Iron gallic acid biomimetic nanoparticles for targeted magnetic resonance imaging.

Developing T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents with enhanced biocompatibility and targeting capabilities is crucial owing to concerns over current agents' potential toxicity and suboptimal performance. Drawing inspiration from "biomimetic camouflage," we isolated cell membranes (CMs) from human glioblastoma (T98G) cell lines via the extrusion method to facilitate homotypic glioma targeting. At an 8:1 mass ratio of ferric chloride hexahydrate to gallic acid (GA), the resulting iron (Fe)-GA nanoparticles (NPs) proved effective as a T1-weighted MRI contrast agent. T98G CM-coated Fe-GA NPs demonstrated improved homotypic glioma targeting, validated through Prussian blue staining and in vitro MRI. This biomimetic camouflage strategy holds promise for the development of targeted theranostic agents in a safe and effective manner.

The Role of Rv1476 in Regulating Stress Response and Intracellular Survival of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

The virulence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) is related to many factors, including intracellular survival, cell wall permeability, and cell envelope proteins. However, the biological function of the M. tuberculosis membrane protein Rv1476 remains unclear. To investigate the potential role played by Rv1476, we constructed an Rv1476 overexpression strain and found that overexpression of Rv1476 enhanced the intracellular survival of M. tuberculosis, while having no impact on the growth rate in vitro. Stress experiments demonstrated that the Rv1476 overexpression strain displayed increased susceptibility to different stresses compared to the wild-type strain. Transcriptome analysis showed that Rv1476 overexpression causes changes in the transcriptome of THP-1 cells, and differential genes are mainly enriched in cell proliferation, fatty acid degradation, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, and immune response pathways. Rv1476 overexpression inhibited the expression of some anti-tuberculosis-related genes, such as CCL1, IL15, IL16, ISG15, GBP5, IL23, ATG2A, IFNß, and CSF3. Altogether, we conclude that Rv1476 may play a critical role for M. tuberculosis in macrophage survival.

Transcriptomic analysis of the hypoxia-inducible factor 1α impact on the gene expression profile of chicken fibroblasts under hypoxia.

Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) is a transcriptional regulator that mediates cellular adaptive responses to hypoxia. Hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) is involved in the development of ascites syndrome (AS) in broiler chickens. Therefore, studying the effect of HIF-1α on the cellular transcriptome under hypoxic conditions will help to better understand the mechanism of HIF-1α in the development of AS in broilers. In this study, we analyzed the gene expression profile of the chicken fibroblast cell line (DF-1) under hypoxic conditions by RNA-seq. Additionally, we constructed the HIF-1α knockdown DF-1 cell line by using the RNAi method and analyzed the gene expression profile under hypoxic conditions. The results showed that exposure to hypoxia for 48 h had a significant impact on the expression of genes in the DF-1 cell line, which related to cell proliferation, stress response, and apoptosis. In addition, after HIF-1α knockdown more differential expression genes appeared than in wild-type cells, and the expression of most hypoxia-related genes was either down-regulated or remained unchanged. Pathway analysis results showed that differentially expressed genes were mainly enriched in pathways related to cell proliferation, apoptosis, and oxidative phosphorylation. Our study obtained transcriptomic data from chicken fibroblasts at different hypoxic times and identified the potential regulatory network associated with HIF-1α. This data provides valuable support for understanding the transcriptional regulatory mechanism of HIF-1α in the development of AS in broilers.

Precise evaluation of batch adsorption kinetics of plant total polyphenols based on a flow-injection online spectrophotometric method.

Efficient evaluation of adsorption kinetics of plant total polyphenols is essential for the design of adsorption separation of bioactive compounds. The conventional method uses manual sampling with poor reproducibility. Here, we developed a new method for on-line determination of total polyphenol content (TPC) in plant extracts by applying the Folin-Ciocalteu method in flow-injection analysis (FIA). The FIA parameters were optimized and a standard curve with excellent linearity was established. Precise determination of TPC with a satisfactory sample throughput of 20 h-1 was achieved for the adsorption kinetic study. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model was found to better describe the kinetic parameters of the batch adsorption/desorption process. The developed method proved to be accurate compared with the conventional method. The FIA method holds significant promise for studying and monitoring adsorption processes, due to its automatic on-line nature, low consumption of reagents and samples, and the ability to generate large quantities of highly accurate adsorption data.

