MYC Oncogene: A Druggable Target for Treating Cancers with Natural Products.

Various diseases, including cancers, age-associated disorders, and acute liver failure, have been linked to the oncogene, MYC. Animal testing and clinical trials have shown that sustained tumor volume reduction can be achieved when MYC is inactivated, and different combinations of therapeutic agents including MYC inhibitors are currently being developed. In this review, we first provide a summary of the multiple biological functions of the MYC oncoprotein in cancer treatment, highlighting that the equilibrium points of the MYC/MAX, MIZ1/MYC/MAX, and MAD (MNT)/MAX complexes have further potential in cancer treatment that could be used to restrain MYC oncogene expression and its functions in tumorigenesis. We also discuss the multifunctional capacity of MYC in various cellular cancer processes, including its influences on immune response, metabolism, cell cycle, apoptosis, autophagy, pyroptosis, metastasis, angiogenesis, multidrug resistance, and intestinal flora. Moreover, we summarize the MYC therapy patent landscape and emphasize the potential of MYC as a druggable target, using herbal medicine modulators. Finally, we describe pending challenges and future perspectives in biomedical research, involving the development of therapeutic approaches to modulate MYC or its targeted genes. Patients with cancers driven by MYC signaling may benefit from therapies targeting these pathways, which could delay cancerous growth and recover antitumor immune responses.

Factors affecting soil treatment with the microbially induced carbonate precipitation technique and its optimization.

The microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) technique has been used to increase mechanical strength, reduce permeability, and fix radionuclides of soils, etc. To achieve effective soil cementation by MICP, 3 aspects should be considered: MICP efficiency, bacterium retention (in soils after injections), and precipitation uniformity. Here, experiments and statistical analyses were conducted to understand the parameters affecting the 3 aspects. Moreover, the parameters leading to better performance in these aspects were designed and used to conduct MICP soil cementation with varying the number of injections. The results present that temperature and OD600nm of bacterial suspension are the most important parameters affecting MICP efficiency, followed by reaction time, pH, and concentration of cementation solution, and they are all statistically significant. As these parameters increased, MICP efficiency (ratio of CaCO3 formed to Ca2+ added) first increased quickly and then slowly or decreased. The soil particle size distribution and injection rate affected bacterium retention greatly. Smaller particle sizes, wider particle-size-distribution spans, and slower injection rates are beneficial to bacterium retention. However, higher injection rates favour precipitation uniformity. Finally, the unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of the bio-treated soil can be increased further by increasing the number of injections.

Novel Anti-Cancer Products Targeting AMPK: Natural Herbal Medicine against Breast Cancer.

Breast cancer is a common cancer in women worldwide. The existing clinical treatment strategies have been able to limit the progression of breast cancer and cancer metastasis, but abnormal metabolism, immunosuppression, and multidrug resistance involving multiple regulators remain the major challenges for the treatment of breast cancer. Adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP)-Activated Protein Kinase (AMPK) can regulate metabolic reprogramming and reverse the "Warburg effect" via multiple metabolic signaling pathways in breast cancer. Previous studies suggest that the activation of AMPK suppresses the growth and metastasis of breast cancer cells, as well as stimulating the responses of immune cells. However, some other reports claim that the development and poor prognosis of breast cancer are related to the overexpression and aberrant activation of AMPK. Thus, the role of AMPK in the progression of breast cancer is still controversial. In this review, we summarize the current understanding of AMPK, particularly the comprehensive bidirectional functions of AMPK in cancer progression; discuss the pharmacological activators of AMPK and some specific molecules, including the natural products (including berberine, curcumin, (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate, ginsenosides, and paclitaxel) that influence the efficacy of these activators in cancer therapy; and elaborate the role of AMPK as a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of breast cancer.

Anti-depression effectiveness of essential oil from the fruits of Zanthoxylum bungeanum maxim. on chronic unpredictable mild stress-induced depression behavior in mice.

The fruits of Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim. Was a popular traditional Chinese herbal medicine for pain relief, itching prevention, and diarrhea relief. The fruits of Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim. Essential oil (HEO) had an effect of improving anxiety and other emotional disorders. In this paper, we aim to systematically research the antidepressant effects of HEO on Chronic Mild Unpredictable Stimulation (CUMS) mice and explore the relevant molecular mechanisms. Experimental mice were exposed to CUMS for 8 weeks. Meanwhile, for 8 weeks, Sertraline hydrochloride (20 mg/kg/day) and HEO (50, 100, and 150 mg/kg/day) were administered by gavage. HEO treatment increased residence time of central zone in OFT and open-arm in EPM test but decreased immobility times in FST and TST. Moreover, HEO treatment improved the levels of 5-HT, DA, NE, and BDNF, but reduced CRF and CORT levels of the HPA axis in the hippocampus. Network pharmacology predicted the possible mechanisms for the antidepressant effects of HEO by regulation of PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. The mRNA expression of PI3K and Akt were increased, and immunofluorescence results in the hippocampus indicated that HEO treatment could increase the phosphorylation of PI3K and Akt. Besides, the viability of CORT-treated PC12 cells was significantly improved by HEO treatment. The AO-EB staining, MOMP analysis, and flow cytometry analysis results showed HEO inhibiting the CORT-induced apoptosis in PC12 cells significantly. Besides, the phosphorylation of PI3K and Akt in COTR-induced PC12 cells could increase by HEO treatment. In conclusion, HEO ameliorated depression behavior induced by CUMS, potentially via regulating HPA axis and activating PI3K/Akt signaling pathway to reduce neuronal apoptosis.

Neuroendocrine-Immune Regulatory Network of Eucommia ulmoides Oliver.

Eucommia ulmoides Oliver (E. ulmoides) is a popular medicinal herb and health supplement in China, Japan, and Korea, and has a variety of pharmaceutical properties. The neuroendocrine-immune (NEI) network is crucial in maintaining homeostasis and physical or psychological functions at a holistic level, consistent with the regulatory theory of natural medicine. This review aims to systematically summarize the chemical compositions, biological roles, and pharmacological properties of E. ulmoides to build a bridge between it and NEI-associated diseases and to provide a perspective for the development of its new clinical applications. After a review of the literature, we found that E. ulmoides has effects on NEI-related diseases including cancer, neurodegenerative disease, hyperlipidemia, osteoporosis, insomnia, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and obesity. However, clinical studies on E. ulmoides were scarce. In addition, E. ulmoides derivatives are diverse in China, and they are mainly used to enhance immunity, improve hepatic damage, strengthen bones, and lower blood pressure. Through network pharmacological analysis, we uncovered the possibility that E. ulmoides is involved in functional interactions with cancer development, insulin resistance, NAFLD, and various inflammatory pathways associated with NEI diseases. Overall, this review suggests that E. ulmoides has a wide range of applications for NEI-related diseases and provides a direction for its future research and development.

Holism of Chinese herbal medicine prescriptions for inflammatory bowel disease: A review based on clinical evidence and experimental research.

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic nonspecific inflammatory disease that causes a heavy burden and lacks effective treatments. Chinese herbal medicine prescriptions (CHMPs), which are characterized by a synergistic usage of herbs, are widely used in the management of IBD. The molecular mechanisms of action of CHMP are still ambiguous as the canonical "one-compound-one-target" approach has difficulty describing the dynamic bioreactions among CHMP objects. It seems more flexible to define the holism of CHMP for IBD by employing high-throughput analysis. However, studies that discuss the development of CHMP in treating IBD in a holistic view are still lacking. PURPOSE: This review appraised preclinical and clinical research to fully describe the anti-IBD capacity of CHMPs and discussed CHMPs' holistic characteristics that can contribute to better management of IBD. METHODS & RESULTS: We screened clinical and preclinical references of CHMP being used as treatments for IBD. We discussed the complexity of IBD and the development of CHMP to present the sophistication of CHMP treatments. To describe the clinical effectiveness of CHMPs against IBD, we performed an umbrella review of CHMP-associated META analyses, in which 1174 records were filtered down to 12 references. Then, we discussed 14 kinds of CHMPs that had a long history of use and analyzed their mechanisms of action. Representative herbs were employed to provide a subordinate explanation for the whole prescription. As holism is the dominant characteristic of CHMPs, we explored applications of CHMPs for IBD with the help of omics, gut microbiome, and network pharmacology, which are potential approaches to a dynamic figure of bioactions of CHMPs. CONCLUSION: This review is the first to discuss the potential of CHMPs to manage IBD in a holistic context and will provide inspiring explanations for CHMP applications for further product transformation and application to other diseases.

