Cobalt-Catalyzed Intramolecular Enantioselective Reductive Heck Reaction toward the Synthesis of Chiral 3-Trifluoromethylated Oxindoles.

Herein, a cobalt-catalyzed intramolecular enantioselective reductive Heck reaction is disclosed. Starting from --iodoaryl-2-(trifluoromethyl)acrylamides, a plethora of chiral oxindoles bearing trifluoromethylated quaternary stereogenic centers at the C3-position are achieved in moderate to good yields (up to 88% yield) and good to excellent enantioselectivities (up to 94% ee) by employing zinc/silane as reducing agent. Other than the trifluoromethyl group, a number of chiral oxindoles bearing alkyl, aryl, and ester groups at C3-position were also obtained albeit in relatively lower enantioselectivities (68-78% ee).

Comparative Study of the Efficacy of Autologous Tooth Bone Powder and Inorganic Bovine Bone Powder on the Repair of Jaw Defects.

Context: The main pathological features of jaw cysts are bone defects. Obtaining autologous bone for transplantation repair has been associated with postoperative complications, and the amount of bone that dentist can collect is limited. Studies have found that autologous tooth bone powder is safe and has good bone-formation ability and stability.

Wavelet-Based Texture Reformation Network for Image Super-Resolution.

Most reference-based image super-resolution (RefSR) methods directly leverage the raw features extracted from a pretrained VGG encoder to transfer the matched texture information from a reference image to a low-resolution image. We argue that simply operating on these raw features neglects the influence of irrelevant and redundant information and the importance of abundant high-frequency representations, leading to undesirable texture matching and transfer results. Taking the advantages of wavelet transformation, which represents the contextual and textural information of features at different scales, we propose a Wavelet-based Texture Reformation Network (WTRN) for RefSR.

Food-grade γ-aminobutyric acid production by immobilized glutamate decarboxylase from Lactobacillus plantarum in rice vinegar and monosodium glutamate system.

Objectives: γ-amino butyric acid (GABA) is a non-protein amino acid, considered a potent bioactive compound. This study focused on biosynthesis of food-grade GABA by immobilized glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) from Lactobacillus plantarum in the rice vinegar and monosodium glutamate (MSG) reaction system.

Results: The gene encoding glutamate decarboxylase (GadB) from L.

Proximity-induced exponential amplification reaction triggered by proteins and small molecules.

We proposed a method to regulate nucleic acid polymerization by proximity and designed an ultrasensitive biosensor based on proximity-induced exponential amplification reaction for proximity assay of proteins (streptavidin) and small molecules (adenosine triphosphate), which allows us to detect a variety of interesting targets by simply changing the binding sites of DNA.

Improving the Thermostability and Activity of Transaminase From by Charge-Charge Interaction.

Transaminases that promote the amination of ketones into amines are an emerging class of biocatalysts for preparing a series of drugs and their intermediates. One of the main limitations of ()-selective amine transaminase from (-ATA) is its weak thermostability, with a half-life ( ) of only 6.9 min at 40°C.

Real-Time Dissecting the Dynamics of Drug Transportation in the Live Brain.

Brain diseases are becoming a more and more serious threat to human health. Many critical properties of the transport mechanisms of drugs in live brains remain poorly understood. In this work, single-particle tracking was used to dissect the transport dynamics of wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) in live brain and characterize the geometry and rheology of the extracellular space (ECS).

[Effect of decompression combined with curettage and autogenous bone cement implantation on large cysts of the jaw].

Decompression and curettage can result are effective as treatments for large jaw cysts, which are common diseases in the clinic. Based on a treatment used in a previous study, this paper proposes a "three-step method" to treat large jaw cyst and repair the bone defect by decompression, curettage, and autologous dental bone powder implantation. This paper introduces the processes and key points of the operation involved in the abovementioned method.

A Single Mutation Increases the Thermostability and Activity of Amine Transaminase.

Enhancing the thermostability of ()-selective amine transaminases (AT-ATA) will expand its application in the asymmetric synthesis of chiral amines. In this study, mutual information and coevolution networks of ATAs were analyzed by the Mutual Information Server to Infer Coevolution (MISTIC). Subsequently, the amino acids most likely to influence the stability and function of the protein were investigated by alanine scanning and saturation mutagenesis.

Construction of stabilized (R)-selective amine transaminase from Aspergillus terreus by consensus mutagenesis.

Amine transaminases are a class of efficient and industrially-desired biocatalysts for the production of chiral amines. In this study, stabilized variants of the (R)-selective amine transaminase from Aspergillus terreus (AT-ATA) were constructed by consensus mutagenesis. Using Consensus Finder (http://cbs-kazlab.

