Sporoderm-broken spores of Ganoderma lucidum modulate hepatoblastoma malignancy by regulating RACK1-mediated autophagy and tumour immunity.

Hepatoblastoma (HB), a primary liver tumour, is notorious for its high metastatic potential and poor prognosis. Ganoderma lucidum, an edible mushroom species utilized in traditional Chinese medicine for addressing various tumour types, presents an intriguing avenue for HB treatment. However, the effectiveness of G. lucidum in managing HB and its underlying molecular mechanism necessitates further exploration. Standard in vitro assays were conducted to evaluate the impact of sporoderm-broken spores of G. lucidum (SBSGL) on the malignant characteristics of HB cells. The mechanism of SBSGL in treating HB and its tumour immunomodulatory effects were explored and validated by various experiments, including immunoprecipitation, Western blotting, mRFP-GFP-LC3 adenovirus transfection and co-localization analysis, as well as verified with in vivo experiments in this regard. The results showed that SBSGL effectively inhibited the malignant traits of HB cells and suppressed the O-GlcNAcylation of RACK1, thereby reducing its expression. In addition, SBSGL inhibited immune checkpoints and regulated cytokines. In conclusion, SBSGL had immunomodulatory effects and regulated the malignancy and autophagy of HB by regulating the O-GlcNAcylation of RACK1. These findings suggest that SBSGL holds promise as a potential anticancer drug for HB treatment.

HIF-1α in cartilage homeostasis, apoptosis, and glycolysis in mice with steroid-induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head.

With the prevalence of coronavirus disease 2019, the administration of glucocorticoids (GCs) has become more widespread. Treatment with high-dose GCs leads to a variety of problems, of which steroid-induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head (SONFH) is the most concerning. Since hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) is a key factor in cartilage development and homeostasis, it may play an important role in the development of SONFH. In this study, SONFH models were established using methylprednisolone (MPS) in mouse and its proliferating chondrocytes to investigate the role of HIF-1α in cartilage differentiation, extracellular matrix (ECM) homeostasis, apoptosis and glycolysis in SONFH mice. The results showed that MPS successfully induced SONFH in vivo and vitro, and MPS-treated cartilage and chondrocytes demonstrated disturbed ECM homeostasis, significantly increased chondrocyte apoptosis rate and glycolysis level. However, compared with normal mice, not only the expression of genes related to collagens and glycolysis, but also chondrocyte apoptosis did not demonstrate significant differences in mice co-treated with MPS and HIF-1α inhibitor. And the effects observed in HIF-1α activator-treated chondrocytes were similar to those induced by MPS. And HIF-1α degraded collagens in cartilage by upregulating its downstream target genes matrix metalloproteinases. The results of activator/inhibitor of endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) pathway revealed that the high apoptosis rate induced by MPS was related to the ERS pathway, which was also affected by HIF-1α. Furthermore, HIF-1α affected glucose metabolism in cartilage by increasing the expression of glycolysis-related genes. In conclusion, HIF-1α plays a vital role in the pathogenesis of SONFH by regulating ECM homeostasis, chondrocyte apoptosis, and glycolysis.

Logic Signal Amplification System for Sensitive Electrochemiluminescence Detection and Subtype Identification of Cancer Cells.

Achieving sensitive detection and accurate identification of cancer cells is vital for diagnosing and treating the disease. Here, we developed a logic signal amplification system using DNA tetrahedron-mediated three-dimensional (3D) DNA nanonetworks for sensitive electrochemiluminescence (ECL) detection and subtype identification of cancer cells. Specially designed hairpins were integrated into DNA tetrahedral nanostructures (DTNs) to perform a catalytic hairpin assembly (CHA) reaction in the presence of target microRNA, forming hyperbranched 3D nanonetworks. Benefiting from the "spatial confinement effect," the DNA tetrahedron-mediated catalytic hairpin assembly (DTCHA) reaction displayed significantly faster kinetics and greater cycle conversion efficiency than traditional CHA. The resulting 3D nanonetworks could load a large amount of Ru(phen)32+, significantly enhancing its ECL signal, and exhibit detection limits for both miR-21 and miR-141 at the femtomolar level. The biosensor based on modular logic gates facilitated the distinction and quantification of cancer cells and normal cells based on miR-21 levels, combined with miR-141 levels, to further identify different subtypes of breast cancer cells. Overall, this study provides potential applications in miRNA-related clinical diagnostics.