The Pharmacological Rationales and Molecular Mechanisms of Ganoderma lucidum Polysaccharides for the Therapeutic Applications of Multiple Diseases.

As a versatile Chinese herb, Ganoderma lucidum (Leyss. ex Fr.) Karst (G. lucidum) has been applied to treat multiple diseases in clinics and improve the quality of life of patients. Among all of its extracts, the main bioactive components are G. lucidum polysaccharides (GLPs), which possess many therapeutic effects, such as antitumor, immunoregulatory, anti-oxidant, antidiabetic, antibacterial, and antifungal effects and neuroprotection activities. This review briefly summarized the recent studies of the pharmacological rationales of GLPs and their underlying molecular signaling transmission mechanisms in treating diseases. Until now, the clear mechanisms of GLPs for treating diseases have not been reported. In this review, we used the keywords of "Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides" and "tumor" to search in PubMed (years of 1992-2020), then screened and obtained 160 targets of antitumor activities in the literatures. The network pharmacology and mechanism framework were employed in this study as powerful approaches to systematically analyze the complicated potential antitumor mechanisms and targets of GLPs in cancer. We then found that there are 69 targets and 21 network pathways in "Pathways in cancer". Besides, we summarized the effects of GLPs and the models and methods used in the research of GLPs. In conclusion, GLPs have been studied extensively, but more in-depth research is still needed to determine the exact mechanisms and pathways. Therefore, this review might provide new insights into the vital targets and pathways for researchers to study the pharmacological mechanisms of GLPs for the treatment of diseases.

A recent update on the use of Chinese medicine in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic idiopathic disease that is characterized by inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. Proper management of IBD requires both early diagnosis and novel therapies and management programs. Many reports have suggested that Chinese medicine has unique properties favorable to the treatment of IBD. However, there are no systematic analyses on this topic. PURPOSE: This review summarizes recent studies that assessed the effects and mechanisms of Chinese medicine in the treatment of IBD in order to fully understand the advantages of Chinese medicine in the management of IBD. METHODS: A literature search was conducted using peer-reviewed and clinical databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, ClinicalTrials.gov, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Springer LINK, Wan-fang database, the Chinese Biomedicine Database, and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). Keywords used were inflammatory bowel disease (including Ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease) and Chinese medicine. All selected articles were from 1997 to 2021, and each were assessed critically for our exclusion criteria. Studies describing the pathogenesis of IBD, the effects and mechanisms of Chinese medicine in the treatment of IBD, in particular their roles in immune regulation, intestinal flora regulation, and improvement of intestinal barrier function, were included. CONCLUSION: This review highlights recent progress in the use of Chinese medicine in the treatment of IBD. It also provides a reference for further evaluation and exploration of the potential of classical multi-herbal Chinese medicine in the treatment of IBD.

The key issues and development strategy of Chinese Classical Formulas pharmaceutical preparations.

It is well-known that Prof. Tu Youyou won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015 due to the research on artemisinin treating malaria, and this can be regarded as the milestone of modernization of Traditional medicine. This first Nobel Prize in Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has aroused profound impetus in the investigation of TCM and attracted global attention to the ancient books of TCM. Three new medicines for the treatment of COVID-19 derived from Chinese Classical Formula (, CCF) have been approved in 2021 due to their effectiveness for the treatment of COVID-19. This article introduced the research background of CCF pharmaceutical preparation (CCFPP), explained the ideas for the modernization of CCF and analyzed related issues involved in the development process of CCFPP, including the origin of medicinal materials, processing methods, dosages and the preparation process of CCF Material Reference. The strategy for industrialization was proposed in terms of the evaluation of the pharmaceutical properties, industrialization considerations, and clinical positioning of CCFPP. The key contents and requirements for the development CCFPP were also summarized according to the recently published registration guidance by the Center for Drug Evaluation in China. In addition, the safety issues of CCFPP were described, including the discussion on the non-clinical safety evaluation and analyzation on the international registration of Traditional herbal medicines. This article is aimed to provide references for enterprises, researchers, and relevant personnel of government departments that are engaged in the development of CCF to speed up the developing process of CCFPP.

Efficacy-specific herbal group detection from traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions via hierarchical attentive neural network model.

