Nootkatone Improves Chronic Unpredictable Mild Stress-Induced Depressive-Like Behaviors by Repressing NF-κB/NLRP3-Mediated Neuroinflammation.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of nootkatone (NKT) on chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS)-induced depressive-like behaviors and the mechanism underlying NKT improving the depressive-like behaviors. METHODS: The CUMS-induced depression model was established in mice. Fifty mice were randomized into 5 groups (n=10) in accordance with a random number table: control group, CUMS group, CUMS + NKT (6 mg/kg) group, CUMS + NKT (12 mg/kg) group, and CUMS + ketamine group. From the 22th day, NKT (6 or 12 mg/kg) or ketamine (0.5 mg/kg) was given with intragastric administration every day for 21 days. Behavioral tests including forced swimming test (FST), tail suspension test (TST), sucrose preference test (SPT) and open-field test (OFT) were carried out. The mRNA and protein expressions of interleukin (IL)-1ß, IL-18, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α in hippocampus were assessed using quantitative realtime polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Western blot analysis, and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. The nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB)/NOD-like receptor 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome pathway was analyzed using Western blot and immunofluorescence analysis. RESULTS: NKT treatment improved CUMS-induced depressive-like behaviors in mice (P<0.05 or P<0.01). NKT significantly decreased the mRNA and protein levels of IL-1ß, IL-18, IL-6, and TNF-α in hippocampus of CUMS mice (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Furthermore, NKT repressed CUMS-induced activation of NF-κB signaling and NLRP3 inflammasome (P<0.01). More important, Nigericin, a NLRP3 activator, destroyed the effect of NKT on repressing neuroinflammation and improving depressive-like behaviors (P<0.05 or P<0.01). CONCLUSION: NKT ameliorates the depressive-like symptoms, in part by repressing NF-κB/NLRP3-mediated neuroinflammation.

Policy, toxicology and physicochemical considerations on the inhalation of high concentrations of food flavour.

Food flavour ingredients are required by law to obtain prior approval from regulatory bodies, such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in terms of toxicological data and intended use levels. However, there are no regulations for labelling the type and concentration of flavour additives on the product, primarily due to their low concentration in food and generally recognised as safe (GRAS) status determined by the flavour and extract manufacturers' association (FEMA). Their status for use in e-cigarettes and other vaping products challenges these fundamental assumptions, because their concentration can be over ten-thousand times higher than in food, and the method of administration is through inhalation, which is currently not evaluated by the FEMA expert panel. This work provides a review of some common flavour ingredients used in food and vaping products, their product concentrations, inhalation toxicity and aroma interactions reported with different biological substrates. We have identified several studies, which suggest that the high concentrations of flavour through inhalation may pose a serious health threat, especially in terms of their cytotoxicity. As a result of the wide range of possible protein-aroma interactions reported in our diet and metabolism, including links to several non-communicable diseases, we suggest that it is instrumental to update current flavour- labelling regulations, and support new strategies of understanding the effects of flavour uptake on the digestive and respiratory systems, in order to prevent the onset of future non-communicable diseases.

Key to Treating COVID-19: Removing Phlegm from Small Airways.

According to autopsy reports, patients who died from COVID-19 had a lot of mucus in the lung that obstructed the airways, reduced the effect of mechanical ventilation, and even led to pulmonary failure. Traditional Chinese medicine literature mentions that "Inability to remove phlegm impairs the lung, which leads to death." Hence one of the most urgent problems to be solved is to remove phlegm from the small airways. This article elaborates ten methods to remove phlegm for clinical reference.

[The principle of treating spirit in clinical acupuncture-moxibustion in terms of three-layer thought].

Treating spirit,which relates to many philosophical theories and techniques,is key to the effect of acupuncture-moxibustion therapy. According to qi monism and the three-layer thought of nature-earth-human,it is believed that the spirit means the ability or possibility to communicate with the nature-earth-human,and response refers to the spirit-interlinking progress between persons and the nature-earth-human. While treating spirit is seen as keeping learning and practicing the progress. The author describes treating spirit by acupuncture-moxibustion in terms of metaphysics and examples. It believes that treating spirit is inevitable as three-layer thought,which stems from traditional Chinese culture,is permeating into acupuncture-moxibustion theory. Treating spirit,a combination between medical ethics and techniques,indicates that doctors understand patients and diseases both generally and detailedly,with mental requirement for the two parts.

[A brief talk on the embodiment of Three-Layer thought in the science of acupuncture and moxibustion].

