Saline Wastewater: Characteristics and Treatment Technologies

The discharge of saline wastewater has significantly increased due to rapid urbanization and industrialization [...

Oridonin induces growth inhibition and apoptosis in human gastric carcinoma cells by enhancement of p53 expression and function

The tumor suppressive role of oridonin, an active compound extracted from Rabdosia rubescens, has been proven in several gastric cancer (GC) cell lines. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of oridonin on another GC cell line, SNU-216, and explore the potential mechanisms. The viable cell numbers, cell migration, survival fraction, and cell viability were, respectively, evaluated by trypan blue exclusion assay, wound healing assay, clonogenic assay, and CCK-8 assay. Cell apoptosis was determined by flow cytometry assay and western blot. The expression of p53 was inhibited by transient transfection, and the efficiency was verified by western blot. qRT-PCR was performed to measure the mRNA expression of p53. Western blot was used to evaluate the protein expression of apoptosis, DNA damage and p53 function related factors. We found that oridonin significantly inhibited cell proliferation, migration, and survivability, and enhanced cell apoptosis in SNU-216 cells. However, it had no influence on HEK293 cell viability. Oridonin also remarkably enhanced the anti-tumor effect of cisplatin on SNU-216 cells, as it significantly increased apoptotic cells and decreased cell viability. Moreover, the mRNA and protein expression of p53 was significantly up-regulated in oridonin-treated cells, while Mdm2 expression was down-regulated. Furthermore, oridonin enhanced p53 function and induced DNA damage. Knockdown of p53 or employing the caspase inhibitor, Boc-D-FMK, reversed the effect of oridonin on cell viability and apoptosis-related protein expression. The present study demonstrated that oridonin exhibited an anti-tumor effect on GC SNU-216 cells through regulating p53 expression and function

Particle Design of Drugs via Spherical Crystallization: A Review from Fundamental Aspects to Technology Development

In the pharmaceutical industry, the production process of most active pharmaceutical ingredients involves at least one crystallization step. Design of drug spheres via various spherical crystallization technologies can impart crystals with certain superior attributes including high flowability and compressibility as well as excellent mechanical properties. Some new spherical crystallization approaches and design principles have been proposed in recent years. This review aims to review the up-to-date design principles and preparation technologies of drug spheres, providing a guide for design, preparation, and performance evaluation of the drug spheres. Herein, we review the mechanisms and design principles of the spherical crystallization first, and subsequently various technologies reported in the literature are reviewed with the critical process parameters being analyzed. Lastly, the challenges facing the development of spherical crystallization for drugs are discussed

Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein K (hnRNP K) is a tissue biomarker for detection of early Hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with cirrhosis

Abstract Background Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors occurring mainly in patients with chronic liver disease. Detection of early HCC is critically important for treatment of these patients. Methods We employed a proteomic profiling approach to identify potential biomarker for early HCC detection. Based on Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging classification, 15 early HCC and 25 late HCC tissue samples from post-operative HCC patients and their clinicopathological data were used for the discovery of biomarkers specific for the detection of early HCC. Differential proteins among cirrhotic, early, and late tissue samples were separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) and subsequently identified by mass spectrometry (MS). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves analysis were performed to find potential biomarkers associated with early HCC. Diagnosis performance of the biomarker was obtained from diagnosis test. Results Protein spot SSP2215 was found to be significantly overexpressed in HCC, particularly in early HCC, and identified as heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein K (hnRNP K) by tandem mass spectrometry (MALDI TOF/TOF). The overexpression in HCC was subsequently validated by western blot and immunohistochemistry. ROC curve analysis showed that hnRNP K intensity could detect early HCC at 66.67 % sensitivity and 84 % specificity, which was superior to serum α-fetoprotein (AFP) in detection of early HCC. Furthermore, the diagnosis test demonstrated, when combined with hnRNP K and serum AFP as biomarker panel to detect early HCC at different cut-off value, the sensitivity and specificity could be enhanced to 93.33 % and 96 %, respectively. Conclusions hnRNP K is a potential tissue biomarker, either alone or in combination with serum AFP, for detection of early HCC. High expression of hnRNP K could be helpful to discriminate early HCC from a nonmalignant nodule, especially for patients with liver cirrhosis.</p

