Elevating VAPB-PTPIP51 integration repairs damaged mitochondria-associated endoplasmic reticulum membranes and inhibits lung fibroblasts activation.

Long-term silica exposure to silica dust leads to irreversible pulmonary fibrosis, during which lung fibroblast activation plays an essential role. Mitochondria-associated endoplasmic reticulum membranes (MAMs) is a structural interface for communication between the outer mitochondrial membrane and the endoplasmic reticulum. VAPB-PTPIP51 is a key complex on MAMs.

Advances in the study of silica nanoparticles in lung diseases.

Silicon dioxide nanoparticles (SiNPs) are one of the major forms of silicon dioxide and are composed of the most-abundant compounds on earth. Based on their excellent properties, SiNPs are widely used in food production, synthetic processes, medical diagnostics, drug delivery, and other fields. The mass production and wide application of SiNPs increases the risk of human exposure to SiNPs.

Antibacterial Mesoporous Silica Granules Containing a Stable N-Halamine Moiety.

High-efficacy and regenerable antimicrobial silica granules were prepared via oxa-Michael addition between poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and methylene-bis-acrylamide (MBA) under the catalysis of sodium carbonate in an aqueous solution. Diluted water glass was added, and the solution pH was adjusted to about 7 to precipitate PVA-MBA modified mesoporous silica (PVA-MBA@SiO) granules. N-Halamine-grafted silica (PVA-MBA-Cl@SiO) granules were achieved by adding diluted sodium hypochlorite solution.

Bioinformatics-Guided Identification of Ethyl Acetate Extract of Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium as a Functional Food Ingredient with Anti-Inflammatory Potential.

Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium (CRP) is one of the most commonly used food supplements and folk medicines worldwide, and possesses cardiovascular, digestive, and respiratory protective effects partially through its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory functions. The unique aromatic flavor and mild side effects make CRP a promising candidate for the development of anti-inflammatory functional food. However, recent studies show that the crude alcoholic extract and some isolated compounds of CRP show compromised anti-inflammatory activity, which became the main factor hindering its further development.

Antibacterial Activity of the Essential Oil From Against and the Investigations of Its Potential Mechanism by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Metabolomics.

() is an anaerobic Gram-positive bacterium generally considered as a human skin commensal, but is also involved in different infections, such as and surgical infections. Although there are a variety of treatments, the side effects and the problem of bacterial drug resistance still limit their clinical usage. In this study, we found that essential oil (EO) distilled from fresh mature possessed promising antibacterial activity against In order to elucidate its potential mechanism, bacteriostatic activity test, Live/Dead kit assay, scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), and metabolomics were employed.

(±)-Sarcanan A, a pair of new enantiomeric dihydrobenzofuran neolignans from the aerial parts of .

(+)-Sarcanan A () and (-)-Sarcanan A (), a pair of new dihydrobenzofuran neolignan enantiomers, together with six known compounds (-), were isolated from the aerial parts of . Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic analysis, and the absolute configurations of and were determined by analyses of the electronic circular dichroism (ECD) data. All compounds were evaluated for their inhibitory effects on the nitric oxide (NO) production induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in RAW264.

Porous antimicrobial starch particles containing N-halamine functional groups.

The porous antimicrobial starch particles containing N-Halamine functional groups (PST-MBA-Cl particles) were synthesized by a crosslinking polymerization between starch (ST) and N, N'-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA), and then a chlorination of amide groups of MBA. The synthetic process used only water as the solvent and was environmentally friendly. The results showed that under the optimal preparation conditions, the as-synthesized PST-MBA-Cl particles could have a Cl% of 8.