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1.
Heliyon ; 10(9): e30523, 2024 May 15.
Article En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38726205

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a common neurodegenerative disease in the elderly, the exact pathogenesis of which remains incompletely understood, and effective preventive and therapeutic drugs are currently lacking. Cholesterol plays a vital role in cell membrane formation and neurotransmitter synthesis, and its abnormal metabolism is associated with the onset of AD. With the continuous advancement of imaging techniques and molecular biology methods, researchers can more accurately explore the relationship between cholesterol metabolism and AD. Elevated cholesterol levels may lead to vascular dysfunction, thereby affecting neuronal function. Additionally, abnormal cholesterol metabolism may affect the metabolism of ß-amyloid protein, thereby promoting the onset of AD. Brain cholesterol levels are regulated by multiple factors. This review aims to deepen the understanding of the subtle relationship between cholesterol homeostasis and AD, and to introduce the latest advances in cholesterol-regulating AD treatment strategies, thereby inspiring readers to contemplate deeply on this complex relationship. Although there are still many unresolved important issues regarding the risk of brain cholesterol and AD, and some studies may have opposite conclusions, further research is needed to enrich our understanding. However, these findings are expected to deepen our understanding of the pathogenesis of AD and provide important insights for the future development of AD treatment strategies targeting brain cholesterol homeostasis.

2.
Article En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38729396

BACKGROUND & AIMS: In patients with cirrhosis, continued heavy alcohol consumption and obesity may increase risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We examined whether germline susceptibility to hepatic steatosis not only independently predisposes to HCC but may also act synergistically with other risk factors. METHODS: We analyzed data from 1911 patients in two multicenter prospective cohort studies in the U.S. We classified patients according to alcohol consumption (current heavy vs. not current heavy), obesity (body mass index [BMI] ≥30 vs. <30), and PNPLA3 I148M variant status (carrier of at least one G risk allele vs. noncarrier). We examined the independent and joint effects of these risk factors on risk of developing HCC using Cox regression with competing risks. RESULTS: Mean age was 59.6y, 64.3% male, 28.7% Hispanic, 18.3% non-Hispanic Black, 50.9% were obese, 6.2% had current heavy alcohol consumption, and 58.4% harbored at least one PNPLA3 G-allele. 116 patients developed HCC. Compared to PNPLA3 noncarriers without heavy alcohol consumption, HCC risk was 2.65-fold higher (hazard ratio [HR], 2.65; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.20-5.86) for carriers who had current heavy alcohol consumption. Compared to noncarrier patients without obesity, HCC risk was higher (HR, 2.40; 95%CI, 1.33-4.31) for carrier patients who were obese. PNPLA3 and alcohol consumption effect was stronger among patients with viral etiology of cirrhosis (HR, 3.42; 95% CI, 1.31-8.90). PNPLA3 improved 1-year risk prediction for HCC when added to a clinical risk model. CONCLUSIONS: The PNPLA3 variant may help refine risk stratification for HCC in patients with cirrhosis with heavy alcohol consumption or obesity who may need specific preventive measures.

3.
PeerJ Comput Sci ; 10: e2007, 2024.
Article En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38699205

Uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) aerial photography technology is widely used in both industrial and military sectors, but remote sensing for small target detection still faces several challenges. Firstly, the small size of targets increases the difficulty of detection and recognition. Secondly, complex aerial environmental conditions, such as lighting changes and background noise, significantly affect the quality of detection. Rapid and accurate identification of target categories is also a key issue, requiring improvements in detection speed and accuracy. This study proposes an improved remote sensing target detection algorithm based on the YOLOv5 architecture. In the YOLOv5s model, the Distribution Focal Loss function is introduced to accelerate the convergence speed of the network and enhance the network's focus on annotated data. Simultaneously, adjustments are made to the Cross Stage Partial (CSP) network structure, modifying the convolution kernel size, adding a new stack-separated convolution module, and designing a new attention mechanism to achieve effective feature fusion between different hierarchical structure feature maps. Experimental results demonstrate a significant performance improvement of the proposed algorithm on the RSOD dataset, with a 3.5% increase in detection accuracy compared to the original algorithm. These findings indicate that our algorithm effectively enhances the precision of remote sensing target detection and holds potential application prospects.

