Characterization and the first complete genome sequence of a novel strain of Bergeyella porcorum isolated from pigs in China.

BACKGROUND: Bergeyella porcorum is a newly identified bacterium that has an ambiguous relationship with pneumonia in pigs. However, few studies have adequately characterized this species. RESULTS: In this study, we analyzed the morphological, physiological, and genomic characteristics of the newly identified B. porcorum sp. nov. strain QD2021 isolated from pigs. The complete genome sequence of the B. porcorum QD2021 strain consists of a single circular chromosome (2,271,736 bp, 38.51% G + C content), which encodes 2,578 genes. One plasmid with a size of 70,040 bp was detected. A total of 121 scattered repeat sequences, 319 tandem repeat sequences, 4 genomic islands, 5 prophages, 3 CRISPR sequences, and 51 ncRNAs were predicted. The coding genes of the B. porcorum genome were successfully annotated across eight databases (NR, GO, KEGG, COG, TCDB, Pfam, Swiss-Prot and CAZy) and four pathogenicity-related databases (PHI, CARD, VFDB and ARDB). In addition, a comparative genome analysis was performed to explore the evolutionary relationships of B. porcorum QD2021. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the first study to provide fundamental phenotypic and whole-genome sequences for B. porcorum. Our results extensively expand the current knowledge and could serve as a valuable genomic resource for future research on B. porcorum.

Application of nanotechnology in the treatment of glomerulonephritis: current status and future perspectives.

Glomerulonephritis (GN) is the most common cause of end-stage renal failure worldwide; in most cases, it cannot be cured and can only delay the progression of the disease. At present, the main treatment methods include symptomatic therapy, immunosuppressive therapy, and renal replacement therapy. However, effective treatment of GN is hindered by issues such as steroid resistance, serious side effects, low bioavailability, and lack of precise targeting. With the widespread application of nanoparticles in medical treatment, novel methods have emerged for the treatment of kidney diseases. Targeted transportation of drugs, nucleic acids, and other substances to kidney tissues and even kidney cells through nanodrug delivery systems can reduce the systemic effects and adverse reactions of drugs and improve treatment effectiveness. The high specificity of nanoparticles enables them to bind to ion channels and block or enhance channel gating, thus improving inflammation. This review briefly introduces the characteristics of GN, describes the treatment status of GN, systematically summarizes the research achievements of nanoparticles in the treatment of primary GN, diabetic nephropathy and lupus nephritis, analyzes recent therapeutic developments, and outlines promising research directions, such as gas signaling molecule nanodrug delivery systems and ultrasmall nanoparticles. The current application of nanoparticles in GN is summarized to provide a reference for better treatment of GN in the future.

Advances in nanomaterial-targeted treatment of acute lung injury after burns.

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a common complication in patients with severe burns and has a complex pathogenesis and high morbidity and mortality rates. A variety of drugs have been identified in the clinic for the treatment of ALI, but they have toxic side effects caused by easy degradation in the body and distribution throughout the body. In recent years, as the understanding of the mechanism underlying ALI has improved, scholars have developed a variety of new nanomaterials that can be safely and effectively targeted for the treatment of ALI. Most of these methods involve nanomaterials such as lipids, organic polymers, peptides, extracellular vesicles or cell membranes, inorganic nanoparticles and other nanomaterials, which are targeted to reach lung tissues to perform their functions through active targeting or passive targeting, a process that involves a variety of cells or organelles. In this review, first, the mechanisms and pathophysiological features of ALI occurrence after burn injury are reviewed, potential therapeutic targets for ALI are summarized, existing nanomaterials for the targeted treatment of ALI are classified, and possible problems and challenges of nanomaterials in the targeted treatment of ALI are discussed to provide a reference for the development of nanomaterials for the targeted treatment of ALI.

The progression of inorganic nanoparticles and natural products for inflammatory bowel disease.

