An efficient, convenient, and eco-friendly biocatalytic approach was developed for the synthesis of quinoline derivatives via the α-chymotrypsin-catalyzed Friedländer reaction. Interestingly, ...α-chymotrypsin exhibited higher catalytic activity in an ionic liquid (IL) aqueous solution as compared to that observed in our previous relevant study, which was conducted using an organic solvent, and a series of substrates gave similar excellent yields at lower reaction temperature and under reduced enzyme-loading conditions.
A novel, efficient, and simple procedure to synthesize diverse ketonitriles by palladium‐catalyzed Suzuki coupling of amides through N–C cleavage has been developed. This procedure features mild ...conditions, a broad substrate scope, and easily prepared substrates, providing a simple and efficient access to a variety of ketonitriles.
A novel, efficient, and simple procedure to synthesize diverse ketonitriles by palladium‐catalyzed Suzuki coupling of amides through N–C cleavage has been developed. This procedure features mild conditions, a broad substrate scope, and easily prepared substrates, providing a simple and efficient access to a variety of ketonitriles.
We aimed to investigate potential roles of LRRC75A‐AS1 delivered by M2 macrophage exosomes in inducing cervical cancer progression. We demonstrated LRRC75A‐AS1 was highly expressed in exosomes from ...M2 macrophages which could be absorbed by Hela cells. M2 macrophage‐derived exosomes promoted Hela cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and EMT process by delivering LRRC75A‐AS1. LRRC75A‐AS1 directly targeted and suppressed miR‐429 in Hela cells. The regulation of cell functions by exosomes from LRRC75A‐AS1‐overexpressing M2 macrophages was abrogated by miR‐429 mimics. miR‐429 directly targeted and repressed SIX1 expression. SIX1 overexpression alleviated the modulation of cellular functions and STAT3/MMP‐9 signaling by miR‐429 mimics. Also, miR‐429 overexpression or SIX1 silence repressed tumor formation and metastasis in nude mice, which was mitigated by exosomes from LRRC75A‐AS1‐overexpressing M2 macrophages. In conclusion, LRRC75A‐AS1 delivered by M2 macrophage exosomes repressed miR‐429 to elevate SIX1 expression and promote cervical cancer progression through activating the STAT3/MMP‐9 axis.
We aimed to investigate potential roles of LRRC75A‐AS1 delivered by M2 macrophage exosomes in inducing epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) and cervical cancer progression.
CDC-like kinase 3 (CLK3) is a dual specificity kinase that functions on substrates containing serine/threonine and tyrosine. But its role in human cancer remains unknown. Herein, we demonstrated that ...CLK3 was significantly up-regulated in cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) and identified a recurrent Q607R somatic substitution that represented a gain-of-function mutation in the CLK3 kinase domain. Gene ontology term enrichment suggested that high CLK3 expression in CCA patients mainly was associated with nucleotide metabolism reprogramming, which was further confirmed by comparing metabolic profiling of CCA cells. CLK3 directly phosphorylated USP13 at Y708, which promoted its binding to c-Myc, thereby preventing Fbxl14-mediated c-Myc ubiquitination and activating the transcription of purine metabolic genes. Notably, the CCA-associated CLK3-Q607R mutant induced USP13-Y708 phosphorylation and enhanced the activity of c-Myc. In turn, c-Myc transcriptionally up-regulated CLK3. Finally, we identified tacrine hydrochloride as a potential drug to inhibit aberrant CLK3-induced CCA. These findings demonstrate that CLK3 plays a crucial role in CCA purine metabolism, suggesting a potential therapeutic utility.
Despite the fact that the field of tissue engineering has had considerable advances over the past two decades, a series of unsolved problems still remain. Vascularization is one of the most important ...factors that greatly influence the function and size of the engineered scaffolds, which limits the clinical applications. In this work, a facile extracted molding method is presented for fabricating bulk tissue scaffolds with spatial networks. Briefly, the branched templates are designed, coated with paraffin on the surface, immersed into the mixture of microbial transglutaminase and gelatin, and extracted from fully enzymatic cross‐linking gelatin. The perfusion test is done and the mechanical properties of the scaffolds are investigated. Furthermore, in vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrate the nontoxicity and biocompatibility of the materials and fabrication process. Thus, this approach has great potential to overcome the challenge of rapid oxygen and nutrient delivery to engineered vascularized tissues implanted in vivo, opening the way to clinical applications.
