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Objective: To explore the causes of platelet aggregation in version 6.4 Trima Accel automated blood collection system and the effect of 2 intervention measures., Methods: The data on platelet aggregation ( n =61) and non-aggregation ( n =323) of 61 donors in 2020 were collected and the causes of aggregation were analyzed. Then the 72 donors with platelet aggregation in 2021 were randomized into intervention group A (increasing the anticoagulant-to-blood ratio) and intervention group B (wrapping the donor's arm with an electric blanket to keep warm and improve the blood flow speed). The collection time, average blood flow speed, number of machine alarms, anticoagulant usage, deaggregation and citrate reaction of the two groups were compared., Results: Platelet aggregation was negatively correlated with the average blood flow speed ( r =-0.394) and positively correlated with the collection time ( r =0.458). The equations for predicting aggregation and non-aggregation were constructed based on Bayesian and Fisher discriminant analysis, and the predicted accuracy was 77.1%. The comparison of the effects of two intervention measures showed that the average blood flow speed in group B was higher than that in group A; the collection time, number of machine alarms, anticoagulant usage and proportion of citrate reaction in blood donors in group B were all lower than those in Group A, all these differences were significant ( P < 0.05). In the entire cohort in 2021, 90.28% of the products were immediately deaggregated after collection, and 9.72% of the products were deaggregated within 4 hours. There was no statistically significant difference in deaggregation between the two intervention groups ( P >0.05)., Conclusion: During apheresis platelet collection, the predictive equations for aggregation and non-aggregation can be used to predict the occurrence probability of aggregation, and the intervention can be made in advance. Both intervention measures are effective in reducing platelet aggregation, however, measure B has the advantages of improving the speed of blood collection, shortening the collection time, reducing the alarm frequency and the anticoagulant usage, and reducing the incidence of citrate reaction in blood donors.

Viral diseases are among the main threats to public health. Understanding the factors affecting viral invasion is important for antiviral research. Until now, it was known that most viruses have very low plaque-forming unit (PFU)-to-particle ratios. However, further investigation is required to determine the underlying factors. Here, using quantitative single-particle analysis methods, the invasion of Semliki Forest virus (SFV), Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), and influenza A virus (IAV) containing attachment to the cell surface, entry into the cell, transport towards the cell interior, and fusion with endosomes to release nucleocapsids were quantitatively analysed in parallel. It was found that for SFV with an PFU-to-particle ratio of approximately 1:2, an entry efficiency of approximately 31% limited infection. For JEV, whose PFU-to-particle ratio was approximately 1:310, an attachment efficiency of approximately 27% and an entry efficiency of 10% were the main factors limiting its infection. Meanwhile, for IAV with PFU-to-particle ratios of 1:8100, 5% attachment efficiency, 9% entry efficiency, and 53% fusion efficiency significantly limited its infection. These results suggest that viruses with different infectivities have different limited steps in the invasion process. Moreover, there are significant differences in attachment efficiencies among viruses, emphasizing the pivotal role of attachment in viral invasion. The influence of the virus purification method on virus invasion was also investigated. This study, for the first time, reports the efficiencies of different stages of virus invasion, leading to a better understanding of virus invasion and providing a protocol to quantitatively analyse the virus invasion efficiency.

The commonality between various muscle diseases is the loss of muscle mass, function, and regeneration, which severely restricts mobility and impairs the quality of life. With muscle stem cells (MuSCs) playing a key role in facilitating muscle repair, targeting regulators of muscle regeneration has been shown to be a promising therapeutic approach to repair muscles. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms driving muscle regeneration are complex and poorly understood. Here, we identified a new regulator of muscle regeneration, Deaf1 (Deformed epidermal autoregulatory factor-1) - a transcriptional factor downstream of foxo signaling. We showed that Deaf1 is transcriptionally repressed by FOXOs and that DEAF1 targets to Pik3c3 and Atg16l1 promoter regions and suppresses their expression. Deaf1 depletion therefore induces macroautophagy/autophagy, which in turn blocks MuSC survival and differentiation. In contrast, Deaf1 overexpression inactivates autophagy in MuSCs, leading to increased protein aggregation and cell death. The fact that Deaf1 depletion and its overexpression both lead to defects in muscle regeneration highlights the importance of fine tuning DEAF1-regulated autophagy during muscle regeneration. We further showed that Deaf1 expression is altered in aging and cachectic MuSCs. Manipulation of Deaf1 expression can attenuate muscle atrophy and restore muscle regeneration in aged mice or mice with cachectic cancers. Together, our findings unveil an evolutionarily conserved role for DEAF1 in muscle regeneration, providing insights into the development of new therapeutic strategies against muscle atrophy. Abbreviations : DEAF1: Deformed epidermal autoregulatory factor-1; FOXO: Forkhead box O; MuSC: Muscle Stem Cell; PAX7: Paired box 7; PIK3C3: Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase catalytic subunit type 3.

Objective: To report the clinical efficacy of adjuvant therapy based on pathological results following immunotherapy combined with targeted therapy and sequential curative surgical procedures in patients with initially unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods: This is a retrospective case series study. Data from 100 patients who underwent adjuvant therapy based on pathological results following immunotherapy combined with targeted therapy and sequential curative surgical procedures with long-term survival were collected from December 2018 to December 2022 at the Faculty of Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery, First Medical Center, Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital. According to inclusion and exclusion criteria, 47 cases were included, among which patients who met the discontinuation criteria and maintained a drug-free tumor-free status. Thirty-nine male and eight female patients were included, with an age of (54.2±18.8)years(range:38 to 73 years) at initial diagnosis. At the time of initial diagnosis, 43 cases (91.5%) were classified as Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage C. Survival curves were made using Kaplan Meier method. Results: Forty-seven patients underwent R0 resection, all achieved a drug-free tumor-free state through postoperative adjuvant therapy based on pathological examination results. Thirty-six patients(76.6%) maintained a drug-free tumor-free survival status for more than 6 months,28 patients(59.6%) for more than 12 months,and 8 patients(17.0%) for more than 24 months. The longest drug-free tumor-free survival in this cohort reached 48 months. The median follow-up time in this study was 32 months. After diagnosis, the overall survival rates at 1- and 3- years were 97.7%(95% CI :93.4% to 100%) and 90.7%(95% CI :82.5% to 99.8%). The postoperative recurrence-free survival rates at 1- and 3- years were 91.0%(95% CI :83.0% to 99.8%) and 71.3%(95% CI :58.7% to 86.5%). Conclusions: The adjuvant therapy based on pathological results following immunotherapy combined with targeted therapy and sequential curative surgical approach provides long-term survival benefits for patients with initially unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma. Standardized adjuvant therapy maybe sustain long-term tumor-free status,and achieve drug-free tumor-free survival.

While DNA amplifier-built nanobiosensors featuring a DNA polymerase-free catalytic hairpin assembly (CHA) reaction have shown promise in fluorescence imaging assays within live biosystems, challenges persist due to unsatisfactory precision stemming from premature activation, insufficient sensitivity arising from low reaction kinetics, and poor biostability caused by endonuclease degradation. In this research, we aim to tackle these issues. One aspect involves inserting an analyte-binding unit with a photoinduced cleavage bond to enable a light-powered notion. By utilizing 808 nm near-infrared (NIR) light-excited upconversion luminescence as the ultraviolet source, we achieve entirely a controllable sensing event during the biodelivery phase. Another aspect refers to confining the CHA reaction within the finite space of a DNA self-assembled nanocage. Besides the accelerated kinetics (up to 10-fold enhancement) resulting from the nucleic acid restriction behavior, the DNA nanocage further provides a 3D rigid skeleton to reinforce enzymatic resistance. After selecting a short noncoding microRNA (miRNA-21) as the modeled low-abundance sensing analyte, we have verified that the innovative NIR light-powered and DNA nanocage-confined CHA nanobiosensor possesses remarkably high sensitivity and specificity. More importantly, our sensing system demonstrates a robust imaging capability for this cancer-related universal biomarker in live cells and tumor-bearing mouse bodies, showcasing its potential applications in disease analysis.

Ischaemic diseases such as critical limb ischaemia and myocardial infarction affect millions of people worldwide 1 . Transplanting endothelial cells (ECs) is a promising therapy in vascular medicine, but engrafting ECs typically necessitates co-transplanting perivascular supporting cells such as mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), which makes clinical implementation complicated 2,3 . The mechanisms that enable MSCs to facilitate EC engraftment remain elusive. Here we show that, under cellular stress, MSCs transfer mitochondria to ECs through tunnelling nanotubes, and that blocking this transfer impairs EC engraftment. We devised a strategy to artificially transplant mitochondria, transiently enhancing EC bioenergetics and enabling them to form functional vessels in ischaemic tissues without the support of MSCs. Notably, exogenous mitochondria did not integrate into the endogenous EC mitochondrial pool, but triggered mitophagy after internalization. Transplanted mitochondria co-localized with autophagosomes, and ablation of the PINK1-Parkin pathway negated the enhanced engraftment ability of ECs. Our findings reveal a mechanism that underlies the effects of mitochondrial transfer between mesenchymal and endothelial cells, and offer potential for a new approach for vascular cell therapy., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

Apart from the canonical serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine [5-HT])-receptor signaling transduction pattern, 5-HT-involved post-translational serotonylation has recently been noted. Here, we report a glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) serotonylation system that promotes the glycolytic metabolism and antitumor immune activity of CD8 + T cells. Tissue transglutaminase 2 (TGM2) transfers 5-HT to GAPDH glutamine 262 and catalyzes the serotonylation reaction. Serotonylation supports the cytoplasmic localization of GAPDH, which induces a glycolytic metabolic shift in CD8 + T cells and contributes to antitumor immunity. CD8 + T cells accumulate intracellular 5-HT for serotonylation through both synthesis by tryptophan hydroxylase 1 (TPH1) and uptake from the extracellular compartment via serotonin transporter (SERT). Monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) degrades 5-HT and acts as an intrinsic negative regulator of CD8 + T cells. The adoptive transfer of 5-HT-producing TPH1-overexpressing chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cells induced a robust antitumor response. Our findings expand the known range of neuroimmune interaction patterns by providing evidence of receptor-independent serotonylation post-translational modification., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

While three-dimensional (3D) DNA walking amplifiers hold considerable promise in the construction of advanced DNA-based fluorescent biosensors for bioimaging, they encounter certain difficulties such as inadequate sensitivity, premature activation, the need for exogenous propelling forces, and low reaction rates. In this contribution, a variety of profitable solutions have been explored. First, a catalytic hairpin assembly (CHA)-achieved nonenzymatic isothermal nucleic acid amplification is integrated to enhance sensitivity. Subsequently, one DNA component is simply functionalized with a photocleavage-bond to conduct a photoresponsive manner, whereby the target recognition occurs only when the biosensor is exposed to an external ultraviolet light source, overcoming premature activation during biodelivery. Furthermore, a special self-propelling walking mechanism is implemented by reducing biothiols to MnO 2 nanosheets, thereby propelling forces that are self-supplied to a Mn 2+ -reliant DNAzyme. By carrying the biosensing system with a DNA molecular framework to induce a unique concentration localization effect, the nucleic acid contact reaction rate is notably elevated by 6 times. Following these, an ultrasensitive in vitro detection performance with a limit of detection down to 2.89 fM is verified for a cancer-correlated microRNA biomarker (miRNA-21). Of particular importance, our multiple concepts combined 3D DNA walking amplifier that enables highly efficient fluorescence bioimaging in live cells and even bodies, exhibiting a favorable application prospect in disease analysis.

In this work, a series of novel arylamide derivatives containing piperazine moiety were designed and synthesised as tubulin polymerisation inhibitors. Among 25 target compounds, compound 16f ( MY-1121 ) exhibited low nanomolar IC 50 values ranging from 0.089 to 0.238 μM against nine human cancer cells. Its inhibitory effects on liver cancer cells were particularly evident with IC 50 values of 89.42 and 91.62 nM for SMMC-7721 and HuH-7 cells, respectively. Further mechanism studies demonstrated that compound 16f ( MY-1121 ) could bind to the colchicine binding site of β-tubulin and directly act on β-tubulin, thus inhibiting tubulin polymerisation. Additionally, compound 16f ( MY-1121 ) could inhibit colony forming ability, cause morphological changes, block cell cycle arrest at the G2 phase, induce cell apoptosis, and regulate the expression of cell cycle and cell apoptosis related proteins in liver cancer cells. Overall, the promising bioactivities of compound 16f ( MY-1121 ) make the novel arylamide derivatives have the value for further development as tubulin polymerisation inhibitors with potent anticancer activities.

Diet modification is a common compensation strategy to promote swallowing safety in patients with swallowing difficulties. The International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative (IDDSI) guideline provides qualitative descriptions on texture-modified food and thickened liquid. This study aimed to establish quantitative textural and rheological data on different IDDSI levels based on common Chinese ingredients and dishes. Textural and rheological properties of 226 samples of various food textures and 93 samples of various liquid consistencies were obtained using a texture profile analysis (TPA) and viscometer, respectively. The establishment of such quantitative data can be used for future texture-modified food product development and research purposes.

Endonuclease G (ENDOG), a nuclear-encoded mitochondrial intermembrane space protein, is well known to be translocated into the nucleus during apoptosis. Recent studies have shown that ENDOG might enter the mitochondrial matrix to regulate mitochondrial genome cleavage and replication. However, little is known about the role of ENDOG in the cytosol. Our previous work showed that cytoplasmic ENDOG competitively binds with 14-3-3γ, which released TSC2 to repress mTORC1 signaling and induce autophagy. Here, we demonstrate that cytoplasmic ENDOG could also release Rictor from 14-3-3γ to activate the mTORC2-AKT-ACLY axis, resulting in acetyl-CoA production. Importantly, we observe that ENDOG could translocate to the ER, bind with Bip, and release IRE1a/PERK to activate the endoplasmic reticulum stress response, promoting lipid synthesis. Taken together, we demonstrate that loss of ENDOG suppresses acetyl-CoA production and lipid synthesis, along with reducing endoplasmic reticulum stress, which eventually alleviates high-fat diet-induced nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in female mice., (© 2023. Springer Nature Limited.)

