Chlorobenzoxime inhibits respiratory syncytial virus infection in neonatal rats via up-regulation of IFN-γ in dendritic cells

Purpose: To investigate the effect of chlorobenzoxime on respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection in vitro in lung alveolar cells and in vivo in neonatal rats, as well as the mechanism of action involved. Methods: RSV infection in neonatal rats was induced via intranasal administration of 2 x 106PFU viral particles. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and western blotting were used for determination of changes in interleukin expression. Results: RSV infection in BEAS-2B cells caused significant reduction in viability and marked alteration in morphological appearance (p < 0.05). Exposure of RSV-infected BEAS-2B cells to chlorobenzoxime prevented viability reduction and changes in morphology, and led to reductions in RSV-mediated increases in levels of interleukin-6 and interleukin-8. Moreover, RSV infection significantly enhanced ROS levels in BEAS-2B cells, when compared to control cells (p < 0.05). Chlorobenzoxime at a concentration of 30 μM completely suppressed RSV-mediated generation of ROS in BEAS-2B cells. In neonatal rats, RSV-induced upregulation of interleukin-4, interleukin-13 and TNF-α, were suppressed in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and lung tissues by chlorobenzoxime. Moreover, the RSVmediated reduction in IFN-γ was maximally blocked by chlorobenzoxime at a dose of 10 mg/mL. Chlorobenzoxime enhanced the proportion of IFN-γ -producing cells in neonatal rat BALF. Conclusion: Chlorobenzoxime exhibits antiviral against RSV infection in neonatal rats via increase in dendritic cell population, leading to inhibition of cytokine production. Therefore, chlorobenzoxime is a potential therapeutic agent for RSV infection. Keywords: Respiratory syncytial virus, Cytokines, Dendritic cells, Lung aveolar cells, Morphology, Interleukin

Simple Cholecystectomy Is Adequate for Patients With T1b Gallbladder Adenocarcinoma < 1 cm in Diameter

Purpose: Consensus-based clinical guidelines recommend that simple cholecystectomy (SC) is adequate for T1a gallbladder adenocarcinoma (GBA), but extended cholecystectomy (EC), SC plus lymphatic dissection, should be considered for T1b and more advanced GBA. Whether lymphatic dissection is necessary for the treatment of T1b GBA remains controversial. This study attempts to better define the current criteria for local treatment of T1b GBA, by examining the relationship between lymph node (LN) metastasis and tumor size in such patients.Patients and methods: Clinical data from patients with T1b GBA receiving curative surgical treatment between 2004 and 2015 were collected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Baseline characteristics for the entire cohort were described, and overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) were analyzed with the Kaplan–Meier method.Results: In total, 277 patients were enrolled for further analysis; 127 underwent lymphadenectomy. Among them, 23 patients had tumors &lt;1 cm in diameter, none of which had LN metastasis; 104 patients had tumors ≥1 cm, 15 of which had positive LNs. In the group with tumor size &lt;1 cm, there was no significant survival difference between treatment with SC or EC (P = 0.694). A clinical benefit was observed in T1b GBA patients with a tumor size ≥1 cm receiving EC vs. those receiving SC (P = 0.012).Conclusion: SC was adequate for treatment of T1b GBA &lt; 1 cm in diameter. This evidence may be included as part of current guidelines

Application of Gene Knockout and Heterologous Expression Strategy in Fungal Secondary Metabolites Biosynthesis

The in-depth study of fungal secondary metabolites (SMs) over the past few years has led to the discovery of a vast number of novel fungal SMs, some of which possess good biological activity. However, because of the limitations of the traditional natural product mining methods, the discovery of new SMs has become increasingly difficult. In recent years, with the rapid development of gene sequencing technology and bioinformatics, new breakthroughs have been made in the study of fungal SMs, and more fungal biosynthetic gene clusters of SMs have been discovered, which shows that the fungi still have a considerable potential to produce SMs. How to study these gene clusters to obtain a large number of unknown SMs has been a research hotspot. With the continuous breakthrough of molecular biology technology, gene manipulation has reached a mature stage. Methods such as gene knockout and heterologous expression techniques have been widely used in the study of fungal SM biosynthesis and have achieved good effects. In this review, the representative studies on the biosynthesis of fungal SMs by gene knockout and heterologous expression under the fungal genome mining in the last three years were summarized. The techniques and methods used in these studies were also briefly discussed. In addition, the prospect of synthetic biology in the future under this research background was proposed

