Laser direct patterning induced the tunable optical properties of indium tin oxide micro-hole arrays films

Liao Jing,Liu Qingyou,Hong Ruijin,Tao Chunxian,Wang Qi,Lin Hui,Han Zhaoxia,Zhang Dawei 한국물리학회 2022 Current Applied Physics Vol.36 No.-

Here we introduce a facile method to fabricate patterned indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films via selective laser ablation at ambient conditions. By scanning the ITO thin films with focused Nd: YAG pulsed laser, the ITO thin films were selective ablated and patterned without using any conventional chemical etching or photolithography steps. Then we investigated the effects of scanning rate for the structure, morphology and optical properties of patterned ITO thin film. These results indicate that the epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) wavelength of ITO thin films can be tuned from 1100 nm to 1340 nm by adjusting the period of the micro-hole array in microstructure. The nonlinear absorption response of patterned ITO films was about 2.85 time than of the as-deposited ITO thin film. Additionally, the results of the Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) simulation are in good agreement with those of the experiments.

Effect of all-trans retinoic acid on casein and fatty acid synthesis in MAC-T cells

Liao, Xian-Dong,Zhou, Chang-Hai,Zhang, Jing,Shen, Jing-Lin,Wang, Ya-Jing,Jin, Yong-Cheng,Li, Sheng-Li Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2020 Animal Bioscience Vol.33 No.6

Objective: Caseins and fatty acids of milk are synthesized and secreted by the epithelial cells of the mammary gland. All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), an active metabolite of vitamin A, has been shown to promote mammary development. This study was conducted to determine the effect of ATRA on casein synthesis and fatty acid composition in MAC-T cells. Methods: MAC-T cells were allowed to differentiate for 4 d, treated with ATRA (0, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 μM), and incubated for 3 d. We analyzed the fatty acid composition, the mRNA expression of casein and fatty acid synthesis-related genes, and the phosphorylation of casein synthesis-related proteins of MAC-T cells by gas chromatography, quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and western blotting, respectively. Results: In MAC-T cells, ATRA increased the mRNA levels of α_S1-casein and β-casein, janus kinase 2 (JAK2) and E74-like factor 5 of the signal transducer and activator of transcription 5 β (STAT5-β) pathway, ribosomal protein S6 kinase beta-1 (S6K1) and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E binding protein 1 of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway, inhibited the mRNA expression of phosphoinositide 3-kinase and eukaryotic initiation factor 4E of the mTOR pathway, and promoted the phosphorylation of STAT5-β and S6K1 proteins. Additionally, ATRA increased the de novo synthesis of fatty acids, reduced the content of long-chain fatty acids, the ratio of monounsaturated fatty acids to saturated fatty acids (SFA), the ratio of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) to SFA, and the ratio of ω-6 to ω-3 PUFA. The mRNA levels of acetyl-CoA carboxylase 1, fatty acid synthase, lipoprotein lipase, stearoyl-CoA desaturase, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma, and sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1 (SREBP1) were enhanced by ATRA. Conclusion: ATRA promotes the synthesis of casein by regulating JAK2/STAT5 pathway and downstream mTOR signaling pathway, and it improves the fatty acid composition of MAC-T cells by regulating SREBP1-related genes.

Simultaneous treatment with sorafenib and glucose restriction inhibits hepatocellular carcinoma in vitro and in vivo by impairing SIAH1-mediated mitophagy

Zhou Jing,Feng Ji,Wu Yong,Dai Hui-Qi,Zhu Guang-Zhi,Chen Pan-Hong,Wang Li-Ming,Lu Guang,Liao Xi-Wen,Lu Pei-Zhi,Su Wen-Jing,Hooi Shing Chuan,Ye Xin-Pin,Shen Han-Ming,Peng Tao,Lu Guo-Dong 생화학분자생물학회 2022 Experimental and molecular medicine Vol.54 No.-

Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is the first-line treatment for unresectable intermediate-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). It is of high clinical significance to explore the synergistic effect of TACE with antiangiogenic inhibitors and the molecular mechanisms involved. This study determined that glucose, but not other analyzed nutrients, offered significant protection against cell death induced by sorafenib, as indicated by glucose deprivation sensitizing cells to sorafenib-induced cell death. Next, this synergistic effect was found to be specific to sorafenib, not to lenvatinib or the chemotherapeutic drugs cisplatin and doxorubicin. Mechanistically, sorafenib-induced mitophagy, as indicated by PINK1 accumulation, increased the phospho-poly-ubiquitination modification, accelerated mitochondrial membrane protein and mitochondrial DNA degradation, and increased the amount of mitochondrion-localized mKeima-Red engulfed by lysosomes. Among several E3 ubiquitin ligases tested, SIAH1 was found to be essential for inducing mitophagy; that is, SIAH1 silencing markedly repressed mitophagy and sensitized cells to sorafenib-induced death. Notably, the combined treatment of glucose restriction and sorafenib abolished ATP generation and mitophagy, which led to a high cell death rate. Oligomycin and antimycin, inhibitors of electron transport chain complexes, mimicked the synergistic effect of sorafenib with glucose restriction to promote cell death mediated via mitophagy inhibition. Finally, inhibition of the glucose transporter by canagliflozin (a clinically available drug used for type-II diabetes) effectively synergized with sorafenib to induce HCC cell death in vitro and to inhibit xenograft tumor growth in vivo. This study demonstrates that simultaneous treatment with sorafenib and glucose restriction is an effective approach to treat HCC, suggesting a promising combination strategy such as transarterial sorafenib-embolization (TASE) for the treatment of unresectable HCC.

Study on Anti-Proliferative Activity in Cancer Cells and Preliminary Structure–Activity Relationship of Pseudo-Peptide Chiral Thioureas

Peng Liao,Shi-Qin Hu,Hong Zhang,Liang-Bi Xu,Jing-Zi Liu,Bin He,Shang-Gao Liao,Yong-Jun Li 대한화학회 2018 Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society Vol.39 No.3

In our previous studies, we have shown that thiourea compounds containing phosphate esters have potent antitumor activity and can be used as a novel strategy for the development of antitumor agents. Herein, a series of novel phosphonate thioureas 5–38 have been synthesized, which were fully characterized by 1H NMR, 13C NMR spectrum, elemental analysis. Three human cancer cell lines (Bcap-37, BGC-823, and PC-3) have been used to investigate these compounds’ antitumor activities. After the summarization of the structure–activity relationships, we found that the variation of R, R1, and R2 in these novel phosphonate thioureas contribute to the antitumor activities. All these SAR-guided efforts may lead to novel antitumor drugs in the market in the near future.

D-Galactose Induces a Mitochondrial Complex I Deficiency in Mouse Skeletal Muscle: Potential Benefits of Nutrient Combination in Ameliorating Muscle Impairment

Liao Chang,Xin Liu,Jing Liu,Hua Li,Yanshen Yang,Jia Liu,Zihao Guo,Ke Xiao,Chen Zhang,Jiankang Liu,Xi Zhao-Wilson,Jiangang Long 한국식품영양과학회 2014 Journal of medicinal food Vol.17 No.3

