Effects of cold atmospheric plasma pre-treatment on maintaining the quality of ready-to-eat drunken red shrimp (Solenocera crassicornis) stored at chilled conditions.

This present study investigated the effect of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) pre-treatment on the quality of ready-to-eat drunken red shrimp (Solenocera crassicornis) during chilled storage. The shrimp were pre-treated with the CAP at 40 kV and 36 kH for 100 s in a plasma generating equipment before the drunken treatment and compared with an untreated control sample. The results showed that the CAP pre-treatment significantly inhibited the total viable count (TVC) values, total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) content, and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity of the drunken shrimp compared to the control treatment. Furthermore, the CAP pre-treatment also significantly maintained the myofibrillar protein (MP) content, texture properties, and a more stable histological structure of muscle fibers compared to the control. High-throughput sequencing results confirmed that the CAP pre-treatment significantly reduced the diversity and abundance of several bacteria in the shrimp. Gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry (GC-IMS) analysis detected that the CAP pre-treatment effectively maintained the stability of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These findings provide valuable theoretical support for the processing and storage of drunken shrimp.

Predictive value of frailty assessment tools in patients undergoing surgery for gastrointestinal cancer: An observational cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Few studies have simultaneously compared the predictive value of various frailty assessment tools for outcome measures in patients undergoing gastrointestinal cancer surgery. Therefore, it is difficult to determine which assessment tool is most relevant to the prognosis of this population. AIM: To investigate the predictive value of three frailty assessment tools for patient prognosis in patients undergoing gastrointestinal cancer surgery. METHODS: This single-centre, observational, prospective cohort study was conducted at the Affiliated Lianyungang Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University from August 2021 to July 2022. A total of 229 patients aged ≥ 18 years who underwent surgery for gastrointestinal cancer were included in this study. We collected baseline data on the participants and administered three scales to assess frailty: The comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA), Fried phenotype and FRAIL scale. The outcome measures were the postoperative severe complications and increased hospital costs. RESULTS: The prevalence of frailty when assessed with the CGA was 65.9%, 47.6% when assessed with the Fried phenotype, and 34.9% when assessed with the FRAIL scale. Using the CGA as a reference, kappa coefficients were 0.398 for the Fried phenotype and 0.291 for the FRAIL scale (both P < 0.001). Postoperative severe complications and increased hospital costs were observed in 29 (12.7%) and 57 (24.9%) patients, respectively. Multivariate logistic analysis confirmed that the CGA was independently associated with increased hospital costs (odds ratio = 2.298, 95% confidence interval: 1.044-5.057; P = 0.039). None of the frailty assessment tools were associated with postoperative severe complications. CONCLUSION: The CGA was an independent predictor of increased hospital costs in patients undergoing surgery for gastrointestinal cancer.

Development and validation of a competitive risk model in patients with rectal cancer: based on SEER database.

BACKGROUND: Rectal cancer is one of the most common malignancies. To predict the specific mortality risk of rectal cancer patients, we constructed a predictive nomogram based on a competing risk model. METHODS: The information on rectal cancer patients was extracted from the SEER database. Traditional survival analysis and specific death analysis were performed separately on the data. RESULTS: The present study included 23,680 patients, with 16,580 in the training set and 7100 in the validation set. The specific mortality rate calculated by the competing risk model was lower than that of the traditional survival analysis. Age, Marriage, Race, Sex, ICD-O-3Hist/Behav, Grade, AJCC stage, T stage, N stage, Surgery, Examined LN, RX SUMM-SURG OTH, Chemotherapy, CEA, Deposits, Regional nodes positive, Brain, Bone, Liver, Lung, Tumor size, and Malignant were independent influencing factors of specific death. The overall C statistic of the model in the training set was 0.821 (Se = 0.001), and the areas under the ROC curve for cancer-specific survival (CSS) at 1, 3, and 5 years were 0.842, 0.830, and 0.812, respectively. The overall C statistic of the model in the validation set was 0.829 (Se = 0.002), and the areas under the ROC curve for CSS at 1, 3, and 5 years were 0.851, 0.836, and 0.813, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The predictive nomogram based on a competing risk model for time-specific mortality in patients with rectal cancer has very desirable accuracy. Thus, the application of the predictive nomogram in clinical practice can help physicians make clinical decisions and follow-up strategies.

Ruthenium polypyridine complexes containing prenyl groups as antibacterial agents against Staphylococcus aureus through a membrane-disruption mechanism.

Four new ruthenium polypyridyl complexes with prenyl groups, [Ru(bpy)2 (MHIP)](PF6 )2 (Ru(II)-1), [Ru(dtb)2 (MHIP)](PF6 )2 (Ru(II)-2), [Ru(dmb)2 (MHIP)](PF6 )2 (Ru(II)-3), and [Ru(dmob)2 (MHIP)](PF6 )2 (Ru(II)-4) (bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine, dtb = 4,4'-di-tert-butyl-2,2'-bipyridine, dmb = 4,4'-dimethyl-2,2'-bipyridine, dmob = 4,4'-dimethoxy-2,2'-bipyridine, and MHIP = 2-(2,6-dimethylhepta-1,5-dien-1-yl)-1H-imidazo[4,f][1,10]phenanthroline), were synthesized and characterized. Their antibacterial activities against Staphylococcus aureus were assessed, and the minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) value of Ru(II)-2 against S. aureus was only 0.5 µg/mL, showing the best antibacterial activity among them. S. aureus could be quickly killed by Ru(II)-2 in 30 min and Ru(II)-2 displayed an obvious inhibitive effect on the formation of a biofilm, which was essential to avoid the development of drug-resistance. Meanwhile, Ru(II)-2 exhibited a stable MIC value against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The antibacterial mechanism of Ru(II)-2 was probably related to depolarization of the cell membrane, and a change of permeability was associated with the formation of reactive oxygen species, leading to leakage of nucleic acid and bacterial death. Furthermore, Ru(II)-2 hardly showed toxicity to mammalian cells and the Galleria mellonella worm. Finally, murine infection studies also illustrated that Ru(II)-2 was highly effective against S. aureus in vivo.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of sacubitril-valsartan in the treatment of ventricular remodeling in patients with heart failure after acute myocardial infarction.

Objective: To systematically review the efficacy and safety of sacubitril and valsartan in treating acute myocardial infarction complicated with heart failure and to observe whether it can further improve patients' cardiac function, delay left ventricular remodeling, and reduce major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs). Methods: Electronic databases including Pubmed, Embase, the Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Scopus, CNKI, Wanfang Data, and VIP were searched. The search period was from the establishment of the database to March 2022 to search for relevant controlled trials. Two investigators independently screened the literature, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias. Revman5.3 and Stata14 software were used for statistical analysis. Results: A total of 13 studies, with 6,968 patients were included. Meta-analysis results showed that sacubitril-valsartan increased left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and decreased NT-proBNP level was better at 6 months and within 3 months of follow-up compared with the control group (P < 0.00001), but there was no significant difference at the 12-month follow-up (P > 0.05). Sacubitril-valsartan reducing LVEDD [MD = -2.55, 95%CI(-3.21, -1.88), P < 0.00001], LVEDVI [MD = -3.61, 95%CI(-6.82, -0.39), P = 0.03], LVESVI [MD = -3.77, 95%CI(-6.05, -1.49), P = 0.001], and increasing the distance of the 6-min walk test [MD = 48.20, 95%CI(40.31, 56.09), P < 0.00001] were more effective. Compared with ACEI/ARB, the use of ARNI can further reduce the total incidence of adverse cardiovascular events [RR = 0.72, 95%CI(0.62, 0.84), P<0.0001] and the rate of HF rehospitalization [RR = 0.73, 95%CI(0.61, 0.86), P = 0.0002] in patients with acute myocardial infarction and heart failure; there was no significant difference in the incidence of cardiac death, recurrence of myocardial infarction, and malignant arrhythmia between the experimental group and the control group (P > 0.05). In terms of the incidence of adverse reactions, the incidence of cough in ARNI was lower than that in ACEI/ARB group [RR = 0.69, 95%CI(0.60, 0.80), P < 0.00001], but the incidence of hypotension was higher [RR = 1.29, 95%CI(1.18, 1.41), P < 0.00001], and the adverse reactions of hyperkalemia, angioedema and renal insufficiency were not increased (P > 0.05). Conclusion: The use of sacubitril-valsartan sodium in patients with acute myocardial infarction complicated with heart failure can significantly improve cardiac function and reverse ventricular remodeling, reducing the risk of re-hospitalization for heart failure. There is no apparent adverse reaction except easy cause hypotension. Systematic trial registration: [www.ClinicalTrials.gov], identifier [CRD42022322901].

Charge-reversal nanomedicine based on black phosphorus for the development of A Novel photothermal therapy of oral cancer.

Driven by the lifestyle habits of modern people, such as excessive smoking, drinking, and chewing betel nut and other cancer-causing foods, the incidence of oral cancer has increased sharply and has a trend of becoming younger. Given the current mainstream treatment means of surgical resection will cause serious damage to many oral organs, so that patients lose the ability to chew, speak, and so on, it is urgent to develop new oral cancer treatment methods. Based on the strong killing effect of photothermal therapy on exposed superficial tumors, we developed a pH-responsive charge reversal nanomedicine system for oral cancer which is a kind of classic superficial tumor. With excellent photothermal properties of polydopamine (PDA) modified black phosphorus nanosheets (BP NSs) as basal material, then used polyacrylamide hydrochloride-dimethylmaleic acid (PAH-DMMA) charge reversal system for further surface modification, which can be negatively charged at blood circulation, and become a positive surface charge in the tumor site weakly acidic conditions due to the breaking of dimethylmaleic amide. Therefore, the uptake of oral cancer cells was enhanced and the therapeutic effect was improved. It can be proved that this nanomedicine has excellent photothermal properties and tumor enrichment ability, as well as a good killing effect on oral cancer cells through in vitro cytotoxicity test and in vivo photothermal test, which may become a very promising new model of oral cancer treatment.

Structure-activity relationships and antiproliferative effects of 1,2,3,4-4H-quinoxaline derivatives as tubulin polymerization inhibitors.

Colchicine binding site inhibitors (CBSIs) hold great potential for the treatment of various tumors and they can overcome multidrug resistance which the existing tubulin inhibitors such as paclitaxel and vinorelbine are faced with. Herein, we report the design, synthesis and biological evaluation of a series of tetrahydro-quinoxaline derivatives as colchicine binding site inhibitors. All the synthesized compounds were evaluated for their in vitro antiproliferative activities against HT-29 and Hela cancer cell lines, and most of the target compounds demonstrated moderate to strong activities towards two tumor cell lines. In addition, the structure-activity relationships of these derivatives were also discussed. Among them, compounds 11a and 11b showed the most potent activities. Moreover, compound 11a inhibited the tubulin polymerization in both cell-free and cellular assays. Further profiling of compound 11a revealed that it arrested cell cycle in G2/M and induced cell apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, molecular docking study proved that compound 11a acted on the colchicine binding site. Therefore, 11a is a promising candidate for the discovery of colchicine binding site inhibitors.

Solvent-free nanoalumina loaded nanocellulose aerogel for efficient oil and organic solvent adsorption.

