5-Hydroxymethylfurfural from wine-processed Fructus corni inhibits hippocampal neuron apoptosis

Previous studies have shown that 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, a compound extracted from wine- processed Fructus corni, has a protective effect on hippocampal neurons. The present study was designed to explore the related mechanisms. Our study revealed that high and medium doses （10, 1 μmol/L） of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural could improve the morphology of H2O2-treated rat hippocampal neurons as revealed by inverted phase-contrast microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. MTT results showed that incubation with high and medium doses of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural caused a significant increase in the viability of neuronal cells injured by H2O2. Flow cytometry assays con- firmed that H2O2 could induce cell apoptosis, while high and medium doses of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural had a visible protective effect on apoptotic rat hippocampal neurons. Real-time PCR and western blot analysis showed that high and medium doses of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural prevented H2O2-induced up-regulation of p53, Bax and caspase-3 and an- tagonized the down-regulation of Bcl-2 induced by H2O2 treatment. These results suggested that 5-hydroxymethylfurfural could inhibit apoptosis of cultured rat hippocampal neurons injured by H2O2 via increase in Bcl-2 levels and decrease in p53, Bax and caspase-3 protein expression levels.

Effect of topiramate on partial excitatory amino acids in hippocampal dentate gyrus of rats after alcohol withdrawal

BACKGROUND： Many researches have indicated that the imbalances of various amino acid transmitters and neurotransmitters in brain are involved in the formation of alcohol withdrawal, especially that glutamic acid is one of the important transmitters for alcohol tolerance in central nervous system. OBJECTIVE： To observe the changes of excitatory amino acids in hippocampal dentate gyrus in rats with long-term alcohol drinking after withdrawal under consciousness, and investigate the therapeutic effect of topiramate on alcohol withdrawal. DESIGN ： A randomized control animal experiment SETTING ： Department of Neurology, Affiliated Hospital of Yanbian University MATERIALS： Thirty male Wistar rats of 4 months old, weighing 300-350 g, were purchased from the Experimental Animal Department, Medical College of Yanbian University. Topiramate was produced by Swish Cilag Company, and the batch number was 02CS063. METHODS： The experiments were carried out in the Department of Physiology, Medical College of Yanbian University from August 2005 to February 2006. ① The rats were divided randomly into three groups： control group （n=10）, alcohol group （n=10） and topiramate-treated group （n=10）. Rats in the alcohol group and topiramate-treated group were given intragastric perfusion of 500 g/L alcohol （10 mL/kg）, once a day for 4 weeks successively, and then those in the topiramate-treated group were treated with 80 mg/kg topiramate at 24 hours after the last perfusion of alcohol, once a day for 3 days successively. Rats in the control group were intragastricly given isovolume saline. ② The withdrawal symptoms were assessed at 6, 30, 48 and 72 hours after the last perfusion of alcohol by using the withdrawal rating scale set by Erden et al, which had four observational indexes of stereotyped behaviors, agitation, tail stiffness and abnormal posture, each index was scored by 5 points, the higher the score, the more obvious the symptoms. ③ The contents of aspartic acid and glutamic acid in hippocampal dentate gyrus were detected with microdialysis technique and high-performance liquid chromatograpy （HPLC） respectively at 6, 30, 48 and 72 hours after the last perfusion of alcohol in the three groups. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES ： ① Scoring results of alcohol withdrawal symptoms; ② Changes of the contents of aspartic acid and glutamic acid in hippocampal dentate gyrus at the alcohol withdrawal symptoms, and the effects of topiramate. RESULTS： Seven rats were excluded due to inaccurate localization and natural death, and 23 rats were involved in the analysis of results. ①In the alcohol group, the scores of alcohol withdrawal symptoms at 30 and 48 hours after the last perfusion of alcohol were obviously higher than those in the control group （10.50±0.96, 14.17±1.25; 3.50±0.92, 3.16±0,31; P 〈 0.01）. In the topiramate-treated group, the scores at 30 hours after the last perfusion of alcohol （6.06±0.82, 3.50±0.92, P 〈 0.05）, and the withdrawal scores at 48 and 72 hours were close to those in the control group （4.57±0.58, 3.30±0.71; 3.16±0.31, 3.66±0.67; P 〉 0.05）.② Changes of the contents of glutamic acid in hippocampal dentate gyrus： In the alcohol group, the content of glutamic acid at 48 hours after the last perfusion of alcohol was significantly increased as compared with that at 6 hours [（143.32±11.42）%, （99.12±0.69）%; P 〈 0.05], and that at 72 hours was close to that at 6 hours [（78.50±16.40）%, （99.12±0.69）%; P 〉 0.05]. The contents of glutamic acid had no obvious differences at 6, 30, 48 and 72 hours after the last perfusion of alcohol in the topiramate-treated group [（100.30±0.37）%, （118.91±10.40）%, （99.55±12.81）%, （99.08±11.42）%; P 〉 0.05], The content of glutamic acid at 48 hours after the last perfusion of alcohol in the topiramate-treated group was obviously lower than that in the alcohol group （P 〈 0.05）, and those at 30 and 72 hours were close （P 〉 0.05）. ③ Changes of the contents of aspartic acid in hippocampal dentate gyrus： In the alcohol group, the contents of aspartic acid at 30 and 48 hours after the last perfusion of alcohol were significantly increased as compared with that at 6 hours [（126.60±8.67）%, （129.17±10.40）%, （99.25±0.87）%; P 〈 0.05], and that at 72 hours was close to that at 6 hours [（89.87±9.93）%, （99.25±0.87）%; P 〉 0.05]. The contents of aspartic acid had no obvious differences at 6, 30, 48 and 72 hours after the last perfusion of alcohol in the topiramate-treated group [（100.27±0.32）%, （120.81 ±12.63）%, （98.91±7.83）%, （85.92±8.07）%; P 〉 0.05]. The content of aspartic acid at 48 hours after the last perfusion of alcohol in the topiramate-treated group was obviously lower than that in the alcohol group （P 〈 0.05）, and those at 30 and 72 hours were close （P 〉 0.05）. CONCLUSION： ① The occurrences of alcohol withdrawal symptoms are correlated with the increased contents of excitatory amino acids in hippocampal dentate gyrus in rats. ② Topiramate can alleviate the alcohol withdrawal symptoms, which may be correlated with the decreased contents of excitatory amino acids in hippocampal dentate gyrus in rats.