Accumulating research has shown that chronic D-galactose (D-gal) exposure induces symptoms similar to natural aging in animals. Therefore, rodents chronically exposed to D-gal are increasingly used as a model for aging and delay-of-aging pharmacological research. Mitochondrial dysfunction is thought to play a vital role in aging and age-related diseases; however, whether mitochondrial dysfunction plays a significant role in mice exposed to D-gal remains unknown. In the present study, we investigated cognitive dysfunction, locomotor activity, and mitochondrial dysfunction involved in D-gal exposure in mice. We found that D-gal exposure (125 mg/kg/day, 8 weeks) resulted in a serious impairment in grip strength in mice, whereas spatial memory and locomotor coordination remained intact. Interestingly, muscular mitochondrial complex I deficiency occurred in the skeletal muscle of mice exposed to D-gal. Mitochondrial ultrastructure abnormality was implicated as a contributing factor in D-gal-induced muscular impairment. Moreover, three combinations (A, B, and C) of nutrients applied in this study effectively reversed D-gal-induced muscular impairment. Nutrient formulas B and C were especially effective in reversing complex I dysfunction in both skeletal muscle and heart muscle. These findings suggest the following: (1) chronic exposure to D-gal first results in specific muscular impairment in mice, rather than causing general, premature aging; (2) poor skeletal muscle strength induced by D-gal might be due to the mitochondrial dysfunction caused by complex I deficiency; and (3) the nutrient complexes applied in the study attenuated the skeletal muscle impairment, most likely by improving mitochondrial function.

Synthesis of Thermally Stable Mesoporous Alumina by using Bayberry Tannin as Template in Aqueous System

Jing Liu,Fuming Huang,Xuepin Liao,Bi Shi 대한화학회 2013 Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society Vol.34 No.9

Mesoporous alumina was synthesized using bayberry tannin (BT) as template. This novel synthesis strategy was based on a precipitation method associated with aluminum nitrate as the source of aluminum in an aqueous system. N2 adsorption/desorption, XRD, SEM and TEM were used to characterize the as-prepared mesoporous alumina. The results showed that the mesoporous alumina possessed crystalline pore wall, high specific surface area, narrow pore distribution and excellent thermal stability. Moreover, the surface area and pore size of the mesoporous alumina can be tuned by changing the experimental parameters. Further, the mesoporous alumina was investigated as the support of palladium catalyst (Pd-Al2O3*) for the hydrogenation of propenyl, styrene and linoleic acid. For comparison, the reference catalyst (Pd-Al2O3) prepared without barberry tannin was also employed for the catalytic hydrogenation. The experimental results showed that Pd-Al2O3* exhibited the superior catalytic performance than Pd-Al2O3 for all the investigated substrates, especially for the hydrogenation of linoleic acid with larger molecular.

Effect of royal jelly on longevity and memory-related traits of Apis mellifera workers

Jing-liang Shi,Chun-hua Liao,Zi-long Wang,Xiaobo Wu 한국응용곤충학회 2018 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.21 No.4

Royal jelly (RJ) is a key factor for honey bee caste determination. The queen bee is fed with RJ by worker bees throughout her life, while the worker bees eat bee bread themselves. This study was designed to explore the effect of nutrient-rich RJ on longevity and learning and memory abilities of workers of the western honey bee Apis mellifera. The newly emerged worker bees were randomly divided into three groups and were fed 50% sucrose solution containing 0%, 10%, and 20% RJ. We found that worker bees fed with 10% and 20% RJ showed significantly improved longevity and higher proboscis extension response success rate compared to bees fed with 50% sucrose containing 0% RJ. Additionally, bees fed with 20% RJ showed significantly higher level of expression of memory related genes (GluRA and Nmdar1) compared to the control group. Furthermore, expression of the Nmdar1 gene of worker bees fed with 10% RJ was also significantly higher than in the control group. These results indicate that RJ has potential effects on the longevity and learning and memory abilities of A. mellifera.

A taxonomic revision of the genus Mesa Saussure, 1892 from China, with a key to the Oriental species (Hymenoptera: Tiphiidae: Myzininae)

Liao Xiang-Ping,Chen Bin,Li Ting-Jing 한국응용곤충학회 2021 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.24 No.4

In this study, a total of eight fossorial aculeate wasps of the tiphiid genus Mesa Saussure, 1892 from China are revised, including two new species, viz., Mesa hongchibaensis sp. nov., and Mesa glaber sp. nov.. The following species Mesa dimidiata (Guérin-Méneville, 1837) and Mesa nursei (Turner, 1909) are newly recorded from China. The male specimen of Mesa formosensis Tsuneki (1986) is firstly found. In addition, an updated key to the Ori ental species of the genus is provided.

