The protective effect of electroacupuncture on the renal cortex of SHRs: A metabonomic analysis

Hypertension affects multiple organs in the body during the development of the disease. The antihypertensive effect of acupuncture has been confirmed. How the protective effect of electroacupuncture on the renal cortex of the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) is achieved has not yet been determined. The purpose of this study was to understand the impact of electroacupuncture on the blood pressure of SHRs and the impact on metabolites in the renal cortex, looking for potential differential metabolites and then proceeding to the next step of exploratory research. The experimental animals were divided into four groups: control group, model group, electroacupuncture group and losartan potassium group. Electroacupuncture on bilateral Taichong (LR3) and Zusanli (ST36) lasted for 3 weeks, and the renal cortex was collected for metabonomics research. UHPLC–MS was used to analyze the changes in the metabolic spectrum of renal cortex tissue. The results showed that electroacupuncture can significantly reduce the blood pressure of SHRs. A total of 12 metabolites changed significantly in the comparison between each group and the model group.The possible mechanism is that the primary bile acid biosynthesis, bile secretion, tryptophan metabolism and other metabolic pathways affect the renal cortex.     

Bioactivity-Guided Isolation of Phytochemicals from Vaccinium dunalianum Wight and Their Antioxidant and Enzyme Inhibitory Activities

Vaccinium dunalianum Wight, usually processed as a traditional folk tea beverage, is widely distributed in the southwest of China. The present study aimed to investigate the antioxidant, α-glucosidase and pancreatic lipase inhibitory activities of V. dunalianum extract and isolate the bioactive components. In this study, the crude extract (CE) from the buds of V. dunalianum was prepared by the ultrasound-assisted extraction method in 70% methanol and then purified with macroporous resin D101 to obtain the purified extract (PM). Five fractions (Fr. A–E) were further obtained by MPLC column (RP-C18). Bioactivity assays revealed that Fr. B with 40% methanol and Fr. D with 80% methanol had better antioxidant with 0.48 ± 0.03 and 0.62 ± 0.01 nM Trolox equivalent (TE)/mg extract for DPPH, 0.87 ± 0.02 and 1.58 ± 0.02 nM TE/mg extract for FRAP, 14.42 ± 0.41 and 19.25 ± 0.23 nM TE/mg extract for ABTS, and enzyme inhibitory effects with IC₅₀ values of 95.21 ± 2.21 and 74.55 ± 3.85 for α-glucosidase, and 142.53 ± 11.45 and 128.76 ± 13.85 µg/mL for pancreatic lipase. Multivariate analysis indicated that the TPC and TFC were positively related to the antioxidant activities. Further phytochemical purification led to the isolation of ten compounds (1–10). 6-O-Caffeoylarbutin (7) showed significant inhibitory effects on α-glucosidase and pancreatic lipase enzymes with values of 38.38 ± 1.84 and 97.56 ± 7.53 µg/mL, and had the highest antioxidant capacity compared to the other compounds.     

Promoting the Phosphidation Process using an Oxygen Vacancy Precursor for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Based on previous works, most of the transition metal phosphides (TMPs) were directly prepared by decomposing NaH₂PO₂ with the precursors at high temperatures, which resulted in different degrees of phosphidation in the final product. Therefore, it is necessary to design an innovative approach to enhance the degree of phosphidation in the material using crystal defects. Here, oxygen-vacancy iron oxide/iron foam (Ov-Fe₂O₃/IF) was firstly prepared by generating oxygen vacancy in situ in an iron foam through heating in vacuum conditions. Subsequently, FeP/IF was formed by phosphating Ov-Fe₂O₃/IF. Under the effects of oxygen vacancies, oxygen-vacancy iron oxide could be completely phosphatized to produce more active sites on the surface of the material. This, in turn, could result in a catalyst with exceptional hydrogen evolution activity. Thus, the successful fabrication of FeP/IF demonstrated in this work provides an effective and feasible way for the preparation of other high-efficiency catalysts.     

A Tri-state Fluorescent Switch with “Gated” Solid-state Photochromism Induced by an External Force

Mr. Chen Qian, Dr. Zhimin Ma, Mr. Jianwei Liu, Mrs. Xue Zhang, Prof. Shitao Wang and Prof. Zhiyong Ma. In this article, we report a newly designed molecule composed of a dihydroazulene (DHA) group and a phenothiazine (PTZ) moiety, which achieves aggregation-induced emission enhancement (AIEE), mechanochromism and “gated” solid-state photochromism upon stimulation by an external force. Grinding loosens intermolecular interactions in the crystal and causes a red-shift of fluorescence from 570 nm to 600 nm. Meanwhile, the ring-opening reaction of DHA unit is activated by grinding and a remarkable photochromism could be observed from the grinded powder. The reddish emission of the grinded powder peaked at 600 nm weakened gradually and finally became dark, and a new absorption band at 470 nm emerged in the absorption spectra. Time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculation results reveal that the intramolecular intramolecular charge-transfer (ICT) process is replaced by a locally excited (LE) emission on the DHA group, which leads to the quenching of fluorescence. Its impressive photochromic property inspired us to a simple but effective way to develop an encryption system which can let the correct information be displayed upon external stimulation.     

