Background: We aimed to investigate the analgesic effect and immune function of elderly patients with colon cancer after application of sevoflurane and isoflurane anesthesia. Methods: Overall, 130 patients with colon cancer in Yidu Central Hospital of Weifang  (Weifang, China) from February 2014 to January 2017 were collected and randomly divided into sevoflurane group (SEV group) and isoflurane group (ISO group). The pain score, immune indexes, postoperative cognitive index, extubation time, awakening time and S100R protein were analyzed. Results: The pain scores in SEV group at 5 min, 1 h and 3 h during surgery were significantly lower than those in ISO group (P=0.001, respectively). The levels of IL-6 in both groups of patients were higher at T1 and T2 than those at T0 (P=0.001). The levels of TNF-α in SEV group at T2 and T3 were significantly higher than that at T0 (P=0.001). The levels of CD80 in both groups of patients at T2 and T3 were obviously higher than those at T0 (P=0.001). Moreover, the extubation time, the response time to language and awakening time in SEV group were also remarkably shorter than those in ISO group (P=0.001). After continuous anesthesia in both groups of patients, the degrees of decline in ISO group were significantly higher than those in SEV group (P=0.001). Conclusion: Sevoflurane has a superior anesthetic effect to isoflurane in elderly patients with colon cancer, can reduce the degree of pain, improve the awakening condition and increase the immune function, so it is worthy of clinical application.

Shikimate pathway plays an essential role in the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids in various plants and bacteria, which consists of seven key enzymes and they are all attractive targets for antibacterial agent development due to their absence in humans. The Staphylococcus aureus dehydroquinate synthase (SaDHQS) is involved in the second step of shikimate pathway, which catalyzes the NAD[Formula: see text]-dependent conversion of 3-deoxy-D-arabino-heptulosonate-7-phosphate to dehydroquinate via multiple steps. The enzyme active site can be characterized by two spatially separated subpockets 1 and 2, which represent the reaction center of substrate adduct with NAD[Formula: see text] nicotinamide moiety and the assistant binding site of NAD[Formula: see text] adenine moiety, respectively. In silico virtual screening is performed against a biogenic compound library to discover SaDHQS subpocket-specific inhibitors, which were then tested against both antibiotic-sensitive and antibiotic-resistant S. aureus strains by using in vitro susceptibility test. The activity profile of hit compounds has no considerable difference between the antibiotic-sensitive and -resistant strains. The subpocket 1-specific inhibitors exhibit a generally higher activity than subpocket 2-specific inhibitors, and they also hold a strong selectivity between their cognate and noncognate subpockets. Dynamics and energetics analyses reveal that the SaDHQS active site prefers to interact with amphipathic and polar inhibitors by forming multiple hydrogen bonds and van der Waals packing at the complex interfaces of the two subpockets with their cognate inhibitors.