4.
J Gastrointest Surg ; 2024 May 03.
Article En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38705366

BACKGROUND: This study presents an innovative technique in totally laparoscopic total gastrectomy (TLTG) for Overlap esophagojejunostomy, termed self-pulling and latter transection (Overlap SPLT). It evaluates the effectiveness and short-term outcomes of this novel method through a comparative analysis with the established functional end-to-end esophagojejunostomy incorporating self-pulling and latter transection (FETE SPLT). METHODS: From September 2018 to September 2023, this study enrolled 68 gastric cancer patients who underwent totally laparoscopic total gastrectomy (TLTG) with Overlap SPLT anastomosis and 120 patients who underwent TLTG with FETE SPLT anastomosis. Clinicopathological characteristics, surgical and postoperative outcomes data for Overlap SPLT cases were gathered and retrospectively compared with those from FETE SPLT TLTG to evaluate the effectiveness and clinical safety. RESULTS: The duration of anastomosis for Overlap SPLT was 25.3 ± 7.4minutes, significantly longer than that for the FETE SPLT (18.1 ± 4.0minutes, P = 0.031). Perioperatively, one anastomosis-related complication occurred in each group, but this did not constitute a statistically significant difference (P = 0.682). No statistically significant differences were found between the two groups in terms of operative time, postoperative hospital stay, operative cost, surgical margins, or number of lymph nodes removed. Postoperative morbidity rates were similar between the groups (4.4% vs. 5.8%, P = 0.676). CONCLUSION: The Overlap SPLT technique is regarded as a safe and feasible method for anastomosis. There were no apparent differences in complications between Overlap SPLT and FETE SPLT, but Overlap SPLT costed one additional stapler cartridge and required a longer duration.

5.
bioRxiv ; 2024 Apr 02.
Article En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38617359

The bipolar disorder (BD) risk gene ANK3 encodes the scaffolding protein AnkyrinG (AnkG). In neurons, AnkG regulates polarity and ion channel clustering at axon initial segments and nodes of Ranvier. Disruption of neuronal AnkG causes BD-like phenotypes in mice. During development, AnkG is also expressed at comparable levels in oligodendrocytes and facilitates the efficient assembly of paranodal junctions. However, the physiological roles of glial AnkG in the mature nervous system, and its contributions to BD-like phenotypes, remain unexplored. Here, we generated oligodendroglia-specific AnkG conditional knockout mice and observed the destabilization of axoglial interactions in aged but not young adult mice. In addition, these mice exhibited profound histological, electrophysiological, and behavioral pathophysiologies. Unbiased translatomic profiling revealed potential compensatory machineries. These results highlight the critical functions of glial AnkG in maintaining proper axoglial interactions throughout aging and suggests a previously unrecognized contribution of oligodendroglial AnkG to neuropsychiatric disorders.

6.
J Mater Chem B ; 12(15): 3686-3693, 2024 Apr 17.
Article En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38563159

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has emerged as a promising approach for tumor treatment. However, traditional type II PDT faces limitations due to its oxygen-dependent nature. Type-I photosensitizers (PSs) exhibit superiority over conventional type-II PSs owing to their diminished oxygen dependence. Nevertheless, designing effective type-I PSs remains a significant challenge. In this work, we provide a novel strategy to tune the PDT mechanism of an excited photosensitizer through aryl substituent engineering. Using S-rhodamine as the base structure, three PSs were synthesized by incorporating phenyl, furyl, or thienyl groups at the meso position. Interestingly, furyl- or thienyl-substituted S-rhodamine are type-I-dominated PSs that produce O2˙-, while phenyl S-rhodamine results in O2˙- and 1O2 through type-I and type-II mechanisms, respectively. Experimental analyses and theoretical calculations showed that the introduction of a five-membered heterocycle at the meso position promoted intersystem crossing (ISC) and electron transfer, facilitating the production of O2˙-. Furthermore, furyl- or thienyl-substituted S-rhodamine exhibited high phototoxicity at ultralow concentrations. Thienyl-substituted S-rhodamine showed promising PDT efficacy against hypoxic solid tumors. This innovative strategy provides an alternative approach to developing new type-I PSs without the necessity for creating entirely new skeletons.


