Effects of Ga-doping on the microstructure and magnetic properties of MnBi alloys

Yang, Yang,Kim, Jong-Woo,Si, Ping-Zhan,Qian, Hui-Dong,Shin, Yongho,Wang, Xinyou,Park, Jihoon,Li, Oi Lun,Wu, Qiong,Ge, Hongliang,Choi, Chul-Jin Elsevier 2018 JOURNAL OF ALLOYS AND COMPOUNDS Vol.769 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>The low temperature phase Mn<SUB>55</SUB>Bi<SUB>45-<I>x</I> </SUB>Ga<SUB> <I>x</I> </SUB> (<I>x</I> = 0, 1, 3, 5, and 10) alloys were prepared by induction melting process with subsequent low temperature annealing. The effects of Ga-doping on the crystal structure and magnetic properties of the alloys were systematically studied. The room temperature coercivities of Mn<SUB>55</SUB>Bi<SUB>45-<I>x</I> </SUB>Ga<SUB> <I>x</I> </SUB> after ball milling increased from 1.43 T for <I>x</I> = 0 to 1.66 T for <I>x</I> = 5, while the saturation magnetization decreased from 60.7 Am<SUP>2</SUP>/kg (<I>x</I> = 0) to 45.1 Am<SUP>2</SUP>/kg (<I>x</I> = 5). The maximum energy product (<I>BH</I>)<SUB>max</SUB> of Mn<SUB>55</SUB>Bi<SUB>44</SUB>Ga powders reached 7.87 MGOe. The Curie temperature of the Mn<SUB>55</SUB>Bi<SUB>45-<I>x</I> </SUB>Ga<SUB> <I>x</I> </SUB> alloys increased from 633 K to 658 K with increasing Ga concentration in the range of 0 ≤ <I>x</I> ≤ 5.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> Effects of doping Ga on the microstructural and magnetic properties of MnBi alloy. </LI> <LI> The MnBi-Ga powders are achieved by surfactant assisted high energy ball milling. </LI> <LI> The maximum energy produce (<I>BH</I>)<SUB>max</SUB> shows 7.87 MGOe for Mn<SUB>55</SUB>Bi<SUB>44</SUB>Ga sample. </LI> <LI> The coercivity of Mn<SUB>55</SUB>Bi<SUB>40</SUB>Ga<SUB>5</SUB> after ball milling reached 1.66 T at room temperature. </LI> <LI> The elevated curie temperature (<I>T</I> <SUB>c</SUB>) by doping Ga makes it a possible candidate for high temperature applications. </LI> </UL> </P>

Anti-proliferation Effects of Isorhamnetin on Lung Cancer Cells in Vitro and in Vivo

Li, Qiong,Ren, Fu-Qiang,Yang, Chun-Lei,Zhou, Li-Ming,Liu, Yan-You,Xiao, Jing,Zhu, Ling,Wang, Zhen-Grong Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.7

Background: Isorhamnetin (Iso), a novel and essential monomer derived from total flavones of Hippophae rhamnoides that has long been used as a traditional Chinese medicine for angina pectoris and acute myocardial infarction, has also shown a spectrum of antitumor activity. However, little is known about the mechanisms of action Iso on cancer cells. Objectives: To investigate the effects of Iso on A549 lung cancer cells and underlying mechanisms. Materials and Methods: A549 cells were treated with $10{\sim}320{\mu}g/ml$ Iso. Their morphological and cellular characteristics were assessed by light and electronic microscopy. Growth inhibition was analyzed by MTT, clonogenic and growth curve assays. Apoptotic characteristics of cells were determined by flow cytometry (FCM), DNA fragmentation, single cell gel electrophoresis (comet) assay, immunocytochemistry and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase nick end labeling (TUNEL). Tumor models were setup by transplanting Lewis lung carcinoma cells into C57BL/6 mice, and the weights and sizes of tumors were measured. Results: Iso markedly inhibited the growth of A549 cells with induction of apoptotic changes. Iso at $20{\mu}g/ml$, could induce A549 cell apoptosis, up-regulate the expression of apoptosis genes Bax, Caspase-3 and P53, and down-regulate the expression of Bcl-2, cyclinD1 and PCNA protein. The tumors in tumor-bearing mice treated with Iso were significantly smaller than in the control group. The results of apoptosis-related genes, PCNA, cyclinD1 and other protein expression levels of transplanted Lewis cells were the same as those of A549 cells in vitro. Conclusions: Iso, a natural single compound isolated from total flavones, has antiproliferative activity against lung cancer in vitro and in vivo. Its mechanisms of action may involve apoptosis of cells induced by down-regulation of oncogenes and up-regulation of apoptotic genes.

Histone acetyltransferase inhibitors antagonize AMP-activated protein kinase in postmortem glycolysis

Qiong Li,Zhongwen Li,Aihua Lou,Zhenyu Wang,Dequan Zhang,Qingwu W. Shen 아세아·태평양축산학회 2017 Animal Bioscience Vol.30 No.6

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activation on protein acetylation and glycolysis in postmortem muscle to better understand the mechanism by which AMPK regulates postmortem glycolysis and meat quality. Methods: A total of 32 mice were randomly assigned to four groups and intraperitoneally injected with 5-Aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide1-β-D-ribofuranoside (AICAR, a specific activator of AMPK), AICAR and histone acetyltransferase inhibitor II, or AICAR, Trichostatin A (TSA, an inhibitor of histone deacetylase I and II) and Nicotinamide (NAM, an inhibitor of the Sirt family deacetylases). After mice were euthanized, the Longissimus dorsi muscle was collected at 0 h, 45 min, and 24 h postmortem. AMPK activity, protein acetylation and glycolysis in postmortem muscle were measured. Results: Activation of AMPK by AICAR significantly increased glycolysis in postmortem muscle. At the same time, it increased the total acetylated proteins in muscle 45 min postmortem. Inhibition of protein acetylation by histone acetyltransferase inhibitors reduced AMPK activation induced increase in the total acetylated proteins and glycolytic rate in muscle early postmortem, while histone deacetylase inhibitors further promoted protein acetylation and glycolysis. Several bands of proteins were detected to be differentially acetylated in muscle with different glycolytic rates. Conclusion: Protein acetylation plays an important regulatory role in postmortem glycolysis. As AMPK mediates the effects of pre-slaughter stress on postmortem glycolysis, protein acetylation is likely a mechanism by which antemortem stress influenced postmortem metabolism and meat quality though the exact mechanism is to be elucidated.

Preparation of Non-Planar-Ring Epoxy Thermosets Combining Ultra-Strong Shape Memory Effects and High Performance

Qiong Li,Songqi Ma,Jingjing Wei,Sheng Wang,Xiwei Xu,Kaifeng Huang,Binbo Wang,Wangchao Yuan,Jin Zhu 한국고분자학회 2020 Macromolecular Research Vol.28 No.5

Non-planar-ring epoxies together with non-planar-ring hardeners could achieve thermosets combining ultra-high shape recovery speed and excellent thermal properties. High shape recovery speed reflected high efficiency, and could decrease the energy consumption and the harmful effect of external stimuli on the materials, while it often conflicts with the thermal properties of shape memory polymers. In this paper, for the first time, epoxy resins with the super-short shape recovery time within 3 s were developed from non-planar-ring epoxies and hardeners, and their glass transition temperature (T g) were ~127 °C much higher than their benzene ring analogues. The effects of non-planar-ring structures of the epoxies and hardeners on the curing behavior, thermal properties as well as the shape memory properties of the thermosets were systematically investigated; the structure-property relationships were disclosed with the help of computational simulation of structure parameters and ESP maps. The faster shape recovery speed of the non-planar-ring epoxy thermosets is from their higher molecular mobility contributed by the conformational transition of non-planar-rings as well as their higher recovery force compared with benzene ring analogs. Their higher T gs are from the steric hindrance by the larger molecular volume of the non-planar-rings than benzene ring. This work will provide an effective method to produce shape memory polymers with excellent shape memory effects and high performance.

B-cell Lymphoma 2 rs17757541 C>G Polymorphism was Associated with an Increased Risk of Gastric Cardiac Adenocarcinoma in a Chinese Population

Li, Qiong,Yin, Jun,Wang, Xu,Wang, Li-Ming,Shi, Yi-Jun,Zheng, Liang,Tang, Wei-Feng,Ding, Guo-Wen,Liu, Chao,Liu, Rui-Ping,Gu, Hai-Yong,Sun, Jia-Ming,Chen, Suo-Cheng Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.7

