Ultrasound has a recognized ability to modulate the structure and function of proteins. Discovering the influential mechanism of ultrasound on the intramolecular interactions of egg-white protein isolate-curcumin (EPI-Cur) nanoparticles and their intermolecular interaction during freeze drying and redispersion is meaningful. In this study, under the extension of pre-sonication time, the protein solubility, surface hydrophobicity, and curcumin encapsulation rate showed an increasing trend, reaching the highest value at 12 min of treatment. However, the values decreased under the followed extension of ultrasound time. After freeze drying and redispersion were applied, the EPI-Cur sample under 12 min of ultrasound treatment exhibited minimal aggregation degree and loss of curcumin. The retention and loading rates of curcumin in the lyophilized powder reached 96 % and 33.60 mg/g EPI, respectively. However, under excessive ultrasound of >12 min, scanning electron microscopy showed distinct blocky aggregates. Overexposure of the hydrophobic region of the protein triggered protein-mediated hydrophobic aggregation after freeze drying. X-ray diffraction patterns showed the highest crystallinity, indicating that the free curcumin-mediated hydrophobic aggregation during freeze drying was enhanced by the concentration effect and intensified the formation of larger aggregates. This work has practical significance for developing the delivery of hydrophobic active substances. It provides theoretical value for the dynamic dispersity change in protein-hydrophobic active substances during freeze drying and redissolving.
Conventional chemotherapy against hepatocellular carcinoma typically causes various side effects. Our previous study showed that cecropin of Musca domestica can induce apoptosis in human hepatocellular carcinoma BEL-7402 cells in vitro. However, whether cecropin inhibits BEL-7402 cell in vivo and the question of possible side effects remained undentified. The present study confirmed tumor-inhibitory effects of cecropin in vivo, and furthermore strongly suggested that cecropin cytotoxicity in BEL-7402 cells in vivo may be mainly derived from its pro-apoptotic action. Specifically, we found that cecropin exerted no obvious side effects in tumor-bearing mice as it had no significant hematoxicity as well as visceral toxicity. Therefore, cecropin may be a potential candidate for further investigation as an antitumor agent against hepatocellular carcinoma.
The incidence of fungal infections has increased continuously in recent years. Caspofungin (CAS) is one of the first-line drugs for the treatment of systemic fungal infection. However, the emerging CAS-resistant clinical isolates and high economic cost for CAS administration hamper the wide application of this drug. Thus, the combined administration of CAS with other compounds that can enhance the antifungal activity and reduce the dose of CAS has gained more and more attention. In this study, we investigated the effect of mangiferin (MG) on the antifungal activities of CAS. Our results showed that MG acted synergistically with CAS against various Candida spp., including CAS-resistant C. albicans. Moreover, MG could enhance the activity of CAS against biofilm. The in vivo synergism of MG and CAS was further confirmed in a mouse model of disseminated candidiasis. To explore the mechanisms, we found that SPE1-mediated polyamine biosynthesis pathway was involved in the fungal cell stress to caspofungin. Treatment of CAS alone could stimulate SPE1 expression and accumulation of polyamines, while combined treatment of MG and CAS inhibited SPE1 expression and destroyed polyamine accumulation, which might contribute to increased oxidative damage and cell death. These results provided a promising strategy for high efficient antifungal therapies and revealed novel mechanisms for CAS resistance.
Objective
To explore the application of objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) in the 'Adult Surgical Nursing’ practical teaching.
Methods
OSCE testing approaches were designed from September 2014 to January 2015. A total of 52 students in Grade 2013 were tested in practical teaching of 'Adult Surgical Nursing’ using OSCE, which included comprehensive knowledge, trauma nursing, preoperative preparation, operation members′ preparation, operation cooperation, professional nursing procedures and judging ability of pictures and videos. The questionnaire surveys and test results analyzation were performed after the test.
Results
Qualification rate of OSCE test was 100%. Trauma nursing had the lowest score (73.19±4.27) and comprehensive knowledge had the highest score (83.77±4.41). The average index of difficulty and confidence were 0.63-0.78 and 0.66-0.72. According to questionnaire surveys, 96.2% of nursing students thought the OSCE needed to be promoted, 69.2% of nursing students felt tired during the test and 38.5% of nursing students considered that the localization of test affected students′ performance and the time controlling and place selection needed to be improved.
Conclusions
OSCE has good confidence and could truly report practical skills and comprehensive knowledge of nursing students. Nurses are stratified to the test. It could be optimized and promoted in the 'Adult Surgical Nursing’ practical teaching.
Key words:
Adult nursing; Surgical nursing; Objective structured clinical examination; Questionnaire survey; Practical teaching
The European Commission has a strong compromise in matter of developing eco-friendly designs for airborne systems to reduce both manufacturing and in-service contamination related to those elements. One of the main approaches in this sense is to substitute metal parts by stiff, light-weight, multifunctional and recyclable polymer-based compounds which allow eliminating hazardous surface treatments and also permit reusing the materials at the end of life of the components. In this framework, ECOFUNEL project was launched by Liebherr Aerospace SAS with the consortium formed by FIDAMC, CTAG and CANOE, and with the financial support of the European Commission under the Clean Sky 2 initiative. The work aims to giving alternatives to current metal valve bodies of air conditioning systems for aircraft, by investigating the use of thermoplastic while addressing the challenge of keeping sufficient electrical conductivity and mechanical properties of the part. The research line put the focus on the development of new functionalized material formulations based on high performance injection molding thermoplastic compounds with enhanced electrical feature. New formulations are designed, produced and studied systematically within ECOFUNEL and a final prototype element will be created employing the ad-hoc own-designed materials.
// Bin Xu 1,4,* , Xiaobao Jin 1,2,* , Ling Min 5,* , Qin Li 1,2 , Lulu Deng 1,6 , Hui Wu 2 , Guixian Lin 2 , Lixin Chen 3 , Haifeng Zhang 3 , Chunmei Li 2 , Liwei Wang 3 , Jiayong Zhu 1,2 , Weizhang Wang 1,2 , Fujiang Chu 1,2 , Juan Shen 1,4 , Hongzhi Li 2 and Jianwen Mao 1,2 1 Guangdong Key Laboratory for Bioactive Drugs Research, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, China 2 School of Basic Medicine, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, China 3 Department of Pharmacology and Department of Physiology, Medical College, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China 4 School of Biosciences and Biopharmaceutics, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, China 5 Cancer Center of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China 6 Department of Pharmacology, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, China * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence: Jianwen Mao, email: // Lixin Chen, email: // Keywords : chloride channel-3, tumor metastasis, membrane ruffling, cell migration Received : September 10, 2014 Accepted : December 10, 2014 Published : December 11, 2014 Abstract The chloride channel-3 (ClC-3) protein is known to be a component of Cl - channels involved in cell volume regulation or acidification of intracellular vesicles. Here, we report that ClC-3 was highly expressed in the cytoplasm of metastatic carcinomatous cells and accelerated cell migration in vitro and tumor metastasis in vivo . High-grade expression of cytoplasmic ClC-3 predicted poor survival in cancer patients. We found that independent of its volume-activated Cl − channel properties, ClC-3 was able to promote cell membrane ruffling, required for tumor metastasis. ClC-3 mediated membrane ruffling by regulating keratin 18 phosphorylation to control β1 Integrin recycling. Therefore, cytoplasmic ClC-3 plays an active and key role in tumor metastasis and may be a valuable prognostic biomarker and a therapeutic target to prevent tumor spread.
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