A New Sesquiterpene from the Roots of Lindera strychnifolia

A new sesquiterpene lactone, strychnilactone (1), together with five known sesquite- rpenoids, linderane (2), lindenenol (3), linderalactone (4), hydroxylindestenolide (5), pseudoneo- linderane (6) have been isolated from the extracts of Supercritical Fluid Extraction of Lindera strychnifolia. The structure of the new compound was elucidated by means of spectroscopic analysis. And the relative configuration of 1 was assigned on the basis of NOE analysis.

Atomic layer deposition enabling higher efficiency solar cells:A review

Atomic layer deposition(ALD)can synthesise materials with atomic-scale precision.The ability to tune the material composition,film thickness with excellent conformality,allow low-temperature processing,and in-situ real-time monitoring makes this technique very appealing for a wide range of applications.In this review,we focus on the application of ALD layers in a wide range of solar cells.We focus on industrial silicon,thin film,organic and quantum dot solar cells.It is shown that the merits of ALD have already been exploited in a wide range of solar cells at the lab scale and that ALD is already applied in high-volume manufacturing of silicon solar cells.

Cytotoxic T lymphocyte associated antigen-4 gene exon 1A49→G polymorphisms confer susceptibility to idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy

Autoimmune mechanisms, including cellular and humoral immune, are likely to participate in the pathogenesis of at least a subgroup of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDC), in which cellular immune-mediation plays a more important role. Cytotoxic T lymphocyte associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4) is the major negative regulatory factor of cellular immunity. This study was conducted to investigate the association of CTLA-4 gene exon 1 A49→G polymorphism with susceptibility to IDC in Han Chinese and its influences on serum soluble CTLA-4 (sCTLA-4) and Th1/Th2 cytokine bias. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) techniques were used to analyze the dimorphism of CTLA-4 exon 1 in the unrelated Han ethnic population in Heilongjiang Province (including 48 IDC patients and 50 normal controls). Serum sCTLA-4, IFN-γ and IL-4 were evaluated by ELISA, with the ratio of IFN-γ/IL-4 as indicator for Th1/Th2 bias. Compared with controls, the frequencies of GG genotype (0.6042 and 0.3600, P=0.012) and the G allele (0.7396 and 0.5600, P=0.008) were significantly increased in IDC patients. Increased serum sCTLA-4 was found in the IDC group compared with the controls [(1.87±1.06) μg/L vs. (0.54±0.19) μg/L, P<0.05]. IFN-γ was much lower in IDC patients than that of the controls [(16.38±6.25) ng/L vs. (29.81±10.66) ng/L (P<0.05)], whereas no statistical difference of IL-4 was found between the two groups [(12.85±1.86) ng/L vs. (12.11±2.76) ng/L], so the ratio of IFN-γ/IL-4 declined significantly (1.63±0.50 vs. 3.01±0.89, P<0.05). Linear regression analysis manifested a significant interrelationship between the GG genotype, G allele frequencies and serum sCTLA-4, IFN-γ/IL-4 in the IDC group (r=0.57, P=0.021 and r=0.32, P=0.036). CTLA-4 gene A49→G substitution was associated with an increased IDC risk, which implicated that the CTLA-4 gene exon 1 may have a considerable role in autoimmune cardiac damage, possibly via a Thr→Ala change in signal peptide, which influences the protein synthesis and modification processes, with a result of functional alteration of sCTLA-4. The bias of Th1/Th2 paradigm was associated with the increased sCTLA-4 under certain background of immunogenetics.