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Background: Sedum sarmentosum, which is recorded in Chinese Pharmacopoeia, has been applied clinically to treat liver and gallbladder diseases.Purpose: This study aimed to explore the hepatoprotective effect of S. sarmentosum less polar extract (SSE) against ANIT-induced liver injury in rats, and the protective activity and mechanism of one major constituent isolated from this extract on D-GalN-induced human hepatic QSG7701 cell damage.Methods: Rats were divided into groups and then administrated intragastrically with SSE at doses of 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg for 7 days. They were modeled in the experiments with ANIT (70 mg/kg) to induce liver injury after the sixth day administration. The levels of serum biochemical markers ALT, AST, ALP, GGT/γ-GT, DBiL, TBiL, ALB, TP, and bile flow rate, as well as the histopathology of the liver tissue were used as indices of liver damage and measured. The inflammatory response and oxidative stress were thought to be key contributors to ANIT-induced liver injury in rats. Therefore, the inflammatory mediators (TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-4) and oxidative stress (ROS, SOD, GSH-PX) were measured in the serum and liver homogenates, respectively. Next, phytochemical research was performed to produce the main component, and the isolated compound was evaluated for its hepatoprotective activity against QSG7701 cell injured by D-GalN through the measurement of cell viabilities, ALT, AST, IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-6, ROS, GSH-PX and SOD productions. Furthermore, the protein expression of the Nrf2 and NF-κB pathways were analyzed by western blotting.Results: SSE had an obvious effect on the decreases of ALT, AST, ALP, GGT/γ-GT, DBiL and TBiL levels, the increases of ALB and TP levels in serum, and the ANIT-induced deceleration in bile flow for liver injury. Meanwhile, SSE pretreatment alleviated ANIT-induced liver pathological injuries exhibited by HE stain of the liver. Moreover, SSE significantly suppressed levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IFN-γ, and elevated level of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-4 in serum. SSE also attenuated oxidative stress by reducing ROS level and by enhancing antioxidative enzymes (SOD and GSH-PX) activities after ANIT administration in liver tissue. Further, the major compound shown in HPLC was isolated from SSE. Its structure was identified by the spectroscopic data analysis and comparison with literature values. The principal constituent had potent protective effect on D-GalN-induced QSG7701 cells damage in a dose dependent manner with survival rates of 58.2% and 69.5% at 10 μM and 20 μM, respectively. Its cytoprotective effect was associated with the reduction of ALT, AST, IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-6 and ROS levels, and the elevation of GSH-PX and SOD productions in QSG7701 cells induced by D-GalN. Western blotting showed that this compound enhanced the expression of Nrf2, HO1, NQO1 and GCLC, and inhibited D-GalN-induced IκBα and NF-κB p65 phosphorylation.Conclusions: Current study showed that SSE treatment exerted a protective effect on ANIT-induced liver injury. The main compound δ-amyrone isolated from the extract was characterized as the effective component with hepatoprotective activity by promoting Nrf2 antioxidant defense and suppressing NF-κB inflammatory response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study Objective: To compare the incidence of postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) in elderly surgical patients (>60years) receiving different anesthetics (propofol, sevoflurane, or isoflurane) and to identify potential biomarkers of POCD in this patient population.Design: Prospective, randomized, double-blind clinical trial.Setting: University-affiliated teaching hospital.Patients: One hundred and fifty elderly patients scheduled for laparoscopic cholecystectomy.Interventions: Elderly patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy were randomly assigned to receive propofol, sevoflurane, or isoflurane anesthesia.Measurements: Cognitive function was assessed using neuropsychological tests at baseline (1day before surgery [D0]), and on postoperative day 1 (D1) and day 3 (D3). Plasma S-100β and Aβ1-40 protein, IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α concentrations were assessed before induction of anesthesia (T0), after extubation (T1), and 1h (T2) and 24h (T3) postoperatively.Main Results: The incidence of POCD was significantly lower in the propofol group compared to the isoflurane group and the sevoflurane group at D1 and D3 (propofol vs. isoflurane: D1 and D3, P<0.001; propofol vs. sevoflurane: D1, P=0.012; D3, P=0.013). The incidence of POCD was significantly lower in the sevoflurane group compared to the isoflurane group at D1 (P=0.041), but not at D3. Postoperatively, plasma S-100β and Aβ1-40 protein, IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α concentrations were significantly decreased in the propofol group compared to the isoflurane group.Conclusions: Propofol anesthesia may be an option for elderly surgical patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Max-cut is one of the most classic NP-hard combinatorial optimization problems. The symmetry nature of it leads to special difficulty in extracting meaningful configuration information for learning; none of the state-of-the-art algorithms has employed any learning operators. This paper proposes an original learning method for max-cut, namely post-flip edge-state learning (PF-ESL). Different from previous algorithms, PF-ESL regards edge-states (cut or not cut) rather than vertex-positions as the critical information of a configuration, and extracts their statistics over a population for learning. It is based on following observations. 