[Optimization of UDP-glucose supply module and production of ginsenoside F1 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae].

Ginsenoside F1 is a rare ginsenoside in medicinal plants such as Panax ginseng,P. notogingseng and P. quinquefolius. It has strong pharmacological activities of anti-tumor,anti-oxidation and anti-aging. In order to directly produce ginsenoside F1 by using inexpensive raw materials such as glucose,we integrated the codon-optimized P.ginseng dammarenediol-Ⅱ synthase(Syn Pg DDS),P.ginseng protopanaxadiol synthase(Syn Pg PPDS),P. ginseng protopanaxatriol synthase(Syn Pg PPTS) genes and Arabidopsis thaliana cytochrome P450 reductase(At CPR1) gene into triterpene chassis strain BY-T3. The transformant BY-PPT can produce protopanaxatriol. Then we integrated the Sacchromyces cerevisiae phosphoglucomutase 1(PGM1),phosphoglucomutase 2(PGM2) and UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase 1(UGP1) genes into chassis strain BY-PPT. The UDP-glucose supply module increased UDP-glucose production by 8. 65 times and eventually reached to 44. 30 mg·L-1 while confirmed in the transformant BY-PPT-GM. Next,we integrated the UDPglucosyltransferase Pg3-29 gene which can catalyze protopanaxatriol to produce ginsenoside F1 into chassis strain BY-PPT-GM. The transformant BY-F1 produced a small amount of ginsenoside F1 which was measured as 0. 5 mg·L-1. After the fermentation process was optimized,the titer of ginsenoside F1 could be increased by 900 times to 450. 5 mg·L-1. The high-efficiency UDP-glucose supply module in this study can provide reference for the construction of cell factories for production of saponin,and provide an important basis for further obtaining high-yield ginsenoside yeast cells.

Moxifloxacin plus standard first-line therapy in the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis: A meta-analysis.

The fluoroquinolone moxifloxacin has potent activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis and has been recommended by the guidelines for the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). Monotherapy is not recommended by the guidelines and only a few studies have evaluated the efficacy and safety of moxifloxacin plus standard first-line therapy in treating TB. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to further investigate the efficacy and safety of moxifloxacin plus standard therapy compared with standard therapy alone in treating patients with pulmonary TB. Medline, Cochrane, EMBASE and Google Scholar (until February 12, 2015) were searched for studies that evaluated the clinical efficacy and tolerability of moxifloxacin in the treatment of pulmonary TB. Rate of culture conversion and serious adverse events (SAEs) were assessed. Risk of bias and sensitivity analysis, using the leave-one-out approach, was used to assess the robustness of the findings. Six studies were included in the meta-analysis which covered 2056 patients with pulmonary TB. For all included studies, the drug regimens at least contained rifampicin and pyrazinamide and the length of treatment was at least eight weeks. The odds ratio (OR) for the negative culture rate for moxifloxacin plus first-line medications compared first-line medications alone (the control group) was 1.60 with 95% CI in 0.93-2.74 (P = 0.089), indicating the moxifloxacin plus first-line medications had no significantly greater rate of culture conversion compared with first-line medication alone. The odds ratio of SAEs for moxifloxacin plus first-line medications compared with first-line medications alone found no difference in rate of SAEs between treatment groups (OR = 0.94, P = 0.862). In conclusion, our meta-analysis suggests that there was a trend for the addition of moxifloxacin to standard first-line therapy for non-drug resistant TB resulted to increase the rate of culture conversion but this effect requires confirmation in more randomized control trials.

ß-Turn structure in glycinylphenylalanine dipeptide based N-amidothioureas.

Transforming the C-terminal amide of a glycinylphenylalanine dipeptide into N-amidothiourea affords a ß-turn structure in the formed dipeptide based N-amidothioureas, which can be readily identified by an induced CD signal from the achiral phenylthiourea chromophore.

Isolable chiral aggregates of achiral π-conjugated carboxylic acids.

The induced aggregation of achiral building blocks by a chiral species to form chiral aggregates with memorized chirality has been observed for a number of systems. However, chiral memory in isolated aggregates of achiral building blocks remains rare. One possible reason for this discrepancy could be that not much is understood in terms of designing these chiral aggregates. Herein, we report a strategy for creating such isolable chiral aggregates from achiral building blocks that retain chiral memory after the facile physical removal of the chiral templates. This strategy was used for the isolation of chiral homoaggregates of neutral achiral π-conjugated carboxylic acids in pure aqueous solution. Under what we have termed an "interaction-substitution" mechanism, we generated chiral homoaggregates of a variety of π-conjugated carboxylic acids by using carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as a mediator in acidic aqueous solutions. These aggregates were subsequently isolated from the CMC templates whilst retaining their memorized supramolecular chirality. Circular dichroism (CD) spectra of the aggregates formed in the acidic CMC solution exhibited bisignated exciton-coupled signals of various signs and intensities that were maintained in the isolated pure homoaggregates of the achiral π-conjugated carboxylic acids. The memory of the supramolecular chirality in the isolated aggregates was ascribed to the substitution of COOH/COOH hydrogen-bonding interaction between the carboxylic acid groups within the aggregates for the hydrogen-bonding interactions between the COOH groups of the building blocks and the chiral templates. We expect that this "interaction-substitution" procedure will open up a new route to isolable pure chiral aggregates from achiral species.

