With the coming of the era of the aging population, hypertension has become a global health burden to be dealt with. Although there are multiple drugs and procedures to control the symptoms of ...hypertension, the management of it is still a long-term process, and the side effects of conventional drugs pose a burden on patients. Flavonoids, common compounds found in fruits and vegetables as secondary metabolites, are active components in Chinese Herbal Medicine. The flavonoids are proved to have cardiovascular benefits based on a plethora of animal experiments over the last decade. Thus, the flavonoids or flavonoid-rich plant extracts endowed with anti-hypertension activities and probable mechanisms were reviewed. It has been found that flavonoids may affect blood pressure in various ways. Moreover, despite the substantial evidence of the potential for flavonoids in the control of hypertension, it is not sufficient to support the clinical application of flavonoids as an adjuvant or core drug. So the synergistic effects of flavonoids with other drugs, pharmacokinetic studies, clinical trials and the safety of flavonoids are also incorporated in the discussion. It is believed that more breakthrough studies are needed. Overall, this review may shed some new light on the explicit recognition of the mechanisms of anti-hypertension actions of flavonoids, pointing out the limitations of relevant research at the current stage and the aspects that should be strengthened in future researches.
Display omitted
Multiple sclerosis (MS), a common neurodegenerative disease of the CNS, is characterized by the loss of oligodendrocytes and demyelination. Tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), a proinflammatory cytokine ...implicated in MS, can activate necroptosis, a necrotic cell death pathway regulated by RIPK1 and RIPK3 under caspase-8-deficient conditions. Here, we demonstrate defective caspase-8 activation, as well as activation of RIPK1, RIPK3, and MLKL, the hallmark mediators of necroptosis, in the cortical lesions of human MS pathological samples. Furthermore, we show that MS pathological samples are characterized by an increased insoluble proteome in common with other neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and Huntington’s disease (HD). Finally, we show that necroptosis mediates oligodendrocyte degeneration induced by TNF-α and that inhibition of RIPK1 protects against oligodendrocyte cell death in two animal models of MS and in culture. Our findings demonstrate that necroptosis is involved in MS and suggest that targeting RIPK1 may represent a therapeutic strategy for MS.
Display omitted
•Caspase-8 activation is defective in pathological samples from MS patients•Insoluble aggregates of RIPK1 and RIPK3 form in human MS cortical lesions•The RIPK1 kinase inhibitor 7N-1 blocks demyelination induced by cuprizone and EAE
Using both animal models and human tissue, Ofengeim et al. provide evidence for the involvement of RIPK1 and necroptosis in mediating the deleterious processes in multiple sclerosis (MS) and provide a link between this disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Maintaining and caring for residential landscapes is a crucial aspect of homeownership in the United States. For homeowners in the United States, residential lawns represent a significant economic ...investment, signal their social commitments, and reflect their personal characters. To investigate the differences in Florida homeowners’ priorities regarding residential landscape features, an online survey of 1220 homeowners was conducted. Four different groups of homeowners were identified based on their perceived importance of the four landscape features, namely, environmental, financial, aesthetic, and psychological benefits. Factors such as environmental and financial attitudes and social norms influencing homeowners’ decision-making were examined. The findings revealed that homeowners’ knowledge of landscaping practices and environmental attitudes impact their prioritization regarding landscape features.
The long-lived proteome constitutes a pool of exceptionally stable proteins with limited turnover. Previous studies on ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation primarily focused on relatively ...short-lived proteins; how ubiquitylation modifies the long-lived proteome and its regulatory effect on adult lifespan is unclear. Here we profile the age-dependent dynamics of long-lived proteomes in Drosophila by mass spectrometry using stable isotope switching coupled with antibody-enriched ubiquitylome analysis. Our data describe landscapes of long-lived proteins in somatic and reproductive tissues of Drosophila during adult lifespan, and reveal a preferential ubiquitylation of older long-lived proteins. We identify an age-modulated increase of ubiquitylation on long-lived histone 2A protein in Drosophila, which is evolutionarily conserved in mouse, monkey, and human. A reduction of ubiquitylated histone 2A in mutant flies is associated with longevity and healthy lifespan. Together, our data reveal an evolutionarily conserved biomarker of aging that links epigenetic modulation of the long-lived histone protein to lifespan.
Decoding protein C-termini is a challenging task in protein chemistry using conventional chemical and enzymatic approaches. With the rapid development in modern mass spectrometer, many advanced mass ...spectrometry (MS)-based protein C-termini analysis approaches have been established. Although great progress is being continually achieved, it is still necessary to develop more efficient approaches in order to discover a proteome-scale protein C-termini (C-terminome) and consequently to help understand their biological functions. In this report, we describe the BaSCX method, for basic strong cation exchange chromatography, for C-terminome studies. Taking advantage of carboxylic amidation, LysargiNase digestion, and optimized search parameters, BaSCX enables identification of 1806 and 1812 database-annotated human protein C-termini from HeLa and 293T cells, resepctively, by triplicate experiments using 40 μg proteins each. Combined together, 2151 human protein C-termini, nearly three times the recently reported largest human C-terminome data set, are reported in this study. Similar results were acquired in different organisms, including mice, C. elegans, and tomatoes. Furthermore, we report for the first time the discovery of C-terminal-specific modifications using a proteomic approach, including three methyl-esterified protein C-termini and 16 α-amidated protein C-termini, demonstrating the excellent performance and great potential of BaSCX in C-terminomic studies. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD016317.