A generalized adaptive variational mode decomposition method for nonstationary signals with mode overlapped components

Jing-Liang Liu,Fu-Lian Qiu,Zhi-Ping Lin,Yu-Zu Li,Fei-Yu Liao 국제구조공학회 2022 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.30 No.1

Engineering structures in operation essentially belong to time-varying or nonlinear structures and the resultant response signals are usually non-stationary. For such time-varying structures, it is of great importance to extract time-dependent dynamic parameters from non-stationary response signals, which benefits structural health monitoring, safety assessment and vibration control. However, various traditional signal processing methods are unable to extract the embedded meaningful information. As a newly developed technique, variational mode decomposition (VMD) shows its superiority on signal decomposition, however, it still suffers two main problems. The foremost problem is that the number of modal components is required to be defined in advance. Another problem needs to be addressed is that VMD cannot effectively separate nonstationary signals composed of closely spaced or overlapped modes. As such, a new method named generalized adaptive variational modal decomposition (GAVMD) is proposed. In this new method, the number of component signals is adaptively estimated by an index of mean frequency, while the generalized demodulation algorithm is introduced to yield a generalized VMD that can decompose mode overlapped signals successfully. After that, synchrosqueezing wavelet transform (SWT) is applied to extract instantaneous frequencies (IFs) of the decomposed mono-component signals. To verify the validity and accuracy of the proposed method, three numerical examples and a steel cable with time-varying tension force are investigated. The results demonstrate that the proposed GAVMD method can decompose the multi-component signal with overlapped modes well and its combination with SWT enables a successful IF extraction of each individual component.

In vitro evaluation of 9-(2-phosphonylmethoxyethyl)adenine ester analogues, a series of anti-HBV structures with improved plasma stability and liver release

Sha Liao,Shi-Yong Fan,Qin Liu,Chang-Kun L,Jia Chen,Jing-Lai Li,Zhi-Wei Zhang,Zhen-Qing Zhang,Bo-Hua Zhong,Jian-Wei Xie 대한약학회 2014 Archives of Pharmacal Research Vol.37 No.11

Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection maylead to liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, butfew drugs are available for its treatment. Acyclic nucleosidephosphonates (ANPs) have remarkable antivirusactivities but are not easily absorbed from the gastrointestinaltract and accumulate in the kidneys, resulting innephrotoxicity. Therefore, there is a need to find effectiveliver site-specific prodrugs. The dipivaloyloxymethyl esterof 9-(2-phosphonylmethoxyethyl)adenine (PMEA)—adefovirdipivoxil (ADV)—is a first-line therapy drug forchronic hepatitis B with a low therapeutic index because ofrenal toxicity and low hepatic uptake. In this study, a seriesof PMEA derivatives were synthesized to enhance plasmastability and liver release. The metabolic stability of ADV(Chemical I) and its two analogues (Chemicals II and III)was evaluated in rat plasma and liver homogenate in vitro. An ion-pair reverse-phase HPLC–UV method and a hybridion trap and high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometry(LC-IT-TOF-MS) were used to evaluate the degradationrate of the analogues and to identify their intermediatemetabolites, respectively. Chemicals I and II were hydrolyzedby cleavage of the C–O bond to give monoesters. Sufficient enzymatic activation in the liver homogenatethrough a relatively simple metabolic pathway, in additionto a favorable stability profile in rat plasma, made ChemicalII an optimal candidate. Next, six analogues based onthe structure of Chemical II were synthesized and evaluatedin plasma and liver homogenate. Compared toChemical II, these compounds generated less active PMEAlevels in rat liver homogenate. Therefore, chemical modificationof Chemical II may lead to new promising PMEAderivatives with enhanced plasma stability and liveractivation.