Indole Diterpenes from Mangrove Sediment-Derived Fungus Penicillium sp. UJNMF0740 Protect PC12 Cells against 6-OHDA-Induced Neurotoxicity via Regulating the PI3K/Akt Pathway.

In our chemical investigation into Penicillium sp. UJNMF0740 derived from mangrove sediment, fourteen indole diterpene analogs, including four new ones, are purified by multiple chromatographic separation methods, with their structures being elucidated by the analyses of NMR, HR-ESIMS, and ECD data. The antibacterial and neuroprotective effects of these isolates were examined, and only compounds 6 and 9 exhibited weak antibacterial activity, while compounds 5, 8, and 10 showed protective effects against the injury of PC12 cells induced by 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA). Additionally, compound 5 could suppress the apoptosis and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in 6-OHDA-stimulated PC12 cells as well as trigger the phosphorylation of PI3K and Akt. Taken together, our work enriches the structural diversity of indole diterpenes and hints that compounds of this skeleton can repress the 6-OHDA-induced apoptosis of PC12 cells via regulating the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, which provides evidence for the future utilization of this fascinating class of molecules as potential neuroprotective agents.

Anisotropic medium sensing controlled by bound states in the continuum in polarization-independent metasurfaces.

Bound states in the continuum (BICs) with infinite quality factor (Q-factor) and significant field enhancement pave the way for realizing highly sensitive optical sensors with enhanced light-matter interactions on the nanoscale. However, current optical sensing methods are difficult to discriminate between isotropic and anisotropic media from resonance spectral lines, resulting in optical sensing methods still being limited to isotropic media. In this work, we demonstrate that BICs can be realized by modulating the period of structural units to convert BICs to QBICs without changing their space group symmetry, and propose a polarization-independent metasurfaces-based realization of highly sensitive refractive index sensors for isotropic and anisotropic media as well as discrimination. We propose a metasurface of tetrameric silicon nanoboxes with C4 symmetry as structural units to achieve the conversion of BICs to QBICs by modulating the period of structural units without changing the geometry of the structure. Two QBICs modes dominated by electric toroidal dipole and magnetic toroidal dipole are identified by multipolar decomposition and electromagnetic distribution calculations. Meanwhile, we realize the refractive index detection and resolution of isotropic and anisotropic media based on polarization-independent metasurfaces combined with isotropic and anisotropic media layers. Our work provides what we believe to be a new method for realizing the fast resolution and refractive index optical sensing of isotropic and anisotropic media, and offers new ideas for the design and application of polarization-independent metasurfaces.

Detection and Clinical Value of Circulating Tumor Cells as an Assisted Prognostic Marker in Colorectal Cancer Patients.

BACKGROUND: Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are cells that have been shed into the vasculature from a primary tumor and circulate in the bloodstream. It has been suggested that detecting CTCs could help the clinician to detect early metastasis or recurrence more effectively. This trial sets out to assess the detection and clinical value of CTCs as an assisted prognostic marker in patients with colon cancer and rectal cancer. METHODS: A prospective cohort of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) was enrolled from July 2015 to February 2018 in Shanghai Minimally Invasive Surgery Center, Shanghai, China. In this study, 149 patients with CRC were enrolled and underwent surgical treatment. There were 79 cases of colon cancer and 70 cases of rectal cancer, including 93 males and 56 females. To investigate the correlativity and clinical value of CTCs, the patients were statistically analyzed in different subgroups: colon cancer group vs rectal cancer group, and left hemicolon cancer group vs right hemicolon cancer group. RESULTS: The results of analysis comparing CTC counts and clinical pathological features in colon and rectal cancer indicated that with increased tumor stage, the number of CTCs also increased, with significant statistical differences. CTC counts in patients with colon and rectal cancer showed positive correlations with TNM staging (P=0.001, 0.013, respectively), T staging (P=0.021, 0.001), N staging (P=0.014, 0.035) and M staging (P=0.018, 0.203). Detection of serum biomarkers in CTC-positive and CTC-negative groups indicated a significantly increasing expression in the CTC-positive group. To confirm the correlations between CTCs and histoembryological differences, analysis was conducted with the patients in two subgroups: left hemicolon cancer group and right hemicolon cancer group. The results showed that the positive rate of CTCs increased in both groups with the increase in tumor stage. The survival analysis indicated that there was a steep gradient in survival in the follow-up period, particularly in the CTC-positive group (P=0.000). Risk assessment curves showed that the change escalated more rapidly in the CTC-positive group. Furthermore, with the increase in T stage, changes in the survival curve and risk curve escalated more rapidly in the CTC-positive group. CONCLUSION: It was confirmed that in the left hemicolon cancer group, a much higher coincidence rate could be found on CTC-positive rate and clinicopathological features, than in the right hemicolon cancer group. The sensitivity of CTCs may be related to the histoembryological location of the tumor, lymphatic metastasis and the depth of infiltration. Monitoring CTCs may have value in evaluating clinical staging and estimating clinical prognosis.

