lyophilized powder raises a handful of sensible questions. This page answers them in order, starting with the fundamentals and moving to applications.
This page was last updated on 2026-01-11 and is reviewed periodically as new material appears.
Early work on thymic extracts in the 1960s described a heat-stable acidic fraction containing many polypeptides. Separation of that mixture yielded individual components, and thymosin alpha-1 was named as one of them on the basis of assays for T-cell activity. The first preparations came from calf thymus, while subsequent research and clinical material has been chemically synthesized. Nomenclature in older papers is inconsistent, and the same peptide sometimes appears under different designations, which complicates literature searches.
Most published studies on thymosin alpha-1 report changes in immune measurements rather than clinical outcomes, and findings differ across designs and populations. Whether the peptide signals through one defined receptor or through several less specific interactions remains an open question. Its reported circulation half-life of a few hours complicates comparison of dosing schedules across trials. Mechanistic claims are frequently drawn from isolated cell cultures, and how far those results extend to whole organisms is unresolved.
临床研究将Tα1用于慢性病毒感染、肿瘤辅助治疗和疫苗佐剂等场景。部分试验报告了免疫学指标改善，但临床终点获益在不同研究中并不一致。系统综述指出，研究间在人群、剂量和联合方案上差异较大，难以汇总结论。因此，Tα1的确切临床地位仍属开放问题，需要更多高质量随机对照试验来澄清。其机制研究也需从体外实验向体内模型推进。
胸腺素α1对免疫系统的影响涉及多种细胞类型。研究表明，它可促进未成熟T细胞向成熟T细胞分化，并增强T细胞对抗原刺激的增殖反应。树突状细胞在Tα1存在下表达更高水平的共刺激分子，从而更有效地呈递抗原。此外，自然杀伤细胞的活性也观察到上升。这些效应并非直接杀伤病原体，而是调节宿主免疫应答的强度与方向。
| Property | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Class | Synthetic peptide | 28 residues; not a small-molecule compound |
| Molecular mass | About 3,106 Da | Monoisotopic mass of the unmodified chain |
| N-terminal group | Acetylated serine | Present in both native and synthetic forms |
| Secondary structure | Disulfide-constrained loop | One bridge between two cysteine residues |
| Typical source | Solid-phase synthesis | Early isolates came from bovine thymus extracts |
The molecule consists of 28 amino acid residues with an acetyl group attached to the N-terminal serine. Its sequence is acidic overall, with several glutamic and aspartic acid residues distributed along the chain and no cysteine, so disulfide bridges do not form. The peptide carries a net negative charge at physiological pH. Because the N-terminus is blocked, the intact molecule resists degradation by many aminopeptidases, which contributes to its stability in biological fluids.
The peptide is generated in cells by cleavage of prothymosin alpha, a larger acidic protein encoded by the PTMA gene. Prothymosin alpha is expressed in many tissues, not only in the thymus, and its functions include nuclear roles in chromatin-related processes. The 28-residue fragment corresponds to the N-terminal portion of that precursor. How the cleavage occurs and how the fragment's concentration is regulated remain open questions; circulating amounts are small and difficult to measure reliably with routine assays.
Laboratory supplies of the peptide usually arrive as a lyophilized powder in sealed vials. The powder is hygroscopic, so a vial should be allowed to reach room temperature before it is opened to prevent condensation on the contents. Weighing and transfer are best performed in a low-humidity environment with clean tools. Once dissolved, the solution should be mixed gently rather than vortexed, because foaming and shear can reduce recovery of the peptide.
Storage recommendations center on low temperature, dryness, and protection from repeated freezing and thawing. The intact powder is commonly held at 20 degrees below zero Celsius or colder, while a working solution is divided into single-use aliquots to limit freeze-thaw cycles. Buffered saline or phosphate-buffered saline at neutral pH is frequently used as a diluent. Light sensitivity is not well documented, yet amber vials or foil wrapping are common practice for long-term storage of peptide stocks.
Thymosin alpha 1 was identified in 1977 as a component of thymosin fraction 5, a heterogeneous preparation used in early studies of thymic function. Investigators purified the active material and determined its amino acid sequence, which enabled chemical synthesis. Work in the following decades concentrated on T-cell maturation and immune reconstitution in animals and small human cohorts. Early preparations varied in composition, so results from that period are difficult to compare with studies using defined synthetic peptide.
