White-Matter Hyperintensities and Lacunar Infarcts Are Associated with an Increased Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease in the Elderly in China

Shuai Ye,Shuyang Dong,Jun Tan,Le Chen,Hai Yang,Yang Chen,Zeyan Peng,Yingchao Huo,Juan Liu,Mingshan Tang,Yafei Li,Huadong Zhou,Yong Tao 대한신경과학회 2019 Journal of Clinical Neurology Vol.15 No.1

Background and Purpose This study investigated the contribution of white-matter hyperintensities (WMH) and lacunar infarcts (LI) to the risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in an elderly cohort in China. Methods Older adults who were initially cognitively normal were examined with MRI at baseline, and followed for 5 years. WMH were classified as mild, moderate, or severe, and LI were classified into a few LI (1 to 3) or many LI (≥4). Cognitive function was assessed using the Mini Mental State Examination and the Activities of Daily Living scale. Results Among the 2,626 subjects, 357 developed AD by the end of the 5-year follow-up period. After adjusting for age and other potential confounders, having only WMH, having only LI, and having both WMH and LI were associated with an increased risk of developing AD compared with having neither WMH nor LI. Moderate and severe WMH were associated with an increased risk of developing AD compared with no WMH. Furthermore, patients with many LI had an increased risk of developing AD compared with no LI. Conclusions Having moderate or severe WMH and many LI were associated with an increased risk of developing AD, with this being particularly striking when both WMH and LI were present.

Hot Deformation Behavior and Recrystallization Mechanism in an As-Cast CoNi-Based Superalloy

Yong Guan,Yongchang Liu,Zongqing Ma,Huijun Li,Hongyao Yu 대한금속·재료학회 2022 METALS AND MATERIALS International Vol.28 No.6

The hot deformation behavior of as-cast CoNi-based superalloy was investigated by means of hot compression tests. Thecorresponding microstructure evolution after hot deformation was examined by optical microscope, as well as the TEMtechnique. The constitutive equation and processing map as a function of deformation temperature and strain rate were developed. Results show that the efficiency peak of the processing map is 0.38 at the temperature of 1130 °C and the strain rate of0.01 s−1. The discontinuous dynamic recrystallization (DDRX) related to the strain-induced grain boundary migration (SIBM)is the dominant recrystallization mechanism during hot working. Meanwhile, the DRX also occurs by forming sub-grainsaround MC carbides and shear band. In addition, the existence of fine γ′ precipitates are found to retard the recrystallization.

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>

Microstructure and property evolution of diamond-like carbon films co-doped by Al and Ti with different ratios

Zhou, Yong,Guo, Peng,Sun, Lili,Liu, Linlin,Xu, Xiaowei,Li, Wenxian,Li, Xiaowei,Lee, Kwang-Ryeol,Wang, Aiying Elsevier Sequoia 2019 Surface & coatings technology Vol.361 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films with weak carbide metal Al and carbide metal Ti co-doping (Al/Ti-DLC) were prepared by a hybrid ion beam deposition system. The atomic ratios of doped Al to Ti were tailored via designing the special Al/Ti combined sputtering target. The composition, microstructure, roughness, residual stress, hardness, toughness, and tribological behaviors of the deposited films were systematically evaluated to explore the dependence of structural properties on Al/Ti ratios. Results indicated that the high-throughput preparation of DLC films with different Al/Ti atomic ratios was achieved by tailoring the sputtering target and process parameters without the difference in both the film thickness and total Al/Ti content. With the Al/Ti ratios in the films decreased from 8.8 to 3.0, the residual stress, hardness, and toughness of Al/Ti-DLC films increased obviously, originating from the increased fraction of titanium carbide and the reduced Al content. However, the coefficient of friction and wear rate with decreasing the Al/Ti ratio were obviously improved, which was related with the transformation of underlying friction mechanism from the sliding interface graphitization to dangling bond-passivation. The present results not only suggest a high-throughput method to fabricate co-doped DLC films, but also promote the scientific understanding and engineering application of DLC films with high performance.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> Ti/Al co-doped diamond-like carbon films were fabricated by a hybrid ion beam method. </LI> <LI> Different Al/Ti ratios were successfully achieved at one time using designed target. </LI> <LI> Al/Ti ratios had no effect on the chemical state of co-doped Ti and Al atoms. </LI> <LI> The mechanical and tribological properties were strongly dependent on Ti/Al ratios. </LI> <LI> Different friction mechanisms were observed with Al/Ti ratios ranged from 8.8 to 3.0. </LI> </UL> </P>

JCAD deficiency attenuates activation of hepatic stellate cells and cholestatic fibrosis

Li Xie,Hui Chen,Li Zhang,Yue Ma,Yuan Zhou,Yong-Yu Yang,Chang Liu,Yu-Li Wang,Ya-Jun Yan,Jia Ding,Xiao Teng,Qiang Yang,Xiu-Ping Liu,Jian Wu 대한간학회 2024 Clinical and Molecular Hepatology(대한간학회지) Vol.30 No.2

Background/Aims: Cholestatic liver diseases including primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) are associated with active hepatic fibrogenesis, which ultimately progresses to cirrhosis. Activated hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) are the main fibrogenic effectors in response to cholangiocyte damage. JCAD regulates cell proliferation and malignant transformation in nonalcoholic steatoheaptitis-associated hepatocellular carcinoma (NASH-HCC). However, its participation in cholestatic fibrosis has not been explored yet. Methods: Serial sections of liver tissue of PBC patients were stained with immunofluorescence. Hepatic fibrosis was induced by bile duct ligation (BDL) in wild-type (WT), global JCAD knockout mice (JCAD-KO) and HSC-specific JCAD knockout mice (HSC-JCAD-KO), and evaluated by histopathology and biochemical tests. In situ-activated HSCs isolated from BDL mice were used to determine effects of JCAD on HSC activation. Results: In consistence with staining of liver sections from PBC patients, immunofluorescent staining revealed that JCAD expression was identified in smooth muscle α-actin (α-SMA)-positive fibroblast-like cells and was significantly up-regulated in WT mice with BDL. JCAD deficiency remarkably ameliorated BDL-induced hepatic injury and fibrosis, as documented by liver hydroxyproline content, when compared to WT mice with BDL. Histopathologically, collagen deposition was dramatically reduced in both JCAD-KO and HSC-JCAD-KO mice compared to WT mice, as visualized by Trichrome staining and semi-quantitative scores. Moreover, JCAD deprivation significantly attenuated in situ HSC activation and reduced expression of fibrotic genes after BDL. Conclusions: JCAD deficiency effectively suppressed hepatic fibrosis induced by BDL in mice, and the underlying mechanisms are largely through suppressed Hippo-YAP signaling activity in HSCs.

Matrine Reduces Proliferation of Human Lung Cancer Cells by Inducing Apoptosis and Changing miRNA Expression Profiles

Liu, Yong-Qi,Li, Yi,Qin, Jie,Wang, Qian,She, Ya-Li,Luo, Ya-Li,He, Jian-Xin,Li, Jing-Ya,Xie, Xiao-Dong Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.5

Matrine, a main active component extracted from dry roots of Sophora flavecens, has been reported to exert antitumor effects on A549 human non-small lung cancer cells, but its mechanisms of action remain unclear. To determine effects of matrine on proliferation of A549 cells and assess possible mechanisms, MTT assays were employed to detect cytotoxicity, along with o flow cytometric analysis of DNA content of nuclei of cells following staining with propidium iodide to analyze cell cycle distribution. Western blotting was performed to determined expression levels of Bax, Bcl-2, VEGF and HDAC1, while a microarray was used to assessed changes of miRNA profiles. In the MTT assay, matrine suppressed growth of human lung cancer cell A549 in a dose- and timedependent manner at doses of 0.25-2.5 mg/ml for 24h, 48h or 72h. Matrine induced cell cycle arrest in G0/G1 phase and decreased the G2/M phase, while down-regulating the expression of Bcl2 protein, leading to a reduction in the Bcl-2/Bax ratio. In addition, matrine down regulated the expression level of VEGF and HDAC1 of A549 cells. Microarray analysis demonstrated that matrine altered the expression level of miRNAs compared with untreated control A549 cells. In conclusion, matrine could inhibit proliferation of A549 cells, providing useful information for understanding anticancer mechanisms.

Clinical Significance of Upregulation of mir-196a-5p in Gastric Cancer and Enriched KEGG Pathway Analysis of Target Genes

Li, Hai-Long,Xie, Shou-Pin,Yang, Ya-Li,Cheng, Ying-Xia,Zhang, Ying,Wang, Jing,Wang, Yong,Liu, Da-Long,Chen, Zhao-Feng,Zhou, Yong-Ning,Wu, Hong-Yan Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.5

Background: miRNAs are relatively recently discovered cancer biomarkers which have important implications for cancer early diagnosis, treatment and estimation of prognosis. Here we focussed on expression of mir-196a-5p in gastric cancer tissues and cell lines so as to analyse its significance for clinicopathologic characteristics and generate enriched KEGG pathways clustered by target genes for exploring its potential roles as a biomarker in gastric cancer. Materials and Methods: The expression of mir-196a-5p in poorly, moderate and well differentiated gastric cancer cell lines compared with GES-1 was detected by RT-qPCR, and the expression of mir-196a-5p in gastric cancer tissues comparing with adjacent non cancer tissues of 58 cases were also assessed by RT-qPCR. Subsequently, an analysis of clinical significance of mir-196a-5p in gastric cancer and enriched KEGG pathways was executed based on the miRWalk prediction database combined with bioinformatics tools DAVID 6.7 and Mirfocus 3.0. Results: RT-qPCR showed that mir-196a-5p was up-regulated in 6 poorly and moderate differentiated gastric cancer cell lines SGC-7901, MKN-45, MKN-28, MGC-803, BGC-823, HGC-27 compared with GES-1, but down-regulated in the highly differentiated gastric cancer cell line AGS. Clinical data indicated mir-196a-5p to beup-regulated in gastric cancer tissues (47/58). Overexpression of mir-196a-5p was associated with more extensive degree of lymph node metastasis and clinical stage (P < 0.05; x2 test). Enriched KEGG pathway analyses of predicted and validated targets in miRWalk combined with DAVID 6.7 and Mirfocus 3.0 showed that the targeted genes regulated by mir-196a-5p were involved in malignancy associated biology. Conclusions: Overexpression of mir-196a-5p is associated with lymph node metastasis and clinical stage, and enriched KEGG pathway analyses showed that targeted genes regulated by mir-196a-5p may contribute to tumorgenesis, suggesting roles as an oncogenic miRNA biomarker in gastric cancer.

