Boosting the Electroreduction of CO2 to CO by Ligand Engineering of Gold Nanoclusters.

The electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) has been widely studied as a promising means to convert anthropogenic CO2 into valuable chemicals and fuels. In this process, the alkali metal ions present in the electrolyte are known to significantly influence the CO2RR activity and selectivity. In this study, we report a strategy for preparing efficient electrocatalysts by introducing a cation-relaying ligand, namely 6-mercaptohexanoic acid (MHA), into atom-precise Au25 nanoclusters (NCs). The CO2RR activity of the synthesized Au25(MHA)18 NCs was compared with that of Au25(HT)18 NCs (HT=1-hexanethiolate). While both NCs selectively produced CO over H2, the CO2-to-CO conversion activity of the Au25(MHA)18 NCs was significantly higher than that of the Au25(HT)18 NCs when the catholyte pH was higher than the pKa of MHA, demonstrating the cation-relaying effect of the anionic terminal group. Mechanistic investigations into the CO2RR occurring on the Au25 NCs in the presence of different catholyte cations and concentrations revealed that the CO2-to-CO conversion activities of these Au25 NCs increased in the order Li+

Establishment of tumor microenvironment-preserving organoid model from patients with intracranial meningioma.

BACKGROUND: Although meningioma is the most common primary brain tumor, treatments rely on surgery and radiotherapy, and recurrent meningiomas have no standard therapeutic options due to a lack of clinically relevant research models. Current meningioma cell lines or organoids cannot reflect biological features of patient tumors since they undergo transformation along culture and consist of only tumor cells without microenvironment. We aim to establish patient-derived meningioma organoids (MNOs) preserving diverse cell types representative of the tumor microenvironment. METHODS: The biological features of MNOs were evaluated using WST, LDH, and collagen-based 3D invasion assays. Cellular identities in MNOs were confirmed by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Genetic alteration profiles of MNOs and their corresponding parental tumors were obtained by whole-exome sequencing. RESULTS: MNOs were established from four patients with meningioma (two grade 1 and two grade 2) at a 100% succession rate. Exclusion of enzymatic dissociation-reaggregation steps endowed MNOs with original histology and tumor microenvironment. In addition, we used a liquid media culture system instead of embedding samples into Matrigel, resulting in an easy-to-handle, cost-efficient, and time-saving system. MNOs maintained their functionality and morphology after long-term culture (> 9 wk) and repeated cryopreserving-recovery cycles. The similarities between MNOs and their corresponding parental tumors were confirmed by both IHC and whole-exome sequencing. As a representative application, we utilized MNOs in drug screening, and mifepristone, an antagonist of progesterone receptor, showed prominent antitumor efficacy with respect to viability, invasiveness, and protein expression. CONCLUSION: Taken together, our MNO model overcame limitations of previous meningioma models and showed superior resemblance to parental tumors. Thus, our model could facilitate translational research identifying and selecting drugs for meningioma in the era of precision medicine.

Evaluation of Multiplex Rapid Antigen Tests for the Simultaneous Detection of SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza A/B Viruses.

Single-target rapid antigen tests (RATs) are commonly used to detect highly transmissible respiratory viruses (RVs), such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and influenza viruses. The simultaneous detection of RVs presenting overlapping symptoms is vital in making appropriate decisions about treatment, isolation, and resource utilization; however, few studies have evaluated multiplex RATs for SARS-CoV-2 and other RVs. We assessed the diagnostic performance of multiplex RATs targeting both the SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A/B viruses with the GenBody Influenza/COVID-19 Ag Triple, InstaView COVID-19/Flu Ag Combo (InstaView), STANDARDTM Q COVID-19 Ag Test, and STANDARDTM Q Influenza A/B Test kits using 974 nasopharyngeal swab samples. The cycle threshold values obtained from the real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction results showed higher sensitivity (72.7-100%) when the values were below, rather than above, the cut-off values. The InstaView kit exhibited significantly higher positivity rates (80.21% for SARS-CoV-2, 61.75% for influenza A, and 46.15% for influenza B) and cut-off values (25.57 for SARS-CoV-2, 21.19 for influenza A, and 22.35 for influenza B) than the other two kits, and was able to detect SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants. Therefore, the InstaView kit is the best choice for routine screening for both SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A/B in local communities.

Intraocular Lens Unfurling Time Exponentially Decays with Increased Solution Temperature.

Purpose: Intraocular lens (IOL) unfurling can be a rate-limiting step in cataract surgery, limiting operative efficiency. Furthermore, inefficient unfurling has important implications for clinical outcomes. We examine the effects of solution temperature on IOL unfurling time using three in vitro models of the ocular environment. Methods: IOLs were injected into a 6-well plate filled with balanced salt solution (BSS), dispersive ophthalmic viscoelastic device (OVD), or cohesive OVD. Experiments were also performed in a plastic eye filled with dispersive or cohesive OVD. IOL unfurling time was recorded against the temperature of the respective solution. Results: IOL unfurling time decayed exponentially as solution temperature increased in all experiments, including the BSS-filled 6-well plate, the OVD-filled 6-well plate, and the OVD-filled plastic eye. IOLs failed to unfurl within 10 min at 10°C, below the glass transition temperature of the tested IOLs. Increasing solution temperature from 20°C to 30°C decreases IOL unfurling by greater than 2 min. Further heating to 40°C did not significantly decrease IOL unfurling time. Conclusion: Increased solution temperature rapidly decreases IOL unfurling time in vitro. IOLs do not unfurl within a clinically acceptable timeframe at or below their glass transition temperature. Increased BSS and/or OVD temperature may be a potential method to decrease IOL unfurling time in cataract surgery. However, future research is needed to elucidate potential consequences of warmed BSS and/or OVD on post-operative outcomes. This study demonstrates the potential for temperature regulation to decrease cataract surgery operative time and provides preliminary evidence to justify future clinical validation of this relationship.

During cataract surgery, a prosthetic intraocular lens (IOL) is inserted into the eye once the clouded lens is removed. The IOL must then unfurl before the procedure can proceed. When IOLs fail to unfurl or unfurl slowly, this can delay the operation and may even cause post-operative complications. Thus, we studied the effect temperature may have on IOL unfurling time to optimize this segment of the operation. We injected IOLs into solutions of saline (balanced salt solution) or ophthalmic viscoelastic device (OVD), two fluids injected into the eye during surgery. In both a well plate and a plastic eye, we found that increasing the temperature of the solution significantly affected IOL unfurling time. Specifically, heating the solution from refrigeration to room temperature decreased unfurling time from over 10 min to less than four. Heating to physiological temperature further decreased unfurling time to less than a minute. Our results show promise for potentially utilizing heated BSS and/or OVD to accelerate IOL unfurling and decrease cataract surgery operative time.

Evaluation of Rapid Multiplex Reverse Transcription-Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction Assays for SARS-CoV-2 Detection in Individual and Pooled Samples.

Although coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is no longer a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has had a vast impact to date. Hence, continuous management is required, given the uncertainty caused by the potential evolution of SARS-CoV-2. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) diagnosis has been fundamental in overcoming this issue. In this study, the performances of two rapid RT-qPCR assays (Real-Q Direct SARS-CoV-2 Detection Kit and Allplex™ SARS-CoV-2 fast PCR Assay) with short PCR times were comparatively evaluated using a STANDARD M nCoV Real-Time Detection Kit (STANDARD M, conventional RT-qPCR assay). All kits showed a limit of detection values (102-103 copies/reaction). The evaluation showed that the two rapid assay tests had ≥97.89% sensitivity and ≥99.51% specificity (κ = 0.98) for individual samples and ≥97.32% sensitivity and ≥97.67% specificity for pooled samples compared to STANDARD M. These results indicate that the two rapid RT-qPCR kits, which showed significant time reduction in performance, are as effective as a conventional RT-qPCR assay. They are likely to increase not only the number of tests that can be performed but also the efficiency of sustainable management of COVID-19 in the long term.

Suppression of Metastatic Ovarian Cancer Cells by Bepridil, a Calcium Channel Blocker.

Although surgery followed by platinum-based therapy is effective as a standard treatment in the early stages of ovarian cancer, the majority of cases are diagnosed at advanced stages, leading to poor prognosis. Thus, the identification of novel therapeutic drugs is needed. In this study, we assessed the effectiveness of bepridil-a calcium channel blocker-in ovarian cancer cells using two cell lines: SKOV-3, and SKOV-3-13 (a highly metastatic clone of SKOV-3). Treatment of these cell lines with bepridil significantly reduced cell viability, migration, and invasion. Notably, SKOV-3-13 was more sensitive to bepridil than SKOV-3. The TGF-ß1-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-like phenotype was reversed by treatment with bepridil in both cell lines. Consistently, expression levels of EMT-related markers, including vimentin, ß-catenin, and Snail, were also substantially decreased by the treatment with bepridil. An in vivo mouse xenograft model was used to confirm these findings. Tumor growth was significantly reduced by bepridil treatment in SKOV-3-13-inoculated mice, and immunohistochemistry showed consistently decreased expression of EMT-related markers. Our findings are the first to report anticancer effects of bepridil in ovarian cancer, and they suggest that bepridil holds significant promise as an effective therapeutic agent for targeting metastatic ovarian cancer.

Analysis of antibiotic resistance gene cassettes in a newly identified Salmonella enterica serovar Gallinarum strain in Korea.

Antimicrobial resistant pathogens are a global health threat driven by the indiscriminate use of antimicrobials. Antimicrobial resistance can be acquired by resistance genes encoded by mobile genetic elements. In this study, we identified a strain of Salmonella enterica serovar Gallinarum (SG4021) from an infected chicken in Korea and characterized the presence of resistance genes in its plasmid by whole genome sequencing. The sequence was then compared with that of a plasmid (P2) from strain SG_07Q015, the only other strain of S. Gallinarum isolated in Korea for which a genome sequence is available. The results revealed that both strains harbored nearly identical DNA carrying antibiotic resistance gene cassettes inserted into integron In2 of the transposable element Tn21, namely an aadA1 resistance gene conferring resistance to aminoglycosides and a sul1 resistance gene conferring resistance to sulfonamide. Interestingly, despite the presence of sul1 in SG4021, an antibiotic sensitivity test revealed that it was sensitive to sulfonamides. Further analysis revealed that this disparity was due to the insertion of a ~ 5 kb ISCR16 sequence downstream of the promoter driving sul1 expression in SG4021. Using various mutants, we showed that the insertion of ISCR16 blocked the expression of the sul1 gene from the upstream promoter. Therefore, the functionality of antimicrobial resistance genes determines phenotypic antimicrobial resistance.

Exploring the sheep (Ovis aries) immunoglobulin repertoire by next generation sequencing.

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has revolutionized the way we determine the antibody repertoires encoded by B cells in the blood or lymphoid organs and transformed our understanding of adaptive immune responses in many species. Sheep (Ovis aries) have been widely used as a host for therapeutic antibody production since the early 1980s, however, little is known about their immune repertoires or immunological processes affecting the antibody generation. The objective of this study was to employ NGS for a comprehensive analysis of immunoglobulin heavy and light chain repertoires in four healthy sheep. We obtained > 90 % complete antibody sequences and nearly 130,000, 48,000 and 218,000 unique CDR3 reads for the heavy chain (IGH), kappa chain (IGK), and lambda chain (IGL) loci, respectively. Consistent with other species, we observed biased usage of germline variable (V), diversity (D) and joining (J) genes in the heavy and kappa loci, but not in the lambda loci. Moreover, the enormous diversity of CDR3 sequences was observed through sequence clustering and convergent recombination. These data will build a foundation for future studies investigating immune repertoires in health and disease as well as contribute to further refinement of ovine-derived therapeutic antibody drugs.

Evaluation of Four Rapid Antigen Tests for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Infection with Nasopharyngeal Swabs.

Owing to the high transmissibility of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants, the capacity of testing systems based on the gold standard real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) is limited. Rapid antigen tests (RATs) can substantially contribute to the prevention of community transmission, but their further assessment is required. Here, using 1503 nasopharyngeal swabs, we compared the diagnostic performance of four RAT kits (Abbott Panbio™ COVID-19 Ag Rapid Test, SD Biosensor Standard™ Q COVID-19 Ag Test, Humasis COVID-19 Ag Test, and SG Medical Acrosis COVID-19 Ag Test) to the cycle threshold (Ct) values obtained from rRT-PCR. The precision values, area under the curve values, SARS-CoV-2 variant detection ability, and non-SARS-CoV-2 specificity of all four kits were similar. An assay using the Acrosis kit had a significantly better positive detection rate with a higher recall value and cut-off value than that using the other three RAT kits. During the current COVID-19 pandemic, the Acrosis kit is an effective tool to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in communities.

Performance Analysis of Self-Collected Nasal and Oral Swabs for Detection of SARS-CoV-2.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the third highly pathogenic human coronavirus and is rapidly transmitted by infected individuals regardless of their symptoms. During the COVID-19 pandemic, owing to the dearth of skilled healthcare workers (HCWs) to collect samples for early diagnosis, self-collection emerged as a viable alternative. To evaluate the reliability of self-collection, we compared the virus detection rate using 3990 self-collected swabs and HCW-collected swabs, procured from the same individuals and collected immediately after the self-collection. The results of multiplex reverse-transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction revealed that the viral load in the HCW-collected swabs was marginally (18.4-28.8 times) higher than that in self-collected swabs. Self-collection showed no significant difference in sensitivity and specificity from HCW-collection (κ = 0.87, McNemar's test; p = 0.19), indicating a comparable performance. These findings suggest that self-collected swabs are acceptable substitutes for HCW-collected swabs, and that their use improved the specimen screening efficiency and reduced the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection among HCWs during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Proteolytic pan-RAS Cleavage Leads to Tumor Regression in Patient-derived Pancreatic Cancer Xenografts.

The lack of effective RAS inhibition represents a major unmet medical need in the treatment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Here, we investigate the anticancer activity of RRSP-DTB, an engineered biologic that cleaves the Switch I of all RAS isoforms, in KRAS-mutant PDAC cell lines and patient-derived xenografts (PDX). We first demonstrate that RRSP-DTB effectively engages RAS and impacts downstream ERK signaling in multiple KRAS-mutant PDAC cell lines inhibiting cell proliferation at picomolar concentrations. We next tested RRSP-DTB in immunodeficient mice bearing KRAS-mutant PDAC PDXs. Treatment with RRSP-DTB led to ≥95% tumor regression after 29 days. Residual tumors exhibited disrupted tissue architecture, increased fibrosis and fewer proliferating cells compared with controls. Intratumoral levels of phospho-ERK were also significantly lower, indicating in vivo target engagement. Importantly, tumors that started to regrow without RRSP-DTB shrank when treatment resumed, demonstrating resistance to RRSP-DTB had not developed. Tracking persistence of the toxin activity following intraperitoneal injection showed that RRSP-DTB is active in sera from immunocompetent mice for at least 1 hour, but absent after 16 hours, justifying use of daily dosing. Overall, we report that RRSP-DTB strongly regresses hard-to-treat KRAS-mutant PDX models of pancreatic cancer, warranting further development of this pan-RAS biologic for the management of RAS-addicted tumors.

Effects of Sophorolipid on Growth Performance, Organ Characteristics, Lipid Digestion Markers, and Gut Functionality and Integrity in Broiler Chickens.

Dietary fat and oil could aid in reaching the high-energy requirements of fast-growing birds; however, these inclusions could lead to nutrient waste. This is because young birds have limited lipid digestion due to the low secretion of lipase and bile salt. Sophorolipid (SPL), a glycolipid emulsifier with lower toxicity and higher biodegradability, can upregulate fat utilization by increasing digestibility. Accordingly, a five-week-long experiment was conducted with 720 one-day-old chicks (Ross 308) to investigate the effects of dietary SPL on growth, organ characteristics, and gut health. The allotment was partitioned into four treatment groups according to their body weight with six replications (30 chick/pen). The three treatment diets comprised a basal diet with a formulation that met the Ross 308 standard and 5, 10, and 15 ppm SPL in the basal diet. During the experiment, the birds had free access to feed, and body weight and feed intake were measured at the end of each phase. Chickens were put down at the end of the growing and finishing phases, and jejunum and cecal samples were obtained to investigate organ characteristics and gut environments. The data were analyzed using the generalized linear model procedures of SAS 9.4, and all data were assessed for linear, quadratic, and cubic effects of dietary SPL-supplemented dosages. Body weight was significantly increased with 10 ppm of SPL supplementation in the grower phase without affecting feed efficiency. The relative weights of the intestine and the bursa of Fabricius were quadratically decreased by SPL supplementation with a lower population of Streptococcus and higher propionate and butyrate concentrations. Additionally, the dietary SPL supplementation groups showed a significantly increased villus/crypt ratio with higher intestinal expression levels of fatty acid translocase, diacylglycerol acyltransferase 2, and fatty acid transporter 4. Collectively, proper SPL supplementation in the chicken diet could improve growth performance by down-regulating immune modulation and up-regulating lipid digestion and absorption via modulation of gut microenvironments.

HRGAN: A Generative Adversarial Network Producing Higher-Resolution Images than Training Sets.

The generative adversarial network (GAN) has demonstrated superb performance in generating synthetic images in recent studies. However, in the conventional framework of GAN, the maximum resolution of generated images is limited to the resolution of real images that are used as the training set. In this paper, in order to address this limitation, we propose a novel GAN framework using a pre-trained network called evaluator. The proposed model, higher resolution GAN (HRGAN), employs additional up-sampling convolutional layers to generate higher resolution. Then, using the evaluator, an additional target for the training of the generator is introduced to calibrate the generated images to have realistic features. In experiments with the CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100 datasets, HRGAN successfully generates images of 64 × 64 and 128 × 128 resolutions, while the training sets consist of images of 32 × 32 resolution. In addition, HRGAN outperforms other existing models in terms of the Inception score, one of the conventional methods to evaluate GANs. For instance, in the experiment with CIFAR-10, a HRGAN generating 128 × 128 resolution demonstrates an Inception score of 12.32, outperforming an existing model by 28.6%. Thus, the proposed HRGAN demonstrates the possibility of generating higher resolution than training images.

Evaluation of Three Automated Extraction Systems for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 from Clinical Respiratory Specimens.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is highly contagious and causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) is the most accurate and reliable molecular assay to detect active SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, a rapid increase in test subjects has created a global bottleneck in testing capacity. Given that efficient nucleic acid extraction greatly affects reliable and accurate testing results, we compared three extraction platforms: MagNA Pure 96 DNA and Viral NA Small Volume kit on MagNA Pure 96 (Roche, Basel, Switzerland), careGENETM Viral/Pathogen HiFi Nucleic Acid Isolation kit (WELLS BIO Inc., Seoul, Korea) on KingFisher Flex (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Rocklin, CA, USA), and SGRespiTM Pure kit (Seegene Inc., Seoul, Korea) on Maelstrom 9600 (Taiwan Advanced Nanotech Inc., Taoyuan, Taiwan). RNA was extracted from 245 residual respiratory specimens from the different types of samples (i.e., NPS, sputum, and saliva) using three different kits. The 95% limits of detection of median tissue culture infectious dose per milliliter (TCID50/mL) for the MagNA Pure 96, KingFisher Flex, and Maelstrom 9600 were 0.37-3.15 × 101, 0.41-3.62 × 101, and 0.33-1.98 × 101, respectively. The KingFisher Flex platform exhibited 99.2% sensitivity and 100% specificity, whereas Maelstrom 9600 exhibited 98.3-100% sensitivity and 100% specificity. Bland-Altman analysis revealed a 95.2% concordance between MagNA Pure 96 and KingFisher Flex and 95.4% concordance between MagNA Pure 96 and Maelstrom 9600, indicating that all three platforms provided statistically reliable results. This suggests that two modifying platforms, KingFisher Flex and Maelstrom 9600, are accurate and scalable extraction platforms for large-scale SARS-CoV-2 clinical detection and could help the management of COVID-19 patients.

Multi-Stage Temporal Convolutional Network with Moment Loss and Positional Encoding for Surgical Phase Recognition.

In recent times, many studies concerning surgical video analysis are being conducted due to its growing importance in many medical applications. In particular, it is very important to be able to recognize the current surgical phase because the phase information can be utilized in various ways both during and after surgery. This paper proposes an efficient phase recognition network, called MomentNet, for cholecystectomy endoscopic videos. Unlike LSTM-based network, MomentNet is based on a multi-stage temporal convolutional network. Besides, to improve the phase prediction accuracy, the proposed method adopts a new loss function to supplement the general cross entropy loss function. The new loss function significantly improves the performance of the phase recognition network by constraining un-desirable phase transition and preventing over-segmentation. In addition, MomnetNet effectively applies positional encoding techniques, which are commonly applied in transformer architectures, to the multi-stage temporal convolution network. By using the positional encoding techniques, MomentNet can provide important temporal context, resulting in higher phase prediction accuracy. Furthermore, the MomentNet applies label smoothing technique to suppress overfitting and replaces the backbone network for feature extraction to further improve the network performance. As a result, the MomentNet achieves 92.31% accuracy in the phase recognition task with the Cholec80 dataset, which is 4.55% higher than that of the baseline architecture.

Dietary sophorolipid accelerates growth by modulation of gut microbiota population and intestinal environments in broiler chickens.

BACKGROUND: Gut is a crucial organ for the host's defense system due to its filtering action of the intestinal membrane from hazardous foreign substances. One strategy to strengthen the gut epithelial barrier function is to upregulate beneficial microflora populations and their metabolites. Sophorolipid (SPL), which is a glycolipid bio-surfactant, could increase beneficial microflora and decrease pathogenic bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, herein, we conducted an experiment with broiler chickens to investigate the fortifying effects of SPL on the host's gut defense system by modulating the microbiota population. METHODS: A total of 540 1-day-old chicks (Ross 308) were used, and they were immediately allotted into three treatment groups (6 replications with 30 chicks/pen) according to their initial body weight. The dietary treatments consisted of CON (basal diet), BAM (10 mg/kg bambermycin), and SPL (10 mg/kg SPL). During the experiment, birds freely accessed feed and water, and body weight and feed intake were measured at the end of each phase. On d 35, birds (one bird/pen) were sacrificed to collect jejunum and cecum samples. RESULTS: Dietary SPL and BAM supplementation significantly accelerated birds' growth and also significantly improved feed efficiency compared to CON. Intestinal microbial community was significantly separated by dietary SPL supplementation from that of CON, and dietary SPL supplementation significantly increased Lactobacillus spp. and Akkermansia muciniphila. Moreover, birds fed with dietary SPL also showed the highest concentration of cecal butyrate among all treatment groups. Gut morphological analysis showed that dietary SPL significantly increased villus height, ratio of villus height to crypt depth, goblet cell numbers, and the gene expression levels of claudin-1 and mucin 2. Additionally, dietary SPL significantly decreased the mRNA expression level of pro-inflammatory cytokine, interleukin-6, and increased that of anti-inflammatory cytokine, interleukin-10, compared to other treatments. CONCLUSIONS: Dietary SPL increases the beneficial bacterial population and butyrate concentration, which leads to a strengthened gut barrier function. In addition, the intestinal inflammation was also downregulated by dietary SPL supplementation.

Optimal Postoperative Surveillance Strategies for Colorectal Cancer: A Retrospective Observational Study.

This study aimed to assess whether surveillance intensity is associated with recurrence and survival in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. Overall, 3794 patients with pathologic stage I-III CRC who underwent radical surgery between January 2012 and December 2014 were examined. Surveillance comprised abdominopelvic computed tomography (CT) every 6 months and chest CT annually for 5 years. Patients who underwent more than and less than an average of three imaging examinations annually were assigned to the high-intensity (HI) and low-intensity (LI) groups, respectively. Demographics were similar in both groups. T and N stages were higher and perineural and lymphovascular invasion were more frequent in the HI group (p < 0.001 each). The mean overall survival (OS) was similar for both groups; however, recurrence-free survival (RFS) was longer (p < 0.001) and post-recurrence survival (PRS) was shorter (p = 0.024) in the LI group. In the multivariate analysis, surveillance intensity was associated with RFS (p < 0.001) in contrast to PRS (p = 0.731). In patients with high recurrence risk predicted using the nomogram, OS was longer in the HI group (p < 0.001). A higher imaging frequency in patients at high risk of recurrence could be expected to lead to a slight increase in PRS but does not improve OS. Therefore, rather than increasing the number of CT scans in high-risk patients, other imaging modalities or innovative approaches, such as liquid biopsy, are required.

Assay System for Simultaneous Detection of SARS-CoV-2 and Other Respiratory Viruses.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) triggers disease with nonspecific symptoms that overlap those of infections caused by other seasonal respiratory viruses (RVs), such as the influenza virus (Flu) or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). A molecular assay for accurate and rapid detection of RV and SARS-CoV-2 is crucial to manage these infections. Here, we compared the analytical performance and clinical reliability of Allplex™ SARS-CoV-2/FluA/FluB/RSV (SC2FabR; Seegene Inc., Seoul, South Korea) kit with those of four commercially available RV detection kits. Upon testing five target viral strains (SARS-CoV-2, FluA, FluB, RSV A, and RSV B), the analytical performance of SC2FabR was similar to that of the other kits, with no significant difference (p ≥ 0.78) in z-scores. The efficiency of SC2FabR (E-value, 81-104%) enabled reliable SARS-CoV-2 and seasonal RV detection in 888 nasopharyngeal swab specimens processed using a fully automated nucleic acid extraction platform. Bland-Altman analyses revealed an agreement value of 95.4% (SD ± 1.96) for the kits, indicating statistically similar results for all five. In conclusion, SC2FabR is a rapid and accurate diagnostic tool for both SARS-CoV-2 and seasonal RV detection, allowing for high-throughput RV analysis with efficiency comparable to that of commercially available kits. This can be used to help manage respiratory infections in patients during and after the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