There is a growing body of evidence indicating a close association between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and disrupted intestinal homeostasis. Excessive production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS), along with an increase in M1 proinflammatory macrophage infiltration during the activation of intestinal inflammation, plays a pivotal role in disrupting intestinal homeostasis in IBD. The overabundance of ROS/RNS can cause intestinal tissue damage and the disruption of crucial gut proteins, which ultimately compromises the integrity of the intestinal barrier. The proliferation of M1 macrophages contributes to an exaggerated immune response, further compromising the intestinal immune barrier. Currently, intestinal nanomaterials have gained widespread attention in the context of IBD due to their notable characteristics, including the ability to specifically target regions of interest, clear excess ROS/RNS, and mimic biological enzymes. In this review, we initially elucidated the gut microenvironment in IBD. Subsequently, we delineate therapeutic strategies involving two distinct types of nanomedicine, namely inorganic nanoparticles and natural product nanomaterials. Finally, we present a comprehensive overview of the promising prospects associated with the application of nanomedicine in future clinical settings for the treatment of IBD (graphic abstract). Different classes of nanomedicine are used to treat IBD. This review primarily elucidates the current etiology of inflammatory bowel disease and explores two prominent nanomaterial-based therapeutic approaches. First, it aims to eliminate excessive reactive oxygen species and reactive nitrogen species. Second, they focus on modulating the polarization of inflammatory macrophages and reducing the proportion of pro-inflammatory macrophages. Additionally, this article delves into the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease using inorganic metal nanomaterials and natural product nanomaterials.

Application of metal-organic frameworks in infectious wound healing.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are metal-organic skeleton compounds composed of self-assembled metal ions or clusters and organic ligands. MOF materials often have porous structures, high specific surface areas, uniform and adjustable pores, high surface activity and easy modification and have a wide range of prospects for application. MOFs have been widely used. In recent years, with the continuous expansion of MOF materials, they have also achieved remarkable results in the field of antimicrobial agents. In this review, the structural composition and synthetic modification of MOF materials are introduced in detail, and the antimicrobial mechanisms and applications of these materials in the healing of infected wounds are described. Moreover, the opportunities and challenges encountered in the development of MOF materials are presented, and we expect that additional MOF materials with high biosafety and efficient antimicrobial capacity will be developed in the future.

Agomir-122-loaded nanoparticles coated with cell membrane of activated fibroblasts to treat frozen shoulder based on homologous targeting.

As a common musculoskeletal disorder, frozen shoulder is characterized by thickened joint capsule and limited range of motion, affecting 2-5% of the general population and more than 20% of patients with diabetes mellitus. Pathologically, joint capsule fibrosis resulting from fibroblast activation is the key event. The activated fibroblasts are proliferative and contractive, producing excessive collagen. Albeit high prevalence, effective anti-fibrosis modalities, especially fibroblast-targeting therapies, are still lacking. In this study, microRNA-122 was first identified from sequencing data as a potential therapeutic agent to antagonize fibroblast activation. Then, Agomir-122, an analog of microRNA-122, was loaded into poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles (Agomir-122@NP), a carrier with excellent biocompatibility for the agent delivery. Moreover, relying on the homologous targeting effect, we coated Agomir-122@NP with the cell membrane derived from activated fibroblasts (Agomir-122@MNP), with an attempt to inhibit the proliferation, contraction, and collagen production of abnormally activated fibroblasts. After confirming the targeting effect of Agomir-122@MNP on activated fibroblasts in vitro, we proved that Agomir-122@MNP effectively curtailed fibroblasts activation, ameliorated joint capsule fibrosis, and restored range of motion in mouse models both prophylactically and therapeutically. Overall, an effective targeted delivery method was developed with promising translational value against frozen shoulder.

Accelerated Screening of Alternative DNA Base-Organic Molecule-Base Architectures via Integrated Theory and Experiment.

