Dexmedetomidine promotes the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma through hepatic stellate cell activation

Dexmedetomidine (DEX) is an anesthetic that is widely used in the clinic, and it has been reported to exhibit paradoxical effects in the progression of multiple solid tumors. In this study, we sought to explore the mechanism by which DEX regulates hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression underlying liver fibrosis. We determined the effects of DEX on tumor progression in an orthotopic HCC mouse model of fibrotic liver. A coculture system and a subcutaneous xenograft model involving coimplantation of mouse hepatoma cells (H22) and primary activated hepatic stellate cells (aHSCs) were used to study the effects of DEX on HCC progression. We found that in the preclinical mouse model of liver fibrosis, DEX treatment significantly shortened median survival time and promoted tumor growth, intrahepatic metastasis and pulmonary metastasis. The DEX receptor (ADRA2A) was mainly expressed in aHSCs but was barely detected in HCC cells. DEX dramatically reinforced HCC malignant behaviors in the presence of aHSCs in both the coculture system and the coimplantation mouse model, but DEX alone exerted no significant effects on the malignancy of HCC. Mechanistically, DEX induced IL-6 secretion from aHSCs and promoted HCC progression via STAT3 activation. Our findings provide evidence that the clinical application of DEX may cause undesirable side effects in HCC patients with liver fibrosis.Subject terms: Cancer microenvironment, Cell growth     

MoO3、NiO、ZnO在小表面金红石上的分散行为

Dispersion of MoO3, NiO, ZnO on rutile TiO2 with low specific surface area was studied with Mercury Porosimeter, SEM, XPS and Ammonia Extraction method. The dispersion thresholds of MoO3, NiO, ZnO on three rutile TiO2 carriers were obtained with XPS, and com-pared with those on anatase TiO2 with high specific surf are area. Ammonia Extraction method was used to identify the surface oxide species interarting with support surface in different strength and it was found that the proportions of oxides that can not be extracted by ammonia extraction are different for MoO3, NiO and ZnO which are supported on rutile TiO2.     

2-巯基苯并咪唑保护的铜纳米团簇的制备及银离子检测

以2-巯基苯并咪唑为保护剂,聚乙烯吡咯烷酮为稳定剂,水合肼为还原剂,“一锅法”合成2-巯基苯并咪唑保护的,高稳定性、强荧光、大斯托克斯位移的铜纳米团簇(Cu NCs),并用于检测水样中的银离子含量。采用透射电子显微镜(TEM)和X射线光电子能谱(XPS)对铜纳米团簇的结构进行表征,通过荧光光谱和紫外可见光谱对其光学性能进行研究。研究表明:该铜纳米团簇的最大激发和发射波长分别为340和558 nm,在日光灯和紫外灯下分别为无色和橙色。Cu NCs具有较高的分散性,尺寸大小为2~3 nm。在最佳反应条件下,铜纳米团簇可以选择性地被银离子猝灭,且灵敏度高,线性范围为1~40μmol/L,检测限为0.5μmol/L。该方法用于检测实际水样(自来水、湖水)中银离子的浓度,结果令人满意,表明在环境监测中有非常高的应用价值。     

铁(III)卟啉催化β-胡萝卜素分解动力学研究

使用BeckmannDU-8B紫外可见分光光度计研究了以氯合四－间三甲苯基卟啉铁（Ⅲ）（FeTMPCl）为催化剂，间氯过氧化苯甲酸（mCPBA）为氧化剂，咪唑（I_m）、2－甲基咪唑（MeI_m）、2－乙基－4－甲基咪唑（EMI_m）为轴向配体，催化β-胡萝卜素（β－cte）氧化分解为维生素A的动力学规律，提出了反应机理，研究了温度、催化剂浓度、氧化剂浓度及轴向配体对反应速率的影响，应用Gauss－Newton－Marquardt方法求得各基元反应的有关动力学参数．     

Carbohydrate-binding module O-mannosylation alters binding selectivity to cellulose and lignin

Improved understanding of the effect of protein glycosylation is expected to provide the foundation for the design of protein glycoengineering strategies. In this study, we examine the impact of O-glycosylation on the binding selectivity of a model Family 1 carbohydrate-binding module (CBM), which has been shown to be one of the primary sub-domains responsible for non-productive lignin binding in multi-modular cellulases. Specifically, we examine the relationship between glycan structure and the binding specificity of the CBM to cellulose and lignin substrates. We find that the glycosylation pattern of the CBM exhibits a strong influence on the binding affinity and the selectivity between both cellulose and lignin. In addition, the large set of binding data collected allows us to examine the relationship between binding affinity and the correlation in motion between pairs of glycosylation sites. Our results suggest that glycoforms displaying highly correlated motion in their glycosylation sites tend to bind cellulose with high affinity and lignin with low affinity. Taken together, this work helps lay the groundwork for future exploitation of glycoengineering as a tool to improve the performance of industrial enzymes.

Improved understanding of the effect of protein glycosylation is expected to provide the foundation for the design of protein glycoengineering strategies.

The cell walls of terrestrial plants primarily comprise the polysaccharides cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin, as well as the heterogeneous aromatic polymer, lignin. In nature, carbohydrates derived from plant polysaccharides provide a massive carbon and energy source for biomass-degrading fungi, bacteria, and archaea, which together are the primary organisms that recycle plant matter and are a critical component of the global carbon cycle. Across the various environments in which these microbes break down lignocellulose, a few known enzymatic and chemical systems have evolved to deconstruct polysaccharides to soluble sugars.^1–6 These natural systems are, in several cases, being evaluated for industrial use to produce sugars for further conversion into renewable biofuels and chemicals.From an industrial perspective, overcoming biomass recalcitrance to cost-effectively produce soluble intermediates, including sugars for further upgrading remains the main challenge in biomass conversion. Lignin, the evolution of which in planta provided a significant advantage for terrestrial plants to mitigate microbial attack, is now widely recognized as a primary cause of biomass recalcitrance.⁷ Chemical and/or biological processing scenarios of lignocellulose have been evaluated⁸ and several approaches have been scaled to industrial biorefineries to date. Many biomass conversion technologies overcome recalcitrance by partially or wholly removing lignin from biomass using thermochemical pretreatment or fractionation. This approach enables easier polysaccharide access for carbohydrate-active enzymes and/or microbes. There are however, several biomass deconstruction approaches that employ enzymes or microbes with whole, unpretreated biomass.^9,10 In most realistic biomass conversion scenarios wherein enzymes or microbes are used to depolymerize polysaccharides, native or residual lignin remains.^11,12 It is important to note that lignin can bind and sequester carbohydrate-active enzymes, which in turn can affect conversion performance.¹³Therefore, efforts aimed at improving cellulose binding selectivity relative to lignin have emerged as major thrusts in cellulase studies.^14–25 Multiple reports in the past a few years have made exciting new contributions to our collective understanding of how fungal glycoside hydrolases, which are among the most well-characterized cellulolytic enzymes given their importance to cellulosic biofuels production, bind to lignin from various pretreatments.^15,17 Taken together, these studies have demonstrated that the Family 1 carbohydrate-binding modules (CBMs) often found in fungal cellulases are the most relevant sub-domains for non-productive binding to lignin,^15,17,20,26 likely due to the hydrophobic face of these CBMs that is known to be also responsible for cellulose binding (Fig. 1).²⁷Open in a separate windowFig. 1Model of glycosylated CBM binding the surface of a cellulose crystal. Glycans are shown in green with oxygen atoms in red, tyrosines known to be critical to binding shown in purple, and disulfide bonds Cys8–Cys25 and Cys19–Cys35 in yellow.Furthermore, several studies have been published recently using protein engineering of Family 1 CBMs to improve CBM binding selectivity to cellulose with respect to lignin. Of particular note, Strobel et al. screened a large library of point mutations in both the Family 1 CBM and the linker connecting the catalytic domain (CD) and CBM.^21,22 These studies demonstrated that several mutations in the CBM and one in the linker led to improved cellulose binding selectivity compared to lignin. The emerging picture is that the CBM-cellulose interaction, which occurs mainly as a result of stacking between the flat, hydrophobic CBM face (which is decorated with aromatic residues) and the hydrophobic crystal face of cellulose I, is also likely the main driving force in the CBM-lignin interaction given the strong potential for aromatic–aromatic and hydrophobic interactions.Alongside amino acid changes, modification of O-glycosylation has recently emerged as a potential tool in engineering fungal CBMs, which Harrison et al. demonstrated to be O-glycosylated.^28–31 In particular, we have revealed that the O-mannosylation of a Family 1 CBM of Trichoderma reesei cellobiohydrolase I (TrCel7A) can lead to significant enhancements in the binding affinity towards bacterial microcrystalline cellulose (BMCC).^30,32,33 This observation, together with the fact that glycans have the potential to form both hydrophilic and hydrophobic interactions with other molecules, led us to hypothesize that glycosylation may have a unique role in the binding selectivity of Family 1 CBMs to cellulose relative to lignin and as such, glycoengineering may be exploited to improve the industrial performance of these enzymes. To test this hypothesis, in the present study, we systematically probed the effects of glycosylation on CBM binding affinity for a variety of lignocellulose-derived cellulose and lignin substrates and investigated routes to computationally predict the binding properties of different glycosylated CBMs.     

