Granzyme A as biomarker for diagnosis in tuberculous pleural effusion.

BACKGROUNDCurrent diagnostic tools for tuberculous pleural effusion (TPE) are often inadequate, making accurate diagnosis challenging. Effective identification of TPE is critical for ensuring proper treatment and preventing tuberculosis relapse. This study explored the potential of granzyme A (GZMA) as a biomarker for TPE.

Circular RNAs in tuberculosis and lung cancer.

This review signifies the role of circular RNAs (circRNAs) in tuberculosis (TB) and lung cancer (LC), focusing on pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment. CircRNAs, a newly discovered type of non-coding RNA, have emerged as key regulators of gene expression and promising biomarkers in various bodily fluids due to their stability. The current review discusses circRNA biogenesis, highlighting their RNase-R resistance due to their loop forming structure, making them effective biomarkers.

Spatiotemporally-controlled hydrophobic drug delivery via photosensitizer-driven assembly-disassembly for enhanced triple-negative breast cancer treatment.

Therapeutic approaches for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) have been continuously advancing, but inadequate control over release behavior, insufficient tumor selectivity, and limited drug availability continue to impede therapeutic outcomes in nanodrug systems. In this study, we propose a general hydrophobic antineoplastic delivery system, termed spatiotemporally-controlled hydrophobic antineoplastic delivery system (SCHADS) for enhanced TNBC treatment. The key feature of SCHADS is the formation of metastable photosensitive-antineoplastic complexes (PACs) through the self-assembly of hydrophobic drugs driven by photosensitive molecules.

Long-term treatment with ganaxolone for seizures associated with cyclin-dependent kinase-like 5 deficiency disorder: Two-year open-label extension follow-up.

Objective: In the placebo-controlled, double-blind phase of the Marigold study (NCT03572933), ganaxolone significantly reduced major motor seizure frequency (MMSF) in patients with cyclin-dependent kinase-like 5 deficiency disorder (CDD). We report 2-year safety and clinical outcomes data from the open-label extension (OLE) phase of Marigold.

Methods: Patients with CDD who completed the double-blind phase were eligible to continue in the OLE.

Anchoring a Structurally Editable Proximal Cofactor-like Module to Construct an Artificial Dual-center Peroxygenase.

A recent novel strategy for constructing artificial metalloenzymes (ArMs) that target new-to-nature functions uses dual-functional small molecules (DFSMs) with catalytic and anchoring groups for converting P450BM3 monooxygenase into a peroxygenase. However, this process requires excess DFSMs (1000 equivalent of P450) owing to their low binding affinity for P450, thus severely limiting its practical application. Herein, structural optimization of the DFSM-anchoring group considerably enhanced their binding affinity by three orders of magnitude (K ≈10  M), thus approximating native cofactors, such as FMN or FAD in flavoenzymes.

Comparable Encoding, Comparable Perceptual Pattern: Acoustic and Electric Hearing.

Perception with electric neuroprostheses is sometimes expected to be simulated using properly designed physical stimuli. Here, we examined a new acoustic vocoder model for electric hearing with cochlear implants (CIs) and hypothesized that comparable speech encoding can lead to comparable perceptual patterns for CI and normal hearing (NH) listeners. Speech signals were encoded using FFT-based signal processing stages including band-pass filtering, temporal envelope extraction, maxima selection, and amplitude compression and quantization.

Enabling Peroxygenase Activity in Cytochrome P450 Monooxygenases by Engineering Hydrogen Peroxide Tunnels.

Given prominent physicochemical similarities between HO and water, we report a new strategy for promoting the peroxygenase activity of P450 enzymes by engineering their water tunnels to facilitate HO access to the heme center buried therein. Specifically, the HO-driven activities of two native NADH-dependent P450 enzymes (CYP199A4 and CYP153A) increase significantly (by >183-fold and >15-fold, respectively). Additionally, the amount of HO required for an artificial P450 peroxygenase facilitated by a dual-functional small molecule to obtain the desired product is reduced by 95%-97.

Emerging albumin hydrogels as personalized biomaterials.

