Wighteone, a prenylated flavonoid from licorice, inhibits growth of SW480 colorectal cancer cells by allosteric inhibition of Akt.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Licorice is a frequently used herbal medicine worldwide, and is used to treat cough, hepatitis, cancer and influenza in clinical practice of traditional Chinese medicine. Modern pharmacological studies indicate that prenylated flavonoids play an important role in the anti-tumor activity of licorice, especially the tumors in stomach, lung, colon and liver. Wighteone is one of the main prenylated flavonoids in licorice, and its possible effect and target against colorectal cancer have not been investigated. AIM OF THE STUDY: This study aimed to investigate the anti-colorectal cancer effect and underlying mechanism of wighteone. MATERIALS AND METHODS: SW480 human colorectal cancer cells were used to evaluate the in vitro anti-colorectal cancer activity and Akt regulation effect of wighteone by flow cytometry, phosphoproteomic and Western blot analysis. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) assay, molecular docking and dynamics simulation, and kinase activity assay were used to investigate the direct interaction between wighteone and Akt. A nude mouse xenograft model with SW480 cells was used to verify the in vivo anti-colorectal cancer activity of wighteone. RESULTS: Wighteone inhibited phosphorylation of Akt and its downstream kinases in SW480 cells, which led to a reduction in cell viability. Wighteone had direct interaction with both PH and kinase domains of Akt, which locked Akt in a "closed" conformation with allosteric inhibition, and Gln79, Tyr272, Arg273 and Lys297 played the most critical role due to their hydrogen bond and hydrophobic interactions with wighteone. Based on Akt overexpression or activation in SW480 cells, further mechanistic studies suggested that wighteone-induced Akt inhibition led to cycle arrest, apoptosis and autophagic death of SW480 cells. Moreover, wighteone exerted in vivo anti-colorectal cancer effect and Akt inhibition activity in the nude mouse xenograft model. CONCLUSION: Wighteone could inhibit growth of SW480 cells through allosteric inhibition of Akt, which led to cell cycle arrest, apoptosis and autophagic death. The results contributed to understanding of the anti-tumor mechanism of licorice, and also provided a rationale to design novel Akt allosteric inhibitors for the treatment of colorectal cancer.

Norepinephrine versus phenylephrine on cerebral tissue oxygen saturation during prophylactic infusion to prevent spinal hypotension for Caesarean birth.

BACKGROUND: Phenylephrine may cause a reduction in maternal cerebral tissue oxygen saturation (SctO2) during Caesarean birth to prevent spinal hypotension; however, the effect of norepinephrine has not been assessed. We hypothesized that norepinephrine was more effective than phenylephrine in maintaining SctO2 when preventing spinal hypotension during Caesarean birth. METHODS: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, controlled study. Sixty patients were randomly assigned to prophylactic norepinephrine or phenylephrine to maintain blood pressure during spinal anesthesia for Caesarean birth. SctO2, systolic blood pressure, and heart rate were recorded. The primary outcome was the incidence of a 10% reduction of intraoperative SctO2 from baseline or more during Caesarean birth. RESULTS: The norepinephrine group had a lower incidence of more than 10% reduction of intraoperative SctO2 from baseline than that of the phenylephrine group (13.3% vs 40.0%, P = .02). The change in SctO2 after 5 minutes of norepinephrine infusion was higher than that after phenylephrine infusion (-3.4 ±â€…4.7 vs -6.2 ±â€…5.6, P = .04). The change in SctO2 after 10 minutes of norepinephrine infusion was higher than that after phenylephrine infusion (-2.5 ±â€…4.4 vs -5.4 ±â€…4.6, P = .006). The norepinephrine group showed greater left- and right-SctO2 values than the phenylephrine group at 5 to 10 minutes. However, the change in systolic blood pressure was comparable between the 2 groups. CONCLUSION: Norepinephrine was more effective than phenylephrine in maintaining SctO2 when preventing spinal hypotension during Caesarean birth. However, the changes in clinical outcomes caused by differences in SctO2 between the 2 medications warrant further studies.

Research Advances of Porous Polyimide-Based Composites with Low Dielectric Constant.

With the burgeoning of the microelectronics industry, in order to improve the transmission speed between chips in large-scale integrated circuits to meet the demands of high integration, it is necessary for interlayer insulation materials to possess a lower dielectric constant (k). Polyimide (PI) has been widely used as interlayer insulation materials for large-scale integrated circuits, and the exploration on reducing their dielectric constant has attracted extensive attention in recent years. In this work, porous PI-based composites with a low dielectric constant are mainly reviewed. The application of porous SiO2, graphene derivatives, polyoxometalates, polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane and hyperbranched polysiloxane in reducing the dielectric constant of PI is emphatically introduced. The key technical problems and challenges in the current research of porous polyimide materials are summarized, and the development prospect of low k polyimide is also expounded.

Properties investigations of rape stalks fermented by different salt concentration: Effect of volatile compounds and physicochemical indexes.

In order to find out the effect of salt concentration on fermented rape stalks, the physicochemical quality and volatile components was investigated using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and headspace solid phase microextraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS). The results showed that there were abundant kinds of free amino acids (FAAs) in all samples, mainly presenting sweet, umami and bitter taste. Through taste activity value (TAV), His, Glu, and Ala contributed significantly to the taste of the sample. 51 volatile components were identified, of which the relative contents of ketones and alcohols were high. By the relative odor activity value (ROAV) analysis, the main components that had a great impact on the flavor were phenylacetaldehyde, ß-Ionone, ethyl palmitate and furanone. Adjusting the appropriate salt concentration for fermentation could improve the comprehensive quality of fermented rape stalks and promote the development and utilization of rape products.

Fear during pandemic promoted holistic cognitive style: The moderating role of uncertainty.

The present study explored the link between fear and holistic cognitive style and the moderating role of uncertainty. We examined these effects in a real-life situation: the long-term, global COVID-19 pandemic, which provided a natural context of fear and uncertainty. The current study comprises three studies recruiting N = 1,310 participants. Study 1 compared the link between fear and holistic style in the United States (a relatively uncertain situation presented by the COVID-19 pandemic) and China (a pandemic situation with relative certainty) in the early days of the pandemic. Study 2 examined the moderation effect of uncertainty in the relationship between fear and holistic style by manipulating participants into a fearful (vs. control) condition. Study 3 employed a longitudinal design to demonstrate the effect of fear-related emotions on holistic style change over a 3-month period. Across three studies, the moderation effect of uncertainty in the relationship between fear-related emotions and holistic style during the COVID-19 pandemic was consistently observed. In sum, this study provided an ecological and explanatory mechanism for understanding the impact of individuals' fear on holistic cognitive style. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

A Federated Learning and Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Method with Two Types of Agents for Computation Offload.

With the rise of latency-sensitive and computationally intensive applications in mobile edge computing (MEC) environments, the computation offloading strategy has been widely studied to meet the low-latency demands of these applications. However, the uncertainty of various tasks and the time-varying conditions of wireless networks make it difficult for mobile devices to make efficient decisions. The existing methods also face the problems of long-delay decisions and user data privacy disclosures. In this paper, we present the FDRT, a federated learning and deep reinforcement learning-based method with two types of agents for computation offload, to minimize the system latency. FDRT uses a multi-agent collaborative computation offloading strategy, namely, DRT. DRT divides the offloading decision into whether to compute tasks locally and whether to offload tasks to MEC servers. The designed DDQN agent considers the task information, its own resources, and the network status conditions of mobile devices, and the designed D3QN agent considers these conditions of all MEC servers in the collaborative cloud-side end MEC system; both jointly learn the optimal decision. FDRT also applies federated learning to reduce communication overhead and optimize the model training of DRT by designing a new parameter aggregation method, while protecting user data privacy. The simulation results showed that DRT effectively reduced the average task execution delay by up to 50% compared with several baselines and state-of-the-art offloading strategies. FRDT also accelerates the convergence rate of multi-agent training and reduces the training time of DRT by 61.7%.

Multi-network collaborative lift-drag ratio prediction and airfoil optimization based on residual network and generative adversarial network.

As compared with the computational fluid dynamics(CFD), the airfoil optimization based on deep learning significantly reduces the computational cost. In the airfoil optimization based on deep learning, due to the uncertainty in the neural network, the optimization results deviate from the true value. In this work, a multi-network collaborative lift-to-drag ratio prediction model is constructed based on ResNet and penalty functions. Latin supersampling is used to select four angles of attack in the range of 2°-10° with significant uncertainty to limit the prediction error. Moreover, the random drift particle swarm optimization (RDPSO) algorithm is used to control the prediction error. The experimental results show that multi-network collaboration significantly reduces the error in the optimization results. As compared with the optimization based on a single network, the maximum error of multi-network coordination in single angle of attack optimization reduces by 16.0%. Consequently, this improves the reliability of airfoil optimization based on deep learning.

