Magnetically separable Au-TiO₂/nanocube ZnFe₂O₄ composite for chlortetracycline removal in wastewater under visible light

Jia, Yuefa,Liu, Jia,Cha, Sangwon,Choi, Soobin,Park, Yun Chang,Liu, Chunli THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING 2017 JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY -S Vol.47 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>Magnetically recyclable Au-TiO<SUB>2</SUB>/nanocube ZnFe<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>4</SUB> (Au-TiO<SUB>2</SUB>/NC ZFO) composite photocatalysts have been successfully prepared by a hydrothermal method. It was revealed that Au-TiO<SUB>2</SUB>/NC ZFO composite with 25% mass percentage of Au-TiO<SUB>2</SUB> exhibited a significantly enhanced photocatalytic efficiency toward chlortetracycline (CTC) degradation as compared to the binary TiO<SUB>2</SUB>/NC ZFO composite. The enhanced performance can be attributed to the addition of Au nanoparticles, which act as electron traps aiding the electron-hole separation and increasing the light absorption through the surface plasmon resonance effect. The synthesized catalyst showed good stability after three cycles and could be easily separated by a magnet and reused.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> A new type ternary Au-TiO<SUB>2</SUB>/nanocube ZnFe<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>4</SUB>. </LI> <LI> The Au-TiO<SUB>2</SUB>/nanocube ZnFe<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>4</SUB> shows superior photocatalytic activity. </LI> <LI> The chlortetracycline can be removed by Au-TiO<SUB>2</SUB>/nanocube ZnFe<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>4</SUB>. </LI> <LI> Cycle degradation tests show the catalyst was highly active, stable and recoverable. </LI> </UL> </P> <P><B>Graphical abstract</B></P> <P>Magnetically separable Au-TiO<SUB>2</SUB>/nanocube ZnFe<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>4</SUB> composite exhibit an outstanding photocatalytic activity in degradation of chlortetracycline (CTC) under visible light irradiation.</P> <P>[DISPLAY OMISSION]</P>

Annual Financial Impact of Thyroidectomies for Nodular Thyroid Disease in China

Liu, Xiao-Yun,Zhu, Li-Jun,Cui, Dai,Wang, Zhi-Xiao,Chen, Huan-Huan,Duan, Yu,Shen, Mei-Ping,Zhang, Zhi-Hong,Wang, Xiao-Dong,Chen, Jia-Wei,Alexander, Erik Karl,Yang, Tao Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.14

A large proportion of patients with thyroid nodules in China undergo thyroidectomy in order to get confirmatory histology diagnosis. The financial impact of this modality remains to be investigated. To evaluate rationality of performing thyroidectomy without a routine FNA preoperatively from the economic perspective, we conducted a retrospective, observational study of all archival thyroidectomies with records of cost per stay (CPS), cost per day (CPD) and length of stay (LOS) from 2008 to 2013 in the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University. We compared all the parameters between cancer and non-cancer thyroidectomies. We recruited 6, 140 thyroidectomies with valid records of CPS, CPD and LOS in this period. The CPS of cancer thyroidectomy was significantly higher than non-cancer thyroidectomy. The percentage of cancer thyroidectomy increased from 26.5% to 41.6%. The percentage of annual cost of cancer thyroidectomies rose from 30.2% to 45.2%. The LOS for cancer and non-cancer thyroidectomy decreased while the CPD increased in the past six years. The estimated national cost in 2012 for all thyroidectomies would be USD 1.86 billion with USD 1.09 billion for non-cancer thyroidectomies. We have witnessed great improvement in the healthcare for patients with thyroid nodules in China. However, given limited healthcare resources, currently thyroid FNA for more precise preoperative diagnosis may help to curb the rapidly increasing demand in healthcare costs in the future for nodular thyroid disease in China.

