Evolution of the effect of sulfur confinement in graphene-based porous carbons for use in Li-S batteries

Jia, Xiangling,Zhang, Chen,Liu, Juanjuan,Lv, Wei,Wang, Da-Wei,Tao, Ying,Li, Zhengjie,Zheng, Xiaoyu,Yu, Jong-Sung,Yang, Quan-Hong The Royal Society of Chemistry 2016 Nanoscale Vol.8 No.8

<P>A controllable drying strategy is proposed for the precise and non-destructive control over the structure of a 3D graphene assembly. Such an assembly is used as a model carbon material to investigate the pore structure-dependent shuttle effect and cycling performance of the cathode of a Li-S battery.</P>

Catalytic synthesis and enhanced Curie temperature of ε-Fe₃N@C nanostructure synthesized in a tetraethylenepentamine solution

Li, Yong,Pan, Desheng,Li, Da,Feng, Yang,Choi, C.J.,Liu, Wei,Zhang, Zhidong Elsevier 2018 Journal of magnetism and magnetic materials Vol.465 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>ε-Fe<SUB>3</SUB>N@C nanocrystals without oxidation are one-pot synthesized by using the iron(II) acetylacetonate and tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) as Fe and N precursors under a low temperature (533 K) in the presence of a small quantity of Pt atoms as the co-catalyst. The ε-Fe<SUB>3</SUB>N@C nanoparticles with a core-shell structure are nearly spherical and have a wide particle size distribution of 100–500 nm in diameter. Fe nanoparticles obtained by reduction of Fe<SUP>2+</SUP> with TEPA are an effective catalyzer for decomposing TEPA to produce N and C atoms at a temperature much lower than the boiling point of TEPA. The diffusion of N atoms into Fe nanoparticles for the formation of ε-Fe<SUB>3</SUB>N@C is proposed, based on the results obtained by kinetically controlling the synthetic temperature and surfactants. The ε-Fe<SUB>3</SUB>N@C nanoparticles have an excellent saturation magnetization of 135.5 emu/g at room temperature. A significantly enhanced Curie temperature (T<SUB>C</SUB>) of 614 K is reached in the present ε-Fe<SUB>3</SUB>N@C nanoparticles, which is much higher than the T<SUB>C</SUB> values in the previously reported ε-Fe<SUB>3</SUB>N<SUB>x</SUB>.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> Tetraethylenepentamine is proposed as a new N source to synthesize Fe nitride. </LI> <LI> Core-shelled ε-Fe<SUB>3</SUB>N@C nanoparticles are one-pot synthesized at 260 °C. </LI> <LI> Curie temperature of ε-Fe<SUB>3</SUB>N is significantly enhanced to 614 K. </LI> <LI> ε-Fe<SUB>3</SUB>N@C shows a high saturation magnetization of 135.5 emu/g at 300 K. </LI> </UL> </P>

Mechanism of Fatty Acid Synthase in Drug Tolerance Related to Epithelial-mesenchymal Transition of Breast Cancer

Li, Jun-Qin,Xue, Hui,Zhou, Lan,Dong, Li-Hua,Wei, Da-Peng,Li, Hua Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.18

Objective: The mechanism of action of fatty acid synthase (FASN) in drug tolerance of breast cancer cells with epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) features was investigated. Methods: The breast cancer cell line MCF-7-MEK5 with stably occurring EMT and tumour necrosis factor-${\alpha}$ (TNF-${\alpha}$) tolerance was used as the experimental model, whereas MCF-7 acted as the control. Tumour cells were implanted into nude mice for in vivo analysis, and cerulenin was used as a FASN inhibitor. RT-PCR, real-time quantitative PCR and Western blot were employed to detect the expression of FASN, TNFR-1, TNFR-2, Wnt-1, ${\beta}$-catenin and cytC at the RNA and protein levels. Results: Compared with MCF-7, TNFR-1 expression in MCF-7-MEK5 was slightly changed, TNFR-2 was decreased, and FASN, Wnt-1, ${\beta}$-catenin and cytC were increased. The expression of Wnt-1 and ${\beta}$-catenin in MCF-7-MEK5 decreased after cerulenin treatment, whereas cytC expression increased. Conclusions: The important function of FASN in the drug tolerance of breast cancer may be due to the following mechanisms: FASN downregulated TNFR-2 expression through lipid rafts to make the cells less sensitive to TNF-${\alpha}$, and simultaneously activated the Wnt-$1/{\beta}$-catenin signalling pathway. Thus, cytC expression increased, which provided cells with anti-apoptotic capacity and induced drug tolerance.

