A Novel Diagnostic and Therapeutic Strategy for Cancer Patients by Integrating Chinese Medicine Syndrome Differentiation and Precision Medicine.

Applying Chinese medicine (CM) is an important strategy for malignant tumor treatment in China. One of the significant characteristics of CM is to treat diseases based on syndrome differentiation. For Western medicine, it is of important clinical significance to formulate guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients based on the characteristics of disease differentiation. In Chinese clinical practice, the combination of disease differentiation and syndrome differentiation is an important feature for cancer treatment in the past. Currently, molecular profiling and genomic analysis-based precision medicine optimizes the anticancer drug design and holds the greatest success in treating cancer patients. Therefore, we want to know which populations of cancer patients can benefit more from CM treatment if the theory of precision medicine is applied to CM clinical practice. So, we developed a novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategy "disease-syndrome differentiation-genomic profiling-prescriptions" for cancer patients by CM syndrome differentiation and precision medicine. As a result, this strategy has greatly enhanced the anti-tumor efficacy of CM and improved clinical outcomes for cancer patients with some gene mutations. Our idea will hopefully establish a novel approach for the inheritance and innovation of CM.

Distribution of bacterial communities along the spatial and environmental gradients from Bohai Sea to northern Yellow Sea.

The eutrophic Bohai Sea receives large amount of suspended material, nutrients and contaminant from terrestrial runoff, and exchanges waters with the northern Yellow Sea through a narrow strait. This coastal region provides an ideal model system to study microbial biogeography. We performed high-throughput sequencing to investigate the distribution of bacterial taxa along spatial and environmental gradients. The results showed bacterial communities presented remarkable horizontal and vertical distribution under coastal gradients of spatial and environmental factors. Fourteen abundant taxa clustered the samples into three distinctive groups, reflecting typical habitats in shallow coastal water (seafloor depth ≤ 20 m), sunlit surface layer (at water surface with seafloor depth >20 m) and bottom water (at 2-3 m above sediment with seafloor depth >20 m). The most significant taxa of each cluster were determined by the least discriminant analysis effect size, and strongly correlated with spatial and environmental variables. Environmental factors (especially turbidity and nitrite) exhibited significant influences on bacterial beta-diversity in surface water (at 0 m sampling depth), while community similarity in bottom water (at 2-3 m above sediment) was mainly determined by depth. In both surface and bottom water, we found bacterial community similarity and the number of OTUs shared between every two sites decreased with increasing geographic distance. Bacterial dispersal was also affected by phosphate, which was possible due to the high ratios of IN/IP in this coastal sea area.

Spatial variation of microbial communities in sediments along the environmental gradients from Xiaoqing River to Laizhou Bay.

The Laizhou Bay is famous for aquaculture, but has been subject to eutrophication and contamination for years. High concentrations of nutrients from the Xiaoqing River are considered as the main cause for significant eutrophication in the west of Laizhou Bay. Here we present results of the research on sedimentary microbial assemblages along this spatial gradient between riverine and marine environments by high-throughput sequencing. The predominant phyla/classes of bacteria and fungi clustered the samples into two distinct provinces, while discriminant taxa of each province were strongly associated with spatial factors and inorganic nitrogen. Spatial variation of bacterial communities was mainly related with the distribution of phosphates, suggesting a phosphate-limitation pattern for the bacterial communities. Alpha- and beta-diversity of fungal communities exhibited a significant correlation with water depth. We consider the distinct distributional gradients of bacterial and fungal communities partly explain the different roles in the biogeochemical processes of coastal sediment.

Plant Polyphenol-Assisted Green Synthesis of Hollow CoPt Alloy Nanoparticles for Dual-Modality Imaging Guided Photothermal Therapy.

Theranostic nanomedicines that integrate diagnostic and therapeutic moieties into a single nanoscale platform are playing an increasingly important role in fighting cancer. Here, a facile and green synthetic strategy for hollow CoPt alloy nanoparticles (HCPA-NPs) using plant polyphenols as assisted agents is reported for the first time. This novel strategy enables size-controlled synthesis of HCPA-NPs through the control of the molecular sizes of polyphenols. It is also a versatile strategy for synthesizing other hollow alloy nanoparticles with various metal compositions due to the diverse metal-chelating ability of the polyphenols. Further studies show that HCPA-NPs have good biocompatibility and can be successfully implemented for magnetic resonance and photoacoustic dual-modal imaging guided photothermal therapy. This work brings new insights for the green synthesis of hollow nanoparticles and extends these biocompatible nanoparticles for theranostic applications.

Co9 Se8 nanoplates as a new theranostic platform for photoacoustic/magnetic resonance dual-modal-imaging-guided chemo-photothermal combination therapy.

A new theranostic platform is developed based on biocompatible poly(acrylic acid) (PAA)-Co9 Se8 nanoplates. These PAA-Co9 Se8 nanoplates are successfully utilized for photoacoustic imaging (PAI)/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) dual-modal imaging. Moreover, the PAA-Co9 Se8 -DOX shows pH-responsive chemotherapy and enables the combination of photothermal therapy and chemotherapy to receive superior antitumor efficacy. This work promises further exploration of 2D nanoplatforms for theranostic applications.

Isobaric vapor-liquid equilibrium for methyldichlorosilane-dimethyldichlorosilane-benzene system.

The elucidation of vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) of the halogenated silane was necessary for the production of silicon derivatives, especially for methylvinyldichlorosilane, due to the lack of the relevant reports. Isobaric VLE for the system methyldichlorosilane-dimethyldichlorosilane-benzene and isobaric VLE of the three binary systems were measured with a new pump-ebulliometer at the pressure of 101.325 kPa. These binary compositions of the equilibrium vapor were calculated according to the Q function of molar excess Gibbs energy by the indirect method and the resulted VLE data agreed well with the thermodynamic consistency. Moreover, the experimental data were correlated with the Wilson, NRTL, Margules and van Laar equations by means of the least-squares fit, the acquired optimal interaction parameters were fitted to experimental vapor-liquid equilibrium data for binary systems. The binary parameters of Wilson equation were also used to calculate the bubble point temperature and the vapor phase composition for the ternary mixtures without any additional adjustment. The predicted vapor-liquid equilibrium for the ternary system was in a good agreement with the experimental results. The VLE of binary and multilateral systems provided essential theory for the production of the halogenated silane.

[Preparing trestle of tissue engineering for skin with collagen].

OBJECTIVE: To build the trestle of tissue engineering for skin with the collagen. METHODS: The collagen was obtained from the baby cattle hide pretreated by Na2S and elastinase and Protease M, then the collagen was dissolved in 0.5 mol/L acetic acid solution. The collagen was treated with Protease N to minimize its immunogenicity. The resulting collagen could be used to build the trestle of tissue engineering for skin because of good biocompatibility. The collagen molecular weight and structure were analyzed by SDS-PAGE. The bioactivity of trestle was tested in the experiment of the mice wound healing and the cell implantation. RESULTS: The SDS-PAGE result of the collagen treated by Protease M showed the typical spectrum of type I collagen. The built trestle was a collagen sponge matrix in which micropore size was 50-200 microns. It could accelerate wound healing and the implanted fibroblasts could proliferate well. CONCLUSION: The collagen treated by Protease N can get good biocompatibilily and is suitable for building the trestles of tissue engineering for skin with good bioactivity.