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Purpose: Lactoferrin (Lf), a mammalian cationic iron-binding glycoprotein belonging to the transferrin (Tf) family, has been widely used in a variety of fields ranging from treating infant diarrhea and supporting newborn growth to food and pharmaceutical applications. In this study, Lf nanoparticles were firstly used as carriers of gambogic acid (GA) to enhance oral absorption and anti-cancer activity, hence reducing the related toxic effect. Methods: Gambogic acid-lactoferrin nanoparticles (GL-NPs) were prepared by the nanoparticle albumin-bound (NAB) technology. The formed nanoparticles were characterized by DSC, TEM, etc. In situ intestinal perfusion experiment was performed to clarify the absorption mechanism of GL-NPs. Furthermore in vivo and in vitro anti-tumor activities of GL-NPs were also investigated. Results: GL-NPs was successfully prepared with about 150 nm mean size, þ20 mV z potential, 92.3 AE 7.2% encapsulation efficiency and 9.04 AE 0.7% DL; GL-NPs also exhibited a better stability and a desirable slow release in vitro experiment. The results of in situ intestinal perfusion showed a transformation of GA absorption from passive diffusion into active transport or facilitated diffusion by GL-NPs. MTT assay of GL-NPs showed almost an equal antiproliferative effect with arginine solution of GA (Arg-GA) in HepG2 cell. The inhibitory rate against S180 tumor mice after oral administration of GL-NPs was up to 86.01% which was1.39-folds of intravenous injection of Arg-GA. Conclusion: The in vitro results showed that the NAB technology was feasible for industrial production of Lf nanoparticles and the in vivo results proved that the effective GL-NPs is a promising approach for the oral delivery of GA. These obtained research works have also paved the preliminary way for the study of Lf as an oral drug delivery carrier.

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Purpose Information asymmetry is an inevitable issue in e-commerce and largely hampers the development of online shopping. The purpose of this paper is to propose a model to investigate the emotional content of online customer reviews, which are considered an efficient way to reduce information asymmetry, as a potential signal of product quality. The moderating effects of perceived empathy and cognitive effort are also explored on the basis of signaling theory. Design/methodology/approach A laboratory experiment with 120 subjects was used to empirically test the proposed research hypotheses. The subjects were randomly assigned to two treatment groups, with 60 subjects in each group. ANOVA, linear regression and binary logistic regression were used. Findings The emotional content of online customer reviews positively influences perceived product quality, which subsequently and positively affects purchase decisions. The emotional content of online customer reviews greatly influences perceived product quality when perceived empathy or cognitive effort is high. Originality/value This study is the first to extend extrinsic cues to emotional content on the basis of signaling theory and reveals the important role of emotional content of reviews. Moreover, the mediating effect of perceived product quality and the moderating effect of perceived empathy and cognitive effort illustrate the mechanism of the influence of emotional content on purchase decision. Findings demonstrate the positive signal of emotional content and provide important practical implications for sellers and customers.

A predator-prey model with Beddington-DeAngelis functional response and disease in the predator population is proposed, corresponding to the deterministic system, a stochastic model is investigated with parameter perturbation. In Additional file 1, qualitative analysis of the deterministic system is considered. For the stochastic system, the existence of a global positive solution and an estimate of the solution are derived. Sufficient conditions of persistence in the mean or extinction for all the populations are obtained. In contrast to conditions of permanence for the deterministic system in Additional file 1, it shows that environmental stochastic perturbation can reduce the size of population to a certain extent. When the white noise is small, there is a stationary distribution. In addition, conditions of global stability for the deterministic system are also established from the above result. These results mean that the stochastic system has a similar property to the corresponding deterministic system when the white noise is small. Finally, numerical simulations are carried out to support our findings. MSC: 92B05; 34F05; 60H10

Solid dispersions of tanshinone IIA (TanIIA) using hydroxyapatite (HAp) as the dispersing carrier (TanIIA-HAp SDs) were prepared by the solvent evaporation method. The formed solid dispersions were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry analysis (DSC), X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and Fourier transforms infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The in vitro dissolution rate and the stability of TanIIA-HAp SDs were also evaluated. DSC and XRPD showed that TanIIA was changed from a crystalline to an amorphous form. FTIR suggested the presence of interactions between TanIIA and HAp in solid dispersions. The result of an in vitro dissolution study showed that the dissolution rate of TanIIA-HAp SDs was nearly 7.11-folds faster than free TanIIA. Data from stability studies for over one year of TanIIA-HAp SDs performed under room temperature revealed no significant differences in drug content and dissolution behavior. All these results indicated that HAp may be a promising carrier for improving the oral absorption of TanIIA.

Schwann cells (SCs) are important in the recovery of peripheral nerve injury and are valuable cells for the tissue engineering of artificial neurons. Clinical applications that require pure SCs in large quantities are limited since human and mouse SCs do not attach well to the wall of the culture dish and have low proliferative potential. To obtain high quantities of highly pure SCs, we developed a new method for culturing SCs from the mouse sciatic nerve in vitro. Approximately 1.5 cm of the bilateral sciatic nerve of a c57 adult mouse was surgically removed and pre-cultured in DMEM containing either 10% FBS or growth factors. One week later, the in vitro SC culture was observed using light microscopy following enzyme digestion. Cell numbers and cell attachment were examined. The purity of the SCs was determined using s100β and p75NTR staining. Sciatic nerves that had not been pre-cultured were used as the control group. When the excised tissue was pre-cultured in vitro, high yields of SCs were obtained. The SCs were more likely to adhere and the purity was approximately 98% at the p1 generation following simple purification steps, which was significantly higher than the purity obtained from the control group. The pre-culturing of the sciatic nerve prior to in vitro tissue culturing significantly increased the quantity and quality of the SCs.

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