Comparative Chemical Characterization of Potato Powders Using 1H NMR Spectroscopy and Chemometrics.

This study presents the metabolic profiling of potato powders obtained through various processing procedures and commercially available potato powders. The metabolic fingerprinting was conducted using 1H NMR-based metabolomics coupled with machine learning projections. The results indicate hot air-dried potatoes have higher fumarate, glucose, malate, asparagine, choline, gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), alanine, lactate, threonine, and fatty acids. In comparison, steam-cooked potatoes have higher levels of phenylalanine, sucrose, proline, citrate, glutamate, and valine. Moreover, the contents of metabolites in processed potatoes in this study were higher than those found in commercial potato powders, regardless of the drying or cooking methods used. The results indicate that a new processing technique may be developed to improve the nutritional value of potatoes.

Nanoparticle-dsRNA Treatment of Pollen and Root Systems of Diseased Plants Effectively Reduces the Rate of Tobacco Mosaic Virus in Contemporary Seeds.

Most crop viruses are carried and spread by seeds. Virus-infected seeds are seed-borne viral disease infections, and thus, reducing the rate of seed infection is an urgent problem in the seed-production industry. The objective of this study was to use nanoparticles (NPs) to directly deliver dsRNA into plants or pollen to initiate RNA interference (RNAi) to reduce viral carryover in seeds. Chitosan quaternary ammonium salt (HACC), complexed with dsRNAs, was selected for targeting the genes for the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) coat protein (CP) and TMV RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) to form HACC-dsRNA NPs. These NP-based dsRNAs were delivered to the plants using four different methods, including infiltration, spraying, root soaking, and pollen internalization. All four methods were able to reduce the seed-carrying rate of offspring seeds of the TMV-infected plants, with pollen internalization being the most effective in reducing the TMV-carrying rate from 95.1 to 61.1% in the control group. By measuring the plant uptake of fluorescence-labeled NPs and dsRNAs, the transportation of the HACC-dsRNA NPs into the plants was observed, and the uptake of dsRNA in combination with small RNA sequencing was further confirmed, resulting in the silencing of homologous RNA molecules during the topical application. The results demonstrated that the incidence of TMV infection was reduced by various degrees via RNAi induction without the need to develop transgenic plants. These results demonstrate the advantages of NP-based RNAi technology in breeding for disease resistance and developing a new strategy for virus-resistant breeding in plants.

[Research strategies and methods for precious animal medicine substitutes].

Animal medicine is a large category of Chinese medicinecommonly used in clinical practice and has important scientific and therapeutic value. Animal medicine isscarcer than herbal medicine. In recent years, with the vigorous development of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM),the contradiction between the increasing industrial demand andsupply of scarce and even endangered medicinal animals has become increasingly prominent. The continuous lack of medicinal animal resources affects the clinical demandandalso causes serious damage to the ecological environment. Only relying on artificial breeding is not enough to alleviate the current condition of depletion. In the face of this dilemma, it is a major challenge for the current industrial development to protect animal resources and meet clinical and industrial needs with "available medicines". The application of substitutes for animal medicines isthe key focus to alleviate this problem, and it is also the key scientific issue to be solved urgently in the modernization of TCM. This paper summarizedand reviewedthe history, current situation, strategies, and methods of animal medicinesubstitution and put forward the point of view of "similar chemical characteristics, similar efficacy, and higher safety" to provide references for scientific substitution and resource protection of rare animals.

Baduanjin mind-body exercise improves logical memory in long-term hospitalized patients with schizophrenia: A randomized controlled trial.

Neurocognitive impairment is one of the core symptoms in schizophrenia and poses a great challenge to effective treatment. Sixty-one long-term hospitalized patients with schizophrenia were recruited and randomly assigned to two groups: Baduanjin exercise and brisk walking. Patients in the Baduanjin group received 24 weeks of Baduanjin training (5 days/week, 40 min/day), while patients in the brisk walking group received 24 weeks of brisk walking (5 days/week, 40 min/day). Scores on the Wechsler Memory Scale, Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST), and the positive and negative syndrome scale were used to evaluate the logical memory (LM), processing speed, and clinical symptoms of all participants, while the score of Trail Making Test-A (TMT-A) was applied to assess the visual attention and graphomotor speed, at baseline and the 16th week and 24th week of intervention. The one-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the differences in neurocognitive changes between the two groups. Repeated measures ANOVA showed significant differences between the two groups in the LM immediate (F = 6.21, p = 0.003) and LM delayed (F=5.60, p = 0.005) scores, but not in the completion times of TMT-A (F=.22, p = 0.806) or DSST scores (F=0.97, p = 0.328). A significant effect of time was also detected in the LM immediate (F=10.24, p = 0.000) and LM delayed (F=4.93, p = 0.009) scores and in the completion time of the TMT-A (F=33.10, p = 0.000), but not in the DSST scores (F=2.12, p = 0.122). Baduanjin exercise could improve logical memory in the long-term hospitalized patients with schizophrenia.

Transformation of sulfur species in lake sediments at Ardley Island and Fildes Peninsula, King George Island, Antarctic Peninsula.

