Ferulic Acid Induces Apoptosis of HeLa and Caski Cervical Carcinoma Cells by Down-Regulating the Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase (PI3K)/Akt Signaling Pathway.

BACKGROUND Ferulic acid is an antioxidant phenolic compound derived from plants, which has effects on cancer cells. This study aimed to investigate the effects of ferulic acid on HeLa and Caski human cervical carcinoma cells and the molecular mechanisms involved. MATERIAL AND METHODS HeLa and Caski human cervical carcinoma cells were grown in culture and treated with increasing doses of ferulic acid.

Antitumor activity of triptolide in SKOV3 cells and SKOV3/DDP in vivo and in vitro.

This study was designed to investigate the antitumor activity of triptolide in ovarian cancer inoculated with SKOV3 and SKOV3/cisplatin (DDP) cells, and to assess the mechanisms. In-vivo and in-vitro experiments were designed to evaluate the effects of triptolide on the tumor growth of SKOV3 and SKOV3/DDP cells. The experiments were divided into four groups: a SKOV3 group, a SKOV3 + TP treatment group, a SKOV3/DDP group and a SKOV3/DDP + TP treatment group.

Improving PCASL at ultra-high field using a VERSE-guided parallel transmission strategy.

Purpose: To improve the labeling efficiency of pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling (PCASL) at 7T using parallel transmission (pTx).

Methods: Five healthy subjects were scanned on an 8-channel-transmit 7T human MRI scanner. Time-of-flight (TOF) angiography was acquired to identify regions of interest (ROIs) around the 4 major feeding arteries to the brain, and and B maps were acquired in the labeling plane for tagging pulse design.

PROTACs: great opportunities for academia and industry.

Although many kinds of therapies are applied in the clinic, drug-resistance is a major and unavoidable problem. Another disturbing statistic is the limited number of drug targets, which are presently only 20-25% of all protein targets that are currently being studied. Moreover, the focus of current explorations of targets are their enzymatic functions, which ignores the functions from their scaffold moiety.

Conversion/Alloying Pseudocapacitance-Dominated Perovskite KZnF Anode for Advanced Lithium-Based Dual-Ion Batteries.

Cost-competitive perovskite fluoride KZnF has been introduced for the first time as an advanced anode for high-performance lithium-based dual-ion batteries, exhibiting conversion/alloying hybrid mechanisms and dominated pseudocapacitive kinetics for Li-ion storage.

The Chromosome-Based Rubber Tree Genome Provides New Insights into Spurge Genome Evolution and Rubber Biosynthesis.

The rubber tree, Hevea brasiliensis, produces natural rubber that serves as an essential industrial raw material. Here, we present a high-quality reference genome for a rubber tree cultivar GT1 using single-molecule real-time sequencing (SMRT) and Hi-C technologies to anchor the ∼1.47-Gb genome assembly into 18 pseudochromosomes.

Antidepressant Effects and Mechanisms of the Total Iridoids of Valeriana jatamansi on the Brain-Gut Axis.

is widely used in Chinese folk medicine and contains iridoids as important active ingredients. The brain-gut axis describes a complex bidirectional system between the central nervous system and the gastrointestinal tract. Herein, we evaluated the antidepressant effects of total iridoids of (TIV) and preliminarily investigated the effects of gut microbiota on their antidepressant effects using a chronic, unpredictable mild-stress mouse model.

A novel fluorescence phenomenon caused by amine induced ion-exchange between Cd and Fe ions.

A 3D metal-organic framework {[Cd(5-Brp)(dpa)]·0.5DMF·HO} (1) was successfully synthesized and characterized, which markedly recognized iron ions under the induction of an amino group. With the concentration of Fe increasing, the emission of 1 first declined, then enhanced with a red shift and was finally quenched, which was different from the reference compound [Cd(5-Brp)(bpp)(HO)] (2).

Supercapillary Architecture-Activated Two-Phase Boundary Layer Structures for Highly Stable and Efficient Flow Boiling Heat Transfer.

Development of smaller, faster, and more powerful electronic devices requires effective cooling strategies to efficiently remove ever-greater heat. Phase-change heat transfer such as boiling and evaporation has been widely exploited in various water-energy industries owing to its efficient heat transfer mode. Despite extensive progress, it remains challenging to achieve the physical limit of flow boiling due to highly transitional and chaotic nature of multiphase flows as well as unfavorable boundary layer structures.

Disrupted topological organization of human brain connectome in diabetic retinopathy patients.

Objective: There is increasing neuroimaging evidence that type 2 diabetes patients with retinal microvascular complications show abnormal brain functional and structural architecture and are at an increased risk of cognitive decline and dementia. However, changes in the topological properties of the functional brain connectome in diabetic retinopathy (DR) patients remain unknown. The aim of this study was to explore the topological organization of the brain connectome in DR patients using graph theory approaches.

Obesity as a Potential Risk Factor for Vincristine-induced Peripheral Neuropathy.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common pediatric cancer. Vincristine is a core chemotherapeutic agent for patients with ALL; unfortunately, ∼78% will develop vincristine-induced peripheral neuropathy (VIPN). VIPN can result in vincristine dose reductions that decrease therapeutic efficacy: making it important to understand which children are at highest risk for VIPN.

Assessment of cerebral low-frequency oscillations in patients with retinal vein occlusion: a preliminary functional MRI study.

Background: There is increasing evidence that patients with retinal vein occlusion exhibit cerebral vascular changes and are at an increased risk of stroke. However, it remains unknown whether patients with retinal vein occlusion exhibit changes in intrinsic brain activity.

Purpose: This study investigated intrinsic brain activity changes in patients with retinal vein occlusion by assessing the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations.

