Through the research training of undergraduate students of pharmacy utilizing medicinal chemistry research platform, not only the undergraduate teaching can be facilitated, but also the creative ability, communications skills, ability to work independently and team spirit of students can be developed,which will be helpful to cultivating high quality pharmacy talents, so as to meet the requirement of today's pharmaceutical companies and research institutes.

Invasion and metastasis are the leading causes of death from breast cancer. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) can induce cancer metastasis by promoting tumor malignances and reprogramming tumor metabolism. As an important part of glucose metabolism, aerobic glycolysis not only provides sufficient energy for rapid growth of tumor cells, but also provides metastasis advantage for tumor cells by promoting the EMT process. In addition, the crosstalk network between glycolysis and EMT synergistically triggers cancer metastasis. Therefore, abnormal glucose metabolism and EMT play a key role in the occurrence and development of breast cancer metastasis, suggesting its clinical promise for the management of breast cancer metastasis.

Objective To determine the affinities of five oligopeptides specifically binding with DNA binding domain of NF-?B p65 subunit and identify their inhibiting effect on DNA binding activity of NF-?B. Methods By using biosensor the affinities were measured by means of kinetic analysis, and the inhibiting effects were determined by competitive ELISA. Results The results of biosensor showed that all of five oligopeptides really possessed the capability of specific interacting with NF-?B p65 subunit. The affinity constants of these oligopeptides were 2.67?10~ -7 mol/L, 9.02?10~ -6 mol/L, 1.07?10~ -6 mol/L, 8.03?10~ -6 mol/L, 9.83?10~ -7 mol/L respectively. The results of competitive ELISA indicated that five oligopeptides could inhibit NF-?B from binding with ?B motif, and their inhibiting effect depended on their concentration. Conclusion Five oligopeptides that were screened by yeast two-hybrid system method can really interact with p65, and possess the inhibiting effect on DNA binding activity of NF-?B. So it will be possible that these oligopeptides are regarded as model to design and develop novel anti-inflammatory peptide drug targeting NF-?B.

Objective:To investigate the clinicopathological features, treatment and prognosis of neuroendocrine carcinoma of the breast.Methods:Clinical data of 26 patients with neuroendocrine carcinoma of the breast admitted to the Northern Jiangsu People's Hospital from July 2013 to Mar 2021 were analyzed.Results:All 26 cases were female, the average aged of (62.81±11.95) years, the first clinical manifestations were painless breast masses, the average size being of (23.34±9.47) mm. At the time of diagnosis, regional lymph node metastasis was found in 4 cases, 1 case developed distant metastasis. Most patients' were on stage Ⅱ by TNM staging, molecular typing was Luminal A, and invasive mammary carcinoma with neuroendocrine differentiation was most common, with positive rates of ER and PR of 96%, the positive rate of CgA and Syn were 69% and 100%, and there was not positive expression of HER2. All patients received surgical treatment, 25 patients underwent postoperative adjuvant therapy. Twenty-five patients were followed up for a median follow-up time of 39.50 months. During the follow-up, 3 cases developed distant metastasis, 1 case died, the mean survival time was (40.81±26.90) months, there was ao satistically significant difference compared with invasive mammary carcinoma ( t=1.291, P=0.209). The mean disease free interval is (39.96±27.58) months. The overall survival and disease free survival at 1, 2 and 5 years are 100%, 100% and 87%, respectively. Conclusions:Neuroendocrine carcinoma of the breast occurs more frequently in elderly women, often with large tumor size, low rate of regional lymph node and distant metastasis, moderate histological grade, early clinical stage, and the molecular typing is mostly Luminal A.The overall prognosis is fair.

