Structure-Based Screening and Optimization of PafA Inhibitors with Potent Anti-Tuberculosis Activity.

Tuberculosis (TB), caused by (), remains a major global health challenge, primarily due to the increasing prevalence of drug resistance. Consequently, the development of drugs with novel modes of action (MOAs) is urgently required. In this study, we discovered and characterized two potent inhibitors, Pi-1-58 and Pi-2-26, targeting the prokaryotic ubiquitin-like protein (Pup) ligase PafA of .

Assembly Characteristics and Influencing Factors of the Soil Microbial Community in the Typical Forest of Funiu Mountain.

Assessing the relationship between litter characteristics and soil microbial community traits across different forest types can enhance our understanding of the synergistic interactions among litter, soil, and microorganisms. This study focused on three representative forest types in the Funiu Mountains- (LG), var. (QA), and var.

Strategic nucleic acid detection approaches for diagnosing African swine fever (ASF): navigating disease dynamics.

African swine fever (ASF) is a devastating disease caused by African swine fever virus (ASFV) and leads to significant economic losses in the pig farming industry. Given the absence of an effective vaccine or treatment, the mortality rate of ASF is alarmingly close to 100%. Consequently, the ability to rapidly and accurately detect ASFV on site and promptly identify infected pigs is critical for controlling the spread of this pandemic.

Xenogenous implanted dental follicle stem cells promote periodontal regeneration through inducing the N2 phenotype of neutrophils.

Background: Periodontal tissue loss is the main reason for tooth mobility and loss caused by periodontal disease. Dental follicle stem cells (DFSCs) have significant therapeutic potential in periodontal regeneration, which maybe mainly depends on their potent immunomodulatory capacity. Consequently, this study aims to elucidate the impact of implanted xenogenous DFSCs on innate immune responses during early and late stages in the periodontal defect repair period.

Recent Advances in Dopamine-Based Membrane Surface Modification and Its Membrane Distillation Applications.

Surface modification of membranes is essential for improving flux and resistance to contamination for membranes. This is of great significance for membrane distillation, which relies on the vapor pressure difference across the membrane as the driving force. In recent years, biomimetic mussel-inspired substances have become the research hotspots.

Small extracellular vesicles derived from lipopolysaccharide-preconditioned dental follicle cells inhibit cell apoptosis and alveolar bone loss in periodontitis.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the effects of small extracellular vesicles derived from lipopolysaccharide-preconditioned dental follicle cells (L-D-sEV) on periodontal ligament cells from periodontitis affected teeth (p-PDLCs) in vitro and experimental periodontitis in mice.

Design: In vitro, the biological function of p-PDLCs and the underlying molecular mechanism were investigated by flow cytometry, Western blot, and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis. Eighteen-eight-week-old male C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into three groups: control (Con), periodontitis (Peri), and L-D-sEV groups.

Developing Deep LSTMs With Later Temporal Attention for Predicting COVID-19 Severity, Clinical Outcome, and Antibody Level by Screening Serological Indicators Over Time.

Objective: The clinical course of COVID-19, as well as the immunological reaction, is notable for its extreme variability. Identifying the main associated factors might help understand the disease progression and physiological status of COVID-19 patients. The dynamic changes of the antibody against Spike protein are crucial for understanding the immune response.

Divergent patterns and drivers of leaf functional traits of Robinia pseudoacacia and Pinus tabulaeformis plantations along a precipitation gradient in the Loess plateau, China.

Changes in precipitation patterns in arid and semi-arid regions can reshape plant functional traits and significantly affect ecosystem functions. However, the synchronous responses of leaf economical, anatomical, photosynthetic, and biochemical traits to precipitation changes and their driving factors have rarely been investigated, which hinders our understanding of plants' ecological adaptation strategies to drought tolerance in arid areas. Therefore, the leaf traits of two typical plantations (Robinia pseudoacacia, RP and Pinus tabulaeformis, PT) along the precipitation gradient in the Loess Plateau, including economical, anatomical, photosynthetic, and biochemical traits, were investigated in this study.

Hydroxyapatite-Coated Small Intestinal Submucosa Membranes Enhanced Periodontal Tissue Regeneration through Immunomodulation and Osteogenesis via BMP-2/Smad Signaling Pathway.

Periodontitis, a chronic infection causing periodontal tissue loss, may be effectively addressed with in situ tissue engineering. Small intestinal submucosa (SIS) offers exceptional biocompatibility and biodegradability but lacks sufficient osteoconductive and osteoinductive properties. This study develops and characterizes SIS coated with hydroxyapatite (SIS-HA) and gelatin methacrylate hydroxyapatite (SIS-Gel-HA) using biomineralization and chemical crosslinking.

A Novel Magnetic Manipulation Promotes Directional Growth of Periodontal Ligament Stem Cells.

Periodontium is the rally of soft and hard tissues, which will be devastated continuously by the compromise of periodontitis. Current periodontal therapeutic methods cannot effectively reconstruct periodontal ligament (PDL), which is oriented at an angle with tooth root and combined hard tissues to form cementum-PDL-alveolar bone complex. Hence, it is urgent to find new techniques for PDL reconstruction to achieve functional regeneration of periodontium.

CRISPR-based diagnostics of different biomolecules from nucleic acids, proteins, and small molecules to exosomes.