Clinical research has examined the peptide in chronic hepatitis B and C, as a vaccine adjuvant, and in sepsis and oncology settings. Findings across trials are mixed; some report changes in selected immune markers, while others find no clear clinical benefit. Many studies are small and define outcomes differently, which limits comparison. Regulatory approval is confined to a few countries, and the compound is not an approved drug in the United States or most of Europe.
Overall evidence quality varies considerably. A large share of published reports come from single centers, rely on surrogate immunological markers, or lack adequate control groups. Systematic reviews have highlighted this heterogeneity as a barrier to pooling results. Open questions include which patients, if any, might benefit, what treatment duration is appropriate, and whether any effect is independent of standard care. The peptide is often described as an immune modulator rather than a therapy for one disease, which complicates confirmatory trial design.
Members of Generation Z are anxious to pick majors that teach them marketable skills, with an overwhelming majority consider job preparation to be the point of college. A 2018 Gallup poll on over 32,000 university students randomly selected from 43 schools from across the United States found that just over half (53%) of them thought their chosen major would lead to gainful employment. STEM students expressed the highest confidence (62%) while those in the liberal arts were the least confident (40%). Just over one in three thought they would learn the skills and knowledge needed to become successful in the workplace. While the number of students majoring in the humanities has fallen significantly, those in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM, have risen sharply. While about half of STEM graduates work in non-STEM jobs, people with collegiate STEM training still tend to earn more, regardless of whether or not their job is STEM-related or not. By the late 2010s, the historical trend of men being more likely to have higher education has reversed. Women are now more likely to enroll in university than men, a trend accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of the 2020–21 academic year, 59.5% of university students were women. This growing sex gap has been growing for four decades in the United States in parallel with other countries of middle to high income. Among those who attend college or university, women are more likely then men to graduate with a degree within six years.
Hydrocodone is a highly selective full agonist of the μ-opioid receptor (MOR). This is the main biological target of the endogenous opioid neuropeptide β-endorphin. Hydrocodone has low affinity for the δ-opioid receptor (DOR) and the κ-opioid receptor (KOR), where it is an agonist similarly. Studies have shown hydrocodone is stronger than codeine but only one-tenth as potent as morphine at binding to receptors and reported to be only 59% as potent as morphine in analgesic properties. However, in tests conducted on rhesus monkeys, the analgesic potency of hydrocodone was actually higher than morphine. Oral hydrocodone has a mean equivalent daily dosage (MEDD) factor of 0.4, meaning that 1 mg of hydrocodone is equivalent to 0.4 mg of intravenous morphine. However, because of morphine's low oral bioavailability, there is a 1:1 correspondence between orally administered morphine and orally administered hydrocodone.
The different m/z separation elements of a hybrid mass spectrometer can be represented by a shorthand notation. The symbol Q represents a quadrupole mass analyzer, q is a radio frequency collision quadrupole, TOF is a time-of-flight mass spectrometer, B is a magnetic sector and E is an electric sector.
=== Modern era till 1900 === Wholesaling was central to economic development, especially in periods when manufacturing and retail were still small-scale. Before 1850s, wholesale merchants were multipurpose connectors who often provided financing, warehousing, information, freight coordination, and risk-taking, and who helped establish broader market systems. As transport and communication improved, wholesaling expanded and professionalized. From the mid-1850s, national markets began to take shape "due in part to the telegraph, the railroad and maritime transportation," increasing the separation between producers and buyers and creating larger "market gaps." As mass production emerged toward the end of the 19th century and producers clustered near inputs and transport, market gaps widened further, and a broader class of middlemen grew to close those gaps.
