Fertilizers are widely applied in agricultural practice to improve crop yield and quality.However, they can also alter the behavior of soil pollutants.A field experiment was conducted on a chernozem ...in Heilongjiang Province, China.Various proportions of inorganic nitrogen（N）, phosphorus（P）, and organic（manure） fertilizers were applied.Soil samples were collected four times over 2 years, and the total concentrations and speciation of chromium（Cr） and cadmium（Cd） were analyzed.Inorganic fertilizer addition had little effect on the total concentration of Cr and Cd, while organic fertilizer addition reduced the total concentrations of both Cr and Cd.Inorganic fertilizers increased the concentration of Cr in the exchangeable form, but decreased that of the residual form（P 〈 0.05）.Addition of inorganic or organic fertilizer alone decreased concentrations of exchangeable Cd（P 〈 0.05）, but the combination of inorganic and organic fertilizers had the opposite effect.High concentration of total Cd exceeding the upper limits of the Environmental Quality Standard for Soils proposed by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China could result in an environmental risk, and fertilizer application could lower that risk.Results of risk assessment code calculated as the percentage of the sum of metal concentrations in the exchangeable and carbonate-associated form in total metal concentration showed that Cr and Cd risks were lowered when organic fertilizer was applied alone or in combination with inorganic fertilizers.Our study highlighted that organic fertilizer should be applied alone or in combination with inorganic fertilizers to lower the environmental risks of Cr and Cd pollution in the chernozem.
Primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) is a rare form of extranodal non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and a limited number of cases have been reported from China. This study aimed to investigate the ...clinicopathological features of newly diagnosed PCNSLs from a single center in eastern China and to identify the potential prognostic factors for overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). All consecutive patients with histopathologically diagnosed PCNSLs at our center between January 2003 and October 2017 were recruited. Demographic and clinicopathological data were collected and reviewed retrospectively. The potential risk factors for OS and PFS were identified using the log-rank test and Cox regression analysis. A total of 167 immunocompetent cases were enrolled. The median age was 58 years (range 17–96 years), and the male:female ratio was 3:2. Headache (
n
= 65; 39%) and cerebral hemisphere (
n
= 96; 57%) were the most common presenting complaint and location, respectively. Out of 167 cases, 150 cases were diffuse large B cell lymphomas. With a median follow-up of 25 months (range 1–152 ), the median OS and PFS were 37 months (95% CI, 25–49) and 17 months (95% CI, 13–20), respectively. Residual tumor after operation, chemotherapy without HD-MTX and palliative treatment was revealed as independent prognostic markers. Moreover, ECOG > 3, multifocal lesions, and palliative treatment were revealed as unfavorable independent prognostic markers for PFS. In conclusion, Chinese patients with PCNSL have distinct characteristics. Further studies are warranted to confirm the prognostic value of these factors and to optimize treatments for these patients.
To evaluate the diagnostic value of T-cells enzyme linked immunospot (TSPOT.TB) in the children with tuberculosis.
The clinical data was retrieved from 2 348 children who underwent TSPOT.TB test in ...the Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University from January 2017 to December 2017. The diagnostic value of TSPOT.TB in the children with tuberculosis was analyzed.
In the diagnosis of children tuberculosis, the sensitivity of TSPOT.TB was 84.0%, the specificity was 99.1%, the positive predictive value was 93.1%, and the negative predictive value was 97.8%. To the area under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of TSPOT.TB, the area under the curve (
) value of A antigen and B antigen were 0.893 and 0.883, respectively (
<0.05). When the number of A or B antigens was less than 50， the sensitivity was increased with the increase of puncture number, but there was no clear linear relationship. TSPOT.TB had a highly sensitivity to childhood tuberculosis when the number of A or B antigens was greater th
Chidamide, a novel histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, induces antitumor effects in various types of cancer. The present study aimed to evaluate the cytotoxic effect of chidamide on multiple ...myeloma and the underlying mechanisms involved. Viability of multiple myeloma cells upon chidamide treatment was determined by the Cell Counting Kit-8 assay. Apoptosis induction and cell cycle alteration were detected by flow cytometry. Specific apoptosis-associated proteins and cell cycle proteins were evaluated by western blot analysis. Chidamide suppressed cell viability in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Chidamide treatment markedly suppressed the expression of type I HDACs and further induced the acetylation of histones H3 and H4. In addition, it promoted G
/G
arrest by decreasing cyclin D1 and c-myc expression, and increasing phosphorylated-cellular tumor antigen p53 and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1 (p21) expression in a dose-dependent manner. Treatment with chidamide induced cell apoptosis by upregulating the apoptosis regulator Bax/B-cell lymphoma 2 ratio in a caspase-dependent manner. In addition, the combination of chidamide with bortezomib, a proteasome inhibitor widely used as a therapeutic agent for multiple myeloma, resulted in enhanced inhibition of cell viability. In conclusion, chidamide induces a marked antimyeloma effect by inducing G
/G
arrest and apoptosis via a caspase-dependent pathway. The present study provides evidence for the clinical application of chidamide in multiple myeloma.
Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common congenital birth defect, with a prevalence of 8.98‰ of all live births in China. PTPN11 has been known to be closely involved in heart developments. ...In this research, we carried out whole-exome sequencing in nine CHD families and identified eight rare deleterious missense variants of PTPN11 gene in nine probands by stringently filtering criteria. Sanger sequencing of these probands and their unaffected familiar members revealed that six damaging variants were de novo in seven CHD families. Then, targeted sequencing was used to assess the PTPN11 exon variants in 672 sporadic CHD cases and 399 unrelated controls and identified 7 deleterious missense variants in 8 patients. Fisher’s exact test reveals a significant association of PTPN11 variations with CHD (P=0.0289). We observed the distribution of different subtypes in CHD patients with PTPN11 variants and found atrial septal defect (ASD) is a prominent phenotype (58.8%, 10/17). In vitro functional assays revealed that the predicted PTPN11 variants disturb RAS-mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling activity by influencing the phosphorylation level of pathway proteins and increasing the proliferation and migration abilities of cardiomyocytes to different extents. Our findings demonstrated that PTPN11 variants were associated with increased risk of CHD development and may be served as an important susceptible genetic event for CHD, especially the ASD subphenotype.
A series of multifunctional 3-piperazinecarboxylate sarsasapogenin derivatives were designed and synthesized against Alzheimer's disease (AD). The protection against H2O2-triggered oxidative stress ...in PC12 cells, and inhibition on LPS-induced NO production in RAW264.7 cell lines in vitro by these derivatives were firstly evaluated. Most of the compounds showed better antioxidant and antiinflammatory activities compared with sarsasapogenin, especially AA34 and AA36. Structure-activity relationships revealed that benzyl group, electron-donating group and intramolecular hydrogen bond might be beneficial to enhancing their neuroprotective activities. Moreover, Aβ42 was the optimum predicted target based on the high 3D molecular similarity between compound AA36 and caprospinol. In the following experiments, AA36 significantly protected PC12 cells from Aβ-induced damage and improved learning and memory impairments in Aβ-injected mice. Thus AA36 is regarded as a potent anti-AD agent and N-substituted piperazinecarboxylate can be served as a promising structural unit for anti-AD drug design.
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•Design and synthesis of 3-Piperazinecarboxylate sarsasapogenin derivatives.•Biological evaluation and structure-activity relationships of these compounds.•Binding interactions between compound AA36 and Aβ42 predicted by molecular docking.•AA36 possesses antioxidant, antiinflammatory and anti-Aβ aggregation activities.•N-substituted piperazinecarboxylate is a promising structure in neuroprotection.
