Correction to: A pooled analysis of the LAMP assay for the detection of Neisseria meningitidis.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

A pooled analysis of the LAMP assay for the detection of Neisseria meningitidis.

BACKGROUND: Neisseria meningitidis is a major cause of bacterial meningitis, and these infections are associated with a high mortality rate. Rapid and reliable diagnosis of bacterial meningitis is critical in clinical practice. However, this disease often occurs in economically depressed areas, so an inexpensive, easy to use, and accurate technology is needed. We performed a pooled-analysis to assess the potential of the recently developed loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for detection of meningococcus. METHODS: Pubmed, Embase, and Web of Science were searched to identify original studies that used the LAMP assay to detect meningococcus. After pooling of data, the sensitivity and specificity were calculated, a summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve was determined, and the area under the SROC curve was computed to determine diagnostic accuracy. Publication bias was assessed using Deek's funnel plot. RESULTS: We examined 14 studies within 6 publications. The LAMP assay had high sensitivity (94%) and specificity (100%) in the detection of meningococcus in all studies. The area under the SROC curve (0.980) indicated high overall accuracy of the LAMP assay. There was no evidence of publication bias. DISCUSSION: The LAMP assay has accuracy comparable to bacterial culture and PCR for detection of meningococcus, but is less expensive and easier to use. We suggest the adoption of the LAMP assay to detect meningococcus, especially in economically depressed areas.

Diagnostic accuracy of LAMP assay for HBV infection.

BACKGROUND: Detection of hepatitis B virus (HBV) is vital for the diagnosis of hepatitis B infection. A novel test loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) has been successfully applied to detect various pathogens. However, the accuracy of LAMP in diagnosing HBV remains unclear. Therefore, in the present study, the accuracy of LAMP for HBV detection was evaluated systematically. METHODS: Embase, Cochrane Library, and PubMed databases were searched for studies using LAMP to detect HBV. Then, two researchers extracted data and assessed the quality of literature using the QUADAS-2 tool independently. I2 statistic and chi-square test were analyzed to investigate the heterogeneity, and Deek's funnel plot assessed the publication bias. The pooled sensitivity (SEN), specificity (SPE), positive LR (PLR), negative LR (NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and 95% confidence intervals were displayed in forest plots. We calculated the area under the curve (AUC) to assess the overall efficiency of LAMP for HBV detection. RESULTS: A total of nine studies with 1298 samples were finally included in this evaluation. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of HBV detection were 0.91 (95% CI: 0.89 ~ 0.92) and 0.97 (95% CI: 0.94 ~ 0.99), respectively. The PLR, NLR, and DOR were 16.93 (95% CI: 6.15 ~ 46.55), 0.08 (95% CI: 0.05 ~ 0.14), and 397.57 (95% CI: 145.41 ~ 1087.07). Besides, the AUC was 0.9872, and Deek's plot suggested that there existed publication bias in the studies. CONCLUSION: Compared with PCR, LAMP is a simple, rapid, and effective assay to diagnose HBV. However, additional evidence is essential to confirm that LAMP can replace other methods in diagnosing HBV infection.

Controllable Assembly of Hierarchical Macroporous-Mesoporous LnFeO3 and Their Catalytic Performance in the CO + NO Reaction.

A new synthesis strategy to prepare hierarchical macroporous-mesoporous materials employing poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(phenylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO-PPO-PEO) as a single template and an acid adjusting agent was reported. There is a hierarchical structure including macropores with a size of 50-100 nm and mesopores in the macroporous walls with a size of 3-5 nm. The macroporous walls are composed of rare earth orthoferrite nanoparticles with a size of 5-10 nm. These hierarchically porous materials show high catalytic activities for the CO + NO reaction, and NO can be fully converted to N2 at temperatures as low as 350 °C, indicating their potential in the catalytic conversion of automotive exhaust gas and other catalysis-related fields. This synthesis strategy is a facile method for the preparation of hierarchical porous materials and may give us a guideline for the synthesis of functional materials with further catalytic applications.

Prediction model of measurement errors in current transformers based on deep learning.

The long-term monitoring stability of electronic current transformers is crucial for accurately obtaining the current signal of the power grid. However, it is difficult to accurately distinguish between the fluctuation of non-stationary random signals on the primary side of the power grid and the gradual error of the transformers themselves. A current transformer error prediction model, CNN-MHA-BiLSTM, based on the golden jackal optimization (GJO) algorithm, which is used to obtain the optimal parameter values, bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) network, convolutional neural networks (CNNs), and multi-head attention (MHA), is proposed to address the difficulty of measuring error evaluation. This model can be used to determine the operation of transformers and can be widely applied to assist in determining the stability of transformer operation and early faults. First, CNN is used to mine the vertical detail features of error data at a certain moment, improving the speed of error prediction. Furthermore, a cascaded network with BiLSTM as the core is constructed to extract the horizontal historical features of the error data. The GJO algorithm is used to adjust the parameters of the BiLSTM model; optimize the hidden layer nodes, training frequency, and learning rate; and integrate MHA mechanism to promote the model to pay attention to the characteristic changes of the data in order to improve the accuracy of error prediction. Finally, this method is applied to the operation data of transformer in substations, and four time periods of data are selected to verify the model effectiveness of the current transformer dataset. The analysis results of single step and multi-step examples indicate that the proposed model has significant advantages in terms of accuracy and stability in error prediction.

Identification of natural Rutaecarpine as a potent tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) helicase candidate for managing intractable plant viral diseases.

BACKGROUND: Naturally occurring alkaloids are particularly suitable for use as pesticide precursors and further modifications due to their cost-effectiveness, unique mechanism of action, tolerable degradation, and environmental friendliness. The famous tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) is a persistent plant pathogenic virus that can parasitize many plants and severely reduce crop production. To treat TMV disease, TMV helicase acts as a crucial target by hydrolyzing adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to provide energy for double-stranded RNA unwinding. RESULTS: To seek novel framework alkaloid leads targeting TMV helicase, this work successfully established an efficient screening platform for TMV helicase inhibitors based on natural alkaloids. In vivo activity screening, enzyme activity detection, and binding assays showed that Rutaecarpine from Evodia rutaecarpa (Juss.) Benth exhibited excellent TMV helicase inhibitory properties [dissociation constant (Kd ) = 1.1 µm, half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50 ) = 227.24 µm] and excellent anti-TMV ability. Molecular docking and dynamic simulations depicted that Rutaecarpine could stably bind in active pockets of helicase with low binding energy (ΔGbind = -17.8 kcal/mol) driven by hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions. CONCLUSION: Given Rutaecarpine's laudable bioactivity and structural modifiability, it can serve as a privileged building block for further pesticide discovery.

Identification of Novel Bisamide-Decorated Benzotriazole Derivatives as Anti-Phytopathogenic Virus Agents: Bioactivity Evaluation and Computational Simulation.

As a notorious phytopathogenic virus, the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) severely reduced the quality of crops worldwide and caused critical constraints on agricultural production. The development of novel virucides is a persuasive strategy to address this predicament. Herein, a series of novel bisamide-decorated benzotriazole derivatives were elaborately prepared and screened. Biological tests implied that the optimized compound 7d possessed the most brilliant antiviral inactive profile (EC50 = 157.6 µg/mL) and apparently surpassed that of commercial ribavirin (EC50 = 442.1 µg/mL) 2.8-fold. The preliminary antiviral mechanism was elaborately investigated via transmission electron microscopy, microscale thermophoresis (MST) determination, RT-qPCR, and Western blot analysis. The results showed that compound 7d blocked the assembly of TMV by binding with coat protein (Kd = 0.7 µM) and suppressed TMV coat protein gene expression and biosynthesis process. Computational simulations indicated that 7d displayed strong H-bonds and pi interactions with TMV coat protein, affording a lower binding energy (ΔGbind = -17.8 kcal/mol) compared with Ribavirin (ΔGbind = -10.7 kcal/mol). Overall, current results present a valuable perception of bisamide decorated benzotriazole derivatives with appreciably virustatic competence and should be profoundly developed as virucidal candidates in agrochemical.

