The experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis mouse model is the most commonly used animal model, and it best represents multiple sclerosis. Grancalcin (GCA) was discovered to be upregulated in EAE mice. GCA comprises 220 amino acids that have been assigned the UniprotKB ID Q8VC88. It is a calcium-binding protein that helps neutrophils adhere to fibronectin and the formation of focal adhesions. However, the protein data bank does not contain the crystal structure of mouse GCA. The current study aims to analyze the structural and physicochemical properties of GCA. Mouse GCA showed a high percentage identity (87%) with the crystal structure of des (1–52) grancalcin with bound calcium (chain A) from Homo sapiens identified by its PDB id 1k94_A. Using the SWISS-MODEL server, we used 1k94_A as a template protein to model the mouse GCA protein. Compared to the template structure 1K94, three potential binding sites for calcium-binding have been proposed, ranging from 13 to 20, 80 to 91, and 109 to 120 amino acids. On an i5 personal computer with 8GB of RAM, GROMACS 2020.1 was utilized to run a 100 ns molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. RMSD, Rg, and RMSF analysis of an MD simulation trajectory indicate a stable and compact state throughout the simulation period of modeled proteins. We found that GCA is primarily alpha helical (Class 1), with eight alpha helices. The essential dynamics analysis captures PCA and SASA, culminating in the biological motions that correspond to the last 1000 frames. These findings will aid the development of potential inhibitors as well as the determination of binding pockets and residues for drug-like molecules.

Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a disease-refractive lung condition with an increased rate of mortality. The potential factors causing PF include viral infections, radiation exposure, and toxic airborne chemicals. Idiopathic PF (IPF) is related to pneumonia affecting the elderly and is characterized by recurring scar formation in the lungs. An impaired wound healing process, defined by the dysregulated aggregation of extracellular matrix components, triggers fibrotic scar formation in the lungs. The potential pathogenesis includes oxidative stress, altered cell signaling, inflammation, etc. Nintedanib and pirfenidone have been approved with a conditional endorsement for the management of IPF. In addition, natural product-based treatment strategies have shown promising results in treating PF. In this study, we reviewed the recently published literature and discussed the potential uses of natural products, classified into three types—isolated active compounds, crude extracts of plants, and traditional medicine, consisting of mixtures of different plant products—in treating PF. These natural products are promising in the treatment of PF via inhibiting inflammation, oxidative stress, and endothelial mesenchymal transition, as well as affecting TGF-β-mediated cell signaling, etc. Based on the current review, we have revealed the signaling mechanisms of PF pathogenesis and the potential opportunities offered by natural product-based medicine in treating PF.

A prototype of a clip-type pulsimeter equipped with a magnetic field-sensing semiconductor Hall sensor was developed. It has a permanent magnet attached in the “Chwan” position to the center of a radial artery. The clip-type pulsimeter is composed of a hardware system measuring voltage signals. To measure spatial pulse wave velocity (SPWV), the signal from the radial artery pulsimeter and that from the photoplethysmography (PPG) were simultaneously compared. The pulse wave data from a clinical test of 39 clinical participants (male:female = 25:14) with a mean age of 24.36 (±2.35) years was analyzed. The mean SPWV, which was simultaneously measured from the radial artery pulsimeter and PPG, was 0.8 m/s. We suggest the SPWV results were higher for men than women, because of the better vascularity of terminal tissue in men. The findings of this research may be useful for developing a biomedical signal storage device for a U-health-care system.

To measure precise blood pressure (BP) and pulse rate without using a cuff, we have developed an arterial pulsimeter consisting of a small, portable apparatus incorporating a Hall device. Regression analysis of the pulse wave measured during testing of the arterial pulsimeter was conducted using two equations of the BP algorithm. The estimated values of BP obtained by the cuffless arterial pulsimeter over 5 s were compared with values obtained using electronic or liquid mercury BP meters. The standard deviation between the estimated values and the measured values for systolic and diastolic BP were 8.3 and 4.9, respectively, which are close to the range of values of the BP International Standard. Detailed analysis of the pulse wave measured by the cuffless radial artery pulsimeter by detecting changes in the magnetic field can be used to develop a new diagnostic algorithm for BP, which can be applied to new medical apparatus such as the radial artery pulsimeter.

The effects of crystal texture on magnetoresistance, exchange anisotropy field $H_{\mathrm{ex}}$ and coercive field $H_c$ in the ${\mathrm{NiO}}_{\text{350\hspace{0.5em}Å}}/{\mathrm{NiFe}}_{\text{50\hspace{0.5em}Å}}/{\mathrm{Cu}}_{\text{20\hspace{0.5em}Å}}/{\mathrm{NiFe}}_{\text{50\hspace{0.5em}Å}}$ spin valve films deposited on Corning glass, MgO(100), MgO(110), and MgO(111) by rf and dc magnetron sputtering techniques were investigated. The $H_{\mathrm{ex}}$ and $H_c$ of the ${\mathrm{NiO}}_{\text{350\hspace{0.5em}Å}}/{\mathrm{NiFe}}_{\text{50\hspace{0.5em}Å}}$ bilayers grown on MgO(111) and Corning glass were almost the same 90–93 Oe and 56–60 Oe, respectively. The $H_{\mathrm{ex}}$ of the bilayer film on MgO(100) decreased to 68 Oe, however, the $H_c$ of that increased to 114 Oe. The steplike magnetoresistance curve of the spin valve film on MgO(110) disappeared. The x-ray scan of the NiO film deposited on Corning glass shows weakly preferred crystal orientation of NiO(200), (111) and (220) texture, and the NiO films on the MgO single crystals have been grown (100), (110), and (111) epitaxial textures. These results show that there is no clear trend of increasing $H_{\mathrm{ex}}$ for films with greater (111) texture. The large $H_c$ of the bilayer on MgO(100) is probably due to interface roughness.