Rapid Discovery of Aß42 Fibril Disintegrators from Ganoderma lucidum via Ligand Fishing and Their Neuroprotective Effects on Alzheimer's Disease.

An amyloid-ß (Aß) fibril is a vital pathogenic factor of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Aß fibril disintegrators possess great potential to be developed into novel anti-AD agents. Here, a ligand fishing method was employed to rapidly discover Aß42 fibril disintegrators from Ganoderma lucidum using Aß42 fibril-immobilized magnetic beads, which led to the isolation of six Aß42 fibril disintegrators including ganodermanontriol, ganoderic acid DM, ganoderiol F, ganoderol B, ganodermenonol, and ergosterol. Neuroprotective evaluation in vitro exhibited that these Aß42 fibril disintegrators could significantly mitigate Aß42-induced neurotoxicity. Among these six disintegrators, ergosterol and ganoderic acid DM with stronger protecting activity were further selected to evaluate their neuroprotective effect on AD in vivo. Results showed that ergosterol and ganoderic acid DM could significantly alleviate Aß42-induced cognitive dysfunction and hippocampus neuron loss in vivo. Moreover, ergosterol and ganoderic acid DM could significantly inhibit Aß42-induced neuron apoptosis and Nrf2-mediated neuron oxidative stress in vitro and in vivo.

A Prediction Model for Cognitive Impairment Risk in Colorectal Cancer after Chemotherapy Treatment.

BACKGROUND: A prediction model can be developed to predict the risk of cancer-related cognitive impairment in colorectal cancer patients after chemotherapy. METHODS: A regression analysis was performed on 386 colorectal cancer patients who had undergone chemotherapy. Three prediction models (random forest, logistic regression, and support vector machine models) were constructed using collected clinical and pathological data of the patients. Calibration and ROC curves and C-indexes were used to evaluate the selected models. A decision curve analysis (DCA) was used to determine the clinical utility of the line graph. RESULTS: Three prediction models including a random forest, a logistic regression, and a support vector machine were constructed. The logistic regression model had the strongest predictive power with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.799. Age, BMI, colostomy, complications, CRA, depression, diabetes, QLQ-C30 score, exercise, hypercholesterolemia, diet, marital status, education level, and pathological stage were included in the nomogram. The C-index (0.826) and calibration curve showed that the nomogram had good predictive ability and the DCA curves indicated that the model had strong clinical utility. CONCLUSIONS: A prediction model with good predictive ability and practical clinical value can be developed for predicting the risk of cognitive impairment in colorectal cancer after chemotherapy.

[Transformation of Disinfection Byproduct Precursors During the Wastewater Regeneration Processes].

Disinfection byproduct(DBP) precursors during the wastewater regeneration processes were separated into hydrophilic fraction(HPI), hydrophobic fraction(HPO) and transphilic fraction(TPI) with macroporous resin. DBP precursors in these water samples were characterized with fluorescence excitation emission matrix, Fourier transformation infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance, and were further tested for their DBP formation potential(DBPFP) after chlorination. The results indicated that main DBP precursors in sewage were humic acid and aliphatic hydrocarbons, and were mainly dominated by HPI. Primary treatment(sedimentation) could effectively remove hydrophobic humic acid through the mutual exclusion between HPO and water. The removal of humic acid would lead to the obvious reduction of carbonaceous disinfection byproduct formation potential(C-DBPFP). In addition, nitrogenous disinfection byproduct formation potential(N-DBPFP) was found to be increased due to the increase of DON/DOC value. Although secondary treatment(biotreatment) was effective in removing humic acid and aliphatic hydrocarbons, it could produce a large amount of soluble microbial products(SMP), which led to the enhancement of HPO percentage. And the accumulation of SMP resulted in the significant increase of C-DBPFP and N-DBPFP. Humic acid and hydrophobic SMP could be removed by the advanced treatment(cloth filtration), leading to the reduction of HPO percentage and the increase of HPI percentage. The decrease of humic acid and hydrophobic SMP would cause the reduction of C-DBPFP and N-DBPFP in the advanced treatment.

