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The interaction between Lymphocyte function-associated antigen 1 (LFA-1) and intercellular-adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) plays important roles in the cell-mediated immune response and inflammation associated with dry eye disease. LFA-1/ICAM-1 antagonists can be used for the treatment of dry eye disease, such as Lifitegrast which has been approved by the FDA in 2016 as a new drug for the treatment of dry eye disease. In this study, we designed and synthesized some new structure compounds that are analogues to Lifitegrast, and their biological activities were evaluated by in vitro cell-based assay and also by in vivo mouse dry eye model. Our results demonstrated that one of these analogues of Lifitegrast (compound 1b) showed good LFA-1/ICAM-1 antagonist activity in in vitro assay; meanwhile, it also significantly reduced ocular surface epithelial cells damage, increased goblet cell density in dry eye mouse and highly improved the symptoms of dry eye mouse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exploration of unconventional and/or new energy resources has become the focus of energy research worldwide, given the shortage of fossil fuels. As a potential energy resource, gas hydrate exists only in the environment of high pressure and low temperature, mainly distributing in the sediments of the seafloor in the continental margins and the permafrost zones in land. The accurate determination of the thickness of gas hydrate stability zone is essential yet challenging in the assessment of the exploitation potential. The majority of previous studies obtain this thickness by detecting the bottom simulating reflectors (BSRs) layer on the seismic profiles. The phase equilibrium between gas hydrate stable state with its temperature and pressure provides an opportunity to derive the thickness with the geothermal method. Based on the latest geothermal dataset, we calculated the thickness of the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ) in the north continental margin of the South China Sea. Our results indicate that the thicknesses of gas hydrate stability zone vary greatly in different areas of the northern margin of the South China Sea. The thickness mainly concentrates on 200-300 m and distributes in the southwestern and eastern areas with belt-like shape. We further confirmed a certain relationship between the GHSZ thickness and factors such as heat flow and water depth. The thickness of gas hydrate stability zone is found to be large where the heat flow is relatively low. The GHSZ thickness increases with the increase of the water depth, but it tends to stay steady when the water depth deeper than 3 000 m. The findings would improve the assessment of gas hydrate resource potential in the South China Sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing attention has been paid to pyrite due to its ability to generate hydroxyl radicals in air-saturated solutions. In this study, the mineral pyrite was studied as a catalyst to activate molecular oxygen to degrade Acid Orange 7 (AO7) in aqueous solution. A complete set of control experiments were conducted to optimize the reaction conditions, including the dosage of pyrite, the AO7 concentration, as well as the initial pH value. The role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by pyrite in the process was elucidated by free radical quenching reactions. Furthermore, the concentrations of Fe(II) and total Fe formed were also measured. The mechanism for the production of ROS in the pyrite/HO/O system was that HO was formed by hydrogen ion and superoxide anion (O) which was produced by the reaction of pyrite activating O and then reacted with Fe(II) dissolved from pyrite to produce OH through Fenton reaction. The findings suggest that pyrite/HO/O system is potentially practical in pollution treatment. Moreover, the results provide a new insight into the understanding of the mechanism for degradation of organic pollutants by pyrite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]