Effect and safety evaluation of tacrolimus and tripterygium glycosides combined therapy in treatment of Henoch-Schönlein purpura nephritis.

OBJECTIVE: Henoch-Schönlein purpura nephritis has become a significant threat to children's health. Traditional combined therapy of glucocorticoids and cyclophosphamide leads to severe toxicity and complications. Therefore, identifying a feasible and effective strategy with low side-effects for the treatment of Henoch-Schönlein purpura nephritis is of great significance. METHODS: A randomized, controlled trial was carried out. A total of 279 children with Henoch-Schönlein purpura nephritis were recruited and randomly divided into three groups: control group (receiving the current standard therapy), TA group (receiving tacrolimus) and TA + tripterygium glycosides group (receiving tacrolimus + tripterygium treatment). The total duration of the trial was 6 months, and the duration of follow-up observation was 9 months. RESULTS: Various therapies showed similar therapeutic effects in the third and sixth months. The relief of Henoch-Schönlein purpura nephritis symptoms caused by TA + tripterygium glycosides was slower than the TA and control groups. The incidence of adverse reactions in the TA + tripterygium glycosides group was lower in the control and TA groups. The final treatment effect of the experimental groups was better than the control group. The recurrence rate in the TA + tripterygium glycosides group was also significantly lower. CONCLUSION: Tacrolimus and tripterygium glycosides combined therapy had better effects and safety for long-term treatment of Henoch-Schönlein purpura nephritis.

The significance of the hemalexin C1q, RBP, and urinary NAG levels in the diagnosis and prognosis of children with purpura nephritis.

PURPOSE: To investigate the significance of the hemalexin C1q, retinal-binding-protein (RBP), and urinary N-acety1-ß-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) levels in the diagnosis and prognosis of children with purpura nephritis. METHODS: A total of 130 children with purpura nephritis admitted to our hospital from January 2017 to December 2019 were recruited as the study cohort, including 43 children with purpura nephritis as the observation group, 51 children with purpura nephritis as the control group, and 36 healthy children undergoing physical examinations at the same time period as the healthy group. The basic data of the three groups of children were compared, and the hemalexin C1q, RBP, and urinary NAG levels were observed. The children were divided into a good prognosis group and a poor prognosis group according to the observation group's follow-up data. The significance of the hemalexin C1q, RBP, and urinary NAG levels for the diagnosis and prognosis of children with purpura nephritis was investigated by comparing the hemalexin C1q, RBP, and urinary NAG levels in these two groups. RESULTS: The hemalexin C1q, RBP, and urinary NAG levels in the observation group, the control group, and the healthy group were significantly reduced, and the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). The hemalexin C1q, RBP, and urinary NAG levels of the children in the good prognosis group were significantly lower than they were in the poor prognosis group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The hemalexin C1q, RBP, and urinary NAG levels in the diagnosis and prognosis of children with purpura nephritis have a definite value and can be used as effective predictors for the prognosis of children with purpura nephritis.

Construction of the POMOF@Polypyrrole Composite with Enhanced Ion Diffusion and Capacitive Contribution for High-Performance Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Polyoxometalate (POM) as an "electronic sponge" can store a great number of electrons; however, shortcomings of poor conductivity and solubility in electrolytes cause a significant decrease in specific capacity and poor rate capability. To address the aforementioned disadvantages, a dual strategy was proposed, including coating the conductive polypyrrole (PPy) and utilizing nitrogenous ligands (1,10-phenanthroline monohydrate = 1,10-phen) for metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to fabricate a [Cu(1,10-phen)(H2O)2]2[Mo6O20]@PPy (Cu-POMOF@PPy) composite, effectively confining the POM in MOFs to avoid dissolution of POM in the electrolyte and improve electrochemical stability. Simultaneously, the PPy shell could improve the conductivity, contribute extra capacity, and alleviate volume variation of Cu-POMOF during cycling. Therefore, the final Cu-POMOF@PPy composite provides an excellent specific capacity of around 769 mA h g-1 at 0.1 A g-1 after 160 cycles and good rate performance, associated with great cycling stability (319 mA h g-1 at 2 A g-1 after 500 cycles). Moreover, the electrochemical reaction mechanism of Cu-POMOF@PPy was investigated by ex situ XPS measurements, indicating that storage of electrons results from the reduction/oxidation of Mo atoms (Mo6+ ↔ Mo4+) and Cu atoms (Cu2+ ↔ Cu0). As a consequence, this work not only proposes a novel method for preparing POM-based lithium-ion batteries but also expands the variety of anode materials.