HYPOTHESIS: Cellulose-based aerogel, due to its rich reserves, environmental friendliness and porous structure, is considered as a new type of adsorbents for treating oil and water pollution. However, the functionalization of cellulose aerogel is still required for the efficient increase of its adsorption performance in wide applications. The combination of nanomaterials could significantly improve the adsorption capability of nanocellulose aerogel. EXPERIMENTS: In this work, nanocomposite aerogels comprising of nanocellulose and nanoalumina (NC/Al2O3) are produced via a solvent-free method and the effect of weight ratios between nanocellulose and nanoalumina on the adsorption properties of NC/Al2O3 aerogels has been studied. FINDINGS: The results reveal that the NC/Al2O3 aerogel with a low density of 5.1 mg cm-3 could obtain the optimal pore microstructures and the highest oil and organic solvent adsorption capacities with the preparation condition under the nanocellulose/nanoalumina weight ratio of 1:0.25 and 0.4 wt% of nanocellulose in aqueous solution. The presence of nanoalumina facilitates the change of microstructure morphologies, the increase of BET specific surface area and the adsorption capacities of NC aerogel. Compared with pure NC aerogel (74.07 ± 1.67, 69.87 ± 1.01, 81.21 ± 3.20, 52.07 ± 1.70, 48.49 ± 1.01, 75.45 ± 3.58 and 87.03 ± 0.46 g g-1 for thiophene, anhydrous ethanol, ethyl acetate, cyclohexane, sesame oil, acetone and dichloromethane, respectively), the NC/Al2O3 aerogel manifests an outstanding adsorption capacity (108.07 ± 0.37, 89.91 ± 4.83, 93.93 ± 3.81, 71.13 ± 2.48, 64.83 ± 2.25, 85.19 ± 3.87 and 117.65 ± 5.68 g g-1, accordingly). By considering the desirable performance features and the convenient fabrication approach, this nanocellulose nanocomposite aerogel might be a feasible alternative for oily waste water recovery and conservation of environment.

Effect of the Combination of Ketorolac and Bupivacaine on Transversus Abdominis Plane Block for Postoperative Analgesia After Gynecological Laparoscopic Surgery.

BACKGROUND This study assessed the additional benefits of bupivacaine when combined with ketorolac for transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block after gynecological laparoscopic surgery. MATERIAL AND METHODS This randomized, observer-blind trial recruited 153 patients who underwent gynecological laparoscopic surgery. Patients were randomly assigned to receive bupivacaine combined with ketorolac 15 mg/side for TAP block (TK group), bupivacaine for TAP block and 30 mg postoperative intravenous ketorolac (T group), or 30 mg postoperative intravenous ketorolac alone (C group). The primary endpoints included consumption of sufentanil for 24 h postoperatively, actual press times of the patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pump, and effective press times of the PCA pump, whereas the secondary endpoints included numerical rating scale (NRS) pain scores at rest and during activity, satisfaction with analgesia, episodes of nausea and vomiting and length of hospital stay. RESULTS Sufentanil consumption, actual press times of the PCA pump, and effective press times of the PCA pump were lower in the TK and T groups than in the C group. NRS scores at rest and during activity at 1, 2, 4, 6, and 24 hours were significantly lower in the TK and T groups than in the C group. The TK and T groups showed greater satisfaction with analgesia than the C group, while the TK group showed greater overall satisfaction than the C group. Lengths of stay, rates of nausea and vomiting, and venting times did not differ significantly among the three groups. CONCLUSIONS Combined ketorolac and bupivacaine as TAP block improved the effectiveness of analgesia without increasing adverse events. Trial registration number: ChiCTR1900022577.

A Water-soluble Near-infrared Fluorescent Probe for Cysteine/Homocysteine and Its Application in Live Cells and Mice.

A near-infrared (NIR) and water-soluble probe was synthesized and studied for the detection of Cys/Hcy in aqueous solution, living cells and mice. The probe was composed of cyanine derivative as the NIR fluorescent reporting unit and pyrimidiny-thioether moiety as the Cys/Hcy responsive unit. Treatment with Cys/Hcy induced the formation of sulfur-substituted products, then intramolecular rearrangement reaction would occur to produce amino-substituted products and resulting in enhanced red fluorescence emissions. It could be applied to sense Cys/Hcy both in solution with the detection limit of 0.17 µM (or 0.32 µM) and in living cells. Cell imaging experiments proved that such a probe exhibited good cell penetration. In addition, the probe could detect Cys/Hcy in live mice with strong turn-on fluorescent response.

Relationship between circulating levels of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2-angiotensin-(1-7)-MAS axis and coronary heart disease.