A facile extracted molding method is presented for fabricating bulk tissue scaffolds with spatial networks. The gelation scaffold with the multi‐branch and optional spatial structure channel is formed. These structures exhibit full‐spatial and multi‐branch channels, high mechanical strength and good biocompatibility, suggesting great potential applications of vascularization scaffolds in clinical tissue and organ research.
Plastination of a sperm whale Jiang, Wen‐Bin; Han, Jian; Ma, Xue‐Wei ...
Journal of anatomy,
April 2022, Volume:
240, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
In 2016, two adult male sperm whales beached off of Yangkou Port in Nantong City, Jiangsu Province, China. The local government planned to preserve them as specimens, one was entrusted to Dalian ...Hoffen Biological Co., Ltd., and thus became the first sperm whale to be preserved by plastination. The other sperm whale was preserved in Nantong by the traditional stripping method (The skin was preserved, and then the prosthesis was filled into the skin to preserve the specimens. The material of the prosthesis was polyurethane. The outline of the animal was sculpted by suturing the skin like a bag and filling it with polyurethane). Plastination of such a large marine mammal allowed us to view the mutual adaptations of its internal structure to its specific living environment and daily habits. This sperm whale is the largest specimen in the world and this is the first time a sperm whale has been preserved using the plastination method. The plastination process also provides a method for studying the anatomy of large marine mammals for humans to understand deep‐sea organisms at close contact and visual level. The plastination of this sperm whale promises to be a world class resource holding tremendous scientific, educational, and artistic value.
We recorded the detailed process of the world's first plastination sperm whale. The plastination of a large marine mammal shows the mutual adaptability of its internal structure, living environment, and living habits. The plastination sperm whale promise to be an enduring asset of tremendous scientific, educational, and artistic value.
Abstract
The myodural bridge (MDB) is a dense connective tissue bridge connecting the suboccipital muscles to the spinal dura mater, and it has been proven to be a normal common existing structure in ...humans and mammals. Some scholars believe that the suboccipital muscles can serve as a dynamic cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pump via the MDB, and they found head rotations promote the CSF flow in human body, which provided evidence for this hypothesis. Head movement is a complex motion, but the effects of other forms of head movement on CSF circulation are less known. The present study explored the effects of head-nodding on CSF circulation. The CSF flow of 60 healthy volunteers was analyzed via cine phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging at the level of the occipitocervical junction before and after one-minute-head-nodding period. Furthermore, the CSF pressures of 100 volunteers were measured via lumbar puncture before and after 5 times head-nodding during their anesthetizing for surgical preparation. As a result, it was found that the maximum and average CSF flow rates at the level of the upper border of atlas during ventricular diastole were significantly decreased from 1.965 ± 0.531 to 1.839 ± 0.460 ml/s and from 0.702 ± 0.253 to 0.606 ± 0.228 ml/s respectively. In the meantime, the changes in the ratio of cranial and caudal orientation of the net flow volume were found differed significantly after the one-minute-head-nodding period (p = 0.017). And on the other hand, the CSF pressures at the L3–L4 level were markedly increased 116.03 ± 26.13 to 124.64 ± 26.18 mmH
2
O. In conclusion, the head-nodding has obvious effects on CSF circulation and head movement is one of the important drivers of cerebrospinal fluid circulation. We propose that the suboccipital muscles, participating in various head movements, might pull the dura sac via the myodural bridge, and thus, head movement provides power for the CSF circulation.
Few studies have been conducted specifically on the dense connective tissue located in the posterior medial part of the cervical epidural space. This study was undertaken to examine the presence of ...this connection between the cervical dura mater and the posterior wall of spinal canal at the level of C1-C2. 30 head-neck specimens of Chinese adults were used. Gross dissection was performed on the suboccipital regions of the 20 specimens. Having been treated with the P45 plastination method, 10 specimens were sliced (9 sagittal and 1 horizontal sections). As a result, a dense fibrous band was identified in the nuchal ligament of 29 specimens (except for one horizontal section case). This fascial structure arose from the tissue of the posterior border of the nuchal ligament and then projected anteriorly and superiorly to enter the atlantoaxial interspace. It was termed as to be named ligament (TBNL). In all 30 specimens the existence of a fibrous connection was found between the posterior aspect of the cervical dura mater and the posterior wall of the spinal canal at the level of the atlas to the axis. This fibrous connection was identified as vertebrodural ligament (VDL). The VDL was mainly subdivided into three parts, and five variations of VDL were identified. These two structures, TBNL and VDL, firmly link the posterior aspect of cervical dura mater to the rear of the atlas-axis and the nuchal region. According to these findings, the authors speculated that the movements of the head and neck are likely to affect the shape of the cervical dural sleeve via the TBNL and VDL. It is hypothesized that the muscles directly associated with the cervical dural sleeve, in the suboccipital region, may work as a pump providing an important force required to move the CSF in the spinal canal.
Discrimination of species and geographical origins of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is essential to prevent adulteration and inferior problems. We studied Ephedra sinica Stapf, Ephedra ...intermedia Schrenk et C.A.Mey. and Ephedra przewalskii Bge. to investigate the relationship between inorganic element content and these three species and their geographical origins. 38 elemental fingerprints from six major Ephedra-producing regions, namely, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Gansu, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Sinkiang, were determined to evaluate the importance of inorganic elements to three species and their geographical origins. The contents of 15 elements, namely, N, P, K, S, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Na, Cl, Sr, Cu, Zn, B, and Mo, of Ephedra samples were measured using inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy. Elemental contents were used as chemical indicators to classify species and origins of Ephedra samples using a radar plot and multivariate data analysis, including hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), principal component analysis (PCA), and discriminant analysis (DA). Ephedra samples from different species and geographical origins could be differentiated. This study showed that inorganic elemental fingerprint combined with multivariate statistical analysis is a promising tool for distinguishing three Ephedra species and their geographical origins, and this strategy might be an effective method for authenticity discrimination of TCM.
In this study, surfactants were used to enhance heavy oil–solid separation, and a detailed mechanism was explored by SARA (saturates, aromatics, resins, asphaltenes) analysis, element analysis, AFM ...measurement, and molecular dynamic simulation. Surfactants could effectively decrease oil/solid interaction force and then oil–solid separation would be enhanced. The oil–solid interactive force was in relation to surfactants concentration, pH value, asphaltene content, and salinity. The molecular dynamics simulation results show that the dissociation of saturated hydrocarbon, aromatic hydrocarbon, resin, and asphaltene (SARA) on carbonate minerals is gradually weakened for all surfactants. In the process of molecular dynamics simulation of surfactant stripping SARA, firstly, the surfactant molecules adsorb on the surface of SARA molecules. After that, the surfactant peels SARA molecules off the surface of calcite under the influence of molecular thermal motion. In this process, surfactant molecules will not be directly adsorbed on the surface of trace minerals. The results of energy/temperature balance indicated that saturates, aromatics and resins could remain stable when the molecular dynamics simulation time reached 2000 ps with the phenomenon that saturates, aromatics could liberate from minerals totally within 2000 ps. The molecular dynamics simulation of asphaltenes will not liberate from calcite surface within 6000 ps, meanwhile, they could not reach the energy balance/energy balance within 6000 ps. The functional groups of surfactant molecules would have interactions with the SARA functional group, resulting in different dissociation effects of SARA. The results of molecular dynamics simulation are consistent with the experiment results. The separation effect of saturated hydrocarbon, aromatic hydrocarbon, resin, and asphaltene in five kinds of surfactants were different. The molecular dynamic simulation results were in accordance with the SARA analysis.
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