Ultrahigh Frequency and Anti-Interference Optical-Mode Resonance with Biquadratic Coupled FeCoB/Ru/FeCoB Trilayers.

Microwave soft magnetic films (SMFs) are the key materials to effectively miniaturize and multifunctionalize the microwave electromagnetic components and devices. However, currently, single-layer SMFs encounter a frequency bottleneck at around 10 GHz. The ferromagnet/nonmagnetic spacer/ferromagnet sandwiched films with strong interlayer exchange coupling are possible solutions to break through that frequency limitation because they exhibit ultrahigh optical-mode (OM) resonance frequency frO up to 50 GHz, while the tiny permeability and the limited thickness are their own obstacles to overcome. In this study, biquadratic coupled FeCoB25nm/Ru0.25nm/FeCoB25nm sandwiched films with uniaxial magnetic anisotropy were deposited by a composition gradient sputtering method. Pure OM resonance with self-bias frO up to 18.21 GHz and a relative permeability µrO as high as 169 at the cut-off frequency was achieved. Moreover, both the frO and µrO remain unchanged in the magnetic field range of 0-80 Oe, indicating a strong anti-interference capability to small interference field. These results demonstrate that the biquadratic coupled OM resonance can solve the current frequency bottleneck of microwave SMFs by providing ultrahigh resonance frequency while maintaining considerable permeability, thus leading to potential applications of OM resonance in Ku-band microwave magnetic components.

Three-Dimensional Hierarchical Flowerlike FeP Wrapped with N-Doped Carbon Possessing Improved Li+ Diffusion Kinetics and Cyclability for Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Transition-metal phosphides have a potential application in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) because of their high theoretical capacities and low cost; nevertheless, they possess dramatic volumetric variation during cycling associated with poor conductivity, limiting their practical applications. Here, a three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical flowerlike FeP coated with nitrogen-doped carbon layer (FeP@N,C hybrid) was constructed through a solvothermal method, followed by a phosphating approach under low temperature. N-doped carbon not only suppresses the volume fluctuation of FeP, but also promotes electron transfer, accompanied by catalyzing the decomposition of Li3P to improve the reversibility of the FeP@N,C hybrid during cycling processes. In addition, a 3D flowerlike architecture assembled from porous nanosheets is also beneficial for shortening the migration path of ions as well as improving the contact area of electrode with electrolyte, which enhances the reaction kinetics and is proved by both experimental measurement of Li+ diffusion coefficient and resistivity, along with the calculation of density functional theory. Consequently, the 3D hierarchical flowerlike FeP@N,C hybrid performs excellent cyclic stability (569 mA h g-1 at a current density of 500 mA g-1 for the 300th cycle) and rate performance (331.94 mA h g-1 at a high current density of 5 A g-1) for LIBs. Based on above results, the fabrication strategy in this work could offer a thought to design other high-performance metal phosphide hybrids.

Improved Electrochemical Performance Based on Nanostructured SnS2@CoS2-rGO Composite Anode for Sodium-Ion Batteries.

A promising anode material composed of SnS2@CoS2 flower-like spheres assembled from SnS2 nanosheets and CoS2 nanoparticles accompanied by reduced graphene oxide (rGO) was fabricated by a facile hydrothermal pathway. The presence of rGO and the combined merits of SnS2 and CoS2 endow the SnS2@CoS2-rGO composite with high conductivity pathways and channels for electrons and with excellent properties as an anode material for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). A high capacity of 514.0 mAh g-1 at a current density of 200 mA g-1 after 100 cycles and a good rate capability can be delivered. The defined structure and good sodium-storage performance of the SnS2@CoS2-rGO composite demonstrate its promising application in high-performance SIBs.

Constructing Three-Dimensional Porous Carbon Framework Embedded with FeSe2 Nanoparticles as an Anode Material for Rechargeable Batteries.

Metal selenides have caused widespread concern due to their high theoretical capacities and appropriate working potential; however, they suffer from large volume variation during cycling and low electrical conductivity, which limit their practical applications. In this article, a three-dimensional (3D) porous carbon framework embedded with homogeneous FeSe2 nanoparticles (3D porous FeSe2/C composite) was synthesized by a facile calcined approach, following a selenized method without a template. As the uniformity of FeSe2 nanoparticles and 3D porous structure are beneficial to accommodate volume stress upon cycling and shorten electrons/ions transport path, associated with carbon as a buffer matrix for increasing conductivity, the 3D porous FeSe2/C composite displays excellent electrochemical properties with high reversible capacities of 798.4 and 455.0 mA h g-1 for lithium-ion batteries and sodium-ion batteries, respectively, when the current density is 100 mA g-1 after 100 cycles. In addition, the as-prepared composite exhibits good cycling stability as compared to bare FeSe2 nanoparticles. Therefore, the facile synthetic strategy in the current work provides a new perspective in constructing a high-performance anode.

The effect of character contextual diversity on eye movements in Chinese sentence reading.

Chen, Huang, et al. (Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2017) found that when reading two-character Chinese words embedded in sentence contexts, contextual diversity (CD), a measure of the proportion of texts in which a word appears, affected fixation times to words. When CD is controlled, however, frequency did not affect reading times. Two experiments used the same experimental designs to examine whether there are frequency effects of the first character of two-character words when CD is controlled. In Experiment 1, yoked triples of characters from a control group, a group matched for character CD that is lower in frequency, and a group matched in frequency with the control group, but higher in character CD, were rotated through the same sentence frame. In Experiment 2 each character from a larger set was embedded in a separate sentence frame, allowing for a larger difference in log frequency compared to Experiment 1 (0.8 and 0.4, respectively). In both experiments, early and later eye movement measures were significantly shorter for characters with higher CD than for characters with lower CD, with no effects of character frequency. These results place constraints on models of visual word recognition and suggest ways in which Chinese can be used to tease apart the nature of context effects in word recognition and language processing in general.

[Prokaryotic expression and characterization of two recombinant receptor-binding domain(RBD) proteins of human coronavirus NL63(HcoV-NL63)].

The receptor-binding domain(RBD) protein of HCoV-NL63 is a major target in the development of diagnostic assay and vaccine, it has a pivotal role in receptor attachment, viral entry and membrane fusion. In this study, we prepared 2 purified recombinant HCoV-NL63 RBD proteins using in E. coli system and identified the proteins by Western blotting. We first optimized codon and synthesized the RL (232-684aa)coding gene, then amplified the RL or RS(476-616aa) coding gene via PCR using different primers . The RL or RS coding gene was cloned into the pM48 expression vector fused with TrxA tag. The RBD (RL and RS) of HCoV-NL63 were expressed majorly as inclusion body when expressed in E. coli BL21pLys S under different conditions. The expressed products were purified by affinity chromatography then analyzed by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting. Our results showed that the recombinant RBD proteins were maximally expressed at 37 degrees C with 0. 8mM IPTG induction for 4h. RL or RS protein with 95 % purity was obtained and reacted positively with anti-sera from mice immunized with the recombinant vaccinia virus (Tiantan strain) in which HCoV-NL63 RL or RS protein was expressed. In conclusion, the purified recombinant RBD proteins(RL and RS)derived from E. coli were first prepared in China and they might provide a basis for further exploring biological role and vaccine development of HCoV-NL63.

Folding of an all-helical Greek-key protein monitored by quenched-flow hydrogen-deuterium exchange and NMR spectroscopy.

To advance our understanding of the protein folding process, we use stopped-flow far-ultraviolet (far-UV) circular dichroism and quenched-flow hydrogen-deuterium exchange coupled with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to monitor the formation of hydrogen-bonded secondary structure in the C-terminal domain of the Fas-associated death domain (Fadd-DD). The death domain superfamily fold consists of six α-helices arranged in a Greek-key topology, which is shared by the all-ß-sheet immunoglobulin and mixed α/ß-plait superfamilies. Fadd-DD is selected as our model death domain protein system because the structure of this protein has been solved by NMR spectroscopy, and both thermodynamic and kinetic analysis indicate it to be a stable, monomeric protein with a rapidly formed hydrophobic core. Stopped-flow far-UV circular dichroism spectroscopy revealed that the folding process was monophasic and the rate is 23.4 s(-1). Twenty-two amide hydrogens in the backbone of the helices and two in the backbone of the loops were monitored, and the folding of all six helices was determined to be monophasic with rate constants between 19 and 22 s(-1). These results indicate that the formation of secondary structure is largely cooperative and concomitant with the hydrophobic collapse. This study also provides unprecedented insight into the formation of secondary structure within the highly populated Greek-key fold more generally. Additional insights are gained by calculating the exchange rates of 23 residues from equilibrium hydrogen-deuterium exchange experiments. The majority of protected amide protons are found on helices 2, 4, and 5, which make up core structural elements of the Greek-key topology.

