Progress in Understanding the Role and Mechanism of Action of Tea in Alleviating Colitis

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a common chronic intestinal inflammatory disorder, primarily including ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD), with a complex pathogenesis involving multiple interacting factors. In recent years, intervention with tea and its active components in IBD and their action mechanisms have garnered considerable research attention. Research indicates that tea and its functional components can alleviate colitis through multiple pathways, including regulating inflammatory factors and related signaling pathways, modulating immune function, repairing the intestinal barrier, and regulating the gut microbiota and metabolites. This review summarizes recent progress on the role of tea in mitigating colitis, with a focus on its action mechanism, aiming to provide new insights and scientific evidence for the prevention and treatment of IBD

Biocompatibility of Graphene Oxide

Herein, we report the effects of graphene oxides on human fibroblast cells and mice with the aim of investigating graphene oxides' biocompatibility. The graphene oxides were prepared by the modified Hummers method and characterized by high-resolution transmission electron microscope and atomic force microscopy. The human fibroblast cells were cultured with different doses of graphene oxides for day 1 to day 5. Thirty mice divided into three test groups (low, middle, high dose) and one control group were injected with 0.1, 0.25, and 0.4 mg graphene oxides, respectively, and were raised for 1 day, 7 days, and 30 days, respectively. Results showed that the water-soluble graphene oxides were successfully prepared; graphene oxides with dose less than 20 μg/mL did not exhibit toxicity to human fibroblast cells, and the dose of more than 50 μg/mL exhibits obvious cytotoxicity such as decreasing cell adhesion, inducing cell apoptosis, entering into lysosomes, mitochondrion, endoplasm, and cell nucleus. Graphene oxides under low dose (0.1 mg) and middle dose (0.25 mg) did not exhibit obvious toxicity to mice and under high dose (0.4 mg) exhibited chronic toxicity, such as 4/9 mice death and lung granuloma formation, mainly located in lung, liver, spleen, and kidney, almost could not be cleaned by kidney. In conclusion, graphene oxides exhibit dose-dependent toxicity to cells and animals, such as inducing cell apoptosis and lung granuloma formation, and cannot be cleaned by kidney. When graphene oxides are explored for in vivo applications in animal or human body, its biocompatibility must be considered

Human CIK Cells Loaded with Au Nanorods as a Theranostic Platform for Targeted Photoacoustic Imaging and Enhanced Immunotherapy and Photothermal Therapy

How to realize targeted photoacoustic imaging, enhanced immunotherapy, and photothermal therapy of gastric cancer has become a great challenge. Herein, we reported for the first time that human cytokine-induced killer cells (CIK) loaded with gold nanorods were used for targeted photoacoustic imaging, enhanced immunotherapy, and photothermal therapy of gastric cancer. Silica-modified gold nanorods were prepared; then incubated with human cytokine-induced killer cells (CIK), resultant human CIK cells loaded with Au nanorods were evaluated for their cytotoxicity, targeted ability of gastric cancer in vitro and in vivo, immunotherapy, and photothermal therapy efficacy. In vitro cell experiment shows that human CIK cells labeled with gold nanorods actively target gastric cancer MGC803 cells, inhibit growth of MGC803 cells by inducing cell apoptosis, and kill MGC803 cells under low power density near-infrared (NIR) laser treatment (808-nm continuous wave laser, 1.5 W/cm2, 3 min). In vivo experiment results showed that human CIK cells labeled with gold nanorods could target actively and image subcutaneous gastric cancer vessels via photoacoustic imaging at 4 h post-injection, could enhance immunotherapy efficacy by up-regulating cytokines such as IL-1, IL-12, IL-2, IL-4, IL-17, and IFN-γ, and kill gastric cancer tissues by photothermal therapy via direct injection into tumor site under near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation. High-performance human CIK cells labeled with Au nanorods are a good novel theranostic platform to exhibit great potential in applications such as tumor-targeted photoacoustic imaging, enhanced immunotherapy, and photothermal therapy in the near future

Research on the Influence of Moisture Condition on the Mechanical Properties and Microstructure of Sandstone

The sandstone from the dry to saturated state shows obvious deterioration characteristics. Taking the sandstone of a slope in the Three Gorges Reservoir area as the research object, uniaxial/triaxial compression of sandstone samples with different water-bearing states (dry, natural, and saturated) is carried out to study the changes in macromechanical properties of sandstone under different water-bearing states. Combined with NMR and SEM, the characteristics of microstructure of sandstone under different moisture conditions were studied. The results show that, with the increase of water content, the macromechanical parameters of sandstone gradually decrease, and the fine and microstructure characteristics are characterized by the gradual increase in the number of pores and the gradual increase in pore size. Based on the PFC2D software, considering the weakening effect of water on the partial cementation from a mesoscopic point of view, it is proposed to use soft and hard contacts to simulate the changes in the degree of cementation between particles under different water-bearing conditions and to study the impact of sandstone micromechanical parameters with changes in water content. Related research results can provide theoretical guidance for the stability evaluation of wading rock mass engineering.</jats:p