A Stability Training Method of Legged Robots Based on Training Platforms and Reinforcement Learning with Its Simulation and Experiment.

This paper continues the proposed idea of stability training for legged robots with any number of legs and any size on a motion platform and introduces the concept of a learning-based controller, the global self-stabilizer, to obtain a self-stabilization capability in robots. The overall structure of the global self-stabilizer is divided into three modules: action selection, adjustment calculation and joint motion mapping, with corresponding learning algorithms proposed for each module. Taking the human-sized biped robot, GoRoBoT-II, as an example, simulations and experiments in three kinds of motions were performed to validate the feasibility of the proposed idea. A well-designed training platform was used to perform composite random amplitude-limited disturbances, such as the sagittal and lateral tilt perturbations (±25°) and impact perturbations (0.47 times the robot gravity). The results show that the proposed global self-stabilizer converges after training and can dynamically combine actions according to the system state. Compared with the controllers used to generate the training data, the trained global self-stabilizer increases the success rate of stability verification simulations and experiments by more than 20% and 15%, respectively.

Clinical effect of ultrasound-guided nerve block and dexmedetomidine anesthesia on lower extremity operative fracture reduction.

BACKGROUND: Lower extremity fractures are mainly treated by surgical reduction, but this operation is often affected by the patient's level of agitation and the type of anesthesia used. The main treatment for lower-extremity fractures is operative reduction. However, operations can often be affected by both agitation and the degree of anesthesia. Therefore, it is of great importance to develop an effective anesthesia program to effectively ensure the progress of surgery. AIM: To discuss the effect of ultrasound-guided nerve block combined with dexmedetomidine anesthesia in lower extremity fracture surgery. METHODS: A total of 120 hospital patients with lower extremity fractures were selected for this retrospective study and divided into an observation group (n = 60) and a control group (n = 60) according to the anesthesia scheme; the control group received ultrasound-guided nerve block; the observation group was treated with dextromethomidine on the basis of the control group, and the mean arterial pressure, heart rate (HR), and blood oxygen saturation were observed in the two groups. RESULTS: The mean arterial pressure of T1, T2 and T3 in the observation group were 94.40 ± 7.10, 90.84 ± 7.21 and 91.03 ± 6.84 mmHg, significantly higher than that of the control group (P < 0.05). The observation group's HR at T1 was 76.60 ± 7.52 times/min, significantly lower than that of the control group (P < 0.05); The observation group's HR at T2 and T3 was 75.40 ± 8.03 times/min and 76.64 ± 7.11 times/min, significantly higher than that of the control group (P < 0.05). The observation group's visual analog score at 2 h, 6 h and 12 h after operation was 3.55 ± 0.87, 2.84 ± 0.65 and 2.05 ± 0.40. the recovery time was 15.51 ± 4.21 min, significantly lower than that of the control group (P < 0.05). Six hours post-anesthesia, epinephrine and norepinephrine in the observation group were 81. 10 ± 21.19 pg/mL and 510. 20 ± 98.27 pg/mL, significantly lower than that of the control group (P < 0.05), and the mini-mental state exam score of the observation group was 25. 51 ± 1.15, significantly higher than that in the control group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Ultrasound-guided nerve block combined with dexmedetomidine has a good anesthetic effect in the operation of lower limb fractures and has little effect on the hemodynamics of patients.

Magnolol additive improves growth performance of Linwu ducklings by modulating antioxidative status.

Magnolol is a bioactive polyphenolic compound commonly found in Magnolia officinalis. The aim of this study is to clarify the contribution of the magnolol additive on the growth performance of Linwu ducklings aging from 7 to 28 d, comparing to the effects of antibiotic additive (colistin sulphate). A total of 325, 7-d-old ducklings were assigned to 5 groups. Each group had 5 cages with 13 ducklings in each cage. The ducklings in different groups were fed with diets supplemented with 0, 100, 200 and 300 mg/kg magnolol additive (MA) (Control, MA100, MA200 and MA300) and 30 mg/kg colistin sulphate (CS30) for 3 weeks, respectively. Parameters regarding to the growth performance, intestinal mucosal morphology, serum biochemical indices, antioxidant and peroxide biomarkers and the expression levels of antioxidant-related genes were evaluated by one way ANOVA analysis. The results showed that 30 mg/kg colistin sulphate, 200 and 300 mg/kg magnolol additive improved the average final weight (P = 0.045), average daily body weight gain (P = 0.038) and feed/gain ratios (P = 0.001) compared to the control group. 200 and 300 mg/kg magnolol additive significantly increased the villus height/crypt depth ratio of ileum, compared to the control and CS30 groups (P = 0.001). Increased serum level of glucose (P = 0.011) and total protein (P = 0.006) were found in MA200 or MA300 group. In addition, comparing to the control and CS30 groups, MA200 or MA300 significantly increased the levels of superoxide dismutase (P = 0.038), glutathione peroxidase (P = 0.048) and reduced glutathione (P = 0.039) in serum. Moreover, the serum and hepatic levels of 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (P = 0.043 and 0.007, respectively) were lower in all MA groups compared to those of the control and CS30 group. The hepatic mRNA expression levels of superoxide dismutase-1, catalase and nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor 2/erythroid-derived CNC-homology factor were also increased significantly in MA200 and MA300 groups (P < 0.05). Taken together, these data demonstrated that MA was an effective feed additive enhancing the growth performance of Linwu ducklings at 7 to 28 d by improving the antioxidant and intestinal mucosal status. It suggested that MA could be a potential ingredient to replace the colistin sulphate in diets.

Case Report: Pink Urine Syndrome Following Exposure to Propofol: A Rare, Impressive but Benign Complication.

Drug-induced changes in urine color induced by drugs may have clinical significance. Pink urine syndrome (PUS), which has been associated with urinary uric acid (UA) disorders, is most frequently reported in patients with morbid obesity undergoing gastric bypass surgery and/or from propofol anesthesia use in those who potentially have preexisting UA metabolism disorders. However, PUS has rarely occurred following exposure to propofol in non-obese patients, and literature on long-term follow-up after PUS is scarce. We report a case of PUS induced by propofol in a previously healthy non-obese woman after undergoing thoracoscopic wedge resection of pulmonary nodules under general anesthesia using propofol. The patient suddenly developed pink urine 4 h after surgery. A pink sediment rapidly precipitated at the bottom of the test tube following centrifugation of the urine. Amorphous, colorless UA-like crystals were identified under a polarizing microscope. The diagnosis of PUS was confirmed by examining the urinary UA concentration. The patient recovered and as followed-up for 1 month, during which she did not experience any urinary complications. To our knowledge, this is the first report to describe in detail a case of PUS caused by propofol in a non-obese patient with follow-up. PUS is usually benign and can resolve by rapidly on administering lactated Ringer's solution; however, the potential risk of urinary complications, particularly UA lithiasis, should be fully realized.

Extraction and Hypolipidemic Activity of Low Molecular Weight Polysaccharides Isolated from Rosa Laevigata Fruits.

Three novel low molecular weight polysaccharides (RLP-1a, RLP-2a, and RLP-3a) with 9004, 8761, and 7571 Da were first obtained by purifying the crude polysaccharides from the fruits of a traditional Chinese medicinal herb Rosae Laevigatae. The conditions for polysaccharides from the R. Laevigatae fruit (RLP) extraction were optimized by the response surface methodology, and the optimal conditions were as follows: extraction temperature, 93°C; extraction time, 2.8 h; water to raw material ratio, 22; extraction frequency, 3. Structural characterization showed that RLP-1a consisted of rhamnose, arabinose, xylose, glucose, and galactose with the ratio of 3.14 : 8.21 : 1 : 1.37 : 4.90, whereas RLP-2a was composed of rhamnose, mannose, glucose, and galactose with the ratio of 1.70 : 1 : 93.59 : 2.73, and RLP-3a was composed of rhamnose, arabinose, xylose, mannose, glucose, and galactose with the ratio of 6.04 : 26.51 : 2.05 : 1 : 3.17 : 31.77. The NMR analyses revealed that RLP-1a, RLP-2a, and RLP-3a contained 6, 4, and 6 types of glycosidic linkages, respectively. RLP-1a and RLP-3a exhibited distinct antioxidant abilities on the superoxide anions, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), and hydroxyl radicals in vitro. RLPs could decrease the serum lipid levels, elevate the serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, enhance the antioxidant enzymes levels, and upregulate of FADS2, ACOX3, and SCD-1 which involved in the lipid metabolic processes and oxidative stress in the high-fat diet-induced rats. These results suggested that RLPs ameliorated the high-fat diet- (HFD-) induced lipid metabolism disturbance in the rat liver through the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) signaling pathway. Low molecular weight polysaccharides of RLP could be served as a novel potential functional food for improving hyperlipidemia and liver oxidative stress responses.

