Until now there has been no fundamental theory applicable for biodegradable metals (BMs). First, this paper optimizes the definition of BMs given in 2014. Second, the dual criteria of ...biodegradability and biocompatibility are proposed for BMs, and all metallic elements in the periodic table with accessible data are screened on the basis of these criteria. Regarding biodegradability, electrode potential, reactivity series, galvanic series, Pilling–Bedworth ratio, and Pourbaix diagrams are all adopted as parameters to classify the degradable and nondegradable nature of a material, especially in a physiological environment. Considering the biocompatibility at different levels, cellular biocompatibility, tissue biocompatibility, and human/clinical related biocompatibility parameters are put forward to comprehensively evaluate the biosafety of BMs. Third, for the material design of BMs, mechanical properties, chemical properties, physical properties and biological properties should be considered and balanced to guarantee that the degradation behavior of BMs match well with a tissue regeneration/repair procedure as the function of time and spatial location. Besides the selected metallic elements, some nonmetallic elements are selected as suitable alloying elements for BMs. Finally, five classification/research directions for future BMs are proposed: biodegradable pure metals, crystalline alloys, bulk metallic glasses, high entropy alloys, and metal matrix composites.
The fundamental theory of biodegradable metals are clarified in this review article, with the definition of biodegradable metals, biodegradability, and biocompatibility dual criteria for metallic elements in the periodic table being regarded as biodegradable metals. Key properties needed to be considered for materials design of biodegradable metals and future research and development directions for biodegradable metals are proposed.
Cancer remains one of the most lethal diseases worldwide. There is an urgent need for new drugs with novel modes of action and thus considerable research has been conducted for new anticancer drugs ...from natural sources, especially plants, microbes and marine organisms. Marine populations represent reservoirs of novel bioactive metabolites with diverse groups of chemical structures. This review highlights the impact of marine organisms, with particular emphasis on marine plants, algae, bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, sponges and soft corals. Anti-cancer effects of marine natural products in in vitro and in vivo studies were first introduced; their activity in the prevention of tumor formation and the related compound-induced apoptosis and cytotoxicities were tackled. The possible molecular mechanisms behind the biological effects are also presented. The review highlights the diversity of marine organisms, novel chemical structures, and chemical property space. Finally, therapeutic strategies and the present use of marine-derived components, its future direction and limitations are discussed.
Deposition of H2A.Z in chromatin is known to be mediated by a conserved SWR1 chromatin‐remodeling complex in eukaryotes. However, little is known about whether and how the SWR1 complex cooperates ...with other chromatin regulators. Using immunoprecipitation followed by mass spectrometry, we found all known components of the Arabidopsis thaliana SWR1 complex and additionally identified the following three classes of previously uncharacterized plant‐specific SWR1 components: MBD9, a methyl‐CpG‐binding domain‐containing protein; CHR11 and CHR17 (CHR11/17), ISWI chromatin remodelers responsible for nucleosome sliding; and TRA1a and TRA1b, accessory subunits of the conserved NuA4 histone acetyltransferase complex. MBD9 directly interacts with CHR11/17 and the SWR1 catalytic subunit PIE1, and is responsible for the association of CHR11/17 with the SWR1 complex. MBD9, TRA1a, and TRA1b function as canonical components of the SWR1 complex to mediate H2A.Z deposition. CHR11/17 are not only responsible for nucleosome sliding but also involved in H2A.Z deposition. These results indicate that the association of the SWR1 complex with CHR11/17 may facilitate the coupling of H2A.Z deposition with nucleosome sliding, thereby co‐regulating gene expression, development, and flowering time.
Synopsis
Cooperation of the SWR1 remodeler, responsible for histone H2A.Z deposition, with other chromatin regulators is incompletely understood. Here, proteomic identification of plant SWR1 complex components reveals its coupling to nucleosome sliding activities.
Characterization of the Arabidopsis SWR1 complex identifies CHR11, CHR17, TRA1A, TRA1B, and MBD9 as plant‐specific components.