A Mutation in <i>PGM2</i> Causing Inefficient Galactose Metabolism in the Probiotic Yeast <i>Saccharomyces boulardii</i>

Liu, Jing-Jing,Zhang, Guo-Chang,Kong, In Iok,Yun, Eun Ju,Zheng, Jia-Qi,Kweon, Dae-Hyuk,Jin, Yong-Su American Society for Microbiology 2018 Applied and environmental microbiology Vol.84 No.10

<P>IMPORTANCE Saccharomyces boulardii is a probiotic yeast strain capable of preventing and treating diarrheal diseases. However, the genetics and metabolism of this yeast are largely unexplored. In particular, molecular mechanisms underlying the inefficient galactose metabolism of S. boulardii remain unknown. Our study reports that a point mutation in PGM2, which codes for phosphoglucomutase, is responsible for inferior galactose utilization by S. boulardii. After correction of the mutated PGM2 via genome editing, the resulting strain was able to use galactose faster than a parental strain. While the PGM2 mutation made the yeast use galactose slowly, investigation of the genomic sequencing data of other S. boulardii strains revealed that the PGM2 mutation is evolutionarily conserved. Interestingly, the PGM2 mutation was beneficial for growth at a higher temperature on glucose. We speculate that the PGM2 mutation was enriched due to selection of S. boulardii in the natural habitat (sugar-rich fruits in tropical areas).</P>

High Expression of MICA in Human Kidney Cancer Tissue and Renal Cell Carcinoma Lines

Jia, Hong-Ying,Liu, Jun-Li,Zhou, Cheng-Jun,Kong, Feng,Yuan, Ming-Zhen,Sun, Wen-Dong,Wang, Jue,Liu, Ling,Zhao, Jing-Jie,Luan, Yun Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.4

The overall incidence and mortality of renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the most common kidney cancer, are steadily increasing for reasons that are not fully explained. Our aim was to explore the expression of membrane MHC class I chain-related gene A (mMICA) in human RCC cell lines and tissue specimens, and to determine expression of soluble MICA (sMICA) in serum of patients with renal cell carcinoma, we used flow cytometry (FCM) and immunohistochemistry as well as an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The results showed that percentage of mMICA expression was significantly increased in human kidney cancer tissues and RCC cell lines (786-O and Ketr-3) than that in healthy adults and human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cell line individuality (P<0.05). sMICA content in healthy adults was negative, but in renal cancer patients was significantly elevated (P<0.05). Our research showed that high expression of MICA in human kidney cancer, this results show that MICA might serve as potential tumor-associated antigen (TAA) in RCC.

Causes, Features, and Outcomes of Drug-Induced Liver Injury in 69 Children from China

( Yun Zhu ),( Yong Gang Li ),( Jia Bo Wang ),( Shu Hong Liu ),( Li Fu Wang ),( Yan Ling Zhao ),( Yun Feng Bai ),( Zhong Xia Wang ),( Jian Yu Li ),( Xiao He Xiao ) 대한소화기학회 2015 Gut and Liver Vol.9 No.4

Background/Aims: Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a frequent cause of pediatric liver disease; however, the data on DILI are remarkably limited. Methods: All 69 children hospitalized with DILI between January 2009 and December 2011 were retrospectively studied. Results: A total of 37.7% of the children had medical histories of respiratory infection. The clinical injury patterns were as follows: hepatocellular 89.9%, cholestatic 2.9%, and mixed 7.2%. Liver biopsies from 55 children most frequently demonstrated chronic (47.3%) and acute (27.3%) hepatitis. Hypersensitivity features, namely, fever (31.9%), rash (21.7%), and eosinophilia (1.4%), were found. Twenty-four children (34.8%) developed chronic DILI. Antibiotics (26.1%) were the most common Western medicines (WMs) causing DILI, and the major implicated herbs were Ephedra sinica and Polygonum multiflorum. Compared with WM, the children whose injuries were caused by Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) showed a higher level of total bilirubin (1.4 mg/dL vs 16.6 mg/dL, p=0.004) and a longer prothrombin time (11.8 seconds vs 17.3 seconds, p=0.012), but they exhibited less chronic DILI (2/15 vs 18/39, p=0.031). Conclusions: Most cases of DILI in children are caused by antibiotics or CHM used to treat respiratory infection and present with hepatocellular injury. Compared with WM, CHM is more likely to cause severe liver injury, but liver injury caused by CHM is curable. (Gut Liver 2015;9:525-533)

Regulation Roles of MICA and NKG2D in Human Renal Cancer Cells

Jia, Hong-Ying,Liu, Jun-Li,Yuan, Ming-Zhen,Zhou, Cheng-Jun,Sun, Wen-Dong,Zhao, Jing-Jie,Wang, Jue,Liu, Ling,Luan, Yun Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.9

