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Icaritin is a prenylflavonoid derivative of the genus Epimedium (Berberidaceae) and has a variety of pharmacological actions. Icaritin is approved by the National Medical Products Administration as an anticancer drug that exhibits efficacy and safety advantages in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma cells. This study aimed to evaluate the inhibitory effects of icaritin on UDP‐glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) isoforms. 4‐Methylumbelliferone (4‐MU) was employed as a probe drug for all the tested UGT isoforms using in vitro human liver microsomes (HLM). The inhibition potentials of UGT1A1 and 1A9 in HLM were further tested by employing 17β‐estradiol (E2) and propofol (PRO) as probe substrates, respectively. The results showed that icaritin inhibits UGT1A1, 1A3, 1A4, 1A7, 1A8, 1A10, 2B7, and 2B15. Furthermore, icaritin exhibited a mixed inhibition of UGT1A1, 1A3, and 1A9, and the inhibition kinetic parameters (Ki) were calculated to be 3.538, 2.117, and 0.306 (μM), respectively. The inhibition of human liver microsomal UGT1A1 and 1A9 both followed mixed mechanism, with Ki values of 2.694 and 1.431 (μM). This study provides supporting information for understanding the drug–drug interaction (DDI) potential of the flavonoid icaritin and other UGT‐metabolized drugs in clinical settings. In addition, the findings provide safety evidence for DDI when liver cancer patients receive a combination therapy including icaritin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manganese oxide catalysts are considered to be active in the catalytic purification of volatile organic compounds based on two theories. According to one view, defects are mainly constructed to increase the amount of adsorbed oxygen and, consequently, the catalytic activity, whereas the opposite view suggests that the mobility of lattice oxygen is the main reason for determining the catalytic performance. In order to investigate which form of oxygen is the key factor controlling the catalytic performance of manganese oxides, a series of manganese oxide octahedral molecular sieves (OMS‐2) with different adsorption and lattice oxygen properties were synthesized in this study, and the catalytic oxidation performance of the catalysts for toluene was examined. The impact of various oxygen species on the catalytic activity of OMS‐2 was investigated in depth by characterization by Raman, X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, O2 temperature‐programmed desorption, H2 temperature‐programmed reduction, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and so forth. It was discovered that OMS‐2‐150 exhibits excellent catalytic activity for toluene purification due to its higher Mn4+ and lattice oxygen as well as low‐temperature reducibility. In addition, in situ diffuse reflectance, infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy also verified that lattice oxygen dominates the reaction and improves the catalytic performance. As such, in contrast to previous investigations, this study found that lattice oxygen migration was more important than adsorbed oxygen content for manganese oxides in the field of volatile organic compounds purification. This brings a new perspective to the preparation of manganese‐based catalysts with promising catalytic behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The effect of socioeconomic status (SES) on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is still unclear, and there is no nomogram integrated SES and clinicopathological factors to predict the prognosis of HCC. This research aims to confirm the effects of SES on predicting patients' survival and to establish a nomogram to predict the prognosis of HCC. Methods: The data of HCC patients were collected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Final Results (SEER) database from 2011 to 2015. SES (age at diagnosis, race and sex, median family income, education level, insurance status, marital status, residence, cost of living index, poverty rate) and clinicopathological factors were included in univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis. Nomograms for predicting 1‐, 3‐, and 5‐year cancer‐specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) were established and evaluated by the concordance index (C‐index), the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC), the calibration plot, the integrated discrimination improvement (IDI), and the net reclassification improvement (NRI). Results: A total of 33,670 diagnosed HCC patients were involved, and nomograms consisting of 19 variables were established. The C‐indexes of the nomograms are higher than TNM staging system, which predicts the CSS (0.789 vs. 0.692, p < 0.01) and OS (0.777 vs. 0.675, p < 0.01). The ROC curve, calibration diagram, IDI, and NRI showed the improved prognostic value in 1‐, 3‐, and 5‐year survival rates. Conclusion: SES plays an important role in the prognosis of HCC patients. Therefore, policymakers can make more precise and socially approved policies to improve HCC patients' CSS and OS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new kind of photolabile protecting group (PLPG) for carboxyl moieties was designed and synthesized as the linker between resin and peptide. This group can be used for the protection of amino acid carboxyl groups. The peptide was synthesized on Nph (2‐hydroxy‐3‐(2‐nitrophenyl)‐heptanoic acid)‐derivatized resins and could be cleaved under UV exposure, thus avoiding the necessity for harsh acid‐mediated resin cleavage. The PLPG has been successfully used for solid‐phase synthesis of peptides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a novel monoclonal antibody specific for naringin was prepared and characterized. Subsequently, an indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for naringin was developed, with an effective range from 4.8 to 156 ng/mL naringin. Next, an immunoaffinity column was obtained by coupling anti-naringin monoclonal antibodies to CNBr-activated Sepharose 4B and a rapid immunoaffinity chromatography assay for naringin was developed. The immunoaffinity column was used to separate naringin from Citrus aurantium. The results showed that 1 g of the dry Sepharose 4B can couple 10 mg of immunoglobulin G. And the immunoaffinity column can efficiently and specifically capture approximately 250 μg of naringin without cross reacting with its structurally similar compounds. Moreover, our results indicate that the application of immunoaffinity chromatography can simplify the pretreatment and the isolation process greatly compared to conventional methods, providing a potential method for extracting the target component from structurally similar compounds in natural products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Daidzin, genistin, and glycitein are major isoflavone compounds in soybean that are indispensable nutrients in traditional Chinese foods. Generally, strategies for detecting and separating soy isoflavones have been based on HPLC and chromatographic techniques, which are tedious and time-consuming procedures. In the present study, we developed an ELISA-based approach for daidzin detection using a broad-specificity monoclonal antibody (clone number: AA9) with an effective detection range of 10-10 000 ng/mL. Subsequently, we prepared an immunoaffinity column by coupling the monoclonal antibody AA9 to CNBr-activated Sepharose 4B. Our results demonstrate that the immunoaffinity column can efficiently and specifically extract daidzin, glycitein, and genistin from numerous structurally similar soy isoflavones in leguminous plants, thereby providing a new method for the extraction of target components from similar compounds in natural products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]