Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a chronic and progressive pulmonary interstitial disease of unknown etiology and is also a sequela in severe patients with the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Seven databases were systematically searched to evaluate the preclinical evidence of Tanshinone IIA (Tan IIA) on PF. The quality of the included studies was assessed using a 10-item risk of bias tool, and data were analyzed using RevMan 5.3 software. 22 experiments from 12 studies on a total of 248 animals were included. The results showed that PF phenotype, such as fibrotic score, collagen I (Col-I), collagen III (Col-III), hydroxyproline (Hyp), in the group treated with Tan IIA were significantly lower than those in the model group (p < 0.00001). The potential mechanisms of Tan IIA improvement of PF involve reducing inflammation, antioxidation, and suppressing activation of transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1). The subgroup analysis of different models, different rat species, and different dosage time showed significant reduction in fibrotic scores and Hyp levels with Tan IIA. The preclinical evidence indicated that Tan IIA might be a potent and promising agent for PF, but this conclusion should be further confirmed with more research.

Fusarium mycotoxins contaminated in maize are of serious threat to food security and safety. The main abiotic factors of mycotoxins-producing strains and circumstantial elements are crucial for mycotoxin production in the cereal matrix. In this current research work, Fusarium verticillioides and Fusarium graminearum are selected, which enable to produce the major mycotoxins in maize as common Fusarium isolates infecting maize. We first confirmed the constitution of mycotoxin profiles in 110 maize and derived feed samples collected from various provinces of China, through large-scale screening by the established high performance liquid chromatographymass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) approach. As indicated, the majority of mycotoxins was fumonisin, deoxynivalenol and zearalenone, frequently co-occurred with at least two kinds of mycotoxins. Interestingly, zearalenone-14-sulfate together with other masked forms of the target Fusarium mycotoxins were as co contaminants there. Moreover, the circumstantial effects from a set of temperature and water activity (aw) are thoroughly demonstrated for potential contamination in maize flour and kernels. As revealed, the highest group factors were 0.99 and 25 degrees C while the relatively lower group factors were of temperature <= 20 degrees C or aw <= 0.95. Finally, a response surface analysis was performed to display the interaction of temperature-water activity interaction, required for potential contamination of Fusarium mycotoxins in maize and derived products. The risk group factors predicted by response surface equation were similar to the experimental results. This also could be valuable clues for pre-warning of mycotoxins occurrence, thus as reference data for control of mycotoxins in foods.

Mycotoxins are toxic fungal metabolites, contaminating cereal grains in field or during processing and storage periods. These environmental contaminants pose great threats to humans and animals' health due to their toxic effects. Type A trichothecenes, fumonisins and fusaric acid (FA) are commonly detected mycotoxins produced by various Fusarium species. Trichoderma spp. are promising antagonists in agriculture for their activities against plant pathogens, and also regarded as potential candidates for bioremediation of environmental contaminants. Managing toxigenic fungi by antagonistic Trichoderma is regarded as a sustainable and eco-friendly strategy for mycotoxin control. However, the metabolic activities of Trichoderma on natural occurring mycotoxins were less investigated. Our current work comprehensively explored the activities of Trichoderma against type A trichothecenes, fumonisins and FA producing Fusarium species via co-culture competition and indirect volatile assays. Furthermore, we investigated metabolism of type A trichothecenes and FA in Trichoderma isolates. Results indicated that Trichoderma were capable of bio-transforming T-2 toxin, HT-2 toxin, diacetoxyscirpenol and neosolaniol into their glycosylated forms and one Trichoderma strain could bio transform FA into low toxic fusarinol. These findings proved that Trichoderma isolates could manage toxigenic Fusarium via direct competition and volatile-mediated indirect inhibition. In addition, these antagonists possess defensive systems against mycotoxins for self-protection, which enriches our understanding on the interaction mechanism of Trichoderma spp. on toxigenic fungus.

BACKGROUND:Ophiopogonis radix and Liriopes radix are well known for the treatment of dry coughs and phthisis. Liriopes radix is occasionally used as a substitute for Ophiopogonis radix in various prescriptions due to the extremely similar pharmacological activities and clinical efficacies, but they are regarded as two different remedies in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. Accordingly, the establishment of a reliable analytical approach for the discrimination and quality evaluation of Ophiopogonis and Liriopes is required.OBJECTIVE:To establish a simple, accurate, and reliable method that can simultaneously determine multiple components in Ophiopogonis radix and Liriopes radix. To comprehensively compare the chemical compositions of the two herbs and find markers for discrimination and quality assessments.METHOD:An HPLC-ESI-triple quadrupole (QQQ)-MS/MS method was developed for simultaneous characterization and quantification of chemical components in the two herbs. The results were further analyzed by PLS discriminant analysis to provide more information about the chemical differences, as well as to evaluate the quality of each sample.RESULTS:A total of 23 compounds have been characterized and quantified in 31 batches of herbs from different geographical regions, among which liriopesides B, sprengerinin A, ophiopogonin B, and ophiopogonanone E contribute mostly. The contents of homoisoflavonoids were much higher in Ophiopogonis radix than in Liriopes radix, but the levels of steroidal saponins followed a contrary trend.CONCLUSIONS:Simultaneous determination of multiple components by HPLC-QQQ-MS/MS coupled with chemometrics analysis is an acceptable strategy to evaluate and control the quality of Ophiopogonis radix and Liriope radix.HIGHLIGHTS:Simultaneous determination of 12 steroidal saponins and 11 homoisoflavonoids in both Ophiopogonis radix and Liriope radix by using HPLC-QQQ-MS/MS in positive ion mode, as well as the quality control study.

Mycotoxins are certainly recognized as secondary metabolites by the fungal pathogens after invasion into the host plants, which are toxic or harmful to plants, animals and human beings. To trace back to the origin of mycotoxin contamination, the fungal pathogens are surely the targets and also the source of mycotoxin synthesis there, except for the hosts. Actually the types of produced mycotoxin are basically and genetically determined by the pathogenic microbes. Due to the expertise or more familiar characteristics, this chapter will cover more about Fusarium and Alternaria species, trying to elucidate their contribution to the network of mycotoxin biosynthesis. This would be very helpful to unveil molecular regulation mechanisms from the origins and control of mycotoxin contaminants from the basic components.

Selenium nanoparticles (SNP) were generally utilized as chemotherapeutic agents and environmental ameliorants, but without simultaneous biocontrol functionalities against fungal pathogens and mycotoxins, plus unknown recognition mechanism. Selenium nanoparticles derived from Trichoderma harzianum JF309 (TSNP) were herein synthesized, contrast to traditional SNP, where diverse metabolites co-occurred in TSNP including organic acids and their derivates, such as psoromic acid, β-decyloxybenzoic acid, glucaric acid lactone, etc., revealed by Triple TOF UPLC/HRMS. As hypothesized, this interaction of diverse recognition metabolites and selenium nanoparticles in TSNP might change the arrangement and movement of original state, form random, nondirective to regulated, directional, thus contributing to better antifungal effects and dramatically increasing control functionalities against Alternaria toxins (83% of TeA and 79% of AOH reduction), fumonisin B1 (63% of FB1 reduction) and deoxynivalenol (76% of DON reduction), respectively. Meanwhile, expression of key biosynthetic genes of FUM1, PA, TRI5 and TRI6 were substantially decreased. Finally, as convinced, the obtained nanoparticles had no significant side effects to the selected three human cells. In total, the achieved data supports the biogenic nanoparticles as valuable functional materials with great potential for practical plant protection and food safety prevention.