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Zuojin capsule (ZJC), a classical prescription, is outstanding in improving the conditions of patients with gastrointestinal diseases and colorectal cancer (CRC). Although ZJC has multi-ingredient and multi-target characteristics, its pharmacological effect on colorectal cancer and the underlying mechanism remain unclear.Here, the activity of ZJC against CRC was evaluated by the experiments with CRC cells and HCT-116 xenografted mice. The key genes of CRC were obtained from the cancer genome atlas (TCGA). The genes potentially targeted by ZJC were collected from traditional Chinese medicine systems pharmacology (TCMSP) database. The underlying pathways related to selected targets were analyzed through gene ontology (GO) and pathway enrichment analyses. Western blot (WB), cellular thermal shift assay (CETSA), molecular docking and quantitative real-time PCR (QRT-PCR) were carried out to confirm the validity of the targets.In vitro and in vivo results indicated that ZJC may inhibit CRC cells and tumor growth. The network pharmacological analysis indicated that 22 compounds, 51 targets and 20 pathways were involved in the compound-target-pathway network. Our results confirmed that ZJC inhibited cycle progression, migration and induced apoptosis by targeting candidate genes (CDKN1A, Bcl2, E2F1, PRKCB, MYC, CDK2, and MMP9). We found that ZJC could directly change the protein level by regulating the protein stability and transcriptional activity of the target.In summary, combined network pharmacology and biological experiments proved that the main ingredients of ZJC such as quercetin, (R)-Canadine, palmatine, rutaecarpine, evodiamine, beta-sitosterol and berberine can target CDKN1A, Bcl2, E2F1, PRKCB, MYC, CDK2 and MMP9 to combat colorectal cancer. The results of this study provide a basic theory for the clinical trials of Zuojin Capsules against colorectal cancer.

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations are performed to explore the effect of functional groups (hydroxyl and epoxy groups) on the interfacial interaction of graphene oxide (GO) with iron oxide (Fe2O3) substrate. The calculation results indicate that the adsorbed functional groups can improve the interaction strength between GO and Fe2O3 substrate, and the magnitude of binding energy enhancement is associate with the adsorption sites of functional groups. For the GO/Fe2O3-O models with a neighboring C atom of the oxidized atom at the top of a surface O atom, the binding energy is significantly enhanced, which arises from the formation of interfacial C−O covalent bonds. Moreover, the maximum binding energy of GO/Fe2O3-O model is more than four times that of Gr/Fe2O3-O model. For the other GO/Fe2O3-O and GO/Fe2O3-Fe models studied in this work, the GO layer is physisorption on Fe2O3 surface and the binding energy enhances slightly. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the protection properties of graphene-based coating materials on iron oxide surface.

In the present study, Ti-27Nb alloy specimens were prepared from Ti/TiH2 powders using Nb powders through the argon sintering process (ASP) and hydrogen sintering process (HSP). X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy studies were conducted, and the sintered density, Vickers hardness, and Rockwell hardness of the Ti-27Nb alloys produced by different sintering processes, as a function of the vacuum sintering temperature (1350–1450 °C), were measured. The results showed that the Ti-27Nb alloy sintered bodies with the highest density and hardness were obtained by HSP. In addition, the pore size and number of HSP specimens were smaller and less than those of the ASP specimens. It was found that the Ti-27Nb alloy, produced by HSP, can prevent the formation of oxide layers, resulting in enhanced densification and hardness. Furthermore, HSP can also prevent the formation of hydrides and eliminate the dehydrogenation step. At the same time, the problem of brittleness and failure caused by hydride formation could be solved.

Background: Last winter, a new coronavirus-induced pneumonia, COVID-19, broke out in Wuhan, China, and spread rapidly throughout the country due to its high inf

The mechanisms by which white button (WB) mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) may influence health are unclear. WB feeding (1%) resulted in changes in the composition of microbiota in conventional (CV) mice to expand a population of Prevotella that produce propionate and succinate. Microbial propionate and succinate production induced expression of genes important for intestinal gluconeogenesis (IGN) via the gut-brain neural circuit. Reduced hepatic glucose production was a metabolic benefit of IGN that was found in WB fed CV mice. In the absence of microbiota or in mice with disruptions in the ability to sense microbiota there was no WB mediated effect. WB-fed lean mice had a small but significant improvement in glucose sensitivity. WB feeding resulted in shifts in the microbiota that induced IGN and improved glucose homeostasis.

Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) activation via 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzofuran (TCDF) induces the accumulation of hepatic lipids. Here we report that AHR activation by TCDF (24 μg/kg body weight given orally for five days) induced significant elevation of hepatic lipids including ceramides in mice, was associated with increased expression of key ceramide biosynthetic genes, and increased activity of their respective enzymes. Results from chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) and cell-based reporter luciferase assays indicated that AHR directly activated the serine palmitoyltransferase long chain base subunit 2 (Sptlc2, encodes serine palmitoyltransferase 2 (SPT2)) gene whose product catalyzes the initial rate-limiting step in de novo sphingolipid biosynthesis. Hepatic ceramide accumulation was further confirmed by mass spectrometry-based lipidomics. Taken together, our results revealed that AHR activation results in the up-regulation of Sptlc2, leading to ceramide accumulation, thus promoting lipogenesis, which can induce hepatic lipid accumulation.

