Role of minimally invasive techniques in gastrointestinal surgery: Current status and future perspectives.

In recent years, the incidence of gastrointestinal cancer has remained high. Currently, surgical resection is still the most effective method for treating gastrointestinal cancer. Traditionally, radical surgery depends on open surgery. However, traditional open surgery inflicts great trauma and is associated with a slow recovery. Minimally invasive surgery, which aims to reduce postoperative complications and accelerate postoperative recovery, has been rapidly developed in the last two decades; it is increasingly used in the field of gastrointestinal surgery and widely used in early-stage gastrointestinal cancer. Nevertheless, many operations for gastrointestinal cancer treatment are still performed by open surgery. One reason for this may be the challenges of minimally invasive technology, especially when operating in narrow spaces, such as within the pelvis or near the upper edge of the pancreas. Moreover, some of the current literature has questioned oncologic outcomes after minimally invasive surgery for gastrointestinal cancer. Overall, the current evidence suggests that minimally invasive techniques are safe and feasible in gastrointestinal cancer surgery, but most of the studies published in this field are retrospective studies and case-matched studies. Large-scale randomized prospective studies are needed to further support the application of minimally invasive surgery. In this review, we summarize several common minimally invasive methods used to treat gastrointestinal cancer and discuss the advances in the minimally invasive treatment of gastrointestinal cancer in detail.

CD4+ T cell depletion does not affect the level of viremia in chronically SHIVSF162P3N-infected Chinese cynomolgus monkeys.

Chronically SHIVSF162P3N-infected cynomolgus monkeys were used to determine the effects of the antibody-mediated acute CD4+ T cell depletion on viral load as well as on the immunological factors associated with disease progression. Compared with the control animals, CD4+ T cell-depleted animals with SHIV infection showed (i) little alteration in plasma viral load over the period of 22 weeks after the depletion; (ii) increased CD4+ T cell proliferation and turnover of macrophages at the early phase of the depletion, but subsequent decline to the basal levels; and (iii) little impact on the expression of the inflammatory cytokines and CC chemokines associated with disease progression. These findings indicate that the antibody-mediated acute CD4+ T cell depletion had minimal impact on plasma viral load and disease progression in chronically SHIVSF162P3N-infected cynomolgus monkeys. Future investigations are necessary to identify the key factor(s) related to the immune activation and macrophage infection during the CD4 deletion in chronic viral infection.

Postoperative complications after robotic resection of colorectal cancer: An analysis based on 5-year experience at a large-scale center.

BACKGROUND: As a common gastrointestinal malignancy, colorectal cancer (CRC) poses a serious health threat globally. Robotic surgery is one of the future trends in surgical treatment of CRC. Robotic surgery has several technical advantages over laparoscopic surgery, including 3D visualization, elimination of the fulcrum effect, and better ergonomic positioning, which together lead to better surgical outcomes and faster recovery. However, analysis of independent factors of postoperative complications after robotic surgery is still insufficient. AIM: To analyze the incidence and risk factors for postoperative complications after robotic surgery in patients with CRC. METHODS: In total, 1040 patients who had undergone robotic surgical resection for CRC between May 2015 and May 2020 were analyzed retrospectively. Postoperative complications were categorized according to the Clavien-Dindo (C-D) classification, and possible risk factors were evaluated. RESULTS: Among 1040 patients who had undergone robotic surgery for CRC, the overall, severe, local, and systemic complication rates were 12.2%, 2.4%, 8.8%, and 3.5%, respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that multiple organ resection (P < 0.001) and level III American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score (P = 0.006) were independent risk factors for overall complications. Multivariate analysis identified multiple organ resection (P < 0.001) and comorbidities (P = 0.029) as independent risk factors for severe complications (C-D grade III or higher). Regarding local complications, multiple organ resection (P = 0.002) and multiple bowel resection (P = 0.027) were independent risk factors. Multiple organ resection (P < 0.001) and level III ASA score (P = 0.007) were independent risk factors for systemic complications. Additionally, sigmoid colectomy had a lower incidence of overall complications (6.4%; P = 0.006) and local complications (4.7%; P = 0.028) than other types of colorectal surgery. CONCLUSION: Multiple organ resection, level III ASA score, comorbidities, and multiple bowel resection were risk factors for postoperative complications, with multiple organ resection being the most likely.

Calcitriol enhances pyrazinamide treatment of murine tuberculosis.

