Effects of ultrasonic power on drying kinetics and product quality of licorice extract during ultrasound-assisted vacuum drying.

BACKGROUND: Licorice extract is an important raw material for food additives and medicine. The quality of licorice extract is dictated by the drying process. The commonly used drying methods of licorice extract are not efficient in obtaining high-quality products so alternative techniques need to be developed and researched. In this study, ultrasound-assisted vacuum drying (UAVD) was first utilized to improve drying efficiency and produce a higher-quality product. The changes in water mobility of licorice extract during drying were characterized using low-field nuclear magnetic resonance. In addition, the effects of ultrasonic power on the drying dynamics, the contents of liquiritin and glycyrrhizic acid, the antioxidant capacity and the microstructure formation of licorice extract during the whole drying process were investigated. RESULTS: The drying times for licorice extract to reach equilibrium moisture content were reduced by 9.09-69.70% with UAVD at 40-200 W compared with that without ultrasonic treatment (0 W). Moreover, the proportions of bound water and semi-bound water in fresh concentrate were 3.75% and 96.25%. It was also found that high ultrasonic power promoted the flow of water and the formation of porous structure in licorice extract, which led to the improvement of drying efficiency. The contents of liquiritin (2.444%) and glycyrrhizic acid (6.514%) were retained to a large degree in the dried product at an ultrasonic power of 80 W. The DPPH inhibition rate of UAVD samples with different ultrasonic powers ranged from 84.07 ± 0.46% to 90.65 ± 0.22%. CONCLUSION: UAVD has the advantages of high efficiency and low energy consumption, which may be an alternative technology for vacuum drying widely used in industry. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.

[Mechanisms of changes of active components in Chinese medicinal materials during drying: a review].

Drying is an indispensable processing step for Chinese medicinal materials after harvesting. It often leads to significant changes in the active components of these materials, thus impacting their medicinal values. Understanding the mechanisms behind the changes during the drying process is of great importance for regulating the transformation of key active components. Therefore, this paper reviews the available studies and comprehensively expounds the mechanisms underlying the changes in active components during the drying process. The aim is to offer insights for the development of regulatory strategies and the improvement of drying techniques for Chinese medicinal materials.

The platform development, adherence and efficacy to a digital Brief therapy for insomnia (dBTI) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brief therapy for insomnia (BTI) is a short-term cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. At present, there is no study combining BTI with digital technology. However, in the context of the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), patients with acute insomnia may need an online treatment which can quickly improve insomnia symptoms. Our team built a digital BTI (dBTI) platform based on the WeChat mini program. This research provides a framework design and a course design of dBTI, and evaluates the system via recruiting participants suffering from acute insomnia in pandemic. What's more, it explores patients' adherence, the efficiency of the system and their relationship. As the result demonstrates, 68% of participants have completed more than half of the course with medium to high adherence. Gender, pre-sleep arousal scale (PSAS) somatic score and insomnia severity index (ISI) score have affected participants' adherence, and higher adherence has led to better improvement in the severity of insomnia and somatic pre-sleep arousal. It is proved that the platform we built is effective, which not only offers an entry point for the study of how to set up a dBTI platform, but also provides theoretical basis for its clinical application.

Electroencephalogram pattern association with drug-related cues in a long-duration virtual reality environment in patients with methamphetamine use disorder.

The cognitive processing of drug-related cues and the subsequent dysregulation of behaviour play a central role in the pathophysiology of substance use disorders. Prior studies are limited by small sample sizes and a lack of immersion in stimulus presentation. In the present study, we recruited patients with methamphetamine use disorder (MUD; N = 1099) from four compulsory isolated detoxification centres and healthy control participants (N = 305). With a 12-min-long virtual reality (VR) protocol stimulus, we discovered that patients showed a decrease in electroencephalogram (EEG) power across alpha to gamma bands in anterior scalp regions under methamphetamine-related VR stimuli (e.g. a glass pipe and medical tubing) compared with the control stimuli (e.g. balls and cubes). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the interaction effects of stimuli type and group were significant in five EEG bands. Using generalised linear models, we classified the stimuli type (i.e. drug-related vs. drug-unrelated cues) in MUD patients with an f1 score of 90% on an out-of-sample testing set. The decreases of EEG between drug-related cues and drug-unrelated cues in delta, theta and alpha frequency bands are more frequently seen in patients than in healthy controls, perhaps reflecting general arousal and attenuated impulsive control. Our results suggest that EEG responses elicited by long-duration methamphetamine-related VR cues showed a specific signature, which may have future clinical implications.

