Functional annotation of proteomic data from chicken heterophils and macrophages induced by carbon nanotube exposure

With the expanding applications of carbon nanotubes (CNT) in biomedicine and agriculture, questions about the toxicity and biocompatibility of CNT in humans and domestic animals are becoming matters of serious concern. This study used proteomic methods to profile gene expression in chicken macrophages and heterophils in response to CNT exposure. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis identified 12 proteins in macrophages and 15 in heterophils, with differential expression patterns in response to CNT co-incubation (0, 1, 10, and 100 µg/mL of CNT for 6 h) (p < 0.05). Gene ontology analysis showed that most of the differentially expressed proteins are associated with protein interactions, cellular metabolic processes, and cell mobility, suggesting activation of innate immune functions. Western blot analysis with heat shock protein 70, high mobility group protein, and peptidylprolyl isomerase A confirmed the alterations of the profiled proteins. The functional annotations were further confirmed by effective cell migration, promoted interleukin-1β secretion, and more cell death in both macrophages and heterophils exposed to CNT (p < 0.05). In conclusion, results of this study suggest that CNT exposure affects protein expression, leading to activation of macrophages and heterophils, resulting in altered cytoskeleton remodeling, cell migration, and cytokine production, and thereby mediates tissue immune responses

Influence of Y-doped induced defects on the optical and magnetic properties of ZnO nanorod arrays prepared by low-temperature hydrothermal process

One-dimensional pure zinc oxide (ZnO) and Y-doped ZnO nanorod arrays have been successfully fabricated on the silicon substrate for comparison by a simple hydrothermal process at the low temperature of 90°C. The Y-doped nanorods exhibit the same c-axis-oriented wurtzite hexagonal structure as pure ZnO nanorods. Based on the results of photoluminescence, an enhancement of defect-induced green-yellow visible emission is observed for the Y-doped ZnO nanorods. The decrease of E(2)(H) mode intensity and increase of E(1)(LO) mode intensity examined by the Raman spectrum also indicate the increase of defects for the Y-doped ZnO nanorods. As compared to pure ZnO nanorods, Y-doped ZnO nanorods show a remarked increase of saturation magnetization. The combination of visible photoluminescence and ferromagnetism measurement results indicates the increase of oxygen defects due to the Y doping which plays a crucial role in the optical and magnetic performances of the ZnO nanorods

Enhancing the Anticancer Activity of Antrodia cinnamomea in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells via Cocultivation With Ginger: The Impact on Cancer Cell Survival Pathways

Antrodia cinnamomea (AC) is a medicinal fungal species that has been widely used traditionally in Taiwan for the treatment of diverse health-related conditions including cancer. It possesses potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties in addition to its ability to promote cancer cell death in several human tumors. Our aim was to improve the anticancer activity of AC in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) through its cocultivation with ginger aiming at tuning the active ingredients. HCC cell lines, Huh-7 and HepG2 were used to study the in vitro anticancer activity of the ethanolic extracts of AC (EAC) alone or after the cocultivation in presence of ginger (EACG). The results indicated that the cocultivation of AC with ginger significantly induced the production of important triterpenoids and EACG was significantly more potent than EAC in targeting HCC cell lines. EACG effectively inhibited cancer cells growth via the induction of cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase and induction of apoptosis in Huh-7 and HepG2 cells as indicated by MTT assay, cell cycle analysis, Annexin V assay, and the activation of caspase-3. In addition, EACG modulated cyclin proteins expression and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways in favor of the inhibition of cancer cell survival. Taken together, the current study highlights an evidence that EACG is superior to EAC in targeting cancer cell survival and inducing apoptotic cell death in HCC. These findings support that EACG formula can serve as a potential candidate for HCC adjuvant therapy

Patterns of Distant Metastasis Between Histological Types in Esophageal Cancer

Introduction: Distant metastasis remains the major cause of treatment failure in esophageal cancer, though there have been few large-scale studies of the patterns of distant metastasis in different histological types. We investigated the patterns of distant metastasis in esophageal adenocarcinoma (AC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) using a population-based approach.Methods: Patients with de novo stage IV esophageal cancer at diagnosis were identified using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify potential risk factors for site-specific distant metastasis to the distant lymph nodes, bone, liver, brain, and lung at diagnosis.Results: We identified 1,470 patients with complete data for analysis including 1,096 (74.6%) patients with AC and 374 (25.4%) patients with SCC. A total of 2,243 sites of distant metastasis were observed, the liver was the most common site of distant metastasis (727, 32.4%), followed by the distant lymph nodes (637, 28.4%), lung (459, 20.5%), bone (344, 15.3%), and brain (76, 3.4%). Multivariable logistic regression showed that compared to patients with SCC, patients with AC were more likely to have metastasis to the brain (odds ratio [OR] 3.026, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.441-6.357, p = 0.003) and liver (OR 1.848, 95% CI 1.394–2.451, p &lt; 0.001), and less likely to have metastasis to the lung (OR 0.404, 95% CI 0.316–0.516, p &lt; 0.001). Histological type had no effect on metastasis to the distant lymph nodes or bone.Conclusions: Patients with esophageal AC are more likely to present with liver and brain metastases, and less likely to present with lung metastasis than patients with esophageal SCC

Comparison of Prevention of NSAID-Induced Gastrointestinal Complications by Rebamipide and Misoprostol: A Randomized, Multicenter, Controlled Trial—STORM STUDY

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have gastrointestinal side effects such as dyspepsia, peptic ulcer, hemorrhage, and perforation. Misoprostol and PPIs have been used to prevent NSAID-induced gastroduodenal injury. Rebamipide increases gastric mucus and stimulates the production of endogenous prostaglandins. The prophylactic effect of rebamipide on NSAID-induced gastrointestinal complications is unknown. The aim of this study was to compare NSAID-induced gastrointestinal complications in rebamipide- and misoprostol-treated groups. Patients were randomized to two groups and took a conventional NSAID plus rebamipide or misoprostol for 12 weeks. Gastric mucosal damage was evaluated by endoscopy at screening and the end of the study. The prevalences of active gastric ulcer were 7/176 (3.9%) in the rebamipide group and 3/156 (1.9%) in the misoprostol group. The prevalences of peptic ulcer were 8/176 (4.5%) in the rebamipide group and 7/156 (4.4%) in the misoprostol group. The cumulative incidences of peptic ulcer in the high-risk subgroup were 6/151 (4.0%) for rebamipide and 6/154 (3.9%) for misoprostol. In conclusion, rebamipide prevented NSAID-induced peptic ulcer as effectively as misoprostol in patients on long-term NSAID therapy. Rebamipide may be a useful therapeutic option for the prevention of NSAID-induced gastrointestinal ulcer because of its therapeutic effect and safety

Corrigendum to “An Emerging Translational Model to Screen Potential Medicinal Plants for Nephrolithiasis, an Independent Risk Factor for Chronic Kidney Disease”

Pharmacological therapy for urolithiasis using medicinal plants has been increasingly adopted for the prevention of its recurrence. A Drosophila melanogaster model developed for translational research of urolithiasis was applied to evaluate agents with potential antilithic effects and calcium oxalate (CaOx) formation. Potential antilithic herbs were prepared in a mixture of food in a diluted concentration of 5,000 from the original extract with 0.5% ethylene glycol (EG) as the lithogenic agent. The control group was fed with food only. After 3 weeks, flies (n≥150 for each group) were killed using CO2 narcotization, and the Malpighian tubules were dissected, removed, and processed for polarized light microscopy examination of the crystals. The crystal formation rate in the EG group was 100.0%. In the study, 16 tested herbal drugs reached the crystal formation rate of 0.0%, including Salviae miltiorrhizae, Paeonia lactiflora, and Carthami flos. Scutellaria baicalensis enhanced CaOx crystal formation. Two herbal drugs Commiphora molmol and Natrii sulfas caused the death of all flies. Our rapid screening methods provided evidence that some medicinal plants have potential antilithic effects. These useful medicinal plants can be further studied using other animal or human models to verify their effects

21-Gene Recurrence Score Assay Could Not Predict Benefit of Post-mastectomy Radiotherapy in T1-2 N1mic ER-Positive HER2-Negative Breast Cancer

Introduction: It is still controversial whether post-mastectomy radiotherapy (PMRT) is necessary for women with T1-2 N1mic ER-positive HER2-negative breast cancer. The 21-gene recurrence score (RS) assay has been validated in T1-2 N1 breast cancer to be prognostic of locoregional recurrence (LRR) and overall survival (OS). This study aims to evaluate the predict value of 21-gene recurrence score assay for the benefit of PMRT in T1-2 N1mic ER-positive HER2-negative breast cancer.Methods: A population-based cohort study was performed on women with T1-2 N1mic ER-positive HER2-negative breast cancer who underwent mastectomy and were evaluated using the 21-gene RS in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registry between 2004 and 2015. Clinical characteristics as well as OS and breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) were compared between patients with and without PMRT in patients with a Low-, Intermediate-, and High-RS. Multivariate COX regression analysis was performed to investigate if the 21-gene RS assay could predict benefit of PMRT in this group of breast cancer patients.Results: A total of 1571 patients met the criteria of our study and were enrolled, including 970 patients in the Low-Risk group (score &lt;18), 508 in the Intermediate-Risk group (score 18–30), and 93 patients in the High-Risk group (score &gt;30). In the High-Risk group, there were more patients with age ≥50 (87.0 vs. 64.3%, P = 0.040) and received chemotherapy with a borderline significance (91.3 vs. 72.9%, P = 0.066) in the PMRT subgroup than in the no PMRT subgroup. In all three groups, OS was comparable between the PMRT subgroup and the no PMRT subgroup. Furthermore, multivariate analysis did not show any OS benefit for PMRT based on the 21-gene recurrence score.Conclusion: This study showed that the 21-gene RS assay was not able to predict the benefit of PMRT for OS in women with T1-2 N1mic ER-positive HER2-negative breast cancer. However, further prospective larger sample-size trials are warranted to determine if a benefit exists

In situ immobilizing atomically dispersed Ru on oxygen-defective Co3O4 for efficient oxygen evolution

The synergistic regulation of the electronic structures of transition-metal oxide-based catalysts via oxygen vacancy defects and single-atom doping is efficient to boost their oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance, which remains challenging due to complex synthetic procedures. Herein, a facile defect-induced in situ single-atom deposition strategy is developed to anchor atomically dispersed Ru single-atom onto oxygen vacancy-rich cobalt oxides (Ru/Co3O4–x) based on the spontaneous redox reaction between Ru3+ ions and nonstoichiometric Co3O4–x. Accordingly, the as-prepared Ru/Co3O4–x electrocatalyst with the coexistence of oxygen vacancies and Ru atoms exhibits excellent performances toward OER with a low overpotential of 280 mV at 10 mA cm–2, a small Tafel slope value of 86.9 mV dec–1, and good long-term stability in alkaline media. Furthermore, density functional theory calculations uncover that oxygen vacancy and atomically dispersed Ru could synergistically tailor electron decentralization and d-band center of Co atoms, further optimizing the adsorption of oxygen-based intermediates (*OH, *O, and *OOH) and reducing the reaction barriers of OER. This work proposes an available strategy for constructing electrocatalysts with abundant oxygen vacancies and atomically dispersed noble metal and presents a deep understanding of synergistic electronic engineering of transition-metal-based catalysts to boost oxygen evolution

Iron-modulated nickel cobalt phosphide embedded in carbon to boost power density of hybrid sodium–air battery

Nickel cobalt phosphide (NiCoP) is emerging as a potential electrocatalyst towards oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). However, its ORR/OER activities are sluggish. Here, we investigated the roles of iron dopants in the Fe-doped NiCoP (Fe–NiCoP) in order to boost its ORR/OER kinetics. The density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the Fe dopant effectively modulates the electron conductivity of NiCoP and reduces binding energies of the reaction intermediates towards rate-determining steps of ORR and OER. A binder-free 3D microflowers morphology of the Fe–NiCoP embedded in the amorphous carbon layer (Fe–NiCoP@C) catalyst on the nickel foam was prepared as the air cathode for the hybrid sodium-air battery (HSAB). The HSAB displays a discharge voltage of 2.74 V at 0.01 mA cm−2 with excellent round trip efficiency of 93.26 % at the 500th cycle and state-of-the-art power density of 621 mW g−1