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Abstract Fusion expression is widely employed to enhance the solubility of recombinant proteins. However, removal of the fusion tag is often required due to its potential impact on the structure and activity of passenger proteins. Tobacco etch virus (TEV) protease is widely used for this purpose due to its stringent sequence recognition. In the present work, fusion to the acyl carrier protein from E. coli fatty acid synthase (ACP) significantly increased the yield of recombinant soluble TEV, and the ACP tag also greatly improved TEV stability. The cleavage activity of TEV was not affected by the ACP fusion tag, and ACP-TEV retained high activity, even at unfavourable pH values. Moreover, ACP-TEV could be efficiently modified by co-expressed E. coli holo-ACP synthase (AcpS), leading to covalent attachment of 4′-phosphopantetheine (4′-PP) group to ACP. The sulfhydryl group of the long, flexible 4′-PP chain displayed high specific reactivity with iodoacetyl groups on the solid support. Thus, TEV could be immobilised effectively and conveniently via the active holo-ACP, and immobilised TEV retained high cleavage activity after a long storage period and several cycles of reuse. As a low-cost and recyclable biocatalyst, TEV immobilised by this method holds promise for biotechnological research and development. Key points • The ACP tag greatly increased the soluble expression and stability of TEV protease. • The ACP tag did not affect the cleavage activity of TEV. • The holo-ACP Tag effectively mediated the covalent immobilisation of TEV.

Nonaqueous Pickering emulsions exhibit promising applications in many industrial areas but have been relatively less studied in the past. In this study

Background. The aim of this study was at investigating the association between major depressive disorder (MDD) and periodontitis based on crosstalk genes and neuropeptides. Methods. Datasets for periodontitis (GSE10334, GSE16134, and GSE23586) and MDD (GSE38206 and GSE39653) were downloaded from GEO. Following batch correction, a differential expression analysis was applied (MDD: ∣ log 2 FC ∣ > 0 and periodontitis ∣ log 2 FC ∣ ≥ 0.5 , p < 0.05 ). The neuropeptide data were downloaded from NeuroPep and NeuroPedia. Intersected genes were potential crosstalk genes. The correlation between neuropeptides and crosstalk genes in MDD and periodontitis was analyzed with Pearson correlation coefficient. Subsequently, regression analysis was performed to calculate the differentially regulated link. Cytoscape was used to map the pathways of crosstalk genes and neuropeptides and to construct the protein-protein interaction network. Lasso regression was applied to screen neuropeptides, whereby boxplots were created, and receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis was conducted. Results. The MDD dataset contained 30 case and 33 control samples, and the periodontitis dataset contained 430 case and 139 control samples. 35 crosstalk genes were obtained. A total of 102 neuropeptides were extracted from the database, which were not differentially expressed in MDD and periodontitis and had no intersection with crosstalk genes. Through lasso regression, 9 neuropeptides in MDD and 43 neuropeptides in periodontitis were obtained. Four intersected neuropeptide genes were obtained, i.e., ADM, IGF2, PDYN, and RETN. The results of ROC analysis showed that IGF2 was highly predictive in MDD and periodontitis. ADM was better than the other three genes in predicting MDD disease. A total of 13 crosstalk genes were differentially coexpressed with four neuropeptides, whereby FOSB was highly expressed in MDD and periodontitis. Conclusion. The neuropeptide genes ADM, IGF2, PDYN, and RETN were intersected between periodontitis and MDD, and FOSB was a crosstalk gene related to these neuropeptides on the transcriptomic level. These results are a basis for future research in the field, needing further validation.

Background This investigation examined the effects of the microRNA miR-34c-5p on the proliferation, migration, and invasion of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and the mechanisms involved. Methods The Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database was used to filter the chips, and the GEO2R software (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/geo2r/) was used to analyze the microarray data (GSE28100 and GSE45238). Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to study the relationship between the expression of miR-34c-5p and the distant metastasis and pathological grade of OSCC. The correlation between TRIM29 (tripartite motif containing 29) expression and the malignant clinical phenotype of OSCC was also examined. The mRNA and protein expression levels of miR-34c-5p and TRIM29 were measured by real time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and Western blot analysis. The proliferation, migration, invasion and apoptosis of the human oral squamous carcinoma cell lines CAL-27 and Tca8113 was assessed by performing cell-counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assays, colony formation assays, transwell tests, wound scratch tests and flow cytometry. Luciferase reporter assays were used to predict the relationship between miR-34c-5p and TRIM29. A xenograft nude model was established and used to evaluate the effect of miR-34c-5p on tumor growth in female BALB/c mice. Results The expression of miR-34c-5p was significantly correlated with the proliferation, migration, and metastasis of OSCC. Overexpression of miR-34c-5p promoted the proliferation, migration, and invasion of CAL-27 and Tca8113 cells, and suppressed their apoptosis. Inversely, low expression of miR-34c-5p suppressed the proliferation, migration, and invasion of CAL-27 and Tca8113 cells, and promoted their apoptosis. Overexpression of miR-34c-5p promoted tumor growth in the xenograft nude mice model. The expression of TRIM29 was related to malignant clinical phenotype of OSCC. Overexpression of TRIM29 inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion of CAL-27 and Tca8113 cell, and induced their apoptosis. TRIM29 knockout had just the opposite effect. Importantly, miR-34c-5p binds to TRIM29 and inhibited TRIM29 expression. Conclusions MiR-34c-5p regulates the proliferation, migration, invasion, and apoptosis of OSCC through targeted binding of TRIM29. This may represent a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of patients with OSCC.