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in humans worldwide. There is an urgent need for new and effective drugs to treat tuberculosis and shorten the duration of tuberculosis therapy. 1, 25-dihydroxy vitamin D3 (1,25 (OH)2D3) has been reported to have a synergistic effect with pyrazinamide (PZA) in killing tubercle bacilli in vitro. The addition of 1,25 (OH)2D3 to standard tuberculosis treatment should benefit patients if the adjunctive drug has a synergistic effect in vivo. Thus, in this study, calcitriol (bioactive 1,25 (OH)2D3) was administered to mice undergoing treatment for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) infection with PZA, a first-line anti-tuberculosis drug, to determine whether vitamin D3 enhances the therapeutic effect. METHODS: C57BL/6 female mice were infected with the M.tb H37Rv strain through aerosol exposure. Calcitriol and PZA, either alone or in combination, were orally administered to the M.tb infected mice. The effect of calcitriol on PZA activity was determined by evaluating the bacterial burden and analyzing the histopathological lesions in the lungs and spleen. To investigate the expression of inflammatory cytokines and anti-microbial peptide genes, we determined the transcriptional levels of interferon-γ (IFN-γ), interleukin-4 (IL-4), mouse ß-defensin-2 (mBD2), and cathelicidin LL-37 through real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The protein levels of IFN-γ were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Differences between groups were analyzed with independent samples t-test or one-way analysis of variance. RESULTS: Calcitriol alone had little effect on tuberculosis infection, whereas PZA, compared with saline control treatment, decreased the bacterial burden (spleens: PZA vs. saline, 4.82 ±â€Š0.22 vs. 5.22 ±â€Š0.40 Log10 colony-forming units [CFU]/gram, t = 2.13, P < 0.05; lungs: PZA vs. saline, 5.55 ±â€Š0.15 vs. 6.83 ±â€Š0.46 Log10 CFU/gram, t = 6.56, P < 0.01) and pathological lesions in the lungs. Simultaneous administration of calcitriol with PZA, compared with PZA alone, decreased the bacterial load (spleen: calcitriol + PZA vs. PZA, 4.37 ±â€Š0.13 vs. 4.82 ±â€Š0.22 Log10 CFU/gram, t = 4.36, P < 0.01; lung: calcitriol + PZA vs. PZA, 5.03 ±â€Š0.32 vs. 5.55 ±â€Š0.15 Log10 CFU/gram, t = 3.58, P < 0.01) and attenuated the lung lesions (gross pathological score: calcitriol + PZA vs. PZA, 3.25 ±â€Š0.50 vs. 2.50 ±â€Š0.58, t = 1.96, P < 0.05; affected area of total lung area: calcitriol + PZA vs. PZA, 30.75% ±â€Š6.50% vs. 21.55% ±â€Š2.99%, t = 2.66, P < 0.05). Further studies demonstrated calcitriol significantly increased the expression of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-4 but suppressed production of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IFN-γ (IL-4: calcitriol vs. saline, 5.69 ±â€Š0.50 vs. 2.80 ±â€Š0.56 fold of control, t = 6.74, P < 0.01; IFN-γ: calcitriol vs. saline, 1.36 ±â€Š0.11 vs. 4.13 ±â€Š0.83 fold of control, t = 5.77, P < 0.01). In addition, calcitriol alone or in combination with PZA significantly enhanced the transcriptional level of anti-microbial peptides (cathelicidin LL-37: calcitriol vs. saline, 10.59 ±â€Š1.03 vs. 2.80 ±â€Š0.90 fold of control, t = 9.85, P < 0.01; mBD2: calcitriol vs. saline, 7.92 ±â€Š0.62 vs. 1.79 ±â€Š0.45 fold of control, t = 13.82, P < 0.01), whereas PZA exerted a negative effect on anti-microbial peptide gene expression. CONCLUSIONS: Calcitriol as adjunctive treatment can result in beneficial treatment outcomes in M.tb infection by suppressing the inflammatory response and up-regulating the expression of anti-microbial peptides. These results indicate the feasibility of using calcitriol adjunctively with standard chemotherapy for the treatment of M.tb infection.

