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Jujuboside A (JuA) is a triterpenoid saponins isolated from the seed of jujube (semen Ziziphi spinosae) with anti-oxidant, anti-inflammation and anti-apoptosis properties. The present study aimed to investigate the reno-protective effects of JuA on type II diabetes. JuA (20 mg/kg) and Metformin (Met, 300 mg/kg) were administrated to diabetic Sprague Dawley rat for 8 weeks daily. Our results showed that JuA reduced blood glucose and kidney function markers including 24 h urinary protein, urinary β-NAG/urinary creatinine, serum urea nitrogen, serum uric acid and serum creatinine, and relieved renal pathological changes. In addition, JuA decreased O 2 - and H 2 O 2 level, enhanced SOD, CAT and GPx activities, decreased NOX4 expression and improved mitochondrial respiratory chain function through regulating respiratory chain complex expression. Moreover, JuA downregulated the expressions of mitochondrial apoptosis proteins: Bax, CytC, Apaf-1 and caspase 9. Apoptosis mediated by ER stress also been inhibited by JuA via downregulating p-PERK, p-IRE1, XBP1s, ATF4, p-CHOP and caspase 12 expressions. JuA also enhanced autophagy and mitophagy via regulating CaMKK2-AMPK-p-mTOR and PINK1/Parkin pathways. Collectively, these results indicated that JuA protected against type II diabetic nephropathy through inhibiting oxidative stress and apoptosis mediated by mitochondria and ER stress. In addition, autophagy and mitophagy was enhanced by JuA., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Foodborne Staphylococcus aureus ( S. aureus ) has attracted widespread attention due to its foodborne infection and food poisoning in human. Shikonin exhibits antibacterial activity against a variety of microorganisms, but there are few studies on its antibacterial activity against S. aureus . This study aims to explore the antibacterial activity and mechanism of shikonin against foodborne S. aureus . The results show that the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and the minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBCs) of shikonin were equal for all tested strains ranging from 35 μg/mL to 70 μg/mL. Shikonin inhibited the growth of S. aureus by reducing intracellular ATP concentrations, hyperpolarizing cell membrane, destroying the integrity of cell membrane, and changing cell morphology. At the non-inhibitory concentrations (NICs), shikonin significantly inhibited biofilm formation of S. aureus , which was attributed to inhibiting the expression of cidA and sarA genes. Moreover, shikonin also markedly inhibited the transcription and expression of virulence genes ( sea and hla ) in S. aureus . In addition, shikonin has exhibited antibacterial ability against both planktonic and biofilm forms of S. aureus . Importantly, in vivo results show that shikonin has excellent biocompatibility. Moreover, both the heat stability of shikonin and the antimicrobial activity of shikonin against S. aureus were excellent in food. Our findings suggest that shikonin are promising for use as a natural food additive, and it also has great potential in effectively controlling the contamination of S. aureus in food and reducing the number of illnesses associated with S. aureus .

3-Chloro-1, 2-propanediol (3-MCPD) is a food-borne toxic substance well-known for more than 40 years that is mainly associated with nephrotoxicity. A better understanding of 3-MCPD nephrotoxicity is required to devise efficacious strategies to counteract its toxicity. In the present work, the role of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress along with its underlying regulatory mechanism in 3-MCPD-mediated renal cytotoxicity was investigated in vivo and in vitro. Our data indicated that 3-MCPD-stimulated ER stress response evidenced by sustained activation of PERK-ATF4-p-CHOP and IRE1 branches in Sprague Dawley (SD) rats and human embryonic kidney (HEK293) cells. Moreover, ER stress-associated specific apoptotic initiator, caspase 12, was over-expressed. Blocking ER stress with its antagonist, 4-phenylbutyric acid (4-PBA), improved the morphology and function of kidney effectively. 4-PBA also increased cell viability, relieved mitochondrial vacuolation, and inhibited cell apoptosis through regulating caspase-dependent intrinsic apoptosis pathways. Furthermore, the enhanced expressions of two mitochondrial fission proteins, DRP1/p-DRP1 and FIS1, and the relocation of DRP1 on mitochondria subjected to 3-MPCD were reversed by 4-PBA, while the expression of the fusion protein, MFN2, was restored. Moreover, cellular Ca 2+ overload, the over-expression of CaMKK2, and the loss of mitochondria-associated membranes (MAM) were also relieved after 4-PBA co-treatment. Collectively, our data emphasized that ER stress plays critical role in 3-MCPD-mediated mitochondrial dysfunction and subsequent apoptosis as well as blockage of ER stress ameliorated kidney injury through improving mitochondrial fission/fusion and Ca 2+ homeostasis. These findings provide a novel insight into the regulatory role of ER stress in 3-MCPD-associated nephropathy and a potential therapeutic strategy. Graphical Headlights 1. 4-PBA inhibits ER stress mainly through regulating PERK-ATF4-CHOP and IRE1-XBP1s branches. 2. Inhibition of ER stress by 4-PBA mitigates ER associated and mitochondrial apoptosis 3. Inhibition of ER stress by 4-PBA helps maintaining calcium homeostasis and mitochondrial dynamic., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. part of Springer Nature.)

