Progress of Ginsenoside Rb1 in neurological disorders

Ginseng is frequently used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat neurological disorders. The primary active component of ginseng is ginsenoside, which has been classified into more than 110 types based on their chemical structures. Ginsenoside Rb1 (GsRb1)—a protopanaxadiol saponin and a typical ginseng component—exhibits anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-apoptotic, and anti-autophagy properties in the nervous system. Neurological disorders remain a leading cause of death and disability globally. GsRb1 effectively treats neurological disorders. To contribute novel insights to the understanding and treatment of neurological disorders, we present a comprehensive review of the pharmacokinetics, actions, mechanisms, and research development of GsRb1 in neurological disorders

The role of the 5-hydroxytryptamine pathway in reflux-induced esophageal mucosal injury in rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Dysfunction of the 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) signaling pathway can lead to gastrointestinal motility and secretion abnormalities and to visceral hypersensitivity. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of 5-HT in reflux-induced esophageal mucosal injury.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Fifty 8-week-old male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into a gastroesophageal reflux (GER) model group (30 rats) and a sham surgery control group (20 rats). Four weeks after surgery, the esophageal mucosa was collected for histological evaluation, 5-HT concentrations, and 5-HT selective reuptake transporter (SERT) mRNA and 5-HT₄ receptor (5-HT₄R) protein expressions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Twenty-seven rats in the GER model group survived, and three rats died. Histologically, in the GER model group, 20 rats had reflux esophagitis (RE group), and 7 rats had non-erosive reflux disease (NERD group). The 5-HT levels in the esophageal tissue from the RE group were significantly higher than those from the control and NERD groups. Both the RE and NERD groups showed significant increases in SERT mRNA expression of the esophageal mucosa than that of the controls, and the SERT mRNA level in the RE group was significantly higher than that in the NERD group. The 5-HT₄R protein level of the esophageal mucosa in the RE group was significantly lower than that in the controls and the NERD group.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We conclude that a 5-HT signaling pathway disorder could be a major factor in the pathogenesis of GER and RE.</p

Cross-Scale Interaction With Spatial-Spectral Enhanced Window Attention for Pansharpening

Pansharpening is a process that fuses a multispectral (MS) image with a panchromatic (PAN) image to generate a high-resolution multispectral (HRMS) image. Current methods often overlook scale inconsistency and the correlation within and between a window domain, resulting in suboptimal outcomes. In addition, the use of deep convolutional neural network or transformer often leads to high computational expenses. To address these challenges, we present a lightweight pansharpening network that leverages cross-scale interaction and spatial-spectral enhanced window attention. We first design a spatial-spectral enhanced window transformer (SEWformer) to effectively capture crucial attention within and between interleaved windows. To improve scale consistency, we develop a cross-scale interactive encoder that interacts with different scale attentions derived from the SEWformer. Furthermore, a multiscale residual network with channel attention is constructed as a decoder, which, in conjunction with the encoder, ensures precise detail extraction. The final HRMS image is obtained by combining the extracted details with the UPMS image. Extensive experimental validation on diverse datasets showcases the superiority of our approach over state-of-the-art pansharpening techniques in terms of both performance and efficiency. Compared to the second-best comparison approach, our method achieves significant improvements in the ERGAS metric: 29.6$\%$ on IKONOS, 43.8$\%$ on Pl&#x00E9;iades, and 27.6$\%$ on WorldView-3 datasets

Improved Growth of Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus as well as Increased Antioxidant Activity by Biotransforming Litchi Pericarp Polysaccharide with Aspergillus awamori

This study was conducted to increase the bioactivity of litchi pericarp polysaccharides (LPPs) biotransformed by Aspergillus awamori. Compared to the non-A. awamori-fermented LPP, the growth effects of A. awamori-fermented LPP on Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus were four and two times higher after 3 days of fermentation, respectively. Increased 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activity and DNA protection activity of litchi pericarp polysaccharides were also achieved after A. awamori fermentation. Moreover, the relative content of glucose and arabinose in LPP after fermentation decreased from 58.82% to 22.60% and from 18.82% to 10.09%, respectively, with a concomitant increase in the relative contents of galactose, rhamnose, xylose, and mannose. Furthermore, lower molecular weight polysaccharides were obtained after A. awamori fermentation. It can be concluded that A. awamori was effective in biotransforming LPP into a bioactive mixture with lower molecular weight polysaccharides and higher antioxidant activity and relative galactose content

Activity by Biotransforming Litchi Pericarp Polysaccharide with Aspergillus awamori

is study was conducted to increase the bioactivity of litchi pericarp polysaccharides (LPPs) biotransformed by Aspergillus awamori. Compared to the non-A. awamori-fermented LPP, the growth effects of A. awamori-fermented LPP on Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus were four and two times higher aer 3 days of fermentation, respectively. Increased 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activity and DNA protection activity of litchi pericarp polysaccharides were also achieved aer A. awamori fermentation. Moreover, the relative content of glucose and arabinose in LPP aer fermentation decreased from 58.82% to 22.60% and from 18.82% to 10.09%, respectively, with a concomitant increase in the relative contents of galactose, rhamnose, xylose, and mannose. Furthermore, lower molecular weight polysaccharides were obtained aer A. awamori fermentation. It can be concluded that A. awamori was effective in biotransforming LPP into a bioactive mixture with lower molecular weight polysaccharides and higher antioxidant activity and relative galactose content

Interaction of bovine serum albumin with self-assembled nanoparticles of 6-O-cholesterol modified chitosan

In order to understand the nanomedicine and nanotoxicological effects of self-assembled nanoparticles of 6-O-cholesterol modified chitosan (O-CHCS NPs) as a carrier for drug delivery systems, the interaction between O-CHCS NPs and bovine serum albumin (BSA) was studied by spectroscopy and calorimetric methods. The morphology of the complex between O-CHCS NPs and BSA observed by transmission electron microscope (TEM) was almost spherical shape. The size and the zeta potential of the complex increased with the concentration of O-CHCS NPs increasing. The fluorescence spectroscopy indicated that the micro-environment around the tryptophan (Trp) residues in BSA had slight change due to only partially exposure of the Trp residues to water in the interaction process. Compared with free BSA, the addition of O-CHCS NPs led to the decrease of alpha-helical content of BSA and the increase of beta-strand content. Isothermal titration calorimeter (ITC) results showed that the binding reaction between O-CHCS NPs and BSA was exothermic and enthalpically driven. Therefore, it could be concluded that hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions played a key role in the complex formation, and the formation mechanism was proposed accordingly. In addition, cytotoxicity assay implied that O-CHCS NPs were non-cytotoxic and biocompatible up to 200 mu g mL(-1). These data demonstrated the potential application of O-CHCS NPs for drug delivery. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.National Natural Science Foundation of China [90923042]; Ministry of Education of China [20101106110042]; National Key Scientific Projects of China [2006CB933300

Epitaxial growth of 2.5-μm quaternary AlInGaN for n-cladding layer in GaN-based green laser diodes

The ridge morphology, which is related to random atomic step meandering, appears in thick AlInGaN films grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition on both GaN templates and free-standing GaN substrates; this can be primarily attributed to the in-plane compressive strain in the thick layer. Therefore, a 2.5-μm Al0.08In0.0123GaN film with a slightly tensive strain was grown, with a regular and smooth step-flow morphology; the root mean square deviation of the film (with a size of 5 μm × 5 μm) was 0.56 nm

Growth Behaviors of GaN on Stripes of Patterned c-Plane GaN Substrate

Growth behaviors of GaN on patterned GaN substrate were studied herein. Spiral and nucleation growth were observed after miscut-induced atomic steps disappeared. The morphology of nucleation growth at different temperature is explained by a multi-nucleation regime introducing critical supersaturation. Simulated results based on a step motion model successfully explain the growth behaviors on stripes. These findings can be applied to control the surface kinetics of devices such as laser diodes grown on patterned substrate

Preparation and characterization of self-assembled nanoparticles of 6-O-cholesterol-modified chitosan for drug delivery

National Key Scientific Projects of China [2006CB933300]; Natural Science Foundation of China [90923042]6-O-Cholesterol modified chitosan (O-CHCS) conjugates with succinyl linkages were synthesized through a protection-graft-deprotection method with phthaloylchitosan as an intermediate. O-CHCS conjugates were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and proton nuclear magnetic resonance ((1)H NMR), and the degrees of substitution (DS) of the cholesterol moiety determined by elemental analysis were 1.7%, 4.0% or 5.9%. O-CHCS self-assembled nanoparticles prepared by the dialysis method displayed the classic "core-shell" structures and their sizes were in the range of 100-240 nm. All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), as a model drug, was physically entrapped inside O-CHCS self-assembled nanoparticles by the dialysis method. With increasing initial levels of the drug, the drug loading content increased, but the encapsulation efficiency and the particle size decreased. The release profiles in vitro demonstrated that ATRA showed slow sustained released over 72 h, which indicated that O-CHCS self-assembled nanoparticles had the potential to be used as a carrier for hydrophobic drugs. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved