Search

Intestinal mucositis is a common side effect of anticancer regimens that exerts a negative impact on chemotherapy. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is a potential therapy for mucositis but efficient product is not available because the enzyme is degraded following oral administration or induces an immune reaction after intravascular infusion. Multi-modified Stable Anti-Oxidant Enzymes® (MS-AOE®) is a new recombinant SOD with better resistance to pepsin and trypsin. We referred it as MS-SOD to distinguish from other SODs. In this study we investigated its potential to alleviate 5-FU-induced intestinal injury and the mechanisms. An intestinal mucositis model was established in C57/BL6 mice by 5-day administration of 5-FU (50 mg/kg every day, ip). MS-SOD (800 IU/10 g, ig) was given once daily for 9 days. 5-FU caused severe mucositis with intestinal morphological damage, bodyweight loss and diarrhea; MS-SOD significantly decreased the severity. 5-FU markedly increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) and inflammatory cytokines in the intestine which were ameliorated by MS-SOD. Furthermore, MS-SOD modified intestinal microbes, particularly reduced Verrucomicrobia, compared with the 5-FU group. In Caco2 cells, MS-SOD (250–1000 U/mL) dose-dependently decreased tBHP-induced ROS generation. In RAW264.7 cells, MS-SOD (500 U/mL) had no effect on LPS-induced inflammatory cytokines, but inhibited iNOS expression. These results demonstrate that MS-SOD can scavenge ROS at the initial stage of injury, thus play an indirect role in anti-inflammatory and barrier protein protection. In conclusion, MS-SOD attenuates 5-FU-induced intestinal mucositis by suppressing oxidative stress and inflammation, and influencing microbes. MS-SOD may exert beneficial effect in prevention of intestinal mucositis during chemotherapy in clinic.

Cholestasis is a common feature of liver injury, which manifests as bile acid excretion and/or enterohepatic circulation disorders. However, very few effective therapies exist for cholestasis. Recently, 18β-Glycyrrhetinic acid (18b-GA), a major metabolic component of glycyrrhizin, which is the main ingredient of licorice, was reported to protect against alpha-naphthylisothiocyanate (ANIT)-induced cholestasis. However, its protective mechanism remains unclear. We hypothesized that 18b-GA may stimulate the signaling pathway of bile acid (BA) transportation in hepatocytes, resulting its hepatoprotective effect. According to the results, 18b-GA markedly attenuated ANIT-induced liver injury as indicated the hepatic plasma chemistry index and histopathology examination. In addition, the expression levels of nuclear factors, including Sirt1, FXR and Nrf2, and their target efflux transporters in the liver, which mainly mediate bile acid homeostasis in hepatocytes, significantly increased. Furthermore, we first revealed that 18b-GA treatment significantly activated FXR, and which can be significantly reduced by EX-527 (a potent and selective Sirt1 inhibitor), indicating that 18b-GA activates FXR through Sirt1. Taken together, 18b-GA confers hepatoprotection against ANIT-induced cholestasis by activating FXR through Sirt1, which promotes gene expression of the efflux transporter, and consequently attenuates dysregulation of bile acid homeostasis in hepatocyte compartments.

To provide a theoretical basis for alpine source lake protection, ten samples were taken from each lake annually from 2012 to 2015. Each year, the various species of nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients were measured. The average contents of nitrate nitrogen, ammonia nitrogen, nitrite nitrogen, total phosphorus, and total nitrogen in the four lakes are 0.195–0.0 mg/L, 0.038–0.143 mg/L, 0.004–0.168 mg/L, 0.006–0.740 mg/L, and 0.050–0.547 mg/L, respectively. The total phosphorus contents in Eling Lake, Longbao Lake and Sea Star were higher than Class I water quality standards, and the total nitrogen contents in Eling Lake, Sea Star and Zhaling Lake were higher than Class I water quality standards as well. The concentration contour maps of the nitrate nitrogen, ammonia nitrogen, nitrite nitrogen, total phosphorus and total nitrogen showed that the indicators of the four lakes in the east, the west, and the center of the lake did not have the same trend. From 2012 to 2015, each of the measured nutrients showed a rising trend year by year. The four lakes are polluted by both endogenous and exogenous pollution, and it is necessary to limit the exogenous pollution and protect the alpine lakes immediately.

