Investigation of photoassociation with full-dimensional thermal-random-phase wavefunctions.

By taking the femtosecond two-photon photoassociation (PA) of magnesium atoms as an example, we propose a method to calculate the thermally averaged population, which is transferred from the ground X1Σg + state to the target (1)1Πg state, based on the solution of full-dimensional time-dependent Schrödinger equation. In this method, named as method A, we use thermal-random-phase wavefunctions with the random phases expanded in both the vibrational and rotational degrees of freedom to model the thermal ensemble of the initial eigenstates. This method is compared with the other two methods (B and C) at different temperatures. Method B is also based on thermal-random-phase wavefunctions, except that the random-phase expansion is merely used for the vibrational degree of freedom. Method C is based on the independent propagation of every initial eigenstate, instead of the thermal-random-phase wavefunctions. Taking the (1)1Πg state as the target state, it is found that although these three methods can present the same population on the (1)1Πg state, the computation efficiency of method A increases dramatically with the increase in temperature. With this efficient method A, we find that the PA process at 1000 K can also induce rotational coherence, i.e., the molecular field-free alignment in the excited electronic states.

The influence of diet quality and dietary behavior on health-related quality of life in the general population of children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: The association between diet quality, dietary behavior and health-related quality of life has been mostly examined in children and adolescents with specific chronic diseases. No systematic review has synthesized the influence of diet quality and dietary behavior on health-related quality of life in the general population of children and adolescents. The purpose of this study was to systematically review the primary studies that evaluated the association between diet quality, dietary behavior and health-related quality of life in the general population of children and adolescents and to synthesize the findings for the association. METHODS: A computer search in the databases of MEDLINE, EMBASE and PSYCINFO was performed to retrieve English language studies that were published from 1946 up to April 8, 2018. We also screened the PubMed-related articles and the reference lists of the existing relevant literature to identify other eligible studies. We synthesized the association between diet quality, dietary behavior and health-related quality of life using both a qualitative method and meta-analysis. We reported the review following up the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guideline. RESULTS: Seventeen studies were included in the synthesis including twelve cross-sectional studies and five longitudinal studies. We found that diet quality and dietary behavior were associated with health-related quality of life in children and adolescents. The positive effect of healthy diets on health-related quality of life was observed for multiple domains of health-related quality of life, including physical, school and emotional functioning, and psychosocial quality of life. We observed a dose-response relationship between the diet exposure and health-related quality of life, where an unhealthy dietary behavior or lower diet quality was associated with decreased health-related quality of life among children and adolescents. CONCLUSION: The findings of the systematic review suggest the importance of promoting healthy diets and nutrition for good health-related quality of life among children and adolescents. Future research is needed to strengthen the evidence for prospective relationships and for the dose-response effect between diet quality, dietary behavior and health-related quality of life among children and adolescents.

Effects of tyroservatide on histone acetylation in lung carcinoma cells.

Tyroservatide (YSV) is an active, low-molecular weight polypeptide shown to have antitumor effects on experimental hepatocarcinoma and lung carcinoma. The focus of our study was to observe the effects of YSV on several human lung carcinoma cell lines and explore its antitumor mechanism via its effect on histone acetylation. Our results showed that YSV significantly inhibited the proliferation of human lung carcinoma A549, NCIH460, NCIH292 and NCIH1299 cells, induced G(0) /G(1) cell cycle arrest and increased protein and mRNA levels of p21 and p27. Moreover, YSV treatment significantly inhibited histone deacetylase (HDAC) activity and resulted in the accumulation of acetylated histones H3 and H4 in total cellular chromatin and p21 gene-associated chromatin regions. Together these data suggest that the antitumor effects of YSV might be mediated by its inhibition of HDAC activity, selectively upregulating the expression of p21 by increasing the acetylation of histones associated with p21 gene regions, resulting in an induction of G0/G1 cell cycle arrest and inhibition of the proliferation of tumor cells. Our findings demonstrate that YSV may exhibit potent therapeutical effects on lung carcinoma.

Statins: a repurposed drug to fight cancer.