Cu 2 SnS 3 , as a modified material for high-capacity tin-based anodes, has great potential for lithium-ion battery applications. The solvothermal method is simple, convenient, cost-effective, and easy to scale up, and has thus been widely used for the preparation of nanocrystals. In this work, Cu 2 SnS 3 nanoparticles were prepared by the solvothermal method. The effects of high-temperature annealing on the morphology, crystal structure, and electrochemical performance of a Cu 2 SnS 3 nano-anode were studied. The experimental results indicate that high-temperature annealing improves the electrochemical performance of Cu 2 SnS 3 , resulting in higher initial coulombic efficiency and improved cycling and rate characteristics compared with those of the as-prepared sample.

I-III-VI 2 compounds have shown great interests in the application of functional semiconductors. Among them, Cu(In,Ga)S 2 has been a promising candidate due to its excellent optoelectronic properties. Although the polymorphs of Cu(In,Ga)S 2 have been attracted extensive attentions, the efforts to developing the methodologies for phase-controlled synthesis of them are rare. In this paper, we reported a phase-selective synthesis of CIGS nanoparticles with metastable phases via simply changing the composition of solvents. For the wet chemistry synthesis, the microstructure of the initial nuclei is decisive to the crystal structure of final products. In the formation of Cu(In,Ga)S 2 , the solvent environment is the key factor, which could affect the coordination of monomers and influence the thermodynamic conditions of Cu-S nucleation. Moreover, wurtzite and zincblende Cu(In,Ga)S 2 nanoparticles are selectively prepared by choosing pure en or its mixture with deionized water as reaction solvent. The as-synthesized wurtzite Cu(In,Ga)S 2 possess a band gap of 1.6 eV and a carrier mobility of 4.85 cm 2 /Vs, which indicates its potential to construct a heterojunction with hexagonal-structured CdS for solar cells.

Background: We have previously demonstrated the anticancer effect of anthocyanins. In this study, we explored the biological activities of delphinidin, the most common of the anthocyanidin monomers, that were related to autophagy in HER-2 positive breast cancer MDA-MB-453 and BT474 cells., Methods: The effects of various doses of delphinidin on the proliferation and apoptosis of MDA-MB-453 and BT474 cells were analysed. Autophagy was identified as a critical factor that influenced chemotherapy, and the autophagic mechanism in delphinidin-treated cells was investigated. The autophagy inhibitors, 3-MA and BA1, were used to analyse the effects of autophagy inhibition., Results: Delphinidin inhibited proliferation, promoted apoptosis, and induced autophagy in MDA-MB-453 and BT474 cells in a dose-dependent manner. The inhibition of autophagy enhanced the delphinidin-induced apoptosis and antiproliferative effect in both HER-2 positive breast cancer cells. In addition, delphinidin induced autophagy via suppression of the mTOR signalling pathway and activation of the AMPK signalling pathway in HER-2 positive breast cancer cells., Conclusions: Collectively, the results showed that delphinidin induced apoptosis and autophagy in HER-2 positive breast cancer cells and that autophagy was induced via the mTOR and AMPK signalling pathways. The suppression of autophagy promoted the anticancer effects of delphinidin.

Oil-in-salt hollow fiber liquid phase microextraction coupled with high performance liquid chromatography ultraviolet detection (HPLC-UV) was developed for determination of the blood concentrations of the main active compounds, hesperidin, honokiol, shikonin, magnolol, emodin and β,β'-dimethylacrylshikonin, after oral administration of Zi-Cao-Cheng-Qi decoction (ZCCQD) and their total plasma protein binding rates. In the procedure, a hollow fiber segment was immersed in organic solvent to fill the solvent in the fiber lumen and wall pore, and then the fiber was immersed into sodium chloride solution to cover a thin salt membrane on the fiber wall pore filling organic solvent. Various factors affecting the procedure, such as extraction solvent, sample phase pH, stirring rate, extraction time, NaCl concentration and fiber immersion time in the NaCl solution, were optimized. Under the optimum conditions, good linearities (r 2 ≥0.9905), low limits of detection (0.7-2.5ng/mL) or quantitation (1.2-12ng/mL), satisfactory precision (2.6%-12.8%) and accuracy (81.0%-114.2%) of this method, were observed. The results showed that, after oral administration of a 25g/kg dose, (1) the blood concentrations (at 0.5h) of hesperidin, honokiol, shikonin, magnolol, emodin and β,β'-dimethylacrylshikonin were 0.45, 0.40, 0.48, 0.74, 0.11 and 1.11μg/mL, respectively; (2) the total plasma protein binding rates of the six active compounds were 42.0% (hesperidin), 71.8% (honokiol), 64.6% (shikonin), 77.7% (magnolol), 75.3% (emodin) and 75.7% (β,β'-dimethylacrylshikonin), respectively. The proposed procedure coupled with HPLC shows obvious advantages, such as low solvent consumption, simple operation, high sensitivity and strong purifying and can be used for the determination of both the blood concentrations and total plasma protein binding rates of active compounds in traditional Chinese medicine., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Mycotoxins like patulin (PAT) are among the most significant food contaminant with regard to public health. This study aimed to evaluate the protective effect of apigenin (API), one of the most bioactive flavonoids in plant-derived food, on PAT-induced apoptosis in HEK293 cells. Cells were treated under basic conditions, 8 μM PAT without or with API (2.5, 5 and 10 μM) concomitantly for 10 h. API exerted renoprotective effect by inhibiting intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation, modulating oxidative phosphorylation especially elevating the expression of ATP synthase, re-establishing mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) and maintaining higher intracellular ATP level, accompanied by p53, Bax downregulation and Bcl-2 upregulation. Thereby, cytochrome c release from mitochondria to cytoplasm was reduced, causing inhibition of initiator caspases-9 and executioner caspases (3, 6 and 7) expression and enzyme activities. Results revealed dietary apigenin attenuates patulin-induced apoptosis in HEK293 cells by modulating ROS-mediated mitochondrial dysfunction and caspase signal pathway., (Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

3-Monochloro-1,2-propanediol (3-MCPD) is the most toxic chloropropanols compounds in foodstuff which mainly generated during thermal processing. Kidney is one of the primary target organs for 3-MCPD. Using human embryonic kidney cell (HEK293FT) as an in vitro model, we found that 3-MCPD caused concentration-dependent increase in cytoxicity as assessed by dye uptake, lactatedehydrogenase (LDH) leakage and MTT assays. HEK293FT cell treated with 3-MCPD suffered the decrease of mitochondrial membrane potential and the impairment of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation system, especially the reduced amount of mRNA expression and protein synthesis of electron transport chain complex II, complex IV, and complex III. More importantly, energy release (ATP synthesis) was significantly inhibited by 3-MCPD resulting from the down regulation expressions of ATP synthase (ATP6 and ATP8), as well as the loss of transmembrane potential required for synthesis of ATP. The decreased ratio of mitochondrial apoptogenic factors Bax/Bcl-2 and the cytochrome-c release from mitochondria to cytosol followed by the activation of apoptotic initiators caspase 9 and apoptotic executioners (caspase 3, caspase 6 and caspase 7) leading to apoptosis. The activation of caspase 8 and caspase 2 implied that there were probably other factors to induce the caspase-dependent apoptosis., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Control over phase stabilities during synthesis processes is of great importance for both fundamental studies and practical applications. We describe herein a facile strategy for the synthesis of Cu2Se with phase selectivity through a simple solvothermal method. In the presence and absence of SbCl3, monoclinic α-Cu2Se and cubic β-Cu2Se can be synthesized, respectively. The formation of α-Cu2Se requires optimization of the Cu/Se molar ratio in the starting reagents, the reaction temperature, as well as the timing for the addition of SbCl3. Differential scanning calorimetry of the synthesized α-Cu2Se has shown that a part of it undergoes a phase transition to β-Cu2Se at 135 °C, and that this phase transition is irreversible on cooling to ambient temperature. Kinetic studies have revealed that in the presence of Sb species the kinetically favored β-Cu2Se transforms to the thermodynamically favored α-Cu2Se. In this β-to-α phase transition process, the distribution of Cu ions in β-Cu2Se, as determined by the Cu/Se ratio and temperature, is likely to play a crucial role., (© 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

