Viruses mobilize plant immunity to deter nonvector insect herbivores.

A parasite-infected host may promote performance of associated insect vectors; but possible parasite effects on nonvector insects have been largely unexplored. Here, we show that Begomovirus, the largest genus of plant viruses and transmitted exclusively by whitefly, reprogram plant immunity to promote the fitness of the vector and suppress performance of nonvector insects (i.e., cotton bollworm and aphid). Infected plants accumulated begomoviral βC1 proteins in the phloem where they were bound to the plant transcription factor WRKY20. This viral hijacking of WRKY20 spatiotemporally redeployed plant chemical immunity within the leaf and had the asymmetrical benefiting effects on the begomoviruses and its whitefly vectors while negatively affecting two nonvector competitors. This type of interaction between a parasite and two types of herbivores, i.e., vectors and nonvectors, occurs widely in various natural and agricultural ecosystems; thus, our results have broad implications for the ecological significance of parasite-vector-host tripartite interactions

Development of biodegradable nanogels for lipase accelerated drug release of 5-aminolevulinic acid

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) using 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) is an important approach for the treatment of some skin diseases and cancers. A major defect of this approach is that it is difficult for 5-ALA to accumulate around lesions in deeper regions of tissue, resulting in poor conversion to the active fluorophore and photodynamic efficiencies. Because of their targeting and controlled release abilities, nanogel carriers could solve this problem. In this paper, nanogels were prepared by using micro-emulsion polymerization with various biodegradable polyester crosslinkers (L-lactide and ε-caprolactone). The swelling and degradation properties and entrapment efficiency, drug loading and drug release ability of the nanogels were investigated. Nanogels co-cultured with skin cancer cells (A2058) allowed the efficiency of the PDT in vitro to be demonstrated. The results showed that the swelling rate of hydrogels reduced with increasing crosslinker levels, which caused a slow-down in the release of 5-ALA, but lipase accelerated degradation of nanogels increased 5-ALA concentrations in tumor cells and leading to higher PDT efficiency. It was proved by in vivo experiment indicating that the development of skin cancer tissues were efficiently inhibited by the 5-ALA loaded nanogels

Chinese Herbal Medicine as an Adjunctive Therapy Ameliorated the Incidence of Chronic Hepatitis in Patients with Breast Cancer: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study

We conducted a National Health Insurance Research Database-based Taiwanese nationwide population-based cohort study to evaluate whether Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) treatment decreased the incidence of chronic hepatitis in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. A total of 81171 patients were diagnosed with breast cancer within the defined study period. After randomly equal matching, data from 13856 patients were analyzed. Hazard ratios of incidence rate of chronic hepatitis were used to determine the influence and therapeutic potential of CHM in patients with breast cancer. The patients with breast cancer receiving CHM treatment exhibited a significantly decreased incidence rate of chronic hepatitis even across the stratification of age, CCI score, and treatments. The cumulative incidence of chronic hepatitis for a period of seven years after initial breast cancer diagnosis was also reduced in the patients receiving CHM treatment. The ten most commonly used single herbs and formulas were effective in protecting liver function in patients with breast cancer, where Hedyotis diffusa and Jia-Wei-Xiao-Yao-San were the most commonly used herbal agents. In conclusion, our study provided information that western medicine therapy combined with CHM as an adjuvant modality may have a significant impact on liver protection in patients with breast cancer

4H-Cyclo­penta­[def]phenanthren-4-one

In the title compound, C15H8O, the asymmetric unit contains four independent mol­ecules and crystallizes with aromatic π–π stacking inter­actions[centroid–centroid distances = 3.5326 (18) Å]

Recent advances in polyoxometalate-based lanthanide–oxo clusters

Polyoxometalate (POM)-based lanthanide-oxo clusters (LnOCs) are a class of polynuclear lanthanide–oxygen complexes formed by polyoxometalate stabilization through oxygen bridges in which POMs can be viewed as multidentate inorganic ligands. POM-based LnOCs have received interest owing to their interesting structures and potential applications. In this paper, we summarize the classification, synthesis strategies, and properties of POM-based LnOCs. POM-based LnOCs are classified into three main categories according to their metal core element type and quantity: pure 4f clusters, 5d–4f clusters, and 3d–4f clusters. Their synthetic strategies are divided into four categories based on the source of the POM involved in the structural assembly: the lacunary POMs ligand-directed method, the in-situ transformation of lacunary POMs ligand-directed method, the in-situ generation of lacunary POMs ligand-directed method, and mixed synthesis strategies. In addition, the single-molecule magnets of POM-based LnOCs and their proton conduction properties are summarized