In recent years, optical tweezers have become a novel tool for biodetection, and to improve the inefficiency of a single trap, the development of multitraps is required. Herein, we constructed a set of hybrid multitrap optical tweezers with the balance of stability and flexibility by the combination of two different beam splitters, a diffraction optical element (DOE) and galvano mirrors (GMs), to capture polystyrene (PS) microbeads in aqueous solutions to create an 18-trap suspended array. A sandwich hybridization strategy of DNA-miRNA-DNA was adopted to detect three kinds of target miRNAs associated with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), in which different upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) with red, green, and blue emissions were applied as luminescent tags to encode the carrier PS microbeads to further indicate the levels of the targets. With encoded luminescent microbeads imaged by a three-channel microscopic system, the biodetection displayed high sensitivity with low limits of detection (LODs) of 0.27, 0.32, and 0.33 fM and exceptional linear ranges of 0.5 fM to 1 nM, 0.7 fM to 1 nM, and 1 fM to 1 nM for miR-343-3p, miR-155, and miR-199a-5p, respectively. In addition, this bead-based assay method was demonstrated to have the potential for being applied in patients' serum by satisfactory standard addition recovery experiment results.

Comparative adult guardianship law and other alternatives, especially in an Asian context, is an under-investigated area. This paper attempts to fill the gap in the literature by comparing the adult guardianship law and other alternatives from the perspectives of Singapore and Japan. The central argument of this paper is that in order for the law of adult guardianship to be widely adopted in Asian societies like Singapore and Japan - where much of adult guardianship related issues are governed by informal familial arrangements; this would require governments to do more than the mere enacting of adult guardianship legislation. To encourage widespread adoption, governments must embark on a robust public awareness campaign to promote the adult guardianship scheme, provide institutional support, and simplify the process for people wishing to sign up to the scheme and enact the appropriate safeguards against abuse. Such conditions are present in Singapore, whereas in Japan, these are lacking which explains the lower take-up rate with Japanese people preferring informal arrangements. Another key difference between Singapore and Japan is that the former relies primarily on family and relatives to act as adult guardians, while the court in the latter jurisdiction insists on the appointment of professionals like lawyers to act as adult guardians. It is surmised that this factor explains the lower take-up rate of formal adult guardianship in Japan as compared to Singapore due to the costs involved in engaging professional guardians. This paper also explores the alternatives to adult guardianship in both systems. Alternatives to formal adult guardianship is important because there will be a substantial portion of the population of older adults who would prefer these alternatives for various reasons.

Objective: To investigate the effect of pure Chinese herbal extract Mangiferin on the malignant biological behaviors of multiple myeloma (MM) cells, and to analyze the molecular mechanism of the anti-myeloma effect of Mangiferin, so as to provide experimental basis for MM replacement therapy., Methods: U266 and RPMI8226 of human MM cell lines were intervened with different concentrations of Mangiferin. Cell proliferation was detected by CCK-8 method. Annexin V/PI double staining flow cytometry was used to detect cell apoptosis. Western blot was used to detect the expression of apoptosis and related signaling pathway proteins, and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) and CXC chemokine receptor (CXCR) family., Results: Mangiferin could inhibit the proliferation activity of U266 and RPMI8226 cells and induce cells apoptosis. After Mangiferin intervened in U266, RPMI8226 cells for 48 h, the expression of Bcl-2 family pro-apoptotic protein Bax was up-regulated, while the expression of survivin and Bcl-xL proteins was down-regulated and caspase-3 was hydrolyzed and activated to promote cell apoptosis, besides, the expression of Bcl-2 protein in U266 cells was also significantly down-regulated to induce apoptosis ( P <0.05). After Mangiferin intervenes in MM cells, it can not only increase the expression level of tumor suppressor p53, but also induce programmed cell death of MM cells by inhibiting the expression of anti-apoptotic molecules and down-regulating the phosphorylation levels of AKT and NF-κB. In addition, after the intervention of Mangiferin, the expressions of CXCR4 , MMP2 and MMP9 in U266 cells were down-regulated ( P <0.05), while there is no effect on the expressions of CXCR2 , CXCR7 and MMP13 (P>0.05). However, the expressions of CXCR4 , MMP9 , and MMP13 in RPMI8226 cells were down-regulated ( P <0.01), the expression of MMP2 was weakly affected, and the expression of CXCR2 and CXCR7 was basically not affected (P>0.05)., Conclusion: Mangiferin can inhibit the proliferation and induce apoptosis of MM cells, and its mechanism may be related to inhibiting the activation of NF-κB signaling pathway, affecting the expression of Bcl-2 family proteins, and inhibiting the expression of core members of MMP and CXCR family.

Normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) could provide a curative treatment to reduce biliary injury in donation after cardiac death (DCD) donor livers; however, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. In a rat model, our study compared air-oxygenated NMP to hyperoxygenated NMP and found that air-oxygenated NMP improved DCD functional recovery. Here, we found that the charged multivesicular body protein 2B (CHMP2B) expression was substantially elevated in the intrahepatic biliary duct endothelium of the cold-preserved rat DCD liver after air-oxygenated NMP or in biliary endothelial cells under hypoxia/physoxia. CHMP2B knockout (CHMP2B -/- ) rat livers showed increased biliary injury after air-oxygenated NMP, indicated by decreased bile production and bilirubin level, elevated biliary levels of lactate dehydrogenase and gamma-glutamyl transferase. Mechanically, we demonstrated that CHMP2B was transcriptionally regulated by Kruppel-like transcription factor 6 (KLF6) and alleviated biliary injury through decreasing autophagy. Collectively, our results suggested that air-oxygenated NMP regulates CHMP2B expression through the KLF6, which reduces biliary injury by inhibiting autophagy. Targeting the KLF6-CHMP2B autophagy axis may provide a solution to reducing biliary injury in DCD livers undergoing NMP., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The mitigation of eutrophication in the Pearl River Estuary (PRE) has encountered numerous challenges in regards to source control. Herein, the isotope mixing model (SIAR) was used to quantify the primary nitrate sources in the PRE. The results showed that the nitrate levels were significantly higher in the high-flow season than in the low-flow season. Meanwhile, we found the most important nitrate sources were manure and sewage during the high-flow season, with a contribution ratio of 47 % in the low salt area (LSA) and 29 % in the high salt area (HSA). During the low-flow season, the primary nitrate sources were identified as reduced nitrogen fertilizer in the LSA and manure and sewage in the HSA, which accounted for 52 % and 44 %, respectively. Furthermore, we also suggest that a feasible measure might be to control the pollution caused in the PRE by manure and sewage as well as reduced nitrogen fertilizer., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

A highly enantioselective cobalt-catalyzed desymmetrizing reductive cyclization of alkynyl cyclodiketones has been developed. Under mild reaction conditions by employing HBpin as a reducing agent and ferrocene-based PHOX as a chiral ligand, a series of polycyclic tertiary allylic alcohols bearing contiguous quaternary stereocenters are achieved in moderate to excellent yields with excellent enantioselectivities (up to 99%). Broad substrate scope and high functional group compatibility are observed in this reaction. A CoH-catalyzed pathway involving alkyne hydrocobaltation followed by nucleophilic addition to the C[double bond, length as m-dash]O bond is proposed. Synthetic transformations of the product are conducted to demonstrate the practical utilities of this reaction., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

Inorganic phosphate (P i ) is one of the essential molecules for life. However, little is known about intracellular P i metabolism and signalling in animal tissues 1 . Following the observation that chronic P i starvation causes hyperproliferation in the digestive epithelium of Drosophila melanogaster, we determined that P i starvation triggers the downregulation of the P i transporter PXo. In line with P i starvation, PXo deficiency caused midgut hyperproliferation. Interestingly, immunostaining and ultrastructural analyses showed that PXo specifically marks non-canonical multilamellar organelles (PXo bodies). Further, by P i imaging with a Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based P i sensor 2 , we found that PXo restricts cytosolic P i levels. PXo bodies require PXo for biogenesis and undergo degradation following P i starvation. Proteomic and lipidomic characterization of PXo bodies unveiled their distinct feature as an intracellular P i reserve. Therefore, P i starvation triggers PXo downregulation and PXo body degradation as a compensatory mechanism to increase cytosolic P i . Finally, we identified connector of kinase to AP-1 (Cka), a component of the STRIPAK complex and JNK signalling 3 , as the mediator of PXo knockdown- or P i starvation-induced hyperproliferation. Altogether, our study uncovers PXo bodies as a critical regulator of cytosolic P i levels and identifies a P i -dependent PXo-Cka-JNK signalling cascade controlling tissue homeostasis., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

Generating reference maps of interactome networks illuminates genetic studies by providing a protein-centric approach to finding new components of existing pathways, complexes, and processes. We apply state-of-the-art methods to identify binary protein-protein interactions (PPIs) for Drosophila melanogaster. Four all-by-all yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) screens of > 10,000 Drosophila proteins result in the 'FlyBi' dataset of 8723 PPIs among 2939 proteins. Testing subsets of data from FlyBi and previous PPI studies using an orthogonal assay allows for normalization of data quality; subsequent integration of FlyBi and previous data results in an expanded binary Drosophila reference interaction network, DroRI, comprising 17,232 interactions among 6511 proteins. We use FlyBi data to generate an autophagy network, then validate in vivo using autophagy-related assays. The deformed wings (dwg) gene encodes a protein that is both a regulator and a target of autophagy. Altogether, these resources provide a foundation for building new hypotheses regarding protein networks and function., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Solar flares are one of the severest solar activities that have important effects on near-Earth space. Previous studies have shown that flight arrival delays increase as a result of solar flares, but the intrinsic mechanism behind this relationship is still unknown. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of flight departure delays during 57 solar X-ray events by using a huge amount of flight data (~ 5 × 10 6 records) gathered over a 5-year period. It is found that the average flight departure delay time during solar X-ray events increased by 20.68% (7.67 min) compared to quiet periods. Our analysis also revealed apparent time and latitude dependencies, with flight delays being more serious on the dayside than on the nightside and longer (shorter) delays tending to occur in lower (higher) latitude airports during solar X-ray events. Furthermore, our results suggest that the intensity of solar flares (soft X-ray flux) and the Solar Zenith Angle directly modulate flight departure delay time and delay rate. These results indicate that communication interferences caused by solar flares directly affect flight departure delays. This work expands our conventional understanding of the impacts of solar flares on human society and provides new insights for preventing or coping with flight delays., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Objective: To investigate and analyze the effect of CXC chemokine receptor 1/2 (CXCR1/2) targeting inhibitor Reparixin combined with cytarabine (Ara-C) on the malignant biological behaviors of acute myeloid leukemia cells and its effect on the expression of the CXCR family, while exploring the accompanying molecular mechanism, providing scientific basis and reference for new molecular markers and targeted therapy for AML., Methods: Acute myeloid leukemia U937 cells were treated with different concentrations of Reparixin, Ara-C alone or in combination, and the cell morphology was observed under an inverted microscope; Wright-Giemsa staining was used to detect cell morphological changes; CCK-8 method was used to detect cell proliferation; the ability of cell invasion was detected by Transwell chamber method; the ability of colony formation was detected by colony formation assay; cell apoptosis was detected by Hoechst 33258 fluorescent staining and Annexin V/PI double-staining flow cytometry; monodansylcadaverine(MDC) staining was used to detect cell autophagy; the expression of apoptosis, autophagy and related signaling pathway proteins was detected by Western blot and the expression changes of CXCR family were detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR)., Results: Reparixin could inhibit the proliferation, invasion, migration and clone formation ability of U937 cells. Compared with the single drug group, when U937 cells were intervened by Reparixin combined with Ara-C, the malignant biological behaviors such as proliferation, invasion and colony formation were significantly decreased, and the levels of apoptosis and autophagy were significantly increased ( P <0.01). After Reparixin combined with Ara-C intervenes in U937 cells, it can up-regulate the expression of the pro-apoptotic protein Bax and significantly down-regulate the expression of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2, and also hydrolyze and activate Caspase-3, thereby inducing cell apoptosis. Reparixin combined with Ara-C could up-regulate the expressions of LC3Ⅱ and Beclin-1 proteins in U937 cells, and the ratio of LC3Ⅱ/LC3Ⅰ in cells was significantly up-regulated compared with single drug or control group ( P <0.01). MDC result showed that the green granules of vesicles increased significantly, and a large number of broken cells were seen ( P <0.01). Reparixin combined with Ara-C can significantly inhibit the phosphorylation level of PI3K, AKT and NF-κB signaling molecule, inhibit the malignant biological behavior of cells by inhibiting the activation of PI3K/AKT/NF-κB pathway, and induce programmed cell death. Ara-C intervention in U937 cells had no effect on the expression of CXCR family ( P >0.05). The expression of CXCR 1, CXCR 2, and CXCR 4 mRNA could be down-regulated by Reparixin single-agent intervention in U937 cells ( P <0.05), and the expression of CXCR 2 was more significantly down-regulated than the control group and other CXCRs ( P <0.01). When Reparixin and Ara-C intervened in combination, the down-regulated levels of CXCR 1 and CXCR 2 were more significant than those in the single-drug group ( P <0.01), while the relative expressions of CXCR 4 and CXCR 7 mRNA had no significant difference compared with the single-drug group ( P >0.05)., Conclusion: Reparixin combined with Ara-C can synergistically inhibit the malignant biological behaviors of U937 cells such as proliferation, invasion, migration and clone formation, and induce autophagy and apoptosis. The mechanism may be related to affecting the proteins expression of Bcl-2 family and down-regulating the proteins expression of CXCR family, while inhibiting the PI3K/AKT/NF-κB signaling pathway.

The detection of hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S), the third gas signaling molecule, is a promising strategy for identifying the occurrence of certain diseases. However, the conventional single- or dual-signal detection can introduce false-positive or false-negative results, which ultimately decreases the diagnostic accuracy. To address this limitation, we developed a luminescent, photothermal, and electrochemical triple-signal detection platform by optically trapping the synthetic highly doped upconversion coupled SiO 2 microbeads coated with metal-organic frameworks H-UCNP-SiO 2 @HKUST-1 (H-USH) to detect the concentration of H 2 S. The H-USH was first synthesized and proved to have stable structure and excellent luminescent, photothermal, and electrochemical properties. Under 980 nm optical trapping and 808 nm irradiation, H-USH showed great detection linearity, a low limit of detection, and high specificity for H 2 S quantification via triple-signal detection. Moreover, H-USH was captured by optical tweezers to realize quantitative detection of H 2 S content in serum of acute pancreatitis and spontaneously hypertensive rats. Finally, by analyzing the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, we concluded that triple-signal detection of H 2 S was more accurate than single- or dual-signal detection, which overcame the problem of false-negative/positive results in the detection of H 2 S in actual serum samples.

