Learned Helplessness and Associated Factors Among Patients with Lung Cancer.

Purpose: Learned helplessness (LH) is the psychological state in which an individual experiences multiple failures and setbacks and experiences a sense of loss when facing the current situation. It is a significant burden for lung cancer patients that can impair quality of life and lead to physical, social, and psychological difficulties. Thus, this study aimed to determine the level of LH among patients with lung cancer and identify factors associated with LH. Patients and Methods: From August 2022 to March 2023, 237 patients with lung cancer from Chongqing University Cancer Hospital were selected for this study. A general information questionnaire, the LH scale, the Brief Illness Perception questionnaire, the Strategies Used by People to Promote Health questionnaire, the Medical Coping Modes questionnaire, and the Self-esteem scale were used for the investigation. Multiple linear regression was employed to identify influencing factors for LH in patients with lung cancer. Results: The total LH score of patients with lung cancer was 52.19±11.20. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that illness perception (ß=0.249, P=0.001), self-efficacy (ß=-0.194, P=0.017), and resignation coping mode (ß=0.267, P<0.001) were the main influencing factors of LH (P<0.05), which explained 42.0% of the total variance. Conclusion: The score of LH in patients with lung cancer was at a moderate level in this study. Illness perception, self-efficacy, and resignation coping mode have been found to impact LH among patients with lung cancer. Healthcare professionals should implement effective interventions, such as promoting self-efficacy, encouraging positive coping, and reducing illness perception, to alleviate LH.

A novel lipid metabolism-based risk model associated with immunosuppressive mechanisms in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

BACKGROUND: The molecular diversity exhibited by diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a significant obstacle facing current precision therapies. However, scoring using the International Prognostic Index (IPI) is inadequate when fully predicting the development of DLBCL. Reprogramming lipid metabolism is crucial for DLBCL carcinogenesis and expansion, while a predictive approach derived from lipid metabolism-associated genes (LMAGs) has not yet been recognized for DLBCL. METHODS: Gene expression profiles of DLBCL were generated using the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) databases. The LASSO Cox regression was used to construct an effective predictive risk-scoring model for DLBCL patients. The Kaplan-Meier survival assessment was employed to compare a given risk score with the IPI score and its impact on the survival of DLBCL patients. Functional enrichment examination was performed utilizing the KEGG pathway. After identifying hub genes via single-sample GSEA (ssGSEA), immunohistochemical staining and immunofluorescence were performed on lymph node samples from control and DLBCL patients to confirm these identified genes. RESULTS: Sixteen lipid metabolism- and survival-associated genes were identified to construct a prognostic risk-scoring approach. This model demonstrated robust performance over various datasets and emerged as an autonomous risk factor for predicting the development of DLBCL patients. The risk score could significantly distinguish the development of DLBCL patients from the low-risk and elevated-risk IPI classes. Results from the inhibitory immune-related pathways and lower immune scores suggested an immunosuppressive phenotype within the elevated-risk group. Three hub genes, MECR, ARSK, and RAN, were identified to be negatively correlated with activated CD8 T cells and natural killer T cells in the elevated-risk score class. Ultimately, it was determined that these three genes were expressed by lymphoma cells but not by T cells in clinical samples from DLBCL patients. CONCLUSION: The risk level model derived from 16 lipid metabolism-associated genes represents a prognostic biomarker for DLBCL that is novel, robust, and may have an immunosuppressive role. It can compensate for the limitations of the IPI score in predicting overall survival and has potential clinical application value.

Orientation Cues-Aware Facial Relationship Representation for Head Pose Estimation via Transformer.

Head pose estimation (HPE) is an indispensable upstream task in the fields of human-machine interaction, self-driving, and attention detection. However, practical head pose applications suffer from several challenges, such as severe occlusion, low illumination, and extreme orientations. To address these challenges, we identify three cues from head images, namely, critical minority relationships, neighborhood orientation relationships, and significant facial changes. On the basis of the three cues, two key insights on head poses are revealed: 1) intra-orientation relationship and 2) cross-orientation relationship. To leverage two key insights above, a novel relationship-driven method is proposed based on the Transformer architecture, in which facial and orientation relationships can be learned. Specifically, we design several orientation tokens to explicitly encode basic orientation regions. Besides, a novel token guide multi-loss function is accordingly designed to guide the orientation tokens as they learn the desired regional similarities and relationships. Experimental results on three challenging benchmark HPE datasets show that our proposed TokenHPE achieves state-of-the-art performance. Moreover, qualitative visualizations are provided to verify the effectiveness of the token-learning methodology.