Clinical and MRI response to dose reduction of an etanercept-biosimilar for hip arthritis in patients with ankylosing spondylitis: an observational, retrospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVES: Hip arthritis plays a critical role in the prognosis of ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Dose reduction of tumor necrosis factor inhibitors preserves general improvement of AS, so this study attempted to examine the equivalence between Yisaipu® tapering and conventional therapy for hip arthritis in AS patients, using clinical parameters and magnetic resonance image (MRI). METHODS: AS patients received this etanercept-biosimilar injections (50 mg/week) in the first 12 weeks. Participants in the tapering group were treated with this reagent 50 mg every other week from week 13 to week 24, while the control group kept undergoing full-dose therapy. Clinical and laboratory parameters were assessed at baseline, week 12 and week 24. MRI examination of hip was performed at baseline and week 24. RESULTS: One hundred and thirty-six patients were enrolled, and 80 of them were in the tapering group. Linear mixed model revealed that main effects of tapering group with control group as reference in disease activity parameters were insignificant (p > 0.05). Main effects of baseline with week 24 as reference were significant (p < 0.05), but main effects of week 12 with week 24 as reference were not (p > 0.05). Prevalence of acute inflammatory change in MRI significantly decreased in the tapering group (76.88% vs 20.00%, p < 0.05) and control group (76.79% vs 19.64%, p < 0.05). Influence of both treatments on acute inflammatory change was equivalent (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Efficacy of Yisaipu® tapering treatment is comparable to the full-dose therapy for hip arthritis in AS patients. Both treatments maintain remission of hip arthritis after patients achieved low disease activity.

Flexible and Accurate Simulation of Radiation Cooling with FETD Method.

Thermal management and simulation are becoming increasingly important in many areas of engineering applications. There are three cooling routes for thermal management, namely thermal conduction, thermal convection and thermal radiation, among which the first two approaches have been widely studied and applied, while the radiation cooling has not yet attracted much attention in terrestrial environment because it usually contributes less to the total amount of thermal dissipation. Thus the simulation method for radiation cooling was also seldom noticed. The traditional way to simulate the radiation cooling is to solve the thermal conduction equation with an approximate radiation boundary condition, which neglects the wavelength and angular dependence of the emissivity of the object surface. In this paper, we combine the heat conduction equation with a rigorous radiation boundary condition discretized by the finite-element time-domain method to simulate the radiation cooling accurately and flexibly. Numerical results are given to demonstrate the accuracy, flexibilities and potential applications of the proposed method. The proposed numerical model can provide a powerful tool to gain deep physical insight and optimize the physical design of radiation cooling.

The deubiquitinating enzyme cylindromatosis mitigates nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a common clinical condition that can lead to advanced liver diseases. Lack of effective pharmacotherapies for NASH is largely attributable to an incomplete understanding of its pathogenesis. The deubiquitinase cylindromatosis (CYLD) plays key roles in inflammation and cancer. Here we identified CYLD as a suppressor of NASH in mice and in monkeys. CYLD is progressively degraded upon interaction with the E3 ligase TRIM47 in proportion to NASH severity. We observed that overexpression of Cyld in hepatocytes concomitantly inhibits lipid accumulation, insulin resistance, inflammation and fibrosis in mice with NASH induced in an experimental setting. Mechanistically, CYLD interacts directly with the kinase TAK1 and removes its K63-linked polyubiquitin chain, which blocks downstream activation of the JNK-p38 cascades. Notably, reconstitution of hepatic CYLD expression effectively reverses disease progression in mice with dietary or genetically induced NASH and in high-fat diet-fed monkeys predisposed to metabolic syndrome. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that CYLD mitigates NASH severity and identify the CYLD-TAK1 axis as a promising therapeutic target for management of the disease.

Nontopotactic Reaction in Highly Reversible Sodium Storage of Ultrathin Co9 Se8 /rGO Hybrid Nanosheets.

Transition metal chalcogenide with tailored nanosheet architectures with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) for high performance electrochemical sodium ion batteries (SIBs) are presented. Via one-step oriented attachment growth, a facile synthesis of Co9 Se8 nanosheets anchored on rGO matrix nanocomposites is demonstrated. As effective anode materials of SIBs, Co9 Se8 /rGO nanocomposites can deliver a highly reversible capacity of 406 mA h g-1 at a current density of 50 mA g-1 with long cycle stability. It can also deliver a high specific capacity of 295 mA h g-1 at a high current density of 5 A g-1 indicating its high rate capability. Furthermore, ex situ transmission electron microscopy observations provide insight into the reaction path of nontopotactic conversion in the hybrid anode, revealing the highly reversible conversion directly between the hybrid Co9 Se8 /rGO and Co nanoparticles/Na2 Se matrix during the sodiation/desodiation process. In addition, it is experimentally demonstrated that rGO plays significant roles in both controllable growth and electrochemical conversion processes, which can not only modulate the morphology of the product but also tune the sodium storage performance. The investigation on hybrid Co9 Se8 /rGO nanosheets as SIBs anode may shed light on designing new metal chalcogenide materials for high energy storage system.

