The biodistribution of polystyrene nanoparticles administered intravenously in the chicken embryo.

Nanoplastics can cause severe malformations in chicken embryos. To improve our understanding of the toxicity of nanoplastics to embryos, we have studied their biodistribution in living chicken embryos. We injected the embryos in the vitelline vein at stages 18-19. We injected polystyrene nanoparticles (PS-NPs) tagged with europium- or fluorescence. Their biodistribution was tracked using inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry on tissue lysates, paraffin histology, and vibratome sections analysed by machine learning algorithms. PS-NPs were found at high levels in the heart, liver and kidneys. Furthermore, PS-NPs crossed the endocardium of the heart at sites of epithelial-mesenchymal transformation; they also crossed the liver endothelium. Finally, we detected PS-NPs in the allantoic fluid, consistent with their being excreted by the kidneys. Our study shows the power of the chicken embryo model for analysing the biodistribution of nanoplastics in embryos. Such experiments are difficult or impossible in mammalian embryos. These findings are a major advance in our understanding of the biodistribution and tissue-specific accumulation of PS-NPs in developing animals.

Attenuated Salmonella carrying siRNA-CD24 improved the effect of oxaliplatin on HCC.

Oxaliplatin is a chemotherapy drug currently utilized in the treatment of advanced cancer patients. However, its tolerability poses a limitation to its clinical application. Studies have demonstrated that the presence of tumor-associated macrophages is positively correlated with poor prognosis in various solid tumors, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and is a significant factor contributing to oxaliplatin resistance. Therefore, targeting tumor-associated macrophages may be an effective strategy to improve the efficacy of oxaliplatin in the treatment of HCC patients. CD24 is a novel target for tumor therapy that can interact with the inhibitory receptor Siglec-10 on tumor-associated macrophages, transmitting immune inhibitory signals and inhibiting macrophage phagocytosis function. In this study, we utilized RNAi technology to inhibit the expression of CD24 in tumor cells and combined it with oxaliplatin, resulting in reduced tumor invasion, migration, and proliferation, as well as increased cell apoptosis. Furthermore, immunofluorescence and flow cytometry results indicated that both the single treatment group and combination treatment group enhanced the infiltration of immune cells. This study presents a novel approach to identifying combination therapy and targets for the clinical treatment of HCC with oxaliplatin.

The effect of combined dietary supplementation of herbal additives on carcass traits, meat quality, immunity and cecal microbiota composition in Hungarian white geese.

The present study was performed to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation with herbal additives on meat quality, slaughter performance and the cecal microbial community in Hungarian white geese. A total of 60 newborn geese were assigned equally into the control group (CON) and the herbal complex supplemented group (HS). The dietary supplementations consisted of Compound Herbal Additive A (CHAA) including Pulsatilla, Gentian and Rhizoma coptidis, and Compound Herbal Additive B (CHAB) containing Codonopsis pilosula, Atractylodes, Poria cocos and Licorice. The geese in the HS group received a basal diet supplemented with 0.2% CHAA from day 0 to day 42 at the postnatal stage. Then from day 43 to day 70, the geese in HS group were provide a basal diet with 0.15% CHAB. The geese in the CON group were only provided with the basal diet. The results showed that the slaughter rate (SR), half chamber rates (HCR), eviscerated rate (ER) and breast muscle rate (BMR) in the HS group tended to increase slightly compared with the CON group (ns). In addition, the shear force, filtration rate and pH value of breast muscle and thigh muscle in the HS group were slightly enhanced compared to the CON group (ns). Significant increased levels in carbohydrate content, fat content and energy (P < 0.01) and significant decreased levels in cholesterol content (P < 0.01) were observed in the muscle of the HS group. The total amino acid (Glu, Lys, Thr and Asp) content in the muscle increased in HS group than in the CON group (P < 0.01). Dietary herb supplementations significantly increased the levels of IgG in serum (P < 0.05) on day 43 and higher levels of IgM, IgA and IgG (P < 0.01) were also observed in the HS group on day 70. Furthermore, 16S rRNA sequencing results indicated that herbal additives increased the growth of beneficial bacteria and inhibited the proliferation of harmful bacteria in the geese caecum. Altogether, these results offer crucial insights into the potential benefits of incorporating CHAA and CHAB into the diets of Hungarian white goose. The findings indicate that such supplementations could significantly improve meat quality, regulate the immune system and shape the intestinal microbiota composition.

A high-performance free-standing Zn anode for flexible zinc-ion batteries.

Zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) have attracted significant attention owing to their high safety, high energy density, and low cost. ZIBs have been studied as a potential energy device for portable and flexible electronics. Here, a highly flexible free-standing Zn anode is fabricated using a simple spin-coating technique, and its application in ZIBs is demonstrated. The free-standing Zn anode precursor is formed by mixing Zn particles with carbon nanotubes and poly(vinylidene fluoride)-co-hexafluoropropylene (PVDF-HFP). The hexafluoropropylene group in PVDF-HFP improves the mechanical properties of the free-standing Zn anode, whereas the carbon nanotubes created percolation conduction in the composite electrode, leading to an increased electrical conductivity of the anode. Owing to the excellent electrical conductivity and high specific surface area of the free-standing Zn anode, ZIBs with high capacity, rate performance, and mechanical flexibility are achieved. The volumetric energy density of the ZIBs reaches 8.22 mW h cm-3 with a battery thickness of 0.4 mm. This work demonstrates that free-standing Zn anodes are promising anodes for flexible ZIBs.

Emotion Recognition Based on Skin Potential Signals with a Portable Wireless Device.

Emotion recognition is of great importance for artificial intelligence, robots, and medicine etc. Although many techniques have been developed for emotion recognition, with certain successes, they rely heavily on complicated and expensive equipment. Skin potential (SP) has been recognized to be correlated with human emotions for a long time, but has been largely ignored due to the lack of systematic research. In this paper, we propose a single SP-signal-based method for emotion recognition. Firstly, we developed a portable wireless device to measure the SP signal between the middle finger and left wrist. Then, a video induction experiment was designed to stimulate four kinds of typical emotion (happiness, sadness, anger, fear) in 26 subjects. Based on the device and video induction, we obtained a dataset consisting of 397 emotion samples. We extracted 29 features from each of the emotion samples and used eight well-established algorithms to classify the four emotions based on these features. Experimental results show that the gradient-boosting decision tree (GBDT), logistic regression (LR) and random forest (RF) algorithms achieved the highest accuracy of 75%. The obtained accuracy is similar to, or even better than, that of other methods using multiple physiological signals. Our research demonstrates the feasibility of the SP signal's integration into existing physiological signals for emotion recognition.