1) Edges are the only factors considered by the objective function. 2) Edge-states keep invariant when rotating a local configuration to its symmetry position, but vertex-positions do not. These suggest that edge-states contain more meaningful information about a configuration than vertex-positions do. It is impossible to set the state of an edge without influencing some other edges' states due to their dependencies. Therefore, instead of setting edge-states directly, PF-ESL samples the flips on vertices. Flips on vertices are sampled according to their capacities in increasing the similarity on edge-states between the given solution and a population. PF-ESL is employed in an EDA (Estimation of Distribution Algorithm) perturbation operator and a path-relinking operator. Experimental results show that our algorithm is competitive, and show that edge-state learning is value-added for both the two operators. The main contributions of this paper are as follows. Firstly, previous state-of-the-art evolutionary algorithms for max-cut focus on vertex positions in their evolutionary operation, this paper proposes a new and more reasonable perspective suggesting that edge-states are the critical information of divided graphs rather than vertex positions, and introduces a novel method to measure and utilize their similarities based on it. Such a perspective is fundamental to learning based algorithms design for max-cut and other graph partitioning problems, and can shed lights on future researches. Furthermore, since max-cut is one of the most classic and fundamental NP hard problems, many real-world problems involve dividing graph data into different parts to optimize certain functions, this new perspective may inspire related or similar problems. Secondly, besides the original edge-states based perspective, and the post-flip edge-states learning (PFESL) operator based on it, our memetic algorithm also incorporates a novel evolutionary framework which alternates between EDA based Iterated Tabu search (ITS) and path relinking based genetic algorithm. Finally, the proposed algorithm provides competitive results on two mostly used benchmark sets and improves the best-known results of 6 most challenging instances. • An original edge-state perspective for design learning operators for max-cut. • A novel learning operator to learn edge states. • A new evolutionary framework for max-cut. • It provides competitive results on two mostly used benchmark sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Inducible cyclooxygenase (COX-2) and inflammatory cytokines play important roles in inflammatory processes of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Endothelin-1 (ET-1) might be also involved in the pathophysilogical processes in COPD. In the present study, we determined whether ET-1 could regulate the expression of COX-2 and alter the production of interleukin-8 (IL-8) in human pulmonary epithelial cells (A549). Induced sputum samples were collected from 13 stable COPD patients and 14 healthy subjects. The COX-2 protein, ET-1, PGE2 and IL-8 in these sputum samples were analyzed. A549 cells were incubated with ET-1 in the presence or absence of celecoxib, a selective COX-2 inhibitor. The expression of COX-2 protein in the cell and the amounts of PGE2 and IL-8 in the medium were measured. The levels of COX-2 protein, ET-1, PGE2 and IL-8 were significantly increased in induced sputum from COPD patients when compared to healthy subjects. ET-1 increased the expression of COX-2 protein, as well as the production of PGE2 in A549 cells. Increased production of PGE2 was inhibited by celecoxib. ET-1 also increased the production of IL-8. Interestingly, ET-1-induced production of IL-8 was also inhibited by celecoxib. These findings indicate that ET-1 plays important roles in regulating COX-2 expression and production of IL-8 in A549 cells. ET-1 mediated production of IL-8 is likely through a COX-2-dependent mechanism. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Phytochemical investigation of the stems and leaves of Lonicera hypoglauca Miq. led to the isolation of one novel methoxylated flavone, acunminatin (7,2′,4′-trihydroxyl-5,5′- methoxyflavone) (1), and fourteen known compounds (2 – 15), including six flavonoids (mearnsetin 2 , kaempferol 3 , acacetin 4 , 5,7,3′,4′-tetramethoxyflavone 5 , tricin 6 , and 5,7,3′,4′,5′-pentamethoxyflavone 7), two coumarins (umbelliferone 8 and scopoletin 9), two phenylpropanoids (trans-ferulic acid 10 and chlorogenic acid 11), two iridoid glycosides (loganin 12 and sweroside 13), and two triterpenoids (uvaol 14 and ursolic acid 15). The structures of the compounds were identified by spectroscopic analysis and by comparing their spectral data with those reported in the literature. Five of these compounds (1 , 2 , 4 , 5 , and 7) were isolated from the L. genus for the first time, and compounds 6 – 8 and 14 – 15 were isolated for the first time from L. hypoglauca. The chemotaxonomic significance of the isolated compounds in the L. genus and the Caprifoliaceae family are discussed herein. [Display omitted] • One new methoxylated flavone named as acunminatin (1) and fourteen known compounds were obtained from Lonicera hypoglauca. • Nine compounds (1 - 2 , 4 - 8 , and 14 - 15) were isolated from the species for the first time. • Five compounds (1 - 2 , 4 - 5 , and 7) were firstly isolated from the genus Lonicera. • Three compounds (1 , 2 and 5) were first time reported from family Caprifoliaceae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]