Circulating Tumor DNA Dynamics Fail to Predict Efficacy of Poly(ADP-ribose) Polymerase/VEGFR Inhibition in Patients With Heavily Pretreated Advanced Solid Tumors.

Purpose: Cell-free circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) has shown its potential as a quantitative biomarker for longitudinal monitoring of response to anticancer therapies. However, ctDNA dynamics have not been studied in patients with heavily pretreated, advanced solid tumors, for whom therapeutic responses can be weak. We investigated whether changes in ctDNA could predict clinical outcomes in such a cohort treated with combined poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase/vascular endothelial growth factor receptor inhibitor therapy.

A 300-fold conductivity increase in microbial cytochrome nanowires due to temperature-induced restructuring of hydrogen bonding networks.

Although proteins are considered as nonconductors that transfer electrons only up to 1 to 2 nanometers via tunneling, transports respiratory electrons over micrometers, to insoluble acceptors or syntrophic partner cells, via nanowires composed of polymerized cytochrome OmcS. However, the mechanism enabling this long-range conduction is unclear. Here, we demonstrate that individual nanowires exhibit theoretically predicted hopping conductance, at rate (>10 s) comparable to synthetic molecular wires, with negligible carrier loss over micrometers.

Protein nanowires with tunable functionality and programmable self-assembly using sequence-controlled synthesis.

Advances in synthetic biology permit the genetic encoding of synthetic chemistries at monomeric precision, enabling the synthesis of programmable proteins with tunable properties. Bacterial pili serve as an attractive biomaterial for the development of engineered protein materials due to their ability to self-assemble into mechanically robust filaments. However, most biomaterials lack electronic functionality and atomic structures of putative conductive proteins are not known.

Intrinsic electronic conductivity of individual atomically resolved amyloid crystals reveals micrometer-long hole hopping via tyrosines.

Proteins are commonly known to transfer electrons over distances limited to a few nanometers. However, many biological processes require electron transport over far longer distances. For example, soil and sediment bacteria transport electrons, over hundreds of micrometers to even centimeters, via putative filamentous proteins rich in aromatic residues.

Electric field stimulates production of highly conductive microbial OmcZ nanowires.

Multifunctional living materials are attractive due to their powerful ability to self-repair and replicate. However, most natural materials lack electronic functionality. Here we show that an electric field, applied to electricity-producing Geobacter sulfurreducens biofilms, stimulates production of cytochrome OmcZ nanowires with 1,000-fold higher conductivity (30 S cm) and threefold higher stiffness (1.

Specificity in the Susceptibilities of , and Clinical Isolates to Six Metal Antimicrobials.

In response to the occurrence of antibiotic resistance, there has been rapid developments in the field of metal-based antimicrobials. Although it is largely assumed that metals provide broad-spectrum microbial efficacy, studies have shown that this is not always the case. Therefore, in this study, we compared the susceptibilities of 93 clinical isolates belonging to the species , and against six metals, namely aluminum, copper, gallium, nickel, silver and zinc.

Structure of Microbial Nanowires Reveals Stacked Hemes that Transport Electrons over Micrometers.

Long-range (>10 μm) transport of electrons along networks of Geobacter sulfurreducens protein filaments, known as microbial nanowires, has been invoked to explain a wide range of globally important redox phenomena. These nanowires were previously thought to be type IV pili composed of PilA protein. Here, we report a 3.