Derivation of a health-based guidance value for bisphenol A via the weight of evidence approach.

There remains a debate over the health-based guidance value of bisphenol A (BPA) worldwide. Through the weight of evidence approach, this study systematically searched and evaluated the updated BPA toxicological data following the guidelines for evaluating the relevance and reliability of toxicological data developed by the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment. Benchmark dose and no observed adverse effect dose/lowest observed adverse effect level methods were used for dose-relationship analysis.

Near-infrared fluorescence imaging with an MET-targeting probe for biopsy site selection in patients with oral potentially malignant disorders.

Accurate detection of malignant transformation in oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs) is crucial for guiding effective treatment and improving patient management. This study evaluates the potential of MET-binding peptide-indocyanine green (cMBP-ICG), a mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor (MET)-targeted near-infrared fluorescence imaging (NIRFI) probe, for biopsy site selection in OPMDs. Preclinical results demonstrate the superior accuracy of NIRFI-assisted biopsy over conventional oral examination (COE)-based biopsy in detecting high-grade dysplasia (HGD) or squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and reducing missed detection rates.

Exome Sequencing for Head and Neck Cancer Predisposition Genes.

Introduction: While common variants have been studied for head and neck cancer (HNC) risk and exome sequencing has been conducted for head and neck tumor tissue samples, large-scale studies of exome sequencing on head and neck cancer risk have not been conducted. Our study aimed to identify head and neck cancer predisposition genes with exome sequencing and to assess interactions between the head and neck cancer susceptibility genes and tobacco use.

Methods: We conducted a case-control analysis to identify germline susceptibility genes for HNC risk.

Prognosis conferred by molecular features of appendix-derived Pseudomyxoma Peritonei.

Introduction: Pseudomyxoma Peritonei (PMP) is an extremely rare disease characterized by progressive accumulation of mucinous ascites and implants in the peritoneum. We investigated the prognostic value for response to cytoreductive surgery (CRS) or hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) and dissected potential beneficial targeted therapy utilizing genomic characteristics.

Methods: Whole-exome sequencing (WES) was performed on tissue specimens and matched white blood cells from 81 patients with PMP.

TransBic: bucket trend-preserving biclustering for finding local and interpretable expression patterns.

Biclustering has emerged as a promising approach for analyzing high-dimensional expression data, offering unique advantages in uncovering localized co-expression patterns that traditional clustering methods often miss and thus facilitating advancements in complex disease research and other biomedical applications. However, state-of-the-art methods identify distinct patterns at the expense of losing information about specific patterns, some of which have been used to define cancer subtypes or reflect the progression of a disease or cellular processes. Additionally, these methods exhibit poor effectiveness in noisy environments.

L-Theanine Extends the Lifespan of by Reducing the End Products of Advanced Glycosylation.

L-theanine, a non-protein amino acid naturally occurring in tea leaves, is recognized for its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective properties. Despite its known benefits, the mechanisms by which L-theanine influences lifespan extension remain poorly understood. This study investigated the effects of L-theanine on the lifespan of and explored the underlying mechanisms.

Transurethral Cylindrical Water Sac Prostate Enlargement Surgery for the Treatment of Small-Volume Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia: A Retrospective Analysis.

Aim: To investigate the clinical efficacy of transurethral columnar balloon dilation of prostate (TUCBDP) in the treatment of small-volume benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and provide the optimal treatment for the surgical treatment of small volume benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Methods: This retrospective study analyzed 106 patients with small-volume BPH who underwent surgical treatment at the Department of Urology, Xiangya Changde Hospital from December 2023 to January 2024. The patients were divided into two groups based on the type of surgery received: TUCBDP group (n = 53) and transurethral resection of prostate (TURP) group (n = 53), which serves as the control group.

Generating barcodes for nanopore sequencing data with PRO.

DNA barcodes, short and unique DNA sequences, play a crucial role in sample identification when processing many samples simultaneously, which helps reduce experimental costs. Nevertheless, the low quality of long-read sequencing makes it difficult to identify barcodes accurately, which poses significant challenges for the design of barcodes for large numbers of samples in a single sequencing run. Here, we present a comprehensive study of the generation of barcodes and develop a tool, PRO, that can be used for selecting optimal barcode sets and demultiplexing.