Unlocking the potential of SnS2: Transition metal catalyzed utilization of reversible conversion and alloying reactions.

The alloying-dealloying reactions of SnS2 proceeds with the initial conversion reaction of SnS2 with lithium that produces Li2S. Unfortunately, due to the electrochemical inactivity of Li2S, the conversion reaction of SnS2 is irreversible, which significantly limit its potential applications in lithium-ion batteries. Herein, a systematic understanding of transition metal molybdenum (Mo) as a catalyst in SnS2 anode is presented. It is found that Mo catalyst is able to efficiently promote the reversible conversion of Sn to SnS2. This leads to the utilization of both conversion and alloying reactions in SnS2 that greatly increases lithium storage capability of SnS2. Mo catalyst is introduced in the form of MoS2 grown directly onto self-assembled vertical SnS2 nanosheets that anchors on three-dimensional graphene (3DG) creating a hierarchal nanostructured named as SnS2/MoS2/3DG. The catalytic effect results in a significantly enhanced electrochemical properties of SnS2/MoS2/3DG; a high initial Coulombic efficiency (81.5%) and high discharge capacities of 960.5 and 495.6 mA h g-1 at current densities of 50 and 1000 mA g-1, respectively. Post cycling investigations using ex situ TEM and XPS analysis verifies the successful conversion reaction of SnS2 mediated by Mo. The successful integration of catalyst on alloying type metal sulfide anode creates a new avenue towards high energy density lithium anodes.

Three-dimensional hierarchical NiCo2O4 nanowire@Ni3S2 nanosheet core/shell arrays for flexible asymmetric supercapacitors.

Three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical NiCo2O4@Ni3S2 core/shell arrays on Ni foam were synthesized by a facile, stepwise synthesis approach. The 3D heterogeneous NiCo2O4 nanostructure forms an interconnected web-like scaffold and serves as the core for the Ni3S2 shell. The as-prepared NiCo2O4@Ni3S2 nanowire array (NWA) electrodes exhibited excellent electrochemical performance, such as high specific areal capacitance and excellent cycling stability. The specific areal capacitance of 3.0 F cm(-2) at a current density of 5 mA cm(-2) is among the highest values and the only 6.7% capacitance decay after 10 000 cycles demonstrates the excellent cycling stability. A flexible asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) was fabricated with activated carbon (AC) as the anode and the obtained NiCo2O4@Ni3S2 NWAs as the cathode. The ASC device exhibited a high energy density of 1.89 mW h cm(-3) at 5.81 W cm(-3) and a high power density of 56.33 W cm(-3) at 0.94 mW h cm(-3). As a result, the hybrid nanoarchitecture opens a new way to design high performance electrodes for electrochemical energy storage applications.

Chiral copper(II) complex based on natural product rosin derivative as promising antitumour agent.

To evaluate the biological preference of chiral drug candidates for molecular target DNA, the synthesis and characterization of a chiral copper(II) complex (2) of a chiral ligand N,N'-(pyridin-2-ylmethylene) dehydroabietylamine (1) was carried out. The interactions of 1 and 2 with salmon sperm DNA were investigated by viscosity measurements, UV, fluorescence and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopic techniques. Absorption spectral, emission spectral and viscosity analysis reveal that 1 and 2 interacted with DNA through intercalation and 2 exhibited a higher DNA binding ability. In the absence/presence of ascorbic acid, 1 and 2 cleaved supercoiled pBR322 DNA by single-strand and 2 displayed stronger DNA cleavage ability. In addition, in vitro cytotoxicity of 1 and 2 against HeLa, SiHa, HepG-2 and A431 cancer cell lines study show that they exhibited effective cytotoxicity against the tested cell lines, notably, 2 showed a superior cytotoxicity than the widely used drug cisplatin under identical conditions, indicating it has the potential to act as effective anticancer drug. Flow cytometry analysis indicates 2 produced death of HeLa cancer cells through an apoptotic pathway. Cell cycle analysis demonstrates that 2 mainly arrested HeLa cells at the S phase. The study represents the first step towards understanding the mode of the promising chiral rosin-derivative based copper complexes as chemotherapeutics.