掺铬铝酸钇红色颜料的合成、结构和性能表征

研究了高温固相合成制备掺铬铝酸钇红色颜料的方法，着重考察了灼烧温度（1000-1400℃）、灼烧时间（1-2h）、主要原料配比（Al／Y：1：0．5—1：1．5，Cr2O3％：0．3％-5％）等实验条件对产物结构和色泽的影响。XRD等方法对样品进行的相态分析表明，主相为铝酸钇石榴石相；运用反射光谱对红色颜料的色泽进行了反射峰位和相关强度的表征。当Y2O3：Al2O3摩尔比为1：1，掺杂3％的Cr2O3作显色剂，在少量矿化剂存在时，在1300℃下灼烧1 h，得到了色坐标为x=0．577，Y=0．401的红色陶瓷颜料。     

手性毛细管色谱法测定人尿中美芬妥英对映体的含量及其在代谢分型中的应用

 采用手性毛细管色谱柱和ＦＩＤ检测器建立了人尿中美芬妥英（ＭＰ）对映体的定量分析方法。尿样用二氯乙烷提取，用酸、碱洗涤得以纯化，测得各对映体的最低检测限为６０μｇ／Ｌ。在１１５～６９０μｇ／Ｌ浓度范围内，标准曲线呈良好的线性关系，ｒ＞０．９９，日内、日间精密度ＲＳＤ＜６．５％，Ｓ－ＭＰ的平均回收率为７４．４１％，Ｒ－ＭＰ的平均回收率为７３．７８％。并以ＭＰ为探针药物，对３２名志愿者的尿样进行了ＭＰ氧化代谢分型研究。     

Reciprocal derivative constant-current stripping analysis

Reciprocal derivative constant-current stripping analysis (RD-CCSA) is based on the measurement of dt/dE converted from a derivative signal, dE/dt, vs. electrode potential (E) during the stripping of analyte under galvanostatic conditions from a mercury-film electrode after preconcentration. The potential transient signal (E-t) in normal chronopotentiometric stripping analysis (CPSA) is converted in RD-CCSA into a stripping peak (dT/dE)(p) the height of which is proportional to the bulk concentration of analyte in solution. The theory of RD-CCSA has been derived, and validated by the good correlation obtained between the theory and experimental data. Compared with normal CPSA, RD-CCSA is more sensitive and has higher resolution. The detection limit for cadmium is 6 x 10(-10)M. Simultaneous determination of Cd(2+), In(3+), and Tl(+) (for which the differences between the stripping peak potentials are 58 and 50 mV, respectively) which is impossible for normal CPSA, voltammetry or differential pulse polarography, has become possible with RD-CCSA.     

Kinetics of thermal dehydroxylation of aluminous goethite

The kinetics of dehydroxylation of synthetic aluminous goethite was studied using isothermal and non-isothermal thermogravimetry. The complete isothermal dehydroxylation can be described by the Johnson-Mehl equation with up to three linear regions in plots of lnln [1/(1–y)]vs. Int Kinetics for the initial stage of dehydroxylation changed from diffusion to first-order through the temperature range 190 to 260°C. The rate of dehydroxylation was reduced by Al-substitution and increased with temperature. Activation energy for dehydroxylation, calculated from the time to achieve a given dehydroxylation extent, varied depending on the extent of dehydroxylation and Al-substitution. Non-stoichiometric OH existed in goethite and some remained in hematite after the complete crystallographic transition.