Effects of adenosine on brain metastasis of lung cancer and its possible mechanism / 临床与实验病理学杂志

Purpose To clarify the effect of adenosine on brain metastasis of lung cancer and the possible mechanism of adenosine promoting brain metastasis of lung cancer. Methods Western blot was used to dynamically detect the expression level of hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) in lung cancer cells and tight junction protein ZO-1 in brain microvascular endothelial cells on blood-brain barrier. The content of adenosine in lung cancer cell culture was determined by ELISA. Fluorescence analysis was used to detect the changes of permeability of the blood-brain barrier model in vitro. Hemocytometer counts the number of A549 lung cancer cells in Transwell's lower chamber. Results The expression level of HIF-1 in lung cancer cells and the content of adenosine in lung cancer cell culture reached the highest level when lung cancer cells were deprived of oxygen for 12 hours. At the same time, the expression level of ZO-1 protein in the blood-brain barrier was the lowest, the blood-brain barrier permeability was the highest (7.11), and the number of lung cancer cells passing through the blood-brain barrier model was the highest (84.6). The permeability of the blood-brain barrier model increased after the action of adenosine, and its change trend was consistent with the effect of hypoxic lung cancer cell culture solution. Conclusion Hypoxia can induce the lung cancer cell to release adenosine, the increased adenosine can reduce the expression of tight junction protein ZO-1 in blood brain barrier, which leads to the increase of permeability of blood-brain barrier and eventually lead to brain metastasis of lung cancer.

ReaxFF molecular dynamics simulations of oxidation of toluene at high temperatures.

Aromatic hydrocarbon fuels, such as toluene, are important components in real jet fuels. In this work, reactive molecular dynamics (MD) simulations employing the ReaxFF reactive force field have been performed to study the high-temperature oxidation mechanisms of toluene at different temperatures and densities with equivalence ratios ranging from 0.5 to 2.0. From the ReaxFF MD simulations, we have found that the initiation consumption of toluene is mainly through three ways, (1) the hydrogen abstraction reactions by oxygen molecules or other small radicals to form the benzyl radical, (2) the cleavage of the C-H bond to form benzyl and hydrogen radicals, and (3) the cleavage of the C-C bond to form phenyl and methyl radicals. These basic reaction mechanisms are in good agreement with available chemical kinetic models. The temperatures and densities have composite effects on toluene oxidation; concerning the effect of the equivalence ratio, the oxidation reaction rate is found to decrease with the increasing of equivalence ratio. The analysis of the initiation reaction of toluene shows that the hydrogen abstraction reaction dominates the initial reaction stage at low equivalence ratio (0.5-1.0), while the contribution from the pyrolysis reaction increases significantly as the equivalence ratio increases to 2.0. The apparent activation energies, E(a), for combustion of toluene extracted from ReaxFF MD simulations are consistent with experimental results.

Effects of fuel additives on the thermal cracking of n-decane from reactive molecular dynamics.

Thermal cracking of n-decane and n-decane in the presence of several fuel additives are studied in order to improve the rate of thermal cracking by using reactive molecular dynamics (MD) simulations employing the ReaxFF reactive force field. From MD simulations, we find the initiation mechanisms of pyrolysis of n-decane are mainly through two pathways: (1) the cleavage of a C-C bond to form smaller hydrocarbon radicals, and (2) the dehydrogenation reaction to form an H radical and the corresponding decyl radical. Another pathway is the H-abstraction reactions by small radicals including H, CH(3), and C(2)H(5). The basic reaction mechanisms are in good agreement with existing chemical kinetic models of thermal decomposition of n-decane. Quantum mechanical calculations of reaction enthalpies demonstrate that the H-abstraction channel is easier compared with the direct C-C or C-H bond-breaking in n-decane. The thermal cracking of n-decane with several additives is further investigated. ReaxFF MD simulations lead to reasonable Arrhenius parameters compared with experimental results based on first-order kinetic analysis. The different chemical structures of the fuel additives greatly affect the apparent activation energy and pre-exponential factors. The presence of diethyl ether (DEE), methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), 1-nitropropane (NP), 3,6,9-triethyl-3,6,9-trimethyl-1,2,4,5,7,8-hexaoxonane (TEMPO), triethylamine (TEA), and diacetonediperodixe (DADP) exhibit remarkable promoting effect on the thermal cracking rates, compared with that of pure n-decane, in the following order: NP > TEMPO > DADP > DEE (∼MTBE) > TEA, which coincides with experimental results. These results demonstrate that reactive MD simulations can be used to screen for fuel additives and provide useful information for more comprehensive chemical kinetic model studies at the molecular level.

Multichannel photoinduced intramolecular electron-transfer excitations in a bis-naphthalimide spermine conjugate by time-dependent density functional theory.

Density functional theory was applied to the investigation of photoinduced electron transfer (ET) and the absorption spectrum for a bis-naphthalimide spermine conjugate. The multichannel feature of ET excitation in this system was focused on because four groups may act as electron donors and acceptors. The segment in this conjugate, N-(N-methylpropyl)-1,8-naphthalimide, which contains one donor and acceptor pair, was studied at first. Through theoretical calculation, the absorption band at 340 nm was assigned to the pi-->pi* transition. For the whole system involving four chromophores, this work suggested three types of ET. From the theoretical investigation, the naphthalimide radical anion turned out to be formed via intramolecular ET between the two terminal naphthalimide groups, rather than via the electron transfer between the dialkylamine moiety and the naphthalimide one. Furthermore, the electronic coupling matrix elements according to the generalized Mulliken-Hush theory were estimated and the detailed analyses showed that the strongest absorption was due to the local excitation of the naphthalimide chromophore.

Protective effects of local heat preconditioning on hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury / 中国应用生理学杂志

<p><b>AIM</b>To study the protective mechanism of HSP70 induced by the heat stress pretreatment on the hepatic ischemia/ reperfusion (I/R) injury.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>To establish the models of the hepatic ischemia/ reperfusion injury using pringle's maneuver with or without heat stress pretreatment. The rats were randomly divided into pretreatment group (HP + I/R) and non-pretreatment group (I/R), in which the expression of HSP70, the MDA contents and SOD activity in liver, the activities of serum AST and ALT, and the pathological changes in liver were detected at 0, 4, 8, 12 and 24 h after I/R.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>At any time point set after I/R, the SOD activity in the liver in HP + I/R group were higher than those in IR group, HSP70 expression maximum was attained at 12 h after heat pre-treatment. While in HP+ I/R group the levels of liver enzymes and the production of MDA significantly reduced and the pathological changes improved compared with those in I/R group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>HSP70 induced by heat pretreated protecting liver against I/R injury may be through increasing the SOD content and then reducing the insults of oxygen free radicals in the liver.</p>