[Application prospect of reaction engineering approach in studying drying behavior of single droplet during spray drying of traditional Chinese medicine].

Spray drying technology is one of the most commonly used unit operations in the production of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) preparations, offering advantages such as short drying time and uniform product quality. However, due to the properties of TCM extracts, such as high viscosity, strong hygroscopicity, and poor flowability, there is limited scope to solve the problems of wall adhesion and clumping in spray drying from the macroscopic perspective of pharmaceutical production. Therefore, it has become a trend to study and optimize the spray drying process from the microscopic point of view by investigating single droplet evaporation behavior. Based on the reaction engineering approach(REA), the single droplet drying system, as a novel method for studying droplets, collects parameter data on individual TCM droplets during the drying process and uses the REA to process the data and establish predictive models. This approach is crucial for understanding the mechanism of TCM spray drying. This paper summarized and analyzed the cha-racteristics of various single droplet systems, the application of REA in single droplet drying systems, and its significance in optimizing the process, predicting drying states, and shortening the development cycle in the field of TCM spray drying, and looked ahead to the prospects of this method, including the introduction of new parameters and imaging techniques, aiming to provide a reference for further research in the field of TCM spray drying.

Variable Freshwater Influences on the Abundance of Vibrio vulnificus in a Tropical Urban Estuary.

To better understand the controls on the opportunistic human pathogen Vibrio vulnificus in warm tropical waters, we conducted a year-long investigation in the Ala Wai Canal, a channelized estuary in Honolulu, HI. The abundance of V. vulnificus, as determined by quantitative PCR (qPCR) of the hemolysin gene (vvhA), varied spatially and temporally by nearly 4 orders of magnitude (≤3 to 14,000 mL-1). Unlike in temperate and subtropical systems, temperatures were persistently warm (19 to 31°C) and explained little of the variability in V. vulnificus abundance. Salinity (1 to 36 ppt) had a significant, but nonlinear, relationship with V. vulnificus abundance with the highest vvhA concentrations (>2,500 mL-1) observed only at salinities from 7 to 22 ppt. V. vulnificus abundances were lower on average during the summer dry season, when waters were warmer but more saline. The highest canal-wide average abundances were observed during a time of modest rainfall, when moderate salinities and elevated concentrations of reduced nitrogen species and silica suggested a groundwater influence. Parallel quantification of the vcgC gene suggested that C-type strains, which are responsible for most human infections, comprised 25% of the total V. vulnificus on average, but their relative contribution was greater at higher salinities, suggesting a broader salinity tolerance. Generalized regression models suggested that up to 67% of sample-to-sample variation (n = 202) in log-transformed V. vulnificus abundance was explained using the measured environmental variables, and up to 97% of the monthly variation in canal-wide average concentrations (n = 13) was explained with the best subset of four variables. IMPORTANCE Our data illustrate that, in the absence of strong seasonal variation in water temperature in the tropics, variation in salinity driven by rainfall becomes a primary controlling variable on V. vulnificus abundance. There is thus a tendency for a rainfall-driven seasonal cycle in V. vulnificus abundance which is inverted from the temperature-driven seasonal cycle at higher latitudes. However, stochasticity in rainfall and its nonlinear, indirect effects on V. vulnificus concentration means that high abundances can occur at any location in the canal at any time of year, making it challenging to predict concentrations of this pathogen at a high temporal or spatial resolution. Much of the variability in canal-wide average concentrations, on the other hand, was explained by a few variables that reflect the magnitude of freshwater input to the system, suggesting that relative risk of exposure to this pathogen could be predicted as an average for the system.

