Free Radicals Generated in Perfluorocarbon-Water (Liquid-Liquid) Interfacial Contact Electrification and Their Application in Cancer Therapy.

Electron transfer during solid-liquid contact electrification has been demonstrated to produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as hydroxyl radicals (•OH) and superoxide anion radicals (•O2-). Here, we show that such a process also occurs in liquid-liquid contact electrification. By preparing perfluorocarbon nanoemulsions to construct a perfluorocarbon-water "liquid-liquid" interface, we confirmed that electrons were transferred from water to perfluorocarbon in ultrasonication-induced high-frequency liquid-liquid contact to produce •OH and •O2-. The produced ROS could be applied to ablate tumors by triggering large-scale immunogenic cell death in tumor cells, promoting dendritic cell maturation and macrophage polarization, ultimately activating T cell-mediated antitumor immune response. Importantly, the raw material for producing •OH is water, so the tumor therapy is not limited by the endogenous substances (O2, H2O2, etc.) in the tumor microenvironment. This work provides new perspectives for elucidating the mechanism of generation of free radicals in liquid-liquid contact and provides an excellent tumor therapeutic modality.

Both Resilience and Adhesivity Define Solid Electrolyte Interphases for a High Performance Anode.

Solid electrolyte interphases (SEIs) are sought to protect high-capacity anodes, which suffer from severe volume changes and fast degradations. The previously proposed effective SEIs were of high strength yet abhesive, inducing a yolk-shell structure to decouple the rigid SEI from the anode for accommodating the volume change. Ambivalently, the interfacial void-evolved electro-chemo-mechanical vulnerabilities become inherent defects. Here, we establish a new rationale for SEIs that resilience and adhesivity are both requirements and pioneer a design of a resilient yet adhesive SEI (re-ad-SEI), integrated into a conjugated surface bilayer structure. The re-ad-SEI and its protected particles exhibit excellent stability almost free from the thickening of SEI and the particle pulverization during cycling. More promisingly, the dynamically bonded intact SEI-anode interfaces enable a high-efficiency ion transport and provide a unique mechanical confinement effect for structural integrity of anodes. The high Coulombic efficiency (>99.8%), excellent cycling stability (500 cycles), and superior rate performance have been demonstrated in microsized Si-based anodes.

CAR T Cell Membrane Camouflaged Nanocatalyst Augments CAR T Cell Therapy Efficacy Against Solid Tumor.

The immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) reduces the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy against solid tumors. Here, a CAR T cell membrane-camouflaged nanocatalyst (ACSP@TCM) is prepared to augment CAR T cell therapy efficacy against solid tumors. ACSP@TCM is prepared by encapsulating core/shell Au/Cu2- xSe and 3-bromopyruvate with a CAR T cell membrane. It is demonstrated that the CAR T cell membrane camouflaging has much better-targeting effect than the homologous tumors cell membrane camouflaging. ACSP@TCM has an appealing synergistic chemodynamic/photothermal therapy (CDT/PTT) effect that can induce the immunogenic cell death (ICD) of NALM 6 cells. Moreover, 3-bromopyruvate can inhibit the efflux of lactic acid by inhibiting the glycolysis process, regulating the acidity of TME, and providing a more favorable environment for the survival of CAR T cells. In addition, the photoacoustic (PA) imaging and computed tomography (CT) imaging performance can guide the ACSP@TCM-mediated tumor therapy. The results demonstrated that the ACSP@TCM significantly enhanced the CAR T cell therapy efficacy against NALM 6 solid tumor mass, and completely eliminated tumors. This work provides an effective tumor strategy for CAR T cell therapy in solid tumors.

Changes in effective connectivity during the visual-motor integration tasks: a preliminary f-NIRS study.

