Sources, distribution, bioavailability, toxicity, and risk assessment of heavy metal(loid)s in complementary medicines

Bolan, Shiv,Kunhikrishnan, Anitha,Seshadri, Balaji,Choppala, Girish,Naidu, Ravi,Bolan, Nanthi S.,Ok, Yong Sik,Zhang, Ming,Li, Chun-Guang,Li, Feng,Noller, Barry,Kirkham, Mary Beth Elsevier 2017 Environment international Vol.108 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>The last few decades have seen the rise of alternative medical approaches including the use of herbal supplements, natural products, and traditional medicines, which are collectively known as ‘Complementary medicines’. However, there are increasing concerns on the safety and health benefits of these medicines. One of the main hazards with the use of complementary medicines is the presence of heavy metal(loid)s such as arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and mercury (Hg). This review deals with the characteristics of complementary medicines in terms of heavy metal(loid)s sources, distribution, bioavailability, toxicity, and human risk assessment. The heavy metal(loid)s in these medicines are derived from uptake by medicinal plants, cross-contamination during processing, and therapeutic input of metal(loid)s. This paper discusses the distribution of heavy metal(loid)s in these medicines, in terms of their nature, concentration, and speciation. The importance of determining bioavailability towards human health risk assessment was emphasized by the need to estimate daily intake of heavy metal(loid)s in complementary medicines. The review ends with selected case studies of heavy metal(loid) toxicity from complementary medicines with specific reference to As, Cd, Pb, and Hg. The future research opportunities mentioned in the conclusion of review will help researchers to explore new avenues, methodologies, and approaches to the issue of heavy metal(loid)s in complementary medicines, thereby generating new regulations and proposing fresh approach towards safe use of these medicines.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> A first-time comprehensive overview on the health risk assessment of heavy metal(loid)s in complementary medicines </LI> <LI> Ayurvedic medicines contain toxic levels of heavy metal(loid)s including As, Cd, Hg and Pb </LI> <LI> The bioavailability of metal(loid)s in complementary medicines depends on speciation of these metals </LI> <LI> Regular intake of some complementary medicines has caused metal(loid) toxicity in humans </LI> <LI> Health risk assessment can be achieved based on the daily intake of complementary medicines and total metal(loid) content </LI> </UL> </P> <P><B>Graphical abstract</B></P> <P>Interactions between heavy metal(loid)s and complementary medicines.</P> <P>[DISPLAY OMISSION]</P>

Quantifying herbicide dose-response and resistance in <i>Echinochloa</i> spp. by measuring root length in growth pouches

Zhang, C. J.,Lim, S. H.,Kim, J. W.,Song, J. S.,Yook, M. J.,Nah, G.,Valverde, B. E.,Kim, D. S. Canadian Science Publishing 2015 Canadian journal of plant science. Revue canadienn Vol.95 No.6

<P> Zhang, C. J., Lim, S. H., Kim, J. W., Song, J. S., Yook, M. J., Nah, G., Valverde, N. E. and Kim, D. S. 2015. Quantifying herbicide dose-response and resistance in Echinochloa spp. by measuring root length in growth pouches. Can. J. Plant Sci. 95: 1181-1192. The aim of the presented study was to develop a bioassay for rapid diagnosis of herbicide dose-response and resistance in Echinochloa. Pre-germinated seeds of Echinochloa spp. were incubated in growth pouches (18 cm×16.5 cm) containing herbicide solutions in a range of concentrations. Shoot and root lengths were measured after 6 d of incubation. Dose-responses estimated by measuring root lengths in the growth pouches were well-described by the log-logistic dose-response model and similar to those estimated by a whole-plant assay. Accurate dose-response curves were successfully generated for several herbicides with different modes of action, suggesting that the growth pouch method can be used for herbicide bioassays. The suitability of the growth pouch method for rapid diagnosis of acetyl coenzyme-A carboxylase (ACCase) and acetolactate synthase (ALS) inhibitor resistance in Echinochloa spp. was also tested. For cyhalofop-butyl, resistant and susceptible biotypes were discriminated at 180-300 mg a.i. L<SUP>−1</SUP> and 80-120 mg a.i. L<SUP>−1</SUP> for barnyardgrass (E. crus-galli) and late watergrass (E. oryzicola), respectively. For penoxsulam, the discriminatory dosage was 350-500 mg a.i. L<SUP>−1</SUP> for barnyardgrass and 650-1000 mg a.i. L<SUP>−1</SUP> for late watergrass. The method was further used to identify late watergrass biotypes resistant and susceptible to two other ALS inhibitors, azimsulfuron and bispyribac-sodium. Our results show that the growth pouch method can be reliably used in herbicide dose-response studies and to diagnose herbicide resistance in Echinochloa spp., with significant time and cost savings compared with conventional whole-plant assays. </P>