Organic molecule-mediated noncanonical DNA self-assembly expands the standard DNA base-pairing alphabets. However, only a very limited number of small molecules have been recognized as mediators because of the tedious and complicated experiments like crystallization and microscopy imaging. Here we present an integrative screening protocol incorporating molecular dynamics (MD) for fast theoretical simulation and native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis for convenient experimental validation. Melamine, the molecule that was confirmed mediating noncanonical DNA base-pairing, and 38 other candidate molecules were applied to demonstrate the feasibility of this protocol. We successfully identified seven stable noncanonical DNA duplex structures, and another eight novel structures with sub-stability. In addition, we discovered that hairpins at both ends can significantly stabilize the noncanonical DNA structures, providing a guideline to design small organic molecule-incorporated DNA structures. Such an efficient screening protocol will accelerate the design of alternative DNA-molecule architectures beyond Watson-Crick pairs. Considering the wide range of potential mediators, it will also facilitate applications such as noncovalent, highly dense loading of drug molecules in DNA-based delivery system and probe design for sensitive detection of certain molecules.

Dual Mechanism for Sodium based Energy Storage.

A dual-mechanism energy storage strategy is proposed, involving the electrochemical process of sodium ion battery (SIB) and sodium metal battery (SMB). This strategy is expected to achieve a higher capacity than SIB, and obtain dendrite-free growth of SMB with a well-designed anode. Here, self-constructed bismuth with "sodiophilic" framework and rapid ion transmission characteristics is employed as the sodium host (anode) integrating alloy/de-alloy and plating/stripping process that suppresses the dendrite growth and overcomes the limited capacity of traditional anode. Benefited from this, the capacity (capacity contributed by alloy and plating of sodium in total) of 2000 mAh g-1 can be reached, which can retain up to 800 h at 1 A g-1 . Also, the capacity of 3100 mAh g-1 can be achieved that is ≈7.7 times than that of alloyed-bismuth (Bi). This work proposes a dual-mechanism strategy to tackle the dilemma of high-performance sodium (Na) storage devices, which opens a new avenue for the development of next-generation energy storage device.

The relationship between self-assessment living standard and mental health among the older in rural China: the mediating role of sleep quality.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Mental health imbalance are the main cause of anxiety, depression and happiness reduction in the older. Self-assessment living standard and sleep quality are both influencing factors of mental health. Meantime, self-assessment living standard has an impact on sleep quality. But there's no research on the relationship between the three, we conducted this study to explore the relationship between self-assessment living standard and mental health and the mediating role of sleep quality among the older in rural areas of China. METHODS: Using typical field sampling method, M County, Anhui Province was selected as the investigation site, and a total of 1223 respondents were selected. With the help of questionnaires enclosing respondents' sociodemographics information, 12 Items General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Scale (PSQI), face-to-face interviews were used to collect data. Bootstrap test was used for data analysis. RESULTS: The results showed that the age of the respondents ranged from 60 to 99 years, with an average age of (66.53 ± 6.77) years, the proportion of the older with a tendency to mental health problems was 24.7%. Most of the older people's self-assessment living standard was normal (average score was 2.89 ± 0.726), accounting for 59.3% of the total. The average sleep quality score was (6.97 ± 4.066), and 2.5% of the respondents reported serious sleep problems. older with low self- assessment living standards were more likely to report a higher propensity for psychological problems (ß = 0.420, P < 0.001) and poorer sleep quality (ß = 0.608, P < 0.001) than older with high self- assessment living standards. Mental health of the older may be related to sleep quality (ß = 0.117, P < 0.001). In addition, the effect of self- assessment living standard on mental health was significantly mediated by sleep quality (ß = 0.071, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Mental health is associated with self-assessment living standard, with this association mediated by sleep quality. A reasonable mechanism needs to be established to improve self-assessment living standard and sleep quality.

Smart Multistage "Trojan Horse"-Inspired Bovine Serum Albumin-Coated Liposomes for Enhancing Tumor Penetration and Antitumor Efficacy.