Influence of Multi-Frequency Ultrasound Treatment on Conformational Characteristics of Beef Myofibrillar Proteins with Different Degrees of Doneness.

This study evaluated the effect of multi-frequency sonication (20 kHz, 25 kHz, 28 kHz, 40 kHz, 50 kHz) on structural characteristics of beef myofibrillar proteins (MPs) with different degrees of doneness (Rare 52~55 °C, Medium Rare 55~60 °C, Medium 60~65 °C, Medium Well 65~69 °C, Well Down 70~80 °C, and Overcooked 90 °C). The results showed that surface hydrophobicity and sulfhydryl content increased with the increase in degree of doneness. At the same degree of doneness, the sulfhydryl group contents reached the maximum at a frequency of 28 kHz. In addition, the absolute value of ζ-potential was significantly decreased after ultrasonic treatment (p < 0.05). SDS gel electrophoresis showed that the bands of beef MPs were not significantly affected by various ultrasonic frequencies, but the bands became thinner when the degree of doneness reached overcooked. Fourier transform infrared spectrum showed that with the increase of ultrasonic frequency, α-helix content decreased, and random coil content significantly increased (p < 0.05). The results of atomic force microscopy indicated that the surface structure of beef MPs was damaged, and the roughness decreased by sonication, while the roughness significantly increased when the degree of doneness changed from medium to overripe (p < 0.05). In conclusion, multi-ultrasound combined with degree of doneness treatment alters the structural characteristics of beef MPs.

Mono-frequency ultrasonic-assisted thawing of frozen goose meat: Influence on thawing efficiency, product quality and microstructure.

This study aimed to investigate the influences of mono-ultrasound assisted thawing on the thawing efficiency, product quality and conformational characteristics of frozen goose meat. The thawing time, thawing loss, muscle quality, and microstructure of frozen goose meat were studied. The results displayed that ultrasonic-assisted thawing effectively reduced the thawing time by 45.37-57.58% compared with non-sonicated group, and significantly decreased the thawing loss. For the quality properties of goose meat tissue, ultrasound-assisted thawing with single-frequency of 50 kHz indicated a lower protein turbidity; meanwhile, hardness values were also significantly increased, and displayed a higher springiness, gumminess and chewiness of goose meat tissue. The microstructure analysis exhibited that the conformation of goose myofibrillar protein (MP) was modified following ultrasonic-assisted thawing, and became closer and more irregular. Therefore, ultrasound-assisted thawing treatments at 50 kHz mono-frequency (temperature 25℃) have a high potential application value in the thawing research of frozen goose meat, and lay a theoretical foundation for use in the meat process industries.

Synergistic effects of pH shift and heat treatment on solubility, physicochemical and structural properties, and lysinoalanine formation in silkworm pupa protein isolates.

The application of silkworm pupa protein isolates (SPPI) in food industry was limited because SPPI's solubility is poor and it contains a potential harmful component of lysinoalanine (LAL) which formed during protein extraction. In this study, combined treatments of pH shift and heating were performed to improve the solubility of SPPI and to reduce the content of LAL. The experimental results showed that the promoting effect on SPPI's solubility by alkaline pH shift + heat treatment was greater than that by acidic pH shift + heat. And an 8.62 times increase of solubility was observed after pH 12.5 + 80 â„ƒ treatment compared to the control SPPI sample which was extracted at pH 9.0 without pH shift treatment. Very strong positive correlation was found between alkali dosage and SPPI solubility (Pearson's correlation coefficient r = 0.938). SPPI with pH 12.5 shift treatment showed the highest thermal stability. Alkaline pH shift combined with heat treatment altered the micromorphology of SPPI and destroyed the disulfide bonds between macromolecular subunits (72 and 95 kDa), resulting in reduced particle size and increased zeta potential and free sulfhydryl content of the isolates. The fluorescence spectra analysis showed red shifts phenomena with pH increasing and fluorescence intensity increase with temperature increasing, implying the alterations in the tertiary structure of protein. Compared to the control SPPI sample, the amount of LAL reduced by 47.40 %, 50.36 % and 52.39 % using pH 12.5 + 70 â„ƒ, pH 12.5 + 80 â„ƒ and pH 12.5 + 90 â„ƒ treatment, respectively. These findings provide fundamental information for the development and application of SPPI in food industry.

Insights into Ultrasonication Treatment on the Characteristics of Cereal Proteins: Functionality, Conformational and Physicochemical Characteristics.