Sensitivity of surface characteristics on the simulation of wind-blown-dust source in North America

Park, S.H.,Gong, S.L.,Gong, W.,Makar, P.A.,Moran, M.D.,Stroud, C.A.,Zhang, J. Pergamon Press ; Elsevier [distribution] 2009 Atmospheric environment Vol.43 No.19

Recently, a wind-blown-dust-emission module has been built based on a state-of-the-art wind erosion theory and evaluated in a regional air-quality model to simulate a North American dust storm episode in April 2001 (see Park, S.H., Gong, S.L., Zhao, T.L., Vet, R.J., Bouchet, V.S., Gong, W., Makar, P.A., Moran, M.D., Stroud, C., Zhang, J. 2007. Simulation of entrainment and transport of dust particles within North America in April 2001 (''Red Dust episode''). J. Geophys. Res. 112, D20209, doi:10.1029/2007JD008443). A satisfactorily detailed assessment of that module, however, was not possible because of a lack of information on some module inputs, especially soil moisture content. In this paper, the wind-blown-dust emission was evaluated for two additional dust storms using improved soil moisture inputs. The surface characteristics of the wind-blown-dust source areas in southwestern North America were also investigated, focusing on their implications for wind-blown-dust emissions. The improved soil moisture inputs enabled the sensitivity of other important surface characteristics, the soil grain size distribution and the land-cover, to dust emission to be investigated with more confidence. Simulations of the two 2003 dust storm episodes suggested that wind-blown-dust emissions from the desert areas in southwestern North America are dominated by emissions from dry playas covered with accumulated alluvial deposits whose particle size is much smaller than usual desert sands. As well, the source areas in the northwestern Texas region were indicated to be not desert but rather agricultural lands that were ''activated'' as a wind-blown-dust sources after harvest. This finding calls for revisions to the current wind-blown-dust-emission module, in which ''desert'' is designated to be the only land-cover category that can emit wind-blown dust.

High-rate in-plane micro-supercapacitors scribed onto photo paper using <i>in situ</i> femtolaser-reduced graphene oxide/Au nanoparticle microelectrodes

Li, R.-Z.,Peng, Rui,Kihm, K. D.,Bai, S.,Bridges, D.,Tumuluri, U.,Wu, Z.,Zhang, T.,Compagnini, G.,Feng, Z.,Hu, A. The Royal Society of Chemistry 2016 ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE Vol.9 No.4

