Search

A high-efficiency nickel–iron bimetallic catalyst (Ni3Fe1 alloy) was synthesized by a facile solvothermal reaction and directly used in furfural hydrogenation without pre-reduction.

In this work, a novel MXene-copolymeric molecularly imprinted hydrogel (FMMIH) with temperature/pH dual response and photothermal conversion performance for selective recognition of cis-diol compounds is successfully prepared. Functionalized MXene becomes an important part of the hydrogel’s skeleton by participating in the free radical polymerization reaction. Therefore, FMMIH exhibits improved mechanical properties and great photothermal conversion performance. Furthermore, based on the temperature/pH dual response, FMMIH can realize the controllable capture and release of ginsenoside Rb1 with cis diol structures through dual recognitions of functional groups and geometric space. Under the conditions of pH 8.5 and 25 °C, the adsorption capacity of FMMIH is 26.3 mg·g−1 and the imprinting factor is 16.4, showing a good imprinting effect. It is worth noting that the volume shrinkage caused by photothermal conversion of the hydrogel is conducive to the elution of template molecules and greatly saves the time of desorption (the desorption efficiency is as high as 89.4% under light conditions for 30 min, which is 3.7 times in dark conditions). These excellent properties make it possible to have broad prospects in many fields such as separation of cis-diol compounds, drug delivery systems, and biosensors.

In tumor therapy, polymer nanoparticles are ideal drug delivery materials because they can mask the disadvantages of anti-tumor drugs such as poor solubility in water, high toxicity, and side effects. However, most polymer-based nanoparticles do not themselves have anti-tumor properties. Herein, a novel pH-sensitive nanoparticle drug delivery system based on Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides (GLPs), which have demonstrated anti-tumor activities, was designed to enable the delivery of methotrexate (MTX) and 10-hydroxycamptothecin (HCPT) to tumor cells, where they could exert synergistic anti-tumor effects. The prepared nanoparticles were irregularly spherical in shape with a uniform particle size of ∼190 nm, and they exhibited a high drug-loading capacity (MTX 21.5% and HCPT 22.6%) and excellent biocompatibility. Moreover, the loaded MTX and HCPT units were rapidly released under acidic conditions within the tumor cells while remaining stable under normal physiological conditions. Meanwhile, compared to free MTX and HCPT, the GLP-APBA-MTX/HCPT nanoparticles presented exhibited better tumor suppressive effects and fewer side effects in vivo, which indicates that they may be an effective anti-tumor treatment strategy.

Pharmaceutical science based on biological nanotechnology is developing rapidly in parallel with the development of nanomaterials and nanotechnology in general. Pectin is a natural polysaccharide obtainable from a wide range of sources. Here, we show that doxorubicin (DOX)-conjugated hydrophilic pectin (PET) comprising an amphiphilic polymer loaded with hydrophobic dihydroartemisinin (DHA) self-assemble into nanoparticles. Importantly, conjugated DOX and DHA could be released quickly in a weakly acidic environment by cleavage of the acid-sensitive acyl hydrazone bond. Confocal microscopy and flow cytometry confirmed that these PET-DOX/DHA nanoparticles efficiently delivered DOX into the nuclei of MCF-7 cells. Significant tumor growth reduction was monitored in a female C57BL/6 mouse model, showing that the PET-DOX/DHA nanoparticle-mediated drug delivery system inhibited tumor growth and may improve therapy. Thus, we have demonstrated that pectin may be useful in the design of materials for biomedical applications.

A tumor-penetrating peptide, iRGD (a tumor-homing peptide, CRGDKGPDC), could enhance the penetration of drugs via the specific receptor-binding affinity to αvβ3 and NRP-1 that overexpressed on tumor vasculature and tumor cells. Considering the side effects of traditional chemotherapy, here, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG, Mw = 7500)-based and iRGD-modified poly(ethylene glycol)-based nanoparticles were successfully prepared. iRGD, as a tumor-targeting and tumor-penetrating agent, was combined with PEG after the esterification reaction between PEG and diosgenin (DGN). After the efficient loading of 10-hydroxycamptothecin (HCPT), the iRGD-PEG-DGN/HCPT NPs of chemotherapy were established. The characteristics of iRGD-PEG-DGN/HCPT NPs were evaluated. This nano-delivery system possessed high drug loading efficiency (∼17.34 wt % HCPT), controlled release rate, good pH response, and iRGD active targeting and passive targeting with an appropriate size (∼140 nm). All these features forcefully indicated that the iRGD-modified drug delivery system could markedly ameliorate the tumor therapy efficacy compared to the nontargeted nanoparticles through enhancing the tumor accumulation and penetration.

A green biopolymer, lignosulfonate acid (LSA), was first used as an additive in the Nafion membrane for fuel cell applications. The Nafion/LSA composite membrane displayed enhanced thermal stability and other satisfactory properties due to the stable aromatic groups and multiple active sites of LSA. More importantly, the cost-effectiveness and simple fabrication of such novel composite PEMs make their use in PEMFCs very attractive and economical.

Separation of natural compounds directly from the crude extract is a challenging work for traditional column chromatography. In the present study, an efficient method for separation of three main compounds from the crude extract of Dracocephalum tanguticum has been successfully established by high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC). The crude extract was directly introduced into HSCCC by using dimethyl sulfoxide as cosolvent. Ethyl acetate/n-butyl alcohol/0.3% glacial acetic acid (4: 1: 5, v/v) system was used and three target compounds with purity higher than 80% were obtained. Preparative HPLC was used for further purification and three target compounds with purity higher than 98% were obtained. The compounds were identified as chlorogenic acid, pedaliin and pedaliin-6″-acetate.

Oxytropis falcata Bunge, known as the “king of herbs” in Tibetan medicine, is used for treatment of hyperpyrexia, pain, wounds, inflammation, and anthrax. However, it is difficult to efficiently isolate compounds with high purity from O. falcata because of the complexity of traditional Tibetan medicines. In this study, the 80% ethanol elution fraction from extract by AB-8 macroporous resin column chromatography was demonstrated to have anticancer activity on human hepatoma SMMC-7721 cells in vitro. Then, a high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) method was successfully established for separation of compounds by using hexane–ethyl acetate–methanol–water (10:4:10:10, v/v/v/v) as the solvent system. Five flavonoids (7-hydroxyflavonone [1], 5,7-dihydroxy-4′-methoxy flavonol [2], 5,7-dihydroxyflavanone [3], 2′,4′-dihydroxychalcone [4], and 2′,4′-dihydroxydihydrochalcone [5]) were obtained in one-step separation with purities of 97.7%, 98.1%, 98.3%, 99.0%, and 98.3%, respectively. Finally, anticancer activities against the growth of SMMC-7721 cells of 5 flavonoids were confirmed. The IC50 values of the separated compounds were 213.45 μg/mL, 197.74 μg/mL, 375.16 μg/mL, 17.44 μg/mL, and 136.83 μg/mL in 24 h, respectively. The present study provided a basis for further development and utilization of this medicinal herb as a source of a new potential anticancer agent.

Five flavonoids with similar polarity were obtained from Caragana korshinskii Kom. by preparative high speed counter-current chromatography. Due to their similar polarity, it is difficult to select a suitable solvent system for one-step separation. Three fractions including one pure compound were only obtained with a relatively suitable solvent system of ethyl acetate: n-butanol:water (0.5% glacial acetic acid) (4:6:10, v:v:v). In order to improve the separation efficiency, recycling and heart cut modes were introduced. As a result, two flavonoids with separation factor value at 1.13 and the other two with separation factor value at 1.20 were successfully separated. Finally, five flavonoids with purity higher than 98% were obtained. Fortunately, a new compound named myricetin 3'-methyl ether 3-O-glucoside-7-O-rhamnoside was obtained. The results indicated that the recycling combined with heart-cut mode could be effective for the preparation of natural compounds with similar polarity.

Oxytropis falcata Bunge, known as “the King of Herbs” in Tibetan medicine, is used for treatment of hyperpyrexia, pain, wounds, inflammation and anthrax. However, it is difficult to isolate compound with high-purity from O. falcata because of its complexity. In this work, an efficient method was successfully established for the separation of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl (HMG) flavonoid glycosides from O. falcata by 2D preparative chromatography (2D-HPLC). An ODS C18 preparative column was used for the first-dimension preparation, and the XCharge C18 preparative column with different separation selectivity to the ODS C18 stationary phase was used for the second-dimension preparation. Four HMG flavonoid glycosides (oxytroflavosides A–D) and two flavonoid glycosides (oxytroflavosides F and G) were separated with purities over 98%. Their structures were elucidated by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The 2D-HPLC method used in this study is effective for preparative separation of HMG flavonoid glycosides from O. falcata. Additionally, this method shows great potential for the separation of flavonoid glycosides from other plant extracts.

