Natural Products of Licorice for Uranium Decorporation with Low Toxicity and High Efficiency.

The development and exploration of uranium decorporation agents with straightforward synthesis, high removal ability, and low toxicity are crucial guarantees for the safety of workers in the nuclear industry and the public. Herein, we report the use of traditional Chinese medicine licorice for uranium decorporation. Licorice has good adsorption performance and excellent selectivity for uranium in the simulated human environment. Glycyrrhizic acid (GL) has a high affinity for uranium (p(UO2) = 13.67) and will complex with uranium at the carbonyl site. Both licorice and GL exhibit lower cytotoxicity compared to the commercial clinical decorporation agent diethylenetriamine pentaacetate sodium salts (CaNa3-DTPA). Notably, at the cellular level, the uranium removal efficiency of GL is eight times higher than that of CaNa3-DTPA. Administration of GL by prophylactic intraperitoneal injection demonstrates that its uranium removal efficiency from kidneys and bones is 55.2 and 23.9%, while CaNa3-DTPA shows an insignificant effect. The density functional theory calculation of the bonding energy between GL and uranium demonstrates that GL exhibits a higher binding affinity (-2.01 vs -1.15 eV) to uranium compared to DTPA. These findings support the potential of licorice and its active ingredient, GL, as promising candidates for uranium decorporation agents.

Perilla frutescens: A new strategy for uranium decorporation.

Radionuclide uranium is a great threat to human health, due to its high chemical toxicity and radioactivity. Finding suitable uranium decorporation to reduce damage caused by uranium internal contamination is an important aspect of nuclear emergency response. However, the poor selectivity and/or high toxicity of the only excretory promoter approved by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is an obvious disadvantage. Herein, we choose an edible natural product, the traditional Chinese medicine called Perilla frutescens (PF), which has wide sources and can be used as an excellent and effective uranyl decorporation. In vivo uranium decorporation assays illustrate the removal efficiency of uranium in kidney were 68.87% and 43.26%, in femur were 56.66% and 54.53%, by the test of prophylactic and immediate administration, respectively. Cell level experiments confirmed that it had better biocompatibility than CaNa3-DTPA (CaNa3-diethylenetriamine pentaacetate, a commercial actinide excretion agent). In vitro static adsorption experiments exhibited that its excellent selectivity sorption for uranyl. All those results findings would provide new research insights about natural product for uranyl decorporation.

Impact of Myocardial Energy Expenditure and Diastolic Dysfunction on One Year Outcome Patients With HFpEF.

Objective: To explore the correlation between characteristics of myocardial energy expenditure (MEE) and the degree of diastolic dysfunction in patients of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and its clinical significance. Methods: 125 consecutive patients diagnosed with HFpEF in the Department of Cardiology, Affiliated Zhongshan Hospital of Dalian University from January 2018 to October 2018 were enrolled. According to the degree of diastolic dysfunction, patients were divided into group A (8 ≤ E/e' ≤15) and group B (E/e'> 15), and MEE was calculated, patients finished 1-year clinical follow-up. Results: The level of MEE in group A was significantly lower than that in group B (p < 0.05). During 1-year follow up, MEE over 3145.69 kcal/systole was associated with increased risk of death as compared to patients with MEE less 3145.69 kcal/systole, and in patients with MEE over 101.68 kcal/min than in patients with MEE less than 101.68 kcal/min. Conclusion: There is a significant correlation between MEE and diastolic dysfunction and MEE over 3145.69 kcal/systole as well as MEE over 101.68 kcal/min are linked with increased risk of 1-year mortality in HFpEF.

MULT1-Encoding DNA Alleviates Schistosomiasis-Associated Hepatic Fibrosis via Modulating Cellular Immune Response.

Purpose: In schistosomiasis-associated hepatic fibrosis, the role of murine UL16-binding protein-like transcript 1 (MULT1), the strongest ligand of natural killer group 2-member D receptor (NKG2D), remains unclear. Here, Schistosoma japonicum-infected mice administered with MULT1-encoding DNA were used to test MULT1 as a potential therapy for schistosomiasis-associated hepatic fibrosis and explore relevant mechanisms. Materials and Methods: A recombinant plasmid encoding MULT1 (p-rMULT1) was constructed and administered to Schistosoma japonicum-infected BALB/c mice via hydrodynamic tail vein injection. Egg granulomas in liver, hepatic fibrosis biomarkers and levels of cytokines were investigated. Comparisons of CD4+ T, CD8+ T, NK and NKT proportions as well as their phenotype were performed not only between Schistosoma infected, p-rMULT1 treated group and Schistosoma infected, backbone plasmid pEGFP-N1 treated group but also between infected, nontreated group and health control group. Results: Reduced area of granuloma formation and fibrosis around single eggs, downregulated expression of collagen I, α-smooth muscle actin, TGF-ß and IL-10, and upregulated expression of IFN-γ, were observed in the livers of p-rMULT1 treated mice. p-rMULT1 treatment improved Schistosoma infection impacted immune microenvironment by modulating proportion of CD4+ T CD8+ T, natural killer (NK) and NKT cells, enhancing expression of NKG2D, in lymphocytes, and augmenting IFN-γ secretion by CD4+ T, CD8+ T, NK and NKT cells, as well as partially reversing some other phenotype changes of lymphocytes. Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, we provided the first in vivo evidence that MULT1 is a favorable anti-fibrosis factor in the context of schistosomiasis. The inhibitory effect of MULT1 overexpression on schistosomiasis associated with hepatic fibrosis may result from augmenting the proportion and function of NKG2D-expressing immune cells, and from enhancing NK- and T-cell activation, as well as regulating the helper T (Th)1/Th2 balance.

