Nuclear receptors modulate inflammasomes in the pathophysiology and treatment of major depressive disorder.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is highly prevalent and is a significant cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Currently, conventional pharmacological treatments for MDD produce temporary remission in < 50% of patients; therefore, there is an urgent need for a wider spectrum of novel antidepressants to target newly discovered underlying disease mechanisms. Accumulated evidence has shown that immune inflammation, particularly inflammasome activity, plays an important role in the pathophysiology of MDD. In this review, we summarize the evidence on nuclear receptors (NRs), such as glucocorticoid receptor, mineralocorticoid receptor, estrogen receptor, aryl hydrocarbon receptor, and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor, in modulating the inflammasome activity and depression-associated behaviors. This review provides evidence from an endocrine perspective to understand the role of activated NRs in the pathophysiology of MDD, and to provide insight for the discovery of antidepressants with novel mechanisms for this devastating disorder.

Carbazole/Benzimidazole-Based Bipolar Molecules as the Hosts for Phosphorescent and Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Emitters for Efficient OLEDs.

A series of carbazole/benzimidazole-based molecules, namely, o-CbzBiz, m-CbzBiz, and p-CbzBiz, were readily synthesized in three steps by integrating carbazole with benzimidazole via the ortho-, meta-, and para-positions of phenyl linked to N-phenyl carbazole. These bipolar molecules exhibited a maximum UV absorption band ranging from 310 to 327 nm and a maximum emission band ranging from 380 to 400 nm. Density functional theory calculations showed that the twist angles between the donor and acceptor moieties of these molecules were from 54.9 to 67.1°. Such a twisted structure hampered the π-electron conjugation within the molecule and resulted in high-lying LUMO levels and triplet energies, which make them suitable to be applied as host materials in OLED devices. Our results showed that a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of OLED reached 21.8% when p-CbzBiz was applied as the host of a green phosphorescent emitter, i.e., Ir(ppy)2(acac). In addition, a maximum EQE of OLED reached 16.7% when o-CbzBiz with the host of a green TADF emitter, i.e., 4CzIPN. Moreover, these devices exhibited lower efficiency roll-off than the CBP-hosted device using the same emitters, which demonstrated the bipolar charge carrier property of carbazole/benzimidazole-based molecules.

YC-1 potentiates the antitumor activity of gefitinib by inhibiting HIF-1α and promoting the endocytic trafficking and degradation of EGFR in gefitinib-resistant non-small-cell lung cancer cells.

The tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) gefitinib exerts good therapeutic effect on NSCLC patients with sensitive EGFR-activating mutations. However, most patients ultimately relapse due to the development of drug resistance after 6-12 months of treatment. Here, we showed that a HIF-1α inhibitor, YC-1, potentiated the antitumor efficacy of gefitinib by promoting EGFR degradation in a panel of human NSCLC cells with wild-type or mutant EGFRs. YC-1 alone had little effect on NSCLC cell survival but significantly enhanced the antigrowth and proapoptotic effects of gefitinib. In insensitive NSCLC cell lines, gefitinib efficiently inhibited the phosphorylation of EGFR but not the downstream signaling of ERK, AKT and STAT3; however, when combined with YC-1 treatment, these signaling pathways were strongly impaired. Gefitinib treatment induced EGFR arrest in the early endosome, and YC-1 treatment promoted delayed EGFR transport into the late endosome as well as receptor degradation. Moreover, the YC-1-induced reduction of HIF-1α protein was associated with the enhancement of EGFR degradation. HIF-1α knockdown promoted EGFR degradation, showing synergistic antigrowth and proapoptotic effects similar to those of the gefitinib and YC-1 combination treatment in NSCLC cells. Our findings provide a novel combination treatment strategy with gefitinib and YC-1 to extend the usage of gefitinib and overcome gefitinib resistance in NSCLC patients.

Surface hemocompatible modification of polysulfone membrane via covalently grafting acrylic acid and sulfonated hydroxypropyl chitosan.

In this study, acrylic acid (AA) and sulfonated hydroxypropyl chitosan (SHPCS) were covalently grafted on the PSf membrane surface to improve its hemocompatibility. First, the modified AA-PSf membrane was obtained through the Friedel-Craft reaction between acrylic acid and the PSf membrane surface. Then, the modified SHPCS-AA-PSf membrane was prepared by grafting SHPCS onto the AA-PSf membrane surface via the dehydration acylation of the carboxyl group of the AA-PSf membrane with the amino group of SHPCS. ATR-FTIR and XPS measurements confirmed that the -COOH group and SHPCS were successfully grafted onto the surface of the PSf membrane. The modified PSf membranes showed suppressed platelet adhesion and lower protein adsorption (161 µg cm-2) compared with the pristine PSf membrane (341 µg cm-2). Hemocompatibility testing showed that modified membrane materials had a prolonged clotting time, plasma recalcification time (PRT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), thrombin time (TT), and prothrombin time (PT). All of these results indicated that the surface modification of the PSf membrane with acrylic acid and SHPCS had good hemocompatibility and anticoagulant property.

A novel kind of polysulfone material with excellent biocompatibility modified by the sulfonated hydroxypropyl chitosan.

In order to ameliorate the biocompatibility of polysulfone (PSf), sulfonated hydroxypropyl chitosan (SHPCS) was grafted from PSf membrane material by Schiff-Base reaction. The original and modified membranes were characterized by attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscope (ATR-FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), water contact angle (WCA) measurement, tensile strength test and antibacterial test in vitro, and the results indicated that the PSf modified by SHPCS (PSf-SHPCS) was synthesized successfully, the hydrophilicity of PSf-SHPCS membrane was improved to a great extent, all the membranes possessed good stability in physiological condition and the PSf-SHPCS membrane had good antibacterial property. Protein adsorption, platelet adhesion, hemolysis assay, plasma recalcification time, activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), prothrombin time (PT), thrombin time (TT) and whole blood clotting time were executed to evaluate the hemocompatibility of membranes decorated by SHPCS, and the results demonstrated that the modified membrane had fine hemocompatibility.