Enhanced Aggregation-Induced Delayed Electrochemiluminescence Triggered by Spatial Perturbation of Organic Dots.

Development of highly efficient, heavy-metal-free electrochemiluminescence (ECL) materials is attractive but still challenging. Herein, we report an aggregation-induced delayed ECL (AIDECL) active organic dot (OD) composed of a tert-butoxy-group-substituted benzophenone-dimethylacridine compound, which shows high ECL efficiency. The resultant ODs exhibit 2.1-fold higher ECL efficiency compared to control AIDECL-active ODs. Molecular stacking combined with theoretical calculations suggests that tert-butoxy groups effectively participate in the intermolecular interactions, further inhibiting the molecular motions in the aggregated states and thus accelerating radiative decay. On the basis of these ODs exhibiting excellent ECL performance, a proof-of-concept biosensor is constructed for the detection of miR-16 associated with Alzheimer's disease, which demonstrates excellent detection ability with the limit of detection of 1.7 fM. This work provides a new approach to improve the ECL efficiency and enriches the fundamental understanding of the structure-property relationship.

Interfacial Hydrogen-Bond Interactions Driven Assembly toward Polychromatic Copper Nanoclusters.

Constructing versatile metal nanoclusters (NCs) assemblies through noncovalent weak interactions between inter-ligands is a long-standing challenge in interfacial chemistry, while compelling interfacial hydrogen-bond-driven metal NCs assemblies remain unexplored so far. Here, the study reports an amination-ligand o-phenylenediamine-coordinated copper NCs (CuNCs), demonstrating the impact of interfacial hydrogen-bonds (IHBs) motifs on the luminescent behaviors of metal NCs as the alteration of protic solvent. Experimental results supported by theoretical calculation unveil that the flexibility of interfacial ligand and the distance of cuprophilic CuI···CuI interaction between intra-/inter-NCs can be tailored by manipulating the cooperation between the diverse IHBs motifs reconstruction, therewith the IHBs-modulated fundamental structure-property relationships are established. Importantly, by utilizing the IHBs-mediated optical polychromatism of aminated CuNCs, portable visualization of humidity sensing test-strips with fast response is successfully manufactured. This work not only provides further insights into exploring the interfacial chemistry of NCs based on inter-ligands hydrogen-bond interactions, but also offers a new opportunity to expand the practical application for optical sensing of metal NCs.

Directional surface plasmon polariton scattering using single magnetic nanoparticles.

Directional surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are expected to promote the energy efficiency of plasmonic devices, via limiting the energy in a given spatial domain. The directional scattering of dielectric nanoparticles induced by the interference between electric and magnetic responses presents a potential candidate for directional SPPs. Magnetic nanoparticles can introduce permeability as an extra manipulation, whose directional scattered SPPs have not been investigated yet. In this work, we demonstrated the directional scattered SPPs by using single magnetic nanoparticles via simulation and experiment. By increasing the permeability and particle size, the high-order TEM modes are excited inside the particle and induce more forward directional SPPs. It indicated that the particle size manifests larger tuning range compared with the permeability. Experimentally, the maximum forward-to-backward (F-to-B) SPP scattering intensity ratio of 118.52:1 is visualized by using a single 1 µm Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticle. The directional scattered SPPs of magnetic nanoparticles are hopeful to improve the efficiency of plasmonic devices and pave the way for plasmonic circuits on-chip.

Curved and Annular Diaphragm Coupled Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers for High Transmit Biomedical Applications.