Preparation and Photocatalytic Performances of WO3/TiO2 Composite Nanofibers

The use of sunlight for photocatalytic oxidation is an ideal strategy, but it is limited by factors such as insufficient light absorption intensity of the photocatalyst and easy recombination of photogenerated electron holes. TiO2 is favored by researchers as an environment-friendly catalyst. In this paper, TiO2 is combined with WO3 to obtain a nanofiber with excellent catalytic performance under sunlight. The WO3/TiO2 composite nanofibers were synthesized by using the electrospinning method. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis indicated that WO3 was successfully integrated onto the surface of TiO2. The photodegradation performance and photocurrent analysis of the prepared nanofibers showed that the addition of WO3 really improved the photocatalytic performance of TiO2 nanofibers, methylene blue (MB) degradation rate increased from 72% to 96%, and 5% was the optimal composite mole percentage of W to Ti. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra (UV-Vis DRS), and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis further characterized the properties of 5% WO3/TiO2 nanofibers. The H2 generation rate of 5% WO3/TiO2 nanofibers was 107.15 μmol·g−1·h−1, in comparison with that of TiO2 nanofibers (73.21 μmol·g−1·h−1) under the same condition. The 5% WO3/TiO2 produced ·OH under illumination, which played an important role in the MB degradation. Also, the enhanced photocatalytic mechanism was also proposed based on the detailed analysis of the band gap and the active species trapping experiment. The results indicated that the effective separation of Z-scheme photogenerated electron-hole pairs and transfer system constructed between TiO2 and WO3 endowed the excellent photocatalytic activity of 5% WO3/TiO2 nanofibers

Ultrasensitive Label-Free Electrochemical Immunosensor for Carbohydrate Antigen-125 (CA125) Employing Cu(II)-Polyethyleneimine (PEI)/Silica Nanoparticle@Overoxidized Polypyrrole (OPPy)/Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWNTs) Hybrid Nanomaterial

Novel electroactive nanotags of Cu(II) functionalized polyethylenimine (PEI)/SiO2 nanoparticles (abbreviated as Cu2+/PEI/SiO2 NPs) were conveniently synthesized using a strong coordination reaction between Cu(II) and the multi-amino groups of PEI. These electroactive nanotags were easily coated on the overoxidized polypyrrole (OPPy) modified Nafion/multi-walled carbon nanotubes (abbreviated as Nafion/MWNTs) electrode surface through Cu-N bonds and strong electrostatic interactions. The Cu2+/PEI/SiO2 NPs@OPPy/MWNTs hybrid nanomaterial was formed without the addition of extra membrane-forming substances. The experimental results demonstrate that the OPPy/MWNTs composite membrane coupled with electrocatalytic Cu(Tris)42+ complexes in tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (Tris)-HCl buffer medium amplified the electrochemical signals of nanotags based on the mutual synergistic effects. As an application, a label-free electrochemical immunosensor for epithelial ovarian cancer biomarker-carbohydrate antigen-125 (CA125) was constructed by covalently immobilizing CA125 antibody onto the hybrid nanomaterial modified electrode. With the increasing concentrations of CA125 antigen, different decreases in the electrochemical signals of the nanotags were observed due to the formation of antigen-antibody immune complexes. The electrochemical immunosensor showed a linear relationship from 0.001 to 500 U·mL−1 for CA125 with a detection limit of 3.4 × 10−4 U·mL−1. In addition, the proposed immunosensor was applied to the determination of CA125 in human serum with satisfactory results.</p

