Effect of hydrophobic modification of chitin nanocrystals on role as anti-nucleator in the crystallization of poly(ε-caprolactone)/polylactide blend.

Biodegradable polymer blends filled with rod-like polysaccharide nanocrystals have attracted much attention because each component in this type of ternary composites is biodegradable, and the final properties are more easily tailored comparing to those of binary composites. In this work, chitin nanocrystals (ChNCs) were used as nanofiller for the biodegradable poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL)/polylactide (PLA) immiscible blend to prepare ternary composites for a crystallization study. The results revealed that the crystallization behavior of PCL/PLA blend matrices strongly depended on the surface properties of ChNCs. Non-modified ChNCs and modified ChNCs played completely different roles during crystallization of the ternary systems: the former was inert filler, while the latter acted as anti-nucleator to the PCL phase. This alteration was resulted from the improved ChNC-PCL affinity after modification of ChNCs, which was due to the 'interfacial dilution effect' and the preferential dispersion of ChNCs. This work presents a unique perspective on the nucleation role of ChNCs in the crystallization of immiscible PCL/PLA blends, and opens up a new application scenario for ChNCs as anti-nucleator.

Identification of diagnostic gene signatures and molecular mechanisms for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and Alzheimer's disease through machine learning algorithms.

BACKGROUND: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) pose significant global health challenges. Recent studies have suggested a link between these diseases; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study aimed to decode the shared molecular landscapes of NAFLD and AD using bioinformatic approaches. METHODS: We analyzed three datasets for NAFLD and AD from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). This study involved identifying differentially expressed genes (DEGs), using weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), and using machine learning for biomarker discovery. The diagnostic biomarkers were validated using expression analysis, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, and nomogram models. Furthermore, Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) and CIBERSORT were used to investigate molecular pathways and immune cell distributions related to GADD45G and NUPR1. RESULTS: This study identified 14 genes that are common to NAFLD and AD. Machine learning identified six biomarkers for NAFLD, four for AD, and two crucial shared biomarkers: GADD45G and NUPR1. Validation confirmed their expression patterns and robust predictive abilities. GSEA revealed the intricate roles of these biomarkers in disease-associated pathways. Immune cell profiling highlighted the importance of macrophages under these conditions. CONCLUSION: This study highlights GADD45G and NUPR1 as key biomarkers for NAFLD and AD, and provides novel insights into their molecular connections. These findings revealed potential therapeutic targets, particularly in macrophage-mediated pathways, thus enriching our understanding of these complex diseases.

Using bacterial cellulose to bridge covalent and physical crosslinks in hydrogels for fabricating multimodal sensors.

Network optimization is vital for the polysaccharide based hydrogels with multiple crosslinks. In this study, we developed a 'two-step' strategy to activate synergistic effect of chemical and physical crosslinks using a poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/bacterial cellulose (BC) hydrogel as a template. The BC nanofibers, on the one hand, acted as nucleating agents, participating in the crystallization of PVA, and on the other hand, were also involved in the formation of boronic ester bond, anchored with the PVA chains via chemical bonding. Therefore, the existence of BC nanofibers, as 'bridge', linked the crystalline regions and amorphous parts of PVA together, associating the two characteristic crosslinks, which was conducive to load transfer. The mechanical properties of resultant hydrogels, including the tensile elongation and strength, as well as fracture toughness, were significantly improved. Moreover, the dually cross-linked hydrogels possessed ionic conductivity, which was sensitive to the tensile deformation and environmental temperature. This study clarifies a unique role of BC nanofibers in hydrogels, and proposes an effective approach to construct multiple networks in the nanocellulose reinforced PVA hydrogels.

