Abstract Total triterpenoids from Antrodia cinnamomea fermentation mycelium (TT-ACFM) were prepared, and their in vitro inhibitory effects on hepatocellular carcinoma were investigated. Human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cells were incubated with TT-ACFM with concentration of 0 (control), 12.5, 25, 50, 100 and 200 μg/mL, respectively. The proliferation of cell was detected using CCK-8 method. The apoptosis of cells was detected by flow cytometry. The migration and invasion of cells was determined using Transwell chamber. The level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cells was determined using DCFH-DA method. The expressions of matrix metalloproteinse-2 (MMP-2), matrix metalloproteinse-9 (MMP-9) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) protein in cells were detected by western blot assays. Results indicate that, TT-ACFM can not only inhibit the proliferation of HepG2 cells and promote their apoptosis, but also inhibit their invasion and invasion. The mechanism may be related to its increase of ROS and down-regulation of MMP-2, MMP-9 and VEGF expression in cells.

Abstract In this study, the total triterpenoids of raspberry fruit (TTRF) were prepared, and their effects on human hepatocellular carcinoma SMMC-7721 cells were investigated. SMMC-7721 cells were treated with TTRF with concentration of 0 (control), 50, 100, 200 and 400 μg/mL, respectively. The cell proliferation, cycle and apoptosis were detected. The reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cells and the expression levels of B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) and B-cell lymphoma-2 associated X (Bax) in cells were determined. Results showed that, TTRF could obviously inhibit the proliferation of SMMC-7721 cells, arrest most cells in S and G2/M phases, and promote their apoptosis. In addition, TTRF could increase the ROS level, down-regulate the Bcl-2 protein expression and up-regulate the Bax protein expression in cells. In conclusion, cucurbitacin I has inhibitory effect on growth of SMMC-7721cells. The action mechanism may be related to its increasing ROS level and regulating of Bcl-2 and Bax expression in cells.

Ultrafiltration coupled with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) was established to screen xanthine oxidase (XO) inhibitors from Pueraria lobata root extract. Four compounds were screened out and identified as puerarin, daidzin, daidzein and genistein with half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of 30.8, 5.31, 14.5 and 3.02 µg mL−1 on XO, respectively. The interactions between these compounds and XO were investigated by fluorescence spectroscopic method. The hydrogen peroxide induced oxidative stress model of human normal gastric epithelial cell lines (GES-1) was used to investigate the protections on injured cell. As a result, four XO inhibitors exhibited protective effects without cytotoxicity. With the increased concentrations of four inhibitors, cell viability was higher with decreased mortality rate, the decrease of superoxide dismutase activity, leakage of lactate dehydrogenase and increase of intracellular superoxide anion production induced by hydrogen peroxide were restrained. It showed that these four XO inhibitors could effectively enhance cell viability and protect injury of GES-1 cells from oxidative stress.

In this study, tetraethylenepentamine modified magnetic graphene oxide nanomaterial (TMGO) was prepared and characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and vibration sample magnetometer (VSM). All the characterizations proved that the modification and preparation of TMGO were successful. The TMGO nanomaterial was used in the adsorption of Acid Red 18 (AR) in aqueous solution. The parameters like pH of solution, adsorption kinetics and isotherms were all investigated. The results indicated that the TMGO nanomaterial had satisfied adsorption ability and the maximum adsorption capacity was 524.2 mg g -1 at 45 °C and pH 6. The adsorption capacity remained at 91.8% of the initial value after five cycles. The adsorption process with AR was found through fitting the pseudo-second-order kinetics equations and the Freundlich adsorption model. The experimental results demonstrated that the TMGO nanomaterial could be rapidly extracted from the medium and had a good adsorption ability to remove dyes in wastewater.