Differential proteomic profiles and characterizations between hyalinocytes and granulocytes in ivory shell Babylonia areolata

Abstract(#br)The haemocytes of the ivory shell, Babylonia areolata are classified by morphologic observation into the following types: hyalinocytes (H) and granulocytes (G). Haemocytes comprise diverse cell types with morphological and functional heterogene and play indispensable roles in immunological homeostasis of invertebrates. In the present study, two types of haemocytes were morphologically identified and separated as H and G by Percoll density gradient centrifugation. The differentially expressed proteins were investigated between H and G using mass spectrometry. The results showed that total quantitative proteins between H and G samples were 1644, the number of up-regulated proteins in G was 215, and the number of down-regulated proteins in G was 378. Among them, cathepsin, p38 MAPK, toll-interacting protein-like and beta-adrenergic receptor kinase 2-like were up-regulated in G; alpha-2-macroglobulin-like protein, C-type lectin, galectin-2-1, galectin-3, β-1,3-glucan-binding protein, ferritin, mega-hemocyanin, mucin-17-like, mucin-5AC-like and catalytic subunit of protein kinase A were down-regulated in G. The results showed that the most significantly enriched KEGG pathways were the pathways related to ribosome, phagosome, endocytosis, carbon metabolism, protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum and oxidative phosphorylation. For phagosome and endocytosis pathway, the number of down-regulation proteins in G was more than that of up-regulation proteins. For lysosome pathway, the number of up-regulation proteins in G was more than that of down-regulation proteins. These results suggested that two sub-population haemocytes perform the different immune functions in B. areolata

Tailoring mSiO2-SmCox nanoplatforms for magnetic/photothermal effect-induced hyperthermia therapy

Hyperthermia therapy is a hotspot because of its minimally invasive treatment process and strong targeting effect. Herein, a synergistic magnetic and photothermal therapeutic nanoplatform is rationally constructed. The well-dispersive mSiO2-SmCox nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized through a one-step procedure with the regulated theoretical molar ratio of Sm/Co among 1:1, 1:2, and 1:4 for controlling the dispersion and magnetism properties of SmCox NPs in situ growth in the pore structure of mesoporous SiO2 (mSiO2), where mSiO2 with diverse porous structures and high specific surface areas serving for locating the permanent magnetic SmCox NPs. The mSiO2-SmCox (Sm/Co = 1:2) NPs with highly dispersed and uniform morphology has an average diameter of ∼73.08 nm. The photothermal conversion efficiency of mSiO2-SmCox (Sm/Co = 1:2) NPs was determined to be nearly 41%. The further in vitro and in vivo anti-tumor evaluation of mSiO2-SmCox (Sm/Co = 1:2) NPs present promising potentials for hyperthermia-induced tumor therapy due to magnetic and photothermal effects

Genome wide association mapping of grain arsenic, copper, molybdenum and zinc in rice (Oryza sativa L.) grown at four international field sites

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Identification of tetramethylarsonium in rice grains with elevated arsenic content

Tetramethylarsonium has for the first time been identified in a commercially grown food product, rice, constituting up to 5.8% of the total arsenic in the rice

Development and applications of chiral separations and detection

Chiral separations and detection have increasing become an important subject in science and technology. The popularity stems from the differences in the physiological and therapeutic effects of enantiomeric forms of many compounds. Very often, only one form of the enantiomers is pharmacologically active, while the other or others can reverse or limit the effect of the appropriate enantiomer. Hence the pharmaceutical industry needs effective chiral separation and detection methods. It is our primary goal in this research project to develop the universal and sensive HPLC detector and discover the new chiral separation media to facilitate the separation and detection of the chiral substances. The first part of our research focused on the development of HPLC detector based on the infrared thermal lens spectrometry. This detector is truly universal since it can use the thermal lens technique for either direct or indirect detection. The sensitivity of this detector is high and at least 10 times more than those of the conventional absorption detectors. A detection limit of picograms was achieved for phenol and its chlorinated substances. The second part of our research devoted to incorporate vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) into HPLC detection and develop a universal chiral detector based on the novel instrumentation design. This VCD chiral detector can provide the chirality of optical active compounds in addition to its wide applicability, high sensitivity and selectivity. Micrograms of 2,2,2-trifluoro-(9-anthryl)ethanol and benzoin can be chirally detected by this detector when those compounds were separated from the corresponding racemic mixture by a chiral column. The last part of our research has focused on the isolation and characterization of a new class of macrocyclic oligosaccharides--Cyclooligoarabinofuranoses. Unbranched, mono- and di-branched compounds with their macrocyclic structure formed by (1 $\to$ 5) linkage of either six, seven, eight or nine $\alpha$-L-arabinofuranose residues have been isolated and characterized. Their applications have been tested by adding them to buffer to facilitate the separations in capillary electrophoresis