<P>Direct laser-reduction of graphene oxide (GO), as a lithography-free approach, has been proven effective in manufacturing in-plane micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) with fast ion diffusion. However, the power density and the charge/discharge rate are still limited by the relatively low conductivity of electrodes. Here, we report a facile approach by exploiting femtolaser <I>in situ</I> reduction of the hydrated GO and chloroauric acid (HAuCl<SUB>4</SUB>) nanocomposite simultaneously, which incorporates both the patterning of rGO electrodes and the fabrication of Au current collectors in a single step. These flexible MSCs boast achievements of one-hundred fold increase in electrode conductivities of up to 1.1 × 10<SUP>6</SUP> S m<SUP>−1</SUP>, which provide superior rate capability (50% for the charging rate increase from 0.1 V s<SUP>−1</SUP> to 100 V s<SUP>−1</SUP>), sufficiently high frequency responses (362 Hz, 2.76 ms time constant), and large specific capacitances of 0.77 mF cm<SUP>−2</SUP> (17.2 F cm<SUP>−3</SUP> for volumetric capacitance) at 1 V s<SUP>−1</SUP>, and 0.46 mF cm<SUP>−2</SUP> (10.2 F cm<SUP>−3</SUP>) at 100 V s<SUP>−1</SUP>. The use of photo paper substrates enables the flexibility of this fabrication protocol. Moreover, proof-of-concept 3D MSCs are demonstrated with enhanced areal capacitance (up to 3.84 mF cm<SUP>−2</SUP> at 1 V s<SUP>−1</SUP>) while keeping high rate capabilities. This prototype of all solid-state MSCs demonstrates the broad range of potentials of thin-film based energy storage device applications for flexible, portable, and wearable electronic devices that require a fast charge/discharge rate and high power density.</P> <P>Graphic Abstract</P><P>Direct laser-reduction of graphene oxide (GO), as a lithography-free approach, has been proven effective in manufacturing in-plane micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) with fast ion diffusion. <IMG SRC='http://pubs.rsc.org/services/images/RSCpubs.ePlatform.Service.FreeContent.ImageService.svc/ImageService/image/GA?id=c5ee03637b'> </P>

Flavonoids Identified from Korean Scutellaria baicalensis Induce Apoptosis by ROS Generation and Caspase Activation on Human Fibrosarcoma Cells

Zhang, J.,Park, H.-S.,Kim, J.-A.,Hong, G.-E.,Nagappan, A.,Park, K.-I.,Kim, G.-S. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CHINESE MEDICINE INC 2014 The American journal of Chinese medicine Vol.42 No.2

The effects of flavonoids from Korean Scutellaria baicalensis on fibrosarcoma HT1080 cells and their underlying molecular mechanism were investigated in this study. Flavonoids affected HT1080 cell proliferation by interrupting cell cycle progress, obviously augmenting the proportion of sub-G1 and diminishing that of G1 phase, and undergoing apoptosis at the tested dosage (100-400 mu g/mL). In addition, the mediated apoptosis was mainly caused by total reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and by up-regulating the ratio of Bax/Bcl-xL, triggering caspase cascades (caspase-3, -9 and -8), and inactivating PARP, dose-dependently. The proteomics results showed that AP-4, ARID 5B, HNRNP K, PLOG, Prdx6, and myosin-1, associated with cell growth, differentiation and development, and overexpressed in gastric cancer, colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, etc., were statistically down-regulated after the flavonoids treatment. Taken together, our data demonstrated that flavonoids from Korean S. baicalensis induced apoptosis in HT1080 cells, which involved a hierarchy of cellular pathways and multiple signal proteins, and might be a potential anticancer therapeutic agent.

Genome Wide Proteomics of ERBB2 and EGFR and Other Oncogenic Pathways in Inflammatory Breast Cancer

Zhang, Emma Yue,Cristofanilli, Massimo,Robertson, Fredika,Reuben, James M.,Mu, Zhaomei,Beavis, Ronald C.,Im, Hogune,Snyder, Michael,Hofree, Matan,Ideker, Trey,Omenn, Gilbert S.,Fanayan, Susan,Jeong, S American Chemical Society 2013 Journal of proteome research Vol.12 No.6

