Antiallergic Activity of 6-Deoxy-2-O-methyl-6-(N-hexadecanoyl)amino-L-ascorbic Acid

Allergy is an excessive immune response to a specific antigen. Type I allergies, such as hay fever and food allergies, have increased significantly in recent years and have become a worldwide problem. We previously reported that an ascorbic acid derivative having palmitoyl and glucosyl groups, 2-O-α-D-glucopyranosyl-6-O-hexadecanoyl-L-ascorbic acid (6-sPalm-AA-2G), showed inhibitory effects on degranulation in vitro and on the passive cutaneous anaphylaxis (PCA) reaction in mice. In this study, several palmitoyl derivatives of ascorbic acid were synthesized and a structure–activity relationship study was performed to discover more potent ascorbic acid derivatives with degranulation inhibitory activity. 6-Deoxy-2-O-methyl-6-(N-hexadecanoyl)amino-L-ascorbic acid (2-Me-6-N-Palm-AA), in which a methyl group was introduced into the hydroxyl group at the C-2 position of ascorbic acid and in which the hydroxyl group at the C-6 position was substituted with an N-palmitoyl group, exhibited much higher inhibitory activity for degranulation in vitro than did 6-sPalm-AA-2G. 2-Me-6-N-Palm-AA strongly inhibit the PCA reaction in mice at lower doses than those of 6-sPalm-AA-2G. These findings suggest that 2-Me-6-N-Palm-AA may be a promising therapeutic candidate for allergic diseases

Anti-Allergic Activity of Monoacylated Ascorbic Acid 2-Glucosides

2-O-α-D-Glucopyranosyl-L-ascorbic acid (AA-2G) is one of the stable ascorbic acid (AA) derivatives known as provitamin C agents. We have previously synthesized two types of monoacylated derivatives of AA-2G, 6-O-acyl-2-O-α-D-glucopyranosyl-L-ascorbic acids having a straight-acyl chain of varying length from C4 to C18 (6-sAcyl-AA-2G) and a branched-acyl chain of varying length from C6 to C16 (6-bAcyl-AA-2G) in order to improve the bioavailability of AA-2G. In this study, 6-sAcyl-AA-2G and 6-bAcyl-AA-2G per se showed the inhibitory effects on hyaluronidase activity and degranulation. 6-sAcyl-AA-2G exhibited strong inhibitory effects on hyaluronidase activity and degranulation in a concentration-dependent manner, and the inhibitory effects tended to become stronger with increasing length of the acyl chain. 2-O-α-D-Glucopyranosyl-6-O-hexadecanoyl-L-ascorbic acid (6-sPalm-AA-2G), which has a straight C16 acyl chain, was the most potent effective for inhibition of hyaluronidase activity and for inhibition of degranulation among the 6-sAcyl-AA-2G derivatives and the two isomers of 6-sPalm-AA-2G. Furthermore, percutaneous administration of 6-sPalm-AA-2G significantly inhibited IgE-mediated passive cutaneous anaphylaxis reaction in mice. These findings suggest that 6-sPalm-AA-2G will be useful for treatment of allergies

Crop evapotranspiration in the Nile Delta under different irrigation methods

Eddy correlation measurements within the Nile Delta allowed the determination of evapotranspiration (E) for seven crops (rice, maize, cotton, sugar beets, berseem, wheat, and faba beans) using basin irrigation (BI), furrow irrigation (FI), BI with increased intervals (BIi), FI with increased intervals (FIi), strip irrigation (SI), and drip irrigation (DI). Total E values over the cropping season for rice (BI, BIi) were the highest (>600 mm) while those for sugar beets (DI), maize (SI and DI), and berseem (BIi) were the lowest (<250 mm). Differences were due to a combination of atmospheric demand, soil moisture, the presence of surface standing water, root depth, and the length and timing of the cropping season. The DI and SI methods had an advantage for water saving, while the FIi and BIi methods were effective for crops with shallow root lengths. Estimated annual E was 566-828 mm/year (water-saving irrigation) and 875-1225 mm/year (conventional irrigation)

Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis of primary ocular adnexal MALT lymphoma

BACKGROUND: It remains unknown whether primary ocular adnexal extranodal marginal zone B-cell lymphoma of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT lymphoma) is a homogeneous entity, as there are few reports of the results of cytogenetic or molecular analyses of these tumors. METHODS: We performed interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis to detect translocations and aneuploidy in 34 cases of primary ocular adnexal MALT lymphoma, and reviewed the histopathological findings. Correlations between the results of FISH analysis, the histopathological features and the clinical data were also analyzed. RESULTS: Among the 34 cases, FISH analysis revealed t(14;18)(q32;q21) in one case, trisomy 3 in 21 cases (62%), and trisomy 18 in 16 cases (47%). The cases with trisomy 18 had significantly more prominent lymphoepithelial lesions (LELs) and less nodularity in the tumors. In regard to the clinical correlations, tumors with trisomy 18 were observed predominantly in females and younger patients; also, in the majority of the cases, the tumor was of conjunctival origin. All the cases with recurrence showed trisomy 18 in the tumor. CONCLUSION: Primary ocular adnexal MALT lymphoma is a significantly heterogeneous entity. Cases with trisomy 18 may have unique clinicopathological features

Charged Black Holes in a Rotating Gross-Perry-Sorkin Monopole Background

We present a new class of stationary charged black hole solutions to five-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell-Chern-Simons theories. We construct the solutions by utilizing so called the squashing transformation. At infinity, our solutions behave as a four-dimensional flat spacetime plus a `circle' and hence describe a Kaluza-Klein black hole. More precisely, our solutions can be viewed as a charged rotating black hole in a rotating Gross-Perry-Sorkin monopole background with the black hole rotation induced from the background rotation.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figure

Assessment of Dispersed Oil Sorption in Oily Wastewater onto Hydrophobized/Oleophilized Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Grains

The discharge of untreated oily wastewater into the environment has serious impacts on human health, living nature, and ecosystems and leads to significant economic losses. Many engineering techniques have been proposed and applied to treat oily wastewater, but limited studies have investigated low-cost and effective techniques using by-products and waste/scrap materials from the construction industry. Materials to treat oily wastewater are needed not only to mitigate environmental pollution but also to promote the reuse and recycling of industrial by-products, especially in developing countries. This study, therefore, examined the sorption capacity of dispersed oil in wastewater (dispersed soybean oil in water; initial oil concentrations, Ci = 10–1000 mg/L; oil droplet size in water 80% in high oil concentration solutions (Ci = 100 and 1000 mg/L), indicating that the hydrophobized/oleophilized AAC grains have high potential as useful adsorbents to trap dispersed oil in oily wastewater. Moreover, adsorption isotherms were drawn to examine the sorption characteristics of dispersed oil onto AAC grains. For all tested samples, the sorption of dispersed oil increased linearly with increasing equilibrium concentration. The commonly used Langmuir model, on the other hand, did not capture the measured isotherms

Hydrophobicity/Oleophilicity of Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Grains Coated with Oleic and Stearic Acids for Application as Oil/Water Separating Filtration and Adsorbent Materials in Vietnam

Separation of oil and water is an effective technique to treat oily wastewater. For examining the applicability of porous grains coated with hydrophobic agents (HA) as low-cost and easily available filtration and adsorbent materials in the separation of oil and water, this study assessed the hydrophobicity/oleophilicity of porous grains made from autoclaved aerated concrete scrap coated with low-cost and harmless hydrophobic agents such as oleic and stearic acids. Tests using a sessile droplet method showed unique relationships between the contact angles (CA) of water droplets in air (CAwa), oil droplets in water (CAow) and coated HA concentrations. The CAwa increased linearly with increasing HA concentration and then became almost constant and/or gently increased after a specific point, indicating that a minimum coating amount gives the maximum hydrophobicity to HA-coated porous grains exists. The CAow gradually decreased exponentially with increasing HA concentration. In particular, the CAow of porous grains coated with stearic acid decreased with increasing of HA concentration in a two-step process. Furthermore, analyses of the Pearson correlation showed that both CAwa and CAow correlated well with the specific surface area (SSA), implying that the SSA is a good indicator as a quick assessment of hydrophobicity/oleophilicity of HA-coated porous grains