Clinical efficacy of Kuanxiong aerosol for patients with prehospital chest pain: A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Kuanxiong Aerosol (KXA)(CardioVent®), consisting of Asarum sieboldii Miq. oil, Santalum album L. oil, Alpinia officinarum Hance oil, Piper longum L. oil and borneol, seems to relieve the symptoms of chest pain and serve as a supplementary treatment for prehospital chest pain in emergency department. STYLE OF THE STUDY: This randomized controlled trial aimed to determine the clinical effect and safety of KXA for patients with prehospital chest pain. METHODS: A total of 200 patients were recruited from Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine and randomly divided into KXA group (n = 100) and Nitroglycerin Aerosol (NA) group (n = 100) by SAS 9.2 software. All patients were treated with standardized Western medicine according to the pre-hospital procedure. The experimental group and NA group was additionally treated with KXA and NA respectively. The primary outcome was the relieving time of prehospital chest pain (presented as relief rate) after first-time treatment. The secondary outcomes included the evaluation of chest pain (NRS scores, degree of chest pain, frequency of chest pain after first-time treatment), efficacy in follow-up time (the frequency of average aerosol use, emergency department visits, 120 calls, medical observations and hospitalization at 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks), alleviation of chest pain (Seattle angina questionnaire, chest pain occurrence, and degree of chest pain at 12-weeks treatment) and the change of TCM symptoms before and after 12-weeks treatment. In addition, the safety of KXA was also assessed by the occurrence of adverse events. The database was created using Epidata software, and statistical analysis was conducted by SPSS 23.0 software. RESULTS: A total of 194 participants finally completed the trial, the results showed that after first-time treatment, KXA had a higher relief rate (72.2%) of chest pain within 30 min than that of NA group (59.4%, p = 0.038), KXA group had a lower degree of chest pain (p = 0.005), lower NRS score (p = 0.011) and higher reduction of NRS score (p = 0.005) than the NA. In the follow-up period, KXA group decreased the frequency of 120 call better than that of NA group at 4 weeks (p = 0.040), but KXA had a similar efficacy as NA in the improvement on the of frequency of chest pain, aerosol use, emergency department visits, 120 call, medical observation and hospitalization at 4 weeks, 8 weeks and 12 weeks (p>0.05). There also had no difference between the two groups on the occurrence of chest pain, degree of chest pain, physical limitation, angina stability, treatment satisfaction, and disease perception between the two groups at 12 weeks (p>0.05). In addition, KXA and NA both improved the patient's chest pain, but not the TCM symptoms. In terms of safety, KXA showed similar safety as NA in this study. CONCLUSIONS: KXA relieved prehospital chest pain faster than NA and had a better remission effect on the prehospital chest pain than that of the NA group in short-period. In long-period, KXA showed similar efficacy on the improvement of prehospital chest pain as NA. KXA may be a safe and reliable therapy for prehospital chest pain.

Effect of chitin nanocrystals on stereocomplexation of poly(l-lactide)/poly(d-lactide) blends.

Using polysaccharide nanocrystals such as chitin nanocrystals (ChNCs) as nanofiller for biodegradable aliphatic polymers is an attractive way of developing all-degradable nanocomposites. Crystallization study is vital for well regulating final performance of these type polymeric nanocomposites. In this work, ChNCs were incorporated with the poly(l-lactide)/poly(d-lactide) blends and as-obtained nanocomposites were used as target samples for the study. The results showed that ChNCs acted as nucleating agent, promoting the formation of stereocomplex (SC) crystallites and accelerating overall crystallization kinetics as a result. Therefore, the nanocomposites possessed higher SC crystallization temperatures and lower apparent activation energy as compared to the blend. However, the formation of homocrystallites (HC) was dominated by nucleation effect of SC crystallites and accordingly, the fraction of SC crystallites reduced more or less in the presence of ChNCs, despite the nanocomposites possessed higher rate of HC crystallization. This study also provided valuable information on accessing more applications of ChNCs to be used as SC nucleator for polylactide.

Recurrent chronic pancreatitis with intractable pancreatolithiasis.

Due to low incidence rate of pancreatic duct stones，Authoritative consensus has not been reached regarding therapeutic choices in clinical practice. This article reports the treatment of a young woman with chronic pancreatitis complicated with refractory multiple pancreatic duct stones, which provides clinical experience for treatment and provides a new way to study the pathogenesis of chronic pancreatitis complicated with pancreatic duct stones.

