Wei-Ming Zhang

Optically pure amino alcohols are widely used as essential building blocks of catalysts and auxiliaries in asymmetric synthesis, especially in pharmaceuticals. Catalytic hydrogenation has been regarded as the most effective route to produce chiral amino alcohols, but it is still unsatisfactory, which mainly manifests in the involvement of extra acids and bases, thus generating a large amount of inorganic salt byproducts, along with a relatively low yield. In this paper, we propose a novel approach that integrates catalytic hydrogenation and electrodialysis with bipolar membranes (EDBM) to produce pure chiral amino alcohols in a completely green way. EDBM tackles the sustainability issue by splitting the resulting salt of the hydrogenation into the corresponding acid and base (amino alcohol solutions), and the acid could be reused in the next batch directly and a closed loop forms. Here, as a model system to demonstrate the feasibility, a biorenewable chiral L-alanine solid and clean H₂ gas are used as the feed stocks and finally converted into a pure L-alaninol product successfully, with no discharge of harmful substances. Furthermore, three typical mineral acids (H₃PO₄, H₂SO₄ and HCl) have been investigated systematically and achieved similar performances. The results of all tests and the cost analysis strongly suggest that this new approach is widely applicable, highly productive and sustainable. It demonstrates a true atomically economic route to produce chiral amino alcohols and entirely meets the requirements of green chemistry.

To study the effect of coixenolide on Foxp3+ CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T cells (Treg) in collagen induced arthritis (CIA) mice, and to explore its possible mechanism for treating rheumatiol arthritis. Five mice were recruited as a normal control group from 25 mice, and the rest 20 were used in CIA modeling. After successful modeling they were randomly divided in the model control group and the coixenolide group, 10 in each group. Coixenolide injection at 25 mL/kg was intraperitoneally injected to mice in the coixenolide group, while normal saline at 25 mL/kg was intraperitoneally injected to mice in the normal control group and the model control group. The injection lasted for 21 days. Scoring for CIA was performed after injection and arthritis index was calculated. The peripheral blood Foxp3+ CD4+ CD25+ Treg ratio was determined by flow cytometry (FCM). Compared with the normal control group, the arthritis index obviously increased in the model control group (P < 0.01). The arthritis index obviously decreased more in the coixenolide group than in the model control group (P < 0.01). Foxp3+ CD4+ CD25+ Treg levels obviously decreased more in the model control group than in the normal control group (P < 0.01 ). Foxp3+ CD4+ CD25+ Treg levels obviously increased more in the coixenolide control group than in the model control group (P < 0.01). Coixenolide could up-regulate Foxp3+ CD4+ CD25+ Treg ratios in CIA mice, which might play certain immunoregulation roles in the incidence of CIA.