Search

With the growing demand for new energy sources, electrochemical water splitting for hydrogen production is a technology that must be vigorously promoted. Therefore, to improve the efficiency of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at the anode, high-performance OER catalysts are essential. Given their advantages in electrocatalysis, nanoporous materials have garnered considerable attention in previous studies for OER applications. This review provides a comprehensive overview of various strategies to optimize active site utilization in nanoporous materials. These strategies include regulating pore size and porosity, constructing hierarchical nanoporous structures, and enhancing material conductivity. Additionally, it covers approaches to boost the intrinsic OER activity of nanoporous materials, such as tuning the composition of anions and cations, creating vacancies, constructing interfaces, and forming boundary active sites. While nanoporous materials offer significant potential for advancing OER, challenges remain, including difficulties in quantifying activity within nanopores, the unclear impact of nanoporous material morphology, challenges in accessing nanopore interiors with in situ techniques, and a lack of theoretical calculations on pore structure. However, these challenges also present opportunities, and we hope this review provides a fresh perspective to inspire future research.

The allelopathic autotoxicity of ginsenosides is an important cause of continuous cropping obstacles in ginseng planting. There is no report on the potential molecular mechanism of the correlation between polarity of ginsenoside components and their allelopathic autotoxicity. This study applied a combination of metabolomics and transcriptomics analysis techniques, combined with apparent morphology, physiological indexes, and cell vitality detection of the ginseng hairy roots, through which the molecular mechanism of correlation between polarity and allelopathic autotoxicity of ginsenosides were comprehensively studied. The hairy roots of ginseng presented more severe cell apoptosis under the stress of low-polarity ginsenoside components (ZG70). ZG70 exerted allelopathic autotoxicity by regulating the key enzyme genes of cis-zeatin (cZ) synthesis pathway, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) synthesis pathway, and jasmonates (JAs) signaling transduction pathway. The common pathway for high-polarity ginsenoside components (ZG50) and ZG70 to induce the development of allelopathic autotoxicity was through the expression of key enzymes in the gibberellin (GA) signal transduction pathway, thereby inhibiting the growth of ginseng hairy roots. cZ, indole-3-acetamid (IAM), gibberellin A1 (GA1), and jasmonoyl-L-isoleucine (JA-ILE) were the key response factors in this process. It could be concluded that the polarity of ginsenoside components were negatively correlated with their allelopathic autotoxicity.

The development of non-enzymatic and highly active electrocatalysts for glucose oxidation with excellent durability for blood glucose sensors has aroused widespread concern. In this work, we report a fast, simple, and low-cost NaBH4 reduction method for preparing ultrafine ternary PtPdCu alloy nanowires (NWs) with a 3D network nanostructure. The PtPdCu NWs catalyst presents significant efficiency for glucose oxidation-reduction (GOR), reaching an oxidative peak-specific activity of 0.69 mA/cm2, 2.6 times that of the Pt/C catalyst (0.27 mA/cm2). Further reaction mechanism investigations show that the NWs have better conductivity and smaller electron transfer resistance. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the alloying effect of PtPdCu could effectively enhance the adsorption energy of glucose and reduce the activation energy of GOR. The obtained NWs also show excellent stability over 3600 s through a chronoamperometry test. These self-supported ultrafine PtPdCu NWs with 3D networks provide a new functional material for building blood glucose sensors and direct glucose fuel cells.

In this work, novel selective recognition materials, namely magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (MMIPs), were prepared. The recognition materials were used as pretreatment materials for magnetic molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction (MSPE) to achieve the efficient adsorption, selective recognition, and rapid magnetic separation of methotrexate (MTX) in the patients’ plasma. This method was combined with high-performance liquid chromatography–ultraviolet detection (HPLC–UV) to achieve accurate and rapid detection of the plasma MTX concentration, providing a new method for the clinical detection and monitoring of the MTX concentration. The MMIPs for the selective adsorption of MTX were prepared by the sol–gel method. The materials were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform-infrared spectrometry, X-ray diffractometry, and X-ray photoelectron spectrometry. The MTX adsorption properties of the MMIPs were evaluated using static, dynamic, and selective adsorption experiments. On this basis, the extraction conditions were optimized systematically. The adsorption capacity of MMIPs for MTX was 39.56 mgg−1, the imprinting factor was 9.40, and the adsorption equilibrium time was 60 min. The optimal extraction conditions were as follows: the amount of MMIP was 100 mg, the loading time was 120 min, the leachate was 8:2 (v/v) water–methanol, the eluent was 4:1 (v/v) methanol–acetic acid, and the elution time was 60 min. MTX was linear in the range of 0.00005–0.25 mg mL−1, and the detection limit was 12.51 ng mL−1. The accuracy of the MSPE–HPLC–UV method for MTX detection was excellent, and the result was consistent with that of a drug concentration analyzer.