Ultrastretchable Composite Organohydrogels with Dual Cross-Links Enabling Multimodal Sensing.

Building multiple cross-links or networks is a favorable way of diversifying applications of the hydrogels, which is also available for the organohydrogels prepared via the solvent replacement way. However, the situations become more complicated for organohydrogels due to the presence of replaced solvents. Therefore, the correlations between the multiple cross-links and final performance need to be better understood for the organohydrogels, which is vital for tailoring their inherent properties to expand final application scenarios. Polyacrylamide (PAM)/poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/MXene composite organohydrogels with dual cross-links, namely, the covalently cross-linked PAM chains as the primary network and the physically cross-linked PVA/PAM chains with MXene particles as the secondary cross-links, were developed here for the study. The occurrence of the secondary cross-links plays multiple roles as sacrificial units endowing the system with ultrastretchability with an excellent strain-resistance effect and as temperature-sensitive units endowing the system with thermosensation ability with an outstanding temperature coefficient of resistance. Thus, the optimized sample can be used as a strain sensor with excellent environmental tolerance for detecting human motion as a pressure sensor to probe compression with weak deformation and as a thermal sensor to capture environmental temperature changes. This work provides valuable information on developing organohydrogels with superior performance for multimodal sensors.

Rhabdomyolysis-associated acute kidney injury: clinical characteristics and intensive care unit transfer analysis.

BACKGROUND: Information on rhabdomyolysis-associated acute kidney injury (AKI) in the emergency department or general ward is limited. AIM: To assess the risk factors, outcomes and clinical correlates with intensive care unit (ICU) transfer of patients with rhabdomyolysis-associated AKI. METHODS: Patients with rhabdomyolysis were divided into the rhabdomyolysis-associated AKI group and the rhabdomyolysis without AKI group. Inhospital outcomes, including ICU transfer, mortality, length of stay, daily cost and renal recovery were analysed. Multivariate regression analysis was performed to identify the association between rhabdomyolysis-associated AKI and ICU transfer. RESULTS: Among 149 patients with rhabdomyolysis, 68 (45.6%) developed AKI. Age and urine protein were important risk factors for incidence of rhabdomyolysis-associated AKI. Patients with rhabdomyolysis-associated AKI had higher levels of undergoing dialysis (19.1% vs 2.5%; P < 0.01), all-cause mortality (13.2% vs 1.2%; P < 0.01), cost of hospitalisation (10.8 1000 yuan, IQR (5.5, 3.5) vs 5.9 1000 yuan, IQR 5.9 (3.6, 9.9); P = 0.03), as well as longer length of hospital stay (8.0 days (5.0, 14.0)) versus (6.0 days (4.0, 11.0); P = 0.02). Additionally, the percentage of patients with AKI who transferred to ICU was higher than patients without AKI (33.8% vs 12.3%; P < 0.002) and rhabdomyolysis-associated AKI was an independent risk factor for ICU transfer (adjusted odds ratio = 2.58; 95% confidence interval, 1.12-6.8, P = 0.03). CONCLUSION: Rhabdomyolysis-associated AKI was common in the emergency department or general ward and led to more severe outcomes. It was also associated with an increased risk of ICU transfer.

Systemic LPS-induced microglial activation results in increased GABAergic tone: A mechanism of protection against neuroinflammation in the medial prefrontal cortex in mice.

