A method for gel grade determination and application evaluation of two citrus pectins.

Citrus paradisi Macf. cv. Changshanhuyou and Citrus paradisi Macf. cv. Star Ruby are two emerging processed citrus fruits. The processing produces lots of peel wastes rich in pectin. While more attentions were paid on pectin's functional properties, the quality about commercial application like gel grade was little investigated. In this study, we established a method for gel grade determination based on texture analyzer, the new method is economical and can be used on a large scale in the laboratory. The commercial application related qualities of two citrus pectins were also studied in detail. The results showed that the yields of Changshanhuyou and Star Ruby pectins (CHP and SRP) were 20.23 % and 18.33 %, respectively. The indexes of CHP and SRP mostly were in line with the commodity standards, except the dry weight loss. The gel grades of CHP and SRP determined by the new method were 109.9 and 96.8, respectively. The CHP aqueous solution exhibited higher apparent viscosity and better performance in stabilizing acidified milk drink (AMD) compared with commercial pectin. From the view of commercial application related qualities and functional properties, CHP could be a good potential commercial pectin.

{N'-[(E)-1-(5-Chloro-2-oxidophen-yl)ethyl-idene]-4-meth-oxy-benzohydrazidato-κ3 O,N',O'}(1H-imidazole-κN 3)nickel(II).

In the title complex, [Ni(C16H13ClN2O3)(C3H4N2)], the NiII ion is coordinated by two O atoms and one N atom derived from the dianionic N'-[(1E)-1-(5-chloro-2-hy-droxy-phen-yl)ethyl-idene]-4-meth-oxy-benzohydrazide ligand and one N atom from the imidazole mol-ecule. The N2O2 donor set defines an approximate square-planar geometry. The dihedral angles between the imidazole ring and the fused six-membered and meth-oxy-benzene rings are 17.78 (14) and 13.23 (16)°, respectively; the dihedral angle between the C6 rings is 6.63 (12)°. The most prominent feature of the mol-ecular packing is the formation of 41-helical chains (along the c axis) mediated by imidazole-N-H⋯O(phenoxide) hydrogen bonding; these are linked by methyl-C-H⋯Cl inter-actions.

Predictive role of blood eosinophils in adult varicella patients.

The study aimed to explore the relationship between eosinophils and the prognosis of varicella in adults. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients who were hospitalised in The Fifth People's Hospital of Suzhou with a diagnosis of adult varicella during the period between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2020. Of the 359 patients, 228 (63.51%) had eosinopenia. The proportion of patients with mild type disease was significantly lower in the eosinopenia group than that in the non-eosinopenia group (50.44% vs. 65.65%, P = 0.006). The proportion of the patients with common type disease was significantly higher in the eosinopenia group than that in the non-eosinopenia group (39.47% vs. 28.24%, P = 0.039). The proportion of the patients with severe type disease was higher in the eosinopenia group, although the difference did not reach statistical significance (10.09% vs. 6.11%, P = 0.243). The rates of high fever (47.81% vs. 32.82%, P = 0.008; relative risk (RR) 1.296, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.091-1.540), headache (43.42% vs. 22.14%, P < 0.001; RR 1.415, 95% CI 1.233-1.623), anorexia (53.51% vs. 35.88%, P = 0.001; RR 1.367, 95% CI 1.129-1.655) and complications (82.89% vs. 64.12%, P < 0.001; RR 2.106, 95% CI 1.460-3.038) were also significantly higher in the eosinopenia group. Among the complications, the liver injury and skin infection were more serious in the eosinopenia group. The disease course was significantly longer in the eosinopenia group than that in the non-eosinopenia group (9.43 ± 1.89 days vs. 8.73 ± 1.25 days, P < 0.001). The improvement rate of liver injury in the recovery period was lower in the eosinopenia group than that in the non-eosinopenia group (35.38% vs. 50%, P = 0.012). The study found that adult varicella patients with eosinopenia had a more serious condition, a higher morbidity of complications and a slower recovery. Blood eosinophils can be used as a new predictor of the severity of adult varicella.