Neoplasms , Photochemotherapy , Humans , Photosensitizing Agents/pharmacology , Photosensitizing Agents/chemistry , Mitochondria , Oxygen , Rhodamines/pharmacology
7.
Anal Chem ; 96(17): 6523-6527, 2024 Apr 30.
Article En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38634570

Complete sample digestion is a prerequisite for acquiring high-quality analytical results for geological samples. Closed-vessel acid digestion (bomb) has typically been used for the total digestion of refractory geological samples. However, the long digestion time (4-5 days) and insoluble fluoride complexes still pose challenges for digesting refractory geological samples using this approach. In this study, an efficient and simplified digestion technique combining ultrafine powders from planetary ball milling with bomb digestion was developed for trace element analysis of refractory geological samples: peridotite and granitoid. The method shows two significant improvements compared with previous approaches. (1) By performing dry planetary ultrafine milling, the initial 200 mesh peridotite (<74 µm) could be reduced to 800 mesh (<20 µm) in 6 min at a ball-to-powder mass ratio of approximately 15 using 3 mm tungsten carbide milling balls. (2) Complete peridotite and granitoid dissolution were achieved in approximately 2 h, 60 times faster than what is achievable using previous methods (2 h vs 120 h). Moreover, ultrafine powders effectively suppressed insoluble fluoride formation during bomb digestion. A suite of peridotite and granitoid reference materials were measured to evaluate the stability of this method. This efficient, simple, and reliable sample digestion method could benefit geological, food, environmental, and other fields requiring solid sample decomposition via wet acid, fusion, combustion, or dry ashing.

8.
Anal Chem ; 96(18): 7082-7090, 2024 May 07.
Article En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38652135

Parkinson's disease (PD) represents the second most widespread neurodegenerative disease, and early monitoring and diagnosis are urgent at present. Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) is a key enzyme for producing dopamine, the levels of which can serve as an indicator for assessing the severity and progression of PD. This renders the specific detection and visualization of TH a strategically vital way to meet the above demands. However, a fluorescent probe for TH monitoring is still missing. Herein, three rationally designed wash-free ratiometric fluorescent probes were proposed. Among them, TH-1 exhibited ideal photophysical properties and specific dual-channel bioimaging of TH activity in SH-SY5Y nerve cells. Moreover, the probe allowed for in vivo imaging of TH activity in zebrafish brain and living striatal slices of mice. Overall, the ratiometric fluorescent probe TH-1 could serve as a potential tool for real-time monitoring of PD in complex biosystems.


Fluorescent Dyes , Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase , Zebrafish , Fluorescent Dyes/chemistry , Fluorescent Dyes/chemical synthesis , Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase/metabolism , Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase/analysis , Animals , Mice , Humans , Optical Imaging , Cell Line, Tumor , Parkinson Disease/diagnostic imaging , Parkinson Disease/metabolism
9.
Plant Sci ; 344: 112105, 2024 Apr 24.
Article En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38663481

