[Modification of C20 oxidase in tanshinone biosynthesis pathway].

Tanshinones are one of the main effective components of Salvia miltiorrhiza, which play important roles in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Microbial heterogony production of tanshinones can provide a large number of raw materials for the production of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) preparations containing S. miltiorrhiza, reduce the extraction cost, and relieve the pressure of clinical medication. The biosynthetic pathway of tanshinones contains multiple P450 enzymes, and the catalytic element with high efficiency is the basis of microbial production of tanshinones. In this study, the protein modification of CYP76AK1, a key P450-C20 hydroxylase in tanshinone pathway, was researched. The protein modeling methods SWISS-MODEL, Robetta, and AlphaFold2 were used, and the protein model was analyzed to obtain the reliable protein structure. The semi-rational design of mutant protein was carried out by molecular docking and homologous alignment. The key amino acid sites affecting the oxidation activity of CYP76AK1 were identified by molecular docking. The function of the obtained mutations was studied with yeast expression system, and the CYP76AK1 mutations with continuous oxidation function to 11-hydroxysugiol were obtained. Four key amino acid sites that affected the oxidation acti-vity were analyzed, and the reliability of three protein modeling methods was analyzed according to the mutation results. The effective protein modification sites of CYP76AK1 were reported for the first time in this study, which provides a catalytic element for different oxidation activities at C20 site for the study of the synthetic biology of tanshinones and lays a foundation for the analysis of the conti-nuous oxidation mechanism of P450-C20 modification.

A Technique to Reduce the Early Recurrence of Intussusception in Ultrasound-Guided Hydrostatic Reduction.

OBJECTIVES: Ultrasound-guided saline enema is highly successful in treating pediatric intussusception; however, early recurrence-within 48 hours-is possible. This study aimed to explore effective methods of reducing early recurrence. METHODS: This study included patients aged 0 to 14 years diagnosed with ileocolic intussusception with a symptom duration of <48 hours from January 2019 to March 2021. The patients were divided into control and intervention groups. All patients received successful treatment with ultrasound-guided saline enema; however, in patients treated before January 4, 2020 (control group), the intestinal fluid was drained immediately, and in patients treated after January 4, 2020 (intervention group), the intestinal fluid was drained after 15 minutes of intestinal pressure maintenance. Early recurrence rates of the groups were compared. RESULTS: Ileocolic intussusception was treated successfully by ultrasound-guided saline enema in 231 patients (116, control group;115, intervention group). The early recurrence rate in the intervention group (10%; 95% CI: 4.9-16.5) was numerically lower than that in the control group (19%; 95% CI: 12.3-27.3). No significant difference was observed in the number of recurrences per person between the groups (P = .448). Patients without early recurrence were older (P = .004) and received enemas of a shorter duration (P < .001) and lower pressure (P < .001) than patients without early recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: Maintaining reduction pressure for 15 minutes after a successful ultrasound-guided saline enema may reduce the early recurrence of intussusception. A randomized controlled trial is needed because the intervention and control cohorts were most probably incomparable (due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

Photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline by Phosphorus-doped carbon nitride tube combined with peroxydisulfate under visible light irradiation.

Photocatalysis has been regarded as a kind of environmentally friendly advanced oxidation process to eliminate pollutants. In this work, Phosphorus-doped carbon nitride tube (PCN) was synthesized via a hydrothermal calcination method and applied to degrade tetracycline (TC) through combing with peroxydisulfate (PDS) under visible light irradiation. Experimental results showed that the optimized catalysts PCN-5 exhibited superior degradation performance and reusability for TC degradation. 96.4% TC could be degraded for optimal PCN-5 with 0.3 g·L-1 catalysts and 1.0 g·L-1 PDS under visible light within 60 min. In addition, the degradation rate constant for TC of PCN + PDS + Vis system was still above 85% after five uses. Radical trapping experiment indicating that O2·- is the dominant radical for TC degradation. The findings of this work revealed the potential application of the PCN + PDS + Vis system toward degrading contaminants in wastewater.

[Selection of optimal qRT-PCR reference genes for Aconitum vilmorinianum].

