No abstract

The mechanism of the electrochemical reaction of Zn with Li was investigated by ex situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis combined with a differential capacity plot of the Zn electrode at a low current of 10 mA g À1 . The pure Zn electrode showed a high reactivity with Li, with first discharge and charge capacities of 574 and 351 mA h g À1 , respectively. In addition, Zn-C and Zn-Al 2 O 3 -C composites prepared by simple high-energy mechanical milling were evaluated for use as anode materials in rechargeable Li-ion batteries. The Zn-C nanocomposite was composed of nanosized Zn in an amorphous C matrix, while the Zn-Al 2 O 3 -C nanocomposite (obtained by the mechanochemical reduction of ZnO and Al) was composed of nanocrystalline Zn and amorphous Al 2 O 3 in the amorphous C matrix. Electrochemical tests showed that the Zn-Al 2 O 3 -C nanocomposite electrode exhibited a high volumetric capacity of more than 1800 mA h cm À3 over 100 cycles.

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death. Gemcitabine is widely used as a chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of pancreatic cancer, but the prognosis is still poor. Berberine, an isoquinoline alkaloid extracted from a variety of natural herbs, possesses a variety of pharmacological properties including anticancer effects. In this study, we investigated the anticancer effects of berberine and compared its use with that of gemcitabine in the pancreatic cancer cell lines PANC-1 and MIA-PaCa2. Berberine inhibited cell growth in a dose-dependent manner by inducing cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. After berberine treatment, the G1 phase of PANC-1 cells increased by 10% compared to control cells, and the G1 phase of MIA-PaCa2 cells was increased by 2%. Whereas gemcitabine exerts antiproliferation effects through S-phase arrest, our results showed that berberine inhibited proliferation by inducing G1-phase arrest. Berberine-induced apoptosis of PANC-1 and MIA-PaCa2 cells increased by 7 and 2% compared to control cells, respectively. Notably, berberine had a greater apoptotic effect in PANC-1 cells than gemcitabine. Upon treatment of PANC-1 and MIA-PaCa2 with berberine at a half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50), apoptosis was induced by a mechanism that involved the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) rather than caspase 3/7 activation. Our findings showed that berberine had anti-cancer effects and may be an effective drug for pancreatic cancer chemotherapy.

Aim: To assess the correlation between response to tolvaptan and treatment-related factors in liver cirrhosis patients.Methods: This single-center retrospective study was carried out at Shonan Kamakura General Hospital in Kanagawa, Japan, between October 2013 and September 2015. Forty-three liver cirrhosis patients (mean age, 65.7 years) with insufficient responses to conventional diuretics for at least 7 days were enrolled. All patients received oral tolvaptan (7.5 mg/day for 7 days) and guideline-directed medical therapy including sodium intake restrictions. A responder to tolvaptan was defined as a patient having a ≥2-kg decrease in body weight 1 week after commencing drug treatment, and a non-responder was defined as a patient not losing ≥2 kg in body weight 1 week after commencing treatment. We investigated the correlation of change in body weight for 1 week after drug administration compared to baseline clinical characteristics. Results:The mean body weight change from the baseline on the final dosing day was À2.47 ± 3.34 kg (P < 0.0001). There were 20 (46.5%) responders to tolvaptan. Urinary sodium and volume excretion was higher in responders than in non-responders (108.2 ± 70.5 vs 42.6 ± 36.7, P = 0.0003; 1462.8 ± 625.7 vs 960.9 ± 600.6, P = 0.0073). Logistic regression analyses for responders to tolvaptan were carried out, and independent correlation of the responders was urinary sodium excretion (P = 0.0114; hazard ratio, 0.9418; 95% confidence interval, 0.8768À0.9896) in the multivariate analyses. Conclusion:In decompensated liver cirrhosis patients, urinary excretion sodium showed good correlation with tolvaptan response.

BCAA supplementation improved low muscle strength in patients with chronic liver disease, but did not increase muscle mass during the treatment period.