Halogen bonds, which are specific non-covalent interactions similar to hydrogen bonds, play crucial roles in fields as diverse as supramolecular assemblies, crystal engineering, and biological ...systems. A total of 108 halogen-bonded and hydrogen-bonded complexes formed by different electron acceptors and NH 3 , namely, R–A⋯NH 3 (A = H, Cl, Br or I), have been investigated at the MP2(full)/aug-cc-pVDZ(-PP) level of theory. The relationships between the interaction strengths and various geometric and electronic structures, as well as topological properties, were established, with a particular focus on the uniformity of these two types of interaction. The dependence of the BSSE-corrected interaction energy (Δ E cor ) on the interatomic distance ( r A⋯N ) appeared to be nonlinear for both halogen-bonded and hydrogen-bonded systems; the relationship between Δ E cor and the difference between r A⋯N and the sum of the van der Waals radii (Δ r A⋯N ) can be fitted to a combined quadratic regression equation. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the linear correlations between Δ E cor and ρ b (BCP) (the electron density at bond critical points in the A⋯N bond) and its Laplacian ∇ 2 ρ b (BCP) can be used to provide a combined description of hydrogen bonds and halogen bonds, with correlation coefficients of 0.964 and 0.956, respectively. The dependence of the interaction strength on the electrostatic potential corresponding to an electron density of 0.002 a.u. along the R–A bond vector (ESP 0.002 ), the amount of charge transferred ( Q CT ) and the second-order perturbation stabilization energies of n (NH 3 ) → σ*(R–A) ( E (2) ) were also examined. Strong halogen-bonded complexes were found to exhibit different linear correlations from weak halogen-bonded and hydrogen-bonded systems. Nevertheless, for the latter two types of system, a uniform regression equation can be constructed. These relationships not only improve our understanding of the nature of halogen bonding but also provide a feasible approach for predicting or determining the relative strengths of hydrogen bonds and halogen bonds, in particular when both types of non-covalent interaction coexist and compete with each other.
In this study, we propose a compact four-channel angular-multiplexing polarisation holographic microscope to quantify the spatially resolved Jones matrix of a dynamic sample in a microfluidic ...channel. To make the imaging system compact, a common-path off-axis configuration based on a simple object and a reference beam generator unit, consisting of a Wollaston prism and a converging lens, was introduced in the holographic microscope. Using this system and the retrieval method described in this paper, the spatially resolved Jones matrix parameters, as well as the polarisation information, including the diattenuation and phase retardation, of the target sample could be simultaneously retrieved from a single-shot hologram. We experimentally demonstrated the feasibility of our method by quantitatively measuring the birefringence parameters of a quarter-wave plate and extracting the 2-D Jones matrix and polarisation parameters of potato starch particles and C. elegans worms. The simple optical structure and common-path design reduce the system requirements for light source coherence and system stability, which provides a feasible approach for the development of a portable polarisation holographic microscope for microfluidics.
•A compact four-channels polarisation holographic microscope for microfluidics was presented.•A common path off-axis interferometer configuration was used to reduce the system stability.•The 2-D Jones matrix of dynamic samples were retrieved in one-shot measurement.•The maps of Mueller matrix, the diattenuation and the phase retardation were also obtained.
Metastasis is the main cause of mortality in patients with cancer. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a crucial process in cancer metastasis, is an established target for antimetastatic drug ...development. LFG-500, a novel synthetic flavonoid, has been revealed as a potential antitumor agent owing to its various activities, including modulation of EMT in the inflammatory microenvironment. Here, using a transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β)-induced EMT models, we found that LFG-500 inhibited EMT-associated migration and invasion in human breast cancer, MCF-7, and lung adenocarcinoma, A549, cell lines, consistent with the observed downregulation of YAP activity. Further studies demonstrated that LGF-500-induced suppression of YAP activation was mediated by integrin-linked kinase (ILK), suggesting that the ILK/YAP axis might be feasible target for anti-EMT and antimetastatic treatments, which was verified by a correlation analysis with clinical data and tumor specimens. Hence, our data support the use of LGF-500 as an antimetastatic drug in cancer therapy and provide evidence that the ILK/YAP axis is a feasible biomarker of cancer progression and a promising target for repression of EMT and metastasis in cancer therapy.
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•Fourteen smilagenin derivatives were designed and synthesized.•Three cell models were investigated to evaluate the neuroprotective activity.•Compound A12 showed better activity in ...all three cell models.
Studies indicated that smilagenin, isolated from Anemarrhena asphodeloides Bunge, could improve cognitive impairment and exhibit neuroprotective activity. On the basis of the structure of smilagenin, a series of derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their neuroprotective effects of H2O2-induced, oxygen glucose deprivation-induced neurotoxicity in SH-SY5Y cells and LPS-induced NO production in RAW264.7 cells. Structure activity relationship of derivatives revealed that benzyl-substituted piperazine formate derivatives showed the potent neuroprotective activity such as A12. These findings may provide new insights for the development of neuroprotective agents against Alzheimer’s disease.
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