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In this study, aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) aptamers were covalently coupled on the surface of magnetic beads to prepare aptamer affinity magnetic beads (AAMBs). Furthermore, the AAMBs, incubation solution, washing solution and eluate were pre-encapsulated in reagent strips to develop a single sample pretreatment kit of AFB1. The automatic pretreatment of AFB1 was realized through the automatic mycotoxin purifier. The content of AFB1 in the eluate was determined by ultra high performance liquid chromatography (UPLC). The preparation conditions of AAMB and the use conditions of AFB1 single sample pretreatment kit were determined by optimizing the particle size of magnetic beads, the indirect arm length of aptamer, the amount of AAMB, and the volume of incubation solution. Recoveries was compared by manual and automatic pretreatment methods. Under the optimized conditions, the limit of detection (LOD) was 25 pg/mL, and the spiked recoveries at low, medium and high levels in corn and wheat ranged from 92.8% to 110.1%, with the relative standard deviation (RSD) of intra-day precision less than 5.1% and the RSD of 6.7% in term of inter-day precision, which showed good sensitivity, accuracy and repeatability. The results of AFB1 in the national certified reference materials of grain and oil substrates (corn, brown rice, peanut oil and peanut butter) were within their extended uncertainty range. The single sample pretreatment kit developed could automatically complete the pretreatment of 10 samples within 20 min with the aid of mycotoxin automated purification instrument. This method has the advantages of short time, high throughput, small batch-to-batch variation and no need of cold chain storage and transportation. It has a good application prospect in the quantitative detection of mycotoxins, and could lay a foundation for the development of automatic pretreatment methods for other targets.

By contrasting the main indexes of maize quality standards in China, the United States, Australia and Canada, which are the representative countries in APEC and combined with the actual test results of samples analysis, it is expected to provide a reference for the interconnection of international maize trade standards. The maize quality standards of these four countries all take the unit weight, impurities and imperfect grains (damaged grains) as the main indicators of maize grading. In terms of quota setting, the characteristics of domestic maize circulation are fully considered, and the indicator systems have their own distinctive characteristics based on their own corn production, storage and trade practices. The indicator systems have their own distinctive characteristics, including the definition of maize unit weight, imperfect grains, impurities and other indicators, measuring instruments, measuring methods and quality requirements. When the same samples were tested and judged by different standards, the quality results and quality grades were different, leading to the results being lack of comparability. It is suggested that strengthen communication and coordination among international peers, unify terms and definitions, testing instruments, testing methods should be included to improve trade efficiency, reduce trade costs and promote trade facilitation of maize in the international maize trade and circulation.

In order to meet the needs of rapid quantitative detection of fumonisin B1 (FB1) in grains, this paper takes fumonisin B1 as the research object, and creates a rapid quantitative detection card of FB1 on the basis of time-resolved fluorescent nanospheres, with no need to adjust the PH of samples before detection. The detection performance of the detection card in grains (rice, corn, wheat) was analyzed and compared with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit and high performance liquid chromatography. The LOD for different samples was in the range of 35.37~37.17 μg/kg, and the LOQ was 117.9~123.9 μg/kg, which meant good sensitivity; the linear range was 250~6 000 μg/kg, while the correlation coefficient R2 was in the range of 0.997 2~0.999 5; the spiking recoveries at 6 spiked levels in different samples were in the range of 83.38%~114.66%, with the coefficient of variation (CV) less than 15%, which meant good accuracy and repeatability. When the national standard liquid chromatography and FB1 fluorescence quantitative rapid detection card simultaneously detects different samples contaminated by FB1, the coincidence of the detection results was in the ranger of 92.53%~106.26%, with the CV less than 10.37%. The cross-reaction rate of other five common mycotoxins was less than 5%. Meanwhile, the difference between the spiked concentration and their average detected concentration was extremely significant, indicating good specificity. Hence, the FB1 fluorescence quantitative detection card prepared in this study could meet the needs of on-site rapid quantitative detection of fumonisin B1 in grains.

Background: The role of mechanical power on pulmonary outcomes after thoracic surgery with one-lung ventilation was unclear. We investigated the association between mechanical power and postoperative pulmonary complications in patients undergoing thoracoscopic lung resection surgery. Methods: In this single-center, prospective observational study, 622 patients scheduled for thoracoscopic lung resection surgery were included. Volume control mode with lung protective ventilation strategies were implemented in all participants. The primary endpoint was a composite of postoperative pulmonary complications during hospital stay. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association between mechanical power and outcomes. Results: The incidence of pulmonary complications after surgery during hospital stay was 24.6% (150 of 609 patients). The multivariable analysis showed that there was no link between mechanical power and postoperative pulmonary complications. Conclusions: In patients undergoing thoracoscopic lung resection with standardized lung-protective ventilation, no association was found between mechanical power and postoperative pulmonary complications. Trial registration: Trial registration number: ChiCTR2200058528, date of registration: April 10, 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Candida albicans ( C. albicans ), a microbe commonly isolated from Candida vaginitis patients with vaginal tract infections, transforms from yeast to hyphae and produces many toxins, adhesins, and invasins, as well as C. albicans biofilms resistant to antifungal antibiotic treatment. Effective agents against this pathogen are urgently needed. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been used to cure inflammation and infectious diseases. In this study, we isolated whole housefly larvae insect SVWC peptide 1 (WHIS1), a novel insect single von Willebrand factor C-domain protein (SVWC) peptide from whole housefly larvae. The expression pattern of WHIS1 showed a response to the stimulation of C. albicans . In contrast to other SVWC members, which function as antiviral peptides, interferon (IFN) analogs or pathogen recognition receptors (PRRs), which are the prokaryotically expressed MdWHIS1 protein, inhibit the growth of C. albicans . Eukaryotic heterologous expression of WHIS1 inhibited C. albicans invasion into A549 and HeLa cells. The heterologous expression of WHIS1 clearly inhibited hyphal formation both extracellularly and intracellularly. Furthermore, the mechanism of WHIS1 has demonstrated that it downregulates all key hyphal formation factors ( ALS1, ALS3, ALS5, ECE1, HWP1, HGC1, EFG1 , and ZAP1 ) both extracellularly and intracellularly. These data showed that heterologously expressed WHIS1 inhibits C. albicans invasion into epithelial cells by affecting hyphal formation and adhesion factor-related gene expression. These findings provide new potential drug candidates for treating C. albicans infection., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Chen, Huang, Yao, Wu, Yang, Liu, Luo, Wei, Zhang, Liu and Wang.)

Aflatoxin (AFT) is an extremely toxic and highly toxic carcinogenic substance. This is particularly problematic due to the risk of aflatoxin contamination in raw feed materials and products during production, transportation, and storage. In this study, immunoaffinity magnetic beads (IMBs) were prepared for the purification of four aflatoxins (aflatoxin B 1 (AFB 1 ), aflatoxin B 2 (AFB 2 ), aflatoxin G 1 (AFG 1 ) and aflatoxin G 2 (AFG 2 )). The aflatoxin contents were then determined rapidly and accurately using ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC). More specifically, the coupling ratio of magnetic beads (MBs) to the aflatoxin monoclonal antibody was initially optimized, wherein an MB volume of 1 mL and an antibody content of 2.0 mg was found to meet the purification requirements of this method. The magnetic properties of the MBs and the IMBs were then investigated using a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) at room temperature. As a result, the maximum saturation super magnetizations of the MBs and the IMBs were determined to be 28.61 and 23.22 emu/g, respectively, indicating that the saturation magnetization intensity of the IMBs was reduced by coupling with a non-magnetic antibody. However, the saturation magnetization intensity remained sufficiently high to permit magnetic separation from the solution. In addition, the appearance of the IMBs was examined using a biomicroscope, and it was clear that the magnetic cores were wrapped in agarose gel. Furthermore, the reaction time between the IMBs and the aflatoxins was investigated, and the optimal reaction time for meeting the purification requirements was determined to be 2 min. The stability of the IMBs was then evaluated under refrigerated storage conditions at 4 ℃. It was found that the prepared IMBs maintained a high aflatoxin enrichment capacity for at least eight months. Through the examination of three different extraction solutions, a mixture of acetonitrile and water (70∶30, v/v) was found to be optimal for the extraction of aflatoxins from the feed samples. Moreover, five sample dilutions and purification effects were also examined, and phosphate-buffered saline (containing 0.5% Tween-20) was selected as the preferred sample dilutant. With the optimized conditions, the effectiveness of using IMB for the purification of different feed samples was investigated. The resulting UPLC chromatogram showed no spurious peaks close to the target peaks, demonstrating a good purification performance. Following matrix spiking (5, 20, and 40 μg/kg, calculated based on AFB 1 ) of the four feed samples (i. e., soybean meal, distillers dried grains with solubles, pig feed, and chicken feed), the spiked recoveries of the four aflatoxins ranged from 91.1% to 119.4% with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of <6.9%. In addition, the inter-day precision was 4.5% to 7.5%, and the method exhibited a good reproducibility. Subsequently, the developed method was used to detect AFB 1 using reference materials. The test value was 18.6 μg/kg with an accuracy of 110.3%, thereby constituting satisfactory results. Upon testing 21 randomly purchased feed samples using this method, four of these samples contained AFB 1 , and the test results obtained using the developed method and stable isotope dilution LC-MS/MS were comparable. It was therefore apparent that the IMB purification method combined with UPLC analysis exhibited a good accuracy for aflatoxin determination. Thus, an automatic purification system was established to facilitate the operation and use of IMBs. This system was able to purify 24 samples simultaneously in 30 min. An IMB purification kit for was also designed and produced for aflatoxin detection in feed samples. The kit contained the sample dilutant, IMBs, the washing solution, and the eluent. After extraction of the feed sample, the extraction solution was added to the sample wells provided in the kit, and the purification system automatically completed the steps of aflatoxin enrichment, impurity washing, and elution of the target toxin. It should be noted that the purification process does not require the operator to manually add the solution, thereby simplifying operation. Overall, the purification method established in this study achieved the high-throughput and automatic purification of the four aflatoxins in feed samples.

Objective: To analyze the current status of clinical trial registration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for the treatment of neurological diseases., Methods: Interventional clinical trials of TCM treatment for ischemic stroke, hemorrhagic stroke, vascular cognitive impairment, tension-type headache before September 22, 2020 on the platform of Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR), and ClinicalTrials.gov were searched. Two researchers independently selected the literature and extracted data., Results: A total of 180 interventional clinical trials were included for analysis. Out of 180 trials, 127 were from ChiCTR and 53 from ClinicalTrials.gov. The countries primary sponsoring the included trials were China (176, 97.8%), and the common categories of primary sponsors were hospital (131, 72.8%). Among the study design, the largest proportion of allocation was randomized (172, 95.6%), interventional model assignment was parallel (163, 90.6%), masking was double blind 49 (27.2%), and the sample size was ≤ 400 (144, 80.0%). The trials were most carried out at a single center (102, 56.7%). Among the included studies, 112 (62.2%) registered on ChiCTR attached the ethical approval documents. In terms of trial stages, 50 (27.7%) studies were in phase IV. The mostly used intervention was Chinese herbal medicines (99, 55%), acupuncture (68, 37.8%) was the second. By searching the registration number on China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database and PubMed, 38 (21.1%) registered trials were published, including 25 protocol studies and 14 research results with one (NCT02275949) published both the protocol and the results., Conclusions: Irregular and inadequate reporting, untimely update and publication, insufficient information on traditional medicine unique characteristics, and lack of international collaborations are the problems existing in the interventional clinical registration trials of traditional medicine treatment on neurological diseases. More efforts need to be made from the above aspects to standardize and improve the registration of traditional medicine trials.