Gene editing technology: shaping international standards for health and food safety assurance.

The emergence of gene editing technologies like CRISPR-Cas9 has revolutionized health and food safety, necessitating robust international standards. This Science & Society examines how these advances have shaped global regulatory frameworks, ethical standards, and international collaborations, emphasizing the need for cohesive and ethical applications across various sectors.

Discovery of novel MHC-B haplotypes in Chantecler chickens.

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is a highly polymorphic cluster of genes which contribute to immune response. Located on chromosome 16, the chicken MHC has great influence over disease resistance and susceptibility. Through the use of a high-density SNP panel which encompasses the MHC-B region, haplotypes can be easily identified. This study aims to use an MHC-B SNP panel to evaluate the MHC-B variability in the Chantecler breed. This breed is native to Quebec, Canada, and is a dual-purpose breed known for its strong resistance to extreme cold temperatures. The Chantecler breed faced a near extinction event in the 1970s, which most likely resulted in a genetic bottleneck and loss of diversity. Despite this, SNP haplotype diversity was observed among 4 Chantecler populations. A total of 8 haplotypes were observed. Of these haplotypes, 6 were previously defined in other breeds, and the other 2 were unique to the Chantecler. Within the populations, the number of haplotypes ranged from 4 to 7, with 3 haplotypes, including the novel BSNP-Chant01, being present in all the groups. This study shows existence of reasonable diversity in the MHC-B region of the Chantecler breed and our results further contribute to understanding the variability of this region in chickens.

[Advances in the physiological functions of plant lipids in response to stresses].

Lipids are important components of living organisms that participate in and regulate a variety of life activities. Lipids in plants also play important physiological functions in response to a variety of abiotic stresses (e.g. salt stress, drought stress, temperature stress). However, most research on lipids focused on animal cells and medical fields, while the functions of lipids in plants were overlooked. With the rapid development of "omics" technologies and biotechnology, the lipidomics has received much attention in recent years because it can reveal the composition and function of lipids in a deep and comprehensive way. This review summarizes the recent advances in the functions and classification of lipids, the development of lipidomics technology, and the responses of plant lipids against drought stress, salt stress and temperature stress. In addition, challenges and prospects were proposed for future lipidomics research and further exploration of the physiological functions of lipids in plant stress resistance.

Anisamide-functionalized pH-responsive amphiphilic chitosan-based paclitaxel micelles for sigma-1 receptor targeted prostate cancer treatment.

Controlled release and tumor-selective distribution are highly desirable for anticancer nanomedicines. Here, we design and synthesize an anisamide-conjugated N-octyl-N,O-maleoyl-O-phosphoryl chitosan (a-OMPC) which can form amphiphilic micelles featuring pH-responsive release and high affinity to sigma-1 receptor-overexpressed tumors for paclitaxel (PTX) delivery. Thereinto, maleoyl and phosphoryl groups cooperatively contribute to pH-responsive drug release due to a conversion from hydrophile to hydrophobe in the acidic microenvironment of endo/lysosomes. We demonstrated that PTX-loaded a-OMPC micelles (PTX-aM) enhanced the cellular internalization via the affinity between anisamide and sigma-1 receptor, rapidly released drug in endo/lysosomes and elevated the cytotoxicity against PC-3 cells. The in vivo studies further verified that PTX-aM could largely accumulate at the tumor site even after 24 h of administration, resulting in obvious inhibition effect and prolonged survival period in PC-3 tumor xenograft-bearing mice. Moreover, OMPC showed no obvious hemolytic and acute toxicity. Collectively, this chitosan derivate holds a promising potential in application of prostate cancer-targeted drug delivery system.

In vitro evaluation on novel modified chitosan for targeted antitumor drug delivery.

In this study, a novel amphiphilic copolymer designed as N-octyl-N-phthalyl-3,6-O-(2-hydroxypropyl) chitosan (OPHPC) were synthesized and then conjugated with folic acid (FA-OPHPC) to produce a targeted drug carrier for tumor-specific drug delivery. OPHPC and FA-OPHPC were characterized by FT-IR, (1)H NMR, (13)C NMR and elemental analysis. Paclitaxel (PTX) loaded OPHPC micelles (PTX-OPHPC) with well-defined spherical shape and homogeneous distribution exhibited drug-loading rate ranging from 33.6% to 45.3% and entrapment efficiency from 50.5% to 82.8%. In the cellular uptake studies, PTX-OPHPC brought about a significantly higher amount of PTX accumulated in human breast adenocarcinoma cell line (MCF-7 cells) compared with Taxol. Moreover, the cellular uptake of PTX in PTX loaded FA-OPHPC micelles (PTX-FA-OPHPC) was 3.2-fold improved in comparison with that of PTX-OPHPC. The results revealed that OPHPC micelle might be a promising drug carrier for promoting PTX cellular uptake and FA-OPHPC micelle could be used as a potential tumor-targeted drug vector.