A New Quassinoid from Brucea javanica

Chemistry of Natural Compounds - A new quassinoid, dehydrobruceantinol B (1), was isolated from the seeds of Brucea javanica, together with two known compounds, bruceantinol (2) and bruceine A (3)....     

Exploring the Condensation Reaction between Aromatic Nitriles and Amino Thiols To Optimize In Situ Nanoparticle Formation for the Imaging of Proteases and Glycosidases in Cells

The condensation reaction between 6-hydroxy-2-cyanobenzothiazole (CBT) and cysteine has been shown for various applications such as site-specific protein labelling and in vivo cancer imaging. This report further expands the substrate scope of this reaction by varying the substituents on aromatic nitriles and amino thiols and testing their reactivity and ability to form nanoparticles for cell imaging. The structure–activity relationship study leads to the identification of the minimum structural requirement for the macrocyclization and assembly process in forming nanoparticles. One of the scaffolds made of 2-pyrimidinecarbonitrile and cysteine joined by a benzyl linker was applied to design fluorescent probes for imaging caspase-3/7 and β-galactosidase activity in live cells. These results demonstrate the generality of this system for imaging hydrolytic enzymes.     

多振子声子晶体的低频特性研究

本文设计了一种由硅橡胶包覆层包裹4个钨振子的新型声子晶体结构,通过有限元法计算该结构的色散曲线、振动模态和传输损失谱。结果表明,该结构的带隙范围为18.85~225.28 Hz,与传输损失谱频率衰减范围相吻合,能够有效抑制20~200 Hz的弹性波在声子晶体中传播。通过分析色散曲线上点的振动模态,说明带隙产生的原因。本文讨论了声子晶体板的缺口角度和振子之间的纵向和横向间距对带隙的影响,结果表明:当缺口角度减小时,带隙下边界几乎保持不变,带隙上边界升高从而增加了带隙的宽度;振子之间横向或纵向间距增大时,带隙下边界和上边界均上升,带隙变宽,进而优化了声子晶体模型的带隙。同时声子晶体板的缺口设计能够节省材料,从而减轻结构的质量。     

Flash Nanoprecipitation Fabrication of PEI@Amorphous Calcium Carbonate Hybrid Nanoparticles for siRNA Delivery

RNA interference (RNAi) is a promising approach for disease treatments. But the development of safe and effective delivery carriers remains a major challenge. Organic–inorganic hybrid nanoparticles (NPs), with the integration of functions from distinct materials, show great potential in small interfering RNA (siRNA) delivery. Herein, pH responsive amorphous calcium carbonate NPs (ACC NPs) are prepared using flash nanoprecipitation and hybrid NPs are constructed by coating ACC NPs with polyethyleneimine (PEI) for efficient siRNA delivery. PEI/ACC NPs show robust pH responsiveness and stability as well as effective siRNA loading and protection. Furthermore, siRNA-loaded PEI/ACC NPs demonstrate enhanced cellular uptake and efficient endosomal escape, mediating improved siRNA delivery compared to pure PEI. These findings suggest that PEI/ACC NPs may have great potential in siRNA delivery for RNAi-based therapy.     

Sandwich‐Structured Graphene–Nickel Silicate–Nickel Ternary Composites as Superior Anode Materials for Lithium‐Ion Batteries

We report the synthesis of sandwich‐structured graphene–nickel silicate–Ni ternary composites by using the solvothermal method followed by a simple in situ reduction procedure. The composites show an interesting structure with graphene sandwiched between two layers of well‐dispersed Ni nanoparticles (NPs) anchored on ultrathin nickel silicate nanosheets. These ternary composites exhibit enhanced performance as anode materials owing to the synergistic effect between the graphene matrix and electrochemically inert Ni nanoparticles, an effect that holds promise for the design and fabrication of other advanced electrode materials.     