EpCAM-independent isolation of circulating tumor cells with epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and cancer stem cell phenotypes using ApoStream® in patients with breast cancer treated with primary systemic therapy.

BACKGROUND: Tumor cells with a mesenchymal phenotype and/or cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) are known to contribute to metastasis and drug resistance. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) undergoing epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and CTCs reflecting a dedifferentiated CSC phenotype may not be detected using only an anti-EpCAM antibody to capture them. We used an antibody-independent CTC enrichment platform, ApoStream®, which does not rely on any antibody, including anti-EpCAM, to capture EMT- and CSC-CTCs in breast cancer patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy and correlated them to pathological complete response (pCR). METHODS: Blood samples from newly diagnosed breast cancer patients were prospectively collected before neoadjuvant chemotherapy (T0), after chemotherapy but before surgery (T1), and after surgery (T2) and processed using ApoStream. CTCs detected were stained with additional markers to define 3 CTC subsets with the following phenotypes: epithelial CTCs (CK+, EpCAM+ or E-cadherin+), EMT-CTCs (ß-catenin+ or vimentin+), and CSC-CTCs (CD44+ and CD24low). RESULTS: We enrolled 55 patients, 47 of which had data for analysis. EMT-CTCs were detected in 57%, 62%, and 72% and CSC-CTCs in 9%, 22%, and 19% at the T0, T1, and T2 time points, respectively. Counts of epithelial (P = 0.225) and EMT (P = 0.522) phenotypes of CTCs at T0 did not significantly predict pCR. Moreover, no correlation between CTC count change and pCR was demonstrated. CONCLUSIONS: ApoStream was successful in detecting EMT-CTCs among patients after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. However, EMT-/CSC-CTC counts did not correlate with pCR. Due to the small sample size and heterogeneity of this patient population, further study in a larger cohort of molecularly homogeneous patients is warranted.

The Design of Memristive Circuit for Affective Multi-Associative Learning.

In this work, a memristive circuit with affective multi-associative learning function is proposed, which mimics the process of human affective formation. It mainly contains three modules: affective associative learning, affective formation, affective expression. The first module is composed of several affective single-associative learning circuits consisting of memristive neurons and synapses. Memristive neuron will be activated and output pulses if its input exceeds the threshold. After it is activated, memristive neuron can automatically return to the inactive state. Memristive synapse can realize learning and forgetting functions based on the signals from pre- and post-neurons. The learning rule is pre-neuron activated lags behind post-neuron for a short time; the forgetting rule is to repeatedly activate pre-neuron after the emotion is learned. The process of learning or forgetting corresponds to facilitating or inhibiting synaptic weight, that is, decreasing or increasing memristance continuously. Different voltage signals applied to memristors and different parameters of memristors would lead to different synaptic weights which indicate different affective association. The second module can convert affective signals to corresponding emotions. The formed emotions can be shown in a face by the third module. The simulation results in PSPICE show that the proposed circuit system can learn, forget and form emotions like human. If the proposed circuit is further used on a humanoid robot platform through further research, the robot will have the ability of affective interaction with human so that it can be effectively used in affective company and other aspects.

Automatic glioma segmentation based on adaptive superpixel.

BACKGROUND: The automatic glioma segmentation is of great significance for clinical practice. This study aims to propose an automatic method based on superpixel for glioma segmentation from the T2 weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging. METHODS: The proposed method mainly includes three steps. First, we propose an adaptive superpixel generation algorithm based on simple linear iterative clustering version with 0 parameter (ASLIC0). This algorithm can acquire a superpixel image with fewer superpixels and better fit the boundary of region of interest (ROI) by automatically selecting the optimal number of superpixels. Second, we compose a training set by calculating the statistical, texture, curvature and fractal features for each superpixel. Third, Support Vector Machine (SVM) is used to train classification model based on the features of the second step. RESULTS: The experimental results on Multimodal Brain Tumor Image Segmentation Benchmark 2017 (BraTS2017) show that the proposed method has good segmentation performance. The average Dice, Hausdorff distance, sensitivity, and specificity for the segmented tumor against the ground truth are 0.8492, 3.4697 pixels, 81.47, and 99.64%, respectively. The proposed method shows good stability on high- and low-grade glioma samples. Comparative experimental results show that the proposed method has superior performance. CONCLUSIONS: This provides a close match to expert delineation across all grades of glioma, leading to a fast and reproducible method of glioma segmentation.