Chlorin e6-C15-monomethyl ester (CMME) is a novel photosensitizer, which is synthetized from the degradation products of silkworm excrement. Preclinical studies on the promising photosensitizer CMME are necessary to determine its therapeutic efficacy and druglikeness. A high-performance liquid chromatography with UV detection (HPLC–UV) method was established for the determination of CMME in beagle dog plasma. The sample preparation involved a protein-precipitation method with acetonitrile after the addition of tanshinone IIA as an internal standard (IS). CMME and the IS were separated on a Diamonsil C18 (2) column (100 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) with a isocratic system of methanol–water containing 20 mM ammonium acetate with 0.3% glacial acetic acid (85:15, v/v). The flow rate was 1.0 mL/min with UV detection using a wavelength of 400 nm. The method was sensitive enough with a lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ) of 0.05 μg/mL and had a good linearity (r2 > 0.999) over the linear range of 0.05–5.00 μg/mL. The intra-day and inter-day accuracies ranged from 98.5% to 102.8% and precisions (RSD) were within 6.8%. The validated method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study of CMME after intravenous administration of single and multiple doses in beagle dogs.

Isodon rubescens has been used as a traditional green tea for more than 1000 years and many medicinal functions of I. rubescens are also very useful, such as its well-known antitumor and antibacterial activities. Oridonin, a bioactive ent-kaurane diterpenoid, is the major ingredient of this medicinal tea. Herein, 22 novel oridonin derivatives were designed and synthesized. The antibacterial activity was evaluated for the first time. Compound 12 was the most promising one with MIC of 2.0 μg/mL against B. subtilis, which was nearly 3-fold stronger than positive control chloromycetin. The antiproliferative property was also assayed and compound 19 showed stronger activity than taxol. The apoptosis-inducing ability, cell cycle arrest effect at S phase and influence of mitochondrial membrane potential by 19 in CaEs-17 cancer cells were first disclosed. Based on the above results, the cell apoptosis induced by compound 19 in CaEs-17 cells was most probably involved in the intrinsic apoptotic pathway.

A rapid and sensitive capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) method with field enhanced sample injection (FESI) was developed and validated for the determination of quetiapine fumarate in beagle dog plasma, with a sample pretreatment by LLE in 96-well deep format plate. The optimum separation was carried out in an uncoated 31.2 cm × 75 μm fused-silica capillary with an applied voltage of 13 kV. The electrophoretic analysis was performed by 50 mM phosphate at pH 2.5. The detection wavelength was 210 nm. Under these optimized conditions, FESI with acetonitrile enhanced the sensitivity of quetiapine about 40–50 folds in total. The method was suitably validated with respect to stability, specificity, linearity, lower limit of quantitation, accuracy, precision and extraction recovery. Using mirtazapine as an internal standard (100 ng/mL), the response of quetiapine was linear over the range of 1–1000 ng/mL. The lower limit of quantification was 1 ng/mL. The intra- and inter-day precisions for the assay were within 4.8% and 12.7%, respectively. The method represents the first application of FESI-CZE to the analysis of quetiapine fumarate in beagle dog plasma after oral administration.

A simple and sensitive cyclodextrin-micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (CD-MEKC) method with UV detection was developed and validated for the determination of vancomycin (VCM) in serum. The separation was achieved in 14 min at 25 °C with a fused-silica capillary column of 40.2 cm × 75 μm i.d. (effective length 30.2 cm) and a run buffer containing 25 mM borate buffer with 50 mM sodium dodecylsulfonate (SDS) (pH 9.5) and 2% sulfobutyl-β-cyclodextrin (sulfobutyl-β-CD). Under optimal conditions for biological samples, good separations with high efficiency and short analysis time were achieved. Several parameters affecting the drug separation from biological matrices were studied, including buffer types, concentrations, and pHs. The methods were validated over the range of 0.9998-99.98 μg/mL. Calibration curves of VCM also showed good linearity (r2 > 0.999). Intra- and interday precisions (relative standard deviation, RSD) were less than 5.80% and 7.38%, and lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) were lower than 1.0 μg/mL. The mean recoveries ranged between 84.03% and 91.69%. The method was successfully applied for monitoring VCM concentrations in serum of patients with peritoneal dialysis-associated peritonitis (PDAP). The assay should be applicable to pharmacokinetic studies and routine therapeutic drug monitoring of this drug in serum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]