Objective:To prepare primary cardiomyocyte (PCM) specific peptide-conjugated mesoporous silicon nanoparticles (MSN) with L-arginine (LA) as a core (PCM-MSN@LA), and evaluate its specific protective effect on septic myocardium.Methods:PCM-MSN@LA was prepared by condensation reaction, the characterization of PCM-MSN@LA, the amount of LA modification and release was detected, and the phagocytosis of PCM-MSN@LA and its affinity to myocardial tissue was observed. ① Experiment one: SD neonatal rat cardiomyocytes were divided into control group (Con group), lipopolysaccharide (LPS) group, MSN@LA/LPS group and PCM-MSN@LA/LPS group. The LPS group was stimulated with 5 mg/L LPS for 16 hours, while the MSN@LA/LPS group and PCM-MSN@LA/LPS group were treated with 5 mg/L LPS and 25 mg/L LA-containing nanoparticles (MSN@LA and PCM-MSN@LA) for 16 hours. Cell viability and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production levels were detected. Apoptosis was observed via terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling method (TUNEL). Western Blot was used to detect the changes in endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) proteins. ② Experiment two: 64 healthy male C57BL/6 mice were divided into Sham group, LPS group, MSN@LA/LPS group and PCM-MSN@LA/LPS group by random number table method, 16 mice in each group. LPS group were injected 50 mg/kg LPS intraperitoneally. MSN@LA/LPS group and PCM-MSN@LA/LPS group were injected with 0.5 mg/kg MSN@LA and PCM-MSN@LA via tail vein immediately after intraperitoneal injection of LPS. Eight animals in each group were used to observe the 24-hour survival rate, and the other 8 mice were used to detect cardiac function by echocardiography at 12 hours after operation; mRNA expressions of interleukin (IL-1, IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were measured by real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR).Results:PCM-MSN@LA was spherical, with particle size of about 180 nm, Zeta potential of about -21 mV, with LA loaded. The amount of LA modification and release rate were 12.3% and 24.3%, respectively. Cell phagocytosis experiments showed that PCM-MSN@LA had the targeting ability of cardiomyocytes and myocardial tissue. Experiment one: after LPS stimulation of myocardial cells, cell viability decreased, while ROS generation, apoptosis, eNOS and iNOS protein expressions increased. Compared with LPS group, MSN@LA/LPS group and PCM-MSN@LA/LPS group had higher cell viability, reduced ROS levels and apoptosis, increased expressions of eNOS and iNOS. PCM-MSN@LA/LPS group changed the above effect further than MSN@LA/LPS group [cell viability ( A value): 0.51±0.08 vs. 0.41±0.03, ROS (relative fluorescence intensity): 28 450±1 941 vs. 35 628±2 551, TUNEL positive cells/total cells: 0.27±0.03 vs. 0.35±0.04, eNOS/β-Tubulin: 1.467±0.046 vs. 1.201±0.131, iNOS/β-Tubulin: 1.700±0.033 vs. 1.577±0.068, all P < 0.05]. Experiment two: the number of 24-hour survive in MSN@LA/LPS group and PCM-MSN@ LA/LPS group were higher than LPS group (number: 2, 4 vs. 1, P values were 0.36 and 0.03 respectively). Compared with Sham group, the cardiac function of LPS group was significantly inhibited and the mRNA expression of inflammatory factors increased. The PCM-MSN@LA/LPS group had higher left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and left ventricular short-axis shortening rate (LVFS) than LPS group, and lower mRNA expressions of IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-α mRNA [LVEF: 0.456±0.019 vs. 0.337±0.017, LVFS: (21.97±1.78)% vs. (15.53±1.67)%, IL-1 mRNA (2 -ΔΔCT): 169.22±8.95 vs. 189.79±6.79, IL-6 mRNA (2 -ΔΔCT): 19.90±1.60 vs. 23.74±1.45, TNF-α mRNA (2 -ΔΔCT): 8.21±0.81 vs. 11.00±1.48, all P < 0.05]. There was no significant difference in each index between the MSN@LA/LPS group and LPS group. Conclusion:PCM-MSN@LA with myocardial targeting characteristic significantly increased the activity of myocardial cells, down-regulated the expression of inflammatory factors and the production of ROS, alleviated cardiac insufficiency in sepsis, and achieved the targeted treatment of myocardial injury in sepsis.

