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C13H20O4, monoclinic, P21 (no. 4), a = 9.7071(4) Å, b = 7.9026(4) Å, c = 17.3139(7) Å, β = 101.617(4)°, V = 1300.97(10) Å3, Z = 4, Rgt(F) = 0.0428, wRref (F 2) = 0.1145, T = 170 K.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a complementary and alternative medicine but possesses remarkable clinical efficacy in China and surrounding countries. Hence, systematic analysis and elucidation of the complex chemical basis and action mechanisms of TCM will be highly beneficial. Nowadays, the widespread application of network pharmacology has unveiled the mystery of TCM to some extent by constructing the relationship of “herb-compound-target-disease”. Moreover, it can promote the development of drug discovery, medical guidance, and the dissection of the syndrome in TCM. With the integration of computational techniques into network pharmacology, the efficiency of data mining and the accuracy of active compounds identification and target fishing have been improved, and the “herb-compound-targt-disease” network has been more systematically and comprehensively explained to reflect the holistic mechanisms of TCM. Therefore, a comprehensive overview of each aspect of the use of computational techniques in TCM network pharmacology is urgent. This chapter systematically dissects the core contents involved in TCM computational network pharmacology and highlights its application on TCM against COVID-19, and severs the cutting-edge study examples to compare and analyze the advantages and limitations of different computational techniques.

A combined system consisting of an upflow blanket filter (UBF) and a moving-bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) was developed for the simultaneous removal of organic matters and ammonia from high-strength wastewater. With a constant COD of approximately 2000 mg/L and ammonium nitrogen in a series of concentrations (e.g., 50, 200 and 400 mg/L in stages I to III) of the influent wastewater, the removal efficiencies of COD, ammonium nitrogen and total nitrogen reached 96.10%-98.19%, 100%, and 79.12%-82.15%, respectively. With the increase of influent ammonia nitrogen concentration, the specific methanogenic activity of the UBF granules decreased significantly, while the specific denitrification rates of the UBF granules and specific nitrification rates of the MBBR biofilms increased significantly. Microbial community analysis showed that Methanobacterium and Methanosaeta were the dominant methanogens in the UBF granules, while Candidatus Competibacter, Thauera and Acinetobacter were identified as dominant denitrifiers. In addition, nitrifiers were enriched in MBBR biofilms at 11.33% and 13.87% of the average abundance of Nitrosomonas and Nitrospira, respectively, at stage III (influent ammonium at 400 mg/L, COD/NH

The complexation of the antitumor agent busulfan by negatively charged carboxylatopillar[5]arene in water is reported. The encapsulation within carboxylatopillar[5]arene reduces the hydrolytic degradation of busulfan from 90.7% to 25.2% after 24 days and accordingly enhances its stability by providing a hydrophobic shelter for busulfan in water. Moreover, the complexation results in 12 times improvement of water solubility for busulfan. Our result provides a supramolecular approach for stabilizing the anticancer agent busulfan.

Traditional Chinese medicine, as a complementary and alternative medicine, has been practiced for thousands of years in China and possesses remarkable clinical efficacy. Thus, systematic analysis and examination of the mechanistic links between Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) and the complex human body can benefit contemporary understandings by carrying out qualitative and quantitative analysis. With increasing attention, the approach of network pharmacology has begun to unveil the mystery of CHM by constructing the heterogeneous network relationship of "herb-compound-target-pathway," which corresponds to the holistic mechanisms of CHM. By integrating computational techniques into network pharmacology, the efficiency and accuracy of active compound screening and target fishing have been improved at an unprecedented pace. This review dissects the core innovations to the network pharmacology approach that were developed in the years since 2015 and highlights how this tool has been applied to understanding the coronavirus disease 2019 and refining the clinical use of CHM to combat it.

Gastric cancer is one of the common malignant tumors in the world, which originates from the gene mutation of human cells. In this work, an atomic force microscope was used to quantitatively detect the changes of multiple physical parameters such as the cell morphology, surface roughness, elasticity modulus and adhesion force before and after Phellinus linteus stimulation. The experimental results show that Phellinus linteus can change the shape of gastric cancer cells (SGC-7901) from flat to spherical, and increase their height and surface roughness values. The adhesion force of cells is reduced and the elasticity modulus is increased. But there are no significant differences in the morphology and mechanical properties of gastric epithelial cells (GES-1). The results indicate that Phellinus linteus has a high anticancer effect on the gastric cancer cells, but has less toxic side effects on the gastric epithelial cells. This work proves that Phellinus linteus can be used as a preferred anticancer drug for the treatment of gastric cancer cells.

In this study, the embryonic development of Syngnathus schlegeli is first described based on external morphological characteristics and then the genetic relationship between embryos is investigated using a microsatellite-based approach. Embryonic development proceeds from fertilized egg to prerelease of larva and can be categorized into four periods: early embryogenesis, eye development, snout formation and larva, which can be further divided into 15 stages. Embryos in the brood pouch are all in the same developmental stage. However, multi-maternity is observed in all sampled broods. Microsatellite-based parentage analysis suggests that pregnant males had, per male, mated with and received eggs from 3 to 7 females, with average being 4.3. The embryos of full sibs within a brood pouch were clustered, and seven patterns of parentage were observed. Combining previous studies with the evidence obtained from genotyped eggs inside the brood pouch in this study, we can confirm that the mating pattern of S. schlegeli is polygamous.

Qixuehe Capsules is a compound Chinese patent medicine developed for treating the disorder of Qi and blood(a common etiology of gynecological disease), which has remarkable effects on smoothing liver and regulating Qi, activating blood circulation, and relieving pain. However, due to its complex prescriptions(15 herbs) and multiple effects, the quality control of Qixuehe Capsules has always been a bottleneck problem limiting its sustainable development. Therefore, this study adopted the traditional Chinese medicine Q-markers quantitative identification system established previously by our research group based on the combination of analytic hierarchy process and entropy weight methods. With the different effects of Qixuehe Capsules as the entry point, the comprehensive scores of chemical ingre-dients in Qixuehe Capsules under the items of effectiveness(smoothing liver and regulating qi, activating blood circulation, and relieving pain), testability and specificity were calculated and integrated, respectively. Subsequently, through the analysis of compatibility relationship of Qixuehe Capsules, 15 active ingredients with high comprehensive scores were found to be the top Q-mar-kers of Qixuehe Capsules, including ferulic acid, quercetin, caffeic acid, kaempferol, rutin, Z-ligustilide, senkyunolide Ⅰ, vanillic acid, protocatechuic acid, chlorogenic acid, rosmarinic acid, senkyunolide A, gallic acid, tetrahydropalmatine and eugenol. Collectively, this study not only provided scientific evidence for further research on the improvement and standardization of quality standards of Qixuehe Capsules but also provided methodological references for the quantitative identification of Q-markers of multi-effect traditional Chinese medicine formulae.

Ethnopharmacological relevance The Danggui-Yimucao herb pair (DY) is a classic combination in Chinese herbal formulas, consisting of the root of Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels and the aerial parts of Leonurus japonicus Houtt. DY first appeared in “Zhulinsi fuke mifang” in the Jin Dynasty, and it has a long history as a drug for the treatment of abortion. However, its underlying immunomodulatory mechanisms involved are still unclear. Aim of the study In this study, network pharmacology and pharmacological experiments were used to explore the role and mechanism of DY in the treatment of medical abortion. Materials and methods Network pharmacology was used to establish the relationship between the components of DY and abortion-related targets, and to enrich important pathways and biological process for verification. ELISA was used to assess progesterone levels. Flow cytometry was used to detect the degree of differentiation of Th1/Th2 cells. Immunohistochemical methods and qPCR were used to measure the expression levels of T-bet, GATA-3 and IL-4. Results Through the prediction analysis of network pharmacology, we found that key pathway for DY treatment of abortion, such as anemia, pelvic infection, immune disorders, and coagulation disorders, was Th1/Th2 cell differentiation pathway. The pharmacological results revealed that DY greatly corrected the imbalance of Th cell subsets in abortion mice, significantly inhibited the differentiation of Th2 cells, and resulted in an increase in the Th1/Th2 ratio. In addition, the concentration of progesterone in the serum of mice after abortion was significantly reduced. We also found that DY upregulated spleen T-bet and downregulated IL-4 gene expression in mice. Besides, immunohistochemical results showed that DYE could up-regulate T-bet but inhibit GATA-3 expression. Conclusions Our results showed that after RU486-induced abortion, progesterone and Th1/Th2 paradigm were disordered in mice, but DY could make mice recover more quickly, which indicated that DY had great development value in immunoregulation.

In this work, a bioassay-guided fractionation strategy was used to isolate 26 phenolic compounds from the ethyl acetate partition of an ethanol extract of the aerial parts of Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch. ex DC. Among them, 8 prenylated phenolic compounds (glycyuralins Q-X) were described for the first time. The two enantiomers of glycyuralin Q were purified and their absolute configurations were established by ECD spectral calculations. (1″R, 2″S)-glycyuralin Q and (1″S, 2″R)-glycyuralin Q showed significant inhibitory activities against SARS-CoV-2 virus proteases 3CL

Identifying the rate-determining step over the catalysts and clarifying the underlying mechanisms are crucial for maximizing the electrocatalytic hydrodechlorination (EHDC) efficiency for detoxification of the chlorophenol pollutants in water. Here, monodisperse palladium nanoparticles (Pd NPs) separately supported on carbon (C) and titanium nitride (TiN) were synthesized as two model catalysts. The support effects on EHDC efficiency, kinetics and current efficiency towards 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP), and the electronic structure of Pd and its binding strengths with 2,4-DCP, phenol and Cl- (the primary EHDC product) were investigated by experimental and density functional theory (DFT) analyses. The low current efficiency (

This study aimed to better understand the transformation behaviors of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and their roles in regulating bacterial community in biological wastewater treatment processes. Herein, well-controlled bioassays under aerobic and anoxic conditions were performed to investigate degradation dynamics, composition variations, and bacterial response during EPS transformation. Reactivity continuum modeling showed that organic pools of EPS had continuous reactivity distributions, and most labile organic fraction with a degrading rate0.1 h

Converting CO2 into commodity chemicals including fuels has emerged as a worldwide focus for science and engineering communities. However, the current state of art in CO2 fixation has low energy efficiency with slow kinetics in the process of CO2 reduction. Here, we propose a new “two-step” approach for CO2 reduction to methane. An integrated reduction system (IRS) was demonstrated to combine the advantages of both electrochemical and biological CO2 reduction reactions. A three-chambered electrochemical cell was designed, in which CO2 was first reduced to formate electrochemically with a decent selectivity. The produced formate was separated by electrodialysis, and subsequently consumed by a strain of methanogen, Methanococcus maripaludis. Through this IRS, CO2 was eventually converted into CH4, allowing easy product separation. In a 100-h test, the total electron recovery efficiency of CH4 was around 37%, with an average CH4 production rate of 0.01 mmole d−1 mL−1. Five volts of voltage was applied to the system, while the cathodic potential slightly decreased from −1.5 V to −1.4 V (vs. Ag/AgCl), showing an excellent stability of the electrode. The energy efficiency of CO2 conversion in terms of electricity consumption was calculated to be 16.9 g per kW h. The results show the promise of IRS presented here in CO2 reduction. Since the electrochemical step and the biochemical step proceeds in separated chambers, independent operation and maintenance of either step become possible. Furthermore, the proposed CO2 IRS offers possibilities of producing a variety of chemicals by introducing appropriate microbial communities using formate as a substrate.

Searching efficient sustainable approaches for the metal nanoparticles (NPs) synthesis has become a research focus. Bioreduction with metal-reducing bacterium at ambient temperature provides a green route for metal NPs synthesis, especially for precious metals. In this work, activated Pd NPs were synthesized by contacting Pd2+ solution with an efficient metal-reducing Shewanella oneidensis bacterium, in which the bacterium acted as reducing, capping, and stabilizing agents, and the shape and composition of the Pd NPs could be tuned with the activation of KOH at elevated temperatures. The as-activated Pd NPs showed a favorable performance toward catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AP), with a remarkable apparent kinetic constant of 5.0 × 10–3 s–1, which was 12 times greater than that of the raw biogenic Pd NPs, even comparable to that of the commercial 5.0 wt % Pd/C. Changes of the Pd NPs aggregates, ratio of Pd to S, and surface area of the support at different temperatures and...

Recently, micro-particles with a size range of 0.45–10 μm in anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs), were rich in microorganisms and characterized as a significant source to membrane fouling. Nevertheless, little is known about the formation of the micro-particles associated microorganisms as well as their metabolic functions, which could be largely impacted by carbon sources in the influent. Here, protein and glucose were chosen to be two different carbon sources fed into two identical AnMBRs (i.e., AnMBR-P and AnMBR-G), and a comprehensive comparison of the micro-particles formed in corresponding reactors was made. Size-dependent fractionation and fluorescent staining assay showed that micro-particles with the size range of 0.45–1 μm possessed the highest contents (41.4%) in the AnMBR-P and presented as vibrios and coccus, while the 5–10 μm micro-particles with filamentous morphologies were the prevailing fraction (61.9%) in the AnMBR-G. According to the results of high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing, the Lentimicrobiaceae, D8A-2 and Syntrophorhabdus prevailed in the AnMBR-P micro-particles, while the SJA-15 showed overwhelming predominance than the other genera in the AnMBR-G micro-particles. Metagenomic sequencing further revealed that the micro-particles in the AnMBR-P possessed higher abundance in specific functional genes for nitrogen metabolism (nirB), sulfur metabolism (cysK) and cysteine and methionine metabolism (mtaD), as well as in the cell mobility as chemotaxis (rbsB) and flagellar assembly (fliC). In comparison, the micro-particles obtained from the AnMBR-G encoded abundant genes for converting glucose to metabolites in the next level, such as glk (glucokinase), pfk (ATP-dependent phosphofructokinase), and PGK (phosphoglycerate kinase). Overall, our findings provided new insights into the formation of micro-particles in the supernatant of AnMBRs, which could facilitate to propose related fouling alleviation methods from the perspective of carbon sources regulation and/or pretreatment of the influent.

Membrane scaling is a critical challenge for membrane distillation (MD), especially when treating hypersaline brines. In this study, an anti-scaling membrane was developed with a liquid-like surface coating. This fabrication approach combined electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane with surface fluorination without the addition of nanoparticles. Two fluoro silanes with the same alkyl-chain length but different hydrolysis reaction sites were investigated as the fluorination agents. Membrane characterizations indicated that surface modification with the single hydrolysis site fluoro silane (17-FAS-S) did not change the membrane morphology or structure. On the other hand, surface modification with the triple hydrolysis site fluoro silane (17-FAS-T) generated nanoparticles on the membrane surface, resulting in increased roughness. While both the 17-FAS-S and 17-FAS-T modified membranes exhibited excellent scaling resistance in the MD scaling tests, the 17-FAS-S membrane provided a much higher vapor flux than the 17-FAS-T one. Finally, the mechanism of scaling resistance and vapor permeability provided by the liquid-like modification was discussed.

Membrane distillation (MD) is a promising desalination technology that is capable of utilizing low-grade thermal energy to treat highly saline feed water. Conventional hydrophobic MD membranes limit the application of MD to desalination of relatively clean water without amphiphilic contaminants, as those amphiphilic constituents promote wetting of MD membrane and failure of the MD process. Here, we report a facile approach to fabricate superamphiphobic MD membranes with anti-surfactant-wetting property based on coaxial electrospinning. Silica nanoparticles were used as the sheath solution to create electrospun fibers with nanoscale roughness on individual fibers. After surface fluorination, the fabricated membrane exhibited superamphiphobicity as reflected by very high sessile drop contact angles with both water and oil. Robust MD performance in the presence of surfactants was observed with the superamphiphobic membrane, but not with commercial hydrophobic membranes or amphiphobic membrane without local nanoscale roughness.

Background: Memory T cells play a key role in the development of atherosclerosis (AS). This study aimed to investigate the role of AMPK signaling pathway of spleen memory T cells in the pathogenesis of AS in high-fat diet (HFD) fed mice. Methods: Mice were divided into 5 groups: normal group, AS group, AS + solvent group, AS + Compound C (AMPK inhibitor) group and AS + A-769662 (AMPK agonist) group. HFD animals were intraperitoneally treated with Compound C at 20 mg/kg thrice weekly or A-769662 at 30 mg/kg once daily for 15 weeks. Then, the degree of AS was assessed, and the proportion of memory T cell was determined by flow cytometry. Results: AS was evident in the aorta of HFD mice. The areas of plaque formation in both AS + Compound C group and AS + A-769662 group reduced as compared to the AS group and AS + solvent group. After intervention of AMPK activity, the proportion of memory T cells in the spleen reduced as compared to the AS group and AS + solvent group; the pro proportion of memory T cells in HFD groups was markedly higher than in the normal group and this increase was more evident in the AS + Compound C than in the AS + A-769662 group. Conclusions: The decreased memory T cells can improve AS, which may be related to the AMPK signaling pathway. Thus, AMPK in the memory T cells may serve as a target in the prevention and treatment of AS.

Background. Qixuehe capsule (QXH), a Chinese patent medicine, has been demonstrated to be effective in the treatment of menstrual disorders. In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theory, qi stagnation and blood stasis syndrome (QS-BSS) is the main syndrome type of menstrual disorders. However, the pharmacodynamic effect of QXH in treating QS-BSS is not clear, and the main active compounds and underlying mechanisms remain unknown.Methods. A rat model of QS-BSS was established to evaluate the pharmacodynamic effect of QXH. Thereafter, a network pharmacology approach was performed to decipher the active compounds and underlying mechanisms of QXH.Results. QXH could significantly reduce the rising whole blood viscosity (WBV) and plasma viscosity (PV) but also normalize prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), thrombin time (TT), and fibrinogen (FIB) content in QS-BSS rats. Based on partial least-squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), the low-dose QXH-intervened (QXH-L) and the high-dose QXH-intervened (QXH-H) groups seemed the most effective by calculating the relative distance to normality. Through network pharmacology, QXH may improve hemorheological abnormality mainly via 185 compounds-51 targets-28 pathways, whereas 184 compounds-68 targets-28 pathways were associated with QXH in improving coagulopathy. Subsequently, 25 active compounds of QXH were verified by UPLC-Q/TOF-MS. Furthermore, 174 active compounds of QXH were shared in improving hemorheological abnormality and coagulopathy in QS-BSS, each of which can act on multiple targets to be mainly involved in complement and coagulation cascades, leukocyte transendothelial migration, PPAR signaling pathway, VEGF signaling pathway, and arachidonic acid metabolism. The attribution of active compounds indicated that Angelicae Sinensis Radix (DG), Paeoniae Radix Rubra (CS), Carthami Flos (HH), Persicae Semen (TR), and Corydalis Rhizoma (YHS) were the vital herbs of QXH in treating QS-BSS.Conclusion. QXH can improve the hemorheology abnormality and coagulopathy of QS-BSS, which may result from the synergy of multiple compounds, targets, and pathways.

Microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) was incorporated into anaerobic digestion (AD) to evaluate the methane recovery from digestion of glucose and sludge and the pertinent methanogenic population. At the poise voltages of 0.3 and 0.6 V, the MEC-assisted AD systems increased the yields of methane from glucose degradation by 9.4 ± 0.4% and 9.4 ± 0.5%, respectively. The energy recovery efficiencies from the electricity use in the MEC-assisted systems were 41.6% and 33.7%, respectively. For waste sludge, methane yields increased by 8.1 ± 0.5% and 8.5 ± 0.6% at 0.3 and 0.6 V, respectively. qPCR studies of population dynamics, reveal that the composition of acetoclastic methanogens was not impacted by the MEC-assisted systems, but the population of hydrogenotrophic methanogens such as Methanomicrobiales and Methanobacteriales increased by up to 17.2 times. Our results suggest that applying a low voltage (0.3 V) to AD systems is beneficial to hydrogenotrophic methanogens, resulting in an increase in methane production.

Exoelectrogenic bacteria (EEB) play a central role in bioenergy recovery, biogeochemistry of elements, and polluting remediation. The electrochemical activity of EEB biofilm on electrode was proven to be dependent on the electrode potential, but the mechanism behind such a phenomenon is unclear. In this work, Geobacter sulfurreducens biofilms were developed at potentials ranging from −0.1 V to +0.6 V vs. standard hydrogen electrode to explore the profiles of potential regulation on G. sulfurreducens biofilm development and the electrochemical activity. We found that elevating the developing potential could improve the current generation by G. sulfurreducens biofilm until +0.1 V. At higher potentials less current was generated, although more biomass was formed on the electrode. The same cytochrome c species were synthesized for electron transfer in all biofilms, independent of the developing potential. Electrochemical experimental results and redox-sensitive staining imagings proved that the biofilms developed at +0.2 V–+0.4 V had greater cytochrome c contents and reducing capacities than the others. Current generation at high potentials was likely to be limited by both the metabolic rate and the electron transfer kinetics. These findings are useful for tuning the electrochemical activity of biofilm in catalyzing redox processes or generating electricity, which is crucial for the environmental and electrochemical application of EEB.

Atrazine is a widely used herbicide and a typical toxic pollutant. TiO 2 -mediated photocatalysis is an efficient way to degrade such a refractory contaminate. In a photocatalyic process, great charge separation and efficient interparticle electron transfer are highly desired and are usually achieved through element doping and phase-junction optimization. However, in the traditional methods for synthesizing phase-junction TiO 2 , high phase transition temperature and appropriate adjustors are always needed. In this work, boron-doped (B-doped) TiO 2 with a tunable anatase/rutile ratio is successfully synthesized for efficient atrazine degradation by using a simple one-step calcination method, which is conducted below phase transition temperature with as-prepared Ti and B mixture as a precursor. The formation of the surface-phase junctions between anatase and rutile nanoparticles enables effective interparticle electron transfer and results in more efficient charge separation. Also, the B-doping serves as charge traps, which are able to mediate oxidative electron transfer. The prepared B-doped TiO 2 exhibits a higher photocatalytic activity for the degradation of atrazine, with a reaction rate of 4 times faster than that of the non-doped counterpart. The photogenerated reactive species and degradation intermediates of atrazine are identified, and the photocatalytic atrazine degradation mechanism is elucidated. This study provides a new approach to prepare phase-junction photocatalysts and demonstrates that the anatase/rutile ratio can be tuned by doping element. Such a “killing two birds with one arrow” strategy could be extended for preparing other photocatalysts for the degradation of various pollutants.

Conventional hydrophobic membranes are susceptible to membrane fouling and pore wetting, impeding the applications of membrane distillation (MD) processes for water recovery from complex wastewater. To address these challenges, we herein developed a novel Janus membrane by a hybrid plant-derived polyphenols coating and polyelectrolytes layer-by-layer assembly strategy. Through alternative deposition of catechol/chitosan and polyethylenimine (PEI) on top of a hydrophobic polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) substrate, a Janus membrane with a superhydrophilic and defect-free top layer was achieved. The synergistic effects of covalent bonding, non-covalent interactions, and electrostatic interactions between neighboring coatings endowed the membrane with robust chemical stability in the pH range of 2–12. In comparison with the pristine PVDF membrane, the Janus membrane exhibited remarkably stable water vapor flux and high quality of effluent during long-term treatments of non-ionic/cationic surfactants and Tween® 20-stabilized oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion in the bench-scale direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) experiments. The excellent anti-fouling and anti-wetting properties of the Janus membrane were attributed to its hierarchical structured superhydrophilic surface, in which a strong hydration layer was formed and served as an energetic barrier to prevent adsorption of surfactants and oil droplets. Moreover, the electrostatic repulsion between the protonated amino groups on the membrane surface and cationic surfactant molecules also contributed to the robust long-term performance (nearly one-week operation) of the Janus membrane in the treatment of saline water containing cationic surfactant. Our findings reveal the significant role of surface functionality in fouling and wetting resistance of MD membranes and the as-developed Janus membrane shows great potential for water recovery from saline wastewater containing challenging contaminants via DCMD.

Ethnopharmacological relevance Neuropathic pain, the incidence of which ranges from 5 to 8% in the general population, remains challenge in the treatment. Shaoyao Gancao decoction (SGD) is a Chinese classical formula used to relieve pain for thousands of years and has been applied for neuropathic pain nowadays. However, the effective components of SGD for the treatment of neuropathic pain remains unclear. Aims of study To investigate the effect and potential mechanism of SGD against neuropathic pain and further reveal the effective components of SGD in the treatment of neuropathic pain. Materials and methods Spared nerve injury (SNI) model rats of neuropathic pain were orally given SGD to intervene, the components in vivo after SGD administration were determined, behavior indicators, biochemical parameters, and metabolomics were applied for assessing the efficacy. Then correlation between components and biomarkers was analyzed by pearson correlation method. To further measure the contribution of components to efficacy, the combination of partial least-squares regression (PLSR) and multi-index comprehensive method was carried out, according to the corresponding contribution degree of the results, the components with large contribution degree were considered as the effective components. Results SGD exhibited a significant regulatory effect on neuropathic pain, which could increase the pain threshold and decrease the levels of SP, β-EP, PGE2 and NO. With the high resolution of UPLC-Q-TOF/MS technology, a total of 128 compounds from SGD were identified and 44 of them were absorbed in blood. Besides, 40 serum biomarkers were identified after intervention of SGD and the metabolic pathways were constructed. The key metabolic pathways including Glycerophospholipid metabolism, Linoleic acid metabolism, Alpha-linolenic acid metabolism, Glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchor biosynthesis and Arachidonic acid metabolism may be related to the regulation of neuropathic pain. Metabolomics combined with PLSR and multi-index comprehensive method was utilized to discover 5 components including paeonol, DL-Arabinose, benzoic acid, hispaglabridin A and paeonilactone C as effective components of SGD in the treatment of neuropathic pain. This strategy was used to explore the effective components of SGD and elucidate its possible analgesic mechanism. Conclusion This study demonstrate that SGD significantly relieved neuropathic pain and elucidated the effective components of SGD for treating neuropathic pain, the strategy as an illustrative case study can be applied to other classical formula and is beneficial to improve the quality and efficacy.

The recovery and reuse of phosphorus (P) from wastewater treatment process is a critical and viable target for sustainable P utilization. This study explores a novel approach of integrating ultrafine mineral particles into hydrogel matrixes for enhancing the capacity of phosphate adsorption. Dolomite-alginate (DA) hydrogel beads were prepared by integrating ball-milled, ultrafine dolomite powders into calcium cross-linked alginate hydrogel matrix. The adsorption isotherms followed a Langmuir-Freundlich adsorption model with higher specific adsorption capacity than those reported in literature. The kinetics of phosphate adsorption suggest that the adsorption is diffusion controlled. Investigation of adsorption capacity at different pH showed a maximum adsorption capacity in the pH range of 7-10. Lastly, we demonstrated that the DA beads are capable of slowly releasing most of the adsorbed phosphate, which is an important criterion for them to be an effective phosphorous fertilizer. This study, using DA composite hydrogel as an example, demonstrates a promising strategy of immobilizing ultrafine mineral adsorbents into biocompatible hydrogel matrix for effective recovery of phosphorous resource from wastewater. PRACTITIONER POINTS: Integration of dolomite and alginate hydrogel beads is demonstrated using ball milling. Ball milling process increases the specific adsorption capacity of dolomite on phosphorus. Adsorption isotherms, kinetics, and pH effects of the dolomite-alginate beads are investigated. The dolomite-alginate beads can be used as slow-release phosphorus fertilizer.

