Atomization by Acoustic Levitation Facilitates Contactless Microdroplet Reactions.

Microdroplet chemistry is now well-known to be able to remarkably accelerate otherwise slow reactions and trigger otherwise impossible reactions. The uniqueness of the microdroplet is attributable to either the air-water interface or solid-liquid interface, depending on the medium that the microdroplet is in contact with. To date, the importance of the solid-liquid interface might have been confirmed, but the contribution from the air-water interface seems to be elusive due to the lack of method for generating contactless microdroplets.

The synthesis of polydopamine nano- and microspheres in microdroplets.

Here we developed a microdroplet-based strategy for the rapid synthesis of uniform polydopamine nano- and microspheres. Polydopamine spheres with controllable sizes were generated within hundreds of microseconds by simply spraying water solutions of dopamine into microdroplets. Mass spectrometry revealed that dopamine was primarily oxidized into aminochrome, acting as the major building block for polydopamine.

Salidroside enhances NO bioavailability and modulates arginine metabolism to alleviate pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Background: Salidroside (SAL), derived from Rhodiola, shows protective effects in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) models, but its mechanisms are not fully elucidated.

Objectives: Investigate the therapeutic effects and the mechanism of SAL on PAH.

Methods: Monocrotaline was used to establish a PAH rat model.

Deciphering the Microdroplet Acceleration Factors of Aza-Michael Addition Reactions.

Microdroplet chemistry is emerging as a great tool for accelerating reactions by several orders of magnitude. Several unique properties such as extreme pHs, interfacial electric fields (IEFs), and partial solvation have been reported to be responsible for the acceleration; however, which factor plays the key role remains elusive. Here, we performed quantum chemical calculations to explore the underlying mechanisms of an aza-Michael addition reaction between methylamine and acrylamide.

Paeoniflorin increases the anti-tumor efficacy of sorafenib in tumor-bearing mice with liver cancer via suppressing the NF-κb/PD-l1 axis.

Background: Sorafenib (Sor) represents a first-line therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, its efficacy is constrained by secondary failure, which limits its clinical use. Recent studies have indicated that the suppression of Programmed cell death-Ligand 1 (PD-L1) may potentiate Sor's anti-liver cancer effects; furthermore, PD-L1 expression is known to be regulated by NF-κB. Previous research has demonstrated that paeoniflorin (PF) downregulates the NF-κB axis, nevertheless, current research has not yet determined whether PF can synergistically enhance the efficacy of Sor against HCC by modulating the NF-κB/PD-L1 pathway.

Real-Time and Online Monitoring of Hazardous Volatile Organic Compounds in Environmental Water by an Unmanned Shipborne Mass Spectrometer System.

Hazardous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are one of the critical concerns in environmental water due to their toxicity to aquatic organisms and drinking water. Therefore, rapid detection of hazardous VOCs in environmental water is highly needed as many analytical methods are limited to on-site monitoring. In this work, we designed a novel unmanned shipborne mass spectrometer (US-MS) system for the real-time and online monitoring of hazardous VOCs in environmental water.

High Electric Fields on Water Microdroplets Catalyze Spontaneous and Fast Reactions in Halogen-Bond Complexes.

The use of external electric fields as green and efficient catalysts in synthetic chemistry has recently received significant attention for their ability to deliver remarkable control of reaction selectivity and acceleration of reaction rates. Technically, methods of generating high electric fields in the range of 1-10 V/nm are limited, as in-vacuo techniques have obvious scalability issues. The spontaneous high fields at various interfaces promise to solve this problem.

The Spontaneous Electron-Mediated Redox Processes on Sprayed Water Microdroplets.

Water is considered as an inert environment for the dispersion of many chemical systems. However, by simply spraying bulk water into microsized droplets, the water microdroplets have been shown to possess a large plethora of unique properties, including the ability to accelerate chemical reactions by several orders of magnitude compared to the same reactions in bulk water, and/or to trigger spontaneous reactions that cannot occur in bulk water. A high electric field (∼10 V/m) at the air-water interface of microdroplets has been postulated to be the probable cause of the unique chemistries.

Dual-Band Wide-Angle Reflective Circular Polarization Converter with Orthogonal Polarization Modes.

Herein a dual-band wide-angle reflective circular polarization converter, based on a metasurface was developed. The unit cell is composed of a split square ring and a nested square patch. The split square ring plays the role of creating polarization conversion.

Roles of Fe-C amendment on sulfate-containing pharmaceutical wastewater anaerobic treatment: Microbial community and sulfur metabolism.

The effects of multiple two-phase anaerobic treatment involving acidification coupling Fe-C on sulfate-containing chemical synthesis-based pharmaceutical wastewater treatment were investigated. Fe-C was added as a filler with 25% vol. to acidogenic reactors for semi-continuous operation.

Magnetic Ionic Liquids as Solvents for RNA Extraction and Preservation.

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is particularly sensitive to enzymatic degradation by endonucleases prior to sample analysis. In-field preservation has been a challenge for RNA sample preparation. Very recently, hydrophobic magnetic ionic liquids (MIL) have shown significant promise in the area of RNA extraction.

Author Correction: Methylseleninic Acid Provided at Nutritional Selenium Levels Inhibits Angiogenesis by Down-regulating Integrin β3 Signaling.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Selective hybridization and capture of KRAS DNA from plasma and blood using ion-tagged oligonucleotide probes coupled to magnetic ionic liquids.

Detection of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) presents several challenges due to single-nucleotide polymorphisms and large amounts of background DNA. Previously, we reported a sequence-specific DNA extraction procedure utilizing functionalized oligonucleotides called ion-tagged oligonucleotides (ITOs) and disubstituted ion-tagged oligonucleotides (DTOs). ITOs and DTOs are capable of hybridizing to complementary DNA for subsequent capture by a magnetic ionic liquid (MIL) through hydrophobic interactions, π-π stacking, and fluorophilic interactions.

Maximizing Ion-Tagged Oligonucleotide Loading on Magnetic Ionic Liquid Supports for the Sequence-Specific Extraction of Nucleic Acids.

Targeted nucleic acid analysis requires the highly selective extraction of desired DNA fragments in order to minimize interferences from samples with abundant heterogeneous sequences. We previously reported a method based on functionalized oligonucleotide probes known as ion-tagged oligonucleotides (ITOs) that hybridize with complementary DNA targets for subsequent capture using a hydrophobic magnetic ionic liquid (MIL) support. Although the ITO-MIL approach enriched specific DNA sequences in quantities comparable to a commercial magnetic bead-based method, the modest affinity of the ITO for the hydrophobic MIL limited the yield of DNA targets, particularly when stringent wash conditions were applied to remove untargeted DNA.

Coupling oligonucleotides possessing a poly-cytosine tag with magnetic ionic liquids for sequence-specific DNA analysis.

Oligonucleotide probes were designed with a poly-cytosine region that facilitates stable anchoring to a magnetic ionic liquid support. By tethering a recognition sequence to the poly-C tag, the resulting diblock oligonucleotides distinguished single-nucleotide variants and captured DNA targets from interfering genomic DNA and cell lysate for qPCR amplification.

An Optimization Routing Algorithm for Green Communication in Underground Mines.

With the long-term dependence of humans on ore-based energy, underground mines are utilized around the world, and underground mining is often dangerous. Therefore, many underground mines have established networks that manage and acquire information from sensor nodes deployed on miners and in other places. Since the power supplies of many mobile sensor nodes are batteries, green communication is an effective approach of reducing the energy consumption of a network and extending its longevity.

Wet Cupping Therapy Improves Local Blood Perfusion and Analgesic Effects in Patients with Nerve-Root Type Cervical Spondylosis.

Objective: To observe wet cupping therapy (WCT) on local blood perfusion and analgesic effects in patients with nerve-root type cervical spondylosis (NT-CS).

Methods: Fifty-seven NT-CS patients were randomly divided into WCT group and Jiaji acupoint-acupuncture (JA) group according a random number table. WCT group (30 cases) was treated with WCT for 10 min, and JA group (27 cases) was treated with acupuncture for 10 min.

Methylseleninic Acid Provided at Nutritional Selenium Levels Inhibits Angiogenesis by Down-regulating Integrin β3 Signaling.

Targeting angiogenesis has emerged as a promising strategy for cancer treatment. Methylseleninic acid (MSA) is a metabolite of selenium (Se) in animal cells that exhibits anti-oxidative and anti-cancer activities at levels exceeding Se nutritional requirements. However, it remains unclear whether MSA exerts its effects on cancer prevention by influencing angiogenesis within Se nutritional levels.

