The complete mitochondrial genome of Indian Cuckoo Cuculus micropterus (Aves: Cuculiformes)

The Indian Cuckoo, Cuculus micropterus, belongs to the family Cuculidae. In this paper, we sequenced and analysized the complete mitochondrial genome of C. micropterus. The complete mitochondrial genome of C. micropterus is 17,541 bp in length, which was submitted to the NCBI database under the accession number MZ048030. It contains 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, two ribosome RNA genes, and one non-coding control region. The overall base composition of the mitochondrial DNA is 33.2% for A, 24.2% for T, 29.8% for C, and 12.8% for G, with a GC content of 42.6%. In order to explore the molecular phylogenetics evolution of Cuculidae, the nucleotide sequence data of 13 PCGs of C. micropterus and other 11 Cuculiformes were used for the phylogenetic analysis. The result shows that C. micropterus is closely related to Cuculus canorus bakeri. The study contributes to illuminating the taxonomic status of C. micropterus, and may facilitate further investigation of the evolution of Cuculidae

PEGylation of lipophilic SN38 prodrug with DSPE-mPEG2000 versus cremophor EL: comparative study for intravenous chemotherapy

The lipophilic prodrug of hydrophobic drugs with well-designed molecular structures can form stable pure prodrug nanoparticles (NPs), but rapid NPs aggregation in plasma greatly restricted their direct use for intravenous chemotherapy. To address this, DSPE-mPEG2000 and Cremophor EL are two of the most widely used lipophilic PEG derivatives to enhance their colloidal stability in plasma. However, their drug delivery performances have never been comparatively studied. Here, a redox-responsive lipophilic prodrug of SN38 was chosen as the model drug for such comparative investigations. We found that Cremophor EL/NPs having a small diameter (∼15 nm) and poor kinetic stability displayed an enhanced cell internalization, higher cytotoxicity and prolonged circulation time as compared with DSPE-mPEG2000/NPs. Most importantly, these superiorities further resulted in a much more potent antitumor activity in CT26 colorectal cancer xenograft, but the increased loss of body weight was also noted. These results suggested that Cremophor EL could be more advantageous than DSPE-mPEG2000 in terms of the improvement of antitumor activity, but the enhanced toxicity warranted further attention in the future study

Pump- and Valve-Free Flow Injection Capillary Liquid Electrode Discharge Optical Emission Spectrometry Coupled to a Droplet Array Platform

A miniature (2.5 cm length × 2.0 cm width × 1.0 cm height), low power (<10 W), and capillary liquid electrode microplasma optical emission spectrometer was developed for rapid determination of metallic species in aqueous solutions. The sample solution can be automatically introduced into the source without a pump owing to the inherent capillary attraction and the force arising from the solution vaporization induced by microplasma. A droplet array was used as a sampling platform to realize flow injection without using any valve and pump, significantly increasing throughput to 90 samples h^–1. Sample volume is controlled through the sampling time and reduced to the nanoliter level. With a sampling time of 10 s (equal to 600 nL), detection limits of 30 μg L^–1 (18 pg) and 75 μg L^–1 (45 pg) were obtained for Cd and Hg, respectively, comparable to those reported for liquid electrode microplasma optical emission spectrometry. However, sample consumption is reduced more than 100-fold, making the proposed technique more suitable for the analysis of elements such as Cd, Hg, Li, Na, and K when sample volumes may be limited. The utility of this system was demonstrated by the determination of Cd and Hg in blood, real water samples, and Certified Reference Materials (rice powder, GBW07601a, and lobster hepatopancreas, TORT-3)

Pump- and Valve-Free Flow Injection Capillary Liquid Electrode Discharge Optical Emission Spectrometry Coupled to a Droplet Array Platform

A miniature (2.5 cm length × 2.0 cm width × 1.0 cm height), low power (<10 W), and capillary liquid electrode microplasma optical emission spectrometer was developed for rapid determination of metallic species in aqueous solutions. The sample solution can be automatically introduced into the source without a pump owing to the inherent capillary attraction and the force arising from the solution vaporization induced by microplasma. A droplet array was used as a sampling platform to realize flow injection without using any valve and pump, significantly increasing throughput to 90 samples h^–1. Sample volume is controlled through the sampling time and reduced to the nanoliter level. With a sampling time of 10 s (equal to 600 nL), detection limits of 30 μg L^–1 (18 pg) and 75 μg L^–1 (45 pg) were obtained for Cd and Hg, respectively, comparable to those reported for liquid electrode microplasma optical emission spectrometry. However, sample consumption is reduced more than 100-fold, making the proposed technique more suitable for the analysis of elements such as Cd, Hg, Li, Na, and K when sample volumes may be limited. The utility of this system was demonstrated by the determination of Cd and Hg in blood, real water samples, and Certified Reference Materials (rice powder, GBW07601a, and lobster hepatopancreas, TORT-3)