359 research outputs found
Effects of Intrinsic Tannins on Metabolome During Sainfoin Ensiling
Condensed tannins (CT) from sainfoin have a high capacity to inhibit proteolysis. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of CT (following supplementation of deactivated CT with polyethylene glycol [PEG]) on the metabolome during sainfoin ensiling. In total, 510 metabolites were identified after 60 d of sainfoin ensiling, with 33 metabolites were annotated in the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database. Among those metabolites, phospholipids were the most abundant (72.7% of total 33 metabolites). In addition, 10 up-regulated and 23 down-regulated metabolites, respectively, were identified in the PEG treated group when compared with the control group, after 60 d of ensiling (p \u3c 0.05). Pediococcus (correlated with 20 metabolites, R2 \u3e 0.88, p\u3c 0.05) and Lactobacillus (correlated with 16 metabolites, R2 \u3e 0.88, p \u3c 0.05) were the bacteria most correlated with metabolites. The results suggest antagonistic effects between Lactobacillus and Pediococcus occur during ensiling. The proteolysis decreased partly due to CT inhibiting Pediococcus activity during ensiling, with Pediococcus being significantly and positively correlated with dopamine after 60 d of ensiling (R2=0.8857, p \u3c 0.05)
Particle swarm optimization with state-based adaptive velocity limit strategy
Velocity limit (VL) has been widely adopted in many variants of particle
swarm optimization (PSO) to prevent particles from searching outside the
solution space. Several adaptive VL strategies have been introduced with which
the performance of PSO can be improved. However, the existing adaptive VL
strategies simply adjust their VL based on iterations, leading to
unsatisfactory optimization results because of the incompatibility between VL
and the current searching state of particles. To deal with this problem, a
novel PSO variant with state-based adaptive velocity limit strategy (PSO-SAVL)
is proposed. In the proposed PSO-SAVL, VL is adaptively adjusted based on the
evolutionary state estimation (ESE) in which a high value of VL is set for
global searching state and a low value of VL is set for local searching state.
Besides that, limit handling strategies have been modified and adopted to
improve the capability of avoiding local optima. The good performance of
PSO-SAVL has been experimentally validated on a wide range of benchmark
functions with 50 dimensions. The satisfactory scalability of PSO-SAVL in
high-dimension and large-scale problems is also verified. Besides, the merits
of the strategies in PSO-SAVL are verified in experiments. Sensitivity analysis
for the relevant hyper-parameters in state-based adaptive VL strategy is
conducted, and insights in how to select these hyper-parameters are also
discussed.Comment: 33 pages, 8 figure
Buteelch-5, A Traditional Formula Ameliorates Dextran Sulfate Sodium-Induced Colitis in Mice
Objectives: To examine the therapeutic effects of buteelch-5, a traditional formula on DSS-induced colitis in C57/BL6 mice and its possible mechanisms. Methods: Colitis in mice was induced by oral administration of 5% dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) for seven days. On the eighth day after administration of DSS, buteelch-5 (500 mg/kg, twice a day) was given orally to mice for five consecutive days. Ciprofioxacin (50 mg/kg, once a day for 5 days) was given to mice as a comparison. Two hours after the last administration of buteelch-5 and ciprofioxacin, mice were euthanized, and colon tissues were removed. Protein and mRNA levels of occludin, claudin-1 and zonula occludens (ZO)-1 in colon tissues were determined by western blot and real time-qPCR respectively. Histopathological analysis of colon tissues was performed. Results: Histological analysis revealed successful establishments of colitis models. Treatment with buteelch-5 markedly inhibited DSS-induced colon injury. Furthermore, buteelch-5 increased (2.14-2.67 fold) the occludin, claudin and ZO-1 protein and mRNA levels in colon tissues of mice administered with DSS. Significant increase was observed in occludin mRNA levels after buteelch-5 treatment (p<.05). Conclusion: Buteelch-5 improves microscopic inflammation and increases tight junction protein expressions such as occludin, claudin, and ZO-1 in mice with DSS-induced colitis
Resveratrol attenuates ischemic brain damage in the delayed phase after stroke and induces messenger RNA and protein express for angiogenic factors
BackgroundIt has been reported recently that resveratrol preconditioning can protect the brain from ischemia–reperfusion injury. However, it was unclear whether resveratrol administration after stroke was beneficial to the delayed phases after focal cerebral ischemia injury. This study investigated the effects and possible protective mechanism of resveratrol on the delayed phase after focal cerebral ischemia injury in mice.MethodsMice were randomly assigned to five groups according to the time of administration of resveratrol. Control group mice received a corresponding volume of saline solution (0.9% NaCl) containing 20% hydroxypropyl h-cyclodextrin by gavage and were exposed to middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion and reperfusion injury. The treatment groups received resveratrol (50 mg/kg/d, gavage) until day 7. Ischemia group mice received their first dose 5 minutes before MCA ischemia, reperfusion group mice received their first dose 5 minutes before MCA reperfusion, first-day, group mice received their first dose 24 hours after MCA reperfusion, and third-day group mice received their first dose at 72 hours after MCA reperfusion. Brain injury was evaluated by triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining and neurologic examination 7 days after reperfusion. The microvascular cell number was examined with immunohistochemistry staining. Effect of resveratrol on matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene expression was investigated with reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and Western blot.ResultsThe mean neurologic scores and infarct volumes of the ischemia and reperfusion groups were lower than that of the control group at 7 days after MCA reperfusion (P < .05). Immunohistochemistry staining showed significantly less reduction in the number of microvessels in the cortical area of mice of the ischemia and reperfusion groups compared with controls. The ischemic hemispheres of the ischemia and reperfusion groups showed significantly (P < .05) elevated levels of protein of MMP-2 and VEGF.ConclusionsResveratrol administration by gavage provided an important neuroprotective effect on focal cerebral ischemic injury in the delayed phase. The elevated MMP-2 and VEGF levels might be important in the neuroprotective effect of resveratrol administration by inducing angiogenesis.Clinical RelevanceStrokes can induce infarction size or neurologic disability and cause brain injury in millions of people world wide each year. However, there is no approved therapy currently, and so it is necessary to develop new treatments in the field of primary and secondary stroke to improve the prognosis. This study identified the benefits of early administration of resveratrol by gavage in the delayed phases after focal cerebral ischemic injury and further supports the possible use of resveratrol as a therapeutic agent to ameliorate ischemic infarction. Resveratrol may thus be considered as a potential candidate in the armamentarium of drugs for the early treatment in patients who sustain a stroke
CD44: a cancer stem cell marker and therapeutic target in leukemia treatment
CD44 is a ubiquitous leukocyte adhesion molecule involved in cell-cell interaction, cell adhesion, migration, homing and differentiation. CD44 can mediate the interaction between leukemic stem cells and the surrounding extracellular matrix, thereby inducing a cascade of signaling pathways to regulate their various behaviors. In this review, we focus on the impact of CD44s/CD44v as biomarkers in leukemia development and discuss the current research and prospects for CD44-related interventions in clinical application
Data-Driven Modeling with Experimental Augmentation for the Modulation Strategy of the Dual-Active-Bridge Converter
For the performance modeling of power converters, the mainstream approaches
are essentially knowledge-based, suffering from heavy manpower burden and low
modeling accuracy. Recent emerging data-driven techniques greatly relieve human
reliance by automatic modeling from simulation data. However, model discrepancy
may occur due to unmodeled parasitics, deficient thermal and magnetic models,
unpredictable ambient conditions, etc. These inaccurate data-driven models
based on pure simulation cannot represent the practical performance in physical
world, hindering their applications in power converter modeling. To alleviate
model discrepancy and improve accuracy in practice, this paper proposes a novel
data-driven modeling with experimental augmentation (D2EA), leveraging both
simulation data and experimental data. In D2EA, simulation data aims to
establish basic functional landscape, and experimental data focuses on matching
actual performance in real world. The D2EA approach is instantiated for the
efficiency optimization of a hybrid modulation for neutral-point-clamped
dual-active-bridge (NPC-DAB) converter. The proposed D2EA approach realizes
99.92% efficiency modeling accuracy, and its feasibility is comprehensively
validated in 2-kW hardware experiments, where the peak efficiency of 98.45% is
attained. Overall, D2EA is data-light and can achieve highly accurate and
highly practical data-driven models in one shot, and it is scalable to other
applications, effortlessly.Comment: 11 page
HSP90 inhibitor, celastrol, arrests human monocytic leukemia cell U937 at G0/G1 in thiol-containing agents reversible way
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Because some of heat shock protein 90's (HSP90) clients are key cell cycle regulators, HSP90 inhibition can affect the cell cycle. Recently, celastrol is identified both as a novel inhibitor of HSP90 and as a potential anti-tumor agent. However, this agent's effects on the cell cycle are rarely investigated. In this study, we observed the effects of celastrol on the human monocytic leukemia cell line U937 cell cycle.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Celastrol affected the proliferation of U937 in a dose-dependent way, arresting the cell cycle at G0/G1 with 400 nM doses and triggering cell death with doses above 1000 nM. Cell cycle arrest was accompanied by inhibition of HSP90 ATPase activity and elevation in HSP70 levels (a biochemical hallmark of HSP90 inhibition), a reduction in Cyclin D1, Cdk4 and Cdk6 levels, and a disruption of the HSP90/Cdc37/Cdk4 complex. The observed effects of celastrol on the U937 cell cycle were thiol-related, firstly because the effects could be countered by pre-loading thiol-containing agents and secondly because celastrol and thiol-containing agents could react with each other to form new compounds.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results disclose a novel action of celastrol-- causing cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 phase based upon thiol-related HSP90 inhibition. Our work suggests celastrol's potential in tumor and monocyte-related disease management.</p
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