Hydrogen bond-driven assembly of coral-like soy protein isolate-tannic acid microcomplex for encapsulation of limonene.

BACKGROUND: The encapsulation of flavor and aroma compounds has great potential in foods, while effective preparation in the food industry is still a great challenge. Inspired by leather tanning, tannic acid (TA) was used for deep crosslinking through hydrogen bond-driven assembly on soy protein isolate for encapsulating limonene with a high loading ratio. RESULTS: The added TA changed the protein structure and formed a limonene-loaded microcomplex. The morphology of these microcomplexes changed from smooth to rough, followed by the formation of smooth nanoparticle aggregates, by changing the amount of TA. The encapsulation efficiency and loading ratio were increased from 0.78% and 4.30% to 59.32% and 45.78% after increasing TA from 1.875 to 60 mg mL-1 . The result of confocal laser scanning microscopy indicated that limonene is evenly distributed in microcomplexes. Additionally, the results of thermal stability demonstrated protection of limonene by soy protein-tannic acid microcomplex. CONCLUSION: It is suggested that the added TA improved the encapsulation efficiency and loading ratio. Limonene is loaded in the complex in two ways. The present research provides a new and easy path for the preparation of the non-thermal soy protein aroma carrier. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.

Conjugated Polymer-Functionalized Stretchable Supramolecular Hydrogels to Monitor and Control Cellular Behavior.

Natural extracellular matrix is formed by the assembly of small molecules and macromolecules into a hydrogel-like network that can mechanically support cells and involve in cellular processes. Here, we developed a fluorescent supramolecular hydrogel based on a conjugated oligomer OFBTCO2Na, which facilitated noncovalent assembly through hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonds in a molecular scale. The generated dense three-dimensional network endows the supramolecular hydrogel with stretchability and stability. Furthermore, fluorescent OFBTCO2Na in hydrogel acted as a donor, which can excite the acceptor dyes on cells encapsulated in hydrogel via the Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) mechanism. Investigating the fluorescence signal responsiveness of hydrogel to dynamic mechanical stretching well reflected that enhanced stretching dictated the extent of connection between the cell and matrix, which enables effective FRET at a molecular level and allow spatiotemporally monitoring cell-matrix interactions at the three-dimensional network. Importantly, cells can sense stretch forces by their connection with a hydrogel matrix. The dynamic cell-matrix interaction can be conveniently employed to formulate cell morphology. Therefore, the fluorescent supramolecular hydrogel offers a suitable culture platform not only to investigate cell interactions on interfaces but also to regulate cell behavior at interfaces.

Case control study comparing the HPV genome in patients with oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma to normal patients using metagenomic shotgun sequencing.

The aim of this study was to carry out a case control study comparing the HPV genome in patients with oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OC-SCC) to normal patients using metagenomic shotgun sequencing. We recruited 50 OC-SCC cases which were then matched with a control patient by age, gender, race, smoking status and alcohol status. DNA was extracted from oral wash samples from all patients and whole genome shotgun sequencing performed. The raw sequence data was cleaned, reads aligned with the human genome (GRCH38), nonhuman reads identified and then HPV genotypes identified using HPViewer. In the 50 patients with OC-SCC, the most common subsite was tongue in 26 (52%). All patients were treated with primary resection and neck dissection. All but 2 tumors were negative on p16 immunohistochemistry. There were no statistically significant differences between the cases and controls in terms of gender, age, race/ethnicity, alcohol drinking, and cigarette smoking. There was no statistically significant difference between the cancer samples and control samples in the nonhuman DNA reads (medians 4,228,072 vs. 5,719,715, P value = 0.324). HPV was detected in 5 cases (10%) of OC-SCC (genotypes 10, 16, 98) but only 1 tumor sample (genotype 16) yielded a high number of reads to suggest a role in the etiology of OC-SCC. HPV was detected in 4 control patients (genotypes 16, 22, 76, 200) but all had only 1-2 HPV reads per human genome. Genotypes of HPV are rarely found in patients with oral cancer.

Removing Confounding Factors Associated Weights in Deep Neural Networks Improves the Prediction Accuracy for Healthcare Applications.

The proliferation of healthcare data has brought the opportunities of applying data-driven approaches, such as machine learning methods, to assist diagnosis. Recently, many deep learning methods have been shown with impressive successes in predicting disease status with raw input data. However, the "black-box" nature of deep learning and the highreliability requirement of biomedical applications have created new challenges regarding the existence of confounding factors. In this paper, with a brief argument that inappropriate handling of confounding factors will lead to models' sub-optimal performance in real-world applications, we present an efficient method that can remove the inuences of confounding factors such as age or gender to improve the across-cohort prediction accuracy of neural networks. One distinct advantage of our method is that it only requires minimal changes of the baseline model's architecture so that it can be plugged into most of the existing neural networks. We conduct experiments across CT-scan, MRA, and EEG brain wave with convolutional neural networks and LSTM to verify the efficiency of our method.

[Detecting the occult HBV infection: a laboratory study].

OBJECTIVE: To see the HBV DNA detection instance in the HBsAg negative people and to study the serological method detection strategy for detecting hepatitis B virus large surface protein (HBLP) to filtrate the occult HBV infection. METHODS: The HBsAg negative serum samples were divided into HBsAb negative and positive two species according to the hepatitis B virus markers (HBVM) in daily work excepting the special HBVM modes. Total 2000 stochastic serum samples with 1000 HBsAb negative results and 1000 HBsAb positive results were collected from the copy tubes to detect HBVM with national ELISA reagent kits and put them -20 degrees C frostily. Mixed samples (8 x 30 microl) were analyzed with fluorescence quantitative PCR (FQ-PCR) and filtrated the individual positive samples. The filtrated samples were doubly tested again with American MONOLISA HBsAg ULTRA reagents. RESULTS: No HBV DNA positive results were found out from the 1000 HBsAb positive samples and 19 cases HBV DNA positive results were found out from the 1000 HBsAb negative samples. On these 19 samples, the HBsAg results from the American MONOLISA HBsAg ULTRA reagents were all positive and the HBLP results were all positive, too. The 19 HBV DNA quantitative results were divided into 2 cases more than 500 copies/ml, 3 cases between 400-500 copies/ ml, 3 cases between 300-400 copies/ml, 7 cases between 200-300 copies/ml and 4 cases between 100-200 copies/ml. CONCLUSION: The leaked samples tested HBsAg with national reagents are mostly from the HBsAb negative people. HBLP results may be positive on these samples and detecting HBLP marker is propitious to filtrate the occult HBV infection. This study provided a kind of serological reference for actively searching for the detecting strategy in occult HBV infection field.

[Detecting hepatitis B virus large surface protein to filtrate the occult HBV infection].

OBJECTIVE: Detecting hepatitis B virus large surface protein (HBLP) with serological method to filtrate the occult HBV infection and study the clinical detection strategy. METHODS: Two thousands HBsAg negative stochastic serum samples were collected from the copy tubes in daily work to detect hepatitis B Virus markers (HBVM) with national EHSA regent kits and put them -20 degrees C frostily. The 2000 samples were detected with HBLP and filtrated the positive samples. The HBsAg markers were doubly counterchecked with other two adding kinds of national ELISA regent kits (total 3 kinds) at the filtrated samples. The last samples were doubly tested again with American MONOLISA HBsAg ULTRA regents. HBV DNA levels were quantitative analyzed with fluorescence quantitative PCR (FQ-PCR) and taking the mean results. RESULTS: Fifteen HBLP positive samples were detected out from the 2000 serum samples. We educed the conform negative results from the three kinds of national regents but conform positive results from the American MONOLISA HBsAg ULTRA regents in repeating HBsAg detection at the 15 samples. The HBV DNA FQ-PCR quantitative results were all less than 500 copies/mi and divided into two cases hetween 400-500 copies/nil, three cases 300-400 copies/ml, five cases 200-300 copies/ml, four cases 100-200 copies/ml and one case was less than l00copies/ml. CONCLUSION: The false HBsAg negative results for serum samples are more generally through national regents than through importations and HBLP results mayhe are positive in these samples. Detecting HBLP marker is propitious to filtrate the occult HBV infection. This study provided a kind of serological reference for actively searching for the detecting strategy in occult HBV infection field.