Although the sun is really far away from us, some solar activities could still influence the performance and reliability of space-borne and ground-based technological systems on Earth. Those time-varying conditions in space caused by the sun are also called solar storm or space weather. It is known that aviation activities can be affected during solar storms, but the exact effects of space weather on aviation are still unclear. Especially how the flight delays, the top topic concerned by most people, will be affected by space weather has never been thoroughly researched. By analyzing huge amount of flight data (~ 4 × 10 6 records), for the first time, we quantitatively investigate the flight delays during space weather events. It is found that compared to the quiet periods, the average arrival delay time and 30-min delay rate during space weather events are significantly increased by 81.34% and 21.45% respectively. The evident negative correlation between the yearly flight regularity rate and the yearly mean total sunspot number during 22 years also confirms such correlation. Further studies show that the flight delay time and delay rate will monotonically increase with the geomagnetic field fluctuations and ionospheric disturbances. These results indicate that the interferences in communication and navigation during space weather events may be the most probable reason accounting for the increased flight delays. The above analyses expand the traditional field of space weather research and could also provide us with brand new views for improving the flight delay predications., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Ubiquitin-specific-processing protease 7 (USP7) is a promising target protein for cancer therapy, and great attention has been given to the identification of USP7 inhibitors. Traditional virtual screening methods have now been successfully applied to discover USP7 inhibitors aiming at reducing costs and speeding up time in several studies. However, due to their unsatisfactory accuracy, it is still a difficult task to develop USP7 inhibitors. In this study, multiple supervised learning classifiers were built to distinguish active USP7 inhibitors from inactive ligands. Physicochemical descriptors, MACCS keys, ECFP4 fingerprints and SMILES were first calculated to represent the compounds in our in-house dataset. Two deep learning (DL) models and nine classical machine learning (ML) models were then constructed based on different combinations of the above molecular representations under three activity cutoff values, and a total of 15 groups of experiments (75 experiments) were implemented. The performance of the models in these experiments was evaluated, compared and discussed using a variety of metrics. The optimal models are ensemble learning models when the dataset is balanced or severely imbalanced, and SMILES-based DL performs the best when the dataset is slightly imbalanced. Meanwhile, multimodal data fusion in some cases can improve the performance of ML and DL models. In addition, SMOTE, unbiased decoy selection and SMILES enumeration can improve the performance of ML and DL models when the dataset is severely imbalanced, and SMOTE works the best. Our study established highly accurate supervised learning classification models, which would accelerate the development of USP7 inhibitors. Some guidance was also provided for drug researchers in selecting supervised models and molecular representations as well as handling imbalanced datasets., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: Acute appendicitis in children refers to the acute inflammation of the appendix, which accounts for 20% ∼ 30% of cases of acute abdomen in pediatric surgery., Objective: This study aimed to establish a decision tree model of complicated appendicitis in children using appendiceal ultrasound combined with an inflammatory index and evaluated its clinical efficacy in pediatric patients., Methods: A total of 395 children admitted to the Emergency Department of the Shanghai Children's Hospital from January 2018 to December 2021 and diagnosed with appendicitis by postoperative pathology were retrospectively analyzed. According to the postoperative pathology, the children were divided into a complicated and non-complicated appendicitis group, respectively. Routine laboratory inflammatory indicators, including white blood cell count, N(%), neutrophil (Neu) count, Neu/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), C-reactive protein (CRP), and procalcitonin were collected from the two groups. Collecting data on ultrasound examination of the appendix includes whether the appendix diameter is thickened, whether the echogenicity of the mesenteric rim surrounding the appendix is enhanced, whether there is rich blood supply in the appendix, and whether there are fecaliths in the appendix lumen. The risk factors for complicated appendicitis were screened out by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses, the binary logistic regression prediction and decision tree models were established, respectively, and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to verify the accuracy of the two prediction models., Results: Binary logistic regression analysis showed that CRP, NLR, the presence of an appendicolith, and peripheral retina echo enhancement were independent risk factors for complicated appendicitis in children (P< 0.05). The decision tree model had an overall accuracy of 79%, an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.809 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.780-0.865), and sensitivity and specificity of 71.3% and 77.7%, respectively. The logistic regression model had an overall accuracy of 74.9%, an AUC value of 0.823 (95% CI, 0.765-0.853), a sensitivity value of 80.3%, and a specificity of 71.8%., Conclusion: This predictive model, based on ultrasound of the appendix combined with inflammatory markers, provides a useful method to assist pediatric emergency physicians in diagnosing childhood appendicitis. The decision tree model reflected the interaction of various indexes, and the model was simple, intuitive, and effective.

Objective: To explore the effect and molecular mechanism of Piceatannol on malignant biological characteristics of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells., Methods: HL60, U937, HL60/ADR and U937/ADR cells were treated with different concentrations of Piceatannol. CCK-8 assay was used to detect cell proliferation. Cell apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry with Annexin V/PI double staining. The protein expressions of apoptosis, autophagy and related signaling pathways were detected by Western blot. Real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the expression changes of drug resistance genes in drug-resistant AML cell lines., Results: The activity of HL60 and U937 cells could be inhibited by Piceatannol and induced apoptosis. When Piceatannol interfered with AML cells for 24 h, the ratio of autophagy marker LC3-II/LC3-I increased with the increase of concentration ( r =0.672， r =0.549). When Piceatannol interfered with AML cells for 48 h, the expression of Bcl-2 protein was down-regulated and caspase-3 was hydrolyzed and activated. At the same time, the activation level of Akt/NF-κB signaling pathway was inhibited to induce programmed death of AML cells. Piceatannol can also down-regulate the expression of MRP1 and gradually weaken the chemotherapy resistance of AML drug-resistant cell lines, but it has a weak effect on the expression of BCRP and almost no effect on MDR1 ., Conclusion: Piceatannol can inhibit the proliferation of AML cells and induce programmed death, which may be related to the inhibition of Akt/NF-κB signaling pathway, the hydrolysis of caspase-3 and the down-regulation of Bcl-2 protein expression, and the suppression of the expression of some drug resistance genes.

The mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) complex 1, mTORC1, integrates nutrient and growth factor signals with cellular responses and plays critical roles in regulating cell growth, proliferation, and lifespan. mTORC1 signaling has been reported as a central regulator of autophagy by modulating almost all aspects of the autophagic process, including initiation, expansion, and termination. An increasing number of studies suggest that mTORC1 and autophagy are critical for the physiological function of skeletal muscle and are involved in diverse muscle diseases. Here, we review recent insights into the essential roles of mTORC1 and autophagy in skeletal muscles and their implications in human muscle diseases. Multiple inhibitors targeting mTORC1 or autophagy have already been clinically approved, while others are under development. These chemical modulators that target the mTORC1/autophagy pathways represent promising potentials to cure muscle diseases.

Mast cell leukemia(MCL)is an extremely rare type of leukemia with high heterogeneity in clinical practice.MCL needs to be diagnosed by means of bone marrow routine and pathology,flow immunophenotyping,and cytogenetics and molecular biological testing.This article retrospectively studied the clinical data including the clinical features,diagnosis,treatment,and prognosis of two patients with MCL,aiming to improve the understanding of MCL and provide a new reference for the clinical diagnosis,treatment,and basic medical research of this disease.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the world. In particular, non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) represents the majority of the lung cancer population. Advances in DNA sequencing technologies have significantly contributed to revealing the roles, functions and mechanisms of gene mutations. However, the driver mutations that cause cancers and their pathologies remain to be explored. Here, we performed next-generation sequencing (NGS) on tumor tissues isolated from 314 Chinese NSCLC patients and established the mutational landscape in NSCLC. Among 656 mutations, we identified TP53-p.Glu358Val as a driver mutation in lung cancer and found that it activates mitophagy to sustain cancer cell growth. In support of this finding, mice subcutaneously implanted with NSCLC cells expressing TP53-p.Glu358Val developed larger tumors compared to wild-type cells. The pharmaceutical inhibition of autophagy/mitophagy selectively suppresses the cell proliferation of TP53-null or TP53-p.Glu358Val-expressing lung cancer cells. Together, our study characterizes a new TP53 mutation identified from Chinese lung cancer patients and uncovers its roles in regulating mitophagy, providing a new insight into NSCLC treatment.

