Convoluted micellar morphological transitions driven by tailorable mesogenic ordering effect from discotic mesogen-containing block copolymer.

Solution-state self-assemblies of block copolymers to form nanostructures are tremendously attractive for their tailorable morphologies and functionalities. While incorporating moieties with strong ordering effects may introduce highly orientational control over the molecular packing and dictate assembly behaviors, subtle and delicate driving forces can yield slower kinetics to reveal manifold metastable morphologies. Herein, we report the unusually convoluted self-assembly behaviors of a liquid crystalline block copolymer bearing triphenylene discotic mesogens. They undergo unusual multiple morphological transitions spontaneously, driven by their intrinsic subtle liquid crystalline ordering effect. Meanwhile, liquid crystalline orderedness can also be built very quickly by doping the mesogens with small-molecule dopants, and the morphological transitions are dramatically accelerated and various exotic micelles are produced. Surprisingly, with high doping levels, the self-assembly mechanism of this block copolymer is completely changed from intramolecular chain shuffling and rearrangement to nucleation-growth mode, based on which self-seeding experiments can be conducted to produce highly uniform fibrils.

Natural aporphine alkaloids: A comprehensive review of phytochemistry, pharmacokinetics, anticancer activities, and clinical application.

BACKGROUND: Cancer is the most common cause of death and is still a serious public health problem. Alkaloids, a class of bioactive compounds widely diffused in plants, especially Chinese herbs, are used as functional ingredients, precursors, and lead compounds in food and clinical applications. Among them, aporphine alkaloids (AAs), as an important class of isoquinoline alkaloids, exert a strong anticancer effect on multiple cancer types. AIM OF REVIEW: This review aims to comprehensively summarize the phytochemistry, pharmacokinetics, and bioavailability of seven subtypes of AAs and their derivatives from various plants and highlight their anticancer bioactivities and mechanisms of action. Key Scientific Concepts of Review. The chemical structures and botanical diversity of AAs are elucidated, and promising results are highlighted regarding the potent anticancer activities of AAs and their derivatives, contributing to their pharmacological benefits. This work provides a better understanding of AAs and combinational anticancer therapies involving them, thereby improving the development of functional food containing plant-derived AA and the clinical application of AAs.

Self-sorting assembly of artificial building blocks.

Self-assembly to build high-level structures, which is ubiquitous in living systems, has captured the imagination of scientists, striving to emulate the intricacy, homogeneity and versatility of the naturally occurring systems, and to pursue a similar level of organization in artificial building blocks. In particular, self-sorting assembly in multicomponent systems, based on the spontaneous recognition and consequent spatial aggregation of the same or interactive building units, is able to realize very complicated assembly behaviours, and usually results in multiple well-ordered products or hierarchical structures in a one-step manner. This highly efficient assembly strategy has attracted tremendous research attention in recent years, and numerous examples have been reported in artificial systems, particularly with supramolecular and polymeric building blocks. In the current review, we summarize the progress in recent years, and classify them into five main categories, based on their working mechanisms or principles. With the review of these strategies, we hope to provide not only some deep insights into this field, but also and more importantly, useful thoughts in the design and fabrication of self-sorting systems in the future.

Density-Dependent Emission Colors from a Conformation-Switching Chromophore in Polyurethanes.

Achieving full-color emission from a single chromophore is not only highly desirable from practical considerations, but also greatly challenging for fundamental research. Herein, we demonstrated the density-dependent emission colors from a single boron-containing chromophore, from which multi-color fluorescent polyurethanes were prepared as well. Originating from its switchable molecular conformations, the emission color of the chromophore was found to be governed by the packing density and strongly influenced by hydrogen bonding interactions. The chromophore was incorporated into polyurethanes to achieve full-color emitting materials; the emission color was only dependent on the chromophore density and could be tuned via synthetic approach by controlling the compositions. The emission colors could also be modulated by physical approaches, including by swelling/deswelling process, compression under high pressure, and even blending the fluorescent polyurethane with non-emitting ones.

Chemical characterization and comparison of two chestnut rose cultivars from different regions.

Chestnut rose (Rosa roxburghii Tratt.) is a native fruit in China, rich in bioactive compounds. Chemical properties and bioactive compounds in the largest two cultivars (Gui Nong No. 5 and Golden Cili) of chestnut rose from different regions were analyzed and compared. Meanwhile, catechin, quercetin, myricetin, kaempferol, ellagic acid and ellagic acid glucuronide were identified. By comparison, Guinong No. 5 showed higher SOD actitviy (5,687.67-5,797.48 U/g), ascorbic acid (1.38-1.47 g/100 g), catechin (971.67-1405.75 mg/100 g) and myricetin (851.32-876.32 mg/100 g), antioxidant capacity, while Golden Cili was characterized with higher total flavnoids (263.30-278.63 mg/100 g), ß-carotene (747.31-859.21 µg/100 g) and zeaxanthin (186.03-268.78 µg/100 g), glucose (10.32-12.03 g/100 g) and arabinose (3.22-3.43 g/100 g), tartaric acid (0.20-0.52 g/100 g), quercetin (1,034.63-1,411.08 mg/100 g). The principal components analysis method can be used to separate two cultivars well and partial least squares discrimination analysis method can be used to distinguish different planting regions well.

miR-451a is downregulated and targets PSMB8 in prostate cancer.

