(2004). Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids—Genotoxicity, Metabolism Enzymes, Metabolic Activation, and Mechanisms. Drug Metabolism Reviews: Vol. 36, No. 1, pp. 1-55. doi: 10.1081/DMR-120028426

Cellular fate of nanoparticles is vital to application of nanoparticles to cell imaging, bio-sensing, drug delivery, suppression of drug resistance, gene delivery, and cytotoxicity analysis. However, the current studies on cellular fate of nanoparticles have been controversial due to complications of interplay between many possible factors. By well-controlled experiments, we demonstrated unambiguously that the morphology of nanoparticles independently determined their cellular fate. We found that nanoparticles with sharp shapes, regardless of their surface chemistry, size, or composition, could pierce the membranes of endosomes that carried them into the cells and escape to the cytoplasm, which in turn significantly reduced the cellular excretion rate of the nanoparticles. Such features of sharp-shaped nanoparticles are essential for drug delivery, gene delivery, subcellular targeting, and long-term tracking. This work opens up a controllable, purely geometrical and hence safe, degree of freedom for manipulating nanoparticle-cell interaction, with numerous applications in medicine, bio-imaging, and bio-sensing.

Radix Scutellariaeis the dried root of the medicinal plantScutellariae baicalensisGeorgi. It exhibits a variety of therapeutic effects and has a long history of application in traditional formulations as well as in modern herbal medications. It has been confirmed that flavonoids are the most abundant constituents and induce these therapeutic effects. Six flavones are proven to be the major bioactive flavones inRadix Scutellariaeexisting in the forms of aglycones (baicalein, wogonin, oroxylin A) and glycosides (baicalin, wogonoside, oroxylin A‐7‐glucuronide). All six flavones are pharmacologically active and show great potential in the treatment of inflammation, cancers and virus‐related diseases. The current review covers the preparation of the herbRadix Scutellariae, quantification of its major bioactive ingredients, and pharmacological effects of the proposed six bioactive flavones. In addition, this review summarizes the pharmacokinetic profiles of the bioactive flavones reported so far that could be used for further improvement of their pharmacokinetic study. Moreover, due to abundant co‐occurring bioactive components inRadix Scutellariae, our review further documents the pharmacokinetic interactions among them. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.