A uniform Co3O4 layer is coated on nickel-rich cathode material LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2 via a facile polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP)-assisted wet coating process. The 1 wt.% Co3O4-coated LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2 shows improved electrochemical performance, especially the cycling stability, at high cut-off voltage of 4.6 V. Its highly continuous and compact coating layer is confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The improved performance can be attributed to Co3O4 coating layer which acts as HF scavenger and protects LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2 core from electrolyte attack. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) results indicate that the coated sample exhibits lower polarization and higher reversibility of electrode reaction. The storage property of LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2 is also ameliorated by Co3O4 coating. After storing in air for three months, the initial discharge capacities of pristine and 1 wt.% Co3O4-coated LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2 decrease from 206.4 mAh g−1 and 209.5 mAh g−1 at 0.1C (18 mA g−1) to 177.8 mAh g−1 and 198.6 mAh g−1, respectively. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) results reveal that the charge transfer resistance of coated sample after storage is much smaller than that of stored pristine sample. The improved storage property also benefits from Co3O4 coating layer which can prevent the formation of electrochemical inactive Li2CO3/LiOH impurities.

Berberine, berberrubine, thalifendine, demethyleneberberine, jatrorrhizine, and columbamine are six natural protoberberine alkaloid (PA) compounds that display extensive pharmacological properties and share the same protoberberine molecular skeleton with only slight substitution differences. The oral delivery of most PAs is hindered by their poor bioavailability, which is largely caused by P-glycoprotein (P-gp)-mediated drug efflux. Meanwhile, P-gp undergoes large-scale conformational changes (from an inward-facing to an outward-facing state) when transporting substrates, and these changes might strongly affect the P-gp-binding specificity. To confirm whether these six compounds are substrates of P-gp, to investigate the differences in efflux capacity caused by their trivial structural differences and to reveal the key to increasing their binding affinity to P-gp, we conducted a series of in vivo, in vitro, and in silico assays. Here, we first confirmed that all six compounds were substrates of P-gp by comparing the drug concentrations in wild-type and P-gp-knockout mice in vivo. The efflux capacity (net efflux) ranked as berberrubine > berberine > columbamine ~ jatrorrhizine > thalifendine > demethyleneberberine based on in vitro transport studies in Caco-2 monolayers. Using molecular dynamics simulation and molecular docking techniques, we determined the transport pathways of the six compounds and their binding affinities to P-gp. The results suggested that at the early binding stage, different hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions collectively differentiate the binding affinities of the compounds to P-gp, whereas electrostatic interactions are the main determinant at the late release stage. In addition to hydrophobic interactions, hydrogen bonds play an important role in discriminating the binding affinities.

Assuming in the perfectly competitive market, using the optimal control theory and making the social welfare as the maximization target, the paper studies on environment control which impacts the optimal extraction path of exhaustible resource. The special case result shows that: reserve and the changes of environment capacity function and curve are influenced by original reserve, discounted value, the absolute ratio of green environment flow to resource extraction quantity, and marginal cost.

Assuming in the perfectly competitive market, using the optimal control theory and making the social welfare as the maximization target, the paper studies on environment cost which impacts the optimal extraction path of exhaustible resource. The special case result shows that: the time of optimal exhaustion increases with the addition of marginal environmental cost, the price has negative linear correlation with the marginal environmental cost, and the optimal extraction has positive linear correlation with the marginal environmental cost.

Genital warts are more extensive and difficult to treat in patients with diabetes mellitus due to defective immune responses.Our aim was to confirm the suitability of local hyperthermia for the treatment of genital warts in patients with diabetes mellitus and to investigate the immune cells in lesional areas at different time intervals after treatment.We treated three diabetic patients with extensive genital warts by local hyperthermia at 44 °C for 30 min a day for 3 consecutive days plus 2 additional days 1 week later, then once a week till there showed signs of clinical clearance. Immunohistochemical profile was described on serial biopsies from a patient with confluent plaques.The warty lesions in the patients resolved in 6, 4 and 9 weeks, respectively. Immunohistochemical staining in the regressing warts revealed abundant infiltrating CD4+ T and CD8+ T lymphocytes (P 0.01), as well as macrophages and CD1a+ dendritic cells.This preliminary study suggested that local hyperthermia was a safe and effective single modality in the treatment of genital warts in diabetic patients and could induce a rapid immune response in lesional skin.

