Discovery of a ROCK inhibitor, FPND, which prevents cerebral hemorrhage through maintaining vascular integrity by interference with VE-cadherin

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Spherical montmorillonite-supported nano-silver as a self-sedimentary catalyst for methylene blue removal

Supported metal nanoparticles using various substrates have been proven as a highly efficient approach for solving the problems of aggregation and recyclability of metal nanoparticles. However, the reusability procedure often involved the abundant devices, which obviously increased the cost and heavily limited the large-scale application of metal nanoparticles. In this work, spherical montmorillonite was used firstly as the substrate for supporting silver nanoparticles on its surface through polydopamine chemistry method. The loading of silver nanoparticles with 40 nm in diameter was 15.2 wt% and the specific surface area of this prepared spherical montmorillonite supported silver nanoparticles catalyst was 45.3 m(2)/g, giving the catalyst an optimized apparent reduction rate constant k of 1.22 min(-1) for the reduction of methylene blue. Furthermore, the prepared catalyst with quickly self-sedimentary property in aqueous solution were conveniently recovered and reused without any devices involves. The spherical morphology and catalytic performance of prepared catalyst were almost unaltered after 5 cycles. Our research aims at opening a new avenue to easily realize the reusability of silver nanoparticles through using the substrate with the self-sedimentary property

Phosphorylation of LCRMP-1 by GSK3β Promotes Filopoda Formation, Migration and Invasion Abilities in Lung Cancer Cells

LCRMP-1, a novel isoform of CRMP-1, can promote cancer cell migration, invasion and associate with poor clinical outcome in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the underlying regulatory mechanisms of LCRMP-1 in cancer cell invasiveness still remain obscure. Here, we report that GSK3β can phosphorylate LCRMP-1 at Thr-628 in consensus sequences and this phosphorylation is crucial for function of LCRMP-1 to promote filopodia formation, migration and invasion in cancer cells. Impediment of Thr-628 phosphorylation attenuates the stimulatory effects of LCRMP-1 on filopodia forming, migration and invasion abilities in cancer cells; simultaneously, kinase-dead GSK3β diminishes regulation of LCRMP-1 on cancer cell invasion. Furthermore, we also found that patients with low-level Ser-9-phosphorylated GSK3β expression and high-level LCRMP-1 expression have worse overall survival than those with high-level inactive GSK3β expressions and low-level LCRMP-1 expressions (P<0.0001). Collectively, these results demonstrate that GSK3β-dependent phosphorylation of LCRMP-1 provides an important mechanism for regulation of LCRMP-1 on cancer cell invasiveness and clinical outcome

Synthesis of Tapered CdS Nanobelts and CdSe Nanowires with Good Optical Property by Hydrogen-Assisted Thermal Evaporation

The tapered CdS nanobelts and CdSe nanowires were prepared by hydrogen-assisted thermal evaporation method. Different supersaturation leads to two different kinds of 1D nanostructures. The PL measurements recorded from the as-prepared tapered CdS nanobelts and CdSe nanowires show only a bandgap emission with relatively narrow full-width half maximum, which means that they possess good optical property. The as-synthesized high-quality tapered CdS nanobelts and CdSe nanowires may be excellent building blocks for photonic devices

Molecular Analysis of Precursor Lesions in Familial Pancreatic Cancer

PMCID: PMC3553106This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Neuronal hemoglobin affects dopaminergic cells' response to stress

Hemoglobin (Hb) is the major protein in erythrocytes and carries oxygen (O2) throughout the body. Recently, Hb has been found synthesized in atypical sites, including the brain. Hb is highly expressed in A9 dopaminergic (DA) neurons of the substantia nigra (SN), whose selective degeneration leads to Parkinson's disease (PD). Here we show that Hb confers DA cells' susceptibility to 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP(+)) and rotenone, neurochemical cellular models of PD. The toxic property of Hb does not depend on O2 binding and is associated with insoluble aggregate formation in the nucleolus. Neurochemical stress induces epigenetic modifications, nucleolar alterations and autophagy inhibition that depend on Hb expression. When adeno-associated viruses carrying \u3b1- and \u3b2-chains of Hb are stereotaxically injected into mouse SN, Hb forms aggregates and causes motor learning impairment. These results position Hb as a potential player in DA cells' homeostasis and dysfunction in PD. Copyright The Author(s) 201

Even-denominator fractional quantum Hall physics in ZnO

The fractional quantum Hall (FQH) effect emerges in high-quality two-dimensional electron systems exposed to a magnetic field when the Landau-level filling factor, ν_e, takes on a rational value. Although the overwhelming majority of FQH states have odd-denominator fillings, the physical properties of the rare and fragile even-denominator states are most tantalizing in view of their potential relevance for topological quantum computation. For decades, GaAs has been the preferred host for studying these even-denominator states, where they occur at ν_e = 5/2 and 7/2. Here we report an anomalous series of quantized even-denominator FQH states outside the realm of III–V semiconductors in the MgZnO/ZnO 2DES electron at ν_e = 3/2 and 7/2, with precursor features at 9/2; all while the 5/2 state is absent. The effect in this material occurs concomitantly with tunability of the orbital character of electrons at the chemical potential, thereby realizing a new experimental means for investigating these exotic ground states

The Prognostic Value of Tumor-Infiltrating Neutrophils in Gastric Adenocarcinoma after Resection

Background: Several pieces of evidence indicate that tumor-infiltrating neutrophils (TINs) are correlated to tumor progression. In the current study, we explore the relationship between TINs and clinicopathological features of gastric adenocarcinoma patients. Furthermore, we investigated the prognostic value of TINs. Patients and Methods: The study was comprised of two groups, training group (115 patients) and test group (97 patients). Biomarkers (intratumoral CD15+ neutrophils) were assessed by immunohistochemistry. The relationship between clinicopathological features and patient outcome were evaluated using Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier analysis. Results: Immunohistochemical detection showed that the tumor-infiltrating neutrophils (TINs) in the training group ranged from 0.00–115.70 cells/high-power microscopic field (HPF) and the median number was 21.60 cells/HPF. Based on the median number, the patients were divided into high and low TINs groups. Chi-square test analysis revealed that the density of CD15+ TINs was positively associated with lymph node metastasis (p = 0.024), distance metastasis (p = 0.004) and UICC (International Union Against Cancer) staging (p = 0.028). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that patients with a lower density of TINs had a better prognosis than patients with a higher density of TINs (p = 0.002). Multivariate Cox’s analysis showed that the density of CD15+ TINs was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival of gastric adenocarcinoma patients. Using another 97 patients as a test group and basing on the median number of TINs (21.60 cells/HPF) coming from th