Safety of traditional medicine and natural product supplements in psychiatry

Acute toxicity profiling of medicinal herb Ardisia elliptica leaf extract by conventional evaluations and proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) metabolomics

Background and aim

Interest in the safety of herbal medicine is growing rapidly regarding knowledge and challenges in natural products. Hence, this study aimed to reveal the toxicological profile of Ardisia elliptica, a traditional medicinal plant used in the treatment of various illnesses.

Experimental procedure

Acute toxicity study was performed on female and male Sprague Dawley rats with a single oral administration of 2000 mg/kg BW of 70% ethanolic A. elliptica leaf extract, using a combination of conventional investigations and 1H-NMR-based metabolomics approaches.

Results

Physical, hematological, biochemical, and histopathological assessments demonstrated the usual rat profile, with no mortality and delayed toxicity 14 days after administration. 1H NMR serum metabolomics depicted similar metabolites between normal and treated groups. Nevertheless, 1H NMR of urinary metabolomics revealed perturbation in carbohydrate, amino acid, and energy metabolism within 24h after extract administration, while no accumulation of toxic biomarkers in the collected biological fluids on Day 14. A minor gender-based difference revealed the influence of sex hormones and different energy expenditure on response to extract treatment.

Conclusion

This study suggested that 2000 mg/kg BW of 70% ethanolic A. elliptica leaf extract is considered as safe for consumption and offered a comprehensive overview of the response of physiological and metabolic aspects applicable to food and herbal product development.

The protective effect of natural medicines in rheumatoid arthritis via inhibit angiogenesis

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic immunological disease leading to the progressive bone and joint destruction. Angiogenesis, accompanied by synovial hyperplasia and inflammation underlies joint destruction. Delaying or even blocking synovial angiogenesis has emerged as an important target of RA treatment. Natural medicines has a long history of treating RA, and numerous reports have suggested that natural medicines have a strong inhibitory activity on synovial angiogenesis, thereby improving the progression of RA. Natural medicines could regulate the following signaling pathways: HIF/VEGF/ANG, PI3K/Akt pathway, MAPKs pathway, NF-κB pathway, PPARγ pathway, JAK2/STAT3 pathway, etc., thereby inhibiting angiogenesis. Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. f. (TwHF), sinomenine, and total glucoside of Paeonia lactiflora Pall. Are currently the most representative of all natural products worthy of development and utilization. In this paper, the main factors affecting angiogenesis were discussed and different types of natural medicines that inhibit angiogenesis were systematically summarized. Their specific anti-angiogenesis mechanisms are also reviewed which aiming to provide new perspective and options for the management of RA by targeting angiogenesis.

Discovery of 8-prenylnaringenin from hop (Humulus lupulus L.) as a potent monoacylglycerol lipase inhibitor for treatments of neuroinflammation and Alzheimer's disease

Monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL), a serine hydrolase, converts endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) to arachidonic acid (AA) and glycerol in the brain and plays a bidirectional role in controlling nueroinflammation. MAGL, involved in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, is a promising target for treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. However, the irreversible inhibitors of MAGL lead to the desensitization of CB1 receptors further impairing the benefits associated with the indirect CB1 stimulation. Therefore, development of potent reversible inhibitors from natural products (NPs) and traditional chinese medicines (TCMs) are safer and free from adverse side effects and feasible to avoid drawbacks which irreversible inhibitors cause. Here, we employed pharmacophore-based screening of drug candidates coupled with molecular docking, biochemical assay and Ligplot analyses to identify and characterize inhibitors targeting human MAGL (hMAGL). The built pharmacophore model, Phar-MAGL successfully identified inhibitors NP-2 (IC₅₀ = 9.5 ± 1.2 μM), NP-5 (IC₅₀ = 14.5 ± 1.3 μM), and NP-3 (IC₅₀ = 15.2 ± 1.4 μM), which apparently attenuated the activities of hMAGL in vitro. The evident activities of the identified inhibitors against hMAGL showed that the pharmacophore model, Phar-MAGL is reliable and efficient in screening inhibitors against hMAGL. Our study successfully identified a natrual product inhibitor, NP-2 (8-PN), from the plant Humulus lupulus L. (hops) and its positive effects in neurogenesis and neurodifferentiation along with the evident inhibitory potency against hMAGL revealed the potential for further optimizing and developing into drugs to treat neuroinflammation, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

Discovery of natural product inhibitors against human monoacylglycerol lipase by pharmacophore-based drug screening, LibDock molecular docking and in vitro biochemical examinations.