BACKGROUND: It would be impossible to imagine a country where cereals and their byproducts were not at the peak of foodstuff systems as a source of food, fertilizer, or for fiber and fuel production. Moreover, the production of cereal proteins (CPs) has recently attracted the scientific community's interest due to the increasing demands for physical wellbeing and animal health. However, the nutritional and technological enhancements of CPs are needed to ameliorate their functional and structural properties. Ultrasonic technology is an emerging nonthermal method to change the functionality and conformational characteristics of CPs. Scope and approach: This article briefly discusses the effects of ultrasonication on the characteristics of CPs. The effects of ultrasonication on the solubility, emulsibility, foamability, surface-hydrophobicity, particle-size, conformational-structure, microstructural, enzymatic-hydrolysis, and digestive properties are summarized. CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrate that ultrasonication could be used to enhance the characteristics of CPs. Proper ultrasonic treatment could improve functionalities such as solubility, emulsibility, and foamability, and is a good method for altering protein structures (including surface hydrophobicity, sulfhydryl and disulfide bonds, particle size, secondary and tertiary structures, and microstructure). In addition, ultrasonic treatment could effectively promote the enzymolytic efficiency of CPs. Furthermore, the in vitro digestibility was enhanced after suitable sonication treatment. Therefore, ultrasonication technology is a useful method to modify cereal protein functionality and structure for the food industry.

A novel peptide-templated AgNPs nanoprobe for theranostics of prostate cancer.

Prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-positive exosomes have the potential to serve as highly sensitive biomarkers for prostate cancer detection. Herein, a sensitive electrochemical biosensor for the ultrasensitive detection of PSMA-positive exosomes has been constructed based on a peptide-templated AgNPs nanoprobe. In this work, PSMA-specific binding peptides immobilized on a gold electrode were responsible for prostate cancer-derived exosomes capturing. Well-designed peptide (CCY- LWYIKC) serves a dual role: as a signal probe and as a recognizer in the exosomes-identification process. Specifically, LWYIKC bind to cholesterol at the exosome membranes, and CCY function as peptide templates to host a large number of silver nanoparticles, leading to a strong electrochemical signal. Thus, the concentration of exosomes can be quantified via electrochemical signal. This innovative method displayed a wide detection range of 102 to 108 particles/µL and a detection limit as low as 37 particles/µL. Notably, the method has shown outstanding performance when validated using clinical samples, suggesting its potential for clinical applications.

The effect of chronoradiotherapy on cervical cancer patients: A multicenter randomized controlled study.

Objectives: To investigate the short-term efficacy and radiotoxicity 3.543of chronoradiotherapy in patients with cervical cancer. We also examined the overall symptom score and quality of life (QOL) of patients who underwent morning radiotherapy and evening radiotherapy. Methods: We conducted a multicenter randomized controlled trial to compare the effects of morning radiotherapy (9:00-11:00 AM) with evening radiotherapy (7:00-9:00 PM) in cervical cancer patients receiving radiotherapy. From November 2021 to June 2022, 114 cervical cancer patients admitted to eight cancer center hospitals in Tianjin, Chongqing, Hubei, Shanxi, Shandong, Shaanxi, Hebei, and Cangzhou were randomly divided into the morning radiotherapy group (MG; N = 61) and the evening radiotherapy group (EG; N = 53). The short-term efficacy of radiotherapy on cervical cancer patients at different time points and the occurrence of radiotoxicity were explored after patients had undergone radiotherapy. Results: The total effective response (partial remission [PR] + complete remission [CR]) rate was similar across the two groups (93.5% vs. 96.3%, p > 0.05). However, the incidence of bone marrow suppression and intestinal reaction in the two groups were significantly different (p < 0.05). The patients in the MG had significantly higher Anderson symptom scores than patients in the EG (21.64 ± 7.916 vs. 18.53 ± 4.098, p < 0.05). In terms of physical activity, functional status, and overall QOL, the MG had significantly lower scores than the EG (p < 0.05). No other measures showed a significant difference between the groups. Conclusion: The radiotherapy effect of the MG was consistent with that of the EG. The incidence of radiation enteritis and radiation diarrhea in the MG was significantly higher than that in the EG; however, bone marrow suppression and blood toxicity in the EG were more serious than in the MG. Because of the small sample size of the study, we only examined the short-term efficacy of radiotherapy. Therefore, further clinical trials are needed to verify the efficacy and side effects of chronoradiotherapy. Clinical Trial Registration: http://www.chictr.org.cn/searchproj.aspx, Registration Number: ChiCTR2100047140.