As the most prominent proton pumps in plants, vacuolar H+-ATPases (VHAs) comprise multiple subunits that are important for physiological processes and stress tolerance in plants. However, few studies on the roles of subunit genes of VHAs in chrysanthemum have been reported to date. In this study, the gene of A subunit of V-ATPase in chrysanthemum (CmVHA-A) was cloned and identified. CmVHA-A was conserved with VHA-A proteins from other plants. Expression analysis showed that CmVHA-A was highly expressed in most tissues of chrysanthemum except for the flower bud, and was readily induced by polyethylene glycol (PEG) treatment. Functional analysis demonstrated that CmVHA-A exerted a negative influence on the growth and development of shoot and root of chrysanthemum under normal conditions. RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis revealed the possible explanations for phenotypic differences between transgenic and wild-type (WT) plants. Under drought conditions, CmVHA-A positively affected the drought tolerance of chrysanthemum by enhancing antioxidase activity and alleviating photosynthetic disruption. Overall, CmVHA-A plays opposite roles in plant growth and drought tolerance of chrysanthemums under different growing conditions.

10.
Food Res Int ; 184: 114264, 2024 May.
Article En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38609240

Rice is an important staple food in the world. Drying is an important step in the post-harvest handling of rice and can influence rice qualities and thus play a key role in determining rice commercial and nutritional value. In rice processing, traditional drying methods may lead to longer drying times, greater energy consumption, and unintended quality losses. Thus, it is imperative to improve the physical, chemical, and milling properties of rice while preserving its nutritional value, flavor, and appearance as much as possible. Additionally, it is necessary to increase the efficiency with which heat energy is utilized during the thermal processing of freshly harvested paddy. Moreover, this review provides insights into the current application status of six different innovative drying technologies such as radio frequency (RF) drying, microwave (MW) drying, infrared (IR) drying, vacuum drying (VD), superheated steam (SHS) drying, fluidized bed (FB) drying along with their effect on the quality of rice such as color, flavor, crack ratio, microstructure and morphology, bioactive components and antioxidant activity as well asstarch content and glycemic index. Dielectric methods of drying due to volumetric heating results in enhanced drying rate, improved heating uniformity, reduced crack ratio, increased head rice yield and better maintain taste value of paddy grains. These novel emerging drying techniques increased the interactions between hydrated proteins and swollen starch granules, resulting in enhanced viscosity of rice flour and promoted starch gelatinization and enhanced antioxidant activity which is helpful to produce functional rice. Moreover, this review not only highlights the existing challenges posed by these innovative thermal technologies but also presents potential solutions. Additionally, the combination of these technologies to optimize operating conditions can further boost their effectiveness in enhancing the drying process. Nevertheless, future studies are essential to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanism of quality changes induced by emerging processing technologies. This knowledge will help expand the application of these techniques in the rice processing industry.


Oryza , Antioxidants , Desiccation , Food , Starch
11.
J Control Release ; 369: 420-443, 2024 Apr 05.
Article En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38575075

Wound healing involves distinct phases, including hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling, which is a complex and dynamic process. Conventional preparations often fail to meet multiple demands and provide prompt information about wound status. Here, a pH/ROS dual-responsive hydrogel (OHA-PP@Z-CA@EGF) was constructed based on oxidized hyaluronic acid (OHA), phenylboronic acid-grafted ε-polylysine (PP), chlorogenic acid (CA)-loaded ZIF-8 (Z-CA), and epidermal growth factor (EGF), which possesses intrinsic antibacterial, antioxidant, and angiogenic capacities. Due to the Schiff base and Phenylboronate ester bonds, the hydrogel exhibited excellent mechanical properties, strong adhesion, good biodegradability, high biocompatibility, stable rheological properties, and self-healing ability. Moreover, introducing Z-CA as an initiator and nanofiller led to the additional cross-linking of hydrogel through coordination bonds, which further improved the mechanical properties and antioxidant capabilities. Bleeding models of liver and tail amputations demonstrated rapid hemostatic properties of the hydrogel. Besides, the hydrogel regulated macrophage phenotypes via the NF-κB/JAK-STAT pathways, relieved oxidative stress, promoted cell migration and angiogenesis, and accelerated diabetic wound healing. The hydrogel also enabled real-time monitoring of the wound healing stages by colorimetric detection. This multifunctional hydrogel opens new avenues for the treatment and management of full-thickness diabetic wounds.