The Influencing Mechanism of Acidity on the Oxidation Peak Currents of Uric Acid and Ascorbic Acid at the PACPE by Cyclic Voltammetry

In this paper, a pre‐anodized carbon paste electrode (PACPE) is fabricated by a simple electrochemical pretreatment method, which can be used for the simultaneous determination of uric acid (UA) and ascorbic acid (AA). The influencing mechanism of the acidity on the size of oxidation peak current (i_p,a) of UA and AA is discussed in detail. According to the results, in different pH conditions, the intensity of hydrogen bonding between UA, AA and the surface of PACPE, the degree of reduction reaction at the auxiliary electrode, and the structural configurations of UA and AA with different species in reaction system have evident influence on the size of oxidation peak current. In pH 7.00 phosphate buffer solution, the calibration curves for UA and AA are obtained in the range of 5.0 x 10^‐7–5.0 x 10^‐5 mol/L and 3.0 x 10^‐5–5.0 x 10^‐3 mol/L, respectively. The detection limits for UA and AA are found to be 2.0 x 10^‐8 mol/L and 1.2 x 10^‐6 mol/L, respectively. This proposed method has been successfully applied to determine UA and AA in human urine simultaneously with satisfactory results.     

Cytotoxicity of guanine-based degradation products contributes to the antiproliferative activity of guanine-rich oligonucleotides

Guanine-rich oligonucleotides (GROs) have attracted considerable attention as anticancer agents, because they exhibit cancer-selective antiproliferative activity and can form G-quadruplex structures with higher nuclease resistance and cellular uptake. Recently, a GRO, AS1411 has reached phase II clinical trials for acute myeloid leukemia and renal cell carcinoma. The antiproliferative activity of GROs has been associated with various protein targets; however the real mechanisms of action remain unclear. In this study, we showed evidence that antiproliferative activity of GROs (including AS1411) is mainly contributed by the cytotoxicity of their guanine-based degradation products, such as monophosphate deoxyguanosine (dGMP), deoxyguanosine (dG) and guanine. The GROs with lower nuclease resistance exhibited higher antiproliferative activity. Among nucleotides, nucleosides and nucleobases, only guanine-based compounds showed highly concentration-dependent cytotoxicity. Our results suggest that it is necessary to reconsider the cancer-selective antiproliferative activity of GROs. Since guanine-based compounds are endogenous substances in living organisms, systematic studies of the cytotoxicity of these compounds will provide new information for the understanding of certain diseases and offer useful information for drug design.     

Superhydrophobic surface based on micro/nano structured ZnO nanosheets for high-efficiency anticorrosion

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - There are two key factors in the fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces. One is to have the appropriate micro/nano structure, and the other is to reduce...     

Convergent architecting of multifunction-in-one hydrogels as wound dressings for surgical anti-infections

Surgical procedures are susceptible to the cause of infections, which could induce delayed wound healing, oxidative stress and tissue ischemia. Multifunctional wound dressings (e.g., hydrogels) without the induction of antibiotics is promising for the elimination of surgical site infections and the associated complications. Herein, we report a reductionism approach for the fabrication of bioactive hydrogels to recapitulate antibacterial functions as well as antioxidant, pro-angiogenic and hemostatic properties in surgical infection treatments. The hydrogels composed of naturally derived Cirsium setosum extracts (CE, a traditional medicinal herb) and carboxymethyl chitosan (CS) show their capacity for surgical anti-infections on three different models (i.e., infectious random skin flap model, infectious skin defect model and infectious femur fracture model). Due to the innate bioactivities of CE and CS, CECS hydrogels can also reduce the bleeding loss (85% reduction) on a hemorrhaging liver model and improve the vascularization for skin flap regeneration. Overall, bioactive CECS hydrogels integrated with the ease and scalability of assembly process and biological activities without the addition of antibiotics is promising to act as multifunctional wound dressings for surgical anti-infections.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Tetra</Emphasis>-armed conjugated microporous polymers for gas adsorption and photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Two novel tetra-armed conjugated microporous polymers with different geometries have been designed and synthesized via Suzuki-Miyaura cross coupling polycondensation. Both polymers are stable in various organic solvents tested and are thermally stable. The pyrene-containing polymer of PrPy with the rigid pyrene unit shows a higher Brunauer-Emmet-Teller specific surface area of 1219 m² g^?1 than the tetraphenylethylene-containing polymer of PrTPE (770 m² g^?1), which leads to a high CO₂ uptake ability of 3.89 mmol g^?1 at 1.13 bar/273 K and a H₂ uptake ability of 1.69 wt% at 1.13 bar/77 K. The photocatalytic hydrogen production experiments revealed that PrPy also shows a better photocatalytic performance than PrTPE due to the higher conjugation degree and planar structure, the broader UV-visible (UV-Vis) absorption, the lower photoluminescence lifetime, and the higher specific surface area.