Recent Insight on Edible Insect Protein: Extraction, Functional Properties, Allergenicity, Bioactivity, and Applications.

Due to the recent increase in the human population and the associated shortage of protein resources, it is necessary to find new, sustainable, and natural protein resources from invertebrates (such as insects) and underutilized plants. In most cases, compared to plants (e.g., grains and legumes) and animals (e.g., fish, beef, chicken, lamb, and pork), insect proteins are high in quality in terms of their nutritional value, total protein content, and essential amino acid composition. This review evaluates the recent state of insects as an alternative protein source from production to application; more specifically, it introduces in detail the latest advances in the protein extraction process. As an alternative source of protein in food formulations, the functional characteristics of edible insect protein are comprehensively presented, and the risk of allergy associated with insect protein is also discussed. The biological activity of protein hydrolyzates from different species of insects (Bombyx mori, Hermetia illucens, Acheta domesticus, Tenebrio molitor) are also reviewed, and the hydrolysates (bioactive peptides) are found to have either antihypertensive, antioxidant, antidiabetic, and antimicrobial activity. Finally, the use of edible insect protein in various food applications is presented.

An overview of factors affecting the quality of beef meatballs: Processing and preservation.

Beef meatball (BM) is a traditional delicious snack with rich nutrition and unique flavor, making it a preferred choice for most consumers. However, the quality of BM is easily affected by many factors, such as the processing, storage, and preservation, which limit the competitive positioning with respect to its market. Therefore, it is essential to pay attention to each step during the processing of BMs. Based on previous studies, this systematic review focuses on the effect of key processing factors (including raw materials and ingredients, beating, cooking methods, storage, and preservation) on the quality of BMs. Additionally, this study assessed the effect of each process factor on the physicochemical, sensory, nutritional, and safety attributes of BMs. Finally, the existing review will be beneficial in examining/describing the factors impacting the quality of BMs during processing, which would provide theoretical reference and scientific basis for the standardization and industrialization of BMs.

IL-6 promotes chemoresistance via upregulating CD36 mediated fatty acids uptake in acute myeloid leukemia.

Chemoresistance contributes to poor survival and high relapse risk in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). As a pro-inflammatory cytokine, interleukin-6 (IL-6) plays a vital role in the chemoresistance of malignancies. However, the underlying mechanisms of chemoresistance in AML have not been widely studied. Lipid metabolism, which contributes to chemoresistance in AML, is enhanced by IL-6 in skeletal muscle cells. We hypothesized that IL-6 promotes the chemoresistance of AML by promoting lipid metabolism. Based on the positive correlation between IL-6 receptor expression and the cellular response to exogenous IL-6, we performed Gene Ontology analysis of a dataset consisting the information of 151 AML patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas. We found that lipid transport-associated genes were upregulated in the high IL-6 receptor expression group. Additionally, IL-6 promoted fatty acid (FA) uptake in both AML cell lines and primary AML cells. Inhibition of FA uptake by sulfo-N-succinimidyl oleate repressed IL-6-induced chemoresistance. Western blotting, quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays indicated that IL-6 promoted CD36 expression at both the mRNA and protein levels through stat3 signaling. Knockout of CD36 or stat3 repressed IL-6-induced FA uptake and chemoresistance. Furthermore, in five human AML samples, we validated that compared to CD36-cells, CD36+ primary AML cells were less sensitive to cytosine arabinoside (Ara-c) and that blockade of CD36 re-sensitized CD36+ AML cells to Ara-c. Mice injected with CD36 knockout cells followed by treatment with Ara-c showed markedly decreased leukemia burden and prolonged survival in vivo. Finally, treatment with the CD36 antibody in combination with Ara-c exhibited synergistic effects in vivo. In conclusion, IL-6 promotes chemoresistance in AML through the stat3/CD36-mediated FA uptake. Blockade of CD36 improved the effect of Ara-c, representing a promising strategy for AML therapy.

Ultrasensitive fluorescent detection of telomerase activity based on tetrahedral DNA nanostructures as carriers for DNA-templated silver nanoclusters.