The widespread adoption of Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) in important domains raises questions about the trustworthiness of DNN outputs. Even a highly accurate DNN will make mistakes some of the time, and in settings like self-driving vehicles these mistakes must be quickly detected and properly dealt with in deployment. Just as our community has developed effective techniques and mechanisms to monitor and check programmed components, we believe it is now necessary to do the same for DNNs. In this paper we present DNN self-checking as a process by which internal DNN layer features are used to check DNN predictions. We detail SelfChecker, a self-checking system that monitors DNN outputs and triggers an alarm if the internal layer features of the model are inconsistent with the final prediction. SelfChecker also provides advice in the form of an alternative prediction. We evaluated SelfChecker on four popular image datasets and three DNN models and found that SelfChecker triggers correct alarms on 60.56% of wrong DNN predictions, and false alarms on 2.04% of correct DNN predictions. This is a substantial improvement over prior work (SelfOracle, Dissector, and ConfidNet). In experiments with self-driving car scenarios, SelfChecker triggers more correct alarms than SelfOracle for two DNN models (DAVE-2 and Chauffeur) with comparable false alarms. Our implementation is available as open source.

Background: The aberrant methylation included hypermethylation and hypomethylation plays significant role in the progression of many kind of cancers but poorly investigated in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Methods: GSE123781 and GSE87053 were used to identify the differential methylation regions (DMRs) by R software. the targeted genes regulated by DMRs were predicted by wANNOVAR. The biological process, cellular component, molecular function and cell pathways of common targeted genes between GSE123781 and GSE87053 were analyzed by Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway (KEGG) enrichment analysis. The hub genes in common targeted genes both associated with cancer biological process and cancer cell pathways were identified by protein to protein interaction network (PPI). Finally, the expression level of hub genes and correspondence relationship with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patient survival were confirmed by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset. Results: There are 372 common targeted genes regulated by DMRs between GSE123781 and GSE87053 and RUNX family transcript factor 1 (RUNX1), phosphoinositide-3-kinase regulatory subunit 1 (PIK3R1), phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase catalytic subunit gamma (PIK3CG), phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase catalytic subunit delta (PIK3CD), laminin subunit beta 1 (LAMB1), integrin subunit alpha M (ITGAM), interleukin 2 receptor subunit alpha (IL2RA), interleukin 10 (IL10), FYN proto-oncogene, Src family tyrosine kinase (FYN), cholinergic receptor muscarinic 1 (CHRM1) and C-C motif chemokine receptor 1 (CCR1) are hub genes in common targeted genes. Furthermore, RUNX1, PIK3R1, PIK3CD, LAMB1, ITGAM, IL2RA, IL10, FYN, CHRM1 and CCR1 differentially expressed in HNSCC tissues and the overexpressed genes PIK3CD, LAMB1 and IL10 could lead to the decrease of HNSCC patient survival. Conclusions: PIK3CD, LAMB1 and IL10 both differentially expressed and regulated by DMRs are quite associated with the progression of OSCC and the survival of HNSCC patients, which has much potential to be new biomarkers in targeted therapy of OSCC.

