Docosahexaenoic acid antagonizes the boosting effect of palmitic acid on LPS inflammatory signaling by inhibiting gene transcription and ceramide synthesis.

It is well known that saturated fatty acids (SFAs) and unsaturated fatty acid, in particular omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs), have different effects on inflammatory signaling: SFAs are pro-inflammatory but n-3 PUFAs have strong anti-inflammatory properties. We have reported that palmitic acid (PA), a saturated fatty acid, robustly amplifies lipopolysaccharide (LPS) signaling to upregulate proinflammatory gene expression in macrophages. We also reported that the increased production of ceramide (CER) via sphingomyelin (SM) hydrolysis and CER de novo synthesis plays a key role in the synergistic effect of LPS and PA on proinflammatory gene expression.

Superconductivity in Pristine 2H_{a}-MoS_{2} at Ultrahigh Pressure.

As a follow-up of our previous work on pressure-induced metallization of the 2H_{c}-MoS_{2} [Chi et al., Phys. Rev.

Jahn-Teller Effect on Framework Flexibility of Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Perovskites.

Here we study the Jahn-Teller (JT) effect on framework flexibility of two analogous hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites, [C(NH)][Zn(HCOO)] (1-Zn) and [C(NH)][Cu(HCOO)] (2-Cu). Single-crystal nanoindentation measurements show that the elastic moduli and hardnesses of 1-Zn are up to ∼52.0% and ∼25.

Salvianolic acid B inhibits myofibroblast transdifferentiation in experimental pulmonary fibrosis via the up-regulation of Nrf2.

Salvianolic acid B (SalB) is one of the most bioactive components extracted from Salvia miltiorrhiza, and its antioxidant capacity corresponds with its protective effects against cell injury from oxidative stress. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of SalB on experimental pulmonary fibrosis and its ability to ameliorate the oxidative/antioxidative imbalance during fibrosis pathogenesis. The anti-fibrotic activity of SalB was first confirmed in Transforming growth factor β1(TGF-β1)-stimulated MRC-5 cells.

Enhanced Immune Response to Rabies Viruses by the Use of a Liposome Adjuvant in Vaccines.

Essen regimen, the Thai Red Cross two-site ID regimen, Zagreb schedule, and the eight-site ID regimen are the standard rabies vaccines recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). In this study, a liposomal rabies vaccine (LipoRV) was developed, which was found to facilitate the production of rabies virus neutralizing antibody (RVNA) in BALB/c mice. Liposome solution was prepared with hydrogenated soya phosphatide and cholesterol.

Cooperative stimulation of atherogenesis by lipopolysaccharide and palmitic acid-rich high fat diet in low-density lipoprotein receptor-deficient mice.

Background And Aims: Either lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or high-fat diet (HFD) enriched with saturated fatty acid (SFA) promotes atherosclerosis. In this study, we investigated the effect of LPS in combination with SFA-rich HFD on atherosclerosis and how LPS and SFA interact to stimulate inflammatory response in vascular endothelial cells.

Methods: Low-density lipoprotein receptor-deficient (LDLR) mice were fed a low-fat diet (LFD), HFD with low palmitic acid (PA) (LP-HFD), or HFD with high PA (HP-HFD) for 20 weeks.

Engineering the Self-Assembly Induced Emission of Cu Nanoclusters by Au(I) Doping.

Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) and self-assembly induced emission (SAIE) effects have been employed to tune the emission properties of metal nanoclusters (NCs). However, it is still not possible to further enhance the photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs) and control the emission colors of the NCs using AIE and SAIE. On the basis of our recent work studying the contribution of Cu(I) defects in the SAIE of Cu NCs, in this article, Au(I) was doped into Cu NC self-assembled nanosheets (NSASs) to construct a more stable Au(I)-centered state.

Immune complexes containing malondialdehyde (MDA) LDL induce apoptosis in human macrophages.

Immune complexes (IC) containing predominantly malondialdehyde-LDL and the corresponding autoantibodies (MDA-LDL IC) predict acute cardiovascular events, while IC rich in oxidized LDL (oxLDL IC) predict cardiovascular disease progression. Our objective was to determine mechanisms that could explain these prognostic differences. We compared the effects of the interaction of oxLDL, MDA-LDL and the corresponding IC with human macrophages focusing on apoptosis, metalloproteinases, and proinflammatory cytokines.

The genus Pulveroboletus (Boletaceae, Boletales) in China.

Species of Pulveroboletus (Boletaceae, Boletales) in China are investigated on the basis of morphology and molecular phylogenetic analyses of DNA sequences from nuc rDNA region encompassing the internal transcribed spacers 1 and 2, along with the 5.8S rDNA (ITS) and nuc 28S rDNA D1-D2 domains (28S) and sequences from the translation elongation factor 1-α gene (TEF1). Nine species are recognized in the country, three of them are described as new: P.

Nanoscale quantification of the biophysical characterization of combretastatin A-4-treated tumor cells using atomic force microscopy.

As an inhibitor of microtubule assembly, combretastatin A-4 (CA-4)-induced biological responses in tumor cells have been well known, but the corresponding changes in nano-biophysical properties were not investigated given the lack of an ideal tool. Using AFM technique, we investigated the alteration of nano-biophysical properties when CA-4-treated tumor cells underwent the different biological processes, including cell cycle arrest, apoptosis and autophagy. We found that CA-4-resistant cells were rougher with the presence of characteristic "ridges", indicating that the development of "ridge" structure may be a determinant of the sensitivity of cells to CA-4 compounds.

Molecular Diagnosis of Mosaic Overgrowth Syndromes Using a Custom-Designed Next-Generation Sequencing Panel.

Recent studies have discovered a group of overgrowth syndromes, such as congenital lipomatous overgrowth with vascular, epidermal, and skeletal anomalies (CLOVES) syndrome, Proteus syndrome, and megalencephaly-capillary malformation-polymicrogyria (MCAP) syndrome, are caused by somatic activating variants in genes involved in the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/AKT/mechanistic target of rapamycin pathway. Because of the low-abundance nature of these variants, Sanger sequencing often yields negative results. We have developed and validated a next-generation sequencing (NGS) panel that targets all known variants associated with these syndromes.

Blockade of IDO-kynurenine-AhR metabolic circuitry abrogates IFN-γ-induced immunologic dormancy of tumor-repopulating cells.

Interactions with the immune system may lead tumorigenic cells into dormancy. However, the underlying molecular mechanism is poorly understood. Using a 3D fibrin gel model, we show that IFN-γ induces tumour-repopulating cells (TRCs) to enter dormancy through an indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1)-kynurenine (Kyn)-aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR)-p27 dependent pathway.

Evaluating osteoporotic fracture risk with the Fracture Risk Assessment Tool in Chinese patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

This study aims to evaluate the discriminative and predictive capacity of the Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX) to determine the 10-year risk of osteoporotic fracture in Chinese rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.This study included 168 RA patients and 168 healthy individuals as controls. The Chinese mainland FRAX model was applied to calculate the 10-year risk of osteoporotic fractures, defined as fracture of the spine, forearm, hip, or shoulder.

A high-pressure single-crystal-diffraction experimental system at 4W2 beamline of BSRF.

Information on the structural evolution of materials under high pressure is of great importance for understanding the properties of materials exhibited under high pressure. High-pressure powder diffraction is widely used to investigate the structure evolution of materials at such pressure. Unfortunately, powder diffraction data are usually insufficient for retrieving the atomic structures, with high-pressure single-crystal diffraction being more desirable for such a purpose.

α- and β-Naphthoflavone synergistically attenuate HO-induced neuron SH-SY5Y cell damage.

Previous studies have demonstrated an association between neurological diseases and oxidative stress (OS). Naphthoflavone is a synthetic derivative of naturally occurring flavonoids that serves an important role in the treatment and prevention of OS-related diseases. The current study was designed to apply α- and β-Naphthoflavone individually and in combination to counteract the detrimental effects of OS on neurons .

Cytological evaluation by fine needle aspiration biopsy of incidental focal increased fluorodeoxyglucose uptake in thyroid on positron emission tomography scan.

Background: With the increased use of whole body fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) scan for staging/restaging or primary diagnosis of neoplasia, thyroid incidentalomas have become more common. The limited reports of PET-positive thyroid incidentalomas showed incidence of malignancy ranging from 14 to 66%, and there is discrepancy in terms of the diagnostic significance of the standard uptake value (SUV) value.

Methods: This is a retrospective study of 20 PET incidentalomas which had cytological evaluation from October 2009 to February 2015 at a tertiary care university medical center, M:F = 8:12.

