SciFinder-guided rational design of fluorescent carbon dots for ratiometric monitoring intracellular pH fluctuations under heat shock

Intracellular pH plays a significant role in various biological processes, including cell proliferation, apoptosis, metabolism, enzyme activity and homeostasis. In this work, a novel design strategy for the preparation of pH responsive carbon dots (CDs-pH) for ratiometric intracellular imaging was reported. By using SciFinder database, fluorescent CDs-pH with the required pK_a value of 6.84 were rationally designed, which is vital important for precise sensing of intracellular pH. As a result, the synthesized CDs-pH demonstrated robust ability to test pH fluctuations within the physiological range of 5.4-7.4. The CDs-pH was further utilized for fluorescent ratiometric imaging of pH in living HeLa cells, effectively avoided the influence of autofluorescence from native cellular species. Moreover, real-time monitoring of intracellular pH fluctuation under heat shock was successfully realized. This SciFinder-guided design strategy is simple and flexible, which has a great potential to be used for the development of other types of CDs for various applications.     

Splenectomy improves liver fibrosis via tumor necrosis factor superfamily 14 (LIGHT) through the JNK/TGF-β1 signaling pathway

Splenectomy has been reported to improve liver fibrosis in patients with cirrhosis and hypersplenism. However, the mechanisms remain unclear. Tumor necrosis factor superfamily 14 (TNFSF14; also known as LIGHT) is highly expressed in the context of fibrosis and promotes disease progression in patients with fibrotic diseases such as pulmonary and skin fibrosis. Here, we determined whether splenectomy controls the production of LIGHT to improve liver fibrosis. Splenectomy reduced serum LIGHT levels in cirrhotic patients with hypersplenism and a ConA-induced liver fibrosis mouse model. Blocking LIGHT resulted in the downregulation of TGF-β1 in RAW264.7 cells. LIGHT treatment of RAW264.7 and JS1 cells in coculture regulated transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) expression through the activation of JNK signaling. Small interfering RNA-mediated silencing of lymphotoxin β receptor (LTβR) in macrophages resulted in pronounced decreases in the levels of fibrosis and αSMA in JS1 cells. These results indicated that LIGHT bound to LTβR and drove liver fibrosis in vitro. Blocking TGF-β1 abolished the effect of LIGHT in vitro. Furthermore, the administration of recombinant murine LIGHT protein-induced liver fibrosis with splenectomy, while blocking LIGHT without splenectomy improved liver fibrosis in vivo, revealing that the decrease in fibrosis following splenectomy was directly related to reduced levels of LIGHT. Thus, high levels of LIGHT derived from the spleen and hepatic macrophages activate JNK signaling and lead to increased TGF-β1 production in hepatic macrophages. Splenectomy attenuates liver fibrosis by decreasing the expression of LIGHT.Subject terms: Tumour-necrosis factors, Liver fibrosis, Hepatic stellate cells, Liver cirrhosis, Experimental models of disease     

Photodissociation dynamics of the methyl radical at 212.5 nm: effect of parent internal excitation

Photodissociation dynamics of the CH3 radical at 212.5 nm has been investigated using the H atom Rydberg tagging time-of-flight method with a pure CH3 radical source generated by the photolysis of CH3I at 266 nm. Time-of-flight spectra of the H atom products from the photolysis of both cold and hot methyl radicals have been measured at different photolysis polarizations. Experimental results indicate that the photodissociation of the methyl radical in its ground vibrational state at 212.5 nm excitation occurs on a very fast time scale in comparison with its rotational period, indicating the CH3 dissociation at 212.5 nm occurs on the excited 3s Rydberg state surface. Experimental evidence also shows that the photodissociation of the methyl radical in the nu2 = 1 state of the umbrella mode at 212.5 nm excitation is characteristically different from that in the ground vibrational state.     

