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Background: Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Chalkiness, the opaque part in the kernel endosperm formed by loosely piled starch and protein bodies. Chalkiness is a complex quantitative trait regulated by multiple genes and various environmental factors. Phytohormones play important roles in the regulation of chalkiness formation but the underlying molecular mechanism is still unclear at present. Results: In this research, Xiangzaoxian24 (X24, pure line of indica rice with high-chalkiness) and its origin parents Xiangzaoxian11 (X11, female parent, pure line of indica rice with high-chalkiness) and Xiangzaoxian7 (X7, male parent, pure line of indica rice with low-chalkiness) were used as materials. The phenotype, physiological and biochemical traits combined with transcriptome analysis were conducted to illustrate the dynamic process and transcriptional regulation of rice chalkiness formation. Impressively, phytohormonal contents and multiple phytohormonal signals were significantly different in chalky caryopsis, suggesting the involvement of phytohormones, particularly ABA and auxin, in the regulation of rice chalkiness formation, through the interaction of multiple transcription factors and their downstream regulators. Conclusion: These results indicated that chalkiness formation is a dynamic process associated with multiple genes, forming a complex regulatory network in which phytohormones play important roles. These results provided informative clues for illustrating the regulatory mechanisms of chalkiness formation in rice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microcellular poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) foams were prepared by combing the thermoplastic processing technology and solid-state supercritical CO 2 foaming technology. The compound polyol plasticizers that may partially destroy intra- and inter-molecular hydrogen bonding within PVA and improve the flowability during processing were developed to pave the way for PVA thermoplastic processing with lower processing temperature and wider processing window. In order to ease the collapse of bubbles and improve the foaming performances, nano silica was introduced into the system. The influences of processing parameters (foaming temperature and saturation pressure) and nano silica content on the foaming behavior and cell structure were systematically studied. The resultant PVA/SiO 2 nanocomposite foams exhibited a cellular structure with smaller cell size, larger cell density and relative density compared to PVA foam. It was also found that cell density increased with decreasing foaming temperature or increasing saturation pressure. Further investigation suggested that improvement of stiffness as well as the decrease of crystallinity were thought as the main reasons to explain the interesting effect of SiO 2 addition on the foaming behavior of PVA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drug administration via buccal mucosa is an attractive drug delivery strategy due to good patient compliance, prolonged localized drug effect, and avoidance of gastrointestinal drug metabolism and first-pass elimination. Buccal drug delivery systems need to maintain an intimate contact with the mucosa lining in the wet conditions of the oral cavity for long enough to allow drug release and absorption. For decades, mucoadhesive polymers such as chitosan (CS) and its derivatives have been explored to achieve this. In this study, inspired by the excellent wet adhesion of marine mussel adhesive protein, we developed a buccal drug delivery system using a novel catechol-functionalized CS (Cat-CS) hydrogel. We covalently bonded catechol functional groups to the backbone of CS, and crosslinked the polymer with a non-toxic crosslinker genipin (GP). We achieved two degrees of catechol conjugation (9% and 19%), forming Cat9-CS/GP and Cat19-CS/GP hydrogels, respectively. We confirmed covalent bond formation during the catechol functionalization and GP crosslinking during the gel formation. The gelation time and the mechanical properties of Cat-CS hydrogels are similar to those of CS only hydrogels. Catechol groups significantly enhanced mucoadhesion in vitro (7 out of the 10 Cat19-CS hydrogels were still in contact with porcine mucosal membrane after 6 h, whereas all of the CS hydrogels lost contact after 1.5 h). The new hydrogel systems sustained the release of lidocaine for about 3 h. In-vivo, we compared buccal patches made of Cat19-CS/GP and CS/GP adhered to rabbit buccal mucosa. We were able to detect lidocaine in the rabbit's serum at concentration about 1 ng/ml only from the Cat19-CS patch, most likely due to the intimate contact provided by mucoadhesive Cat19-CS/GP systems. No inflammation was observed on the buccal tissue in contact with any of the patches tested. These results show that the proposed catechol-modified CS hydrogel is a promising mucoadhesive and biocompatible hydrogel system for buccal drug delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chitosan (CH), partially N-deacetylatedchitin, is a biodegradable and biocompatible polymer that has showngreat potential in drug delivery and tissue engineering applications.Although bioadhesive, CH has limited mucoadhesion in wet conditionsdue to weak interactions with biological surfaces. DOPA (3,4-dihydroxy-l-phenylalanine), a catechol-containing molecule naturally presentin marine mussel foot proteins, has been shown to increase the mucoadhesionof several