Two Antimycin A Analogues from Marine-Derived Actinomycete Streptomyces lusitanus

Two new antimycin A analogues, antimycin B1 and B2 (1–2), were isolated from a spent broth of a marine-derived bacterium, Streptomyces lusitanus. The structures of 1 and 2 were established on the basis of spectroscopic analyses and chemical methods. The isolated compounds were tested for their anti-bacterial potency. Compound 1 was found to be inactive against the bacteria Bacillus subtilis, Staphyloccocus aureus, and Loktanella hongkongensis. Compound 2 showed antibacterial activities against S. aureus and L. hongkongensis with MIC values of 32.0 and 8.0 μg/mL, respectively

Ernie-Gram BiGRU Attention: An Improved Multi-Intention Recognition Model for Air Traffic Control

In recent years, the emergence of large-scale pre-trained language models has made transfer learning possible in natural language processing, which overturns the traditional model architecture based on recurrent neural networks (RNN). In this study, we constructed a multi-intention recognition model, Ernie-Gram_Bidirectional Gate Recurrent Unit (BiGRU)_Attention (EBA), for air traffic control (ATC). Firstly, the Ernie-Gram pre-training model is used as the bottom layer of the overall architecture to implement the encoding of text information. The BiGRU module that follows is used for further feature extraction of the encoded information. Secondly, as keyword information is very important in Chinese radiotelephony communications, the attention layer after the BiGRU module is added to realize the extraction of keyword information. Finally, two fully connected layers (FC) are used for feature vector fusion and outputting intention classification vector, respectively. We experimentally compare the effects of two different tokenizer tools, the BERT tokenizer tool and Jieba tokenizer tool, on the final performance of the Bert model. The experimental results reveal that although the Jieba tokenizer tool has considered word information, the effect of the Jieba tokenizer tool is not as good as that of the BERT tokenizer tool. The final model’s accuracy is 98.2% in the intention recognition dataset of the ATC instructions, which is 2.7% higher than the Bert benchmark model and 0.7–3.1% higher than other improved models based on BERT

Interface Engineering with Ultralow Ruthenium Loading for Efficient Water Splitting

Developing high-performance and cost-effective bifunctional electrocatalysts for water splitting is the key to large-scale hydrogen production. How to achieve higher performance with a lower amount of noble metal is still a major challenge. Herein, using a facile wet-chemistry strategy, we report the ultralow amount loading of ruthenium (Ru) on porous nickel foam (NF) as a highly efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for water splitting. Theoretical simulations reveal that the coupling effect of Ru and Ni can significantly reduce the d-band center of the composite. The Ru-modified NF exhibits a very high level of HER activity with only 0.3 wt% of Ru, far surpassing commercial Pt/C. It only requires an extremely low overpotential (eta(10)) of 10 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm(-2). in alkaline solution and a quite low Tafel slope of 34 mV dec(-1). This catalyst also shows remarkable performance for overall water splitting with a low voltage of 1.56 V at 10 mA cm(-2). These findings indicate the potential of this material in water-alkali electrolyzers, providing a new approach for fabrication of low-cost advanced electrocatalysts

Fabrication of pH-Responsive Nanoparticles with an AIE Feature for Imaging Intracellular Drug Delivery

Here we have demonstrated a facile method for construction of self-assembled nanoparticles with excellent fluorescent properties by the synergetic combination of unique AIE effects and tadpole-shaped polymers. The introduction of acid-sensitive Schiff base bonds furnished the polymeric vesicles and micelles with unique pH responsiveness that can possess maximal drug-release controllability inside tumor cells upon changes in physical and chemical environments, but present good stability under physiological conditions. Having benefited from the efficient fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), the DOX-loaded fluorescent aggregates were employed for intracellular imaging and self-localization in surveillance of systemic DOX delivery. Cytotoxicity assay of the DOX-loaded aggregates indicated a fast internalization and a high cellular proliferation inhibition to MCF-7 cells while the PEG-POSS-(TPE)₇ nanoparticles displayed no cytotoxicity, exhibiting excellent biocompatibility and biological imaging properties. These results indicated that these biodegradable nanoparticles, as a class of effective pH-responsive and visible nanocarriers, have the potential to improve smart drug delivery and enhance the antitumor efficacy for biomedical applications

Metabolomics Study of Roux-en‑Y Gastric Bypass Surgery (RYGB) to Treat Type 2 Diabetes Patients Based on Ultraperformance Liquid Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry

Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) is one of the most effective treatments for long-term weight loss and diabetes remission; however, the mechanisms underlying these changes are not clearly understood. In this study, the serum metabolic profiles of 23 remission and 12 nonremission patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) were measured at baseline, 6- and 12-months after RYGB. A metabolomics analysis was performed based on ultra-performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry. Clinical improvements in insulin sensitivity, energy metabolism, and inflammation were related to metabolic alterations of free fatty acids (FFAs), acylcarnitines, amino acids, bile acids, and lipids species. Differential metabolic profiles were observed between the two T2DM subgroups, and patients with severity fat accumulation and oxidation stress may be more suitable for RYGB. Baseline levels of tryptophan, bilirubin, and indoxyl sulfate measured prior to surgery as well as levels of FFA 16:0, FFA 18:3, FFA 17:2, and hippuric acid measured at 6 months after surgery best predicted the suitability and efficacy of RYGB for patients with T2DM. These metabolites represent potential biomarkers that may be clinically helpful in individualized treatment for T2DM patients by RYGB

Global Metabolic Profiling Identifies a Pivotal Role of Proline and Hydroxyproline Metabolism in Supporting Hypoxic Response in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Purpose: Metabolic reprogramming is frequently identified in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which is the most common type of liver malignancy. The reprogrammed cellular metabolisms promote tumor cell survival, proliferation, angiogenesis, and metastasis. However, the mechanisms of this process remain unclear in HCC

Switching from Fatty Acid Oxidation to Glycolysis Improves the Outcome of Acute‐On‐Chronic Liver Failure

Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) has a high mortality rate. Metabolic reprogramming is an important mechanism for cell survival. Herein, the metabolic patterns of ACLF patients are analyzed. An in vitro model of ACLF is established using Chang liver cells under hyperammonemia and hypoxia. A randomized clinical trial (ChiCTR-OPC-15006839) is performed with patients receiving -ornithine and -aspartate (LOLA) daily intravenously (LOLA group) and trimetazidine (TMZ) tid orally (TMZ group) based on conventional treatment (control group). The primary end point is 90-day overall survival, and overall survival is the secondary end point. By analyzing metabolic profiles in liver tissue samples from hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related ACLF patients and the controls, the metabolic characteristics of HBV-related ACLF patients are identified: inhibited glycolysis, tricarboxylic acid cycle and urea cycle, and enhanced fatty acid oxidation (FAO) and glutamine anaplerosis. These effects are mainly attributed to hyperammonemia and hypoxia. Further in vitro study reveals that switching from FAO to glycolysis could improve hepatocyte survival in the hyperammonemic and hypoxic microenvironment. Importantly, this randomized clinical trial confirms that inhibiting FAO using TMZ improves the prognosis of patients with HBV-related ACLF. In conclusion, this study provides a practical strategy for targeting metabolic reprogramming using TMZ to improve the survival of patients with HBV-related ACLF