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The modulation of inflammation is effective to treat many ocular surface diseases. Thus the low bioavailability of common anti-inflammatory eye-drops urges the development of ocular drug delivery systems to extend the ocular retention and enhance the cellular uptake for improving anti-inflammatory effect of eye-drops. Here we covalently conjugate two molecules of clinically anti-inflammatory drug (i.e., dexamethasone) with a small peptide (i.e., Tyr-Glu-Asn-Pro-Thr-Tyr) to generate an anti-inflammatory hydrogel eye-drop. With a self-assembled ability, the designed supramolecular hydrogel achieves gel-sol-gel transition by varying shearing forces which increases the pre-corneal retention of drug. The fluorescent imaging reveals the efficient cellular uptake of designed conjugate via clathrin-mediated endocytosis. A rodent model of endotoxin-induced uveitis verifies that the supramolecular hydrogel eye-drop suppresses inflammation responses without ocular irritation. As a rational approach to design anti-inflammatory drugs as eye-drops, this work overcomes the frequent instillation of clinical eye-drops and further improves the bioavailability of anti-inflammatory drugs, which may provide an effective and household way to fight ocular surface inflammation.
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Solar-driven CO2 reduction to yield high-value chemicals presents an appealing avenue for combating climate change, yet achieving selective production of specific products remains a significant challenge. We showcase two osmium complexes, przpOs, and trzpOs, as CO2 reduction catalysts for selective CO2-to-methane conversion. Kinetically, the przpOs and trzpOs exhibit high CO2 reduction catalytic rate constants of 0.544 and 6.41 s-1, respectively. Under AM1.5 G irradiation, the optimal Si/TiO2/trzpOs have CH4 as the main product and >90% Faradaic efficiency, reaching -14.11 mA cm-2 photocurrent density at 0.0 VRHE. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the N atoms on the bipyrazole and triazole ligands effectively stabilize the CO2-adduct intermediates, which tend to be further hydrogenated to produce CH4, leading to their ultrahigh CO2-to-CH4 selectivity. These results are comparable to cutting-edge Si-based photocathodes for CO2 reduction, revealing a vast research potential in employing molecular catalysts for the photoelectrochemical conversion of CO2 to methane.
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BACKGROUND: Aging is associated with significant structural and functional changes in the spleen, leading to immunosenescence, yet the detailed effects on splenic vascular endothelial cells (ECs) and their immunomodulatory roles are not fully understood. In this study, a single-cell RNA (scRNA) atlas of EC transcriptomes from young and aged mouse spleens was constructed to reveal age-related molecular changes, including increased inflammation and reduced vascular development and also the potential interaction between splenic endothelial cells and immune cells. RESULTS: Ten clusters of splenic endothelial cells were identified. DEGs analysis across different EC clusters revealed the molecular changes with aging, showing the increase in the overall inflammatory microenvironment and the loss in vascular development function of aged ECs. Notably, four EC clusters with immunological functions were identified, suggesting an Endothelial-to-Immune-like Cell Transition (EndICLT) potentially driven by aging. Pseudotime analysis of the Immunology4 cluster further indicated a possible aging-induced transitional state, potentially initiated by Ctss gene activation. Finally, the effects of aging on cell signaling communication between different EC clusters and immune cells were analyzed. CONCLUSIONS: This comprehensive atlas elucidates the complex interplay between ECs and immune cells in the aging spleen, offering new insights into endothelial heterogeneity, reprogramming, and the mechanisms of immunosenescence.
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Large-scale datasets with point-wise semantic and instance labels are crucial to 3D instance segmentation but also expensive. To leverage unlabeled data, previous semi-supervised 3D instance segmentation approaches have explored self-training frameworks, which rely on high-quality pseudo labels for consistency regularization. They intuitively utilize both instance and semantic pseudo labels in a joint learning manner. However, semantic pseudo labels contain numerous noise derived from the imbalanced category distribution and natural confusion of similar but distinct categories, which leads to severe collapses in self-training. Motivated by the observation that 3D instances are non-overlapping and spatially separable, we ask whether we can solely rely on instance consistency regularization for improved semi-supervised segmentation. To this end, we propose a novel self-training network InsTeacher3D to explore and exploit pure instance knowledge from unlabeled data. We first build a parallel base 3D instance segmentation model DKNet, which distinguishes each instance from the others via discriminative instance kernels without reliance on semantic segmentation. Based on DKNet, we further design a novel instance consistency regularization framework to generate and leverage high-quality instance pseudo labels. Experimental results on multiple large-scale datasets show that the InsTeacher3D significantly outperforms prior state-of-the-art semi-supervised approaches.
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Immune rejection remains the major cause of corneal graft failure. Immunosuppressants (such as rapamycin; RAPA) adjunctive to antibiotics (such as levofloxacin hydrochloride; Lev) are a clinical mainstay after corneal grafts but suffer from poor ocular bioavailability associated with severe side effects. In this study, we fabricated a Lev@RAPA micelle loaded cationic peptide-based hydrogel (NapFFKK) as a dual-drug delivery system by integrating RAPA micelles with Lev into a cationic NapFFKK hydrogel to potentially reduced the risk of corneal graft rejection. The properties of the resulting hydrogels were characterized using transmission electronmicroscopy and rheometer. Lev@RAPA micelles loaded NapFFKK hydrogel provided sustained in vitro drug release without compromising their inherent pharmacological activities. Topical instillation of Lev@RAPA micelles loaded NapFFKK hydrogel resulted in the great ocular tolerance and extended precorneal retention over 60 min, thus significantly enhancing the ocular bioavailability of both Lev and RAPA. Overall, such dual-drug delivery system might be a promising formulation for the suppression of corneal graft failure.
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Trasplante de Córnea , Sistemas de Liberación de Medicamentos , Rechazo de Injerto , Hidrogeles , Micelas , Nanopartículas , Rechazo de Injerto/prevención & control , Hidrogeles/química , Animales , Sistemas de Liberación de Medicamentos/métodos , Nanopartículas/química , Trasplante de Córnea/métodos , Conejos , Liberación de Fármacos , Sirolimus/administración & dosificación , Sirolimus/farmacocinética , Sirolimus/química , Levofloxacino/administración & dosificación , Levofloxacino/farmacocinética , Levofloxacino/química , Inmunosupresores/administración & dosificación , Inmunosupresores/farmacocinética , Inmunosupresores/química , Disponibilidad Biológica , Masculino , Córnea/efectos de los fármacos , Córnea/metabolismo , Portadores de Fármacos/químicaRESUMEN
Deep-blue multi-resonance (MR) emitters with stable and narrow full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM) are of great importance for widening the color gamut of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). However, most planar MR emitters are vulnerable to intermolecular interactions from both the host and guest, causing spectral broadening and exciton quenching in thin films. Their emission in the solid state is environmentally sensitive, and the color purity is often inferior to that in solutions. Herein, a molecular design strategy is presented that simultaneously narrows the FWHM and suppresses intermolecular interactions by combining intramolecular locking and peripheral shielding within a carbonyl/nitrogen-based MR core. Intramolecularly locking carbonyl/nitrogen-based bears narrower emission of 2,10-dimethyl-12,12-diphenyl-4H-benzo[9,1]quinolizino[3,4,5,6,7-defg]acridine-4,8(12H)-dione in solution and further with peripheral-shielding groups, deep-blue emitter (12,12-diphenyl-2,10-bis(9-phenyl-9H-fluoren-9-yl)-4H-benzo[9,1]quinolizino[3,4,5,6,7-defg]acridine-4,8(12H)-dione, DPQAO-F) exhibits ultra-pure emission with narrow FWHM (c.a., 24 nm) with minimal variations (∆FWHM ≤ 3 nm) from solution to thin films over a wide doping range. An OLED based on DPQAO-F presents a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQEmax) of 19.9% and color index of (0.134, 0.118). Furthermore, the hyper-device of DPQAO-F exhibits a record-high EQEmax of 32.7% in the deep-blue region, representing the first example of carbonyl/nitrogen-based OLED that can concurrently achieve narrow bandwidth in the deep-blue region and a high electroluminescent efficiency surpassing 30%.
