Tanshinone increases Hemopexin expression in lung cells and macrophages to protect against cigarette smoke-induced COPD and enhance antiviral responses.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic inflammatory disease, while respiratory infections can elicit exacerbations in COPD patients to mediate increased mortality. Administration of Tanshinones (TS) derivatives has been demonstrated to protect against cigarette smoking (CS) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced COPD progression. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms and the roles of TS in mitigating the severity of viral-mediated exacerbations of COPD have not been elucidated. Here, we found that TS treatments significantly attenuated lung function decline, inflammatory responses and oxidative stress in CS and LPS-induced COPD mice. Subsequent RNA-seq analysis revealed significantly upregulated Hemopexin expression and enriched interferons (IFNs) signaling pathways in lung tissues of COPD mice upon TS treatments. Moreover, TS administration demonstrated Hemopexin-dependent beneficial roles in BEAS-2B lung cells and RAW264.7 macrophages, which was associated with the suppression of oxidative stress and ERK, NF-κB, and NLRP3 inflammasome signaling pathways-mediated inflammation. Furthermore, TS promoted IFN signaling and rescued impaired antiviral responses in CS and LPS-exposed lung cells that were infected by influenza virus. Notably, hemopexin over-expression in lung cells and macrophages recapitulated the pharmacological activities of TS. Taken together, these results indicate that TS administration is a promising and potential therapeutic strategy for treating COPD and preventing COPD exacerbations.

Two-dimensional dysprosium(III) coordination polymer: Structure, single-molecule magnetic behavior, proton conduction, and luminescence.

A new dysprosium (III) coordination polymer [Dy(Hm-dobdc) (H2O)2]·H2O (Dy-CP), was hydrothermal synthesized based on 4,6-dioxido-1,3-benzenedicarboxylate (H4m-dobdc) ligand containing carboxyl and phenolic hydroxyl groups. The Dy(III) center adopts an octa-coordinated [DyO8] geometry, which can be described as a twisted square antiprism (D 4d symmetry). Neighboring Dy(III) ions are interconnected by deprotonated Hm-dobdc3- ligand to form the two-dimensional infinite layers, which are further linked to generate three-dimensional structure through abundant hydrogen bonds mediated primarily by coordinated and lattice H2O molecules. Magnetic studies demonstrates that Dy-CP shows the field-induced slow relaxation of magnetization and the energy barrier U eff/k B and relaxation time τ 0 are 35.3 K and 1.31 × 10-6 s, respectively. Following the vehicular mechanism, Dy-CP displays proton conductivity with σ equal to 7.77 × 10-8 S cm-1 at 353 K and 30%RH. Moreover, luminescence spectra reveal that H4m-dobdc can sensitize characteristic luminescence of Dy(III) ion. Herein, good magnetism, proton conduction, and luminescence are simultaneously achieved, and thus, Dy-CP is a potential multifunctional coordination polymer material.