Recent Advances of Bioactive Marine Natural Products in Drug Discovery

Marine natural products(MNPs)are valuable resources for drug development.To date,17 drugs from marine sources are in clinical use,and 33 pharmaceutical compounds are in clinical trials.Presently the success of drug development from the marine resources is higher than the industry average.It is a feasible strategy to conduct the discovery of druglead compounds based on marine chemical ecology by fully exploiting the pharmacological potential of marine chemical defense matters.In the search for bioactive MNPs,our group has constructed a biological resources library including more than 1500 strains of fungi.Focusing on the strategy of Blue Drug Library,we have discovered a series of novel MNPs with abundant biological functions.Highly efficient and scalable total synthesis of(+)-aniduquinolone A(44)and pesimquinolone I(48)have been completed,which will facilitate access to sufficient quantities of candidates for in vivo pharmacological and toxicological studies.As a nucleoprotein(NP)inhibitor,QLA(75)possesses significant anti-influenza A virus(IAV)activities both in vitro and in vivo.CHNQD-00803(76)is a potent and selective AMP-activated kinase(AMPK)activator that can effectively inhibit metabolic disorders and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis(MASH)progression.Moreover,we identified two new candidate molecules with potent anti-hepatocellular carcinoma effects.Particularly,as a natural guanine-nucleotide exchange factors for ADP-ribosylation factor GTPases(Arf-GEFs)inhibitor prodrug,CHNQD-01255(78)is qualified to be developed as a targeted candidate anticancer drug,which may be promising to apply for cancer immunotherapy.Hence,it is evident that MNPs play an important role in drug development.

Visualization analysis of the international standard ISO/TC 249 for traditional Chinese medicine

Objective This study proposes to visually review the current situation and progress of standards sets by the International Organization for Standardization/Technical Committee on Traditional Chinese Medicine(ISO/TC 249). The review aims to explore the development strategies of the standards, which will exhibit the considerable impact on the economy, trade and exchanges, and cooperation in the area of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM).Methods ISO/TC 249 standards were searched on the ISO website, and their title, proposed time, current stage, scope, and classification were obtained for further summarization. Gephi was utilized to portray the co-occurrence network graph of the ISO/TC 249 standards subject.Results In ISO/TC 249, there were 116 standards, including 81 published standards and 35 developing standards by April 30, 2022. Two withdrawal standards were published after revision, which were not counted in the total standards. The number of published standards has been increasing since the first standard was published in 2014, whose title was “Sterile acupuncture needles for single use”. Among these standards, 17.24%(20/116) standards were in review, 56.03%(65/116) in publication, 3.45%(4/116) in approval, 5.17%(6/116) in enquiry,3.45%(4/116) in committee, and 14.66%(17/116) in preparation, respectively. With 116 standards, most of the research focused on the medicament, as its classification of the International Classification for Standards(ICS) showed the proportion reaching 49.54%. The network analysis data revealed that the top five most frequent words were “materials” “root” “requirements” “products” and “system”, after removing the noise data, such as prepositions,conjunctions, and pronouns. Additionally, the word “system” co-exists with the terms “computerized” “coding” “image” “tongue” and “analysis”;the word “requirement” co-exists with“manufacturing” “decoction” “process” and “materials”;whereas the word “devices” coexists with “pulse” “electric” “skin” and “measurement”.Conclusion With the increased diversification and complexity of problems, the development of standards is also oriented to multidisciplinary fields to cultivate the interdisciplinary talents, and especially the international standardization talents of compound TCM. Multi-angle analysis, formulation, and demonstration of standards, in line with industry needs in different disciplines, enhance the availability of standards and the ability to serve the industry.

Current Situation of International Organization for Standardization/Technical Committee 249 International Standards of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Objective： To review the current situation and progress of traditional Chinese medicine（TCM） international standards, standard projects and proposals in International Organization for Standardization（ISO）/technical committee（TC） 249. Methods： ISO/TC 249 standards and standard projects on the ISO website were searched and new standard proposals information were collected from ISO/TC 249 National Mirror Committee in China. Then all the available data were summarized in 5 closely related items, including proposed time, proposed country, assigned working group（WG）, current stage and classification. Results： In ISO/TC 249, there were 2 international standards, 18 standard projects and 24 new standard proposals proposed in 2014. These 44 standard subjects increased year by year since 2011. Twenty-nine of them were proposed by China, 15 were assigned to WG 4, 36 were in preliminary and preparatory stage and 8 were categorized into 4 fields, 7 groups and sub-groups based on International Classification Standards. Conclusion： A rapid and steady development of international standardization in TCM can be observed in ISO/TC 249.

The 7th Pong Ding Yuen International Symposium on Traditional Chinese Medicine cum the 10th Anniversary of the Full-time Bachelor of Chinese Medicine Programme Was Successfully Organized by the School of Chinese Medicine,the University of Hong Kong

The School of Chinese Medicine, the University of Hong Kong has organized the 7th Pong Ding Yuen International Symposium on Traditional Chinese Medicine cum the 10th Anniversary of the Full-time Bachelor of Chinese Medicine Programme on 1 December, 2012, and 2 December, 2012, in Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong.

China President XI Jin-ping Met with Dr.Margaret Chan,Director-General of the World Health Organization,and Addressed to Promote Integrative Medicine and Chinese Medicine to Develop in Oversea Countries

China President Xi Jin-ping met with Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization （WHO）, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 20, 2013. XI Jin-ping said that China will continue to improve public health and enhance cooperation with the WHO. The Chinese government always prioritizes its people＇s health and will make unremitting efforts to further implement reform of its public health system, Xi said. He promised that the Chinese government would continue to effectively distribute public health and medical resources in order to achieve full coverage of basic health services to all Chinese people by 2020.

Protective Effects of Radix Astragali Injection on Multiple Organs of Rats with Obstructive Jaundice

Objective： To investigate the protective effects and mechanisms of Radix Astragali Injection on multiple organs of rats with obstructive jaundice（OJ）. Methods： A total of 180 rats were randomly divided into the sham-operated, model control and treated groups（60 in each group）. On 7, 14, 21 and 28 days after operation, the serum contents of alanine aminotransferase（ALT）, aspartate aminotransferase（AST）, r-glutamyl transpeptidase（r-GT）, total bilirubin（TBil）, direct bilirubin（DBil）, blood urine nitrogen（BUN）, and creatinine（CREA） were determined. And the pathological changes of livers, kidneys and lungs, and protein expressions of toll-like receptor-4（TLR-4） of livers, intercellular adhesion molecule-1（ICAM-1） of lungs, Bax and nuclear factor-kappa B（NF-κB）, as well as apoptotic indexes of multiple organs were observed, respectively. Results： The pathological severity scores of multiple organs（including livers on 7, 14, 21 and 28 days, kidneys on 14 and 28 days, and lungs on 14 days）, serum contents of ALT（14 and 21 days）, AST（14 days）, TBil（7, 14, 21 and 28 days）, DBil（14 and 21 days）, BUN（28 days）, protein expressions of TLR-4（in livers, 28 days）, Bax（in livers and kidneys, 21 days）, and apoptotic indexes in livers（7 and 21 days） in the treated group were significantly lower than those in the model control group（P〈0.05 or P〈0.01）. Conclusion： Radix Astragali Injection exerts protective effects on multiple organs of OJ rats by improving the pathological changes of lung, liver and kidney, decreasing the serum index of hepatic and renal function as well as inhibiting the protein expression of TLR-4 and Bax in the livers and Bax in the kidneys.