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Gluten, which accounts for 70%-80% of the total protein content of wheat, is the main family of storage proteins found in the starchy endosperm of Pooideae subfamily, such as wheat, barley, rye and oats. As described in previous research, it could be divided into two fractions based on their different solubility in aqueous alcohol. Alcohol-soluble proteins of cereal grains that are rich in proline (Pro) and glutamine (Gln) are termed prolamins. The word of prolamins is a collective name of alcohol-soluble, water-insoluble storage proteins from wheat (gliadin), barley (hordein), rye (secalin), and oat (avenin). The alcohol-insoluble fraction of wheat gluten is called glutenin and the corresponding fractions from other species glutenins. Celiac disease (CD) is defined as a chronic Tcell mediated enteropathy caused by exposure to dietary gluten in genetically predisposed individuals, which account for approximately 1% of the global population. Clinical symptoms of CD can vary of patients and may include intestinal symptoms of diarrhea or steatorrhea, as well as extraintestinal symptoms, such as bone pain or osteoporosis. The only effective treatment for individuals with CD is lifelong adherence to strict gluten-free diet. Beer is a popular alcohol beverage fermented with cereals such as barley and wheat which contains antigenic proteins of CD. Gluten-free beer is also specially provided by manufacturers for CD sufferers. During the whole process of beer manufacturing, hordeins and other storage proteins are degraded by proteases which are activated during malting. The high temperature during mashing may also cause the modification of gluten proteins. So the gluten proteins can be degraded to produce soluble polypeptides and free amino acids, and the epitopes used for the ELISA protocol are also damaged, which hinders the accurate detection of gluten proteins by ELISA protocols. In this work, 0.1 mol/L ammonium acetate in methanol and acetone was selected as the optimized solution to individually obtain alcohol-insoluble and alcohol-soluble fractions of gluten in beer samples to maximally acquire the gluten information. The reproducibility of the optimized gluten extraction protocol was proved to be good. Deamidated gluten peptides and gluten fragments were proved to be present in beer. Then, the gluten map of eight commercial beers was explored using optimized gluten extraction protocol followed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis. It was confirmed that combining both the protein fraction and the peptide fraction could significantly enhance the gluten protein identifications. Gluten proteins were identified in three fractions for all types of beer even in gluten-free beer. Mass spectrometry may be the supplemented method to ELISA methods to confirm the safety of gluten-free beers.

To explore characteristics of clinical parameters and cytokines in patients with drug-induced liver injury (DILI) caused by different drugs and their correlation with clinical indicators. The study was conducted on patients who were up to Review of Uncertainties in Confidence Assessment for Medical Tests (RUCAM) scoring criteria and clinically diagnosed with DILI. Based on Chinese herbal medicine, cardiovascular drugs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), anti-infective drugs, and other drugs, patients were divided into five groups. Cytokines were measured by Luminex technology. Baseline characteristics of clinical biochemical indicators and cytokines in DILI patients and their correlation were analyzed. 73 patients were enrolled. Age among five groups was statistically different (P = 0.032). Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (P = 0.033) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (P = 0.007) in NSAIDs group were higher than those in chinese herbal medicine group. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) in patients with Chinese herbal medicine (IL-6: P < 0.001; TNF-α: P < 0.001) and cardiovascular medicine (IL-6: P = 0.020; TNF-α: P = 0.001) were lower than those in NSAIDs group. There was a positive correlation between ALT (r = 0.697, P = 0.025), AST (r = 0.721, P = 0.019), and IL-6 in NSAIDs group. Older age may be more prone to DILI. Patients with NSAIDs have more severe liver damage in early stages of DILI, TNF-α and IL-6 may partake the inflammatory process of DILI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to evaluate whether the onset of the plateau phase of slow hepatitis B surface antigen decline in patients with chronic hepatitis B treated with intermittent interferon therapy is related to the frequency of dendritic cell subsets and expression of the costimulatory molecules CD40, CD80, CD83, and CD86. This was a cross-sectional study in which patients were divided into a natural history group (namely NH group), a long-term oral nucleoside analogs treatment group (namely NA group), and a plateau-arriving group (namely P group). The percentage of plasmacytoid dendritic cell and myeloid dendritic cell subsets in peripheral blood lymphocytes and monocytes and the mean fluorescence intensity of their surface costimulatory molecules were detected using a flow cytometer. In total, 143 patients were enrolled (NH group, n = 49; NA group, n = 47; P group, n = 47). The results demonstrated that CD141/CD1c double negative myeloid dendritic cell (DNmDC)/lymphocytes and monocytes (%) in P group (0.041 [0.024, 0.069]) was significantly lower than that in NH group (0.270 [0.135, 0.407]) and NA group (0.273 [0.150, 0.443]), and CD86 mean fluorescence intensity of DNmDCs in P group (1832.0 [1484.0, 2793.0]) was significantly lower than that in NH group (4316.0 [2958.0, 5169.0]) and NA group (3299.0 [2534.0, 4371.0]), Adjusted P all < 0.001. Reduced DNmDCs and impaired maturation may be associated with the onset of the plateau phase during intermittent interferon therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis B. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The microstructure, mechanical properties and thermal fatigue behavior at room temperature to 450℃ of ZCuAl10Fe3Mn2 alloy treated by T6, cryogenic treatment and T6 + cryogenic treatment were investigated. The microstructure and crack morphology of the alloy were observed and analyzed by XRD, OM, SEM and EDS. The results show that the mechanical properties and microstructure of ZCuAl10Fe3Mn2 alloy can be significantly improved by T6+cryogenic composite treatment. Compared with T6 treatment, the tensile strength, hardness and elongation of the alloy are increased by 7.28%, 16.96% and 23.53%, respectively; the α phase is further refined and distributed more uniformly, the density of dislocation is increased, which make the microstructure uniformity and compactness of the alloy better. The thermal fatigue properties of the alloy are also effectively improved through the improvement of comprehensive properties and the resistance to thermal stress and oxidation corrosion is enhanced. Under the same thermal cycling, the fatigue crack length is the shortest and the crack growth rate is the slowest.

The limit point 𝓧 of an approximating rank-R sequence of a tensor Ƶ can be obtained by fitting a decomposition (S, T, U) ⋅ 𝓖 to Ƶ. The decomposition of the limit point 𝓧 = (S, T, U) ⋅ 𝓖 with 𝓖 = blockdiag(𝓖1, … , 𝓖m) can be seen as a three order generalization of the real Jordan canonical form. The main aim of this paper is to study under what conditions we can turn 𝓖j into canonical form if some of the upper triangular entries of the last three slices of 𝓖j are zeros. In addition, we show how to turn 𝓖j into canonical form under these conditions.

Four dengue viruses (DENV-1-4) circulate globally (1), each associated with either clinically mild dengue fever or, less frequently, with severe disease syndromes including hemorrhagic fever. Dengue is highly prevalent in [...]

Hantaviruses, members of the family Bunyaviridae and genus Hantavirus, can cause 2 human zoonoses: hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), seen in Asia and Europe; and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, seen [...]

An outbreak of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) occurred among students in Shenyang Pharmaceutical University in 2006. We conducted a study to characterize etiologic agents of the outbreaks and [...]