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Nature has the ingenious capability to design spiky topological features at the macro-and nanoscales, which exhibits fascinating interface adhesive properties by means of multivalent interactions. Following a biomimetic approach, such as nanoscale virus particles are highly infectious toward host cells, a range of organic and inorganic spiky particles (virus-like nanostructures) have been precisely engineered for diverse biomedical applications. Generally, organic virus-like particles (VLPs) derived from viral capsids (often termed as virosomes) have been extensively studied and reviewed, but concomitant concerns regarding immunogenicity and risks of mutagenesis limit clinical potential of organic VLPs. In contrast, inorganic VLPs (viral-mimicking topography) possess fascinating physicochemical characteristics, such as excellent electrical, optical, magnetic, mechanical and catalytic properties, which make them particularly suitable for biomedical applications. Alternatively, there is no comprehensive review related to inorganic VLPs engineered with non-viral shell for biomedical applications. Hence, in this review, we present a brief overview on inorganic VLPs, followed by summarizing the construction and properties of virus-like nanostructures, as well as the mechanisms of nano-bio interface interactions initiated by spiky topography. Furthermore, we focus on the recent advances of VLPs for biomedical applications (including biosensing, antibacterial therapy and cancer treatment). Finally, the future outlook and emerging challenges will be presented. This review aims to provide future scope of the rational design of inorganic non-viral vectors, especially with respect to gene-based therapy platforms.

CO2 fracturing is known as the best solution to improve the efficiency of the CO2 replacement of natural gas hydrates, but the effect of CO2 thickeners on CH4-CO2 replacement are barely noticed. In this work, the effect of four kinds of CO2 thickener—including DL-Lactic acid, polyvinyl acetate, ethyl trifluoroacetate and octamethyl trisiloxane—on the CH4-CO2 replacement in quartz sand was measured thermodynamically and kinetically. The results show that the majority of the CO2 thickeners had no effect on the equilibria of the CH4 and CO2 hydrates, except for DL-Lactic acid, where the temperature depression caused by the addition of 5.5 wt% DL-Lactic acid was about 0.52 and 0.48 K for the CH4 and CO2 hydrates, respectively. In the kinetic measurements, the CH4-CO2 replacement was promoted via the addition of the CO2 thickeners, except DL-Lactic acid. The CO2 thickeners were suggested to strengthen the CH4-CO2 replacement by enhancing the gas exchange in the pore space. Octamethyl trisiloxane, which could promote CH4 recovery and CO2 capture at a low concentration, was suggested to be an ideal CO2 thickener for CH4-CO2 replacement.

Abstract Breast cancer metastasis is a complex, multi-step process, with high cellular heterogeneity between primary and metastatic breast cancer, and more complex interactions between metastatic cancer cells and other cells in the tumor microenvironment. High-resolution single-cell transcriptome sequencing technology can visualize the heterogeneity of malignant and non-malignant cells in the tumor microenvironment in real time, especially combined with spatial transcriptome analysis, which can directly compare changes between different stages of metastatic samples. Therefore, this study takes single-cell analysis as the first perspective to deeply explore special or rare cell subpopulations related to breast cancer metastasis, systematically summarizes their functions, molecular features, and corresponding treatment strategies, which will contribute to accurately identify, understand, and target tumor metastasis-related driving events, provide a research basis for the mechanistic study of breast cancer metastasis, and provide new clues for its personalized precision treatment.

Abstract Sclerotial development is a vital stage in the life cycles of many fungal plant pathogens. In this study, the protein Ss-CAD, which contains three conserved domains of cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD), was found to be required for sclerotial development in Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Ss-CAD was significantly upregulated during early stage of sclerotial development. In Ss-CAD-silenced strains, sclerotial development was abnormal. In these silenced strains, formation of sclerotia was delayed or sclerotia yield was reduced, whereas hyphal growth and virulence were normal. Nox1, Nox2, and NoxR, which encode reactive oxygen species (ROS)-generating NADPH oxidases, were downregulated in Ss-CAD-silenced strains. NoxR-silenced strains displayed similar defects during sclerotial formation as Ss-CAD-silenced strains. Treatment of Ss-CAD-silenced strains with exogenous oxidants or NADPH restored normal sclerotial development. Sclerogenesis in Ss-CAD-silenced strains could also be recovered through Nox1 overexpression. The results suggest that Ss-CAD is linked to the NADPH oxidase pathways to affect sclerotial development in S. sclerotiorum.

The modernization of water conservancy is an important part of socialist modernization. The research and analysis of the evaluation index of water conservancy modernization will help to define the direction and goal of modernization at a higher level in the future. Taking Hangzhou as an example, 41 comprehensive indexes in 7 categories were adopted as the quantitative evaluation indexes of water conservancy modernization in Hangzhou, and the comprehensive evaluation method of multiple indexes was used to analyze and calculate the level of water conservancy modernization in Hangzhou.

A Dockerfile builds a Docker image by specifying how to construct a software system by downloading, installing and configuring software packages and their dependencies. However, manually writing a Dockerfile can be error-prone because system dependency resolution requires a lot of domain knowledge. Therefore, an approach to automating Dockerfile generation based on domain knowledge was proposed. The approach automatically parses Dockerfiles and extracts knowledge of building Docker images and stores the knowledge in a graph database. When generating new Dockerfiles, the system dependencies and their installation operations for the designated software based on the knowledge base were inferred. Experiments indicate that it is viable to automate Dockerfile generation for diversified software by inferring system dependencies and software package installations with the domain knowledge.

BACKGROUND: Abnormal activity of STAT3 is associated with a number of human malignancies. Hsp90 plays a central role in stabilizing newly synthesized proteins and participates in maintaining the functional competency of a number of signaling transducers involved in cell growth, survival and oncogenesis, such as STAT3. Hsp90 interacts with STAT3 and stabilizes Tyr-phosphorylated STAT3. It has been reported that luteolin possesses anticancer activity through degradation of Tyr(705)-phosphorylated STAT3. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We found that overexpression of Hsp90 inhibited luteolin-induced degradation of Tyr(705)-phosphorylated STAT3 and luteolin also reduced the levels of some other Hsp90 interacting proteins. Results from co-immunoprecipitation and immunoblot analysis demonstrated that luteolin prevented the association between Hsp90 and STAT3 and induced both Tyr(705)- and Ser(727)-phosphorylated STAT3 degradation through proteasome-dependent pathway. The molecular modeling analysis with CHARMm-Discovery Studio 2.1(DS 2.1) indicated that luteolin could bind to the ATP-binding pocket of Hsp90. SPR technology-based binding assay confirmed the association between luteolin and Hsp90. ATP-sepharose binding assay displayed that luteolin inhibited Hsp90-ATP binding. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Luteolin promoted the degradation of Tyr(705)- and Ser(727)-phosphorylated STAT3 through interacting with Hsp90 and induced apoptosis of cancer cells. This study indicated that luteolin may act as a potent HSP90 inhibitor in antitumor strategies.

The interaction of Zn(II) porphyrin (ZnPP) with colloidal TiO2 was studied by absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy. The fluorescence emission of ZnPP was quenched by colloidal TiO2 upon excitation of its absorption band. The quenching rate constant (kq) is 1.24×1011 M−1 s−1. These data indicate that there is an interaction between ZnPP and colloidal TiO2 nanoparticle surface. The quenching mechanism is discussed on the basis of the quenching rate constant as well as the reduction potential of the colloidal TiO2. And the mechanism of electron transfer has been confirmed by the calculation of free energy change (ΔGet) by applying Rehm-Weller equation as well as energy level diagram.