Epinephrine Stimulates Mycobacterium tuberculosis Growth and Biofilm Formation.

The human stress hormones catecholamines play a critical role in communication between human microbiota and their hosts and influence the outcomes of bacterial infections. However, it is unclear how M. tuberculosis senses and responds to certain types of human stress hormones. In this study, we screened several human catecholamine stress hormones (epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine) for their effects on Mycobacterium growth. Our results showed that epinephrine significantly stimulated the growth of M. tuberculosis in the serum-based medium as well as macrophages. In silico analysis and molecular docking suggested that the extra-cytoplasmic domain of the MprB might be the putative adrenergic sensor. Furthermore, we showed that epinephrine significantly enhances M. tuberculosis biofilm formation, which has distinct texture composition, antibiotic resistance, and stress tolerance. Together, our data revealed the effect and mechanism of epinephrine on the growth and biofilm formation of M. tuberculosis, which contributes to the understanding of the environmental perception and antibiotic resistance of M. tuberculosis and provides important clues for the understanding of bacterial pathogenesis and the development of novel antibacterial therapeutics.

Dual responsive self-healing hydrogels with wide stability and excellent mechanical strength based on aliphatic polycarbonate.

The wide development of hydrogels had been used in many filed due to the high water-containing and tough three-dimensional structure, however, the poor mechanical and multi-functional properties of hydrogel can be limited in its applications deeply. Herein, the dual responsive self-healing hydrogels with tough mechanical properties were manufactured by dual-physical cross-linking based on biodegradable aliphatic polycarbonate. Choosing the soft and hard segments to design the polymeric hydrogel not only can facilitate the dual-dynamic bonding interactions but also the resilient hydrogels possess robust and controllable mechanical strength (6.51 MPa). Furthermore, the results of swelling and stability tests of the materials indicated that the swelling ability of the biodegradable hydrogels can be regulated by the hydrophilic group, and the maximal swelling ratio in water and the equilibrium water content is 66% and 40%, respectively. It is worth mentioning that the tough hydrogels embrace dual-responsive high efficiency of self-healing ability, and the self-healing time is 2 h at 50 °C or 10 h under pH = 5, suggesting that the obtained hydrogels can respond to temperature and pH value to drive the fracture interface for fast self-healing, which will offer new opportunities for stimuli-responsive materials and wound healing.

Construction of nano-drug delivery and antitumor system of stimuli-responsive polypeptides.

The size of the nanoparticles is moderate and the dispersion is well, which will not be recognized nonspecifically and clearance by the endothelial reticular system. In this study, stimuli-responsive polypeptides nano-delivery system has been constructed, which can realize the response to various stimuli in the tumor microenvironment. Tertiary amine groups are grafted to the side chain of polypeptides as the point of charge reversal and particle expansion. In addition, a new kind of liquid crystal monomer was prepared by substituting cholesterol-cysteamine, which can promote polymers to realize the transformation of spatial conformation by adjusting the ordered arrangement of macromolecules. The introduction of hydrophobic elements greatly enhanced the self-assembly performance of polypeptides, which could effectively improve the drug loading and encapsulation rate of nanoparticles. Nanoparticles could achieve targeted aggregation in tumor tissues, and there were no toxicity and side effects on normal bodies during treatment, with good safety in vivo.

Construction of poly(amino acid)s nano-delivery system and sustained release with redox-responsive.

A series of novel poly(amino acid)s materials were designed to prepare drug-loaded nanoparticles by physical encapsulation and chemical bonding. The side chain of the polymer contains a large number of amino groups, which effectively increases the loading rate of doxorubicin (DOX). The structure contains disulfide bonds that showing a strong response to the redox environment, which can achieve targeted drug release in the tumor microenvironment. Nanoparticles mainly present spherical morphology with the suitable size for participating in systemic circulation. cell experiments demonstrate the non-toxicity and good cellular uptake behavior of polymers. In vivo anti-tumor experiments shows nanoparticles could inhibit tumor growth and effectively reduce the side effects of DOX.