In this paper, we present a novel three-dimensional (3D) coupled configuration of piezoelectric micromachined ultrasound transducers (pMUTs) by combing a curved and an annular diaphragm for transmit performance optimization in biomedical applications. An analytical equivalent circuit model (EQC) is developed with varied excitation methods to incorporate the acoustic-structure coupling of the curved and annular diaphragm-coupled pMUTs (CAC-pMUTs). The model-derived results align well with the reference simulated by the finite element method (FEM). Using this EQC model, we optimize the key design parameters of the CAC-pMUTs in order to improve the output sound pressure, including the width of the annular membrane, the thickness of the passive layer, and the phase difference of the driving voltage. In the anti-phase mode, the designed CAC-pMUTs demonstrate a transmit efficiency 285 times higher than that of single annular pMUTs. This substantial improvement underscores the potential of CAC-pMUTs for large array applications.

Coated sodium butyrate and vitamin D3 supplementation improve gut health through influencing intestinal immunity, barrier, and microflora in early-stage broilers.

BACKGROUND: Intestinal development and function are critical to maintaining sustained broiler growth. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of coated sodium butyrate (CSB) and vitamin D3 (VD3) on the intestinal immunity, barrier, oxidative stress and microflora in early-stage broilers. In total, 192 one-day-old broilers were assigned to a 2 × 2 factorial design including two dietary supplements at two different levels, in which the main effects were VD3 (3000 or 5000 IU kg-1) and CSB (0 or 1 g kg-1). RESULTS: The results showed that CSB supplementation increased ileal goblet cells (GCs) numbers, villus height and decreased crypt depth in broilers. CSB increased ileal proliferating cell nuclear antigen expression and high-level VD3 decreased cluster of differentiation 3 expression. CSB reduced serum d-lactate, endotoxin (ET), adrenocorticotropic hormone, corticosterone and malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations and increased total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) level. Meanwhile, high-level VD3 decreased serum ET concentration. Furthermore, CSB increased ileal T-AOC, lysozyme (LYZ) and transforming growth factor (TGF)-ß and decreased MDA, whereas high-level VD3 decreased ileal MDA and increased secretory immunoglobulin A. CSB up-regulated ileal claudin1, superoxide dismutase 1, TGF-ß and LYZ mRNA expression and down-regulated interleukin-1ß mRNA expression. CSB combined with high-level VD3 increased ileal Faecalibaculum abundance. Spearman correlation analysis showed that Faecalibaculum was related to the immune and barrier function. CONCLUSION: Dietary supplementation with CSB and high-level VD3 improved early gut health in broilers by promoting intestinal development, enhancing antioxidant capacity, strengthening barrier function and enhancing the favorable composition of the gut bacterial flora. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.

Deciphering the core microbiota in open environment solid-state fermentation of Beijing rice vinegar and its correlation with environmental factors.

BACKGROUND: Rice vinegar is a popular cereal vinegar worldwide and is typically produced in an open environment, and the ecosystem of solid-state fermentation is complicated and robust. The present study aimed to reveal the shaping force of the establishment of the ecosystem of Beijing rice vinegar, the core function microbiota and their correlation with critical environmental factors. [Correction added after first online publication on 29 May 2024; the word "worldwide" has been removed from the first sentence under the section Background.] RESULTS: The experimental findings revealed the changes in environmental factors, major metabolites and microbial patterns during Beijing rice vinegar fermentation were obtained. The major metabolites accumulated at the middle and late acetic acid fermentation (AAF) periods. Principal coordinates and t-test analyses revealed the specific bacterial and fungal species at corresponding stages. Kosakonia, Methlobacterium, Sphingomonas, unidentified Rhizobiaceae, Pseudozyma and Saccharomycopsis dorminated during saccharification and alcohol fermentation and early AAF, whereas Lactococcus, Acetobacter, Rhodotorula and Kazachstania dominated the later AAF stages. Canonical correspondence analysis of environmental factors with core microbiota. Temperature and total acid were the most significant factors correlated with the SAF bacterial profile (Pediococcus, Weissella, Enterococcus and Kosakonia). Ethanol was the most significant factor between AAF1 and AAF3, and mainly affected Acetobacter and Lactobacillus. Conversely, ethanol was the most significant factor in the SAF, AAF1 and AAF3 fungi communities; typical microorganisms were Saccharomyces and Malassezia. Furthermore, the predicted phenotypes of bacteria and their response to environmental factors were evaluated. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the present study has provided insights into the process regulation of spontaneous fermentation and distinguished the key driving forces in the microbiota of Beijing rice vinegar fermentation. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.

