In vitro and in vivo anticancer activity of steroid saponins of paris polyphylla var. yunnanensis

Aim: To confirm the anticancer activity of steroid saponins isolated from the rhizome of Paris polyphylla var. yunnanensis and evaluate the structure-activity relationships of these steroid saponins in vitro and in vivo. Materials and Methods: Eight known steroid saponins were isolated from the rhizome of Paris polyphylla. The LA795 lung adenocarcinoma cell line from mice was chosen to evaluate cytotoxicity by means of MTT assay, and to study apoptosis by means of AnnexinV-FITC/PI flow cytometry. Diosgenin-3-α-L-arabinofuranosyl(1→4)-[α-L-rhamnopyranosyl(1→2)]-β-D-glycopyranoside (compound 1), the main steroid saponin of Paris polyphylla, and diosgenin (Dio), the aglycone of major steroid saponins, were evaluated for antitumor activity on LA795 lung adenocarcinoma in T739 inbred mice. Results: The steroid saponins showed remarkable cytotoxicity and caused typical apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. They were evaluated in vivo by their effect on tumor developed in T739 inbred mice. The oral administration to T739 mice bearing LA795 lung adenocarcinoma of compound 1 and diosgenin significantly inhibited tumor growth, by 29.44% and 33.94%, respectively. HE staining showed that lungs and livers of treated mice underwent various levels of histopathological alterations. It was demonstrated by TUNEL assay that apoptosis rate in tumor cells was increased in comparison to cells in control mice. The 3-O-glycoside moiety and spirostanol structure played an important role in the anticancer activity of steroid saponins, and the number and the variety of glycosides of compounds strongly influenced on their anticancer activity. Conclusion: Rhizoma Paridis saponins showed anticancer activity against lung adenocarcinoma cell line, both in vitro and in vivo, and their effect was dependent on compounds’ structure in a certain degree

Aggregation-Induced Emission Luminogens for Direct Exfoliation of 2D Layered Materials in Ethanol

© 2020 Wiley-VCH GmbH Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) luminogens are an important type of advanced functional materials with fantastic optical properties and have found potential applications in organic electronics, biochemistry, and molecular imaging. Herein, this article presents a novel application of AIE luminogens (AIEgens) for efficient exfoliation of layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs, such as MoS2 and WSe2). From the 1H NMR spectroscopic analysis, the designed AIEgens can insert into the space between layers of MoS2 in ethanol solution and the dynamic molecular rotation against the weak interactions affords large-scale few-layer MoS2 nanosheets (7–8 layers) with enhanced smoothness. The 3D AIEgens play a significant role in preserving the crystal lattice of MoS2 even at high pressure (>15 GPa). More importantly, the new approach can also be used for exfoliation of WSe2 to achieve large-scale few-layer nanosheets. The present work thus provides a facile and high yielding synthetic method for accessing on a large scale 2D layered materials with enhanced properties for high-technology applications

Incompressible SPH method based on Rankine source solution for violent water wave simulation

With wide applications, the smoothed particle hydrodynamics method (abbreviated as SPH) has become an important numerical tool for solving complex flows, in particular those with a rapidly moving free surface. For such problems, the incompressible Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (ISPH) has been shown to yield better and more stable pressure time histories than the traditional SPH by many papers in literature. However, the existing ISPH method directly approximates the second order derivatives of the functions to be solved by using the Poisson equation. The order of accuracy of the method becomes low, especially when particles are distributed in a disorderly manner, which generally happens for modelling violent water waves. This paper introduces a new formulation using the Rankine source solution. In the new approach to the ISPH, the Poisson equation is first transformed into another form that does not include any derivative of the functions to be solved, and as a result, does not need to numerically approximate derivatives. The advantage of the new approach without need of numerical approximation of derivatives is obvious, potentially leading to a more robust numerical method. The newly formulated method is tested by simulating various water waves, and its convergent behaviours are numerically studied in this paper. Its results are compared with experimental data in some cases and reasonably good agreement is achieved. More importantly, numerical results clearly show that the newly developed method does need less number of particles and so less computational costs to achieve the similar level of accuracy, or to produce more accurate results with the same number of particles compared with the traditional SPH and existing ISPH when it is applied to modelling water waves

FGF receptor genes and breast cancer susceptibility: results from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium

Background:Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies in women. Genome-wide association studies have identified FGFR2 as a breast cancer susceptibility gene. Common variation in other fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptors might also modify risk. We tested this hypothesis by studying genotyped single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and imputed SNPs in FGFR1, FGFR3, FGFR4 and FGFRL1 in the Breast Cancer Association Consortium. Methods:Data were combined from 49 studies, including 53 835 cases and 50 156 controls, of which 89 050 (46 450 cases and 42 600 controls) were of European ancestry, 12 893 (6269 cases and 6624 controls) of Asian and 2048 (1116 cases and 932 controls) of African ancestry. Associations with risk of breast cancer, overall and by disease sub-type, were assessed using unconditional logistic regression. Results:Little evidence of association with breast cancer risk was observed for SNPs in the FGF receptor genes. The strongest evidence in European women was for rs743682 in FGFR3; the estimated per-allele odds ratio was 1.05 (95 confidence interval=1.02-1.09, P=0.0020), which is substantially lower than that observed for SNPs in FGFR2. Conclusion:Our results suggest that common variants in the other FGF receptors are not associated with risk of breast cancer to the degree observed for FGFR2. © 2014 Cancer Research UK

Inclusive eta' Production from the Upsilon(1S)

Using the CLEO II detector at CESR, we measure the eta' - gluon - gluon form-factor in Y(1S) decays. This form-factor especially at large eta' energies may provide an explanation of the large rate for B -> Xs eta'. Our data do not support a large anomalous coupling at higher q^2 and thus the large eta' rate remains a mystery, possibly requiring a non-Standard Model explanation.Comment: 14 pages postscript, also available through http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLNS, submitted to PR

Computational Modelling of Tissue-Engineered Cartilage Constructs

Cartilage is a fundamental tissue to ensure proper motion between bones and damping of mechanical loads. This tissue often suffers damage and has limited healing capacity due to its avascularity. In order to replace surgery and replacement of joints by metal implants, tissue engineered cartilage is seen as an attractive alternative. These tissues are obtained by seeding chondrocytes or mesenchymal stem cells in scaffolds and are given certain stimuli to improve establishment of mechanical properties similar to the native cartilage. However, tissues with ideal mechanical properties were not obtained yet. Computational models of tissue engineered cartilage growth and remodelling are invaluable to interpret and predict the effects of experimental designs. The current model contribution in the field will be presented in this chapter, with a focus on the response to mechanical stimulation, and the development of fully coupled modelling approaches incorporating simultaneously solute transport and uptake, cell growth, production of extracellular matrix and remodelling of mechanical properties.publishe

Fine-Scale Mapping of the 5q11.2 Breast Cancer Locus Reveals at Least Three Independent Risk Variants Regulating MAP3K1

Peer reviewe

Use of SMS texts for facilitating access to online alcohol interventions: a feasibility study

A41 Use of SMS texts for facilitating access to online alcohol interventions: a feasibility study In: Addiction Science & Clinical Practice 2017, 12(Suppl 1): A4