As competitive HMG-CoA reductase (HMGCR) inhibitors, statins not only reduce cholesterol and improve cardiovascular risk, but also exhibit pleiotropic effects that are independent of their lipid-lowering effects. Among them, the anti-cancer properties of statins have attracted much attention and indicated the potential of statins as repurposed drugs for the treatment of cancer. A large number of clinical and epidemiological studies have described the anticancer properties of statins, but the evidence for anticancer effectiveness of statins is inconsistent. It may be that certain molecular subtypes of cancer are more vulnerable to statin therapy than others. Whether statins have clinical anticancer effects is still an active area of research. Statins appear to enhance the efficacy and address the shortcomings associated with conventional cancer treatments, suggesting that statins should be considered in the context of combined therapies for cancer. Here, we present a comprehensive review of the potential of statins in anti-cancer treatments. We discuss the current understanding of the mechanisms underlying the anti-cancer properties of statins and their effects on different malignancies. We also provide recommendations for the design of future well-designed clinical trials of the anti-cancer efficacy of statins.

The pentapeptide PLNPK inhibits systemic lupus erythematosus-associated renal damage.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to observe the therapeutic effect of pentapeptide PLNPK on systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in mice, and to study the inhibitory effect of PLNPK on activation of T cells in vivo. METHODS: Murine SLE-like chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) was induced. After treatment with PLNPK (100, 200, 400 µg/kg per day) for 70 days, serum blood urea nitrogen, creatine, total cholesterol, triglyceride and albumin were tested, and serum levels of anti-dsDNA and anti-histone antibodies were detected by ELISA. The pathological damage and IgG deposition in the kidney were identified. Concanavalin A (ConA)-induced T lymphocyte proliferation in SLE mice was also tested. RESULTS: PLNPK can reduce serum blood urea nitrogen, creatine, total cholesterol, triglyceride, and elevate serum albumin, and reduce levels of anti-dsDNA and anti-histone antibodies in the murine SLE model. Pathological damage and IgG deposition in the kidney were reduced in the PLNPK-treated group. PLNPK inhibited T lymphocyte infiltration in kidney tissues and ConA-induced T lymphocyte proliferation in SLE mice. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate that PLNPK can suppress T cell function and reduce the production of autoantibodies, and may be a feasible and effective therapy in the SLE model.

The influence of physical activity, sedentary behavior on health-related quality of life among the general population of children and adolescents: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: The association between physical activity, sedentary behavior and health-related quality of life in children and adolescents has been mostly investigated in those young people with chronic disease conditions. No systematic review to date has synthesized the relationship between physical activity, sedentary behavior and health-related quality of life in the general healthy population of children and adolescents. The purpose of this study was to review systematically the existing literature that evaluated the relations between physical activity, sedentary behavior and health-related quality of life in the general population of children and adolescents. METHODS: We conducted a computer search for English language literature from databases of MEDLINE, EMBASE, PSYCINFO and PubMed-related articles as well as the reference lists of existing literature between 1946 and the second week of January 2017 to retrieve eligible studies. We included the studies that assessed associations between physical activity and/or sedentary behavior and health-related quality of life among the general population of children and adolescents aged between 3-18 years. The study design included cross-sectional, longitudinal and health intervention studies. We excluded the studies that examined associations between physical activity, sedentary behavior and health-related quality of life among children and adolescents with specific chronic diseases, and other studies and reports including reviews, meta-analyses, study protocols, comments, letters, case reports and guidelines. We followed up the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement in the reporting of this review. The risk of bias of the primary studies was assessed by the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. We synthesized the difference in health-related quality of life scores between different levels of physical activity and sedentary time. RESULTS: In total, 31 studies met the inclusion criteria and were synthesized in the review. Most of the included studies used a cross-sectional design (n = 21). There were six longitudinal studies and three school-based physical activity intervention studies. One study used both cross-sectional and longitudinal designs. We found that higher levels of physical activity were associated with better health-related quality of life and increased time of sedentary behavior was linked to lower health-related quality of life among children and adolescents. A dose-response relation between physical activity, sedentary behavior and health-related quality of life was observed in several studies suggesting that the higher frequency of physical activity or the less time being sedentary, the better the health-related quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: The findings in this study suggest that school health programs promoting active lifestyles among children and adolescents may contribute to the improvement of health-related quality of life. Future research is needed to extend studies on longitudinal relationships between physical activity, sedentary behavior and health-related quality of life, and on effects of physical activity interventions on health-related quality of life among children and youth.