Poor antitumor drug penetration into tumor tissues is a global challenge in clinical cancer treatment. Here, we reported a smart multistage "Trojan Horse"-inspired bovine serum albumin (BSA)-coated liposome (HBM), including the mimics of capsid and secondary BSA-coated polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) for enhancing tumor penetration and antitumor efficacy. These drug-loaded polymeric NPs possess a capsid-like component, a well-distributed nanostructure (size: 190.1 ± 4.98 nm, PDI: 0.259), and an excellent drug loading content (15.85 ± 1.36%). Meaningfully, after the smart multistage BSA-coated liposome targeted the tumor tissue, the mimics of capsid were "taken off" under the condition of tumor-specific enzymes, releasing "Heart" BSA-modified secondary NPs to increase the ability to penetrate tumor cells for enhancing antitumor efficacy. As expected, the HBM efficiently achieves high drug penetration into PAN02 tumor cells. Moreover, compared to free DOX and HM (HBM without BSA) NPs, DOX/HBM NPs exhibited the strongest tumor penetration and the highest cytotoxicity against PAN02 tumor cells both in vitro (IC50 = 0.141 µg/mL) and in vivo. This smart multistage "Trojan Horse"-inspired BSA-coated liposome should provide a new hathpace for further development of polymeric NPs in clinical treatment.

Inorganic nanomaterials with rapid clearance for biomedical applications.

Inorganic nanomaterials that have inherently exceptional physicochemical properties (e.g., catalytic, optical, thermal, electrical, or magnetic performance) that can provide desirable functionality (e.g., drug delivery, diagnostics, imaging, or therapy) have considerable potential for application in the field of biomedicine. However, toxicity can be caused by the long-term, non-specific accumulation of these inorganic nanomaterials in healthy tissues, preventing their large-scale clinical utilization. Over the past several decades, the emergence of biodegradable and clearable inorganic nanomaterials has offered the potential to prevent such long-term toxicity. In addition, a comprehensive understanding of the design of such nanomaterials and their metabolic pathways within the body is essential for enabling the expansion of theranostic applications for various diseases and advancing clinical trials. Thus, it is of critical importance to develop biodegradable and clearable inorganic nanomaterials for biomedical applications. This review systematically summarizes the recent progress of biodegradable and clearable inorganic nanomaterials, particularly for application in cancer theranostics and other disease therapies. The future prospects and opportunities in this rapidly growing biomedical field are also discussed. We believe that this timely and comprehensive review will stimulate and guide additional in-depth studies in the area of inorganic nanomedicine, as rapid in vivo clearance and degradation is likely to be a prerequisite for the future clinical translation of inorganic nanomaterials with unique properties and functionality.

Heterogeneous public preferences for controlling agricultural non-point source pollution based on a choice experiment.

The public's stated value and heterogeneous preferences are crucial for formulating policies and financing approaches to promote the control of agricultural non-point-source pollution (ANSP). This study aims to investigate urban residents' willingness to pay (WTP) for ANSP control and analyse the source of preference heterogeneity using a choice experiment method. Survey data were obtained from face-to-face interviews with 595 respondents in south Shaanxi Province, China. We found that respondents' average WTP for the attributes of ANSP control schemes were 2.34 yuan ($0.36) and 5.42 yuan ($0.83) per year per household for a 1% reduction in fertiliser and pesticide use, respectively. We also found significant impacts of WTP from individuals' socio-economic characteristics (i.e., gender, age, education, and income) and cognitive factors (i.e., policy understanding, and government trust). Thus, to improve the efficiency and universality of ANSP control policy, the public's willingness and preference heterogeneity should be thoroughly taken into policy formulation.

Activating Layered Metal Oxide Nanomaterials via Structural Engineering as Biodegradable Nanoagents for Photothermal Cancer Therapy.

