Rui Zhang

Inocutis tamaricis is a medicinal fungus with significant pharmacological activity. In this study, ultra‐high performance liquid chromatography‐high resolution mass spectrometry (UPLC/MS) was used to conduct a comprehensive non‐targeted metabolomics analysis of the metabolites of wild fruiting body (WF), cultured fruiting body (CF), and liquid cultured mycelium (LCM). Orthogonal partial least square discriminant analysis (OPLS‐DA) was used to compare the three culture methods, to describe the regulatory effect of specific culture methods on metabolite distribution and yield of I. tamaricis, and the differential metabolites were enriched and analyzed to identify key metabolic pathways. The results showed significant differences in the types and abundances of active substances produced in different culture methods. There were 35 compounds in common, the WF, CF, and LCM had their unique metabolites, which were 39, 16, and 29 respectively, confirming the significant differences in the metabolites in different cultures, six key metabolic pathways were identified, including unsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis, linoleic acid, and α‐linolenic acid metabolism, etc.

Taiwanofungus camphoratus has attracted much attention because it can abundantly produce various active substances that exhibit blood-sugar lowering, immunity improving, and antioxidant properties. Currently, T. camphoratus is cultured using four main methods: cutting wood culture, solid-state fermentation, submerged fermentation, and dish culture. T. camphoratus produces different metabolites under different culture methods. In this study, nontargeted metabolomics was used to compare the metabolites of T. camphoratus produced under these four culture methods. Principal component analysis and supervised partial least squares-discriminant analysis were used to analyze the differences in the metabolites. Moreover, in vitro hypoglycemic activity of T. camphoratus extracts produced under four culture methods was compared by assessing their ability to inhibit the activity of α-glucosidase, α-amylase, and sucrase. A total of 186 metabolites were identified. In total, 127 metabolites were common under the four culture methods. Under solid-state fermentation, submerged fermentation, and cutting wood culture, 12, 1, and 4 metabolites were unique, respectively. The differential metabolites produced by T. camphoratus under four culture methods were mainly triterpenoids, phenolic compounds, and fatty acid compounds. α-glucosidase, α-amylase, and sucrase activity inhibition was the best using T. camphoratus extract obtained under cutting wood culture; the inhibition rates were 55.97%, 51.96%, and 78.02%, respectively, which were comparable to those exhibited by 0.001, 3, and 12 mg/mL acarbose (positive control). The metabolites produced by T. camphoratus and α-glucosidase, α-amylase, and sucrase inhibitory activities were different under the four culture methods. Cutting wood culture exhibited the best enzyme inhibitory activity. This study provided a theoretical basis for further use and development of various culture methods for the rational production of active metabolites of T. camphoratus.

Background: Antrodia cinnamomea, a rare medicinal fungus, has been increasingly studied in recent years because of its abundant secondary metabolites which are beneficial to humans. However, there is a lack of research on its polyphenols which are of good research value due to their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, hypoglycemic and other activities. Results: In this study, the effects of different extraction conditions on the yield of its polyphenols were investigated. Deep-Eutectic Solvents composed of choline chloride and malonic acid had the best extraction efficiency, with the optimal extraction conditions being as follows: a solid–liquid ratio of 40 mg/mL, an extraction temperature of 55 °C, an extraction time of 70 min and a DES with 20% water content. Under these conditions, the extraction yield of polyphenols reached 22.09 mg/g which was about 2 times that of alcohol-based extraction (10.95 mg/g). In vitro antioxidant test results further showed that polyphenols from A. cinnamomea had strong antioxidant activities. When the concentration of polyphenols reached 0.1 mg/mL of polyphenols, the scavenging activity of free radical basically reached its maximum, with values of 94.10%, 83.34% and 95.42% for DPPH, ABTS⁺ and ·OH scavenging. In this case, the corresponding IC₅₀ values were 0.01, 0.014 and 0.007 mg/mL, respectively. Conclusions: This study lays the foundation for the efficient extraction and application of polyphenols from A. cinnamomea.

Sanghuangporus baumii, is a widely used medicinal fungus. The polyphenols extracted from this fungus exert antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and hypoglycemic effects. In this study, polyphenols from the fruiting bodies of S. baumii were obtained using the deep eutectic solvent (DES) extraction method. The factors affecting the extraction yield were investigated at different conditions. Based on the results from single-factor experiments, response surface methodology was used to optimize the extraction conditions. The scavenging ability of the polyphenols on •OH, DPPH, and ABTS⁺ was determined. The results showed that the DES system composed of choline chloride and malic acid had the best extraction yield (6.37 mg/g). The optimal extraction parameters for response surface methodology were as follows: 42 min, 58 ℃, 1:34 solid–liquid (mg/mL), and water content of 39%. Under these conditions, the yield of polyphenols was the highest (12.58 mg/g). At 0.30 mg/mL, the scavenging ability of the polyphenols on •OH, DPPH, and ABTS⁺ was 95.71%, 91.08%, and 85.52%, respectively. Thus, the method using DES was more effective than the conventional method of extracting phenolic compounds from the fruiting bodies of S. baumii. Moreover, the extracted polyphenols exhibited potent antioxidant activity.

β₂-Adrenergic receptor (β₂AR) plays a critical role in mediating the effects of catecholamine hormones. Due to the flexibility of the structure of its active state, study of agonist–β2AR is usually performed by molecular dynamic (MD) simulation. In this study we show the representative characteristics of agonist binding and activation on β₂AR by MD simulation. The binding site and the conformational changes in the specific regions of β2AR are reasonable which confirmed the conclusion that agonist–β2AR reached its active-like state. We have studied the disruption of non-covalent intramolecular interactions, including the conserved DRY motif, the rotamer toggle switch and the ionic lock, the cytoplasmic ends of transmembranes 5 and 6, and some water-mediated hydrogen bond network regions. We conclude that agonist induced β₂AR to its active conformation, or at least the active-like conformation.

The effect of enzymatic treatment with amylase and cellulase on Tartary Buckwheat (F. tataricum Gaertn) bran dietary fiber was evaluated by studying its chemical composition, physicochemical property and microstructure. Tartary buckwheat bran flour, obtained from residues of tartary buckwheat processing exhibited high contents of dietary fiber (44.2±0.3%), starch (31.94±0.27%), lipid (5.18±0.14%) and total ash (2.91±0.04%), and a low level of crude protein (3.12±0.11%). The contents of hemicellulose, cellulose and klason lignin were 23.80±0.21%, 17.48±0.25% and 4.06±0.21%, respectively. Total polyphenols and total flavonoids contents were 13.32mg GAE/g and 37.43mg RE/g, respectively. The water holding capacity (WHC) and swelling capacity (SC) were 2.22±0.07 g/g and 2.33±0.10 mL/g. After the extraction process with amylase, the dietary fiber, total polyphenols, total flavonoids contents of crude enzymatic extract were increased to 83.5±0.27%, 27.61 mg GAE/g, 52.14 mg RE/g, respectively. Its WHC and SC also grew up to 2.38±0.12 g/g and 4.67±0.09 mL/g, while the starch content was decreased significantly. The crude enzymatic extract from tartary buckwheat bran was modified by cellulase. After the modification treatment, the increasing proportion of soluble dietary fiber (SDF) against total dietary fiber (TDF) was detected, and its WHC and SC also grew up to 2.58±0.11 g/g and 5.13±0.12 mL/g respectively. By Small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) analysis, it was also learned that the size of DF particles were decreased, which had a positive correlation with WHC and SC. The SEM photos showed that the modification processing increased the surface area of DF.