Adsorption of Cu(II) and Zn(II) Ions from Aqueous Solution by Gel/PVA-Modified Super-Paramagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles.

Super-paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs)/gelatin (gel)/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanoparticles were designed and synthesized by the co-precipitation method and further modified with gel and PVA. These nanoparticles were used for the removal of Cu(II) and Zn(II) from aqueous solutions. The adsorbents were rich in different functional groups for chemisorption and showed effective adsorption properties.

LTBP2 promotes the migration and invasion of gastric cancer cells and predicts poor outcome of patients with gastric cancer.

Latent transforming growth factor-β-binding protein (LTBP)2 is a member of the fibrillin/LTBP superfamily of extracellular matrix proteins, and has been demonstrated to exhibit tumor-promoting and tumor-suppressive functions in different types of cancer. However, the function of LTBP2 in gastric cancer (GC) remains unknown. The aim of the present study was to investigate the expression and molecular function of LTBP2 in GC, and to evaluate its prognostic value for patients with GC.

The pretreatment neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio may predict prognosis of patients with liver cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: At present, several studies have reported that the pretreatment neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) may be associated with the prognosis of liver cancer. Nevertheless, their conclusions remain controversial. Thus, we performed a meta-analysis of 54 studies to evaluate the prognostic value of NLR.

Improving thermostability of (R)-selective amine transaminase from Aspergillus terreus through introduction of disulfide bonds.

To improve the thermostability of (R)-selective amine transaminase from Aspergillus terreus (AT-ATA), we used computer software Disulfide by Design and Modelling of Disulfide Bonds in Proteins to identify mutation sites where the disulfide bonds were most likely to form. We obtained three stabilized mutants (N25C-A28C, R131C-D134C, M150C-M280C) from seven candidates by site-directed mutagenesis. Compared to the wild type, the best two mutants N25C-A28C and M150C-M280C showed improved thermal stability with a 3.

Vesicle formation by proton transfer driven short-tailed fatty acids of C4-C8 chain length in water.

Ultrashort single-chain fatty acids self-assemble to form vesicles under certain proton-driven conditions. The protonation provides a larger charge area around the hydrophilic carbonyl headgroups, and proton shift as the key driving parameter was studied. The ultrashort fatty acids (C4-C8) formed stable unilamellar vesicles predominantly through out the whole range of tested pH levels (6.

The pretreatment thrombocytosis may predict prognosis of patients with colorectal cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Aim: Recently, several studies have reported that thrombocytosis may be associated with the poor prognosis of colorectal cancer (CRC). Nevertheless, their conclusions were still controversial. Results & methodology: We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and Web of Science up to April 2016.

The prognostic role of pretreatment platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio as predictors in patients with colorectal cancer: a meta-analysis.

Aim: This meta-analysis was designed to analyze and evaluate the prognostic role of preoperative or pretreatment platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC).

Method: We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database and WanFang Database up to April 2016.

Results: A total of 16 studies (n = 5068 participants) were included for this meta-analysis.

Preparation and copper ions adsorption properties of thiosemicarbazide chitosan from squid pens.

Chitosan was prepared by alkaline N-deacetylation of β-chitin from squid pens. Thiosemicarbazide group was introduced to chitosan via formaldehyde-derived linkages, and thiosemicarbazide chitosan (TSFCS) with different degrees of substitution (DS) was synthesized. The DS values of TSFCS calculated by elemental analysis were 0.

Fusaroside, a unique glycolipid from Fusarium sp., an endophytic fungus isolated from Melia azedarach.

Fusaroside (1), a unique trehalose-containing glycolipid composed of the 4-hydroxyl group of a trehalose unit attached to the carboxylic carbon of a long-chain fatty acid, was isolated from the organic extract of fermentation broths of an endophytic fungus, Fusarium sp. LN-11 isolated from the leaves of Melia azedarach. Six known compounds, phalluside (2), (9R*,10R*,7E)-6, 9,10-trihydroxyoctadec-7-enoic acid (3), porrigenic acid (4), (9Z)-2,3-dihydroxypropyl octadeca-9-enoate (5), cerevisterol (6) and ergokonin B (7), were also isolated from this fungus.

Overexpression of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 4 and nuclear factor-kappaB in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma: a potential indicator for poor prognosis.

This study aimed to investigate the expression and clinical significance of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 4 MKK4 and nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) in patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC). We used immunohistochemistry (IHC) to examine the expression of MKK4 and NF-kappaB in 78 LSCCs and their adjacent normal tissues. To clarify the validity of MKK4 and NF-kappaB as determined by the IHC analysis, RT-PCR was performed on 21 tissues randomly selected from the 78 LSCCs.