Objective: Our aim was to investigation the roles of MHC class I chain-related gene A(MICA) and natural killer cell group 2D(NKG2D) in human renal cancer cells. Materials and Methods: The expression of membrane MICA (mMICA) on renal cells and NKG2D on NK cells were detected by flow cytometry (FCM); the content of sMICA were detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and the distribution of mMICA on renal tumor tissues by immunohistochemistry; the interaction between MICA and NKG2D was observed by antibody closed method. Results: Our results showed that the expression of mMICA in renal cancer tissues was significantly higher than in controls, where the soluble MICA was not expressed. Cytotoxic activity of NK cells was significantly reduced after exposure to NKG2D and MICA antibodies (P<0.05), and serum containing sMICA can obviously lower the function of NKG2D (P<0.05). Conclusions: The interaction of mMICA and NKG2D play important roles in mediation of cytotoxicity of NK cells in RCC. On the other hand, sMICA may mediate tumor immune escape through down- regulated NKG2D expression.

Nitrogen doped BiFeO₃ with enhanced magnetic properties and photo-Fenton catalytic activity for degradation of bisphenol A under visible light

Jia, Yuefa,Wu, Changjin,Kim, Deok-Hyeon,Lee, B.W.,Rhee, S.J.,Park, Yun Chang,Kim, Chul Sung,Wang, Q.J.,Liu, Chunli Elsevier 2018 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL -LAUSANNE- Vol.337 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>In the present work, N doped BiFeO<SUB>3</SUB> (N-BFO) nanoparticles have been synthesized via a sol-gel rapid calcination technique using melamine (C<SUB>3</SUB>H<SUB>6</SUB>N<SUB>6</SUB>) as the N precursor. It is found that N-doping could effectively narrow the band gap of BFO, which obviously enhanced the visible light adsorption capability. Meanwhile, N-doping could lead to significant increase in the magnetization of BFO. Particularly, the saturation magnetization (<I>M<SUB>s</SUB> </I>) was increased up to 0.35 emu/g (as compared to that of pure BFO: 0.07 emu/g) when 12.5 mmol N doping precursor was used (12.5N-BFO). The catalytic performance of N-BFO nanoparticles was evaluated through the degradation of bisphenol A (BPA) under visible light irradiation. 12.5N-BFO was found to be an efficient catalyst of BPA, and the addition of H<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>2</SUB> (10 mmol/L) or H<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>2</SUB> (10 mmol/L)/<SMALL>L</SMALL>-cysteine (0.25 mmol/L) can further enhance the degradation efficiency up to 60% and 94% within 120 min, respectively. The 12.5N-BFO nanoparticles were very stable during photocatalytic processes and their photo-Fenton catalytic activity can be retained even after three recycling processes.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> N doped BiFeO<SUB>3</SUB> have been synthesized using melamine as the N precursor. </LI> <LI> The band gap and saturation magnetization of N doped BiFeO<SUB>3</SUB> is tunable. </LI> <LI> N doped BiFeO<SUB>3</SUB>/H<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>2</SUB> shows enhanced efficient degradation of bisphenol A. </LI> <LI> Addition of <SMALL>L</SMALL>-cysteine can further enhanced photodegradation performance. </LI> <LI> A mechanism of bisphenol A degradation was proposed. </LI> </UL> </P> <P><B>Graphical abstract</B></P> <P>[DISPLAY OMISSION]</P>

Up-regulating of RASD1 and Apoptosis of DU-145 Human Prostate Cancer Cells Induced by Formononetin in Vitro

Liu, Xiao-Jia,Li, Yun-Qian,Chen, Qiu-Yue,Xiao, Sheng-Jun,Zeng, Si-En Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.6

Prostate cancer is one of the most prevalent malignant cancers in men. The isoflavone formononetin is a main active component of red clover plants. In the present study, we assessed the effect of formononetin on human prostate cancer DU-145 cells in vitro, and elucidated posssible mechanisms. DU-145 cells were treated with different concentrations of formononetin and cell proliferation was assessed by MTT assay, cell apoptosis by Hoechst 33258 and flow cytometry, and protein levels of RASD1, Bcl-2 and Bax by Western blotting. The results showed that formononetin inhibited the proliferation of DU-145 cells in a dose-dependent manner. DU-145 cells treated with different concentrations of formononetin displayed obvious morphological changes of apoptosis under fluorescence microscopy. In addition, formononetin increased the proportion of early apoptotic DU-145 cells, down-regulated the protein levels of Bcl-2 and up-regulated those of RASD1 and Bax. The level of RASD1 reached its maximum at 48h post-treatment, and rapidly decreased thereafter. Together, we present evidence that formononetin triggered cell apoptosis through the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway by up-regulating RASD1.

