ATP catabolism and bacterial succession in postmortem tissues of mud crab (Scylla paramamosain) and their roles in freshness.

The seafood microbiome is highly diverse and plays an essential role in the spoilage of seafood. Nevertheless, how such a diverse microbiome influences freshness of mud crab (Scylla paramamosain) remains unclear. Here we investigated the postmortem ATP catabolism and succession of the bacterial community in the hepatopancreas and muscle of S. paramamosain using a high-performance liquid chromatography method and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Our results showed a tissue-dependent change in ATP catabolism determinized the differences in the changes of nucleotide freshness indices of hepatopancreas and muscle over postmortem time of mud crab. The muscle K value could be used as an optimal nucleotide freshness indicator for the freshness of mud crab, with a proposed threshold of 20%. From a microbiota perspective, a more significant bacterial community change was observed in the muscle than in the hepatopancreas. These changes could result in a close relationship between ATP and its catabolites and microbial taxa in the muscle. Moreover, Photobacterium, Peptostreptococcaceae, average path distance, OTU richness, and Shannon index of muscle bacterial community markedly contributed to K value. These findings suggest that the mud crab of 4 h postmortem at room temperature is still edible. Notably, the importance of microbial community composition and interaction for the spoilage of mud crab should be carefully considered.

The Intention of Retail Stores in Taiwan to Cooperate with the Government in the Establishment of IT Measures for Pandemic Prevention.

This study focuses on the cooperative attitude and intention of retail stores in Taiwan to cooperate with the government's related pandemic prevention measures. The study is based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The study includes factors such as perceived risk of infection, job stress, pandemic prevention IT (information technology) convenience, pandemic prevention attitude, and pandemic prevention intention. Pandemic prevention attitude is used as a mediating variable to establish the research framework. This study collected research data through a questionnaire survey. A total of 457 valid questionnaires were collected through an electronic questionnaire platform. The findings showed that perceived risk of infection and pandemic prevention IT convenience had a positive and significant effect on pandemic prevention attitude (ß = 0.567; ß = 0.422) and pandemic prevention intention (ß = 0.424; ß = 0.296). Job stress has a significant negative effect on attitude (ß = -0.173). In addition, job stress influenced intention through attitudes. Finally, perceived risk, job stress, and IT convenience had high explanatory power (R2 = 0.706) on attitudes. Perceived risk, IT convenience, and attitude also had moderate explanatory power (R2 = 0.588) on prevention intention. The study also suggests practical recommendations to improve and cooperate with pandemic prevention intention.

Targeted drug delivery systems mediated by a novel Peptide in breast cancer therapy and imaging.

Targeted delivery of drugs to tumors represents a significant advance in cancer diagnosis and therapy. Therefore, development of novel tumor-specific ligands or pharmaceutical nanocarriers is highly desirable. In this study, we utilized phage display to identify a new targeting peptide, SP90, which specifically binds to breast cancer cells, and recognizes tumor tissues from breast cancer patients. We used confocal and electron microscopy to reveal that conjugation of SP90 with liposomes enables efficient delivery of drugs into cancer cells through endocytosis. Furthermore, in vivo fluorescent imaging demonstrated that SP90-conjugated quantum dots possess tumor-targeting properties. In tumor xenograft and orthotopic models, SP90-conjugated liposomal doxorubicin was found to improve the therapeutic index of the chemotherapeutic drug by selectively increasing its accumulation in tumors. We conclude that the targeting peptide SP90 has significant potential in improving the clinical benefits of chemotherapy in the treatment and the diagnosis of breast cancer.

Oral inoculation of probiotics Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM suppresses tumour growth both in segmental orthotopic colon cancer and extra-intestinal tissue.

Modulation of the cellular response by the administration of probiotic bacteria may be an effective strategy for preventing or inhibiting tumour growth. We orally pre-inoculated mice with probiotics Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM (La) for 14 d. Subcutaneous dorsal-flank tumours and segmental orthotopic colon cancers were implanted into mice using CT-26 murine colon adenocarcinoma cells. On day 28 after tumour initiation, the lamina propria of the colon, mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) and spleen were harvested and purified for flow cytometry and mRNA analyses. We demonstrated that La pre-inoculation reduced tumour volume growth by 50·3 %, compared with untreated mice at 28 d after tumour implants (2465·5 (SEM 1290·4) v. 4950·9 (SEM 1689·3) mm³, P<0·001). Inoculation with La reduced the severity of colonic carcinogenesis caused by CT-26 cells, such as level of colonic involvement and structural abnormality of epithelial/crypt damage. Moreover, La enhanced apoptosis of CT-26 cells both in dorsal-flank tumour and segmental orthotopic colon cancer, and the mean counts of apoptotic body were higher in mice pre-inoculated with La (P<0·05) compared with untreated mice. La pre-inoculation down-regulated the CXCR4 mRNA expressions in the colon, MLN and extra-intestinal tissue, compared with untreated mice (P<0·05). In addition, La pre-inoculation reduced the mean fluorescence index of MHC class I (H-2Dd, -Kd and -Ld) in flow cytometry analysis. Taken together, these findings suggest that probiotics La may play a role in attenuating tumour growth during CT-26 cell carcinogenesis. The down-regulated expression of CXCR4 mRNA and MHC class I, as well as increasing apoptosis in tumour tissue, indicated that La may be associated with modulating the cellular response triggered by colon carcinogenesis.

Antiangiogenic targeting liposomes increase therapeutic efficacy for solid tumors.

It is known that solid tumors recruit new blood vessels to support tumor growth, but the molecular diversity of receptors in tumor angiogenic vessels might also be used clinically to develop better targeted therapy. In vivo phage display was used to identify peptides that specifically target tumor blood vessels. Several novel peptides were identified as being able to recognize tumor vasculature but not normal blood vessels in severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice bearing human tumors. These tumor-homing peptides also bound to blood vessels in surgical specimens of various human cancers. The peptide-linked liposomes containing fluorescent substance were capable of translocating across the plasma membrane through endocytosis. With the conjugation of peptides and liposomal doxorubicin, the targeted drug delivery systems enhanced the therapeutic efficacy of the chemotherapeutic agent against human cancer xenografts by decreasing tumor angiogenesis and increasing cancer cell apoptosis. Furthermore, the peptide-mediated targeting liposomes improved the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of the drug they delivered compared with nontargeting liposomes or free drugs. Our results indicate that the tumor-homing peptides can be used specifically target tumor vasculature and have the potential to improve the systemic treatment of patients with solid tumors.