Rhubarb granule promotes diethylnitrosamine-induced liver tumorigenesis by activating the oxidative branch of pentose phosphate pathway via G6PD in rats.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Rhubarb is a natural herbal medicine widely used clinically with numerous pharmacological activities including anti-cancer. Specifically, several studies reported that free anthraquinones from Rhubarb suppressed the proliferation of hepatoma cells. Nonetheless, recent studies revealed that Rhubarb caused hepatotoxicity in vivo, confirming its "two-way" effect on the liver. Therefore, the efficacy and safety of Rhubarb in the in vivo treatment of liver cancer should be further elucidated. AIM OF THE STUDY: This study investigated the presence of hepatoprotection or hepatotoxicity of Rhubarb in diethylnitrosamine (DEN)-induced hepatocarcinogenesis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 112 male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 190-250 g were enrolled. The rats were induced hepatocarcinogenesis using diethylnitrosamine (0.002 g/rat) until 17 weeks. Starting at week 11, Rhubarb granules (4 g/kg and 8 g/kg) were intragastrically administered daily for 7 weeks. All rats were euthanized at week 20 and the livers were analyzed via non-targeted metabolomics analysis. We established hepatic glucose 6 phosphate (6PG) levels and glucose 6 phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) activities to assess the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP). And the liver injuries of rats were analyzed via histological changes, hepatic function, as well as hepatic protein levels of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), pyruvate kinase isozyme type M2 (PKM2), and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). Furthermore, polydatin (0.1 g/kg/d) as a specific inhibitor of G6PD was used to treat rats. Notably, their histological changes, hepatic function, hepatic 6PG levels, hepatic G6PD activities, PCNA levels, and PKM2 levels were recorded. RESULTS: Non-targeted metabolomics revealed that Rhubarb regulated the PPP in the liver of Rhubarb-DEN-treated rats. Besides, Rhubarb activated the oxidative branch of the PPP by activating G6PD (a rate-limiting enzyme in the oxidative PPP) in the liver of Rhubarb-DEN-treated rats. Meanwhile, Rhubarb promoted DEN-induced hepatocarcinogenesis. Moreover, polydatin attenuated the promoting effect of Rhubarb on DEN-induced hepatocarcinogenesis. CONCLUSIONS: Rhubarb promoted DEN-induced hepatocarcinogenesis by activating the PPP, indicating that the efficacy and safety of Rhubarb in the treatment of liver cancer deserve to be deliberated.

One-sampling and Rapid Analysis of Cancer Biomarker on a Power-free and Low-cost Microfluidic Chip.

Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is an important disease biomarker, relating to cancers such as hepatocarcinomas and gastric cancer. However, traditional methods are time-consuming, relied on bulky instruments and trained professionals, cannot satisfy the demand for low cost and point-of-care testing (POCT). In this study, a power-free POCT device was developed for the rapid and low-cost detection of AFP via one-sampling. Based on the principle of sandwich immunofluorescence, the chip is capable of automatically accomplishing on-chip mixing, labeling and capturing procedures, which only require that operator add 40 µL sample into the chip one time. The proposed device is capable of sensitively detecting human AFP in FBS with a dynamic range of 10 - 1000 ng/mL and LOD (1.88 ng/mL) within a short time of 3 min. Predictably, our method holds a great potential to be applied in the POC diagnostics of proteins, especially for some regions that are resource-limited.

Correction: Design and fabrication of a microfluidic chip to detect tumor markers.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1039/D0RA06693A.].

Au@Ag core-shell nanoparticles for microRNA-21 determination based on duplex-specific nuclease signal amplification and surface-enhanced Raman scattering.

A novel surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) analysis strategy has been designed combining Au@DTNB@Ag core-shell nanoparticles (DTNB attachment on gold nanoparticles, then encapsulated in Ag shell nanoparticles named as ADANPs) and duplex-specific nuclease signal amplification (DSNSA) platform. Firstly, ADANPs and magnetic substrate of Fe3O4 nanoparticles were covalently attached to the 3'- and 5'- end of capture probe (CP) targeting miRNA-21. Upon the addition of target miRNA-21, these heteroduplexes were specifically cleaved by DSN and resulted in ADANPs that were released from the surface of Fe3O4 nanoparticles (Fe3O4 NPs). At the same time, miRNA-21 remained intact and can rehybridize another DNA probe to trigger the signal-amplifying reaction. Based on this principle, the developed SERS method exhibited good linearity in the range 0 to 1 nM for miRNA-21 with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.084 fM and has an ability to differentiate even a single-base mismatched sequence on the target sequence or other miRNA sequence. The results provide a novel SERS method which can successfully been applied to the miRNA-21 detection in human serum. Graphical abstract a shows the synthesis of Fe3O4 NPs and the conjugation of Au@DTNB@Ag NPs (ADANPs) for the detection of miRNA-21, b shows the operating principle of DSN-assisted signal amplification strategy for miRNA detection based on Fe3O4@CP@ADA NPs.

