The protein coded by the open-reading-frame 3a of SARS coronavirus has been demonstrated to form a cation-selective channel that may become expressed in the infected cell. The activity of the channel is involved in the mechanism of virus release. Drugs that inhibit the ion channel can, therefore, inhibit virus release, and they could be a source for development of novel therapeutic antiviral agents. Various drugs found in Chinese herbs that are well known as anticancer agents also have an antiviral potency. Here we tested the flavonols kaempferol, kaempferol glycosides, and acylated kaempferol glucoside derivatives with respect to their potency to block the 3a channel. We used the Xenopus oocyte with a heterologously expressed 3a protein as a model system to test the efficacy of the flavonols. Some of these drugs turned out to be potent inhibitors of the 3a channel. The most effective one was the glycoside juglanin (carrying an arabinose residue) with an IC50 value of 2.3 µM for inhibition of the 3a-mediated current. Kaempferol derivatives with rhamnose residue also seem to be quite effective. We suggest that viral ion channels, in general, may be a good target for the development of antiviral agents, and that, in particular, kaempferol glycosides are good candidates for 3a channel proteins of coronaviruses.

A long standing problem of Gian-Carlo Rota for associative algebras is the classification of all linear operators that can be defined on them. In the 1970s, there were only a few known operators, for example, the derivative operator, the difference operator, the average operator, and the Rota-Baxter operator. A few more appeared after Rota posed his problem. However, little progress was made to solve this problem in general. In part, this is because the precise meaning of the problem is not so well understood. In this paper, we propose a formulation of the problem using the framework of operated algebras and viewing an associative algebra with a linear operator as one that satisfies a certain operated polynomial identity. This framework also allows us to apply theories of rewriting systems and Gröbner-Shirshov bases. To narrow our focus more on the operators that Rota was interested in, we further consider two particular classes of operators, namely, those that generalize differential or Rota-Baxter operators. As it turns out, these two classes of operators correspond to those that possess Gröbner-Shirshov bases under two different monomial orderings. Working in this framework, and with the aid of computer algebra, we are able to come up with a list of these two classes of operators, and provide some evidence that these lists may be complete. Our search has revealed quite a few new operators of these types whose properties are expected to be similar to the differential operator and Rota-Baxter operator respectively.Recently, a more unified approach has emerged in related areas, such as difference algebra and differential algebra, and Rota-Baxter algebra and Nijenhuis algebra. The similarities in these theories can be more efficiently explored by advances on Rota's problem. (Ronghua Zhang). 1 The following is quoted from Rota's paper. "In a series of papers, I have tried to show that other linear operators satisfying algebraic identities may be of equal importance in studying certain algebraic phenomena, and I have posed the problem of finding all possible algebraic identities that can be satisfied by a linear operator on an algebra. Simple computations show that the possibility are very few, and the problem of classifying all such identities is very probably completely solvable. A notable step forward has been made in the unpublished (and unsubmitted) Harvard thesis of Alexander Doohovskoy." He also remarked that a partial (but fairly complete) list of such identities are Eq. (1)-(6).

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Along with the development of marine biological pharmaceutical research, high-effective and low-toxic drugs and functional foods isolated from marine organisms have become a new field of pharmacy and bromatology. The pharmacological actions, such as anti-inflammation, antioxidation, antitumor, immunological enhancement, and hepatorenal protection of C-phycocyanin (C-PC) from Spirulina platensis, have been reported, and C-PC has important value of development and utilization either as drug or as functional food. There are many researches about the various pharmacological actions and mechanisms of C-PC, but related reports are only to some extent integrated deeply and accurately enough, which put some limitations to the further application of C-PC in medicine. Particularly, with the improvement of living standards and attention to health issues, C-PC being a functional food is preferred by more and more people. C-PC is easy to get, safe, and nontoxic; thus, it has a great potential of research and development as a drug or functional food. Here, the separation and purification, physicochemical properties, physiological and pharmacological activities, safety, and some applications are reviewed to provide relevant basis for the development of natural medicine and applied products.