Multitrack and multianchor point screw technique combined with the Wiltse approach for lesion debridement for lumbar tuberculosis.

BACKGROUND: The incidence of lumbar tuberculosis is high worldwide, and effective treatment is a continuing problem. AIM: To study the safety and efficacy of the multitrack and multianchor point screw technique combined with the contralateral Wiltse approach for lesion debridement to treat lumbar tuberculosis. METHODS: The C-reactive protein (CRP) level, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), visual analogue scale (VAS) score, oswestry disability index (ODI) and American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) grade were recorded and analysed pre- and postoperatively. RESULTS: The CRP level and ESR returned to normal, and the VAS score and ODI were decreased at 3 mo postoperatively, with significant differences compared with the preoperative values (P < 0.01). Neurological dysfunction was relieved, and the ASIA grade increased, with no adverse events. CONCLUSION: The multitrack, multianchor point screw fixation technique combined with the contralateral Wiltse approach for debridement is an effective and safe method for the treatment of lumbar tuberculosis.

Nanoparticles-EPS corona increases the accumulation of heavy metals and biotoxicity of nanoparticles.

Microbial extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) coating nanoparticles (NPs) surface can form NPs-EPS corona, which significantly affect the adsorption of NPs to toxic substances and alter the ecotoxicological effect of NPs. In this work, the EPS coronas on TiO2 NPs (TNPs) and CeO2 NPs (CNPs) were characterized and the adsorption characteristics of NPs with and without EPS corona to five heavy metals were investigated in single-metal and multiple-metal systems. The results of spectral analysis showed that NPs-EPS corona exhibited new crystalline phases and abundant functional groups. Moreover, 42 and 13 proteins were identified in the TNPs-EPS and CNPs-EPS coronas, respectively. The rates of Cd2+, Pb2+, Cu2+, Ni2+ and Ag+ adsorption by NPs-EPS corona increased to values that were 6.7-7.6, 4.4-5.1, 4.2-5.5, 3.9-4.9 and 8.5-8.8 times those of NPs without EPS corona, respectively, in single-metal system. NPs-EPS coronas are effective in absorbing Ag+, Pb2+ and Cu2+ compared with Cd2+and Ni2+ in multiple metal adsorption. These results indicated that NPs-EPS corona effectively adsorb and remove heavy metals by forming NPs-EPS-metal complexes and inducing precipitation. However, NPs-EPS corona can enhance the toxicity of NPs by accumulating highly-toxic heavy metals in aquatic environments.

Discovery of 5-(pyridin-3-yl)-1H-indole-4,7-diones as indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) inhibitors.

Early studies demonstrated that over expression of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO1) in tumor microenvironment results in tumor immune escape. Herein, in order to simplify the structure of two kinds of IDO1 inhibitors from marine alkaloid, Exiguamine A and Tsitsikammamines, we designed, synthesized a series of 1H-indole-4,7-dione derivatives and evaluated their inhibitory activity in IDO1 enzyme and in IFN-γ stimulated Hela cells in vitro. The structure-activity relationship demonstrated that 5-(pyridin-3-yl)-1H-indole-4,7-dione is a promising scaffold for IDO1 inhibitors and most compounds with this core showed moderate inhibition potency at micromole level. Our further enzyme kinetics experiments reveal that these new developed compounds might act as reversible competitive inhibitors of IDO1.

[Study on the Catalytic Kinetic Spectrophotometric Determination of Trace Amounts of Iron(â ¢) and Its Reaction Mechanism].

A catalytic kinetic spectrophotometric method, which is based on the catalytic effect of Fe(Ⅲ) on the fading reaction between potassium persulfate(K2S2O8) and methyl red(MR) in the solution of 0.30 mol·L-1 hydrochloric acid, for the determination of trace amounts of Fe(Ⅲ) has been investigated. A novel detection system, Fe(Ⅲ)-HCl-K2S2O8-MR, has been developed. The optimum experimental conditions for the determination of trace amounts of Fe(Ⅲ) were found on the basis of orthogonal test. The kinetics parameters and equation of this fading reaction of MR were studied. Its reaction mechanism was discussed. The results show that there is a good linear relationship between the variation of MR absorbance at the maximum absorption wavelength of 518 nm and the concentration of Fe(Ⅲ) under the optimum experimental conditions: ln(A0/A)=1.334 1+0.001 0, the correlation coefficient is 0.999 1. The kinetic research shows that the reaction order with respect to Fe(Ⅲ) is 1 and the overall fading reaction is a pseudo-first order reaction. The apparent activation energy of the fading reaction of MR is 69.88 kJ·mol-1. Furthermore, the catalytic effects of Fe(Ⅲ) on this fading reaction is confirmed by its reaction mechanism. This novel method for the determination of trace Fe(Ⅲ) has never previously been published so far. Trace amounts of Fe(Ⅲ) can be selectively determined by this catalytic kinetic spectrophotometric method with high precision and accuracy. This method is simple and its reagents used are cheap and available. Its sensitivity is higher than that of conventional spectrophtometry with detection limit of 0.005 mg·L-1. This detection system is stable. This proposed method has been applied to the determination of trace amounts of Fe(Ⅲ) in food and water samples with satisfactory results. Relative standard deviation of the detection results is 1.18%～2.11%. Average recovery rate of the detection results is 98.0%～104.0%.