Different platinum catalysts patterns such as dots array and films were successfully fabricated by directly inkjet printing of catalyst precursor inks on the substrate. It offers a feasible way for platinum catalyst deposition by precise control of catalyst loading, deposition position, and morphology. The effects on drying behavior of printed catalyst droplet on the catalytic performance of low temperature methanol catalytic combustion were investigated. The results show that the conversion of methanol over printed Platinum patterns in the catalytic combustion is approximately 85% at 100°C.

Thermoelectric bismuth-telluride films were successfully prepared from nitric acid aqueous solution with ethylene glycol on Ti-sputtered silicon substrates by electrochemical deposition techniques. Cyclic voltammograms (CV), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were used to investigate nucleation process, the crystal structures, morphologies and compositions of the bismuth-telluride films. The results show that the materials are Bi-rich, exhibiting preferred (110) orientation with rhombohedral structure. The crystallite size of films was calculated based on Scherrer’s equation and found to be 18-20 nm.

Let G be a graph with vertex set V (G) and edge set E(G) and let g and f be two integervalued functions defined on V (G) such that 2k – 2 ≤ g(x) ≤ f(x) for all x ∈ V (G). Let H be a subgraph of G with mk edges. In this paper, it is proved that every (mg +m– 1,mf – m + 1)–graph G has (g, f)–factorizations randomly k–orthogonal to H under some special conditions.

To study the liposoluble constituents from the flowers of Calotropis gigantea and their antimicrobial activities.The liposoluble constituents from the flowers of Calotropis gigantea were analyzed by GC-MS and their relative contents were determined by area normalization. Their antimicrobial activities against 2 pathogens were tested by agar disc diffusion method.31 compounds were separated and identified, amounting to 85.14% of the total constituents. The liposoluble constituents from the flowers of Calotropis gigantea exhibited weak antimicrobial activities against Staphylococcus aureus and Canidia albicans.The research result provides scientific foundation for exploitation and utilization of Calotropis gigantea.

Tuning of diastereoselectivity was realized in the Mannich reaction of glycine derivatives with aromatic and aliphatic N-Ts imines using CuClO4−FcPHOX ligand 4b and 4f having an MeO group at the 4-position and F atom at the 3,5-position of the phenyl ring on the P-atom respectively as catalyst, providing either anti- or syn-α,β-diamino acid derivatives in high yields and in high diastereo- and enantioselectivities.

Recently, the pollution from pond aquaculture waste water has become more and more serious. In order to perfectly deal with such problem, the paper discussed the feasibility of using photochemical reactivity to remove pollutants through improving pond aquatic ecosystem from wastewater with the aim of water recycling and zero discharge. A photochemical treatment system (PTS) was designed that used photochemical reactivity to treat the polluted aquaculture wastewater. A spot observation method has been used in discussing the reactivity for the treatment of pond aquaculture wastewater with this system on a shrimp farm in Hainan province of China. The result showed that culture pond with PTS could realize progressive efficiency of pollutant removal without water exchange in a recirculating system, which could perfectly meet the need of environment protection and culture production.

Palladium-catalyzed asymmetric ring opening of oxabenzonorbornadienes with readily available organozinc halides under mild conditions in the presence of (S)-Pr(i)-PHOX produces the corresponding 1,2-dihydronaphth-1-ols in good yield and high enantioselectivity. [reaction: see text]

Tuning of diastereoselectivity was realized in the Mannich reaction of glycine derivatives with aromatic and aliphatic N-Ts imines using CuClO4-FcPHOX ligand 4b and 4f having an MeO group at the 4-position and F atom at the 3,5-position of the phenyl ring on the P-atom respectively as catalyst, providing either anti- or syn-alpha,beta-diamino acid derivatives in high yields and in high diastereo- and enantioselectivities.