Upconversion NIR-II fluorophores for mitochondria-targeted cancer imaging and photothermal therapy

Acknowledgements: The work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2020YFA0908800), NSFC (81773674, 81573383), Shenzhen Science and Technology Research Grant (JCYJ20190808152019182), Hubei Province Scientific and Technical Innovation Key Project, National Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (2017CFA024, 2017CFB711), the Applied Basic Research Program of Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology (2019020701011429), Tibet Autonomous Region Science and Technology Plan Project Key Project (XZ201901-GB-11), the Local Development Funds of Science and Technology Department of Tibet (XZ202001YD0028C), Project First-Class Disciplines Development Supported by Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (CZYJC1903), Health Commission of Hubei Province Scientific Research Project (WJ2019M177, WJ2019M178), the China Scholarship Council, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Metabolomic and transcriptomic analysis of the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway in Epimedium sagittatum (Sieb. et Zucc.) Maxim. from distinct locations

Epimedium sagittatum (Sieb. et Zucc.) Maxim. (ESM) which accumulates several principal flavonoid compounds including epimedin A, B, C and icariin, is extensively utilized in traditional herbs for sexual dysfunction, osteoporosis etc. In China, ESM has a wealth of wild plant resources and characterized by significant variability in medicinal compounds accumulation. Understanding the diversity of ESMs can lead to better utilization of these plant resources. In this study, we integrated the metabolomic and transcriptomic analysis of three ESMs that originated in Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi in China. Results showed that the flavonoid biosynthesis as well as the related gene expression in these ESMs revealed substantial differences. For example, the epimedin A, B, C and icariin as well as some related gene expression in ESMs from Anhui are significantly lower than those of in others. These results suggested that the ESMs from wild population without quality checkout may not be suitable for directly use as the materials for preparation of Chinese medicine and ESMs with different accumulation of metabolites could be used for distinct applications

Microbiome-derived bile acids contribute to elevated antigenic response and bone erosion in rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, disabling and incurable autoimmune disease. It has been widely recognized that gut microbial dysbiosis is an important contributor to the pathogenesis of RA, although distinct alterations in microbiota have been associated with this disease. Yet, the metabolites that mediate the impacts of the gut microbiome on RA are less well understood. Here, with microbial profiling and non-targeted metabolomics, we revealed profound yet diverse perturbation of the gut microbiome and metabolome in RA patients in a discovery set. In the Bacteroides-dominated RA patients, differentiation of gut microbiome resulted in distinct bile acid profiles compared to healthy subjects. Predominated Bacteroides species expressing BSH and 7a-HSDH increased, leading to elevated secondary bile acid production in this subgroup of RA patients. Reduced serum fibroblast growth factor-19 and dysregulated bile acids were evidence of impaired farnesoid X receptor-mediated signaling in the patients. This gut microbiota-bile acid axis was correlated to ACPA. The patients from the validation sets demonstrated that ACPA-positive patients have more abundant bacteria expressing BSH and 7a-HSDH but less Clostridium scindens expressing 7a-dehydroxylation enzymes, together with dysregulated microbial bile acid metabolism and more severe bone erosion than ACPA-negative ones. Mediation analyses revealed putative causal relationships between the gut microbiome, bile acids, and ACPA-positive RA, supporting a potential causal effect of Bacteroides species in increasing levels of ACPA and bone erosion mediated via disturbing bile acid metabolism. These results provide insights into the role of gut dysbiosis in RA in a manifestation-specific manner, as well as the functions of bile acids in this gut-joint axis, which may be a potential intervention target for precisely controlling RA conditions.Comment: 38 pages, 6 figure

Method of sub-super solutions for fractional elliptic equations

By applying the method of sub-super solutions, we obtain the existence of weak solutions to fractional Laplacian (Formula Presented) where f :Ω x R → R is a Caratheodory function. Let v be a Radon measure. Based on the existence result in (1), we derive the existence of weak solutions for the semilinear fractional elliptic equation with measure data (Formula Presented) Some results in [7] are extended. In addition, we generalize some results to systems of fractional Laplacian equations by constructing subsolutions and supersolutions

Regularity and nonexistence of solutions for a system involving the fractional Laplacian

We consider a system involving the fractional Laplacian (Equation presented) where αi ∈ (0, 2), pi,qi \u3e 0, i = 1, 2. Based on the uniqueness of α-harmonic function ([9]) on half space, the equivalence between (1) and integral equations (Equation presented) are derived. Based on this result we deal with integral equations (2) instead of (1) and obtain the regularity. Especially, by the method of moving planes in integral forms which is established by Chen-Li-Ou [12], we obtain the nonexistence of positive solutions of integral equations (2) under only local integrability assumptions

Grifolin attenuates white matter lesion in oxygen/glucose deprivation

The present study evaluates the effect of grifolin (GFL) in oxygen/glucose deprivation (OGD) induced white matter lesion. Injury induced with OGD was found to be significant at the 9th h of OGD induction and the effect of GFL on the proliferation of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) was assessed by CCK-8 and Hoechst 33258 assay at GFL 1, 5, 25, 50 and 100 μm concentrations. Whereas immunocytochemistry was performed for the assessment of survival and apoptosis of OPCs, western blot assay and RT-PCR were performed after 8th day of OGD injury for the estimation of expressions of myelin basic protein (MBP) and inhibitor of DNA binding 2 (Id2) in OPCs respectively. Results of the study suggests that treatment with GFL significantly enhances the survival rate and decreases the apoptosis of OPCs in OGD induced injury model. Immunocytochemical staining of Oligodendrocyte transcription factor (Olig2) and Bromodeoxyuridine (Brdu) shows that GFL treatment improves the proliferation of OPCs than OGD group. Moreover data of western blot assay suggested that treatment with GFL significantly enhances the expressions of MBP and Olig2 than OGD. It was observed that expressions of Id2 decreases and Olig2 enhances in GFL treated group than OGD group. Data of our study concludes that GFL enhances the differentiation and proliferation of OPCs in OGD-induced injury by altering the expressions of Id2 and Olig2

Caffeoylquinic acid enhances proliferation of oligodendrocyte precursor cells

This report evaluates the protective effect of caffeoylquinic acid (CA) injury to oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) by promoting the formation of oligodendrocytes. Neonatal rat brain was used to isolate primary OPCs and non-lethal CoCl2 was used to induce hypoxic stress to inhibit the differentiation of OPCs. Differentiation of OPCs was estimated by survival assay and the expressions of myelin-basic-protein (MBP). Moreover, the effect of CA on the Akt signanling pathway was also estimated in the presence and absence of LY294002 (PI3K/Akt inhibitor) and adrenomedullin (AM) receptor antagonist (AM22-52) by using western blot assay. It was observed that CA enhances the differentiation OPCs in CoCl2 induced hypoxic stress condition. However treatment with CA in presence of LY294002 and AM22-52 was not able to enhance the differentiation of OPCs. Moreover treatment with CA significantly enhances the phosphorylation of Akt and presence of LY294002 and AM22-52 inhibits it. This report concludes that CA effectively attenuates the injury of white matter (OPCs) by enhancing the differentiation of OPCs. It enhances the formation of oligodendrocytes by activating AM receptor and thereby accelerates the regeneration of neuron in pathological condition

Formation of shallow acceptors in ZnO doped by lithium with the addition of nitrogen

We performed first-principle total-energy calculations to investigate the mechanism for the realization of high quality p-type ZnO codoped with lithium and nitrogen. We find that the higher hole concentrations measured in the codoped ZnO is related to decreased ionization energy of acceptors and reduction of compensations. The dual acceptor NOLiZn complex proposed in experiments is unstable. While in the(LiIN O)LiZn complex, where acceptor LiZn binds to the passivated(LiINO) complex is stable and acts as a single acceptor. The activation energy of this complex is about60 meV lower than that of LiZn in Li-monodoped ZnO. The formation of inactive(LiINO) complexes creates a fully occupied impurity band just above the valence band maximum of ZnO. Thus Li atoms binding to this complex is activated by the electrons from the complex state rather than from the host states, accounting for decreased activation energy. Besides, Li I+ and NO- bind tightly through the Coulomb interaction. Such binding will suppress the amount of compensating donor LiI and limit the compensation for the desired acceptor Li Zn.?2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved