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Angiotension converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory peptides from high-temperature sesame meal protein hydrolyzed by subcritical water were separated and purified by sequential nanofiltration, ultrafiltration and liquid chromatography, and their structures were identified by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The ACE inhibitory activity was verified using the synthetic oligopeptides. The absorption and metabolism characteristics of the oligopeptides were predicted, a three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship (3D-QSAR) model was established, and molecular docking analysis was carried out. The peptide fraction with molecular mass less than 3 kDa had the strongest ACE inhibitory effect. After further purification, nine ACE inhibitory peptides were identified from peak 1. These peptides could not interfere with the normal physiological activities of the human body. The 3D-QSAR model for LFRAF was successfully established using the comparative molecular force field analysis (CoMFA) method. The positively charged amino acid residues and the introduced large groups on the side chain at the C-terminus of the ACE inhibitory peptides could improve their activity. LFRAF occupied the S2 and S1’ active pockets of the ACE peptides and bund to Zn2+ to inhibit ACE activity. These results indicate that it is feasible to use subcritical water technology to degrade high-temperature sesame meal proteins to prepare ACE inhibitory peptides.

Background: Abnormal eye movements occur at the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the characteristics of abnormal eye movements of patients with AD and their relationship with clinical symptoms remain inconsistent, and their predictive value for diagnosing and monitoring the progression of AD remains unclear. Methods: A total of 42 normal controls, 63 patients with mild cognitive impairment due to AD (AD-MCI), and 49 patients with dementia due to AD (AD-D) were recruited. Eye movements were assessed using the EyeKnow eye-tracking and analysis system. Cognitive function, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and activities of daily living were evaluated using various rating scales, and correlation analyses and receiver operating characteristic curves were performed. Results: Patients with AD exhibited increased number of offsets and offset degrees, prolonged offset duration, and decreased accuracy in lateral fixation; reduced accuracy, prolonged saccadic duration, and decreased velocity in prosaccade; decreased accuracy and corrected rate, prolonged corrected antisaccadic duration, and reduced velocity in antisaccade; and reduced accuracy and increased inhibition failures in memory saccade. Eye movement parameters were correlated with global cognition and the cognitive domains of memory, language, attention, visuospatial ability, execution function, and activities of daily living. Subgroup analysis indicated that the associations between eye movements and clinical symptoms in patients with AD were influenced by disease severity and history of diabetes. In the AD-D and AD with diabetes groups, these associations diminished. Nevertheless, the associations persisted in the AD-MCI and AD without diabetes groups. The areas under the curves for predicting AD, AD-MCI, and AD-D were 0.835, 0.737, and 0.899, respectively (all p < 0.05). Conclusion: Patients with AD exhibit distinct patterns of abnormal eye movements. Abnormal eye movements are significantly correlated with global cognition, multiple cognitive domains, and activities of daily living. Abnormal eye movements have a considerable predictive value for the diagnosis and progression of AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: This study aimed to comprehensively explore the nutrition and gait of AD patients at different stages and the relationship between them. Methods: A total of 85 AD patients were consecutively enrolled in this cross‐sectional study and divided into the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to AD (AD‐MCI) and the dementia due to AD (AD‐D) groups. Demographic information, nutritional status, and gait performance were compared between the two groups, and the correlation between nutritional status and gait performance was subsequently analyzed by Pearson and Spearman correlation analyses. Results: The AD‐D group had lower scores on Mini‐Nutritional Assessment (MNA) and MNAm scales, lower levels of urea nitrogen, folic acid, and vitamin B12 in blood, and higher homocysteine level than those in the AD‐MCI group (all p < 0.05). The AD‐D group had slower step speed, shorter step length, and shorter stride length than those in the AD‐MCI group (all p < 0.05). AD patients with decreased scores of MNA and MNAm scales, and declined levels of urea nitrogen and vitamin B12 in blood had reduced gait speed and gait cadence, and prolonged step length time and stride length time, whereas homocysteine showed the almost opposite results (all p < 0.05). In the AD‐MCI group, the score of scale was negatively correlated with the coefficient of variation (CV) of stride length, and the folic acid level was negatively correlated with the CV of stride length and cadence (all p < 0.05). Conclusions: AD patients at the dementia stage had worse nutritional status and gait performance than those at the MCI stage, which was associated with worse global cognition and activities of daily living. Poorer nutritional status was associated with higher gait variability in patients at the MCI stage and with poorer gait performance in patients at the dementia stage. Early identification and intervention of patients with nutritional risk or malnutrition may improve gait performance, thus reducing the risk of falling and cognitive decline, as well as the mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA), comparative similarity index analysis (CoMSIA) and hologram QSAR (HQSAR) were used to identify the relationship between the structure of cysteine‐containing dipeptide with antioxidant and ACE inhibitory activity; then, molecular docking, ADME prediction and thermostability assay were applied to illustrate the performance in docking with ACE, metabolic information and thermostability of the strongest activity dipeptide. According to pIC50 of 2, 2‐diphenyl‐1‐picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2, 2′‐azinobis‐(3‐ethyl‐benzothiazoline‐6‐sulphonate) (ABTS), constructed CoMFA, CoMSIA and HQSAR models predicted the structural properties of carboxyl of C‐terminus impacted on the antioxidant activity. The properties of side chain of C‐terminus influenced on the ACE inhibitory activity based on CoMFA, CoMSIA and HQSAR models. As the strongest multifunctional cysteine‐containing dipeptide, CW interacted with ACE by S1 pocket, S2 pocket, Zn2+. It was promising for CW to utilise in the functional foods due to less interference in normal life activities, high oral bioavailability and stability under 70 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The near-infrared (NIR) and homogeneously emitting CuInS2 quantum dots (QDs) have been successfully prepared by a one-pot thermolysis route using air-stable indium stearate as a precursor/reactant. The CuInS2 QDs exhibit a tunable emission peak in the range of 693–835 nm with a photoluminescence (PL) quantum yield (QY) of up to 8.7%. The QDs with uniform diameter can be assigned to a typical zinc blende structure according to XRD analysis. Time-resolved PL spectroscopy of CuInS2 QDs shows a biexponential trait in which the donor–acceptor recombination (a lifetime of 100–240 nm) occupied 74–92% of the whole PL emission. The type-I structure CuInS2/ZnS core/shell QDs were synthesized in situ for surface passivation, which leads to a dramatic enhancement of PL QY by over six-fold/time (up to 40.1%). The PL decay curve of CuInS2/ZnS QDs retained the biexponential character with a longer lifetime. The as-prepared CuInS2 based QDs with lower toxicity and desirable optical features are good candidates for biomedical fluorescence labelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an efficient and durable engine, a diesel engine has a broad application. However, soot particles (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NO x ) coming from diesel engines are the main causes of air pollution, so it is necessary to design and prepare an effective catalyst for the simultaneous elimination of PM and NO x . In this work, a novel 3DOM ZrTiO 4 support and a series of W x CeMnO δ /3DOM ZrTiO 4 catalysts (where x indicates the wt% of W) were designed and fabricated by the colloidal crystal template technique. Among the as-prepared catalysts, the W 1 CeMnO δ /3DOM ZrTiO 4 catalyst exhibits the highest NO conversion rate (52%) at the temperature of maximum CO 2 concentration (474°C) and achieves 90% NO conversion in the temperature range of 250-396°C. The excellent catalytic performance is associated with the macroporous structure, abundant oxygen vacancies, sufficient acid sites, and the synergistic effect among the active components. The possible reaction mechanisms of W x CeMnO δ /3DOM ZrTiO 4 catalysts were also discussed based on the characterization results., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Wang, Zhong, Li, Yu, Zhao, Sojka, Kotarba, Wei and Liu.)

