Recent achievements in the use of TBAI (tetrabutylammonium iodide) and TBHP (tert-butyl hydroperoxide) as an oxidation system have been summarized and discussed.

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A flexible, non-gel-based single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) detection method is described. The method adopts thermostable ligation for allele discrimination and rolling circle amplification (RCA) for signal enhancement. Clear allelic discrimination was achieved after staining of the final reaction mixtures with Cybr-Gold and visualisation by UV illumination. The use of a compatible buffer system for all enzymes allows the reaction to be initiated and detected in the same tube or microplate well, so that the experiment can be scaled up easily for high-throughput detection. Only a small amount of DNA (i.e. 50 ng) is required per assay, and use of carefully designed short padlock probes coupled with generic primers and probes make the SNP detection cost effective. Biallelic assay by hybridisation of the RCA products with fluorescence dye-labelled probes is demonstrated, indicating that ligation-RCA (L-RCA) has potential for multiplexed assays.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) induced by ischemia-reperfusion is a critical conundrum in many clinical settings. Here, this study aimed to determine whether and how RTA-408, a novel oleanane triterpenoid, could confer protection against renal ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) in male mice. Mice treated with RTA-408 undergoing unilateral ischemia followed by contralateral nephrectomy had improved renal function and histological outcome, as well as decreased apoptosis, ROS production, and oxidative injury marker compared with vehicle-treated mice. Also, we had found that RTA-408 could strengthen the total antioxidant capacity by increasing Nrf2 nuclear translocation and subsequently increased Nrf2 downstream GSH-related antioxidant gene expression and activity. In vitro study demonstrated that GSH biosynthesis enzyme GCLc could be an important target of RTA-408. Furthermore, Nrf2-deficient mice treated with RTA-408 had no significant improvement in renal function, histology, ROS production, and GSH-related gene expression. Thus, by upregulating Nrf2 and its downstream antioxidant genes, RTA-408 presents a novel and potential approach to renal IRI prevention and therapy.