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Four new N-methyl-4-quinolones (1–4) and a new citrinin dimer derivative (10) with fourteen known compounds (5–9, 11–19) were isolated from the sponge-derived fungus Penicillium sp. SCSIO41303. Their structures and absolute configurations were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analysis, electronic circular dichroism (ECD) calculation, and X-ray single-crystal diffraction. Most of the isolated compounds were evaluated for their cytotoxic, antibacterial, anti-virus, and enzyme inhibitory activities against acetylcholinesterase (AChE), and pancreatic lipase (PL). Compounds 2 and 11 exhibited enzyme inhibition activity against PL with IC50 values of 24.6 and 7.2 μg/mL, respectively. Besides, compound 11 showed enzyme inhibition activity against AChE with IC50 value of 16.5 μg/mL. Compound 15 showed moderate inhibition activities with 52.2% at the concentration of 50 μg/mL against PL and antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus displaying diameter of about 10 mm.

Despite the known association between muscle mass/function and malnutrition-related mortality in upper gastrointestinal (UGI) cancer, no comprehensive study to determine the impact of muscle mass-dominant nutritional status on cancer prognosis has been conducted. The present study aimed to investigate the prognostic significance of integrated muscle mass and function in UGI cancer.Between July 2013 and March 2018, we enrolled 2546 cancer patients with risks of malnutrition (Nutrition Risk Screening 2002, ≥3 points) from a multicenter cohort study and split 527 patients with primary UGI cancer into an internal validation group. We prospectively performed instant nutritional assessment and recorded all general clinical characteristics of the participants, such as weight loss, body mass index, anthropometric measurements of muscle mass and function, dietary intake conditions, and disease burden and/or inflammation status based on the validated tools. Prognostic analyses were performed with post-assessment overall survival (OS).According to the entire set, UGI cancer was identified as the dominant risk factor for disease burden and inflammation criteria (hazard ratio (HR), 2.08, 95% confidence interval (Cl), 1.81-2.39, P 0.001). Integrated muscle mass/function analysis with validated cutoff values showed that hand grip strength/weight followed by triceps skinfold thickness and maximum calf circumference are the most potent predictors. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that reduced muscle mass/function (74.8%) and dietary intake (66.2%) independently affect OS of patients with UGI cancer. Significant associations were found between the reduced muscle mass/reduced dietary intake and the shortest OS (HR, 4.48; 95% Cl, 3.07-6.53; P 0.001). Appending subgroups of muscle mass/function and dietary intake to the pre-existing risk model increased the efficiency of the time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curve analysis for OS in UGI cancer, particularly within 2 years of instant nutritional assessment.Impaired muscle mass/function adversely affects the near-term prognosis in patients with UGI cancer. Along with a comprehensive evaluation of dietary intake conditions, the timely nutritional assessment might be useful for risk stratification of UGI cancers with potential for enteral and parenteral nutrition interventions.ChiCTR1800020329.

Adsorption is used extensively to deal with increasingly serious water pollution. In this paper, beta-cyclodextrin-graphene oxide aerogel microspheres (CD-GAM) with 3D porous structure was prepared by electrospraying combining with freeze-casting and sequently mild self-assembly. Owing to the integration of graphene oxide (GO) and beta-cyclodextrin (β-CD), the CD-GAMs exhibit excellent broad-spectrum adsorption capabilities for dyes and organic micropollutants, including anionic dyes of methylene blue (439 mg/g) and Rhodamine B (388 mg/g), cationic dyes of acid red 87 (234 mg/g) and methyl orange (167 mg/g), organic micropollutants aromatic model compound of carcinogen 2,4-dichlorophenol (17 mg/g), pharmaceuticals of propranolol hydrochloride (49 mg/g), contraceptive ethynyl estradiol (19 mg/g) and plastic components bisphenol A (38 mg/g). The adsorption capacity of CD-GAM for most pollutants reach equilibrium within 10 min. In addition, the CD-GAM maintained stable regenerative adsorption capacity more than 80 % in five cycles. The broad-spectrum adsorbent CD-GAM is an ideal choice for removing complex and diverse pollutants from wastewater.

Nickel nanowires (Ni NWs) have great potential to be used as a living cell manipulation tool and developed into an anticancer agent. However, their candidacy as biomedical appliances need detailed human cell studies, such as study of the interaction between Ni NWs and tumor cells. The present study investigated the cytotoxicity of Ni NWs in HeLa cells. A dose-dependent inhibition of cell growth was observed by using the MTT assay. We demonstrated that Ni NWs induced oxidative stress by generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Apoptosis induction was evidenced by flow cytometry, annexin V binding assay and DAPI staining. DNA flow cytometric analysis indicated that Ni NWs significantly increased the percentages of cells in S phase compared with control cells. This process was accompanied by the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential. These results revealed that Ni NWs induced apoptosis in HeLa cells via ROS generation and cell cycle arrest.

The toxicity of nanostructured materials and nanoparticles are very important considerations for many nanotechnology applications. Iron nanowires (NWs), as useful magnetic nanomaterials, may be good candidates for several biomedical applications. Here Fe NWs with an average diameter of about 50 nm were prepared by electrodeposition within the nanopores of anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) templates, and characterized by using scanning electron microcopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The cytotoxicity of the Fe NWs was studied at cell level. Specifically, the influence of concentration and size on the cytotoxicity of Fe NWs to HeLa cells was evaluated by MTT assay combined with direct morphology observations by TEM and phase contrast microscopy. The results clearly showed that the presence of Fe NWs had no significant effect on the cell proliferation and cell viability, even the HeLa cells exposed to Fe NWs at the high concentration of 10,000 per cell for 72 h still showed high cell viability of about 80%. From phase contrast microscopy, confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and TEM observations, it was found that Fe NWs were indeed internalized by HeLa cells. The cellular uptake process and results of Fe NWs demonstrated that as-prepared Fe NWs had not only a good biocompatibility but also a very low cytotoxicity.