ALA-PDT promotes IL-1ß secretion from human SZ95 sebocytes via activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome.

BACKGROUND: 5-Aminolevulinic acid photodynamic therapy (ALA-PDT) is an effective treatment for pilosebaceous inflammatory diseases, such as acne vulgaris. In this study, we explored ALA-PDT's mechanisms against acne in vitro. METHODS: We treated human SZ95 sebocytes with ALA (0.2 mM) and subjected them to varied PDT doses (0, 5, 10, 20 J/cm²) over 12 h. We assessed cell viability post-treatment using the Annexin V FITC/PI apoptosis kit. ROS accumulation in the sebocytes was detected with a DCFDA probe. We quantified NLRP3 and caspase-1 mRNA via quantitative PCR and determined IL-1ß release following ALA-PDT by ELISA. Western blotting helped identify the levels of proteins associated with pyroptosis (NLRP3, caspase-1, and IL-1ß). To elucidate the mechanisms, we re-evaluated these parameters after administering various concentrations of NAC antioxidants (0, 0.4, 2, 10 mM) and the caspase inhibitor Z-VAD-FMK (0, 5, 10, 20 µM). RESULTS: Increasing PDT dose inversely affected SZ95 sebocyte survival, with a corresponding rise in ROS and pyroptosis-related proteins (NLRP3, caspase-1, and IL-1ß). Furthermore, NAC and Z-VAD-FMK modulated the expression and secretion of these molecules in a dose-responsive manner. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest ALA-PDT's potential mechanism of action on sebaceous glands could involve ROS induction, leading to NLRP3 inflammasome assembly, thereby heightening caspase-1 activation and IL-1ß secretion. This cascade may amplify the local inflammatory response to break chronic inflammation in acne vulgaris treatment.

Adsorption characteristics of SO2 onto novel activated carbon fixed bed: kinetics, isotherms, thermodynamics and washing regeneration.

The problem of SO2 pollution in industrial flue gas has brought great pressure to environmental governance. In this study, a new type of activated carbon fixed bed device was designed and built for flue gas desulfurization. The results showed that activated carbons (AC1-AC5) were microporous activated carbons with abundant functional groups on the surface, and the desulfurization performance was ranked as AC1 > AC2 > AC3 > AC4 > AC5. The specific surface area of AC1 was as high as 624.98 m2/g, and the maximum adsorption capacity was 29.03 mg·g-1 under the optimum reaction conditions. The Freundlich adsorption isotherm model and Bangham pore diffusion model are more suitable for describing the dynamic adsorption process of SO2 on AC1. Combined with thermodynamic research, it is shown that the adsorption process of SO2 is a spontaneous, exothermic, and chaotic reduction process, which is mainly a physical adsorption between single-layer adsorption and multi-layer adsorption. Finally, the desulfurization-washing regeneration cycle experiment results showed that the regeneration rate of AC1 increases with the washing time and washing temperature, up to 95%, which provides data reference for industrial application.

Safety and Effectiveness of Oral Nutraceuticals for Treating Acne: A Systematic Review.

Importance: Patients with acne are interested in nutraceuticals as a potential treatment option. However, there is uncertainty regarding the efficacy and safety of these products. Objective: To evaluate the evidence for oral nutraceuticals in the treatment of acne. Evidence Review: The PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Web of Science databases were searched from inception through January 30, 2023, to identify randomized clinical trials evaluating oral nutraceutical interventions (ie, vitamins and minerals, botanical extracts, prebiotics, and probiotics) in individuals with acne. Clinician-reported outcomes (eg, investigator global assessment, lesion counts), patient-reported outcomes (eg, quality of life), and adverse events were extracted from the included studies. The quality of evidence was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias checklist tool for randomized clinical trials. Based on the Risk of Bias tool, articles were converted to Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality standards of good, fair, or poor quality. Findings: A total of 2582 abstracts were identified in the database search, 42 of which met inclusion criteria (a total of 3346 participants). Studies of fair or good quality showed the potential benefit of vitamins B5 and D, botanical extracts (green tea), probiotics, and ω-3 fatty acids in the treatment of acne. These interventions were most frequently associated with decreased lesion counts or improved investigator global assessment scores. Adverse effects were rare for most of the therapies evaluated, but gastrointestinal tract adverse effects were reported for zinc therapy. Conclusions and Relevance: This systematic review suggests a possible role for nutraceutical supplements in the treatment of acne. Physicians should be prepared to discuss the evidence regarding the potential role of nutraceuticals with patients. Many studies were of small size, and future research should focus on larger randomized clinical trials to assess the utility of nutraceuticals in the treatment of acne.

Laser-Assisted and Device-Assisted Filler Delivery: A Histologic Evaluation.

BACKGROUND: Lasers and devices are used to enhance transcutaneous delivery of fillers. However, little has been published on the histologic findings of this form of laser/device-assisted delivery to determine the optimal devices and fillers. OBJECTIVE: To objectively evaluate the histological effects of laser-assisted and device-assisted filler delivery. METHODS: Ex vivo human abdominoplasty skin samples were treated with fractional CO 2 laser (ECO 2 , 120 µm tip, 120 mJ), fractional radiofrequency microneedling (FRMN, Genius, 1.5 mm, 20 mJ/pin), and microneedling (2.0 mm). Immediately after poly- l -lactic acid (PLLA), hyaluronic acid gel, calcium hydroxylapatite, and black tissue marking dye were topically applied. After treatment, biopsies were collected for histologic evaluation. RESULTS: Histology revealed that PLLA and black dye were found in greatest abundance, hyaluronic acid was found to a lesser extent, and calcium hydroxylapatite was least found within channels created by fractional CO 2 laser. Microneedling was effective only at delivering black dye, whereas FRMN failed to show significant channel formation or delivery of the studied products. CONCLUSION: Among the devices and fillers studied, fractional CO 2 laser and PLLA proved to be the most effective combination for laser/device-assisted filler delivery. Neither microneedling nor FRMN was effective as devices to enhance filler delivery.

Efficacy and safety of topical agents in the treatment of melasma: What's evidence? A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Various topical agents have been used to treat melasma; however, a large-scale evaluation among the currently available treatment is lacking. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of topical agents for melasma. METHODS: The MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane, and Alt-Healthwatch databases were searched in November 2021. Original studies that reported pre- and post-treatment Melasma Area Severity Index (MASI)/modified Melasma Area Severity Index (mMASI) scores and/or adverse effects (AEs) were eligible for inclusion. The main outcome was the efficacy analyzed by the changes in the pre- and post-treatment with standardized mean difference (SMD) of MASI/mMASI scores; the AEs were calculated with incidence proportion by the reported percentage of skin irritations. RESULTS: A total of 45 studies (2359 patients) and 55 studies (4539 patients) met the inclusion criteria for efficacy and AEs, respectively. Hydroquinone (HQ) monotherapy (SMD -1.3, 95% CI [-1.6 to -1.0]), HQ-containing combination therapy (-1.4, [-1.7 to -1.1]), cysteamine (-1.6, [-2.0 to -1.2]), tranexamic acid (-1.5, [-2.0 to -1.1]), azelaic acid (-1.3, [-1.7 to -1.0]), and kojic acid (-0.9, [-1.3 to -0.5]) demonstrated comparable efficacy, while zinc sulfate did not exhibit statistically significant improvement (-1.2, [-2.7 to 0.4]). HQ-containing combination therapy (50.9%) and cysteamine (42.2%) demonstrated the highest incidence of irritation, while azelaic acid (18.7%), kojic acid (5.3%), and tranexamic acid (0.8%) revealed a lower risk. CONCLUSIONS: In this meta-analysis, non-HQ agents except zinc sulfate may be considered as an alternative to HQ-containing agents. However, treatment should be guided by patient's tolerance, availability, and physicians' experience.

Prediction and Sensitivity Analysis of CO2 Capture by Amine Solvent Scrubbing Technique Based on BP Neural Network.