<P>In this study we selected three breast cancer cell lines (SKBR3, SUM149 and SUM190) with different oncogene expression levels involved in ERBB2 and EGFR signaling pathways as a model system for the evaluation of selective integration of subsets of transcriptomic and proteomic data. We assessed the oncogene status with reads per kilobase per million mapped reads (RPKM) values for ERBB2 (14.4, 400, and 300 for SUM149, SUM190, and SKBR3, respectively) and for EGFR (60.1, not detected, and 1.4 for the same 3 cell lines). We then used RNA-Seq data to identify those oncogenes with significant transcript levels in these cell lines (total 31) and interrogated the corresponding proteomics data sets for proteins with significant interaction values with these oncogenes. The number of observed interactors for each oncogene showed a significant range, e.g., 4.2% (JAK1) to 27.3% (MYC). The percentage is measured as a fraction of the total protein interactions in a given data set vs total interactors for that oncogene in STRING (Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins, version 9.0) and I2D (Interologous Interaction Database, version 1.95). This approach allowed us to focus on 4 main oncogenes, ERBB2, EGFR, MYC, and GRB2, for pathway analysis. We used bioinformatics sites GeneGo, PathwayCommons and NCI receptor signaling networks to identify pathways that contained the four main oncogenes and had good coverage in the transcriptomic and proteomic data sets as well as a significant number of oncogene interactors. The four pathways identified were ERBB signaling, EGFR1 signaling, integrin outside-in signaling, and validated targets of C-MYC transcriptional activation. The greater dynamic range of the RNA-Seq values allowed the use of transcript ratios to correlate observed protein values with the relative levels of the ERBB2 and EGFR transcripts in each of the four pathways. This provided us with potential proteomic signatures for the SUM149 and 190 cell lines, growth factor receptor-bound protein 7 (GRB7), Crk-like protein (CRKL) and Catenin delta-1 (CTNND1) for ERBB signaling; caveolin 1 (CAV1), plectin (PLEC) for EGFR signaling; filamin A (FLNA) and actinin alpha1 (ACTN1) (associated with high levels of EGFR transcript) for integrin signalings; branched chain amino-acid transaminase 1 (BCAT1), carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase (CAD), nucleolin (NCL) (high levels of EGFR transcript); transferrin receptor (TFRC), metadherin (MTDH) (high levels of ERBB2 transcript) for MYC signaling; S100-A2 protein (S100A2), caveolin 1 (CAV1), Serpin B5 (SERPINB5), stratifin (SFN), PYD and CARD domain containing (PYCARD), and EPH receptor A2 (EPHA2) for PI3K signaling, p53 subpathway. Future studies of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), from which the cell lines were derived, will be used to explore the significance of these observations.</P><P><B>Graphic Abstract</B> <IMG SRC='http://pubs.acs.org/appl/literatum/publisher/achs/journals/content/jprobs/2013/jprobs.2013.12.issue-6/pr4001527/production/images/medium/pr-2013-001527_0010.gif'></P><P><A href='http://pubs.acs.org/doi/suppl/10.1021/pr4001527'>ACS Electronic Supporting Info</A></P>

Influence of the Novel Urease Inhibitor Hydroquinone on Growing Lamb Nitrogen Utilization

Zhang, Y.G.,Shan, A.S.,Bao, J. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2002 Animal Bioscience Vol.15 No.7

Two in vivo experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of novel urease inhibitor hydroquinone (HQ) on ammonia release rate from urea hydrolysis, nitrogen balance, nutrient digestibility and efficiency of microbial protein synthesis. In Exp. 1, twelve crossbred cannulated lambs were randomly assigned within initial body weight block to one of four HQ treatments, which included 0 (control), 30, 60 or 80 mg HQ/kg DM intake. Ammonia concentration and pH of ruminal fluid were immediately measured at 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8 h after feeding. Increasing the dose of HQ tended (p<0.15) to linearly decrease NH3 formation. The ammonia peak concentration (2 h post-feeding) in animals receiving HQ was approximately one-half of that in animals not receiving HQ (p<0.01), and a relatively sustained ammonia release could be obtained at the dose of 30 or 60 mg HQ/kg DM. In Exp. 2, sixteen intact crossbred lambs (weight $40{\pm}0.8kg$) were used in a $2{\times}2$ factorial design experiment. The four rations consisting of soybean meal-based (SBM) or urea-based (Urea) nitrogen source with or without HQ (S1, S0, U1 and U0) were fed in digestion and N balance trials. Apparent digestibility of major nutrients except that of ADF was not affected by either nitrogen source or addition of HQ. Regardless of nitrogen source, supplementation of HQ significantly improved ADF digestibility (p<0.05). The various ration had no effects on N metabolism in the presence of HQ. There was significant difference between total purine derivatives (PD), estimated efficiency of microbial N synthesis (p<0.05) and urea-N excretion (p<0.01) in the urine for the SBM ration and for the Urea ration. However, HQ had little influence on efficiency of microbial N synthesis as proportion of daily intake of total tract digestible OM (p>0.05). No interactions between main nitrogen source and HQ were measured throughout the trial. Results of this study suggest that addition of HQ to ration may improve ADF digestion with having no negative effect on N metabolism and microbial protein production.