Hydrogelators of cyclotriveratrylene derivatives.

Developing cavity-based supramolecular hydrogels is in its infancy because not many such hydrogelators are available. Reported herein is our creation of rigid cavitand cyclotriveratrylene (CTV) based hydrogelators from the molecular backbones of CTVs that were in limited cases shown to form organogels. For doing so deprotonable -COOH or protonable -NH(2) was introduced as terminal group into the rigid and hydrophobic CTV backbones. We thus successfully obtained optically anisotropic supramolecular hydrogels from these new CTVs hydrogelators with excellent thermostability and high tolerance towards strong electrolytes. The obtained CTV-1 and CTV-2 hydrogels are luminescent and exhibit reversible gel-to-sol and sol-to-gel transitions upon pH variations. The success in creating CTV-1 and CTV-2 hydrogelators on the basis of the skeleton of a CTV-organogelator suggests that balancing the hydrophilic and hydrophobic characters of the ionic and hydrophobic moieties well in the gelator molecule is important for designing a promising hydrogelator.

Amino acid based chiral N-amidothioureas. Acetate anion binding induced chirality transfer.

N-Amidothioureas generated from amine-dimethylated natural L-phenylalanine and its D-enantiomer bearing a chiral carbon that is by 2 atoms or 3 chemical bonds away from the anion binding site establish chiral communication upon acetate anion binding to the thiourea moiety.

[A study of the impact of occupational stress on sleep disorders among male freight train dispatchers].

OBJECTIVE: To explore tentatively the impact of occupational stress on sleep disorders. METHODS: ninety three male freight train dispatchers participated in this study (response rate 80.87%). Sleep disorders, occupational stressors, personalities, and occupational strain response were measured with questionnaires. RESULTS: Workers with high psychological demands, job stressors,depressive symptoms,physical symptoms, daily life stress, work locus of control had higher sleep disorders scores than their counterparts (P < 0.01 or P < 0.05), workers with high job control had lower sleep disorders scores than their counterparts (P < 0.05). Sleep disorders were positively related to psychological demands, job stressors, depressive symptoms, physical symptoms, daily life stress, state-anxiety, strait-anxiety, and susceptibility to stress (P < 0.01 or P < 0.05), but negatively to job control and mental health (P < 0.05). Low job control, depressive symptoms, daily life stress and meaningless job were risk factors of sleep disorders. CONCLUSION: The sleep disorders are associated with some aspects of occupational stress among male freight train dispatchers.

Anion complexation and sensing using modified urea and thiourea-based receptors.

This critical review highlights recent advances in the structurally modified (thio)urea-based receptors for anion complexation and sensing. Modifications of the (thio)urea structure are aimed at a better anion binding in terms of higher binding constant, anion selectivity and feasibility. Major (thio)urea receptors are reviewed as N-alkyl, N-aryl and N-amido/N-amino (thio)ureas. Hints for designing (thio)urea-based receptors for anions are discussed (102 references).

[Changes of wetland landscape pattern in Eastern Yellow River Delta Nature Reserve from 1995 to 1999].

Based on the 1995-1999 Landsat TM images and geographic information systems, this paper analyzed the change characteristics of wetland landscape pattern in the Eastern Yellow River Delta Nature Reserve (an inlet of current flow path emptying into the sea), and related driving factors during the past few years pre and post the Yellow River diverting into Qing 8 anabranches in 1996. In 1995-1999, natural wetland was still the matrix of the wetlands in the Reserve, while constructed wetland only had a very small proportion. A substantial increase was observed in the area of non-wetlands, and a decline was found in the area of natural and constructed wetlands, among which, bare muddy tidal flats and marshes shrank significantly. Though the landscape types in the reserve had no homogeneity in the changes of shape and structure, and their aggregation degree in spatial distribution varied, the overall landscape structure became more complicated and fragmented, and the distribution of inner landscape types converted from continuously large blocks to discretely small patches. River diversion, flow break, and human activities were the main three driving factors leading to the changes of the wetland landscape pattern in the reserve.

[Tuberculosis after organ transplantation: clinical analysis and literature review].

OBJECTIVE: To describe the clinical features, diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis after organ transplantation. METHOD: The clinical data of 25 cases of tuberculosis after organ transplantation were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: Sixty-eight percent of the patients presented only mild symptoms. Fever, cough, malaise and chest tightness were among the most common manifestations. Pulmonary tuberculosis, pleurisy, miliary lesions, lymph node disease, and kidney tuberculosis were common. Involvement of two organs were present in 72% (18/25) of the patients. Radiology showed soft lesions, miliary nodules, pleural effusion, hilar and mediastinal lymphadenopathy. Bacteriology and histology were used to confirm the diagnosis in most cases. The average time from presentation to diagnosis was 38 d. The effective rate of therapy was 76% (19/25). CONCLUSION: More attention should be paid to tuberculosis after organ transplantation and immunosuppression. Prompt diagnosis and treatment are important measures to reduce the mortality.