A Novel Synthesized Sulfonamido-Based Gallate-JEZTC Blocks Cartilage Degradation on Rabbit Model of Osteoarthritis: An in Vitro and in Vivo Study

Background/Aims: 3, 4, 5-trihydroxy-N-{4-[(5-methylisoxazol-3-yl) sulfamoyl] phenyl} benzamide (JEZTC), synthesized from gallic acid (GA) and sulfamethoxazole (SMZ), was reported with chondroprotective effects. However, the effects of JEZTC on osteoarthritis (OA) are still unclear. The goal of this study was to investigate the anti-osteoarthritic properties of JEZTC on interleukin-1-beta (IL-1β) stimulated chondrocytes in vitro and a rabbit anterior cruciate ligament transaction (ACLT) OA model in vivo. Methods: Changes in matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and apoptosis genes (bax, caspase 3 and tnf-α) and OA-specific protein (MMP-1) expression in vitro and in vivo were detected by real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry. The production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) were investigated upon the treatment of JEZTC in chondrocytes processed with IL-1β in vitro and OA in vivo. Effect of JEZTC on OA was further studied by the macroscopic and histological evaluation and scores. The key proteins in signaling pathways inMAPK/P38, PI3KAkt and NF-κB also determined using western blot (WB) analysis. Results: JEZTC could significantly suppress the expression of MMPs and intracellular ROS, while meaningfully increase the gene expression of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1). Moreover, there was less cartilage degradation in JEZTC group compared with the phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) group in vivo. Results also indicated that JEZTC exerts effect on OA by regulating MAPKs and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways to activate NF-κB pathway, leading to the down-regulation of MMPs. The chondro-protective effect of JEZTC may be related with its ability to inhibit chondrocyte apoptosis by reduction of ROS production. Conclusion: JEZTC may be a possible therapeutic agent in the treatment of OA

Thermo-Responsive Molecularly Imprinted Hydrogels for Selective Adsorption and Controlled Release of Phenol From Aqueous Solution

In this study, thermo-responsive molecularly imprinted hydrogels (T-MIHs) were developed as an effective potential adsorbent for selectively adsorption phenol from wastewater. During the process, N-isopropyl acrylamide (NIPAm) was used as thermal responsive monomer. The obtained materials were characterized in detail by fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer, scanning electron microscope (SEM), and thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA). A series of static adsorption studies were performed to investigate the kinetics, specific adsorption equilibrium, and selective recognition ability of phenol. Reversible adsorption and release of phenol were realized by changing temperatures. Three type of phenols, namely 3-chlorophenols (3-CP), 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP), and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (2,4,6-TCP) were selected as model analytes to evaluate the selective recognition performance of T-MIHs. The T-MIHs have good selectivity, temperature response, and reusability, making them ideal in applying in the controlled separation and release of phenol pollutants

Identification of resection plane for anatomical liver resection using ultrasonography-guided needle insertion

PurposesTo set up an easy-handled and precise delineation of resection plane for hepatic anatomical resection (AR).MethodsCases of AR using ultrasonography-guided needle insertion to trace the target hepatic vein for delineation of resection planes [new technique (NT) group, n = 22] were retrospectively compared with those without implementation of this surgical technique [traditional technique (TT) group, n = 29] in terms of perioperative courses and surgical outcomes.ResultsThe target hepatic vein was successfully exposed in all patients of the NT group, compared with a success rate of 79.3% in the TT group (P < 0.05). The average operation time and intraoperative blood loss were 280 ± 32 min and 550 ± 65 ml, respectively, in the NT group. No blood transfusion was required in either group. The postoperative morbidities (bile leakage and peritoneal effusion) were similar between groups. No mortality within 90 days was observed.ConclusionsUltrasonography-guided needle insertion is a convenient, safe and efficient surgical approach to define a resection plane for conducting AR

Directional Selection from Host Plants Is a Major Force Driving Host Specificity in Magnaporthe Species

One major threat to global food security that requires immediate attention, is the increasing incidence of host shift and host expansion in growing number of pathogenic fungi and emergence of new pathogens. The threat is more alarming because, yield quality and quantity improvement efforts are encouraging the cultivation of uniform plants with low genetic diversity that are increasingly susceptible to emerging pathogens. However, the influence of host genome differentiation on pathogen genome differentiation and its contribution to emergence and adaptability is still obscure. Here, we compared genome sequence of 6 isolates of Magnaporthe species obtained from three different host plants. We demonstrated the evolutionary relationship between Magnaporthe species and the influence of host differentiation on pathogens. Phylogenetic analysis showed that evolution of pathogen directly corresponds with host divergence, suggesting that host-pathogen interaction has led to co-evolution. Furthermore, we identified an asymmetric selection pressure on Magnaporthe species. Oryza sativa-infecting isolates showed higher directional selection from host and subsequently tends to lower the genetic diversity in its genome. We concluded that, frequent gene loss or gain, new transposon acquisition and sequence divergence are host adaptability mechanisms for Magnaporthe species, and this coevolution processes is greatly driven by directional selection from host plants

Results and benefits from an IDRC supported project : Tea Information Services (China)

In IDL-1120

Generative Adversarial Regularized Mutual Information Policy Gradient Framework for Automatic Diagnosis

Automatic diagnosis systems have attracted increasing attention in recent years. The reinforcement learning (RL) is an attractive technique for building an automatic diagnosis system due to its advantages for handling sequential decision making problem. However, the RL method still cannot achieve good enough prediction accuracy. In this paper, we propose a Generative Adversarial regularized Mutual information Policy gradient framework (GAMP) for automatic diagnosis which aims to make a diagnosis rapidly and accurately. We first propose a new policy gradient framework based on the Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) to optimize the RL model for automatic diagnosis. In our framework, we take the generator of GAN as a policy network, and also use the discriminator of GAN as a part of the reward function. This generative adversarial regularized policy gradient framework can try to avoid generating randomized trials of symptom inquires deviated from the common diagnosis paradigm. In addition, we add mutual information to enhance the reward function to encourage the model to select the most discriminative symptoms to make a diagnosis. Experiment evaluations on two public datasets show that our method beats the state-of-art methods, not only can achieve higher diagnosis accuracy, but also can use a smaller number of inquires to make diagnosis decision

Design of an Acoustic Synthetic Jet Actuator for Flow Control

Synthetic jet technology is widely adopted in active flow control. An actuator with an oscillating diaphragm is a commonly used excitation device for synthetic jet generation. However, it has a disadvantage wherein the volume at the cross-section of the cavity varies unevenly when the diaphragm vibrates, which makes it difficult to use multiple jets corresponding to one diaphragm. In this paper, an acoustic synthetic jet actuator that can generate multiple jets with one diaphragm was designed. The diaphragm vibrated in a cylindrical cavity, transferring air to another constant-volume square cavity through pipes. The square cavity was covered with a multiple-orifice plate for the expulsion and suction of the ambient air. Through this means, the implementation of multiple jets corresponding to one diaphragm was achieved. The multiple jets are called distributed synthetic jets in this paper. Governing parameters that determined the performance of the distributed synthetic jets were given by theoretical derivation. It was found that, under specific geometry conditions, the governing parameters were mainly the frequency and voltage of the input signal to the actuator. Then, the velocity characteristics of the distributed synthetic jets were measured by using a constant-temperature anemometer and the parameter space was determined. The results showed that it was practicable to apply the acoustic actuator to turbulent boundary layer flow control