A family of planar hexanuclear CoLn clusters with lucanidae-like arrangement and single-molecule magnet behavior.

A family of planar hexanuclear CoLn clusters with the hydroxyl and nitrogen rich ligand 2-[bis(pyridin-2-ylmethyl) amino]-2-(hydroxymethyl)propane-1,3-diol (HL), formulated as [CoLn(μ-O)(μ-N)(OH)(HO)(HL)]·(CHCO)·20HO [Ln = Dy (1), Gd (2), Tb (3), Eu (4) and Ho (5)], have been synthesized and structurally characterized. They are isomorphous and feature a lucanidae-like arrangement. They are the first examples of 3d-4f clusters with the HL ligand.

Violation of Electrostatic Rules: Shifting the Balance between Pnicogen Bonds and Lone Pair-π Interactions Tuned by Substituents.

Complexes were formed by pairing ZCl (Z = P, As, or Sb) with CR (R = H, F, or CN). The first interaction present is a pnicogen bond between the Z atom and the C═C π-bond. This bond weakens as the H atoms of ethylene are replaced by electron-withdrawing F and CN, and the potential above the alkene switches from negative to positive.

Predicting the Post-therapy Severity Level (UPDRS-III) of Patients With Parkinson's Disease After Drug Therapy by Using the Dynamic Connectivity Efficiency of fMRI.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a multi-systemic disease in the brain arising from the dysfunction of several neural networks. The diagnosis and treatment of PD have gained more attention for clinical researchers. While there have been many fMRI studies about functional topological changes of PD patients, whether the dynamic changes of functional connectivity can predict the drug therapy effect is still unclear.

[Exploration of objective quality evaluation parameter of Alismatis Rhizoma decoction pieces].

To establish a quality constant evaluation system of Alismatis Rhizoma decoction pieces,in order to provide reference for regulating the market circulation of this decoction pieces. A total of 18 batches of Alismatis Rhizoma decoction pieces were collected from different pharmaceutical factories,and the morphological parameters of each sample were tested. The content of alisol B 23-acetate in Alismatis Rhizoma decoction pieces was determined by HPLC in the 2015 edition of Chinese Pharmacopoeia,and the parameters such as quality constant and relative quality constant were calculated.

[2 + 2] cycloaddition reaction and luminescent sensing of Fe and CrO ions by a cadmium-based coordination polymer.

A new cadmium-based coordination polymer (CP), [Cd(bpe)(ceba)(fa)(HO)] (1; fa = formate anions), was constructed by solvothermal reactions of cadmium nitrates with trans-1,2-bis(4'-pyridyl)ethylene ligand (bpe) and 4-(1-carboxy-ethoxy)-benzoic acid (Hceba). The [2 + 2] photodimerization reaction of CP 1 under UV irradiation generated the corresponding photoproduct [Cd(rctt-tpcb)(ceba)(fa)(HO)] (1a; rctt-tpcb = tetrakis(4-pyridyl)-cyclobutane) via a single-crystal-to-single-crystal (SCSC) transformation. Single crystal X-ray diffraction unveiled that CPs 1 and 1a have similar 2D layered structures, except that rctt-tpcb replaced a pair of bpe ligands in the latter.

MiRNA-19a-3p alleviates the progression of osteoporosis by targeting HDAC4 to promote the osteogenic differentiation of hMSCs.

To clarify the function of microRNA-19a-3p (miRNA-19a-3p) in the osteogenic differentiation of human-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) and the potential mechanism. Serum levels of miRNA-19a-3p, RUNX2 and OCN in osteoporosis patients and controls were determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) content and calcification ability during the process of osteogenic differentiation were examined by ALP staining and alizarin red staining, respectively.

An Inflammation-Immunity Classifier of 11 Chemokines for Prediction of Overall Survival in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

BACKGROUND Chemokines are important in inflammation, immunity, tumor progression, and metastasis. The purpose of this research was to find an integrated-RNA signature of chemokine family genes to predict the survival prognosis in head and neck squamous carcinoma (HNSC) patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS Relevant data of 504 HNSC patients were extracted from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database.

Exosomal miRNA-107 induces myeloid-derived suppressor cell expansion in gastric cancer.

  Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) promote immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment, support tumor growth and survival, and may contribute to immunotherapy resistance. Recent studies showed that tumor-derived exosomes (TDEs) can induce MDSCs accumulation and expansion, the mechanisms of which are largely unknown. The morphologies and sizes of the exosomes was observed by using a JEM-1400 transmission electron microscope.

Fabricating an intelligent cell-like nano-prodrug via hierarchical self-assembly based on the DNA skeleton for suppressing lung metastasis of breast cancer.

Cancer metastasis is a major cause of high mortality in breast cancer. Despite the progress achieved in nanomaterial-based treatments, the cure rate remains unsatisfactory, owing to their poor biocompatibility and non-specific recognition. Inspired by the cell-mimetic strategy, in this work, we fabricated an intelligent cell-like nano-prodrug (Dox-MPK@MDL) for lung metastasis of breast cancer.

Vacancy defective perovskite NaNiCoF nanocrystal anodes for advanced lithium-ion storage driven by surface conversion and insertion hybrid mechanisms.

A vacancy defective perovskite Na0.85Ni0.45Co0.

Caffeic acid phenethyl ester suppressed growth and metastasis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells by inactivating the NF-κB pathway.

Caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) is the main polyphenol extracted from honeybee propolis, which inhibits the growth of several kinds of tumor. This study aimed to assess the inhibitory effect of CAPE in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), evaluate the synergistic action of CAPE in radiotherapy sensitivity of NPC cell lines and further elucidate the possible molecular mechanism involved. CCK-8 assay was used to analyze cell proliferation ability.