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence, bionic algorithm has been gradually applied in various fields, and neural network has become an important and hot issue in the field of scientific research and engineering in recent years. This article proposes a BP neural network model to predict the capture ability and sensitivity of CO2 in monoethanolamine (MEA) aqueous scrubbing technique from a 2 × 1,000 MW coal-fired power plant expansion project in eastern China. The predicted values agree well with the experimental data with a satisfactory mean square root error (MSRE) ranging from 0.001945 to 0.002372, when the change in the circulation amount of MEA and the accuracy of prediction results of the back propagation neural network (BPNN) algorithm is as high as 96.6%. The sensitivity analysis results suggested that the flue gas amount has a marginal effect on the system performance, while further attention should be paid to the MEA circulation amount, which is crucial to the CO2 capture amount. The temperature profiles show the typical behavior of the reactive absorption column where a temperature bulge can be seen at the bottom of the column due to the high L/G ratio of the experimental and prediction results. The coefficients of correlation R 2 with the change of MEA circulation amount, change of CO2 concentration, and steam consumption are 0.97722, 0.99801, and 0.98258, respectively. These results have demonstrated that the present study has established the BPNN algorithm as a consistent, reliable, and robust system identification tool for CO2 capture by the amine solvent scrubbing technique of operation in coal-fired power plants.

Resolving quantum dots and peptide assembly and disassembly using bending capillary electrophoresis.

Despite the numerous techniques developed for the studying nanoparticle and peptide interaction nowadays, sensitive and convenient assay in the process of flow, especially to simulate the self-assembly of quantum dots (QDs) and peptide inflow in blood vessels, still remains big challenges. Here, we report a novel assay for studying the self-assembly of QDs and peptide, based on CE using a bending capillary. We demonstrate that the semicircles numbers of the bending capillary affect the self-assembly kinetics of CdSe/ZnS QDs and ATTO-D3 LVPRGSGP9 G2 H6 peptide. Moreover, benefitting from this novel assay, the effect of the position on the self-assembly has also been realized. More importantly, we also demonstrate that this novel assay can be used for studying the stability of the QDs-peptide complex inflow. We believe that our novel assay proposed in this work could be further used as a general strategy for the studying nanoparticle-biomolecule interaction or biomolecule-biomolecule interaction.

A novel in-capillary assay for dynamically monitoring fast binding between antibody and peptides using CE.

Nowadays, despite numerous techniques available for the detection of antibody-peptide binding, sensitivity and detection limit inflow still remains a major challenge. Herein, we report a strategy for the detection of binding inflow of monoclonal anti-FLAG M2 antibody and 5,6-carboxyfluorescein-labeled FLAG tag in capillary. Antibody and peptides were sequentially injected into the capillary where they mixed and bound together. Capillary electrophoresis with fluorescence detection was employed to monitor the binding process, and the results showed that the efficacy of the antibody-peptide binding in capillary (in-capillary assay) is affected by the stoichiometry. Compared to the out-capillary assay, this novel assay showed different KD values and required a very short detection time, thus showing great potential for rapid detection as well as other applications. Additionally, our novel assay can be used to investigate the stability of the antibody-peptide complex. The addition of excess DYKDDDDK or TAMRA-DYKDDDDK, with similar binding priorities with M2, can leads to dissociation of the complex with a two-step mechanism including dissociation and association. We believed that our developed method can be extended to monitor wide range of other biomolecule interactions.

ALA-PDT suppressed the cell growth by Akt-/Erk-mTOR-p70 s6k pathway in human SZ95 sebocytes in vitro.

