Publications by authors named "Lijiao Zhao"

With the application of copper nanoparticles (nano-Cu) in livestock and poultry feed addition, their biotoxicity has been gradually recognized. Therefore, it has become an urgent problem to find the effective natural antagonists to reduce the toxicity of copper nanoparticles. Here, we found that hesperidin could alleviate nano-Cu-induced pathological injury in the immune organs of chickens via the histopathological examination of the spleen, thymus, and bursa of Fabricius.

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This study utilized available oral acute toxicity data in Rat and Mouse for polychlorinated persistent organic pollutants (PC-POPs) to construct data fusion-driven machine learning (ML) global models. Based on atom-centered fragments (ACFs), the collected high-throughput data overcame the applicability limitations, enabling accurate toxicity prediction for a wide range of PC-POPs series compounds using only single models. The data variances in the Rat training and test sets were 1.

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Temozolomide (TMZ) is currently the first-line chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). However, the inherent heterogeneity of GBM often results in suboptimal outcomes, particularly due to varying degrees of resistance to TMZ. Over the past several decades, O-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT)-mediated DNA repair pathway has been extensively investigated as a target to overcome TMZ resistance.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the toxic effects of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) on rats and mice, using structured models to analyze how their chemical properties relate to toxicity based on OECD guidelines.
  • It develops advanced models, including quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR), quantitative read-across structure-activity relationship (q-RASAR), and interspecies toxicity (iST) for predicting the acute oral toxicity of untested PFASs.
  • The models show strong validation and will help prioritize testing and risk assessment of PFASs, identifying the top 20 most toxic compounds based on predictive analysis.
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Lung cancer ranks as the second most diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Novel chemotherapeutic strategies are crucial to efficiently target tumor cells while minimizing toxicity to normal cells. In this study, we proposed a combination strategy using energy blocker lonidamine (LND) and cytotoxic drug nimustine (ACNU, 1-[(4-amino-2-methyl-5-pyrimidinyl)methyl]-3-(2-chloroethyl)-3-nitrosourea) to enhance the killing of a human lung cancer cell line and investigated the potential chemo-sensitizing mechanism of LND.

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As a clinical anti-glioma agent, the therapeutic effect of carmustine (BCNU) was largely decreased because of the drug resistance mediated by O-alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase (AGT) and the blood-brain barrier (BBB). To overcome these obstacles, we synthesized a BCNU-loaded hypoxia/esterase dual stimulus-activated nanomicelle, abbreviated as T80-HACB/BCNU NPs. In this nano-system, Tween 80 acts as the functional coating on the surface of the micelle to facilitate transport across the BBB.

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The escalating introduction of pesticides/veterinary drugs into the environment has necessitated a rapid evaluation of their potential risks to ecosystems and human health. The developmental toxicity of pesticides/veterinary drugs was less explored, and much less the large-scale predictions for untested pesticides, veterinary drugs and bio-pesticides. Alternative methods like quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) are promising because their potential to ensure the sustainable and safe use of these chemicals.

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Tumor resistance seriously hinders the clinical application of chloroethylnitrosoureas (CENUs), such as -methylguanine-DNA methylguanine (MGMT), which can repair -alkyl lesions, thereby inhibiting the formation of cytotoxic DNA interstrand cross-links (ICLs). Metabolic differences between tumor and normal cells provide a biochemical basis for novel therapeutic strategies aimed at selectively inhibiting tumor energy metabolism. In this study, the energy blocker lonidamine (LND) was selected as a chemo-sensitizer of nimustine (ACNU) to explore its potential effects and underlying mechanisms in human glioblastoma and .

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All areas of the modern society are affected by fluorine chemistry. In particular, fluorine plays an important role in medical, pharmaceutical and agrochemical sciences. Amongst various fluoro-organic compounds, trifluoromethyl (CF) group is valuable in applications such as pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and industrial chemicals.

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Chloroethylnitrosoureas (CENUs) are important chemotherapies applied in the treatment of cancer. They exert anticancer activity by inducing DNA interstrand cross-links (ICLs) via the formation of two -alkylguanine intermediates, -chloroethylguanine (-ClEtG) and 1,-ethanoguanine (1,-EtG). However, -alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase (AGT), a DNA-repair enzyme, can restore the -alkylguanine damages and thereby obstruct the formation of ICLs (dG-dC cross-link).

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The calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) is a mediator of calcium signals and regulates fatty acid metabolism in mammalian cells. Cmk2p is a yeast homolog of CaMKII and functions as a negative regulator of calcium signaling. However, its substrates remain to be identified.

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The outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has caused great harm to all countries worldwide. This disease can be prevented by vaccination and managed using various treatment methods, including injections, oral medications, or aerosol therapies. However, the selection of suitable compounds for the research and development of anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs is a daunting task because of the vast databases of available compounds.

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Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) represent a common group of environmental pollutants that endanger various aquatic organisms via various pathways. To better prioritize the ecotoxicological hazard of PAHs to aquatic environment, we used 2D descriptors-based quantitative structure-toxicity relationship (QSTR) to assess the toxicity of PAHs toward six aquatic model organisms spanning three trophic levels. According to strict OECD guideline, six easily interpretable, transferable and reproducible 2D-QSTR models were constructed with high robustness and reliability.

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Terbuthylazine (TBA) is one of the most commonly used and effective herbicides. However, due to its affinity for soil organic matter and water solubility, TBA can lead to biological health concerns. This study exposed broilers to TBA (0 mg/kg bw, 0.

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Glioma is extremely difficult to be completely excised by surgery due to its invasive nature. Thus, chemotherapy still is the mainstay in the treatment of glioma after surgery. However, the natural blood-brain barrier (BBB) greatly restricts the penetration of chemotherapeutic agents into the central nervous system.

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Objective And Design: Pancreatic cancer is a highly malignant tumor that is well known for its poor prognosis. Based on glycosylation, we performed integrated quantitative N-glycoproteomics to investigate the synergistic anti-tumor effects of aspirin and gemcitabine on pancreatic cancer cells and explore the potential molecular mechanisms of chemotherapy in pancreatic cancer.

Methods And Results: Two pancreatic cancer cell lines (PANC-1 and BxPC-3) were treated with gemcitabine, aspirin, and a combination (gemcitabine + aspirin).

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-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) constitutes an important cellular mechanism for repairing potentially cytotoxic DNA damage induced by guanine -alkylating agents and can render cells highly resistant to certain cancer chemotherapeutic drugs. A wide variety of potential MGMT inactivators have been designed and synthesized for the purpose of overcoming MGMT-mediated tumor resistance. We determined the inactivation potency of these compounds against human recombinant MGMT using [H]-methylated-DNA-based MGMT inactivation assays and calculated the IC values.

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Carmustine (BCNU), a vital type of chloroethylnitrosourea (CENU), inhibits tumor cells growth by inducing DNA damage at O position of guanine and eventually forming dG-dC interstrand cross-links (ICLs). However, the clinical application of BCNU is hindered to some extent by the absence of tumor selectivity, poor stability and O-alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase (AGT) mediated drug resistance. In recent years, tumor microenvironment has been widely utilized for advanced drug delivery.

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Guanine O-alkylating agents are widely used as first-line chemotherapeutic drugs due to their ability to induce cytotoxic DNA damage. However, a major hurdle in their effectiveness is the emergence of chemoresistance, largely attributed to the DNA repair pathway mediated by O-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT). MGMT plays an important role in removing the alkyl groups from lethal O-alkylguanine (O-AlkylG) adducts formed by chemotherapeutic alkylating agents.

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Carmustine (BCNU) is a typical chemotherapy used for treatment of cerebroma and other solid tumors, which exerts antitumor effect by inducing DNA damage at O position of guanine. However, the clinical application of BCNU was extremely limited due to the drug resistance mainly mediated by O-alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase (AGT) and absence of tumor-targeting ability. To overcome these limitations, we developed a hypoxia-responsive nanomicelle with AGT inhibitory activity, which was successfully loaded with BCNU.

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Fused/non-fused polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (FNFPAHs) have a variety of toxic effects on ecosystems and human body, but the acquisition of their toxicity data is greatly limited by the limited resources available. Here, we followed the EU REACH regulation and used Pimephales promelas as a model organism to investigate the quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) between the FNFPAHs and their toxicity for the aquatic environment for the first time. We developed a single QSAR model (SM1) containing five simple and interpretable 2D molecular descriptors, which met the validation of OECD QSAR-related principles, and analyzed their mechanistic relationships with toxicity in detail.

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Alkylating agents are genotoxic chemicals that can induce and treat various types of cancer. This occurs through covalent bonding with cellular macromolecules, in particular DNA, leading to the loss of functional integrity under the persistence of modifications upon replication. O-alkylguanine (O-AlkylG) adducts are proposed to be the most potent DNA lesions induced by alkylating agents.

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Fused and non-fused polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (FNFPAHs) are a type of organic compounds widely occurring in the environment that pose a potential hazard to ecosystem and public health, and thus receive extensive attention from various regulatory agencies. Here, quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models were constructed to model the ecotoxicity of FNFPAHs against two aquatic species, Daphnia magna and Oncorhynchus mykiss. According to the stringent OECD guidelines, we used genetic algorithm (GA) plus multiple linear regression (MLR) approach to establish QSAR models of the two aquatic toxicity endpoints: D.

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Article Synopsis
  • Neural-tube defects (NTDs) are serious birth defects linked to inositol deficiency, with recent studies suggesting that the BMP/Smad signaling pathway may be involved in their development.
  • Research using mouse models and neural stem cells showed that LiCO treatment or lack of inositol led to increased signaling in this pathway and resulted in NTDs during embryonic development.
  • The findings indicate that activating the BMP/Smad pathway due to inositol deficiency may be a key factor in the occurrence of NTDs, and that inositol supplementation could potentially inhibit this process.
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Nitroaromatic compounds (NACs) represent a significant source of organic pollutants in the environment. In this study, a well-rounded dataset containing 371 NACs with rat oral median lethal doses (LD) was developed. Based on the dataset, binary and multiple classification models were established.

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