Fructus choerospondiatis: A comprehensive review of its traditional uses, chemical composition, pharmacological activities, and clinical studies.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Fructus Choerospondiatis is the dried and mature fruit of Choerospondias axillaris (Roxb.) Burtt et Hill. It has been used for a long time in Tibetan and Mongolian medicine, first recorded in the ancient Tibetan medicine book "Medicine Diagnosis of the King of the Moon" in the early 8th century. Fructus Choerospondiatis shows multiple pharmacological activities, especially in treating cardiovascular diseases. AIM OF THIS REVIEW: This paper reviews the progress in research on the botanical characteristics, traditional uses, chemical constituents, pharmacological activity, clinical studies, and quality control of Fructus Choerospondiatis. This review aims to summarize current research and provide a reference for further development and utilization of Fructus Choerospondiatis resources. METHOD: The sources for this review include the Pharmacopeia of the People's Republic of China (2020), theses, and peer-reviewed papers (in both English and Chinese). Theses and papers were downloaded from electronic databases including Web of Science, PubMed, SciFinder, Scholar, Springer, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure.The search terms used were "Choerospondias axillaris", "C. axillaris", "Choerospondias axillaris (Roxb.) Burtt et Hill", "Fructus choerospondiatis", "Guangzao", "Lapsi", and "Lupsi". RESULTS: Fructus Choerospondiatis contains polyphenols, organic acids, amino acids, fatty acids, polysaccharides, and other chemical components. These ingredients contribute to its diverse pharmacological activities such as antioxidant activity, protection against myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury, anti-myocardial fibrosis, heart rhythm regulation, anti-tumor, liver protection, and immunity enhancement. It also affects the central nervous system, with the ability to repair damaged nerve cells. CONCLUSION: Fructus Choerospondiatis, with its various chemical compositions and pharmacological activities, is a promising medicinal resource. However, it remains under-researched, particularly in pharmacodynamic material basis and quality control. These areas require further exploration by researchers in the future.

A signal recognition particle receptor gene from the sea cucumber, Apostichopus japonicas.

The signal recognition particle (SRP) system delivers approximately 30% of the proteome to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane. SRP receptor alpha (SRα) binds to SRP for targeting nascent secreted proteins to the ER membrane in eukaryotic cells. In this study, the SRα homologous gene was identified in the sea cucumber, Apostichopus japonicus (AjSRα). AjSRα codes for 641 amino acids and has 54.94% identity with its mammalian homologs. Like mammalian SRα, it is expected to contain the SRP-alpha N domain, SRP54_N domain, and SRP54 domain. In addition, AjSRα is ubiquitously expressed in adult tissues and exhibits a sexually dimorphic expression pattern, with significantly higher expression in ovaries compared to testes. As a maternal factor, AjSRα can be continuously detected during embryonic development. Importantly, we first attempted to investigate its function by using lentiviral vectors for delivering SRα gene-specific shRNA, and we revealed that lentiviral vectors do not induce an upregulation of immune-related enzymes in sea cucumbers. However, compared to the dsRNA-based RNA interference (RNAi) method, lentivirus-mediated RNAi caused dynamic changes in gene expression at a later time. This study supplied the technical support for studying the functional mechanism of SRα in sea cucumbers.

Identification and functional analysis of Dmrt1 gene and the SoxE gene in the sexual development of sea cucumber, Apostichopus japonicus.

Members of the Doublesex and Mab-3-related transcription factor (Dmrt) gene family handle various vital functions in several biological processes, including sex determination/differentiation and gonad development. Dmrt1 and Sox9 (SoxE in invertebrates) exhibit a very conserved interaction function during testis formation in vertebrates. However, the dynamic expression pattern and functional roles of the Dmrt gene family and SoxE have not yet been identified in any echinoderm species. Herein, five members of the Dmrt gene family (Dmrt1, 2, 3a, 3b and 5) and the ancestor SoxE gene were identified from the genome of Apostichopus japonicus. Expression studies of Dmrt family genes and SoxE in different tissues of adult males and females revealed different expression patterns of each gene. Transcription of Dmrt2, Dmrt3a and Dmrt3b was higher expressed in the tube feet and coelomocytes instead of in gonadal tissues. The expression of Dmrt1 was found to be sustained throughout spermatogenesis. Knocking-down of Dmrt1 by means of RNA interference (RNAi) led to the downregulation of SoxE and upregulation of the ovarian regulator foxl2 in the testes. This indicates that Dmrt1 may be a positive regulator of SoxE and may play a role in the development of the testes in the sea cucumber. The expression level of SoxE was higher in the ovaries than in the testes, and knocking down of SoxE by RNAi reduced SoxE and Dmrt1 expression but conversely increased the expression of foxl2 in the testes. In summary, this study indicates that Dmrt1 and SoxE are indispensable for testicular differentiation, and SoxE might play a functional role during ovary differentiation in the sea cucumber.

