Evaluation of neuritogenic activity of cultivated, wild and commercial roots of Gentiana lutea L

The healing bitterness of Gentiana lutea L., phytochemistry and biological activities: A systematic review

Over many years, natural products have been a source of healing agents and have exhibited beneficial uses for treating human diseases. The Gentiana genus is the biggest genus in the Gentianaceae, with over 400 species distributed mainly in alpine zones of temperate countries around the world. Plants in the Gentiana genus have historically been used to treat a wide range of diseases. Still, only in the last years has particular attention been paid to the biological activities of Gentiana lutea Linn., also known as yellow Gentian or bitterwort. Several in vitro/vivo investigations and human interventional trials have demonstrated the promising activity of G. lutea extracts against oxidative stress, microbial infections, inflammation, obesity, atherosclerosis, etc.. A systematic approach was performed using Pubmed and Scopus databases to update G. lutea chemistry and activity. Specifically, this systematic review synthesized the major specialized bitter metabolites and the biological activity data obtained from different cell lines, animal models, and human interventional trials. This review aims to the exaltation of G. lutea as a source of bioactive compounds that can prevent and treat several human illnesses.

Gentiopicroside PLGA Nanospheres: Fabrication, in vitro Characterization, Antimicrobial Action, and in vivo Effect for Enhancing Wound Healing in Diabetic Rats

Purpose

Gentiopicroside (GPS), an adequate bioactive candidate, has a promising approach for enhancing wound healing due to its antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. Its poor aqueous solubility negatively affects oral absorption accompanied by low bioavailability due to intestinal/hepatic first-pass metabolism. Our aim in this study is to fabricate GPS into appropriate nanocarriers (PLGA nanospheres, NSs) to enhance its solubility and hence its oral absorption would be improved.

Methods

Normal and ODS silica gel together with Sephadex LH20 column used for isolation of GPS from Gentiana lutea roots. Crude GPS would be further processed for nanospheres fabrication using a single o/w emulsion solvent evaporation technique followed by in vitro optimization study to examine the effect of two formulation variables: polymer (PLGA) and stabilizer (PVA) concentrations on the physical characterizations of prepared NSs. Possible GPS-PLGA chemical and physical interactions have been analyzed using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The optimum GPS-PLGA NSs have been chosen for antimicrobial study to investigate its inhibitory action on Staphylococcus aureus compared with unloaded GPS NSs. Also, a well-designed in vivo study on streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats has been performed to examine the wound healing effect of GPS-PLGA NSs followed by histological examination of wound incisions at different day intervals throughout the study.

Results

The optimum GPS PLGA NSs (F5) with well-controlled particle size (250.10±07.86 nm), relative high entrapment efficiency (83.35±5.71), and the highest % cumulative release (85.79±8.74) have increased the antimicrobial activity as it exhibited a higher inhibitory effect on bacterial growth than free GPS. F5 showed a greater enhancing impact on wound healing and a significant stimulating effect on the synthesis of collagen fibers compared with free GPS.

Conclusion

These findings demonstrate that loading GPS into PLGA NSs is considered a promising strategy ensuring optimum GPS delivery for potential management of wounds.

Biological Profile of Two Gentiana lutea L. Metabolites Using Computational Approaches and In Vitro Tests

Natural products have been the main source of bioactive molecules for centuries. We tested the biological profile of two metabolites extracted from Gentiana lutea L. by means of computational techniques and in vitro assays. The two molecules (loganic acid and gentiopicroside) were tested in silico using an innovative technique, named Inverse Virtual Screening (IVS), to highlight putative partners among a panel of proteins involved in inflammation and cancer events. A positive binding with cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), alpha-1-antichymotrypsin, and alpha-1-acid glycoprotein emerged from the computational experiments and the outcomes from the promising interaction with COX-2 were confirmed by Western blot, highlighting the reliability of IVS in the field of the natural products.

Study on Quality Response to Environmental Factors and Geographical Traceability of Wild Gentiana rigescens Franch

Gentiana rigescens Franch. ex Hemsl. is an important medicinal plant in China and the over exploitation of wild resources has affected its quality and clinical efficacy. The accumulation of plant secondary metabolites is not only determined by their genetic characteristics but also influenced by environmental factors. At present, many studies on evaluating the environmental conditions of its planting area are still in the qualitative stage. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a systematic evaluation method to deeply analyze the impact of environmental factors on the quality of medicinal materials and quickly verify the geographical origin. In this study, the contents of five iridoids (loganic acid, swertiamarin, sweroside, gentiopicroside and 6'-O-β-D-glucopyranosylgentiopicroside) of G. rigescens from 45 different origins (including 441 individuals) of Yunnan Province in China were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography. Analytical procedures of one-way analysis of variance, correlation analysis, principal components analysis, and hierarchical cluster analysis were employed to interpret the correlation of iridoid content and environmental factors. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) combined with two multivariate analysis methods (partial least squares discriminant analysis; support vector machines, SVM) was used to discriminate four major producing areas (158 individuals). The combination of SVM with grid search algorithm achieved an accuracy of 100% in the test set. One-way analysis of variance showed that the contents of five iridoids in root tissues of G. rigescens varied significantly among different origins, which was also verified by the chemometrics analysis results of hierarchical cluster analysis. The results of correlation analysis indicated that the high value of altitude and precipitation were unfavorable for the accumulation of these five iridoids. A correlation between increase of temperature and iridoid accumulation was observed. This study provided a certain theoretical basis for the resource protection and development of G. rigescens based on the correlation analysis between the ecological environment factors and quality.

Discrimination of Gentiana and Its Related Species Using IR Spectroscopy Combined with Feature Selection and Stacked Generalization

Gentiana, which is one of the largest genera of Gentianoideae, most of which had potential pharmaceutical value, and applied to local traditional medical treatment. Because of the phytochemical diversity and difference of bioactive compounds among species, which makes it crucial to accurately identify authentic Gentiana species. In this paper, the feasibility of using the infrared spectroscopy technique combined with chemometrics analysis to identify Gentiana and its related species was studied. A total of 180 batches of raw spectral fingerprints were obtained from 18 species of Gentiana and Tripterospermum by near-infrared (NIR: 10,000-4000 cm^-1) and Fourier transform mid-infrared (MIR: 4000-600 cm^-1) spectrum. Firstly, principal component analysis (PCA) was utilized to explore the natural grouping of the 180 samples. Secondly, random forests (RF), support vector machine (SVM), and K-nearest neighbors (KNN) models were built while using full spectra (including 1487 NIR variables and 1214 FT-MIR variables, respectively). The MIR-SVM model had a higher classification accuracy rate than the other models that were based on the results of the calibration sets and prediction sets. The five feature selection strategies, VIP (variable importance in the projection), Boruta, GARF (genetic algorithm combined with random forest), GASVM (genetic algorithm combined with support vector machine), and Venn diagram calculation, were used to reduce the dimensions of the data variable in order to further reduce numbers of variables for modeling. Finally, 101 NIR and 73 FT-MIR bands were selected as the feature variables, respectively. Thirdly, stacking models were built based on the optimal spectral dataset. Most of the stacking models performed better than the full spectra-based models. RF and SVM (as base learners), combined with the SVM meta-classifier, was the optimal stacked generalization strategy. For the SG-Ven-MIR-SVM model, the accuracy (ACC) of the calibration set and validation set were both 100%. Sensitivity (SE), specificity (SP), efficiency (EFF), Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC), and Cohen's kappa coefficient (K) were all 1, which showed that the model had the optimal authenticity identification performance. Those parameters indicated that stacked generalization combined with feature selection is probably an important technique for improving the classification model predictive accuracy and avoid overfitting. The study result can provide a valuable reference for the safety and effectiveness of the clinical application of medicinal Gentiana.

Coffee silverskin extracts: Quantification of 30 bioactive compounds by a new HPLC-MS/MS method and evaluation of their antioxidant and antibacterial activities

The research of value-added applications for coffee silverskin (CSS) requires studies to investigate potential bioactive compounds and biological activities in CSS extracts. In this study, different ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) methods have been tested to extract bioactive compounds from CSS. The obtained extracts, were characterized using a new HPLC-MS/MS method to detect and quantify 30 bioactive compounds of 2 classes: alkaloids and polyphenols (including phenolic acids, flavonoids, and secoiridoids). CSS extracts obtained with ethanol/water (70:30) as extraction solvent showed the highest levels (p ≤ 0.05) of bioactive compounds (4.01 ± 0.34% w/w). High content of caffeine was observed with levels varying from 1.00% to 3.59% of dry weight of extract (dw). 18 phenolic compounds were detected in CSS extracts with caffeoylquinic acids (3-CQA, 5-CQA and 3,5-diCQA) as the most abundant polyphenols (3115.6 µg g to -5444.0 µg g^-1). This study is also one of the first to characterize in-depth flavonoids in CSS revealing the levels of different flavonoids compounds such as rutin (1.63-8.70 µg g^-1), quercetin (1.53-2.46 µg g^-1), kaempferol (0.76-1.66 µg g^-1) and quercitrin (0.15-0.51 µg g^-1). Neuroprotective activity of silverskin extracts against H₂O₂-induced damage was evaluated for the first time suggesting for methanol and ethanol/water (70:30) extracts a potential role as protective agents against neurodegeneration due to their ability to counteract oxidative stress and maintain cell viability. Silverskin extracts were not inhibiting the growth of anyone of the bacterial species included in this study but data obtained by water extract might deserve a deeper future investigation on biofilm-related activities, such as quorum sensing or virulence factors' expression. From their composition and their evidenced biological activities, CSS extracts could represent valuable ingredients in nutraceutical formulations.

Plant- and Nutraceutical-based Approach for the Management of Diabetes and its Neurological Complications: A Narrative Review

Diabetes is an important metabolic disease affecting many organs and systems in the body. The nervous system is one of the body systems affected by diabetes and neuropathic complications are troublesome in diabetic patients with many consequences. As diabetes has deleterious influences almost on bodily systems, an integrative approach seems to be necessary accepting the body as a whole and integrating body systems with lifestyle and living environment. Like some traditional health systems such as Ayurveda, integrative approach includes additional modalities to overcome both diabetes and diabetic complications. In general, these modalities consist of nutraceuticals and plant products. Prebiotics and probiotics are two types of nutraceuticals having active ingredients, such as antioxidants, nutrient factors, microorganisms, etc. Many plants are indicated for the cure of diabetes. All of these may be employed in the prevention and in the non-pharmacological management of mildto- moderate diabetes. Severe diabetes should require appropriate drug selection. Being complementary, prebiotics, probiotics, plants and exercise may be additive for the drug therapy of diabetes. Similarly, there are complementary approaches to prevent and cure neurological and/or behavioral manifestations of diabetes, which may be included in therapy and prevention plans. A scheme is given for the prevention and therapy of comorbid depression, which is one of the most common behavioral complications of diabetes. Within this scheme, the main criterion for the selection of modalities is the severity of diseases, so that personalized management may be developed for diabetic patients using prebiotics and probiotics in their diets, plants and drugs avoiding possible interactions.

