Constipation is an acute or chronic illness attributed to various causes, ranging from lifestyle habits to side effects of a disease. To improve the laxative effects of some traditional medicines, herbal mixtures of Liriope platyphylla , Glycyrrhiza uralensis , and Cinnamomum cassia (LGC) were evaluated for their mechanism of action and therapeutic effects in loperamide (Lop)-induced constipated Sprague Dawley rats by examining alterations in excretion parameters, histological structure, mucin secretion, and related protein levels. Food intake and water consumption were constant for all animals. We observed that the Lop+LGC-treated group had significantly greater excretion of stool and urine than was observed in the Lop+Vehicle-treated group. Administration of LGC in the constipation model restored the intestinal transit ratio to normal levels, and increased the number of goblet cells, mucosal layer, and muscle thickness. Mucin secretion was greater in the Lop+LGC-treated group than in the Lop+Vehicle-treated group, and the expression of MUC2 and AQP8 genes were also increased. In addition, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and Western blot revealed an increase in the muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs) in the Lop+LGC-treated group compared to the Lop+Vehicle-treated group. Furthermore, compared with the Lop+Vehicle-treated group, treatment with LGC reduced the phosphorylation of PKC and PI3K, and expression of G α protein, but increased levels of IP3. Our results suggest that the traditional herbal mixture of LGC induces a potent laxative effect in Lop-induced constipation through mucosal tissue changes and mucin production. We also demonstrated that the laxative effect of LGC is closely related to the expression of mAChR and its downstream signals, suggesting the possibility of developing a constipation-laxative agent using LGC.

The hyperphosphorylation of the protein tau disrupts its normal function on regulating axonal transport and leads to the accumulation of neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), which are involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). This study was performed to investigate whether sodium selenite may inhibit the hyperphosphorylation of tau induced by treatment with tumor necrosis factor‑α (TNF‑α). For this purpose, we studied the changes in cell viability, tau phosphorylation and activity of tau kinases in TNF‑α+selenite-treated neuroblastoma cells. Cell viability was significantly recovered in the group cotreated with TNF‑α and 5 µM selenite for 24 h, but not in the groups treated with TNF‑α and lower concentrations of selenite. Tau phosphorylation was significantly higher in the group treated with TNF‑α+vehicle (instead of selenite) compared to the non‑treated group. However, in the TNF‑α+selenite‑treated group, the total phosphorylation level of tau protein at the Ser404 site was significantly reduced compared to the TNF‑α+vehicle group, although western blot analysis revealed one band of increased intensity in the p‑tau sample, corresponding to a phosphorylated tau isoform of 65‑70 kDa. In addition, sodium selenite treatment led to a significant recovery in the immunofluorescence intensity of the p‑tau protein in the cytoplasm and nucleus and in the apoptotic rate of neuroblastoma cells stained with the p‑tau antibody and 4',6‑diamidino‑2‑phenylindole (DAPI). The phosphorylation of two protein kinases responsible for phosphorylation of tau, glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK‑3β) and Akt, also known as protein kinase B, was markedly decreased in the TNF‑α+selenite‑treated group relative to the TNF‑α+vehicle‑treated group. Overall, these results provide strong evidence that sodium selenite (selenium) can inhibit cell death and tau phosphorylation induced by TNF‑α in neuroblastoma cells, through the inhibition GSK‑3β and Akt phosphorylation.

We define a new hypercomplex structure ofℝ3and a regular function with values in that structure. From the properties of regular functions, we research the exponential function on the reduced quaternion field and represent the corresponding Cauchy-Riemann equations in hypercomplex structures ofℝ3.

We define a new modified basis which is an association of two bases, and . We give an expression of the form , where is a real number and is a complex number on three-dimensional real skew field. And we research the properties of regular functions with values in ternary field and reduced quaternions by Clifford analysis.

The step derivative of a complex function can be defined with various methods. The step direction defines a basis that is distinct from that of a complex number; the derivative can then be treated by using Taylor series expansion in this direction. In this study, we define step derivatives based on complex numbers and quaternions that are orthogonal to the complex basis while simultaneously being distinct from it. Considering previous studies, the step derivative defined using quaternions was insufficient for applying the properties of quaternions by setting a quaternion basis distinct from the complex basis or setting the step direction to which only a part of the quaternion basis was applied. Therefore, in this study, we examine the definition of quaternions and define the step derivative in the direction of a generalized quaternion basis including a complex basis. We find that the step derivative based on the definition of a quaternion has a relative error in some domains; however, it can be used as a substitute derivative in specific domains.