Background and Purpose
Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a common acute abdominal condition, frequently associated with intestinal barrier dysfunction, which aggravates AP retroactively. Butyrate exhibits ...anti‐inflammatory effects in a variety of inflammatory diseases. However, its potential beneficial effect on AP and the underlying mechanisms have not been investigated.
Experimental Approach
Experimental AP was induced by caerulein hyperstimulation in wild‐type and GPR109A−/− mice. Sodium butyrate was administered intragastrically for 7 days prior to caerulein hyperstimulation. Anti‐inflammatory mechanisms of butyrate were further investigated in peritoneal macrophages.
Key Results
Butyrate prophylaxis attenuated AP as shown by reduced serum amylase and lipase levels, pancreatic oedema, myeloperoxidase activity, and improved pancreatic morphology. Amelioration of pancreatic damage by butyrate was associated with reduced levels of TNF‐α, IL‐6, and CCL2 and suppressed activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome in both pancreas and colon. Further, butyrate ameliorated pancreatic inflammation by suppressing interactions between histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1) and AP1 and STAT1 with increased histone acetylation at H3K9, H3K14, H3K18, and H3K27 loci, resulting in suppression of NLRP3 inflammasome activation and modulation of immune cell infiltration in pancreas. Additionally, butyrate mediated STAT1/AP1‐NLRP3 inflammasome suppression via HDAC1 inhibition was demonstrated in peritoneal macrophage. In colon, butyrate inhibited NLRP3 inflammasome activation via GPR109A. Accordingly, the modulatory effects of butyrate on AP, AP‐associated gut dysfunction, and NLRP3 inflammasome activation were diminished in GPR109A−/− mice.
Conclusion and Implications
Our study dissected tissue‐specific anti‐inflammatory mechanisms of butyrate during AP, suggesting that increased colonic levels of butyrate may be a strategy to protect against AP.
Photocatalytic conversion of CO2 into value-added chemicals based on semiconductor catalysts is considered a promising approach to simultaneously address the energy and environmental crises. Here, ...recent progress on zinc chalcogenide-based nanocatalysts for CO2 photoreduction is highlighted, including ZnO, ZnS, ZnSe, ZnTe, and related composite catalysts. The fundamentals of zinc chalcogenides and basic principle of photocatalytic CO2 reduction are first discussed briefly. The major focus of this review is on various approaches that are used to improve the photocatalytic performance, such as microstructure modulation (tuning the particle size and morphology, defect engineering, and crystal facet engineering), surface functionalization, formation of ternary zinc chalcogenides, heterojunction construction, and hybridization with molecular catalysts. Finally, the challenges and perspectives are also presented. We envision that this review can help in rational design of zinc chalcogenide-based nanocatalysts with high activity and selectivity for CO2 photoreduction.
The use of neutral nickel catalysts for olefin homo- and copolymerization is examined. The impact of hydrong bonds in salicylaldiminato nickel catalysts on ethylene formation is also elucidated.
Identification of grain shape determining genes can facilitate breeding of rice cultivars with optimal grain shape and appearance quality. Here, we identify GS9 (Grain Shape Gene on Chromosome 9) ...gene by map-based cloning. The gs9 null mutant has slender grains, while overexpression GS9 results in round grains. GS9 encodes a protein without known conserved functional domain. It regulates grain shape by altering cell division. The interaction of GS9 and ovate family proteins OsOFP14 and OsOFP8 is modulated by OsGSK2 kinase, a key regulator of the brassinosteroids signaling pathway. Genetic interaction analysis reveals that GS9 functions independently from other previously identified grain size genes. Introducing the gs9 allele into elite rice cultivars significantly improves grain shape and appearance quality. It suggests potential application of gs9, alone or in combination with other grain size determining genes, in breeding of rice varieties with optimized grain shape.