BACKGROUND: Topical 5-aminolevulinic acid mediated photodynamic therapy (PDT) is known to be an effective method in treating acne vulgaris and other sebaceous gland-related diseases. The therapeutic mechanisms of ALA-PDT still remain undetermined. Our team has reported that ALA-PDT suppressed the cell growth in SZ95 sebocytes by mTOR-p70 S6K signaling. In this study, we aimed to investigate upstream of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling cascade after ALA-PDT on cell growth of human SZ95 sebocytes. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Human SZ95 sebocytes were treated with different concentration of 5-ALA PDT. Western blotting was used to detect and analyze the protein expression level of P-Akt (T308)/Akt, P-Akt (S473)/Akt, P-Erk/Erk, P-AMPKα (T172)/AMPK, P-AMPKα1 (S485)/AMPKα2 (S491)/AMPK, P-PRAS40/PRAS40, RagC. Meanwhile, mTOR pathway activator IGF-1 and mTORC1 inhibitor rapamycin were added to observe the interferences of P-p70 S6K/p70 S6K after ALA-PDT. RESULTS: mTOR pathway inhibitor rapamycin decreased the level of P-p70 S6K reduced by ALA-PDT. Conversely, mTOR pathway activator IGF-1. ALA-PDT reduced the level of P-Akt (T308), P-Erk, P-AMPKα (T172), P-AMPKα1 (S485)/AMPKα2 (S491) and P-PRAS40, and no change was observed in the level of Rag C. CONCLUSION: ALA-PDT suppresses the cell growth in SZ95 cells through Akt-/Erk- mTOR -p70 s6k pathway rather than PRAS40-/RagC- mTOR pathway.

Tai Chi Chuan training improves the pulmonary function of asthmatic children.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Tai Chi Chuan, a traditional Chinese exercise, is thought to improve cardiopulmonary function in patients with chronic disease. This study investigated the effect of Tai Chi Chuan on the pulmonary function and daily symptoms of asthmatic children. METHODS: Thirty asthmatic children were enrolled into the study. Fifteen of the 30 children participated in a 12-week Tai Chi Chuan program and the remaining 15 constituted the control group. Prior to study participation, the pulmonary function of all enrolled children was assessed at rest, after exercise, and after exercise plus iced water. A 3-day symptoms questionnaire was also completed and a score obtained after each pulmonary function test. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between the two groups in baseline pulmonary function and severity of asthmatic symptoms before study commencement, at rest, after exercise, or after exercise plus iced water. However, after the 12-week program, children in the Tai Chi Chuan group had a significant improvement in pulmonary function compared to the control group. Although there were no significant differences in post-training symptom scores at rest and after exercise between the two groups, under the stronger challenge of exercise plus iced water, children in the Tai Chi Chuan group had milder symptoms than those in the control group. CONCLUSION: Our data show that Tai Chi Chuan can improve the pulmonary function of asthmatic children. However, long-term follow-up is required to determine the impact of Tai Chi Chuan on the severity of asthmatic symptoms.

Treatment of propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate in air streams by a biofilter packed with fern chips.

This study aimed to develop a biofilter packed only with fern chips for the removal of airborne propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate (PGMEA). Fern chips could avoid the shortcomings of traditional media, such as compaction, drying, and breakdown, which lead to the performance failure of the biofilters. In addition, the fern chip medium has the following merits: (1) simplicity in composition; (2) low pressure drop for gas flow (<20 mmH2O x m(-1)); (3) simple in humidification, nutrient addition, pH control, and metabolite removal; (4) economical (US$174-385 x m(-3)), and (5) low weight (wet basis around 290 kg x m(-3)). A two-stage downflow biofilter (2.18 m in height and 0.4 x 0.4 m in cross-sectional area) was constructed for the performance test. Both stages were packed with fern chips of 0.30 m in height and 0.40 x 0.40 m in cross-section. Results indicate that with operation conditions of media moisture content controlled in the range of 50-74%, media pH of 6.5-8.3, empty bed retention time (EBRT) of 0.27-0.4 min, influent PGMEA concentrations of 100-750 mg x m(-3), volumetric organic loading of <170 g x m(-3) x hr(-1), and nutrition rates of Urea-nitrogen 66 g x m(-3) x day(-3), potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KH2PO4)-phosphorus 13.3 g x m(-3) x day(-3), and milk powder 1.00 g x m(-3) x day(-1), the fern-chip-packed biofilter could achieve an overall PGMEA removal efficacy of around 94%. Instant milk powder or liquid milk was essential to the good and stable performance of the biofilter for PGMEA removal.