Reflections on the complex mechanisms of endometriosis from the perspective of ferroptosis.

Ferroptosis is a novel type of iron-dependent programmed cell death characterised by intracellular iron overload, increased lipid peroxidation and abnormal accumulation of reactive oxygen species.It has been implicated in the progression of several diseases including cancer, ischaemia-reperfusion injury, neurodegenerative diseases and liver disease. The etiology of endometriosis (EMS) is still unclear and is associated with multiple factors, often accompanied by various forms of cell death and a complex microenvironment. In recent decades, the role of non-traditional forms of cell death, represented by ferroptosis, in endometriosis has come to the attention of researchers. This article reviews the transitional role of iron homeostasis in the development of ferroptosis, the characteristics and regulatory mechanisms of ferroptosis, and focuses on summarising the links between iron death and various pathogenic mechanisms of EMS, including oxidative stress, dysregulation of lipid metabolism, inflammation, autophagy and epithelial-mesenchymal transition. The possible applications of ferroptosis in the treatment of EMS, future research directions and current issues are discussed with the aim of providing new ideas for further understanding of EMS.

Research on the dentification of Panax ginseng and Panax quinquefolium using catalysed hairpin assembly technology.

INTRODUCTION: Panax ginseng and Panax quinquefolium are traditional Chinese herb medicines and similar in morphology and some chemical components but differ in drug properties, so they cannot be mixed. However, the processed products of them are often sold in the form of slices, powder, and capsules, which are difficult to identify by traditional morphological methods. Furthermore, an accurate evaluation of P. ginseng, P. quinquefolium and the processed products have not been conducted. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to establish a catalysed hairpin assembly (CHA) identification method for authenticating products made from P. ginseng and P. quinquefolium based on single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) differences. METHOD: By analysing the differences of SNP in internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) in P. ginseng and P. quinquefolium to design CHA-specific hairpins. Establish a sensitive and efficient CHA method that can identify P. ginseng and P. quinquefolium, use the sequencing technology to verify the accuracy of this method in identifying Panax products, and compare this method with high-resolution melting (HRM). RESULTS: The reaction conditions of CHA were as follows: the ratio of forward and reverse primers, 20:1; hairpin concentration, 5 ng/µL. Compared with capillary electrophoresis, this method had good specificity and the limit of detection was 0.5 ng/µL. The result of Panax product identification with CHA method were coincidence with that of the sequencing method; the positive rate of CHA reaction was 100%. CONCLUSION: This research presents an effective identification method for authenticating P. ginseng and P. quinquefolium products, which is helpful to improve the quality of Panax products.

Long chain triglyceride-lipid formulation promotes the oral absorption of the lipidic prodrugs through coincident intestinal behaviors.

Oral administration of chemotherapy agents, such as docetaxel (DTX), is expected to reduce side effects significantly and increase dosing frequency. However, they often suffer from poor oral bioavailability, impeding their oral application. Dietary lipids such as triglycerides favor lymphatic transport nor vein system, bypassing the first-pass metabolism. Inspired by this concept, we developed a triglyceride-like prodrug of DTX (named as OATG) and explored the effect of lipid types on the OATG oral delivery. The plasma profile in rats revealed that long chain triglyceride (LCT)-based lipid formulations (LBLF) were more promising for OATG delivery than medium chain triglyceride (MCT) ones. The OATG LBLF elicited a markedly enhanced absorption compared with oral Taxotere or DTX LBLF, resulting in relative bioavailability 6.11 or 2.47-fold higher, respectively. The coincident intestinal behaviors of lipid excipients and TG-like prodrug facilitate the oral absorption of the prodrug. The effectiveness of the prodrug formulation was also examined in beagles with absolute bioavailability up to 41.08%, in sharp contrast to that of control DTX group (8%). Besides, the OATG oral formulation could be schedule-intensively administrated with no hypersensitivity, gastrointestinal and hematological toxicity. The current strategy provides an effective lipid formulation and a promising chance for chemotherapy at home.

Probing the new strategy for the oral formulations of taxanes: changing the method with the situation.

The first-generation taxanes (including paclitaxel and docetaxel) are widely used for the treatment of various cancers in clinical settings. In the past decade, a series of new-generation taxanes have been developed which are effective in the inhibition of tumor resistance. However, intravenous (i.v.) infusion is still the only route of administration, and may result in serious adverse reactions with respect to the utilization of Cremophor EL or Tween-80 as solvent. Besides, the dosing schedule is also limited. Therefore, oral administration of taxanes is urgently needed to avoid the adverse reactionss and increase dosing frequency. In this review, we first outlined the discovery and development of taxane-based anticancer agents. Furthermore, we summarized the research progress on the oral formulations of taxanes and proposed some thoughts on the future development of oral taxane formulations.