Serum C-C Motif Ligand 11/eotaxin-1 May Serve as a Candidate Biomarker for Postmenopausal Osteoporosis.

BACKGROUND: The chemokine C-C motif ligand 11, also known as eotaxin-1, has been identified as a novel mediator of inflammatory bone resorption. However, little is known regarding a potential role for CCL11/Eotaxin-1 in postmenopausal osteoporosis. OBJECTIVE: The scope of this study was to explore the relationship between serum CCL11/Eotaxin-1 concentrations and disease progression of postmenopausal females with osteoporosis. METHODS: A total of 83 postmenopausal women diagnosed with osteoporosis were enrolled. Meanwhile, 82 postmenopausal women with normal bone mineral density (BMD) and 85 healthy controls inner child-bearing age were enrolled as control. The Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was used to examine the BMDs at the femoral neck, lumbar spine 1-4 and total hip of all participants. Serum CCL11/Eotaxin-1 levels were examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. We also included inflammation marker interleukin-6 (IL-6) as well as a serum marker of bone resorption C-telopeptide cross-linked collagen type 1 (CTX-1). The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) were recorded to evaluate the clinical severity in POMP females. RESULTS: Serum CCL11/Eotaxin-1 levels were significantly elevated in postmenopausal osteoporotic patients PMOP patients compared with PMNOP and healthy controls. We observed a significant negative correlation of serum CCL11/Eotaxin-1 levels with lumbar spine, femoral neck and total hip BMD. Furthermore, serum CCL11/ Eotaxin-1 concentrations were also positively related to the VAS and ODI scores. Last, serum CCL11/ Eotaxin-1 concentrations were positively associated with IL-6 and CTX-1 levels. These correlations remain significant after adjusting for age and BMI. Multivariate linear regression analysis demonstrated that CCL11/Eotaxin-1 could serve as an independent marker. CONCLUSIONS: Serum CCL 11/Eotaxin-1 may serve as a candidate biomarker for postmenopausal osteoporosis. Therapeutics targeting CCL11/Eotaxin-1 and its related signalling way to prevent and slow progression of PMOP deserve further study.

Microarray Based Functional Analysis of Myricetin and Proteomic Study on Its Anti-Inflammatory Property.

Myricetin has been reported as a promising chemopreventive compound with multiple biofunctions. To evaluate its influence on gene expressions in genome-wide set and further investigate its anti-inflammatory property, the present study performed Gene Ontology and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) to describe the basic gene expression characteristics by myricetin treatment in HepG2 cells, confirmed its multi-biofunction by real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), and further verified its anti-inflammatory property by Western blotting and bio-plex-based cytokines assay. The IPA data showed that 337 gene expressions (48% of the top molecules) are disturbed over 2-fold, and the most possible biofunctions of myricetin are the effect on "cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease, and lipid metabolism," via regulation of 28 molecules with statistic score of 46. RT-qPCR data confirmed the accuracy of microarray data, and cytokines assay results indicated that 6 of the total 27 inflammatory cytokine secretions were significantly inhibited by myricetin pretreatment, including TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-1α, IL-1ß, IL-2, and IL-6. The present study is the first time to elucidate the multi-function of myricetin in genome-wide set by IPA analysis and verify its anti-inflammatory property by proteomics of cytokines assay. Therefore, these results enrich the comprehensive bioactivities of myricetin and reveal that myricetin has powerful anti-inflammatory property, which provides encouragement for in vivo studies to verify its possible health benefits.