Precise evaluation of telomerase activity is essential for the clinical diagnosis of early tumors. Herein, we have ingeniously designed a tetrahedral DNA nanostructure, with hairpin-shaped DNA probes rich in cytosine bases at four vertices for telomerase detection. The DNA-templated silver nanoclusters can be formed after the addition of Ag. Then the introduction of telomerase adds the single-strand TTAGGG extension, which can "turn on" the fluorescence of silver nanoclusters quickly by the proximity of the resulting guanine-rich sequences to silver nanoclusters and realize accurate detection of telomerase activity. In this study, integration of high stability tetrahedral DNA nanostructure and fluorescence signal amplification of four DNA-templated silver nanoclusters offers the advantage of high sensitivity, with a low detection limit of 1 cell. More than that, this method is low-cost, facile, and feasible for practical clinical applications.

Learning Knowledge Graph Embedding With Heterogeneous Relation Attention Networks.

Knowledge graph (KG) embedding aims to study the embedding representation to retain the inherent structure of KGs. Graph neural networks (GNNs), as an effective graph representation technique, have shown impressive performance in learning graph embedding. However, KGs have an intrinsic property of heterogeneity, which contains various types of entities and relations. How to address complex graph data and aggregate multiple types of semantic information simultaneously is a critical issue. In this article, a novel heterogeneous GNNs framework based on attention mechanism is proposed. Specifically, the neighbor features of an entity are first aggregated under each relation-path. Then the importance of different relation-paths is learned through the relation features. Finally, each relation-path-based features with the learned weight values are aggregated to generate the embedding representation. Thus, the proposed method not only aggregates entity features from different semantic aspects but also allocates appropriate weights to them. This method can capture various types of semantic information and selectively aggregate informative features. The experiment results on three real-world KGs demonstrate superior performance when compared with several state-of-the-art methods.

Demethylation of m1A assisted degradation of the signal probe for rapid electrochemical detection of ALKBH3 activity with practical applications.

ALKBH3 is an important marker for early diagnosis and histopathological grading of prostate cancer. However, the lack of a rapid and sensitive method to quantify the enzyme's activity in the current time necessitates the development of a new quantitative assay. Herein, we first tried to quantitative assay for ALKBH3 activity using an electrochemical method based on the degradation of the signal probe due to alkyl group of the m1A removal by ALKBH3. A strong electrochemical signal can be obtained when the ferrocene (Fc) labeled dsDNAs with 1-methyladenine are immobilized on the electrode. In the presence of ALKBH3, the 3' blunt of DNA can be formed because of the removal of alkyl group of the Fc-DNA probe, which can be recognized and degraded by Exonuclease III (Exo III). As a result, the electrochemical signal produced by Fc greatly decreases, and the activity of ALKBH3 can be easily detected via changes in electrochemical signal. Quantitative analysis of ALKBH3 activity showed a wide detection range (0.1 and 20 ng/mL) and low detection limit (0.04 ng/mL). Furthermore, the method can be applied to detect 1-methyladenine through ALKBH3 in cell lysates and tissue samples, providing a new method for clinical detection of prostate cancer.

The use of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) for lung cancer patients: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) intervention has been extensively applied in cancer patients for relieving symptom burden and its effectiveness has also been demonstrated. However, the effectiveness of MBSR on psychological and physical functions in lung cancer patients has not yet been determined. The aim of the present systematic review and meta-analysis seeks to determine the role of MBSR in lung cancer patients. METHODS: A systematic search of PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledgement Infrastructure (CNKI) will be carried out from their inception until to December 30, 2020. Studies investigating the comparative effects between MBSR and control groups on psychological and physical outcomes will be documented. Data concerning studies, patient characteristics, and outcomes will be extracted. Methodological quality of each eligible randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be assessed individually by two investigators independently using criteria recommended in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions 5.1.0. Meanwhile, Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale (NOS) will be used to assess methodological quality of non-randomized studies. All statistical analyses will be performed with RevMan and STATA softwares. DISCUSSION: The role of MBSR in lung cancer patients has not yet been demonstrated. This systematic review and meta-analysis will further determine the effectiveness of MBSR on psychological and physical outcomes and QoL among lung cancer patients, which will provide golden references for developing psychological interventions in order to improve patient care and designing future studies to bridge the gap between research findings and clinical practice. TRIAL REGISTRATION: We registered the protocol of this systematic review and meta-analysis in Open Science Framework (OSF) platform with a registration DOI of 10.17605/OSF.IO/MWVBQ (available from: https://osf.io/mwvbq).