Endothelial cell protein C receptor (EPCR) is a 46 kDa transmembrane protein receptor, expressed in most immune cells (T cells, monocytes, dendritic cells, polymorphonuclear neutrophils [PMN]). EPCR reportedly plays a vital role in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Our results confirmed that EPCR expression exists in the PMN of RA patients, and animal experiments demonstrated that down-regulation of EPCR expression affects disease progression in collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) mice. PMN is the immune cell type that first enters the site of inflammation in the early stages of inflammation. In the early stage of RA, PMN cells migrate into the joint cavity and function in the process of RA synovial inflammation, aggravating the bone destruction found in RA and mediating the progression of RA disease progression. We verified the differences in EPCR expression in PMN cells between RA and osteoarthritis (OA) patients by Western blot and then confirmed this difference in animals. We found that CIA mice treated with PMN-neutralizing antibody intervention had reduced disease performance. On this basis, EPCR was knocked down at the same time. The therapeutic effect of PMN-neutralizing antibody treatment was subsequently diminished. To explore the relationship between EPCR and PMN in RA, we used immunofluorescence to detect the expression of PMN-neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) in RA patients and used EPCR neutralizing antibodies as an intervention. The results showed that the formation of PMN-NETs in RA patients increased. Finally, through in vitro intervention experiments involving EPCR and PMN transcriptome analysis of the peripheral blood of RA patients, we concluded that EPCR may regulate the formation of PMN-NETs in RA patients through the activated protein C (APC)-EPCR signaling pathway, thereby affecting the progression of disease in RA patients.

The Traveling Tournament Problem is a well-known benchmark problem in tournament timetabling, which asks us to design a schedule of home/away games of n teams (n is even) under some feasibility requirements such that the total traveling distance of all the n teams is minimized. In this paper, we study TTP-2, the traveling tournament problem where at most two consecutive home games or away games are allowed, and give an effective algorithm for n/2 being odd. Experiments on the well-known benchmark sets show that we can beat previously known solutions for all instances with n/2 being odd by an average improvement of 2.66%. Furthermore, we improve the theoretical approximation ratio from 3/2+O(1/n) to 1+O(1/n) for n/2 being odd, answering a challenging open problem in this area.

In the present study, combined chromatographic strategy based on macroporous resin, high-speed counter-current chromatography and preparative high-performance liquid chromatography for systematic separation of antioxidants from crude samples guided by high-performance liquid chromatography with 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl has been successfully established. Based on this strategy, seven antioxidants including isorugosin A, β -1,2,3,6-tetragalloyl-D-glucose, chebulinic acid, 1,2,3,4,6-penta-O-galloyl-β -D-glucose, chebulagic acid, ethyl gallate, and gallic acid were obtained from the fruit of Terminalia billerica. First, high-performance liquid chromatography with 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl experiment showed the presence of seven main antioxidants in the crude extract of the fruit of Terminalia billerica. Then, a macroporous resin column chromatography method was developed for the enrichment of these seven antioxidants. Finally, an efficient method based on high-speed counter-current chromatography and preparative high-performance liquid chromatography was developed for the separation of these antioxidants. In the selection of solvent systems, it was found that acetic acid could be a good regulator for modifying the partition coefficient values of tannins. The present study provides a reference for systematic separation of antioxidants from crude samples. Considering the general existence of antioxidants in crude samples, this combined chromatographic strategy might lead to broader application prospects.

The Traveling Tournament Problem (TTP) is a hard but interesting sports scheduling problem inspired by Major League Baseball, which is to design a double round-robin schedule such that each pair of teams plays one game in each other’s home venue, minimizing the total distance traveled by all n teams (n is even). In this paper, we consider TTP-2, i.e., TTP with one more constraint that each team can have at most two consecutive home games or away games. Due to the different structural properties, known algorithms for TTP-2 are different for n/2 being odd and even. For odd n/2, the best known approximation ratio is about \((1+12/n)\), and for even n/2, the best known approximation ratio is about \((1+4/n)\). In this paper, we further improve the approximation ratio from \((1+4/n)\) to \((1+3/n)\) for n/2 being even. Experimental results on benchmark sets show that our algorithm can improve previous results on all instances with even n/2 by \(1\%\) to \(4\%\).

Hyperglycemia-induced endothelial endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is implicated in the pathophysiology of diabetes and its vascular complications. Procyanidins are enriched in many plant foods and have been demonstrated to exert several beneficial effects on diabetes, cardiovascular and other metabolic diseases. In the present study, we investigated the effect of procyanidin B2 (PCB2), the most widely distributed natural procyanidin, on ER stress evoked by high glucose in endothelial cells (ECs) and the underlying mechanisms. We showed that PCB2 mitigated the high glucose-activated ER stress pathways (PERK, IRE1α and ATF6) in human vascular ECs. In addition, we found that PCB2 attenuated endothelial ER stress via the activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor δ (PPARδ). We demonstrated that PCB2 directly bound to and activated PPARδ. Conversely, GSK0660, a selective PPARδ antagonist, attenuated the suppressive effect of PCB2 on the ER stress signal pathway. Functionally, PCB2 ameliorated the high glucose-impaired endothelium-dependent relaxation in mouse aortas. The protective effect of PCB2 on vasodilation was abolished in the aortas pretreated with GSK0660 or those from the EC-specific PPARδ knockout mice. Moreover, the protective effects of PCB2 on ER stress and endothelial dysfunction required the inter-dependent actions of PPARδ and AMPK. Collectively, we demonstrated that PCB2 mitigated ER stress and ameliorated vasodilation via a PPARδ-mediated mechanism beyond its classic action as a scavenger of free radicals. These findings further highlighted the novel roles of procyanidins in intervening the ER stress and metabolic disorders related to endothelial dysfunction., Graphical abstract Image 1, Highlights • PCB2, a polyphenol enriched in fruits and vegetables, mitigates high glucose-induced ER stress in endothelium.. • PCB2 binds to and activates nuclear receptor PPARδ, which acts through AMPK to repress ER stress. • PCB2 ameliorates high glucose-impaired endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation.

Background: Expression of miR‑92b in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) rat tissue and its effect on the OSCC CAL‑27 cells were investigated. Methods: The study was performed in Qingdao Stomatological Hospital, Qingdao, China on December 2018. Thirty Wistar rats were used to construct models of oral squamous cell carcinoma. CAL‑27 cells trascfected by Lipofectamine 2000 were divided into miR‑92b inhibitor, miR‑NC and blank groups. RT‑qPCR was used for the detection of the expression level of miR‑92b, and MTT and flow cytometry were carried out for the detection of the effect of miR‑92b on the proliferation and apoptosis of CAL‑27 cells, respectively. Results: The expression level of miR‑92b was significantly higher in tumor tissues than that in normal tissues (P

We processed data from ~600 GPS stations, covering the period 1999-2018, to provide new insights into the crustal motion and deformation of Sichuan and Yunnan, China. We used the derived velocity field to evaluate two-dimensional strain rate tensors, and mapped the main, maximum shear, dilatation, east-west and north-south strain rates.The spatial distribution of the main strain rate in the Sichuan-Yunnan region generally shows an orderly deflection. The minimum principal strain rate is northeastward in the west of the Sichuan-Yunnan block boundary, gradually deflects eastward and southeastward toward the east and south, and returns to the northeast direction until the southwestern edge of Sichuan-Yunnan. This reflects the complex tectonic dynamics background of the study area. The high value of the maximum shear strain rate is mainly distributed along the eastern boundary of the Sichuan-Yunnan block, especially near the Xianshuihe-Xiaojiang fault, where the maximum shear strain rate exceeds 4.0 × 10-8 / a. The area strain rate in the study region shows that the areas of compression and expansion are comparable, with weak tensions prevailing in the interior and compression in the marginal areas. The strain rate result also shows that the east-west strain rate component in the southern Sichuan-Yunnan is dominated by positive value, and the north is dominated by negative value. It indicates that the east-west deformation in the south of the Sichuan-Yunnan is dominated by expansion, and in the north is dominated by contraction. The north-south component strain rate shows that there is a significant positive high-value zone in and around the Xianshuihe fault zone, while southern Sichuan-Yunnan is a more significant negative-value zone, and the distribution of negative high-value zones is controlled by the south boundary of the Sichuan-Yunnan block. Based on the fault activity and focal mechanism data, the study area was divided into several seismic source zones. We translated the geodetic strain rates into rates of seismic moment release in each zone and compared them with earthquake catalog-based moment rates, to evaluate the potential of seismic activity of the region. The analysis shows the geodetic strain is completely released seismically for most of the study area. However, for the southern Yunnan，the geodesy-based moment rates are more than 2 times higher than the earthquake-based rates. This result indicates that at least a large earthquake may occur in southern Yunnan in the future.

