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For a detailed examination of the interaction of rhamnose containing derivatives with recombinant horseshoe crab plasma lectin (rHPL), two di-rhamno-di-lipids (an α-1,2- and an α-1,3-linked) were synthesized via a new simple method. The N-iodosuccinimide/triflic acid mediated glycosylation of the methyl (R)-3-hydroxydecanoate with phenyl-1-thio-rhamnobioside donors afforded the mono-lipid disaccharides. Removal of the methyl ester group followed by esterification of the mono-lipids with a second (R)-3-hydroxydecanoate unit resulted in fully protected di-lipid derivatives, transformation of which into the target compounds was accomplished in two steps. This method allows the synthesis of both regioisomers in only 6 steps starting from the corresponding free disaccharides. Both synthetic di-rhamnolipids were biologically active for lectin binding differential binding preference between two isomeric di-rhamno-di-lipids. The rHPL lectin favours the α-1,3-linked di-rhamno-di-lipids over its α-1,2-linked regioisomer., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Cosmeceutical peptides have become an important topic in recent decades in both academic and industrial fields. Many natural or synthetic peptides with different biological functions including anti-ageing, anti-oxidation, anti-infection and anti-pigmentation have been developed and commercialized. Current cosmeceutical peptides have already satisfied most market demand, remaining: "cargos carrying skin penetrating peptide with high safety" still an un-met need. To this aim, a cell-penetrating peptide, CPP AIF , which efficiently transported cargos into epithelial cells was exanimated. CPP AIF was evaluated with cell model and 3D skin model following OECD guidelines without using animal models. As a highly stable peptide, CPP AIF neither irritated nor sensitized skin, also did not disrupt skin barrier. In addition, such high safety peptide had anti-inflammation activity without allergic effect. Moreover, cargo carrying activity of CPP AIF was assayed using HaCaT cell model and rapid CPP AIF penetration was observed within 30 min. Finally, CPP AIF possessed transepidermal activity in water in oil formulation without disruption of skin barrier. All evidences indicated that CPP AIF was an ideal choice for skin penetrating and its anti-inflammatory activity could improve skin condition, which made CPP AIF suitable and attractive for novel cosmeceutical product development., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

More than 80% of infectious bacteria form biofilm, which is a bacterial cell community surrounded by secreted polysaccharides, proteins and glycolipids. Such bacterial superstructure increases resistance to antimicrobials and host defenses. Thus, to control these biofilm-forming pathogenic bacteria requires antimicrobial agents with novel mechanisms or properties. Pseudomonas aeruginosa , a Gram-negative opportunistic nosocomial pathogen, is a model strain to study biofilm development and correlation between biofilm formation and infection. In this study, a recombinant hemolymph plasma lectin (rHPL OE ) cloned from Taiwanese Tachypleus tridentatus was expressed in an Escherichia coli system. This rHPL OE was shown to have the following properties: (1) Binding to P. aeruginosa PA14 biofilm through a unique molecular interaction with rhamnose-containing moieties on bacteria, leading to reduction of extracellular di-rhamnolipid (a biofilm regulator); (2) decreasing downstream quorum sensing factors, and inhibiting biofilm formation; (3) dispersing the mature biofilm of P. aeruginosa PA14 to improve the efficacies of antibiotics; (4) reducing P. aeruginosa PA14 cytotoxicity to human lung epithelial cells in vitro and (5) inhibiting P. aeruginosa PA14 infection of zebrafish embryos in vivo. Taken together, rHPL OE serves as an anti-biofilm agent with a novel mechanism of recognizing rhamnose moieties in lipopolysaccharides, di-rhamnolipid and structural polysaccharides (Psl) in biofilms. Thus rHPL OE links glycan-recognition to novel anti-biofilm strategies against pathogenic bacteria.

Objective: Pericallosal artery aneurysms are not common clinically. The microsurgery and endovascular therapy are surgically challenging operations. The objective of the study is to summarize their clinical symptoms and optimal treatment strategies of pericallosal artery aneurysms., Methods: Nine cases of pericallosal artery aneurysms detected by digital subtraction angiography (DSA) were reviewed. The clinical manifestation, brain imaging characteristics, and optimal treatment methods were summarized., Results: Patients with spontaneous aneurysm had good clinical outcomes after endovascular coiling or microsurgical clipping treatment. There were no any neurological function deficits in five patients. One patient suffered from permanent neurological function deficits. Patients with traumatic aneurysm pericallosal had relatively poor outcomes, including two patients showing disturbed consciousness and the paralysis of the lower limbs with slow recovery, and one patient was dead after the surgery., Conclusion: Spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage and interhemispheric fissure hematoma suggest spontaneously pericallosal aneurysm, while traumatic corpus callosum hematoma as well the accompanying embryo of intraventricular hemorrhage suggest traumatic pericallosal aneurysm. Endovascular embolization is the primary surgical treatment for pericallosal aneurysm, while patients with pericallosal aneurysm are not suitable for surgical treatment. Microsurgical clipping treatment may be a choice. However, both of these treatment strategies have high risk., (Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Urban & Partner Sp. z o.o.)

