Enhanced Activity of Enzyme Immobilized on Hydrophobic ZIF-8 Modified by Ni2+ Ions.

The development of efficient enzyme immobilization to promote their recyclability and activity is highly desirable. Zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) has been proved to be an effective platform for enzyme immobilization due to its easy preparation and biocompatibility. However, the intrinsic hydrophobic characteristic hinders its further development in this filed. Herein, a facile synthesis approach was developed to immobilize pepsin (PEP) on the ZIF-8 carrier by using Ni2+ ions as anchor (ZIF-8@PEP-Ni). By contrast, the direct coating of PEP on the surface of ZIF-8 (ZIF-8@PEP) generated significant conformational changes. Electrochemical oxygen evolution reaction (OER) was employed to study the catalytic activity of immobilized PEP. The ZIF-8@PEP-Ni composite attains remarkable OER performance with an ultralow overpotential of only 127 mV at 10 mA cm-2 , which is much lower than the 690 and 919 mV overpotential values of ZIF-8@PEP and PEP, respectively.

Angle-Dependent Polarized Emission and Photoelectron Performance of Dye-Encapsulated Metal-Organic Framework.

Molecule-based crystalline materials with angle-dependent polarized emission have attracted considerable attention owing to their extensive applications in displays and anticounterfeiting. Herein, one anionic metal-organic framework (MOF) {[Zn2.5(µ3-OH)(NDC)2(HNDC)](HPIM)}n was constructed on the basis of an excellent photoactive ligand naphthalene-1,4-dicarboxylic acid (H2NDC). The protonated 2-propylimidazole (HPIM) guests residing in the nanochannels of MOF can be exchanged by a D-π-A cationic dye. The resulted host-guest system shows a rare example of ratiometric fluorescent polarizations and highly enhanced photoelectron performance in comparison with the pristine MOF.

Alterations of miR-132 are novel diagnostic biomarkers in peripheral blood of schizophrenia patients.

Alterations in microRNAs (miRNAs) have been considered to have diagnostic implications in most diseases, but few studies have reported dysregulated miRNAs in schizophrenia (SCZ). In order to observe an association between miRNAs and SCZ, this study was designed to investigate expression profiling of miRNAs in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). miRNA microarray technology was employed to compare the expression of miRNAs in PBMCs from SCZ patients (n=105) and normal controls (n=130), and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (QPCR) was used to analyze the results. Several important miRNA levels were examined before and after antipsychotic treatment in first-onset SCZ patients. In addition, an SCZ-like rat model was established using dizocilpine (MK-801), and miR-132 expression in PBMCs and whole-brain tissue from SCZ-like rats was studied using QPCR. In humans, dysregulated miRNAs were observed before treatment and QPCR verified that miR-132, miR-134, miR-1271, miR-664(⁎), miR-200c and miR-432 levels were significantly decreased (P<0.01 for all) in PBMCs of SCZ patients compared with healthy controls. After antipsychotic treatment there was a marked increase in miR-132 (P<0.01), miR-664(⁎) (P<0.05) and miR-1271 (P<0.05) levels in SCZ patients compared with the levels before treatment. In the animal assays, miR-132 levels declined in PBMCs and whole-brain tissues (both P<0.05) of the SCZ-like rats compared to controls. For the first time, our results suggest that miR-132 is a potential and superior biomarker in peripheral blood that will allow discrimination of SCZ patients from healthy controls.

[Intervention effects of qingre jiangya capsule on brain hippocampus of spontaneously hypertensive rats based on metabonomic research].

Thirty SHRs were obtained randomly to hypertension, model group, captopril group and Qingre jiangya capsule group. Ten Wistar rats were used as control group. The hippocampus tissue was removed to explore the damage of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and the protective effect of Qingre jiangya capsule after continuously administered for 14 days. And then the data were processed by principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). The research results revealed captopril group was significantly different from the other three groups. The classification of other three groups is also very clear after captopril group removed. This suggested that Qingre jiangya capsule could improve the overall metabolism compared with captopril. Four metabolites were identified: dimethylglycine, glycerophosphocholine, aldosterone and noradrenaline. Hypertension hippocampus damage may mainly be expressed in tyrosine metabolism, aldosterone-regulated sodium, vascular smooth muscle contraction reabsorption, and Qingre jiangya capsule could reverse the hippocampus tissue damage of SHR.