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Slide-ring hydrogels containing polyrotaxane structures have been widely developed, but current methods are more complex, in which modified cyclodextrins, capped polyrotaxanes, and multistep reactions are often needed. Here, a simple one-pot method dissolving the pseudopolyrotaxane (pPRX) in a mixture of acrylamide and boric acid to form a slide-ring hydrogel by UV light is used to construct a tough, puncture-resistant antibacterial polyrotaxane hydrogel. As a new dynamic ring cross-linking agent, boric acid effectively improves the mechanical properties of the hydrogel and involves the hydrogel with fracture toughness. The polyrotaxane hydrogel can withstand 1 MPa compression stress and maintain the morphology integrity, showing 197.5 mJ puncture energy under a sharp steel needle puncture. Meanwhile, its significant antibacterial properties endow the hydrogel with potential applications in the biomedical field.

The ubiquitous environmental presence of tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP) poses a potential threat to animals; however, little is known about its hepatotoxicity. In this study, the effects of TCEP exposure (0.5 and 5.0 μg/L for 28 days) on liver health and the potential underlying toxification mechanisms were investigated in zebrafish. Our results demonstrated that TCEP exposure led to hepatic tissue lesions and resulted in significant alterations in liver-injury-specific markers. Moreover, TCEP-exposed fish had significantly lower levels of thyrotropin-releasing hormone and thyroid-stimulating hormone in the brain, evidently less triiodothyronine whereas more thyroxine in plasma, and markedly altered expressions of genes from the hypothalamic–pituitary–thyroid (HPT) axis in the brain or liver. In addition, a significantly higher proportion of Bacteroidetes in the gut microbiota, an elevated bacterial source endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in the plasma, upregulated expression of LPS-binding protein and Toll-like receptor 4 in the liver, and higher levels of proinflammatory cytokines in the liver were detected in TCEP-exposed zebrafish. Furthermore, TCEP-exposed fish also suffered severe oxidative damage, possibly due to disruption of the antioxidant system. These findings suggest that TCEP may exert hepatotoxic effects on zebrafish by disrupting the HPT and gut–liver axes and thereafter inducing hepatic inflammation and oxidative stress.

Nanoplastics (NPs) may pass through the blood–brain barrier, giving rise to serious concerns about their potential toxicity to the brain. In this study, the effects of NPs exposure on learning and memory, the primary cognitive functions of the brain, are assessed in zebrafish with classic T‐maze exploration tasks. Additionally, to reveal potential affecting mechanisms, the impacts of NPs exposure on brain aging, oxidative damage, energy provision, and the cell cycle are evaluated. The results demonstrate that NP‐exposed zebrafish takes significantly longer for their first entry and spends markedly less time in the reward zone in the T‐maze task, indicating the occurrence of learning and memory deficits. Moreover, higher levels of aging markers (β‐galactosidase and lipofuscin) are detected in the brains of NP‐exposed fish. Along with the accumulation of reactive free radicals, NP‐exposed zebrafish suffer significant levels of brain oxidative damage. Furthermore, lower levels of Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and cyclin‐dependent kinase 2 and higher levels of p53 are observed in the brains of NP‐exposed zebrafish, suggesting that NPs exposure also results in a shortage of energy supply and an arrestment of the cell cycle. These findings suggest that NPs exposure may pose a severe threat to brain health, which deserves closer attention. This study represents the first empirical evidence to establish a causal relationship between polystyrene nanoplastics and learning and memory impairment in adult zebrafish. Furthermore, the finding that brain aging, oxidative damage, insufficient energy supply, and cell cycle arrest may be the cause for the learning and memory impairment detected should contribute to a better understanding of the mechanism of action.