(R)-Phenylephrine [(R)-PE] is an α1-adrenergic receptor agonist and is widely used as a nasal decongestant to treat the common cold without the side effects of other ephedrine adrenergic drugs. We identified a short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase (SM_SDR) from Serratia marcescens BCRC 10948 that was able to convert 1-(3-hydroxyphenyl)-2-(methylamino) ethanone (HPMAE) into (R)-PE. The SM_SDR used NADPH and NADH as cofactors with specific activities of 17.35±0.71 and 5.57±0.07mU/mg protein, respectively, at 30°C and pH 7.0, thereby indicating that this enzyme could be categorized as an NADPH-preferring short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase. Escherichia coli strain BL21 (DE3) expressing SM_SDR could convert HPMAE into (R)-PE with more than 99% enantiomeric excess. The productivity and conversion yield were 0.57mmolPE/lh and 51.06%, respectively, using 10mM HPMAE. Fructose was the most effective carbon source for the conversion of HPMAE to (R)-PE., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In the present paper, soluble Ca content in banana pulp was analyzed with pretreatment of digestion model in vitro. All the samples were digested by strong acid (perchloric acid and nitric acid with 1 : 4 ratio) and determined by AA700 flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry (FAAS). Meanwhile, the reproducibility of the analytical method was investigated. The results showed that (1) Content of Ca was 1.479 mg x g(-1) x DW in eighty percent maturity banana pulp. And the relative standard deviation was 4.12%. (2) Contents of Ca in the soluble and insoluble fractions were 1.108 and 0.412 mg x g(-1) x DW, respectively in eighty percent maturity banana pulp with pretreatment of digestion model in vitro. The extraction rate was 74.9% and the residue rate was 27.8%. (3) The relative standard deviations of the analytical results of Ca contents in those two fractions were 2.56% and 9.10%, respectively, in the reproducibility tests. It was showed that the digestion model in vitro did not affect the reproduction quality significantly. Moreover, the deviation between the theoretical value and the summation value of the extraction and the residue rates was only 2.7%, which showed good availability of the digestion model in vitro to be used as a pretreatment method in mineral element analysis process. (4) Relative standard deviation and recovery yield in the determination procedure were 0.11% (n = 9) and 99.2%, respectively.

The clastogenic effects of imipramine on chromosomes have been investigated in leukocyte cultures from seven healthy blood donors (2 mlae and 5 female), repeat cultures being initiated at intervals of 6 to 12 weeks. At various times prior to harvesting nine different doses of imipramine were added in vitro, the three lowest concentrations being within the range of plasma levels reported in psychiatric patients reveiving the drug therapeutically. In addition, streptonigrin was used as a positive control. No increase in chromosome breaks was found at any concentration for any duration of exposure even in those cultures where high concentration and/or long duration of exposure significantly suppressed cell growth. Only cultures to which streptonigrin had been added showed a significant increase in chromosome breaks.

Chromosomes of peripheral leukocytes were examined in 28 addicts participating in a Veterans Administration-Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention (SAODAP) cooperative study of methadyl acetate vs methadone. Blood samples for 72-hour leukocyte cultures were drawn after nearly 40 weeks of maintenance therapy while subjects were receiving active medication. For comparison, ten nondrug users were also studied. The frequency of chromosome damage was not greater in subjects maintained on methadyl acetate or methadone than in nondrug users.

The philothermal response, i.e., the tendency of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) to migrate along a temperature gradient toward warmer temperatures, was evaluated in 11 patients with a clinical diagnosis of dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) and compared to 11 age and sex-matched mentally normal individuals. While the total number of migrating PMNs did not differ significantly between these two groups, there was a significant difference in the spatial distribution of the responding cell population. The numerical parameter, R, has been introduced to provide a quantitative measure of the distribution of populations characterized by differences in motile behavior. This R value was unusually high for 10 of the DAT patients but only one of the comparison individuals. No relation between R and duration of illness, age, or sex was detected. These preliminary findings, based on a small number of clinically diagnosed DAT patients, suggest that the philothermal response may represent a biological marker with diagnostic usefulness for at least one subgroup of DAT patients.

