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Caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE), a natural polyphenol derived from propolis, has a good regulatory effect on lipid metabolism, but its molecular mechanism is not clear. In the present study, the ameliorative effect of CAPE on lipid metabolism in oleic acid-induced HepG2 human liver cancer cells and its mechanism at the cellular level were investigated. The results showed that compared with the high fat group, lipid accumulation in the cells was significantly improved after CAPE intervention, and a total of 3 270 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were selected at the transcriptomic level; 1 351 of them were up-regulated and the rest were down-regulated. The functional annotation analysis using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database showed that the DEGs caused by CAPE intervention were significantly annotated to lipid metabolism-related pathways. The KEGG signaling pathway enrichment analysis showed that the HIF-1α pathway and the fatty acid catabolism pathway were significantly enriched. The expression levels of gene HIF-1α, PPARα, CPT1A and FABP5 were 1.326, 1.661, 2.039 and 2.598 times higher in the CAPE group than the high fat group. It is suggested that CAPE can improve lipid metabolism disorder in oleic acid-induced cells possibly by reducing oxidative stress and regulating the PPARα and fatty acid oxidative catabolic pathways. This study provides a theoretical reference for future research on the molecular mechanism of lipid metabolism regulation by CAPE and the regulation of lipid metabolism disorder induced by a high-fat diet.

Fusion tag is one of the best available tools to date for enhancement of the solubility or improvement of the expression level of recombinant proteins in Escherichia coli. Typically, two consecutive affinity purification steps are often necessitated for the purification of passenger proteins. As a fusion tag, acyl carrier protein (ACP) could greatly increase the soluble expression level of Glucokinase (GlcK), α-Amylase (Amy) and GFP. When fusion protein ACP-G2-GlcK-Histag and ACP-G2-Amy-Histag, in which a protease TEV recognition site was inserted between the fusion tag and passenger protein, were coexpressed with protease TEV respectively in E. coli, the efficient intracellular processing of fusion proteins was achieved. The resulting passenger protein GlcK-Histag and Amy-Histag accumulated predominantly in a soluble form, and could be conveniently purified by one-step Ni-chelating chromatography. However, the fusion protein ACP-GFP-Histag was processed incompletely by the protease TEV coexpressed in vivo, and a large portion of the resulting target protein GFP-Histag aggregated in insoluble form, indicating that the intracellular processing may affect the solubility of cleaved passenger protein. In this context, the soluble fusion protein ACP-GFP-Histag, contained in the supernatant of E. coli cell lysate, was directly subjected to cleavage in vitro by mixing it with the clarified cell lysate of E. coli overexpressing protease TEV. Consequently, the resulting target protein GFP-Histag could accumulate predominantly in a soluble form, and be purified conveniently by one-step Ni-chelating chromatography. The approaches presented here greatly simplify the purification process of passenger proteins, and eliminate the use of large amounts of pure site-specific proteases.

In this work, we report a simple method for solution-processed organic light emitting devices (OLEDs), where single-layer graphene acts as the anode and the hexa-peri-hexabenzocoronene exfoliating agent (HBC-6ImBr) provides surface modification. In SEM images, the PEDOT:PSS solution fully covered the graphene electrode after coating with HBC-6ImBr. The fabricated solution-processed OLEDs with a single-layer graphene anode showed outstanding brightness at 3182 cd/m² and current efficiency up to 6 cd/A which is comparable to that of indium tin oxide films, and the OLED device brightness performance increases six times compared to tri-layer graphene treated with UV-Ozone at the same driving voltage. This method can be used in a wide variety of solution-processed organic optoelectronics on surface-modified graphene anodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to further expand the exploration results of Cretaceous reservoirs in Kuqa Depression, clarify formation mechanism of reservoirs, based on data, such as drilling, logging, ordinary slice, casting thin sections, granularity analysis, X-ray diffraction analysis and physical properties, reservoir characteristics and controlling factors of Cretaceous Bashijiqike Formation in Kelasu structural belt and Qiulitage structural belt in Kuqa Depression of Tarim Basin have been systematically studied. The Cretaceous reservoirs in Qiulitage area are coarse in grain size, low in feldspar content, high in rock debris content especially in sedimentary rock debris; the content of interstitial material is slightly lower, the content of matrix is higher and the content of cement is lower; they have good physical properties and are low porosity and low permeability reservoirs with the characteristics of high displacement pressure, medium-small pore throat radius and fine - microfine throat; medium compaction, medium cementation and strong dissolution are beneficial to the preservation of reservoir pores. The Cretaceous reservoirs in Kelasu structural belt are fine in grain size, mainly composed of medium and fine sandstones, with high feldspar content and low rock debris content, and a few sedimentary rock debris; the total amount of interstitial material is slightly higher, the content of matrix is low, and the cementation is compact; surface porosity is generally low and microcracks are common; they have bad physical properties and are ultra-low porosity and ultra-low permeability reservoirs with the characteristics of high displacement pressure, extremely small pore throat radius and microfine throat; besides strong compaction, tight cementation and weak dissolution, though fractures have limited contributions to reservoir pores, they greatly improve reservoir permeability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]