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Noninfective uveitis is a major cause of vision impairment, and corticosteroid medication is a mainstay clinical strategy that causes severe side effects. Rapamycin (RAPA), a potent immunomodulator, is a promising treatment for noninfective uveitis. However, because high and frequent dosages are required, it is a great challenge to implement its clinical translation for noninfective uveitis therapy owing to its serious toxicity. In the present study, we engineered an injectable microparticulate drug delivery system based on biodegradable block polymers (i.e., polycaprolactone-poly (ethylene glycol)-polycaprolactone, PCEC) for efficient ocular delivery of RAPA via a subconjunctival injection route and investigated its therapeutic efficacy in an experimental autoimmune uveitis (EAU) rat model. RAPA-PCEC microparticles were fabricated using the emulsion-evaporation method and thoroughly characterized using scanning electron microscopy, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and differential scanning calorimetry. The formed microparticles exhibited slow in vitro degradation over 28 days, and provided both in vitro and in vivo sustained release of RAPA over 4 weeks. Additionally, a single subconjunctival injection of PCEC microparticles resulted in high ocular tolerance. More importantly, subconjunctival injection of RAPA-PCEC microparticles significantly attenuated the clinical signs of EAU in a dose-dependent manner by reducing inflammatory cell infiltration (i.e., CD45+ cells and Th17 cells) and inhibiting microglial activation. Overall, this injectable microparticulate system may be promising vehicle for intraocular delivery of RAPA for the treatment of noninfective uveitis.
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Poliésteres , Polietilenglicoles , Sirolimus , Uveítis , Animales , Uveítis/tratamiento farmacológico , Sirolimus/administración & dosificación , Polietilenglicoles/química , Polietilenglicoles/administración & dosificación , Poliésteres/química , Poliésteres/administración & dosificación , Ratas Endogámicas Lew , Ratas , Inmunosupresores/administración & dosificación , Inmunosupresores/química , Femenino , Liberación de Fármacos , Preparaciones de Acción Retardada , Microesferas , Modelos Animales de Enfermedad , Sistemas de Liberación de Medicamentos , Conjuntiva/efectos de los fármacos , Enfermedades Autoinmunes/tratamiento farmacológico , Portadores de Fármacos/química , Inyecciones IntraocularesRESUMEN
Effectively addressing retinal issues represents a pivotal aspect of blindness-related diseases. Novel approaches involving reducing inflammation and rebalancing the immune response are paramount in the treatment of these conditions. This study delves into the potential of a nanogel system comprising polyethylenimine-benzene boric acid-hyaluronic acid (PEI-PBA-HA). We have evaluated the collaborative impact of cerium oxide nanozyme and chemokine CX3CL1 protein for targeted immunomodulation and retinal protection in uveitis models. Our nanogel system specifically targets the posterior segment of the eyes. The synergistic effect in this area reduces oxidative stress and hampers the activation of microglia, thereby alleviating the pathological immune microenvironment. This multifaceted drug delivery system disrupts the cycle of oxidative stress, inflammation, and immune response, suppressing initial immune cells and limiting local retinal structural damage induced by excessive immune reactions. Our research sheds light on interactions within retinal target cells, providing a promising avenue for the development of efficient and innovative drug delivery platforms.
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Cerio , Quimiocina CX3CL1 , Nanogeles , Uveítis , Animales , Cerio/química , Cerio/farmacología , Uveítis/tratamiento farmacológico , Nanogeles/química , Quimiocina CX3CL1/metabolismo , Ratas , Retina/efectos de los fármacos , Retina/metabolismo , Inmunomodulación/efectos de los fármacos , Modelos Animales de Enfermedad , Polietileneimina/química , Estrés Oxidativo/efectos de los fármacos , Ácido Hialurónico/química , Masculino , PolietilenglicolesRESUMEN
The pathogenesis of carcinoma is believed to come from the combined effect of polygenic variation, and the initiation and progression of malignant tumors are closely related to the dysregulation of biological pathways. Quantifying the alteration in pathway activation and identifying coordinated patterns of pathway dysfunction are the imperative part of understanding the malignancy process and distinguishing different tumor stages or clinical outcomes of individual patients. In this study, we have conducted in silico pathway activation analysis using Riemannian manifold (RiePath) toward pan-cancer personalized characterization, which is the first attempt to apply the Riemannian manifold theory to measure the extent of pathway dysregulation in individual patient on the tangent space of the Riemannian manifold. RiePath effectively integrates pathway and gene expression information, not only generating a relatively low-dimensional and biologically relevant representation, but also identifying a robust panel of biologically meaningful pathway signatures as biomarkers. The pan-cancer analysis across 16 cancer types reveals the capability of RiePath to evaluate pathway activation accurately and identify clinical outcome-related pathways. We believe that RiePath has the potential to provide new prospects in understanding the molecular mechanisms of complex diseases and may find broader applications in predicting biomarkers for other intricate diseases.