Neuroinflammation with excess microglial activation and synaptic dysfunction are early symptoms of most neurological diseases. However, how microglia-associated neuroinflammation regulates synaptic activity remains obscure. We report here that acute neuroinflammation induced by intraperitoneal injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) results in cell-type-specific increases in inhibitory postsynaptic currents in the glutamatergic, but not the GABAergic, neurons of medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), coinciding with excessive microglial activation. LPS causes upregulation in levels of GABAAR subunits, glutamine synthetase and vesicular GABA transporter, and downregulation in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and its receptor, pTrkB. Blockage of microglial activation by minocycline ameliorates LPS-induced abnormal expression of GABA signaling-related proteins and activity of synaptic and network. Moreover, minocycline prevents the mice from LPS-induced aberrant behavior, such as a reduction in total distance and time spent in the centre in the open field test; decreases in entries into the open arm of elevated-plus maze and in consumption of sucrose; increased immobility in the tail suspension test. Furthermore, upregulation of GABA signaling by tiagabine also prevents LPS-induced microglial activation and aberrant behavior. This study illustrates a mode of bidirectional constitutive signaling between the neural and immune compartments of the brain, and suggests that the mPFC is an important area for brain-immune system communication. Moreover, the present study highlights GABAergic signaling as a key therapeutic target for mitigating neuroinflammation-induced abnormal synaptic activity in the mPFC, together with the associated behavioral abnormalities.

Two new species and a new combination from Zhejiang, East China.

As the supplement of the flora of Zhejiang, East China, two new species were described with illustrations. Cerastiumhuadingense Y.F.Lu, W.Y.Xie & X.F.Jin (Caryophyllaceae) differs from C.qingliangfengicum in having sterile stems absent, leaves sessile, petals slightly longer than sepals, and stamens slightly shorter than sepals. Ixeridiumdimorphifolium Y.L.Xu, Y.F.Lu & X.Cai (Asteraceae) differs from I.beauverdianum in having plant stoloniferous, basal leaves dimorphic, involucre 8‒10 mm long, inner phyllaries 8, and florets 7‒10. Paraphlomissetulosa C.Y.Wu & H.W.Li (Lamiaceae) was reviewed and morphological characters of the corolla and stamens of its type and the specimens collected in the field survey were critically examined. With barbate anthers and strongly divergent anther cells, Paraphlomissetulosa was transferred to Sinopogonanthera, and S.setulosa (C.Y.Wu & H.W.Li) H.W.Zhang & X.F.Jin was consequently combined.

Pickering emulsion stabilized with fibrous nanocelluloses: Insight into fiber flexibility-emulsifying capacity relations.

Three types of nanocelluloses, including bacterial cellulose (BC), cellulose nanofiber (CNF) and cellulose nanocrystal (CNC), were used to prepare oil-in-water Pickering emulsions with the objective to disclose the effect of fiber flexibility on emulsification. In aqueous suspensions, the shortest CNC is rigid, while the longest BC fully flexible, which result in large difference in their dilute-to-semi-dilute concentrations, and in the rheological percolations. Thus, these cellulosic nanofibers play different roles during emulsification. Flexible BC nearly has no emulsifying capacity, whereas semi-flexible CNF and rigid CNC can be well used to stabilize emulsions. For the CNF-stabilized system, depletion effect is dominant, leading to the formation of droplet clusters easily, while for the CNC-stabilized one, repulsive effect plays more important role. Visible evidence regarding relaxation of long-term structure of droplets is further disclosed by dynamic rheology. This work proposes interesting views around tailoring morphology and viscoelasticity of Pickering emulsions by regulating fiber flexibility.

Didymocarpus lobulatus (Gesneriaceae), a new species from Zhejiang Province, East China.

Didymocarpus lobulatus, a new species endemic to Zhejiang province, eastern China, is described and illustrated with photographs. The new species is morphologically similar to D. heucherifolius, D. cortusifolius and D. salviiflorus in leaf morphology, but can be easily distinguished by a combination of characters, including the shape of bracts, calyx and calyx lobes.

Cellulose nanofibers reinforced biodegradable polyester blends: Ternary biocomposites with balanced mechanical properties.