BACKGROUND: Mining massive prescriptions in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) accumulated in the lengthy period of several thousand years to discover essential herbal groups for distinct efficacies is of significance for TCM modernization, thus starting to draw attentions recently. However, most existing methods for the task treat herbs with different surface forms orthogonally and determine efficacy-specific herbal groups based on the raw frequencies an herbal group occur in a collection of prescriptions. Such methods entirely overlook the fact that prescriptions in TCM are formed empirically by different people at different historical stages, and thus full of herbs with different surface forms expressing the same material, or even noisy and redundant herbs. METHODS: We propose a two-stage approach for efficacy-specific herbal group detection from prescriptions in TCM. For the first stage we devise a hierarchical attentive neural network model to capture essential herbs in a prescription for its efficacy, where herbs are encoded with dense real-valued vectors learned automatically to identify their differences on the semantical level. For the second stage, frequent patterns are mined to discover essential herbal groups for an efficacy from distilled prescriptions obtained in the first stage. RESULTS: We verify the effectiveness of our proposed approach from two aspects, the first one is the ability of the hierarchical attentive neural network model to distill a prescription, and the second one is the accuracy in discovering efficacy-specific herbal groups. CONCLUSION: The experimental results demonstrate that the hierarchical attentive neural network model is capable to capture herbs in a prescription essential to its efficacy, and the distilled prescriptions significantly could improve the performance of efficacy-specific herbal group detection.

Seasonal iron­sulfur interactions and the stimulated phosphorus mobilization in freshwater lake sediments.

Sulfur reduction in freshwater ecosystems has previously been considered as negligible because of often very low sulfate concentrations and generally low sulfate reducing capacity in freshwater sediments. In this study, seasonal variations on three types of sediments from central lake, dredged and algae accumulated areas in a eutrophic lake in China, Lake Taihu, were investigated. The high temperature in summer and the accumulation of algae are conducive to the reduction processes in freshwater lake sediments. Iron reduction was observed as the major anaerobic process in all types of sediments, while sulfate reduction was weak in central and dredged lake areas. However, strong sulfate reduction with increase of sulfate reducing bacteria and sulfides generation (119.5 ± 0.2 µmol L-1) was found in surface sediments in algae accumulated areas. Based on the results of Fe reduction rate and the quantity of Fe reducing bacteria, extensive sulfate reduction in algae accumulated sediments inhibited the microbial Fe reduction, and the ΣS2--mediated chemical Fe reduction (SCIR) dominated instead. Iron was principally stored in the sediments as Fe sulfide compounds, which weakened the rebinding of phosphorus and stimulated phosphorus mobilization. Therefore, attention should be paid to the alteration of Fe cycling and phosphorus mobility caused by the SCIR in algae accumulated sediments and the consequent effects on the eutrophication of freshwater lakes.

Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge. (Danshen) for Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Clinical Evidence and Network Pharmacology-Based Strategy for Developing Supplementary Medical Application.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a non-specific colorectal disease caused by multifaceted triggers. Although conventional treatments are effective in the management of IBD, high cost and frequent side effects limit their applications and have turned sufferers toward alternative and complementary approaches. Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge (Danshen) is an herbal medicine that reportedly alleviates the symptoms of IBD. A large body of research, including clinical trials in which Danshen-based products or botanical compounds were used, has unmasked its multiple mechanisms of action, but no review has focused on its efficacy as a treatment for IBD. Here, we discussed triggers of IBD, collected relevant clinical trials and analyzed experimental reports, in which bioactive compounds of Danshen attenuated rodent colitis in the management of intestinal integrity, gut microflora, cell death, immune conditions, cytokines, and free radicals. A network pharmacology approach was applied to describe sophisticated mechanisms in a holistic view. The safety of Danshen was also discussed. This review of evidence will help to better understand the potential benefits of Danshen for IBD treatment and provide insights for the development of innovative applications of Danshen.

Dynamic sulfur-iron cycle promoted phosphorus mobilization in sediments driven by the algae decomposition.

Direct evidence of the algae bloom in eutrophic freshwater lakes on sulfur cycle and the subsequent iron oxide reduction and the iron oxides-bound phosphate (Fe-P) release in sediments is lacking. In this study, microcosms experiment was carried out to investigate the dynamic variations of S, Fe and P species in the water column and sediments as well as the sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) abundance variation in the sediments during algae decomposition. The sulfate reduction was stimulated by the algae decomposition, which resulted in dramatic sulfate decline, sulfide increase and SRB growth. In addition, large amounts of acid volatile sulfide (AVS), pyrite sulfur (Pyrite-S) and elemental sulfur (S0) accumulated in the sediment. In particular, the contents of sedimentary Fe(II) and Pyrite-S in surface sediments continuously accumulated until the end of the experiment. Moreover, the terminal Fe-P content reduced by 35.4% compared with the initial concentration at high algae density group. These results suggested the irreversible reduction of iron oxides and revealed iron chemical reduction mediated by sulfide during algae decomposition. In addition, the connection of sulfur-iron cycle and the significant promotion of Fe-P mobilization in sediments was established, which should be paid more attention in the eutrophic freshwater ecosystems.

Therapeutic efficacy and safety of Kangfuxin in combination with rabeprazole in the treatment of peptic ulcer: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Kangfuxin (KFX), a well-known Chinese patent medicine which extracted from Periplaneta americana, is widely used as an adjuvant in the treatment of peptic ulcers (PUs) with proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) such as rabeprazole, in China. However, no clear consensus has been reached on the efficacy for PU treatment. METHODS: We searched in 7 electronic databases to find randomized controlled trials (RCTs) completed before May 31, 2020 to explore the clinical efficiency of KFX plus rabeprazole in the treatment of PU. Risk ratio (RR) corresponding to 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated to estimate the outcomes. Publication bias was assessed by both Egger's and Begg's tests. Statistical analyses were performed using RevMan 5.4 and Stata version 10.0. RESULTS: Twenty-five RCTs, comprising 2555 PU patients, were included in this study. Meta-analysis showed that, when compared with rabeprazole-based treatment alone, KFX plus rabeprazole significantly improved the healing rate (RR = 1.34, 95% CI 1.25-1.44) and overall response rate of ulcers (RR = 1.16, 95% CI 1.13-1.20), alleviated the clinical symptoms of PU (RR = 1.14, 95% CI 1.08-1.21), and reduced the recurrence of PU (RR = 0.38, 95% CI 0.24-0.61) without an increase in the occurrence of adverse events (RR = 0.92, 95% CI 0.66-1.28). CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that KFX combined with rabeprazole showed positive therapeutic effects and is safe for treating PU, which may provide more reliable evidence for the clinical use of KFX in the treatment of PU.

Reflections on treatment of COVID-19 with traditional Chinese medicine.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is spreading rapidly around the globe. By the establishment of an integrative system combining both traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and western medicine, China has achieved good clinical efficacy in the prevention and control of the pandemic. The advantages of TCM in the treatment of COVID-19 include effective relief of symptoms, retarding the development from mild and moderate to severe, improvement of cure rate, reducing death rates, and promotion of rehabilitation. Besides, according to the different severity levels of individual cases, the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China issued treatment guidelines that provide corresponding prescriptions for patients. From the perspective of TCM, this review aims to analyze the role of a variety of TCM prescriptions in the treatment of COVID-19, focusing on the analysis of the "Three TCM prescriptions and three medicines" recommended by the Chinese authorities during the pandemic. We expect that this review will provide insights into the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 with TCM.

The Use of RNAi Technology to Interfere with Zfx Gene Increases the Male Rates of Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) Offspring.

Zinc finger protein X-linked (Zfx) was regarded to be a sex determination factor and plays a critical role in spermatogenesis. RNAi is an effective method of silencing Zfx mRNA expression. However, there has been little research on the use of RNAi technology to control the sex of the offspring of red deer (Cervus elaphus). The objective of this study was first to explore an efficient method to alter the red deer offspring sex-ratio by silencing the gene Zfx during spermatogenesis. Three recombinant expression vectors pLL3.7/A, pLL3.7/B, and pLL3.7/C were constructed to interrupt the Zfx gene. The results showed that the expression of Zfx mRNA was significantly silenced by pLL3.7/A (P < 0.01), compared with the control group. The group injected with pLL3.7/A produced 94 red deer, including 68 males and 26 females. The male rates (72.34%) were significantly higher than the control groups (P < 0.01). Our result suggests that Zfx siRNA is a useful approach to control offspring sex in red deer. This study further confirms that the Zfx gene plays a significant role in the process of X spermatogenesis.

Genipin-crosslinked human serum albumin coating using a tannic acid layer for enhanced oral administration of curcumin in the treatment of ulcerative colitis.

Curcumin (CUR) is a promising edible phytochemical compound with ideal ulcerative colitis (UC) treatment activity; however, it is characteristically instable in the digestive tract and has a short retention time in colon. Therefore, we designed and fabricated an oral food-grade nanocarrier composed of tannic acid (TA)-coated, Genipin (Gnp)-crosslinked human serum albumin (HSA) to encapsulate CUR (TA/CUR-NPs). The resulting CUR nanoparticles (NPs) were about 220 nm and -28.8 mV. With the assistance of TA layer and Gnp-crosslinking, the entire nano-scaled system effectively delayed CUR release in simulated gastric fluid, prolonged its colon adhesion and increased its uptake in Caco-2 cells. As expected, TA/CUR-NPs oral administration significantly alleviated colitis symptoms in DSS-treated mice when compared with controls by inhibiting the TLR4-linked NF-κB signaling pathway. Collectively, this study indicates that we have developed a convenient, eco-friendly, nano-scaled vehicle for oral delivery of CUR with anti-UC benefit.

Investigating on the interaction behavior of soy protein hydrolysates/ß-glucan/ferulic acid ternary complexes under high-technology in the food processing: High pressure homogenization versus microwave treatment.

The interaction behavior between food bio-macromolecules is the key point to develop the novel functional food ingredients. Effects of high pressure (HP) or microwave treatment (MW) on the physicochemical properties and microstructures of soy protein hydrolysates (SH)/ß-glucan/ferulic acid complexes (S-G-F) were investigated. The results showed that both HP and MW treatment significantly reduced the S-G-F complex particle size and fluorescence intensity along with the improved thermal stability and antioxidant activity but did not affect the zeta potential and the crystal structure. HP treatment changed the conformation of SH by increasing the ß-sheet content and decreasing the unordered structure, while MW treatment induce the increase in random coils content and the decreased in the α-helix content of SH. Accordingly, compared with MW treatment, HP treatment could result in the formation of a more compact structure with the uniform distribution through the stronger hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interaction between components. This work revealed the interaction behaviors of food multi-component self-assembled nanoscale aggregation under high-technology in the food processing, which could provide a new direction for the development of antioxidant food ingredients by effectively utilizing the interaction between food components.

Reproducible Performance Improvements to Monolayer MoS2 Transistors through Exposed Material Forming Gas Annealing.

Metal-mediated exfoliation has been demonstrated as a promising approach for obtaining large-area flakes of two-dimensional (2D) materials to fabricate prototypical nanoelectronics. However, several processing challenges related to organic contamination at the interface of a 2D material and gate oxide must be overcome to realize robust devices with high yields. Here, we demonstrate an optimized process to realize high-performance field-effect transistor (FET) arrays from large-area (∼5000 µm2), monolayer MoS2 with a yield of 85%. A central element of this process is an exposed material forming gas anneal (EM-FGA) that results in uniform FET performance metrics (i.e., field-effect mobilities, threshold voltages, and contact performance). Complementary analytical measurements show that the EM-FGA process reduces deleterious channel doping effects by decreasing organic contamination while also reducing the prevalence of insulating molybdenum oxide, effectively improving the MoS2-gate oxide interface. The uniform FET performance metrics and high device yield achieved by applying the EM-FGA technique on large-area 2D material flakes will help advance the fabrication of complex 2D nanoelectronic devices and demonstrate the need for improved engineering of the 2D material-gate oxide interface.

[Hypolipidemic effect of Coptis chinensis and C. deltoidea on type 2 diabetes rats through SCAP/SREBP-1c signal pathway].

The type 2 diabetes rat model was induced with high-sugar and high-fat diet combined with low-dose STZ. This study investigated the hypolipidemic mechanism of Coptis chinensis and C. deltoidea. After 30 days of administration, HOMA-IR and the content of TG in serum were detected, and the expressions of SCAP, SREBP-1c were tested by the method of Western blot and Real-time PCR analysis. The test results showed that both components can significantly alleviate insulin resistance and down-regulate the expressions of SREBP-1c and SCAP in liver tissue of type two diabetes mellitus. Compared with the control group, there were significant differences in relevant protein expression (P<0.05, P<0.01). This indicates that the inhibition of SREBP-1c and SCAP expressions may be the hypolipidemic mechanism of Coptidis Rhizoma on type 2 diabetes mellitus. The results also showed that C. deltoidea has a better efficacy in lipid elimination, but a weaker hypoglycemic effect against C. chinensis.