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Cantharidin is the major bioactive compound extracted from the blister beetle, a traditional Chinese medicine, and has been proved to be a natural component with widely antitumor activity. However, clinical application of cantharidin is relatively restricted due to its potential toxic effects, especially hepatotoxicity. Although cantharidin-induced liver injury has been reported, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. In the present study, an UPLC-Q-TOF/MS based metabolomics approach combined with blood biochemical analysis, histopathological examination, and cell apoptosis assay were used to investigate the mechanisms of cantharidin-induced hepatotoxicity. A total of 54 significantly changed metabolites and 14 disturbed metabolic pathways were identified in the cantharidin exposed groups. Among them, four metabolites (oxidized glutathione, glutathione, 3-sulfinoalanine, and deoxycholic acid 3-glucuronide) were selected based on their high impact value and potential biological function in the process of liver injury post cantharidin treatment. Our study provides a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of cantharidin-induced hepatotoxicity and may contribute to reduce the liver injury and gain more effective and safe clinical use of cantharidin. In addition, our results also demonstrated that cantharidin could impair multiple biological processes in liver, and future studies will be necessary to reveal the detailed molecular mechanisms of cantharidin-induced hepatotoxicity.

The Badain Jaran Desert in northern China is well known for the highest mega-dunes on Earth and unique alternating megadune–lake landform, and various formation mechanisms have been proposed. Although the relics of interdune lakes are generally considered as good palaeoenvironmental records, their evolutions and relevance to paleoenvironment change are poorly understood due to limited age control. In this study, quartz optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and K-feldspar post-infrared infrared stimulated luminescence (pIRIR) were used to establish a chronological framework for limnic relics in order to reconstruct the evolution of interdune lakes. Our results indicate that limnic relics were deposited in MIS 5 and MIS 1, due to a lake level transgression and humid environmental condition. During the Holocene, humid conditions occurred at early to middle Holocene, immediately preceded and followed by aridity. The last 600 years have been characterized by high rates of aeolian activity. Based on field observation and luminescence ages, we propose that climate fluctuations since the Late Pleistocene have played a pivotal role in the formation of the unique landform assemblages.

An experimentally feasible scheme is proposed for rapidly generating two-atom qutrit entanglement with one step. As one technique of shortcuts to adiabaticity, transitionless quantum driving is applied to speed up the adiabatic generation of two-atom qutrit entanglement. Apart from the rapid rate, the scheme has much higher experimental feasibility than the recent research (Yang et al. in Quantum Inf Process 16:15, 2017). Besides, numerical simulations indicate the scheme has strong robustness against parameter deviations and decoherence.

The coexistence of megadunes and interdune lakes is a unique landscape in the Badain Jaran Desert. Its formation mechanism is an open question. Two necessary conditions for a lake are water and basin. Different from various previous works focusing on water source, here, the lake basin origin is investigated. The chronological, geomorphological, and aerodynamic evidences support that the elongated lakes in the southeastern margin of the desert are aeolian lakes.