Abnormal expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) is frequently occurred in prostate cancer (PCa). This study was aimed to investigate the biological roles of miR-451a in PCa. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western blot were employed to investigate the expression levels of miR-451a and proteasome (prosome, macropain) subunit, beta type, 8 (PSMB8) in PCa cell lines. Luciferase activity reporter assay was used to verify the connection between miR-451a and PSMB8. in vitro functional experiments were performed to measure the effects of miR-451a or PSMB8 on PCa cell proliferation, colony formation ability, cell invasion, and cell apoptosis. miR-451a expression was downregulated, whereas PSMB8 expression was upregulated in PCa cell lines. Luciferase activity reporter assay confirmed the direct connection between miR-451a and PSMB8. Overexpression of miR-451a inhibits PCa cell proliferation, colony formation, cell invasion and promotes cell apoptosis, while the overexpression of PSMB8 caused the opposite effects. Moreover, rescue experiments confirmed PSMB8 was a functional target of miR-451a. In conclusion, this study provides novel insights into the role of miR-451a in PCa, and the results demonstrated miR-451a could inhibit PCa progression by targeting PSMB8.

Transcriptome analysis of three cultivars of Poria cocos reveals genes related to the biosynthesis of polysaccharides.

Poria cocos (P. cocos) polysaccharides (PCPs) are used to improve immunity and possess antitumor activities. We compared three cultivars of P. cocos (5.78, XJ 28 and JHYH) PCP contents. Then we determined that malZ, galA, SORD, gnl and bglX are key enzymes within the PCP biosynthetic pathway by using HiSeq2500 transcriptome and qRT-PCR validation. Our results provide more detailed information about the PCP biosynthesis pathway at the molecular level in P. cocos and establish the functions for the molecular breeding to produce polysaccharides in general for therapeutic use in Chinese medicinal plants.

Effects of probucol on atherosclerotic plaque and soluble thrombomodulin in patients with coronary heart disease.

This study explored the effects of probucol on atherosclerotic plaques and soluble thrombomodulin in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). Five hundred and eighty-three patients with CHD who were admitted to Jining First People's Hospital from February 2013 to February 2014. A total of 300 of them received conventional treatment, and were assigned to the control group, while the remaining 283 patients were treated with probucol in addition to the conventional treatment, and were assigned to the observation group. A retrospective analysis was performed on the total cholesterol levels, atherosclerotic plaque sizes, and soluble thrombomodulin levels. Probucol was administered at a dose of 500 mg twice a day for a period of 16 weeks. The total cholesterol level decreased gradually over time during the treatment. After 8 weeks of treatment, the total cholesterol level in the observation group was lower than that in the control group (P<0.05). After 8 weeks of treatment, the atherosclerotic plaque area in the observation group decreased compared with that before treatment (P<0.05). After 8 and 16 weeks of treatment, the plaque area in the observation group was smaller than that in the control group (P<0.05). The soluble thrombomodulin level at any time-point after treatment was lower than that before treatment in both groups (P<0.05). At the same time-point, the level in the observation group was lower than that in the control group (P<0.05). The total cholesterol and soluble thrombomodulin levels were positively correlated with the atherosclerotic plaque area (r=0.841, P=0.001; r=0.725, P=0.008). When patients with CHD were treated with probucol in addition to the conventional treatment, a reduction of the atherosclerotic plaque area, as well as a decrease of both the total cholesterol and soluble thrombomodulin levels, was observed. Overall, patients with CHD experienced improved symptoms following treatment with probucol.

2D Organic Superlattice Promoted via Combined Action of π-π Stacking and Dipole-Dipole Interaction in Discotic Liquid Crystals.

A series of discotic liquid crystals based on hexapentyloxytriphenylene (HAT5) have been investigated where one out of the six ether side chains of a triphenylene core was replaced by an ester side chain and named for 5a-5h. During the process of studying these compounds, the characteristic straight line defect of ordered columnar structure was identified by polarizing optical microscopy (POM) and liquid crystal state over a wide temperature range was obtained by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Basic phase structure and molecular arrangement were assigned by one-dimensional wide-angle X-ray diffraction (1D WAXD), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), two-dimensional wide-angle X-ray diffraction (2D WAXD), and transmission electron microscope (TEM). Combined with sharp and regular dots in 2D WAXD patterns and characteristic peaks at small angle in SAXS pattern which indicated the existence of superlattice, we proved that 2D superlattice formed from self-assembly of discotic molecules with a polar group via π-π stacking and dipole-dipole interaction. In order to verify the effect of orientation on charge carrier mobility, their electron and hole mobilities were measured by time-of-flight (TOF) device, among which the charge carrier mobility could achieve almost twice as that of HAT5. The formation of superlattice no doubt improved their electronic properties and made them more attractive in organic electronics.