Unconventional Synthesis of Hierarchically Twinned Copper as Efficient Electrocatalyst for Nitrate-Ammonia Conversion.

Twin boundary (TB) engineering provides exciting opportunities to tune the performance levels of metal-based electrocatalysts. However, the controllable construction of TB greatly relies on surfactants, blocking active sites, and electron transfer by surfactants. Here, a surfactant-free and facile strategy is proposed for synthesizing copper (Cu) nanocatalysts with dense hierarchical TB networks (HTBs) by the rapid thermal reductions in metastable CuO nanosheets in H2 . As revealed by in situ transmission electron microscopy, the formation of HTBs is associated with the fragmentation of nanosheets in different directions to generate abundant crystal nuclei and subsequently unconventional crystal growth through the collision and coalescence of nuclei. Impressively, the HTBs endow Cu with excellent electrocatalytic performance for direct nitrate-ammonia conversion, superior to that of Cu with a single-oriented TB and without TB. It is discovered that the HTBs induce the formation of compressive strains, thereby creating a synergistic effect of TBs and strains to efficiently tune the binding energies of Cu with nitrogen intermediates (i.e., NO2 *) and thus promote the tandem reaction process of NO3 - -to-NO2 - and subsequent NO2 - -to-NH3 electrocatalysis. This work demonstrates the crucial role of HTBs for boosting electrocatalysis via the synergistic effect of TBs and strains.

Effect of Acute Aerobic Exercise on Inhibitory Control of College Students with Smartphone Addiction.

BACKGROUND: Inhibitory control deficits may be one important cause for smartphone addiction. The available studies have shown that acute aerobic exercise may improve the inhibitory control. However, there is still lack of research on how regimens of an acute exercise affect this inhibitory control. The present study was to examine the effects of an acute aerobic exercise at three different exercise intensities on changes in the inhibitory control function including response inhibition and interference control in college students with smartphone addiction. METHODS: Participants (n = 30; age 20.03 ± 0.96 years) with smartphone addiction were identified by the Mobile Phone Addiction Tendency Scale for College Students and randomized to study 1 and study 2 with 15 individuals each. Fifteen participants in study 1 were tested by the Go/NoGo task to explore the response inhibition, while other fifteen in study 2 were tested by the Flanker task to examine the interference control. The participants in study 1 and 2 were randomly assigned to three groups (5 in each) with exercising at low, moderate, and high intensity. The individual response inhibition and interference control were measured before and after 30 minutes acute aerobic exercise, respectively. RESULTS: In study 1, the accuracy of NoGo stimulus after 30 minutes of acute aerobic exercise was significantly increased (p ≤ 0.001) while the response time (RT) of Go stimulus was significantly decreased (p ≤ 0.001). The largest changes occurred in the moderate-intensity group for the accuracy of NoGo stimulus (p=0.012) and for the RT of Go stimulus (p ≤ 0.001). The results in study 2 showed no significant change in all three groups after exercise. CONCLUSIONS: 30 minutes of acute aerobic exercise could effectively elicit changes of the response inhibition in college students with smartphone addiction. The largest improvement was observed in the moderate intensity of an acute aerobic exercise in college students with smartphone addiction.

Screening Traditional Chinese Medicine Combination for Cotreatment of Alzheimer's Disease and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus by Network Pharmacology.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, the efficacy of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) drugs in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has attracted extensive interest owing to the close associations between the two diseases. OBJECTIVE: Here, we screened traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and multi-target ingredients that may have potential therapeutic effects on both T2DM and AD from T2DM prescriptions. METHODS: Network pharmacology and molecular docking were used. RESULTS: Firstly, the top 10 frequently used herbs and corresponding 275 active ingredients were identified from 263 T2DM-related TCM prescriptions. Secondly, through the comparative analysis of 208 potential targets of ingredients, 1,740 T2DM-related targets, and 2,060 AD-related targets, 61 common targets were identified to be shared. Thirdly, by constructing pharmacological network, 26 key targets and 154 representative ingredients were identified. Further enrichment analysis showed that common targets were involved in regulating multiple pathways related to T2DM and AD, while network analysis also found that the combination of Danshen (Radix Salviae)-Gancao (Licorice)-Shanyao (Rhizoma Dioscoreae) contained the vast majority of the representative ingredients and might be potential for the cotreatment of the two diseases. Fourthly, MAPK1, PPARG, GSK3B, BACE1, and NR3C1 were selected as potential targets for virtual screening of multi-target ingredients. Further docking studies showed that multiple natural compounds, including salvianolic acid J, gancaonin H, gadelaidic acid, icos-5-enoic acid, and sigmoidin-B, exhibited high binding affinities with the five targets. CONCLUSION: To summarize, the present study provides a potential TCM combination that might possess the potential advantage of cotreatment of AD and T2DM.

Melittin Constrains the Expression of Identified Key Genes Associated with Bladder Cancer.