Application of Joint Detection of AFP, CA19-9, CA125 and CEA in Identification and Diagnosis of Cholangiocarcinoma

Li, Yong,Li, Da-Jiang,Chen, Jian,Liu, Wei,Li, Jian-Wei,Jiang, Peng,Zhao, Xin,Guo, Fei,Li, Xiao-Wu,Wang, Shu-Guang Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.8

Objective: To explore the application of joint detection of serum AFP, CA19-9, CA125 and CEA in identification and diagnosis of cholangiocarcinoma (CC). Materials and Methods: The levels of serum AFP, CA19-9, CA125 and CEA of both 30 patients with CC and 30 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were assessed. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to evaluate the diagnostic effects of single and joint detection of those 4 kinds of tumor markers for CC. Results: The levels of serum CA19-9, CA125 and CEA in CC patients were higher than that in HCC patients,whereas that of serum AFP was significantly lower s. The area under ROC curve of single detection of serum AFP, CA19-9, CA125 and CEA were 0.05, 0.86, 0.84 and 0.83, with the optimal cutoff values of 15.4 ng/ml, 125.1 U/ml, 95.7 U/ml and 25.9 ng/ml, correspondingly, and the percentage correct single diagnosis was <79%. With joint detection, the diagnostic effect of combined AFP, CA19-9, CA125 and CEA was the highest, with an area under the ROC curve of 0.94 (95%CI 0.88~0.99). Conclusions: Single detection of serum CA19-9, CA125 and EA is not meaningful. The sensitivity, specificity, the rate of correct diagnosis and the area under ROC curve of joint detection of AFP, CA19-9, CA125 and CEA are highest, indicating that the joint detection of these 4 tumor markers is of great importance in the diagnosis of CC.

Expression of Lamininγ2 in Extrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma Tissues and its Influence on Tumor Invasion and Metastasis

Li, Yong,Li, Da-Jiang,Chen, Jian,Liu, Wei,Li, Jian-Wei,Jiang, Peng,Zhao, Xin,Guo, Fei,Li, Xiao-Wu,Wang, Shu-Guang Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.5

Objective: To explore the expression of $laminin{\gamma}2$ in extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (EHCC) tissues and its influence on tumor invasion and metastasis. Materials and Methods: Paraffin embedding samples of cancer, para-cancer, lymph node metastatic and hepatic metastatic tissues from 79 patients undergoing EHCC resection were collected. Expression of $laminin{\gamma}2$ was detected by immunohistochemistry and its relationship with clinical pathological characteristics and the prognosis of EHCC patients were analyzed. Results: $Laminin{\gamma}2$ showed negative staining in para-cancer tissues, but demonstrated a 51.9% (41/79) positive expression rate in extracellular matrix (ECM) or cytoplasm of EHCC tissues. In lymph node metastatic and distant metastatic nidi, expression of $laminin{\gamma}2$ was significantly higher than in the primary nidi (${\chi}^2=7.4173$, P=0.0065; ${\chi}^2=4.0077$, P=0.0453). The expression was in obvious association with lymph node metastasis (P<0.01), but had no relevance with age, gender, tumor location, tumor stage, differentiation and distant metastasis in ECM (P>0.05), whereas it was in marked connection with lymph node and distant metastasis (P<0.05 or P<0.01), but had no relationship with age, gender, tumor location, tumor stage and differentiation in cytoplasm (P>0.05). However, the median survival time and median recurrent period of patients with positive expression of $laminin{\gamma}2$ in both cytoplasm and ECM of tumor cells, only in ECM and only in cytoplasm, were evidently lower than with negative expression of $laminin{\gamma}2$ in RCM and cytoplasm (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Further Cox regression analysis showed that the positive expression of $laminin{\gamma}2$ and the tumor differentiation were independent risk factors influencing the prognosis of EHCC patients. Conclusions: Abnormal expression of $laminin{\gamma}2$ may be closely associated with invasion and metastasis of tumor cells, and thus a potential molecular marker for prognosis of EHCC patients.