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Neoplasias , Medicina de Precisión , Humanos , Neoplasias/genética , Neoplasias/metabolismo , Medicina de Precisión/métodos , Biomarcadores de Tumor/genética , Biomarcadores de Tumor/metabolismo , Regulación Neoplásica de la Expresión Génica , Transducción de Señal , Perfilación de la Expresión Génica/métodos , Algoritmos , Biología Computacional/métodos , Redes Reguladoras de Genes , Simulación por ComputadorRESUMEN
Patients with Graves' disease (GD) can develop Graves' ophthalmopathy (GO), but the underlying pathological mechanisms driving this development remain unclear. In our study, which included patients with GD and GO, we utilized single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and multiplatform analyses to investigate CD169+ classical monocytes, which secrete proinflammatory cytokines and are expanded through activated interferon signaling. We found that CD169+ clas_mono was clinically significant in predicting GO progression and prognosis, and differentiated into CD169+ macrophages that promote inflammation, adipogenesis, and fibrosis. Our murine model of early-stage GO showed that CD169+ classical monocytes accumulated in orbital tissue via the Cxcl12-Cxcr4 axis. Further studies are needed to investigate whether targeting circulating monocytes and the Cxcl12-Cxcr4 axis could alleviate GO progression.
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Purpose: To evaluate the expression of sry-box transcription factor 9 (SOX9) in orbital fibroblasts (OFs) of thyroid eye disease (TED) and to find its potential role and underlying mechanism in orbital fibrosis. Methods: OFs were cultured from orbital connective tissues obtained from patients with TED (n = 10) and healthy controls (n = 6). SOX9 was depleted by small interfering RNA or overexpressed through lentivirus transduction in OFs. Fibroblast contractile activity was measured by collagen gel contraction assay and proliferation was examined by EdU assay. Transcriptomic changes were assessed by RNA sequencing. Results: The mRNA and protein levels of SOX9 were significantly higher in OFs cultured from patients with TED than those from healthy controls. Extracellular matrix-related genes were down-regulated by SOX9 knockdown and up-regulated by SOX9 overexpression in TED-OFs. SOX9 knockdown significantly decrease the contraction and the antiapoptotic ability of OFs, whereas the overexpression of SOX9 increased the ability of transformation, migration, and proliferation of OFs. SOX9 knockdown suppressed the expression of phosphorylated ERK1/2, whereas its overexpression showed the opposite effect. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is one of the notably down-regulated genes screened out by RNA sequencing. Chromatin immunoprecipitation-qPCR demonstrated SOX9 binding to the EGFR promoter. Conclusions: A high expression of SOX9 was found in TED-OFs. SOX9 can activate OFs via MAPK/ERK1/2 signaling pathway, which in turn promotes proliferation and differentiation of OFs. EGFR was a downstream target gene of SOX9. SOX9/EGFR can be considered as therapeutic targets for the treatment of orbital fibrosis in TED.
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Oftalmopatía de Graves , Humanos , Oftalmopatía de Graves/genética , Oftalmopatía de Graves/metabolismo , Órbita/metabolismo , Sistema de Señalización de MAP Quinasas , Receptores ErbB/metabolismo , Fibroblastos/metabolismo , Fibrosis , Células Cultivadas , Factor de Transcripción SOX9/genética , Factor de Transcripción SOX9/metabolismoRESUMEN
Dry eye disease is a multifactorial dysfunction of the tear film and ocular surface, with etiology involving inflammation and oxidative stress on the ocular surface. Pterostilbene (PS) is a secondary metabolite extracted from plants, which possesses remarkable anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. However, its application is limited by light instability and very poor water solubility. We modified fat-soluble PS into a biparental pterostilbene-glutaric anhydride-arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (PS-GA-RGD) nanomedicine by prodrug ligation of functional peptides. The aim of this study was to explore the protective effect and potential mechanism of PS-GA-RGD on dry eye disease in vitro and in vivo. We demonstrated good long-term biocompatibility of PS-GA-RGD through rabbit eye stimulation test. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was used to induce murine macrophages RAW 264.7 to establish an inflammation and oxidative stress model. In this model, PS-GA-RGD effectively reduced the production of ROS and 8-OHdG, enhancing the expression of antioxidant factor Nrf2 and antioxidant enzyme heme oxygenase-1. In addition, the expression of NF-κB inflammatory pathway significantly increased in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells, while PS-GA-RGD could significantly reduce this pathway. Hypertonic saline was utilized to establish a hypertonic model of human corneal epithelial cells. PS-GA-RGD was found to significantly reduce the production of ROS and NLRP3 inflammasomes in this model, exhibiting superior efficacy compared to PS. Experimental dry eye animal models were co-induced with subcutaneous injection of scopolamine and an intelligently controlled environmental system. We demonstrated that PS-GA-RGD nano drugs can prevent and reduce corneal epithelial cell defects and apoptosis, protect conjunctival goblet cells, and have an excellent anti-inflammatory effect. Finally, we demonstrated that RGD sequence in PS-GA-RGD can enhance cellular uptake, corneal retention, and penetration, thereby increasing their bioavailability and efficacy by a cell uptake assay and rabbit corneal drug retention experiment. Overall, this study highlights the potential of PS-GA-RGD nanomedicines in the treatment of dry eyes.