A microbial fuel cell (MFC) is an emerging technology to harvest electricity from waste, but generally suffers from low power density at the present stage. Especially, the poor cathode performance usually presents a limiting factor. In this work, we prepare a novel cathode material for an MFC by growing vertically-aligned nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (N-CNTs) on carbon cloth (CC) using a chemical vapor deposition method, and evaluate its performance in MFC tests. The results show that the MFC with the N-CNT–CC as its cathode exhibits an output power density of 542 mW m−3, greater than that of the MFC with the Pt/C-coated CC cathode. The electrochemical experimental results show higher catalytic activity for oxygen reduction and a smaller resistance of the N-CNT–CC electrode, compared to those of the Pt/C-CC, which are responsible for its better MFC performance. The N-CNT–CC material prepared in this work may offer an appealing metal-free and low-cost alternative to Pt/C for MFC cathode applications.

Nano zero valent iron (NZVI) has shown inhibition on methanogenesis in anaerobic digestion due to its reductive decomposition of cell membrane. The inhibition was accompanied by the accumulation of hydrogen gas due to rapid NZVI dissolution. It is not clear whether and how rapid hydrogen release from NZVI dissolution directly affects anaerobic digestion. In this study, the hydrogen release kinetics from NZVI (average size = 55 ± 11 nm) dissolution in deionized water under anaerobic conditions was first evaluated. The first-order NZVI dissolution rate constant was 2.62 ± 0.26 h(-1) with its half-life of 0.26 ± 0.03 h. Two sets of anaerobic digestion experiments (i.e., in the presence of glucose or without any substrate but at different anaerobic sludge concentrations) were performed to study the impact of H2 release from rapid NZVI dissolution, in which H2 was generated in a separate water bottle containing NZVI (i.e., ex situ H2 or externally supplied from NZVI dissolution) before hydrogen gas was introduced to anaerobic digestion. The results showed that the H2 partial pressure in the headspace of the digestion bottle reached as high as 0.27 atm due to rapid NZVI dissolution, resulting in temporary inhibition of methane production. Nevertheless, the 5-d cumulative methane volume in the group with ex situ H2 production due to NZVI dissolution was actually higher than that of control, suggesting NZVI inhibition on methanogenesis is solely due to the reductive decomposition of cell membrane after direct contact with NZVI.

We report a facile synthesis of Au-Fe heterodimer nanoparticles (NPs) with tunable Au/Fe sizes and their sequential oxidations to Au-Fe3O4 heterostructured NPs with controllable morphologies. The size of Au in Au-Fe heterodimer NPs was tuned to be 4, 7 and 10 nm, while the Fe crystal structure was maintained as single-crystal bcc. Further oxidation of the as-synthesized Au-Fe NPs led to the formation of Au-hollow Fe3O4 yolk-shell, Au-hollow Fe3O4 heterodimer NPs and Au-porous hollow Fe3O4 yolk-shell NPs, depending on the size of the Au-Fe NPs and the oxidation conditions used. Our study has provided not only a variety of bifunctional NPs with tunable surface plasmon absorption and magnetic properties, but also a new general approach to design and synthesize multicomponent NPs with multiple heterostructures.

Among the actively studied electrode materials, layered cobalt or nickel compounds have been recognized as a family of promising electrode materials for supercapacitor. However, the cycling performance of these materials is unsatisfactory by far. In this work, a novel and stable layered cobalt nickel silicate hollow sphere compound was prepared for supercapacitor application using a facile hydrothermal synthetic approach. The obtained material exhibited a good specific capacitance and outstanding long-term cycling stability (only 0.7% and 5% losses of its initial specific capacitance after 10,000 and 20,000 cycles, respectively) at a high current density of 20 A/g after annealing at 600 °C. This work provides new insights of designing novel cobalt or nickel compounds for supercapacitor with excellent stability, and promotes the application of layered metal silicates as advanced supercapacitor materials.

Noble-metals with carbon-based support remains a typical catalyst in fuel cell applications, but their fabrication is usually complicated and energy intensive. In this work, Shewanella cells are used as an environmentally friendly factory for nano-sized Pd preparation and a precursor for multifunctional carbon support with functionalized surface and heteroatom dopant. With simple KOH activation at 420 °C, a highly-porous heteroatom-doped carbon with well-dispersed Pd nanoparticles was derived from the microbial cells. The as-synthesized material exhibited a 2.2-times larger specific mass catalytic activity (at −0.1 V vs. Ag/AgCl) towards oxygen reduction reaction, better durability and higher methanol tolerance than commercial Pt/C catalyst. Density functional theory calculations provide a molecular-level insight into the ORR mechanism, and suggest that its great catalytic activity was ascribed to the high reactivity of Pd 4 cluster and the N- and O-doped carbon support with vacancy. This work opens a facile, low-cost and eco-friendly approach for hybrid electrocatalyst preparation and provides implications for the expanded application of biogenic nano-sized metal nanoparticles.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is widely recognized as a powerful analytical tool. However, its application has been limited by the lack of reliable and reproducible metal-particle substrates. In this work, a silver (Ag) nanocomplex array SERS substrate with highly-ordered and uniform sunflower-like structure was fabricated by integrating deep-ultraviolet lithography and electrodeposition methods. The as-prepared nanocomplex array, consisting of a thin circular Ag nanoparticle layer in the centre and dendritic Ag nanostructures at the flange, exhibited a substantial enhancement in Raman signals and good reproducibility for SERS measurement of 4-aminothiophenol. The dendritic nanostructures were formed as a result of the edge effect and diffusion-limited aggregation. The morphology and Raman signal enhancement of the substrate were governed by electrodeposition parameters such as electrodeposition time, deposition potential and citric acid concentration. This fabrication approach is facile, cost-effective, highly reproducible and easily controllable, offering a great opportunity for large-scale production of substrate and practical application of SERS.