Hypoxia Induced Multidrug Resistance of Laryngeal Cancer Cells via Hypoxia-inducible Factor-1α

Li, Da-Wei,Dong, Pin,Wang, Fei,Chen, Xin-Wei,Xu, Cheng-Zhi,Zhou, Liang Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.8

Objectives: To investigate whether hypoxia has an effect on regulation of multidrug resistance (MDR) to chemotherapeutic drugs in laryngeal carcinoma cells and explore the role of hypoxia-inducible factor-$1{\alpha}$ (HIF-$1{\alpha}$). Methods: Laryngeal cancer cells were cultured under normoxic and hypoxic conditions. The sensitivity of the cells to multiple drugs and levels of apoptosis induced by paclitaxel were determined by MTT assay and annexin-V/propidium iodide staining analysis, respectively. HIF-$1{\alpha}$ expression was blocked by RNA interference. The expression of HIF-$1{\alpha}$ gene was detected by real-time quantitative RT-PCR and Western blotting. The value of fluorescence intensity of intracellular adriamycin accumulation and retention in cells was evaluated by flow cytometry. Results: The sensitivity to multiple chemotherapy agents and induction of apoptosis by paclitaxel could be reduced by hypoxia (P<0.05). A the same time, the adriamycin releasing index of cells was increased (P<0.05). However, resistance acquisition subject to hypoxia in vitro was suppressed by down-regulating HIF-$1{\alpha}$ expression. Conclusion: HIF-$1{\alpha}$ could be considered as a key regulator for mediating hypoxia-induced MDR in laryngeal cancer cells via inhibition of drug-induced apoptosis and decrease in intracellular drug accumulation.

Occurrence of biogenic amines in sufu obtained from Chinese market

Da-Wei Li,Jing-Jing Liang,Rui-Qin Shi,Jie Wang,Yan-Li Ma,Xiu-ting Li 한국식품과학회 2019 Food Science and Biotechnology Vol.28 No.2

This study aims at examining the level of biogenicamines (BAs) in different kinds of sufu commonlyconsumed in China. The correlation between different BAsand physical and chemical index in sufu samples was alsoinvestigated. The results proved that different processingtechnologies altered the distribution of BAs in commercialsufu. Total BA level was significantly correlated with saltcontent and pH. Some of the sufu samples in this surveycontained higher levels of BAs, of which 26.6% of thesamples might induce histamine poisoning, 15.6% mightinduce headache in virtue of phenylethylamine, and 23.4%might cause migraine and headache in virtue of tyramine. Moreover, 6.3% of the sufu samples with total BA contentover 1000 mg/kg may be harmful to human health. Fromthe food safety perspective, some sufu should not beexcessively consumed daily and should be processed understrict sanitary conditions to decrease the BA level.

Celastrol, produced by Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F. enhances defense response in cucumber seedlings against diverse environmental stresses

Li-jun Zhu,Xing-guang Deng,Li-juan Zou,Peng-xu Li,Jun-qiang Wu,Da-wei Zhang,Honghui Lin 한국식물학회 2017 Journal of Plant Biology Vol.60 No.1