SIV Infection Facilitates Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection of Rhesus Macaques.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a common opportunistic infection and the leading cause of death for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients. Thus, it is necessary to understand the pathogenetic interactions between M.tb and HIV infection. In this study, we examined M.tb and/or simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection of Chinese rhesus macaques. While there was little evidence that M.tb enhanced SIV infection of macaques, SIV could facilitate M.tb infection as demonstrated by X-rays, pathological and microbiological findings. Chest X-rays showed that co-infected animals had disseminated lesions in both left and right lungs, while M.tb mono-infected animals displayed the lesions only in right lungs. Necropsy of co-infected animals revealed a disseminated M.tb infection not only in the lungs but also in the extrapulmonary organs including spleen, pancreas, liver, kidney, and heart. The bacterial counts in the lungs, the bronchial lymph nodes, and the extrapulmonary organs of co-infected animals were significantly higher than those of M.tb mono-infected animals. The mechanistic studies demonstrated that two of three co-infected animals had lower levels of M.tb specific IFN-γ and IL-22 in PBMCs than M.tb mono-infected animals. These findings suggest that Chinese rhesus macaque is a suitable and alternative non-human primate model for SIV/M.tb coinfection studies. The impairment of the specific anti-TB immunity is likely to be a contributor of SIV-mediated enhancement M.tb infection.

Asymmetric supercapacitors with high energy density based on helical hierarchical porous Na x MnO2 and MoO2.

Helical hierarchical porous Na x MnO2/CC and MoO2/CC, which are assembled from nanosheets and nanoparticles, respectively, are fabricated using a simple electrodeposition method. These unique helical porous structures enable electrodes to have a high capacitance and an outstanding cycling performance. Based on the helical Na x MnO2/CC as the positive electrodes and helical MoO2/CC as the negative electrodes, high performance Na x MnO2/CC//MoO2/CC asymmetric supercapacitors (ASCs) are successfully assembled, and they achieve a maximum volume Csp of 2.04 F cm-3 and a maximum energy density of 0.92 mW h cm-3 for the whole device and an excellent cycling stability with 97.22% Csp retention after 6000 cycles.

Designed hybrid nanostructure with catalytic effect: beyond the theoretical capacity of SnO2 anode material for lithium ion batteries.

Transition metal cobalt (Co) nanoparticle was designed as catalyst to promote the conversion reaction of Sn to SnO2 during the delithiation process which is deemed as an irreversible reaction. The designed nanocomposite, named as SnO2/Co3O4/reduced-graphene-oxide (rGO), was synthesized by a simple two-step method composed of hydrothermal (1(st) step) and solvothermal (2(nd) step) synthesis processes. Compared to the pristine SnO2/rGO and SnO2/Co3O4 electrodes, SnO2/Co3O4/rGO nanocomposites exhibit significantly enhanced electrochemical performance as the anode material of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The SnO2/Co3O4/rGO nanocomposites can deliver high specific capacities of 1038 and 712 mAh g(-1) at the current densities of 100 and 1000 mA g(-1), respectively. In addition, the SnO2/Co3O4/rGO nanocomposites also exhibit 641 mAh g(-1) at a high current density of 1000 mA g(-1) after 900 cycles, indicating an ultra-long cycling stability under high current density. Through ex-situ TEM analysis, the excellent electrochemical performance was attributed to the catalytic effect of Co nanoparticles to promote the conversion of Sn to SnO2 and the decomposition of Li2O during the delithiation process. Based on the results, herein we propose a new method in employing the catalyst to increase the capacity of alloying-dealloying type anode material to beyond its theoretical value and enhance the electrochemical performance.

Catalyst engineering for lithium ion batteries: the catalytic role of Ge in enhancing the electrochemical performance of SnO2(GeO2)0.13/G anodes.

The catalytic role of germanium (Ge) was investigated to improve the electrochemical performance of tin dioxide grown on graphene (SnO(2)/G) nanocomposites as an anode material of lithium ion batteries (LIBs). Germanium dioxide (GeO(20) and SnO(2) nanoparticles (<10 nm) were uniformly anchored on the graphene sheets via a simple single-step hydrothermal method. The synthesized SnO(2)(GeO(2))0.13/G nanocomposites can deliver a capacity of 1200 mA h g(-1) at a current density of 100 mA g(-1), which is much higher than the traditional theoretical specific capacity of such nanocomposites (∼ 702 mA h g(-1)). More importantly, the SnO(2)(GeO(2))0.13/G nanocomposites exhibited an improved rate, large current capability (885 mA h g(-1) at a discharge current of 2000 mA g(-1)) and excellent long cycling stability (almost 100% retention after 600 cycles). The enhanced electrochemical performance was attributed to the catalytic effect of Ge, which enabled the reversible reaction of metals (Sn and Ge) to metals oxide (SnO(2) and GeO(2)) during the charge/discharge processes. Our demonstrated approach towards nanocomposite catalyst engineering opens new avenues for next-generation high-performance rechargeable Li-ion batteries anode materials.