Sustained-release behavior and the antitumor effect of charge-convertible poly(amino acid)s drug-loaded nanoparticles.

Enhancing tissue permeability and achieving drug aggregation is the key to targeted tumor therapy. A series triblock copolymers of poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(L-lysine)-poly(L-glutamine) were synthesized by ring-opening polymerization, and charge-convertible nano-delivery system was constructed by loading doxorubicin (DOX) with 2-(hexaethylimide) ethanol on side chain. In normal environment (pH = 7.4), the zeta potential of the drug-loaded nanoparticle solution is negative, which is conducive to avoiding the identification and clearance of nanoparticles by the reticulo-endothelial system, while potential-reversal can be achieved in the tumor microenvironment, which effectively promotes cellular uptake. Nanoparticles could effectively reduce the distribution of DOX in normal tissues and achieve targeted aggregation at tumor sites, which can effectively improve the antitumor effect, while would not causing toxicity and damage to normal body.

Optimizing the Measurement of 0.5-kHz Cubic Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emission.

BACKGROUND: The measurement of low-frequency cubic distortion product otoacoustic emission, for example, 0.5-kHz cubic distortion product otoacoustic emission, is often severely affected by background noise, and currently 0.5-kHz cubic distortion product otoacoustic emission is not commonly applicable in clinical setting. METHODS: The fundamental part of current study was the optimization of recording technology to reduce noise interference with the measurement of 0.5-kHz cubic distortion product otoacoustic emission and to establish the response patterns of cubic distortion product otoacoustic emission across speech frequencies from 0.5 to 8kHz in the presence of normal hearing and noise-induced hearing loss. RESULTS: After a series of optimization, a clinically applicable technology of measuring 0.5-kHz cubic distortion product otoacoustic emission was successfully completed via animal model. Cubic distortion product otoacoustic emission was recorded in 6 guinea pigs across speech frequencies from 0.5 to 8kHz before and after exposure to white bandnoise between 0.5 and 2 kHz. After noise exposure, significant reduction in the signal-to-noise ratio of cubic distortion product otoacoustic emission was found at 0.5 and 2 kHz, indicating our recording technology was sensitive and accurate. Other interesting finding was the reduction in cubic distortion product otoacoustic emiss ion-s ignal -to-n oise ratio at 4 and 6 kHz although the reduction was not statistically significant probably because of short exposure time. The result implied that the damaging effect induced by low-frequency noise exposure might spread upward to high-frequency region. CONCLUSIONS: Our recording technology was stable and reliable and had the great potentiality to be used in clinical setting.

Decoding the spatial chromatin organization and dynamic epigenetic landscapes of macrophage cells during differentiation and immune activation.

Immunocytes dynamically reprogram their gene expression profiles during differentiation and immunoresponse. However, the underlying mechanism remains elusive. Here, we develop a single-cell Hi-C method and systematically delineate the 3D genome and dynamic epigenetic atlas of macrophages during these processes. We propose "degree of disorder" to measure genome organizational patterns inside topologically-associated domains, which is correlated with the chromatin epigenetic states, gene expression, and chromatin structure variability in individual cells. Furthermore, we identify that NF-κB initiates systematic chromatin conformation reorganization upon Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. The integrated Hi-C, eQTL, and GWAS analysis depicts the atlas of the long-range target genes of mycobacterial disease susceptible loci. Among these, the SNP rs1873613 is located in the anchor of a dynamic chromatin loop with LRRK2, whose inhibitor AdoCbl could be an anti-tuberculosis drug candidate. Our study provides comprehensive resources for the 3D genome structure of immunocytes and sheds insights into the order of genome organization and the coordinated gene transcription during immunoresponse.

Screening of Microbial Fermentation Products for Anti-M. tuberculosis Activity.

