Glycine Attenuates Myocardial Fibrosis in Myocardial Infarction in Rats Partly through Modulating Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3/Nuclear Factor-κB/Transforming Growth Factor-β axis

Objective: Inflammation and fibrosis are strongly associated with each other. Glycine is present in various traditional Chinese medicines and exhibits anti-inflammatory activity. However, the effects of glycine on myocardial fibrosis(MF) in rats with myocardial infarction(MI) have not been reported. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of glycine therapy on MF and comprehend its underlying mechanisms. Materials and Methods: Left anterior descending artery ligation-induced MI in Sprague Dawley rats was leveraged to assess the therapeutic effects of Glycine. Rats received either normal saline or glycine(0.5 mg/g bodyweight) for 7 days. Results: Glycine upregulated cardiac ejection fraction and fractional shortening to improve cardiac function, as evaluated by echocardiography. Histological and immunohistochemical analyses demonstrated that glycine could decrease inflammatory cell infiltration and alleviate collagen deposition. Western blotting revealed that nuclear factor-κB(NF-κB)-mediated inflammatory signaling was also downregulated by glycine treatment. The expression of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3(STAT3), tumor necrosis factor-α, and transforming growth factor-β(TGF-β) was decreased significantly in the glycine-treated group compared to the model group. Thus, glycine plays a protective role against myocardial ischemia and subsequent MF. Conclusion: The protective effects of glycine were achieved partly through STAT3/NF-κB/TGF-β signaling pathway.

Heterologous expression of bacteriocin E-760 in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and functional analysis

The use of antimicrobial peptides(AMPs)synthesized by bacteria(bacteriocins)is an alternative for combating multidrug resistant bacterial strains and their production by recombinant route is a viable option for their mass production.The bacteriocin E-760 isolated from the genus Enterococcus sp.has been shown to possess inhibitory activity against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria.In this study,the expression of a chimeric protein coding for E-760 in the nucleus of C.reinhardtii was evaluated,as well as,its antibacterial activity.The synthetic gene E-760S was inserted into the genome of C.reinhardtii using Agrobacterium tumefaciens.A transgenic line was identified in TAP medium with hygromycin and also by PCR.The increment in the culture medium temperature of the transgenic strain at 35°C for 10 minutes,increased the production level of the recombinant protein from 0.14(Noninduced culture,NIC)to 0.36%(Induced culture,IC)of total soluble proteins(TSP);this was quantified by an ELISA assay.Recombinant E-760 possesses activity against Staphylococcus aureus in 0.34 U log,Streptococcus agalactiae in 0.48 U log,Enterococcus faecium in 0.36 U log,Pseudomonas aeruginosa in 2 U log and for Klebsiella pneumoniae,the activity was 0.07 U log.These results demonstrate that the nucleus transformation of C.reinhardtii can function as a stable expression platform for the production of the synthetic gene E-760 and it can potentially be used as an antibacterial agent.

Application and mechanism of polysaccharide extracted from Enteromorpha to remove nano-ZnO and humic acid in coagulation process

Enteromorpha polysaccharide （Ep） extracted from alga a novel green coagulant aid for nanoparticles （NPs） and heavy metal ions removal and the structure of EP was intensively studied in this study. The integration of Ep with polyaluminum chloride （PAC-Ep） coagulants exhibited higher coagulation performance than that of the polyaluminum chloride （PAC） because of the negatively charged NPs suspension and humic aid （HA） solution. Significant high removal efficiencies of dissolved organic matter （94.1%）, turbidity （99.3%） and Zn ions （69.3%） were achieved by the PAC-Ep coagulants. The dual-coagulation properties of PAC-Ep for different pollutants was based on multiple mechanisms, including （i） AI^3＋ charge neutralization; （ii） hydroxy aluminum hydroxyl bridging formed polynuclearhydroxy complexes bridge and sweep colloidal particles; （iii） adsorption and bridging of Ep chain for the NPs and heavy metal ions. Results indicated that the destabilization of colloid was induced by the coexisting HA and higher removal was achieved as ions adsorption was enhance in the presence of HA complexation. On the basis of that, the extraction of polysaccharide is a promising candidate for its high coagulation performance in water treatment.