Withaferin A induces apoptosis in rat C6 glioma cells through regulating NF-ΚB nuclear translocation and activation of caspase cascade

Background: The demand for the chemopreventive drug from the plant source is increasing in recent times, owing to its various biological activities without any adverse effect. The intention of this current study was to examine the antiglioma effect of Withaferin A (WFA) on C6 glioma cell line model.Materials and Methods: C6 glioma cells were administrated with different concentration of WFA (50, 100, 200 and 500 μg/mL) and DMSO (control) group to examine its anti-proliferative, anti-inflammatory and pro-apoptotic activities.Results: Treatment with WFA showed a significant decline in the glioma cell count in a dose-dependent manner and thus proving its anti-proliferative effect. Similarly, inflammatory markers were also substantially lowered upon treatment with different concentration of WFA. However, DNA fragmentation and apoptotic markers like Caspase-3 and 9 were concomitantly enhanced after co-cultured with different concentration of WFA and thus exhibiting its cytotoxicity efficacy. Furthermore, the protein expression of Bcl2 and Bax were markedly downregulated and upregulated respectively; upon treatment with WFA on C6 glioma cells.Conclusion: The outcome of this study evidently demonstrates that C6 glioma cells co-cultured with increased concentration of WFA, showed an anti-proliferative, anti-inflammatory and pro-apoptotic effect in a dose-dependent fashion.Keywords: Withaferin A, C6 glioma cells, anti-proliferative, anti-inflammatory, caspase, apoptosi

No relationship between the distribution of mast cells and the survival of stage IIIB colon cancer patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mast cells promote the progression of experimental tumors and might be a valuable therapeutic target. However, the relevant clinical evidence is still controversial. This study analyzed the relationship between the distribution of mast cells and the survival of patients with colon cancer to study whether mast cells contribute to tumor progression.</p> <p>Materials and methods</p> <p>Ninety-three cases of pathologically confirmed primary cancer tissues matched with adjacent normal mucosa, metastases of regional-draining lymph nodes and regional-draining lymph nodes without metastases were collected from stage IIIB colon carcinoma patients between January 1997 and July 2004 at the Cancer Center of Sun Yat-Sen University. Tryptase-positive mast cells were counted. The relationships of the distribution of mast cells with clinicopathologic parameters and 5-year survival were analyzed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Although the mast cell count in the mucosa adjacent to the primary colon cancer was significantly higher than that in the stroma of the primary colon cancer, no difference in mast cell counts was observed between the stroma in lymph node metastasis and the lymph tissue adjacent to the metastasis. Additionally, the mast cell count in the regional-draining lymph node without the invasion of cancer cells was significantly higher than that in the stroma of lymph node metastasis and adjacent lymph tissue. However, none of those mast cell counts was related to 5-year survival.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Although mast cell count varied with location, none of the mast cell counts was related to 5-year survival, suggesting that mast cells do not contribute to the progression of stage IIIB colon cancer.</p

A review of 3D printed concrete : performance requirements, testing measurements and mix design

As one of the ways contributing to the progress of the industrialization of the construction industry, 3D printed concrete (3DPC) has attracted more and more attention in recent years. The utilization of 3DPC can accelerate the construction speed, save the labor and raw materials, as well as improve the design freedom of construction without formworks. However, one of the most significant challenges for the application of 3DPC is the printing materials. These is a significant difference in the mixtures and performance between 3DPC and normal concrete. In order to provide an intensive reference for future studies to satisfy the performance requirements of 3DPC structures, this study firstly reviews the performance requirements of 3DPC, including the printability, fresh and hardened mechanical properties, and durability. Based on this, the specialized test methods for 3DPC are reviewed for the effective quality evaluation of 3DPC. The last part presents a review of mix design from the point of view of different materials and mix design approaches. The results show that 3DPC needs to meet the printability that it has higher requirements for rheology, hydration, and green strength than normal concrete. The interlayer bond is the key to study the anisotropic strength and durability degradation. More accurate test methods and testing standards should be developed. Besides, coarse aggregates and recycled materials need to be considered in the mix design of 3DPC

A nanoporous graphene analog for superfast heavy metal removal and continuous-flow visible-light photoredox catalysis

A metal-free conjugated porous polymer offers remarkable capabilities crucial for green and sustainable technologies, including removing 99.9% of lead from water within minutes, catalyzing quantitatively the Knoevenagel reaction in water, donor–acceptor units boosting photocatalytic activity and implementation in a continuous flow reactor.</p

The single t-quark productions via the flavor-changing processes in the topcolor-assisted technicolor model at the hadron colliders

In the framework of topcolor-assisted technicolor(TC2) model, there exist tree-level flavor-changing (FC) couplings which can result in the loop-level FC coupling $tcg$. Such $tcg$ coupling can contribute significant clues at the forthcoming Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments. In this paper, based on the TC2 model, we study some single t-quark production processes involving $tcg$ coupling at the Tevatron and LHC: $pp(p\bar{p})\to t\bar{q}(q=u,d,s),tg$. We calculate the cross sections of these processes. The results show that the cross sections at the Tevatron are too small to observe the signal, but at the LHC it can reach a few pb. With the high luminosity, the LHC has considerable capability to find the single t-quark signal produced via some FC processes involving coupling $tcg$. On the other hand, these processes can also provide some valuable information of the coupling $tcg$ with detailed study of the processes and furthermore provide the reliable evidence to test the TC2 model.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figure

The prevalence of autism spectrum disorders in China: A comprehensive meta-analysis

There are conflicting prevalence estimates of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in mainland China (China thereafter). This study is a comprehensive meta-analysis of the pooled prevalence of ASDs in the general population in China. Study investigators independently conducted a systematic literature search of the following databases: PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese biomedical literature service system, and Wan Fang. Studies reporting prevalence of ASDs and autism in Chinese population were identified and analysed using the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis program with the random effects model. Forty-four studies were included in the meta-analysis comprising 2,337,321 subjects of whom 46.66 % were females. The mean age of subjects ranged from 1.6 to 8 years. Based on diagnostic criteria the pooled prevalence of ASDs was 39.23 per 10,000 (95% CI: 28.44-50.03 per 10,000, I2=89.2%); specifically, the prevalence of autism was 10.18 per 10,000 (95% CI: 8.46-11.89 per 10,000, I2=92.5%). Subgroup analyses revealed significant difference in the prevalence of ASDs between genders (72.77 per 10,000 in males vs. 16.45 per 10,000 in females). In conclusion, the prevalence of ASDs and autism in China was found generally lower than those reported in other countries. Further studies are needed to clarify the variation in prevalence