Background: There are clinical and statistical inconsistencies regarding early intervention with manual lymphatic drainage (MLD). The purpose of this study was to compare the short-term effect of early interventions with rehabilitation exercise versus MLD and rehabilitation exercise in terms of pain, range of motion (ROM) and lymphedema in patients with oral cancer after surgery., Methods: A total of 39 patients who underwent surgery from December 2014 to December 2018 participated in this randomized single-blind study. There were 20 patients in the rehabilitation (R) group and 19 in the MLD (M) plus rehabilitation group. The R group received 30 minutes of rehabilitation intervention; and the M group received 30 minutes of MLD, in addition to 30 minutes of rehabilitation intervention in a work day. Clinical measures, including the visual analog pain scale (VAS), ROM of the neck and shoulder, ultrasonography and face distance for lymphedema, and the Földi and Miller lymphedema scales, were assessed before surgery, before intervention and when discharged from the hospital., Results: The VAS pain score, ROM of the neck, and internal and external rotation of the right shoulder were significantly improved after the interventions. Right-face distance (P = .005), and skin-to-bone distance (SBD) of the bilateral horizontal mandible and left ascending mandibular ramus were significantly improved after the interventions. Left lateral flexion of the neck (P = .038) and SBD of the right ascending mandibular ramus (P < .001) in the MLD group showed more improvement than that of the rehabilitation group., Conclusion: Early intervention with MLD and the rehabilitation program were effective in improving ROM of the neck and controlling lymphedema in acute-phase rehabilitation. The preliminary findings suggest a potential therapeutic role for early intervention with MLD, in addition to rehabilitation exercise, in that they yielded more benefits in lymphedema control and improvement of ROM of the neck in acute care., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

Objective: To investigate the cell cycle and apoptosis in hydroquinone (HQ) -induced malignant transformation of TK6 cells and its related regulatory mechanisms. Methods: TK6 cells were exposed to 20 μmol/L HQ, 24 h/time, once a week, for 19 weeks as experimental group and TK6 cells treated with phosphate buffer (PBS) for 19 weeks was used as control group from March 2014. In regulatory mechanism research, the cells were divided into four groups: control group, experimental group, control inhibitor group and experimental inhibitor group (inhibitor groups were added 10 μmol/L P600125) . Cell cycle and apoptosis were detected by flow cytometry. The protein expression of cell cycle-related proteins and JNK signaling pathway proteins were detected by Western blot. Results: Flow cytometry showed that compared with control group, the ratio of cells in the G0/G1 phase of the experimental group was significantly decreased ( P =0.001) , and the ratio of cells in the S phase was significantly increased ( P =0.002) . Western blotting demonstrated that the protein expressions of p-Rb (Ser780) , E2F1, Cyclin D1, p-p16 (Ser152) , JNK1, p-JNK1 (Thr183/Tyr185) , c-jun, p-c-jun (Ser63) ( P =0.015, 0.021, 0.001, 0.001, 0.005, 0.001, 0.039, 0.003) were up-regulated, while the protein expressions of Rb ( P =0.048) and p16 ( P =0.002) were significantly down-regulated. After exposed to SP600125, compared with experimental group, there were no significant changes in cell cycle distribution ( P =0.946) and apoptosis rate ( P =0.923) in experimental inhibitor group. The expression of c-jun ( P =0.040) protein was down-regulated, while the expression of Rb ( P =0.027) protein was up-regulated in experimental inhibitor group. Conclusion: In HQ-induced TK6 cells malignant transformation, the cell cycle is arrested in the S phase, and the p16/pRb signaling pathway is inhibited, while the JNK signaling pathway is activated. However, the activated JNK signaling pathway may not be involved in the regulation of cell cycle.

This study aims to evaluate the effects of bioactive metabolites produced by lactic acid bacteria against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) ATCC 43300. A total of six lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were selected to evaluate the antimicrobial activity against MRSA ATCC 43300, a skin pathogen that is highly resistant to most antibiotics. The K014 isolate from a fermented vegetable recorded the highest inhibition against MRSA ATCC 43300 at 91.93 ± 0.36%. 16S rRNA sequencing revealed the K014 isolate is closely related to L. plantarum and the sequence was subsequently deposited in the GenBank database with an accession number of MW180960, named as Lactiplantibacillus plantarum K014. The cell-free supernatant (CFS) of L. plantarum K014 had tolerance to high temperature as well as acidic pH. The bioactive metabolites, such as hydrogen peroxide, lactic acid and hyaluronic acid, were produced by L. plantarum K014. Result from ABTS assay showed higher antioxidant activity (46.28%) as compared to that obtained by DPPH assay (2.97%). The CFS had showed anti-inflammatory activity for lipoxygenase (LOX) assay at 43.66%. The bioactive metabolites of L. plantarum K014 showed very promising potential to be used topical skin pathogens., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Background and Aims: Hepatic ischemia-reperfusion (HIR) injury, a common clinical complication of liver transplantation and resection, affects patient prognosis. Ring finger protein 5 (RNF5) is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that plays important roles in endoplasmic reticulum stress, unfolded protein reactions, and inflammatory responses; however, its role in HIR is unclear., Approach and Results: RNF5 expression was significantly down-regulated during HIR in mice and hepatocytes. Subsequently, RNF5 knockdown and overexpression of cell lines were subjected to hypoxia-reoxygenation challenge. Results showed that RNF5 knockdown significantly increased hepatocyte inflammation and apoptosis, whereas RNF5 overexpression had the opposite effect. Furthermore, hepatocyte-specific RNF5 knockout and transgenic mice were established and subjected to HIR, and RNF5 deficiency markedly aggravated liver damage and cell apoptosis and activated hepatic inflammatory responses, whereas hepatic RNF5 transgenic mice had the opposite effect compared with RNF5 knockout mice. Mechanistically, RNF5 interacted with phosphoglycerate mutase family member 5 (PGAM5) and mediated the degradation of PGAM5 through K48-linked ubiquitination, thereby inhibiting the activation of apoptosis-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1) and its downstream c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK)/p38. This eventually suppresses the inflammatory response and cell apoptosis in HIR., Conclusions: We revealed that RNF5 protected against HIR through its interaction with PGAM5 to inhibit the activation of ASK1 and the downstream JNK/p38 signaling cascade. Our findings indicate that the RNF5-PGAM5 axis may be a promising therapeutic target for HIR., (© 2021 The Authors. Hepatology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.)