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Antioxidantes , Síndromes de Ojo Seco , Ratones , Humanos , Animales , Conejos , Antioxidantes/farmacología , Antioxidantes/uso terapéutico , Especies Reactivas de Oxígeno/metabolismo , Lipopolisacáridos , Síndromes de Ojo Seco/metabolismo , Inflamación/tratamiento farmacológico , Antiinflamatorios/uso terapéutico , Oligopéptidos/farmacología , Oligopéptidos/uso terapéutico , Modelos Animales de EnfermedadRESUMEN
Introduction: Seasonal influenza A H3N2 viruses are constantly changing, reducing the effectiveness of existing vaccines. As a result, the World Health Organization (WHO) needs to frequently update the vaccine strains to match the antigenicity of emerged H3N2 variants. Traditional assessments of antigenicity rely on serological methods, which are both labor-intensive and time-consuming. Although numerous computational models aim to simplify antigenicity determination, they either lack a robust quantitative linkage between antigenicity and viral sequences or focus restrictively on selected features. Methods: Here, we propose a novel computational method to predict antigenic distances using multiple features, including not only viral sequence attributes but also integrating four distinct categories of features that significantly affect viral antigenicity in sequences. Results: This method exhibits low error in virus antigenicity prediction and achieves superior accuracy in discerning antigenic drift. Utilizing this method, we investigated the evolution process of the H3N2 influenza viruses and identified a total of 21 major antigenic clusters from 1968 to 2022. Discussion: Interestingly, our predicted antigenic map aligns closely with the antigenic map generated with serological data. Thus, our method is a promising tool for detecting antigenic variants and guiding the selection of vaccine candidates.
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AIM: To create a systematic digital health process mapping framework for full-life-cycle noncommunicable disease management grounded in key stakeholder engagement. METHODS: A triphasic, qualitative methodology was employed to construct a process mapping framework for digital noncommunicable disease management in Shanghai, China. The first phase involved desk research to examine current guidance and practices. In the second phase, pivotal stakeholders participated in focus group discussions to identify prevalent digital touchpoints across lifetime noncommunicable disease management. In the final phase, the Delphi technique was used to refine the framework based on expert insights and obtain consensus. RESULTS: We identified 60 digital touchpoints across five essential stages of full-life-cycle noncommunicable disease management. Most experts acknowledged the rationality and feasibility of these touchpoints. CONCLUSIONS: This study led to the creation of a comprehensive digital health process mapping framework that encompasses the entire life cycle of noncommunicable disease management. The insights gained emphasize the importance of a systemic strategic, person-centered approach over a fragmented, purely technocentric approach. We recommend that healthcare professionals use this framework as a linchpin for efficient disease management and seamless technology incorporation in clinical practice.