[Preparation and application of a novel HCV diagnostic antigen fused to streptavidin].

OBJECTIVE: To prepare streptavidin-tagged hepatitis C virus (HCV) fusion protein and explore its application for the detection of antibody against HCV infection. METHODS: A recombinant plasmid pET-11d-C44P-SA was constructed, which coding a novel HCV diagnostic antigens (C44P) and streptavidin (SA) fusion protein, and the fusion protein was generated with BL21 (DE3) E Coli and identified by Western Blot analysis. Then the fusion protein was purified through the Ni-NTA affinity chromatography and over 90% purity has been achieved. Anti-HCV ELISAs were developed when the fusion protein was used in the biotin-pre-coated microplate or ordinary microplate, and then the sensitivity and specificity of the ELISA were evaluated with confirmed human sera panels. RESULTS: The fusion protein was expressed in high yields and purified successfully, the ELISA detection of anti-HCV with human sera panel indicated that its sensitivity and specificity is higher when SA-tagged HCV antigen (C44P-SA) coated in biotin-pre-coated microplate, compared to C44P or C44P-SA coated in ordinary microplate. CONCLUSION: The sensitivity and specificity of anti-HCV ELISA can be improved when a novel HCV diagnostic antigen fused to SA combined with the biotin- pre-coated microplate. This study laid a foundation for improving the performance of HCV diagnostics.

[Expression and purification of different segments from HCoV-NL63 nucleocapsid protein and their application in detection of antibodies].

Prokaryotic expression plasmids carrying N-terminal(1-163aa) and C-terminal(141-306aa) gene of HCoV-NL63 nucleocapsid protein were constructed with pET-30a(+) vector. Consequently, we prepared two purified proteins, Np and Cp, respectively, and established a Western blotting-based line assay (WBLA) for detection of antibodies against HCoV-NL63 using three purified proteins: Np , Cp and Nf, a full-length HCoV-NL63 nucleocapsid protein as previously reported. We detected anti-HCoV-NL63 antibodies among 50 sera samples collected from adult for health-examination by WBLA. The results showed that: 25 (50%), 27 (54%), 36 (72%) of 50 sera were indentified as anti-HCoV-NL63 antibody positive when the antigen was from Nf, Np and Cp, respectively. Among these sera with positive anti-HCoV-NL63 antibody,Cp showed highest antibody positive rate in WBLA,and consistent rates of detection were 64% between Nf and Np, 54% between Nf and Cp, 54% between Np and Cp. Our study provides the foundation for development of HCoV-NL63 serological detection reagents and an experimental tool for immunological research of HCoV-NL63 infection.

[Characterization and development of recombinant vaccinia viruses expressing different segments of spike protein derived from human coronavirus NL-63].

The spike (S) glycoprotein of HCoV-NL63 is a major target in the development of diagnostic assays and vaccines, but its antigenic and immunogenic properties remain unclear. Four fragments coding spike proteins (S1, S2, RL and RS) from HCoV-NL63 were amplified and cloned into the expression vector derived from vaccinia virus (Tiantan strain), and recombinant vaccinia viruses expressing four segments of spike proteins were generated (vJSC1175-S1; vJSC1175-S2; vJSC1175-RL; vJSC1175-RS), respectively. Their expression location in cell and level were characterized using indirect immune fluorescence assay (IFA) and Western-Blot, respectively. The expressions of four segments of spike proteins in recombinant vaccinia viruses were showed at appropriate level and with posttranslational modification (glycosylation), and S1, RL and RS were mainly distributed in the cell membrane, while the S2 was mainly distributed in the cytoplasm. Our results provide a basis for further exploring diagnostic role and vaccine development of different spike segments from HCoV-NL63.

Carbocyclic Sinefungin.

(3aS,4S,6R,6aR)-Tetrahydro-2,2-dimethyl-6-vinyl-3aH-cyclopenta[d][1,3]-dioxol-4-ol, itself available from ribose, provided a convenient entry point for an 18-step preparation of carbocyclic sinefungin. This procedure is adaptable to a number of carbocyclic sinefungin analogs with diversity of heterocyclic base and in the amino acid bearing side chain.