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Purpose of Review: Our work is to establish more distinct association between specific stress and vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) phenotypes to alleviate atherosclerotic plaque burden and delay atherosclerosis (AS) progression. Recent Finding: In recent years, VSMCs phenotypic transition has received significant interests. Different stresses were found to be associated with VSMCs phenotypic transition. However, the explicit correlation between VSMCs phenotype and specific stress has not been elucidated clearly yet. Summary: We discover that VSMCs phenotypic transition, which is widely involved in the progression of AS, is associated with specific stress. We discuss approaches targeting stresses to intervene VSMCs phenotypic transition, which may contribute to develop innovative therapies for AS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systemic therapy is typically the primary treatment choice for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with extrahepatic metastases. Some patients may achieve partial response (PR) or complete response (CR) with systemic treatment, leading to the possibility of their primary tumor becoming resectable. This study aimed to investigate whether these patients could achieve longer survival through surgical resection of their primary tumor. We retrospectively collected data from 150 HCC patients with extrahepatic metastases treated at 15 different centers from January 1st, 2015, to November 30th, 2022. We evaluated their overall survival (OS) and progress-free survival (PFS) and analyzed risk factors impacting both OS and PFS were analyzed. Patients who received surgical treatment had longer OS compared to those who did not (median OS 16.5 months vs. 11.3 months). However, there was no significant difference in progression-free survival between the two groups. Portal vein invasion (P = 0.025) was identified as a risk factor for poor prognosis in patients, while effective first-line treatment (P = 0.039) and surgical treatment (P = 0.005) were protective factors. No factors showed statistical significance in the analysis of PFS. Effective first-line treatment (P = 0.027) and surgical treatment (P = 0.006) were both independent protective factors for prolonging patient prognosis, while portal vein invasion was an independent risk factor (P = 0.044). HCC patients with extrahepatic metastases who achieve PR/CR with conversion therapy may experience longer OS through surgical treatment. This study is the first to analyze the clinical outcomes of patients receiving surgical treatment for HCC with extrahepatic metastases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the fundamental hurdles in infrared spectroscopy is the failure of molecular identification when their infrared vibrational fingerprints overlap. Refractive index (RI) is another intrinsic property of molecules associated with electronic polarizability, but with limited contribution to molecular identification in mixed environments currently. Here, we investigate the coupling mode of localized surface plasmon and surface phonon polaritons for vibrational de-overlapping. The coupling mode is sensitive to the molecular refractive index, attributed to the RI-induced vibrational variations of surface phonon polaritons (SPhP) within the Reststrahlen band, referred to as RI-dependent SPhP vibrations. The RI-dependent SPhP vibrations are linked to molecular RI features. According to the deep-learning-augmented demonstration of bond-breaking-bond-making dynamic profiling in biological reaction, we substantiate that the RI-dependent SPhP vibrations effectively disentangle overlapping vibrational modes, achieving a 92% identification accuracy even for the strongly overlapping vibrational modes in the reaction. Our findings offer insights into the realm of light-matter interaction and provide a valuable toolkit for biomedicine applications. Molecular vibrations serve as valuable signatures for the constituent elements and bonding in compounds. Here, using Surface-Enhanced Infrared Absorption spectroscopy, the authors study refractive index dependent vibrations of surface phonon polaritons and surface plasmon platform, targeting dynamic biomonitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is an advanced form of chronic fatty liver disease, which is a driver of hepatocellular carcinoma. However, the roles of the C5aR1 in the NASH remain poorly understood. Here, we aimed to investigate the functions and mechanisms of the C5aR1 on hepatic inflammation and fibrosis in murine NASH model. Methods: Mice were fed a normal chow diet with corn oil (ND + Oil), a Western diet with corn oil (WD + Oil) or a Western diet with carbon tetrachloride (WD + CCl4) for 12 weeks. The effects of the C5a–C5aR1 axis on the progression of NASH were analyzed and the underlying mechanisms were explored. Results: Complement factor C5a was elevated in NASH mice. C5 deficiency reduced hepatic lipid droplet accumulation in the NASH mice. The hepatic expression levels of TNFα, IL-1β and F4/80 were decreased in C5-deficient mice. C5 loss alleviated hepatic fibrosis and downregulated the expression levels of α-SMA and TGFβ1. C5aR1 deletion reduced inflammation and fibrosis in NASH mice. Transcriptional profiling of liver tissues and KEGG pathway analysis revealed that several pathways such as Toll-like receptor signaling, NFκB signaling, TNF signaling, and NOD-like receptor signaling pathway were enriched between C5aR1 deficiency and wild-type mice. Mechanistically, C5aR1 deletion decreased the expression of TLR4 and NLRP3, subsequently regulating macrophage polarization. Moreover, C5aR1 antagonist PMX-53 treatment mitigated the progression of NASH in mice. Conclusions: Blockade of the C5a–C5aR1 axis reduces hepatic steatosis, inflammation, and fibrosis in NASH mice. Our data suggest that C5aR1 may be a potential target for drug development and therapeutic intervention of NASH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The self-sufficient cytochrome P450 BM3 mutant (A74G/F87V/D168H/L188Q) can serve as a biocatalyst for whole-cell catalysis process of indigo. Nevertheless, the bioconversion yield of indigo is generally low under normal cultivation conditions (37 °C, 250 rpm). In this study, a recombinant E. coli BL21(DE3) strain was constructed to co-express the P450 BM3 mutant gene and GroEL/ES genes to investigate whether GroEL/ES can promote the indigo bioconversion yield in E. coli. The results revealed that the GroEL/ES system could significantly increase the indigo bioconversion yield, and the indigo bioconversion yield of the strain co-expressing P450 BM3 mutant and GroEL/ES was about 21-fold that of the strain only expressing the P450 BM3 mutant. In addition, the P450 BM3 enzyme content and in vitro indigo bioconversion yield were determined to explore the underlying mechanism for the improvement of indigo bioconversion yield. The results revealed that GroEL/ES did not increase indigo bioconversion yield by increasing the content of P450 BM3 enzyme and its enzymatic transformation efficiency. Moreover, GroEL/ES could improve the intracellular nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH)/NADP+ ratio. Given that NADPH is an important coenzyme in the catalytic process of indigo, the underlying mechanism for the improvement of indigo bioconversion yield is probably related to an increase in the intracellular NADPH/NADP+ ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work investigates the microstructure characterization and mechanical properties of Al alloy fabricated by additive friction stir deposition (AFSD). Microstructure characterizations of the Al alloy 5B70 base material (BM) and build were compared using optical microscope (OM) and electron back scattered diffraction (EBSD). The hardness distribution in the direction perpendicular to the cross-section of the deposited area was systematically evaluated. Tensile tests were performed on the BM and the build using digital image correlation (DIC), and the real-time stress distribution states of the specimens were analyzed. After the tensile tests, the fracture micromorphology was characterized using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results indicated that a high degree of recrystallization occurred in the deposition zone, where fine, equiaxed, and differently oriented grains are formed. It was found that the strength of the deposition layer was lower compared to that of the BM, but its toughness was significantly improved. Also, obvious anisotropy of mechanical properties was identified in the deposition layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: A novel BrSCC1 gene for seed coat color was fine mapped within a 41.1-kb interval on chromosome A03 in Brassica rapa and functionally validated by ectopic expression analysis. Yellow seed is a valuable breeding trait that can be potentiality applied for improving seed quality and oil productivity in oilseed Brassica crops. However, only few genes for yellow seed have been identified in B. rapa. We previously identified a minor quantitative trait locus (QTL), qSC3.1, for seed coat color on chromosome A03 in B. rapa. In order to isolate the seed coat color gene, a brown-seeded chromosome segment substitution line, CSSL-38, harboring the qSC3.1, was selected and crossed with the yellow-seeded recurrent parent, a rapid cycling inbred line of B. rapa (RcBr), to construct the secondary F2 population. Metabolite identification suggested that seed coat coloration in CSSL-38 was independent of proanthocyanidins (PAs) accumulation. Genetic analysis revealed that yellow seed was controlled by a single recessive gene, Seed Coat Color 1 (BrSCC1). Utilizing bulked segregant analysis (BSA)-seq and secondary F2 and F2:3 recombinants analysis, BrSCC1 was fine mapped within a 41.1-kb interval. By integrating gene expression profiling, genome sequence comparison, metabolite analysis, and functional validation through ectopic expression in Arabidopsis, the BraA03g040800.3C gene was confirmed to be BrSCC1, which positively correlated with the seed coat coloration. Our study provides a novel gene resource for the genetic improvement of yellow seeds in oilseed B. rapa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese word embedding has attracted considerable attention in the field of natural language processing. Existing methods model the relation between target and neighbouring contextual words. However, with the phenomenon of irrelevant neighbouring words in Chinese, these methods are limited in capturing and understanding the semantics of Chinese words. In this study, we designed sc2vec to explore Chinese word embeddings by proposing a similar context to reduce the influence of the above problem and comprehend relevant semantics of Chinese words. Meanwhile, to enhance the learning architecture, sc2vec was modelled with reinforcement learning to generate high-quality Chinese word embeddings, regarding continuous bag-of-words and skip-gram models as two actions of an agent over a corpus. The results on word analogy, word similarity, named entity recognition, and text classification tasks demonstrate that the proposed model outperforms most state-of-the-art approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to assess the effects of irrigation frequency and nitrogen fertilization rate on the abundance, diversity, and composition of soil bacteria in winter wheat. Irrigation, but not nitrogen fertilization, significantly affected the bacterial alpha diversity index. Among the 50 phyla obtained in these treatments, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes, and Firmicutes were the predominant phyla. The LEfSe analysis of different treatments indicated that irrigation had a stronger effect on soil bacteria community composition than nitrogen fertilization. Moreover, the soil pH, moisture, available phosphorus (AP), and available potassium (AK) significantly correlated with the relative abundance of dominant bacteria at the phylum, genus, and operational taxonomic unit (OTU) levels. Overall, after three years of irrigation and fertilization treatments, the effect of irrigation on soil bacteria abundance, diversity, and composition of winter wheat was stronger than that of nitrogen fertilization, highlighting the importance of water availability for bacteria communities in semi-arid ecosystems. Inorganic and organic fertilizers should be applied in rotation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been a global challenge since December 2019. Although most patients with COVID-19 exhibit mild clinical manifestations, in approximately 5% of these patients, the disease eventually progresses to severe lung injury or even multiorgan dysfunction. This situation represents various challenges to hepatology. In the context of liver injury in patients with COVID-19, several key problems need to be solved. For instance, it is important to determine whether SARS-CoV-2 can directly invade liver, especially when ACE2 appears to be negligibly expressed on hepatocytes. In addition, the mechanisms underlying liver dysfunction in COVID-19 patients are not fully understood, which are likely multifactorial and related to hyperinflammation, dysregulated immune responses, abnormal coagulation and drugs. Here, we systematically describe the potential pathogenesis of COVID-19-associated liver injury and propose several hypotheses about its etiopathogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extracting dense depth from a single image is an important yet challenging computer vision task. Compared with stereo depth estimation, sensing the depth of a scene from monocular images is much more difficult and ambiguous because the epipolar geometry constraints cannot be exploited. The recent development of deep learning technologies has introduced significant progress in monocular depth estimation. This paper aims to explore the effects of multi-scale structures on the performance of monocular depth estimation and further obtain a more refined 3D reconstruction by using our predicted depth and corresponding uncertainty. First, we explore three multi-scale architectures and compare the qualitative and quantitative results of some state-of-the-art approaches. Second, in order to improve the robustness of the system and provide the reliability of the predicted depth for subsequent 3D reconstruction, we estimate the uncertainty of noisy data by modeling such uncertainty in a new loss function. Last, the predicted depth map and corresponding depth uncertainty are incorporated into a monocular reconstruction system. The experiments of monocular depth estimation are mainly performed on the widely used NYU V2 depth dataset, on which the proposed method achieves a state-of-the-art performance. For the 3D reconstruction, the implementation of our proposed framework can reconstruct more smooth and dense models on various scenes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Damage to the integrity of heparin sulfate (HS) in the endothelial glycocalyx is an important factor of glomerular filtration barrier dysfunction, which is the basic pathological feature of acute kidney injury (AKI). AKI is a common clinical critical illness with few drugs options offering effective treatment. Phillyrin (Phil), the main pharmacological component of Forsythia suspensa, possesses a wide range of pharmacological activities. However, the effects of Phil on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced AKI have yet to be reported. The aim of the present study is to analyze the effects of Phil on HS damage and inflammatory signaling pathways in LPS-induced AKI. Results revealed that Phil reduces pathological changes and improves renal function in LPS-induced AKI. Further analysis indicated that Phil effectively protects against glycocalyx HS degradation in LPS-stimulated EA.hy926 cells in vitro and LPS-induced AKI mice in vivo. The protective effect of Phil on HS damage may be associated with the isolate's ability to suppress the production of reactive oxygen species, and decrease expression levels of cathepsin L and heparanase in vitro and in vivo. In addition, ELISA and Western blot results revealed that Phil inhibits the activation of the NF-κB and MAPK signaling pathways and decreases the levels of inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α) in LPS-induced ARDS mice. In general, protection against endothelial glycocalyx HS damage and inhibition of inflammatory responses by Phil may be used as treatment targets for LPS-induced AKI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulating plant density is an important practice to improve winter wheat productivity under limited irrigation in North China Plain. Field experiments were carried out over two seasons (2014–15 and 2015–16) under three plant densities (Dh: 480–570, Dm: 360–390, Dl: 240–270 104 plants hm−2) and three irrigation levels (W0: no irrigation; W1: irrigated 80.0 mm only at the jointing stage, which also means limited irrigation; W2: irrigated 60.0 mm each at the jointing and the flowering stages). Results showed that higher numbers of spikes and higher yield were obtained at high density than that at low density under limited irrigation. Under the same irrigation, wheat culms at ripening stage and the proportion of main stem spikes increased with plant density increasing, along with the increasing of transportation amount, transportation rate, and contribution rate of pre-anthesis storage material to grain. But accumulation amount and contribution rate of post-anthesis dry matter, which was influenced by irrigation level, showed a declining trend with increasing plant density under W2 and W1. Therefore, (1) under limited water condition, yield loss could be compensated by increasing contribution rate of pre-anthesis storage material to grain with increasing plant density. (2) Meantime, under the same limited water condition, higher plant densities could promote nitrogen accumulation in grain and plant of wheat, which was significantly correlation to wheat yield. (3) Considering water and nitrogen use efficiency, medium plant density (Dm) is recommended in wet years, high plant density (Dh) may be considered to increase wheat yield in dry years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thickness of the sensitive layer has an important influence on the sensitivity of a shear horizontal surface acoustic wave (SH-SAW) biosensor with a delay-line structure and lower layer numbers of graphene produce better sensitivity for biological detection. Therefore, a label-free and highly sensitive SH-SAW biosensor with chemical vapor deposition (CVD-)-grown single-layered graphene (SLG) for endotoxin detection was developed in this study. With this methodology, SH-SAW biosensors were fabricated on a 36° Y-90° X quartz substrate with a base frequency of 246.2 MHz, and an effective detection cell was fabricated using acrylic material. To increase the surface hydrophilicity, chitosan was applied to the surface of the SLG film. Additionally, the aptamer was immobilized on the surface of the SLG film by cross-linking with glutaraldehyde. Finally, the sensitivity was verified by endotoxin detection with a linear detection ranging from 0 to 100 ng/mL, and the detection limit (LOD) was as low as 3.53 ng/mL. In addition, the stability of this type of SH-SAW biosensor from the air phase to the liquid phase proved to be excellent and the specificity was tested and verified by detecting the endotoxin obtained from Escherichia coli (E. coli), the endotoxin obtained from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa), and aflatoxin. Therefore, this type of SH-SAW biosensor with a CVD-grown SLG film may offer a promising approach to endotoxin detection, and it may have great potential in clinical applications. Sensors: High-sensitivity biosensor based on single-layered grapheme film Researchers in China have invented a biosensor which can detect molecules from bacterial cell walls at just a few nanograms per milliliter. The device is a shear horizontal surface acoustic wave (SH-SAW) biosensor. SH-SAW devices are cheap, sensitive, and can be used label-free, but their performance depends on the characteristics of the sensitive layers. A team led by Xiaojing Mu of Chongqing University used chemical vapor deposition to engineer a device with a single-layered grapheme film as its sensitive layer. They tested its sensitivity in detecting endotoxins, toxic molecules in the cell walls of some bacteria, and found that it could detect quantities as low as 3.53 ng/mL. Further testing showed that the device did not detect glucose or aflatoxin, demonstrating its specificity. Devices based on this design could be useful in clinical settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a severe acute disease that threatens human health, and few drugs that can effectively treat this disease are available. Fraxin, one of the main active ingredients of Cortex Fraxini, a Chinese herbal medicine, has presented various pharmacological and biological activities. However, the effects of fraxin on ARDS have yet to be reported. In the present study, the protective effect of fraxin in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ARDS in a mouse model was analyzed. Results from the hematoxylin and eosin staining showed that fraxin might alleviate pathological changes in the lung tissues of mice with ARDS. ELISA and Western blot results revealed that fraxin might inhibit the production of inflammatory factors, namely, IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-1β, and the activation of NF-κB and MAPK signaling pathways in the lungs. Thus, the inflammatory responses were reduced. Fraxin might inhibit the increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) and malondialdehyde (MDA), a product of lipid peroxidation in lung tissues. Fraxin might increase the superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity to avoid oxidative damage. Vascular permeability was also assessed through Evans blue dye tissue extravasation and fluorescein isothiocyanate–labeled albumin (FITC-albumin) leakage. Fraxin might inhibit the increase in pulmonary vascular permeability and relieve pulmonary edema. Fraxin was also related to the inhibition of the increase in matrix metalloproteinase-9, which is a glycocalyx-degrading enzyme, and the relief of damages to the endothelial glycocalyx. Thus, fraxin elicited protective effects on mice with LPS-induced ARDS and might be used as a drug to cure ARDS induced by Gram-negative bacterial infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is an economically important fruit of the Punicaceae family and widely cultivated in the world. In 2019 and 2020, pomegranate fruits showing rot symptoms initiating from seed were observed in different pomegranate-cultivated fields in Henan province of China. Bacteria as a potential pathogen were isolated from the rot tissue of pomegranate seeds, and its pathogenicity was confirmed. The bacterium was identified as Bacillus altitudinis based on morphology and sequence analysis on the 16S ribosomal DNA and the gyrB gene. This is the first report on Bacillus altitudinis causing seed rot of pomegranate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The narrow FOV on mobile phones is becoming unsatisfying with the development of video live broadcast. Fast and stable video stitching algorithm is urgently needed with the advent of multi-device bracket and other equipment. In this paper, we propose a novel stitching method to stitch multiple synchronized video streams which are captured from different fixed cameras. This procedure can be divided into two stages: initial template construction and seam updating. In the stage of initialization, we align the extracted background with proposed line-preserving alignment, and save the mesh for future stitching. Especially, scale estimation allows the algorithm to be applied to videos from asymmetric cameras of different resolutions and scales. In the seam updating stage, we propose a last-frame-guided seam updating method to find a smooth transition on spatial-temporal volumes. Experimental results demonstrate that our method can efficiently stitch videos without ghosting and artifacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intensive use of groundwater and chemical fertilizer has led to serious negative impacts on environmental conditions in the North China Plain. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the best management production strategies for winter wheat that increase yield and reduce environmental impacts. This study combined field data with model analysis using the CERES-Wheat model to evaluate long-term winter wheat productivity and nitrogen use in response to plant density and nitrogen rate under limiting irrigation conditions. The CERES-Wheat model was calibrated and evaluated with 3 years of data which consisted of plant density, nitrogen rates and irrigation treatments. The simulated results using historical weather data showed that grain yield and nitrogen use were sensitive to different management practices including plant density, nitrogen rate and amount of irrigation applications. Nitrogen application of 180 kg ha−1 with 300 plants m−2 improved long-term nitrogen use, stabilized grain yield, produced the highest net return, and decreased soil residual nitrogen to reduce environment risk. There was a positive correlation between canopy nitrogen and grain yield. Compared with current nitrogen recommendations (240 kg ha−1), N rate of 180 kg ha−1 increased partial factor productivity and agronomic efficiency by about 32% and 33% due to increase in nitrogen uptake efficiency and reduced soil residual nitrogen. In conclusion, results of this study indicated that the CERES-Wheat model was a useful tool to evaluate alternative management practices in order to optimize yield and nitrogen use under limited irrigation conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: Autotoxicity is a serious problem for continuous cropping of cucumber, it can limit its own growth and that of nearby cucumber plants and decrease yield and quality. Cinnamic acid (CA) derivatives are a class of autotoxins that can mimic autotoxic effects in cucumber. Methods: We screened an Arabidopsis long hairpin RNA (lhRNA) library under CA-mimicked autotoxicity stress to obtain autotoxicity-resistant mutant lines. The glycerol-3-phosphate 2-O-acyltransferase 6 (GPAT6) gene was found to be silenced in one resistant mutant line, and GPAT6 homologous gene in cucumber was cloned and named CuGPAT6. To test gene function quickly, a new tobacco rattle virus (TRV)-mediated virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) system was established in cucumber using a special agroinfiltration solution and whole cotyledonary nodes. Results: Cucumber phytoene desaturase gene (CuPDS) and CuGPAT6 gene were successfully silenced with a newly established tobacco rattle virus (TRV)-mediated virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) system in cucumber showing photobleaching and decreased CuPDS expression in leaves; and silencing of CuGPAT6 enhanced the tolerance to the autotoxin stress mimicked by CA in cucumber. Conclusions: It indicated that the alleviation of the damage caused by CA treatment was probably through maintaining the integrity of cellular structure, supporting cell vitality and promoting growth in roots, and increasing the integrate chloroplast and thylakoid numbers in leaves, which restored the growth and net photosynthesis rate of CA treated CuGPAT6 silenced plants to the similar level to those of control plants. The results also demonstrated that the newly established TRV mediated VIGS system is functional, rapid, convenient and highly efficient in cucumber. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we derive an adiabatic condition for an quantum system subject to environment. The adiabaticity defined here dicates that the open quantum system prepared initially in its steady state would adiabatically follow its instantaneous steady state. We find that if the driving on the open system does not induce transition between the eigenstates of the instantaneous steady state, the open system can evolve adiabatically. In order to examine the validity of the adiabatic condition, a two-band model is exemplified. The results show that the topological quantum phase transition presented in the two-band model is caused by the competition between the effect of decay and the spoiling of the adiabaticity. The geometric phase is also calculated and discussed when the adiabatic condition is satisfied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extracellular α-amylase from the hyperthermophilic archaeum Pyrococcus furiosus (PFA) is extremely thermostable and of an industrial importance and interest. PFA aggregates and accumulates as insoluble inclusion bodies when expressed as a heterologous protein at a high level in Escherichia coli. In the present study, we investigated the roles of chaperones from P. furiosus in the soluble expression of recombinant PFA in E. coli. The results indicate that co-expression of PFA with the molecular chaperone prefoldin alone significantly increased the soluble expression of PFA. Although, co-expression of other main chaperone components from P. furiosus, such as the small heat shock protein (sHSP) or chaperonin (HSP60), was also able to improve the soluble expression of PFA to a certain extent. Co-expression of chaperonin or sHSP in addition to prefoldin did not further increase the soluble expression of PFA. This finding emphasizes the biotechnological potentials of the molecular chaperone prefoldin from P. furiosus, which may facilitate the production of recombinant PFA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Invasion and metastasis are the major causes of death in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Recent studies have confirmed that SPARC/osteonectin, cwcv and kazal-like domains proteoglycan 1 (SPOCK1) plays multiple roles in cancer progression. This study aims to explore the clinical characteristics of SPOCK1 in ESCC and its roles in the migration and invasion of ESCC cell lines. In this study, the up-regulation of SPOCK1 expression was frequently detected in primary ESCC tumor tissues compared with those in non-tumor tissues, which was significantly associated with tumor invasion ( p = 0.004) and distant metastasis ( p = 0.010). SPOCK1 was expressed at higher level in TE13 cells as compared to the low malignant Eca109 and TE1 cells. Overexpression of SPOCK1 in Eca109 cells decreased the expressions of epithelial marker E-cadherin and ZO-1, while increased mesenchymal marker Vimentin and N-cadherin levels. After ectopic expression of SPOCK1, Eca109 cells exhibited a morphological change from an epithelial cobblestone phenotype to an elongated fibroblastic phenotype, concomitant with cytoskeletal rearrangements and increased migration and invasion, suggesting that EMT occurs. While silencing SPOCK1 in TE13 cells had the opposite effects. These results suggest that up-regulation of SPOCK1 in ESCC induces EMT, thus promotes migration and invasion in ESCC cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: COVID-19; Liver injury; SARS-CoV-2; Chronic liver disease; Liver transplant EN COVID-19 Liver injury SARS-CoV-2 Chronic liver disease Liver transplant 788 789 2 07/30/21 20210801 NES 210801 Dongxiao Li and Xiangming Ding contributed equally to this work. Abbreviations COVALI COVID-19-associated liver injury CLD Chronic liver disease SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 CAID Cirrhosis-associated immune dysfunction LT Liver transplant Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Current clinical data suggest that LT patients with chronic immunosuppression are more susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection, although this finding may be due in part to more intensive monitoring and a lower threshold for viral testing in LT patients [[4]]. [Extracted from the article]

Bacterial leaf streak (BLS), caused by the pathogen Xanthomonas campestris pv. Oryzicola, is a major rice disease in tropical and subtropical regions of Asia. Rice proteins responsive to BLS are still not well characterized. We took a proteomics approach to identify the proteins that are up-regulated in rice leaves after infection. Approximately 1,500 protein spots were detected on each 2-D gel after silver-staining; those with increased protein levels were selected for MALDI-TOF-MS analysis. We identified 32 up-regulated proteins that might be involved in disease resistance signal transduction, pathogenesis, and regulation of cell metabolism. By using publicly available microarray data, we determined the mRNA transcripts of 23 proteins expressed in the leaves. Seven genes were analyzed by northern blots, which demonstrated that transcript levels were increased after bacterial infection. Our findings help elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying BLS and provide a solid foundation for further research on the functions of relevant genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An investigation was made to study the processes of fed-batch cultures of a hybridoma cell line in chemically defined protein-free media. First of all, a strong growth-associated pattern was correlated between the production of MAb and growth of cells through the kinetic studies of batch cultures, suggesting the potential effectiveness of extending the duration of exponential growth in the improvement of MAb titers. Second, compositions of amino acids in the feeding solution were balanced stepwisely according to their stoichiometrical correlations with glucose uptake in batch and fed-batch cultures. Moreover, a limiting factor screening revealed the constitutive nature of Ca2+ and Mg2+ for cell growth, and the importance of their feeding in fed-batch cultures. Finally, a fed-batch process was executed with a glucose uptake coupled feeding of balanced amino acids together with groups of nutrients and a feeding of CaCl2 and MgCl2 concentrate. The duration of exponential cell growth was extended from 70 h in batch culture and 98 h in fed-batch culture without Ca2+/Mg2+ feeding to 117 h with Ca2+/Mg2+ feeding. As a result of the prolonged exponential cell growth, the viable and total cell densities reached 7.04 × 106 and 9.12 × 106 cells ml−1, respectively. The maximal MAb concentration achieved was increased to approximately eight times of that in serum supplemented batch culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]