Interferon regulatory factor 7 (IRF7), a member of the interferon regulatory factors (IRFs) family, is located downstream of the pattern recognition receptors (PRRs)-mediated signaling pathway and is ...essential for the production of type I interferon (IFN-I). Activation of IRF7 inhibits various viral and bacterial infections and suppresses the growth and metastasis of some cancers, but it may also affect the tumor microenvironment and promote the development of other cancers. Here, we summarize recent advances in the role of IRF7 as a multifunctional transcription factor in inflammation, cancer and infection by regulating IFN-I production or IFN-I-independent signaling pathways.
Candida albicans
is an opportunistic pathogenic fungus, which tends to infect the host with defective immune function including cancer patients. A growing number of studies have shown that
C. ...albicans
infection increases the host susceptibility to cancer such as oral, gastric, and colorectal cancer. Cancer and anti-cancer treatment may also affect the colonization of
C. albicans. C. albicans
may promote the development of cancer by damaging mucosal epithelium, inducing the production of carcinogens, triggering chronic inflammation including Th17 cell-mediated immune response. In this article, we aim to elaborate the interaction between
C. albicans
and cancers development and summarize the potential molecular mechanisms, so as to provide theoretical basis for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancers.
A cost-effective, classical united-atom (UA) force field for ionic liquids (ILs) was proposed, which can be used in simulations of ILs composed by 1-alkyl-3-methyl-imidazolium cations (C n mim+) and ...seven kinds of anions, including tetrafluoroborate (BF4−), hexafluorophosphate (PF6−), methylsulfate (CH3SO4−), trifluoromethylsulfonate (CF3SO3−), acetate (CH3CO2−), trifluoroacetate (CF3CO2−), and bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide (NTf2−). The same strategy in our previous work (J. Phys. Chem. B 2010, 114, 4572) was used to parametrize the force field, in which the effective atom partial charges are fitted by the electrostatic potential surface (ESP) of ion pair dimers to account for the overall effects of polarization in ILs. The total charges (absolute values) on the cation/anion are in the range of 0.64–0.75, which are rescaled to 0.8 for all kinds of ions by a compromise between transferability and accuracy. Extensive molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed over a wide range of temperatures to validate the force field, especially on the enthalpies of vaporization (ΔH vap) and transport properties, including the self-diffusion coefficient and shear viscosity. The liquid densities were predicted very well for all of the ILs studied in this work with typical deviations of less than 1%. The simulated ΔH vap at 298 and 500 K are also in good agreement with the measured values by different experimental methods, with a slight overestimation of about 5 kJ/mol. The influence of ΔC p (the difference between the molar heat capacity at constant pressure of the gas and that of liquid) on the calculation of ΔH vap is also discussed. The transport coefficients were estimated by the equilibrium MD method using 20–60 ns trajectories to improve the sampling. The proposed force field gives a good description of the self-diffusion coefficients and shear viscosities, which is comparable to the recently developed polarizable force field. Although slightly lower dynamics is found in simulations by our force field, the order of magnitude of the self-diffusion coefficient and viscosity are reproduced for all the ILs very well over a wide temperature range. The largest underestimation of the self-diffusion coefficient is about one-third of the experimental values, while the largest overestimation of the viscosity is about two times the experimental values.
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Early fire alarming is of vital importance to lower the damages led by forest fires. So far, methods to monitor the forest fires at their early stage are mainly focused on artificial ground patrol, ...UAV cruise monitoring, observation by watchtower, or satellite inspection. Whereas these methods are practically encountered with the problems of untimely feedback before the forest fires are out of control. This work proposes a particular kind of self-powered, low-cost and green thermoelectric paper chips based on the principle of self-assembly and disassembly of ionic liquids on the surface of gold electrodes. By adjusting the species of ionic liquids, both "n-type" and "p-type" thermoelectric behaviors have been exploited that correspond to the opposite open-circuit voltages respectively. Owing to the fluidic nature of ionic liquids, those "n-type" and "p-type" thermoelectric units can be readily connected in series on one paper chip, leading to remarkable voltage signals in the presence of temperature difference of 35K. Followed by signal acquisition and transmission, such a thermoelectric paper chip successfully affords immediate electrical alarming at the early stage of an afire circumstance.