Tuberculosis (TB), caused by M. tuberculosis (M.tb), is the leading infectious cause of mortality worldwide. The emergence of drug-resistant M.tb has made the control of TB more difficult. In our study, we investigated the ability of microorganism fermentation products from the soil to inhibit M.tb. We successfully identified four fermentation products (Micromonospora chokoriensis, Micromonospora purpureochromogenes, Micromonospora profundi, Streptomyces flavofungini) that inhibited the growth of M.tb in vitro and in intracellular bacteria at 25 µg/mL MIC. Importantly, the fermentation products decreased some essential gene expression levels for M.tb growth. Our data provide the possibility that microbial fermentation products have potential development value for anti-M.tb drugs.

The Activity of Plant-Derived Ren's Oligopeptides-1 against the Pseudorabies Virus.

Newly synthesized Ren's oligopeptides-1 was found to have an antiviral effect in clinical trials, and the purpose of this study was to further demonstrate the antiviral activity of Ren's oligopeptides-1 against the PRV 152-GFP strain. We used the real-time cell analysis system (RTCA) to detect the cytotoxicity of different concentrations of Ren's oligopeptides-1. We then applied high content screening (HCS) to detect the antiviral activity of Ren's oligopeptides-1 against PRV. Meanwhile, the fluorescence signal of the virus was collected in real time and the expression levels of the related genes in the PK15 cells infected with PRV were detected using real-time PCR. At the mRNA level, we discovered that, at a concentration of 6 mg/mL, Ren's oligopeptides-1 reduced the expression of pseudorabies virus (PRV) genes such as IE180, UL18, UL54, and UL21 at a concentration of 6 mg/mL. We then determined that Ren's oligopeptides-1 has an EC50 value of 6 mg/mL, and at this level, no cytotoxicity was observed.

Detection of Phosphatidylethanol in Whole Blood by UPLC-MS/MS / 法医学杂志

OBJECTIVES@#To establish the ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method to detect ethanol metabolites phosphatidylethanol (PEth) in whole blood.@*METHODS@#An appropriate amount of aqueous solution including 1% formic acid was added to 100 μL whole blood, the protein was precipitated with acetone, centrifuged and the supernatant was purified and enriched by using Bond Elut Certify column. The eluent was redissolved with 1/1 isopropanol/acetonitrile (v/v) solution after nitrogen blowing and then tested by UPLC-MS/MS. Selective reaction monitoring scanning was carried out in negative ionization mode, and quantitative analysis was performed by external standard method.@*RESULTS@#PEth showed a linear relationship over the concentration range of 1-160 ng/mL in whole blood (r=0.999 9) with peak area. The detection limit was 0.2 ng/mL, the quantification limit was 1 ng/mL, the recovery rate was 97.43%-103.61%, the accuracy was 0.99%-1.77%, the intra-day precision was 0.4%-2.4%, and the inter-day precision was 1.1%-3.3%, and the matrix effect was 91.00%-99.55%. PEth was not detected in the in vitro blood samples supplemented with ethanol. PEth was detected positive in three drunk driving cases, and the concentration were 195.49, 83.67 and 876.12 ng/mL, respectively.@*CONCLUSIONS@#The established method has high sensitivity and specificity and the analysis results are accurate. It is suitable for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of PEth in whole blood.