Aim: Apoptosis has been considered as a fundamental component in cancer pathogenesis, and related genetic factors might play an important role in gastric cardiac adenocarcinoma (GCA) genesis. Methods: We conducted a hospital based case.control study to evaluate the genetic effects of functional single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs): BCL2 rs17757541 C>G, BCL2 rs12454712 T>C, FAS rs2234767 G>A, FASL/FASLG rs763110 C>T, ERBB2 rs1136201 A>G and VEGFR2/KDR rs11941492 C>T on the development of GCA. A total of 243 GCA cases and 476 controls were recruited for the study and genotypes were determined using a custom-by-design 48-Plex SNPscan$^{TM}$ Kit. Results: The BCL2 rs17757541 C>G polymorphism was associated with increased risk of GCA. However, there was no significant associations with the other five SNPs. Stratified analyses indicated a significantly increased risk of GCA associated with the BCL2 rs17757541 C>G polymorphism among males, older patients and those with a history of smoking or drinking. Conclusion: These findings indicated that the functional polymorphism BCL2 rs17757541 C>G might contribute to GCA susceptibility. However, our results were limited by small sample size. Future larger studies are required to confirm our current findings.

Long non-coding RNA NEAT1 decreases the chemosensitivity of gastric cancer cells via regulating P-glycoprotein expression

Jian Wang,Qiong Niu,Ning Shi,Chengxia Liu,Haifeng Lian,Jiancheng Li,Kun Li,K. Li 대한독성 유전단백체 학회 2017 Molecular & cellular toxicology Vol.13 No.3

Drug resistance remains to be one of the major challenges in clinical treatment of gastric cancer (GC). Accumulating evidences have highlighted the involvement of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) in carcinogenesis, chemoresistance, and metastasis. NEAT1, a recently identified lncRNA, was identified as an oncogene to regulate carcinogenesis. This present study aimed to investigate the role of NEAT1 in the drug resistance in GC. Our study found that NEAT1 expression was significantly upregulated in relapsed GC patients and cisplatin (CDDP)-resistant cell lines compared with primary GC patients and parental GC cell lines. NEAT1 upregulation was largely companied with the induction of P-gp. Overexpression of NEAT1 significantly increased the expression of several drug-resistance proteins, thereby compromising the sensitivity of GC cells to CDDP. In contrast, NEAT1 knockdown by RNAi did the opposite. Therefore, lncRNA NEAT1 is an important modulator for drug resistance of GC via promoting the expression of P-gp and other associated proteins.

Recent insights into autophagy and metals/nanoparticles exposure

Li Qiong,Feng Yajing,Wang Ruike,Liu Rundong,Ba Yue,Huang Hui 한국독성학회 2023 Toxicological Research Vol.39 No.3

Some anthropogenic pollutants, such as heavy metals and nanoparticles (NPs), are widely distributed and a major threat to environmental safety and public health. In particular, lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), arsenic (As), and mercury (Hg) have systemic toxicity even at extremely low concentrations, so they are listed as priority metals in relation to their significant public health burden. Aluminum (Al) is also toxic to multiple organs and is linked to Alzheimer’s disease. As the utilization of many metal nanoparticles (MNPs) gradually gain traction in industrial and medical applications, they are increasingly being investigated to address potential toxicity by impairing certain biological barriers. The dominant toxic mechanism of these metals and MNPs is the induction of oxidative stress, which subsequently triggers lipid peroxidation, protein modification, and DNA damage. Notably, a growing body of research has revealed the linkage between dysregulated autophagy and some diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases and cancers. Among them, some metals or metal mixtures can act as environmental stimuli and disturb basal autophagic activity, which has an underlying adverse health effect. Some studies also revealed that specific autophagy inhibitors or activators could modify the abnormal autophagic flux attributed to continuous exposure to metals. In this review, we have gathered recent data about the contribution of the autophagy/mitophagy mediated toxic effects and focused on the involvement of some key regulatory factors of autophagic signaling during exposure to selected metals, metal mixtures, as well as MNPs in the real world. Besides this, we summarized the potential significance of interactions between autophagy and excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated oxidative damage in the regulation of cell survival response to metals/NPs. A critical view is given on the application of autophagy activators/inhibitors to modulate the systematic toxicity of various metals/MNPs.