ABSTRACTBackground: Increased plasma homocysteine (Hcy) levels are a risk factor for stroke and can be reduced with folic acid therapy. Therefore, it is extremely important for patients with hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) to obtain the normal level of Hcy after folate intervention. Thus far, few studies have reported the effective rate defined as percentage of patients who achieved normal plasma Hcy levels after folic acid therapy. Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the effective rate of folic acid for the treatment of HHcy and the impact of plasma baseline Hcy levels and the compliance of oral folic acid on the efficacy.Methods: A total of 858 patients with HHcy were treated with oral folic acid (5 mg/d) for 3 months. Fasting blood samples collected at baseline and at the end of treatment were assayed for plasma Hcy levels.Results: After 3 months of treatment, the plasma Hcy levels of 484 patients were reduced to below the normal levels (15 μmol/L), corresponding to an effective rate of 56.41%. The average of Hcy levels decreased by 28.05%. The effective rates of folic acid therapy in a mild Hcy elevated group and an intermediate Hcy elevated group were 61.34% and 27.78%, respectively (p =0.000). The effective rates among patients with good and poor compliance of oral folic acid were 65.29% and 35.18%, respectively (p= 0.000).Conclusions: More than 40% patients with HHcy failed to reach the normal range (5–15 μmol/L) after 3 months of folic acid supplementation. Further prospective studies are warranted to explore the reasons for failure.

Bone metastasis, a life-threatening complication of advanced breast cancer, is often accompanied by debilitating pain (cancer-induced bone pain, CIBP) that severely impairs life quality and survival. The concurrent treatment of bone metastases and CIBP remains a clinical challenge because the therapeutic options are limited. In this study, we construct a near-infrared light-activated nano-therapeutic system to meet this conundrum. In detail, sorafenib (SRF) and photosensitizer (chlorin e6, Ce6) are encapsulated into mesoporous hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (HANPs), which are further functionalized with hyaluronic acid (HA) to obtain HA-SRF/Ce6@HANPs system. The designed nanoplatform destroys tumor cells in vitroand in vivo viathe synergism of SRF (interrupting the exchange of cystine/glutamate by inhibiting SLC7A11) and photodynamic therapy (PDT, inducing reactive oxygen species generation). The decrease in tumor burden and reduction of extracellular glutamate significantly attenuate CIBP in mice model with developing bone cancer. Moreover, the combination of HA-SRF/Ce6@HANPs and PDT inhibit osteoclasts activation, promote osteoblast differentiation and accelerate bone repair. Overall, the nanoagent with good biocompatibility may provide an effective therapy method for the concurrent treatment of breast cancer bone metastasis and CIBP.

Direct conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) to high added-value chemicals is available for reducing reliance on fossil fuels and mitigating CO2emissions, but both the chemical inertness of CO2and the difficulty of carbon chain growth make it difficult to enhance the activity of the catalyst. In this work, we developed a multifunctional catalyst composed of K-promoted spinel structured CoFeOx and HZSM-5 that efficiently converted CO2to light-weight hydrocarbons via CO2modified Fischer-Tropsch synthesis path (CO2-FTS), and the best catalyst exhibited a remarkably efficient CO2conversion of 51.2% and liquid hydrocarbons space-time yield (STY) of 3.4 μmolC5+·gcat−1·s−1along with an extremely low selectivity of 5.5% toward undesired CO. By analysis of structural characterizations and reaction results, the noticeable performance of the multifunctional catalyst critically lies in the beneficial interaction between Co and Fe, the promoting effect of potassium, and the concertedly synergistic effect between K-CoFeOx and HZSM-5. In situ XRD, XPS, and TPD characterizations further indicate that the introduction of cobalt promotes the reduction of iron by forming a Fe0-rich FeCo alloy, which is beneficial for the adsorption of intermediate CO and facilitates the in situ generation of active iron carbide. K as an electronic promoter is added to increase the surface basicity, enhance the adsorption of CO2and weaken the adsorption of H2, which favor CO2conversion and carbon chain growth. Additionally, through passivation of the strong acidic site of HZSM-5 by Si treatment and varying the mixing mode of HZSM-5 and nK-CoFeOx, the synergistic effect of the two components promotes CO2conversion and noteworthily increases the distribution of light-weight hydrocarbons, especially benzene, toluene, and xylene on composite catalyst by aromatization over active sites with appropriate acidity and proximity. This study provides valuable guidelines for designing selective and efficient iron-based composite catalysts to obtain value-added FTS products and light aromatics.

Cytochromes P450 enzymes, especially CYP3A4, are responsible for metabolizing a broad range of anticancer drugs. Combination therapy is common in patients with cancer, which may cause potential drug drug interactions (DDIs) leading to increased risk of side-effects/toxicity or decreased effectiveness. The review summarizes CYP3A4-mediated DDIs, with anticancer drugs as CYP3A4 substrates or modulators, in clinical trials during cancer therapy and aims to increase clinicians' awareness to take caution to reduce the risk.

