Efficient Enrichment of Global Phosphopeptides Using Magnetic Tannic Acid – Titanium(IV)/Zirconium(IV) Functionalized Spheres as a Novel Sorbent for Immobilized Metal Ion Affinity Chromatography (IMAC)

Inspired by the enrichment preferences of metal ions for phosphopeptides, a layered assembly method was adopted to introduce hydrophilic polyhydroxy ligands tannic acid (TA) to prepare magnetic bimetal ion-functionalized nanomaterials denoted by Fe3O4@TA@Ti4+/Zr4+ to provide the comprehensive enrichment of phosphopeptides. Benefiting from the excellent ion immobilization ability and unbiasedness for phosphopeptide enrichment, Fe3O4@TA@Ti4+/Zr4+ shows excellent properties for the enrichment and identification of global phosphopeptides. The results show that the material possesses high efficiency, outstanding selectivity (the maximum molar ratio β-casein to bovine serum albumin is 1:1000), a low detection limit of 0.4 fmol/μL, and the ability to be recycled at least 10 times. In addition, excellent performance was also demonstrated in the analysis of skimmed milk and human saliva: 13 and 31 phosphopeptides were successfully captured. The results demonstrate that the material has high potential for practical application in phosphoproteomics.</p

Electroacupuncture for Moderate and Severe Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia: A Randomized Controlled Trial

<div><p>Purpose</p><p>To evaluate the effects of electroacupuncture (EA) on the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), postvoid residual urine (PVR), and maximum urinary flow rate (Qmax), and explore the difference between EA at acupoints and non-acupoints in patients with moderate to severe benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH).</p><p>Subjects and Methods</p><p>Men with BPH and IPSS ≥8 were enrolled. Participants were randomly allocated to receive EA at acupoint (treatment group, n = 50) and EA at non-acupoint (control group, n = 50). The primary outcome measure includes the change of IPSS at the 6th week and the secondary outcome measures include changes of PVR and Qmax at the 6th week and change of IPSS at the 18th week.</p><p>Results</p><p>100/192 patients were included. At the 6th week, treatment group patients had a 4.51 (p<0.001) and 4.12 (p<0.001) points greater decline in IPSS than the control group in the intention to treat (ITT) and per-protocol (PP) populations. At the 18th week, a 3.2 points (p = 0.001) greater decline was found in IPSS for the treatment. No significant differences were found between the two groups in Qmax at the 6th week (p = 0.819). No significant difference was observed in PVR (P = 0.35).</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>Acupoint EA at BL 33 had better effects on IPSS, but no difference on PVR and Qmax as compared with non-acupoint EA. The results indicate that EA is effective in improving patient's quality of life and acupoint may have better therapeutic effects than non-acupoints in acupuncture treatments of BPH.</p><p>Trial Registration</p><p>ClinicalTrials.gov <a href="http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01218243" target="_blank">NCT01218243</a>.</p></div

Descriptive Statistics of ITT Population.

<p>Descriptive Statistics of ITT Population.</p

Demographic Information and Baseline Characteristics.

<p>Demographic Information and Baseline Characteristics.</p

Time frame of each period.

<p><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0059449#pone-0059449-g002" target="_blank">Figure 2</a> shows the time frame of baseline period, treatment period and follow-up period.</p

Descriptive statistics of PP population.

<p>Descriptive statistics of PP population.</p

ANCOVA estimation of outcomes.

<p>ANCOVA: Analysis of Covariance.</p

Flow diagram of participants.

<p>The flow chart of this study according to the CONSORT Statement.</p

Baseline Demographic and Clinical Characteristics of the Study Population.

<p>Baseline Demographic and Clinical Characteristics of the Study Population.</p

Tadehaginoside modulates lipogenesis and glucose consumption in HepG2 cells

<div><p>Tadehaginoside (TS) is a phenylpropanoid glycoside found in <i>Tadehagi triquetrum</i>, a medicinal plant with multiple biological activities. This study investigated the effect of TS on lipogenesis and glucose consumption in HepG2 cells. Treatment with TS inhibited lipid accumulation in a dose-dependent manner. This inhibition was closely associated with the downregulation of lipogenic genes such as <i>SREBP-1a</i>, <i>SREBP-2</i> and their downstream targets (<i>FAS</i>, <i>ACC</i>, <i>HMGR</i>) and the upregulation of lipolytic gene <i>PPARα</i> as revealed by real-time quantitative PCR. Further investigation showed that TS significantly stimulated glucose consumption by HepG2 cells and glucose uptake by C2C12 myotubes, which could be partially explained by the upregulation of <i>PPARγ</i>. Collectively, these results clearly indicate that TS is an effective regulator of lipogenesis and glucose consumption, which could be useful in treatment of obesity and diabetes.</p></div