We found a novel marine drug, SZ-685C, that was isolated from the secondary metabolites of a mangrove endophytic fungus (No. 1403) collected from the South China Sea, which has been reported to ...inhibit the proliferation of certain tumor cells. However, its anticancer mechanism remains unknown. The aims of this study were to observe the effectiveness of SZ-685C on pituitary adenoma cells and determine the underlying mechanisms of action.
A rat prolactinoma cell line, MMQ, was used in this study. A dose escalation of SZ-685C was performed on this cell line, and cell viability was assessed using an MTT assay. Hoechst 33342, Annexin V-FITC/PI, TUNEL staining and flow cytometry were used to evaluate the extent of apoptosis at each concentration of SZ-685C. The effect of SZ-685C on prolactin expression was also evaluated using RT-PCR and immunoblotting. Quantitative RT-PCR was used to detect the expression of miR-200c in SZ-685C-stimulated MMQ cells and pituitary adenoma tissues. This miRNA was then overexpressed in MMQ cells via transfection of a miR-200c mimic to identify the mechanism underling the anti-tumor effect of SZ-685C.
SZ-685C inhibited MMQ cell growth in a dose-dependent manner but showed little toxicity toward rat pituitary cells (RPCs). The IC50s of SZ-685C in MMQ cells and RPCs were 13.2 ± 1.3 mM and 49.1 ± 11.5 mM, respectively, which was statistically significant. Increasing numbers of apoptotic cells were observed in response to escalating concentrations of SZ-685C, and the expression level of prolactin (PRL) was inhibited. Nevertheless, the level of PRL mRNA was unchanged. Additionally, miR-200c was upregulated in MMQ cells compared with RPCs, and downregulation of miR- 200c was observed in SZ-685C-treated MMQ cells. Furthermore, the overexpression of miR-200c weakened the effect of SZ-685C-induced apoptosis of MMQ cells.
Our results suggest that SZ-685C induces MMQ cell apoptosis in a miR-200c-dependent manner. Therefore, SZ-685C might be a useful alternative treatment for pituitary adenoma.
Lignin is closely related to the lodging resistance of common buckwheat (
Fagopyrum esculentum
Moench.). However, the characteristics of lignin synthesis related genes have not yet been reported. We ...investigated the lignin biosynthesis gene expression, activities of related enzymes, and accumulation of lignin monomers during branching stage, bloom stage, and milky ripe stage by real-time quantitative PCR, UVspectrophotometry, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in the 2
nd
internode of three common buckwheat cultivars with different lodging resistance. The results showed that lignin content and the activity of phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL), 4-coumarate: CoA ligase (4CL), cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD) and peroxidase (POD) were closely related to the lodging resistance of common buckwheat. Further, we studied gene expression of cinnamate 4-hydroxylase (C4H), caffeoyl-CoA O-methyltransferase (CCoAOMT), ferulate 5-hydroxylase (F5H), cinnamoyl-CoA reductase (CCR), and caffeic acid O-methyltransferase (COMT). The lignin biosynthesis genes were divided into three classes according to their expression pattern:
1
) expression firstly increasing and then descending (
PAL
,
4CL
,
CAD
,
C4H
,
CCoAOMT
,
F5H
, and
CCR
),
2
) expression remaining constant during maturation (
C3H
), and
3
) expression decreasing with maturation (
COMT
). The present study provides preliminary insights into the expression of lignin biosynthesis genes in common buckwheat, laying a foundation for further understanding the lignin biosynthesis.
The aim of our study was to elucidate the clinical characteristics of alcoholic-hyperlipidemic etiologically complex acute pancreatitis.
We reviewed complete data from 233 patients with acute ...pancreatitis treated in our hospital during the period January 2017-January 2022. They were divided into three groups according to etiology: alcoholic acute pancreatitis (AAP), hyperlipidemic acute pancreatitis (HLAP), and alcoholic-hyperlipidemic acute pancreatitis (AHAP). General clinical data, co-morbidities, laboratory results, imaging data, and disease severity were analyzed and compared between groups.
The proportion of male individuals in the AHAP group was significantly higher than that in the HLAP group (p<0.001). Age of onset was lower and the number of cases with antibiotic use was higher in the AHAP group than in the AAP group (p<0.05). Additionally, the average alcohol intake each time and weekly alcohol intake were also higher in the AHAP group than in the AAP group (p<0.05). Comparison of disease severity (moderate and severe acute pancreatitis, severe acute pancreatitis, and modified computed tomography severity index score) revealed the disease condition to be more severe in the AHAP group than in the AAP and HLAP groups (p<0.05). Accordingly, patients in the AHAP group had longer hospital stays than those in the other two groups (p<0.05). There were no significant differences in alcohol consumption, severity, or length of hospital stay in the AHAP group (p>0.05).
The clinical characteristics of patients in the AHAP, AAP and HLAP groups were different, and the patients in the AHAP group were more likely to have a moderate to severe disease course, with longer hospital stay. As a new AP classification concept, AHAP would offer high significance for diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis.
We report a case of mucormycosis induced by
spp. infection in a ten-year-old girl with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, who developed fever and respiratory symptoms after chemotherapy and was diagnosed ...with invasive fungal disease. Peripheral blood DNA sequences were analyzed using metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS), and by comparison with the Pathogens Metagenomics Database (PMDB), we identified
spp. with sequence number 514 as the pathogen. The patient was treated with amphotericin B combined with posaconazole and showed a favorable response. We searched Pubmed, Embase, CNKI, and Wanfang database for reports of cases of
spp. infection in children and retrieved 22 reported cases (including 12 males) with a median age of 13.5 (3-18) years. In these 22 cases, hematological malignancy was the most common underlying condition (19/22), and most of patients experienced an acute onset and rapid progression with respiratory symptoms (14/20) and fever (16/20) as the most common symptoms. CT imaging often show
Abstract
A Geant4-based simulation framework for rare event searching experiments with germanium detectors named SAGE is presented with details.
It is designed for simulating, assessing background ...distribution, and investigating the response of the germanium detectors.
The SAGE framework incorporates its experiment-specific geometries and custom attributes, including the event generators, physics lists and output format, to satisfy various simulation objectives.
Its docker image has been prepared for virtualizing and distributing the SAGE framework.
Deployment of a Geant4-based simulation will be convenient under this docker image.
The implemented geometries include p-type point contact and broad energy germanium detectors with environmental surroundings, and these hierarchical geometries can be easily extended.
Users select these custom attributes via the JSON configuration files.
The aforementioned attributes satisfy the simulation demands, and make SAGE a generic and powerful simulation framework for the CDEX experiment.
•Enhanced heat transfer in partitioned Rayleigh-Bénard convection (PRBC) is simulated.•Heat transfer in PRBC is enhanced by a laminar jet flow in the space between plates.•Thermosiphoning and RB ...convection jointly determine the convection flow of PRBC.•Optimal geometry for maximum heat transfer is predicted and validated by data.•Geometry-dependence of Nu is predicted by the model, useful for engineering design.
It was recently discovered that a partitioned Rayleigh-Bénard convection (PRBC) by vertical adiabatic boards leaving a narrow horizontal channel (HC) open between partition boards and the cooling/heating plates, may remarkably enhance the overall heat transfer (Bao et al., 2015). This phenomenon is thoroughly investigated by both numerical and analytic study. Numerically, we perform a series of two-dimensional (2-D) direct numerical simulations (DNS) of PRBC for the same set of Rayleigh and Prandtl numbers (Ra=1×108,Pr=0.7and5.3) and two aspect ratios (Γ=1 and 5). The DNS confirm that when the number of partition boards n is large enough, the flow in PRBC becomes coherent and laminar, and the wall jet in HC forms a thinner thermal boundary layer and hence enhances the heat flux from/to conducting plates. A thermosiphoning mode (TS-mode) is used to characterize this laminar forced convection state, which yields an analytic description of the relation between geometrical parameters and the heat transfer coefficient, including two asymptotes for small and large board-to-plate spacing d, where the Nusselt number (Nu) varies with d as d3 and d-1, respectively. The analytical model then predicts an optimal partition spacing maximizing the heat transport, in good agreement with the DNS. More interestingly, the model yields an optimal width of the vertical channel (VC) between two partition boards, in the range 0.01⩽s/H⩽1.00 for Γ=1, as also validated by DNS. For large VC width, we develop a convection-adaptive (CA) model describing the interplay between turbulent bulk flow in VC and the TS-mode, which yields a prediction of Nu in close agreement with DNS for a wide range of n (n=0–35 for Γ=5). Therefore, we have developed an analytic understanding of the PRBC enhanced heat transfer, which provides useful relations for engineering design in industrial applications.
Fusarium
sp. #ZZF51, mangrove endophytic fungus originated from South China Sea coast, was chemically modified by formaldehyde, methanol and acetic acid to enhance its affinity of uranium(VI) from ...waste water. The influencing factors about uranium(VI) adsorption such as contact time, solution pH, the ratio of solid/liquid (S/L) and initial uranium(VI) concentration were investigated, and the suitable adsorption isotherm and kinetic models were determined. In addition, the biosorption mechanism was also discussed by FTIR analysis. Experimental results show that the maximum biosorption capacity of formaldehyde-treated biomass for uranium(VI) at the optimized condition of pH 6.0, S/L 0.6 and equilibrium time 90 min is 318.04 mg g
−1
, and those of methanol-treated and HAc-treated biomass are 311.95 and 351.67 mg g
−1
at the same pH and S/L values but different equilibrium time of 60 and 90 min, respectively. Thus the maximum biosorption capacity of the three kind of modified biomass have greatly surpassed that of the raw biomass (21.42 mg g
−1
). The study of kinetic exhibits a high level of compliance with the
Lagergren’s
pseudo-second-order kinetic models. Langumir and Freundlich models have proved to be well able to explain the sorption equilibrium with the satisfactory correlation coefficients higher than 0.96. FTIR analysis reveals that the carboxyl, amino and hydroxyl groups on the cell wall of
Fusarium
sp. #ZZF51 play an important role in uranium(VI) biosorption process.
To analyse the clinical features and treatment strategies of papillary thyroid carcinoma(PTC) coexistent with lymphocytic thyroiditis (LT).
A total of 292 patients including 25 males and 267 females ...with LT and thyroid nodules treated in the department of head and neck surgery between Sep 2011 and Sep 2014 was analysed retrospectively and divided into two groups according to pathological results, of them 262 patients, with a median age of 47 years old, were LT with PTC and 30 patients, with a median age of 54 years old, were LT with benign nodules. Among 262 patients having LT with PTC, 259 were diagnosed as having malignant or suspicious malignant nodules and 3 having benign nodules with ultrasound before surgery, 98 cases were considered multifocal malignant nodules by preoperative ultrasound, and 112 cases were positive in cervical lymph nodes, including bilateral positive in 37 cases. Of 30 patients having LT with benign nodules, 14 were diagnosed malignant or suspicious malignant nodules and 16 benign no
Emerging evidence suggested that metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) was significantly associated with atherosclerotic diseases. Atherosclerosis in the peripheral arteries is ...the most common cause of peripheral arterial disease (PAD), which has not been substantially controlled in the past. We aimed to investigate the association between MAFLD and PAD in the Chinese population.
This observational study covered 102,115 participants who underwent health checkups with detailed examinations for PAD and MAFLD. PAD was measured by ankle-brachial index, and MAFLD was diagnosed by abdominal ultrasound. The generalized linear mixed models and random-effects Cox proportional hazards models were used to analyze the relationship between MAFLD and PAD.
The baseline characteristics showed that patients with MAFLD had higher prevalence of PAD compared with those without MAFLD (2.7% vs 2.2%). Compared to non-MAFLD, the individuals with MAFLD were associated with a higher risk of the presence of PAD (adjusted odds ratio: 1.30, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.19-1.42, P < 0.001). In the prospective cohort study, 6833 participants underwent a follow-up of 2.76 (standard deviation: 1.36) years, and MAFLD at baseline was a higher risk of associated with incident PAD (adjusted hazards ratio: 1.67, 95% CI: 1.17-2.38, P = 0.005). Moreover, with the accumulation of metabolic abnormalities, the risk of the PAD was increased in the individuals with MAFLD. Furthermore, MAFLD attributed risk of PAD was more evident in participants without metabolic comorbidities.
MAFLD was associated with a significantly higher risk for the prevalence and incidence of PAD in the Chinese population. The finding suggested that individuals with MAFLD are not only have a higher risk of coronary heart diseases but also have an increased risk of atherosclerosis in peripheral arteries.
A novel zinc-stabilized UV-Fenton reaction is created to decompose cellulose under mild, organic solvent-free conditions. Cellulose is successfully decomposed to form a valuable C2 chemical, namely ...glycolic acid. The zinc ion enhances the yield of glycolic acid via complexation. The whole process is simple, rapid and controllable. This method shows a great commercial potential due to its simplicity and mild reaction conditions.
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