3D graphene supported MoO2 for high performance binder-free lithium ion battery.

In this work, we report the synthesis of MoO2 nanoparticles grown on three dimensional graphene (3DG) via the reduction of α-MoO3 nanobelts through a facile chemical vapor deposition (CVD) approach under argon protection gas environment. In this synthesis approach, the presence of hydrophobic 3DG promoted the Volmer-Weber growth of MoO2 nanoparticles (30-60 nm). The as-prepared MoO2-3DG nanocomposite was directly used as a binder-free anode electrode for lithium ion batteries (LIBs) without additives and exhibited excellent electrochemical performance. It delivered high reversible capacities of 975.4 mA h g(-1) and 537.3 mA h g(-1) at the current densities of 50 and 1000 mA g(-1), respectively. Moreover, the electrode also showed an increased capacity from 763.7 mA h g(-1) to 986.9 mA h g(-1) after 150 discharge and charge cycles at a current density of 200 mA g(-1). The enhanced electrochemical performance of MoO2-3DG nanocomposite electrode may be attributed to the synergistic effects of MoO2 nanoparticles and 3DG layers. This facile CVD synthesis process presents a feasible route for large-scale production of high performance, environmentally friendly electrode. In addition, this process also has the potential of being utilized in other materials for energy storage devices application.

Pre-lithiation of onion-like carbon/MoS2 nano-urchin anodes for high-performance rechargeable lithium ion batteries.

Hybrid urchin-like nanostructures composed of a spherical onion-like carbon (OLC) core and MoS2 nanoleaves were synthesized by a simple solvothermal method followed by thermal annealing treatment. Compared to commercial MoS2 powder, MoS2/OLC nanocomposites exhibit enhanced electrochemical performance as anode materials of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) with a specific capacity of 853 mA h g(-1) at a current density of 50 mA g(-1) after 60 cycles, and a moderate initial coulombic efficiency of 71.1%. Furthermore, a simple pre-lithiation method based on direct contact of lithium foil with MoS2/OLC nano-urchins was used to achieve a very high coulombic efficiency of 97.6% in the first discharge/charge cycle, which is at least 26% higher compared to that of pristine MoS2/OLC nano-urchins. This pre-lithiation method can be generalized to develop other carbon-metal sulfide nanohybrids for LIB anode materials. These results may open up a new avenue for the development of the next-generation high-performance LIBs.

Influence of sinomenine on protein profiles of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from ankylosing spondylitis patients: a pharmacoproteomics study.

BACKGROUND: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a common inflammatory rheumatic disease which lacks satisfactory treatment so far. Sinomenine (SIN) is an alkaloid and has recently been utilized in treating multiple rheumatic diseases including AS in China, but its exact mechanism remains to be explored. This study investigated the alteration of proteome in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from AS patients. METHODS: Thirty AS patients were enrolled in this study. PBMCs from each AS patient were cultured in medium with or without SIN respectively. Then PBMCs proteins from both groups were separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) and analyzed by mass spectrometry (MS). Two differentially expressed proteins were then chosen to be verified using Western blotting. RESULTS: Seven proteins, including a-synuclein (SNCA), calmodulin (CALM), acidic leucine-rich nuclear phosphoprotein 32 family member A (ANP32A), chloride intracellular channel protein 1 (CLIC1), guanine nucleotide-binding protein G(I)/G(S)/G(T) subunit beta-1 (GNB1), gelsolin (GSN) and histone H2B type 1-M (HISTH2BM) were over-expressed, while coronin- 1A (CORO1A) was under-expressed in the SIN-treated PBMCs. Further bioinformatics search indicated that the changes of SNCA, ANP32A and CLIC1 pertained to apoptosis, while changes of GSN and CORO1A were associated with both apoptosis and inhibition of immunological function. Subsequently GSN and CORO1A were selected to validate by Western blotting and the results were consistent with those of 2-DE. CONCLUSION: There were 8 differentially expressed proteins in the SIN-treated PBMCs, which might shed some light on the mechanism of SIN in the treatment of AS.