Ophiopogon japonicas (Linn. f.) Ker-Gawl. extract ameliorates chronic heart failure in rats

Purpose: To investigate the effect of Ophiopogon japonicas (Linn. f.) Ker-Gawl. extract (OJKE) on oxidative stress and hemodynamics in chronic congestive heart failure (CHF) rats. Methods: The rats were modelled to congestive heart failure (except normal group) , and then randomly divided into normal control group, model (untreated) group, captopril group, high-dose, middle-dose and low-dose of OJKE groups. They were treated for 4 weeks as appropriate for each group. At the end of treatment, the hemodynamic function, whole heart weight index, and blood creatinine kinase (CK), as well as superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA), nitric oxide (NO), nitricoxide synthase (NOS) were determined. Results: Compared with the normal control group, arterial systolic pressure (SBP), diastolic pressure (DBP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), left ventricular systolic peak (LVSP), and left ventricular pressure change rate (dp/dt max) significantly decreased (p < 0.05), while left ventricular end diastolic pressure (LVEDP), whole heart weight index, blood CK, MDA, NO, NOS significantly increased in the untreated group (p < 0.05). A high dose of OJKE significantly improved hemodynamic function, lowered MDA (8.33 ± 2.12 nmol/mL) and NO (20.58 ± 3.53 umol/L) levels (p < 0.05), and also decreased CK (0.53±0.37 U/mL) and NOS (22.46±3.29 U/mL) in CHF rats (p < 0.05). Conclusion: OJKE improved adriamycin-induced chronic congestive heart failure in rats significantly

Statistical Origin of Constituent-Quark Scaling in the QGP hadronization

Nonextensive statistics in a Blast-Wave model (TBW) is implemented to describe the identified hadron production in relativistic p+p and nucleus-nucleus collisions. Incorporating the core and corona components within the TBW formalism allows us to describe simultaneously some of the major observations in hadronic observables at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC): the Number of Constituent Quark Scaling (NCQ), the large radial and elliptic flow, the effect of gluon saturation and the suppression of hadron production at high transverse momentum (pT) due to jet quenching. In this formalism, the NCQ scaling at RHIC appears as a consequence of non-equilibrium process. Our study also provides concise reference distributions with a least chi2 fit of the available experimental data for future experiments and models.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; added two tables, explained a little bit more on TBW_p

The First Mitochondrial Genome of the Living-Fossil Sawfly \u3cem\u3eMacroxyela ferruginea\u3c/em\u3e (Hymenoptera: Xyelidae, Macroxyelinae)

The living-fossil sawfly Macroxyela ferruginea (Xyelidae: Macroxyelinae) was one of the oldest species of Hymenoptera. We sequenced the mitochondrial genome, 15,465 bp in size. All 37 typical mitochondrial genes were possessed. There is only one rearrangement of gene order, where trnM and trnQ were shuffled. We also found this order was shared with Xyela sp., which also belongs to family Xyelidae. The 13 protein-coding genes of this sequence and the other 10 species from eight superfamilies in Hymenoptera were all used for phylogenetic analysis by maximum likelihood (ML) analysis and Bayesian inference (BI), with Ascaloptynx appendiculatus from Neuroptera as an outgroup. The topology demonstrated that M. ferruginea was sister to Xyela sp., supporting that they belong to one family Xyelidae

Reversible and time-dependent inhibition of CYP3A4-mediated nifedipine oxidation by noscapine

Substrate-dependent inhibition of CYP3A4 might influence the extrapolation of drug interactions from the in vitro to in vivo situation. The aim of the present study is to investigate reversible and time-dependent inhibition of CYP3A4-mediated nifedipine oxidation by noscapine. Furthermore, in vitroin vivo extrapolation (IVIVE) was performed using in vitro parameters. The results showed that CYP3A4- mediated nifedipine oxidation activity was strongly inhibited with an IC50 of 25.7 ± 5.4 μM. Kinetic analysis showed that inhibition of CYP3A4-mediated nifedipine oxidation by noscapine was best fit to a noncompetitive manner with Ki value of 10.9 μM. IC50 shift experiment showed that IC50 was significantly decreased from 25.7 ± 5.4 μM to 0.34 ± 0.07 μM after pre-incubation with noscapine for 30 min, which indicated that time-dependent inhibition existed for inhibition of CYP3A4 by noscapine. The AUC of (R)- warfarin was predicted to increase by 0.5 % using Cmax or 0.2 % using unbound Cmax with reversible inhibition prediction equation, while the AUC of (R)-warfarin was estimated to increase by 23.1 % using Cmax or 10.4 % using unbound Cmax with TDI prediction equation. Inhibition of CYP3A4 by noscapine showed substrate-dependent inhibition behaviour. However, the results obtained from IVIVE are very similar using testosterone or nifedipine as probe substrates.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

CpG-binding protein CFP1 promotes ovarian cancer cell proliferation by regulating BST2 transcription

Epigenetic alterations have been functionally linked to ovarian cancer development and occurrence. The CXXC zinc finger protein 1 (CFP1) is an epigenetic regulator involved in DNA methylation and histone modification in mammalian cells. However, its role in ovarian cancer cells is unknown. Here, we show that CFP1 protein is highly expressed in human ovarian cancer tissues. Loss of CFP1 inhibited the growth of human ovarian cancer cells, promoted apoptosis, and increased senescence. CFP1 knockdown resulted in reduced levels of SETD1 (a CFP1 partner) and histone H3 trimethylation at the fourth lysine residue (H3K4me3). RNA-sequencing revealed that deletion of CFP1 resulted in mRNA reduction of bone marrow stromal cell antigen 2 (BST2). Bioinformatics analysis and chromatin immunoprecipitation showed that CFP1 binds to the promoter of BST2 and regulates its transcription directly. Overexpression of BST2 rescued the growth inhibitory effect of CFP1 loss. Furthermore, depletion of cullin-RING ubiquitin ligases 4 (CRL4) components ROC1 or CUL4A had significantly inhibited the expression of CFP1 and BST2 similar to MLN4924 treatment that blocked cullin neddylation and inactivated CRL4s. In conclusion, CFP1 promotes ovarian cancer cell proliferation and apoptosis by regulating the transcription of BST2, and the expression of CFP1 was affected by CRL4 ubiquitin ligase complex

Functionalizing tetraphenylpyrazine with perylene diimides (PDIs) as high-performance nonfullerene acceptors

Perylene diimide (PDI)-based small molecular acceptors with a three-dimensional structure are thought to be essential for efficient photocurrent generation and high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). Herein, a couple of new perylene diimide acceptors (PPDI-O and PPDI-Se) have been designed and successfully synthesized using pyrazine as the core-flanking pyran and selenophene-fused PDIs, respectively. Compared to PPDI-O, PPDI-Se exhibits a blue-shifted absorption in the 400–600 nm range, a comparable LUMO level, and a more distorted molecular geometry. The PPDI-Se-based organic solar cell device with PDBT-T1 as the donor achieved the highest PCE of 7.47% and a high open-circuit voltage (Voc) of up to 1.05 V. The high photovoltaic performance of PPDI-Se-based devices can be attributed to its high LUMO energy level, complementary absorption spectra with donor materials, favorable morphology and balanced carrier transport. The results demonstrate the potential of this type of fullerene-free acceptor for high efficiency organic solar cells

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead