Enhancing immune response and survival in hepatocellular carcinoma with novel oncolytic Jurona virus and immune checkpoint blockade.

Members of the genus including Jurona virus (JURV) have emerged as promising immunotherapeutic agents, characterized by their tumor selectivity, fast kinetics, low seroprevalence, and minimal toxicity in humans. Here, we demonstrate that the administration of JURV leads to tumor regression in both hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) xenograft and syngeneic models. Furthermore, our findings indicate that combining JURV and anti-PD-1 therapy reduced tumor burden and improved survival rates over JURV or anti-PD-1 alone in an orthotopic HCC model.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of PTSD symptoms at mid-treatment during trauma-focused treatment for PTSD.

There is concern that trauma memory processing in psychological therapies leads to PTSD symptom exacerbation. We compared PTSD symptoms at mid-treatment in trauma-focused psychological therapy to control groups. We systematically searched multiple databases and searched grey literature.

The microbial food revolution.

Our current food system relies on unsustainable practices, which often fail to provide healthy diets to a growing population. Therefore, there is an urgent demand for new sustainable nutrition sources and processes. Microorganisms have gained attention as a new food source solution, due to their low carbon footprint, low reliance on land, water and seasonal variations coupled with a favourable nutritional profile.

Repurposing live attenuated trivalent MMR vaccine as cost-effective cancer immunotherapy.

It has long been known that oncolytic viruses wield their therapeutic capability by priming an inflammatory state within the tumor and activating the tumor immune microenvironment, resulting in a multifaceted antitumor immune response. Vaccine-derived viruses, such as measles and mumps, have demonstrated promising potential for treating human cancer in animal models and clinical trials. However, the extensive cost of manufacturing current oncolytic viral products makes them far out of reach for most patients.

Inducible expression of large gRNA arrays for multiplexed CRISPRai applications.

CRISPR gene activation and inhibition (CRISPRai) has become a powerful synthetic tool for influencing the expression of native genes for foundational studies, cellular reprograming, and metabolic engineering. Here we develop a method for near leak-free, inducible expression of a polycistronic array containing up to 24 gRNAs from two orthogonal CRISPR/Cas systems to increase CRISPRai multiplexing capacity and target gene flexibility. To achieve strong inducibility, we create a technology to silence gRNA expression within the array in the absence of the inducer, since we found that long gRNA arrays for CRISPRai can express themselves even without promoter.

Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries and Future Risk of Developing Alzheimer's Disease: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) increases the risk of future dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, it is unclear whether this is true for mild TBI (mTBI).

Objective: To explore the association between mTBI and subsequent risk of developing AD.

Reintegration interventions for CPTSD: a systematic review.

Background: Clinical guidelines recommend a phase-based approach to treatment for complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD), yet little is known about what interventions are being offered and which may be effective in the final 'reintegration' phase.

Objective: To systematically review literature on reintegration interventions for CPTSD, describing the nature and effectiveness of interventions.

Method: We searched four electronic databases (Medline, PsycINFO, Embase, and PTSDpubs) for interventions aiming to facilitate reintegration for participants with probable CPTSD.

Multiplexed CRISPR technologies for gene editing and transcriptional regulation.

Multiplexed CRISPR technologies, in which numerous gRNAs or Cas enzymes are expressed at once, have facilitated powerful biological engineering applications, vastly enhancing the scope and efficiencies of genetic editing and transcriptional regulation. In this review, we discuss multiplexed CRISPR technologies and describe methods for the assembly, expression and processing of synthetic guide RNA arrays in vivo. Applications that benefit from multiplexed CRISPR technologies, including cellular recorders, genetic circuits, biosensors, combinatorial genetic perturbations, large-scale genome engineering and the rewiring of metabolic pathways, are highlighted.

Engineered cell-to-cell signalling within growing bacterial cellulose pellicles.

Bacterial cellulose is a strong and flexible biomaterial produced at high yields by Acetobacter species and has applications in health care, biotechnology and electronics. Naturally, bacterial cellulose grows as a large unstructured polymer network around the bacteria that produce it, and tools to enable these bacteria to respond to different locations are required to grow more complex structured materials. Here, we introduce engineered cell-to-cell communication into a bacterial cellulose-producing strain of Komagataeibacter rhaeticus to enable different cells to detect their proximity within growing material and trigger differential gene expression in response.

Establishment and characterization of rat portal myofibroblast cell lines.

The major sources of scar-forming myofibroblasts during liver fibrosis are activated hepatic stellate cells (HSC) and portal fibroblasts (PF). In contrast to well-characterized HSC, PF remain understudied and poorly defined. This is largely due to the facts that isolation of rodent PF for functional studies is technically challenging and that PF cell lines had not been established.