12.
Adv Healthc Mater ; : e2400897, 2024 Apr 16.
Article En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38626922

Macroporous hydrogels offer physical supportive spaces and bio-instructive environment for the seeded cells, where cell-scaffold interactions directly influence cell fates and subsequently affect tissue regeneration post-implantation. Effectively modifying bioactive motifs at the inner pore surface provides appropriate niches for cell-scaffold interactions. A molecular imprinting method and sacrificial templates are introduced to prepare inner pore surface modification in the macroporous hydrogels. In detail, acrylated bisphosphonates (Ac-BPs) chelating to templates (CaCO3 particles) are anchored on the inner pore surface of the methacrylated gelatin (GelMA)-methacrylated hyaluronic acid (HAMA)-poly (ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) macroporous hydrogel (GHP) to form a functional hydrogel scaffold (GHP-int-BP). GHP-int-BP, but not GHP, effectively crafts artificial cell niches to substantially alter cell fates, including osteogenic induction and osteoclastic inhibition, and promote in situ bone regeneration. These findings highlight that molecular imprinting on the inner pore surface in the hydrogel efficiently creates orthogonally additive bio-instructive scaffolds for bone regeneration.

13.
Comput Biol Med ; 172: 108315, 2024 Apr.
Article En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38503093

The incidence of blinding eye diseases is highly correlated with changes in retinal morphology, and is clinically detected by segmenting retinal structures in fundus images. However, some existing methods have limitations in accurately segmenting thin vessels. In recent years, deep learning has made a splash in the medical image segmentation, but the lack of edge information representation due to repetitive convolution and pooling, limits the final segmentation accuracy. To this end, this paper proposes a pixel-level retinal vessel segmentation network with multiple-dimension attention and adaptive feature fusion. Here, a multiple dimension attention enhancement (MDAE) block is proposed to acquire more local edge information. Meanwhile, a deep guidance fusion (DGF) block and a cross-pooling semantic enhancement (CPSE) block are proposed simultaneously to acquire more global contexts. Further, the predictions of different decoding stages are learned and aggregated by an adaptive weight learner (AWL) unit to obtain the best weights for effective feature fusion. The experimental results on three public fundus image datasets show that proposed network could effectively enhance the segmentation performance on retinal blood vessels. In particular, the proposed method achieves AUC of 98.30%, 98.75%, and 98.71% on the DRIVE, CHASE_DB1, and STARE datasets, respectively, while the F1 score on all three datasets exceeded 83%. The source code of the proposed model is available at https://github.com/gegao310/VesselSeg-Pytorch-master.


Algorithms , Retina , Retina/diagnostic imaging , Retinal Vessels/diagnostic imaging , Fundus Oculi , Software , Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/methods
14.
World J Gastrointest Surg ; 16(2): 596-600, 2024 Feb 27.
Article En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38463376

BACKGROUND: Hemolymphangioma of the jejunum is rare and lacks clinical specificity, and can manifest as gastrointestinal bleeding, abdominal pain, and intestinal obstruction. Computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and other examinations show certain characteristics of the disease, but lack accuracy. Although capsule endoscopy and enteroscopy make up for this deficiency, the diagnosis also still requires pathology. CASE SUMMARY: A male patient was admitted to the hospital due to abdominal distension and abdominal pain, but a specific diagnosis by computed tomography examination was not obtained. Partial resection of the small intestine was performed by robotic surgery, and postoperative pathological biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of hemolymphangioma. No recurrence in the follow-up examination was observed. CONCLUSION: Robotic surgery is an effective way to treat hemolymphangioma through minimally invasive techniques under the concept of rapid rehabilitation.

