methyl salicylate for five herbal ingredients with a range of lipophilicities. The interaction between methyl salicylate and the stratum corneum(SC) was observed by using an infrared spectroscopy technique. Moreover, the solubilities and SC-vehicle partition coefficient were determined to monitor the impact of methyl salicylate on the drug thermodynamic activities and partition into the SC layer, respectively.Results: Compared with azone(1-dodecylazacycloheptan-2-one), methyl salicylate showed lower toxicity to skin cells in terms of the IC50 values. The in vitro skin permeation studies showed that methyl salicylate could greatly improve the cumulative amounts or steady state flux of the selected model drugs with the exception of osthole, which indicated that methyl salicylate was prone to promote the skin delivery of hydrophilic drugs. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy studies revealed that methyl salicylate mainly interacted with SC lipids, leading to the disruption of the orderly arrangement of the SC.In addition, methyl salicylate had no obvious effect on the drug thermodynamic activity and partition into the SC.Conclusion: Methyl salicylate could effectively promote the skin delivery of relatively hydrophilic ingredients in externally used traditional Chinese medicines(TCM) without obvious cytotoxicity.

A change of phenolic acids content in poplar leaves induced by methyl sali-cylate and methyl jasmonate

The contents of seven different phenolic acids such as gallic acid, catechinic acid, pyrocatechol, caffeic acid, coumaric acid, ferulic acid and benzoic acid in the poplar leaves （Populus Simonii×Populus Pyramibalis c.v and Populus deltoids） suffocated by Methyl jasmonate （MeJA） and Methyl salicylate （MeSA） were monitored for analyzing their functions in interplant communications by using high-pressure liquid chromatography （HPLC）.The results showed that the contents of phenolic acids had obviously difference in leaves exposed to either MeSA or MeJA.When P.deltoides leaves exposed to MeJA or MeSA, the level of gallic acid, coumaric acid, caffeic acid, ferulic acid and benzoic acid was increased, gallic acid in leaves treated with MeJA comes to a peak at 24 h while to a peak at 12-d having leaves treated with MeSA.When P.Simonii ×P.Pyramibalis c.v leaves were exposed to MeJA or MeSA, the level of gallic acid, pyrocatechol and ferulic acid was increased; The catechinic acid and benzoic acid had a little drop; The caffeic acid and coumaric acid were undetected in both suffocated and control leaves.This changed pattern indicated that MeJA and MeSA can act as airborne signals to induce defense response of plants.

Regulatory effect of salicylic acid and methyl jasmonate supplementation on ergosterol production in Hericium erinaceus mycelia

We evaluated the biomass and ergosterol content of Hericium erinaceus mycelium, and extracellular enzyme activities in H. erinaceus liquid culture following salicylic acid（SA） and methyl jasmonic acid（Me JA）supplementation. The optimal SA concentration was100 lmoláL-1, where the highest ergosterol content of 2.33 mgág-1was obtained following 6-day cultivation with100 lmoláL-1SA supplementation, and which was significantly higher than the unsupplemented control（p ／ 0.01）. Following 4-day supplementation with50 lmoláL-1Me JA, the highest ergosterol content obtained was 1.988 mgág-1, which was 25.8 % higher than the unsupplemented control. Our data indicate that SA and Me JA supplementation improves ergosterol content in H.erinaceus mycelium.

Ultrasensitive methyl salicylate gas sensing determined by Pd-doped SnO_(2)

Efficient chemicalwarfare agents(CWAs)detection is required to protect people from the cWAs in war and terrorism.In this work,a Pd-doped SnO_(2)nanoparticles-based gas sensor was developed to detect a nerve agent simulant named methyl salicylate.The sensing measurements of methyl salicylate under different Pd doping amounts found that the 0.5 at.%Pd-doped SnO_(2)exhibited a significant improvement in the detection of methyl salicylate at the ppb(1ppb=10-9)level,and the response value to 160 ppb methyl salicylate is 0.72 at 250℃.Compared with the pure SnO_(2),the response value is increased by 4.5 times,which could be attributed to the influence of the noble metal Pd on the oxygen state and its catalytic effect.In addition,the 0.5at.%Pd-doped SnO_(2)sensor still has an obvious response to 16ppb methyl salicylate with a response value of 0.13,indicating the lower detection limit of the sensor.

Expression and functional characterization of odorant-binding protein 2 in the predatory mite Neoseiulus barkeri

Olfaction plays a crucial role for arthropods in foraging,mating,and oviposition.The odorant-binding protein(OBP)gene is considered one of the most important olfactory genes.However,little is known about its functions in predatory mites.Here,we used Neoseiulus barkeri,an important commercialized natural pest control,to explore the chemosensory characteristics of OBP.In this study,N.barkeri was attracted by methyl salicylate(MeSA)and showed higher crawling speeds under MeSA treatment.Then,we identified and cloned an OBP gene named Nbarobp2 and analyzed its expression profiles in the predatory mite.Nbarobp2 was 663 bp,was highly expressed in larval and nymphal stages,and was significantly upregulated in N.barkeri under MeSA treatment.Nbarobp2 encoded 202 amino acid residues with a molecular weight of 23 kDa(after removing the signal peptide).Sequence comparisons revealed that the OBPs in Arachnida shared 6 conserved cysteine sites,but were distinguishable from the OBPs of Insecta on the phylogenetic tree.RNA interference,Western blotting,and binding affinity assays further proved that Nbarobp2 was involved in volatile perception in predatory mites.This study shed light on the functional characteristics of OBPs in predatory mites,providing a new insight for better biological control.

Salicylic Acid Regulates Pollen Tip Growth ：hrough an NPR3/NPR4-1ndependent Pathway

Tip growth is a common strategy for the rapid elongation of cells to forage the environment and/or to target to long-distance destinations. In the model tip growth system of Arabidopsis pollen tubes, several small- molecule hormones regulate their elongation, but how these rapidly diffusing molecules control extremely localized growth remains mysterious. Here we show that the interconvertible salicylic acid （SA） and meth- ylated SA （MESA）, well characterized for their roles in plant defense, oppositely regulate Arabidopsis pollen tip growth with SA being inhibitory and MeSA stimulatory. The effect of SA and MeSA was independent of known NPR3/NPR4 SA receptor-mediated signaling pathways. SA inhibited clathrin-mediated endocytosis in pollen tubes associated with an increased accumulation of less stretchable demethylated pectin in the apical wall, whereas MeSA did the opposite. Furthermore, SA and MeSA alter the apical activation of ROP1 GTPase, a key regulator of tip growth in pollen tubes, in an opposite manner. Interestingly, both MeSA methylesterase and SA methyltransferase, which catalyze the interconversion between SA and MESA, are localized at the apical region of pollen tubes, indicating of the tip-localized production of SA and MeSA and consistent with their effects on the apical cellular activities. These findings suggest that local generation of a highly diffusible signal can regulate polarized cell growth, providing a novel mechanism of cell polarity control apart from the one involving protein and mRNA polarization.