Machine learning-enabled high-throughput industry screening of edible oils.

Long-term consumption of mixed fraudulent edible oils increases the risk of developing of chronic diseases which has been a threat to the public health globally. The complicated global supply-chain is making the industry malpractices had often gone undetected. In order to restore the confidence of consumers, traceability (and accountability) of every level in the supply chain is vital. In this work, we shown that machine learning (ML) assisted windowed spectroscopy (e.g., visible-band, infra-red band) produces high-throughput, non-destructive, and label-free authentication of edible oils (e.g., olive oils, sunflower oils), offers the feasibility for rapid analysis of large-scale industrial screening. We report achieving high-level of discriminant (AUC > 0.96) in the large-scale (n ≈ 11,500) of adulteration in olive oils. Notably, high clustering fidelity of 'spectral fingerprints' achieved created opportunity for (hypothesis-free) self-sustaining large database compilation which was never possible without machine learning. (137 words).

Study by means of 1H nuclear magnetic resonance of the oxidation process in high oleic sunflower oil and palm oil during deep-frying of fish cakes.

This study aimed to compare the frying performance of palm oil (PO) and high oleic sunflower oil (HOSO) during frying aquatic products. The quality change and frying performance of HOSO and PO during frying of fish cakes were investigated. The oxidation and hydrolysis products of both oils were explored by the nuclear magnetic resonance technique. The results showed that the color deepening rate of PO was higher than that of HOSO. After 18 h of frying, the total polar compound content of PO and HOSO reached 25.67% and 27.50%, respectively. HOSO had lower degree of oxidation than PO after 24 h of continuous frying. The polyunsaturated fatty acid content in HOSO and PO significantly decreased. The oleic acid content in HOSO remained above 80% during the frying process. The major aldehydes in both oils were (E, E)-2,4-alkadienals and n-alkanals and glycerol diesters (DAGs) were abundant in PO. Furthermore, the addition of fish cakes had slight effect on the quality of the frying oil. Therefore, HOSO is an appropriate candidate for frying owing to its excellent frying stability and nutritional value.

Magnetic Bimetallic Heterointerface Nanomissiles with Enhanced Microwave Absorption for Microwave Thermal/Dynamics Therapy of Breast Cancer.

Microwave thermotherapy (MWT) has shown great potential in cancer treatment due to its deep tissue penetration and minimally invasive nature. However, the poor microwave absorption (MA) properties of the microwave thermal sensitizer in the medical frequency band significantly limit the thermal effect of MWT and then weaken the therapeutic efficacy. In this paper, a Ni-based multilayer heterointerface nanomissile of MOFs-Ni-Ru@COFs (MNRC) with improved MA performance in the desired frequency band via introducing magnetic loss and dielectric loss is developed for MWT-based treatment. The loading of the Ni nanoparticle in MNRC mediates the magnetic loss, introducing the MA in the medical frequency band. The heterointerface formed in the MNRC by nanoengineering induces significant interfacial polarization, increasing the dielectric loss and then enhancing the generated MA performance. Moreover, MNRC with the strong MA performance in the desired frequency range not only enhances the MW thermal effect of MWT but also facilitates the electron and energy transfer, generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) at tumor sites to mediate microwave dynamic therapy (MDT). The strategy of strengthening the MA performance of the sensitizer in the medical frequency band to improve MWT-MDT provides a direction for expanding the clinical application of MWT in tumor treatment.

TRAIL and Celastrol Combinational Treatment Suppresses Proliferation, Migration, and Invasion of Human Glioblastoma Cells via Targeting Wnt/ß-catenin Signaling Pathway.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the mechanistic basis for the anti-proliferation and anti-invasion effect of tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-induced ligand (TRAIL) and celastrol combination treatment (TCCT) in glioblastoma cells. METHODS: Cell counting kit-8 was used to detect the effects of different concentrations of celastrol (0-16 µmol/L) and TRAIL (0-500 ng/mL) on the cell viability of glioblastoma cells. U87 cells were randomly divided into 4 groups, namely control, TRAIL (TRAIL 100 ng/mL), Cel (celastrol 0.5 µmol/L) and TCCT (TRAIL 100 ng/mL+ celastrol 0.5 µmol/L). Cell proliferation, migration, and invasion were detected by colony formation, wound healing, and Transwell assays, respectively. Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting were performed to assess the levels of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers (zona occludens, N-cadherin, vimentin, zinc finger E-box-binding homeobox, Slug, and ß-catenin). Wnt pathway was activated by lithium chloride (LiCl, 20 mol/L) and the mechanism for action of TCCT was explored. RESULTS: Celastrol and TRAIL synergistically inhibited the proliferation, migration, invasion, and EMT of U87 cells (P<0.01). TCCT up-regulated the expression of GSK-3ß and down-regulated the expression of ß-catenin and its associated proteins (P<0.05 or P<0.01), including c-Myc, Cyclin-D1, and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2. In addition, LiCl, an activator of the Wnt signaling pathway, restored the inhibitory effects of TCCT on the expression of ß-catenin and its downstream genes, as well as the migration and invasion of glioblastoma cells (P<0.05 or P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Celastrol and TRAIL can synergistically suppress glioblastoma cell migration, invasion, and EMT, potentially through inhibition of Wnt/ß-catenin pathway. This underlies a novel mechanism of action for TCCT as an effective therapy for glioblastoma.

A Brief Review on Medicinal Plants-At-Arms against COVID-19.

COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel SARS-CoV-2 has impacted human livelihood globally. Strenuous efforts have been employed for its control and prevention; however, with recent reports on mutated strains with much higher infectivity, transmissibility, and ability to evade immunity developed from previous SARS-CoV-2 infections, prevention alternatives must be prepared beforehand in case. We have perused over 128 recent works (found on Google Scholar, PubMed, and ScienceDirect as of February 2023) on medicinal plants and their compounds for anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity and eventually reviewed 102 of them. The clinical application and the curative effect were reported high in China and in India. Accordingly, this review highlights the unprecedented opportunities offered by medicinal plants and their compounds, candidates as the therapeutic agent, against COVID-19 by acting as viral protein inhibitors and immunomodulator in (32 clinical trials and hundreds of in silico experiments) conjecture with modern science. Moreover, the associated foreseeable challenges for their viral outbreak management were discussed in comparison to synthetic drugs.

Programmed Upregulation of HSP70 by Metal-Organic Frameworks Nanoamplifier for Enhanced Microwave Thermal-Immunotherapy.

Thermotherapy can directly kill tumor cells whilst being accompanied by immune-enhancing effects. However, this immune-enhancing effect suffers from insufficient expression of immune response factors (e.g., heat shock protein 70, HSP70), resulting in no patient benefiting due to the recurrence of tumor cells after thermotherapy. Herein, a nanoengineered strategy of programmed upregulating of the immune response factors for amplifying synergistic therapy is explored. Metal-organic frameworks nanoamplifiers (teprenone/nitrocysteine@ZrMOF-NH2 @L-menthol@triphenylphosphine, GGA/CSNO@ZrMOF-NH2 -LM-TPP nanoamplifier, and GCZMT nanoamplifier) achieve excellent microwave (MW) thermal-immunotherapy by programmed induction of HSP70 expression. After intravenous administration, GCZMT nanoamplifiers target the mitochondria, and then release nitric oxide (NO) under MW irradiation. NO inhibits the growth of tumor cells by interfering with the energy supply of cells. Subsequently, under the combination of MW, NO, and GGA, HSP70 expression can be programmed upregulated, which can induce the response of cytotoxic CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells, and effectively activate antitumor immunotherapy. Hence, GCZMT nanoamplifier-mediated MW therapy can achieve a satisfactory therapeutic effect with the tumor inhibition of 97%. This research offers a distinctive insight into the exploitation of metal-organic frameworks nanoamplifiers for enhanced tumor therapy, which provides a new approach for highly effective cancer treatment.

A multifunctional nanoplatform for improving microwave hyperthermia by a combination therapy of vessel disruptive agent and immune modulator.

Microwave (MW) hyperthermia is one of the safest and most efficient minimally invasive tumor treatment methods, it is restricted by the bottlenecks of the heat sink effect and ineffective immune activation. Herein, a multifunctional nano platform with the load of nano immune modulator bimetallic metal-organic framework (BM), tumor vessel destructive agent and prodrug for gas production is developed for improving MW hyperthermia. Specifically, the combretastatin A4 phosphate (CA4P) was a vessel destructive agent to reduce MW heat loss by destructing the tumor blood vessel. Moreover, the as designed BM can scavenge the endogenic reactive oxygen species, which is conducive to hydrogen sulfide gas (H2S) that produced by bismuth sulfide (Bi2S3) to activate immune cells. Our in vivo experimental results demonstrate the destruction of tumor blood vessels coupled with the activated immune system results in the remarkable antitumor effect. This study provides an efficient strategy to improve MW hyperthermia by a combination of vasculature-targeting therapy with systemic immunity.

Advances in locoregional therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma combined with immunotherapy and targeted therapy.

