Alleviation of Liver Dysfunction,Oxidative Stress,and Inflammation Underlines the Protective Effects of Polysaccharides from Cordyceps cicadae on High Sugar/High Fat Diet-Induced Metabolic Syndrome in Rats

This study investigated the protective effects of two polysaccharides (CPA-1 and CPB-2) from Cordyceps cicadae against high fructose/high fat diet (HF/HFD) induced obesity and metabolic disorders in rats. Rats were either fed with normal diet or HF/HFD and treated with CPA-1 and CPB-2 (100 and 300 mg/kg) for 11 weeks. Administration of CPA-1 and CPB-2 significantly and dose dependently reduced body and liver weight, insulin and glucose tolerance, serum insulin and glucose levels. Furthermore, serum and hepatic lipid profiles, liver function enzymes and proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6) were markedly reduced. Additionally, CPA-1 and CPB-2 treatment alleviated hepatic oxidative stress by reducing lipid peroxidation level (MDA) and upregulating glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities as well as ameliorated histological alterations through the reduction of hepatic lipid accumulation. These results suggested that the polysaccharides from C. cicadae showed protective effects against HF/HFD induced metabolic disturbances and may be considered as a dietary supplement for treating obesity.     

In Situ Measurement of Some Soil Properties in Paddy Soil Using Visible and Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

In situ measurements with visible and near-infrared spectroscopy (vis-NIR) provide an efficient way for acquiring soil information of paddy soils in the short time gap between the harvest and following rotation. The aim of this study was to evaluate its feasibility to predict a series of soil properties including organic matter (OM), organic carbon (OC), total nitrogen (TN), available nitrogen (AN), available phosphorus (AP), available potassium (AK) and pH of paddy soils in Zhejiang province, China. Firstly, the linear partial least squares regression (PLSR) was performed on the in situ spectra and the predictions were compared to those with laboratory-based recorded spectra. Then, the non-linear least-square support vector machine (LS-SVM) algorithm was carried out aiming to extract more useful information from the in situ spectra and improve predictions. Results show that in terms of OC, OM, TN, AN and pH, (i) the predictions were worse using in situ spectra compared to laboratory-based spectra with PLSR algorithm (ii) the prediction accuracy using LS-SVM (R²>0.75, RPD>1.90) was obviously improved with in situ vis-NIR spectra compared to PLSR algorithm, and comparable or even better than results generated using laboratory-based spectra with PLSR; (iii) in terms of AP and AK, poor predictions were obtained with in situ spectra (R²<0.5, RPD<1.50) either using PLSR or LS-SVM. The results highlight the use of LS-SVM for in situ vis-NIR spectroscopic estimation of soil properties of paddy soils.     

研究报告: 组织蛋白酶B介导NLRP3小体在砷致小胶质细胞炎症激活中的作用

目的 探究组织蛋白酶B（CTSB）介导NLRP3小体在砷致小胶质细胞（BV-2）炎症激活中的作用。方法 取处于对数生长期的BV-2细胞，分别暴露于终浓度为0、2、4、8 μmol/L亚砷酸钠（NaAsO₂）溶液培养24 h，检测细胞活性，测定各组细胞内CTSB和细胞焦亡相关蛋白NLRP3、Caspase-1、IL-18、IL-1β的表达水平。流式细胞仪检测胞内溶酶体膜稳定性。基于实验结果，增设CTSB抑制剂组（5 μmol/L CA074-Me +8 μmol/L NaAsO₂、10 μmol/L CA074-Me+8 μmol/L NaAsO₂），检测两组细胞内炎症相关蛋白NLRP3、Caspase-1和IL-1β、IL-18的表达水平。结果 与对照组比较，各染砷组细胞抑制率增高，呈现剂量效应关系，溶酶体膜稳定性下降，差异有统计学意义（P<0.01），胞内CTSB、NLRP3、IL-1β、IL-18、Caspase-1表达增高，差异有统计学意义（P<0.01）；与对照组（8 μmol/L NaAsO₂）比较，抑制剂组BV-2细胞胞内CTSB、NLRP3、IL-1β、IL-18、Caspase-1水平均降低，差异有统计学差异（P<0.01）。结论 NaAsO₂通过诱导小胶质细胞内CTSB水平的上升，介导NLRP3炎症小体激活小胶质细胞，促其释放炎性因子，致神经系统损伤。     

A simple process for the isolation of epithelial cells from bacteria-contaminated samples using anchoring molecules

A simple and efficient tool to isolate epithelial cells from bacteria-contaminated samples has been developed using two different microparticles functionalized with chemical molecules. The epithelial cells could be captured simply by biocompatible anchors for membranes (BAM), consisting of poly(ethylene glycol) functionalized with oleyl-chain-conjugated NHS (N-hydroxysuccinimide) on glass microparticles, whereas bacteria were adsorbed on 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (ATPS)-functionalized magnetic microparticles. In the case of samples highly contaminated with bacteria, epithelial cells were not isolated successfully by both of the single BAM- and antibody-functionalized microparticles. Therefore, serial isolation steps of these two different chemical functionalized microparticles were introduced. The concentration of bacteria was decreased dramatically by using APTS-functionalized magnetic particles prior to the isolation of epithelial cells by BAM microparticles. With these serial processes, successful isolation of epithelial cells was achieved from bacteria-contaminated epithelial samples. The applicability of this method was verified with bacteria-contaminated intestinal samples biopsied from a BALB/C mouse for primary cell cultivation.     

