Browsing by Author "Zhu, Y."
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Item Cetuximab enhances oridonin-induced apoptosis through mitochondrial pathway and endoplasmic reticulum stress in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma cells(Toxicology in Vitro, 2020-05-12) Donkor, P.O.; Kang, N.; Cao, S.; Jiang, B.; Zhang, Q.; Zhu, Y.; Qiu, F.; Gao, X.Cetuximab plus oridonin showed a synergistic way to kill laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC), as been reported previously. The present work further mechanistically extended action of the synergistic effects of combination treatment. Firstly, two LSCC cells displayed higher sensitivity to oridonin, whereas both low EGFR expression tumor cells and EGFR knockdown LSCC cells were less sensitive to oridonin. Next, cetuximab/oridonin significantly enhanced the mitochondrial apoptosis through NF-κB. Meanwhile, PI3K/Akt and JAK2/STAT3 pathways are associated with the nucleus translocation of NF-κB by combination treatment. Additionally, cetuximab enhanced oridonin-promoted ER stress-related apoptosis. Interestingly, both ER stress and mitochondrial apoptosis by combination treatment are abrogated by ROS scavenger. Furthermore, oridonin/cetuximab induced ROS production after 1.5 h, followed by G2/M arrest and apoptosis, indicating that ROS generation might be an early and key event. Taken together, cetuximab enhances oridonin-induced ER stress and mitochondrial apoptotic pathway, which contributes to the synergistic antitumor effects of cetuximab/oridonin.Item Goji Berries as a Potential Natural Antioxidant Medicine: An Insight into Their Molecular Mechanisms of Action(Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity, 2019-01) Ma, Z.F.; Zhang, H.; Teh, S.S.; Wang, C.W.; Zhang, Y.; Hayford, F.; Wang, L.; Ma, T.; Dong, Z.; Zhang, Y.; Zhu, Y.Goji berries (Lycium fruits) are usually found in Asia, particularly in northwest regions of China. Traditionally, dried goji berries are cooked before they are consumed. They are commonly used in Chinese soups and as herbal tea. Moreover, goji berries are used for the production of tincture, wine, and juice. Goji berries are high antioxidant potential fruits which alleviate oxidative stress to confer many health protective benefits such as preventing free radicals from damaging DNA, lipids, and proteins. Therefore, the aim of the review was to focus on the bioactive compounds and pharmacological properties of goji berries including their molecular mechanisms of action. The health benefits of goji berries include enhancing hemopoiesis, antiradiation, antiaging, anticancer, improvement of immunity, and antioxidation. There is a better protection through synergistic and additive effects in fruits and herbal products from a complex mixture of phytochemicals when compared to one single phytochemical.Item Lead in rice: Analysis of baseline lead levels in market and field collected rice grains(Science of the Total Environment, 2014-07) Norton, G.J.; Williams, P.N.; Adomako, E.E.; Price, A.H.; Zhu, Y.; Zhao, F.-J.; McGrath, S.; Deacon, C.M.; Villada, A.; Sommella, A.; Lu, Y.; Ming, L.; De Silva, P.M.C.S.; Brammer, H.; Dasgupta, T.; Islam, M.R.; Meharg, A.A.In a large scale survey of rice grains from markets (13 countries) and fields (6 countries), a total of 1578 rice grain samples were analysed for lead. From the market collected samples, only 0.6% of the samples exceeded the Chinese and EU limit of 0.2μgg-1 lead in rice (when excluding samples collected from known contaminated/mine impacted regions). When evaluating the rice grain samples against the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) provisional total tolerable intake (PTTI) values for children and pregnant women, it was found that only people consuming large quantities of rice were at risk of exceeding the PTTI from rice alone. Furthermore, 6 field experiments were conducted to evaluate the proportion of the variation in lead concentration in rice grains due to genetics. A total of 4 of the 6 field experiments had significant differences between genotypes, but when the genotypes common across all six field sites were assessed, only 4% of the variation was explained by genotype, with 9.5% and 11% of the variation explained by the environment and genotype by environment interaction respectively. Further work is needed to identify the sources of lead contamination in rice, with detailed information obtained on the locations and environments where the rice is sampled, so that specific risk assessments can be performed. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.Item Optimism/pessimism and health-related quality of life during pregnancy across three continents: A matched cohort study in china, Ghana, and the united states.(BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 2009) Moyer, C.A.; Yang, H.; Kwawukume, Y.; Gupta, A.; Zhu, Y.; Koranteng, I.; Yasmin, E.; YuMei, W.; Jonathan, G.; Calhoun, C.; Ekpo, G.; Megan, B.; Megan, R.; Adanu, R.; Anderson, F.Background Little is known about how optimism/pessimism and health-related quality of life compare across cultures. Methods Three samples of pregnant women in their final trimester were recruited from China, Ghana, and the United States (U.S.). Participants completed a survey that included the Life Orientation Test - Revised (LOT-R, an optimism/pessimism measure), the Short Form 12 (SF-12, a quality of life measure), and questions addressing health and demographic factors. A three-country set was created for analysis by matching women on age, gestational age at enrollment, and number of previous pregnancies. Anovas with post-hoc pairwise comparisons were used to compare results across the cohorts. Multivariate regression analysis was used to create a model to identify those variables most strongly associated with optimism/pessimism. Results LOT-R scores varied significantly across cultures in these samples, with Ghanaian pregnant women being the most optimistic and least pessimistic and Chinese pregnant women being the least optimistic overall and the least pessimistic in subscale analysis. Four key variables predicted approximately 20% of the variance in overall optimism scores: country of origin (p = .006), working for money (p = .05); level of education (p = .002), and ever being treated for emotional issues with medication (p < .001). Quality of life scores also varied by country in these samples, with the most pronounced difference occurring in the vitality measure. U.S. pregnant women reported far lower vitality scores than both Chinese and Ghanaian pregnant women in our sample. Conclusion This research raises important questions regarding what it is about country of origin that so strongly influences optimism/pessimism among pregnant women. Further research is warranted exploring underlying conceptualization of optimism/pessimism and health related quality of life across countries.Item Rice Grain Cadmium Concentrations in the Global Supply‑Chain(Exposure and Health, 2020-02-19) Adomako, E.; Shi, Z.; Carey, M.; Meharg, C.; Williams, P.N.; Signes‑Pastor, A.J.; Triwardhani, E.A.; Pandiangan, F.I.; Campbell, K.; Elliott, C.; Marwa, E.M.; Jiujin, X.; Farias, J.G.; Nicoloso, F.T.; De Silva, P.M.C.S.; Lu, Y.; Norton, G.; Green, A.J.; Moreno‑Jiménez, E.; Zhu, Y.; Carbonell‑Barrachina, A.A.; Haris, P.I.; Lawgali, Y.F.; Sommella, S.; Pigna, M.; Brabet, C.; Montet, D.; Njira, K.; Watts, M.J.; Hossain, M.; Islam, M.R.; Tapia, Y; Oporto, C.; Meharg, A.A.One of cadmium’s major exposure routes to humans is through rice consumption. The concentrations of cadmium in the global polished (white), market rice supply-chain were assessed in 2270 samples, purchased from retailers across 32 countries, encompassing 6 continents. It was found on a global basis that East Africa had the lowest cadmium with a median for both Malawi and Tanzania at 4.9 μg/kg, an order of magnitude lower than the highest country, China with a median at 69.3 μg/ kg. The Americas were typically low in cadmium, but the Indian sub-continent was universally elevated. In particular certain regions of Bangladesh had high cadmium, that when combined with the high daily consumption rate of rice of that country, leads to high cadmium exposures. Concentrations of cadmium were compared to the European Standard for polished rice of 200 μg/kg and 5% of the global supply-chain exceeded this threshold. For the stricter standard of 40 μg/kg for processed infant foods, for which rice can comprise up to 100% by composition (such as rice porridges, puffed rice cereal and cakes), 25% of rice would not be suitable for making pure rice baby foods. Given that rice is also elevated in inorganic arsenic, the only region of the world where both inorganic arsenic and cadmium were low in grain was East Africa.Item Variation in rice cadmium related to human exposure(Environmental Science and Technology, 2013-05) Meharg, A.A.; Norton, G.; Deacon, C.; Williams, P.; Adomako, E.E.; Price, A.; Zhu, Y.; Li, G.; Zhao, F.J.; McGrath, S.; Villada, A.; Sommella, A.; De Silva, P.M.C.S.; Brammer, H.; Dasgupta, T.; Islam, M.R.Cereal grains are the dominant source of cadmium in the human diet, with rice being to the fore. Here we explore the effect of geographic, genetic, and processing (milling) factors on rice grain cadmium and rice consumption rates that lead to dietary variance in cadmium intake. From a survey of 12 countries on four continents, cadmium levels in rice grain were the highest in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, with both these countries also having high per capita rice intakes. For Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, there was high weekly intake of cadmium from rice, leading to intakes deemed unsafe by international and national regulators. While genetic variance, and to a lesser extent milling, provide strategies for reducing cadmium in rice, caution has to be used, as there is environmental regulation as well as genetic regulation of cadmium accumulation within rice grains. For countries that import rice, grain cadmium can be controlled by where that rice is sourced, but for countries with subsistence rice economies that have high levels of cadmium in rice grain, agronomic and breeding strategies are required to lower grain cadmium. © 2013 American Chemical Society.