ISWI remodeler catalytic subunits CHR11 and CHR17 associate with the SWR1 complex to couple nucleosome sliding and H2A.Z deposition.
MBD9 bridges CHR11 and CHR17 to the core SWR1 complex.
Together with other SWR1 components, MBD9 and CHR11/17 co‐regulate gene expression, development, and flowering time.
Proteomic analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana SWR1 complex components implicates nucleosome‐sliding ISWI remodeler subunits CHR11 and CHR17 also in histone deposition.
Lipid accumulation in renal cells has been implicated in the pathogenesis of obesity-related kidney disease, and lipotoxicity in the kidney can be a surrogate marker for renal failure or renal ...fibrosis. Fatty acid oxidation provides energy to renal tubular cells. Ca
is required for mitochondrial ATP production and to decrease reactive oxygen species (ROS). However, how nifedipine (a calcium channel blocker) affects lipogenesis is unknown. We utilized rat NRK52E cells pre-treated with varying concentrations of nifedipine to examine the activity of lipogenesis enzymes and lipotoxicity. A positive control exposed to oleic acid was used for comparison. Nifedipine was found to activate acetyl Coenzyme A (CoA) synthetase, acetyl CoA carboxylase, long chain fatty acyl CoA elongase, ATP-citrate lyase, and 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG CoA) reductase, suggesting elevated production of cholesterol and phospholipids. Nifedipine exposure induced a vast accumulation of cytosolic free fatty acids (FFA) and stimulated the production of reactive oxygen species, upregulated CD36 and KIM-1 (kidney injury molecule-1) expression, inhibited p-AMPK activity, and triggered the expression of SREBP-1/2 and lipin-1, underscoring the potential of nifedipine to induce lipotoxicity with renal damage. To our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating nifedipine-induced lipid accumulation in the kidney.
Feature selection is a process aimed at filtering out unrepresentative features from a given dataset, usually allowing the later data mining and analysis steps to produce better results. However, ...different feature selection algorithms use different criteria to select representative features, making it difficult to find the best algorithm for different domain datasets. The limitations of single feature selection methods can be overcome by the application of ensemble methods, combining multiple feature selection results. In the literature, feature selection algorithms are classified as filter, wrapper, or embedded techniques. However, to the best of our knowledge, there has been no study focusing on combining these three types of techniques to produce ensemble feature selection. Therefore, the aim here is to answer the question as to which combination of different types of feature selection algorithms offers the best performance for different types of medical data including categorical, numerical, and mixed data types. The experimental results show that a combination of filter (i.e., principal component analysis) and wrapper (i.e., genetic algorithms) techniques by the union method is a better choice, providing relatively high classification accuracy and a reasonably good feature reduction rate.
The morphology, porosity and corrosion resistance of MAO coatings on as-extruded Mg-Ca alloys were analysed using SEM, XRD, EDS and electrochemical tests. The roles of non-through and through-pores ...in the MAO coating were identified. The results demonstrated that the corrosion resistance of the MAO-coated Mg-Ca alloys is related to the corrosion resistance of the substrates, the porosity of the MAO coating and the galvanic effect. Chemical and electrochemical corrosion alternately occurred on the MAO coatings. The alternating chemical and electrochemical corrosion mechanisms for the MAO coating are discussed.
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•The change in open circuit potentials leads to alternating degradation mechanisms.•Degradation mechanisms include chemical and electrochemical corrosion.•Chemical corrosion of the coatings may be related to the non-through pores.•Electrochemical corrosion is due to through-pores and micro-cracks of the coating.•Through-pores in the microarc oxidation coating designate a galvanic effect.
