Breast cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women. Owing to high efficiency and low toxic effects, further exploration of natural compounds from Chinese herbal medicine may be an efficient approach for breast cancer drug discovery. In this study, we investigated the effects of evodiamine on the growth and metastasis of MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. In vitro, evodiamine inhibited cell migration and invasion abilities through downregulation of MMP-9, urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and uPAR expression. Evodiamine-induced G0/G1 arrest and apoptosis were associated with a decrease in Bcl-2, cyclin D1 and cyclin-dependent kinase 6 (CDK6) expression and an increase in Bax and p27Kip1 expression. Moreover, evodiamine regulated p-ERK and p-p38 MAPK expression. Evodiamine-induced apoptosis was enhanced by its combination with the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) inhibitor PD98059 or the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK) inhibitor SB203580. Evodiamine-inhibited metastasis was partly blocked by combination with PD98059 or SB203580. In vivo, the administration of evodiamine (10 mg/kg) significantly reduced tumor growth and pulmonary metastasis. These results demonstrate that evodiamine possesses antitumor activities via inhibition of cell migration and invasion, arrest of the cell cycle and induction of cell apoptosis in MDA-MB-231 cells.

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Taken together, losartan could attenuate neural damage following the cerebral I/R via inhibiting the β-arrestin-2-assembled AT1/ASK1/MKK4 signaling module and depressing the activation of c-jun, JNK3, and caspase-3 and the release of cytochrome c.

Abstract-A novel compact microstrip planar slot antenna with triple-band operations for WALN and WiMAX applications is proposed. The antenna, which occupies an overall dimension of 35 × 19 × 1.6 mm 3 , has a simple structure which consists of an asymmetric coplanar strip with a reverse G-shaped slot and a Ushaped open stub. The U-shaped open stub excites a resonant mode at 2.4 GHz. On the other hand the asymmetric coplanar strip could excite the resonant modes at 5.2 GHz. Meanwhile, the reverse Gshaped slot is aimed to excite resonant modes at 3.5 and 5.8 GHz. It has good omnidirectional radiation patterns in the azimuth plane and reaches 1.1 dBi at 2.4 GHz, 2.3 dBi at 3.5 GHz, 3.1 dBi at the band of 5 GHz. The designed antenna is simulated by HFSS software and a good agreement with experimental results is demonstrated.

Abstract-A novel CPW-fed antenna having a frequency bandnotched function for UWB applications is proposed and studied. By inserting a pair of inverted-T-shaped slots on the radiation element, the narrow frequency band notch has been created to cover the desired frequency varying from 3.4 to 3.69 GHz and the required UWB bandwidth is also acquainted. Good monopole-like radiation patterns and antenna gains have also been obtained.

Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains a leading cause of hepatic inflammation and damage. The pathogenesis of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection is predominantly mediated by persistent intrahepatic immunopathology. With the characterization of unique anatomical and immunological structure, the liver is also deemed an immunological organ, which gives rise to massive cytokines and chemokines under pathogenesis conditions, having significant implications for the progression of HBV infection. The intrahepatic innate immune system is responsible for the formidable source of cytokines and chemokines, with the latter also derived from hepatic parenchymal cells. In addition, systemic cytokines and chemokines are disturbed along with the disease course. Since HBV is a stealth virus, persistent exposure to HBV-related antigens confers to immune exhaustion, whereby regulatory cells are recruited by intrahepatic chemokines and cytokines, including interleukin-10 and transforming growth factor β, are involved in such series of causal events. Although the considerable value of two types of available approved treatment, interferons and nucleos(t)ide analogues, effectively suppress HBV replication, neither of them is sufficient for optimal restoration of the immunological attrition state to win the battle of the functional or virological cure of CHB infection. Notably, cytokines and chemokines play a crucial role in regulating the immune response. They exert effects by directly acting on HBV or indirectly manipulating target immune cells. As such, specific cytokines and chemokines, with a potential possibility to serve as novel immunological interventions, combined with those that target the virus itself, seem to be promising prospects in curative CHB infection. Here, we systematically review the recent literature that elucidates cytokine and chemokine-mediated pathogenesis and immune exhaustion of HBV infection and their dynamics triggered by current mainstream anti-HBV therapy. The predictive value of disease progression or control and the immunotherapies target of specific major cytokines and chemokines in CHB infection will also be delineated.