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Ionic liquids (ILs) are promising nonderivatizing solvents for the dissolution of cellulose and lignin in biomass pretreatment processes, which are, however, retarded by sluggish dynamics. Recent ...investigations showed that cosolvents such as dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) can accelerate the dissolution dramatically. On the other hand, water is used as a common antisolvent to regenerate cellulose from solutions. To understand the co-/antisolvent effects in dissolving cellulose by ILs, we performed molecular dynamics simulations of the interfaces between an Iβ cellulose crystal and different solvent systems, including ILs, DMSO, water, and mixed solvent systems. The density profiles and pair energy distributions (PEDs) show that the anions interact much more strongly with the cellulose surface than the cations, which is responsible for the dissolution of cellulose. It was found that the number of chloride ions in contact with cellulose does not cause the co-/antisolvent effect. In contrast, the cellulose–chloride PEDs are sensitive to the addition of molecular solvents, such as DMSO and water. Detailed analyses show that multiple hydrogen-bond (HB) patterns are formed between chloride and the hydroxyl groups of cellulose that are noticeably changed in the presence of DMSO or water. A combined analyses of both the PEDs and HB patterns can provide valuable information about the enhancement of cellulose dissolution. The simulation results in this work present useful knowledge for the design of solvent systems for dissolving cellulose or other types of biomass.
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Aortic aneurysm/dissection (AAD) is a life-threatening disorder lacking effective pharmacotherapeutic remedies. Aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) polymorphism is tied with various risk factors for AAD ...including hypertension, atherosclerosis, and hypercholesterolaemia although direct correlation between the two remains elusive.
Two independent case-control studies were conducted involving 307 AAD patients and 399 healthy controls in two geographically distinct areas in China. Our data revealed that subjects carrying mutant ALDH2 gene possessed a ∼50% reduced risk of AAD compared with wild-type (WT) alleles. Using 3-aminopropionitrile fumarate (BAPN)- and angiotensin II (Ang II)-induced AAD animal models, inhibition of ALDH2 was found to retard development of AAD. Mechanistically, ALDH2 inhibition ablated pathological vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) phenotypical switch through interaction with myocardin, a determinant of VSMC contractile phenotype. Using microarray and bioinformatics analyses, ALDH2 deficiency was found to down-regulate miR-31-5p, which further altered myocardin mRNA level. Gain-of-function and loss-of-function studies verified that miR-31-5p significantly repressed myocardin level and aggravated pathological VSMC phenotypical switch and AAD, an effect that was blunted by ALDH2 inhibition. We next noted that ALDH2 deficiency increased Max expression and decreased miR-31-5p level. Moreover, ALDH2 mutation or inhibition down-regulated levels of miR-31-5p while promoting myocardin downstream contractile genes in the face of Ang II in primary human VSMCs.
ALDH2 deficiency is associated with a lower risk of AAD in patients and mice, possibly via suppressing VSMC phenotypical switch in a miR-31-5p-myocardin-dependent manner. These findings favour a role for ALDH2 and miR-31-5p as novel targets for AAD therapy.
Tanshinone IIA (TS), a pharmacologically active component isolated from the rhizome of the Chinese herb Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge (Danshen), has been clinically used in Asian countries for the ...prevention and treatment of coronary heart disease. Recently, the pharmacological properties of TS in the cardiovascular system have attracted great interest. Emerging experimental studies and clinical trials have demonstrated that TS prevents atherogenesis as well as cardiac injury and hypertrophy. In atherosclerosis, TS acts by inhibiting LDL oxidation, monocyte adhesion to endothelium, smooth muscle cell migration and proliferation, macrophage cholesterol accumulation, proinflammatory cytokine expression and platelet aggregation. TS has some activity and potential to stabilize atherosclerotic plaques. The cardioprotective effects of TS are mainly related to its anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory actions. In this review, we focus on the protective effects and the mechanism of action of TS in the cardiovascular system, and provide a novel perspective on clinical use of TS.
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Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the major health threats in developed countries. Changes in dietary components, such as more protein and lipid intake, can increase the risk of CRC. Diet affects CRC ...in many ways. They regulate the composition and function of gut microbiota, which have an amazing metabolic capacity and can produce short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), such as propionate, acetate, and butyrate. Butyrate is a principal energy source for colonic epithelial cells and plays an important role in maintaining the stability of gut microbiota and the integrity of intestinal epithelium. However, there are few studies reviewing the anti-CRC potentials of butyrate. This review summarizes the recent research progresses in the effect of gut microbiota imbalance and the decrease in intestinal microbial metabolite butyrate caused by unbalanced diet on CRC development, and discusses the mechanisms of butyrate-induced anti-CRC activities, which may guide people to prevent CRC by improving diet structures.
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