Design,synthesis and evaluation of novel dehydroabietic acid-dithiocarbamate hybrids as potential multi-targeted compounds for tumor cytotoxicity

In the present study, novel representatives of the important group of biologically-active, dehydroabietic acid-bearing dithiocarbamate moiety, were synthesized and characterized by ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, HR-MS. The in vitro antiproliferative activity evaluation (MTT) indicated that these compounds exhibited potent inhibitory activities in various cancer cell lines (HepG-2, MCF-7, HeLa, T-24, MGC-803). Particularly, compound III-b possessed extraordinary cytotoxicity with low micromolar IC₅₀ values ranging from 4.07 to 38.84 µM against tested cancer cell lines, while displayed weak cytotoxicity on two normal cell lines (LO-2 and HEK 293 T). Subsequently, the potential mechanisms of representative compound III-b were elementarily investigated by Transwell experiment, which showed III-b can inhibit cancer cells migration. Annexin-V/PI dual staining showed that the compound can induce HepG-2 cells apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. Meanwhile this apoptosis may be related to the upregulated protein expression of cleaved-caspase 3, cleaved-caspase 9, Bax and downregulated of Bcl-2 indicated by Western Blot. Later study further confirmed that ROS levels in HepG-2 cells increased significantly with the rise of concentrations. In addition, through the network pharmacology data analyzing, the core targets and signaling pathways of compound III-b for treatment of liver neoplasms were forecasted. Molecular docking model showed that compound III-b had high affinity with hub targets (CASP3, EGFR, HSP90AA1, MAPK1, ERBB2, MDM2), suggesting that compound III-b might target the hub protein to modulate signaling activity. Taken together, these data indicated that dehydroabietic acid structural modification following the “Molecular hybridization” principle is a feasible way to discover the potential multi-targeted antitumor compounds.     

拓扑近藤绝缘体SmB6中的奇异电子性质

拓扑近藤绝缘体是一种本征的强关联拓扑电子体系，其体能隙来源于近藤关联效应。自2010年拓扑近藤绝缘体的理论概念被提出后，六硼化钐(SmB6) 作为第一种被预测为拓扑近藤绝缘体的材料在这十多年中被多种实验手段反复研究验证，被广泛接受认为是第一种拓扑近藤绝缘体。在这篇综述中，我们回顾了关于SmB6 的一些重要实验结果，比如电输运测量，角分辨光电子能谱(ARPES), 表面形貌分析(STM) 等，并论述了如何通过这些关键的实验证据证实SmB6 的拓扑近藤绝缘物相。同时，我们也展示了SmB6 这一关联电子体系的其他奇异物性，包括中间价态在表面和体内的分离现象，以及量子振荡发现的体振荡信号等等。这些性质表明我们对SmB6 这一材料的理解仍然不充分，其中还有更为丰富的物理值得挖掘。     

Time-averaged flow characteristics and mixing properties of double-concentric jets

We examined the flow behaviors and mixing characteristics of double-concentric jets using laser-assisted smoke flow visualization method to analyze typical flow patterns and binary boundary detection technique to investigate jet spread width. Time-averaged velocity vectors, streamline patterns, velocity distributions, turbulence properties, and vorticity contours were analyzed using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). Topological flow patterns were analyzed to interpret the vortical flow structures. Mixing properties were investigated using a tracer-gas concentration detection method. Four characteristic modes were observed: annular flow dominated mode, transition mode, central jet dominated mode-low shear, and central jet dominated mode-high shear. The jets’ mixing properties were enhanced by two major phenomena: the merging of annular flow and central jet at the centerline and the large turbulence fluctuations produced in the flow field. The merging of the jets induced stagnation points on the central axis in the annular flow dominated mode, which caused reverse flow on the central axis and drastic turbulence fluctuations of the near field region. When the central jet penetrated the recirculation region in the other three modes, the stagnation points on the central axis and the reverse flow vanished. Therefore, the mixing behaviors were prominently enhanced in the annular flow dominated mode.     

Comparative study of degree-based molecular descriptors of cyclodextrins through M-polynomial and NM-polynomial

Cyclodextrins are natural oligosaccharides used to increase the solubility of drugs. It has numerous applications in drug discovery, food storage and other fields. Loftsson et al. explained about applications of Cyclodextrins(CDs) in administrating the drugs through various ways. Jansook et al. has given insights into the structure, physicochemical properties and pharmaceutical applications of CDs. In the present work, cyclodextrin and its derivatives such as α, β, γ CDs are studied for which various degree and neighborhood degree-based topological indices are computed through M-polynomial and NM-polynomial respectively and the comparison of the indices for all three types of cyclodextrins are presented which are of great importance in QSPR/QSAR studies.