This work is aimed at investigating the effect of melittin on identified key genes in bladder cancer (BC) and further providing a theoretical basis for BC treatment. GSE35014 downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database was used to screen differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in BC cells and control. Results showed that a total of 389 upregulated and 169 downregulated genes were identified. Subsequently, GO analysis, KEGG pathway enrichment analysis, and PPI network analysis were employed to disclose the crucial genes and signaling pathways involved in BC. Fifteen module-related DEGs and their associated signaling pathways were obtained according to the PPI network and modular analyses. Based on the analysis of articles retrieved in the PubMed database, we found that melittin could induce apoptosis and constrain the progression of tumor cells as a result of regulating critical cancer-related signaling pathways, such as PI3K-Akt and TNF signaling pathways. Furthermore, PI3K-Akt and TNF signaling pathways were also found to be associated with module-related DEGs according to biological analyses. At last, qRT-PCR analysis demonstrated that melittin could constrain the expression of module-related DEGs (LPAR1, COL5A1, COL6A2, CXCL1, CXCL2, and CXCL3) associated with PI3K-Akt and TNF signaling pathways in BC cells. Functional assays revealed that melittin could constrain the proliferative and migrated abilities of BC cells. Conjointly, these findings provide a theoretical basis for these six genes as drug-sensitive markers of melittin in BC treatment.

Tetrandrine suppresses articular inflammatory response by inhibiting pro-inflammatory factors via NF-κB inactivation.

Targeting activated macrophages using anti-inflammatory phytopharmaceuticals has been proposed as general therapeutic approaches for rheumatic diseases. Besides macrophages, chondrocytes are another promising target of anti-inflammatory agents. Tetrandrine is a major bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloid isolated from Stephania tetrandrae S. Moore which has been used for 2,000 years as an antirheumatic herbal drug in China. Although, the anti-inflammatory effect of tetrandrine has been demonstrated, the mechanism has not been clearly clarified. In this study, we designed a comprehensive anti-inflammatory evaluation system for tetrandrine, including complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA)-induced arthritis rat, LPS-induced macrophage RAW 264.7 cells, and chondrogenic ATDC5 cells. The results showed that tetrandrine alleviated CFA-induced foot swelling, synovial inflammation, and pro-inflammatory cytokines secretion. Tetrandrine could inhibit IL-6, IL-1ß, and TNF-α expression via blocking the nuclear translocation of nuclear factor (NF)-κB p65 in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells. Moreover, ATDC5 cells well responded to LPS induced pro-inflammatory mediators secretion and tissue degradation, and tetrandrine could also inhibit the production of nitric oxide and prostaglandin E2 , as well as the expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-3 and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1 via inhibiting IκBα phosphorylation and degradation. In conclusion, the results showed that one of the anti-inflammatory mechanisms of tetrandrine was inhibiting IκBα and NF-κB p65 phosphorylation in LPS-induced macrophage RAW 264.7 cells and chondrogenic ATDC5 cells. Moreover, we introduce a vigorous in vitro cell screening system, LPS-induced murine macrophage RAW 264.7 cells coupling chondrogenic ADTC5 cells, for screening anti-rheumatic drugs. © 2016 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 34:1557-1568, 2016.

The Genome of Dendrobium officinale Illuminates the Biology of the Important Traditional Chinese Orchid Herb.

Dendrobium officinale Kimura et Migo is a traditional Chinese orchid herb that has both ornamental value and a broad range of therapeutic effects. Here, we report the first de novo assembled 1.35 Gb genome sequences for D. officinale by combining the second-generation Illumina Hiseq 2000 and third-generation PacBio sequencing technologies. We found that orchids have a complete inflorescence gene set and have some specific inflorescence genes. We observed gene expansion in gene families related to fungus symbiosis and drought resistance. We analyzed biosynthesis pathways of medicinal components of D. officinale and found extensive duplication of SPS and SuSy genes, which are related to polysaccharide generation, and that the pathway of D. officinale alkaloid synthesis could be extended to generate 16-epivellosimine. The D. officinale genome assembly demonstrates a new approach to deciphering large complex genomes and, as an important orchid species and a traditional Chinese medicine, the D. officinale genome will facilitate future research on the evolution of orchid plants, as well as the study of medicinal components and potential genetic breeding of the dendrobe.

Real-time monitoring of total polyphenols content in tea using a developed optical sensors system.

A portable and low-cost optical sensors system consisting of hardware and software was developed and used for real-time monitoring total polyphenols content in tea in this work. This developed system was used for data acquisition. Partial least square (PLS) with several variable selection algorithms was used for modeling. Synergy interval partial least square (Si-PLS) was first used to select spectral subintervals of interest, and then competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS) and genetic algorithm (GA) were comparatively employed to select the variables of interest from the subintervals of interest. The optimum model was achieved and stored in the developed software. Next, 20 independent samples were used to test the performance of this system. And the coefficient of variation (CV) of the final results was used to state the stability and reliability of this system. The results also showed that GA-Si-PLS performed better than CARS-Si-PLS model and the CVs for most of the samples were <5%. This study demonstrated this developed optical sensors system as a promising tool that could be used for real-time monitoring tea quality.

[Study on dynamic accumulation of index components from Bupleurum chinense in various collecting periods].

OBJECTIVE: To study the dynamic change law of volatile oil, saikosaponin a, d and alcohol-extract from Bupleurum chinense at Songxian region in Henan province, and to explore the optimal harvest period of Bupleurum chinense. METHODS: With the contents of saikosaponin a and d, absorbance of volatile oil and percentage of alcohol-extract as indexes, HPLC-ELSD and ultraviolet spectrophotometry were successively used to analyze them. RESULTS: There are obvious differences among the contents of volatile oil, saikosaponin a, d and alcohol-extract in various collecting periods sample, the absorption of volatile oil in distillation was the highest in October, the content of saikosaponin a was the highest in September, the saikosaponin d in December and the percentage of alcohol-extract in October. CONCLUSION: The optimal harvest period of Bupleurum chinense at Songxian region in Henan is identified, which can provide scientific basis for crude drug production and processing.