Response surface optimization of ultrasound-assisted flavonoids extraction from the flower of Citrus aurantium L. var. amara Engl.

Citrus aurantium L. var. amara Engl is a member of genus Citrus (Rutaceae) and has been used in Chinese medicine with the effectiveness of digestant and expectorant. Ultrasonic-assisted extraction process for maximum flavonoids from the flower of Citrus aurantium L. var. amara Engl was investigated by response surface methodology. Through single factor experiment, ranges of the main variables (including ethanol concentration, solid/liquid ratio, extraction time and temperature) affecting the extraction yield of flavonoids were confirmed. Box-Behnken central composite design consisting of 24 experimental runs and 5 replicates at zero point was then applied and a regress model was obtained to predict the optimal extraction yield. The ANOVA indicated that the regression equation fits very well with the actual situation, reflecting the relationship between the extraction yield of flavonoids and extraction conditions. The optimal conditions were as follows: extraction temperature 72.11 degrees C, time 51.89 min, ethanol concentration 51.19% and liquid/solid ratio of 40:10. Under the optimal conditions, the maximum response value of yield (1.88%) was consistent with the experimental value (1.87%), indicating the feasibility and validation of response surface methodology in optimizing the extraction of flavonoids from the flower of Citrus aurantium L. var. amara Engl.

A metabolomic study for chronic heart failure patients based on a dried blood spot mass spectrometry approach.

Objective: a dried blood spot (DBS) method integrated with direct infusion mass spectrometry (MS) focused on a metabolomic analysis was applied to detect and compare the difference of metabolites between the heart failure (HF) patients and non-HF patients in order to facilitate the early detection of heart failures, provide targeted intervention and offer prognostic insights. Methods: the method we used was an untargeted metabolic approach. The dry blood spot mass spectrometry (DBS) was used to analyze 23 types of amino acids and 26 types of carnitine in blood samples. In the current study, 49 metabolites were selected to establish the PLS-DA model to compare the differences between the 117 HF patients and 118 non-HF patients, which inclined to detect the difference between the two groups. Multiple algorithms were run for selecting different metabolites as potential biomarkers. Ten-fold cross validation method was used to verify and evaluate the selected potential biomarkers. Results: through significant analysis of the microarrays (SAM) and analysis of 9 parameters, 8 metabolites showed significant discrepancies between the HF and non-HF groups. Among these metabolites, the levels of 5 metabolites were increased, and the other 3 metabolites were decreased in the HF group compared with the non-HF group. However, 7 metabolites including Asn, C0, C14, C4DC, C5-OH, C6 and Glu were selected to distinguish the HF group from the non-HF group with specificity and sensitivity of 0.8475 and 0.8974, respectively. Conclusion: metabolomic study for chronic heart failure (CHF) patients based on the dried blood spot mass spectrometry approach would be beneficial to understand the metabolic pathway of HF, and probably work as biomarkers to predict the prognosis of HF and provide the basis for an individualized treatment.

A Comparison on Prevalence of Hypertension and Related Risk Factors between Island and Rural Residents of Dalian City, China.

This study aimed to compare the prevalence of hypertension between the island and rural residents in Dalian, China, and to explore associated risk factors of hypertension in order to provide evidence for the establishment of targeted strategy of hypertension prevention and treatment for island and rural residents. The modified MONICA questionnaire survey was performed on 7764 island and rural residents aged ≥40 years (including 2652 island residents and 5112 rural residents). Our data showed that totally weighted prevalence of hypertension was significantly higher in rural residents than in island residents (61.9% vs. 55.2%, P<0.001). Multivariate binary logistic regression analysis showed that older age, higher BMI, lower education level, and higher LDL-C and UA levels were independently associated with increased risk of having hypertension both in island and in rural residents. The weighted awareness rate (29.9% vs. 17.3%, P<0.001), treatment rate (51.4% vs. 28.5%, P<0.001), and control rate (36.3% vs. 24.0%, P=0.001) of hypertension were all significantly higher in island residents than those in rural residents. In conclusion, our survey shows that the epidemics of hypertension are extremely high in surveyed residents in island and rural areas of Dalian city, while awareness, treatment, and control rats of hypertension in these residents are much lower than the national level. The scenario is even worse in rural residents as compared with island residents of Dalian, China.

Purification and identification of anti-oxidant soybean peptides by consecutive chromatography and electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry.

Ultrafiltration, ion-exchange chromatography, and gel filtration chromatography were used to purify anti-oxidant peptides from hydrolysates of soybean protein isolates. The <1-kD peptides were found to exhibit much higher anti-oxidant activity as compared to larger ones. Also, the alkaline peptide fractions were shown to have stronger anti-oxidant capacity than acidic and neutral peptides. Interestingly, an anti-oxidant tripeptide, Ser-Phe-Val (352.4 Da), was identified by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) connected online to electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. The tripeptide was further prepared by fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl (Fmoc) solid-phase synthesis and was found to have a dose-dependent protective effect against hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-induced injuries in rat adrenal pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells.