The melt blending of polylactide (PLA) and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) elastomer was performed in an effort to toughen the PLA. The phase morphology, mechanical properties, and toughening ...mechanism of the PLA/TPU blends were investigated. The results indicate that the spherical TPU particles dispersed in the PLA matrix, and the uniformity decreased with increasing TPU content. There existed long threads among some TPU droplets in blend with 30 wt % TPU. TPU improved the toughness of the PLA. With 30 wt % TPU, the elongation at break of the blend reached 602.5%, and samples could not be broken in the notched Izod impact tests at room temperature. The matrix ligament thickness of the PLA/TPU blends was below the critical value, and the blends deformed to a large extent because of shear yield caused by debonding, the formation of fibers upon impact; this dissipated a large amount of energy.
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic joint disease that causes pathological changes in articular cartilage, synovial membrane, or subchondral bone. Conventional treatments for OA include surgical and ...non-surgical methods. Surgical treatment is suitable for patients in the terminal stage of OA. It is often the last choice because of the associated risks and high cost. Medication of OA mainly includes non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, analgesics, hyaluronic acid, and cortico-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs. However, these drugs often have severe side effects and cannot meet the needs of patients. Therefore, safe and clinically appropriate long-term treatments for OA are urgently needed. Apoptosis is programmed cell death, which is a kind of physiologic cell suicide determined by heredity and conserved by evolution. Inhibition of apoptosis-related pathways has been found to prevent and treat a variety of diseases. Excessive apoptosis can destroy cartilage homeostasis and aggravate the pathological process of OA. Therefore, inhibition of apoptosis-related factors or signaling pathways has become an effective means to treat OA. Phytochemicals are active ingredients from plants, and it has been found that phytochemicals can play an important role in the prevention and treatment of OA by inhibiting apoptosis. We summarize preclinical and clinical studies of phytochemicals for the treatment of OA by inhibiting apoptosis. The results show that phytochemicals can treat OA by targeting apoptosis-related pathways. On the basis of improving some phytochemicals with low bioavailability, poor water solubility, and high toxicity by nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems, and at the same time undergoing strict clinical and pharmacological tests, phytochemicals can be used as a potential therapeutic drug for OA and may be applied in clinical settings.
PFASs are widely distributed in natural and living environment and can enter human bodies via different routes. Many studies have reported that PFASs may be associated with human diseases, such as ...urine acid and thyroid diseases. In this study, we reviewed PFAS levels in human bodies reported in past seven years, including blood, urine, milk, and tissues (hair and nails). Most studies focused on human blood. Blood type, spatiality, human age, and gender were found to have a strong relationship with PFAS levels in blood samples. The PFAS distribution in urine samples was reported to be associated with the chain length of PFASs and human gender. Urinary excretion was found to be an important pathway of PFAS elimination. PFAS levels in human milk might be affected by various factors, such as mothers' age, dietary habit, parity of mothers and the interval of interpregnancy. Data in hair and nails remain very limited, but these matrices offer a non-invasive approach to evaluate human exposure to PFASs.
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•PFOS and PFOA were predominant in human blood and milk.•Urine showed higher elimination of short-chain PFASs than other matrices.•PFASs in blood and urine were found to be related to age and gender.•PFASs in human milk were associated with mothers' age and parity.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the most common autoimmune diseases that affect synovitis, bone, cartilage, and joint. RA leads to bone and cartilage damage and extra-articular disorders. ...However, the pathogenesis of RA is still unclear, and the lack of effective early diagnosis and treatment causes severe disability, and ultimately, early death. Accumulating evidence revealed that the regulatory network that includes long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs)/circular RNAs (circRNAs), micro RNAs (miRNAs), and messenger RNAs (mRNA) plays important roles in regulating the pathological and physiological processes in RA. lncRNAs/circRNAs act as the miRNA sponge and competitively bind to miRNA to regulate the expression mRNA in synovial tissue, FLS, and PBMC, participate in the regulation of proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, and inflammatory response. Thereby providing new strategies for its diagnosis and treatment. In this review, we comprehensively summarized the regulatory mechanisms of lncRNA/circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network and the potential roles of non-coding RNAs as biomarkers and therapeutic targets for the diagnosis and treatment of RA.
The immune system is an important defense against diseases, and it is essential to maintain the homeostasis of the body's internal environment. Under normal physiological conditions, the steady state ...of the immune system should be sustained to play normal immune response and immune function. Exploring the molecular mechanism of maintaining immune homeostasis under physiological and pathological conditions will provides understanding of the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases, infections, metabolic disorders, and tumors, as well as new ideas and molecular targets for the prevention and treatment of these diseases. Hippo signaling pathway can not only regulate immune cells such as macrophages, T cells and dendritic cells, but also interact with immune-related signaling pathways such as NF-kB signaling pathway, TGF-β signaling pathway and Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, so as to resist the internal environment disorder caused by the invasion of exogenous pathogenic microorganisms and maintain the internal environment stability and physiological balance of the body. Hippo signaling pathway is also involved in the pathological process of immune system-related diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and psoriasis. Hippo pathway is closely related to organ development, stem cell biology, regeneration, and tumor biology. It affects cell differentiation by participating in extracellular and intracellular physiological signal reactions, sensing cell environment, and coordinating cell reactions. This pathway is crucial in maintaining immune homeostasis. This review summarizes the mechanism of Hippo pathway in different immune cells and some autoimmune diseases and the interaction between different immune signaling pathways and Hippo signaling pathway. It aims to explore the role of Hippo in autoimmune diseases and provide theoretical and practical basis for the treatment of autoimmune diseases through Hippo signaling pathway.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding RNAs involved in immune response regulation. Specific miRNAs have been linked to the development of various autoimmune diseases; however, their contribution ...to the modulation of CNS-directed cellular infiltration remains unclear. In this study, we found that miR-23b, in addition to its reported functions in the suppression of IL-17-associated autoimmune inflammation, halted the progression of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS), by directly inhibiting the migration of pathogenic leukocytes to the CNS. We demonstrated that miR-23b was specifically decreased during the acute phase of EAE and that overexpression of miR-23b resulted in a defect in leukocyte migration and strong resistance to EAE. Furthermore, we found that miR-23b suppressed leukocyte migration of EAE by targeting CCL7, a chemokine that attracts monocytes during inflammation and metastasis. Finally, in the adoptive transfer model, miR-23b reduced the severity of EAE by inhibiting the migration of pathogenic T cells to the CNS rather than diminishing the encephalitogenesis of T cells. Taken together, our results characterize a novel aspect of miR-23b function in leukocyte migration, and they identify miR-23b as a potential therapeutic target in the amelioration of MS and likely other autoimmune diseases.
In this study, Zhang et al. demonstrate that microRNA miR-23b effectively suppressed leukocyte migration into the CNS in EAE by targeting CCL7. This finding characterizes a novel function of miR-23b, and it identifies miR-23b as a potential therapeutic approach in the amelioration of MS and other autoimmune diseases.
Flavonoids ubiquitously distribute to the terrestrial plants and chalcone isomerase (CHI)-catalyzed intramolecular and stereospecific cyclization of chalcones is a committed step in the production of ...flavonoids. However, so far the bona fide CHIs are found only in vascular plants, and their origin and evolution remains elusive.
We conducted transcriptomic and/or genomic sequence search, subsequent phylogenetic analysis, and detailed biochemical and genetic characterization to explore the potential existence of CHI proteins in the basal bryophyte liverwort species and the lycophyte Selaginella moellendorffii.
We found that both liverwort and Selaginella species possess canonical CHI-fold proteins that cluster with their corresponding higher plant counterparts. Among them, some members exhibited bona fide CHI activity, which catalyze stereospecific cyclization of both 6′-hydroxychalcone and 6′-deoxychalcone, yielding corresponding 5-hydroxy and 5-deoxyflavanones, resembling the typical type II CHIs currently known to be ‘specific’ for legume plants. Expressing those primitive bona fide CHIs in the Arabidopsis chi mutant restores the seed coat transparent testa phenotype and the accumulation of flavonoids.
These findings, in contrast to our current understanding of the evolution of enzymatic CHIs, suggest that emergence of the bona fide type II CHIs is an ancient evolution event that occurred before the divergence of liverwort lineages.
Compared to bulk metal–organic framework (MOF), 2D MOF nanosheets have gained intensive research attention due to their ultrathin thickness and large surface area with highly accessible active sites. ...However, structural deterioration and morphological damage have impeded producing high‐quality MOF nanosheets during exfoliation. Here, first a new layered bulk MOF ZSB‐1 is synthesized and several solvents such as isopropanol, methanol, n‐hexyl alcohol, and N,N‐dimethylformamide are surveyed to examine their performance for the exfoliation of layered ZSB‐1. As a result, a highly solvent‐stable metal–organic framework rectangular nanosheet retaining undamaged morphology is obtained by the soft‐physical method in n‐hexyl alcohol. Theoretical simulations reveal that the strong interaction energy between n‐hexyl alcohol and MOF layers is responsible for the best exfoliation performance of making the bulk MOF into nanosheets. In addition, ZSB‐1 shows a tunable fluorescence peak position, fluorescent lifetime, and quantum yield by simply changing the solvent and morphology. Besides, the ZSB‐1 was selected as a fluorescence sensor to detect metal ions, and ZSB‐1 nanosheet exhibits excellent sensing ability for Fe3+. It is worth noting that the ZSB‐1 nanosheet has better detection limit performance of 0.054 × 10−6
m than that of its bulk counterpart.
A highly solvent‐stable metal–organic framework (MOF) nanosheet retaining undamaged morphology and structural integrity is obtained. Theoretical simulations reveal that the strong interaction energy between solvent and MOF layers is responsible to the best exfoliation performance of making bulk MOF into nanosheets. This work provides a 2D MOF fluorescence sensor with tunable luminescent property by simply changing the solvent and morphology.
Exosomes are attracting considerable interest in the cardiovascular field as the wide range of their functions is recognized in acute myocardial infarction (AMI). However, the regulatory role of ...exosomal long non‐coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in AMI remains largely unclear. Exosomes were isolated from the plasma of AMI patients and controls, and the sequencing profiles and twice qRT‐PCR validations of exosomal lncRNAs were performed. A total of 518 differentially expressed lncRNAs were detected over two‐fold change, and 6 kinds of lncRNAs were strikingly elevated in AMI patients with top fold change and were selected to perform subsequent validation. In the two validations, lncRNAs ENST00000556899.1 and ENST00000575985.1 were significantly up‐regulated in AMI patients compared with controls. ROC curve analysis revealed that circulating exosomal lncRNAs ENST00000556899.1 and ENST00000575985.1 yielded the area under the curve values of 0.661 and 0.751 for AMI, respectively. Moreover, ENST00000575985.1 showed more significant relationship with clinical parameters, including inflammatory biomarkers, prognostic indicators and myocardial damage markers. Multivariate logistic model exhibited positive association of ENST00000575985.1 with the risk of heart failure in AMI patients. In summary, our data demonstrated that circulating exosomal lncRNAs ENST00000556899.1 and ENST00000575985.1 are elevated in patients with AMI, functioning as potential biomarkers for predicting the prognosis of pateints with AMI.
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