As a counter-regulatory arm of the renin angiotensin system (RAS), the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2-angiotensin-(1-7)-MAS axis (ACE2-Ang-(1-7)-MAS axis) plays a protective role in cardiovascular diseases. However, the link between circulating levels of ACE2-Ang-(1-7)-Mas axis and coronary atherosclerosis in humans is not determined. The object of present study was to investigate the association of circulating levels of ACE2, Ang-(1-7) and Ang-(1-9) with coronary heart disease (CHD) defined by coronary angiography (CAG). 275 patients who were referred to CAG for the evaluation of suspected CHD were enrolled and divided into two groups: CHD group (diameter narrowing ≥ 50%, n = 218) and non-CHD group (diameter narrowing < 50%, n = 57). Circulating ACE2, Ang-(1-7) and Ang-(1-9) levels were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In females, circulating ACE2 levels were higher in the CHD group than in the non-CHD group (5617.16 ± 5206.67 vs. 3124.06 ± 3005.36 pg/ml, P = 0.009), and subgroup analysis showed the significant differences in ACE2 levels between the two groups only exist in patients with multi-vessel lesions (P = 0.009). In multivariate logistic regression, compared with the people in the lowest ACE2 quartile, those in the highest quartile had an OR of 4.33 (95% CI 1.20-15.61) for the CHD (P for trend = 0.025), the OR was 5.94 (95% CI 1.08-32.51) for the third ACE2 quartile and 9.58 (95% CI 1.61-56.95) for the highest ACE2 quartile after adjusting for potential confounders (P for trend = 0.022). However, circulating Ang-(1-7) and Ang-(1-9) levels had no significant differences between the two groups. In males, there were no significant differences in the levels of ACE2-Ang-(1-7)-MAS axis between two groups. Together, circulating ACE2 levels, but not Ang-(1-7) and Ang-(1-9) levels, significantly increased in female CHD group when compared with non-CHD group, increased ACE2 was independently associated with CHD in female and in patients with multi-vessel lesions even after adjusting for the confounding factors, indicating that ACE2 may participate as a compensatory mechanism in CHD.

Magnetic nanocellulose-magnetite aerogel for easy oil adsorption.

HYPOTHESIS: Cellulose aerogels are a new category of high-efficiency adsorbents for treating oil spills and water pollution. However, the hydrophilic properties and recyclability of aerogels after adsorption hamper developments and applications. Combining both hydrophobic and magnetic properties are expected to improve their adsorption capacity and functionality. EXPERIMENTS: In this study, the effect of oleic acid (OA) and nanomagnetite on the preparation of magnetic nanocellulose aerogels (called as NCA/OA/Fe3O4) by a mechanical mixing combined with freeze-drying method have been investigated. FINDINGS: It has been found that the optimal condition for fabricating this NCA/OA/Fe3O4 aerogel is 0.4 wt% nanocellulose, 3 mg mL-1 OA and 0.5 wt% Fe3O4 in the aqueous solution. This aerogel has a very low density of 9.2 mg cm-3 and demonstrates a high adsorption capacity of 68.06 g g-1 for cyclohexane. In addition, this aerogel adsorbent demonstrates an excellent magnetic responsivity and can be easily recycled by a permanent magnet after adsorption. As a consequence, this hydrophobic magnetic NCA/OA/Fe3O4 aerogel is promising not only for easy oil and organic solvent adsorption but also potentially for other magnetic related applications.

Allicin Improves Metabolism in High-Fat Diet-Induced Obese Mice by Modulating the Gut Microbiota.

