De Novo Biosynthesis of 4-Vinylanisole in Engineered Escherichia coli.

4-Vinylanisole is an aggregation pheromone of the locust. Both gregarious and solitary locusts exhibit a strong attraction toward 4-vinylanisole, irrespective of gender or age. Therefore, 4-vinylanisole can be used for trapping and monitoring locusts. In this study, the construction of a de novo 4-vinylanisole pathway in Escherichia coli has been demonstrated for the first time. Subsequently, by increasing the supply of precursor substrates, we further improved the biosynthesis of 4-vinylanisole. Finally, a two-phase organic overlay culture was used to increase the titer to 206 mg/L. It presents a sustainable and ecofriendly alternative for the synthesis of 4-vinylanisole.

Elevation of synaptic protein is associated with the antidepressant-like effects of ferulic acid in a chronic model of depression.

Ferulic acid is a hydroxycinnamic acid that widely presents in plant cell wall components. It has been demonstrated that ferulic acid can reverse depressive-like behaviors in both forced swimming test and tail suspension test. However, it is unclear whether chronic ferulic acid treatment can ameliorate the depressive-like behaviors in chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS). Because of the putative relationship between neurotrophic system and antidepressant-like activity, we also investigated the effects of chronic ferulic acid on the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), postsynaptic protein PSD95, presynaptic protein synapsin I in both prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. The results showed that ferulic acid significantly alleviated CUMS-induced depressive-like behaviors in sucrose preference test and forced swimming test. In addition, ferulic acid significantly up-regulated the levels of BDNF, PSD95 and synapsin I in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. The present data indicated that ferulic acid exerted the antidepressant-like effects on behaviors by increasing neurotrophin-related synaptic protein levels in CUMS mice.

Berberine up-regulates the BDNF expression in hippocampus and attenuates corticosterone-induced depressive-like behavior in mice.

Depression is increasingly become a global public healthy problem. This study was to investigate whether berberine could attenuate the depressive-like behavior induced by repeated corticosterone injection and explore the possible mechanisms. The present results showed that exogenous corticosterone injection caused depressive-like behaviors in mice, such as decreased sucrose intake in sucrose preference test (SPT) and increased immobility time in forced swimming test (FST). These behavioral alterations were accompanying with the decreased BDNF mRNA and protein levels in hippocampus and the elevated serum corticosterone levels. Treatment with berberine prevented these changes above. Our findings confirmed the antidepressant-like effect of berberine and suggested its mechanisms might be partially mediated by up-regulation of BDNF in hippocampus.

Bis[N-(pyridin-2-ylcarbon-yl)pyridine-2-carboxamidato]iron(III) perchlorate monohydrate.

The structure of the title salt complex, [Fe(C(12)H(8)N(3)O(2))(2)]ClO(4)·H(2)O, contains one Fe(III) cation, two N-(pyridin-2-ylcarbon-yl)pyridine-2-carboxamidate (bpca(-)) anions, one perchlorate anion and one water mol-ecule. The Fe(III) cation has an approximate octa-hedral geometry, defined by six N atoms from two bpca(-) anions. The nearly parallel [dihedral angle = 1.50 (1)°] bpca(-) anions form two-dimensional supermolecules along the a axis by the way of weak π-π stacking inteactirons [centroid-centroid distances = 3.948 (2), 4.000 (2), 3.948 (2), 3.911 (2), 3.897 (2), 3.984 (2) and 3.929 (2) Å]. Intra- and inter-molecular C-H⋯O hydrogen bonding occurs. The water mol-ecule [occupancies 0.520 (5) and 0.480 (5)], two carbonyl O atoms [occupancies 0.622 (7) and 0.378 (7)] and the four perchlorate O atoms [occupancies 0.887 (4) and 0.113 (4)] are each disordered over two positions.

Diaqua-[5,5'-dicarb-oxy-2,2'-(propane-1,3-di-yl)bis-(1H-imidazole-4-carboxyl-ato)]nickel(II) dihydrate.

In the title complex, [Ni(C(13)H(10)N(4)O(8))(H(2)O)(2)]·2H(2)O, the Ni(2+) cation is six-coordinated by two N atoms and two O atoms from the tetra-dentate anion in equatorial positions and by two water O atoms in axial positions, leading to a distorted octa-hedral environment. The central C atom of the propanediyl unit is disordered over two sites in a 0.531 (6):0.469 (6) ratio. In the crystal, adjacent mol-ecules are linked through O-H⋯O and N-H⋯O hydrogen-bonding inter-actions into a three-dimensional network.