DiCaprio continued to gain acclaim for his performances in the biopic The Aviator (2004), the political thriller Blood Diamond (2006), the crime thriller The Departed (2006), the romantic drama Revolutionary Road (2008), the action thriller Inception (2010), the western Django Unchained (2012), the biopic The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), the survival drama The Revenant (2015)—for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor—the comedy-drama Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), the crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) and the action film One Battle After Another (2025). DiCaprio is the founder of Appian Way Productions—a production company that has made some of his films and environmental documentaries, such as the series Greensburg (2008–2010)—and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting environmental awareness. A United Nations Messenger of Peace, he regularly supports charitable causes. In 2005, he was named a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters for his contributions to the arts, and in 2016, he appeared in Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world. DiCaprio was voted one of the 50 greatest actors of all time in a 2022 readers' poll by Empire magazine.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
The history of skin whitening in East Asia dates to ancient times. To be light in an environment in which the sun was harsh implied wealth and nobility because those individuals were able to remain indoors while servants had to labor outside. Ancient Asian cultures also associated light skin with feminine beauty. "Jade" white skin in Korea is known to have been the ideal as far back as the Gojoseon era. Japan's Edo period saw the start of a trend of women whitening their faces with rice powder as a "moral duty". Chinese women valued a "milk white" complexion and swallowed powdered pearls towards that end. Skin-lightening practices had achieved great importance in East Asia as early as the 16th century. Similar to early European cosmetics, white makeup was reported to cause severe health problems and physical malformations. In Japan, samurai mothers who used lead-based white paint on their faces often had children who exhibited symptoms of lead toxicity and stunted bone growth. Japanese nobility, including both men and women, often applied white lead powder to their faces prior to the Meiji restoration. Following the Meiji restoration, men and women reserved white lead makeup and traditional attire for special occasions. In China, Korea, and Japan, washing one's face with rice water was also practiced, as it was believed to naturally whiten skin. Historians also noted that as East Asian women immigrated to the United States, immigrant women engaged in skin lightening more frequently than women who did not immigrate.
Cry Freedom is a 1987 epic biographical drama film directed and produced by Richard Attenborough, set in apartheid-era South Africa in 1977. The screenplay was written by John Briley based on a pair of books by journalist Donald Woods. The film centres on the real-life events involving South African activist Steve Biko and his friend Woods, who initially finds him too radical, and attempts to understand his way of life. Denzel Washington stars as Biko, while Kevin Kline portrays Woods. Penelope Wilton co-stars as Woods's wife Wendy. Cry Freedom delves into the ideas of racism, segregation, disenfranchisement, socioeconomic inequality, political corruption, and the repercussions of violence. A joint collective effort to commit to the film's production was made by Universal Pictures and Marble Arch Productions and the film was primarily shot on location in Zimbabwe due to not being allowed to film in South Africa at the time of production. It was commercially distributed by Universal Pictures, opening in the United States on 6 November 1987. South African authorities unexpectedly allowed the film to be screened in cinemas without cuts or restrictions, despite the publication of Biko's writings being banned at the time of its release. The film was generally met with favourable reviews and earned theatrical rentals of $15 million worldwide. The film was nominated for multiple awards, including Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor (for Washington), Best Original Score, and Best Original Song.
== History == From the time of Hippocrates it has been known that bone has considerable potential for regeneration and repair. Nicholas Senn, a surgeon at Rush Medical College in Chicago, described the utility of antiseptic decalcified bone implants in the treatment of osteomyelitis and certain bone deformities. Pierre Lacroix proposed that there might be a hypothetical substance, osteogenin, that might initiate bone growth. The biological basis of bone morphogenesis was shown by Marshall R. Urist. Urist made the key discovery that demineralized, lyophilized segments of bone induced new bone formation when implanted in muscle pouches in rabbits. This discovery was published in 1965 by Urist in Science. Urist proposed the name "Bone Morphogenetic Protein" in the scientific literature in the Journal of Dental Research in 1971. Bone induction is a sequential multistep cascade. The key steps in this cascade are chemotaxis, mitosis, and differentiation. Early studies by Hari Reddi unraveled the sequence of events involved in bone-matrix-induced bone morphogenesis. On the basis of the above work, it seemed likely that morphogens were present in the bone matrix. Using a battery of bioassays for bone formation, a systematic study was undertaken to isolate and purify putative bone morphogenetic proteins. A major stumbling block to purification was the insolubility of demineralized bone matrix. To overcome this hurdle, Hari Reddi and Kuber Sampath used dissociative extractants, such as 4M guanidine HCL, 8M urea, or 1% SDS.
The water cobras found in central and western Africa are an extremely venomous cobra species (Naja). These species were formerly under the genus Boulengerina. The banded water cobra (Naja annulata) and the Congo water cobra (Naja christyi) are dangerously venomous. The banded water cobra has one subspecies which is known as Storms water cobra (Naja annulata stormsi). Their venoms are extremely potent neurotoxins. A toxicological study listed the intraperitoneal (IP) LD50 of N. annulata at 0.143 mg/kg. Brown (1973) listed the intravenous LD50 for N. a. annulata at 0.2 mg/kg. The same study listed the intraperitoneal (IP) LD50 of N. christyi at 0.12 mg/kg. The venoms of these little-known elapids have the lowest intraperitoneal LD50 of any Naja species studied thus far and have high concentrations of potent postsynaptic neurotoxins. Serious and dangerous envenomation can result from a bite from either of these snakes. There is at least one case of human envenomation caused by the Congo water cobra (N. christyi). Symptoms of the envenomation were mild. There is no specific antivenom currently produced for either of these two species.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
In this kind of united atom representation, one typically eliminates all explicit hydrogen atoms except those that have the capability to participate in hydrogen bonds (polar hydrogens). An example of this is the CHARMM 19 force-field. The polar hydrogens are usually retained in the model, because proper treatment of hydrogen bonds requires a reasonably accurate description of the directionality and the electrostatic interactions between the donor and acceptor groups. A hydroxyl group, for example, can be both a hydrogen bond donor, and a hydrogen bond acceptor, and it would be impossible to treat this with one OH pseudo-atom. About half the atoms in a protein or nucleic acid are non-polar hydrogens, so the use of united atoms can provide a substantial savings in computer time.
The string of defeats, as well as a complete collapse of the Yugoslav economy, led to mass unpopularity of Slobodan Milošević and his allies in the Socialist Party of Serbia. In September 2000, amongst accusations of electoral fraud, large scale protests struck the nation. Milošević was eventually removed from power, as his Socialist Party of Serbia lost in the federal elections to the Democratic Opposition of Serbia. In the aftermath, a new government in Yugoslavia negotiated with the United Nations, accepting that it was not the sole legal successor to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and was allowed to join the UN. Milošević would later be put on trial for corruption and war crimes, especially during the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, although he died in prison before his trial could end in 2006. His culpability remains a subject of controversy within Serbia.
All LSF reactions are chemoselective but not every chemoselective reaction fulfills the requirements of the definition for LSF. High chemoselectivity is required for a useful LSF with a predictable reaction outcome because complex molecules typically feature several distinct functional groups that need to be tolerated. In this sense, chemoselectivity is sometimes referred to as functional group tolerance. Furthermore, high chemoselectivity avoids often undesired over-functionalization of the valuable substrate, which is used as a limiting reagent in LSF reactions. Every C–H bond functionalization on a complex molecule classifies as LSF, except when a directing or activating group must be installed in a previous step of the synthesis to accomplish the transformation. For functional group manipulations, the distinction between LSF and functional-group-tolerant reactions is more subtle. For example, peptide bioconjugation reactions make use of the native functionality in amino acid side chains, and thus classify as LSF. In contrast, bioorthogonal 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions (see also copper-free click chemistry and Huisgen cycloaddition) generally require prior introduction of azide or cycloalkyne functionalities to biomolecules. Hence, such transformations do not classify as LSF despite their excellent functional group tolerance.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Its sequence corresponds to the amino-terminal portion of prothymosin alpha, a larger protein present in many cell types. The isolated 28-residue peptide is a fragment of that protein rather than a separately encoded molecule, and laboratory material is produced by synthesis.
The single bridge between two cysteine residues holds the chain in a folded loop that influences its shape and its behavior in solution. Loss of the bridge through reduction or oxidation shifts chromatographic retention and is tracked during stability work.
It is a defined 28-residue sequence derived from a larger precursor, whereas many other thymic preparations are mixtures of several polypeptides. Its acetylated amino terminus and single disulfide bridge distinguish it chemically from unrelated thymic extracts.
它促进未成熟T细胞分化并增强成熟T细胞的增殖与细胞因子分泌。这些作用有助于放大抗原特异性免疫应答。