BACKGROUND: Visual-motor integration (VMI) is an essential skill in daily life. The present study aimed to use functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) technology to explore the effective connectivity (EC) changes among brain regions during VMI activities of varying difficulty levels. METHODS: A total of 17 healthy participants were recruited for the study. Continuous Performance Test (CPT), Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Adult Version (BRIEF-A), and Beery VMI test were used to evaluate attention performance, executive function, and VMI performance. Granger causality analysis was performed for the VMI task data to obtain the EC matrix for all participants. One-way ANOVA analysis was used to identify VMI load-dependent EC values among different task difficulty levels from brain network and channel perspectives, and partial correlation analysis was used to explore the relationship between VMI load-dependent EC values and behavioral performance. RESULTS: We found that the EC values of dorsal attention network (DAN) → default mode network (DMN), DAN → ventral attention network (VAN), DAN → frontoparietal network (FPN), and DAN → somatomotor network (SMN) in the complex condition were higher than those in the simple and moderate conditions. Further channel analyses indicated that the EC values of the right superior parietal lobule (SPL) → right superior frontal gyrus (SFG), right middle occipital gyrus (MOG) → left SFG, and right MOG → right postcentral gyrus (PCG) in the complex condition were higher than those in the simple and moderate conditions. Subsequent partial correlation analysis revealed that the EC values from DAN to DMN, VAN, and SMN were positively correlated with executive function and VMI performance. Furthermore, the EC values of right MOG → left SFG and right MOG → right PCG were positively correlated with attention performance. CONCLUSIONS: The DAN is actively involved during the VMI task and thus may play a critical role in VMI processes, in which two key brain regions (right SPL, right MOG) may contribute to the EC changes in response to increasing VMI load. Meanwhile, bilateral SFG and right PCG may also be closely related to the VMI performance.

One-year follow-up of the effectiveness and mediators of cognitive behavioural therapy among adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: secondary outcomes of a randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: The long-term effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in medicated attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) adults with residual symptoms needs to be verified across multiple dimensions, especially with respect to maladaptive cognitions and psychological quality of life (QoL). An exploration of the mechanisms underlying the additive benefits of CBT on QoL in clinical samples may be helpful for a better understanding of the CBT conceptual model and how CBT works in medicated ADHD. METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial including 98 medicated ADHD adults with residual symptoms who were randomly allocated to the CBT combined with medication (CBT + M) group or the medication (M)-only group. Outcomes included ADHD-core symptoms (ADHD Rating Scale), depression symptoms (Self-rating Depression Scale), maladaptive cognitions (Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire and Dysfunctional Attitude Scale), and psychological QoL (World Health Organization Quality of Life-Brief Version-psychological domain). Mixed linear models (MLMs) were used to analyse the long-term effectiveness at one-year follow-up, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed to explore the potential mechanisms of CBT on psychological QoL. RESULTS: ADHD patients in the CBT + M group outperformed the M-only group in reduction of ADHD core symptoms (d = 0.491), depression symptoms (d = 0.570), a trend of reduction of maladaptive cognitions (d = 0.387 and 0.395, respectively), and improvement of psychological QoL (d = - 0.433). The changes in above dimensions correlated with each other (r = 0.201 ~ 0.636). The influence of CBT on QoL was mediated through the following four pathways: 1) changes in ADHD core symptoms; 2) changes in depressive symptoms; 3) changes in depressive symptoms and then maladaptive cognitions; and 4) changes firstly in depressive symptoms, maladaptive cognitions, and then ADHD core symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: The long-term effectiveness of CBT in medicated ADHD adults with residual symptoms was further confirmed. The CBT conceptual model was verified in clinical samples, which would be helpful for a deeper understanding of how CBT works for a better psychological QoL outcome. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ChiCTR1900021705 (2019-03-05).

Psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Quick Delay Questionnaire (C-QDQ) and ecological characteristics of reward-delay impulsivity of adults with ADHD.

BACKGROUND: The Quick Delay Questionnaire (QDQ) is a short questionnaire designed to assess delay-related difficulties in adults. This study aimed to examine the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the QDQ (C-QDQ) in Chinese adults, and explore the ecological characteristics of delay-related impulsivity in Chinese adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). METHODS: Data was collected from 302 adults, including ADHD (n = 209) and healthy controls (HCs) (n = 93). All participants completed the C-QDQ. The convergent validity, internal consistency, retest reliability and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the C-QDQ were analyzed. The correlations between C-QDQ and two laboratory measures of delay-related difficulties and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 (BIS-11), the comparison of C-QDQ scores between ADHD subgroups and HCs were also analyzed. RESULTS: The Cronbach's α of C-QDQ was between 0.83 and 0.89. The intraclass correlation coefficient of C-QDQ was between 0.80 and 0.83. The results of CFA of C-QDQ favoured the original two-factor model (delay aversion and delay discounting). Significant positive associations were found between C-QDQ scores and BIS-11 total score and performance on the laboratory measure of delay-related difficulties. Participants with ADHD had higher C-QDQ scores than HCs, and female ADHD reported higher scores on delay discounting subscale than male. ADHD-combined type (ADHD-C) reported higher scores on delay aversion subscale than ADHD-inattention type (ADHD-I). CONCLUSION: The C-QDQ is a valid and reliable tool to measure delay-related responses that appears to have clinical utility. It can present the delay-related impulsivity of patients with ADHD. Compared to HCs, the level of reward-delay impulsivity was higher in ADHD.

Physicochemical Properties and Biological Activities of Quinoa Polysaccharides.

Quinoa, known as the "golden grain" for its high nutritional value, has polysaccharides as one of its sources of important nutrients. However, the biological functions of quinoa polysaccharides remain understudied. In this study, two crude polysaccharide extracts of quinoa (Q-40 and Q-60) were obtained through sequential precipitation with 40% and 60% ethanol, with purities of 58.29% (HPLC) and 62.15% (HPLC) and a protein content of 8.27% and 9.60%, respectively. Monosaccharide analysis revealed that Q-40 contained glucose (Glc), galacturonic acid (GalA), and arabinose (Ara) in a molar ratio of 0.967:0.027:0.006. Q-60 was composed of xylose (xyl), arabinose (Ara), galactose, and galacturonic acid (GalA) with a molar ratio of 0.889:0.036:0.034:0.020. The average molecular weight of Q-40 ranged from 47,484 to 626,488 Da, while Q-60 showed a range of 10,025 to 47,990 Da. Rheological experiments showed that Q-40 exhibited higher viscosity, while Q-60 demonstrated more elastic properties. Remarkably, Q-60 showed potent antioxidant abilities, with scavenging rates of 98.49% for DPPH and 57.5% for ABTS. Antibacterial experiments using the microdilution method revealed that Q-40 inhibited the growth of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Escherichia coli (E. coli), while Q-60 specifically inhibited MRSA. At lower concentrations, both polysaccharides inhibited MDA (MD Anderson Cancer Center) cell proliferation, but at higher concentrations, they promoted proliferation. Similar proliferation-promoting effects were observed in HepG2 cells. The research provides important information in the application of quinoa in the food and functional food industries.

3-Bromopyruvate-Loaded Ti3C2 MXene/Cu2O Nanosheets for Photoacoustic Imaging-Guided and Hypoxia-Relieving Enhanced Photothermal/Chemodynamic Therapy.

Chemodynamic therapy (CDT) is an innovative and effective treatment that relies on the Fenton or Fenton-like reaction, in which endogenous H2O2 overproduction is converted into cytotoxic hydroxyl radicals (•OH) to suppress tumor growth. Nevertheless, the therapeutic efficiency of CDT is severely restricted by undesirable properties, such as reaction conditions and catalyst performance. Herein, a 2D Ti3C2 MXene/Cu2O nanosheet (MCP NS)-based multifunctional nanoplatform (3-BP@MCG NSs) has been constructed, in which glucose oxidase (GOx) and respiration inhibitor 3-bromopyruvate (3-BP) are sequentially embedded. In this structure, the copper-based catalyst Cu2O releases Cu+ in an acid-triggered manner in the tumor microenvironment (TME), which activates the Fenton-like reaction to catalyze the generation of •OH for CDT. The composite has excellent photothermal properties and a high-resolution photoacoustic imaging (PAI) capability in the near-infrared (NIR) region, and especially under NIR irradiation, the photothermal effect generated by the nanosheets accelerates catalysis. GOx is a natural enzyme catalyst for depleting glucose and oxygen content in cells, upregulating H2O2 levels in situ, and thereby improving the therapeutic effect of CDT. What is more, the supported 3-BP not only reduces oxygen consumption to alleviate hypoxia levels but also inhibits the glycolysis process and lowers ATP levels by suppressing hexokinase activity. As a result, 3-BP@MCG NSs optimize the unique properties of MCP NSs, GOx, and 3-BP via mutual promotion, realizing self-enhanced PTT/CDT synergistic therapy. This work establishes an emerging strategy for highly efficient PAI-guided integrated treatment and provides a proof of concept for the cooperation of hypoxia relief and in situ H2O2 and NIR synergistic enhancement to improve therapeutic efficiency.

Deep learning model reveals potential risk genes for ADHD, especially Ephrin receptor gene EPHA5.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder. Although genome-wide association studies (GWAS) identify the risk ADHD-associated variants and genes with significant P-values, they may neglect the combined effect of multiple variants with insignificant P-values. Here, we proposed a convolutional neural network (CNN) to classify 1033 individuals diagnosed with ADHD from 950 healthy controls according to their genomic data. The model takes the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci of P-values $\le{1\times 10^{-3}}$, i.e. 764 loci, as inputs, and achieved an accuracy of 0.9018, AUC of 0.9570, sensitivity of 0.8980 and specificity of 0.9055. By incorporating the saliency analysis for the deep learning network, a total of 96 candidate genes were found, of which 14 genes have been reported in previous ADHD-related studies. Furthermore, joint Gene Ontology enrichment and expression Quantitative Trait Loci analysis identified a potential risk gene for ADHD, EPHA5 with a variant of rs4860671. Overall, our CNN deep learning model exhibited a high accuracy for ADHD classification and demonstrated that the deep learning model could capture variants' combining effect with insignificant P-value, while GWAS fails. To our best knowledge, our model is the first deep learning method for the classification of ADHD with SNPs data.

Immunosensor for realtime monitoring of the expression of recombinant proteins during bioprocess.

Recombinant protein expression and purification are crucial in modern life sciences research. A fluorescent immunosensor termed Quenchbody (Q-body) was developed for real-time monitoring of FLAG-fused protein expression. Detection results showed that the limit of detection of the 3 × FLAG peptide detected by the TAMRA-labeled anti-FLAG Q-body was as low as 3.1 nM, with a half-maximal effective concentration of 21.4 nM. Furthermore, the anti-FLAG Q-body was used for detecting different proteins fused with a FLAG-tag at the N- or C-terminal. Subsequently, the constructed Q-body was used to monitor the real-time fermentation process of single-strand DNA-binding protein in Escherichia coli. Unlike previously reported Q-bodies that widely used Fab or scFv, the present study used a full-length anti-FLAG IgG for the first time. Owing to its excellent detection speed and sensitivity, the FLAG Q-body immunosensor has the potential to quantify and monitor target recombinant proteins in multiple biological processes in real-time.

Thermodynamics, Conformation, and Biocatalytic Performance of Glucose Oxidase Combined with Black Phosphorus Quantum Dots.

Glucose oxidase (GOD) has a wide range of applications in biosensing and cancer treatment as a result of its unique biocatalytic properties. More importantly, GOD could synergistically enhance the cancer therapeutic effect when combined with other cancer therapeutic strategies. However, the interaction of GOD with a cancer therapeutic agent has not been well-studied. Herein, the thermodynamic properties of the interaction between black phosphorus quantum dots (BPQDs) and GOD were systematically elucidated, and the dose-dependent conformational and enzymatic activity changes of BPQDs on GOD were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. The results indicated that the stoichiometric ratio of BPQDs to GOD was approximately 1:1. In particular, fluorescence spectroscopy, circular dichroism spectra, and Fourier transform infrared spectra have synergistically studied the changes in secondary and tertiary conformations of GOD induced by BPQDs. Higher doses of BPQDs resulted in a loose structure of GOD but still maintained the native conformation and preserved effective enzymatic activity, effectively catalyzing the production of H2O2 from glucose in a cell. The interaction mechanism between BPQDs and GOD provides a theoretical basis for the design of GOD-based multimodal synergistic cancer therapy and its clinical translation analysis.

Binding of Tetrabromobisphenol A and S to Human Serum Albumin Is Weakened by Coexisting Nanoplastics and Environmental Kosmotropes.

Human serum albumin (HSA) was used as a model protein to explore the effects of brominated flame retardant (BFR) binding and the corona formation on polystyrene nanoplastics (PNs). Under physiological conditions, HSA helped to disperse PNs but promoted the formation of aggregates in the presence of tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA, ΔDh = 135 nm) and S (TBBPS, ΔDh = 256 nm) at pH 7. At pH 4, these aggregates became larger with fewer electrostatic repulsion effects (ΔDh = 920 and 691 nm for TBBPA and TBBPS, respectively). However, such promotion effects as well as BFR binding are different due to structural differences of tetrabromobisphenol A and S. Environmental kosmotropes efficiently stabilized the structure of HSA and inhibited BFR binding, while the chaotropes favored bioconjugated aggregate formation. Such effects were also verified in natural seawater. The newly gained knowledge may help us anticipate the behavior and fate of plastic particles and small molecular pollutants in both physiological and natural aqueous systems.

Relationships between sensory integration and the core symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: the mediating effect of executive function.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is often accompanied by executive function deficits and functional alterations in sensory integration. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between ADHD core symptoms, executive function, and sensory integration in children with ADHD. A total of 228 children with ADHD were recruited for our study. The Sensory Organization Test (SOT) and Child Sensory Integration Scale (CSIS) evaluated the sensory integration ability from lab-based and scaled-based perspectives, respectively. Three core components of executive functions (inhibition, working memory, and set-shifting) were assessed using both lab-based tests and the relevant factors from the behavior rating inventory of executive function (BRIEF). Partial correlation analysis was performed to explore the correlation of sensory integration with EF and ADHD core symptoms. Based on the observed significant correlation, bootstrap analyses were further conducted to explore the potential mediating effect of EF on the relationship between sensory integration and ADHD core symptoms. ADHD symptoms and EF were significantly correlated with CSIS scores; no factors were significantly correlated with SOT performance. In detail, the vestibular-balance score was negatively correlated with both inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms, while the hyper-sensory and proprioception scores were negatively correlated with only inattention symptoms. For the scaled-based EF, vestibular-balance was negatively correlated with inhibition and working memory, and the hyper-sensory score was negatively correlated with shift factor. No correlation was found for the lab-based EF tests. The subsequent mediation analysis found that inhibition partially mediated the relationship between vestibular balance and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms. Working memory completely mediated the relationship between vestibular-balance, hyper-sensory, proprioception, and inattention symptoms. These results were well validated in an independent sample. Our present findings demonstrated that the functional alteration in basic sensory integration might be associated with impairments of executive functions and then lead to the behavioral expression of ADHD. The present findings might provide a new perspective to understand the occurrence of ADHD symptoms and potential precise intervention methods.

Efficient Accumulation of Amylopectin and Its Molecular Mechanism in the Submerged Duckweed Mutant.

Large-scale use of fossil fuels has brought about increasingly serious problems of environmental pollution, development and utilization of renewable energy is one of the effective solutions. Duckweed has the advantages of fast growth, high starch content and no occupation of arable land, so it is a promising starchy energy plant. A new submerged duckweed mutant (sub-1) with abundant starch accumulation was obtained, whose content of amylopectin accounts for 84.04% of the starch granules. Compared with the wild type (Lemna aequinoctialis), the branching degree of starch in sub-1 mutant was significantly increased by 19.6%. Chain length DP 6-12, DP 25-36 and DP > 36 of amylopectin significantly decreased, while chain length DP 13-24 significantly increased. Average chain length of wild-type and sub-1 mutant starches were greater than DP 22. Moreover, the crystal structure and physical properties of starch have changed markedly in sub-1 mutant. For example, the starch crystallinity of sub-1 mutant was only 8.94%, while that of wild-type was 22.3%. Compared with wild type, water solubility of starch was significantly reduced by 29.42%, whereas swelling power significantly increased by 97.07% in sub-1 mutant. In order to further analyze the molecular mechanism of efficient accumulation of amylopectin in sub-1 mutant, metabolome and transcriptome were performed. The results showed that glucose accumulated in sub-1 mutant, then degradation of starch to glucose mainly depends on α-amylase. At night, the down-regulated ß-amylase gene resulted in the inhibition of starch degradation. The starch and sucrose metabolism pathways were significantly enriched. Up-regulated expression of SUS, AGPase2, AGPase3, PYG, GPI and GYS provide sufficient substrate for starch synthesis in sub-1 mutant. From the 0H to 16H light treatment, granule-bound starch synthase (GBSS1) gene was inhibited, on the contrary, the starch branching enzyme (SBE) gene was induced. Differential expression of GBSS1 and SBE may be an important reason for the decrease ratio of amylose/amylopectin in sub-1 mutant. Taken together, our results indicated that the sub-1 mutant can accumulate the amylopectin efficiently, potentially through altering the differential expression of AGPase, GBSS1, SBE, and BAM. This study also provides theoretical guidance for creating crop germplasm with high amylopectin by means of synthetic biology in the future.

Highly Efficient GSH-Responsive "Off-On" NIR-II Fluorescent Fenton Nanocatalyst for Multimodal Imaging-Guided Photothermal/Chemodynamic Synergistic Cancer Therapy.

Accurate diagnosis and effective treatment of malignant tumors under the interference of complex and diverse tumor microenvironments (TMEs) have become the focus of research. Herein, an innovative TME-activated biomimetic nanocatalyst with quad-modal imaging capabilities of second near-infrared (NIR-II) "turn-on" fluorescence imaging, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), photoacoustic imaging (PAI), and photothermal imaging (PTI) was designed and developed for self-enhanced photothermal/chemodynamic synergistic therapy. The catalyst was fabricated by loading glucose oxidase (GOD) and Ag2S quantum dots (QDs) on MnO2 nanosheets and coating them with a 4T1 cell membrane (AMG@CM), which enables them to successfully escape immune clearance and have appealing tumor-targeting ability and biocompatibility. The NIR-II fluorescence at 1130 nm of Ag2S QDs quenched by MnO2 could be recovered in vivo through the glutathione (GSH)-induced degradation of MnO2, enabling excellent TME-responsive tumor visualization. Simultaneously, the released Mn2+ can catalyze H2O2 to produce abundant hydroxyl radicals (•OH), achieving photothermal synergistically enhanced chemodynamic therapy (CDT) under NIR-II radiation. Moreover, the CDT could be self-enhanced by GOD due to the extra produced H2O2. This work demonstrates a novel and highly efficient multimodal imaging-guided integrated treatment strategy for dual-enhanced CDT tumor precise diagnosis and treatment.

A highly sensitive strategy for glypican-3 detection based on aptamer/gold carbon dots/magnetic graphene oxide nanosheets as fluorescent biosensor.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in China. Glypican-3 (GPC3) is a specific antigen related to HCC, which is widely used in clinical detection as a reliable marker of HCC. In this paper, a highly sensitive homogeneous apatasensor was designed for GPC3 detection based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) where the GPC3 aptamer labelled gold carbon dots (AuCDs-GPC3Apt) are used as a donor and magnetic graphene oxide (Fe3O4/GO) nanosheets are used as an acceptor. A one-step hydrothermal method was used to synthesize AuCDs to provide sufficient fluorescence. The FRET phenomenon exists between AuCDs-GPC3Apt and Fe3O4/GO, which weakens the fluorescence intensity of the whole system. When the target GPC3 is added to the FRET system, the fluorescent AuCDs-GPC3Apt binds to the GPC3 and forms a folded structure, which leads to AuCDs-GPC3Apt separation from Fe3O4/GO nanosheets. The Fe3O4/GO is then magnetically separated so that the fluorescence of free labelled AuCDs-GPC3Apt is restored. Under the optimum conditions, the fluorescence recovery rate is linearly correlated with the concentration of GPC3 (5-100 ng·mL-1) and the detection limit is 3.01 ng·mL-1 (S/N = 3). This strategy shows recoveries from 98.76 to 101.29% in real human serum samples and provides an immediate and effective detection method for the quantification of GPC3 with great potential applications for early diagnosis of HCC. A sensitive homogeneous FRET-based apatasensor was designed for GPC3 detection where the AuCDs-GPC3Apt is a donor and Fe3O4/GO nanosheets are an acceptor. The GPC3 fluorescent aptasensor combines wider output range with low cost, high specificity, and good anti-interference.

Efficacy of cognitive behavioural therapy in medicated adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in multiple dimensions: a randomised controlled trial.

The study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of group cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in medicated adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with a multidimensional evaluation and follow-up to week 36. Ninety-eight adult ADHD were randomly allocated to the CBT combined with medication (CBT + M) group or the medication (M) only group. The primary endpoint was the ADHD-Rating Scale (ADHD-RS). Secondary endpoints included emotional symptoms, self-esteem, automatic thoughts, quality of life (QoL), and executive function (EF). The outcome measures were obtained at baseline (T1), after the 12-week CBT treatment (T2), and at two follow-up time points (week 24, T3, and week 36, T4). Compared to the M-only group, the patients in the CBT + M group showed an overall significantly greater reduction from baseline in ADHD core symptoms (ADHD-RS total score at T3, and inattention subscale at T2 and T3), depression and anxiety symptoms (T2-T4), state anxiety (T2 and T3) and trait anxiety (T2), automatic thoughts questionnaire at T3, and QoL (physical domain, psychological domain, and social domain, most significant at T3 and weakened at T4). These findings further confirmed the efficacy of CBT on multiple dimensions and verified improvements in automatic thinking in adult ADHD. The superiority of the combination treatment mainly manifested in reduced inattention, emotional symptoms, and maladaptive thoughts and improved QoL. Trial registration number ChiCTR1900021705 (March-05-2019).

Physicochemical, Antioxidant and Anticancer Characteristics of Seed Oil from Three Chenopodium quinoa Genotypes.

Chenopodium quinoa Willd. is recognized to be an excellent nutrient with high nutritional content. However, few genotypes of quinoa were analyzed, so we found a knowledge gap in the comparison of quinoa seeds of different genotypes. This study aims to compare the physicochemical, antioxidant, and anticancer properties of seed oil from three C. quinoa genotypes. Seeds of three genotypes (white, red, and black) were extracted with hexane and compared in this study. The oil yields of these quinoa seeds were 5.68-6.19% which contained predominantly polyunsaturated fatty acids (82.78-85.52%). The total tocopherol content ranged from 117.29 to 156.67 mg/kg and mainly consisted of γ-tocopherol. Total phytosterols in the three oils ranged from 9.4 to 12.2 g/kg. Black quinoa seed oil had the highest phytosterols followed by red and white quinoas. The chemical profile of quinoa seed oils paralleled by their antioxidant and anticancer activities in vitro was positively correlated with the seed coat color. Black quinoa seed oil had the best antioxidant and anti-proliferation effect on HCT 116 cells by the induction of apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner, which may play more significant roles in the chemoprevention of cancer and other diseases related to oxidative stress as a source of functional foods.

Phytochemical Properties and In Vitro Biological Activities of Phenolic Compounds from Flower of Clitoria ternatea L.

Phenolic compounds from the flower of Clitoria ternatea L. (PCFCTL) were extracted using a high-speed shearing extraction technique and purified by AB-8 macroporous resins, and the phytochemical composition of the purified phenolic compounds from the flower of Clitoria ternatea L. (PPCFCTL) was then analyzed. Subsequently, its bioactivities including antioxidant properties, enzyme inhibitory activities, and antiproliferative activities against several tumor cell lines were evaluated. Results indicated that the contents of total phenolics, flavonoids, flavonols, flavanols, and phenolic acids in PPCFCTL were increased by 3.29, 4.11, 2.74, 2.43, and 2.96-fold, respectively, compared with those before being purified by AB-8 macroporous resins. The results showed PPCFCTL have significant antioxidant ability (measured by reducing power, RP, and ferric reducing antioxidant power method, FRAP) and good DPPH, ABTS+, and superoxide anion radical scavenging activities. They can also significantly inhibit lipase, α-amylase, and α-glucosidase. In addition, morphological changes of HeLa, HepG2, and NCI-H460 tumor cells demonstrated the superior antitumor performance of PPCFCTL. However, the acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity was relatively weak. These findings suggest that PPCFCTL have important potential as natural antioxidant, antilipidemic, anti-glycemic and antineoplastic agents in health-promoting foods.

Multi-center sparse learning and decision fusion for automatic COVID-19 diagnosis.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has led to a sharp increase in hospitalized patients with multi-organ disease pneumonia. Early and automatic diagnosis of COVID-19 is essential to slow down the spread of this epidemic and reduce the mortality of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. In this paper, we propose a joint multi-center sparse learning (MCSL) and decision fusion scheme exploiting chest CT images for automatic COVID-19 diagnosis. Specifically, considering the inconsistency of data in multiple centers, we first convert CT images into histogram of oriented gradient (HOG) images to reduce the structural differences between multi-center data and enhance the generalization performance. We then exploit a 3-dimensional convolutional neural network (3D-CNN) model to learn the useful information between and within 3D HOG image slices and extract multi-center features. Furthermore, we employ the proposed MCSL method that learns the intrinsic structure between multiple centers and within each center, which selects discriminative features to jointly train multi-center classifiers. Finally, we fuse these decisions made by these classifiers. Extensive experiments are performed on chest CT images from five centers to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results demonstrate that the proposed method can improve COVID-19 diagnosis performance and outperform the state-of-the-art methods.