Allicin, naturally present in the bulbs of the lily family, has anticancer, blood pressure lowering, blood fat lowering and diabetes improving effects. Recent studies have shown that allicin promotes the browning of white adipocytes and reduces the weight gain of mice induced by high-fat diet. While the gut microbiota has a strong relationship with obesity and energy metabolism, the effect of allicin on weight loss via gut microorganisms is still unclear. In this study, we treated obese mice induced by high-fat diet with allicin to determine its effects on fat deposition, blood metabolic parameters and intestinal morphology. Furthermore, we used high-throughput sequencing on a MiSeq Illumina platform to determine the gut microorganisms' species. We found that allicin significantly reduced the weight gain of obese mice by promoting lipolysis and thermogenesis, as well as blood metabolism and intestinal morphology, and suppressing hepatic lipid synthesis and transport. In addition, allicin changed the composition of the intestinal microbiota and increased the proportion of beneficial bacteria. In conclusion, our study showed that allicin improves metabolism in high-fat induced obese mice by modulating the gut microbiota. Our findings provide a theoretical basis for further elucidation of the weight loss mechanism of allicin.

MicroRNA-18a promotes cancer progression through SMG1 suppression and mTOR pathway activation in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

miR-18a has been reported to be upregulated in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) tissues by microarray assays. However, the roles and the underlying mechanisms of miR-18a in NPC remain poorly understood. Here we demonstrated by real-time RT-PCR that miR-18a expression is upregulated in NPC tissues, and positively correlated with tumor size and TNM stage. Moreover, miR-18a expression could be upregulated by NF-κB activation or Epstein-Barr virus encoded latent membrane protein 1 expression. The ectopic expression of miR-18a promoted NPC cell proliferation, migration and invasion, while the repression of miR-18a had opposite effects. Candidate genes under regulation by miR-18a were screened out through a whole-genome microarray assay, further identified by a reporter assay and verified in clinical samples. SMG1, a member of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase-related kinases family and an mTOR antagonist, was identified as functional target of miR-18a. Our results confirmed that miR-18a exerts its oncogenic role through suppression of SMG1 and activation of mTOR pathway in NPC cells. Importantly, in vivo xenograft tumor growth in nude mice was effectively inhibited by intratumor injection of miR-18a antagomir. Our data support an oncogenic role of miR-18a through a novel miR-18a/SMG1/mTOR axis and suggest that the antitumor effects of antagomir-18a may make it suitable for NPC therapy.

Positive Effects of the Tea Catechin, (-)-Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate, on Gut Prophenoloxidase and the Survival of Ectropis obliqua (Lepidoptera: Geometridae).

Ectropis obliqua Prout is the main pest of the tea plant Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze in China, affecting an annual area of more than one million acres. (-)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is the major catechin in tea leaves. Here, we show that EGCG is highly efficient in increasing the survival rate of E. obliqua larvae. We also compared the gut peroxidase (PO) activity between EGCG-fed and control larvae. EGCG-fed larvae had significantly greater PO activity levels than control larvae. Western blotting validated these results. Gut PO activity levels of larvae fed an artificial diet gradually decreased and disappeared completely by day 5. We hypothesize that the increased survival rate of EGCG-fed larvae was associated with increased PO activity. This research provides evidence that E. obliqua larvae have adapted to, and may even benefit from, secondary compounds found in tea leaves.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of quinoxaline derivatives as tubulin polymerization inhibitors that elevate intracellular ROS and triggers apoptosis via mitochondrial pathway.

A series of novel quinoxaline derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their antiproliferative activity in three human cancer cell lines. Compound 12 exhibited the most potent antiproliferative activity with IC50 in the range of 0.19-0.51 µM. The compound inhibited tubulin polymerization and disrupted the microtubule network, leading to G2/M phase arrest. Furthermore, compound 12 induced ROS production and malfunction of mitochondrial membrane potential. Compound 12 led to cancer cells apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. Western blot analysis showed that compound 12 induced up-regulation of p21 and affected the expression of cell cycle-related proteins. The binding mode was also probed by molecular docking.

Super light 3D hierarchical nanocellulose aerogel foam with superior oil adsorption.