Locoregional therapies (LRTs) of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) represented by ablation and TACE has become the main means for the clinical treatment of unresectable HCC. Among these, TACE is used throughout the stage Ib to IIIb of HCC treatment. In recent years, immunotherapy led by immune checkpoint inhibitors has become a hot direction in clinical research. At the same time, targeted drugs such as Sorafenib and Apatinib have played an important role in the treatment and complementary therapy of advanced HCC, and their clinical application has been quite mature. HCC is the sixth most common malignant tumor in the world. When it comes to its treatment, different therapies have different indications, and their individual efficacies are not satisfactory, which makes the exploration of the use of combination therapy in HCC treatment become a new trend. In this paper, the status of the three therapies and the progress of their combined application are briefly reviewed.

Biocompatible and biodegradable zeolitic imidazolate framework/polydopamine nanocarriers for dual stimulus triggered tumor thermo-chemotherapy.

Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) have attracted great interest as pH-sensitive drug carrier because of high drug loading and intrinsic biodegradability. In this work, a biocompatible NIR and pH-responsive drug delivery nanoplatform based on ZIFs (PDA-PCM@ZIF-8/DOX) is synthesized for in vivo cancer therapy. The biocompatibility of ZIFs is greatly improved by polydopamine (PDA) modifying and proved by cytotoxicity and in vivo acute toxicity evaluation. The degradability is also regulated in an appropriate rate. Due to mild reaction condition of ZIFs, the synthesis and drug loading is achieved in one pot with high loading (37.86%) and encapsulation rate (78.76%). Meanwhile, PDA acts as a photothermal transfer agent to trigger thermal response switch of phase change materials for NIR controlled drug release. Under the dual stimulus of NIR and acid environment, the drug release is as high as 78%, while only 21% is released without stimulus, showing a remarkable effect of control release. In vivo anti-tumor experiments demonstrate the high tumor inhibition rate of photothermal-chemotherapy group with a significant synergistic effect. The biocompatible and biodegradable drug delivery platform based on ZIFs has shown great promise for future clinic cancer therapy.

Ball-in-ball ZrO2 nanostructure for simultaneous CT imaging and highly efficient synergic microwave ablation and tri-stimuli-responsive chemotherapy of tumors.

Combined thermo-chemotherapy displays outstanding synergically therapeutic efficiency when compared with standalone thermotherapy and chemotherapy. Herein, we developed a smart tri-stimuli-responsive drug delivery system involving X@BB-ZrO2 NPs (X represents loaded IL, DOX, keratin and tetradecanol) based on novel ball-in-ball-structured ZrO2 nanoparticles (BB-ZrO2 NPs). The microwave energy conversion efficiency of BB-ZrO2 NPs was 41.2% higher than that of traditional single-layer NPs due to the cooperative action of self-reflection and spatial confinement effect of the special two-layer hollow nanostructure. The tri-stimuli-responsive controlled release strategy indicate that integrated pH, redox and microwaves in single NPs based on keratin and tetradecanol could effectively enhance the specific controlled release of DOX. The release of DOX was only 8.1% in PBS with pH = 7.2 and GSH = 20 µM. However, the release could reach about 50% at the tumor site (pH = 5.5, GSH = 13 mM) under microwave ablation. The as-made X@BB-ZrO2 NPs exhibited perfect synergic therapy effect of chemotherapy and microwave ablation both in subcutaneous tumors (H22 tumor-bearing mice) and deep tumors (liver transplantation VX2 tumor-bearing rabbit model). There was no recurrence and death in the X@BB-ZrO2 + MW group during the therapy of subcutaneous tumors even on the 42nd day. The growth rates in the deep tumor of the control, MW and X@BB-ZrO2 + MW groups were 290.1%, 14.1% and -42% 6 days after ablation, respectively. Dual-source CT was used to monitor the metabolism behavior of the as-made BB-ZrO2 NPs and traditional CT was utilized to monitor the tumor growth in rabbits. Frozen section examination and ICP results indicated the precise control of drug delivery and enhanced cytotoxicity by the tri-stimuli-responsive controlled release strategy. The ball-in-ball ZrO2 NPs with high microwave energy conversion efficiency were first developed for synergic microwave ablation and tri-stimuli-responsive chemotherapy, which may have potential applications in clinic.

Short-term and long-term efficacy of 7 targeted therapies for the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma: a network meta-analysis: Efficacy of 7 targeted therapies for AHCC.