15.
J Electromyogr Kinesiol ; 76: 102869, 2024 Mar 04.
Article En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38479095

Decomposition of EMG signals provides the decoding of motor unit (MU) discharge timings. In this study, we propose a fast gradient convolution kernel compensation (fgCKC) decomposition algorithm for high-density surface EMG decomposition and apply it to an offline and real-time estimation of MU spike trains. We modified the calculation of the cross-correlation vectors to improve the calculation efficiency of the gradient convolution kernel compensation (gCKC) algorithm. Specifically, the new fgCKC algorithm considers the past gradient in addition to the current gradient. Furthermore, the EMG signals are divided by sliding windows to simulate real-time decomposition, and the proposed algorithm was validated on simulated and experimental signals. In the offline decomposition, fgCKC has the same robustness as gCKC, with sensitivity differences of 2.6 ± 1.3 % averaged across all trials and subjects. Nevertheless, depending on the number of MUs and the signal-to-noise ratio of signals, fgCKC is approximately 3 times faster than gCKC. In the real-time part, the processing only needed 240 ms average per window of EMG signals on a regular personal computer (IIntel(R) Core(TM) i5-12490F 3 GHz, 16 GB memory). These results indicate that fgCKC achieves real-time decomposition by significantly reducing processing time, providing more possibilities for non-invasive neuronal behavior research.

16.
Front Bioeng Biotechnol ; 12: 1375277, 2024.
Article En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38515620

Introduction: Stroke is the second leading cause of death globally and a primary factor contributing to disability. Unilateral limb motor impairment caused by stroke is the most common scenario. The bilateral movement pattern plays a crucial role in assisting stroke survivors on the affected side to relearn lost skills. However, motion compensation often lead to decreased coordination between the limbs on both sides. Furthermore, muscle fatigue resulting from imbalanced force exertion on both sides of the limbs can also impact the rehabilitation outcomes. Method: In this study, an assessment method based on muscle synergy indicators was proposed to objectively quantify the impact of motion compensation issues on rehabilitation outcomes. Muscle synergy describes the body's neuromuscular control mechanism, representing the coordinated activation of multiple muscles during movement. 8 post-stroke hemiplegia patients and 8 healthy subjects participated in this study. During hand-cycling tasks with different resistance levels, surface electromyography signals were synchronously collected from these participants before and after fatigue. Additionally, a simulated compensation experiment was set up for healthy participants to mimic various hemiparetic states observed in patients. Results and discussion: Synergy symmetry and synergy fusion were chosen as potential indicators for assessing motion compensation. The experimental results indicate significant differences in synergy symmetry and fusion levels between the healthy control group and the patient group (p ≤ 0.05), as well as between the healthy control group and the compensation group. Moreover, the analysis across different resistance levels showed no significant variations in the assessed indicators (p > 0.05), suggesting the utility of synergy symmetry and fusion indicators for the quantitative evaluation of compensation behaviors. Although muscle fatigue did not significantly alter the symmetry and fusion levels of bilateral synergies (p > 0.05), it did reduce the synergy repeatability across adjacent movement cycles, compromising movement stability and hindering patient recovery. Based on synergy symmetry and fusion indicators, the degree of bilateral motion compensation in patients can be quantitatively assessed, providing personalized recommendations for rehabilitation training and enhancing its effectiveness.

17.
Sci Rep ; 14(1): 7026, 2024 03 25.
Article En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38528005

The Amplified Luminescent Proximity Homogenous Assay-linked Immunosorbent Assay (AlphaLISA) is known for detecting various protein targets; however, its ability to detect nucleic acid sequences is not well established. Here, the capabilities of the AlphaLISA technology were expanded to include direct detection of DNA (aka: oligo-Alpha) and was applied to the detection of Listeria monocytogenes. Parameters were defined that allowed the newly developed oligo-Alpha to differentiate L. monocytogenes from other Listeria species through the use of only a single nucleotide polymorphism within the 16S rDNA region. Investigations into the applicability of this assay with different matrices demonstrated its utility in both milk and juice. One remarkable feature of the oligo-Alpha is that greater sensitivity could be achieved through the use of multiple acceptor oligos compared to only a single acceptor oligo, even when only a single donor oligo was employed. Additional acceptor oligos were easily incorporated into the assay and a tenfold change in the detection limit was readily achieved, with detection limits of 250 attomole of target being recorded. In summary, replacement of antibodies with oligonucleotides allows us to take advantage of genotypic difference(s), which both expands its repertoire of biological markers and furthers its use as a diagnostic tool.