Anthocyanins are a ubiquitous group of water-soluble plant pigments of the flavonoid family, with anticancer property through HER-2 signaling pathway. Nowadays, molecular docking plays an important role in exposing the active sites and obtaining the bioactive conformation involving protein-ligand interactions. According to the crystal structure of HER-2 kinase domain and 12 main antitumor compounds of anthocyanins as well as ATP, a molecular docking study was performed by MVD program. All 12 compounds could bind to the same cavity of HER-2 kinase domain by high affinity (MolDock Score < -105 kJ/mol for anthocyanidins, < -130 kJ/mol for anthocyanidins-glc), where hydrophobic force and hydrogen bond played key roles. Additionally, this cavity overlapped with ATP binding (MolDock Score = -161 kJ/mol) domain; the binding of anthocyanins presumably interfered the H bond formation between ATP and HER-2. These results indicate that anthocyanins may competitively bind to ATP binding site in HER-2 kinase domain by suppressing HER-2 activation and downstream signaling cascade. This may provide useful theoretical instruction for the molecular mechanism of HER-2 kinase activity inhibition by anthocyanins in cancer prevention and treatment.

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a toxic isocoumarin derivative produced by various species of mould which mainly grow on grain, coffee, and nuts. Recent studies have suggested that OTA induces cell death in plants. To investigate possible mechanisms of OTA phytotoxicity, both digital gene expression (DGE) transcriptomic and two-dimensional electrophoresis proteomic analyses were used, through which 3118 genes and 23 proteins were identified as being up- or down-regulated at least 2-fold in Arabidopsis leaf in response to OTA treatment. First, exposure of excised Arabidopsis thaliana leaves to OTA rapidly causes the hypersensitive reponse, significantly accelerates the increase of reactive oxygen species and malondialdehyde, and enhances antioxidant enzyme defence responses and xenobiotic detoxification. Secondly, OTA stimulation causes dynamic changes in transcription factors and activates the membrane transport system dramatically. Thirdly, a concomitant persistence of compromised photosynthesis and photorespiration is indicative of a metabolic shift from a highly active to a weak state. Finally, the data revealed that ethylene, salicylic acid, jasmonic acid, and mitogen-activated protein kinase signalling molecules mediate the process of toxicity caused by OTA. Profiling analyses on Arabidopsis in response to OTA will provide new insights into signalling transduction that modulates the OTA phytotoxicity mechanism, facilitate mapping of regulatory networks, and extend the ability to improve OTA tolerance in Arabidopsis.

Objective: To study the effects and mechanisms of soy isoflavone (SIF) on improving insulin resistance (IR) status in IR rats induced by high-fat and high-sugar diet., Methods: IR rats induced by high-fat and high-sugar diet were assigned into four groups and gavaged with SIF at doses of 0 (model control group), 50, 150 and 450 mg/kg bw for 4 weeks, respectively. Insulin, glucose, adiponectin in serum and adiponectin mRNA in perirened adipocyte were detected., Results: Compared with model control group, body weight and fat pad weight were lower, and serum adiponectin and adiponectin mRNA expression were higher in the 450 mg/kg bw group, insulin and insulin-resistance index were lower in the 150 mg/kg bw group and 450 mg/kg bw. There is no differences in plasma glucose levels among groups. There is an negative correlation between insulin-resistance index and serum adiponectin level (Y = 24.802 - 2.856X, r = - 0.881, n = 47, P < 0.01)., Conclusion: These results suggest that soy isoflavone may decrease adipose deposition, increase serum adiponectin level, and ameliorate insulin sensitivity.