Effect of different reinforcement methods on anastomotic leakage prevention after laparoscopic double anastomosis.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effects of different suture reinforcement methods for anastomotic leakage and other postoperative complications after the use of a laparoscopic double stapling technique (DST). METHODS: We collected the data of 124 patients who underwent laparoscopic radical resection of colorectal cancer from July 2017 to September 2018 at our institution. Patients were divided into three groups according to the suture reinforcement methods: intermittent, continuous suture reinforcement, and non-reinforcement (n = 41, 41, and 42, respectively). One-way analysis of variance, χ2 , Fisher's exact, and nonparametric tests were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Among the 124 patients, there were no statistically significant differences in operation times, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative hospital stays and recovery of bowel movement. Nine patients were diagnosed with anastomotic leakage (AL). The incidences of serious AL in the intermittent and continuous suture reinforcement groups were lower than that in the control group, with lower reoperation rate, shorter average lengths of stay and lower treatment costs of two experimental groups. CONCLUSION: Intermittent and continuous sutures after laparoscopic DST is effective, safe, and feasible on anastomotic leakage prevention. These procedures could be popularized in rectal surgery on patients with high risk of AL.

Cytotoxic and antibacterial triterpenoids from the roots of Morinda officinalis var. officinalis.

Seven new pentacyclic triterpenoids including six ursane-type, marinoids A-F (1-6), and one oleanane-type, marinoid G (7), along with five known analogues (8-12), were separated from the roots of Morinda officinalis var. officinalis. Their structures were assigned by spectroscopic means especially analysis of 2D NMR data, with the absolute configurations of 1 and 2 being determined via comparison of their experimental ECD spectra with the computed ones. Selective compounds displayed cytotoxic activity against two human osteosarcoma cell lines and also antibacterial effects against one Gram positive and one Gram negative strains.

Research on tunable distributed SPR sensor based on bimetal film.

In order to overcome the limitations in range of traditional prism structure surface plasmon resonance (SPR) single-point sensor measurement, a symmetric bimetallic film SPR multi-sensor structure is proposed. Based on this, the dual-channel sensing attenuation mechanism of SPR in gold and silver composite film and the improvement of sensing characteristics were studied. By optimizing the characteristics such as material and thickness, a wider range of dual-channel distributed sensing is realized. Using a He-Ne laser (632.8 nm) as the reference light source, prism-excited symmetric SPR sensing was studied theoretically for a symmetrical metal-clad dielectric waveguide using thin-film optics theory. The influence of the angle of incidence of the light source and the thickness of the dielectric layer on the performance of SPR dual formant sensing is explained. The finite-difference time-domain method was used for the simulation calculation for various thicknesses and compositions of the symmetric combined layer, resulting in the choice of silver (30 nm) and gold (10 nm). When the incident angle was 78 deg, the quality factor reached 5960, showing an excellent resonance sensing effect. The sensitivity reached a maximum of 5.25×10-5 RIU when testing the water content of an aqueous solution of honey, which proves the feasibility and practicality of the structure design. The structure improves the theoretical basis for designing an SPR multi-channel distributed sensing system, which can greatly reduce the cost of biochemical detection and significantly increase the detection efficiency.

Marine natural products sourced from marine-derived Penicillium fungi.

Marine micro-organisms have been proven to be a major source of marine natural products (MNPs) in recent years, in which filamentous fungi are a vital source of bioactive natural products for their large metagenomes and more complex genetic backgrounds. This review highlights the 390 new MNPs from marine-derived Penicillium fungi during 1991 to 2014. These new MNPs are categorized based on the environment sources of the fungal hosts and their bioactivities are summarized.

[Investigation of the color of anterior teeth, vermilion and attachment gingiva of 151 Uygur youth].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the characteristics of color of Uygur's oral soft and hard tissue. METHOD: One hundred and fifty-one Uygur medical students (18 to 22 years) were included in this study. The Lab*, Cab*, Hab0, values of subjects' anterior teeth, upper and lower vermilion, attachment gingiva were measured. RESULTS: The mean and distribution of Lab*, Cab*, Hab0, values of Uygur youth' anterior teeth were obtained. The Lab* values of attachment gingiva, upper and lower vermilion in male were 50.50 +/- 3.59, 41.92 +/- 4.10, 45.02 +/- 3.06, and Cab* were 29.94 +/- 3.21, 27.00 +/- 2.47, 30.35 +/- 2.67, and Hab0 were 30.00 +/- 3.27, 31.71 +/- 3.69, 27.73 +/- 3.27, respectively. The Lab* values of attachment gingiva, upper and lower vermilion in female were 54.28 +/- 5.06, 41.73 +/- 3.70, 47.27 +/- 2.97, and Cab* were 27.98 +/- 3.93, 27.23 +/- 2.42, 31.22 +/- 2.59, and Hab0 were 33.39 +/- 3.67, 32.28 +/- 3.68, 27.57 +/- 2.65. CONCLUSIONS: There was a specific color space distribution pattern in oral soft and hard tissue in Uygur youth. There was a trend of decreasing lightness, increasing saturation, and red hue shifting from the center to both distal directions. There was statistical significant gender difference in color of tooth and attachment gingiva. What's more, there was extremely significant difference between upper and lower vermilion.