Blending two biodegradable aliphatic polyesters with complementary bulk properties is an easy way of tuning their final properties. In this work, the ductile poly(butylene succinate) was mixed with polylactide, and as expectable, the blends show improved toughness with sharply reduced strengths. The pristine cellulose nanofibers were then used as the reinforcement for the blends. It is found that most nanofibers are dispersed in the polylactide phase because polylactide has better affinity to nanofibers, and the lower viscosity level of polylactide also favors driving nanofibers into the continuous polylactide phase during melting mixing. In this case, the strength and rigidity losses resulted from the presence of soft poly(butylene succinate) phase are compensated to some extent. To further improve mechanical properties, a two-step approach (reactive processing of blends, followed by the incorporation with nanofibers) was developed. This work provides an interesting way of fabricating fully biodegradable composites with well-balanced mechanical performance.

Viscoelasticity of olive oil/water Pickering emulsions stabilized with starch nanocrystals.

The olive oil-in-water Pickering emulsions stabilized with starch nanocrystal (SNC) were prepared for the morphological and rheological studies. Different kinds of shear flows were applied and the viscoelastic responses of emulsions were detected in terms of SNC concentrations (0.2-2.0 wt%) and surface acetylation levels (0.11-0.41° of substitution). The results show that the emulsifying capacity of SNC is improved evidently after surface acetylation due to decreased surface hydrophilicity of SNC and to enhanced electrostatic repulsive effect during emulsification, which is evidenced by the gelation behavior in small amplitude oscillatory shear (SAOS) flow. The modulus and viscosity of the emulsion with acetylated SNC increase by about two orders of magnitude as compared to those of the emulsion with pristine one. The former even shows weak overshoot behavior during large amplitude oscillatory shear (LAOS) flow. This work provides valuable information on motivating development of the Pickering emulsions using SNC as particle emulsifier.

Rheological properties of magnetorheological suspensions stabilized with nanocelluloses.

Two kinds of anisotropic cellulosic nanoparticles, cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) and nanofiber (CNF), were used as additives for the aqueous carbonyl iron particles (CIPs) based magnetorheological (MR) fluids, aiming at disclosing effect of nanocelluloses on the magneto-responsive behavior and stability of MR fluids. Both CNC and CNF can stabilize MR fluids, and improve their sensitivity to alterations of magnetic field strengths. Relative to electrostatic repulsion, physical hindrance is more important to the stability improvement. Thus, CNF is the better option because it has higher aspect ratio and surface charge. Moreover, the presence of cellulosic nanoparticles hinders coalescence of CIP chains to stronger columns, and hence the nanoparticles stabilized MR fluids show thixotropy evidently. At the comparative concentration (0.3 wt%), the presence of CNF even enhances the magneto-responsive levels because the percolated CNF network acts as stress amplifier. This work opens up a new door for applications of nanocelluloses in MR fluids.

pH-regulated thermo-driven nanofluidics for nanoconfined mass transport and energy conversion.

Bioinspired nanochannels whose functions are similar to those of the biological prototypes attract increasing attention due to their potential applications in signal transmission, mass transport, energy conversion, etc. Up to now, however, it is still a challenge to extract low-grade waste heat from the ambient environment in an aqueous solution. Herein, a thermo-driven nanofluidic system was developed to extract low-grade waste heat efficiently based on directed ionic transport at a micro-/nanoscale. A steady streaming current increases linearly with the temperature gradient, achieving as high as 14 nA at a temperature gradient of 47.5 °C (δT = 47.5 °C) through a 0.5 cm2 porous membrane (106 cm-2). And an unexpected theoretical power of 25.48 pW using a single nanochannel at a temperature difference of 40 °C has been achieved. This bioinspired multifunctional system broadens thermal energy recovery and will accelerate the evolution of nanoconfined mass transport for practical applications.

Selective localization of starch nanocrystals in the biodegradable nanocomposites probed by crystallization temperatures.