Celastrol is an active triterpenoid compound isolated from Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F.. Many reports have highlighted that celastrol is an effective, safe and desirable approach to the treatment of cancers. However, their biological function during environmental stresses in plants is rarely reported. In the present study, the effects of celastrol on the tolerance against high light (HL), polyethylene glycol (PEG) and cold stress in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) were investigated. Celastrol pretreatment could enhance cucumber seedlings stress tolerance at a concentration of 1 μg ml–1. The results showed that pretreatment with 1 μg ml–1 celastrol clearly induced the activities of antioxidative enzymes, which subsequently alleviated stress-induced oxidative damage in plant cells. We also provided evidence that celastrol upregulated ABA biosynthetic gene NCED2 expression and ABA accumulation in cucumber seedlings, which resulted to the enhanced tolerance in response to environmental stresses. Furthermore, the celastrol-pretreated seedlings showed less photosystem damaged caused by the stress conditions, when compared with the control. Therefore, our findings provide a novel role of celastrol in plant against environmental stresses and indicate that the celastrol-induced activities of antioxidative enzymes and ABA content might contribute to the stress tolerance.

Expression profiles of circular RNAs in sheep skeletal muscle

Cao, Yang,You, Shuang,Yao, Yang,Liu, Zhi-Jin,Hazi, Wureli,Li, Cun-Yuan,Zhang, Xiang-Yu,Hou, Xiao-Xu,Wei, Jun-Chang,Li, Xiao-Yue,Wang, Da-Wei,Chen, Chuang-Fu,Zhang, Yun-Feng,Ni, Wei,Hu, Sheng-Wei Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2018 Animal Bioscience Vol.31 No.10

Objective: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a newfound class of non-coding RNA in animals and plants. Recent studies have revealed that circRNAs play important roles in cell proliferation, differentiation, autophagy and apoptosis during development. However, there are few reports about muscle development-related circRNAs in livestock. Methods: RNA sequencing analysis was employed to identify and annotate circRNAs from longissimus dorsi of sheep. Reverse transcription followed by real-time quantitative (q) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis verified the presence of these circRNAs. Targetscan7.0 and miRanda were used to analyse the interaction of circRNA-microRNA (miRNA). To investigate the function of circRNAs, an experiment was conducted to perform enrichment analysis hosting genes of circRNAs using gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) pathways. Results: About 75.5 million sequences were obtained from RNA libraries of sheep skeletal muscle. These sequences were mapped to 729 genes in the sheep reference genome. We identified 886 circRNAs, including numerous circular intronic RNAs and exonic circRNAs. Reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) and DNA sequencing analysis confirmed the presence of several circRNAs. Real-Time RT-PCR analysis exhibited resistance of sheep circRNAs to RNase R digestion. We found that many circRNAs interacted with muscle-specific miRNAs involved in growth and development of muscle, especially circ776. The GO and KEGG enrichment analysis showed that hosting genes of circRNAs was involved in muscle cell development and signaling pathway. Conclusion: The study provides comprehensive expression profiles of circRNAs in sheep skeletal muscle. Our study offers a large number of circRNAs to facilitate a better understanding of their roles in muscle growth. Meanwhile, we suggested that circ776 could be analyzed in future study.

A novel method for the discrimination of Hawthorn and its processed products using an intelligent sensory system and artificial neural networks

Da-Shuai Xie,Wei Peng,Jun-Cheng Chen,Liang Li,Chong-Bo Zhao,Shi-Long Yang,Min Xu,Chun-Jie Wu,Li Ai 한국식품과학회 2016 Food Science and Biotechnology Vol.25 No.6

Hawthorn (CFS) has commonly been applied as an important traditional Chinese medicine and food for thousands of years. The raw material of CFS is commonly processed by stir-frying to obtain yellow (CFY), dark brown (CFD), and carbon dark (CFC) colored products, which are used for different clinical uses. In this study, an intelligent sensory system (ISS) was used to obtain the color, gas, and flavor samples data, which were further employed to develop a novel and accurate method for the identification of CFS and its processed products using principal component analysis. Moreover, this research developed a model of an artificial neural network, which could be used to predict the total organic acid, total flavonoids, citric acid, hyperin, and 5-hydroxymethyl furfural via determination of the color, odor, and taste of a sample. In conclusion, the ISS and the artificial neural network are useful tools for rapid, accurate, and effective discrimination of CFS and its processed products.