Enantioselective Carbonyl–Ene Reactions Catalyzed by Chiral Cationic Dirhodium(II,III) Carboxamidates

An enantioselective carbonyl–ene reaction of glyoxylate esters with 1,1-disubstituted alkenes catalyzed by chiral cationic dirhodium­(II,III) carboxamidates is described. The paddlewheel dirhodium­(II,III) carboxamidates having one open coordination site at each rhodium smoothly catalyze the carbonyl–ene reaction to afford homoallylic alcohol products in good isolated yields with high enantioselectivities

Egg Component-Composited Inverse Opal Particles for Synergistic Drug Delivery

Microparticles have a demonstrated value in drug delivery systems. The attempts to develop this technology focus on the generation of functional microparticles by using innovative but accessible materials. Here, we present egg component-composited microparticles with a hybrid inverse opal structure for synergistic drug delivery. The egg component inverse opal particles were produced by using egg yolk to negatively replicate colloid crystal bead templates. Because of their huge specific surface areas, abundant nanopores, and complex nanochannels of the inverse opal structure, the resultant egg yolk particles could be loaded with different kinds of drugs, such as hydrophobic camptothecin (CPT), by simply immersing them into the corresponding drug solutions. Attractively, additional drugs, such as the hydrophilic doxorubicin (DOX), could also be encapsulated into the particles through the secondary filling of the drug-doped egg white hydrogel into the egg yolk inverse opal scaffolds, which realized the synergistic drug delivery for the particles. It was demonstrated that the egg-derived inverse opal particles were with large quantity and lasting releasing for the CPT and DOX codelivery, and thus could significantly reduce cell viability, and enhance therapeutic efficacy in treating cancer cells. These features of the egg component-composited inverse opal microparticles indicated that they are ideal microcarriers for drug delivery

Droplet Microarray on Patterned Butterfly Wing Surfaces for Cell Spheroid Culture

Three-dimensional (3D) cell spheroids have a demonstrated value for in vitro biological research and therapeutics development. Attempts to this technique focus on the development of effective methods for fabricating cell spheroids. Here, inspired by the heterogeneously textured wettability bumps (with hydrophilic peaks and hydrophobic bases) of Stenocara beetle, we present a biotemplated substrate with wettable hydrogel arrays for culturing the cell spheroids. The biotemplates were Morpho butterfly wings with chitin and protein components, which could provide a natural superhydrophobic surface without any modification. The droplet microarrays could be formed for cell spheroid culture on this bioinspired wing substrate by using the hydrogel patterns to hanging droplets. The hanging drop culture method on hydrogel-covered wings has the advantages of high speed, uniform size, and controllable diameter for the formation of 3D cell spheroids. It was demonstrated that drugs produced distinct responses in the 3D cell spheroids compared to conventional two-dimensional cell cultures. As the presented system does not require complex instruments and chemical modifications, our method can simply construct the desired wettability substrates with high biocompatibility for cell culture, drug testing, and other biomedical applications

Synthesis of 4-hydroxy-3-benzoylpyridin-2(1<i>H</i>)-one derivatives using pyrrolidine as catalyst

A facile synthesis of novel 3-functionalized pyridine derivatives has been accomplished through the reaction of 4-hydroxy-3-benzoylpyridin-2(1H)-ones and β-nitrostyrenes in the presence of catalytic amount of pyrrolidine (10 mol%). In this process, the desired products were obtained with 72–87% yields using ethanol as solvent at 80 °C for 4 h. In addition, a total of 19 examples were obtained, which exhibited the broad substrate scope of the transformation. The reaction process may involve the formation of an unstable enamine intermediate and then undergo hydrolysis to afford 4-hydroxy-3-benzoylpyridin-2(1H)-one derivatives. </p

Image_2_Identification of CD101 in Glioma: A Novel Prognostic Indicator Expressed on M2 Macrophages.tif

Glioma represents the most common primary intracranial malignancy worldwide, with low overall survival rates and limited therapeutic options. The protein CD101, mainly expressed on several immune cells, has been demonstrated to exert potent effects on blunting T cell immune responses across infectious and autoimmunity diseases. Nevertheless, the prognostic value of CD101 expression and its role in the immune microenvironment of various malignancies currently remains elusive. Herein, by adopting bioinformatics methodology, we comprehensively illustrated the potential function and predictive value of CD101 in stratifying clinical prognosis among patients with glioma, for which a high CD101 level predicted an unfavorable clinical outcome in glioma patients. Results from enrichment analyses manifested that CD101 predominantly expressed on the tumor-associated macrophages and was significantly associated with the immune regulatory processes, as evidenced by its positive correlation with immune-related genes and the putative infiltration of immune cells. Evidence provided by in-situ multicolor immunofluorescence staining further validated our findings at the protein level. Taken together, CD101 may serve as a novel biomarker in predicting clinical prognosis and immune status for glioma patients.</p

