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A heavy oil activator is an amphiphilic polymer solution that contains hydrophilic and oleophobic groups. It can enhance heavy oil recovery efficiency. This paper studied the changes in the distribution of the remaining oil after activator flooding and the performance of heavy oil’s active agent. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, laser confocal microscopy, microscopic visualization, and CT scanning techniques were used to analyze crude oil utilization, and the distribution characteristics of the remaining oil during activator flooding of heavy oil. The results showed that the heavy oil activator solution presented a dense spatial network and good viscosification ability. The activator could reduce the interfacial tension of oil and water, disassemble the heavy components of dispersed heavy oil and reduce the viscosity of heavy oil. The utilization degree of the remaining oil in small and middle pores increased significantly after activator flooding, the remaining oil associated with membranous-like and clusterlike structures was utilized to a high degree, and the decline of light/heavy fraction in heavy oil slowed down. Heavy oil activator improved the swept volume and displacement efficiency of heavy oil, playing a significant role in improving the extent of recovery of heavy oil reservoirs.

We targeted high-temperature and highly saline old oil fields, whose environmental conditions could be attributed to the significantly high heterogeneity cause by long-term water flooding. The Huabei Oilfield was chosen as the research object. We developed a hydrophobic functional monomer–polymer with temperature and salt resistance by introducing the temperature-resistant and salt-resistant monomer NVP and a hydrophobic functional monomer into the main chain for copolymerization. We used a crosslinking agent with phenolic resin to prepare a weak gel system that showed temperature and salt resistance and investigated its temperature and salt resistance, infective property, plugging performance, liquid flow ability, micropore throat migration, and plugging characteristics. The results obtained using the infrared spectroscopy technique revealed the successful preparation of the phenolic resin crosslinker. The weak gel exhibited good temperature and salt resistance when the polymer concentration was 2000 mg/L, the cohesion ratio was 1:1.5, the additive concentration was 2000 mg/L, the reservoir temperature was 120 °C, and the injected water salinity was 40,300.86 mg/L. The average viscosity retention rate of the 90-day weak gel reached more than 80% and its microstructure was examined. The coreflow experiment results revealed that the weak gel system was characterized by good infectivity. After plugging the weak gel, the effect on the direction of the liquid flow was evident and the flow rate of the low permeability layer increased to a maximum of 48.63% under conditions of varying permeability levels. A significant improvement in the water absorption profile was achieved. The plugging was carried out through a sand-filling pipe under varying permeability conditions and the pressure measuring points in the sand-filling pipe were sucessfully pressurized. The migration ability of the weak gel was good and the blocking rate was >85%.

Several health benefits are associated with the consumption of probiotic foods. Lyophilized probiotic cultures are commonly used to manufacture probiotic-containing products. Spray drying (SDR) is a cost-effective process to microencapsulate probiotics. However, the high temperatures of the drying air in SDR can inactivate significant numbers of probiotic cells. Ultra-high-pressure homogenization (UHPH) processing can modify the configuration of proteins found in skim milk which may increase its protective properties as microencapsulating agent towards probiotic cells during SDR. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of microencapsulating probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum NRRL B-1927 (LP) with UHPH-treated skim milk after SDR or freeze drying (FD). Dispersions containing LP were made with either UHPH-treated (at 150 MPa or 300 MPa) or untreated skim milk and dried via concurrent SDR (CCSD), mixed-flow SDR (MXSD) or FD. Higher cell survival (%) of LP was found in powders microencapsulated with 150 MPa-treated skim milk than in those microencapsulated with non-UHPH-treated and 300 MPa-treated skim milk via FD followed by MXSD and CCSD, respectively. Increasing UHPH pressures increased the particle size of powders produced via CCSD; and reduced particle agglomeration of powders produced via MXSD and FD. This study demonstrated that UHPH processes improves the effectiveness of skim milk as a microencapsulating agent for LP, creating powders that could be used in probiotic foods.

Prostate cancer is the most common illness affecting men worldwide. Although much progress has been made in the study of prostate cancer prevention and treatment, less attention has been paid to the molecular mechanism of the disease. The molecular arrangement by which atractylenolide II (ATR II) induces human prostate cancer cytotoxicity was comprehensively examined in the present study. As indicated by the results, ATR II could inhibit prostate cancer cell proliferation and promote DU145 and LNCaP cell apoptosis through induced G2/M cell cycle arrest. The cell apoptosis process induced by ATR II in both DU145 and LNCaP cells was associated with its ability to inhibit androgen receptor (AR) with overexpression of protein inhibitor of activated STAT-1 (PIAS1) and the repression of Janus kinase (Jak2) signaling pathways. The data from the present study demonstrated the antitumor effects and the potential pharmacological application of ATR II as an efficient drug for prostate cancer treatment.

Based on the hybrid pharmacophore design concept, a novel series of dual diaryl urea and N-acylhydrazone derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxicity by the standard MTT assay. The pharmacological results indicated that most compounds exhibited moderate to excellent activity. Moreover, compound 2g showed the most potent cytotoxicity against HL-60, A549 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines, with IC50 values of 0.22, 0.34 and 0.41 μM, respectively, which was 3.8 to 22.5 times more active than the reference compounds sorafenib and PAC-1. The promising compound 2g thus emerges as a lead for further structural modifications.

Two series of novel 2-substituted-4-amino-6-halogenquinolines 8a–l and 13a–h were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their antiproliferative activity against H-460, HT-29, HepG2 and SGC-7901 cancer cell lines in vitro. The pharmacological results indicated that most compounds with 2-arylvinyl substituents exhibited good to excellent antiproliferative activity. Among them, compound 8e was a considered promising lead for further structural modifications with IC50 values of 0.03 μM, 0.55 μM, 0.33 μM and 1.24 μM, which was 2.5- to 186-fold more active than gefitinib and compound 1.

Two novel series of diaryl urea derivatives 5a–i and 13a–l were synthesized and evaluated for their cytotoxicity against H-460, HT-29, A549, and MDA-MB-231 cancer cell lines in vitro. Therein, 4-aminoquinazolinyl-diaryl urea derivatives 5a–i demonstrated significant activity, and seven of them are more active than sorafenib, with IC50 values ranging from 0.089 to 5.46 μM. Especially, compound 5a exhibited the most active potency both in cellular (IC50 = 0.15, 0.089, 0.36, and 0.75 μM, respectively) and enzymatic assay (IC50 = 56 nM against EGFR), representing a promising lead for further optimization.

The hot-water extraction, purification and characterization of polysaccharides from defatted peanut cake (PPC) were investigated in this study. A Box-Behnken factorial design (BBD) was used to investigate the effects of three independent variables, namely extraction temperature (X1), extraction time (X2) and ratio of water to raw material (X3). The optimum conditions were 85 °C, 3 h and 20:1 (mL/g) respectively. Regression analysis was done to reveal the experimental results which include 34.97% extraction rate while the value verified under these conditions was 34.49%. The crude PPC was sequentially further purified by Sephadex G-100 chromatography, and one purified fraction was obtained. The PPC purified fraction was characterized by FT-IR, HPAEC; SEC-MALLS. The average molecular weight of the PPC purified fraction was 2.383 × 105 Da. The polysaccharide was mainly composed of glucose, galactose, arabinose and xylose. The PPC have the typical absorption of polysaccharide.

The DNA binding property of 5,10,15-Tris(4-carboxyphenyl) corrole (TCPC) was studied by UV-Visible, fluorescence and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopic methods. TCPC can bind to ct-DNA via an outside binding mode with the binding constant of Kb = 1.05 × 105 M−1. TCPC also displayed good photonuclease activity, which involves singlet oxygen species (1O2). The binding constant between TCPC and human serum albumin (HSA) is KA = 2.24 × 105 M−1 with a simulated binding distance of 2.06 nm. The fluorescence quenching of HSA by TCPC followed a static quenching process. Site marker competitive displacement experiments indicated that warfarin site I is the main binding site. The secondary structure of HSA was changed upon interaction with TCPC, which was confirmed by UV-Visible and CD spectroscopy.

Zhi zhu xiang (ZZX for short) is the root and rhizome of Valeriana jatamansi Jones, which is a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) used to treat various mood disorders for more than 2000 years, especially anxiety. The aim of the present work was to identify the bioactive chemical markers in Zhi zhu xiang improving anxiety in rats by a fingerprint-efficacy study. More specifically, the chemical fingerprint of ZZX samples collected from 10 different regions was determined by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and the similarity analyses were calculated based on 10 common characteristic peaks. The anti-anxiety effect of ZZX on empty bottle stimulated rats was examined through the Open Field Test (OFT) and the Elevated Plus Maze Test (EPM). Then we measured the concentration of CRF, ACTH, and CORT in rat's plasma by the enzyme-linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA) kit, while the concentration of monoamine and metabolites (NE, DA, DOPAC, HVA, 5-HT, 5-HIAA) in the rat's cerebral cortex and hippocampus was analysed by HPLC coupled with an Electrochemical Detector. At last, the fingerprint-efficacy study between chemical fingerprint and anti-anxiety effect of ZZX was accomplished by partial least squares regression (PLSR). As a result, we screened out four compounds (hesperidin, isochlorogenic acid A, isochlorogenic acid B and isochlorogenic acid C) as the bioactive chemical markers for the anti-anxiety effect of ZZX. The fingerprint-efficacy study we established might provide a feasible way and some elicitation for the identification of the bioactive chemical markers for TCM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The DNA binding property of 5,10,15-Tris(4-carboxyphenyl) corrole (TCPC) was studied by UV-Visible, fluorescence and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopic methods. TCPC can bind to ct-DNA via an outside binding mode with the binding constant of Kb = 1.05 x 105 M-1. TCPC also displayed good photonuclease activity, which involves singlet oxygen species (¹O2). The binding constant between TCPC and human serum albumin (HSA) is KA = 2.24 x 105 M-1 with a simulated binding distance of 2.06 nm. The fluorescence quenching of HSA by TCPC followed a static quenching process. Site marker competitive displacement experiments indicated that warfarin site I is the main binding site. The secondary structure of HSA was changed upon interaction with TCPC, which was confirmed by UV-Visible and CD spectroscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the hybrid pharmacophore design concept, a novel series of dual diaryl urea and N-acylhydrazone derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxicity by the standard MTT assay. The pharmacological results indicated that most compounds exhibited moderate to excellent activity. Moreover, compound 2g showed the most potent cytotoxicity against HL-60, A549 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines, with IC50 values of 0.22, 0.34 and 0.41 μM, respectively, which was 3.8 to 22.5 times more active than the reference compounds sorafenib and PAC-1. The promising compound 2g thus emerges as a lead for further structural modifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two series of novel 2-substituted-4-amino-6-halogenquinolines 8a-l and 13a-h were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their antiproliferative activity against H-460, HT-29, HepG2 and SGC-7901 cancer cell lines in vitro. The pharmacological results indicated that most compounds with 2-arylvinyl substituents exhibited good to excellent antiproliferative activity. Among them, compound 8e was a considered promising lead for further structural modifications with IC50 values of 0.03 μM, 0.55 μM, 0.33 μM and 1.24 μM, which was 2.5- to 186-fold more active than gefitinib and compound 1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]