Although live streaming commerce (LSC) has become a daily phenomenon in the digital economy, its spatial impact is still not yet fully understood. LSC is typical online-offline producer-customer ...intermediation type of the platform urbanism. Based on unique data from Huitun on the LSC activities in Taobao (Alibaba), we trace how digital streamers/platform with their own geographies connect suppliers with customers from different regions. Most digital streamers are located in urban areas, so they form a kind of urban intermediation among different regions. We argue that digital streamers, product suppliers, and customers form new urban systems because of their relational work and intermediation. We also show how intermediary cities emerge and change their positions in the new urban system. We demonstrate that retail is no longer based on the traditional service radius within a city but on a function of the intermediation of customers and suppliers from different regions. Finally, we provide evidence indicating that market access, transport infrastructure, and market consumption capacity are important factors that help explain such positions.
•Digital platform is reshaping the commercial pattern; LSC is an online-offline producer-consumer intermediation.•Hybrid actors in LSC influence structure of urban systems due to their relationship and intermediation.•Intermediary cities emerge in LSC urban system and help the peripheral cities to realize position upgrade and development.•Retail is no longer based on the traditional service radius but on a function of inter-regional intermediation.
State and local governments have implemented voluntary and mandatory programs to conserve and protect natural resources in and around urban developments. Even though the long-term environmental ...benefits are apparent, convincing homeowners to adopt sustainable landscapes with less water and chemical use is challenging. An important consideration from the successful policy implementation point of view is that homeowners have different environmental attitudes, which can be the determining factor that influences their adoption intentions of sustainable landscaping practices. This study assesses whether homeowners’ environmental attitude is a statistically significant predictor of sustainable landscape adoption intention. Moreover, homeowners’ perception of the effectiveness of the voluntary environmental programs may be influenced by their environmental attitudes and impose mediating effects on sustainable landscape adoption intentions. We also examine whether homeowners’ perceived effectiveness of voluntary environmental programs has a mediating effect on the adoption decision. The Value-Belief-Norm hierarchical model framework is utilized to examine both effects. The results revealed that homeowners’ pro-environmental attitudes influence their perceived effectiveness of voluntary programs and their sustainable landscape adoption intentions. The combined influence accounts for 13.6% of homeowners’ adoption intention. Homeowners’ personal norms also affect their perceived effectiveness of voluntary programs (9% variance explained), and the mediating effect of the perceived effectiveness of voluntary programs has an amplifying effect and positively influences the adoption intention. The implications for policymakers in the realm of landscape conservation programs are discussed.
Smart irrigation systems are relatively new technologies that optimize irrigation schedules in residential landscapes, thus leading to reduced irrigation water use and potential contamination. To ...promote the use of such technologies, the landscape services industry has introduced innovative features such as the integration of local weather data into irrigation controller systems or mobile phone control and alert notifications that help to facilitate usability and prevent over-irrigation. Very few studies have addressed homeowners’ preferences for outdoor irrigation technologies. This study investigates homeowners’ preferences for smart irrigation systems for residential landscapes. We utilized online survey data to examine how homeowners’ knowledge and perceptions influence their preferences for specific features such as automatic failure alert and notifications, mobile control, integration with weather-based and soil-moisture sensor-based irrigation, home automation, and touchscreen displays. Results estimated by the rank-ordered logit model revealed that knowledge and perceptions of smart irrigation controllers are significantly correlated with homeowners’ preferences for water efficiency features. The results offer practical implications for policymakers and the residential irrigation industry as they develop and promote smart irrigation technologies to conserve water resources.
State and local governments develop policies that promote environmentally friendly landscaping practices with the goal to mitigate adverse environmental impacts from heavily maintained residential ...lawns. One of the mechanisms to achieve low-input landscaping practices in the urban environment is to promote the conversion of monoculture turfgrass lawns into partial turfgrass, low-input landscapes. Rebate incentives are used as an instrument to encourage the adoption of such landscapes. This study investigates the effects of households’ monetary incentive requirement on households’ preferences and willingness to pay for low-input landscapes. The discrete choice experiment method was used to analyze responses from households categorized into low, medium, and high incentive requirement groups. The results show that rebate incentives may have significant positive effects on individuals’ intentions to adopt low-input landscapes. Participants with low incentive requirement were willing to pay more for environmentally friendly attributes, compared with their counterparts in the medium and high incentive requirement groups. Practical implications for relevant stakeholders are discussed.
Musk, the dried secretion from the musk sac gland which is located between the navel and genitals of mature male musk deer, is utilized as oriental medicine in east Asia. It has been utilized to ...treat conditions such as stroke, coma, neurasthenia, convulsions, and heart diseases in China since ancient times. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of musk in zoology, chemical composition, pharmacology, clinical applications, and quality control according to the up-to-date literature. Studies found that musk mainly contains macrocyclic ketones, pyridine, steroids, fatty acids, amino acids, peptides, and proteins, whilst the main active ingredient is muscone. Modern pharmacological studies have proven that musk possesses potent anti-inflammatory effects, neuroprotective effects, anti-cancer effects, antioxidant effects, etc. Moreover, muscone, the main active ingredient, possesses anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, antioxidant, and other pharmacological effects. In the quality control of musk, muscone is usually the main detection indicator, and the common analytical method is GC, and researchers have established novel and convenient methods such as HPLC-RI, RP-UPLC-ELSD, and Single-Sweep Polarography. In addition, quality evaluation methods based on steroids and the bioactivity of musk have been established. As for the identification of musk, due to various objective factors such as the availability of synthetic Muscone, it is not sufficient to rely on muscone alone as an identification index. To date, some novel technologies have also been introduced into the identification of musk, such as the electronic nose and DNA barcoding technology. In future research, more in vivo experiments and clinical studies are encouraged to fully explain the pharmacological effects and toxicity of musk, and more comprehensive methods are needed to evaluate and control the quality of musk. Keywords: Musk, Muscone, Pharmacology, Quality control
PDF
