IL-38 Aggravates Atopic Dermatitis via Facilitating Migration of Langerhans cells.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common inflammation skin disease that involves dysregulated interplay between immune cells and keratinocytes. Interleukin-38 (IL-38), a poorly characterized IL-1 family cytokine, its role and mechanism in the pathogenesis of AD is elusive. Here, we show that IL-38 is mainly secreted by epidermal keratinocytes and highly expressed in the skin and downregulated in AD lesions. We generated IL-38 keratinocyte-specific knockout mice (K14Cre/+-IL-38f/f ) and induced AD models by 2,4-dinitrofluorobenzene (DNFB). Unexpectedly, after treatment with DNFB, K14Cre/+-IL-38f/f mice were less susceptible to cutaneous inflammation of AD. Moreover, keratinocyte-specific deletion of IL-38 suppressed the migration of Langerhans cells (LCs) into lymph nodes which results in disturbed differentiation of CD4+T cells and decreased the infiltration of immune cells into AD lesions. LCs are a type of dendritic cell that reside specifically in the epidermis and regulate immune responses. We developed LC-like cells in vitro from mouse bone marrow (BM) and treated with recombined IL-38. The results show that IL-38 depended on IL-36R, activated the phosphorylated expression of IRAK4 and NF-κB P65 and upregulated the expression of CCR7 to promoting the migration of LCs, nevertheless, the upregulation disappeared with the addition of IL-36 receptor antagonist (IL-36RA), IRAK4 or NF-κB P65 inhibitor. Furthermore, after treatment with IRAK4 inhibitors, the experimental AD phenotypes were alleviated and so IRAK4 is considered a promising target for the treatment of inflammatory diseases. Overall, our findings indicated a potential pathway that IL-38 depends on IL-36R, leading to LCs migration to promote AD by upregulating CCR7 via IRAK4/NF-κB and implied the prevention and treatment of AD, supporting potential clinical utilization of IRAK4 inhibitors in AD treatment.

Construction of a g-C3N4/Bi(OH)3 Heterojunction for the Enhancement of Visible Light Photocatalytic Antibacterial Activity.

Photocatalytic technology has been recently conducted to remove microbial contamination due to its unique features of nontoxic by-products, low cost, negligible microbial resistance and broad-spectrum elimination capacity. Herein, a novel two dimensional (2D) g-C3N4/Bi(OH)3 (CNB) heterojunction was fabricated byincorporating Bi(OH)3 (BOH) nanoparticles with g-C3N4 (CN) nanosheets. This CNB heterojunction exhibited high photocatalytic antibacterial efficiency (99.3%) against Escherichia coli (E. coli) under visible light irradiation, which was 4.3 and 3.4 times that of BOH (23.0%) and CN (28.0%), respectively. The increase in specific surface area, ultra-thin layered structure, construction of a heterojunction and enhancement of visible light absorption were conducive to facilitating the separation and transfer of photoinduced charge carriers. Live/dead cell staining, sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) assays and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) have been implemented to investigate the damage to the cell membrane and the leakage of the intracellular protein in the photocatalytic antibacterial process. The e-, h+ and O2•- were the active species involved in this process. This study proposed an appropriate photocatalyst for efficient treatment of bacterial contamination.

Computational Insight into the Nature and Strength of the π-Hole Type Chalcogen∙∙∙Chalcogen Interactions in the XO2∙∙∙CH3YCH3 Complexes (X = S, Se, Te; Y = O, S, Se, Te).

In recent years, the non-covalent interactions between chalcogen centers have aroused substantial research interest because of their potential applications in organocatalysis, materials science, drug design, biological systems, crystal engineering, and molecular recognition. However, studies on π-hole-type chalcogen∙∙∙chalcogen interactions are scarcely reported in the literature. Herein, the π-hole-type intermolecular chalcogen∙∙∙chalcogen interactions in the model complexes formed between XO2 (X = S, Se, Te) and CH3YCH3 (Y = O, S, Se, Te) were systematically studied by using quantum chemical computations. The model complexes are stabilized via one primary X∙∙∙Y chalcogen bond (ChB) and the secondary C-H∙∙∙O hydrogen bonds. The binding energies of the studied complexes are in the range of -21.6~-60.4 kJ/mol. The X∙∙∙Y distances are significantly smaller than the sum of the van der Waals radii of the corresponding two atoms. The X∙∙∙Y ChBs in all the studied complexes except for the SO2∙∙∙CH3OCH3 complex are strong in strength and display a partial covalent character revealed by conducting the quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM), a non-covalent interaction plot (NCIplot), and natural bond orbital (NBO) analyses. The symmetry-adapted perturbation theory (SAPT) analysis discloses that the X∙∙∙Y ChBs are primarily dominated by the electrostatic component.

Crystal structure and Hirshfeld analysis of (1aS,3aR,4aS,5aR)-15-acet-oxy-linden-7(11),8-trieno-12,8-lactone.

The structure of the title com-pound, C17H20O4 [systematic name: (1aS,3aR,4aS,5aR)-15-(acet-oxy)linden-7(11),8-trieno-12,8-lactone or (4aR,5S,5aR,6aS,6bR)-5-(acet-oxy-meth-yl)-4a,5,5a,6,6a,6b-hexa-hydro-3,6b-di-methyl-cyclo-propa[2,3]indeno-[5,6-b]furan-2(4H)-one, ent-chloranthalactone C], a natural product iso-lated from the whole plant Chloranthus japonicus Sieb., is a typical lin-den-ane-type sesquiterpenoid. The mol-ecule com-prises a bi-cyclo-[3.1.0]hexane ring (A/B system) bearing an acetoxymethyl (C-4) group, a bi-cyclo-[4.3.0]nonane ring (B/C system) containing a double bond (C-8/9) and a chiral quaternary carbon (C-10), and a 7(11)-en-12,8-olide structural moiety on the cyclo-hexan-8-ene (C ring). In the tetra-cyclic skeleton, the 1,3-cyclo-propane ring has a ß-con-figuration, and atoms H-5 and H3-14 have α- and ß-orientations, respectively. In the crystal, the mol-ecules are assembled into a two-dimensional network by weak O⋯H/H⋯O inter-actions. Hirshfeld surface analysis illustrates that the greatest contributions are from H⋯H (55.2%), O⋯H/H⋯O (34.6%) and C⋯H/H⋯C (8.9%) contacts.

Two new sesquiterpenes from Chloranthus japonicus Sieb.

Two new sesquiterpenes, namely, 1ß,10ß-dihydroxy-eremophil-7(11), 8-dien-12,8-olide (1) and 8,12-epoxy-1ß-hydroxyeudesm-3,7,11-trien-9-one (2), together with three known sesquiterpenoids, shizukolidol (3), 4α-hydroxy-5α(H)-8ß-methoxy-eudesm-7(11)-en-12,8-olide (4), and neolitacumone B (5), and two known monoterpenes, (3R,4S,6R)-p-menth-1-en-3,6-diol (6) and (R)-p-menth-1-en-4,7-diol (7), were isolated from the whole plant of Chloranthus japonicus Sieb. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic data analysis and comparison with those of related known compounds. Compounds 4-7 were isolated from this plant for the first time.

Crystal structure of sepaconitine, a C19-diterpenoid alkaloid from the roots of Aconitum sinomontanum Nakai.

The title compound [systematic name: [(1α,14α,16ß)-20-ethyl-8,9,10-trihy-droxy-1,14,16-tri-meth-oxy-aconitan-4-yl 2-amino-benzoate], C30H42N2O8, a natural C19-diterpenoid alkaloid, possesses an aconitane carbon skeleton with four six-membered rings and two five-membered rings. The fused ring system contains two chair, one boat, one twist-boat and two envelope conformations. Intra-molecular N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds are observed between the amino and carbonyl groups. The mol-ecules are linked together via O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming a three-dimensional framework.

Crystal structure of N-de-acetyl-lappa-coni-tine.

The title compound, C30H42N2O7 [systematic name: (1S,4S,5S,7S,8S,9S,10S,11S,13R,14S,16S,17R)-20-ethyl-4,8,9-trihy-droxy-1,14,16-tri-meth-oxy-aconitan-4-yl 2-amino-benzoate], isolated from roots of Aconitum sinomontanum Nakai, is a typical aconitane-type C19-diterpenoid alkaloid, which crystallizes with two independent mol-ecules in the asymmetric unit. The conformations of the two independent mol-ecules are closely similar. Each mol-ecule comprises four six-membered rings (A, B, D and E) including one six-membered N-containing heterocyclic ring (E), and two five-membered rings (C and F). Rings A, B and E adopt chair conformations, while ring D displays a boat conformation. Five-membered rings C and F exhibit envelope conformations. IntramolecularN-H⋯O hydrogen bonds between the amino group and carbonyl O atom help to stabilize molecular structure. In the crystal, O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the mol-ecules into zigzag chains propagating in [010].

Nano-magnetic particles as multifunctional microreactor for deep desulfurization.

Oxidation of dibenzothiophene with hydrogen peroxide using a recyclable amphiphilic catalyst has been studied. The catalyst was synthesized by surfacely covering magnetic silica nanospheres (MSN) with the complexes between 3-(trimethoxysilyl)-propyldimethyloctadecyl ammonium chloride (AEM) and phosphotungstic acid (PTA). The morphology and components of the composite material were characterized by TEM, EDX, XPS, FT-IR, and VSM, respectively. The effects of several factors on desulfurization reactivity were systematically investigated. The results showed that the composite nanospheres have core/shell structure with the properties of amphiphilicity and superparamagnetism. The composite nanospheres have high catalytic activity in the oxidation of dibenzothiophene to corresponding sulfones by hydrogen peroxide under mild reaction conditions. The sulfur level could be lowered from 487 ppm to less than 0.8 ppm under optimal conditions. Additionally, the amphiphilic catalyst and the oxidized product could be simultaneously separated from medium by external magnetism, and the recovered composite material could be recycled for three times with almost constant activity.