Energy crises and environmental pollution are two serious threats to modern society. To overcome these problems, graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) nanosheets were fabricated and functionalized with SnO 2 nanoparticles to produce H 2 from water splitting and degrade 2-chlorophenol under visible light irradiation. The fabricated samples showed enhanced photocatalytic activities for both H 2 evolution and pollutant degradation as compared to bare g-C 3 N 4 and SnO 2 . These enhanced photoactivities are attributed to the fast charge separation as the excited electrons transfer from g-C 3 N 4 to the conduction band of SnO 2 . This enhanced charge separation has been confirmed by the photoluminescence spectra, steady state surface photovoltage spectroscopic measurement, and formed hydroxyl radicals. It is believed that this work will provide a feasible route to synthesize photocatalysts for improved energy production and environmental purification., (Copyright © 2020 Zada, Khan, Qureshi, Liu and Wang.)

The g-C 3 N 4 porous nanosheets with different loading amount of Ag nanoparticles (NPs) are successfully prepared by a simple liquid-phase reduction method. These Ag/g-C 3 N 4 composites have an improved photocatalytic performance for decomposing organic pollutants compared with that of pure g-C 3 N 4 nanosheets. Many measurements have been used for characterizing the samples, such as XRD, FTIR, UV-Vis DRS, PL, XPS, EDS, SEM, and TEM. In Ag/g-C 3 N 4 , the Ag NPs are uniformly coated on the g-C 3 N 4 surface, the diameter is mainly in the range of 8~18 nanometers. Loading of Ag NPs expand the response to the visible light for g-C 3 N 4 and increasing the producing rate of photogenerated e - -h + pairs. The loading of silver NPs obviously enhances the photocatalytic activity of C 3 N 4 nanosheets toward the Rhodamine B (RhB) decomposition under the simulated sunlight irradiation. With different loading amounts of Ag NPs, Ag/g-C 3 N 4 (3 wt% of Ag) showed the highest photocatalytic activity for RhB decomposition among these as-prepared samples, which is 10 times of the rate of pure C 3 N 4 . Based on the experimental results, a possible photocatalytic mechanism for Ag/g-C 3 N 4 is proposed.