Harnessing the potential of ginkgo biloba extract: Boosting denitrification performance through accelerated electron transfer.

Ginkgo biloba extract (GBE) had several effects on the human body as one of the widely used phytopharmaceuticals, but it had no application in microbial enhancement in the environmental field. The study focused on the impact of GBE on denitrification specifically under neutral conditions. At the identified optimal addition ratio of 2% (v/v), the system exhibited a noteworthy increase in nitrate reduction rate (NRR) by 56.34%, elevating from 0.71 to 1.11 mg-N/(L·h). Moreover, the extraction of microbial extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) at this ratio revealed changes in the composition of EPS, the electron exchange capacity (EEC) was enhanced from 87.16 to 140.4 µmol/(g C), and the transfer impedance was reduced within the EPS. The flavin, fulvic acid (FA), and humic acid (HA) provided a π-electron conjugated structure for the denitrification system, enhancing extracellular electron transfer (EET) by stimulating carbon source metabolism. GBE also improved electron transfer system activity (ETSA) from 0.025 to 0.071 µL O2/(g·min·prot) and the content of NADH enhanced by 22.90% while significantly reducing the activation energy (Ea) by 85.6% in the denitrification process. The synergy of improving both intracellular and extracellular electron transfer, along with the reduction of Ea, notably amplified the initiation and reduction rates of the denitrification process. Additionally, GBE demonstrated suitability for denitrification across various pH levels, enhancing microbial resilience in alkaline conditions and promoting survival and proliferation. Overall, these findings open the door to potential applications of GBE as a natural additive in the environmental field to improve the efficiency of denitrification processes, which are essential for nitrogen removal in various environmental contexts.

Environmental impacts on algal-bacterial-based aquaponics system by different types of carbon source addition: water quality and greenhouse gas emission.

Carbon source addition is an important way improving the carbon and nitrogen transformation in aquaculture system; however, its effectiveness of algal-bacterial-based aquaponics (AA) through carbon source addition is still vague. In this study, the influences of organic carbon (OC-AA system) and inorganic carbon (IC-AA system) addition and without carbon source addition (C-AA system) on the operational performance of AA system were investigated. Results showed that 10.1-19.5% increase of algal-bacterial biomass enhanced the purifying effect of ammonia nitrogen in OC-AA system and IC-AA system relative to C-AA system. Moreover, extra electron donor supply in the OC-AA system obtained the lowest NO3--N concentration. However, that was at the cost of aggravated N2O conversion ratio, which increased by more than 2.0-folds than other systems, attributing to 2.9-folds increase of nirS gene abundance. In addition, carbon source addition increased the pH and then decreased the fish biomass production of AA system. The results of this study would provide theoretical supports of carbon source addition on the performance of nutrient transformation and greenhouse gas effect in AA system.

Immunoglobulin heavy constant gamma 1 silencing decreases tonicity-responsive enhancer-binding protein expression to alleviate diabetic nephropathy.

AIMS/INTRODUCTION: The molecular mechanisms of diabetic nephropathy (DN) are poorly identified. However, the advantage of an increasing amount on microarray data of diabetic nephropathy intrigued us to explore the mechanisms based on bioinformatics prediction for diabetic nephropathy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Bioinformatics analysis was conducted to screen the hub genes associated with diabetic nephropathy. The average human renal tubular epithelial cells were exposed to high glucose (HG) to generate an in vitro cell model. In addition, a mouse model of diabetic nephropathy was established using a high-fat diet and streptozotocin injection. Finally, the shRNA targeting immunoglobulin heavy constant gamma 1 (IGHG1) was introduced in vitro and in vivo to illustrate its effect on downstream factors and on the development diabetic nephropathy. RESULTS: Bioinformatics analysis revealed that IGHG1, TRIM11 (tripartite motif protein 11), and TonEBP are highly expressed in diabetic nephropathy. In vitro cell experiments demonstrated that IGHG1 positively regulates the expression of TRIM11 and TonEBP (tonicity-responsive enhancer binding protein) in HK2 cells treated with high glucose. Furthermore, TRIM11 upregulates the expression of TonEBP through activation of the MEK/ERK (mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase) signaling pathway in HK2 cells treated with high glucose. In vivo, animal experiments further confirmed that silencing IGHG1 could prevent the occurrence and development of diabetic nephropathy. CONCLUSION: The silencing of IGHG1 alleviated diabetic nephropathy by inhibiting the TRIM11/MEK/ERK axis and by downregulating TonEBP.

Collaborative Structure-Preserved Missing Data Imputation for Single-Cell RNA-Seq Clustering.

Clustering of the single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) transcriptome profiles is able to identify cell types, which is beneficial to improve the understanding of disease progression. However, in practice, the single-cell expression data often contains a significant number of missing values as a result of technical variability. Missing data is a critical challenge in scRNA-seq clustering analysis since the unknown value does not reflect the underlying true expression level and makes it difficult to discovering cell types by applying clustering algorithms directly. Various approaches have been developed to overcome missing data issue in scRNA-seq clustering. Most of them recover missing expression values by borrowing observed data from similar cells or synthesizing data via generative adversarial networks. Such that the biologically meaningful cluster structure has not been sufficiently exploited. In this work, we introduce ColImpute, a collaborative structure-preserved missing data imputation approach for the scRNA-seq clustering. Specifically, a cluster structure-preserved imputation module and a subspace clustering module, which respectively perform missing data imputation and cell subtypes identification, are integrated into a unified optimization framework to train the two networks in a collaborative manner. Consequently, the clustering module effectively contributes cluster-structure information to guide the trainning process of the missing data imputation module. Simultaneously, the cluster structure-preserved imputation module reciprocally enhances the performance of the clustering module by generating more precise recovered samples. Promising experimental results show that the proposed method is effective for both the data imputation and the cell types identification.

Automated infrared ashing with palladium nitrate as an ashing aid for the determination of selenium in plant foods by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.

Based on the automatic light wave ashing instrument, palladium nitrate was used as an ashing aid for the first time to collect selenium in the process of food ashing pre-treatment, and a method for the determination of selenium in food by ashing method was established with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. At the same time, the effects of magnesium nitrate, rhodium nitrate, and nickel nitrate as ashing aids on selenium collection were investigated using certified plant standard materials. The capture of selenium by magnesium nitrate, rhodium nitrate, and nickel nitrate as ashing aids did not exceed 50%. Using palladium nitrate as an ashing aid, six food standard materials were measured, with selenium recovery rates ranging from 97 to 106%. A complete analysis cycle can be completed within an hour. The method detection limit of selenium was 0.021 µg g-1, and the relative standard deviation of five measurements was less than 7%. The experimental results show that palladium nitrate is an excellent ashing aid for capturing selenium, and it is far superior to the other three aids. In addition, the mechanism of palladium nitrate as an ashing aid for capturing selenium was discussed.

Multi-angle property analysis and stress-strain curve prediction of cementitious sand gravel based on triaxial test.

In order to further promote the application of cementitious sand gravel (CSG), the mechanical properties and variation rules of CSG material under triaxial test were studied. Considering the influence of fly ash content, water-binder ratio, sand rate and lateral confining pressure, 81 cylinder specimens were designed and made for conventional triaxial test, and the influence laws of stress-strain curve, failure pattern, elastic modulus, energy dissipation and damage evolution of specimens were analyzed. The results showed that the peak of stress-strain curve increased with the increase of confining pressure, and the peak stress, peak strain and energy dissipation all increased significantly, but the damage variable D decreased with the increase of confining pressure. Under triaxial compression, the specimen was basically sheared failure from the bonding surface, and the aggregate generally did not break. Sand rate had a significant effect on the peak stress of CSG, and decreased with the increase of sand rate. Under the conditions of the same cement content, fly ash content and confining pressure, the optimal water-binder ratio 1.2 existed when the sand rate was 0.2 and 0.3. After analyzing and processing the stress-strain curve of triaxial test, a Cuckoo Search-eXtreme Gradient Boosting (CS-XGBoost) curve prediction model was established, and the model was evaluated by evaluation indexes R2, RMSE and MAE. The average R2 of the XGBoost model based on initial parameters under 18 different output features was 0.8573, and the average R2 of the CS-XGBoost model was 0.9516, an increase of 10.10%. Moreover, the prediction curve was highly consistent with the test curve, indicating that the CS algorithm had significant advantages. The CS-XGBoost model could accurately predict the triaxial stress-strain curve of CSG.

Highly efficient selective hydrogenation of adiponitrile to hexamethylene diamine over barium and melamine formaldehyde resin-modified nickel-cobalt-based zeolitic imidazolate framework-derived catalyst.

In the present study, the catalyst modified with alkaline oxide can enhance the selectivity to primary amines. However, the addition of alkaline oxide inevitably reduces catalytic activity. In this study, NiCo-NC@BaO-MFC catalyst derived from zeolitic imidazolate framework-67, Ba(CH3COO)2, and melamine formaldehyde (MF) resin was prepared and used for the hydrogenation of adiponitrile (ADN) to hexamethylene diamine (HDMA). The carbon layer obtained from the MF resin effectively prevents the interaction between barium (Ba) and the active center, thus improving target product selectivity without decreasing catalytic activity. The results of the density functional theory (DFT) calculation and characterization indicated that the effect of synergy between nickel (Ni) and cobalt (Co) bimetals induces an electron density growth on the Ni surface, bringing the d-band center toward the Fermi surface. Meanwhile, the high electron density of the active center compensates for the electron-deficient state of the carbon atom in -CN, thus improving the catalytic activity. Furthermore, it was found that the introduction of Ba promotes the formation of nucleophilic hydrogen anions, which facilitates the hydrogenation of 6-aminohexylimine (AHIM) to HDMA and inhibits the intramolecular condensation of AHIM, hence improving the selectivity to HDMA. The NiCo-NC@BaO-MFC catalyst gives 98.6 % ADN conversion and 97.2 % selectivity to HDMA in an alkali-free system.

Systematic review and meta-analysis of breathing exercises effects on lung function and quality of life in postoperative lung cancer patients.

Background: Postoperative recovery in lung cancer patients is a complex process, where breathing exercises may play a crucial role in enhancing pulmonary function and quality of life (QoL). This study systematically reviews and meta-analyzes the impact of breathing exercises on post-surgical lung function and QoL in lung cancer patients. Methods: An extensive literature search was conducted across PubMed, Cochrane, Web of Science, and Embase databases using terms like "Lung Neoplasms", "breathing exercises", and "randomized controlled trial", supplemented by Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and free words. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used for quality assessment. A systematic review and meta-analysis on the effects of breathing exercises post-lung cancer surgery followed by data extraction and quality evaluation. Results: From 384 retrieved studies, 10 met the inclusion criteria and were selected for detailed analysis. The main outcomes assessed were postoperative pulmonary function indices and QoL measures. The majority of studies were deemed 'low risk' for random sequence generation and allocation concealment. However, due to the nature of the interventions, blinding was a 'high risk' in most cases. The meta-analysis revealed significant improvements in key pulmonary function indices: forced vital capacity (FVC%) increased by an average of 1.73%, maximal voluntary ventilation (MVV) improved by 7.58 L/min, and maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP) enhanced by 0.95 cmH2O. Additionally, there was a notable alleviation of postoperative dyspnea and an enhancement in QoL, with anxiety scores decreasing by an average of 3.42 points and complication rates reducing correspondingly. However, the interventions did not significantly affect physical activity levels or performance on the 6-minute walk test (6WMT), with effect sizes for these outcomes being non-significant. Conclusions: This study indicates that breathing exercises significantly improve postoperative pulmonary function and QoL in lung cancer patients. Future research should delve into the mechanisms behind these exercises and evaluate their long-term rehabilitation effects. Customized programs could further optimize recovery and enhance patient QoL.