Laminaria japonica Peptides Suppress Liver Cancer by Inducing Apoptosis: Possible Signaling Pathways and Mechanism.

The anticancer properties of Laminaria japonica peptides (LJPs) have never been studied. Here, we extracted LJPs from fresh seaweed and explored their anti-liver cancer activity (in vivo and in vitro). LJPs were isolated/purified by HPLC-ESI-MS. HepG2 cell apoptosis and cell cycle were evaluated. MTT assays were used to examine the cytotoxicity of LJPs. Caspase activation of caspases 3 and 9, cleaved caspases 3 and 9, and cleaved PARP was examined by Western blotting. The PI3K/AKT pathway and the phosphorylation states of MAPKs (p38 and JNK) were examined. We found that the LJP-1 peptide had the most antiproliferative activity in H22 cells in vitro. LJP-1 blocked H22 cells in the G0/G1 phase, accompanied by inhibition of cyclin expression. LJP-1 induced apoptosis through caspase activation and regulation of the ASK1/MAPK pathway. Concurrent in vivo studies demonstrated that LJP-1 significantly inhibited tumor growth and induced tumor cell apoptosis/necrosis. In conclusion, LJPs, particularly LJP-1, exert strong inhibitory effects on liver cancer growth in vivo and in vitro. LJP-1 induces HCC cell apoptosis through the caspase-dependent pathway and G0/G1 arrest. LJP-1 induces caspase-dependent apoptosis, in part by inhibiting PI3K, MAPK signaling pathways, and cell cycle proteins. LJP-1 has the potential to be a novel candidate for human liver cancer therapeutics.

[Drying effect of Chinese medicinal pills based on new spiral vibration drying technology].

The present study explored the drying effect of new spiral vibration drying technology on Chinese medicinal pills with Liuwei Dihuang Pills, Zhuanggu Guanjie Pills, and Muxiang Shunqi Pills as model drugs. With the drying uniformity, drying time, energy consumption, pill split, dissolution time, and change of index components as evaluation indicators, the drying effect of spiral vibration drying technology on model drugs was evaluated and compared with traditional drying methods, such as hot air drying and vacuum drying in the oven. The dynamic changes of moisture in Liuwei Dihuang Pills with different drying time were investigated. Compared with the traditional drying methods in the oven(hot air drying and vacuum drying) at 80 ℃, the spiral vibration drying only took 80 min, shortened by 80%, with 10%-13% energy consumed. The results showed that the moisture of Liuwei Dihuang Pills was negatively related to the drying time. By virtue of multi-layer countercurrent drying and super resonant fluidization techniques, the new spiral vibration drying technology can significantly improve the drying quality of Chinese medicinal pills, improve the drying efficiency, and enhance the manufacturing capacity of Chinese medicinal pills. This study is expected to provide references for the innovation and development of new drying technology of Chinese medicinal pills.

[Online moisture detection technology and its application prospect in drying of traditional Chinese medicine].

Drying is one of the most common unit operations in the production of traditional Chinese medicine. The drying process of traditional Chinese medicine materials is accompanied by the dynamic reduction of water content. As a key index to determine the end of the drying process, the moisture content of materials plays an important role in improving drying efficiency and saving energy. Recently, the drying process of traditional Chinese medicine is mostly monitored by offline detection, and there are few reports of online moisture detection applications. In this paper, the principle and current application of online inspection technology for the material drying process in different fields were introduced. The significance of online detection technology in drying of traditional Chinese medicine was also analyzed. Meanwhile, the application prospect of online detection technology in the field of drying of traditional Chinese medicine was predicted. In response to urgent transformation and upgrading of the traditional Chinese medicine manufacturing industry, the application of online moisture detection technology is expected to be a key breakthrough in the intelligent upgrading of traditional Chinese medicine drying technology and equipment.

[Effect of nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) in improving stability of essential oils and its application].