Replacing alkyl side chain of non-fullerene acceptor with siloxane-terminated side chain enables lower surface energy towards optimizing bulk-heterojunction morphology and high photovoltaic performance

Towards a good control of the morphology of bulk-heterojunction(BHJ)active layers for polymer solar cells(PSCs),selecting an appropriate side chain for a polymer donor and a nonfullerene acceptor(NFA)is very crucial.In this work,two novel NFAs i-IE-4F and i-IESi-4 F comprising alkyl and siloxane-terminated side chains on the central indacenodithiophene(IDT)core,respectively,were synthesized.Attaching the siloxane-terminated side chain to i-IESi-4 F affords surface energy(γ)of33.32 mN/m,much lower than that of 39.83 mN/m for i-IE-4F,supplying a big chance to tune miscibility with a polymer donor.Two fluorobenzotriazole-based polymer donors J52 and PBZ-2Si bearing alkyl and siloxane-terminated side chains,respectively,showγvalues of 36.08 and 33.10 mN/m,respectively.The estimated Flory-Huggins interaction parameters(χD,A)indicate that the i-IESi-4 F is more miscible than i-IE-4F in pairing with J52 or PBZ-2Si.The resulting i-IESi-4 F-based blend film exhibits low film roughness and accompanies obviously improved BHJ uniformity.In PSCs,the J52:i-IESi-4F and PBZ-2Si:i-IESi-4 F active layers display power conversion efficiencies(PCEs)of 12.67%and 14.54%,respectively,all remarkably higher than PCEs≤7.34%of the i-IE-4F-based active layers.Interestingly,the PBZ-2Si:i-IESi-4 F active layer,a donor:acceptor blend system comprising siloxane-terminated side chains(DSi:ASimatching)with the highest BHJ miscibility due to the combinatory effect of the side chains,shows the highest efficiency,as supported by efficient exciton dissociation,the lowest bimolecular recombination,and the optimal charge transport.Our results demonstrate that attaching siloxane-terminated side chains to NFAs,as a side chain engineering,has big potential in lowering their surface energy towards fine control of BHJ morphology and leading to a better donor:acceptor blend system.

Silaindacenodithiophene-Based Fused-Ring Non-Fullerene Electron Acceptor for Efficient Polymer Solar Cells

In this work, a new A-D-A type nonfuUerene small molecular acceptor SilDT-IC, with a fused-ring silaindacenodithiophene （SilDT） as D unit and 2-（3-oxo-2,3-dihydroinden-l-ylidene）malononitrile （INCN） as the end A unit, was design and synthesized. The SilDT-IC film shows absorption peak and edge at 695 and 733 nm, respectively. The HOMO and LUMO of SilDT-IC are of -5.47 and -3.78 eV, respectively. Compared with carbon-bridging, the Si-bridging can result in an upper-lying LUMO level of an acceptor, which is benefit to achieve a higher open-circuit voltage in polymer solar cells （PSCs）. Complementary absorption and suitable energy level alignment between SilDT-IC and wide bandgap polymer donor PBDB-T were found. For the PBDB-T：SilDT-IC based inverted PSCs, a D/A ratio of 1 ： 1 was optimal to achieve a power conversion efficiency （PCE） of 7.27%. With thermal annealing （TA） of the blend film, a higher PCE of 8.16% could be realized due to increasing of both short-circuit current density and fill factor. After the TA treatment, hole and electron mobilities were elevated to 3.42 × 10-4 and 1.02 × 10-4 cm2·V-1.s-1, respectively. The results suggest that the SilDT, a Si-bridged fused ring, is a valuable D unit to construct efficient nonfullerene acceptors for PSCs.