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BACKGROUND The discovery of antineutrophil cytoplasm antibody (ANCA) makes the early diagnosis of primary vasculitis possible, and also has important guiding significance for the diagnosis and treatment of secondary vasculitis. This study aimed to investigate the clinical significance of ANCA. MATERIAL AND METHODS ANCA was detected by indirect immunofluorescence assay (IIF), and anti-myeloperoxidase (MPO) antibody, and anti-proteinase 3 (PR3) antibody were detected by ELISA. The results were analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS Among 118 730 patients, a total of 5853 (4.93%) were positive for ANCA. In the positive cases, 3.98% were male and 6.33% were female, with significant differences (χ²=123.38, P

BACKGROUND Recent clinical studies have linked polymorphisms in the xeroderma pigmentosum group D (XPD) gene, a key repair gene involved in nucleotide excision repair, to increased risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the cellular effects of XPD expression in cultured HCC cells remain largely uncharacterized. Therefore, the aim of this study was to characterize the in vitro cellular effects of XPD expression on the HCC cell line HepG2. MATERIAL AND METHODS HepG2 cells were transfected as follows to create four experimental groups: pEGFP-N2/XPD plasmid (XPD) group, EGFP-N2 plasmid (N2) control group, lipofectamine™ 2000 (lipid) control group, and non-transfected (CON) control group. An MTT cell proliferation assay, Annexin V-APC apoptosis assay, colony formation assay, scratch wound migration assay, Transwell migration assay, and Western blotting of the autophagic proteins LC3 and p62 were conducted. RESULTS XPD expression significantly inhibited HepG2 cell proliferation (p

Trehalose synthase (TreS) from Meiothermus ruber was co-aggregated with polyethyleneimine (PEI) and precipitated with polyethylene glycol (PEG), followed by cross-linking with glutaraldehyde to obtain TreS-polyethyleneimine cross-linked enzyme aggregates (termed as CLEAs-PEI-PEG). The TreS solution at 0.5 mg mL(-1) protein concentration, with PEI at a mass ratio of 1:0.8 (enzyme/PEI, w/w) and 25 % (w/v) PEG concentration were found to be most adequate for the co-aggregation of TreS. CLEAs-PEI-PEG was most active with glutaraldehyde at a mass ratio of 1:0.5 (enzyme/glutaraldehyde, w/w) to cross-link the co-aggregates. The CLEAs-PEI-PEG prepared in this work had an optimum pH of 6.5 and optimum temperature of 60 °C. For lower concentrations of enzyme, using PEI could enhance the cross-linking efficiency of TreS. The thermal stability and pH tolerance of CLEAs-PEI-PEG were significantly improved. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that the main structure of CLEAs-PEI-PEG showed scaffolding morphology which was constituted by structured ball-like particles with a size of 1-2.5 μm in diameter.

Retinoid X receptor-alpha (RXRα), an intriguing and unique drug target, can serve as an intracellular target mediating the anti-cancer effects of certain non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), including Sulindac. We report the synthesis and characterization of two new Sulindac analogs, K-8008 and K-8012, which exert improved anti-cancer activities over Sulindac in a RXRα- dependent manner. The new analogs inhibit the interaction of the N-terminally truncated RXRα (tRXRα) with the p85α subunit of PI3K, leading to suppression of AKT activation and induction of apoptosis. Crystal structures of the RXRα ligand-binding domain (LBD) with K-8008 or K-8012 reveal that both compounds bind to tetrameric RXRα LBD at a site different from the classical ligand-binding pocket. Thus, these results identify K-8008 and K-8012 as new tRXRα modulators and define a new binding mechanism for regulating the nongenomic action of tRXRα.

Based on NGSIM empirical trajectory data, we focus on verifying the correlations among various parameters in car-following models. The data is preprocessed primarily by symmetric exponential moving average filter. Then, based on SPSS, we explore the preprocessed NGSIM trajectory data by plotting scatter diagram and correlation analysis. The results show that the acceleration of the following vehicle is obviously proportional to the velocity difference and acceleration difference between the following and the preceding (next preceding) vehicle, as well as the product of such velocity difference and the following vehicle’s velocity. Furthermore, we analyze the delay time by using time series correlation formula and modified R/S and V/S statistics methods.

Amides are a class of highly stable carbonyl compounds, which are widely used as reliable synthetic intermediates in both organic synthesis and pharmaceutical chemistry. Thus, the direct transformation of amides into other classes of compounds under mild reaction conditions is highly desirable and in the meantime challenging. An efficient reductive Ugi-type reaction has been established. The method employs common secondary amides as starting materials. The reaction exhibited a broad substrate scope, good chemoselectivity and functional group tolerance and provides rapid access to a variety of functionalized α-acetamidoamides.

Background Sorafenib-everolimus combination therapy may be more effective than sorafenib monotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). To better understand this effect, we comparatively profiled the metabolite composition of HepG2 cells treated with sorafenib, everolimus, and sorafenib-everolimus combination therapy. Material and methods A 2D HRMAS 1H-NMR metabolomic approach was applied to identify the key differential metabolites in 3 experimental groups: sorafenib (5 µM), everolimus (5 µM), and combination therapy (5 µM sorafenib +5 µM everolimus). MetaboAnalyst 3.0 was used to perform pathway analysis. Results All OPLS-DA models displayed good separation between experimental groups, high-quality goodness of fit (R2), and high-quality goodness of predication (Q2). Sorafenib and everolimus have differential effects with respect to amino acid, methane, pyruvate, pyrimidine, aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis, and glycerophospholipid metabolism. The addition of everolimus to sorafenib resulted in differential effects with respect to pyruvate, amino acid, methane, glyoxylate and dicarboxylate, glycolysis or gluconeogenesis, glycerophospholipid, and purine metabolism. Conclusions Sorafenib and everolimus have differential effects on HepG2 cells. Sorafenib preferentially affects glycerophospholipid and purine metabolism, while the addition of everolimus preferentially affects pyruvate, amino acid, and glucose metabolism. This phenomenon may explain (in part) the synergistic effects of sorafenib-everolimus combination therapy observed in vivo.

The first one-pot reductive homocoupling reaction of secondary amides and cross-coupling reaction of secondary amides with ketones to give secondary vicinal diamines and amino alcohols are reported.

A general protocol for the Suzuki coupling of both heteroaryl chlorides and tosylates with both aryl and heteroarylboronic acids as reaction partners is developed.

RXRα represents an intriguing and unique target for pharmacologic interventions. We recently showed that Sulindac and a designed analog could bind to RXRα and modulate its biological activity, including inhibition of the interaction of an N-terminally truncated RXRα (tRXRα) with the p85α regulatory subunit of phosphatidylinositol-3-OH kinase (PI3K). Here we report the synthesis, testing and SAR of a series of novel analogs of Sulindac as potential modulators for inhibiting tRXRα-dependent AKT activation. A new compound 30 was identified to have improved biological activity.

National Basic Research Program (973 Program) of China [2010CB833200]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [20832005]; Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China [2011J01054]

For the confirmation of their structures all alkaloids are synthesized starting from Boc-L-glutamine.

A concise enantiospecific synthesis of (S)-6,8-bis(methylsulfonyloxy)-octanoic acid (2), a ready precursor of (R)-(+)-α-lipoic acid (1), is reported. The key step of the synthesis is the coupling of the tosylate derived from (R)-malic acid with phenylpropyl magnesium bromide. A recently reported green procedure was used for the oxidative unmasking of the phenyl group, used as a latent carboxyl group.