BACKGROUND: A variety of targeted drug therapies in clinical trials have been proven to be effective for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Our study aims to compare the short-term and long-term efficacies of different targeted drugs in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (AHCC) treatment using a network meta-analysis approach. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, Ovid, EBSCO, and Cochrane central register of controlled trials were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of different targeted therapies implemented to patients with AHCC. And the retrieval resulted in 7 targeted drugs, namely, sorafenib, ramucirumab, everolimus, brivanib, tivantinib, sunitinib, and sorafenib+erlotinib. Direct and indirect evidence were combined to evaluate stable disease (SD), progressive disease (PD), complete response (CR), partial response (PR), disease control rate (DCR), overall response ratio (ORR), overall survival (OS), and surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) of patients with AHCC. RESULTS: A total of 11 RCTs were incorporated into our analysis, including 6594 patients with AHCC, among which 1619 patients received placebo treatment and 4975 cases had targeted therapies. The results revealed that in comparison with placebo, sorafenib, and ramucirumab displayed better short-term efficacy in terms of PR and ORR, and brivanib was better in ORR. Regarding long-term efficacy, sorafenib and sorafenib+erlotinib treatments exhibited longer OS. The data of cluster analysis showed that ramucirumab or sorafenib+erlotinib presented relatively better short-term efficacy for the treatment of AHCC. CONCLUSION: This network meta-analysis shows that ramucirumab and sorafenib+erlotinib may be the better targeted drugs for AHCC patients, and sorafenib+erlotinib achieved a better long-term efficacy.

In Vivo Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Microwave Thermotherapy of Cancer Using Novel Chitosan Microcapsules.

Herein, we develop a novel integrated strategy for the preparation of theranostic chitosan microcapsules by encapsulating ion liquids (ILs) and Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The as-prepared chitosan/Fe3O4@IL microcapsules exhibit not only significant heating efficacy in vitro under microwave (MW) irradiation but also obvious enhancement of T2-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, besides the excellent biocompatibility in physiological environments. The chitosan/Fe3O4@IL microcapsules show ideal temperature rise and therapeutic efficiency when applied to microwave thermal therapy in vivo. Complete tumor elimination is realizing after MW irradiation at an ultralow power density (1.8 W/cm(2)), while neither the MW group nor the chitosan microcapsule group has significant influence on the tumor development. The applicability of the chitosan/Fe3O4@IL microcapsules as an efficient contrast agent for MR imaging is proved in vivo. Moreover, the result of in vivo systematic toxicity shows that chitosan/Fe3O4@IL microcapsules have no acute fatal toxicity. Our study presents an interesting type of multifunctional platform developed by chitosan microcapsule promising for imaging-guided MW thermotherapy.

Layered MoS2 Hollow Spheres for Highly-Efficient Photothermal Therapy of Rabbit Liver Orthotopic Transplantation Tumors.

Combining photothermal therapy (PTT) with clinical technology to kill cancer via overcoming the low tumor targeting and poor therapy efficiency has great potential in basic and clinical researches. A brand-new MoS2 nanostructure is designed and fabricated, i.e., layered MoS2 hollow spheres (LMHSs) with strong absorption in near-infrared region (NIR) and high photothermal conversion efficiency via a simple and fast chemical aerosol flow method. Owing to curving layered hollow spherical structure, the as-prepared LMHSs exhibit unique electronic properties comparing with MoS2 nanosheets. In vitro and in vivo studies demonstrate their high photothermal ablation of cell and tumor elimination rate by single NIR light irradiation. Systematic acute toxicity study indicates that these LMHSs have negligible toxic effects to normal tissues and blood. Remarkably, minimally invasive interventional techniques are introduced to improve tumor targeting of PTT agents for the first time. To explore PTT efficiency on orthotopic transplantation tumors, New Zealand white rabbits with VX2 tumor in liver are used as animal models. The effective elimination of tumors is successfully realized by PTT under the guidance of digital subtraction angiography, computed tomography, and thermal imaging, which provides a new way for tumor-targeting delivery and cancer theranostic application.

A smart all-in-one theranostic platform for CT imaging guided tumor microwave thermotherapy based on IL@ZrO2 nanoparticles.

This study develops a simple hollow ZrO2 nanostructure as a carrier to encapsulate ionic liquid (IL), which integrates the CT imaging function of the ZrO2 shell and the microwave susceptibility function of the IL core. The simple nanostructure can be used as a multifunctional theranostic agent via combining diagnostic and therapeutic modalities into one "package". Based on the microwave susceptibility properties, the tumor inhibiting ratio can be over 90% in mice models after one-time thermal therapy upon microwave irradiation. In vitro and in vivo imaging results prove the potential of CT imaging application for real-time monitoring of biodistribution and metabolic processes, and assessing therapeutic outcomes. To our best knowledge, our study is the first example to achieve CT imaging and microwave thermal therapy simultaneously through a simple nanostructure. We anticipate that the simple IL@ZrO2 nanostructure may build a useful platform for the clinical imaging guided therapy of tumors.