Local structure and magnetocaloric effect for La_0.7Sr_0.3Mn_1-xNi_xO₃

Zhang, Y.D.,Phan, T.L.,Yang, D.S.,Yu, S.C. Elsevier 2012 Current Applied Physics Vol.12 No.3

We have prepared polycrystalline La<SUB>0.7</SUB>Sr<SUB>0.3</SUB>Mn<SUB>1-x</SUB>Ni<SUB>x</SUB>O<SUB>3</SUB> (x = 0, 0.01, 0.02, 0.03) samples by conventional solid-state reaction. X-ray absorption studies reveal that Ni dopants in the compounds having an oxidation state of 2+. These Ni<SUP>2+</SUP> ions replace Mn on the octahedral site of the perovskite structure. An increase of the Ni content enhances the concentration of Mn<SUP>4+</SUP> ions. This reduces magnetization, and the ferromagnetic-paramagnetic phase transition temperature (T<SUB>C</SUB>) of La<SUB>0.7</SUB>Sr<SUB>0.3</SUB>Mn<SUB>1-x</SUB>Ni<SUB>x</SUB>O<SUB>3</SUB> from ∼365 K for x = 0 to ∼345 K for x = 0.03. The magnetocaloric effect has also been assessed by means of magnetic-entropy change, which is determined from field dependences of magnetization. We find a large magnetic-entropy change taking place around T<SUB>C</SUB> of the samples. Under an applied field interval of 15 kOe, the maximum magnetic-entropy changes |ΔS<SUB>M</SUB><SUP>max</SUP>| are about 2.33, 2.27, 2.26 and 2.21 J/kg K for x = 0, 0.01, 0.02, and 0.03, respectively. Interestingly, the doping of a small amount of Ni in La<SUB>0.7</SUB>Sr<SUB>0.3</SUB>Mn<SUB>1-x</SUB>Ni<SUB>x</SUB>O<SUB>3</SUB> does not make|ΔS<SUB>M</SUB><SUP>max</SUP>| changed very much, but causes the shift of this value towards room temperature. Such the feature is applicable to control the working temperature range of cooling systems based on the magnetocaloric effect.

Magnetic entropy change of V substituted Ni-Mn-Ga Heusler alloy

Min, S. G.,Zhang, Y. D.,Malkinski, L.,Yu, S. C.,Lee, K. W.,Kim, Y. C. American Institute of Physics 2009 JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS - Vol.105 No.7

<P>The magnetization behaviors have been analyzed for Ni54Mn21-xVxGa25 (x=0,2,4) alloys which were prepared by conventional arc melting method in argon atmosphere. The Curie temperature T-C was found to be 325, 300, and 265 K and the austenitic transition temperature T-A on heating was found to be 315, 217, and 124 K for x=0, 2, and 4, respectively. The magnetic characteristics were performed with a Quantum Design superconducting quantum interference device magnetometer in the field of up to 20 kOe. A large magnetic entropy change Delta S-M, which is calculated from H versus M curves associated with the ferromagnetic-paramagnetic transitions, has been observed. The maximum Delta S-M for an applied field of 2.0 T is 2.49, 1.92, and 1.81 J/kg K for x= 0, 2, and 4, respectively. (c) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3072819]</P>

2. De Novo Synthesis of Amino Acids and Protein as Affected by S-deprivation and Sulfate Resupply in Brassica napus L.

Q. Zhang,B. R. Lee,S. H. Park,R. Zaman,T. H. Kim 한국초지조사료학회 2014 한국초지조사료학회 학술대회논문집 Vol.2014 No.10