Effects of astaxanthin on antioxidant capacity of golden pompano (Trachinotus ovatus) in vivo and in vitro

( Jia-jun Xie ),( Xu Chen ),( Jin Niu ),( Jun Wang ),( Yun Wang ),( Qiang-qiang Liu ) 한국수산과학회 2017 Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences Vol.20 No.2

The objective of this research was to study the effect of astaxanthin (AST) on growth performance and antioxidant capacity in golden pompano (Trachinotus ovatus) both in vivo and in vitro. In the in vivo study, two diets were formulated with or without astaxanthin supplementation (D1 and D2; 0 and 200 mg/kg) to feed fish for 6 weeks. In the in vitro study, cells from hepatopancreas of golden pompano were isolated and four treatments with or without astaxanthin and H₂O₂ supplementation were applied (control group: without both astaxanthin and H₂O₂ treated; H₂O₂ group: just with H₂O₂ treated; H₂O₂ + AST group: with both astaxanthin and H₂O₂ treated; AST group: just with AST treated). Results of the in vivo study showed that weight gain (WG) and special growth rate (SGR) significantly increased with astaxanthin supplemented (P < 0.05). Feed conversion ratio (FCR) of fish fed D2 diet was significantly lower than that of fish fed D1 diet (P < 0.05). Hepatic total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) and the reduced glutathione (GSH) of golden pompano fed D2 diet were significant higher than those of fish fed D1 diet (P < 0.05). Superoxide dismutase (SOD) was significantly declined as astaxanthin was supplemented (P < 0.05). Results of the in vitro study showed that the cell viability of H₂O₂ group was 52.37% compared to the control group, and it was significantly elevated to 84.18% by astaxanthin supplementation (H₂O₂ + AST group) (P < 0.05). The total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) and the reduced glutathione (GSH) of cell were significant decreased by oxidative stress from H₂O₂ (P < 0.05), but it could be raised by astaxanthin supplementation (H₂O₂ vs H₂O₂ + AST), and the malondialdehyde (MDA) was significant higher in H₂O₂ group (P < 0.05) and astaxanthin supplementation could alleviate the cells from lipid peroxidation injury. In conclusion, dietary astaxanthin supplementation can improve the growth performance of golden pompano. Moreover, astaxanthin can improve the golden pompano hepatic antioxidant capacity both in vivo and in vitro study by eliminating the reactive oxygen species.

Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms of NLRP12 Gene and Association with Non-specific Digestive Disorder in Rabbit

Liu, Yun-Fu,Zhang, Gong-Wei,Xiao, Zheng-Long,Yang, Yu,Deng, Xiao-Song,Chen, Shi-Yi,Wang, Jie,Lai, Song-Jia Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2013 Animal Bioscience Vol.26 No.8

The NLRP12 (NLR family, pyrin domain containing 12) serves as a suppressor factor in the inflammatory response and protects the host against inflammation-induced damage. In the present study, we aimed to study the polymorphisms of NLRP12 gene and its association with susceptibility to non-specific digestive disorder (NSDD) in rabbits. We re-sequenced the entire coding region of the rabbit NLRP12 gene and detected a total of 19 SNPs containing 14 synonymous and five non-synonymous variations. Among them, the coding SNP (c.1682A>G), which would carry a potential functional implication, was subsequently subjected to genotyping for case-control association study (272 cases and 267 controls). The results revealed that allele A was significantly protective against NSDD with an odds ratio value of 0.884 (95% confidence interval, 0.788 to 0.993; p = 0.038). We also experimentally induced NSDD in growing rabbits by feeding a fibre-deficient diet and subsequently investigated NLRP12 mRNA expression. The mRNA expression of NLRP12 in healthy status was significantly higher than that in severe NSDD (p = 0.0016). The highest expression was observed in individuals carrying the protective genotype AA (p = 0.0108). These results suggested that NLRP12 was significantly associated with the NSDD in rabbits. However, the precise molecular mechanism of NLRP12 involving in the development of rabbit NSDD requires further research.