Dual Starvations Induce Pyroptosis for Orthotopic Pancreatic Cancer Therapy through Simultaneous Deprivation of Glucose and Glutamine.

Pancreatic cancer is a highly fatal disease, and existing treatment methods are ineffective, so it is urgent to develop new effective treatment strategies. The high dependence of pancreatic cancer cells on glucose and glutamine suggests that disrupting this dependency could serve as an alternative strategy for pancreatic cancer therapy. We identified the vital genes glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1) and alanine-serine-cysteine transporter 2 (ASCT2) through bioinformatics analysis, which regulate glucose and glutamine metabolism in pancreatic cancer, respectively. Human serum albumin nanoparticles (HSA NPs) for delivery of GLUT1 and ASCT2 inhibitors, BAY-876/V-9302@HSA NPs, were prepared by a self-assembly process. This nanodrug inhibits glucose and glutamine uptake of pancreatic cancer cells through the released BAY-876 and V-9302, leading to nutrition deprivation and oxidative stress. The inhibition of glutamine leads to the inhibition of the synthesis of the glutathione, which further aggravates oxidative stress. Both of them lead to a significant increase in reactive oxygen species, activating caspase 1 and GSDMD and finally inducing pyroptosis. This study provides a new effective strategy for orthotopic pancreatic cancer treatment by dual starvation-induced pyroptosis. The study for screening metabolic targets using bioinformatics analysis followed by constructing nanodrugs loaded with inhibitors will inspire future targeted metabolic therapy for pancreatic cancer.

Recombinase Polymerase Amplification Combined with Real-Time Fluorescent Probe for Mycoplasma pneumoniae Detection.

Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae) is one of the major causes of community-acquired pneumonia, accounting for 20-40% of total cases. Rapid and accurate detection of M. pneumoniae is crucial for the diagnosis and rational selection of antibiotics. In this study, we set up a real-time recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) assay to detect the conserved gene CARDS of M. pneumoniae. The amplification can be finished in 20 min at a wide temperature range from 37-41 °C. The limit of detection of RPA assay was 10 fg per microliter. Cross-reaction with commonly detected respiratory pathogens was not observed using RPA assay. Among clinical sputum samples, the detection rate of RPA assay and real-time PCR assay was 48.4% (92/190) and 46.3% (88/190), respectively (p = 0.68). Therefore, the RPA assay for M. pneumoniae detection is rapid and easy to use and may serve as a promising test for early diagnosis of M. pneumoniae infection.