Cardiac glycosides from Streblus asper with potential antiviral activity.

Ten undescribed cardiac glycosides, strasperosides A-J, together with twelve known analogues, were isolated from Streblus asper Lour. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic analysis, electronic circular dichroism data, and chemical methods. These cardiac glycosides showed diversity in steroid skeleton and sugar moiety.

Reliability of Computing van der Waals Bond Lengths of Some Rare Gas Diatomics.

When the bond lengths of 11 molecules containing van der Waals bonds are optimized by 572 methods and 20 basis sets, it is found that the best mean absolute deviations (MADs) of density-functional theory (DFT) methods are 0.005 Å (shown by APFD/6-311++G**), 0.007 Å (B2PLYPD3(Full)/aug-cc-pVQZ), and 0.

Reliability of computed molecular structures.

When the structures of 1342 molecules are optimized by 30 methods and 7 basis sets, there appear 289 (21.54%) problematic molecules and 112 (8.35%) failed ones.

[Systematic review and trail sequential analysis of preparation of Xiakucao for Hashimoto's thyroiditis].

To systemically evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of oral preparation of Xiakucao with levothyroxine(LT4) on Hashimoto's thyroiditis(HT), so as to provide the evidence for its clinical application in the future. All the included studies were retrieved from four Chinese databases and three English databases from their inception to December 2019. ROB assessment tool of cochrane system and the evidence classification recommended by GRADE were used to evaluate the quality of evidences in all included studies.

Low CADM2 expression predicts high recurrence risk of hepatocellular carcinoma patients after hepatectomy.

Purpose: To investigate the expression and clinical significance of CADM2 in hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC).

Methods: The level of expression of CADM2 mRNA was assessed in frozen tumor specimens and adjacent noncancerous tissues from 30 HCC patients by real-time PCR. The protein level was determined by immunohistochemistry on a tissue microarray containing tumor and adjacent noncancerous tissues from 234 HCC patients.

Two-state displacement by the kinesin-14 Ncd stalk.

The nonprocessive kinesin-14 Ncd motor binds to microtubules and hydrolyzes ATP, undergoing a single displacement before releasing the microtubule. A lever-like rotation of the coiled-coil stalk is thought to drive Ncd displacements or steps along microtubules. Crystal structures and cryoelectron microscopy reconstructions imply that stalk rotation is correlated with ADP release and microtubule binding by the motor.

Hepatitis C virus single-stranded RNA induces innate immunity via Toll-like receptor 7.

Background/aims: Innate immune responses to HCV infection are triggered through host recognition of pathogen-associated molecular patterns. Interferons are critical for the protection against HCV infection. However, the pathways linking virus recognition to IFN induction remain poorly understood.

Identification of the proteomic changes in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 following prolonged UV-B irradiation.

The diversified physiological responses in cyanobacteria under ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation have been broadly researched. The changes in the metabolic control mechanisms hidden behind these physiological traits still need to be further investigated. This research attempts to identify some of the internal mechanisms of several stressful phenotypes such as a decreased growth rate, an impaired photosystem, and the degradation of photosynthetic pigments.

Mature Drosophila meiosis I spindles comprise microtubules of mixed polarity.

New information has been obtained recently regarding microtubule organization in Xenopus extract spindles. These spindles assemble in vitro by chromatin-mediated microtubule nucleation and consist of randomly interspersed long and short microtubules with minus ends distributed throughout the spindle. Fluorescence speckle microscopy has led to the proposal that the Xenopus steady-state spindles contain two overlapping arrays of parallel or antiparallel microtubules with differing poleward-flux velocities.

Ncd motor binding and transport in the spindle.

The Ncd kinesin-14 motor is required for meiotic spindle assembly in Drosophila oocytes and produces force in mitotic spindles that opposes other motors. Despite extensive studies, the way the motor binds to the spindle to perform its functions is not well understood. By analyzing Ncd deleted for the conserved head or the positively charged tail, we found that the tail is essential for binding to spindles and centrosomes, but both the head and tail are needed for normal spindle assembly and function.

Real-time detection of alpha1A-AR movement stimulated by phenylephrine in single living cells.

Aim: To investigate the movement of alpha(1A)-adrenergic receptors(alpha(1A)-AR) stimulated by agonist, phenylephrine (PE), and the dynamics of receptor movement in real time in single living cells with millisecond resolution.

Methods: We labeled alpha(1A)-AR using the monoclonal, anti-FLAG (a kind of tag) antibody and Cy3-conjugated goat anti-mouse IgG and recorded the trajectory of their transport process in living HEK293A cells stimulated by agonist, PE, and then analyzed their dynamic properties.

Results: The specific detection of alpha(1A)-AR on the surface of living HEK293A-alpha(1A) cells was achieved.

Combined DNA vaccination against three animal viruses elicits decreased immunogenicity of a single plasmid in mice.

In order to investigate whether combined DNA vaccines are an ideal way to combine antigens in a single vaccine formulation, we immunized mice with three plasmids (pVSG, pVgD and pVE2), respectively, encoding the antigen of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), pseudorabies virus (PRV) and classic swine fever virus (CSFV), either alone or in a combined vaccine regimen. We also investigated the immune responses induced by a series of mixtures in which three plasmids were mixed in pairs. Then we further immunized mice with three different plasmids in separate sites and preformed an adoptive transfer experiment.

The transport of alpha(1A)-adrenergic receptor with 33-nm step size in live cells.

We used the technique of single particle tracking (SPT) with high tempo-spatial resolution to efficiently explore the route and mechanism for the transport of alpha(1A)-adrenergic receptor (alpha(1A)-AR) in real time in living cells. We found that the initial transport of alpha(1A)-AR in cells depended on actin filaments with the velocity of 0.2 microm/s and exhibited discrete 33-nm steps.