AIM: To explore the antibacterial activity and underlying mechanism of ursolic acid combined with fusidic acid against Staphylococcus aureus (SA) ATCC29213 and Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) ATCC43300 in vitro. METHODS: The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the combined use of ursolic acid and fusidic acid on SA, MRSA was determined by the micro broth dilution method and the micro checkerboard method, and the partial inhibitory concentration index (FICI) was calculated to determine the combined effect. And the bactericidal effect of fusidic acid combined with ursolic acid was studied by the time-killing curves. The agar double dilution method was used to determine the anti-drug resistance mutation concentration (MPC) and anti-drug resistance mutation selection window (MSW) of fusidic acid alone and in combination with ursolic acid. The viable count of biofilm carrier were determined by serial dilution method and the semi-quantitative biofilm by crystal violet staining method. RESULTS: The combined use of ursolic acid and fusidic acid for SA and MRSA FICI were 0.312 5 and 0.375, respectively. The time-killing curve showed that 1MIC ursolic acid combined with 1MIC fusidic acid has a synergistic bactericidal effect on SA and MRSA. The MPC of fusidic acid to MRSA was 256 μg/mL and the MSW was 256. After fusidic acid combined with ursolic acid, the MPC decreased to 8 μg/mL. The combined group was significantly reduced compared to the fusidic acid group. The semi-quantitative and biofilm bacterial counts of combined group were markedly decreased compared to the fusidic acid group after the biofilm cultivate for 48 h and 72 h.CONCLUSION: The combined use of UA and FA has a synergistic effect on SA and MRSA.

OBJECTIVETo explore the relationship between the distributions of posterior ramus of spinal nerve (PRSN) and locations of acupoint in low back through anatomical observation.

METHODSThe regional anatomy was performed at five corpses to observe the distribution of erector spinae muscle and PRSN in areas ofpoints and back-points in low back.

RESULTSThe T, L, L, Land LPRSN distributed on both sides of the spine; the medial branches of PRSN travelled between spinalis thoracis muscle and longissimus thoracis muscle, while the lateral branches of PRSN travelled between longissimus thoracis muscle and iliocostalis lumborum muscle.

CONCLUSIONS points and back-points in low back are closely associated with PRSN, particularly T, L, L, Land L.

In response to the problem that the traditional lower limb rehabilitation scale assessment method is time-consuming and difficult to use in exoskeleton rehabilitation training, this paper proposes a quantitative assessment method for lower limb walking ability based on lower limb exoskeleton robot training with multimodal synergistic information fusion. The method significantly improves the efficiency and reliability of the rehabilitation assessment process by introducing quantitative synergistic indicators fusing electrophysiological and kinematic level information. First, electromyographic and kinematic data of the lower extremity were collected from subjects trained to walk wearing an exoskeleton. Then, based on muscle synergy theory, a synergistic quantification algorithm was used to construct synergistic index features of electromyography and kinematics. Finally, the electrophysiological and kinematic level information was fused to build a modal feature fusion model and output the lower limb motor function score. The experimental results showed that the correlation coefficients of the constructed synergistic features of electromyography and kinematics with the clinical scale were 0.799 and 0.825, respectively. The results of the fused synergistic features in the K-nearest neighbor (KNN) model yielded higher correlation coefficients ( r = 0.921, P < 0.01). This method can modify the rehabilitation training mode of the exoskeleton robot according to the assessment results, which provides a basis for the synchronized assessment-training mode of "human in the loop" and provides a potential method for remote rehabilitation training and assessment of the lower extremity.
Humans ; Exoskeleton Device ; Reproducibility of Results ; Walking/physiology* ; Lower Extremity ; Algorithms ; Stroke Rehabilitation/methods*

In the original publication, Figure 4G was incorrectly published. The correct version of Figure 4G is presented in this correction. This correction does not affect the conclusions of the paper.

The present study was designed to examine the therapeutic effects of Botulinum neurotoxin A (BoNT/A) on depression-like behaviors in mice and to explore the potential mechanisms. These results revealed that a single facial injection of BoNT/A induced a rapid and prolonged improvement of depression-like behaviors in naïve and space-restriction-stressed (SRS) mice, reflected by a decreased duration of immobility in behavioral despair tests. BoNT/A significantly increased the 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) levels in several brain regions, including the hippocampus and hypothalamus, in SRS mice. BoNT/A increased the expression of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subunits NR1 and NR2B in the hippocampus, which were significantly decreased in SRS mice. Furthermore, BoNT/A significantly increased the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the hippocampus, hypothalamus, prefrontal cortex, and amygdala, which were decreased in SRS mice. Finally, BoNT/A transiently increased the levels of phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (p-ERK) and cAMP-response element binding protein (p-CREB), which were suppressed in the hippocampus of SRS mice. Collectively, these results demonstrated that BoNT/A treatment has anti-depressant-like activity in mice, and this is associated with increased 5-HT levels and the activation of BDNF/ERK/CREB pathways in the hippocampus, supporting further investigation of BoNT/A therapy in depression.