Stimuli-Responsive "Cluster Bomb" for Programmed Tumor Therapy.

In this paper, mesoporous silica nanoparticle (MSN) loaded with doxorubicin (DOX) and capped with tumor-homing/-penetrating peptide tLyP-1-modified tungsten disulfide quantum dots (WS-HP) was designed and applied as a stimuli-responsive "Cluster Bomb" for high-performance tumor suppression. The peptide tLyP-1 on the surface can both facilitate the homing of DOX@MSN-WS-HP to 4T1 tumor and greatly enhance the penetration of WS-HP in tumor. The benzoic-imine bonds as the linkers between "bomblets" and "dispenser" are stable under normal physical conditions and quite labile at pH 6.

Selenium nanoparticles decorated with Ulva lactuca polysaccharide potentially attenuate colitis by inhibiting NF-κB mediated hyper inflammation.

Background: Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient trace element and an established nutritional antioxidant. Low Se status exacerbates inflammatory bowel diseases progression, which involves hyper inflammation in the digestive tract. Se nanoparticles (SeNPs) exhibit anti-inflammatory activity accompanied by low toxicity, especially when decorated with natural biological compounds.

Multifunctional Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles with Thermal-Responsive Gatekeeper for NIR Light-Triggered Chemo/Photothermal-Therapy.

In this work, a matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-triggered tumor targeted mesoporous silica nanoparticle (MSN) is designed to realize near-infrared (NIR) photothermal-responsive drug release and combined chemo/photothermal tumor therapy. Indocyanine green (ICG) and doxorubicin (DOX) are both loaded in the MSN modified with thermal-cleavable gatekeeper (Azo-CD), which can be decapped by ICG-generated hyperthermia under NIR illumination. A peptidic sequence containing a short PEG chain, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) substrate (PLGVR) and tumor cell targeting motif (RGD) are further decorated on the MSN via a host-guest interaction.

Selenium-Containing Phycocyanin from Se-Enriched Spirulina platensis Reduces Inflammation in Dextran Sulfate Sodium-Induced Colitis by Inhibiting NF-κB Activation.

Selenium (Se) plays an important role in fine-tuning immune responses. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) involves hyperresponsive immunity of the digestive tract, and a low Se level might aggravate IBD progression; however, the beneficial effects of natural Se-enriched diets on IBD remain unknown. Previously, we developed high-yield Se-enriched Spirulina platensis (Se-SP) as an excellent organic nutritional Se source.

Programmed Nanococktail for Intracellular Cascade Reaction Regulating Self-Synergistic Tumor Targeting Therapy.

In this work, a ZnO based nanococktail with programmed functions is designed and synthesized for self-synergistic tumor targeting therapy. The nanococktail can actively target tumors via specific interaction of hyaluronic acid (HA) with CD44 receptors and respond to HAase-rich tumor microenvironment to induce intracellular cascade reaction for controlled therapy. The exposed cell-penetrating peptide (R8) potentiates the cellular uptake of therapeutic nanoparticles into targeted tumor cells.

Effect of Tris-acetate buffer on endotoxin removal from human-like collagen used biomaterials.

Protein preparation, which has active ingredients designated for the use of biomaterials and therapeutical protein, is obtained by genetic engineering, but products of genetic engineering are often contaminated by endotoxins. Because endotoxin is a ubiquitous and potent proinflammatory agent, endotoxin removal or depletion from protein is essential for researching any biomaterials. In this study, we have used Tris-acetate (TA) buffer of neutral pH value to evaluate endotoxins absorbed on the Pierce high-capacity endotoxin removal resin.

[Discussion on necessity of standardization for nomenclature and location of extraordinary acupoints].

With retrieval of articles on extraordinary acupoint that were published in domesticin recent five years, one hundred and eight articles of clinical application are screened out and one hundred and twenty-three extraordinary acupoints that are extensively recognized are collected. Of those acupoints, 23 acupoints are included in the latest national standard. Of the rest 100 extraordinary acupoints, 48 acupoints are located on the running courses of fourteen meridians, 4 acupoints are shared with the meridian points and the other 52 acupoints have not been clarified to be located on the running courses of meridians based on the literature data.