Distinct Persistence Fate of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Various Types of Cells.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis can invade different cells with distinct persistence fates because cells are equipped with different host restriction factors. However, the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we infected THP1 and Raw264.7 macrophages cell lines, A549 epithelial cell line, and hBMEC and bEnd.3 endothelial cell lines with M. tuberculosis and demonstrated that M. tuberculosis significantly inhibited lysosome acidification in THP1, hBMEC, A549, and Raw264.7 cells, while, in bEnd.3 cells, M. tuberculosis was mainly delivered into acidified phagolysosomes and auto-lysosomes. The systematic gene profile analysis of different cells and intracellular M. tuberculosis showed that the phagosome autophagy-pathway-related genes itgb3 and atg3 were highly expressed in bEnd.3 cells. Knockdown of these genes significantly increased the number of viable intracellular M. tuberculosis bacilli by altering phagosomal trafficking in bEnd.3 cells. Treatment with itgb3 agonist significantly decreased M. tuberculosis survival in vivo. These findings could facilitate the identification of anti-M. tuberculosis host genes and guide M. tuberculosis-resistant livestock breeding. IMPORTANCE As an intracellular pathogen, Mycobacterium tuberculosis could avoid host cell immune clearance using multiple strategies for its long-term survival. Understanding these processes could facilitate the development of new approaches to restrict intracellular M. tuberculosis survival. Here, we characterized the detailed molecular events occurring during intracellular trafficking of M. tuberculosis in macrophage, epithelial, and endothelial cell lines and found that ITGB3 facilitates M. tuberculosis clearance in endothelial cells through altering phagosomal trafficking. Meanwhile, the treatment with ITGB3 agonist could reduce bacterial load in vivo. Our results identified new anti-M. tuberculosis restriction factors and illuminated a new anti-M. tuberculosis defense mechanism.

Corn bracts loading copper sulfide for rapid adsorption of Hg(II) and sequential efficient reuse as a photocatalyst.

Hg(II) ions in wastewater are highly toxic to the environment and human health, yet many materials to remove the ions exhibit lower adsorption efficiency, and few studies report the reuse of Hg(II)-loaded waste materials. Here, a cheap and efficient adsorbent was prepared for the removal of Hg(II) based on corn bracts (CB) loading copper sulfide (CuS), and the Hg(II)-adsorbed material was reused as a photocatalyst. By changing the adsorption variables such as pH, adsorbent dosage, Hg(II) concentration, contact time and coexisting ions, the optimum adsorption conditions were obtained. The study indicated the adsorption capacity and removal rate of CB/CuS reached 249.58 mg/g and 99.83% at pH 6 with 20 mg CB/CuS, 50 mL Hg(II) concentration (100 mg/L) and 60 min, and coexisting ions did not affect the uptake of Hg(II). The adsorption behavior of CB/CuS toward Hg(II) followed pseudo-second-order and Langmuir models, with the theoretical maximum adsorption capacity of 316.46 mg/g. Finally, we explored an alternative strategy to dispose of spent adsorbents by converting the CB/CuS/HgS into a photocatalyst for the degradation of rhodamine B, with a removal rate of 98%. Overall, this work not only develops a promising material for the treatment of Hg(II)-containing wastewater, but opens up a new approach for the use of the waste adsorbent.

The Genome Analysis of Methylobacterium populi YC-XJ1 with Diverse Xenobiotics Biodegrading Capacity and Degradation Characteristics of Related Hydrolase.

Methylobacterium populi YC-XJ1 isolated from desert soil exhibited a diverse degrading ability towards aromatic oxyphenoxypropionic acid esters (AOPPs) herbicide, phthalate esters (PAEs), organophosphorus flame retardants (OPFRs), chlorpyrifos and phoxim. The genome of YC-XJ1 was sequenced and analyzed systematically. YC-XJ1 contained a large number of exogenous compounds degradation pathways and hydrolase resources. The quizalofop-p-ethyl (QPE) degrading gene qpeh2 and diethyl phthalate (DEP) degrading gene deph1 were cloned and expressed. The characteristics of corresponding hydrolases were investigated. The specific activity of recombinant QPEH2 was 0.1 ± 0.02 U mg-1 for QPE with kcat/Km values of 1.8 ± 0.016 (mM-1·s-1). The specific activity of recombinant DEPH1 was 0.1 ± 0.02 U mg-1 for DEP with kcat/Km values of 0.8 ± 0.02 (mM-1·s-1). This work systematically illuminated the metabolic versatility of strain YC-XJ1 via the combination of genomics analysis and laboratory experiments. These results suggested that strain YC-XJ1 with diverse xenobiotics biodegrading capacity was a promising candidate for the bioremediation of polluted sites.

Light-driven topochemical polymerization under organogel conditions of a symmetrical dipeptide-diacetylene system.