Screening suitable reference genes is the premise of quantitative Real-time PCR(qRT-PCR)for gene expression analysis. To provide stable reference genes for expression analysis of genes in Aconitum vilmorinianum, this study selected 19 candidate re-ference genes(ACT1, ACT2, ACT3, aTUB1, aTUB2, bTUB, 18S rRNA, UBQ, eIF2, eIF3, eIF4, eIF5, CYP, GAPDH1, GAPDH2, PP2A1, PP2A2, ACP, and EF1α) based on the transcriptome data of A. vilmorinianum. qRT-PCR was conducted to profile the expression of these genes in the root, stem, leaf, and flower of A. vilmorinianum. The Ct values showed that 18S rRNA with high expression level and GAPDH2 with large expression difference among organs were not suitable as the reference genes. NormFinder and geNorm showed similar results of the expression stability of the other candidate reference genes and demonstrated PP2A1, EF1α, and CYP as the highly stable ones. However, BestKeeper suggested EF1α, ACT3, and PP2A1 as the top stable genes. In view of the different results from different softwares, the geometric mean method was employed to analyze the expression stability of the candidate re-ference genes, the results of which indicated that PP2A1, EF1α, and ACT3 were the most stable. Based on the comprehensive analysis results of geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper, and geometric mean method, PP2A1 and EF1α presented the most stable expression in different organs of A. vilmorinianum. PP2A1 and EF1α were the superior reference genes for gene expression profiling in different organs of A. vilmorinianum.

Ag NPs on chitosan-alginate coated magnetite for synthesis of indazolo[2,1-b]phthalazines and human lung protective effects against α-Guttiferin.

Biocomposite nanomaterials have been evolved as the new generation catalysts and therapeutic supplement in these days. Magnetically isolation has added new features to this category. This has encouraged us to synthesize a novel Ag NP adorned chitosan-alginate dual bio-polysaccharide (two of the more versatile polysaccharides) modified core-shell magnetic nanocomposite (Fe3O4/CS-Alg/Ag NPs). The material was meticulously characterized following different physicochemical techniques, such as, FT-IR, ICP-OES, FESEM, EDX, atomic mapping, TEM, VSM, XRD and XPS studies. The as synthesized material was catalytically explored in the one-pot multicomponent synthesis of biologically potent 2H-indazolo[2,1-b]phthalazine-trione derivatives involving a wide range of substrates. The reactions were ended up with excellent yields under solvent-free heating conditions. The catalyst recyclability, heterogeneity and leaching tests were performed to ensure its high stability and robustness. It could be reused as much as 10 times in succession with almost unchanged catalytic performances. In the lung protective part of the present research, the human lung toxicity was induced by α-Guttiferin. The cell viability of lung MRC-5, CCD19Lu, WI-38, and BEAS-2B cell lines was measured by trypan blue assay. Caspase-3 activity was assessed by the caspase activity colorimetric assay kit and mitochondrial membrane potential of lung cells was studied by Rhodamine123 fluorescence dye. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) test was used to show DNA fragmentation and apoptosis of lung cells. Also, the Rat inflammatory cytokine assay kit was used to measure the concentrations of inflammatory cytokines. The catalyst-treated cell cutlers significantly (p ≤ 0.01) reduced the DNA fragmentation, caspase-3 activity, and inflammatory cytokines concentrations, and raised the mitochondrial membrane potential and cell viability in the high concentration of α-Guttiferin-treated lung MRC-5, CCD19Lu, WI-38, and BEAS-2B cells. The best result of lung protective properties of catalyst against α-Guttiferin was seen in the high dose of catalyst i.e., 4 µg. DPPH test revealed similar antioxidant potentials for catalyst and butylated hydroxytoluene. The catalyst inhibited half of the DPPH molecules in the concentration of 171 µg/mL. According to the above results, catalyst can be administrated as a lung protective drug for the treatment of lung diseases after approving in the clinical trial studies in humans.

Two new dihydrostilbenoid glycosides isolated from the leaves of Litsea coreana and their anti-inflammatory activity.

Two new dihydrostilbenoid glycosides, named 5-(2-phenylethyl)-3-hydroxyphenol-1-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (1) and 6-(2-phenylethyl)-2,4-dihydroxy benzoic acid-2-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (2), together with two known compounds, were isolated from the leaves of Litsea coreana Levl.. Their structures were established on the basis of NMR spectroscopic, MS and chemical data. Biological tests revealed that 1-3 exhibited moderate anti-inflammatory activity through an inhibitory effect on TNF-alpha, IL-1 production from RAW264.7 cell line activated with lipopolysaccharides (LPS).