In subcellular accumulation and distribution of castor seedlings, Cd (27.1%-69.4%) and Zn (39.6%-66.6%) in the cell wall was the highest. With the increase of Cd addition, the accumulation of Cd increased in cell wall while decreased in organelle and soluble fraction. Hydroxyl, amino, amides and carboxyl functional groups on cell wall might provided the main binding sites for Cd and Zn. OBJECTIVE Neurocysticercosis (NCC) is the most common parasitic disease of the human central nervous system (CNS). However, a diagnosis of NCC may be hard to make if the specific clinical and routine neuroimaging manifestations are lacking, which hinders physicians from considering further immunodiagnostic tests. PATIENTS AND METHODS Seven patients presented with fever, headache, nausea, cognitive decline, confusion, or progressive leg weakness. There were no pathogens found in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF); patients were clinically suspected of meningoencephalitis or cerebrovascular disease. To clearly determine the etiology, next generation sequencing (NGS) of the CSF was used to detect pathogens in these seven patients. RESULTS Taenia solium DNA sequences were detected in the seven patients, but not in the non-template controls (NTCs) or the other patients with clinically suspected CNS infections. Based on the patients' medical data and the diagnostic criteria for NCC, seven patients were diagnosed with probable NCC. The unique reads aligning to Taenia solium ranged from 6 to 261064, with genomic coverage ranging from 0.0003% to 14.8079%. The number of unique reads and genomic coverage dropped in three of the seven patients after antiparasitic treatment, consistent with the relief of symptoms. CONCLUSION This study showed that NGS of the CSF might be an auxiliary diagnostic method for NCC patients. Larger studies are required. Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and metastasis is the major cause of death in cancer, therefore, treatments to attenuate metastasis are urgently needed. Cell migration is indispensable in metastatic cascade, and aquaporins (AQPs) promote cell migration by facilitating water influx at cell front (lamellipodia). In fact, AQPs overexpressed widely among many cancer types. Accordingly, previous efforts of targeting AQPs as strategies of cancer treatments were based on AQP inhibitors, yet the efficacy of AQP inhibition was limited based on recent surveys. On the contrary, whether AQP agonist has role in cancer treatments has not been explored. AqF026, an AQP1 agonist, was initially applied to a mouse model of peritoneal dialysis. Herein, we aimed to apply AqF026 to magnify the water influx into lamellipodia of migrating cancer cells so as to induce oncosis by causing overloaded cancer cell swelling in advance of metastatic cascade. Cell swelling is a characteristic of oncosis. With impairment or insufficient regulatory volume decrease (RVD), cell swelling can lead to oncosis. Cancer cells with metastatic potentials shared the same population of cancer cells with multidrug resistance (MDR) lineage, and the impairment or insufficient RVD is shown in cancer cells with MDR. Taken together, the author hypothesized that given appropriate concentration or dose of AQP1 agonist AqF026, the AqF026 may induce oncosis of cancer cells preferentially rather than normal cells by causing overloaded water influx via AQP1 and consequent irreversible cell swelling. Ziziphi Spinosae Folium, the leaf of Ziziphus jujuba Mill. Var. spinosa (Bunge) Hu ex H. F. Chou (LZJS), is currently used as a healthy tea in China. This study evaluated the chemical components and antioxidant activities of LZJS flavonoid (LZJSF) and fermented LZJSF (FLZJSF) using human intestinal bacteria (HIB) through dynamic fermentation. Eighteen flavonoids were simultaneously identified in LZJSF using UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap-MS method, nine of which were targeted for a HIB metabolism study. Seven small phenolic acids were identified in FLZJSF. Not only at chemical level but also at PC12 cell level, FLZJSF samples fermented for 4 and 6 h showed significant positive correlation between their activities and flavonoid aglycones, which were transformed from LZJSF. However, FLZJSF samples (8 h and longer time) mainly contained phenolic acids and indicated weak activities. Thus, LZJSF was found to result in increased antioxidant activity and could be commercially utilized as a novel functional food. In this study, three-phase partitioning (TPP) coupled with gradient ammonium sulfate ((NH4)2SO4) precipitation (GNP) method was first used to extract and separate bioactive polysaccharides (OPSs) from fresh okra pods. Results showed that OPS-50 obtained by GNP at a saturation of 50% (NH4)2SO4 after TPP presented higher precipitation yield, carbohydrate (86.82%) and uronic acid (22.34%) contents with same monosaccharide composition and different molar ratios compared with OPS-30 and OPS-40 obtained via GNP at saturations of 30% and 40% (NH4)2SO4, respectively. OPS-50 had lower weight-average molecular weight (3.65 × 106 g/mol), more flexible chain, and relatively looser surface structure compared with OPS-30, OPS-40, and the OPS obtained with TPP parallelized with decreased apparent viscosity and dynamic viscoelasticity. Furthermore, OPS-50 exhibited stronger DPPH radical-scavenging ability, antioxidant capacity, and α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities in vitro than OPS, OPS-30, and OPS-40. A novel ratiometric fluorescence probe was proposed for detecting lead (II) ions (Pb2+) in porphyra, the approach was based on copper nanoclusters and nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots (CuNCs-CNQDs). In this probe, the CuNCs delivered the response signal, the fluorescence of which was enhanced by Pb2+ due to the aggregation-induced emission enhancement (AIEE) between Pb2+ and CuNCs. The CNQDs provided the self-calibration signal, whose fluorescence remained almost unchanged in coexistence with Pb2+. According to the change of fluorescence intensity ratio between the fluorophores, CuNCs-CNQDs nanohybrid was used as ratiometric probes for the sensitive detection of Pb2+ in the range of 0.010-2.5 mg L-1, with a detection limit of 0.0031 mg L-1. Finally, the probe was successfully applied to detect Pb2+ in porphyra with relative standard deviations (RSDs) lower than 5%. This study provides a straightforward, stable, and sensitive approach for detecting Pb2+ in porphyra.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/Thiazovivin.html