Design and fabrication of a microfluidic chip to detect tumor markers.

A microfluidic chip based on capillary infiltration was designed to detect tumor markers. Serum samples flowed along a microchannel that used capillary force to drive sample injection, biochemical reactions and waste liquid collection. This permitted us to realize rapid qualitative detection of tumor markers and other biological molecules. The chip integrated a number of microfluidic functions including blood plasma separation, microvalve operation, and antibody immobilization. Using antigen-antibody reaction principles, the chip provided highly selective and sensitive detection of markers. Combining a microfluidic chip with immunoassays not only improved the antigen-antibody reaction speed, but also reduced the consumption of samples and reagents. The experimental results showed that the chip can achieve separation of trace whole blood, control of sample flow rate, and detection of alpha fetoprotein, thus providing preliminary verification of its feasibility and potential for clinical use. In summary, in this paper a cheap, mass-produced, and portable microfluidic chip for cancer detection, which has good prospects for practical use during disease diagnosis and screening is reported.

A Novel Solution-auto-introduction Electrophoresis Microchip Based on Capillary Force.

A novel solution-auto-introduction electrophoresis microchip based on capillary force aimed at improving portability is proposed in this paper. Two kinds of materials with micropores, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)-sponge and nano-sponge, were employed as suction pumps that realized the introduction of a running buffer into the reservoirs. The surfaces of the microchannels in the microchips were modified by PVA to improve the moving velocity of the running buffer and the detection performance of the microchip. The introduction velocity of a running buffer in the PVA-coated microchannels was increased by two times compared with that in the native microchannels. The electrophoresis detection performance of several microchips composed of different microchannels and suction materials were evaluated comparatively. The results indicated that the surface coating of PVA can significantly improve the repeatability of the detection results by 20 - 40%, and the noise of the detected signals in the PVA-coated microchips is much lower than that in the native microchips. The proposed solution-auto-introduction electrophoresis microchip is a successful attempt that completely avoids the external connectors to accomplish the auto-introduction of running buffer. The solution-auto-introduction method provides a new train of thought for portable detection instruments with electrophoresis microchips in the future.

Bis{µ-4-chloro-N'-[(E)-1-(5-chloro-2-oxidophen-yl)ethyl-idene]benzohydrazidato}bis-[pyridine-copper(II)].

The crystal structure of the title complex, [Cu(2)(C(15)H(10)Cl(2)N(2)O(2))(2)(C(5)H(5)N)(2)], features centrosymmetric dimers. The Cu(II) ion is penta-coordinated in a quadratic pyramidal mode. The quadratic plane is formed by the O,O',N-tridentate ligand and a pyridine mol-ecule. The fifth coordination site is occupied by the O atom of another ligand showing a significantly longer Cu-O bond.

N'-[(E)-1-(5-Bromo-2-hy-droxy-phen-yl)ethyl-idene]-2-chloro-benzohydrazide.

The title compound, C(15)H(12)BrClN(2)O(2), was synthesized by the condensation of 1-(5-bromo-2-hy-droxy-phen-yl)ethanone with 2-chloro-benzohydrazide in anhydrous ethanol. The Schiff base mol-ecule displays a trans configuration with respect to the C=N double bond. The dihedral angle between the two benzene rings is 13.74 (3)°. The mol-ecular conformation is stabilized by an intra-molecular O-H⋯N and the crystal structure by inter-molecular N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds.

Methyl 2-(p-toluene-sulfonamido)benzoate.

The title compound, C(15)H(15)NO(4)S, was prepared by simple condensation of methyl 2-amino-benzoate and 4-methyl-benzene-sulfonyl chloride. The dihedral angle between the benzene rings is 84.36 (6)°. The mol-ecular structure is stabilized by an intra-molecular N-H⋯O hydrogen-bonding inter-action involving the carbonyl group as acceptor, generating an S(6) graph-set motif.

N'-[(1E)-1-(3,5-Dichloro-2-hy-droxy-phen-yl)propyl-idene]-4-meth-oxy-benzohydrazide monohydrate.