ABSTRACT:A compact and simple monopole antenna with CPW-fed structure is proposed for application in dual-band WLAN systems. The proposed antenna, which resembles the shape of the letter "e", has a compact size of only 27 ϫ 18 ϫ 1.6 mm 3 including the ground. By fabricated and measured, the proposed antenna covers both 2.4 and In this letter, we present a novel compact CPW-fed antenna resembling the shape of the letter "e" to satisfy for 2.4/5 GHz WLAN applications (2.4 -2.484 GHz for IEEE 802.11b/g and 5.15-5.825 GHz for IEEE 802.11.a). Compared with those reported, the proposed antenna has simple structure and compact size, moreover, can provide good monopole-like radiation patterns for both bands. Details of the antenna design are described, and both simulated and measured results are presented. ANTENNA DESIGNThe geometry and dimensions of the proposed antenna for dualband WLAN operations is shown in Figure 1. For the design studied here, the antenna is fabricated on the FR4 substrate of relative permittivity r ϭ 4.4 and substrate thickness h ϭ 1.6 mm, . The antenna is fed by a 50 ⍀ CPW transmission line, which consists of a signal strip width of 3.6 mm and a gap distance of 0.4 mm between the single strip and the coplanar ground plane. The dual-band operation of the proposed antenna is achieved by the dual resonant structures. As shown in Figure 1, the two resonant paths for 2.4 and 5 GHz bands are the whole path of the proposed antenna and path1, respectively. In addition, the very monopole-like radiation patterns for 5 GHz band can be obtained by the approximate symmetry of the path1 with respect to the x-direction. The parameters of the proposed antenna are designed by using Ansoft's high frequency structure simulator (HFSS). The measured antenna is connected to the cable by a coaxial SMA connector, which is taken into account in the simulation. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONThe proposed antenna has been constructed and experimentally studied. The simulated and measured return losses obtained by using Ansoft's HFSS and Aglient8363B vector network analyzer, respectively, are shown in Figure 2, together with the simulated one for the antenna with path1 only. From the curves (i) and (iii) in Figure 2, it is seen that dual resonant modes are excited by the path1 and the whole path of the proposed antenna, respectively. In the 2.4 GHz band, the measured 10 dB bandwidth is about 160 MHz (2.36 -2.52GHz) or 6.6% referred to the centre frequency of 2.44 GHz, which is sufficient to cover 2.4 GHz band. In the 5 GHz band, the measured 10 dB bandwidth is about 3820 MHz (4.07-7.89 GHz) or about 63.9% referred to the centre frequency of 5.98 GHz, which also meets the bandwidth requirement for 5 GHz band. These results agree well with the simulated results.The measured y-z plane and x-y plane radiation patterns are shown in Figure 3. It is seen that the radiation pattern for E polarization in the y-z plane is almost omni-directional at the frequency of 2.44, 5.2, and 5.8 GHz. In the x-y plane, the radiation patterns for E pola...

A low-profile wideband bowtie antenna backed by artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) ground is presented for gain enhancement. The proposed bowtie antenna, loaded with an open stub in the upper layer, has broadband property. By using an AMC reflector, consisting of 6×9 metallic patches, the bidirectional radiation of the bowtie antenna is changed to unidirectional radiation. The distance between the bowtie antenna and the AMC surface is only λ/10 at 3.75 GHz. Both the bowtie antenna and the AMC surface are fabricated and measured. The measured results demonstrate good and stable performances, including maximum gain of 8.27 dBi, and flat gain response with variation of 0.6 dB in the wide impedance matching (S 11 < −10 dB) band from 3.05 GHz to 4.35 GHz (35.1%). Furthermore, the maximum cross-polarization level is −17 dB for both E and H planes, and the measured front-to-back ratios are more than 18 dB. Good agreement between the simulated and measured results validates the proposed design approach.