Profiling metals in Cordyceps sinensis by using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Cordyceps: Alleviating ischemic cardiovascular and cerebrovascular injury - A comprehensive review

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Cordyceps has a long medicinal history as a nourishing herb in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Ischemic cardio-cerebrovascular diseases (CCVDs), including cerebral ischemic/reperfusion injury (CI/RI) and myocardial ischemic/reperfusion injury (MI/RI), are major contributors to mortality and disability in humans. Numerous studies have indicated that Cordyceps or its artificial substitutes have significant bioactivity on ischemic CCVDs, however, there is a lack of relevant reviews.

AIM OF THE STUDY

This review was conducted to investigate the chemical elements, pharmacological effects, clinical application and drug safety of Cordycepson ischemic CCVDs.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A comprehensive search was conducted on the Web of Science, PubMed, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Wanfang databases using the keywords "Cordyceps", "Cerebral ischemic/reperfusion injury", and "Myocardial ischemic/reperfusion injury" or their synonyms. The retrieved literature was then categorized and summarized.

RESULTS

The study findings indicated that Cordyceps and its bioactive components, including adenosine, cordycepin, mannitol, polysaccharide, and protein, have the potential to protect against CI/RI and MI/RI by improving blood perfusion, mitigating damage from reactive oxygen species, suppressing inflammation, preventing cellular apoptosis, and promoting tissue regeneration. Individually, Cordyceps could reduce neuronal excitatory toxicity and blood-brain barrier damage caused by cerebral ischemia. It can also significantly improve cardiac energy metabolism disorders and inhibit calcium overload caused by myocardial ischemia. Additionally, Cordyceps exerts a significant preventive or curative influence on the factors responsible for heart/brain ischemia, including hypertension, thrombosis, atherosclerosis, and arrhythmia.

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrates Cordyceps' prospective efficacy and safety in the prevention or treatment of CI/RI and MI/RI, providing novel insights for managing ischemic CCVDs.

Ratiometric fluorescence probe of Cu2+ and biothiols by using carbon dots and copper nanoclusters

A novel dual-emission ratiometric fluorescent probe based on N-doped yellow fluorescent carbon dots (y-CDs) and blue fluorescent copper nanoclusters (CuNCs) was established for quantitative determination of Cu²⁺ and biothiols. In this work, the Cu²⁺-(y-CDs) complexes formed by the chelation of y-CDs with Cu²⁺, showed an absorption peak at 430 nm that not only enhanced the fluorescence of y-CDs through inhibiting photoinduced electron transfer (PET) but also effectively quenched the fluorescence of CuNCs due to Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET). In addition, the chelation of y-CDs with Cu²⁺ could be inhibited by biothiols that prevented the fluorescence of y-CDs from being enhanced and the fluorescence of CuNCs from being quenched. On account of the changes of ratiometric signal, a dual-emission fluorescence probe for Cu²⁺ and biothiols determination was achieved. The proposed method exhibited high sensitivity for Cu²⁺ and biothiols in the ranges of 0.5-100 μM and 0.8-50 μM and the limits of detection (LODs) of Cu²⁺, glutathione (GSH), cysteine (Cys) and homocysteine (Hcy) were 0.21 μM, 0.33 μM, 0.39 μM and 0.46 μM, respectively. Subsequently, the established strategy presented an application prospect for the detection of Cu²⁺ and biothiols in real samples.

Risk Assessment of Lead and Cadmium in Some Food Supplements Available on the Romanian Market

Across the world, there has been an increase in the consumption of food supplements. This may be due to the perception that these dietary supplements cannot negatively affect the health of consumers in any way. However, dietary supplements may not have the expected effect. In addition, it has been shown that supplements can sometimes be chemically, physically or microbiologically contaminated, if the hygiene conditions and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) plan are not fully complied with. The aim of this study was to determine the lead and cadmium content of 41 food supplements available on the Romanian market and to assess the risk to consumer health. The graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS) technique was used for sample analysis after wet mineralization of the samples. The risk assessment was determined based on Estimated Daily Intake (EDI), Target Hazard Quotient (THQ), and Carcinogenic Risk (CR) calculations. Values obtained for both lead and cadmium fall within the limits imposed by the legislation in force. Small risks associated with the consumption of these food supplements was shown, with a main recommendation being to decrease the recommended daily dose in the case of food supplements.

Toxicity of Herbs, Vitamins, and Supplements

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration regulates the efficacy and safety of pharmaceutical drugs. This government agency was formed in direct response to a mass poisoning and more than 100 deaths from kidney failure due to a medicinal toxic alcohol exposure. In contrast, the Food and Drug Administration also regulates the use of vitamins, minerals, herbs, or botanicals as dietary supplements, banning specific medical claims but requiring no documentation of efficacy. Safety of dietary supplements is only ensured through reporting of adverse events and rarely through intervention. Consumers should be aware that supplements may in fact contain actual pharmaceuticals or nothing of value and have significant toxic potential. Toxicity due to Chinese herbal medicines, aristolochic acid, amygdalin, hypervitaminosis D, and heavy metal contamination is reviewed.

Red-Emissive Carbon Dots for "Switch-On" Dual Function Sensing Platform Rapid Detection of Ferric Ions and l-Cysteine in Living Cells

Ferric ions (Fe³⁺ ions) and l-cysteine (( l-Cys) in the human body have always played an irreplaceable role in biological processes, and overload or deficiency of Fe³⁺ ions and l-Cys in the biological system leads to various diseases. In this work, N,S-co-doped red-emitting carbon dots (R-CDs) were synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method. Because the doping of N and S gives a unique functional group distribution on the surface of R-CDs, it can be complexed with Fe³⁺ ions to construct an energy transfer quenching system. However, the presence of l-Cys competitively binds to Fe³⁺ ions, thus resulting in the photoluminescence recovery of R-CDs. Therefore, a "switch-on" dual function sensing platform has successfully been developed based on R-CDs for rapid identification and quantification of Fe³⁺ ions and l-Cys. The linear detection range of Fe³⁺ ions is 0-30 μM (limit of detection (LOD): 0.27 μM) and that of l-Cys is 0-24 μM (LOD: 0.14 μM). The sensor platform was used to detect Fe³⁺ ions and l-Cys in human serum samples with satisfactory results. Compared with traditional detection methods, this method is more time-saving and efficient and can be completed in 3 min. It is worth mentioning that the R-CDs not only has high optical stability but also has negligible cytotoxicity and has been successfully applied to in vitro/vivo imaging, indicating that R-CDs have excellent tissue penetration and biomarker potential. More interestingly, the switch-on fluorescence behavior for stepwise detection of Fe³⁺ ions and l-Cys can also be observed in cell imaging, which provides the possibility of visual detection of the probe to be applied in vivo.

High-throughput screening of the nucleosides and nucleotides using characteristic structural fragments fusion

Cordyceps sinensis is a traditional Chinese food. A high-throughput screening and quantitative method based on hydrophilic interaction chromatography coupled to quadrupole/Orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry has been proposed for the joint measurement of nucleosides and their corresponding nucleotides in thirty-two Cordyceps sinensis samples. A total of thirty-two natural samples from six regions were enrolled. A multiple-step analysis strategy, including features extraction, noise level evaluation, mass shift correction and suspect spectral library spectra searching, was employed to discover, identify and validate the nucleosides and nucleotides. The remaining unknown compounds were identified with the characteristic structural fragments. The on-line dispersive solid-phase extraction system eliminates human-based steps errors and affords superior method reproducibility in the presence of hexafluoro-2-propanol and diethylamine as hydrophilic ion-pairing reagents. In view of the great difference of the quality, this high coverage confirmation strategy is of great reference value to the future quantitative analysis of potential nucleosides and nucleotides. Nucleosides and nucleotides ingredients could be considered as origins and quality assessment index of C. sinensis.

SiBaoChongCao exhibited anti-fatigue activities and ameliorated cancer cachexia in mice

SiBaoChongCao (SBCC) is a functional food product containing fermentation of Acremonium terricola belonging to the Cordyceps genus. SBCC at 1 and 2 g kg⁻¹ for 20 days exhibited anti-fatigue activities such as increasing exhaustive swimming and running time of mice and increasing the strength of muscle. The increased muscle endurance in SBCC-treated mice might be related to enhancement of muscle cell growth and differentiation and improvement of muscle response to exercise training, as shown by an increase in muscle cross-sectional area and elevation of MHC, MyoD, MyoG and PGC-1α levels. And, SBCC at 1.5 g kg⁻¹ could ameliorate cancer-related cachexia such as ameliorating decrease in body temperature and inhibiting fat tissue atrophy. The anti-cachexia effects of SBCC might be related to inhibition of inflammatory cytokine IL-6 secretion and suppression of over-lipolysis and lipid over-utilization through inhibiting the activation of AMPK and p38 MAPK and down-regulating the level of UCP1.

SBCC exhibits anti-fatigue activity by improving muscle endurance and ameliorates cancer cachexia by alleviating loss of fat and body temperature.