Three-Layer thought is an important proposition in Chinese traditional philosophy. This thought embodies the Chinese people's cosmology and methodology and exerts a far-reaching influence on various aspects of Chinese culture. The embodiment of Three-Layer thought in the theory and practice of acupuncture and moxibustion from naming of acupoints, principles of treatment, needling instruments, prescription of acupoints as well as needling techniques is elaborated and briefly analyzed. Thus it illustrates the comprehensive application of Three-Layer thought in acupuncture and moxibustion through the history and the significance of Chinese traditional philosophy in the science of acupuncture and moxibustion.

[Synthesis and spectral properties of a novel fluorinated triphenylamine derivative].

A novel fluorinated triphenylamine derivative, N,N,N',N'-tetraphenyl-[2', 2", 3', 3", 5', 5", 6', 6"octafluoro-p-quater-phenyl]-4,4"'-diamine (OFTPA), was designed and synthesized via the palladium-catalyzed Suzuki coupling reaction of 4,4'-di-bromooctafluorobiphenyl with triphenylamine-4-boronic acid (yield: 67%). Its molecular structure was characterized by elemental analysis, melting points, FTIR and 1H NMR spectroscopy, and the main FTIR absorption peaks and 1H NMR spectral bands of the compound were assigned. The energy level structure and photoluminescence properties of OFTPA were investigated by UV-Vis absorption, fluorescence spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry (CV). The UV-Vis spectroscopy results show that the maximum absorption peak wavelength of OFTPA film is 355 nm, and its optical band gap (E(g)) determined from the obtained absorption spectra is 3.09 eV. The fluorescence spectroscopy results show that OFTPA film can emit intense blue fluorescence with a peak wavelength of 448 nm and a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 68 nm under UV excitation at 365 nm. So it is a promising candidate for blue electroluminescent materials. The CV results show that the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy level and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy level of OFTPA are -5.41 and -2.32 eV, respectively, indicating that it has good hole transport property. The results give a reference to further application to organic optoelectronic device of the target compound.

[Analysis of the academic advantage of Huangdi Neijing based on future medical trends].

Combined with the transformation of modern medicine, the author analyzed the instructional value of the academic theories proposed in the Huangdi Neijing. These theories include medical modes varying from medicine focusing on disease to medicine focusing on health, from biomedicine to ecological medicine, from the treatment of conditions to the treatment of the patient, from group therapy to individual therapy, and from disease treatment to holistic treatment. Through analysis of these treatment modalities the implications of their possible use in future medicine can be assessed.

GPS 2.1: enhanced prediction of kinase-specific phosphorylation sites with an algorithm of motif length selection.

As the most important post-translational modification of proteins, phosphorylation plays essential roles in all aspects of biological processes. Besides experimental approaches, computational prediction of phosphorylated proteins with their kinase-specific phosphorylation sites has also emerged as a popular strategy, for its low-cost, fast-speed and convenience. In this work, we developed a kinase-specific phosphorylation sites predictor of GPS 2.1 (Group-based Prediction System), with a novel but simple approach of motif length selection (MLS). By this approach, the robustness of the prediction system was greatly improved. All algorithms in GPS old versions were also reserved and integrated in GPS 2.1. The online service and local packages of GPS 2.1 were implemented in JAVA 1.5 (J2SE 5.0) and freely available for academic researches at: http://gps.biocuckoo.org.

[Methods for clinical study of Nei Jing].

Nei Jing or Canon of Medicine established the theoretical system of traditional Chinese medicine, and lay the foundation for the development of clinical traditional Chinese medicine. The author holds that the researchers should study the Canon of Medicine according to clinical practice so as to find its new and valid academic values. At present, the approaches to clinical study of Canon of Medicine include case research, large sample retrospective verification, epidemiological survey and the exploration of case reports in ancient times and so on.

[A new Bayesian reconstruction algorithm for PET images based on correction of the detected sinogram data].

OBJECTIVE: To improve Bayesian reconstruction of positron-emission tomography (PET) images by devising a novel coupled feedback (CF) iterative model. METHODS: The CF iterative algorithm was applied to update the noisy detected emission sinogram data using the latest reconstructed image in the iterative process of PET reconstruction. The relevant operations included linear filtering, wiener filtering, and projection of the reconstructed images. The sinogram data used in the study was obtained from simulated phantom data. RESULTS: The experiments and corresponding visional and quantitative comparisons showed that the new method had better performance than the traditional Bayesian reconstruction of PET images for improvement of the PET images. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed sinogram-correcting method allows improvement on the original measurement data, and is applicable for PET image reconstruction or other reconstruction tasks with high noise level.