Essential oils are easy to cause oxidative damage, chemical transformation or polymerization, and have some intrinsic problems, such as instability, low water solubility and low bioavailability, which restrict their application in the fields of product development. Nanostructured lipid carriers(NLCs) can overcome some of the restrictions of other colloidal carriers, such as emulsions, liposomes, polymer nanoparticles and solid lipid nanoparticles. NLC is an efficient and stable delivery system for bioactive substances. With unique lipid properties(mixture of solid and liquid lipid), it can overcome the disadvantages of essential oils and protect them from adverse environments, thus improving the stability, bioavailability and safety of essential oils, and achieve sustained release and controlled release. In EOs-NLCs system, essential oils, as special liquid lipid with biological activities and medicinal properties, can fully play the role of medicine-adjuvant integration by changing the structural characteristics of mixed lipid. Based on the development of nanocarriers system, this paper introduces the composition and structural characteristics of EOs-NLCs, and clarifies how to improve the stability of essential oils based on the effects of NLCs on physical and chemical properties, physical stability and release of active components of essential oils. In addition, it also introduces the application of the system in the fields of pharmaceutical, food, cosmetics and skin care products. This review aims to provide some references for improving the stability of essential oils and their applications by using NLCs.

[Discussion on research thought of dry granulation of traditional Chinese medicine: research progress at home and abroad based on dry granulation technology].

Dry granulation technology is a great innovation in granulation technology,which saves many intermediate links and reduces many intermediate costs. It is closely related to the characteristics of materials,dry granulation equipment and process. Dry granulation technology is a systematic engineering science covering many technical fields. The process of dry granulation involves complex mathematical model mechanisms of temperature field,pressure field and velocity field,closely related to the characteristics of materials and drying equipment. However,due to the late start of research on dry granulation technology of traditional Chinese medicine,basic research is still weak. The research on dry granulation technology has achieved great results in the fields of food,chemical industry,agriculture and forestry,showing great reference significance. The advantage of dry granulation of traditional Chinese medicine is that it can be directly granulated by adding an appropriate amount of auxiliary materials in the extract powder of traditional Chinese medicine,without the need of wetting,mixing,drying and other processes. The process is simple and can effectively guarantee the quality of traditional Chinese medicine. The granules obtained by the dry granulation technique are important intermediates for preparing the solid preparations of traditional Chinese medicines,which would directly affect the subsequent molding process and the quality of the preparation products. Therefore,based on the characteristics of dry granulation method in traditional Chinese medicine and by referring to the advanced research results of dry granulation technology in other fields,we would discuss the research ideas of dry granulation in traditional Chinese medicine in terms of the mechanism of dry granulation equipment,technology,on-line detection technology and mathematical model of dry granulation process,hoping to provide reference for the research of dry granulation method in traditional Chinese medicine.

Application of infrared-assisted steam blanching to improve enzymatic inactivation and quality retention of Chrysanthemum indicum L. flower.

The effects of innovative infrared-steam blanching (ISB) on the peroxidase (POD) inactivation, POD inactivation kinetics, characteristic component (phenolics, carotenoids and flavonoids) content, colour and regeneration of POD activity during storage of Chrysanthemum indicum L. flowers were comparatively studied following steam blanching (SB) and infrared blanching (IB). ISB and SB allowed a stable surface temperature of the flowers at approximately 100 °C, and IB caused the temperature rose up to a high value of 129.2 °C. POD was inactivated to 5.7% of its residual activity after ISB for 90 s, 5.8% after SB for 180 s and 5.3% after IB for 270 s. In all processes, the POD inactivation kinetics followed a first-order model (R 2 varied from 0.932 to 0.957) and ISB achieved lower T 1/2, E a and D values and a higher k value than SB and IB. The sample blanched with ISB maintained more characteristic components and colour retention than those blanched with SB and IB. Moreover, ISB allowed the brightest colour and prevented the regeneration of POD activity in dried C. indicum flowers during storage. Therefore, ISB for 90 s at 100 °C is recommended as a more suitable method for blanching C. indicum flowers. The findings in the current work provide a new blanching method for natural plant products.

[Current situations and problem analysis of influencing factors of traditional Chinese medicine tablets on forming quality].

The compressibility of tablets is the essential operating unit during the preparation of traditional Chinese medicine tablets, as well as a complicated process. Therefore, it is of great significance to comprehensively study the influencing factors on the formation process. This paper aimed to review the evaluation methods for the tablet forming quality and highlight the effects of material powder properties, excipients and preparation technology on the quality of traditional Chinese medicine tablets on the basis of relevant literatures. Furthermore, the common problems in tablet forming process are also analyzed to provide useful references for the development of tablet forming quality of traditional Chinese medicines.

[Effect and regulation of drying on quality of traditional Chinese medicine pills].

The dry quality of traditional Chinese medicine pills is the hot spot of pills research, because their quality has a crucial effect on the efficacy and development of dosage forms. Through literature research and statistical analysis, we would review the current problems on the drying of traditional Chinese medicine pills in this paper, and surrounding the evaluation system for traditional Chinese medicine pills, analyze the characteristics of common drying equipment and processes as well as their effect on quality of pills, discuss the problems in drying equipment and process as well as quality, and put forward the corresponding strategies, hoping to provide new ideas and new methods for the quality improvement of traditional Chinese medicine pills and quality standards.

Long-Range Charge Transport in Adenine-Stacked RNA:DNA Hybrids.

An extremely important biological component, RNA:DNA can also be used to design nanoscale structures such as molecular wires. The conductance of single adenine-stacked RNA:DNA hybrids is rapidly and reproducibly measured using the break junction approach. The conductance decreases slightly over a large range of molecular lengths, suggesting that RNA:DNA can be used as an oligonucleotide wire.

Binding configurations and intramolecular strain in single-molecule devices.

The development of molecular-scale electronic devices has made considerable progress over the past decade, and single-molecule transistors, diodes and wires have all been demonstrated. Despite this remarkable progress, the agreement between theoretically predicted conductance values and those measured experimentally remains limited. One of the primary reasons for these discrepancies lies in the difficulty to experimentally determine the contact geometry and binding configuration of a single-molecule junction. In this Article, we apply a small-amplitude, high-frequency, sinusoidal mechanical signal to a series of single-molecule devices during junction formation and breakdown. By measuring the current response at this frequency, it is possible to determine the most probable binding and contact configurations for the molecular junction at room temperature in solution, and to obtain information about how an applied strain is distributed within the molecular junction. These results provide insight into the complex configuration of single-molecule devices, and are in excellent agreement with previous predictions from theoretical models.

Galactosylated 2-hydroxypropyl methacrylamide-s-3-guanidinopropyl methacrylamide copolymer as a small hairpin RNA carrier for inhibiting human telomerase reverse transcriptase expression.

BACKGROUND: In the present study, a well-defined glucose and guanidine based copolymer, galactosylated 2-hydroxypropyl methacrylamide-s-3-guanidinopropyl methacrylamide (HPMA-s-GPMA) abbreviated as GGH was prepared and self-assembled with small hairpin RNA (shRNA) to inhibit human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) gene expression in vitro to develop a shRNA carrier. METHODS: First, HPMA-s-APMA copolymers were synthesized by aqueous reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization, followed by galactosylation and guanidinylation. Then, three target shRNAs containing green fluorescent protein gene as a reporter were combined with GGH to form shRNA/GGH polyplexes. RESULTS: GGH copolymers could condense shRNA to form shRNA/GGH polyplex particles with a diameter in the range 122.8-331.6 nm in phosphate-buffered saline, and zeta potential values ranging from +3.7 to +16.5 mV at various charge ratios (N/P). That the cytotoxicity of GGH copolymers was significantly lower than that of PEI in human hepatocellular liver carcinoma cells (HepG2) and human cervix epithelial carcinoma cells. The transfection efficiency of shRNA/GGH polyplexes was higher than that of PEI at a charge ratio of 12 in the HepG2 cell line. Furthermore, shRNA/GGH polyplexes could effectively silence hTERT mRNA expression in serum-free medium (p < 0.01) and decrease the aggregation of protein in the medium with the presence of 10% serum. In addition, hTERT mRNA expression in HepG2 cells demosntrate a significant difference between siRNA/GGH polyplexes and blank samples (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: GGH copolymers could integrate advantages relating to galactose content for hepatocyte targeting, guanidino groups for cell penetration and HPMA component for shielding, showing great potential for effective hepatocyte targeting gene delivery.

