L-Carnitine and Acetyl-L-Carnitine: Potential Novel Biomarkers for Major Depressive Disorder.

The lack of biomarkers greatly limits the diagnosis and treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). Endogenous L-carnitine (LC) and its derivative acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC) play antidepressant roles by improving brain energy metabolism, regulating neurotransmitters and neural plasticity. The levels of ALC in people and rodents with depression are significantly reduced.

Design and synthesis of novel pyrazolo[4,3-]pyrimidines as potential therapeutic agents for acute lung injury.

Four series of total 35 new pyrazolo[4,3-]pyrimidine compounds were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their inhibitory activity against LPS-induced NO production in RAW264.7 macrophages. Among them, compound was found to be the most potent inhibitor, which decreased the production of cytokines , such as NO, IL-6 and TNF-α, with IC values of 2.

Novel Pyrazolo[4,3- d]pyrimidine as Potent and Orally Active Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase (iNOS) Dimerization Inhibitor with Efficacy in Rheumatoid Arthritis Mouse Model.

In order to discover novel anti-inflammatory agents for treatment of arthritis and based on preliminary structure-activity relationships, four series (A-D) of total 90 new pyrazolo[4,3- d]pyrimidine compounds were designed and synthesized. All the compounds have been tested for their anti-inflammatory activities by inhibiting of LPS-induced NO production. A clear structure-activity relationship has been concluded step by step, and finally 3,4,5-trimethoxystyryl-1 H-pyrazolo[4,3- d]pyrimidine was found to be the most active scaffold.

Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli W3110 for the production of L-methionine.

In this study, we constructed an L-methionine-producing recombinant strain from wild-type Escherichia coli W3110 by metabolic engineering. To enhance the carbon flux to methionine and derepression met regulon, thrBC, lysA, and metJ were deleted in turn. Methionine biosynthesis obstacles were overcome by overexpression of metA (Fbr, Feedback resistance), metB, and malY under control of promoter pN25.