Layered metal oxides including MoO3 and WO3 have been widely explored for biological applications owing to their excellent biocompatibility, low toxicity, and easy preparation. However, they normally exhibit weak or negligible near-infrared (NIR) absorption and thus are inefficient for photo-induced biomedical applications. Herein, the structural engineering of layered MoO3 and WO3 nanostructures is first reported to activate their NIR-II absorption for efficient photothermal cancer therapy in the NIR-II window. White-colored micrometre-long MoO3 nanobelts are transformed into blue-colored short, thin, defective, interlayer gap-expanded MoO3-x nanobelts with a strong NIR-II absorption via the simple lithium treatment. The blue MoO3-x nanobelts exhibit a large extinction coefficient of 18.2 L g-1 cm-1 and high photothermal conversion efficiency of 46.9% at 1064 nm. After surface modification, the MoO3-x nanobelts can be used as a robust nanoagent for photoacoustic imaging-guided photothermal therapy to achieve efficient cancer cell ablation and tumor eradication under irradiation by a 1064 nm laser. Importantly, the biodegradable MoO3-x nanobelts can be rapidly degraded and excreted from body. The study highlights that the structural engineering of layered metal oxides is a powerful strategy to tune their properties and thus boost their performances in given applications.

Multifunctional sonosensitizers in sonodynamic cancer therapy.

Phototherapy, including photodynamic therapy and photothermal therapy, has the potential to treat several types of cancer. However, to be an effective anticancer treatment, it has to overcome limitations, such as low penetration depth, low target specificity, and resistance conferred by the local tumor microenvironment. As a non-invasive technique, low-intensity ultrasound has been widely used in clinical diagnosis as it exhibits deeper penetration into the body compared to light. Recently, sonodynamic therapy (SDT), a combination of low-intensity ultrasound with a chemotherapeutic agent (sonosensitizer), has been explored as a promising alternative for cancer therapy. As all known cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, photodynamic therapy, photothermal therapy, immunotherapy, and drug delivery have been advanced independently enough to complement others substantially, the combination of these therapeutic modalities with SDT is opportune. This review article highlights the recent advances in SDT in terms of sonosensitizers and their formulations and anticancer therapeutic efficacy. Also discussed is the potential of SDT in combination with other modalities to address unmet needs in precision medicine.

Ultrafine Titanium Monoxide (TiO1+x) Nanorods for Enhanced Sonodynamic Therapy.

Ultrasound (US)-triggered sonodynamic therapy (SDT) that enables noninvasive treatment of large internal tumors has attracted widespread interest. For improvement in the therapeutic responses to SDT, more effective and stable sonosensitizers are still required. Herein, ultrafine titanium monoxide nanorods (TiO1+x NRs) with greatly improved sono-sensitization and Fenton-like catalytic activity were fabricated and used for enhanced SDT. TiO1+x NRs with an ultrafine rodlike structure were successfully prepared and then modified with polyethylene glycol (PEG). Compared to the conventional sonosensitizer, TiO2 nanoparticles, the PEG-TiO1+x NRs resulted in much more efficient US-induced generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) because of the oxygen-deficient structure of TiO1+x NR, which predominantly serves as the charge trap to limit the recombination of US-triggered electron-hole pairs. Interestingly, PEG-TiO1+x NRs also exhibit horseradish-peroxidase-like nanozyme activity and can produce hydroxyl radicals (•OH) from endogenous H2O2 in the tumor to enable chemodynamic therapy (CDT). Because of their efficient passive retention in tumors post intravenous injection, PEG-TiO1+x NRs can be used as a sonosensitizer and CDT agent for highly effective tumor ablation under US treatment. In addition, no significant long-term toxicity of PEG-TiO1+x NRs was found for the treated mice. This work highlights a new type of titanium-based nanostructure with great performance for tumor SDT.

Risk for Transportation of Coronavirus Disease from Wuhan to Other Cities in China.

On January 23, 2020, China quarantined Wuhan to contain coronavirus disease (COVID-19). We estimated the probability of transportation of COVID-19 from Wuhan to 369 other cities in China before the quarantine. Expected COVID-19 risk is >50% in 130 (95% CI 89-190) cities and >99% in the 4 largest metropolitan areas.

New Synthesis for the Monobactam Antibiotic-LYS228.

A new synthesis of LYS228, fitting for further process development for commercial manufacture, is described. The key features of this synthesis include development of new protocols for acylation reactions, application of an asymmetric hydrogenation via dynamic kinetic resolution, and a late-stage ring closure to form ß-lactam 1.

Population data for 20 insertion-null allele markers in the Li ethnic minority from Hainan Province.