We propose a method for diagnosis of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by using a terahertz (THz) metamaterial (MM) biosensor. The biosensor has a resonance frequency at about 0.801 THz and can measure the concentration of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in serum. The sensitivity of the sensor is 124 GHz/refractive index unit (RIU), and the quality-factor (Q) is 6.913, respectively. When the surface of the biosensor is covered with healthy serum ( A F P ≤7 n g / m L ), the maximum resonance frequency shift is 50 GHz. However, when it is covered with serum from patients with cirrhosis and early HCC ( A F P >7 n g / m L ), the resonance frequency shift is more than 59 GHz. Positive correlation exists between the frequency shift of the biosensor and serum levels of the AFP in the HCC patients. This study provides a method for quick diagnosis and prediction of cirrhosis and HCC.

Although great headway has been made in DNAzyme-based detection of Pb 2+ , its adaptability, sensitivity, and accessibility in complex media still need to be improved. For this, we introduce new ways to surmount these hurdles. First, a spherical nucleic acid (SNA) fluorescence probe (Au nanoparticles-DNAzyme probe) is utilized to specifically identify Pb 2+ and its suitability for precise detection of Pb 2+ in complex samples due to its excellent nuclease resistance. Second, the sensitivity of Pb 2+ detection is greatly enhanced via the use of a clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-Cas12a with target recognition accuracy to amplify the fluorescent signal upon the trans cleavage of the SNA (signal probe), and the limit of detection reaches as low as 86 fM. Third, we boost the fluorescence on photonic crystal chips with a bionic periodic arrangement by employing a straightforward detection device (smartphone and portable UV lamp) to achieve on-site detection of Pb 2+ with the limit of detection as low as 24 pM. Based on the abovementioned efforts, the modified Pb 2+ fluorescence sensor has the advantages of higher sensitivity, better specificity, accessibility, less sample consumption, and so forth. Moreover, it can be applied to accurately detect Pb 2+ in complex biological or environmental samples, which is of great promise for widespread applications.

Influenza A virus (IAV) is a global health threat. The cellular endocytic machineries harnessed by IAV remain elusive. Here, by tracking single IAV particles and quantifying the internalized IAV, we found that sphingomyelin (SM)-sequestered cholesterol, but not accessible cholesterol, is essential for the clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME) of IAV. The clathrin-independent endocytosis of IAV is cholesterol independent, whereas the CME of transferrin depends on SM-sequestered cholesterol and accessible cholesterol. Furthermore, three-color single-virus tracking and electron microscopy showed that the SM-cholesterol complex nanodomain is recruited to the IAV-containing clathrin-coated structure (CCS) and facilitates neck constriction of the IAV-containing CCS. Meanwhile, formin-binding protein 17 (FBP17), a membrane-bending protein that activates actin nucleation, is recruited to the IAV-CCS complex in a manner dependent on the SM-cholesterol complex. We propose that the SM-cholesterol nanodomain at the neck of the CCS recruits FBP17 to induce neck constriction by activating actin assembly. These results unequivocally show the physiological importance of the SM-cholesterol complex in IAV entry. IMPORTANCE IAV infects cells by harnessing cellular endocytic machineries. A better understanding of the cellular machineries used for its entry might lead to the development of antiviral strategies and would also provide important insights into physiological endocytic processes. This work demonstrated that a special pool of cholesterol in the plasma membrane, SM-sequestered cholesterol, recruits FBP17 for the constriction of clathrin-coated pits in IAV entry. Meanwhile, the clathrin-independent cell entry of IAV is cholesterol independent. The internalization of transferrin, the gold-standard cargo endocytosed solely via CME, is much less dependent on the SM-cholesterol complex. These results provide new insights into IAV infection and the pathway/cargo-specific involvement of the cholesterol pool(s).

To investigate the feasibility and the clinical efficiency of robot navigation combined with wrist arthroscopy in minimally invasive treatment of nondisplaced type Herbert D1 scaphoid fracture. A retrospective analysis was performed on 9 patients who underwent nondisplaced type Herbert D1 scaphoid fracture in Xuzhou Renci Hospital from December 2019 to January 2021. Before the operation and at the last follow-up, grip strength, pinching force, modified wrist Mayo score and visual analogue scale (VAS) of wrist pain were recorded and compared. The average follow-up time was 14.1 months (7.5-24.0 months). All the fractures achieved primary healing after an average of 13.3 weeks (10-18 weeks). The average flexion and dorsal extension activity of the injured wrist was 51.2°±9.4°, 68.0°±7.3°, and the radial and ulnar deviation was 19.3°±6.2°, 45.7°±7.8°, respectively. At the final follow-up, there were statistically significant differences in grip strength, pinch strength, wrist Mayo score and VAS when compared with those before the operation (all P <0.05). The results demonstrated that robot navigation combined with wrist arthroscopy for nondisplaced type Herbert D1 scaphoid fracture is effective and minimally invasive with a short recovery time and satisfactory healing rate.

The early diagnosis and timely intervention of viral myocarditis urgently require a noninvasive detection approach. Therefore, we present a CRISPR/Cas12a-powered biosensor that integrates an exceptionally efficient upconversion luminescent resonance energy transfer (LRET) with a nature-inspired biochip to determine a golden-standard cardiac biomarker (cardiac troponin I). First, a unique sandwich-structured energy-confined upconversion nanoparticle (acting as the energy donor) is synthesized to dramatically reinforce the LRET's ability. Such a structural improvement endows a relatively high quenching efficiency (as much as 93.8%) toward the surface acceptors and enhances the working adaption in complicated biological media. Moreover, a three-dimensional photonic crystal fabricated using a self-assembly of nanospheres is employed to construct a biochip interface, under which the upconversion luminescence is prominently boosted to approximately 27-fold to achieve signal amplification. Finally, the newly developed luminescence sensing method exhibits remarkable assay performance after introducing these attempts into a dual-aptamer-regulated CRISPR/Cas12a system to transduce the target. More importantly, this biosensor can primarily be a quite useful tracer tool to allow dynamic monitoring of the entire myocardial injury process in a coxsackievirus B3 infected mouse model, paving an attractive venue for medical diagnostic techniques., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Enterococcus sp. has been used as starters in food fermentation due to their probiotic and antimicrobial properties in food biopreservation. The antimicrobial properties were mainly contributed by the bacteriocin called enterocin. Hence, the availability of a cost-effective pilot-scale cultivation conditions is a necessity for the production of probiotic bacteria. This study aims to investigate optimization of medium composition using sugarcane molasses as a carbon source using response surface methodology and the potential use of fed-batch cultivation for improvement of the cell viability of Enterococcus faecium CW3801 for the use as a probiotic starter culture. Two feeding strategies (ramp and constant) were applied in fed-batch cultivation for enhancement of the production of E. faecium in a 2-L stirred tank bioreactor using the optimized medium and scaled up to a 15-L bioreactor. Optimized fermentation medium which comprised of 10% (v/v) of molasses and 10 g/L of yeast extract at pH 7 yielded maximum cell viability of 29.4 × 10 11 CFU/mL with 3900 AU/mL of bacteriocin-like inhibitory substances (BLIS) activity. In the fed-batch, the cell viability (8.4 × 10 13 ) and dry cell weight (6.34 g/L) reached the highest in optimized medium when the ramp (stepwise) feeding was applied. In scaling up to 15-L bioreactor, the growth of E. faecium was achieved at 2.3 × 10 13 CFU/mL with the dry cell weight of 5.28 g/L under the same condition. The BLIS in 15-L bioreactor was 6% higher than the 2-L bioreactor. This study demonstrated that molasses and yeast extract are good feedstock for the growth of E. faecium . The E. faecium, a non-vancomycin resistant enterococcus (VRE) was successfully produced by a fed-batch cultivation approach and scaled up to a 15-L bioreactor using a ramp feeding strategy. Results from this study revealed that the fed-batch cultivation using molasses-based medium has industrial potential for the production of probiotics.