Juvenile treatment with a novel mGluR2 agonist/mGluR3 antagonist compound, LY395756, reverses learning deficits and cognitive flexibility impairments in adults in a neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorder, in which cognitive function becomes disrupted at early stages of the disease. Although the mechanisms underlying cognitive impairments remain unclear, N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDAR) hypofunctioning in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) has been implicated. Moreover, cognitive symptoms in SCZ are usually unresponsive to treatment with current antipsychotics and by onset, disruption of the dopamine system, not NMDAR hypofunctioning, dominates the symptoms.

A Clinically-Relevant Dose of Methylphenidate Enhances Synaptic Inhibition in the Juvenile Rat Prefrontal Cortex.

Methylphenidate (MPH) is perhaps the most commonly prescribed psychoactive substance for young children and adolescents; however, its effects on the immature brain are not well understood. MPH is increasingly abused by adolescents and prescriptions are being issued to increasingly younger children without rigorous psychological testing, raising the potential for misdiagnosis; it is therefore crucial to understand how this drug might impact a healthy, developing brain. Recently, we have shown that a clinically-relevant dose of MPH depresses the activity of pyramidal neurons in the prefrontal cortex of normal juvenile rats, but its effects on inhibitory synaptic transmission remain to be explored.

Penta-graphene: A Promising Anode Material as the Li/Na-Ion Battery with Both Extremely High Theoretical Capacity and Fast Charge/Discharge Rate.

Recently, a new two-dimensional (2D) carbon allotrope named penta-graphene was theoretically proposed ( Zhang , S. ; et al. Proc.

Experimental observations and dissipative particle dynamic simulations on microstructures of pH-sensitive polymer containing amorphous solid dispersions.

Amorphous solid dispersion (ASD) technique is an effective strategy to increase the dissolution rate of poorly soluble drugs. However, it is inherently unstable, and the molecular basis for achieving kinetic stability is not well understood. In this study, lacidipine-Eudragit_E_100 solid dispersions with 20% drug loading were prepared using the solvent evaporation.

Effects of febuxostat on insulin resistance and expression of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein in patients with primary gout.

We aimed to investigate the effects of febuxostat on IR and the expression of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) in patients with primary gout. Forty-two cases of primary gout patients without uric acid-lowering therapy were included in this study. After a physical examination, 20 age- and sex-matched patients were included as normal controls.

Modification of Hypoxic Respiratory Response by Protein Tyrosine Kinase in Brainstem Ventral Respiratory Neuron Group.

Protein tyrosine kinase (PTK) mediated the tyrosine phosphorylation modification of neuronal receptors and ion channels. Whether such modification resulted in changes of physiological functions was not sufficiently studied. In this study we examined whether the hypoxic respiratory response-which is the enhancement of breathing in hypoxic environment could be affected by the inhibition of PTK at brainstem ventral respiratory neuron column (VRC).

Lipopolysaccharide and IL-1β coordinate a synergy on cytokine production by upregulating MyD88 expression in human gingival fibroblasts.

Both lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and interleukin (IL)-1β activate the MyD88-dependent signaling pathways to stimulate proinflammatory cytokine expression. However, it remains unknown how LPS and IL-1β interact with each other to coordinate the stimulation. In this study, we sought to investigate the interaction between LPS and IL-1β on MyD88-dependent signaling pathways in human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs).

Realization of resistive switching and magnetoresistance in ZnO/ZnO-Co composite materials.

Combining resistive switching and magnetoresistance in a system exhibits great potential for application in multibit nonvolatile data storage. It is in significance and difficulty to seek a material with resistances that can be stably switched at different resistance states modulated by an electrical field and a magnetic field. In this paper, we propose a novel electrode/ZnO/ZnO-Co/electrode device in which the storage layer combines a nanostructured ZnO-Co layer and a ZnO layer.

A study of cell proliferation using immunohistological staining: A case report of congenital granular cell epulis.

An unusual case of a 1-day-old Chinese female neonate with a solid tumor mass in the maxillary anterior ridge of the edentulous jaw is reported. Based on the clinical and histopathological features, the diagnosis was of obstructive congenital granular cell epulis (CGCE) which is an uncommon benign tumor that preferentially develops in female infants. Immunohistochemical analysis of the lesion was performed and the rate of cell proliferation was determined by immunostaining with Ki-67 and PCNA, which showed labeling indexes of 11.