Panax
, a genus of the Araliaceae family, is an important herbal group in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Nine species and three varieties are included in the genus of
Panax
, in which nearly all ...species have been used for medicinal purposes. Among them,
Panax notoginseng
(Burk) F. H. Chen,
Panax ginseng
C. A. Meyer and
Panax quinquefolius
L. are the most representative and valuable herbs world-wide, with a long history of cultivation. As the main bioactive chemical constituents, saponins with different aglycones are the major components in various
Panax
spp., and their pharmacological activities are mainly reflected in the effects on blood system, cardio- and cerebro-vascular systems, nervous system, metabolism, and immune regulation. Researchers of Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), have put many efforts into conducting the investigations on
Panax
species. Herein, we reviewed the research progress on
Panax
spp. in KIB, CAS, over the past few decades, from the aspects of history and origin, phytochemistry and pharmacological activities.
Graphical Abstract
Increasing evidence indicates that exposure to inflammation during pregnancy intensifies the offspring’s cognitive impairment during aging, which might be correlated with changes in some synaptic ...plasticity-related proteins. In addition, an enriched environment (EE) can significantly exert a beneficial impact on cognition and synaptic plasticity. However, it is unclear whether gestational inflammation combined with postnatal EE affects the changes in cognition and synaptic plasticity-related proteins during aging. In this study, pregnant mice were intraperitoneally injected with lipopolysaccharides (LPS, 50 μg/kg) or normal saline at days 15–17 of pregnancy. At 21 days after delivery, some LPS-treated mice were randomly selected for EE treatment. At the age of 6 and 18 months, Morris water maze (MWM) and western blotting were, respectively, used to evaluate or measure the ability of spatial learning and memory and the levels of postsynaptic plasticity-related proteins in the hippocampus, including postsynaptic density protein 95 (PSD-95), α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor (AMPAR) GluA1 subunit, and Homer-1b/c. The results showed that 18-month-old control mice had worse spatial learning and memory and lower levels of these synaptic plasticity-related proteins (PSD-95, GluA1, and Homer-1b/c) than the 6-month-old controls. Gestational LPS exposure exacerbated these age-related changes of cognition and synaptic proteins, but EE could alleviate the treatment effect of LPS. In addition, the performance during learning and memory periods in the MWM correlated with the hippocampal levels of PSD-95, GluA1, and Homer-1b/c. Our results suggested that gestational inflammation accelerated age-related cognitive impairment and the decline of PSD-95, GluA1, and Homer-1b/c protein expression, and postpartum EE could alleviate these changes.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a public health emergency of international concern, and an ...effective vaccine is urgently needed to control the pandemic. Envelope (E) and membrane (M) proteins are highly conserved structural proteins among SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV and have been proposed as potential targets for the development of cross-protective vaccines. Here, synthetic DNA vaccines encoding SARS-CoV-2 E/M proteins (called p-SARS-CoV-2-E/M) were developed, and mice were immunised with three doses
intramuscular injection and electroporation. Significant cellular immune responses were elicited, whereas no robust humoral immunity was detected. In addition, novel H-2d-restricted T-cell epitopes were identified. Notably, although no drop in lung tissue virus titre was detected in DNA-vaccinated mice post-challenge with SARS-CoV-2, immunisation with either p-SARS-CoV-2-E or p-SARS-CoV-2-M provided minor protection and co-immunisation with p-SARS-CoV-2-E+M increased protection. Therefore, E/M proteins should be considered as vaccine candidates as they may be valuable in the optimisation of vaccination strategies against COVID-19.
Abstract
Negative thermal expansion (NTE) alloys possess great practical merit as thermal offsets for positive thermal expansion due to its metallic properties. However, achieving a large NTE with a ...wide temperature range remains a great challenge. Herein, a metallic framework-like material FeZr
2
is found to exhibit a giant uniaxial (1D) NTE with a wide temperature range (93-1078 K,
$${\bar{\alpha }}_{l}=-34.01\times {10}^{-6}\,{{{\rm{K}}}^{-1}$$
α
¯
l
=
−
34.01
×
10
−
6
K
−
1
). Such uniaxial NTE is the strongest in all metal-based NTE materials. The direct experimental evidence and DFT calculations reveal that the origin of giant NTE is the couple with phonons, flexible framework-like structure, and soft bonds. Interestingly, the present metallic FeZr
2
excites giant 1D NTE mainly driven by high-frequency optical branches. It is unlike the NTE in traditional framework materials, which are generally dominated by low energy acoustic branches. In the present study, a giant uniaxial NTE alloy is reported, and the complex mechanism has been revealed. It is of great significance for understanding the nature of thermal expansion and guiding the regulation of thermal expansion.
Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is a major health issue globally due to the consumption of alcoholic beverages.
Celak is a food additive and an edible herb that is widely used in Asia and possesses ...hepatoprotective activity, but the underlying mechanisms behind this protective activity are not completely understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the hepatoprotective effects of
Celak extract (TQE) against ALD as well as the underlying mechanism based on gut microbiota and the gut-liver axis. TQE supplementation markedly alleviated chronic alcohol-induced liver injury in C57 mice. TQE also ameliorated gut barrier dysfunction induced by alcohol. Consequently, the activation of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) translocation-mediated TLR4 pathway and the subsequent inflammatory response and ROS overproduction in the liver were suppressed. Meanwhile, alcohol-induced gut microbiota dysbiosis was also corrected by TQE. To further investigate the contribution of gut dysbiosis correction to the beneficial effects of TQE on ALD, a fecal microbiota transplantation study was conducted. TQE-manipulated gut microbiota transplantation markedly counteracted the alcohol-induced gut dysbiosis in the recipient mice. In parallel with gut dysbiosis correction, liver damage was partly ameliorated in the recipient mice. Gut barrier dysfunction, endotoxemia, TLR4 pathway induction as well as downstream inflammatory response and ROS overproduction were also partly suppressed due to gut dysbiosis correction in alcohol-fed recipient mice. In summary, these results suggest that gut dysbiosis correction contributes to the hepatoprotective effects of TQE against alcohol through the gut-liver axis.
A low-noise low-delay digital signal processor is constructed on a single field-programmable gate array. An equivalent input noise as low as 3.752 nV/√Hz is demonstrated for the digital signal ...processor, which can detect an equivalent Sagnac effect of 0.003°/s in a resonant micro optic gyro (RMOG) with a 2.5-cm diameter ring resonator. With the processing time reduced from hundreds of seconds to 1.1 μs , this processor significantly increases the loop gain of the feedback loop and reduces the reciprocal noise in the RMOG. Owing to the fast speed of this processor, the lock-in frequency accuracy is reduced to 0.78 Hz (1σ), which is equivalent to a rotation rate of 0.004°/s. Relationship between this digitalized RMOG output signal and angular rate is obtained from ±0.25°/s to ±400°/s. The standard deviation of the residuals between RMOG output results and linear fit curve is 0.0236°/s.
The development of Ti-Cr-bearing hot-rolled dual-phase steel with an excellent combination of mechanical properties (yield strength of 655MPa, ultimate tensile strength of 911MPa, and elongation of ...30%) has been achieved. Due to the significant strengthening obtained from interphase-precipitated nanometer-sized carbides in ferrite, this dual-phase steel has yield ratio of about 0.72, which is much higher than that of conventional dual-phase steels. Isothermal transformations on a dilatometer have been performed to investigate the effect of Cr and Al additions on austenite-to-ferrite transformation in Ti-based steels. It was found that an addition of 0.6wt.% Cr obviously retards the transformation rate of ferrite, as compared with an addition of 0.1wt.% Al. The results from dilatometry and transmission electron microscopy revealed that due to the lower transformation rate in Ti-Cr-bearing steel, a much higher density of nanometer-sized interphase-precipitated carbides in ferrite occurred during the isothermal holding at 650°C, leading to a significant increase in the strength of ferrite.
Display omitted
•A hot-rolled Ti-Cr-bearing interphase precipitation strengthened dual-phase steel has been developed.•Significant strengthening of interphase precipitation in ferrite leads to high yield ratio of about 0.72.•Isothermal heat treatments with transmission electron microscopy analyses have been conducted to examine Cr or Al effects.•Control of the intercarbide spacing is vital for the development of interphase precipitation strengthened dual-phase steels.
In this Letter we report a clear and unambiguous observation of the out-of-plane quadrupole magnetic field suggested by numerical simulations in the reconnecting current sheet in the magnetic ...reconnection experiment. Measurements show that the Hall effect is large in the collision-less regime and becomes small as the collisionality increases, indicating that the Hall effect plays an important role in collision-less reconnection.
This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of organic trace elements (Cu, Fe, Zn, and Mn) on performance, egg quality, trace elements utilization, and intestinal function in late-phase laying ...hens. A total of 1,080 laying hens (Hy-line brown, 65 weeks old) were randomly assigned to four treatments with six replications of 45 layers each. The basal diet was prepared without adding exogenous trace elements. The control group was fed with a basal diet supplemented with 600 mg/kg of inorganic trace elements. The three treatment groups were fed basal diets supplemented with 300, 450, and 600 mg/kg organic trace elements (OTE300, 450, and 600), respectively. The results showed that there was no significant difference in growth performance among all treatments. However, OTE450 significantly improved the eggshell strength of laying hens (
p
< 0.05), but had no significant effects on haugh unit, egg yolk weight, eggshell weight, and eggshell thickness, compared with other groups. Moreover, compared with the control group, OTE450 significantly increased the contents of copper, iron, and zinc in serum (
p
< 0.05). Meanwhile, all of the trace elements had a lower deposition in the feces in organic trace elements groups (
p
< 0.05). Histological analysis showed that the addition of organic trace elements could significantly improve the villus height and villus concealment ratio (
p
< 0.05). In addition, the messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein expressions of divalent metal transporter 1 (
DMT1
), zinc transporter 1 (
ZnT-1
), and ferroportin 1 (
FPN1
) were the highest in the OTE450 group. In conclusion, OTE450 could improve egg quality, intestinal function, and trace element utilization efficiency. Thus, this study provides a theoretical basis for the application of low levels of organic trace elements in laying hens.
PDF
