A pomegranate seed-structured nanozyme-based colorimetric immunoassay for highly sensitive and specific biosensing of Staphylococcus aureus.

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) infections are a serious threat to human health. The development of rapid and sensitive detection methods for pathogenic bacteria is crucial for accurate drug administration. In this research, by combining the advantages of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), we synthesized nanozymes with high catalytic performance, namely pomegranate seed-structured bimetallic gold-platinum nanomaterials (Ps-PtAu NPs), which can catalyze a colorless TMB substrate into oxidized TMB (oxTMB) with blue color to achieve colorimetric analysis of S. aureus. Under the optimal conditions, the proposed biosensor could quantitatively detect S. aureus at levels ranging from 1.0 × 101 to 1.0 × 106 CFU mL-1 with a limit of detection (LOD) of 3.9 CFU mL-1. Then, an integrated color picker APP on a smartphone enables on-site point-of-care testing (POCT) of S. aureus with LOD as low as 1 CFU mL-1. Meanwhile, the proposed biosensor is successfully applied to the detection of S. aureus in clinical samples with high sensitivity and specificity.

Genetic consequences of historical anthropogenic and ecological events on giant pandas.

The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) was taken to the brink of extinction in the 1980s through a combination of deforestation, large-scale loss of bamboo in the core of its range, poaching, and zoo collection, causing over 1000 deaths from the 1950s. It was thought that the drastic population decline was likely to impose a severe impact on population viability. Here, based on temporal genotyping of individuals, we show that this rapid decline did not significantly reduce the overall effective population size and genetic variation of this species, or of the two focal populations (Minshan and Qionglai) that declined the most. These results are contrary to previously assumptions, probably because the population decline has not produced the expected negative impact due to the short time scale involved (at most 10 generations), or because previous surveys underestimated the population size at the time of decline. However, if present-day habitat fragmentation and limited migration of giant pandas remains, we predict a loss of genetic diversity across the giant pandas' range in the near future. Thus, our findings highlight the substantial resilience of this species when facing demographic and environmental stochasticity, but key conservation strategies, such as enhancing habitat connectivity and habitat restoration should be immediately implemented to retain the extant genetic variation and maintain long-term evolutionary potential of this endangered species.

Evaluating Flight Performance and Eye Movement Patterns Using Virtual Reality Flight Simulator.

Efficient and economical performance evaluation of pilots has become critical to the aviation industry. With the development of virtual reality (VR) and the combination of eye-tracking technology, solutions to meet these needs are becoming a reality. Previous studies have explored VR-based flight simulators, focusing mainly on technology validation and flight training. The current study developed a new VR flight simulator to evaluate pilots' flight performance based on eye movement and flight indicators in a 3D immersive scene. During the experiment, 46 participants were recruited: 23 professional pilots and 23 college students without flight experience. The experiment results showed significant differences in flight performance between participants with and without flight experience, the former being higher than the latter. In contrast, those with flight experience showed more structured and efficient eye-movement patterns. These results of the differentiation of flight performance demonstrate the validity of the current VR flight simulator as a flight performance assessment method. The different eye-movement patterns with flight experience provide the basis for future flight selection. However, this VR-based flight simulator has shortcomings like motion feedback compared to traditional flight simulators. This flight simulator platform is highly flexible except for the apparent low cost. It can meet the diverse needs of researchers (e.g., measuring situation awareness, VR sickness, and workload by adding relevant scales).

Effect of activating cancer-associated fibroblasts biomarker TNC on immune cell infiltration and prognosis in breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are the most important components of the tumor microenvironment (TME). CAFs are heterogeneous and involved in tumor tumorigenesis and drug resistance, contributing to TME remodeling and predicting clinical outcomes as prognostic factors. However, the effect of CAFs the TME and the prognosis of patients with breast cancer (BC) is not fully understood. This study investigated the correlation between CAFs-activating biomarkers immune cell infiltration and survival in patients with breast cancer. METHODS: RNA sequencing data and survival information for patients with breast cancer were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) using R software. We then analyzed the correlation between CAFs-expressing biomarkers and immune cells using the clusterProfiler package, and evaluated the prognostic role of appealing genes using the Survminer package. Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining was used to determine the expression levels of TNC in 160 breast cancer samples pathologically diagnosed as invasive ductal carcinoma that were not otherwise specified (IDC-NOS). RESULTS: Data analysis showed that CAFs-expressing genes was higher than in normal tissues (p < 0.05). Pathway enrichment revealed that the overexpression of CAFs-related genes was mainly enriched in the focal adhesion and phosphoinositol-3 kinase-serine/threonine kinase (PI3K-AKT) signaling pathways. Immune infiltration analysis suggested that high expression of CAFs-related genes was significantly positively correlated with the infiltration of naive B cells and resting dendritic cells and inversely correlated with macrophages cell infiltration. In addition, high TNC expression in tumor cells was associated with the most adverse clinicopathological features and reduced metastasis-free survival (MFS) (hazard ratio (HR) 0.574, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.404-0.815, p = 0.035). CONCLUSIONS: This study found that CAFs may participate in immunosuppression and regulate tumor cell proliferation and invasion. High TNC expression is associated with several adverse clinicopathological features, and high TNC expression in tumor cells has been identified as an independent prognostic factor for IDC-NOS.

Fibroblasts in breast cancer are activated and usually upregulated CAFs-related genes, including tenascin C (TNC) which participate in immunosuppression through the focal adhesion and PI3K-AKT signaling pathways.TNC expression in the CAFs and tumor cells, and was associated with most adverse clinicopathological features of breast cancer.High TNC expression in CAFs or tumor cells resulted in significantly worse MFS, and as an independent prognostic factor.

Detailed studies on the anticancer action of rosmarinic acid in human Hep-G2 liver carcinoma cells: evaluating its effects on cellular apoptosis, caspase activation and suppression of cell migration and invasion.

PURPOSE: Oral cancer is one among the devastating types of malignancies and imposes tremendous disease burden on humans. This study was undertaken to investigate the anticancer properties of a plant-derived flavanone, Blumeatin, against human oral cancer cells. Additionally, this study also attempted to unreveal the molecular mechanisms responsible for the anticancer properties of this molecule. METHODS: MTT assay was used for the assessment of cell viability. Transwell and wound healing assays were used for the determination of cell invasion and migration, respectively. Comet assay was used for the determination of cell viability. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis was done to assess the induction of autophagy. The protein expression was determined by western blot analysis. RESULTS: Blumeatin inhibited the growth of SCC-4 oral cancer cells with minimal cytotoxic effects against the normal hTRET-OME cells. The flow cytometric analysis showed that Blumeatin triggers DNA damage in the SCC-4 cells. Blumeatin also activated autophagy in SCC-4 cells which was accompanied with upregulation of LC3B and Beclin 1. This molecule also increased ROS and decreased the MMP levels in human SCC-4 cells. The effects of Blumeatin were also examined on the migration and invasion of the SCC-4 cells and it was revealed that the molecule suppresses both migration and invasion of the SCC-4 oral cancer cells. CONCLUSION: This study indicates that Blumeatin exhibits potent anticancer effects and points towards its use in the development of a new systemic therapy for oral cancer.