Highly Mimetic Ex Vivo Lung-Cancer Spheroid-Based Physiological Model for Clinical Precision Therapeutics.

Lung cancer remains a major health problem despite the considerable research into prevention and treatment methods. Through a deeper understanding of tumors, patient-specific ex vivo spheroid models with high specificity can be used to accurately investigate the cause, metastasis, and treatment strategies for lung cancer. Biofabricate lung tumors are presented, consisting of patient-derived tumor spheroids, endothelial cells, and lung decellularized extracellular matrix, which maintain a radial oxygen gradient, as well as biophysicochemical behaviors of the native tumors for precision medicine. It is also demonstrated that the developed lung-cancer spheroid model reproduces patient responses to chemotherapeutics and targeted therapy in a co-clinical trial, with 85% accuracy, 86.7% sensitivity, and 80% specificity. RNA sequencing analysis validates that the gene expression in the spheroids replicates that in the patient's primary tumor. This model can be used as an ex vivo predictive model for personalized cancer therapy and to improve the quality of clinical care.

The applications of B. coagulans TCI711 in alcohol elimination.

This study demonstrates the applications of Bacillus coagulans in alcohol elimination. Bacillus coagulans has recently drawn tremendous interest in the food industry and medicine considering its great environmental tolerance and beneficial effects on improving gastrointestinal diseases. However, few scientific reports connect its utilities with alcohol elimination. In this study, we introduced the unique strain B. coagulans TCI711 for such exploration. TCI711 contained alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) by mass spectrum and resisted gastric acid and bile acid. Also, taking TCI711 capsules for a week can significantly improve alcohol metabolism in humans (breath alcohol level indicated 0 mg/kg in 2 h after drinking 75 mL of whisky). In brief, this exploratory research unveiled the potent applications of B. coagulans in alcohol elimination in humans.

Investigation of the Synergistic Effect of Brown Sugar, Longan, Ginger, and Jujube (Brown Sugar Longan Ginger Tea) on Antioxidation and Anti-Inflammation in In Vitro Models.

This research unveils the synergistic effect of brown sugar, longan, ginger, and jujube on the beneficial effects of antioxidation and anti-inflammation. Longan, ginger, and jujube are ubiquitous herbs in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and are frequently used in folk remedies. Longan and ginger have been reported to be beneficial for antioxidation, anti-inflammation, ant-obesity, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) improvements. However, the potential scientific and medical benefits of their combination Brown Sugar Longan Ginger Tea (BSLGT), a popular drink in Chinese cultures, are elusive. Through the in vitro methodologies, we discovered that BSLGT could significantly improve the mitochondrial activity, antioxidant capacity, lipid content, and inflammatory response in human hepatocytes. In addition, BSLGT also exerted positive effects on the downregulation of atherosclerosis-associated, vasoconstrictor, and thrombosis-related gene expression in human umbilical vein endothelial cells. In short, our experimental results successfully revealed that the antioxidative and anti-inflammatory effects of BSLGT may have the potential to improve liver metabolism and cardiovascular inflammation although solid evidence requires further investigation.

Oral Collagen Drink for Antiaging: Antioxidation, Facilitation of the Increase of Collagen Synthesis, and Improvement of Protein Folding and DNA Repair in Human Skin Fibroblasts.

This work unveils a fish collagen drink for improvement of skin aging. Previous studies frequently discussed the skin aging from the angle of the representative characteristics of collagen loss and the oxidative-induced expression of proteolytic enzymes matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), but few groups comprehensively investigated the efficacy of oral hydrolyzed collagen for enhancing protein folding and DNA repair as well as improving notable cell behaviors. To delineate the broad perspective on delaying skin aging, we inspected the collagen drink-treated fibroblast cells from the molecular and cellular aspects. The results show that the collagen drink could perform the compact antiaging effects on ROS inhibition, the facilitation of the synthesis of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, the increase of mitochondrial activity, and improvement of the gene expression regarding correct protein folding, DNA mismatch repair (MMR) and base excision repair (BER). Although the experimental results are built on the cellular models, we believe that the positive outcomes can provide more details on the influence of oral hydrolyzed collagen supplement for antiaging. In short, we have successfully proved that the synergistic effect of the collagen drink could not only reduce the oxidative damage but also ameliorate the cell functionality to compensate the harmful effects induced by UVA.