Earthquake prediction is a very important problem in seismology, the success of which can potentially save many human lives. Various kinds of technologies have been proposed to address this problem, ...such as mathematical analysis, machine learning algorithms like decision trees and support vector machines, and precursors signal study. Unfortunately, they usually do not have very good results due to the seemingly dynamic and unpredictable nature of earthquakes. In contrast, we notice that earthquakes are spatially and temporally correlated because of the crust movement. Therefore, earthquake prediction for a particular location should not be conducted only based on the history data in that location, but according to the history data in a larger area. In this paper, we employ a deep learning technique called long short-term memory (LSTM) networks to learn the spatio-temporal relationship among earthquakes in different locations and make predictions by taking advantage of that relationship. Simulation results show that the LSTM network with two-dimensional input developed in this paper is able to discover and exploit the spatio-temporal correlations among earthquakes to make better predictions than before.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), comprised of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, is a chronic relapsing inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract that closely related to immune ...dysfunction. Macrophages are the key gatekeeper of intestinal immune homeostasis and have vital influence on IBD. Hence, macrophages have been recognized as attractive targets to develop new therapeutic approaches for the disease. Recently, the growing field of immunometabolism has reinforced that metabolism reprogramming is a key determinant that dictates macrophage functions and subsequent disease progression. Herein, we elaborated how metabolic alterations underlie intestinal macrophage phenotype and function during IBD, and how microenvironmental cues trigger their metabolic reprogramming processes. More importantly, we deciphered the distinguishing characteristic of macrophage immunometabolism in IBD from other inflammatory diseases, and also summarized potential therapeutic approaches for IBD by manipulating cellular metabolism of macrophages. Finally, we discussed the major opportunities and challenges of harnessing metabolism to modulate aberrant macrophage responses in IBD. Altogether, our overview provides a framework for understanding the critical roles and potential therapeutic targets of macrophage immunometabolism in IBD.
CO2 capture via solid adsorption technology relies on the development of low-cost and high-performance new solid adsorbents. The robust and large-scale produced hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) porous ...materials are an ideal candidate but present low CO2 adsorption properties. Here, we report that in situ carbon doping of BN materials (BCN) can be facilely controlled by thermal annealing of boric acid and melamine mixtures in various atmospheres. CO2 uptake of the BCN materials is in the range of 3.74–3.91 mmol CO2 g−1 (165–172 mg CO2 g−1) at 298 K and ambient pressure, whereas it is only 1.16–1.66 mmol CO2 g−1 (53.0–73.1 mg CO2 g−1) over the pure BN materials. The separation coefficient between CO2 and N2 is up to 74 and no decrease in the adsorption performance was observed after nine adsorption/desorption cycles. The BCN material presents the best performance among known BN-based sorbents, which is comparable to many excellent carbon materials. Detailed characterization reveals that the incorporation of carbon into the BN matrix increases the density of ultramicropores (<0.7 nm) and chemical defects, consequently enhancing the CO2 adsorption capacity and the selectivity over N2 molecules.
Scanning the Literature Li, Pan
IEEE wireless communications,
2019-October, 2019-10-00, 20191001, Letnik:
26, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Summary form only. Provides an overview and summary of the technical articles and features of interest to readers that appear in select Communications Society publications.
Rhodomyrtusials A–C, the first examples of triketone‐sesquiterpene meroterpenoids featuring a unique 6/5/5/9/4 fused pentacyclic ring system were isolated from Rhodomyrtus tomentosa, along with ...several biogenetically‐related dihydropyran isomers. Two bis‐furans and one dihydropyran isomer showed acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitory activity. Structures of the isolates were unambiguously established by a combination of spectroscopic data, ECD analysis, and total synthesis. Bioinspired total syntheses of six isolates were achieved in six steps utilizing a reactive enetrione intermediate generated in situ from a readily available hydroxy‐endoperoxide precursor.
Novel meroterpenoids were isolated from R. tomentosa and characterized, and led to a hypothesis for their biosynthesis. In situ generation of a reactive enetrione in the presence of the sesquiterpene caryophyllene led to efficient chemical syntheses of four of the five meroterpenoids, as well as two biogenetically related cycloadducts, in a biomimetic, six‐step sequence. Further evaluation of alkene reaction partners identified additional modes of reactivity for the enetrione.
The effects of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) on the risk of COVID-19 infection and disease progression are yet to be investigated. The ...relationship between ACEI/ARB use and COVID-19 infection was systematically reviewed. To identify relevant studies that met predetermined inclusion criteria, unrestricted searches of the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases were conducted. The search strategy included clinical date published until May 9, 2020. Twelve articles involving more than 19,000 COVID-19 cases were included. To estimate overall risk, random-effects models were adopted. Our results showed that ACEI/ARB exposure was not associated with a higher risk of COVID-19 infection (OR = 0.99; 95 % CI, 0–1.04; P = 0.672). Among those with COVID-19 infection, ACEI/ARB exposure was also not associated with a higher risk of having severe infection (OR = 0.98; 95 % CI, 0.87–1.09; P = 0.69) or mortality (OR = 0.73, 95 %CI, 0.5–1.07; P = 0.111). However, ACEI/ARB exposure was associated with a lower risk of mortality compared to those on non-ACEI/ARB antihypertensive drugs (OR = 0.48, 95 % CI, 0.29−0.81; P = 0.006). In conclusion, current evidence did not confirm the concern that ACEI/ARB exposure is harmful in patientswith COVID-19 infection. This study supports the current guidelines that discourage discontinuation of ACEIs or ARBs in COVID-19 patients and the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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