A symmetrical dipeptide-based diacetylene system (DAs) was found to be able to self-assemble in dichloromethane and to form a compact fiber network which resulted in a stable organogel. As a consequence of the organogel formation, we explored the possibility to run a light-induced topochemical polymerization. This is a typical reaction of ordered diacetylene moieties taking advantage from their organized packing mode resulting from fiber formation. Evidence for the generation of peptide-based polydiacetylenes is provided by Raman, UV-Vis, and CD spectroscopies and a set of microscopic techniques. Finally, we succeeded in processing a polymeric composite by use of the electrospinning technique, starting from a mixture of a dipeptide-based diacetylene and polymethyl methacrylate. Copyright © 2016 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Effect of melatonin on monochromatic light-induced T-lymphocyte proliferation in the thymus of chickens.

A total of 360 post-hatching day 0 (P0) Arbor Acre male broilers, including intact, sham operation and pinealectomy groups, were exposed to white light (WL), red light (RL), green light (GL) and blue light (BL) from a light-emitting diode (LED) system until for P14. We studied the effects of melatonin and its receptors on monochromatic light-induced T-lymphocyte proliferation in the thymus of broilers. The density of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) cells and the proliferation of T-lymphocytes in response to Concanavalin A (ConA) in GL significantly increased both in vivo and in vitro (from 9.57% to 32.03% and from 34.30% to 50.53%, respectively) compared with other lights (p<0.005) and was strongly correlated with melatonin levels in plasma (p<0.005). Pinealectomy reduced the levels of circulatory melatonin and the proliferation of T-lymphocytes and eliminated the differences between GL and other lights (p<0.005). However, exogenous melatonin (10(-9)M) significantly increased the proliferative activity of T-lymphocyte by 9.64% (p=0.002). In addition, GL significantly increased mRNA expression levels of Mel1a, Mel1b and Mel1c receptors from 21.09% to 32.57%, and protein expression levels from 24.43% to 42.92% compared with RL (p<0.05). However, these effects were blocked after pinealectomy. Furthermore, 4P-PDOT (a selective Mel1b antagonist) and prazosin (a selective Mel1c antagonist) attenuated GL-induced T-lymphocyte proliferation in response to ConA (p=0.000). Luzindole (a nonselective Mel1a/Mel1b antagonist), however, did not induce these effects (p=0.334). These results suggest that melatonin may mediate GL-induced T-lymphocyte proliferation via the Mel1b and Mel1c receptors but not via the Mel1a receptor.

Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry determination of amphetamine-related drugs and ephedrines in plasma, urine and hair samples after derivatization with 2,2,2-trichloroethyl chloroformate.

A new analytical approach, based on derivatization with 2,2,2-trichloroethyl chloroformate and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), was investigated for qualitative and quantitative analyses of a large range of amphetamine-related drugs and ephedrines in plasma, urine and hair samples. Sample preparation involved alkaline extraction of analytes from biological samples using Extrelut columns, after addition of the internal standard 3,4-methylenedioxypropylamphetamine (MDPA), and subsequent derivatization to produce 2,2,2-trichloroethylcarbamates. GC/MS analyses, in splitless mode using a slightly polar 30-m capillary column, were performed with quadrupole or ion trap instruments. MS acquisition modes were electron ionization (EI) in full-scan or selected ion monitoring (SIM) modes (quadrupole), and full-scan MS or MS/MS modes with chemical ionization (CI) conditions (ion trap). EI spectra of 2,2,2-trichloroethylcarbamates showed variably abundant molecular ions as well as abundant diagnostic fragment ions, both characterized by ion clusters reflecting the isotope distribution of three chlorine atoms in the derivatized molecules. CI spectra showed abundant protonated molecules. Quantitative studies using EI SIM conditions gave recoveries in the range 74-89%, linear response over ranges of 10-2000 ng/mL (plasma and urine) and 0.20-20 ng/mg (hair), with corresponding limits of detection in the ranges 2-5 ng/mL and 0.1-0.2 ng/mg. Potential applications (following full method validation) include clinical and forensic toxicology, as well as doping control.