The title compound, C(17)H(16)Cl(2)N(2)O(3)·H(2)O, displays a trans conformation with respect to the C=N double bond. The dihedral angle between the two benzene rings is 30.77 (5)° and there is one intra-molecular N-H⋯O hydrogen bond. In the crystal, mol-ecules are linked by hydrogen bonding to the water molecules of crystallization, which acts as both an acceptor and a donor, into a three-dimensional network.

N'-[(E)-1-(3,5-Dichloro-2-hy-droxy-phen-yl)ethyl-idene]-4-meth-oxy-benzo-hydrazide monohydrate.

The title compound, C(16)H(14)Cl(2)N(2)O(3)·H(2)O, displays a trans conformation with respect to the C=N double bond. The dihedral angle between the two benzene rings is 4.98 (12)°. Intra-molecular O-H⋯N and O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds occur. The crystal structure is stabilized by inter-molecular O-H⋯O and N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds. In addition, there are π-π inter-actions between the chemically distinct benzene rings of inversion-related mol-ecules [centroid-centroid separation = 3.715 (1) Å].

2,4-Dichloro-6-((1R)-1-{[(R)-(2-chloro-phen-yl)(cyclo-pent-yl)meth-yl]amino}eth-yl)phenol.

In the title compound, C(20)H(22)Cl(3)NO, the five-membered ring adopts an envelope conformation, and the two benzene rings are oriented at a dihedral angle of 40.44 (9)°. Intra-molecular O-H⋯N and N-H⋯Cl hydrogen bonding is present. In the crystal, the mol-ecules are linked via weak inter-molecular C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds.

(E,E)-4,4'-Dichloro-2,2'-[azinobis(phenyl-methyl-idyne)]diphenol.

The title compound, C(26)H(18)Cl(2)N(2)O(2), was synthesized by the reaction of (5-chloro-2-hydroxy-phen-yl)(phen-yl)methanone with hydrazine hydrate. The mol-ecule possesses a crystallographically imposed centre of symmetry at the mid-point of the N-N bond. The conformation of the mol-ecule is stabilized by an intra-molecular O-H⋯N hydrogen bond.

N-[(R)-(2-Chloro-phen-yl)(cyclo-pent-yl)meth-yl]-N-[(R)-(2-hydr-oxy-5-methyl-phen-yl)(phen-yl)meth-yl]acetamide.

In the title compound, C(28)H(30)ClNO(2), the cyclo-pentane ring adopts an envelope conformation. In the crystal structure, mol-ecules are linked by inter-molecular O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming chains running along the a axis.

(E,E)-2,5-Bis(5-chloro-2-methoxyphenyl)-3,4-diazahexa-2,4-diene.

The title compound, C(18)H(18)Cl(2)N(2)O(2), was synthesized by the reaction of 1-(5-chloro-2-methoxy-phen-yl)ethanone with hydrazine hydrate. The mol-ecule lies on a crystallographic twofold axis passing through the mid-point of the N-N bond with one half-mol-ecule in the asymmetric unit. The dihedral angle between the two aromatic rings is 44.33 (4)°. In the crystal, inter-molecular C-H⋯O inter-actions link the mol-ecules into columns along the c axis.

N'-[(1E)-1-(5-Chloro-2-hydroxy-phen-yl)propyl-idene]-4-methoxy-benzohydrazide.

The title compound, C(17)H(17)ClN(2)O(3), has a trans conformation about the C=N double bond and an intra-molecular O-H⋯N occurs. The crystal structure is stabilized by inter-molecular N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds.

[The relationship between soil respiration and the temperature at different soil depths in subalpine coniferous forest of western Sichuan Province].

By using closed chamber IRGA technique, a continuous measurement of soil respiration rate was conducted in the subalpine natural coniferous forest mainly composed of Abies faxoniana in the eastern edge of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with the temperature at different soil depths (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 cm) measured simultaneously. Base on the measurements, the quantitative relationships between soil respiration rate and the temperature at different soil depths were explored, and the results showed that the soil respiration rate in the forest had remarkable diurnal and seasonal changes, being the highest at 12:00-14:00 and in August, and the lowest at 8:00-10:00 and in November, which were accorded with the dynamics of soil temperature. Soil respiration rate had a significant exponential correlation with the temperature at different soil depths, and the highest correlation occurred at the soil depth of 15 cm (R2 =0.82, P <0.01). The Q10, value at soil depths of 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 cm was 2. 36, 4.75, 4.90, 6.27 and 5.46, respectively, indicating that the Q10 value of soil respiration tended to be larger at high elevation with low temperature.