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Enfermedades no Transmisibles , Humanos , Enfermedades no Transmisibles/terapia , Salud Digital , China , Personal de Salud , Participación de los InteresadosRESUMEN
RATIONALE: While some systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients may experience varying degrees of liver function abnormalities, only a small portion of these cases have clinical significance, and the majority of patients typically exhibit low levels of serum bilirubin. However, in this article, we present a case of a middle-aged female patient with SLE who exhibited persistent skin jaundice as her initial symptom, offering a fresh perspective on diagnosing and treating patients who exhibit unexplained liver dysfunction and SLE combined with liver injury. PATIENT CONCERNS: A 45-year-old woman was initially admitted to the hospital due to yellowing of the skin and sclera, and her symptoms did not improve significantly during treatment. The results were abnormal after relevant immunological tests. DIAGNOSES: Persistent non-conjugated bilirubin elevation due to lupus hepatitis. INTERVENTIONS: The use of methylprednisolone sodium succinate (40 mg/Qd) and mycophenolate mofetil (0.75 g/d) suppressed immunity, polyolefin choline (20 mL/d) and glutathione (0.6 g/Qd) improved liver function, and nutritional support therapy. OUTCOMES: After 2 weeks of treatment, a significant decrease in the yellow skin and sclera of the patient was observed. LESSONS: Most clinicians overlook that liver function abnormalities are the main manifestation of SLE, resulting in many patients not receiving timely treatment. This study highlights the importance that SLE is also a cause of abnormal liver function.
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Hepatopatías , Lupus Eritematoso Sistémico , Humanos , Persona de Mediana Edad , Femenino , Lupus Eritematoso Sistémico/complicaciones , Lupus Eritematoso Sistémico/diagnóstico , Lupus Eritematoso Sistémico/tratamiento farmacológico , Ácido Micofenólico/uso terapéutico , Hemisuccinato de Metilprednisolona/uso terapéutico , BilirrubinaRESUMEN
SUMMARY: Single-cell multi-omics technologies provide a unique platform for characterizing cell states and reconstructing developmental process by simultaneously quantifying and integrating molecular signatures across various modalities, including genome, transcriptome, epigenome, and other omics layers. However, there is still an urgent unmet need for novel computational tools in this nascent field, which are critical for both effective and efficient interrogation of functionality across different omics modalities. Scbean represents a user-friendly Python library, designed to seamlessly incorporate a diverse array of models for the examination of single-cell data, encompassing both paired and unpaired multi-omics data. The library offers uniform and straightforward interfaces for tasks, such as dimensionality reduction, batch effect elimination, cell label transfer from well-annotated scRNA-seq data to scATAC-seq data, and the identification of spatially variable genes. Moreover, Scbean's models are engineered to harness the computational power of GPU acceleration through Tensorflow, rendering them capable of effortlessly handling datasets comprising millions of cells. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: Scbean is released on the Python Package Index (PyPI) (https://pypi.org/project/scbean/) and GitHub (https://github.com/jhu99/scbean) under the MIT license. The documentation and example code can be found at https://scbean.readthedocs.io/en/latest/.
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Multiómica , Programas Informáticos , Genoma , Transcriptoma , Análisis de la Célula Individual , Análisis de DatosRESUMEN
Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) and focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) type IIb are the predominant causes of drug-refractory epilepsy in children. Dysmorphic neurons (DNs), giant cells (GCs), and balloon cells (BCs) are the most typical pathogenic profiles in cortical lesions of TSC and FCD IIb patients. However, mechanisms underlying the pathological processes of TSC and FCD IIb remain obscure. The Plexin-B2-Sema4C signalling pathway plays critical roles in neuronal morphogenesis and corticogenesis during the development of the central nervous system. However, the role of the Plexin-B2 system in the pathogenic process of TSC and FCD IIb has not been identified. In the present study, we investigated the expression and cell distribution characteristics of Plexin-B2 and Sema4C in TSC and FCD IIb lesions with molecular technologies. Our results showed that the mRNA and protein levels of Plexin-B2 expression were significantly increased both in TSC and FCD IIb lesions versus that in the control cortex. Notably, Plexin-B2 was also predominantly observed in GCs in TSC epileptic lesions and BCs in FCD IIb lesions. In contrast, the expression of Sema4C, the ligand of Plexin-B2, was significantly decreased in DNs, GCs, and BCs in TSC and FCD IIb epileptic lesions. Additionally, Plexin-B2 and Sema4C were expressed in astrocytes and microglia cells in TSC and FCD IIb lesions. Furthermore, the expression of Plexin-B2 was positively correlated with seizure frequency in TSC and FCD IIb patients. In conclusion, our results showed the Plexin-B2-Sema4C system was abnormally expressed in cortical lesions of TSC and FCD IIb patients, signifying that the Plexin-B2-Sema4C system may play a role in the pathogenic development of TSC and FCD IIb.