Room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs)-containing Pickering emulsions exhibit promising application potentials because of the integration of the “green” quality and the tunable applications of RTILs with the advantages of Pickering emulsions, such as the high stability and adjustable droplet size. In the present study, sterically-stabilized polymer nanoparticles (SSPNs) were first prepared via the reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT)-mediated non-aqueous dispersion polymerization, in which poly(lauryl methacrylate) (PLMA) and poly(4-vinyl pyridine) (P4VP) acted as the stabilizer block and the core-forming block, respectively. Kinetically-trapped PLMA-b-P4VP spheres and mixed spherical/worm-like morphologies could be achieved at a target copolymer composition. Subsequently, core cross-linked SSPNs (CSSPNs) were obtained by means of chemical cross-linking of P4VP cores of SSPNs with 1,4-dibromobutane in a diluted solution of SSPNs in toluene (0.4 mg/mL). Stable 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate-in-toluene ([Bmim][BF4]-in-toluene) non-aqueous Pickering emulsions could be formed at a low emulsifier content of 0.005 wt% adopting CSSPNs with mixed spherical/worm-like morphologies as Pickering emulsifiers. Benefiting from large surface areas of Pickering emulsions and unique chemical/physical properties of RTILs, [Bmim][BF4]-in-toluene Pickering emulsions provided readily available platforms for many organic reactions. As a proof of the concept, proline catalyzed Knoevenagel reaction of 4-nitrobenzaldehyde with malononitrile was chosen as a model here. Both high reaction efficiency and good recyclability were observed.

Nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate (NSCLP) has been recognized as a condition resulting from a combination of environmental and genetic factors. Studies have demonstrated that microRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in embryonic development. However, few studies have focused on screening potential target miRNAs in human NSCLP tissue. Using microarray-based miRNA expression profiling, miRNA expression was compared in tissue samples from 4 NSCLP patients and 4 healthy control subjects. Two hundred and fifty-four miRNAs were found to be differentially expressed. Changes in Homo sapiens (hsa)-miR-24-3p, hsa-miR-27b-3p, hsa-miR-205-5p, hsa-miR-1260b and hsa-miR-720 were of particular interest with respect to Wnt signaling (fold-changes were 12.5, 12.2, 12.1, 12.3 and 10.5, respectively; P

It is widely known that the 3D point cloud is the most intuitive way to depict real scenes. Till now, some deep learning networks for point cloud data that have been proposed. In this paper, we propose a simple and intuitive network framework for 3D point cloud semantic segmentation in small-scale scenes. PointSIFT is improved by designing the depth image features extraction module. Through the module structure, constructing a simple mapping relationship between the two feature space. By fusing two features, we achieve state-of-the-art performance, moreover higher training efficiency. We also test our network to real workbench scenarios. And there is no performance degradation due to real scene noise.

Injectable multi-responsive hydrogels are very important and exhibit many potential applications in biologically relevant fields. In this work, the preparation of injectable multi-responsive hydrogels at near-physiological conditions and their applications as durg carriers were demonstrated. Diol-capped poly(N, N-dimethylacrylamide)-b-poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) ((OH)2-PDMA-b-PNIPAM) diblock copolymers containing a disulfide linkage on the backbone and N, N-dimethylacrylamide-stat-(2-acrylamidophenylboronic acid) (DMA-stat-2APBA) copolymers were separatedly synthesized. Hydrogels were then prepared by a solution-based mixing of DMA-stat-2APBA with (OH)2-PDMA-b-PNIPAM diblock copolymers in PBS (pH 7.4) solution at a given temperature, i.e. 37 °C. Above the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of diblock copolymers at around 32 °C, (OH)2-PDMA-b-PNIPAM copolymers self-assembled into core-shell structured macromolecular micelles with numerous diol groups on hydrophilic cornoas. Subsequent complexiation of diols with lateral PBA groups of DMA-stat-2APBA copolymers led to the formation of hydrogels. Due to the integration of a library of responsive units including boronate ester and disulfide DCBs together with thermal responsive PNIPAM blocks within the same system, the as-prepared hydrogels indicated multiple stimuli-responsiveness to pH, temperature, glucose and redox reaction as well as the mechanical field. Such multi-responsive hydrogels could be applied as potential drug carriers. The encapsulation and the stimuli-responsive release of a model drug of Rh B were demonstrated.

Objective The research on the etiology of nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate(NSCL/P) is challenging, and DNA methylation has an impact on the formation of cleft lip and palate. Subjects In this study, one of a pair of monozygotic twins (T1) had nonsyndromic cleft lip (NSCL), and one of a pair of monozygotic twins (T2) had nonsyndromic cleft lip and palate (NSCLP). We determined the methylation profiles of more than 850,000 CpGs in the DNA of the blood samples from the two pairs of monozygotic twins. Result Methylation data indicated that 1184 differentially methylated CpG sites were found in the T1 group (651 hypermethylated and 533 hypomethylated) and 8099 differentially methylated CpG sites in the T2 group (1713 hypermethylated and 6386 hypomethylated) compared with the healthy twin.The common difference was 107 methylation sites.GO enrichment analysis showed that regulation of smooth muscle cell migration and actin cytoskeleton reorganization were the most prominent classes.KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that the TGF-β signaling pathway, Notch signaling pathway and Wnt signaling pathway are relevant to the formation of NSCL/P.Two selected genes (NTN1 and PLEKHA7) are involved in the formation of NSCL/P. Conclusion These findings provide some support for the hypothesis that abnormal DNA methylation may influence the formation of clefts.