Starch nanocrystal (SNC), was used as the third component to prepare nanocomposites with biodegradable poly(ß-hydroxybutyrate)/poly(butylene succinate) (PHB/PBS) blend. The results reveal that SNC shows strong nucleation to the two matrix polymers. However, the crystallization temperature of PHB is highly dependent on the SNC loadings, whereas that of PBS not. This is because SNCs have preferential localization in the immiscible matrix polymers: mainly dispersed in the continuous PHB phase and on PHB/PBS phase interfaces. Therefore, alteration trend of crystallization temperatures can be used as good probe to evaluate selective localization of SNCs in the immiscible blends containing two semicrystalline polymers. The nucleation activities of SNCs, and their interaction energy densities in the two polyesters, as well as the tensile behaviors of ternary nanocomposites, were then detected, aiming at establishing a simple route to prepare green nanocomposites with tailorable multi-phase morphology and balanced mechanical properties using starch and biodegradable aliphatic polyester blends.

[Analysis on regional homogeneity of resting brain during balance acupuncture-induced analgesic effect in migraine patients without aura].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the relationship between the analgesic effect of balance acupuncture and functional changes in brain in patients with migraine without aura. METHODS: A total of 40 cases of migraine without aura were equally randomized into a headache-acupoint group and a sham-acupoint group. When acupuncture given, a filiform needle was inserted into the headache-acupoint (the midpoint of the depression region anterior to the juncture of the first and second metatarsal bones on the dorsum of the foot) or the sham point (the midpoint of the depression region anterior to the juncture site between the 3rd and 4th metatarsal joints of the dorsum of the foot) about 25-40 mm deep and manipulated for a while till the patient experienced feelings of electric shock and numbness, then withdrawn immediately. The treatment was conducted once daily for 4 weeks. The visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to evaluate the severity of pain, and the regional homogeneity (ReHo) analysis of resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to assess changes of the spontaneous brain activity. RESULTS: After acupuncture, the analgesic effect of headache-acupoint was better than that of the sham-acupoint in both intervention stage and the follow-up stage (P< 0.05), and was also stronger in the intervention stage than in the follow-up stage (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the analgesic effect between the intervention stage and the follow-up stage in the sham-acupoint group (P>0.05). Compared with pre-intervention, 4-weeks' intervention at the headache-acupoint showed an increase of ReHo values in the anterior cingulate gyrus, anterior central gyrus, superior orbital frontal gyrus, insula, inferior lobule, left anterior cingulate gyrus, ventral lateral nucleus and ventral posteromedial nucleus of the thalamus, pontine nucleus, cerebellar tonsils and orbital frontal inferior gyrus of the brain (P<0.05), and a decrease of ReHo values in the right brain bridge, central posterior gyrus, posterior cingulate gyrus, left central anterior gyrus, posterolateral nucleus of thalamus, and hippocampus (P<0.05), separately. In the sham-acupoint group, the ReHo value was increased in the right tongue gyrus, the left anterior lobe, the anterior cingulate gyrus and the lower occipital gyrus of the brain (P<0.05), and reduced in the left ventral posterolateral nucleus of the thalamus, separately (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Balance acupuncture stimulation of headache acupoint has an analgesic effect in migraine patients without aura, which may be related to its effect in regulating resting state brain function of the limbic-system-dominated multiple brain regions.

Specific purification of a single protein from a cell broth mixture using molecularly imprinted membranes for the biopharmaceutical industry.

A surface imprinting method is presented herein for the development of a highly selective yet highly permeable molecularly imprinted membrane for protein separation and purification. The resultant protein imprinted membrane was shown to exhibit great potential for the efficient separation of the template protein from a binary mixture and a cell lysate solution, while maintaining high transport flux for complementary molecules. Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) and Lysozyme (Lys) were individually immobilized on a cellulose acetate membrane as template molecules. In situ surface crosslinking polymerization was then used for protein imprinting on the membrane for a controlled duration. Both membranes showed high adsorption capacity towards template proteins in the competitive batch rebinding tests. In addition, the adsorption capacity could be greatly enhanced in a continuous permeation procedure, where the resultant membrane specifically adsorbed the template protein for more than 40 h. Moreover, this is the first report of purification of a specific protein from the cell broth mixture using a molecularly imprinted membrane. The protein imprinted membrane enables the transport of multiple non-template proteins with high permeation rate in a complex system, thus opening the way for high efficiency protein separation at a low cost for the industry.