Synthesis and evaluation of ginsenosides imprinted polymer-based chromatographic stationary phase.

The molecular imprinting technique has aroused great interest in preparing novel stationary phases, and the resulting materials named molecularly imprinted polymers coated silica packing materials exhibit good performance in separating diverse analytes based on their good characteristics (including high selectivity, simple synthesis, and good chemical stability). To date, mono-template is commonly used in synthesizing molecularly imprinted polymers-based stationary phases. The resulting materials always own the disadvantages of low column efficiency and restricted analytes, and the price of ginsenosides with high purity was very high. In this study, to overcome the weaknesses of molecularly imprinted polymers-based stationary phases mentioned above, the multi-templates (total saponins of folium ginseng) strategy was used to prepare ginsenosides imprinted polymer-based stationary phase. The resulting ginsenosides imprinted polymer-coated silica stationary phase has a good spherical shape and suitable pore structures. Additionally, the total saponins of folium ginseng were cheaper than other kinds of ginsenosides. Moreover, the ginsenosides imprinted polymer-coated silica stationary phase-packed column performed well in the separation of ginsenosides, nucleosides, and sulfonamides. The ginsenosides imprinted polymer-coated silica stationary phase possesses good reproducibility, repeatability, and stability for seven days. Therefore, a multi-templates strategy for synthesizing the ginsenosides imprinted polymer-coated silica stationary phase is considered in the future.

A Novel Optical Instrument for Measuring Mass Concentration and Particle Size in Real Time.

Particle mass and particulate size are two important parameters used to characterize the aerosol. Currently, there are a few methods for measuring particle mass concentration and particle size. However, the existing methods have their own shortcomings. In this article, we describe a novel laser scattering instrument that measures mass concentration and particle size in real time over a wide concentration range. This instrument combines laser scattering and time-of-flight aerodynamics in one optical device. There are two innovations in this paper: (1) Two APD detectors are used to receive scattered light. One receives forward-scattered light and the other receives side-scattered light. The advantage is that the sensitivity of the detector is increased greatly, and the ratio of forward and side scattering is used to further obtain the size and shape information of the particles. (2) In order to measure the high concentrations of aerosol, a high-speed ADC and FPGA is combined to achieve an anti-overlap algorithm objective. It has been verified by experiments that the anti-overlapping algorithm can effectively improve the applicability of the aerodynamic particle size spectrometer under high concentration conditions.

Effect of dietary glutamine on growth performance, non-specific immunity, expression of cytokine genes, phosphorylation of target of rapamycin (TOR), and anti-oxidative system in spleen and head kidney of Jian carp (Cyprinus carpio var. Jian).

This study was designed to investigate the effects of dietary glutamine on the growth performance, cytokines, target of rapamycin (TOR), and antioxidant-related parameters in the spleen and head kidney of juvenile Jian carp (Cyprinus carpio var. Jian). Fish were fed the basal (control) and glutamine-supplemented (12.0 g glutamine kg(-1) diet) diets for 6 weeks. Results indicated that the dietary glutamine supplementation improved the growth performance, spleen protein content, serum complement 3 content, and lysozyme activity in fish. In the spleen, glutamine down-regulated the expression of the interleukin 1 and interleukin 10 genes, and increased the level of phosphorylation of TOR protein. In the head kidney, glutamine down-regulated the tumor necrosis factor α and interleukin 10 gene expressions, phosphorylated and total TOR protein levels, while up-regulated the transforming growth factor ß2 gene expression. Furthermore, the protein carbonyl content was decreased in the spleen of fish fed glutamine-supplemented diet; conversely, the anti-hydroxyl radical capacity and glutathione content in the spleen were increased by glutamine. However, diet supplemented with glutamine did not affect the lipid peroxidation, anti-superoxide anion capacity, and antioxidant enzyme activities in the spleen. Moreover, all of these antioxidant parameters in the head kidney were not affected by glutamine. Results from the present experiment showed the importance of dietary supplementation of glutamine in benefaction of the growth performance and several components of the innate immune system, and the deferential role in cytokine gene expression, TOR kinase activity, and antioxidant status between the spleen and head kidney of juvenile Jian carp.

SOX21-AS1 is associated with clinical stage and regulates cell proliferation in nephroblastoma.

LncRNA SOX21 antisense RNA 1 (SOX21-AS1) dysregulated in many types of human cancer, and functioned as tumor suppressor or promoter depending on tumor types. However, there was no report about the role of SOX21-AS1 in nephroblastoma. In the present study, we first found that SOX21-AS1 expression was elevated in nephroblastoma tissues and cell lines compared with adjacent normal tissues and normal human embryonic kidney cell line, respectively. Moreover, we observed nephroblastoma patients with large tumor size, advanced National Wilms Tumor Study (NWTS) stage or unfavorable histopathological type, and patients that had higher SOX21-AS1 expression levels than nephroblastoma patients with small tumor size, early NWTS stage or favorable histopathological type. The in vitro studies suggested that knockdown of SOX21-AS1 suppressed nephroblastoma cell proliferation and colony formation, and induced cell-cycle arrest through up-regulating p57 expression. In conclusion, our study suggests that SOX21-AS1 functions as oncogenic lncRNA in nephroblastoma, which may provide a novel insight for nephroblastoma carcinogenesis.