Insertion/null polymorphisms (INNULs) can be used as an alternative marker of STRs to detect the highly degraded samples in forensic cases. In this study, we evaluated the genetic data of 20 INNUL markers in the Innotyper® 21 Human DNA Analysis Kit (InnoGenomics) for Hainan Li population, including allele frequencies and forensic parameters. No significant deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and linkage disequilibrium was found in all loci after Bonferroni correction. The combined power of discrimination (CPD) was 0.99999891, the combined power of exclusion for duo paternity testing (CPEduo) was 0.75274389, and the combined power of exclusion for trio paternity testing (CPEtrio) was 0.94766143. These data would be useful for the application of the kit in practice and the research of the kit used in molecular anthropology studies.

NaCeF4:Gd,Tb Scintillator as an X-ray Responsive Photosensitizer for Multimodal Imaging-Guided Synchronous Radio/Radiodynamic Therapy.

Photosensitizers (PSs) that are directly responsive to X-ray for radiodynamic therapy (RDT) with desirable imaging abilities have great potential applications in cancer therapy. Herein, the cerium (Ce)-doped NaCeF4:Gd,Tb scintillating nanoparticle (ScNP or scintillator) is first reported. Due to the sensitization effect of the Ce ions, Tb ions can emit fluorescence under X-ray irradiation to trigger X-ray excited fluorescence (XEF). Moreover, Ce and Tb ions can absorb the energy of secondary electrons generated by X-ray to produce reactive oxide species (ROS) for RDT. With the intrinsic absorption of X-ray by lanthanide elements, the NaCeF4:Gd,Tb ScNPs also act as a computed tomography (CT) imaging contrast agent and radiosensitizers for radiotherapy (RT) sensitization synchronously. Most importantly, the transverse relaxation time of Gd3+ ions is shortened due to the doping of Ce and Tb ions, leading to the excellent performance of our ScNPs in T2-weighted MR imaging for the first time. Both in vitro and in vivo studies verify that our synthesized ScNPs have good performance in XEF, CT, and T2-weighted MR imaging, and a synchronous RT/RDT is achieved with significant suppression on tumor progression under X-ray irradiation. Importantly, no systemic toxicity is observed after intravenous injection of ScNPs. Our work highlights that ScNPs have potential in multimodal imaging-guided RT/RDT of deep tumors.

Isolation of a novel serotype strain of infectious bronchitis virus ZZ2004 from ducks in China.

In chickens, the infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) often causes respiratory distress, a decrease in egg production, poor egg quality, and occasional nephritis. However, ZZ2004, a Chinese isolate of IBV, was obtained from ducks with clinical growth suppression and mild respiratory symptoms that had been reared with chickens in the central region of China. Virus isolation, virus neutralization testing, and RT-PCR were employed to identify the causative pathogen, while sequence alignment was used to analyze gene variations of the S1 subunit and M genes. The results showed that the ducks were infected with IBV due to the emergence of a dwarfing phenotype and the death of embryos between 48 and 144 h post-inoculation. RT-PCR also confirmed the presence of the expected fragment sizes of the S1 subunit and M genes by RT-PCR. Meanwhile, the results of the virus neutralization test indicated that the strains of JX/99/01, GD, SAIBK, LDT3 showed cross-reactivity with the ZZ2004 isolate, and hardly any cross-neutralization of IBV ZZ2004 was observed with the strains of M41, H120, Gray, Holte, or Aust-T. Phylogenetic analysis suggested that there were large differences between ZZ2004 and other IBV reference strains on the S1 subunit. Meanwhile, homologies in the nucleotide and amino acid sequences of the M gene of IBV ZZ2004 were 86.9-92.0 % and 91.1-93.9 %, respectively, compared with 35 other IBV reference strains derived from different regions. This result revealed that there were conspicuous variations among the selected strains. Furthermore, the results showed that the prevalent strains of IBV in ducks had no antigen homology with the vaccine strains widely used in China except the LDT3-strain, making it urgent to explore and develop new IBV vaccines.