Grafting sulfated zirconia on mesoporous silica

Wang, Yong,Lee, Kwan-Young,Choi, Saemin,Liu, Jun,Wang, Li-Qiong,Peden, Charles H. F. Royal Society of Chemistry 2007 Green chemistry Vol.9 No.6

<P>Recently, sulfated zirconia has received considerable attention as a potential solid acid catalyst to replace problematic homogeneous acid catalysts. In this paper, the preparation and properties of acid catalysts obtained by grafting ziconia with atomic precision on MCM-41 mesoporous silica were studied. TEM and potential titration characterizations revealed that ZrO<SUB>2</SUB>/MCM-41 with monolayer coverage can be obtained using this grafting technique. Sulfated ZrO<SUB>2</SUB>/MCM-41 exhibits improved thermal stability than that of bulk sulfated zirconia, as evidenced by temperature programmed characterizations and XRD analysis. Temperature programmed reaction of isopropanol was used to evaluate the acidity of sulfated ZrO<SUB>2</SUB>/MCM-41. It was found that the acid strength of sulfated ZrO<SUB>2</SUB>/MCM-41 with monolayer coverage is weaker than bulk sulfated zirconia but stronger than SiO<SUB>2</SUB>–Al<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>3</SUB>, a common strong acid catalyst.</P> <P>Graphic Abstract</P><P>Sulfated zirconia solid acid catalysts were prepared by grafting zirconium oxide on mesoporous silica with layer-by-layer coverage, followed by depositing sulfate groups on the surface. <IMG SRC='http://pubs.rsc.org/services/images/RSCpubs.ePlatform.Service.FreeContent.ImageService.svc/ImageService/image/GA?id=b614928f'> </P>

Reliability analysis of degradation with a new independent increment process

Qiong Wu,Jianzhong Yang,Jingyan Wang,Li Xue 대한기계학회 2014 JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol.28 No.10

Degradation test is an important method to assess the reliability of complex systems and highly reliable products. The effectiveness ofa degradation model depends strongly on the suitability of the model to describe the process. This paper proposes a new degradationmodel in which the characteristics of the widely used stochastic process and degradation path models are considered simultaneously. According to the proposed model, closed-form expressions of the performance distribution, failure time distribution and their percentiles,as well as reliability, can be obtained easily. A one-stage procedure is then developed to estimate the model parameters, based on which,estimations of the performance distribution, failure time distribution, and reliability are also presented in the paper. Finally, simulationstudies are conducted to validate the proposed method. Results suggest that the method provides precise estimates even for zero-failurecases or an extremely small sample size of approximately five.

β-elemene Induces Caspase-dependent Apoptosis in Human Glioma Cells in vitro through the Upregulation of Bax and Fas/FasL and Downregulation of Bcl-2

Li, Chen-Long,Chang, Liang,Guo, Lin,Zhao, Dan,Liu, Hui-Bin,Wang, Qiu-Shi,Zhang, Ping,Du, Wen-Zhong,Liu, Xing,Zhang, Hai-Tao,Liu, Yang,Zhang, Yao,Xie, Jing-Hong,Ming, Jian-Guang,Cui, Yu-Qiong,Sun, Ying Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.23

Background: ${\beta}$-elemene, extracted from herb medicine Curcuma wenyujin has potent anti-tumor effects in various cancer cell lines. However, the activity of ${\beta}$-elemene against glioma cells remains unclear. In the present study, we assessed effects of ${\beta}$-elemene on human glioma cells and explored the underlying mechanism. Materials and Methods: Human glioma U87 cells were used. Cell proliferation was determined with MTT assay and colony formation assay to detect the effect of ${\beta}$-elemene at different doses and times. Fluorescence microscopy was used to observe cell apoptosis with Hoechst 33258 staining and change of glioma apoptosis and cell cycling were analyzed by flow cytometry. Real-time quantitative PCR and Western-blotting assay were performed to investigated the influence of ${\beta}$-elemene on expression levels of Fas/FasL, caspase-3, Bcl-2 and Bax. The experiment was divided into two groups: the blank control group and ${\beta}$-elemne treatment group. Results: With increase in the concentration of ${\beta}$-elemene, cytotoxic effects were enhanced in the glioma cell line and the concentration of inhibited cell viability ($IC_{50}$) was $48.5{\mu}g/mL$ for 24h. ${\beta}$-elemene could induce cell cycle arrest in the G0/G1 phase. With Hoechst 33258 staining, apoptotic nuclear morphological changes were observed. Activation of caspase-3,-8 and -9 was increased and the pro-apoptotic factors Fas/FasL and Bax were upregulated, while the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 was downregulated after treatment with ${\beta}$-elemene at both mRNA and protein levels. Furthermore, proliferation and colony formation by U87 cells were inhibited by ${\beta}$-elemene in a time and does-dependent manner. Conclusions: Our results indicate that ${\beta}$-elemene inhibits growth and induces apoptosis of human glioma cells in vitro. The induction of apoptosis appears to be related with the upregulation of Fas/FasL and Bax, activation of caspase-3,-8 and -9 and downregulation of Bcl-2, which then trigger major apoptotic cascades.