Hydrothermal oxidation method to synthesize nitrogen containing carbon dots from compost humic acid as selective Fe(III) sensor

Residual sludge which is generated as a by-product during wastewater treatment needs efficient and environmentally friendly disposal. In this work, nitrogen containing carbon dots (N-CDs) was synthesized via one-step hydrothermal oxidation of humic acid for the first time, which was alkalinely extracted from the compost of sludge. The successful doping of the functional groups (hydroxyl, carboxyl and amino) on the surface of N-CDs were characterized by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The optical properties of the synthetic N-CDs were obtained from Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy and Photoluminescence spectra. The N-CDs had an average diameter at 1.88 nm and exhibited a well-defined spherical shape. The aqueous solution of N-CDs with excitation-dependent properties showed a strong blue emission with 8.8% quantum yield (QY) under an excitation wavelength of 340 nm, which indicate the synthesized N-CDs a promising sensing probes for iron ions in aquatic system. Moreover, the mechanism of the N-CDs sensing technique was investigated in detail, which can be explained by the fluorescence static quenching effect and a ground-state complex formed in this process. This research demonstrates an extremely sensitive method for detecting heavy metal Fe ^3+ at a lower 1.9 nM level by using N-CDs as fluorescent probes without a complicated procedure

Manipulation of Morphology, Particle Size of Barium Sulfate and the Interacting Mechanism of Methyl Glycine Diacetic Acid

In this paper, methyl glycine diacetic acid (MGDA) was found to have great influence on the morphology and particle size of barium sulfate. The effects of additive, concentration, value of pH and reaction temperature on the morphology and particle size of barium sulfate were studied in detail. The results show that the concentration of reactant and temperature have little effect on the particle size of barium sulfate. However, the pH conditions of the solution and the dosage of MGDA can apparently affect the particle size distribution of barium sulfate. The particle size of barium sulfate particles increases and the morphology changes from polyhedral to rice-shaped with the decreasing of the dosage of MGDA. In solution with higher pH, smaller and rice-shaped barium sulfate was obtained. To investigate the interacting mechanism of MGDA, the binding energy between MGDA and barium sulfate surface was calculated. It was found that the larger absolute value of the binding energy would result in stronger growth inhibition on the crystal face. Finally, the experimental data and theoretical calculations were combined to elucidate the interacting mechanism of the additive on the morphology and particle size of barium sulfate

Nanomaterials for the Removal of Heavy Metals from Wastewater

Removal of contaminants in wastewater, such as heavy metals, has become a severe problem in the world. Numerous technologies have been developed to deal with this problem. As an emerging technology, nanotechnology has been gaining increasing interest and many nanomaterials have been developed to remove heavy metals from polluted water, due to their excellent features resulting from the nanometer effect. In this work, novel nanomaterials, including carbon-based nanomaterials, zero-valent metal, metal-oxide based nanomaterials, and nanocomposites, and their applications for the removal of heavy metal ions from wastewater were systematically reviewed. Their efficiency, limitations, and advantages were compared and discussed. Furthermore, the promising perspective of nanomaterials in environmental applications was also discussed and potential directions for future work were suggested

Assessment of influences of cooking on cadmium and arsenic bioaccessibility in rice, using an in vitro physiologically-based extraction test

The health risks associated with rice consumption may decrease if consumers use cooking practices which can reduce the bioaccessibility of metal(loid)s. The effects of cooking on the Cd and As bioaccessibility, at three contamination levels of rice, were studied. Results indicated that cooking reduced bioaccessibility of Cd and As in rice. Cooking resulted in a significant increase (p < 0.01) of Cd and As concentrations in the residual fraction. Low volume water-cooking of rice to dryness reduced total Cd by about 10% for rices A and B, while medium or high volume water-cooking had no effect on Cd bioaccessibility in all rice types. In contrast, low volume cooking did not remove As, but a significant decrease (p < 0.05) was observed when cooking with higher volumes of water. This study provides information for a better understanding of more realistic estimation of metal(loid)s exposure from rice and the possible health risks