Cervical cancer is a common gynecological malignancy with high incidence and mortality. Drugs commonly used in chemotherapy are often accompanied by strong side-effects. To find an anti-cervical cancer drug with high effects and low toxicity, luteoloside was used to treat the cervical cancer cell line Hela to investigate its effects on cell morphology, proliferation, apoptosis, and related proteins. The study demonstrated that luteoloside could inhibit proliferation remarkably; promote apoptosis and cytochrome C release; decrease the mitochondrial membrane potential and reactive oxygen species level; upregulate the expression of Fas, Bax, p53, phospho-p38, phospho-JNK, and cleaved PARP; downregulate the expression of Bcl-2 and phospho-mTOR; activate caspase-3 and caspase-8; change the nuclear morphology, and fragmentate DNA in Hela cells. These results strongly suggest that luteoloside can significantly inhibit the proliferation and trigger apoptosis in Hela cells. In contrast, luteoloside had less proliferation inhibiting effects on the normal cell lines HUVEC12 and LO2, and minor apoptosis promoting effects on HUVEC12 cells. Furthermore, the luteoloside-induced apoptosis in Hela cells is mediated by both intrinsic and extrinsic pathways and the effects of luteoloside may be regulated by the mitogen-activated protein kinases and mTOR signaling pathways via p53.

Chinese Cordyceps is a well-known medicinal larva-fungus symbiote distributed in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and adjacent areas. Previous studies have involved its artificial cultivation but commercial cultivation is difficult to perform because the crucial factors triggering the occurrence of Chinese Cordyceps are not quite clear. The occurrence of Chinese Cordyceps is greatly affected by the soil environment, including the soil’s physicochemical and microecological properties. In this study, the effects of these soil properties on the occurrence of Chinese Cordyceps were investigated. The results show that the physicochemical properties, including easily oxidizable organic carbon (EOC), soil organic carbon (SOC), humic acid carbon (HAC), humin carbon (HMC), and pH, might be negatively related to the occurrence of Chinese Cordyceps, and soil water content (SWC) might be positively related. Several soil physicochemical parameters (pH, SOC, HMC, HAC, available potassium (APO), available phosphorus (APH), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), and the ratio of NH₄⁺ to NO₃⁻ (NH₄⁺/NO₃⁻)) and microbial properties interact and mix together, which might affect the occurrence of Chinese Cordyceps. Soil microbial community structure was also a possible factor, and a low level of bacterial and fungal diversity was suitable for the occurrence of Chinese Cordyceps. The intra-kingdom network revealed that a closer correlation of the bacterial community might help the occurrence of Chinese Cordyceps, while a closer correlation of the fungal community might suppress it. The inter-kingdom network revealed that the occurrence rate of Chinese Cordyceps might be negatively correlated with the stability of the correlation state of the soil habitat. In conclusion, this study shows that soil physicochemical properties and microbial communities could be greatly related with the occurrence of Chinese Cordyceps. In addition, soil physicochemical properties, the level of bacterial and fungal diversity, and correlations of bacterial and fungal communities should be controlled to a certain level to increase the production of Chinese Cordyceps in artificial cultivation.