Xyloketal B exhibits its antioxidant activity through induction of HO-1 in vascular endothelial cells and zebrafish.

We previously reported that a novel marine compound, xyloketal B, has strong antioxidative actions in different models of cardiovascular diseases. Induction of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), an important endogenous antioxidant enzyme, has been considered as a potential therapeutic strategy for cardiovascular diseases. We here investigated whether xyloketal B exhibits its antioxidant activity through induction of HO-1. In human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), xyloketal B significantly induced HO-1 gene expression and translocation of the nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf-2) in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. The protection of xyloketal B against angiotensin II-induced apoptosis and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production could be abrogated by the HO-1 specific inhibitor, tin protoporphyrin-IX (SnPP). Consistently, the suppressive effects of xyloketal B on NADPH oxidase activity could be reversed by SnPP in zebrafish embryos. In addition, xyloketal B induced Akt and Erk1/2 phosphorylation in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. Furthermore, PI3K inhibitor LY294002 and Erk1/2 inhibitor U0126 suppressed the induction of HO-1 and translocation of Nrf-2 by xyloketal B, whereas P38 inhibitor SB203580 did not. In conclusion, xyloketal B can induce HO-1 expression via PI3K/Akt/Nrf-2 pathways, and the induction of HO-1 is mainly responsible for the antioxidant and antiapoptotic actions of xyloketal B.

[Effect of baicalin on expression of TLR4 in RAW264.7 cells infected by ESBLs Escherichia coli].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect and mechanism of baicalin against beta-lactamases Escherichia coli (ESBLs E. coli) mediated by toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) signal transduction pathway. METHOD: The RAW264. 7 cells monolayer pretreated with different concentration of baicalin were inoculated with ESBLs E. coli. The expression of TLR4 mRNA and protein were analyzed by semi-quantitative RT-PCR and Immunofluorescence, respectively. The activity of NF-kappaB was detected by Western blot using total cellular protein. The production of TNF-alpha in supernatant was determined by enzyme linked immunosorbnent assay (ELISA). RESULT: ESBLs E. coli significantly up-regulated the expression levels of TLR4 mRNA and protein in a time-dependent manner, induced the activation of NF-KB in RAW264. 7, enhanced the production of TNF-alpha in supernatant. Baicalin down-regulated the expression of TLR4 mRNA and protein, decreased the activation of NF-KB in RAW264. 7 cells and reduced the production of TNF-alpha in supernatant in a dose-dependent manner. CONCLUSION: Baicailin could inhibit TLR4 signal transduction pathway. The mechanism of baicalin against ESBLs E. coli may be through inhibiting the expression of TLR4 and its signal transduction pathway.

Comparison of tropomyosin released peptide and epitope mapping after in vitro digestion from fish (Larimichthys crocea), shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) and clam (Ruditapes philippinarum) through SWATH-MS based proteomics.

Tropomyosin (TM) is a major shellfish allergen and a minor fish allergen. Different digestion profiles affect potential allergen anaphylaxis of protein. In this study, released peptides of fish-TM, shrimp-TM, and clam-TM by in vitro digestion of simulated gastric fluid (SGF), simulated intestinal fluid (SIF), and gastrointestinal (GI) were analyzed using sequential windowed acquisition of all theoretical fragment ion mass spectra (SWATH-MS) based proteomics. Results showed that digestion products of shrimp-TM yielded a lot of peptides matched T/B cell epitopes while core regions matched epitopes were distributed along the entire chain. Pepsin or trypsin-based digestion products of shrimp-TM presented many more peptides matched T/B cell epitopes compared with those of fish-TM and clam-TM. Besides, a differentiating peptide of VEKDKALSNAEGEVAAL (72-88) overlapped T/B cell epitopes could be used as a candidate peptide marker to identify tropomyosin allergen. These findings would supply new insight into the different allergenicity of tropomyosin.

Novel cinnamic acid derivatives as a versatile tool for developing agrochemicals for controlling plant virus and bacterial diseases by enhancing plant defense responses.

BACKGROUND: Plant pathogens have led to large yield and quality losses in crops worldwide. The discovery and study of novel agrochemical alternatives based on the chemical modification of bioactive natural products is a highly efficient approach. Here, two series of novel cinnamic acid derivatives incorporating diverse building blocks with alternative linking patterns were designed and synthesized to identify their antiviral capacity and antibacterial activity. RESULTS: The bioassay results demonstrated that most cinnamic acid derivatives had excellent antiviral competence toward tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) in vivo, especially compound A5 (median effective concentration [EC50 ] = 287.7 µg mL-1 ), which had a notable protective effect against TMV when compared with the commercial virucide ribavirin (EC50  = 622.0 µg mL-1 ). In addition, compound A17 had a protective efficiency of 84.3% at 200 µg mL-1 against Xac in plants. Given these outstanding results, the engineered title compounds could be regarded as promising leads for controlling plant virus and bacterial diseases. Preliminary mechanistic studies suggest that compound A5 could enhance the host's defense responses by increasing the activity of defense enzymes and upregulating defense genes, thereby suppressing phytopathogen invasion. CONCLUSION: This research lays a foundation for the practical application of cinnamic acid derivatives containing diverse building blocks with alternative linking patterns in pesticide exploration. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.

dl-3n-Butylphthalide promotes angiogenesis via the extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt-endothelial nitric oxide synthase signaling pathways.

We have previously demonstrated that dl-3n-butylphthalide (NBP) has a potential angiogenic activity. In this study, we investigated the angiogenic effect of NBP and the molecular mechanisms underlying NBP-mediated angiogenesis. Zebrafish embryos and human umbilical vein endothelial cells were treated with various doses of NBP and several signaling pathway inhibitors. NBP induced ectopic subintestinal vessel production in zebrafish embryos and induced invasion, migration, and endothelial cell tube formation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells in a dose-dependent manner. These NBP-induced angiogenic effects were partially suppressed by SU5402, a fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 inhibitor; U0126, an extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) inhibitor; LY294002, a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor; 1L6-hydroxymethyl-chiro-inositol-2-(R)-2-O-methyl-3-O-octadecyl-sn-glycerocarbonate, an Akt inhibitor; cavtratin, an endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) inhibitor and completely inhibited by a combination of U0126 and LY294002. NBP enhanced phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 expression, which were inhibited by U0126. NBP increased the phosphorylation of Akt and eNOS at serine 1177, which was blocked by LY294002. NBP-stimulated nitric oxide production, which was reduced by LY294002. Our data demonstrated that (1) NBP promoted angiogenesis and (2) the angiogenic effects of NBP were mediated by the ERK1/2 and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt-eNOS signaling pathways. Our findings suggest that NBP could be a novel agent for therapeutic angiogenesis in ischemic diseases.

Major shrimp allergen peptidomics signatures and potential biomarkers of heat processing.

It is important to develop tools that can be used to understand the effects of processing on allergenic foods in order to achieve personalized food labeling. To evaluate the effect of heating on the allergy-relevant structural properties of tropomyosin (TM), arginine kinase (AK), myosin light chain (MLC) and sarcoplasmic calcium-binding protein (SCP) shrimp allergens, trypsin digests of raw, fried and baked shrimp extracts were analyzed by peptidomics and epitope correlations. Processing altered the number of peptides released from the distinct allergens, and each treatment generated a specific epitope-matched peptide allergen fingerprint. Among the four allergens, TM led to a number of released peptides and epitope changes being detected, and AK provided the epitope-matched 331MGLTEFQAVK340 sequence as a common differentiating peptide for heat processing. These results provide new views on the structural effects of processing on major shrimp allergens and peptide candidates as processing biomarkers.

Design, Synthesis, and Biological Profiles of Novel 1,3,4-Oxadiazole-2-carbohydrazides with Molecular Diversity.

