Potential new metabolic approach for treatment of diabetes mellitus: converting glucose to ascorbic acid (vitamin C)

Through changing in lifestyle and increasing the global prevalence of diabetes mellitus, its crucial to find new approaches for treatment of this disease. This metabolic disease is characterized by hyperglycemia, insulin de ficiency or insulin resistance. This disorder categorized into type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Type 1 usually initiate from childhood, have an autoimmune background and associated with destroying of beta cells of pancreas. Type 2 diabetes is defined as insulin resistance, hyperglycemia and usually appears in adulthood. In the process of diabetes, hyperglycemia and oxidative stress can induce diabetic retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy and cardiovascular disease. According to literature, oxidative stress and chronic inflammation play an essential role in initiation and development of the complications of diabetes. Hence, inhibition of chronic inflammation and oxidative stress besides with glycemic control is important to prevent from these clinical complications. Some researches explained the antioxidant and anti- inflammatory property of vitamin C in patients with diabetes mellitus. Moreover, ascorbic acid can help to better glycemic control in these patients. Thus, we propose a new idea to convert excess amount of glucose to vitamin C for treatment of patients with diabetes mellitus. By performing this idea, we can achieve to better clinical management of diabetes in terms of glycemic control and prevention of oxidative stress which lead to significant decrease in clinical complications.

Highly Selective Photocatalytic Conversion of Glucose on Holo-Symmetrically Spherical Three-Dimensionally Ordered Macroporous Heterojunction Photonic Crystal

Photocatalytic conversion of biomass is considered an effective,clean,and environmentally friendly route to obtain high-valued chemicals and hydrogen.However,the limited conversion efficiency and poor selectivity are still the main bottlenecks for photocatalytic biomass conversion.Herein,we report the highly selective photocatalytic conversion of glucose solution on holosymmetrically spherical three-dimensionally ordered macroporous TiO_(2)-CdSe heterojunction photonic crystal structure(s-TCS).The obtained s-TCS photocatalysts show excellent stability and strong light harvesting,uniform mass diffusion and exchange,and efficient photogenerated electrons/holes separation and utilization.The optimized s-TCS-4 photocatalyst displays the highest photocatalytic performance for glucose oxidation and hydrogen production.The glucose conversion,lactic acid selectivity,and yield on s-TCS-4 are about 95.9%,94.3%,and 96.4%,respectively.The photocatalytic production of lactic acid for s-TCS-4(18.5 g/L)is 2.3 times higher than the pure spherical TiO_(2) photonic crystal without CdSe(s-TiO_(2),8.1 g/L),and the hydrogen production rate of s-TCS-4 is 9.4 times that of s-TiO_(2).For the first time,we reveal that the photocatalytic conversion of glucose to lactic acid is a third-order and four-electron-involved reaction.This work could shed some new light on the efficient photocatalysis conversion of biomass to highly value-added products with high selectivity and yield,and simultaneously sustainable hydrogen evolution.

Long-Term Clinical Effect of Tangyiping Granules(糖异平颗粒)on Patients with Impaired Glucose Tolerance

Objective： To evaluate the long-term clinical effect of Tangyiping Granules（糖异平颗粒, TYP） on patients with impaired glucose tolerance（IGT） to achieve normal glucose tolerance（NGT） and hence preventing them from conversion to diabetes mellitus（DM）. Methods： In total, 127 participants with IGT were randomly assigned to the control（63 cases, 3 lost to follow-up） and treatment groups（64 cases, 4 lost to follow-up） according to the random number table. The control group received lifestyle intervention alone, while the patients in the treatment group took orally 10 g of TYP twice daily in addition to lifestyle intervention for 12 weeks. The rates of patients achieving NGT or experiencing conversion to DM as main outcome measure were observed at 3, 12, and 24 months after TYP treatment. The secondary outcome measures included fasting plasma glucose（FPG）, 2-h postprandial plasma glucose（2h PG）, glycosylated hemoglobin（Hb A1c）, fasting insulin（FINS）, 2-h insulin（2hI NS）, homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance（HOMA-IR）, blood lipid and patients＇ complains of Chinese medicine（CM） symptoms before and after treatment. Results： A higher proportion of the treatment group achieved NGT compared with the control group after 3-, 12- and 24-month follow-up（75.00% vs. 43.33%, 58.33% vs. 35.00%, 46.67% vs. 26.67%, respectively, P〈0.05）. The IGT to DM conversion rate of the treatment group was significantly lower than that of the control group at the end of 24-month follow-up（16.67% vs. 31.67%, P〈0.05）. Before treatment, FPG, 2h PG, Hb A1 c, FINS, 2h INS, HOMA-IR, triglyceride（TG）, total cholesterol, low- and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels had no statistical difference between the two groups（P〉0.05）. After treatment, the 2hP G, HbA 1c, HOMA-IR, and TG levels of the treatment group decreased significantly compared with those of the control group（P〈0.05）. CM symptoms such as exhaustion, irritability, chest tightness and breathless, spontaneous sweating, constipation, and dark thick and greasy tongue were significantly improved in the treatment group as compared with the control group（P〈0.05）. No severe adverse events occurred. Conclusion： TYP administered at the IGT stage with a disciplined lifestyle delayed IGT developing into type 2 DM.

阳离子和阴离子共掺杂Cr,S-NiFe纳米片阵列促进电催化转化葡萄糖耦合制氢

将制氢与间歇性可再生能源驱动的生物质电催化转化结合起来,是获得氢能和高附加值化学品的有效途径.然而,开发具有明确结构-性能关系的强效多功能电催化剂仍然是一个相当大的挑战.本文巧妙地开发了一种阳离子和阴离子共掺策略,以协同调控NiFe层状双氢氧化物的电子结构,明显促进了催化活性位点的暴露,从而提高了葡萄糖电催化转化制氢的性能.实验结果表明,杂原子Cr和S的加入促进了Ni(OH)_(2)(Ni^(2+))/NiOOH(Ni^(3+))的可逆氧化还原,显著提高了葡萄糖的电荷转移和吸附能力.在葡萄糖电催化转化反应中,达到10 mA cm^(−2)的电压仅为1.219 V,比析氧反应低0.226 V.此外,Cr,S-NiFe/NF在双电极电解槽中表现出显著的葡萄糖电催化转化性能和产氢性能,达到10 mA cm^(−2)电流密度的电势仅为1.337 V,同时在阳极产生增值的甲酸盐,产氢率较电解水制氢提高了9倍.该生物质转化制氢耦合电催化剂提高了制氢效率,并获得了高附加值化学品.