Antioxidant product analysis of Folium Hibisci Mutabilis

Folium Hibisci Mutabilis, a new member of Chinese Pharmacopoeia, can treat some diseases induced by reactive oxygen species. The study prepared a lyophilized aqueous extract of Folium Hibisci Mutabilis (LAFHM). LAFHM was found to enrich eight flavonoids (i.e., quercetin, luteolin, hyperoside, isoquercitrin, rutin, kaempferol, tiliroside, and vitexin) by HPLC analysis. These flavonoids were further compared using antioxidant assays, where triliroside and vitexin always exhibited higher IC₅₀ values than the others. In ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry analysis, these flavonoids could basically give two characteristic m/z values (226 and 196) and their corresponding double m/z values (i.e., 602, 570, 926, 926, 570, 1186, and 862), when treated by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazl radical (DPPH^?). Finally, the coupling products of DPPH^?-treated triliroside were investigated using computational chemistry. It was found that the –OH in para-coumaroyl moiety to have the lowest bond disassociation energy among all phenolic -OHs in the triliroside. In conclusion, Folium Hibisci Mutabilis contains the above eight antioxidant flavonoids. Despite of the different antioxidant levels, they can generally produce flavonoid-radical coupling product and flavonoid-flavonoid homodimer during antioxidant process. Especially, tiliroside uses para-coumaroyl as linker to construct a tiliroside-radical coupling product at the meta-carbon atom.     

Two-Dimensional Germanium Sulfide Nanosheets as an Ultra-Stable and High Capacity Anode for Lithium Ion Batteries

Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) at present still suffer from low rate capability and poor cycle life during fast ion insertion/extraction processes. Searching for high-capacity and stable anode materials is still an ongoing challenge. Herein, a facile strategy for the synthesis of ultrathin GeS₂ nanosheets with the thickness of 1.1 nm is reported. When used as anodes for LIBs, the two-dimensional (2D) structure can effectively increase the electrode/electrolyte interface area, facilitate the ion transport, and buffer the volume expansion. Benefiting from these merits, the as-synthesized GeS₂ nanosheets deliver high specific capacity (1335 mAh g⁻¹ at 0.15 A g⁻¹), extraordinary rate performance (337 mAh g⁻¹ at 15 A g⁻¹) and stable cycling performance (974 mAh g⁻¹ after 200 cycles at 0.5 A g⁻¹). Importantly, our fabricated Li-ion full cells manifest an impressive specific capacity of 577 mAh g⁻¹ after 50 cycles at 0.1 A g⁻¹ and a high energy density of 361 Wh kg⁻¹ at a power density of 346 W kg⁻¹. Furthermore, the electrochemical reaction mechanism is investigated by the means of ex-situ high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. These results suggest that GeS₂ can use to be an alternative anode material and encourage more efforts to develop other high-performance LIBs anodes.     

Daphnane Diterpenoids of Trigonostemon thyrsoideus

Chemistry of Natural Compounds -     

Enzymatic Extraction of Bioactive and Self‐Assembling Wool Keratin for Biomedical Applications

Keratin is widely recognized as a high‐quality renewable protein resource for biomedical applications. Despite their extensive existence, keratin resources such as feathers, wool, and hair exhibit high stability and mechanical properties because of their high disulfide bond content. Consequently, keratin extraction is challenging and its application is greatly hindered. In this work, a biological extraction strategy is proposed for the preparation of bioactive keratin and the fabrication of self‐assembled keratin hydrogels (KHs). Based on moderate and controlled hydrolysis by keratinase, keratin with a high molecular weight of approximately 45 and 28 kDa that retain its intrinsic bioactivities is obtained. The keratin products show excellent ability to promote cell growth and migration and are conferred with significant antioxidant ability because of their intrinsically high cysteine content. In addition, without the presence of any cross‐linking agent, the extracted keratin can self‐assemble into injectable hydrogels. The KHs exhibit a porous network structure and 3D culture ability, showing potential in promoting wound healing. This enzyme‐driven keratin extraction strategy opens up a new approach for the preparation of keratin that can self‐assemble into injectable hydrogels for biomedical engineering.     

具有高安全性和有效性的Ⅱ期两阶段临床试验

Ⅱ期临床试验的主要目的是对药物治疗的安全性和有效性进行评估.针对具有高安全性的Ⅱ期两阶段临床试验,给出小样本量下关于安全性和有效性的精确检验方法,并证明最大Ⅰ类错误概率与Ⅱ类错误概率分别在原假设和备择假设的边界处达到.在期望样本量最小原则下,给出最优两阶段设计的构造方法和常用设计表,供实际应用选用.