ß-Galactosidase-activated near-infrared AIEgen for ovarian cancer imaging in vivo.

Near-infrared (NIR) aggregation induced-emission luminogens (AIEgens) circumvent the noisome aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) effect in physiological milieu, thus holding high promise for real-time and sensitive imaging of biomarkers in vivo. ß-Galactosidase (ß-Gal) is a biomarker for primary ovarian carcinoma, but current AIEgens for ß-Gal sensing display emissions in the visible region and have not been applied in vivo. We herein propose an NIR AIEgen QM-TPA-Gal and applied it for imaging ß-Gal activity in vitro and in ovarian tumor model. After being internalized by ovarian cancer cells (e.g., SKOV3), the hydrophilic nonfluorescent QM-TPA-Gal undergoes hydrolyzation by ß-Gal to yield hydrophobic QM-TPA-OH, which subsequently aggregates into nanoparticles to turn NIR fluorescence "on" through the AIE mechanism. In vitro experimental results indicate that QM-TPA-Gal has a sensitive and selective response to ß-Gal with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.21 U/mL. Molecular docking simulation confirms that QM-TPA-Gal has a good binding ability with ß-Gal to allow efficient hydrolysis. Furthermore, QM-TPA-Gal is successfully applied for ß-Gal imaging in SKOV3 cell and SKOV3-bearing living mouse models. It is anticipated that QM-TPA-Gal could be applied for early diagnosis of ovarian cancers or other ß-Gal-associated diseases in near future.

Dietary salidroside supplementation improves meat quality and antioxidant capacity and regulates lipid metabolism in broilers.

We aimed to explore the effect of salidroside (SAL) on meat quality, antioxidant capacity, and lipid metabolism in broilers. The results demonstrated that SAL significantly reduced the yellowness (b*), shear force, cooking loss, drip loss, MDA, TBARS, and carbonyl content in breast (P < 0.05), while increasing the pH value (P < 0.05), suggesting an improvement in meat quality. SAL lowered the lipid contents in liver and serum (P < 0.05), while increasing the proportion of unsaturated fatty acids in breast (P < 0.05), indicating effective regulation of lipid metabolism by SAL. SAL increased the activity of antioxidant enzymes and the expression of antioxidant genes in both liver and muscle (P < 0.05). Additionally, SAL improved the meat quality and antioxidant capacity of breast subjected to repeated freeze-thaw treatment. SAL may enhance meat quality by improving antioxidative stability and regulating lipid metabolism, potentially serving as a dietary supplement for broilers.

Near-infrared AIEgens for sulfatase imaging in breast cancer in vivo.

Aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) enable highly sensitive and in situ visualization of sulfatase to benefit the early diagnosis of breast cancer (BC), but current sulfatase AIEgens always emit visible light (<650 nm). Herein, a near-infrared (NIR) AIEgen QMT-SFA is developed for sulfatase imaging in vivo. Hydrophilic QMT-SFA is cleaved by sulfatase to yield hydrophobic QMT-OH, which subsequently aggregates into nanoparticles to turn the AIE fluorescence "on", enabling sensitive sulfatase imaging in 4T1 cells and mouse models.