To unceasingly expand the molecular diversity of 1,3,4-oxadiazole-2-carbohydrazides, herein, small fragments (including -CH2-, -OCH2-, and -SCH2-) were incorporated into the target compounds to screen out the potential succinate dehydrogenase inhibitors (SDHIs). The bioassay results showed that the antifungal effects (expressed by EC50) against Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Botryosphaeria dothidea, Fusarium oxysporum, and Colletotrichun higginsianum could reach 1.29 (10a), 0.63 (8h), 1.50 (10i), and 2.09 (10i) µg/mL, respectively, which were slightly lower than those of carbendazim (EC50 were 0.69, 0.13, 0.55, and 0.80 µg/mL, respectively). Especially, compound 10h was extremely bioactive against Gibberella zeae (G. z.) with an EC50 value of 0.45 µg/mL. This outcome was better than that of fluopyram (3.76 µg/mL) and was similar to prochloraz (0.47 µg/mL). In vivo trials against the corn scab (infected by G. z.) showed that compound 10h had control activity of 86.8% at 200 µg/mL, which was better than that of boscalid (79.6%). Further investigations found that compound 10h could inhibit the enzymatic activity of SDH in the G. z. strain with an IC50 value of 3.67 µM, indicating that potential SDHIs might be developed. Additionally, the other biological activities of these molecules were screened simultaneously. The anti-oomycete activity toward Phytophthora infestans afforded a minimal EC50 value of 3.22 µg/mL (10h); compound 4d could strongly suppress the growth of bacterial strains Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri and Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae with EC50 values of 3.79 and 11.4 µg/mL, respectively; and compound 10a displayed some insecticidal activity toward Plutella xylostella. Given their multipurpose features, these frameworks could be actively studied as potential pesticide leads.

Diagnostic Accuracy of Xpert Xpress Flu/RSV for the Detection of Influenza and Respiratory Syncytial Viruses.

Xpert Xpress Flu/RSV is a fast and automated real-time nucleic acid amplification tool for detecting influenza virus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The aim of this study was to verify the accuracy of Xpert Xpress Flu/RSV for detecting influenza virus and RSV. PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases were searched up to October 2020. The quality of the original research was assessed using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 guidelines. Meta-DiSc 1.4 software was used to analyze the sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio, and summary receiver operating characteristic curve. Deek's funnel plot asymmetry test was used to evaluate the publication bias using the Stata 12.0 software. Ten studies with 25 fourfold tables were included in the analysis. The sensitivity of Xpert Xpress Flu/RSV for detecting influenza A, influenza B, and RSV were 0.97, 0.98, and 0.96, respectively, and the specificities were 0.97, 1.00, and 1.00, respectively. Compared with other common clinical real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), Xpert Xpress Flu/RSV is a valuable tool for diagnosing influenza virus and RSV with high sensitivity and specificity.

Facile synthesis of highly ordered mesoporous ZnTiO3 with crystalline walls by self-adjusting method.

Highly ordered mesoporous ZnTiO(3) with crystalline walls was directly prepared by a sol-gel process combined with evaporation induced self-assembly in ethanol, using amphiphilic triblock copolymers as structure directing agents. The whole process is self-adjusting to organize the network-forming metal oxide species without additional acid or base. The mesoporous material is pure cubic-phase ZnTiO(3) and has large surface area (up to 134 m(2)/g), large pore volume (0.17 cm(3)/g), and narrow pore size distribution (3-4.5 nm). The optic behavior was systematically studied, which is very helpful to understand the mesoporous ZnTiO(3) material either in fundamental study or for potential applications in optics and catalysis. This work provides a "self-adjusting" approach to fabricate the mesoporous functional materials with diverse compositions: the diverse hydrolysis-condensation kinetics of various metal oxides is homogenized to yield stable multicomponent precursors. The development of such a simple, versatile, and reproducible method is important for applications in practice.

A facile route to ordered mesoporous-alumina-supported catalysts, and their catalytic activities for CO oxidation.