Heterogeneity and prognosis of programmed cell death-ligand 1 expression in the circulating tumor cells of non-small cell lung cancer.

Due to tumor heterogeneity, the consistency of programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression between circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and tissue is controversial. This study aimed to establish a method for detecting CTC PD-L1 expression and exploring the impact of the same on the prognosis of lung cancer. In 32 patients with non-small cell lung cancer, lung cancer cells in the blood were enriched using CD326 immunomagnetic beads. Goat anti-mouse polyclonal CD326 antibody stained the epithelial lung cancer cells and anti-PD-L1 antibody was used to detect the expression of CTC PD-L1. The DAKO Link 48 automatic staining device detected the expression in lung cancer tissue. The consistency of PD-L1 expression was analyzed in lung cancer tissue and CTCs. The effect of plasma interferon gamma, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and interleukin-2 on PD-L1 expression and prognosis was analyzed. The number of CTCs detected in patients was 1-36, with a median of 2. There was no significant difference in PD-L1 expression fractions between CTCs and paired tumor tissue (p>0.05). The correlation coefficient was 0.20. Regardless of lung cancer tissue or CTCs, there was no statistically significant difference in the blood cytokine levels between the two groups with positive or negative PD-L1 expression (p>0.05). There was no correlation between CTCs and PD-L1 in 23 untreated patients. The expression of PD-L1 in CTCs and lung cancer tissue is heterogeneous and unaffected by the peripheral cytokines' levels. PD-L1 expression has no correlation between CTCs and tissues and is not related to prognosis.

Generation of mycobacterial lipoarabinomannan-specific monoclonal antibodies and their ability to identify mycobacterium isolates.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: The World Health Organization has recommended commercial urine-sourced lipoarabinomannan (LAM) detection as a tool for screening HIV patients with suspected TB, but more sensitive immunodetection assays would help to identify HIV-negative TB patients. Here, we aimed to develop novel rabbit monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against LAM for immunodetection purposes. METHODS: Rabbits were immunized with cell-wall components from the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) H37Rv strain. An immune single-chain fragment variable (scFv) phage display library was generated. The scFv mAbs to LAM were identified through ELISA screening. The light and heavy chain variable region genes from the selected clones were sequenced. Vectors containing the full-length light and heavy chains were constructed and co-expressed in 293 T cells to generate whole IgG antibodies. The performances and binding characteristics of the mAbs against purified LAM from M.tb H37Rv, multiple mycobacteria species (M.tb H37Rv, M. bovis and non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) strains), and mycobacteria clinical isolates (Mtb and NTM isolates) were determined using various immunoassay methods. RESULTS: We obtained five rabbit mAbs against LAM, four of which had high sensitivities (100 pg/ml) and affinities (1.16-1.73 × 10-9 M) toward LAM. They reacted with M.tb H37Rv, M. bovis, and slow-growing NTM, but not with rapid-growing NTM. Similar results were obtained with mycobacterium isolates, where 96% of the Mtb isolates and 90% of the M. avium-intracellulare isolates were successfully identified. CONCLUSION: The novel rabbit LAM-specific mAbs performed well at recognizing LAM from slow-growing pathogenic mycobacteria, which support their future clinical application.

[Study of PL Spectra of PbSe Quantum Dots for IC Chip Temperature Dependence].

Colloidal PbSe QDs were prepared with the particle size of 3. 6, 5. 1 and 6. 0 nm, and the temperature-dependent optical properties of colloidal PbSe QDs were investigated. At the room temperature, the experiment showed that there is red shift with increasing temperature; photoluminescence spectra of large size colloidal PbSe QDs is blue shifted with increasing temperature. Proposed a temperature detection method of integrated circuit was proposed based on photoluminescence spectra of colloidal PbSe QDs. The method for temperature detection includes colloidal PbSe quantum dots deposited on the surface of the printed circuit board, colloidal PbSe quantum dots of the surface are excited by the laser and infrared spectrometer receives photoluminescence spectra. Image acquisition system used for micron scale areas of temperature detection collects a tiny and specific areas imaging in the surface of chip. Experiments showed that the measurement accuracy is ±3 °C and the relative error is less than 5%.