Developing biomaterials-based tissue engineering scaffolds with personalized features and intrinsic biocompatibility is appealing and urgent. Through utilizing various strategies, albumin, as the most abundant protein in plasma, could be fabricated into sustainable, cost-effective, and potentially personalized hydrogels that would display enormous biological applications. To date, much of the albumin-based research is primarily engrossed in using albumin as a therapeutic molecule or a drug carrier, not much as a scaffold for tissue engineering.

Cochlear-implant Mandarin tone recognition with a disyllabic word corpus.

Despite pitch being considered the primary cue for discriminating lexical tones, there are secondary cues such as loudness contour and duration, which may allow some cochlear implant (CI) tone discrimination even with severely degraded pitch cues. To isolate pitch cues from other cues, we developed a new disyllabic word stimulus set (Di) whose primary (pitch) and secondary (loudness) cue varied independently. This Di set consists of 270 disyllabic words, each having a distinct meaning depending on the perceived tone.

Dual-Stage Irradiation of Size-Switchable Albumin Nanocluster for Cascaded Tumor Enhanced Penetration and Photothermal Therapy.

The triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) microenvironment makes a feature of aberrant vasculature, high interstitial pressure, and compact extracellular matrix, which combine to reduce the delivery and penetration of therapeutic agents, bringing about incomplete elimination of cancer cells. Herein, employing the tumor penetration strategy of size-shrinkage combined with ligand modification, we constructed a photothermal nanocluster for cascaded deep penetration in tumor parenchyma and efficient eradication of TNBC cells. In our approach, the photothermal agent indocyanine green (ICG) is laded in human serum albumin (HSA), which is cross-linked by a thermally labile azo linker (VA057) and then further modified with a tumor homing/penetrating tLyP-1 peptide (HP), resulting in a TNBC-targeting photothermal-responsive size-switchable albumin nanocluster (ICG@HSA-Azo-HP).

Living Cell Nanoporation and Exosomal RNA Analysis Platform for Real-Time Assessment of Cellular Therapies.

Efficient transfection of therapeutic agents and timely potency testing are two key factors hindering the development of cellular therapy. Here we present a cellular-nanoporation and exosome assessment device, a quantitative platform for nanochannel-based cell electroporation and exosome-based RNA expression analysis. In its application to transfection of anti-miRNAs and/or chemotherapeutics into cells, we have systematically described the differences in RNA expression in secreted exosomes and assessed cellular therapies in real time.

SENIES: DNA Shape Enhanced Two-Layer Deep Learning Predictor for the Identification of Enhancers and Their Strength.

Identifying enhancers is a critical task in bioinformatics due to their primary role in regulating gene expression. For this reason, various computational algorithms devoted to enhancer identification have been put forward over the years. More features are extracted from the single DNA sequences to boost the performance.

Bioinspired Cell Silicification: From Extracellular to Intracellular.

In nature, biosilicification directs the formation of elaborate amorphous silica exoskeletons that provide diatoms mechanically strong, chemically inert, non-decomposable silica armor conferring chemical and thermal stability as well as resistance to microbial attack, without changing the optical transparency or adversely effecting nutrient and waste exchange required for growth. These extraordinary silica/cell biocomposites have inspired decades of biomimetic research aimed at replication of diatoms' hierarchically organized exoskeletons, immobilization of cells or living organisms within silica matrices and coatings to protect them against harmful external stresses, genetic re-programming of cellular functions by virtue of physico-chemical confinement within silica, cellular integration into devices, and endowment of cells with non-native, abiotic properties through facile silica functionalization. In this Perspective, we focus our discussions on the development and concomitant challenges of bioinspired cell silicification ranging from "cells encapsulated within 3D silica matrices" and "cells encapsulated within 2D silica shells" to extra- and intracellular silica replication, wherein all biomolecular interfaces are encased within nanoscopic layers of amorphous silica.

Optimization and characterization of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles loaded with astaxanthin and evaluation of anti-photodamage effect .

