Traditional Chinese Medicine Therapy for Targeting Osteoblastogenesis

Osteoblasts are derived from bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell (BMSC) precursors, which differentiate into mature osteoblasts and mediate bone formation. This process is called osteoblastogenesis. A deficiency in osteoblastogenesis of BMSCs can result in bone-related diseases including osteoporosis. Thus, developing drugs for targeting osteoblastogenesis from BMSCs has become one of the therapeutic strategies for osteoporosis. In China, kidney-nourishing Chinese herbal drugs such as ER-Zhi-Wan have been believed to be potential for treating osteoporosis through targeting osteoblast proliferation and differentiation. The key pathways for regulating osteoblastogenesis include canonical and noncanonical Wnt pathway, semaphorin-mediated pathway, and MAPK-mediated BMP2-Smad pathway. Some natural products have been confirmed to regulate more than one pathway and exert multi-target effect through the use of one compound or combined use of more than two compounds, such as wedelolactone and oleonuezhenide. In addition, tissue engineering provides a promising strategy in the field for targeting osteoblastogenesis. New types of biomaterials including hydroxyapatite (HAp) combined with Chinese medicine can exert enhanced effect on osteoblastogenesis and provide new therapy for treating osteoporosis

A Weak Galerkin Mixed Finite Element Method for second order elliptic equations on 2D Curved Domains

This article concerns the weak Galerkin mixed finite element method (WG-MFEM) for second order elliptic equations on 2D domains with curved boundary. The Neumann boundary condition is considered since it becomes the essential boundary condition in this case. It is well-known that the discrepancy between the curved physical domain and the polygonal approximation domain leads to a loss of accuracy for discretization with polynomial order $\alpha>1$. The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, we present a detailed error analysis of the original WG-MFEM for solving problems on curved domains, which exhibits an $O(h^{1/2})$ convergence for all $\alpha\ge 1$. It is a little surprising to see that even the lowest-order WG-MFEM ($\alpha=1$) experiences a loss of accuracy. This is different from known results for the finite element method (FEM) or the mixed FEM, and appears to be a combined effect of the WG-MFEM design and the fact that the outward normal vector on the polygonal approximation domain is different from the one on the curved domain. Second, we propose a remedy to bring the approximation rate back to optimal by employing two techniques. One is a specially designed boundary correction technique. The other is to take full advantage of the nice feature that weak Galerkin discretization can be defined on polygonal meshes, which allows the curved boundary to be better approximated by multiple short edges without increasing the total number of mesh elements. Rigorous analysis shows that a combination of the above two techniques renders optimal convergence for all $\alpha$. Numerical results further confirm this conclusion

Superconductivity in epitaxially grown LaVO3/KTaO3(111) heterostructures

Complex oxide heterointerfaces can host a rich of emergent phenomena, and epitaxial growth is usually at the heart of forming these interfaces. Recently, a strong crystalline-orientation-dependent two-dimensional superconductivity was discovered at interfaces between KTaO3 single-crystal substrates and films of other oxides. Unexpectedly, rare of these oxide films was epitaxially grown. Here, we report the existence of superconductivity in epitaxially grown LaVO3/KTaO3(111) heterostructures, with a superconducting transition temperature of ~0.5 K. Meanwhile, no superconductivity was detected in the (001)- and (110)-orientated LaVO3/KTaO3 heterostructures down to 50 mK. Moreover, we find that for the LaVO3/KTaO3(111) interfaces to be conducting, an oxygen-deficient growth environment and a minimum LaVO3 thickness of ~0.8 nm (~ 2 unit cells) are needed.Comment: 5 figures, plus 6 supplementary figure

Prostate cancer – a biomarker perspective

Despite early detection and reduced risk of death, prostate cancer still remains the second leading cause of cancer death in American men. There is currently no cure for advanced prostate cancer. The multistage, stochastic and highly heterogeneous nature of prostate cancer, coupled with genetic and epigenetic alterations that occur during disease progression and response to therapy, represent fundamental challenges in our quest to understand and control this complex and prevalent disease. Recent advances in drug development and breakthroughs in omics technologies have renewed our efforts to identify novel biomarkers for prostate cancer prognosis, prediction, and therapeutic response monitoring. In this perspective article, we overview the current status and highlight future prospects of biomarkers for prostate cancer, a disease that affects millions of men worldwide

Synthesis, Characterization, and Tribological Behavior of Oleic Acid Capped Graphene Oxide

Graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets were prepared by modified Hummers and Offeman methods. Furthermore, oleic acid (OA) capped graphene oxide (OACGO) nanosheets were prepared and characterized by means of Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). At the same time, the friction and wear properties of OA capped graphite powder (OACG), OACGO, and oleic acid capped precipitate of graphite (OACPG) as additives in poly-alpha-olefin (PAO) were compared using four-ball tester and SRV-1 reciprocating ball-on-disc friction and wear tester. By the addition of OACGO to PAO, the antiwear ability was improved and the friction coefficient was decreased. Also, the tribological mechanism of the GO was investigated

Mitochondrial-targeting Lonidamine-Doxorubicin nanoparticles for synergistic chemotherapy to conquer drug resistance

Lonidamine (LND) can act on mitochondria and inhibit energy metabolism in cancer cells and therefore has been used together with chemotherapy drugs for synergistically enhanced therapeutic efficacy. However, its use is hindered by the poor solubility and slow diffusion in the cytoplasm. To address these problems, we designed and prepared aqueous dispersible nanoparticles (NPs) containing integrated components including triphenylphosphine (TPP) to target the mitochondria of cells and LND and doxorubicin (DOX) for synergistic cancer treatment and conquering drug resistance. This design allows the NPs to concentrate in the mitochondria of cells, solve the low solubility of LND, and contain very high load of LND and DOX in comparison with previously reported drug-delivery systems based on various carrier nanomaterials. Detailed mechanism studies reveal that TPP-LND-DOX NPs could induce significant reactive oxygen species production, mitochondrial membrane potential decrease, and mitochondrial apoptosis pathway, thereby leading to great cytotoxicity in cancer cells. In vivo anticancer activities indicate that TPP-LND-DOX NPs exhibit the highest efficacy in tumor inhibition among all tested groups and show high effectiveness in drug-resistant model. This work demonstrates the potential use of our TPP-LND-DOX NPs to jointly promote the mitochondria apoptosis pathway and contribute to conquer drug resistance in cancer therapy

Designing 3D graphene networks via a 3D-printed Ni template

Copyright © Royal Society of Chemistry 2015It is highly desirable to design and control the properties of 3D graphene networks with preferred shapes, lengths, diameters of the trusses so as to add new functionalities. Hereby, we demonstrate a conceptual design and the practical synthesis of periodic 3D graphene networks via CVD using a 3D-printed Ni scaffold as the template.Natural Science foundation of Heilongjiang province of ChinaEU/FP