Water-soluble green cathode binders are developed to increase the performance of 18650 type LiNi0.5Mn0.3Co0.2O2 (NMC532) lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Using four basal substances to prepare the composite binders, it is indicated that the cathode with lithium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMCLi)-polyacrylic acid/acrylate copolymer (type 306 F) composite binder (Marked as Binder C) avoids the corrosion of aluminum substrate, and exhibits stronger adhesive force and better electrolyte adsorption capacity compared to other cathodes with PVDF binder and single aqueous binders. In particular, the electrochemical performance of the batteries with Binder C is also improved, initial specific capacity of 161.5 mAh g−1 at 0.2C and retention capacity of 88.9% at 1C after 1200 cycles are obtained. The batteries with Binder C also exhibit enhanced high-temperature storage performance, there is 97.9% residual capacity when the fully charged batteries are stored in 60 °C for 14 d. The enhanced performance is mainly attributed to the chemical stability and bonding ability of polyacrylic acid/acrylate copolymer and better conduction at the liquid-solid interface caused by CMCLi. These results indicate that Binder C has promising application prospects in the NMC532 cathode, and also provide a reference for the green production of NMC-based LIBs.

Stibnite is the main raw material employed to produce antimony. With the excessive exploitation of high-grade stibnite, low-grade stibnite become more and more important. This study aimed to introduce a vacuum process for recovering and enriching antimony from low-grade stibnite. At the pressure of 10 Pa, by controlling heating temperature, Sb2S3 and Sb2O3 from stibnite (12.8 wt% Sb) was evaporated and enriched. We investigated the influence of vacuum distillation temperature and time on the recovery of low-grade Sb2S3. The result indicated antimony recovery could reach about 97% for suitable vacuum distillation conditions, and the purity of Sb2S3 was about 95 wt%. As for high-grade stibnite, through two-step vacuum distillation, Sb could not only be recovered in the form of Sb2S3, but also purified to commercial Sb2S3 with a purity about 99.5 wt%. The results demonstrated that vacuum distillation is a possible way to recover antimony from low-grade stibnite and purify Sb2S3 from high grade stibnite.

Chaojie Liang,1,* Jingyang Zhao,2,* Hua Ge,1 Guangming Li,1 Jixiang Wu1 1Department of General Surgery, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100730, China; 2Department of Tumor Center, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100730, China *These authors contributed equally to this work Background and aims: Recently, the abnormal expression of FoxM1 has been found in many malignant tumors. However, the clinicopathological and prognostic value of FoxM1 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients remains controversial. We conducted a meta-analysis to establish the relationship between FoxM1 expression and the clinicopathological features and prognostic value in patients with HCC. Methods: An electronic search for relevant articles was conducted according to a set of criteria in the PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, EMBASE, Chinese CNKI and Chinese WanFang databases. The correlation data between FoxM1 expression and clinicopathological features and survival outcomes were analyzed. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) and hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% CIs were calculated using STATA14.2. Results: A total of 14 studies comprising of 2,036 patients were enrolled in this meta-analysis. The results showed that FoxM1 expression was related to the incidence, tumor size (>5 cm), vascular invasion, differentiation and TNM stage. Moreover, overexpression of FoxM1 indicated a poor 3- and 5-year overall survival rate (OS) and recurrence-free survival rate (disease-free survival rate). Conclusion: Our meta-analysis indicated that FoxM1 expression was associated with incidence, tumor size (>5 cm), vascular invasion, differentiation and TNM stage. Accordingly, FoxM1 may be a reliable prognostic biomarker for patients with HCC. However, additional high-quality studies are still needed to further support these findings. Keywords: FoxM1, hepatocellular carcinoma, clinicopathological feature, prognosis, meta-analysis

Development of biocompatible and biodegradable nanocarriers with multiple functionalities has attracted great interest in recent years. In this study, a hybrid hydrogel nanoparticle (nanogel) platform based on the self-assembly of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) is presented for the first time. It was facile to realize the efficient co-delivery of radionuclide 131I and chemotherapeutic drugs such as camptothecin (CPT) to achieve the combined chemo-radioisotope therapy of cancer. Notably, a nanogel was prepared by a simple and green electrostatic interaction approach, instead of chemical reaction, showing typical spherical shape with average size about 120 nm, high drug loading capacity, robust stability and low hemolysis. Interestingly, such nanogels exhibited pH-dependent drug release profile, leading to significant reduction of damage to normal tissues. Furthermore, the as-prepared nanogels could effectively promote intracellular uptake, prolong blood circulation time and enhance accumulation in the tumor tissues. As a result, an excellent therapeutic effect was achieved both in vitro and in vivo through combined chemo-radioisotope therapy. Collectively, this study presents the preparation of a novel green nanocarrier by a reliable and simple approach, and offers an effective strategy for the combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.