Astaxanthin is a xanthophyll carotenoid with high beneficial biological activities, such as antioxidant function and scavenging oxygen free radicals, but its application is limited because of poor water solubility and low bioavailability. Here, we prepared and optimized poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles loaded with astaxanthin using the emulsion solvent evaporation technique and investigated the anti-photodamage effect in HaCaT cells. The four-factor three-stage Box-Behnken design was used to optimize the nanoparticle formulation.

Resveratrol loaded oxidized mesoporous carbon nanoparticles: A promising tool to treat triple negative breast cancer.

Currently, breast cancer has become the most commonly diagnosed malignancy among females and triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a highly aggressive and metastatic subtype. The natural polyphenolic compound, resveratrol (3, 4', 5-trihydroxy-trans-stilbene, RES), has drawn great attention for its potential against TNBC. However, due to the poor aqueous solubility, the bioactivity of RES against TNBC is extremely hampered.

5-hydroxymethylfurfural-embedded poly (vinyl alcohol)/sodium alginate hybrid hydrogels accelerate wound healing.

Treating large acute or chronic wounds remains a challenging task because of a lack of effective methods to accelerate wound healing. Though growth factor-based wound products are found to be effective, they are costly and are potentially associated with increased cancer mortality. Effective, safe, and affordable strategies to tackle large or chronic wounds need to further be designed and developed.

CD30 aptamer-functionalized PEG-PLGA nanoparticles for the superior delivery of doxorubicin to anaplastic large cell lymphoma cells.

Nanoparticles (NPs) conjugated with aptamers have been extensively in recent years, which can efficiently target cancer cells that improve the therapeutic effect. Aptamers (Apt) are small oligonucleotide molecule ligands have specific high-affinity. In this work, we developed a PEG-PLGA nanoparticles (NPs) encapsulated with doxorubicin.

Time-compression thresholds for Mandarin sentences in normal-hearing and cochlear implant listeners.

Faster speech may facilitate more efficient communication, but if speech is too fast it becomes unintelligible. The maximum speeds at which Mandarin words were intelligible in a sentence context were quantified for normal hearing (NH) and cochlear implant (CI) listeners by measuring time-compression thresholds (TCTs) in an adaptive staircase procedure. In Experiment 1, both original and CI-vocoded time-compressed speech from the MSP (Mandarin speech perception) and MHINT (Mandarin hearing in noise test) corpora was presented to 10 NH subjects over headphones.

5-Hydroxymethylfurfural Mitigates Lipopolysaccharide-Stimulated Inflammation via Suppression of MAPK, NF-κB and mTOR Activation in RAW 264.7 Cells.

5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) is found in many food products including honey, dried fruits, coffee and black garlic extracts. Here, we investigated the anti-inflammatory activity of 5-HMF and its underlying mechanisms in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells.

Sub-Rayleigh resolution ghost imaging by spatial low-pass filtering.

A sub-Rayleigh resolution ghost imaging experiment is performed via post-detection spatial low-pass filtering of the instantaneous intensity. A super-resolution reconstructed image has been achieved, in which the spatial resolution can exceed the Rayleigh diffraction limit by more than a factor of two. The resolution depends on the filter threshold, and the Rayleigh limit can be exceeded for a wide choice of threshold values.

Testing treatment effect in schizophrenia clinical trials with heavy patient dropout using latent class growth mixture models.

By examining the outcome trajectories of the dropout patients with different reasons in the schizophrenia trials, we note that although patients are recruited from the same protocol that have compatible baseline characteristics, they may respond differently even to the same treatment. Some patients show consistent improvement while others only have temporary relief. This creates different patient subpopulations characterized by their response and dropout patterns.

Cardiac fiber tracking using adaptive particle filtering based on tensor rotation invariant in MRI.

Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) is a non-invasive method currently available for cardiac fiber tracking. However, accurate and efficient cardiac fiber tracking is still a challenge. This paper presents a probabilistic cardiac fiber tracking method based on particle filtering.

Effect of Statins on the Incidence of Postoperative Atrial Fibrillation after Cardiac Valve Surgery.

Study Objective: To evaluate the effect of preoperative statin use on the incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) in patients undergoing isolated cardiac valve surgery.

Design: Single-center retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Mixed medical-surgical intensive care unit in a community hospital.