Oridonin prevents oxidative stress-induced endothelial injury via promoting Nrf-2 pathway in ischaemic stroke

Oridonin, a natural diterpenoid compound extracted from a Chinese herb, has been proved to exert anti-oxidative stress effects in various disease models. The aim of the present study was to investigate the protective effects of oridonin on oxidative stress-induced endothelial injury in ischaemic stroke. We found oridonin repaired blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity presented with upregulation of tight junction proteins (TJ proteins) expression, inhibited the infiltration of periphery inflammatory cells and neuroinflammation and thereby reduced infarct volume in ischaemic stroke mice. Furthermore, our results showed that oridonin could protect against oxidative stress-induced endothelial injury via promoting nuclear translocation of nuclear factor-erythroid 2 related factor 2 (Nrf-2). The specific mechanism could be the activation of AKT(Ser473)/GSK3β(Ser9)/Fyn signalling pathway. Our findings revealed the therapeutic effect and mechanism of oridonin in ischaemic stroke, which provided fundamental evidence for developing the extracted compound of Chinese herbal medicine into an innovative drug for ischaemic stroke treatment.     

Analysis of conformational motions and related key residue interactions responsible for a specific function of proteins with elastic network model

Protein collective motions play a critical role in many biochemical processes. How to predict the functional motions and the related key residue interactions in proteins is important for our understanding in the mechanism of the biochemical processes. Normal mode analysis (NMA) of the elastic network model (ENM) is one of the effective approaches to investigate the structure-encoded motions in proteins. However, the motion modes revealed by the conventional NMA approach do not necessarily correspond to a specific function of protein. In the present work, a new analysis method was proposed to identify the motion modes responsible for a specific function of proteins and then predict the key residue interactions involved in the functional motions by using a perturbation approach. In our method, an internal coordinate that accounts for the specific function was introduced, and the Cartesian coordinate space was transformed into the internal/Cartesian space by using linear approximation, where the introduced internal coordinate serves as one of the axes of the coordinate space. NMA of ENM in this internal/Cartesian space was performed and the function-relevant motion modes were identified according to their contributions to the specific function of proteins. Then the key residue interactions important for the functional motions of the protein were predicted as the interactions whose perturbation largely influences the fluctuation along the internal coordinate. Using our proposed methods, the maltose transporter (MalFGK₂) from E. Coli was studied. The functional motions and the key residue interactions that are related to the channel-gating function of this protein were successfully identified.     

Difference in microchip electrophoretic mobility between partially and fully PEGylated poly(amidoamine) dendrimers

The objective of this study was to investigate the difference in electrophoretic mobility between partially and fully poly(ethylene glycol)-conjugated poly(amidoamine) dendrimers (part-PEG-PAMAM and full-PEG-PAMAM, respectively) using a microchip capillary gel electrophoresis (MCGE). While MCGE allowed size-based separation of PEG-PAMAMs prepared with monomethoxy PEG-nitrophenyl carbonate, full-PEG-PAMAMs migrated slower than part-PEG-PAMAMs that were similar in size or larger. When the measured molecular weights obtained from MCGE analysis and the calculated molecular weights were plotted, each part-PEG-PAMAM and full-PEG-PAMAM showed correlation coefficients greater than 0.98. This study indicates that MCGE would be useful for characterizing PEG-PAMAMs with different PEGylation degrees.     

金双歧辅助治疗小儿扁桃体炎的随访观察

目的探讨通过随访观察金双歧辅助治疗小儿扁桃体炎患儿的远期效果。方法选取2013年1月至2014年7月在本院儿科住院诊断为扁桃体炎患儿300例,采用随机数字表法,按入院先后顺序分为对照组和观察组,对照组常规给予抗生素(包括抗病毒药)和(或)对症治疗;观察组在对照组治疗的基础上,给予金双歧口服辅助治疗,出院后继续服用金双歧4周;两组患儿分别在出院后1个月、2个月、3个月均进行电话随访,3个月后均通过家庭访视进行观察,比较两组患儿出院后发生呼吸道感染和肠道感染的差异。结果观察组患儿在出院后3个月内呼吸道感染和肠道感染的发生率低于对照组,差异具有统计学意义(P0.05)。结论出院扁桃体炎患儿继续服用金双歧,可提高患儿机体免疫力,降低呼吸道和肠道感染的发生率;随访为观察患儿出院后健康状态,进行健康指导以及收集资料的重要手段。