Assessing Geographical Origin of Gentiana Rigescens Using Untargeted Chromatographic Fingerprint, Data Fusion and Chemometrics

Gentiana rigescens Franchet, which is famous for its bitter properties, is a traditional drug of chronic hepatitis and important raw materials for the pharmaceutical industry in China. In the study, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), coupled with diode array detector (DAD) and chemometrics, were used to investigate the chemical geographical variation of G. rigescens and to classify medicinal materials, according to their grown latitudes. The chromatographic fingerprints of 280 individuals and 840 samples from rhizomes, stems, and leaves of four different latitude areas were recorded and analyzed for tracing the geographical origin of medicinal materials. At first, HPLC fingerprints of underground and aerial parts were generated while using reversed-phase liquid chromatography. After the preliminary data exploration, two supervised pattern recognition techniques, random forest (RF) and orthogonal partial least-squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), were applied to the three HPLC fingerprint data sets of rhizomes, stems, and leaves, respectively. Furthermore, fingerprint data sets of aerial and underground parts were separately processed and joined while using two data fusion strategies (“low-level” and “mid-level”). The results showed that classification models that are based OPLS-DA were more efficient than RF models. The classification models using low-level data fusion method built showed considerably good recognition and prediction abilities (the accuracy is higher than 99% and sensibility, specificity, Matthews correlation coefficient, and efficiency range from 0.95 to 1.00). Low-level data fusion strategy combined with OPLS-DA could provide the best discrimination result. In summary, this study explored the latitude variation of phytochemical of G. rigescens and developed a reliable and accurate identification method for G. rigescens that were grown at different latitudes based on untargeted HPLC fingerprint, data fusion, and chemometrics. The study results are meaningful for authentication and the quality control of Chinese medicinal materials.

Aligned laminin core-polydioxanone/collagen shell fiber matrices effective for neuritogenesis

Neural tissue regeneration is a significant challenge, because severe nerve injury is quite difficult to regenerate spontaneously. Although, many studies have been devoted to promote nerve regeneration, there are still many technical challenges to achieve satisfactory results. In this study, we designed biomimetic matrices composed of aligned laminin core-polydioxanone/collagen shell (Lam-PDO/Col) fibers, which can provide both topographical and biochemical cues for promoting neuritogenesis. The aligned Lam-PDO/Col core-shell fiber matrices were fabricated by magnetic field-assisted electrospinning with the coaxial system, and their potential as biofunctional scaffolds for promoting neuritogenesis was explored. It was demonstrated that the aligned Lam-PDO/Col core-shell fibers were successfully fabricated, and the laminin in the core of fibers was steadily and continuously released from fibers. In addition, the cellular behaviors of hippocampal neuronal cells on the matrices were significantly enhanced. Moreover, the aligned Lam-PDO/Col fiber matrices effectively improved and guided neurite outgrowth as well as the neurogenic differentiation by providing both topographical and biochemical cues through aligned fiber structure and sustained release of laminin. Collectively, it is suggested that the aligned Lam-PDO/Col core-shell fiber matrices are one of the most promising approaches for promoting neuritogenesis and neural tissue regeneration.

Negletein as a neuroprotectant enhances the action of nerve growth factor and induces neurite outgrowth in PC12 cells

Negletein has been shown to have therapeutic potential for inflammation-associated diseases, but its effect on neurite outgrowth is still unknown. The present study showed that negletein alone did not trigger PC12 cells to differentiate and extend neurites. When compared with the cells in the untreated control, a significant (P < 0.05) induction and a higher neurite outgrowth activity was observed when the cells were cotreated with negletein (10 µM) and a low dose of nerve growth factor (NGF; 5 ng/mL). The neurite outgrowth process was blocked by the tyrosine kinase receptor (Trk) inhibitor, K252a, suggesting that the neuritogenic effect was NGF-dependent. Negletein (10 µM) together with NGF (5 ng/mL) enhanced the phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERKs), protein kinase B (Akt), and cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB). The growth associated protein-43 (GAP-43) and the NGF level were also upregulated by negletein (10 µM) and a low dose of NGF (5 ng/mL). Negletein at nanomolar concentration also was found to be sufficient to mediate the survival of serum-deprived PC12 cells up to 72 h. Taken together, negletein might be useful as an efficient bioactive compound to protect neurons from cell death and promote neuritogenesis. © 2016 BioFactors, 42(6):591-599, 2016.