In this work, the concentration effect of both nanocellulose and sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) on the fabrication of a super light 3D hierarchical framework adsorbent nanocellulose aerogel foam (NAF) is exploited through a high speed mechanical foaming and solvent-free method by adding SDS. The results show that the optimal concentration of nanocellulose and SDS for preparation of this 3D NAF/SDS is 0.4 and 0.2 wt%, accordingly. By utilizing unique gridding framework of NAF/SDS, a low density of 1.50 mg cm-3 and high adsorption capacity of 206.79, 194.75 and 145.20 g g-1 towards cyclohexane, ethyl acetate, and vacuum pump oil, accordingly, are achieved in the as-prepared NAF/SDS, which is much higher than that of conventional nanocellulose aerogel (NA) (52.07, 81.12 and 34.52 g g-1, respectively). The results illustrate that this NAF/SDS is a promising candidate for preparing 3D hierarchical network structure from natural polymer cellulose in an environmental control for oil adsorption.

A dual-selective fluorescent probe for discriminating glutathione and homocysteine simultaneously.

Homocysteine (Hcy) and glutathione (GSH) play important roles in a variety of physiological and pathological processes. Abnormal levels of Hcy and GSH are related to various diseases. Fluorescent probes for detecting them with sensitive and selective are highly desirable. However, efficient discrimination of Hcy and GSH is still a challenge for their similar molecular structures and chemical properties. Herein, we report a naphthalimide and sulfonyl benzoxadiazole (SBD) based dual-selective fluorescent probe for Hcy and GSH over other amino acids. The probe exhibited weak fluorescence (Φ = 0.075, in DMSO) at 490 nm and fluorescence enhancement upon addition of GSH (1-20 µM) with a detection limit of 0.8 µM. The probe also exhibited ratiometric fluorescence responses for Hcy (fluorescence at 490 nm decreased and fluorescence at 552 nm increased). The fluorescence intensity ratio (I552/I490) showed a good linear correlation with the Hcy concentrations in range of 3-20 µM and the detection limit was 0.1 µM. Moreover, this probe was successfully utilized for monitoring Hcy and GSH in living cells.

Epithelial cell adhesion molecule overexpression regulates epithelial-mesenchymal transition, stemness and metastasis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells via the PTEN/AKT/mTOR pathway.

Epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) is known to be highly expressed in a variety of epithelial carcinomas, and it is involved in cell adhesion and proliferation. However, its expression profile and biological function in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) remains unclear. In this study, higher expression of EpCAM was found in NPC samples compared with non-cancer nasopharyngeal mucosa by qRT-PCR. Additionally, immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis of NPC specimens from 64 cases showed that high EpCAM expression was associated with metastasis and shorter survival. Multivariate survival analysis identified high EpCAM expression as an independent prognostic factor. Ectopic EpCAM expression in NPC cells promoted epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), induced a cancer stem cell (CSC)-like phenotype, and enhanced metastasis in vitro and in vivo without an effect on cell proliferation. Notably, EpCAM overexpression reduced PTEN expression and increased the level of AKT, mTOR, p70S6K and 4EBP1 phosphorylation. Correspondingly, an AKT inhibitor and rapamycin blocked the effect of EpCAM on NPC cell invasion and stem-like phenotypes, and siRNA targeting PTEN rescued the oncogenic activities in EpCAM knockdown NPC cells. Our data demonstrate that EpCAM regulates EMT, stemness and metastasis of NPC cells via the PTEN/AKT/mTOR pathway.

A nontoxic, photostable and high signal-to-noise ratio mitochondrial probe with mitochondrial membrane potential and viscosity detectivity.

Herein, we reported a yellow emission probe 1-methyl-4-(6-morpholino-1, 3-dioxo-1H-benzo[de]isoquinolin-2(3H)-yl) pyridin-1-ium iodide which could specifically stain mitochondria in living immortalized and normal cells. In comparison to the common mitochondria tracker (Mitotracker Deep Red, MTDR), this probe was nontoxic, photostable and ultrahigh signal-to-noise ratio, which could real-time monitor mitochondria for a long time. Moreover, this probe also showed high sensitivity towards mitochondrial membrane potential and intramitochondrial viscosity change. Consequently, this probe was used for imaging mitochondria, detecting changes in mitochondrial membrane potential and intramitochondrial viscosity in physiological and pathological processes.