[Effects of iron deficiency and NO3- stress on tomato seedlings growth and iron absorption under suboptimal temperature]. / äºšé€‚æ¸©æ¡ä»¶ä¸‹ç¼ºé“å’Œç¡é ¸ç›èƒè¿«å¯¹ç•ªèŒ„å¹¼è‹—ç”Ÿé•¿åŠé“å¸æ”¶çš„å½±å“.

The effects of iron deficiency and NO3- stress on the growth and the iron absorption cha-racteristic of tomato seedlings were investigated under suboptimal temperature (18 ℃/12 ℃ (day/night)). The results indicated that the growth was significantly inhibited under suboptimal temperature compared with appropriate temperature treatment; the plant heights, leaf areas and dry matter accumulations were markedly decreased. The effects of iron deficiency under suboptimal temperature on the growth of tomato seedlings were larger than that of under appropriate temperature treatments. Under suboptimal temperature, the plant heights of tomato seedlings in iron deficiency and/or NO3- stress treatments were not significantly different from no stress treatment, but leaf areas and leaf chlorophyll content of tomato seedlings were decreased obviously. The leaf electrolytic leakage, root activity and Fe3+ reductase activity of tomato seedlings were markedly increased under suboptimal temperature, but chlorophyll content, total root length, root surface area, root tip number and root volume were obviously reduced. The iron contents in roots, stems and leaves of tomato seedlings were also remarkably decreased. The NO3- stress and the combined stress of iron deficiency and NO3- stress under suboptimal temperature aggravated the reduction of dry matter, leaf electrolytic leakage and the inhibition of iron ion absorption in tomato seedlings. The iron ion absorption showed the antagonistic impact on the absorption of potassium and calcium ion, but showed different effects among different organs. The iron deficiency symptom of tomato seedlings was aggravated by reducing the concentration of iron ion in the nutrient solution.

[Effects of sodium nitroprusside on growth and physiological characteristics of tomato seedlings under iron deficiency and NO3- stress]. / ç¡æ™®é’ å¯¹ç¼ºé“å’Œç¡é ¸ç›èƒè¿«ä¸‹ç•ªèŒ„å¹¼è‹—ç”Ÿé•¿åŠç”Ÿç†ç‰¹æ€§çš„å½±å“.

The solution culture method was used to study the effects of sodium nitroprusside (SNP) on plant growth, nutrient uptake and antioxidant enzyme activities of tomato seedlings under iron deficiency and NO3- stress. The results indicated that after 7 d of treatment, iron deficiency inhibited the tomato seedling growth, decreased chlorophyll (a and b) and carotenoid contents, and led to obvious chlorosis; iron deficiency also reduced the activity of SOD, POD and CAT, resulting in significant accumulation of MDA contents and higher electrolytic leakage; proline and soluble sugar contents were not significantly changed; contents of N, P, K, Ca, Mg and Fe in both leaves and roots of tomato seedlings were decreased under iron deficiency in varying degrees. The combined stress of NO3- stress and iron deficiency promoted the inhibition of plant growth, decreased chlorophyll (a and b), carotenoid contents and the activities of SOD, POD and CAT; electrolytic leakage MDA, proline and soluble sugar contents of N, P, Mg, Fe in both leaves and roots of tomato seedlings were much lower, but the contents of K and Ca were significantly increased. Compared to the treatment without SNP, adding 0.1 mmol·L-1 SNP could alleviate the growth inhibition of stressed tomato seedlings. Adding 0.1 mmol·L-1 SF (sodium ferrocyanide) also showed alleviating or promoting effect on some above indexes including the activity of SOD, POD and CAT to some degree, but the other physiological indexes were not significantly changed because iron was contained in SF.