Inhibition Effect of Ultrasound on the Formation of Lysinoalanine in Rapeseed Protein Isolates during pH Shift Treatment.

pH shift is an effective technique for modifying functional properties of food proteins. However, it can increase lysinoalanine (LAL) content under alkali conditions, thus limiting the use of proteins. This study investigated the inhibition effect of ultrasonic parameters on LAL formation in rapeseed protein isolates (RPI) during pH shift treatment (pH-ST). Results showed that the content of LAL decreased by 49.5% and 74.1%, following the use of ultrasound (28 kHz, 40 W/L, 40 °C, and 30 min) under alkali and acidic treatment, respectively. Structural analysis showed that after ultrasonic irradiation, increased sulfhydryl groups and amino acids reduced the dehydroalanine and, thus, decreased LAL content. Particle size, secondary structure, and microstructure (SEM, AFM) analyses showed relative dispersion in protein distribution, reducing intermolecular or intramolecular cross-linking, thereby lowering the LAL content. Thus, ultrasonic-aided pH-ST may be an operational technique toward minimizing LAL formation in RPI.

Proton Transfer in Nitromethane-Ammonia Clusters under VUV Single-Photon Ionization Explored by Infrared Spectroscopy and Theoretical Calculations.

It is known that the acidity and reactivity of the CH bond can be enhanced after ionization. Also, this property plays a pivotal role in proton transfer reaction and in the formation of new molecules. Herein, infrared spectroscopy and high-precision quantum chemical calculations are used to study the neutral and cationic clusters of nitromethane-ammonia (CH3NO2-NH3). It is found that in the neutral cluster, CH3NO2 and NH3 are mainly bonded by three intermolecular hydrogen bonds, in which electrostatic contribution plays a major role. After vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) single-photon ionization of CH3NO2-NH3, the positive charge redistributes from the ionized nitrogen atom of NH3 to the CH3NO2 molecule immediately. Then, the proton of CH3NO2 transfers to NH3 to form a proton-transferred type structure CH2NO2-NH4+, without any effective energy barrier, due to the positive hyperconjugation of cationic nitromethane. A closed loop of positive charge transfer takes place in the CH3NO2-NH3 cluster after VUV ionization. The present work demonstrates that both the proton transfer reaction and charge transfer process have occurred in the ionized CH3NO2-NH3 cluster. Moreover, it is found that the proton transfer reaction is a result of the highly acidic CH bond caused by hyperconjugation between the σ (CH) bond and π orbital.

Zr4+-mediated hybrid chain reaction and its application for highly sensitive electrochemical detection of protein kinase A.

An electrochemical platform has been developed to detect protein kinase activity through the combined actions of Zr4+ mediated signal transition and hybridization chain reaction (HCR)-stimulated DNAzymes nanowires. First of all, protein kinase A (PKA) phosphorylates substrate peptides immobilized on gold electrode surface. Thereafter, the DNA1 containing 5'-phosphoryl ends is linked to the phosphorylated substrate peptide via the robust phosphate-Zr4+-phosphate linkages. By the introduction of molecular beacons (MBs), the DNA1 can open the hairpin structures of MBs through toehold mediated strand displacement (TMSDR), leading to an autonomous stem-opening process and subsequent assembly of G-quadruplex-containing DNA chains by HCR. After the addition of hemin, the formed HRP-mimicking DNAzymes can catalyze the hydroquinone-H2O2 system to generate amplified electrochemical signals. As expected, this method can achieve ultrahigh analytical performance with a low detection limit of 0.02U/mL and exhibit high cost-savings potential without the need for antibody, protease and labeling. Therefore, this method can serve as a new tool for the assay of protein kinase A and its inhibitor screening in the future.

Proteolysis efficiency and structural traits of corn gluten meal: Impact of different frequency modes of a low-power density ultrasound.

The influence of varying frequency modes of a low-power density ultrasound (LPDU) on the enzymolysis efficacy and structural property of corn gluten meal (CGM) was investigated. Sonication pretreatment (of CGM) with sequential and simultaneous duple-frequency modes enhanced notably the relative enzymolysis efficiency, compared to other LPDU frequency modes. With a sequential duple-frequency of 20/40 kHz showing the most significant effect, the maximum value of enzymolysis efficiency and protein dissolution rate were 15.99% and 61.69%, respectively. Changes in the surface hydrophobicity, secondary structure and microstructure revealed alterations of conformation of CGM by ultrasound-induced effect. Furthermore, the molecular weight distribution CGM hydrolysates primarily distributed in 200-500 Da following ultrasonication. Sonication efficaciously enhanced the susceptibility of CGM to alcalase proteolysis. Thus, the use of various LPDU frequency modes in pretreating target proteins (CGM) may be considered as a practical approach to improve protein-enzyme reactions (proteolysis).