In Antarctica, penguins transport sulfur and other bio-elements in the form of guano from marine to terrestrial environments where they become deposited in ornithogenic soils and sediments, including lake or pond systems. Transformation of sulfur species in these terrestrial and aquatic deposits, however, has rarely been studied. Here, we used the cold diffusion method to analyze various sulfur species in a lake deposit of ornithogenic sediment core (C1) and a pristine lake sediment core (C2), collected from Ardley Island and Fildes Peninsula, Antarctic Peninsula, respectively. The total organic carbon, total phosphorus, total nitrogen and various sulfur species in C1 were more fluctuant and much higher than those in C2, indicating a primary source from penguin guano. In core C1, organic sulfur (Org-S) was the main form of sulfur, and sulfate (SO42-) was the main form of inorganic sulfur. The acid volatile sulfur (AVS) in C1 was much higher than pyrite sulfur (CRS). In the pristine lake sediment core C2, Org-S and SO42- were the main sulfur species. CRS was the primary form of reduced inorganic sulfur in C2 sediments in contrast to the AVS in C1, indicating that AVS had been effectively transformed into CRS in C1. Our results demonstrate that the high levels of organic matter in C1 likely limited the transformation of AVS to CRS.

FOLFOX plus anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) monoclonal antibody (mAb) is an effective first-line treatment for patients with RAS-wild left-sided metastatic colorectal cancer: A meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The efficacy of oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy combined with anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) monoclonal antibody (mAb) remains controversial in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). This meta-analysis aims to estimate the effect of adding panitumumab or cetuximab to oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy in RAS wild type mCRC patients for the first-line treatment. The primary tumor location is also considered into this meta-analysis. METHODS: RCT studies were identified by a search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane library to October 2017, supplemented by manually retrieving ASCO, ESMO conference abstracts. The pooled hazard ratio (HR) for progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS), and pooled odds ratios (OR) for the overall response rate (ORR) were calculated by Review Manager 5.3. RESULTS: The results indicated that the addition of anti-EGFR mAbs to FOLFOX regimen in RAS wild-type mCRC patients for the first-line treatment resulted in considerable improvements in PFS (HR = 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.59-0.82; P < .0001), OS (HR = 0.79; 95%CI: 0.67-0.92; P = .003), and ORR (OR = 2.56; 95% CI: 1.77-3.70; P < .00001) compared with chemotherapy alone. However, in RAS/BRAF wild patients, no significant differences were observed when anti-EGFR mAb was added to FLOX or XELOX regimen compared with chemotherapy alone with regard to OS and PFS, whereas FOLFOX+anti-EGFR mAb showed a marked superior OS and PFS (OS, HR = 0.77; 95% CI: 0.61-0.98; P = .03; PFS, HR = 0.68; 95% CI: 0.57-0.82; P < .00001). A meta-analysis including TAILOR and PRIME study suggests that primary tumor location (PTL) predicted a survival benefit when adding the EGFR antibody to FOLFOX regimen in RAS-wild mCRC patients (OS, HR for left-sided: 0.71; 95% CI: 0.59-0.85; P = .0002 and HR for right-sided: 0.90; 95% CI: 0.65-1.25; P = .53). However, the HR for PFS and ORR still suggests a benefit from the addition of anti-EGFR mAb in right-sided mCRC patients. CONCLUSION: So these results suggest anti-EGFR mAb and oxaliplatin are good partners in the FOLFOX regimen. The addition of EGFR antibody to FOLFOX markedly improved efficacy in RAS-wild patients with left-sided mCRC. In RAS/BRAF-wild patients, the efficacy is similar. For patients with right-sided tumor, a benefit showing a trendency in favor of anti-EGFR mAb can still seen. The molecular characteristics behind the tumor location need to be more explored urgently.

Physical Properties and Stabilization of Microcapsules Containing Thyme Oil by Complex Coacervation.

The aim of this study was to produce and characterize microcapsules of thyme oil and finally appraise the extent of stability improvement. The optimum process conditions obtained from orthogonal tests were as follows: ratio of core material to wall 0.5, temperature 40 °C, pH value 3.0 and time 20 min, where the practical encapsulation efficiency was 85.17±1.35%. The microcapsules belong to the nanometric range as the average particle diameter was 531.17±77.12 nm. The results from structural analysis indicated that no significant chemical bond occurred during the encapsulation process and the microcapsules remained stable when the encapsulation was conducted at a temperature below 53.1 °C. Especially, the retention rate of thyme oil in microcapsules remained 39.21% at 4 °C, 36.99% at 25 °C and 33.80% at 40 °C after 30 d of storage. Moreover, protection from light exposure presented a positive impact on the storage stability of thyme oil microcapsules.

Development and validation of a sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for the determination of paeoniflorin in rat brain and its application to pharmacokinetic study.

A sensitive and specific method was developed and validated for the determination of paeoniflorin in rat brain with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Sample pretreatment involved protein precipitation following solid-phase extraction. Paeoniflorin and geniposide (internal standard) were separated isocratically on a Waters Symmetry C18 column (150 mm x 2.1 mm i.d., 5 microm), using a mobile phase of methanol/water with 0.1% formic acid (50:50, v/v) at a flow-rate of 200-300 microL/min in 4min. A Finngan LTQ tandem mass spectrometer equipped with electrospray ionization source was operated in the positive ion mode. Selective reaction monitoring was performed to quantify paeoniflorin and the internal standard at m/z transitions of 503-->381 and 411-->231, respectively. A good linearity was found in the range of 2-500 ng/mL (R(2)=0.9939). The intra- and inter-batch assay precisions (coefficient of variation, CV) at 5, 50 and 400 ng/mL (n=5) ranged from 6.3% to 9.7% and 1.2% to 7.2%, respectively, and the accuracies were from 95.9% to 101.6% and 99.4% to 102.9%, respectively. The mean recoveries of paeoniflorin were 81.2%, 80.9% and 82.3% at 5, 50 and 400 ng/mL (n=5), respectively, and the mean recovery of the internal standard was 76.7% with a concentration of 50 ng/mL (n=5). Stability studies showed that paeoniflorin was stable in different conditions. Finally, the method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study of paeoniflorin in rat brain following a single subcutaneous administration (10 mg/kg) to rats.