The black chokeberry is rich in polyphenols, including flavonoids with anthocyanins, flavanols and f lavonols as the main components and a variety of phenolic acids represented by chlorogenic acid. Because of these polyphenols, black chokeberry has the effect of preventing and adjuvant therapy diseases. This study summarized the current research results on the types and contents of functional components in black chokeberry, and analyzed their digestion, absorption and metabolism in human body. On this basis, the disease control functions that have been proved effective in clinical research were reviewed and analyzed. These studies showed that black chokeberry have good prevention and adjuvant therapy effects on hyperlipidemia,hypertension, diabetes and inflammation. Because there are different functional components in black chokeberry, its prevention and treatment of the same disease can come from multiple pathways, which provides a more reliable effectiveness for the disease control of different populations.

Abundant polyphenols make chokeberry have beneficial antioxidant and antiproliferative activity. In order to explore the contribution of different polyphenols in chokeberry to these activities, this study was conducted to determine polyphenol composition from 7 chokeberry varieties produced in China. Totally, 11 kinds of main polyphenol monomers were identified and quantified by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS and UPLC-PDA. HepG2 cells were used to evaluate their cellular antioxidant and antiproliferative activities. Partial least squares method was utilized to analyze multivariate correlations between proportion of different composition and monomers in total polyphenols with these activities. The results showed that the highest proportion in chokeberry polyphenols was proanthocyanidins. In comparing the bioactivities of 7 varieties of chokeberry, 'Viking' and purple chokeberry had the strongest antioxidant activity, while 'Fukangyuan 1^#' had the strongest antiproliferative activity. In terms of the contribution sources of these bioactivities, the total antioxidant activity of chokeberry mainly depended on the contribution of free polyphenols. As the main source of cellular antioxidant activity, anthocyanins and neochlorogenic acid can provide more contribution. The antiproliferative activity mainly depended on the proportion of free polyphenols and proanthocyanidins in total polyphenols. The results may provide some new possibilities for the comprehensive utilization of polyphenols from chokeberry.

Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) causes oxidative stress, induces apoptosis, and leads to damage to the vascular endothelium is the starting point of atherosclerosis. Pterostilbene (Pte) has been reported to have antioxidant and anti-apoptotic effects under various pathological conditions. The purpose of this study was to explore whether Pte can inhibit the oxidative stress and apoptosis of vascular endothelium induced by homocysteine (Hcy) and to explain the possible mechanism by which it occurs. The results showed that 20 μmol/L Pte significantly reduced the accumulation of reactive oxygen species, malondialdehyde, and lipids in cells induced by Hcy and promoted the activities of superoxide dismutase and catalase. The Hoechst 33342/PI staining assay showed that Pte antagonized Hcy-induced apoptosis. Pte inhibited Hcy-induced Akt dephosphorylation, increased p53, and decreased the Bcl-2/Bax ratio and caspase-9/caspase-3 activation in a dose-dependent manner. LY294002 pretreatment partially reversed the protective effect of Pte by blocking the PI3K/Akt pathway. Moreover, Pte reduced lipid deposition in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). This study proposes that Pte can inhibit Hcy-induced oxidative stress and apoptosis of HUVECs, and the PI3K/Akt/p53 signaling pathway of apoptosis was revealed. These results suggest that Pte exhibits significant potential for dealing with HHcy-induced vascular endothelial injury, such as atherosclerosis.

HCC (Hepatocellular Carcinoma) is a critical health issue worldwide. Our previous animal experiment has confirmed that blueberry malvidin-3-galactoside (M3G) can regulate the progression of HCC. In this study, feces samples from the same batch of mice were collected to explore the regulatory mechanism of M3G on intestinal microbiota and microbial TCA cycle metabolism KEGG pathway in HCC mice based on 16S rRNA sequencing and metagenomics. Our results showed that blueberry M3G increased the microbial diversity and regulated the structure of intestinal microbiota in mice, such as increasing the abundance of Clostridia (butyric acid-producing bacteria), Oscillospira and Ruminococcus, and reducing the abundance of pathogenic Erysipelotrichi. Compared with the group of liver cancer and 5-fluorouracil, blueberry M3G significantly regulated microbial TCA cycle KEGG pathway via improving the expression of key proteins (porA, DLAT, aceE, PC and OGDH). Additionally, we found which the abundance of Muribaculum intestinale increased by blueberry M3G may be an important factor affecting the microbial TCA cycle KEGG pathway via the pearson correlation (R) analysis of protein and microbiota. Taken together, these results demonstrate that the blueberry M3G has the potential to be an intestinal microbiota regulator and an adjuvant to HCC therapy.

Malvidin-3-galactoside (Mv-3-gal) is the major anthocyanin monomer in blueberry anthocyanins. The compound is well-characterized by its anti-oncogenesis function in multiple organs including liver. In the current study, the mechanism driving the anti-hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) function of Mv-3-gal was further explored by focusing on apoptosis and metastases pathways. HCC cell line Huh-7 was firstly administrated with Mv-3-gal of different concentrations and the effect of Mv-3-gal on cell proliferation, apoptosis, colony formation ability, metastasis potential as well as the activity of Akt/PTEN and MAPK pathways was assessed. The results showed that Mv-3-gal inhibited the cell proliferation and colony formation ability, induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. Regarding the metastasis potential, Mv-3-gal suppressed the migration and invasion potential of Huh-7 cells by regulating MMPs expression. Taken together, the findings highlighted the anti-HCC potent of Mv-3-gal, which was associated with the inhibition of Akt/PTEN, MAPK and MMP pathways.