Sexually dimorphic expression of foxl2 in the sea urchin (Mesocentrotus nudus).

Sea urchin (Mesocentrotus nudus) is an important economically mariculture species in several Asian countries, and gonads are the sole edible parts for people. In addition to commercial value, it is an excellent model for studying gonadal development, sex determination and sex differentiation. Identify sex-related genes is an effective way to reveal the molecular mechanism of gonadal development. In the present study, the foxl2 homologous gene was identified in M. nudus. Foxl2 is not a maternal factor, and is detected for the first time in two-arm stages. Additionally, the expression of foxl2 in the testis is higher than in the ovaries at the same developmental stages. The foxl2 transcripts were specifically enriched in the cytoplasm of germ cellsboth in the ovary and testis, but their proteins were more concentrated in the area near the oocyte nucleus. Overall, this study contributes to our understanding of the dynamic and sexually dimorphic expression pattern of foxl2 and provide a useful germ cell marker during gametogenesis in sea urchin.

Retraction Note: Modified box dimension and average weighted receiving time on the weighted fractal networks.

This paper has been retracted.

Molecular Dynamic Simulation of D-Mannitol Polymorphs in Solid State and in Solution Relating With Spontaneous Nucleation.

In this article, the polymorphic nucleation of D-mannitol was studied in depth by molecular simulating the solid state of different forms and the aqueous solution both in unsaturated and supersaturated conditions. In our previous work, it was found that different polymorphs of D-mannitol could nucleate in various supersaturations. Here in this work, we try to use molecular dynamic simulation as a tool to explore the system to microscopically understand the phenomenon. First, the molecular structure of the 3 D-mannitol polymorphs in the solid unit cell is studied, and it is found that the molecular conformation directly affects the stability of the polymorphs. Then, the properties of D-mannitol molecules in unsaturated and supersaturated aqueous solutions are investigated. The results reveal that D-mannitol molecules are mostly monomers in unsaturated aqueous solution, while dimers start to show as the increase of concentration and also in the supersaturated aqueous solutions. Moreover, the form of the dimer varies with the degree of supersaturation, which might be the reason why the final crystal forms are different under different supersaturations. It seems that the I-dimers in supersaturated aqueous solutions is beneficial to the formation of the delta form of D-mannitol, and the T-dimers might be likely to form alpha crystal form, while the H-type dimers should be more favorable for to nucleate the beta form.

Spectral analysis for weighted iterated q-triangulation networks.

Deterministic weighted networks have been widely used to model real-world complex systems. In this paper, we study the weighted iterated q-triangulation networks, which are generated by iteration operation F(⋅). We add q(q∈N+) new nodes on each old edge and connect them with two endpoints of the old edge. At the same time, the newly linked edges are given weight factor r(0

The trapping problem of the weighted scale-free treelike networks for two kinds of biased walks.

It has been recently reported that trapping problem can characterize various dynamical processes taking place on complex networks. However, most works focused on the case of binary networks, and dynamical processes on weighted networks are poorly understood. In this paper, we study two kinds of biased walks including standard weight-dependent walk and mixed weight-dependent walk on the weighted scale-free treelike networks with a trap at the central node. Mixed weight-dependent walk including non-nearest neighbor jump appears in many real situations, but related studies are much less. By the construction of studied networks in this paper, we determine all the eigenvalues of the fundamental matrix for two kinds of biased walks and show that the largest eigenvalue has an identical dominant scaling as that of the average trapping time (ATT). Thus, we can obtain the leading scaling of ATT by a more convenient method and avoid the tedious calculation. The obtained results show that the weight factor has a significant effect on the ATT, and the smaller the value of the weight factor, the more efficient the trapping process is. Comparing the standard weight-dependent walk with mixed weight-dependent walk, although next-nearest-neighbor jumps have no main effect on the trapping process, they can modify the coefficient of the dominant term for the ATT.

Cocrystal and its Application in the Field of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients and Food Ingredients.