[Early-middle stage effect of percutaneous spinal endoscopic BEIS technique for lumbar spinal stenosis].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the clinical early-middle stage clinical effect of percutaneous spinal endoscopic with the technique of Broad Easy Immediate Surgery(BEIS) for lumbar spinal stenosis. METHODS: The clinical data of 57 patients with lumbar spinal stenosis treated by surgery from June 2015 to June 2016 were retrospectively analyzed, including 32 cases treated by percutaneous spinal endoscopic with the technique of BEIS (minimally invasive group) and 25 cases by posterior approach of lumbar pedicle screws internal fixation and intervertebral disc excision with bone graft fusion surgery (open surgery group). The pre-operative general data such as age, Body Mass Index (BMI) and etc. were analysed and compared. The operation time, intraoperative blood loss, hospitalization time of the two groups were analyzed. Visual analogue score(VAS), Oswestry Disability Index(ODI), Japanese Orthopedic Association Score(JOA) of preoperative and at 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months after surgery were used to evaluate the clinical outcome of the two group. RESULTS: All the operations were successful and all the patients recovered smoothly without severe complications, all the wounds got good healing. The pain of the lumbar and lower limb had been improved after surgery. All the patients were followed up more than 6 months with an average of(10.65±3.38) months. There was no significant difference in general data such as age, BMI, and etc. between two groups(P>0.05). There were significant differences in VAS, ODI between two groups at 1 week, 1, 3, 6 months after surgery(P<0.05). The postoperative lumbar pain of the minimally invasive group had been better improved than the open surgery group. However, there was no significant difference in JOA between two groups at 1 week, 1, 3, 6 months after surgery(P>0.05). Intraoperative blood loss and hospitalization time of minimally invasive group was less than that of open surgery group. CONCLUSIONS: BEIS technique has the advantage of less trauma, less bleeding for lumbar stenosis when compared to open surgery. It can better alleviate the postoperative local lumbar pain, and early-middle clinical effect is equivalent to open surgery, so it can be used as a safe and effective surgical treatment for lumbar spinal stenosis.

Lotus seed skin proanthocyanidin extract exhibits potent antioxidant property via activation of the Nrf2-ARE pathway.

Lotus seed is well known as traditional food and medicine, but its skin is usually discarded. Recent studies have shown that lotus seed skin contains a high concentration of proanthocyanidins that have multi-functions, such as antioxidation, anti-inflammation, and anti-cancer effects. In the present study, we aimed to isolate and purify the proanthocyanidins from lotus seed skin by acetone extraction and rotary evaporation, identify their chemical structures by HPLC-MS-MS and NMR, and further investigate the antioxidant properties of the extract purified by macroporous resin (PMR) from lotus seed skin both in vitro and in vivo. The results showed that PMR mainly contained oligomeric proanthocyanidins, especially dimeric procyanidin B1 (PB1), procyanidin B2 and procyanidin B4. Although it had limited ability to directly scavenge radicals in vitro, PMR could significantly enhance the expressions of antioxidant proteins via activation of nuclear factor-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)-antioxidant response element (ARE) pathway in HepG2 cells. Molecular data revealed that PB1, a major component in PMR, stabilized Nrf2 by inhibiting the ubiquitination of Nrf2, which led to subsequent activation of the Nrf2-ARE pathway, including the enhancements of Nrf2 nuclear translocation, Nrf2-ARE binding and ARE transcriptional activity. Moreover, the in vivo results in high fat diet-induced mice further verified the powerful antioxidant property of PMR. These results revealed that lotus seed skin is a promising resource for functional food development.

Physicochemical properties and digestion of the lotus seed starch-green tea polyphenol complex under ultrasound-microwave synergistic interaction.

Complex starch is gaining research attention due to its unique physicochemical and functional properties. Lotus seed starch (LS) suspensions (6.7%, w/v) with added green tea polyphenols (GTPs) (10%, w/w) were subjected to ultrasound (200-1000 W)-microwave (150-225 W) (UM) treatment for 15 min. The effects of UM treatment on the physicochemical properties of the LS-GTP system were investigated and exceeded that of microwave or ultrasound alone. The properties (morphology, X-ray diffraction pattern and so on) were affected by GTPs to various extents, depending on ultrasonic power. These influences may be explained by the non-covalent interactions between GTPs and LS. V-type LS-GTP inclusion complex and non-inclusive complex formation were observed. Their morphology and the distribution of GTPs molecules within them were estimated using scanning electron microscopy and confocal laser scanning microscopy. Furthermore, the digestion of LS-GTP complex was investigated by a dynamic in vitro rat stomach-duodenum (DIVRSD) model, lower digestion efficiency of LS has been achieved and the residues showed gradual improvement in morphology. These all experimental results do provide new insight into the complex starch production.