Chemical substances and their activities in sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus: A review.

Apostichopus japonicus, also known as Stichopus japonicus, with medicinal and food homologous figures, is a globally recognized precious ingredient with extremely high nutritional value. There is no relevant review available through literature search, so this article selects the research articles through the keywords "sea cucumber" and "Apostichopus japonicus (Stichopus japonicus)" in six professional databases, such as Wiley, PubMed, ScienceDirect, ACS, Springer, and Web of Science, from 2000 to the present, summarizing the extraction, isolation, and purification methods for the four major categories (polysaccharides, proteins and peptides, saponins, and other components) of the A. japonicus chemical substances and 10 effective biological activities of A. japonicus. Included are anticoagulation, anticancer/antitumor activities, hematopoiesis, regulation of gut microbiota, and immune regulatory activities that correspond to traditional efficacy. Literature support is provided for the development of medicines and functional foods and related aspects that play a leading role in future directions.

Efficient Surfactant-Mediated Photovoltaic Manipulation of fL-Scale Aqueous Microdroplets for Diverse Optofluidic Applications on LiNbO3 Platform.

The electrodeless biocompatible manipulation of femtoliter-scale aqueous microdroplets remains challenging. The appropriate isolation of electrostatic charges from femtoliter-scale aqueous microdroplets is crucial for electrodeless optoelectronic manipulation based on space-charge-density modulation. Here, surfactant-mediated photovoltaic manipulation is proposed, where the surfactant layers self-assembled at the water-oil and oil-Lithium niobate interfaces are employed to isolate photovoltaic charges. The reduced electrostatic attenuation, remarkable hydrophobicity, and strong electrical breakdown suppression of the surfactant layers enable the stable and swift manipulation of femtoliter-scale aqueous microdroplets using µW-level laser in oil media. By virtue of the surfactant-mediated photovoltaic manipulation, a controllable merging/touching/detaching switch of aqueous microdroplets by adjusting the laser illumination intensity and position is realized and the cascading biochemical operations and microreactions of aqueous microdroplets and microdroplet strings are demonstrated. To demonstrate its potential in photonic Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System assemblies, the end coupling of a focused-laser-beam into a ZnO microrod leveraging the refraction effect occurring at the water/oil interface is demonstrated. Moreover, because of the selective permeability of the droplet-interface-bilayer developed between the touching microdroplets, in situ adjustment of the size of the microdroplets and the fluorescent solute contained in the microdroplets are achieved, aiming at constructing multicomponent fluorescent microdroplets with tunable whispering-gallery-mode characteristics.

Dielectrophoresis-electrophoresis transition during the photovoltaic manipulation of water microdroplets on LiNbO3:Fe platform.

The abrupt behaviors of microdroplets during the LN-based photovoltaic manipulation may cause the transient instability and even failure of the microfluidic manipulation. In this paper, we perform a systematical analysis on the responses of water microdroplets to laser illumination on both naked and PTFE-coated LN:Fe surface, and find that the abrupt repulsive behaviors of the microdroplets are due to the electrostatic transition from the dielectrophoresis (DEP) to electrophoresis (EP) mechanism. Charging of the water microdroplets through the Rayleigh jetting from electrified water/oil interface is suggested as the cause of the DEP-EP transition. Fitting the kinetic data of the microdroplets to the models describing the motion of the microdroplets under the photovoltaic field yields the charging amount depending on the substrate configuration (∼1.7 × 10-11 and 3.9 × 10-12 C on the naked and PTFE-coated LN:Fe substrates), and also reveals the dominance of the EP mechanism in the co-existence of the DEP and EP mechanisms. The outcome of this paper will be quite important to the practicalization of the photovoltaic manipulation in LN-based optofluidic chips.

Study on HPLC Fingerprint, Network Pharmacology, and Antifungal Activity of Rumex japonicus Houtt.

BACKGROUND: Rumex japonicus Houtt (R. japonicus) is used mainly to treat various skin diseases in Southeast Asia. However, there are few studies on its quality evaluation methods and antifungal activity. OBJECTIVE: To establish the quality control criteria for the effective parts from R. japonicus against psoriasis. METHODS: High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was established for its fingerprint, and the similarity evaluation, cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA) were used to reveal the differences of those fingerprints among the tested R. japonicus. Network pharmacology analyzed the relationship between the components and psoriasis, revealing the potential targets of R. japonicus. Oxford cup anti-C. albicans experiment was used to verify the antifungal activity of R. japonicus. RESULTS: HPLC was developed for the R. japonicus fingerprint by optimizing for 10 batches of quinquennial R. japonicus from different habitats; the 18 common peaks were identified with 10 characteristic peaks such as rutin, quercetin, aloe-emodin, nepodin, emodin, musizin-8-O-ß-D-glucoside, chrysophanol, emodin-8-O-ß-D-glucopyranoside, chrysophanol-8-O-ß-D-glucopyranoside, and aloin, respectively. The network pharmacology-based analysis showed a high correlation between R. japonicus and psoriasis, revealing the potential targets of R. japonicus. The oxford cup anti-Candida albicans experiment displayed a significant activity response to emodin-8-O-ß-D-glucopyranoside and the ethyl acetate fraction of R. japonicus acidic aqueous extract. CONCLUSIONS: A new and optimized HPLC method was created, and the research provides an experimental basis for the development of effective drugs related to C. albicans. HIGHLIGHTS: The fingerprint of R. japonicus was organically combined with network pharmacology to further clarify its criteria for quality control.