Listeria monocytogenes , Listeria , Listeria monocytogenes/genetics , Listeria/genetics , Base Sequence , Antibodies/genetics , DNA, Ribosomal , Sensitivity and Specificity , Food Microbiology
18.
Biopreserv Biobank ; 2024 Mar 07.
Article En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38452333

Objective: Amniotic fluid (AF) plays a crucial role in diagnosing and predicting perinatal diseases, specifically preeclampsia (PE). Adequate preservation of AF samples is essential for advancing the development of PE-related biomarkers and understanding the disease's mechanisms. Materials and Methods: This study presents a method for preserving proteins in AF on a solid medium, specifically a nitrocellulose membrane, which is referred to as an AF membrane. Samples were collected from normotensive subjects and PE patients and treated with direct freezing and the AF membrane methods, respectively. Protein quality was assessed through sodium dodecyl sulfate-page and capillary electrophoresis. Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) with data-independent acquisition was employed for proteomic analysis. Bioinformatics analysis identified differentially expressed proteins and pathways distinguishing normotensive subjects from PE patients. Results: Comparison of the AF membrane method to the direct freezing method showed no significant impact on the protein content in the AF. The preservation methods employed did not result in evident protein differences or degradation in the AF obtained from both normotensive subjects and PE patients. Analysis based on Gene Ontology and HALLMARK gene sets revealed the upregulation of pathways associated with angiotensin, reactive oxygen species, and coagulation in PE patients. Furthermore, several biomarkers previously reported to be increased in PE serum, namely ENG, ERN1, FLT1, GDF15, HSPA5, LGALS3, PAPPA, PTX3, and SERPINE1, were significantly elevated in the AF. Conclusion: The AF membrane method proved to be highly effective, reliable, and durable for preserving proteins in AF samples. Preserving AF samples in a solid state holds significant value in discovering novel protein biomarkers and investigating the underlying mechanisms of PE.

19.
J Colloid Interface Sci ; 662: 1016-1025, 2024 May 15.
Article En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38387363

Visible-driven photocatalytic hydrogen production using narrow-bandgap semiconductors has great potential for clean energy development. However, the widespread use of these semiconductors is limited due to problems such as severe charge recombination and slow surface reactions. Herein, a quasi-type-II heterostructure was constructed by combining bifunctional Ni-based metal-organic framework (Ni-MOF) nanosheets with BDC (1,4-benzenedicarboxylic acid) linker coupled with Cu-In-Zn-S quantum dots (CIZS QDs). This heterostructure exhibited a prolonged charge carrier lifetime and abundant active sites, leading to significantly improved hydrogen production rate. The optimized rate achieved by the CIZS/Ni-MOF heterostructure was 2642 µmol g-1 h-1, which is 5.28 times higher than that of the CIZS QDs. This improved performance can be attributed to the quasi-type-II band alignment between the CIZS QDs and Ni-MOF, which facilitates effective delocalization of the photogenerated electrons within the system. Additional photoelectrochemical tests confirmed the well-maintained photoluminescence and prolonged charge carrier lifetime of the CIZS/Ni-MOF heterostructure. This study provides valuable insights into the use of multifunctional MOFs in the development of highly efficient composite photocatalysts, extending beyond their role in light harvesting and charge separation.

20.
Microbiol Resour Announc ; 13(3): e0114223, 2024 Mar 12.
Article En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38377127

Staphylococcus saprophyticus, a common contaminant of foods, causes urinary tract infections in humans. Here, we report the draft genomic sequence for S. saprophyticus ATCC 49453, which is currently being used in food safety research.

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