Preparation and properties of KCl-doped Cu2O thin film by electrodeposition

With the indium tin oxide-coated glass as working electrode, cuprous oxide thin film is fabricated by means of electrodeposition. The effects of KCl doped and annealing treatment upon Cu2O thin film morphology, surface resistivity, open-circuit voltage, electric conduction types and visible light response are studied. The research results indicate that KCl doped has a great effect upon Cu2O crystal morphology, thus, making Cu2O thin film surface resistivity drop, and the open-circuit voltage increase and that electric conduction types are transformed from p type into n type, and the visible light (400-500 nm) absorption rate is slightly reduced. Annealing treatment can obviously decrease Cu2O thin film surface resistivity and improve its open-circuit voltage. When KCl concentration in electrolytic solution reaches 7 mmol/L, Cu2O thin film morphology can be changed from the dendritic crystal into the cubic crystal and Cu2O thin film surface resistivity decreases from the initial 2.5 x 10(6) Omega cm to 8.5 x 10(4) Omega cm. After annealing treatment at 320 degrees C for 30 min, the surface resistivity decreases to 8.5 x 102 Omega cm, and the open-circuit voltage increases from the initial 3.1 mV to 79.2 mV. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Fabrication, morphology formation mechanism and properties of nanometer Cu2O thin film with KCl-doping

With CH3COONa/(CH3COO)(2)Cu as the electrolyte system, nanometer Cu2O thin film is fabricated by means of electrodeposition at TiO2/ITO electrode under the weak acid environment. The crystal morphology of nanometer Cu2O thin film is characterized by XRD, SEM and XPS. The effects of KCl-doping and annealing treatment upon nanometer Cu2O crystal morphology, thin film response to visible light and open circuit voltage are studied. The mechanism of KCl-doping to control thin film morphology is discussed. The results indicate that with the increase of KCl concentration, making nanometer Cu2O thin film compact, the average grain diameter and the open circuit voltage increase, and the forbidden band width decreases, and exhibited obvious absorbance response in visible light range, the preferred orientation character of Cu2O crystal has changed from the obvious (111) face preferred orientation into the obvious (200) face preferred orientation. The crystal morphology of nanometer Cu2O thin film has changed from regular octahedron into truncated cube when the KCl concentration reaches 7.0 mmol L-1. The transformation of nanometer Cu2O thin film morphology is caused by the preferential adsorption of Cl- at the (200) crystal face of Cu2O crystal. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Controllable preparation, characterization and performance of Cu2O thin film and photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue using response surface methodology

Cu2O thin film is prepared using the electrodeposition approach. XRD, XPS, SEM, PL and UV-vis are used to characterize the thin film microstructure, morphology and optical properties. Response surface methodology is employed to optimize the main influences of photocatalytic degradation, the quadratic multinomial mathematical model is also established. Photocatalytic degradation process of methylene blue is studied as well. The results indicate that the prepared Cu2O thin film is of high-purity with the preferential orientation of (1 1 1). R-2 is 0.9888 in the established quadratic model, which is of better fitness and higher significance. The optimal degradation conditions are obtained. Under this condition, degradation rate of methylene blue can reach over 98.2% in 3 h. The methylene blue molecules can be decomposed completely. Recycling results reveal that more than 94.2% of methylene blue can be decomposed within 7 cycles, which could still reach 81.8% after 11 cycles. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Exploration and practice of BOPPPS model in teaching reform of engineering chemistry for materials specialty

Engineering chemistry is the basis of materials science. Students majoring in materials specialty should learn engineering chemistry well and closely link it with materials science. However, it is difficult to achieve the expected teaching effect in the actual teaching process. By analysing the problems existing in the traditional teaching process of engineering chemistry, this study proposes a teaching strategy based on the BOPPPS teaching mode, such as the introduction of the flipped classroom and the classroom Interaction to enhance the interests of students in learning and their self-efficacy, so as to enrich their specialized knowledge and develop their creative thinking and abilities