Quantitative bioanalysis is urgently required for the evaluation of pharmacokinetic properties of a drug and to demonstrate the body exposure to the parent drug and/or metabolite for interpretation of the efficacy and toxicity. New trends in drug discovery and development will be always posing challenges on LC–MS-based quantitative bioanalysis. The focus of this minireview is to highlight the commonly used strategies for improving the quantitative bioanalytical performance including overcoming matrix effects and improving MS detectability. “LC-electrolyte effects” and “pulse gradient chromatography” proposed by our group are new approaches that have also showed potential efficiencies on improving overall bioassay performance, including lowering lower limit of quantification (LLOQ), enlarging upper limit of quantification (ULOQ), decreasing matrix effects, and overcoming elutropic effects, etc.. They should also work well in metabolic profiling studies and other important analytical fields, such as food pesticide residue analysis, environmental analysis, clinical and forensic toxicology, doping control, and so on.

In the application of the video contactless measurement, the quality of the image taken from underwater is not very well. It is well known that automatic image segmental method cannot provide acceptable segmentation result with low quality single still image. Snake algorithm can provide better result in this case with the aiding of human. However, sometimes the segmental result of Snake may far from the initial segmental contour drawn by user. Livewire algorithm can keep the location of the seed points that user selected nailed from the beginning to the end. But the contour may have burrs when the image's noise is quite high and the contrast is low. In this paper, we modified the cost function of Livewire algorithm and proposed a new segmentation method that can be used for single still image segmentation with high noise and low contrast.

A laser beam based calibration method is proposed in the paper. The laser beam we used can keep the cylinder shape in the real world space. The cylinder shaped laser beam will form an elliptical area in the plane in which the defect we want to measure also located. This elliptical laser area will form an ellipse in the image. Our purpose is to achieve calibration only depending on the elliptical parameters of the ellipse in the image. We created the relationship model between the elliptical parameters of the ellipse in the image and the calibration parameters of the video appliance, and we find a quick and easy way to solve the relationship model. Using this calibration method we can achieve contactless video measurement during the equipment checking in the nuclear power station.

Arabinoxylan (AX) is abundant in cereal grains used as feed for ducks. However, the duck intestinal microbes responsible for the degradation of AX are not fully understood. In this study, oat AX was degraded and utilized by different duck intestinal microbiota in vitro. Changes in short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), branch-chain fatty acids, and the pH resulted from a 72-h AX fermentation in intestinal samples were measured. The addition of AX increased the concentration of isobutyric acid and decreased the concentrations of SCFAs. The pH values decreased significantly in the intestinal samples. Gut microbiota were assessed using high-throughput sequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene, and the results indicated that AX stimulated the growth of Megamonasand Bifidobacteriumspecies, with Megamonasexhibiting the greatest stimulation. Overall, the results suggest that oat AX is utilized by specific bacteria in duck intestines, providing the theoretical basis for the impacts of AX on animal health.

The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effect of Traditional Chinese medicine Shuangwu ZhentongCapsule (SZC) on collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) and the possible mechanisms. Sixty rats were randomly divided into control and model: low-, medium-, and high-dose SZC and prednisone acetate (PA) groups, with 10 rats in each group. The CIA model was established in later 5 groups. The rats in low-, medium-, and high-dose SZC groups were intragastricallly administered with SZC, with dose of 0.5, 1, and 2 g/kg, respectively. The PA group was intragastricallly administered with 5 mg/kg PA. The treatment was performed for 3 weeks. Before treatment and after treatment, the paw swelling degree and polyarthritis index score of rats were measured. At the end of experiment, the serum tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and nitric oxide (NO) levels were determined. The expressions of Ras and Raf-1 protein in synovial tissue were detected. Results showed that, after treatment, compared with model group, in high-dose SZC and PA groups, the paw swelling degree, polyarthritis index score, serum TNF-α, IL-1β and NO levels, and synovial tissue Ras and Raf-1 protein levels were significantly decreased, respectively (P< 0.05). In conclusion, SZC has obvious protective effects on CIA in rats. The mechanisms may be related to its resistance of inflammatory reaction and down-regulation of Ras and Raf-l protein expressions in synovial tissue.