[Yeast extract improves the inflammatory response of HepG2 cells induced by ethyl alcohol and lipopolysaccharide].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the ameliorative effect of yeast extract(YE) on the inflammatory response of human hepatoma cells(HepG2) induced by ethyl alcohol(EtOH) and lipopolysaccharide(LPS), and further explore the potential molecular mechanism based on Toll-like receptor 4(TLR4)/nuclear factor kappa B(NF-κB) signaling pathway. METHODS: HepG2 cells were induced by 50 mmol/L EtOH and 1 µg/mL LPS combined with YE intervention. The expression level of inflammatory cytokines was detected by ELISA. The expression level of TLR4 and the nuclear translocation of NF-κB were detected by immunofluorescence staining. The expression levels of TLR4, NF-κB, phospho-NF-κB-P65(P-NF-κB-p65), nucleus-phospho-NF-κB-p65(N-P-NF-κB-p65), tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α), interleukin-6(IL-6), and interleukin-1ß(IL-1ß) were detected by Western blot. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, the cells in EtOH+LPS group produced a large number of inflammatory factors and had a significant inflammatory response. YE intervention significantly alleviated EtOH+LPS induced hepatocyte inflammatory response. Further molecular mechanism studies showed that YE significantly reduced TLR4 expression level and inhibited NF-κB nuclear translocation in hepatocytes. CONCLUSION: YE can effectively inhibit the inflammatory response of HepG2 cells induced by EtOH and LPS, and its molecular mechanism may be related to the down-regulation of TLR4/NF-κB pathway.

Laser nanoprinting of floating three-dimensional plasmonic color in pH-responsive hydrogel.

Recent demonstrations of metasurfaces present their great potential to implement flat and multifunctional optical elements, which are accomplished with the designs of planar optics and micro-/nano- fabrications. Integrating metasurfaces in three dimensions has manifested drastically increasing advantages in manipulating light fields by extending design freedom. However, fabricating three-dimensional metasurfaces remain a tough challenge due to the lack of stereo printing protocols. Herein, we demonstrate laser nanoprinting of floated silver nanoparticle array in transparent hydrogel films for 3D metasurface to achieve color patterning. It is found that spatially resolved nanoparticles can be produced through laser induced photoreduction of silver ions and robustly anchored to the gel backbones by a focused femtosecond laser beam within a pH-responsive smart hydrogel matrix. With the aid of expansion properties of the pH-responsive hydrogel, repetitive coloration of the patterned plasmonic nanoparticle array over a wide spectrum range is achieved via reversible regulation of nanoparticle spacing from 550 to 350 nm and vice versa. This approach allows broadband 3D color-regulation in nanoscale for applications in active spectral filtering, information encryption, security tagging and biological colorimetric sensing, etc.

Three new polyketides from Ascotricha sp. ZJ-M-5 by the OSMAC strategy.

Three new compounds, ascotrichols A-B (1-2) and ascotrichrone A (3), along with two known isocoumarin derivatives (4-5), were isolated from the solid culture of a sea mud-derived fungus, Ascotricha sp. ZJ-M-5 on rice media. The structures were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analyses, including 1D and 2D NMR data, and the absolute configurations were determined by electronic circular dichroism and biogenetic correlation.

Polyketides from Pestalotiopsis zonata and structure revision of pestalrones A and B.

The structures of pestalrones A-B were revised via reinterpretation of the NMR data and a brief chemical transformation from the co-occurring polyketides, in our investigation on the secondary metabolites of Pestalotiopsis zonata, which also afforded a new α-pyrone derivative, pestazonatic acid, and four known analogs.

Economic Policy Uncertainty: Cross-Country Linkages and Spillover Effects on Economic Development in Some Belt and Road Countries.

With the increase of economic environment uncertainty, it is of great importance to study the linkage and spillover effects of economic policy uncertainty among countries. Especially, this article selects eight countries along the Belt and Road as the core countries (China, Korea, Croatia, India, Russia, Greece, Pakistan, and Singapore) and four countries (Germany, France, Japan, and UK) as the peripheral countries, and then copula technique and mixed-frequency global vector autoregressive model are employed to analyze the correlation and the spillover effect of the economic policy uncertainty (EPU) for the twelve selected countries, respectively. The proposed empirical findings show clearly that the EPU correlation among the eight core Belt and Road countries is stronger and the spillover effect of the core countries to the peripheral countries is statistically significant. As a result, for harmonious and win-win development, the Belt and Road countries should pay a close attention to the EPU, because the stability of the EPU promotes greatly the economy development.

