The Extracts of Polygonum cuspidatum Root and Rhizome Block the Entry of SARS-CoV-2 Wild-Type and Omicron Pseudotyped Viruses via Inhibition of the S-Protein and 3CL Protease

COVID-19, resulting from infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, caused a contagious pandemic. Even with the current vaccines, there is still an urgent need to develop effective pharmacological treatments against this deadly disease. Here, we show that the water and ethanol extracts of the root and rhizome of Polygonum cuspidatum (Polygoni Cuspidati Rhizoma et Radix), a common Chinese herbal medicine, blocked the entry of wild-type and the omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 pseudotyped virus into fibroblasts or zebrafish larvae, with IC₅₀ values ranging from 0.015 to 0.04 mg/mL. The extracts were shown to inhibit various aspects of the pseudovirus entry, including the interaction between the spike protein (S-protein) and the angiotensin-converting enzyme II (ACE2) receptor, and the 3CL protease activity. Out of the chemical compounds tested in this report, gallic acid, a phytochemical in P. cuspidatum, was shown to have a significant anti-viral effect. Therefore, this might be responsible, at least in part, for the anti-viral efficacy of the herbal extract. Together, our data suggest that the extracts of P. cuspidatum inhibit the entry of wild-type and the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, and so they could be considered as potent treatments against COVID-19.     

Theragnostic Applications of Mammal and Plant-Derived Extracellular Vesicles: Latest Findings,Current Technologies,and Prospects

The way cells communicate is not fully understood. However, it is well-known that extracellular vesicles (EVs) are involved. Researchers initially thought that EVs were used by cells to remove cellular waste. It is now clear that EVs function as signaling molecules released by cells to communicate with one another, carrying a cargo representing the mother cell. Furthermore, these EVs can be found in all biological fluids, making them the perfect non-invasive diagnostic tool, as their cargo causes functional changes in the cells upon receiving, unlike synthetic drug carriers. EVs last longer in circulation and instigate minor immune responses, making them the perfect drug carrier. This review sheds light on the latest development in EVs isolation, characterization and, application as therapeutic cargo, novel drug loading techniques, and diagnostic tools. We also address the advancement in plant-derived EVs, their characteristics, and applications; since plant-derived EVs only recently gained focus, we listed the latest findings. Although there is much more to learn about, EV is a wide field of research; what scientists have discovered so far is fascinating. This paper is suitable for those new to the field seeking to understand EVs and those already familiar with it but wanting to review the latest findings.     

Solution of Some Structural Analysis Problems by Orthogonal Collocation

Abstract

Application of the method of orthogonal collocation to boundary value problems in structural and applied mechanics is investigated. Typical boundary value problems, such as the torsion of rectangular bars and the bending of plates, are employed as illustrative examples. Simplicity in application and good accuracy of orthogonal collocation are demonstrated by the solution of such complex problems as the large deflection analysis of rectangular isotropic, orthotropic, and sandwich plates. Results are compared wherever possible with existing solutions based on much more laborious and lengthy methods of computation. Excellent agreements are obtained.     

Relaxation dynamics of stretched polymer chains traced by shear induced Shish‐Kebab structure

We have developed a morphologic method to investigate the relaxation processing of the stretched polymer chains in melts, in which an atomic force microscope probe was used to shear the surface of an isotactic polypropylene melt to obtain the isolated shish‐kebab structure. We present the results of the time dependence of length of the isolated shish‐kebab structure and the stress dependence of the kebab density along the direction of shish in this paper. Our results demonstrate that the shear‐oriented polymer melts show the relaxation dynamics of worm‐like chain where the length deficit of the isolated shish‐kebab structure is scaled with the relaxation time as a power of 1/3. The melting behavior of shish‐kebab structure was also investigated. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2013, 51, 907–914     

Mitigation of signal suppression caused by the use of trifluoroacetic acid in liquid chromatography mobile phases during liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis via post‐column addition of ammonium hydroxide

A method has been developed to reduce the mass spectrometric ion signal suppression associated with the use of TFA as an additive in LC mobile phases. Through post‐column infusion of diluted NH₄OH solution to LC eluents, the ammonium ion introduced causes the neutral analyte‐TFA ion pair to dissociate which consequently releases the protonated analyte as free ions into the gas phase (through regular electrospray ionization mechanisms). An ion signal improvement from 1.2 to 20 times for a variety of compounds had been achieved through the application of this method. The molar ratios of NH₄OH:TFA which result in a reduction of signal suppression were determined to be between 0.5:1 and 50:1. In addition, it was shown that this NH₄OH infusion method could reduce the level of doubly‐charged species and the product ions formed via in‐source collision. The use of diluted NH₄OH solution is favorable since it is compatible with mass spectrometry analysis, and it is applicable in both positive and negative‐ion generation mode. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Palladium‐catalyzed carbonylative cyclization of β‐bromo‐α,β‐unsaturated carboxylic acids with primary amines leading to N‐alkylmaleimides

Cyclic β‐bromo‐α,β‐unsaturated carboxylic acids are carbonylatively cyclized with primary amines under carbon monoxide pressure in MeCN in the presence of a catalytic amount of PdCl₂(PPh₃)₂ to give N‐alkylmaleimides. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Muon-oxygen bonding in V2O3

A muon site search using calculated internal fields has been performed for V₂O₃, where purely dipolar fields allow a site determination free from covalent complications. The obtained sites are a subset of the Rodriguez and Bates sites found in α-Fe₂O₃ and indicate muon oxygen bond formation. The sites missing at low temperatures are consistent with the vanadium pairing mechanism for the metal-to-insulator (corundum-to-monoclinic) phase transition.     

Continuum regularization of gauge theory with fermions

The covariant-derivative regularization program is discussed ford-dimensional gauge theory coupled to fermions in an arbitrary representation.     

La2CuO4+δ和La2-xSrxCuO4系统中的电子输运性质

 本文解释了La₂CuO_4+δ（0≤δ≤0.09）和La_2-xSr_xCuO₄（0≤x≤0.3）两种p型系统含铜稀土氧化物中的电阻和Seebeck系数与温度的依赖关系，在室温以上，一氧大气压下的La₂CuO_4+δ系统趋于失氧；在500 K以上，超导样品显示出失氧的一级相变，并且恢复到反铁磁相。在转变温度T₁≈300 K以下，对0<δ<0.05成份的样品，相分离成反铁磁相和超导相；而在T_cρ≈100 K的温度范围内，超导相进一步分离成富空穴和贫空穴畴。在0.04≤δ≤0.09范围内，T_c处的电阻陡降出现了台阶；我们认为，它反映了电子成对的起伏。在La_2-xSr_xCuO₄系统中，对于成分为01≈300 K以上，空穴的运动是弥散的，但是ΔH_m=0；而对于x≥0.22的样品，经历了从平滑到Fermi液态的转变。成份为0c1范围（其中空穴继续以弥散方式运动）是亚稳的，但是，在T_cρ≤150 K范围，出现了电荷起伏。当样品冷却通过T₁时，对于成份为0.15≤x≤0.2的样品，经历了由弥散到强质量增强巡游电子状态的转变；在T_c处，从均匀的修饰电子的正常态凝聚成超导的载流子对。在超导成份样品的正常态中，不寻常的电子-晶格相互作用，可以归结为在CuO₂面上从更离子性的到共价性的Cu:3d_x²-r²─O:P_σ键合的转变；通过这种转变，轨道杂化和Hubbard U参量随Cu─O键长和Cu原子上的外表局域氧化态都产生灵敏的变化。