Curcumin Inhibits MHCC97H Liver Cancer Cells by Activating ROS/TLR-4/Caspase Signaling Pathway

Li, Pei-Min,Li, Yu-Liang,Liu, Bin,Wang, Wu-Jie,Wang, Yong-Zheng,Li, Zheng Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.5

Curcumin can inhibit proliferation of liver cancer cells by inducing apoptosis, but the specific signaling pathways involved are not completely clear. Here, we report that curcumin inhibited proliferation of MHCC97H liver cancer cells by induction of apoptosis in a concentration dependent manner via stimulating intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. Also, we showed that increased intracellular ROS formation activated the TLR-4/MyD-88 signaling pathway, resulting in activation of caspase-8 and caspase-3, which eventually led to apoptosis in MHCC97H cells. These results showed that as an prooxidant, curcumin exerts anti-cancer effects by inducing apoptosis via the TLR-4/MyD-88 signaling pathway.

Developing Brønsted–Lewis acids bifunctionalized ionic liquids based heteropolyacid hybrid as high-efficient solid acids in esterification and biomass conversion

Yong Liu,Yuefeng Wu,Miaojun Su,Weihua Liu,Xiying Li,Fujian Liu 한국공업화학회 2020 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.92 No.-

A class of Brønsted–Lewis acid bifunctionalized ionic liquids based heteropolyacid hybrid (BLA-ILs-HPA)solid acids were developed by combining the double sulfonic groups grafted, ionic liquids basedheteropolyacid hybrid with Lewis acidic centers (M = Zn, Co, Fe, Ni, Cu). The prepared BLA-ILs-HPA showboth Brønsted and Lewis acidic sites with extremely-high acid strength and enhanced stabilities, asdetermined by FT-IR, Py-IR, TG, XPS and 31P solid state NMR results. BLA-ILs-HPA were successfullyapplied in esterification camphene with acetic acid to produce isobornyl acetate, and dehydration ofglucose to produce 5-hydrozymethylfural. BLA-ILs-HPA show enhanced catalytic activities in comparisonwith various acid catalysts. The effects of reaction temperatures, initial reactant molar ratio, catalystdosage, and reaction time were studied in detail. The optimal reaction conditions were obtained, and theexperimental data was successfully correlated by a pseudohomogeneous (PH) reaction kinetic model inthe temperature range of 313.15–333.15 K. The calculated values obtained by the reaction kinetic modelwere in good agreement with the experimental data. Moreover, as a heterogeneous reaction catalyst,BLA-ILs-HPA can be recovered by simple treatment. After six times cycling, the decreasing in the catalyticactivity of BLA-ILs-HPA could not be observed significantly, suggesting their good reusability.

SALT-INDUCED CHLOROPLAST PROTEIN (SCP) is Involved in Plant Tolerance to Salt Stress in Arabidopsis

Yong Zhuang,Yangxuan Liu,Yuxiang Li,Ming Wei,Yuying Tang,Penghui Li,Zhijian Liu,Hui Li,Weizao Huang,Songhu Wang 한국식물학회 2019 Journal of Plant Biology Vol.62 No.6

Soil salinization threats the agricultural productionand food security worldwide. Salt stress induced plantsenescence and chloroplast degradation. However, it remainslargely unknown how the chloroplast-localized proteins affectplant response to salt stress. Here, we characterized a novelgene (At5g39520) in Arabidopsis, which is induced by saltstress and encodes a chloroplast-localized protein. Thus, thisgene was named SALT-INDUCED CHLOROPLAST PROTEIN(SCP). A T-DNA insertion mutant of SCP gene (scp-1)showed the enhanced tolerance to salt stress, as indicated bythe increased survival rates, fresh weights and chlorophyllcontents compared with wild type plants under salt treatment. Salt-induced leaf senescence was also delayed in scp-1 mutant. The scp-1 complementation line and SCP overexpressionlines displayed the hypersensitivity to salt stress. The qRTPCRanalysis indicated that the transcripts of CHLOROPLASTVESICULATION (CV), which mediates stress-inducedchloroplast degradation, were altered in scp-1 mutant andSCP overexpression lines. Taken together, our results suggestthat SCP gene plays a negative role in response to salt stress andhas potential application for genetic modification of improvingplant tolerance to salt stress.