Evaluating growth models of Pseudomonas spp. in seasoned prepared chicken stored at different temperatures by the principal component analysis (PCA).

The growth of Pseudomonas of pallet-packaged seasoned prepared chicken products under selected storage temperatures (5°°C, 10°°C, 15°°C, 20°°C and 25°°C) has been studied in this paper. The modified Gompertz, Baranyi and Huang models were used for data fitting. Statistical criteria such as residual sum of squares, mean square error, Akaike's information criterion, Pseudo-R(2) were used to evaluate model performance. Results showed that RSS (Residual sum of squares) index contribution rate was more than 90% of the variability, which could be explained by the first principal components analyzed by the principal component analysis (PCA). The index values reported in Sichuan-style chicken skewers and chicken flesh and bones were about 94.85% and 93.345% respectively, and both the rate were better than the standard (85%). Therefore, RSS can be used as the main evaluating index to analyze and compare the difference of those three models. With the smallest average values of RSS and the biggest pseudo-R2 at most temperatures, the Baranyi model was more suitable to fit the data of Pseudomonas obtained from the two prepared chicken products than Gompertz model and Huang model.

Ferroptosis in thyroid cancer: Potential mechanisms, effective therapeutic targets and predictive biomarker.

Thyroid cancer is a prevalent endocrine malignancy whose global incidence has risen over the past several decades. Ferroptosis, a regulated form of cell death distinguished by the excessive buildup of iron-dependent lipid peroxidates, stands out from other programmed cell death pathways in terms of morphological and molecular characteristics. Increasing evidence suggests a close association between thyroid cancer and ferroptosis, that is, inducing ferroptosis effectively suppresses the proliferation of thyroid cancer cells and impede tumor advancement. Therefore, ferroptosis represents a promising therapeutic target for the clinical management of thyroid cancer in clinical settings. Alterations in ferroptosis-related genes hold potential for prognostic prediction in thyroid cancer. This review summarizes current studies on the role of ferroptosis in thyroid cancer, elucidating its mechanisms, therapeutic targets, and predictive biomarkers. The findings underscore the significance of ferroptosis in thyroid cancer and offer valuable insights into the development of innovative treatment strategies and accurate predictors for the thyroid cancer.

Elucidating the endophytic bacterial and fungal community composition and diversity in the tree fern Alsophila spinulosa through meta-amplicon sequencing.

Plant tissues harbor abundant endophytes, which are crucial for plant growth. Endophytes present in Alsophila spinulosa, which is enriched with medicinal components, have not been isolated and characterized yet. Here we employed meta-amplicon sequencing to identify endophytic species and examined their diversity in the leaves, petioles, roots and stems of A. spinulosa. Our findings revealed 1,247 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) for endophytic bacteria across 210 species and 476 OTUs for endophytic fungi across 222 species. Alpha diversity analysis showed the highest endophytic bacterial diversity in A. spinulosa roots, whereas fungal diversity was similar across the leaf, petiole and root tissues. Fungal diversity in the leaves and petioles was markedly higher than that in the stems. Furthermore, beta diversity analysis revealed similarities in the endophytic bacterial and fungal compositions between the leaves and petioles, whereas the compositions in roots and stems considerably differed from those in the leaves and petioles. At the genus level, the predominant endophytic bacteria were Methylobacterium-Methylorubrum and Pseudomonas, whereas the predominant endophytic fungi were Cutaneotrichosporon and Pseudofabraea. Linear discriminant analysis effect size revealed characteristic endophytic bacterial genera specific to each tissue type and characteristic endophytic fungal genera specifically in the leaves, petioles and roots. The co-occurrence network analysis indicated that the complexity of endophyte networks was the highest in the leaves and the lowest in the stems of A. spinulosa. Overall, this study elucidates the distribution patterns of endophytes in A. spinulosa across various tissues, offering valuable microbial resources for the development of natural products for medicinal application.