Recent experiments have shown that graphene (Gr) and graphene oxide (GO) as coatings can be adsorbed on steel to effectively protect the surface. In this study, the density functional theory calculations have been carried out to investigate the effect of functional groups (hydroxyl and epoxy groups) on the adsorption of GO on iron surface. Our results show that the increased functional groups make the adsorption of GO on iron surface more favorable, which originates from the enhancement of localized C–Fe bonds around the functional groups. Within the maximum coverage of functional group on GO studied in this work, the maximum binding energy between GO (the ratio of oxygen to carbon is 0.09) and the Fe(1 1 0) surface is more than twice that of Gr/Fe model, suggesting that the introduction of functional groups on graphene basal plane can significantly improve the interaction strength of GO with the Fe substrate. This work provides an atomic-level insight into the adsorption mechanism of graphene-based materials on steel.

Antituberculosis (TB) chemotherapeutic drugs may cause a variety of adverse drug reactions (ADRs). To assess the potential of drug-induced lymphocyte stimulation test (DLST) in screening ADRs in patients treated with anti-TB drugs, we performed DLST in 272 TB patients (176 cases with ADRs and 96 controls without ADRs) treated with anti-TB drugs isoniazid (INH), rifampicin (RFP), ethambutol (EMB), and pyrazinamide (PZA). The ADRs were diagnosed by drug provocation test based on clinical and laboratory examinations. The sensitivities of DLST in the diagnosis of INH-, RFP-, EMB-, or PZA-induced ADRs were 57.8%, 37.1%, 42.4%, and 23.1%, respectively, with the corresponding specificities being 93.4%, 94.0%, 97.5%, and 98.8%. DLST has high specificity and limited sensitivity in the diagnosis of anti-TB drug-induced ADRs. In combination with clinical observation and drug use history, DLST could have a predictive validity of ADRs, especially when a positive result is obtained.

Three galactosyl cyclitols, digalactosyl myo-inositol (assigned the trivial name DGMI), trigalactosyl myo-inositol (assigned the trivial name TGMI), and trigalactosyl d-chiro-inositol (fagopyritol B3), were isolated from common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) seeds. Structures of the three compounds were determined by 2D NMR spectroscopy. DGMI is α-d-galactopyranosyl-(1→6)-α-d-galactopyranosyl-(1→1)-1l-myo-inositol, TGMI is α-d-galactopyranosyl-(1→6)-α-d-galactopyranosyl-(1→6)-α-d-galactopyranosyl-(1→1)-1l-myo-inositol, and fagopyritol B3 is α-d-galactopyranosyl-(1→6)-α-d-galactopyranosyl-(1→6)-α-d-galactopyranosyl-(1→2)-1d-chiro-inositol. DGMI and TGMI are higher oligomers of galactinol, a major galactosyl donor in plant seeds. Fagopyritol B3 is a higher oligomer of the fagopyritol B series and one of six fagopyritols found in buckwheat seeds and in the bran milling fraction. Samples of TGMI and fagopyritol B3 also contained the compounds N-(β-glucopyranosyl)-nicotinic acid and β-d-apiofuranosyl-(1→6)-β-d-(1-O-methyl)-glucopyranoside.

The model of axisymmetric heat conduction with the application of Conjugate Gradient Method, Sequential Function Method is adopted to establish a robust, accurate and well-posed method of data processing fit for coaxial thermocouple measuring heat flux. Simulation and stability analysis are made in which four classic function forms of heat flux are estimated to illustrate accuracy, stability, as well as factors of influencing quality of these two parameter estimation methods. Subsequently, a bulb experiment for validation is made, with the analysis of error caused by installation of coaxial thermocouple sensor on experiment model through numerical calculation. All these demonstrate that this data processing method using inverse methods can improve the accuracy of testing very well.

In this paper, the nonlinear dust acoustic waves (DAW) in a magnetized dusty plasmas with different dust grains are analytically investigated. New analytical solutions of the governing equation for this system have been obtained for the first time. The exact mathematical expressions of the nonlinear dust waves have been canvassed for the general case in magnetized dusty plasma containing different dust particles.

In this paper, we construct explicit exact solutions for the coupled Boiti–Leon–Pempinelli equation (BLP equation) by using a extended tanh method and symbolic computation system Mathematica. By means of the method, many new exact travelling wave solutions for the BLP system are successfully obtained. the extended tanh method can be applied to other higher-dimensional coupled nonlinear evolution equations in mathematical physics.

In this paper, we construct new explicit exact solutions for the coupled the (2+1)-dimensional Konopelchenko-Dubrovsky equation (KD equation) by using a improved mapping approach and variable separation method. By means of the method, new types of variable-separation solutions (including solitary wave solutions, periodic wave solutions and rational function solutions) for the KD system are successfully obtained. The improved mapping approach and variable separation method can be applied to other higher-dimensional coupled nonlinear evolution equations.