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Wastewater containing organic dyes has become one of the important challenges in water treatment due to its high salt content and resistance to natural degradation. In this work, a novelty adsorbent, PEI-SMA, was prepared by grafting polyethyleneimine (PEI) onto styrene-maleic anhydride copolymer (SMA) through an amidation reaction. The various factors, such as pH, adsorbent dosage, contact time, dye concentration, and temperature, which may affect the adsorption of PEI-SMA for Reactive Black 5 (RB5), were systematically investigated by static adsorption experiments. The adsorption process of PEI-SMA for RB5 was more consistent with the Langmuir isotherm model and the pseudo-second-order model, suggesting a single-layer chemisorption. PEI-SMA exhibits excellent adsorption performance for RB5 dye, with a maximum adsorption capacity of 1749.19 mg g–1 at pH = 2. Additionally, PEI-SMA exhibited highly efficient RB5 competitive adsorption against coexisting Cl− and SO42− ions and cationic dyes. The adsorption mechanism was explored, and it can be explained as the synergistic effect of electrostatic interaction, hydrogen bonding and π–π interaction. This study demonstrates that PEI-SMA could act as a high performance and promising candidate for the effective adsorption of anionic dyes from aqueous solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, soluble dietary fibers (SDFs) were extracted from rape bee pollen using four methods including acid extraction (AC), alkali extraction (AL), cellulase extraction (CL) and complex enzyme extraction (CE). The effects of different extraction methods on the structure of SDFs and in vitro fermentation characteristics were further investigated. The results showed that the four extraction methods significantly affected the monosaccharide composition molar ratio, molecular weight, surface microstructure and phenolic compounds content, but showed little effect on the typical functional groups and crystal structure. In addition, all SDFs decreased the Firmicutes/Bacteroidota ratio, promoted the growth of beneficial bacteria such as Bacteroides, Parabacteroides and Phascolarctobacterium, inhibited the growth of pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia-Shigella, and increased the total short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) concentrations by 1.63–2.45 times, suggesting that the bee pollen SDFs had a positive regulation on gut microbiota. Notably, the SDF obtained by CE exhibited the largest molecular weight, a relatively loose structure, higher extraction yield and phenolic compounds content and the highest SCFA concentration. Overall, our results indicated that CE was an appropriate extraction method of high-quality bee pollen SDF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mitochondria have a crucial role in regulating energy metabolism and their dysfunction has been linked to tumorigenesis. Cancer diagnosis and intervention have a great interest in the development of new agents that target biomolecules within mitochondria. However, monitoring and modulating mitochondria RNA (mtRNA), an essential component in mitochondria, in cells is challenging due to limited functional research and the absence of targeting agents. In this study, we designed and synthesized a fluorescent quinolinium derivative, QUCO-1, which actively lit up with mtRNA in both normal and cancer cells in vitro. Additionally, we evaluated the function of QUCO-1 as an mtRNA ligand and found that it effectively induced severe mitochondrial dysfunction and OXPHOS inhibition in RKO colorectal cancer cells. Treatment with QUCO-1 resulted in apoptosis, cell cycle blockage at the G2/M phase, and the effective inhibition of cell proliferation. Our findings suggest that QUCO-1 has great potential as a promising probe and therapeutic agent for mtRNA, with the potential for treating colorectal cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetes mellitus (DM), a chronic metabolic disorder characterized by high blood glucose, not only poses a serious threat to human life and health, but also places an economic burden on society. Currently available antidiabetic pharmacological agents have some adverse effects, which have stimulated researchers to explore novel antidiabetic agents with different mechanisms of action. G-protein Coupled Receptor 120 (GPR120), also known as free fatty acid receptor 4 (FFAR4), which is activated by medium-chain and long-chain fatty acids, has emerged as an interesting potential target for the treatment of metabolic disorders. Herein, we designed and synthesized a series of novel GPR120 agonists based on the structure of TUG-891, which is susceptible to β-oxidation and loses its GPR120 agonistic activity in vivo. Among the designed compounds, 14d showed excellent agonistic activity and selectivity and could improve glucose tolerance in normal mice in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, the compound 14d displayed good antidiabetic effects in diet-induced obese (DIO) mice and elevated insulin levels. Molecular simulations illustrated that compound 14d could enter the active site of GPR120 and interact with ARG99, which plays an important role in GPR120 activation. Based on these observations, compound 14d may be a promising lead compound deserving of further biological evaluation and structural modifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]