Hypergraph Turán Numbers of Vertex Disjoint Cycles

The Turán number of a k-uniform hypergraph H,denoted by ex_k(n;H),is the maximum number of edges in any k-uniform hypergraph F on n vertices which does not contain H as a subgraph.Let C_l~((k)) denote the family of all k-uniform minimal cycles of length l;S(?₁,…,?_r) denote the family of hypergraphs consisting of unions of r vertex disjoint minimal cycles of length ?₁,…?_r,respectively,and C_l~((k))denote a k-uniform linear ...     

Traveling waves for a four-compartment lattice epidemic system with exposed class and standard incidence

This paper is considering the problem of traveling wave solutions (TWS) for a susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered (SEIR) epidemic model with discrete diffusion. The threshold condition for the existence and nonexistence of TWS is obtained. More specifically, such kind of solutions are governed by the threshold number ?₀. We can find a critical wave speed c^? if ?₀ > 1, by employing the Schauder's fixed point theorem, limiting argument and two-sided Laplace transform, we confirm that there exists TWS for c > c^?, while there exists no TWS for c < c^?. We also obtain the nonexistence of TWS for ?₀ ≤ 1. At last, we give some biological explanations from the epidemiological perspective.     

Design and synthesis of 2-alkylbenzimidazole derivatives as novel non-peptide angiotensin Ⅱ AT1 receptor antagonists

A series of 2-alkylbenzimidazole derivatives 9a-n have been designed and synthesized as a novel class of non-peptide angiotensin Ⅱ AT1 receptor antagonists. The synthesized compounds were evaluated for their antagonism of angiotensin Ⅱ, induced contraction in the rabbit thoracic aortic ring and the results showed that compounds 9a, 9g and 9j exhibited potent antagonistic activity of AT1 receptor.     

司帕沙星与茜素红荷移反应的研究

采用紫外分光光度法研究了π电子受体茜素红与电子给予体司帕沙星的荷移反应。确定了反应条件,建立了一种快速简便灵敏准确测定司帕沙星的荷移分光光度法。结果表明,司帕沙星与茜素红在(4+6)乙醇-水介质中,室温条件下即可形成1∶1稳定的荷移络合物,该络合物的最大吸收波长为530 nm,表观摩尔吸光系数为4.8×103L.mol-1.cm-1,司帕沙星药物质量浓度在6~160mg/L范围内服从比尔定律,r=0.9991。当该法用于片剂中司帕沙星的测定时,回收率为99.75%~100.00%,相对标准偏差为1.4%(n=10)。     

混合配体、希土三元配合物的研究 Ⅳ.3,5—二硝基水扬酸(H_2DNSA)、邻菲咯啉(phen)、希土(RE)三元固体配合物的合成及性质

本文报道了十种希土元素与3,5-二硝基水扬酸、邻菲咯啉三元配合物的制备方法。通过元素和化学分析测定了化合物的化学组成,并用红外光谱、紫外光谱、差热分析、磁化率、X射线粉天衍射等对所合成的化合物进行了结构和性质的研究。     

核磁方法研究离子液体与丙酮的相互作用

运用核磁共振手段, 研究了室温离子液体1-辛基-3-甲基咪唑四氟硼酸盐([C8mim][BF4])在不同比例的离子液体／丙酮混合体系中1H和13C的化学位移及13C的自旋-晶格弛豫时间(T1). 结果表明, 离子液体[C8mim][BF4]的阳离子芳环上的氢原子, 以及与氮原子直接相连的甲基和亚甲基上的氢原子都与丙酮羰基上的氧原子有相互作用, 从而减弱了离子液体阴阳离子间的强相互作用, 使离子液体的运动加快, 黏度降低.     

混合配体、希土三元配合物的研究 Ⅳ.3,5二硝基水扬酸(H2DNSA)、邻菲咯啉(phen)、希土(RE)三元固体配合物的合成及性质

本文报道了十种希土元素与3,5-二硝基水扬酸、邻菲咯啉三元配合物的制备方法。通过元素和化学分析测定了化合物的化学组成,并用红外光谱、紫外光谱、差热分析、磁化率、X射线粉天衍射等对所合成的化合物进行了结构和性质的研究。