A novel Janus membrane integrating an omniphobic substrate and an in-air hydrophilic, underwater superoleophobic skin layer was developed to enable membrane distillation (MD) to desalinate hypersaline brine with both hydrophobic foulants and amphiphilic wetting agents. Engineered to overcome the limitations of existing MD membranes, the Janus membrane has been shown to exhibit novel wetting properties unobserved in any existing membrane, including hydrophobic membranes, omniphobic membranes, and hydrophobic membranes with a hydrophilic surface coating. Being simultaneously resistant to both membrane fouling and wetting, a Janus membrane can sustain stable MD performance even with challenging feed waters and can thus potentially transform MD to be a viable technology for desalinating hypersaline wastewater with complex compositions using low-grade-thermal energy.

Background : Salvia miltiorrhiza and Panax notoginseng herb pair (DQ) has been widely used in traditional Chinese medicine for a long history to prevent and treat the coronary heart disease. However, its protective mechanisms against myocardial ischemia during coronary heart disease remain not well-understood. Purpose : In this study, we aimed to explore the protective mechanisms of DQ on myocardial ischemia from the perspective of serum lipidomics and amino acids (AAs). Methods : Rats were orally administrated with low-dose DQ (L-DQ, 0.24 g/kg) and high-dose DQ (H-DQ, 0.96 g/kg) for two weeks and subcutaneously injected with isoproterenol (ISO, 65 mg/kg) for two consecutive days (13th and 14th days) to induce acute myocardial ischemia (AMI). Heart histopathology and serum biochemical indices were examined. The specifically altered serum lipid metabolites were profiled via lipidomics approach, while serum AA profiles were analyzed using UHPLC-TQ-MS/MS. Results : Cardiac marker enzymes (CK, CK-MB, LDH and cTn-I) were significantly upregulated in AMI rats with some of which significantly dropped to normal level in L- and H-DQ groups. Serum TC, TG, HDL, LDL, VLDL and FFA were improved in AMI rats treatment with L- and H-DQ. Further, the PCA based on lipidomics showed serum lipid metabolites in L- and H-DQ groups were closer to control group than that in model group. Compared with model group, H-DQ pretreatment significantly reduced SM (d34:1) and CE (20:4), and increased FA (20:5), PC (26:1), TG (56:9), TG (54:7), MG (17:0), Cer (d32:0) and Cer (d34:0), whereas L-DQ significantly alleviated the perturbed levels of CE (20:4), FA (20:5), MG (17:0), and SM (d34:1). Moreover, there was a significant increment for leucine, isoleucine, valine, phenylalanine, lysine and glutamate but a significant reduction for tryptophan in the serum of rats in model group as compared to control group. Intriguingly, H-DQ could significantly decrease the levels of glutamate, lysine, isoleucine, and BCAAs (the sum of leucine, isoleucine and valine) after AMI, while L-DQ had no significant effects on the above altered AAs. The Western blotting results implied that H-DQ could promote the myocardial BCAA catabolism in AMI rats by activation of BCKDHA, whereas by inhibition of BCKDHK. Conclusion : This study presents evidence for the therapeutic effects of DQ on AMI injury, in part, via co-regulating lipid and AA metabolisms.

The existing Cu-based electrocatalysts for electrochemical reduction of CO 2 to chemical commodities suffer instability and large reaction overpotentials. Here we report a novel Cu nanoflower (NF) catalyst with a unique 3D chrysanthemum-like structure. Derived from CuO NFs, the Cu NFs were found to efficiently catalyze the CO 2 reduction with 400 mV lower overpotential than polycrystalline Cu. Besides, H 2 production was suppressed to be below 25% in terms of Faradaic efficiency in a wide potential window, implying an excellent catalytic selectivity. Prolonged electrolysis showed that the Cu NFs kept a high catalytic activity towards CO 2 reduction for over 9 h. In addition, for the first time, the deposition of amorphous carbon on the electrodes after catalysis was directly observed in this study. The reaction pathways of electrocatalytic CO 2 reduction and the involvement of the surface carbon in this process were elucidated.