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Displasia Cortical Focal , Malformaciones del Desarrollo Cortical de Grupo I , Proteínas del Tejido Nervioso , Semaforinas , Esclerosis Tuberosa , Adolescente , Niño , Preescolar , Femenino , Humanos , Lactante , Masculino , Epilepsia Refractaria/metabolismo , Epilepsia Refractaria/patología , Epilepsia , Displasia Cortical Focal/metabolismo , Displasia Cortical Focal/patología , Células Gigantes/metabolismo , Células Gigantes/patología , Malformaciones del Desarrollo Cortical de Grupo I/metabolismo , Malformaciones del Desarrollo Cortical de Grupo I/patología , Proteínas del Tejido Nervioso/metabolismo , Proteínas del Tejido Nervioso/biosíntesis , Neuronas/metabolismo , Neuronas/patología , Semaforinas/metabolismo , Semaforinas/genética , Semaforinas/biosíntesis , Esclerosis Tuberosa/metabolismo , Esclerosis Tuberosa/patologíaRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Extensive research has revealed the favorable effects of celastrol (CEL) against various diseases, but the role of CEL in autoimmune uveitis remains unexplored. METHODS: We first assessed the prophylactical and therapeutical effects of CEL on autoimmune uveitis via rat experimental autoimmune uveitis model. After network pharmacology, functional enrichment and molecular docking analyses, we predicted the potential target of CEL and validated its effect on EAU by clinical and histopathological scores, Evans blue staining, immunofluorescence assay and western blotting. Then we evaluated the role of CEL in the gut environment by 16S rRNA sequencing and untargeted metabolomic analysis. RESULTS: We confirmed that CEL treatment suppressed the pathological TH17 response, inhibited the migration of inflammatory cells, and preserved the integrity of BRB via targeting STAT3-IL17 pathway. Furthermore, CEL was found to reduce the relative abundance of opportunistic pathogenic bacteria including Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1, Parasutterella and GCA-900066575, and enrich the relative abundance of beneficial Oscillospirales and Ruminococcus_torques_group in EAU rats by fecal 16S rRNA sequencing. Meanwhile, CEL treatment reshaped the gut metabolites in the EAU rats by increasing the relative concentrations of cholic acid, progesterone and guggulsterone, and decreasing the relative levels of isoproterenol, creatinine and phenylacetylglutamine. CONCLUSIONS: CEL exerts its ameliorative effects on the experimental autoimmune uveitis through the dual mechanisms of targeting STAT3 and reprofiling the gut microenvironment.
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Enfermedades Autoinmunes , Triterpenos Pentacíclicos , Uveítis , Ratas , Animales , ARN Ribosómico 16S/genética , Retina/patología , Simulación del Acoplamiento Molecular , Uveítis/tratamiento farmacológico , Células Th17 , Modelos Animales de EnfermedadRESUMEN
Background: Older adults frequently participate in behavior change studies, yet it is not clear how to quantify a potential relationship between their perception of the intervention and its efficacy. Research Aim: We assessed the relationship between participant sentiment toward the intervention from follow-up interviews with physical activity and questionnaires for the perception of health. Methods: Sentiment was calculated using the transcripts of exit interviews through a bag of words approach defined as the sum of positive and negative words in 28 older adults with obesity (body mass index ≥30kg/m2). Results: Mean age was 73 years (82% female), and 54% lost ≥5% weight loss. Through linear regression we describe a significant association between positive sentiment about the intervention and weight loss; positive sentiment on technology and change in PROMIS-10 physical health and reduced physical activity time, while controlling for sex and age. Conclusions: This analysis demonstrates that sentiment analysis and natural language processing in program review identified an association between perception and topics with clinical outcomes.
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Diffraction-limited focusing imaging, edge-enhanced imaging, and long depth of focus imaging offer crucial technical capabilities for applications such as biological microscopy and surface topography detection. To conveniently and quickly realize the microscopy imaging of different functions, the multifunctional integrated system of microscopy imaging has become an increasingly important research direction. However, conventional microscopes necessitate bulky optical components to switch between these functionalities, suffering from the system's complexity and unstability. Hence, solving the problem of integrating multiple functions within an optical system is a pressing need. In this work, we present an approach using a polarization-multiplexed tri-functional metasurface, capable of realizing the aforementioned imaging functions simply by changing the polarization state of the input and output light, enhancing the system structure's compactness and flexibility. This work offers a new avenue for multifunctional imaging, with potential applications in biomedicine and microscopy imaging.