polymers. We report here a simple and bioinspired approachto enhance CH mucoadhesion in wet conditions by preparing mixed hydrogelsincluding CH and different catechol-containing compounds, namely DOPA,hydrocaffeic acid (HCA), and dopamine (DA). We characterized the hydrogelsfor their swelling, release kinetics of the catechol compounds, andmucoadhesive strength to rabbit small intestine. The swelling of thehydrogels was pH dependent with maximum swelling at pH 1. The hydrogelswelling was higher in the presence of the DOPA and DA but lower inthe presence of HCA. HCA/CH hydrogel also showed the slowest catecholrelease, most likely due to electrostatic interactions between CHand HCA. Lower hydrogel swelling and slower HCA release resulted inincreased mucoadhesion: HCA/CH showed more than 2-fold enhancementof mucoadhesion to rabbit small intestine compared to CH alone. Sinceit is known that catechol compounds can be oxidized, we analyzed theoxidation of DOPA, HCA, and DA at different pH values and its effecton mucoadhesion. We found that oxidation occurring before contactwith the intestinal mucosa did not improve mucoadhesion, while oxidationoccurring during the contact further increased the mucoadhesion ofHCA/CH hydrogels. These results show that mucoadhesion of CH hydrogelscan be increased with a simple bioinspired approach, which has thepotential to be applied to other polymers since it does not requireany chemical modification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qingjin Huatan Decoction (QJHTT) consists of 11 herbal medicines: Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi , Gardenia jasminoides J.Ellis, Platycodon grandiflorus (Jacq.) A.DC. , Ophiopogon japonicus (Thunb.) Ker Gawl. , Morus alba L. , Fritillaria thunbergii Miq., Anemarrhena asphodeloides Bunge , Trichosanthes kirilowii Maxim. , Citrus reticulata Blanco , Poria cocos (Schw.) Wolf , and Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch. As a traditional compound Chinese medicinal formula, QJHTT has been used for more than 400 years in China. Historically, it was used to treat respiratory diseases and had shown beneficial clinical results for diseases related to lung inflammation. To investigate the therapeutic effect of QJHTT on influenza A virus (IAV) pneumonia in mice and explore its possible mechanism of action. The components in QJHTT were analyzed by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS and some antiviral active components reported in the literature were determined and quantified by HPLC. The protective effects of QJHTT were investigated using lethal and sublethal doses (2 LD 50 or 0.8 LD 50 viral suspension, separately) of H1N1-infected mice. Mortality and lung lesions in H1N1-infected mice were used to evaluate the efficacy of QJHTT. The potential mechanism of QJHTT in the treatment of viral pneumonia was determined at the gene level by RNA sequencing and validated by qRT-PCR. Following this, the changes in protein levels of JAK2/STAT3 were analyzed since it is a key downstream target of the chemokine signaling pathways. Preliminary elucidation of the mechanism of QJHTT to protect mice against IAV pneumonia through this pathway was conducted. In this study, 12 antiviral active constituents including baicalin, geniposide, and mangiferin were identified from QJHTT. In vivo treatment of QJHTT reduced the virus titers of lung tissue significantly and improved the survival rate, lung index, and pulmonary histopathological changes; additionally, a reduction in the serum levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and IFN-γ inflammatory factors in H1N1-infected mice was observed. RNA-seq analysis and qRT-PCR showed that QJHTT primarily reversed the activities CCL2, CCL7, CCR1, and other chemokines and their reception-related genes, suggesting that QJHTT may produce disease-resistant pneumonia by inhibiting the downstream JAK2/STAT3 pathway. Western blot analysis confirmed that QJHTT effectively reduced the protein levels of JAK2, STAT3, and related phosphorylated products in the lung tissue of H1N1-infected mice. Our results indicated that QJHTT alleviated IAV pneumonia in mice by regulating related chemokines and their receptor-related genes in lung tissue, thereby inhibiting JAK2/STAT3 pathway. This could pave way for the design of novel therapeutic strategies to treat viral pneumonia. [Display omitted] • 12 antiviral active constituents including baicalin, geniposide, and mangiferin were identified from QJHTT. • QJHTT can alleviates lung inflammation and pathological lung injuries and improves survival in mice with IAV pneumonia. • QJHTT decreased the levels of viral NP protein and inflammatory factors in IAV pneumonia. • QJHTT significantly reverses the activities of flu-related chemokines and their reception-related genes in mice. • QJHTT protects mice against influenza A virus pneumonia via JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A highly reliable high-performance liquid chromatography method was developed and validated for determining quality of extracts from the leaves ofDipsacus sativus(Linn.) Honck. Under optimum conditions, the chromatography profile of eight compounds was collected, with compound saponarin as marker. The analysis results indicated that saponarin and isovitexin were the main active components. Pharmacological experiments proved that extracts from the leaves showed significant antioxidant activity. This work could serve to validate the usefulness of high-performance liquid chromatography analyses in traditional Chinese medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Chaihu Guizhi decoction (CGD) is a classic Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) prescription for the treatment of influenza and fever, composes of Bupleuri Radix (Chaihu), Cinnamomi Ramulus (Guizhi), Scutellariae Radix (Huangqin), Codonopsis Radix (Dangshen), Glycyrrhizae Radix Et Rhizoma Praeparata Cum Melle (Zhigancao), Pinelliae Rhizoma Praeparatum (Fabanxia), Zingiberis Rhizoma Recens (Shengjiang), Paeoniae Radix Alba (Baishao) and Jujubae Fructus (Dazao) in the ratio of 12:4.5:4.5:4.5:3:6:4.5:4.5:4. The efficacy of TCM, if there are differences, depends on the different extraction methods and extracted components. This study was to evaluate the anti-influenza virus effect of CGD extracts with different extraction methods, analyze the components and explore their correlation. CGD were prepared with four extraction methods respectively, the traditional decoction (TD), two steps alcohol-water extraction (AWE), alcohol reflux extraction (AE) and water reflux extraction (WE). Based on the influenza mouse model, the efficacy of anti-influenza virus in vivo of the four CGD extracts were evaluated with the therapeutic index of body weight, rectal temperature, lung index, thymus index and lung viral load of mice. The chemical components in four CGD extracts, and compounds absorbed in rats blood with prototypes or metabolites were identified by UPLC-Q-Exactive/MS. The partial least squares (PLS) method was used to explore the correlation between the components variation in CGD extracts and the comprehensive efficacy index. The potential effective components were further accessed by molecular docking. Comparing with the other three extracts, AWE has the best anti-influenza effect. It could ameliorate the symptoms caused by influenza virus infection in mice, increase body weight and rectal temperature, reduce the lung index and virus load in lung tissue. 129, 144, 140 and 129 components were identified from TD, AWE, AE, and WE respectively. The identified components were mainly including flavonoids, terpenoids, organic acids, phenylpropanoids, amino acids, nucleosides, phenols, alkaloids, etc. 43 prototypes and 49 metabolites of CGD were detected in rat plasma after oral administration. Seven components, cinnamaldehyde, wogonoside, baicalin, baicalein, gallic acid, oroxylinA-7-O-glucuronide and coumarin, showed significant correlation with anti-influenza effects, all of which had good binding activity with NA, IL-6, STAT3, AKT1, EGFR and TNF. Two steps alcohol-water extraction was optimal for CGD preparation. Cinnamaldehyde, wogonoside, oroxylinA-7-O-glucuronide, coumarin, gallic acid, baicalein and baicalin play a certain essential role in anti-influenza effects and may be taken as a potential maker compounds for quality evaluation of CGD. [Display omitted] • Chaihu Guizhi decoction (CGD) is a classic Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) prescription for the treatment of influenza and fever. • In this study, the anti-influenza effect of CGD extracts with different extraction procedures was evaluated, the components were analyzed by UPLC-Q-Exactive/MS, and their correlation was investigated. • This work may provide a clue for searching the potential essential effective components in the formula, further demonstrating the efficacy material basis and providing a reliable basis for quality evaluation and control for the TCM formula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study intended to investigate the role of microRNA-27b (miR-27b) in proliferation of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cells and to explore the potential molecular mechanism. Cell proliferation was detected by MTT assay. The expression levels of miR-27b, Frizzled7 ( FZD7 ), cyclin D1 and c-myc were detected by quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The protein expression level of FZD7 was detected by western blot analysis. The relationship between miR-27b and FZD7, and the activity of Wnt signaling pathway were determined using luciferase reporter assay. The miR-27b expression in OSCC cell lines was significantly decreased compared with control. Overexpression of miR-27b remarkably inhibited OSCC cell proliferation. Additionally, miR-27b could target and inhibit FZD7 expression and decrease the activity of Wnt signaling pathway.miR-27b could inhibit OSCC cell proliferation through inhibiting FZD7 and FZD7-mediated Wnt signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Testis-specific gene 13 (TSGA13) is abundantly expressed in testis. As previous studies of TSGA13 expression pattern have all been based on mRNA analysis, it is imperative to investigate its actual protein expression. Here, we first examined TSGA13 gene tree and protein homology among species, and found that TSGA13 is relatively well conserved. Next, we detected its protein expression in normal human tissues as well as in a limited number of malignant tumors by immunohistochemistry (IHC). It was demonstrated that, in addition to testis, high expression of TSGA13 could also be observed in multiple normal tissues, including stomach, larynx, spleen, bladder, tonsil, liver and thyroid. Notably, most types of human carcinoma tissues displayed reduced expression of TSGA13 rather than their adjacent normal tissues except glioblastoma and lung cancer. Hence, the data from the current study strongly suggest the association between TSGA13 and tumor malignancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]