BACKGROUND: The development of solid drug dosage form and food ingredients is constrained by their low solubility, low dissolution, low bioavailability and poor physicochemical properties. Formation of cocrystal is a novel and promising method to enhance and improve the properties of materials without breaking the covalent bonds. METHODS: The goal of this review is to summarize the cocrystals and their applications in the field of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and food ingredients (AFIs), mainly on the effective improvements of APIs' and AFIs' pharmacokinetic, physicochemical and mechanical properties by the formation of cocrystals. RESULTS: After years of research and development on cocrystals in the area of pharmaceutical and food industries, significant progress has been made. Formation of cocrystal is an efficient method for improving the solubility, dissolution rate, permeability and in vivo bioavailability of APIs and AFIs, as well as for enhancing stability and mechanical properties. CONCLUSION: Cocrystals exhibit complex structures which can conspicuously affect the physical and chemical properties of original substance, with good clinical performance and outstanding stability during processing and storage.

Two types of weight-dependent walks with a trap in weighted scale-free treelike networks.

In this paper, we present the weighted scale-free treelike networks controlled by the weight factor r and the parameter m. Based on the network structure, we study two types of weight-dependent walks with a highest-degree trap. One is standard weight-dependent walk, while the other is mixed weight-dependent walk including both nearest-neighbor and next-nearest-neighbor jumps. Although some properties have been revealed in weighted networks, studies on mixed weight-dependent walks are still less and remain a challenge. For the weighted scale-free treelike network, we derive exact solutions of the average trapping time (ATT) measuring the efficiency of the trapping process. The obtained results show that ATT is related to weight factor r, parameter m and spectral dimension of the weighted network. We find that in different range of the weight factor r, the leading term of ATT grows differently, i.e., superlinearly, linearly and sublinearly with the network size. Furthermore, the obtained results show that changing the walking rule has no effect on the leading scaling of the trapping efficiency. All results in this paper can help us get deeper understanding about the effect of link weight, network structure and the walking rule on the properties and functions of complex networks.

Coherence analysis of a class of weighted networks.

This paper investigates consensus dynamics in a dynamical system with additive stochastic disturbances that is characterized as network coherence by using the Laplacian spectrum. We introduce a class of weighted networks based on a complete graph and investigate the first- and second-order network coherence quantifying as the sum and square sum of reciprocals of all nonzero Laplacian eigenvalues. First, the recursive relationship of its eigenvalues at two successive generations of Laplacian matrix is deduced. Then, we compute the sum and square sum of reciprocal of all nonzero Laplacian eigenvalues. The obtained results show that the scalings of first- and second-order coherence with network size obey four and five laws, respectively, along with the range of the weight factor. Finally, it indicates that the scalings of our studied networks are smaller than other studied networks when 1d

Modified box dimension and average weighted receiving time on the weighted fractal networks.

In this paper a family of weighted fractal networks, in which the weights of edges have been assigned to different values with certain scale, are studied. For the case of the weighted fractal networks the definition of modified box dimension is introduced, and a rigorous proof for its existence is given. Then, the modified box dimension depending on the weighted factor and the number of copies is deduced. Assuming that the walker, at each step, starting from its current node, moves uniformly to any of its nearest neighbors. The weighted time for two adjacency nodes is the weight connecting the two nodes. Then the average weighted receiving time (AWRT) is a corresponding definition. The obtained remarkable result displays that in the large network, when the weight factor is larger than the number of copies, the AWRT grows as a power law function of the network order with the exponent, being the reciprocal of modified box dimension. This result shows that the efficiency of the trapping process depends on the modified box dimension: the larger the value of modified box dimension, the more efficient the trapping process is.

Imidazolium 3-nitro-benzoate.

In the title compound, C(3)H(5)N(2) (+)·C(7)H(4)NO(4) (-), the benzene ring forms a dihedral angle of 40.60 (5)° with the imidizolium ring. The nitro-benzoate anion is approximately planar: the benzene ring makes dihedral angles of 3.8 (3) and 3.2 (1)° with the nitro and carboxyl-ate groups, respectively. In the crystal structure, the cations and anions are linked by inter-molecular N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming a zigzag chain along the b axis.

Bis(1-methyl-1-phenyl-ethyl) peroxide.

In the crystal structure, the title compound (also called dicumyl peroxide), C(18)H(22)O(2), lies on a center of symmetry. The COOC plane including the di-oxy group makes a dihedral angle of 79.10 (5)° with the phenyl ring. An inter-molecular C-H⋯π inter-action is observed between the phenyl groups.