Molecular design of sequence-minimized, structure-optimized, and hydrocarbon-stapled helix-helix interactions in the trimer-of-hairpins motif of pediatric pneumonia RSV-F protein.

The respiratory syncytial virus fusion (RSV-F) protein is a primary target for vaccine and drug development against respiratory infection and pediatric pneumonia. The RSV-F core forms a trimer-of-hairpins (TOH) motif in postfusion conformation, which is characterized by a six-helix bundle (6HB) where the three N-terminal HRn helices define a central coiled-coil, while three C-terminal HRc helices pack on the coiled-coil surface in an antiparallel manner. Here, one tightly packed HRn-HRc helix-helix interaction is stripped from the 6HB, which represents the minimum unit of RSV-F TOH motif. The helix-helix interaction sequence can be truncated to derive a core binding region (CBR) that covers intense nonbonded interactions across the interaction interface. Dynamics simulation and energetics analysis reveal that the CBR HRc peptide has a large flexibility and intrinsic disorder in unbound free state, which would incur a considerable entropy penalty upon its binding to CBR NRn peptide. Two strategies are described to constrain the HRc peptide conformation. First, the four non-interfacial residues of HRc peptide are artificially substituted with new amino acid combinations of high helical propensity and, second, the helical conformation of wild-type and mutant HRc peptides is stabilized by adding an all-hydrocarbon bridge across two spatially vicinal, non-interfacial residues 503 (i) and 507 (i + 4). Free energy calculation and fluorescence-based assay confirm that the substitution and stapling can effectively improve the binding affinity of CBR HRn-HRc interaction.

Clinical efficacy of recombinant human latrophilin 3 antibody in the treatment of pediatric asthma.

Pediatric asthma is a chronic pulmonary inflammatory disease featuring hypersecretion of mucus and inflammation in the airway, resulting in dysfunction of the airway smooth muscle. Previous evidence demonstrated that latrophilins, a novel family of receptors, present a beneficial effect on airway smooth muscle cells. In the present study, the therapeutic effects of recombinant human latrophilin 3 (rhLPHN3) antibody (Ab) in patients with pediatric asthma were investigated, and the molecular mechanism underlying the function of LPHN3 in the treatment of asthma in clinical practice was examined. A total of 342 pediatric asthma cases were recruited and randomly divided into three groups, receiving treatment with rhLPHN3 Ab (n=134), salbutamol (n=108) or montelukast (n=100) by nasal aerosolization. Each group received the respective clinically tested dose for 16 weeks. Inflammatory factors interleukin (IL)-10, IL-17, IL-4, matrix metallopeptidase-9 (MMP-9), interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and transforming growth factor-ß (TGF-ß) levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells were analyzed prior to and post treatment. The clinical outcomes revealed that pathological alterations were significantly improved following treatment with rhLPHN3 Ab for patients with pediatric asthma when compared with those receiving salbutamol and montelukast. It was also observed that rhLPHN3 Ab downregulated the plasma concentration levels of IL-10, IL-17, IL-4 and MMP-9, and upregulated IFN-γ and TGF-ß levels in the three groups. In addition, clinical data demonstrated that rhLPHN3 Ab significantly promoted E-selectin and mucin 5AC expression, as well as improved the activation of nuclear factor (NF)-κB p65 DNA binding activity and the phosphorylation levels of protein kinase A. Furthermore, rhLPHN3 Ab markedly improved adhesion and proliferation of airway smooth muscle cells, which led to promotion of the contraction of these cells. In conclusion, these clinical data suggest that rhLPHN3 Ab serves an important role in the inhibition of inflammatory mediators through downregulation of NF-κB signaling pathway, which contributes to airway remodeling and bronchodilation in patients with pediatric asthma.

[The changes of advanced glycation end products in a rat liver fibrosis model and the interventional effect of aminoguanidin].

OBJECTIVE: To study the changes of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in different phases of a rat liver fibrosis model induced by CCl4, and the interventional effect of aminoguanidin (AG). METHODS: Fifty-four SD rats were divided into three groups: a control group, a CCl4 model group and an intervention group. Their blood serum AGEs and hyaluronic acid (HA) and AGEs in their liver homogenates were measured. These measurements were correlatively assessed to the degrees of liver fibrosis at different phases of the rat model before and after the intervention with aminoguanidin. RESULTS: The content of AGEs in their blood sera and liver homogenates, and the level of blood serum HA, and the score of liver fibrosis degree at week 12 in our rat liver fibrosis mode groups were significantly higher than those in the control group (P < 0.01). In the intervention group with aminoguanidin, these figures were lower than those in the liver fibrosis model group (P < 0.05). The content of AGEs in their blood sera and liver homogenates had a linear correlation with the level of HA in their blood sera. CONCLUSION: The contents of AGEs in their blood sera and liver homogenates were increased in the late phase of our rat liver fibrosis model. To some extent, the level of AGEs may reflect the fibrosis degree of the rat livers. Aminoguanidin has an interventional effect in our CCl4 induced rat liver fibrosis model.