Network-Based Pharmacological Study on the Mechanism of Guishao-Liujun Decoction in the Treatment of Gastric Cancer.

Objective: The aim of the study was to use a network pharmacological method to examine the mechanism of Guishao-Liujun decoction against gastric cancer (GC). Methods: The traditional Chinese medicine systems pharmacology database and analysis platform (TCMSP) and the Traditional Chinese Medicine Integrated Database (TCMID) were used to obtain the chemical composition and targets of all the drugs of Guishao-Liujun decoction, and the targets of GC were screened using GeneCards and Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) databases. The obtained targets were imported into Cytoscape 3.7.2 software by using the R language to take the intersection for a Venn analysis to construct active ingredient target networks, and they were imported into the STRING database to construct protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks, with the BisoGenet plugin in Cytoscape 3.7.2 being used for analyzing network topology. On the potential target of Guishao-Liujun decoction for GC, gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis were performed using the R-language bioconductor platform, and the outcomes were imported into Cytoscape 3.7.2 software to obtain the KEGG network map. The core targets were docked with the active components by the macromolecular docking software application AutoDock Vina. Results: A total of 243 chemical components and 1,448 disease targets including 127 intersecting targets were discovered. AKT1, TP53, and GO functional analysis were mainly associated with ubiquitination and oxidase reduction activity. In GC treatment, the KEGG analysis revealed that Guishao-Liujun decoction mainly acted through the tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin 17 (IL-17), and cancer-related signaling pathways, with the best binding performance with TP53, as indicated by the outcomes of macromolecular docking. Conclusion: In the treatment of GC, Guishao-Liujun decoction works with a variety of components and targets, establishing the groundwork for further research into its mechanism of action.

Straw Incorporation with Nitrogen Amendment Shapes Bacterial Community Structure in an Iron-Rich Paddy Soil by Altering Nitrogen Reserves.

Incorporation of crop straw into the soil along with inorganic fertilization is a widespread agricultural practice and is essential in nutrient-scarce soils, such as iron-rich (ferruginous) paddy soils. The responses of soil bacterial communities to straw incorporation under different nitrogen inputs in iron-rich soils remain unclear. Therefore, 6000 kg ha-1 dry wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Zhengmai 12) straw was applied to a rice paddy with and without nitrogen amendment (0, 80, 300, and 450 kg ha-1 N as urea), to investigate its effects on soil fertility and bacterial community structure. Organic matter, total nitrogen, and water contents tended to decrease in straw-incorporated soils with different nitrogen inputs. Proteobacteria was the dominant bacterial phylum across all treatments (26.3-32.5% of total sequences), followed by Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria, and Nitrospirae. Up to 18.0% of all the taxa in the bacterial communities were associated with iron cycling. Straw incorporation with nitrogen amendment increased the relative abundance of iron oxidizers, Gallionellaceae, while decreasing the relative abundance of iron reducers, Geobacteraceae. Bacterial community composition shifted in different treatments, with total nitrogen, water, and Fe(III) contents being the key drivers. Straw incorporation supplemented by 300 kg ha-1 N increased bacterial richness and enhanced all the predicted bacterial functions, so that it is recommended as the optimal nitrogen dosage in practice.

Indocyanine Green Derivative Covalently Conjugated with Gold Nanorods for Multimodal Phototherapy of Fibrosarcoma Cells.

A hydrophilic indocyanine green derivative (ICG-Der-02) was covalently doped into mesoporous silica-coated gold nanorods (AuNRs/mSiO2). The self-synthesized derivative offers one carboxyl functional group on a side chain, which enables ICG-Der-02 to be covalently linked to nanomaterials and reduces the probability of leakage/desorption of the dye. The detection of infrared luminescence around 1270 nm confirmed that 102 is efficiently generated by the nanocomposite (AuNRs/mSiO2-ICG-Der-02). Furthermore, a second layer of silica was coated onto the nanocomposite, which then was conjugated with the α(v) integrin-targeting cyclic peptide (RGD-4C). The cell tests showed that the resulting nanoconjugate (AuNRs/mSiO2-ICG-Der-02/RGD-4C) was able to bind preferentially to HT-1080 human fibrosarcoma cells. Due to the synergistic effect of the produced nanoconjugates, a dual-modality photothermal and photochemical therapy was successfully achieved by 808 nm irradiation. Compared to using photothermal or photochemical therapy alone, the dual-modality photothermal/photochemical therapeutic strategy proved to be more damaging to HT-1080 cells and enhanced the effectiveness of photodestruction. Our work presents a novel approach to the multimodal treatment of fibrosarcoma and shows promise for future use in cancer theranostics.

A reagentless, disposable and multiplexed electronic biosensing platform: application to molecular logic gates.

The construction of a reagentless, sensitive, disposable and multiplexed electronic sensing platform for one-spot simultaneous determination of biomolecules with significant difference in size (proteins and small molecules) is described. The sensing surface is fabricated by the hybridization of two types of redox-tags conjugated aptamers with the corresponding complementary DNAs, which are self-assembled on a gold nanoparticle-modified screen printed carbon electrode. The presence of the target analytes leads to the release of the tagged signaling aptamers from the sensing surface, and the surface-remained tags exhibit well-resolved peaks, whose positions and sizes reflect the identities and concentrations of the target analytes, respectively. The application of the proposed sensing platform for molecular logic gate operations is also demonstrated.