The cytogenetic effects of subacute oral administration of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, cannabidiol, cannabinol, and placebo were assessed in 27 subjects in a prospective double-blind study. Both conventional chromosome aberration analysis and sister chromatid exchange were considered. A comparison group of 5 nondrug users was also investigated. The aneuploidy frequency decreased significantly following delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol administration. By contrast, the frequencies of chromosome aberrations increased slightly for all three drug groups and decreased in the placebo and comparison groups although none of the predrug versus postdrug comparisons were statistically significant. No increase in the sister chromatid exchange frequency was found in any of the groups when predrug versus postdrug comparisons were made. The present study is the fourth short term prospective investigation failing to demonstrate a statistically significant increase in chromosome damage due to cannabinoid usage. However, it must be kept in mind that to date only gross chromosomal aberrations have been identified so that the more subtle chromosomal as well as molecular genetic damage has not been ruled out.

The role of microtubules in the philothermal response of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) was examined using colchicine, a known microtubule disrupting agent. Colchicine inhibited PMN migration in a dose dependent fashion. Spatial distribution analysis of the responding cell population revealed a preferential inhibition of distal cell migration, a pattern similar to that found for PMNs obtained from patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT). The result is consistent with the known role of microtubules in directed cell migration and the hypothesized microtubular defect in DAT. Further investigations of microtubules may provide insight into the etiology and pathogenesis of DAT.

The effects of imipramine hydrochloride on cell proliferation were investigated in leukocyte cultures derived from normal volunteers. Nine different doses of imipramine were added in vitro at random for 4, 24, 48, and 68 hours, the three lowest concentrations being within the range of plasma levels reported in psychiatric patients receiving the drug therapeutically. Cell proliferations, as measured by mitotic index, was affected by both the concentration and the duration of drug exposure; the higher the dose and/or the longer the drug in culture, the lower the mitotic index. Imipramine concentrations corresponding to therapeutic plasma levels had no effect on mitotic index regardless of the length of exposure.

Sister chromatid exchange (SCE) analysis was carried out on ten patients with the clinical diagnosis of dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) and 11 cognitively-intact controls of a comparable age. There was no significant difference between patient and control groups in either the mean baseline SCE frequency or the SCE frequency following in vitro exposure to mitomycin-C. The present results, based on the largest sample (n = 21) published to date, fail to confirm the single positive report in the literature of an increased baseline SCE frequency in DAT patients compared to controls.

This first longitudinal study on aged subjects confirms previous cross-sectional observations of increasing aneuploidy with advancing age in women but not in men. In this study of 17 aged twins (mean age 89.7 years), 11 women and 6 men, spanning an interval of approximately 6 years between examinations, only women showed a significant increase in hypodiploidy (also hyperdiploidy and monosomy C). This increase in hypodiploidy was not due to a high frequency of chromosome loss in a few subjects but rather was exhibited by most of the subjects. While men showed a loss in G-group chromosomes during this 6-year interval, that loss was not statistically significant. These findings confirm for the first time by means of longitudinal follow-up that women and not men, even in the ninth decade of life, show a significant increase in hypodiploidy.

Sequential chromosome examinations of peripheral lymphocte cultures were carried out on 21 adult male volunteers who smoked natural blend marijuana cigarettes containing about 1%, 2%, or no delta9-THC. For a limited number of subjects, blood samples from a single venipuncture were cultured independently in two cytogenetic laboratories, and later the slides were exchaged for re-analysis. There were significant differences between laboratories in the absolute break frequencies recorded. These inter-laboratory differences were demonstrated for both techniques of cell culture and metaphase analysis. Neither laboratory found a statistically significant increase in break frequencies asssociated with marijuana smoking. The present study, therefore, failed to detect a measurable effect of marijuana smoking on chromosomal aberrations in subjects experienced in the use of the drug.

A newly developed technique for quantitating the locomotion of polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN) populations in temperature gradients has revealed that PMNs accumulate toward higher temperatures. The experiments yield measurements of the numbers of cells that adhere to glass and migrate from a cell suspension through a liquid/gel meniscus into a glass/agarose interface, and of their spatial distribution at subsequent time intervals. Cell locomotion was investigated as a function of the magnitude, sign, and temporal variation of the temperature gradient, the cell concentration in the source suspension, and the presence or absence of chemoattractant gradients. It was found (1) that a temperature gradient stimulates crossing of the meniscus toward higher temperatures, (2) that only a portion of the cells reverses direction of locomotion in response to reversal of the temperature gradient after the cells have traversed the meniscus, and (3) that the distribution of cells in the migration space depends on cell concentration, suggesting that the dynamics of PMN locomotion depend on cell-cell interactions.