Quercetin‐induced degradation of RhoC suppresses hepatocellular carcinoma invasion and metastasis

Abstract Background Tumor metastasis and recurrence are major causes of mortality in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) that is still lack of effective therapeutic targets and drugs. Previous reports implied that ras homolog family member C (RhoC) plays a toxic role on metastasis and proliferation of cancer. Methods In this research, the correlation between RhoC and metastasis ability was confirmed by in vitro experiments and TCGA database. We explored whether quercetin could inhibit cell migration or invasion by transwell assay. Real‐time PCR, overexpression and ubiquitination assay, etc. were applied in mechanism study. Primary HCC cells and animal models including patient‐derived xenografts (PDXs) were employed to evaluate the anti‐metastasis effects of quercetin. Results Clinical relevance and in vitro experiments further confirmed the level of RhoC was positively correlated with invasion and metastasis ability of HCC. Then we uncovered that quercetin could attenuate invasion and metastasis of HCC by downregulating RhoC's level in vitro, in vivo and PDXs. Furthermore, mechanistic investigations displayed quercetin hindered the E3 ligase expression of SMAD specific E3 ubiquitin protein ligase 2 (SMURF2) leading to enhancement of RhoC's ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation. Conclusions Our research has revealed the novel mechanisms quercetin regulates degradation of RhoC level by targeting SMURF2 and identified quercetin may be a potential compound for HCC therapy

Achieving excellent tribological performance of a-C: WC film by controlling sub-nano-structure

To study the tribological behavior of a-C: WC films in the marine environment, the a-C: WC films fabricated by reactive magnetron sputter technique with different bias voltages were reciprocally sliding against Si3N4 balls in artificial seawater. Results showed that the a-C: WC film was an amorphous matrix mixed with plenty of short-range ordered structures in sub-nano scale. Excellent tribological performance of the a-C: WC film in seawater could be achieved when the sub-nano-structure possessed excellent overall mechanical properties in combination with fewer growth defects on the surface. The lowest COF and wear rate for a-C: WC film (- 30 V) in seawater were 0.12 and 6.2 x 10(-8) mm(3 )N(-l) m(-1), respectively. The results demonstrated the potential application of a-C: WC films as protective surfaces in marine environments

Achieving excellent tribological performance of a-C: WC film by controlling sub-nano-structure

Achieving excellent tribological performance of a-C: WC film by controlling sub-nano-structur

Vacuole: a repository to control fruit flavor quality

The content of sugar and organic acid is the main factor that determines the fruit flavor quality and yield. More specifically, the ratio of sugar to organic acid affects the taste and nutritional value of fruits. Vacuoles and vacuolar transporters play pivotal roles in regulating fruit sugar and acid content, as most of the sugars and acids are transported and stored in ripe fruit vacuoles. In the past decades, the increasing vacuolar transporters or channels were reported to be involved in the sugars and acids' accumulation in horticultural fruits. This article specifically summarized the sugar, acid transporters and proton pumps that have been identified to be located in the vacuole membrane in horticultural crops, and described their physiological functions in the formation of flavor quality of main fruit crops in combination with their transport activities. Moreover, the research strategies and effective technical methods for functional analysis of vacuolar transporters were also discussed in this review

Achieving excellent tribological performance of a-C: WC film by controlling sub-nano-structure

To study the tribological behavior of a-C: WC films in the marine environment, the a-C: WC films fabricated by reactive magnetron sputter technique with different bias voltages were reciprocally sliding against Si3N4 balls in artificial seawater. Results showed that the a-C: WC film was an amorphous matrix mixed with plenty of short-range ordered structures in sub-nano scale. Excellent tribological performance of the a-C: WC film in seawater could be achieved when the sub-nano-structure possessed excellent overall mechanical properties in combination with fewer growth defects on the surface. The lowest COF and wear rate for a-C: WC film (- 30 V) in seawater were 0.12 and 6.2 x 10(-8) mm(3 )N(-l) m(-1), respectively. The results demonstrated the potential application of a-C: WC films as protective surfaces in marine environments

Anticorrosive properties and rust conversion mechanism of phytic acid-based surface tolerant coating

A phytic acid-based surface tolerant epoxy coating was prepared, and the effect of phytic acid on the corrosion resistance of the composite coating on rusty carbon steel substrate was investigated. The results showed that the low-frequency impedance modulus of the composite coating on rusty carbon steel could reached 10(8)omega center dot cm(2)order of magnitude after immersing for 480 h in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution. Compared with pure epoxy coating, the phytic acid-based surface tolerant epoxy coating on the rusty substrate exhibited better corrosion resistance even if with some artificial defects in the composite coating. The protective performance of the composite coating mainly came from the formation of a stable iron phytate chelate in the reaction of phytic acid and rust. For the rusty carbon steel, the original Fe(3+)on its surface was also transformed by phytic acid penetrating to the interface between the coating and the substrate. Therefore, a dense film was formed with the reaction of phytic acid and rust on the substrates, and the dense film became a part of the whole paint film, which could improve the corrosion resistance of the surface tolerant coating

Tribo-corrosion behavior of VAlTiCrCu high-entropy alloy film

Tribo-corrosion behavior of VAlTiCrCu high-entropy alloy fil

Effects of dietary fibre source on microbiota composition in the large intestine of suckling piglets

This study aimed to investigate the effects of dietary fibre sources on the gut microbiota in suckling piglets, and to test the hypothesis that a moderate increase of dietary fibre may affect the gut microbiota during the suckling period. Suckling piglets were fed different fibre-containing diets or a control diet from postnatal day 7 to 22. Digesta samples from cecum, proximal colon and distal colon were used for Pig Intestinal Tract Chip analysis. The data showed that the effects of fibre-containing diet on the gut microbiota differed in the fibre source and gut location. The alfalfa diet increased Clostridium cluster XIVb and Sporobacter termitidis in the cecum compared to the pure cellulose diet. Compared to the control diet, the alfalfa diet also increased Coprococcus eutactus in the distal colon, while the pure cellulose diet decreased Eubacterium pyruvativorans in the cecum. The pure cellulose diet increased Prevotella ruminicola compared to the wheat bran diet. Interestingly, the alfalfa group had the lowest abundance of the potential pathogen Streptococcus suis in the cecum and distal colon. These results indicated that a moderate increase in dietary fibres affected the microbial composition in suckling piglets, and that the alfalfa inclusion produced some beneficial effects on the microbial communities.</p

One-pot pyrolysis preparation of carbon dots as eco-friendly nanoadditives of water-based lubricants

One-pot pyrolysis preparation of carbon dots as eco-friendly nanoadditives of water-based lubricant

Multi-phase carbonaceous coating with super wear resistance

This paper achieved the pure multi-phase carbonaceous coating matrix by magnetron sputtering technique with pulse bias voltage. Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy analysis demonstrated that three kinds of phases including amorphous, fullerene-like and nano-crystalline carbons were interleaved inside the coating matrix with similar fine size around 6 nm. Most of the ordered fullerene-like and nano-crystalline carbon phases were spherical, while, the disordered amorphous carbon phases distributed among ordered carbon phases with irregular shapes. The synergy of these phases generated rather low friction coefficient 0.05 and extremely low wear rate 8.23 x 10(-17) m(3)N(-1)m(-1) under dry-sliding condition in ambient air. The multi-phase carbonaceous coating has great potential to be used as the wear-resistance working surface for mechanical moving components when the liquid lubricant is lacking or forbidden