Purpose The objective of this study was to explore the prognostic value of in situ memory T cells and patterns of invasion (POI) in early stage oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Methods One hundred fifty-seven patients with early stage (cT1T2N0) OSCC were identified from a pre-existing database of patients with oral cancer and were classified by POI according to hematoxylin-eosin staining. We examined the impact of the immunohistochemical expression of CD45RO in OSCC. Overall survival (OS) curves were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Results Margin status was significantly associated with local recurrence in early stage OSCC (p= 0.000), and depth of invasion was also associated with regional recurrence (2 mm: p= 0.034; 4 mm: p= 0.015). The expression of CD45RO (p= 0.021) and POI (p= 0.027) individually was associated with OS, and patients in the group with combination score tended to have worse OS (p= 0.012). Conclusion Combined evaluation of POI and CD45RO might prove to be a useful indicator for high-risk patients with occult metastases from early stage OSCC.

Novel flat-sheet thin-film composite membranes for nanofiltration were fabricated through interfacial polymerization of natural polymer sericin and trimesoyl chloride (TMC) on porous polysulfone support membrane. The preparation parameters including pH of aqueous phase, reaction time, curing temperature, curing time, sericin content and TMC concentration were investigated. The properties of the resultant membrane were characterized in terms of surface chemical structure, morphological structure, surface zeta potential, pure water flux, molecular weight cut-off (MWCO), pore size and rejections to different solutes including electrolytes and organic anionic dyes. It was found that the obtained sericin–TMC composite membranes had smooth and amphoteric surfaces with an isoelectric point at pH about 4.1. The membrane with a MWCO of 880 g/mol had a pure water permeability of 11.9 l/m 2 h bar and exhibited a salt rejection order of MgCl 2 (22.5%) 4 (40.5%)≈NaCl (40.8%) 2 SO 4 (95.4%) at neutral pH. The dye removal tests indicated that the obtained membrane could effectively reject the organic anionic dyes at neutral pH with good anti-fouling property, especially for the dyes with relatively higher molecular weight and/or more negative charge. Moreover, compared with the commercial nanofiltration membrane NF270, the developed sericin–TMC composite nanofiltration membrane possessed better antifouling property.

To identify the prognostic value of c-jun, c-fos, and p53 in oral cancer, we examined the impact of immunohistochemical expression of these markers on tumor progression in 157 oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). We found that c-jun or c-fos was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis, and coexpression of c-jun/c-fos, or c-jun/c-fos/p53 were significantly associated with lymph node metastasis, poor differentiation and clinical stage. The coexpression of c-jun/c-fos/p53 was identified as independent prognostic factors for overall survival. Simultaneous coexpression of these markers in OSCCs might prove to be a useful indicator for differentiation of low and high-risk patients.

To study the molecular mechanism of microcystin (MC) induced liver tumorigenesis in rats.The two-stage-medium-term tumorigenesis theory was applied to establish the animal model, and the effect of MC in liver tumor formation was evaluated by the Albert gamma-GT methods, and then, the immunohistochemical technique and image analysis were used to study the expression of the bcl-2 and bax genes during tumorigenesis.(1) MC enhanced the formation of gamma-GT foci in liver (100%), which was significantly higher than the diethylnitrosamine (DEN) control group (22.22%) (P0.05). (2) MC decreased the expression of bax gene. The intensity and area of bax gene expression in the pure MC toxin group were 0.028 3 AODV and 0.007 3 ( micro m(2)/ micro m(2)) and in the DEN control group were 0.065 5 AODV and 0.024 4 ( micro m(2)/ micro m(2)), respectively. The intensity and areas of bax gene expression in the pure MC toxin group were significantly lower than those in the DEN control group (P0.05). (3) MC increased the expression of bcl-2 gene. The intensity and area of bcl-2 gene expression in the pure MC toxin group wee 0.097 7 AODV and 0.031 5 ( micro m(2)/ micro m(2)), respectively, and in the DEN control group were 0.046 0 AODV and 0.020 5 ( micro m(2)/ micro m(2)) respectively (P0.05).(1) MC can strongly promote liver tumorigenesis. (2) The changes of bcl-2 and bax gene expression possibly play an important role in the MC induced liver tumor formation.