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The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) is essential for maintaining cell homeostasis by orchestrating the protein degradation, but is impaired in various diseases, including cancers. Several proteasome inhibitors, such as bortezomib, are currently used in cancer treatment, but associated toxicity limits their widespread application. Recently metal complex-based drugs have attracted great attention in tumor therapy; however, their application is hindered by low water-solubility and poor absorbency. Herein, we synthesized a new type of gold (I) complex named Na-AuPT, and further characterized its anticancer activity. Na-AuPT is highly water-soluble (6 mg/mL), and it was able to potently inhibit growth of a panel of 11 cancer cell lines (A549, SMMC7721, H460, HepG2, BEL7402, LNCap, PC3, MGC-803, SGC-7901, U266, and K562). In A549 and SMMC7721 cells, Na-AuPT (in a range of 2.5-20 μM) inhibited the UPS function in a dose-dependent fashion by targeting and inhibiting both 20 S proteasomal proteolytic peptidases and 19 S proteasomal deubiquitinases. Furthermore, Na-AuPT induced caspase-dependent apoptosis in A549 and SMMC7721 cells, which was prevented by the metal chelator EDTA. Administration of Na-AuPT (40 mg · kg

Ticks are hematophagous ectoparasites and cause a major public health threat worldwide. Development of anti-tick vaccines is regarded to be an optimal alternative for tick control. AV422, a unique protein in ticks, is secreted into hosts during blood-feeding, but its roles are not confirmed in Haemaphysalis flava ticks. We retrieved a gene fragment encoding AV422 from a transcriptome dataset of H. flava, and based on it, we reconstructed the full length of AV422 from H. flava (Hf-AV422) by rapid amplification of cDNA ends. Expression profiles of Hf-AV422 in whole ticks and organs of different engorgement levels were determined by qPCR. Then its opening reading frame (ORF) was expressed in Escherichia coli strain BL21 (DE3). The prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and thrombin time (TT) assays were conducted to test anticoagulant activities of the purified recombinant protein (rHf-AV422). The full length of AV422 was 1152 bp. Hf-AV422 showed to be conserved as indicated by multiple sequence alignment. Expression of Hf-AV422 was significantly higher in salivary glands and cuticles than in ovaries. Its expression in whole ticks decreased during engorgement with the highest levels in 1/4 engorged ticks. rHf-AV422 prolonged PT, APTT and TT when incubated with rabbit plasma. Our data demonstrated that Hf-AV422 is a conserved salivary protein with anticoagulant activity. Further studies are needed to test in detail its functional properties to ensure it an adequate antigen candidate for the development of broad-spectrum vaccines against ticks.

Atmospheric-pressure air plasma, powered by alternating current (AC) sine-wave high voltage, can in-situ regenerate deactivated Au nanocatalysts during CO oxidation, but it needs high-humidity air as the discharge gas. To overcome the limitation on humidity for in-situ regeneration of air plasma, a square-wave pulsed plasma is applied in this work. Differently from the AC plasma, the pulsed plasma exhibits excellent regeneration performance at any humidity. Further, surface carbonate decomposition, nitrogen oxides poisoning species and electric discharge of the pulsed plasma regeneration are investigated. For the pulsed plasma regeneration at any humidity, the evolution of CO2 concentration with the regeneration time almost keeps the same profile, featuring zero-order kinetics for the carbonate decomposition; on the other hand, whether in the gas phase or on the catalyst surface, there are no formation of poisoning nitrogen oxides. The pulsed plasma at any humidity has the powerful ability in carbonate decomposition and simultaneously prevents the formation of poisoning nitrogen oxides, which is ascribed to its highly centralized energy deposition with high instantaneous power and long interval of instantaneous power. For practical application, normal air is also confirmed to be qualified for the pulsed plasma regeneration.

The restrictions of the geo-environment are often ignored in urban planning, thereby directly causing a variety of geological hazards, including large areas of land subsidence in soft soil area. Based on the control objective of land subsidence, the geo-environmental capacity of ground buildings (GECGB) is defined. The relationship between floor area ratio (FAR) and land subsidence in Shanghai, China is analyzed. The results illustrate that land subsidence increases as FAR increases, and that the engineering environmental effect of the high-rise building group is the main factor affecting land subsidence in Shanghai, China. Hayashi’s Quantification Theory type I is selected to evaluate the GECGB of four typical areas in Shanghai. The prediction model is established based on existing background materials and the GECGB expressed by allowable FAR of the four typical areas are calculated. The evaluation approach promoted in this paper can be applied in urban planning to control the land subsidence induced by dense high-rise buildings.