Lijun Cheng

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is the most common chronic liver disease in the world. However, there are still no drugs for NAFLD/NASH in the market. Gastrodin (GAS) is a bioactive compound that is extracted from Gastrodia elata, which is used as an active compound on nervous system diseases. Recent reports showed that GAS and Gastrodia elata possess anti-oxidant activity and lipid regulating effects, which makes us curious to reveal the anti-NAFLD effect of GAS. A high cholesterol diet (HCD) was used to induce a NAFLD larval zebrafish model, and the lipid regulation and anti-oxidant effects were tested on the model. Furthermore, qRT-PCR studied the underlying mechanism of GAS. To conclude, this study revealed a lipid regulation and anti-oxidant insights of GAS on NAFLD larval zebrafish model and provided a potential therapeutic compound for NAFLD treatment.

Gastrodia elata Blume (GE) is an orchid herbal material widely used in China for thousands of years. Recently, the Chinese government has noted that GE can be legally used as functional food, which brings a huge food market for GE. The processing of herbal materials is considered to be the most critical technology to ensure quality and efficacy. Proper processing can transform raw materials into food or drugs with appropriate ingredients and functions. However, due to the unprocessed or the fresh GE can be easily bought in the market, the ingredient and efficiency difference between fresh and processed GE need to further investigate. Based on the understanding of the mechanism of processing in the GE and its possible application in the dietary treatment for anxious people, this paper studied the ingredient changes of the main active constituents of the GE before and after processing. Meanwhile, blood concentrations of three active ingredient including gastrodin (GAS), p-hydroxylbenzyl alcohol (HBA) and Parishin were investigated. Moreover, the different efficacy of the GE in various animal models and the potential mechanisms were studied. Finally, water steamed GE showed distinct better bioactivity than the fresh GE. Further mechanism based on the metabolomics was investigated. The difference of tryptophan related metabolites was observed and discussed to be the possible cause of the increasing bioactive efficiency in GE with steaming process.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease, and it has gradually become the main disease burden in the world. However, the pathogenesis of NAFLD is complex, involving such things as dyslipidemia, oxidative stress, inflammation, etc. This brings to the table a significant challenge for drug development, and there is still no drug approved by the FDA on the market to treat the disease. GAS and HBA are active ingredients of the orchidaceae plant gastrodia elata and have exhibit effects in ameliorating nervous system diseases caused by oxidative stress. HBA is a metabolite of GAS that could perform lipid regulation and improve oxidative stress on HCD-induced NAFLD larval zebrafish, as reported by previous studies; we therefore explored the role of HBA in lipid regulation and oxidative stress on HCD-induced NAFLD larval zebrafish in vivo and FFA-induced BRL-3A hepatocyte in vitro . The gene expression of lipogenesis, inflammation, and oxidative stress were measured to investigate the underlying mechanism of HBA, and the potential protein target of HBA was explored by immunofluorescence. Altogether, our data highlight the role of HBA in improving NAFLD by use of its lipid-lowering and anti-oxidative properties via the Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway, providing a potential therapeutic compound for NAFLD treatment.

In this present study, three new wood-inhabiting fungal taxa, Hyphoderma niveomarginatum, H. sordidum and H. weishanense, are proposed. Hyphoderma niveomarginatum is characterized by the ceraceous basidiomata having a smooth, cracking hymenial surface and the presence of the moniliform cystidia and ellipsoid basidiospores (7–9 × 3.5–5 µm). Hyphoderma sordidum is characterized by its resupinate basidiomata with a smooth hymenial surface with the fimbriate margin, the presence of the tubular cystidia and ellipsoid basidiospores (3–4.5 × 2–3 µm). Hyphoderma weishanense differs in its membranous basidiomata with a slightly buff to buff hymenial surface and the presence of broadly ellipsoid basidiospores (4.5–8.5 × 4–7 µm). Sequences of ITS+nLSU+mt-SSU+RPB1+RPB2 genes were used for the phylogenetic analyses using three methods. The ITS+nLSU+mt-SSU+RPB1+RPB2 analysis of the genus Hyphoderma indicated that the 3 new species of Hyphoderma were nested into genus Hyphoderma, in which H. niveomarginatum formed a single group and then grouped with H. membranaceum and H. sinense; H. sordidum was a sister to H. nudicephalum; and H. weishanense closely grouped with H. crystallinum.

Blume (GE), is traditionally used as both a medicinal and functional food, with proven efficacy in treating mental disorders. In traditional processing, GE is washed, steamed with water, dried, and sliced. In this study, a novel processing technology-alcohol steamed GE (AGE) was proposed as an alternative. Totally, 17 compounds were identified in fresh GE and AGE. Compared with fresh GE, the relative content of parishin A and parishin E decreased after alcohol steaming, whereas gastrodin (GAS), p-hydroxylbenzyl alcohol (HBA), Parishin B, and Parishin C were increased. Additionally, the pentobarbital-induced sleep mice model and Chronic Restraint Stress (CRS) model were applied to evaluate the pharmacological effects of fresh GE and steamed GE, and both fresh and steamed GE showed an intensive hypnotic and anti-anxiety effect. Furthermore, the anti-anxiety mechanism based on serum metabolic was investigated and the tryptophan metabolic pathway was considered the response to the anti-anxiety effect of GE. Although the optimization of the processing technology of AGE still needs to be further explored, the current results have provided new thoughts for the processing technology and clinical application of GE.