Antidiabetic Effect of an Active Components Group from Ilex kudingcha and Its Chemical Composition

The leaves of Ilex kudingcha are used as an ethnomedicine in the treatment of symptoms related with diabetes mellitus and obesity throughout the centuries in China. The present study investigated the antidiabetic activities of an active components group (ACG) obtained from Ilex kudingcha in alloxan-induced type 2 diabetic mice. ACG significantly reduced the elevated levels of serum glycaemic and lipids in type 2 diabetic mice. 3-Hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase and glucokinase were upregulated significantly, while fatty acid synthetase, glucose-6-phosphatase catalytic enzyme was downregulated in diabetic mice after treatment of ACG. These findings clearly provided evidences regarding the antidiabetic potentials of ACG from Ilex kudingcha. Using LC-DAD/HR-ESI-TOF-MS, six major components were identified in ACG. They are three dicaffeoylquinic acids that have been reported previously, and three new triterpenoid saponins, which were the first time to be identified in Ilex kudingcha. It is reasonable to assume that antidiabetic activity of Ilex kudingcha against hyperglycemia resulted from these six major components. Also, synergistic effects among their compounds may exist in the antidiabetic activity of Ilex kudingcha

A hybrid data assimilation system based on machine learning

In the earth sciences, numerical weather prediction (NWP) is the primary method of predicting future weather conditions, and its accuracy is affected by the initial conditions. Data assimilation (DA) can provide high-precision initial conditions for NWP. The hybrid 4DVar-EnKF is currently an advanced DA method used by many operational NWP centres. However, it has two major shortcomings: The complex development and maintenance of the tangent linear and adjoint models and the empirical combination of the results of 4DVar and EnKF. In this paper, a new hybrid DA method based on machine learning (HDA-ML) is presented to overcome these drawbacks. In the new method, the tangent linear and adjoint models in the 4DVar part of the hybrid algorithm can be easily obtained by using a bilinear neural network to replace the forecast model, and a CNN model is adopted to fuse the analysis of 4DVar and EnKF to adaptively obtain the optimal coefficient of combination rather than the empirical coefficient as in the traditional hybrid DA method. The hybrid DA methods are compared with the Lorenz-96 model using the true values as labels. The experimental results show that HDA-ML improves the assimilation performance and significantly reduces the time cost. Furthermore, using observations instead of the true values as labels in the training system is more realistic. The results show comparable assimilation performance to that in the experiments with the true values used as the labels. The experimental results show that the new method has great potential for application to operational NWP systems

Exploration of the hypoglycemic mechanism of Fuzhuan brick tea based on integrating global metabolomics and network pharmacology analysis

Introduction: Fuzhuan brick tea (FBT) is a worldwide popular beverage which has the appreciable potential in regulating glycometabolism. However, the reports on the hypoglycemic mechanism of FBT remain limited.Methods: In this study, the hypoglycemic effect of FBT was evaluated in a pharmacological experiment based on Kunming mice. Global metabolomics and network pharmacology were combined to discover the potential target metabolites and genes. In addition, the real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) analysis was performed for verification.Results: Seven potential target metabolites and six potential target genes were screened using the integrated approach. After RT-qPCR analysis, it was found that the mRNA expression of VEGFA, KDR, MAPK14, and PPARA showed significant differences between normal and diabetes mellitus mice, with a retracement after FBT treatment.Conclusion: These results indicated that the hypoglycemic effect of FBT was associated with its anti-inflammatory activities and regulation of lipid metabolism disorders. The exploration of the hypoglycemic mechanism of FBT would be meaningful for its further application and development

Ocean response offshore of Taiwan to super typhoon Nepartak (2016) based on multiple satellite and buoy observations

Multi-satellite and buoy observation data were used to systematically analyze the ocean response offshore of Taiwan to Super Typhoon Nepartak in 2016. The satellite data showed that a high sea surface temperature combined with a thick warm water layer and deep mixed layer provided a good thermal environment for continuous intensification of the typhoon. Two high-resolution buoys (NTU1 and NTU2) moored 375 and 175 km offshore of southeastern Taiwan were used to clarify the typhoon–ocean interaction as the typhoon approached Taiwan. The ocean conditions were similar at the two buoys before the typhoon, and both buoys were on the left side of the typhoon track and suffered similar typhoon factors (e.g., typhoon intensity and translation speed) during its passage. However, the ocean response differed significantly at the two buoys. During the forced period, the entire upper ocean was cooled at NTU1. In contrast, there was a clear three-layer vertical structure at NTU2 consisting of cool surface and deep layers with a warmer layer between the two cool layers. These responses can be attributed to strong upwelling of a cold eddy at NTU1 and vertical mixing at NTU2. These results indicate that, under similar preexisting conditions and typhoon factors, the movement of ocean eddies under typhoon forcing is an unexpected mechanism that results in upwelling and thus needs to be considered when predicting changes in the ocean environment and typhoon intensity

Functional Ultrasound Imaging of Spinal Cord Hemodynamic Responses to Epidural Electrical Stimulation: A Feasibility Study

This study presents the first implementation of functional ultrasound (fUS) imaging of the spinal cord to monitor local hemodynamic response to epidural electrical spinal cord stimulation (SCS) on two small and large animal models. SCS has been successfully applied to control chronic refractory pain and recently was evolved to alleviate motor impairment in Parkinson's disease and after spinal cord injury. At present, however, the mechanisms underlying SCS remain unclear, and current methods for monitoring SCS are limited in their capacity to provide the required sensitivity and spatiotemporal resolutions to evaluate functional changes in response to SCS. fUS is an emerging technology that has recently shown promising results in monitoring a variety of neural activities associated with the brain. Here we demonstrated the feasibility of performing fUS on two animal models during SCS. We showed in vivo spinal cord hemodynamic responses measured by fUS evoked by different SCS parameters. We also demonstrated that fUS has a higher sensitivity in monitoring spinal cord response than electromyography. The high spatial and temporal resolutions of fUS were demonstrated by localized measurements of hemodynamic responses at different spinal cord segments, and by reliable tracking of spinal cord responses to patterned electrical stimulations, respectively. Finally, we proposed optimized fUS imaging and post-processing methods for spinal cord. These results support feasibility of fUS imaging of the spinal cord and could pave the way for future systematic studies to investigate spinal cord functional organization and the mechanisms of spinal cord neuromodulation in vivo

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

An injectable hydrogel to disrupt neutrophil extracellular traps for treating rheumatoid arthritis

AbstractRheumatoid arthritis (RA), an autoimmune disease, is characterized by inflammatory cell infiltration that damages cartilage, disrupts bone, and impairs joint function. The therapeutic efficacy of RA treatments with the severely affected side remains unsatisfactory despite current treatment methods that primarily focus on anti-inflammatory activity, largely because of the complicatedly pathological mechanisms. A recently identified mechanism for RA development involves the interaction of RA autoantibodies with various proinflammatory cytokines to facilitate the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), which increased inflammatory responses to express inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Therefore, NETs architecture digestion may inhibit the positive-feedback inflammatory signal pathway and lessen joint damage in RA. In this work, deoxyribonuclease I (DNase) is connected to oxidized hyaluronic acid (OHA) via Schiff base reaction to extend the half-life of DNase. The modification does not influence the DNase activity for plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid hydrolysis and NETs’ architecture disruption. Carboxymethyl chitosan is crosslinked with DNase-functionalised OHA (DHA) to form an injectable, degradable, and biocompatible hydrogel (DHY) to further strengthen the adhesive capability of DHA. Importantly, the collagen-induced arthritis model demonstrates that intra-articular injection of DHY can significantly reduce inflammatory cytokine expression and alleviate RA symptoms, which can be significantly improved by combining methotrexate. Here, a DNase-functionalised hydrogel has been developed for RA treatment by constantly degrading the novel drug target of NETs to decrease inflammatory response in RA

Combined effects of different nitrogen sources and levels and light intensities on growth and fatty acid and lipid production of oleaginous eustigmatophycean microalga Eustigmatos cf. polyphem

Eustigmatos cf. polyphem is a high mountain soil eustigmatophyte microalga. In this study, the growth and fatty acid and lipid accumulation in E. cf. polyphem under different nitrogen sources (NaNO3, NH4HCO3, and CO(NH2)(2)) and levels (3.6 and 6.0 mM nitrogen concentration) and light intensities (100 mu mol photons m(-2) s(-1) (low light, LL) and 300 mu mol photons m(-2) s(-1) (high light, HL)) were investigated in a column glass photobioreactor. Eustigmatos cf. polyphem accumulated total fatty acids (TFAs) and lipids at levels up to 51.83 and 63.41% of their dry weight, respectively, under 6.0 mM CO(NH2)(2)-nitrogen (N) and HL condition, which was also the optimal growth condition. Therefore, the maximum lipid productivity was 0.343 g L-1 day(-1), in which neutral lipids contributed 89.55% of the total lipids. Analysis of fatty acid compositions revealed that C16:0, C16:1, C18:1, and C20:5 were the main fatty acids, and the maximum content of C16:1 (palmitoleic acid) could reach 58.32% of the TFAs with a certain amount of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, C20:5, 2.41% of dry weight). Scale-up experiments conducted with different light path (LP) flat plate glass photobioreactors revealed that LP exerted a strong influence on the growth and lipid accumulation, with maximum lipid productivity of 0.142 g L-1 day(-1) obtained in cultures under 3.6 mM CO(NH2)(2)-N in a 3-cm LP photobioreactor. Overall, our results demonstrate that E. cf. polyphem is a promising microalga for biodiesel and nutraceutical production