Well-dispersed noble metal nanoparticles can be synthesized, and further stabilized under high treatment temperature, by the confinement effect of ordered mesoporous alumina.

Identification of the Dominant T-Cell Epitopes of Lit v 1 Shrimp Major Allergen and Their Functional Overlap with Known B-Cell Epitopes.

Development of efficient peptide-based immunotherapy for shrimp allergy relies on the identification of the dominant T-cell epitopes of its major allergen, tropomyosin. In this study, immunoinformatic tools, T-cell proliferation, cytokine release, IgG/IgE binding, and degranulation assays were used to identify and characterize the T-cell epitopes in Lit v 1 in comparison with previously validated B-cell epitopes. The results showed that of the six in silico predicted T-cell epitopes only one (T2: VQESLLKANIQLVEK, 60-74) promoted T-cell proliferation, the release of IL-2, and upregulated secretion of Th2-associated cytokines in the absence of IgG/IgE binding and degranulation activities. These findings support T2 as a candidate for the development of an efficient peptide-based vaccine for the immunotherapy for shrimp-allergic patients.

Luminescent Liquid Crystals Based on Carbonized Polymer Dots and Their Polarized Luminescence Application.

Traditional luminescent liquid crystals (LLCs) suffer from fluorescence quenching caused by aggregation, which greatly limits their further application. In this work, a kind of novel LLCs (named carbonized polymer dot liquid crystals (CPD-LCs)) are designed and successfully synthesized through grafting the rod-shaped liquid crystal (LC) molecules of 4'-cyano-4-(4″-bromohexyloxy) biphenyl on the surface of CPDs. The peripheral LC molecules not only increase the distance between different CPDs to prevent them from aggregating and reduce intermolecular energy resonance transfer but also make this LLC have an ordered arrangement. Thus, the obtained CPD-LCs show good LC property and excellent high luminous efficiency with an absolute photoluminescence quantum yield of 14.52% in the aggregated state. Furthermore, this kind of CPD-LC is used to fabricate linearly polarized devices. The resultant linearly polarized dichroic ratio (N) and polarization ratio (ρ) are 2.59 and 0.44, respectively. Clearly, this type of CPD-LC shows promising applications for optical devices.

Rational Optimization of 1,2,3-Triazole-Tailored Carbazoles As Prospective Antibacterial Alternatives with Significant In Vivo Control Efficiency and Unique Mode of Action.

Plant bacterial diseases can potentially damage agricultural products around the world, and few effective bactericides can manage these infections. Herein, to sequentially explore highly effective antibacterial alternatives, 1,2,3-triazole-tailored carbazoles were rationally fabricated. These compounds could suppress the growth of three main intractable pathogens including Xanthomonas oryzae pv oryzae (Xoo), X. axonopodis pv citri (Xac), and Pseudomonas syringae pv actinidiae (Psa) with lower EC50 values of 3.36 (3p), 2.87 (3p), and 4.57 µg/mL (3r), respectively. Pot experiments revealed that compound 3p could control the rice bacterial blight with protective and curative efficiencies of 53.23% and 50.78% at 200 µg/mL, respectively. Interestingly, the addition of 0.1% auxiliaries such as organic silicon and orange oil could significantly enhance the surface wettability of compound 3p toward rice leaves, resulting in improved control effectiveness of 65.50% and 61.38%, respectively. Meanwhile, compound 3r could clearly reduce the white pyogenic exudates triggered by Psa infection and afforded excellent control efficiencies of 79.42% (protective activity) and 78.74% (curative activity) at 200 µg/mL, which were quite better than those of commercial pesticide thiodiazole copper. Additionally, a plausible apoptosis mechanism for the antibacterial behavior of target compounds was proposed by flow cytometry, reactive oxygen species detection, and defensive enzyme (e.g., catalase and superoxide dismutase) activity assays. The current work can promote the development of 1,2,3-triazole-tailored carbazoles as prospective antibacterial alternatives bearing an intriguing mode of action.