CRISPR-based detection technologies have been widely explored for molecular diagnostics. However, the challenge lies in converting the signal of different biomolecules, such as nucleic acids, proteins, small molecules, exosomes, and ions, into a CRISPR-based nucleic acid detection signal. Understanding the detection of different biomolecules using CRISPR technology can aid in the development of practical and promising detection approaches.

Periostin plays a key role in maintaining the osteogenic abilities of dental follicle stem cells in the inflammatory microenvironment.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the effect of periostin in the osteogenic abilities of dental follicle stem cells (DFSCs) and DFSC sheets in the inflammatory microenvironment.

Design: DFSCs were isolated from dental follicles and identified. A lentiviral vector was used to knock down periostin in DFSCs.

Circular RNA hsa_circ_0084054 promotes the progression of periodontitis with diabetes via the miR-508-3p/PTEN axis.

Background And Objective: Diabetes is an important risk factor for periodontitis, and circular RNA (circRNA) may play an important role in aggravating inflammation and accelerating disease progression by regulating miRNA/mRNA. This study aimed to investigate the role and mechanism of the hsa_circ_0084054/miR-508-3p/PTEN axis in the progression of periodontitis with diabetes.

Methods: First, circRNA sequencing was used to screen the differentially expressed circRNAs of periodontal ligament cells (PDLCs) treated with high glucose and/or Porphyromonas gingivalis lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in vitro, and the overtly differentially expressed hsa_circ_0084054 was selected and was also verified in periodontal ligament (PDL) tissue from periodontitis patients with diabetes.

Rapid and Accurate Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Using an iPad-Controlled, High-Throughput, Portable, and Multiplex ve-Chip Platform (Cube).

Rapid and accurate detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is one of the most effective measures to control the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. However, there is still lack of an ideal detection platform capable of high sample throughput, portability, and multiplicity. Herein, by combining Hive-Chip (capillary microarray) and reverse transcriptional loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP), we developed an iPad-controlled, high-throughput (48 samples at one run), portable (smaller than a backpack), multiplex (monitoring 8 gene fragments in one reaction), and real-time detection platform for SARS-CoV-2 detection.

Specific pupylation as IDEntity reporter (SPIDER) for the identification of protein-biomolecule interactions.

Protein-biomolecule interactions play pivotal roles in almost all biological processes. For a biomolecule of interest, the identification of the interacting protein(s) is essential. For this need, although many assays are available, highly robust and reliable methods are always desired.

Dental Follicle Stem Cells Promote Periodontal Regeneration through Periostin-Mediated Macrophage Infiltration and Reprogramming in an Inflammatory Microenvironment.

Dental follicle stem cells (DFSCs) have been verified to promote periodontal regeneration in an inflammatory microenvironment. When coping with inflammatory stimulation, DFSCs highly express periostin, a bioactive molecule closely related to periodontal homeostasis. It is worth exploring whether and how periostin plays a role in the promotion of periodontal regeneration by DFSCs.

Mechanisms and clinical application potential of mesenchymal stem cells-derived extracellular vesicles in periodontal regeneration.

Periodontitis is a high prevalence oral disease which damages both the hard and soft tissue of the periodontium, resulting in tooth mobility and even loss. Existing clinical treatment methods cannot fully achieve periodontal tissue regeneration; thus, due to the unique characteristics of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), they have become the focus of attention and may be the most promising new therapy for periodontitis. Accumulating evidence supports the view that the role of MSCs in regenerative medicine is mainly achieved by the paracrine pathway rather than direct proliferation and differentiation at the injured site.

Assessment of early wound healing, pain intensity, quality of life and related influencing factors during periodontal surgery: a cross-sectional study.

Background: This cross-sectional study assessed early wound healing, pain intensity, quality of life, surgical satisfaction, and related factors during periodontal surgery.

Methods: A total of 369 patients completed the questionnaire before undergoing periodontal surgery (baseline), immediately after the operation (phase I), on the day of suture removal (phase II), and one month later (phase III). The Early Wound Healing Score (EHS) was assessed, and the short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ), tooth hypersensitivity visual analog scale (VAS), oral health-related quality of life measure (OHQoL-UK), and surgical satisfaction VAS were administered and analysed.

Effects of growth hormone on lipid metabolism and sexual development in pubertal obese male rats.

To investigate the effects of growth hormone (GH) on pubertal obese male rats, a rat model of high-fat diet-induced obesity was established in juvenile male rats. The model rats were divided into the treatment group (GH) and the non-treatment group (physiological saline). After 4 weeks, we measured the levels of alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TGs), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), estrogen (E2), testosterone (T), and insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1).

Advances of Hydrogel Therapy in Periodontal Regeneration-A Materials Perspective Review.

Hydrogel, a functional polymer material, has emerged as a promising technology for therapies for periodontal diseases. It has the potential to mimic the extracellular matrix and provide suitable attachment sites and growth environments for periodontal cells, with high biocompatibility, water retention, and slow release. In this paper, we have summarized the main components of hydrogel in periodontal tissue regeneration and have discussed the primary construction strategies of hydrogels as a reference for future work.

Age- and Severity-Associated Humoral Immunity Response in COVID-19 Patients: A Cohort Study from Wuhan, China.

Age has been found to be the single most significant factor in COVID-19 severity and outcome. However, the age-related severity factors of COVID-19 have not been definitively established. In this study, we detected SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody responses and infectious disease-related blood indicators in 2360 sera from 783 COVID-19 patients, with an age range of 1−92 years.