The further development of high-performance fluorescent biosensors to image intracellular microRNAs is beneficial to cancer medicine. By virtue of the need for enzymes and hairpin DNA probes, the entropy-driven reaction-assisted signal amplification strategy has shown an enormous potential to accomplish this task. Nevertheless, this good option still meets with poor biostability, low cell uptake efficiency, and unsatisfactory accuracy. On the basis of these challenges, we put forward here a battery of solving pathways. First, the straight DNA probes are anchored onto the vertexes of dual DNA tetrahedrons, and thus the enzyme resistance of the whole sensing system is observably enhanced. A metal-organic framework (ZIF-8 nanoparticle), which can be effectively dissociated into a weakly acidic environment, then is employed as an additional delivery vehicle to encapsulate such a DNA tetrahedron sustained biosensor and finally bring about a more efficient endocytosis. Last, a kind of photocleavage-linker triggered photoresponsive manner is incorporated to achieve an exceptional precise target identification, by which the biosensor can only be initiated under the irradiation of an externally mild 365 nm ultraviolet light source. In accordance with the above efforts, worthy assay performance toward microRNA-196a has given rise to this newly constructed biosensor, whose sensitivity is down to 2.7 pM and also able to distinguish single-base variation. Beyond that, the amplifier can work as a powerful imaging toolbox to accurately determine the targets in living cells, providing a promising intracellular sensing platform.

Benefiting from the outstanding signal amplification effect and the admirable construction flexibility, the currently proposed DNA motors (particularly DNA walkers) based biosensing concepts have provided a forceful fluorescence imaging tool for intracellular detection. Even so, this promising sensing means is not only subject to poor controllability and prone to produce false signals but also requires exogenous powering forces owing to the common employment of DNAzyme. In response to these challenges, we are herein motivated to present some meaningful solving strategies. For one thing, the surfaces of gold nanoparticles are conducted with a photo-gated walking behavior by introducing a photocleave mode, under which the light-switchable DNA walkers are capable of being selectively activated via an external ultraviolet source to faultlessly prevent the sensing frame from being pre-initiated during cellular uptake and intracellular delivery. For another, the intracellular biothiols are consumed by MnO 2 nanosheets to effectively avoid the competitions to Au-S bonds to eliminate potential false outputs and also self-supply sufficient cofactors (Mn 2+ ) to actualize a self-powered operation pattern as well as facilitate the endocytosis process. Following these breakthroughs, a favorable analysis performance towards a model tumor biomarker (survivin mRNA) is endowed with the newly raised biosensor, whose sensitivity is low to pM level with a sound specificity for identifying single base mismatching. Moreover, the significantly improved autonomous three-dimensional DNA walkers can be used to determine and dynamically trace the targets in live cancer cells with an exceptional precise and efficient manner, commendably impelling the sensing ability of DNA motors in biological specimens., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Despite that the currently discovered CRISPR-Cas12a system is beneficial for improving the detection accuracy and design flexibility of luminescent biosensors, there are still challenges to extend target species and strengthen adaptability in complicated biological media. To conquer these obstacles, we present here some useful strategies. For the former, the limitation to nucleic acids assay is broken through by introducing a simple functional DNA regulation pathway to activate the unique trans-cleavage effect of this CRISPR system, under which the expected biosensors are capable of effectively transducing a protein (employing dual aptamers) and a metal ion (employing DNAzyme). For the latter, a time-gated luminescence resonance energy transfer imaging manner using a long-persistent nanophosphor as the energy donor is performed to completely eliminate the background interference and a nature-inspired biomimetic periodic chip constructed by photonic crystals is further combined to enhance the persistent luminescence. In line with the above efforts, the improved CRISPR-Cas12a luminescent biosensor not only exhibits a sound analysis performance toward the model targets (carcinoembryonic antigen and Na + ) but also owns a strong anti-interference feature to actualize accurate sensing in human plasma samples, offering a new and applicative analytical tool for laboratory medicine.

Alzheimer's disease (AD), known as a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, has had a terrible impact on the health of aged people. Due to its severity, early diagnosis of AD is significant to retard the progress and provide timely treatment. Here, we report a fluorescence ratio detection of AD biomarker amyloid β oligomers (AβOs) by combining highly doped upconversion nanoparticles-SiO 2 @metal-organic framework/black hole quencher (H-USM/BHQ-1) microspheres with optical tweezer (OT) microscopic imaging. Optical trapping a single microsphere not only avoids the interference of fluid viscosity but also provides a high power density laser source to efficiently stimulate upconversion luminescence (UCL) of highly doped upconversion nanoparticles (H-UCNPs). Under this condition, H-UCNPs show stronger UCL and greater power-dependent properties compared to low-doped ones. Moreover, the closely packed quenching molecules BHQ-1 on a metal-organic framework (ZIF-8) exhibit excellent quenching efficiency for upconversion 525 and 540 nm emission. Also, the luminescent resonance energy transfer efficiency reaches 89.58%. When different concentrations of AβOs are present, the UCL 540 recovers due to the decomposition of ZIF-8 and the release of BHQ-1. Using 540 and 654 nm emission ratio of highly doped UCNPs as reporters, the limit of detection reaches 28.4 pM for the quantitative determination of AβOs. Besides, this strategy is able to selectively quantify the AβO concentration. Therefore, we demonstrated the combination of optical trapping and highly doped UCNPs which is applied for the detection of AβOs with high sensitivity and specificity.

Background: The risk of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection is influenced by aberrant DNA methylation and altered nucleotide synthesis and repair, possibly caused by polymorphic variants in one-carbon metabolism genes. In the present study, we investigated the relationship between polymorphisms belonging to the one-carbon metabolic pathway and CHB infection., Methods: A case-control study using 230 CHB patients and 234 unrelated healthy controls was carried out to assess the genetic association of 24 single nucleotide polymorphisins (SNPs) determined by mass spectrometry., Results: Three SNPs, comprising rs10717122 and rs2229717 in serine hydroxymethyltransferase1/2 (SHMT2) and rs585800 in betaine-homocysteine S-methyltransferase (BHMT), were associated with the risk of CHB. Patients with DEL allele, DEL.DEL and DEL.T genotypes of rs10717122 had a 1.40-, 2.00- and 1.83-fold increased risk for CHB, respectively. Cases inheriting TA genotype of rs585800 had a 2.19-fold risk for CHB infection. The T allele of rs2229717 was less represented in the CHB cases (odds ratio = 0.66, 95% confidence interval = 0.48-0.92). The T allele of rs2229717 was less in patients with a low hepatitis B virus-DNA level compared to the control group (odds ratio = 0.49, 95% confidence interval = 0.25-0.97) and TT genotype of rs2229717 had a significant correlation with hepatitis B surface antigen level (p = 0.0195). Further gene-gene interaction analysis showed that subjects carrying the rs10717122 DEL.DEL/DEL.T and rs585800 TT/TA genotypes had a 2.74-fold increased risk of CHB., Conclusions: The results of the present study suggest that rs10717122, rs585800 and rs2229717 and gene-gene interactions of rs10717122 and rs585800 affect the outcome of CHB infection, at the same time as indicating their usefulness as a predictive and diagnostic biomarker of CHB infection., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)