Magnesium acethyltaurate as a potential agent for retinal and optic nerve protection in glaucoma

Glaucoma is the second leading cause of irreversible vision impairment affecting more than 70 million people worldwide with approximately 10%suffering from glaucoma-related bilateral blind（Quigley and Broman,2006）.It is a multi-factorial disease that is characterized by optic nerve damage and visual field loss.Progressive loss of retinal ganglion cells（RGCs）resulting in visual field deficits is the hallmark of glaucoma.

固相萃取及GC-MS分析环境水体中神经性毒剂水解产物

Analysis of nerve agents and their degradation products constitutes an important subject for verifying the compliance to the Chemical Weapons Convention(CWC).In environmental water,the relevant degradation products of nerve agents are usually present at low concentration levels and mixed with a large amount of interferents.In this paper,six different kinds of solid-phase bulk sorbents were respectively investigated to improve the SPE efficiency for nerve agents degradation products from stimulant water samples,in which a large amount of background interferents were spiked.Results showed that the strong anion-exchange sorbent could selectively extract the spiking six target compounds from the matrices and showed a high recovery.

Solution-processed wafer-scale nanoassembly of conducting polymers enables selective ultratrace nerve agent detection at low power

There is a great interest in developing microelectronic devices based on nanostructured conducting polymers that can selectively electro-couple analytes at high sensitivity and low power.Nanostructured conducting polymers have emerged as promising candidates for this technology due to their excellent stability with low redox potential,high conductivity,and selectivity endowed by chemical functionalization.However,it remains challenging to develop cost-effective and large-scale assembly approaches for functionalized conducting polymers in the practical fabrication of electronic devices.Here,we reported a straightforward waferscale assembly of nanostructured hexafluoroisopropanol functionalized poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)(PEDOT-HFIP)on smooth substrates.This approach is template-free,solution-processed,and adaptable to conductive and nonconductive substrates.By this approach,the nanostructured PEDOT-HFIPs could be easily integrated onto interdigitated electrodes with intimate ohmic contact.At the optimized space-to-volume ratio,we demonstrated a low-power,sensitive,and selective nerve agent sensing technology using this platform by detecting sarin vapor with a limit of detection(LOD)of 10 ppb and signal strength of 400 times the water interference at the same concentration,offering significant advantages over existing similar technologies.We envision that its easy scale-up,micro size,small power consumption,and combination of high sensitivity and selectivity make it attractive for various wearable platforms.

Development of BINOL-Si complexes with large stokes shifts and their application as chemodosimeters for nerve agent

Three fluorescent BINOL-Si complexes(FS1,FS2 and FS3)were rationally designed and synthesized to detect diethyl chlorophosphate(DCP),a mimic of lethal nerve agents.These three fluorescent probes showed green,yellow and orange fluorescence,respectively.Moreover,the series of fluorescent probes has the characteristics of fast response time(4 s),low detection limit(0.0097 mmol/L),high sensitivity and naked eye detection.More important,a fiber optic sensor capable of detecting DCP vapor in real time was also prepared for the first time,the lowest detection limits(down to 4.4 ppb)were all lower than that of the IDLH(immediately dangerous to life or health)concentration of Sarin(7.0 ppb).

TRPV4 Regulates Soman-Induced Status Epilepticus and Secondary Brain Injury via NMDA Receptor and NLRP3 Inflammasome

Nerve agents are used in civil wars and terrorist attacks,posing a threat to public safety.Acute exposure to nerve agents such as soman(GD)causes serious brain damage,leading to death due to intense seizures induced by acetylcholinesterase inhibition and neuronal injury resulting from increased excitatory amino-acid levels and neuroinflammation.However,data on the anticonvulsant and neuroprotective efficacies of currently-used countermeasures are limited.Here,we evaluated the potential effects of transient receptor vanilloid 4(TRPV4)in the treatment of soman-induced status epilepticus(SE)and secondary brain injury.We demonstrated that TRPV4 expression was markedly up-regulated in rat hippocampus after soman-induced seizures.Administration of the TRPV4 antagonist GSK2193874 prior to soman exposure significantly decreased the mortality rate in rats and reduced SE intensity.TRPV4-knockout mice also showed lower incidence of seizures and higher survival rates than wild-type mice following soman exposure.Further in vivo and in vitro experiments demonstrated that blocking TRPV4 prevented NMDA receptor-mediated glutamate excitotoxicity.The protein levels of the NLRP3 inflammasome complex and its downstream cytokines IL-1βand IL-18 increased in soman-exposed rat hippocampus.However,TRPV4 inhibition or deletion markedly reversed the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway.In conclusion,our study suggests that the blockade of TRPV4 protects against soman exposure and reduces brain injury following SE by decreasing NMDA receptor-mediated excitotoxicity and NLRP3-mediated neuroinflammation.To our knowledge,this is the first study regarding the“dual-switch”function of TRPV4 in the treatment of soman intoxication.

气相刻蚀法构建多级多孔金属-有机框架材料

开发一种通用的蚀刻策略来构建具有期望的微孔和中孔的多级多孔金属-有机框架材料(HP-MOFs)仍然是探索MOF材料增强性能和潜在应用的一个显著性的科学挑战.本文提出了一种通用的蒸气气氛蚀刻方法来实现HP-MOFs的可控制备.基于蒸气浓度明显低于溶液浓度的原理,该方法显著降低了对MOFs的刻蚀速率和强度,能够在刻蚀过程中获得中间产物.通过该方法制备了一系列具有不同金属节点的HP-MOFs.合成的HP-MOFs结合了介孔促进传质过程和微孔提供大内表面积的优点.研究表明HP-UiO-66在神经毒剂磷酸二甲酯DMNP降解中表现出比原始UiO-66更优异的催化活性.

Social media video analysis methodology for sarin exposure

As social media becomes increasingly ubiquitous,many events are recorded and released on social media platforms,including chemical weapon attacks.We develop an objective tool in order to evaluate brief and unstructured social media videos for analysing sarin exposure from a civilian medical pathology perspective.We developed and validated this new questionnaire using a standardized procedure that includes content domain specification,item pool generation,content validity evaluation,a pilot study,and assessment of reliability and validity.In total,51 sarin attacks and 48 matched videos were analysed.Cronbach’s a for all 20 items was 0.75,which indicates adequate internal reliability.The test–retest reliability was 0.96,which indicates good internal reliability.The inter-observer intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.97.After verifying sampling adequacy with the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure and the factorability of the items with Barlett’s test of sphericity,a factor analysis was performed.According to the principal axis factoring,a six-factor solution explained 51.86%of the total variance.The receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis showed that the Video Score Questionnaire has a sensitivity of 0.817,a specificity of 0.478,and an efficiency of 65.3.Therefore,the Video Score Questionnaire is reliable and valid for evaluating sarin attacks from brief and unstructured social media videos.