Antibacterial Activity of Caffeic Acid Combined with UV-A Light against Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium, and Listeria monocytogenes.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the antibacterial activity of caffeic acid (CA), which is a natural polyphenol, combined with UV-A light against the representative foodborne bacteria Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, and Listeria monocytogenes. Data regarding the inactivation of these bacteria and its dependence on CA concentration, light wavelength, and light dose were obtained. E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella Typhimurium were reduced to the detection limit when treated with 3 mM CA and UV-A for 3 J/cm2 and 4 J/cm2, respectively, and 5 J/cm2 treatment induced 3.10 log reduction in L. monocytogenes. To investigate the mechanism for inactivation of Salmonella Typhimurium and L. monocytogenes, measurement of polyphenol uptake, membrane damage assessment, enzymatic activity assay, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were conducted. It was revealed that CA was significantly (P < 0.05) absorbed by bacterial cells, and UV-A light allowed a higher uptake of CA for both pathogens. Additionally, CA plus UV-A treatment induced significant (P < 0.05) cell membrane damage. In the enzymatic activity assay, the activities of both pathogens were reduced by CA, and a greater reduction occurred by use of CA plus UV-A. Moreover, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images indicated that CA plus UV-A treatment notably destroyed the intercellular structure. In addition, antibacterial activity was also observed in commercial apple juice, which showed results similar to those obtained from phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), resulting in a significant (P < 0.05) reduction for all three pathogens without any changes in color parameters (L*, a*, and b*), total phenolic compounds, and DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) free radical scavenging activity. IMPORTANCE Photodynamic inactivation (PDI), which involves photoactivation of a photosensitizer (PS), is an emerging field of study, as it effectively reduces various kinds of microorganisms. Although there are several PSs that have been used for PDI, there is a need to find naturally occurring PSs for safer application in the food industry. Caffeic acid, a natural polyphenol found in most fruits and vegetables, has recently been studied for its potential to act as a novel photosensitizer. However, no studies have been conducted regarding its antibacterial activity depending on treatment conditions and its antibacterial mechanism. In this study, we closely examined the effectiveness of caffeic acid in combination with UV-A light for inactivating representative foodborne bacteria in liquid medium. Therefore, the results of this research are expected to be utilized as basic data for future application of caffeic acid in PDI, especially when controlling pathogens in liquid food processing.

Curative effects of sophorolipid on physical wounds: In vitro and in vivo studies.

Early-weaning syndrome is harmful to animals because an effect on growth in the early-stage of life generally determines the overall growth rate. Sophorolipid (SPL), a surface-active glycolipid compound, has been shown to exhibit antimicrobial activity and stimulate cell proliferation. Thus, in vitro and in vivo studies were conducted to evaluate the potential of SPL on the gut turnover after the wound. The in vitro experiment with HT-29 cells showed the increased proliferation with increasing gene levels of collagenase-1 and matrilysin-1. Next, the 16-day in vivo experiment was conducted with thirty rats (14-day-old), and the allocation was performed according to their body weight (BW) into three treatments: control diet (CON), 48 ppm of oxytetracycline-supplemented diet (OTC) and 10 ppm of SPL-supplemented diet (SPL). Dietary SPL accelerates the growth of rats in overall periods, and intestinal permeability was lower in SPL at day 16. Villus:crypt ratio and the goblet cell count were also higher in SPL than in CON at day 8. Caecal Streptococcus spp. were significantly reduced with dietary SPL and OTC at day 8 and 16, and total short-chain fatty acid, acetate and butyrate levels were increased in the SPL at day 8. In conclusion, these data demonstrated that SPL could improve gut remodelling potential and modulate the gut environments, resulted in acceleration of post-weaning growth. Therefore, SPL could have a potential as a feed additive aimed at promoting repair system after wound in animal's gut.