Synchrotron‐radiation computed tomography has been applied in many research fields. Here, PITRE (Phase‐sensitive X‐ray Image processing and Tomography REconstruction) and PITRE_BM (PITRE Batch ...Manager) are presented. PITRE supports phase retrieval for propagation‐based phase‐contrast imaging/tomography (PPCI/PPCT), extracts apparent absorption, refractive and scattering information of diffraction enhanced imaging (DEI), and allows parallel‐beam tomography reconstruction for conventional absorption CT data and for PPCT phase retrieved and DEI‐CT extracted information. PITRE_BM is a batch processing manager for PITRE: it executes a series of tasks, created viaPITRE, without manual intervention. Both PITRE and PITRE_BM are coded in Interactive Data Language (IDL), and have a user‐friendly graphical user interface. They are freeware and can run on Microsoft Windows systems via IDL Virtual Machine, which can be downloaded for free and does not require a license. The data‐processing principle and some examples of application will be presented.
The effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs)/angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) on mortality was preliminarily explored through the comparison of ACEIs/ARBs with non-ACEIs/ARBs in ...patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Reaching a conclusion on whether previous ACEI/ARB treatment should be continued in view of the different ACE2 levels in the comparison groups was not unimpeachable. Therefore, this study aimed to further elucidate the effect of ACEI/ARB continuation on hospital mortality, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) in the same patient population.
We searched PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Ovid, and Embase for relevant articles published between December 1, 2019 and April 30, 2022. Continuation of ACEI/ARB use after hospitalization due to COVID-19 was considered as an exposure and discontinuation of ACEI/ARB considered as a control. The primary outcome was hospital mortality, and the secondary outcomes included 30-day mortality, rate of ICU admission, IMV, and other clinical outcomes.
Seven observational studies and four randomized controlled trials involving 2823 patients were included. The pooled hospital mortality in the continuation group (13.04%, 158/1212) was significantly lower than that (22.15%, 278/1255) in the discontinuation group (risk ratio RR = 0.45; 95% confidence interval CI, 0.28-0.72; P = 0.001). Continuation of ACEI/ARB use was associated with lower rates of ICU admission (10.5% versus 16.2%, RR = 0.63; 95% CI 0.5-0.79; P < 0.0001) and IMV (8.2% versus 12.5%, RR = 0.62; 95% CI 0.46-0.83, P = 0.001). Nevertheless, the effect was mainly demonstrated in the observational study subgroup (P < 0.05). Continuing ACEI/ARB had no significant effect on 30-day mortality (P = 0.34), acute myocardial infarction (P = 0.08), heart failure (P = 0.82), and acute kidney injury after hospitalization (P = 0.98).
Previous ACEI/ARB treatment could be continued since it was associated with lower hospital deaths, ICU admission, and IMV in patients with COVID-19, although the benefits of continuing use were mainly shown in observational studies. More evidence from multicenter RCTs are still needed to increase the robustness of the data. Trial registration PROSPERO (CRD42022341169). Registered 27 June 2022.
A novel 3D metamaterial with tension-torsion coupling effect is designed through connecting neighbor chiral honeycomb layers by inclined rods. Both numerical simulation and experiment analysis show ...the tension-torsion coupling effect of the metamaterial is much better compared to other metamaterials we can find in literatures. With the increase of cells number, the tension-torsion coupling effect of this metamaterial at the strain of 1% increases firstly, reaching the perk value of 11.36°, then decreases slowly, and it remains an appreciable value of 4.44° even when the cells number is 25 × 25 × 25. Analysis shows that size effect in the thickness direction can be neglected when the layers number is more than 5. The stress and deformation of struts within the metamaterial are investigated. For the inclined rods and the square loops, their main deformation is the axial deformation while the main deformation of ligaments is out-of-plane bending deformation. According to the deformation law of inclined rods, it can be concluded that when the compression strain increases, the inclined rods lying in the layer's center enter the instability state first and then instability zone expands outwards, resulting in instability state of the metamaterial.
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•A novel 3D metamaterial with outstanding tension-torsion coupling effect is designed and fabricated.•The torsion angle of metamaterial can maintain an appreciable value even when cells number is large.•The deformation modes and deformation mechanisms of the metamaterial are investigated.•The design concept provides a framework to develop tension-torsion coupling metamaterials.
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