Effect of wrist-ankle acupuncture on propofol dosage during painless colonoscopy: A randomized controlled prospective study.

BACKGROUND: The clinical advantages of painless colonoscopy can reduce the fear and discomfort of patients and increase the detection rate of diseases. Propofol has the characteristics of fast effect and short action time. It is a common choice for painless endoscopic sedation and anesthetics. However, propofol can cause severe respiratory and circulatory depression. Therefore, it is important to find a way to reduce the dose of propofol. AIM: To explore the effect of wrist-ankle acupuncture on propofol dose during colonoscopy. METHODS: Two hundred patients who were going to receive selective painless colonoscopy in Hebei Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine were selected and divided into wrist-ankle acupuncture group (WAA group, n = 100) and control group (CON group, n = 100). After entering the operation room, patients were given 0.025 mg/kg nabufine intravenously and propofol at the initial dose of 0.5 mg/kg. In patients who did not fall asleep, propofol (10 mg/time) was given until loss of consciousness. Prior to anesthesia, patients in WAA group were punctured by specialist in the inferior 1, 2 and 3 regions according to the zoning principle of wrist-ankle acupuncture. The primary endpoint was required dose of propofol, and the secondary endpoints were the incidence of hypoxemia and hypotension. Furthermore, the following data were recorded: The operation time, wake-up time, incidence of nausea and vomiting, incidence of abdominal distention, post-colonoscopy pain, examiners' satisfaction, patients' satisfaction and Borg fatigue index. This study has been registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (Registration Code: ChiCTR1900022177). RESULTS: The induced dose of propofol and the total dose of propofol in WAA group were 80 mg and 110 mg, respectively, which were significantly lower than those in CON group (P < 0.05). The incidences of hypoxemia and hypotension in the WAA group were 2.2% and 3.3%, respectively, significantly lower than those in the CON group (P < 0.05). The incidence of abdominal distension in the WAA group was 8.8%, which was significantly lower than that in the CON group (P < 0.05, 28.9%). The waking time of WAA group was 3.26 ± 0.87 min, which was significantly lower than that of CON group (6.06 ± 0.88 min, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Wrist-ankle acupuncture can reduce the induction dose and total dose of propofol as well as the incidence of adverse reactions in painless colonoscopy without affecting the satisfaction of examiners and patients. This procedure is simple in operation and easy to promote in clinical practice.

Effects of dezocine, morphine and nalbuphine on electropain threshold, temperature pain threshold and cardiac function in rats with myocardial ischemia.

BACKGROUND: Myocardial ischemia (MI) could cause many complications, such as arrhythmia, ischemic cardiomyopathy, which could lead to angina and myocardial infarction. The clinical efficacy of dezocine, morphine and nalbuphine are becoming dominated in China market. This aim of this study was to investigate the effects of dezocine, morphine and nalbuphine on electrical pain threshold, temperature pain threshold and cardiac function in rats with MI. METHODS: A rat model of MI was established by ligating the coronary artery. Rats in the model group were injected with dezocine, morphine, nalbuphine and 0.9% normal saline. The effects of the three analgesics on MI rats were evaluated by comparing the electrical pain threshold, temperature pain threshold, and cardiac function index. RESULTS: The electrocardiogram revealed that the model of MI was successful. The results of the electrical pain threshold and temperature pain threshold tests revealed that nalbuphine was the most sensitive after medication, followed by dezocine, and the sensitivity of morphine was the lowest. These three drugs reached its peak at two hours after administration. The analgesic effect of dezocine on electrical stimulation was the best, while nalbuphine had the best effect on temperature. The efficacy of dezocine decreased with time, while morphine basically failed at four hours after administration. The peak time of these three kinds of analgesics was selected to detect the cardiac function index in each group. Morphine had the least influence on the cardiac function index of rats, followed by nalbuphine and dezocine. CONCLUSIONS: These results show that the analgesic effect of nalbuphine had the earliest and best effect with the longest duration on temperature, and had less influence and higher safety in the cardiac function test of MI rats. Hence, nalbuphine is a relatively good analgesic for MI patients. The present study provides a database for the selection of analgesics in patients with MI.