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In pulmonary inflammation diseases, like COVID-19, lung involvement and inflammation determine the treatment regime. Respiratory inflammation is typically arisen due to the cytokine storm and the leakage of the vessels for immune cells recruitment. Currently, such a situation is detected by the clinical judgment of a specialist or precisely by a chest CT scan. However, the lack of accessibility to the CT machines in many poor medical centers as well as its expensive service, demands more accessible methods for fast and cheap detection of lung inflammation. Here, we have introduced a novel method for tracing the inflammation and lung involvement in patients with pulmonary inflammation, such as COVID-19, by a simple electrolyte detection in their sputum samples. The presence of the electrolyte in the sputum sample results in the fern-like structures after air-drying. These fern patterns are different in the CT positive and negative cases that are detected by an AI application on a smartphone and using a low-cost and portable mini-microscope. Evaluating 160 patient-derived sputum sample images, this method demonstrated an interesting accuracy of 95%, as confirmed by CT-scan results. This finding suggests that the method has the potential to serve as a promising and reliable approach for recognizing lung inflammatory diseases, such as COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This correction notice is for an article titled "Smartphone-based device for point-of-care diagnostics of pulmonary inflammation using convolutional neural networks (CNNs)" published in Scientific Reports. The correction addresses errors in author names and affiliations. Specifically, the name S. Mohammad-Reza Taheri was incorrectly given as Seyed Mohammad Reza Taheri, and an affiliation was omitted for S. Mohammad-Reza Taheri. The correct affiliations for S. Mohammad-Reza Taheri are listed as Groningen University, University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands, and Condensed Matter National Laboratory, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Tehran, Iran. Additionally, Hossein Simaee was incorrectly affiliated with the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Tehran, Iran, and the Integrated Biophysics and Bioengineering Lab (iBL), Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Tehran, Iran. The correct affiliation for Hossein Simaee is listed as Cardiac Primary Prevention Research Center, Cardiovascular Diseases Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. The original article has been corrected. [Extracted from the article]

There is no doubt that quantum mechanics has become one of the building blocks of our physical world today. It is one of the most rapidly growing fields of science that can potentially change every aspect of our life. Quantum biology is one of the most essential parts of this era which can be considered as a game-changer in medicine especially in the field of cancer. Despite quantum biology having gained more attention during the last decades, there are still so many unanswered questions concerning cancer biology and so many unpaved roads in this regard. This review paper is an effort to answer the question of how biological phenomena such as cancer can be described through the quantum mechanical framework. In other words, is there a correlation between cancer biology and quantum mechanics, and how? This literature review paper reports on the recently published researches based on the principles of quantum physics with focus on cancer biology and metabolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While limited investigations have been reported on CTC elimination and its profits, recently, some new works were reported on detection followed by the destruction of CTCs. Limitations and complications of CTC capturing procedures have highly reduced the chance of selective destruction of CTCs in the bloodstream in the therapeutic guidelines of the patients. Here, we selectively deactivated the invasive function of CTCs during their circulation in the bloodstream by exposing the whole blood to pure positive electrostatic charge stimulation (PPECS). Our treatment suppressed pulmonary metastasis and extended the survival of the mice had been intravenously injected by electrostatically deactivated 4T1 breast cancer CTCs. Moreover, the number of cancerous lung nodules was drastically reduced in the mice injected by treated CTCs in comparison with the non-treated cohort. Evaluating the side effect of the PPECS on the blood components revealed no major effect on the functional properties of the white blood cells, and just a negligible fraction (∼10%) was damaged during this process. This approach does not need any capturing or targeting of CTCs from the blood as it is focused on perturbing the electrical function of negatively-charged tumor cells after being exposed to positive electrostatic charges. Taken together, continuous in-vivo deactivation of CTCs by PPECS with no requirement to complicated capturing protocols may improve the survival of cancer patients. [Display omitted] • Selective deactivation of CTCs in the bloodstream by exposing the whole blood to pure positive electrostatic charge stimulation. • This treatment suppressed pulmonary metastasis and extended the survival of the intravenously injected mice. • The number of cancerous lung nodules drastically reduced in the mice injected by treated CTCs compared to the non-treated cohort. • Evaluating the effect of the PPECS on the blood cells revealed no major impact on the functional properties of the white blood cells. • In this novel approach, no capturing or targeting process is needed, as it is focused on the electrical properties of the cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • This study introduces a new method to determine single cancer cells by employing dielectrophoresis-based (DEP) stimulation. • Transparent Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) microelectrodes embedded in a microfluidic chamber apply the DEP stimulation on cells. • Cancer and non-cancer cells exhibit noticeably different stretch behaviors (e.g., MCF-10A ∼21% vs MDA-MB-231 ∼6%). • Conventional pathology and immunofluorescence assays proved the results obtained by "Dielectrophoretic Stretch Assay" (DSA). • This method could help detecting micro invasions in suspicious masses/cytological samples without need to label them. It is well-known that cancerous transformation induces many disruptions in the chemical, mechanical, and electrical functions of cells. However, limited data have been reported on their correlative behavior, such as mechanoelectrical responses. In this work, we have applied dielectrophoretic stimulation using transparent Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) microelectrodes to analyze the mechanical deformation of the cells. Our studies have shown high electrodeformation response in non-cancer cells (e.g., for the breast cell line (MCF-10A) ∼21 %). In contrast, the stretch response to the same applied dielectrophoretic stimulation was extremely weak in malignant cells (breast cell line (MDA-MB-231) ∼6 %). This observation points to a new cancer investigation technique based on the real-time correlation between dielectric properties and mechanical behaviors of single cells. Using the smaller electro-deformative ability of cancer cells compared to healthy ones, we have designed and proposed a label-free mechanoelectrical chip to detect metastatic cancer cells in unprocessed tumor samples. The methods of conventional pathology and immunofluorescence assays confirmed the results obtained from our "Dielectrophoretic Stretch Assay" (DSA). This method could help develop protocols for detecting micro invasions in small samples of suspicious masses or cytological samples diagnosis without requirement to pretreatment or labeling and in single-cell resolutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We discovered that pure positive electrostatic charges (PECs) have an intrinsic suppressive effect on the proliferation and metabolism of invasive cancer cells (cell lines and animal models) without affecting normal tissues. Methods: We interacted normal and cancer cell lines and animal tumors with PECs by connecting a charged patch to cancer cells and animal tumors. many biochemical, molecular and radiological assays were carried out on PEC treated and control samples. Results: Correlative interactions between electrostatic charges and cancer cells contain critical unknown factors that influence cancer diagnosis and treatment. Different types of cell analyses prove PEC‐based apoptosis induction in malignant cell lines. Flowcytometry and viability assay depict selective destructive effects of PEC on malignant breast cancer cells. Additionally, strong patterns of pyknotic apoptosis, as well as downregulation of proliferative‐associated proteins (Ki67, CD31, and HIF‐1α), were observed in histopathological and immunohistochemical patterns of treated mouse malignant tumors, respectively. Quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction results demonstrate up/down‐regulated apoptotic/proliferative transcriptomes (P21, P27, P53/CD34, integrin α5, vascular endothelial growth factor, and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor) in treated animal tumors. Expression of propidium iodide in confocal microscopy images of treated malignant tissues was another indication of the destructive effects of PECs on such cells. Significant tumor size reduction and prognosis improvement were seen in over 95% of treated mouse models with no adverse effects on normal tissues. Conclusion: We discovered that pure positive electrostatic charges (PECs) have an intrinsic suppressive effect on the proliferation and metabolism of invasive cancer cells (cell lines and animal models) without affecting normal tissues. The findings were statistically and observationally significant when compared to radio/chemotherapy‐treated mouse models. As a result, this nonionizing radiation may be used as a practical complementary approach with no discernible side effects after passing future human model studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Separation of cancerous from normal cells is of broad importance in a large number of cancer diagnosis and treatment methods. One of the most important factors to designate and specify different cells is to study their dielectric and electric cell membrane characteristics. In this research, a label-free cytological slide chip (CSC) is designed and fabricated based on AC electric field stimulation of breast cell lines and blood cells at low frequencies (1 kHz–200 kHz). The AC-CSC traps cells based on their dielectric polarization functions which is distinct between different phenotypes of breast cells and blood cells. We learned that by using AC electric fields, each breast cell line shows a capturing response to a specific range of frequencies. The progression in cancer phenotypes decreases the cell's polarizability. Hence, characteristic frequency responses were achieved for these cells. In this study, thermal potential and electrolysis which were the main bottle neck problems in DC applied fields were completely solved. The AC-CSC could be used in CTC separation from leukocytes, a test performed based on a compound with 1% cancer cells in white blood cells (1% MDA-MB-231 : 99% WBC) which results in 90% capturing efficiency of cancer cells. Frequency dependent capturing brings so much hope that smart slides will be useful at the clinical stage in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]