Photonic Crystal Microbubbles as Suspension Barcodes

A novel suspension array was developed that uses photonic crystal (PhC) microbubbles as barcode particles. The PhC microbubbles have an outer transparent polymeric shell, a middle PhC shell, and an inner bubble core, and they were achieved by extraction-derived self-assembly of colloidal nanoparticles in semipermeable solid microcapsules. The encoded elements of the microbubbles originated from their PhC structure with a coated shell, which not only improved the stability of the codes but also provided a flexible surface for bioassays. By using multicompartmental microcapsule templates, PhC microbubbles with substantial coding levels and controllable movement could also be achieved. In addition, as the size of the encapsulated bubbles could be tailored, the overall density of the PhC microbubbles could be adjusted to match the density of a detection solution and to remain in suspension. These remarkable properties make the PhC microbubbles excellent barcode particles

Characterization of the sterile phenotype in <i>ice1-2</i>.

(A) Structures of the ICE1 gene in ice1-2 mutant (SALK_003155). The scaled linear map depicts four exons as boxes and three introns as bold lines between boxes. The positions of qRT-PCR primers (indicated by arrows) and T-DNA insertion are shown. (B) Morphology of reproductive growth of Col-0, ice1-2 and c-ice1-2 plants. (C) Relative expression of ICE1 gene in inflorescences. The ACTIN2 gene (AT3G18780) was an internal control. SE, n = 3, *** p p ice1-2 and c-ice1-2 fresh plants. (F) Comparison of silique length of each genotype. SE, n = 14.</p

Image_1_Identification of CD101 in Glioma: A Novel Prognostic Indicator Expressed on M2 Macrophages.tif

Glioma represents the most common primary intracranial malignancy worldwide, with low overall survival rates and limited therapeutic options. The protein CD101, mainly expressed on several immune cells, has been demonstrated to exert potent effects on blunting T cell immune responses across infectious and autoimmunity diseases. Nevertheless, the prognostic value of CD101 expression and its role in the immune microenvironment of various malignancies currently remains elusive. Herein, by adopting bioinformatics methodology, we comprehensively illustrated the potential function and predictive value of CD101 in stratifying clinical prognosis among patients with glioma, for which a high CD101 level predicted an unfavorable clinical outcome in glioma patients. Results from enrichment analyses manifested that CD101 predominantly expressed on the tumor-associated macrophages and was significantly associated with the immune regulatory processes, as evidenced by its positive correlation with immune-related genes and the putative infiltration of immune cells. Evidence provided by in-situ multicolor immunofluorescence staining further validated our findings at the protein level. Taken together, CD101 may serve as a novel biomarker in predicting clinical prognosis and immune status for glioma patients.</p

Table_1_Identification of CD101 in Glioma: A Novel Prognostic Indicator Expressed on M2 Macrophages.docx

Glioma represents the most common primary intracranial malignancy worldwide, with low overall survival rates and limited therapeutic options. The protein CD101, mainly expressed on several immune cells, has been demonstrated to exert potent effects on blunting T cell immune responses across infectious and autoimmunity diseases. Nevertheless, the prognostic value of CD101 expression and its role in the immune microenvironment of various malignancies currently remains elusive. Herein, by adopting bioinformatics methodology, we comprehensively illustrated the potential function and predictive value of CD101 in stratifying clinical prognosis among patients with glioma, for which a high CD101 level predicted an unfavorable clinical outcome in glioma patients. Results from enrichment analyses manifested that CD101 predominantly expressed on the tumor-associated macrophages and was significantly associated with the immune regulatory processes, as evidenced by its positive correlation with immune-related genes and the putative infiltration of immune cells. Evidence provided by in-situ multicolor immunofluorescence staining further validated our findings at the protein level. Taken together, CD101 may serve as a novel biomarker in predicting clinical prognosis and immune status for glioma patients.</p

ICE1 directly binds to the promoter of <i>FAMA</i> to activate its expression.

(A) Confocal images of FAMA protein accumulation (indicated by arrows) in the anther at flower stage 12 in FAMApro::FAMA-GFP plants. (B) The upstream region of 2.5 kb from transcription start site and ORF sequences of FAMA are shown with a black line and a blackish green box, respectively. The vertical lines indicate the E-box positions. Eight probes (P1 to P8) containing E-boxes are also exhibited. P6 contains two E-boxes. (C) Dual-LUC Assays in tobacco leaves. ICE1 driven by 35S promoter was served as the effector and LUC under control of FAMA promoter (2.5 kb upstream from transcription start site) was the reporter. (D) The relative activity (LUC/REN) is shown. The reporter co-transformed with pC1302 vector was used as the control. SE, n = 6, ** p FAMA, respectively. The sequences of P3 and P4 as well as mutated probes are listed. (G) EMSA showing the competition of ICE1-P3 interaction using P4. P4 has higher binding affinity with ICE1 than P3.</p