3D Photovoltaic Router of Water Microdroplets Aiming at Free-Space Microfluidic Transportation.

So far, microfluidic navigation based on space-charge modulation is limited in a two-dimensional (2D) substrate plane. In this paper, a three-dimensional (3D) photovoltaic water-microdroplet router based on a superhydrophobic LiNbO3:Fe crystal is reported. This router employs the repulsive electrostatic force induced by the positive photovoltaic charges generated under focused laser illumination and permits traveling microdroplets to be routed in both in-plane and out-of-plane ways. By analyzing the dynamic process of microdroplet routing, it is found that the microdroplets can gain positive charges through traveling on a superhydrophobic surface and that the positive photovoltaic charges exert an electrophoretic (EP) force on the microdroplets being charged and make them either routed inside the 2D substrate plane or jump out of the 2D plane through electrostatic ballistic ejection. The laser-illumination and microdroplet-size dependence of the deflecting parameters of the in-plane microdroplet routing as well as the jumping trajectory of the out-of-plane routing are investigated. An electrostatic kinetic model is established for both routing ways, and the simulation based on this model predicts well the experimental dependence. A few examples of cascaded free-space microfluidic transportation using the 3D photovoltaic router are demonstrated, showing the potential of this technique in future biological applications.

Hydrophobic-substrate based water-microdroplet manipulation through the long-range photovoltaic interaction from a distant LiNbO3:Fe crystal.

Development of photovoltaic water-microdroplet manipulation using LN:Fe crystals has to meet the requirement of the hybrid and heating-avoided design of biological lab-on-chips. To fulfill this, we demonstrate a successful manipulation of a water microdroplet on a hydrophobic substrate by utilizing the long-range photovoltaic interaction from a distant LN:Fe crystal (see Visualization 1). The maximal manipulation distance (MMD) is found to be dependent on the laser-illumination intensity at the LN:Fe crystal and it can be tuned up to a sub-centimeter level (∼4 mm). Basing on the two-center model of light-induced charge transport in the LN:Fe crystal, we establish an analytic model to describe the force balance during the microdroplet manipulation under a long-range photovoltaic interaction. Either shortening the manipulation distance or increasing the illumination intensity can enhance the photovoltaic interaction and increase the velocity of the microdroplet being manipulated. An abrupt shape change followed by a fast repelling movement of the water microdroplet is observed under a strong photovoltaic interaction (see Visualization 2).

Photovoltaic splitting of water microdroplets on a y-cut LiNbO3:Fe crystal coated with oil-infused hydrophobic insulating layers.

We demonstrate the successful photovoltaic splitting of water microdroplets on a $y$y-cut ${{\rm LiNbO}_3}:{\rm Fe}$LiNbO3:Fe substrate coated with an oil-infused hydrophobic layer. The temporal evolution of the microdroplet contact angle upon a central illumination and the distinct behaviors of two sub-droplets during a following boundary illumination reveal that both electrowetting and electroosmotic effects induced by the dipolar photovoltaic potential on the substrate contribute to the water microdroplet splitting. The reciprocal relationship between the splitting time and the illumination intensity verifies the inherent photovoltaic nature of the water microdroplet splitting. The splitting time is found to be linearly dependent on the initial microdroplet size. These points are quite important to the practicalization of lithium niobate (LN)-based microfluidic chips in the biological field.

The long-term efficacy of one-shot neoadjuvant intra-arterial chemotherapy combined with radical cystectomy versus radical cystectomy alone for bladder cancer: a propensity-score matching study.

BACKGROUND: Bladder cancer is a complex disease associated with high morbidity and mortality. Management of bladder cancer before radical cystectomy continues to be controversial. We compared the long-term efficacy of one-shot neoadjuvant intra-arterial chemotherapy (IAC) versus no IAC (NIAC) before radical cystectomy (RC) for bladder cancer. METHODS: We performed a retrospective review of patients who underwent either one-shot IAC or NIAC before RC between October 2006 and November 2015. A propensity-score matching (1:3) was performed based on key characters. The Kaplan-Meier method was utilized to estimate survival probabilities, and the log-rank test was used to compare survival outcomes between different groups. A multivariable Cox proportional hazard model was used to estimate survival outcomes. RESULTS: Twenty-six patients were treated using IAC before RC, and 123 NIAC patients also underwent RC. After matching, there was no significant difference between groups in baseline characteristics, perioperative variables, complication outcomes or tumor characteristics. Compared with clinical tumor stages, pathological tumor stages demonstrated a significant decrease (P = 0.002) in the IAC group. There was no significant difference in overall survival (OS, p = 0.354) or cancer-specific survival (CSS, p = 0.439) between the groups. Among all patients, BMI significantly affected OS (p = 0.004), and positive lymph nodes (PLN) significantly affected both OS (p<0.001) and CSS (p = 0.010). CONCLUSIONS: One-shot neoadjuvant IAC before RC shows safety and tolerability and provides a significant advantage in pathological downstaging but not in OS or CSS. Further study of neoadjuvant combination therapeutic strategies with RC is needed.