Polygenic Score for Clinicopathologic Features and Survival Outcomes in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma.

Importance: Genome-wide association studies have identified germline variants associated with the development of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) that can be used to construct a polygenic score (PGS). It is important to determine whether patients with higher germline genetic risk, as summarized using PGS, present with more aggressive disease and/or develop worse clinical outcomes.

Objective: To assess whether germline risk defined by PGS is associated with clinicopathologic features and survival outcomes for patients with PTC.

Predictive Prognostic Model for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Based on Seven Genes Participating in Arachidonic Acid Metabolism.

Background: The occult onset and rapid progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) lead to an unsatisfactory overall survival (OS) rate. Established prognostic predictive models based on tumor-node-metastasis staging and predictive factors do not report satisfactory predictive efficacy. Arachidonic acid plays pivotal roles in biological processes including inflammation, regeneration, immune modulation, and tumorigenesis.

TDFPS-Designer: an efficient toolkit for barcode design and selection in nanopore sequencing.

Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) offers ultrahigh-throughput multi-sample sequencing but only provides barcode kits that enable up to 96-sample multiplexing. We present TDFPS-Designer, a new toolkit for nanopore sequencing barcode design, which creates significantly more barcodes: 137 with a length of 20 base pairs, 410 at 24 bp, and 1779 at 30 bp, far surpassing ONT's offerings. It includes GPU-based acceleration for ultra-fast demultiplexing and designs robust barcodes suitable for high-error ONT data.

Osmotic signaling releases PP2C-mediated inhibition of Arabidopsis SnRK2s via the receptor-like cytoplasmic kinase BIK1.

Osmotic stress and abscisic acid (ABA) signaling are important for plant growth and abiotic stress resistance. Activation of osmotic and ABA signaling downstream of the PYL-type ABA receptors requires the release of SnRK2 protein kinases from the inhibition imposed by PP2Cs. PP2Cs are core negative regulators that constantly interact with and inhibit SnRK2s, but how osmotic signaling breaks the PP2C inhibition of SnRK2s remains unclear.

A New Bacterial Strain Producing Both of the Surfactin and Fengycin Lipopeptide Biosurfactant with Strong Emulsifications on Crude Oil.

A new lipopeptide-producing strain Cytobacillus sp. R3-1 was isolated from the production water of the Daqing oilfield in China and identified based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses. The strain R3-1 is capable of simultaneously producing both of the surfactin and fengycin, the two major families of the lipopeptide biosurfactant.

WormCNN-Assisted Establishment and Analysis of Glycation Stress Models in : Insights into Disease and Healthy Aging.

Glycation Stress (GS), induced by advanced glycation end-products (AGEs), significantly impacts aging processes. This study introduces a new model of GS of by feeding them OP50 cultured in a glucose-enriched medium, which better simulates human dietary glycation compared to previous single protein-glucose cross-linking methods. Utilizing WormCNN, a deep learning model, we assessed the health status and calculated the Healthy Aging Index (HAI) of worms with or without GS.

Involvement of M2 macrophages polarization in PM2.5-induced COPD by upregulating MMP12 via IL4/STAT6 pathway.

Biomass-related airborne fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is an important risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Macrophage polarization has been reported to be involved in PM2.

Epitaxial growth of BiTiO-BiPO Z-scheme heterojunction to promote carrier transfer for photocatalytic oxidation of NO.

The lack of compactness in heterojunction interfaces and poor charge separation is a great challenge in developing high-efficiency heterojunction photocatalysts. Herein, a novel BiTiO-BiPO heterojunction was successfully prepared for the first time by epitaxial growth of BiPO on the surface of BiTiO nanosheets. The optimized BiTiO-BiPO-0.

Built-in electric field mediated S-scheme charge migration and Co-N4(II) sites in cobalt phthalocyanine/MIL-68(In)-NH heterojunction for boosting photocatalytic nitric oxide oxidation.

The efficiency of photocatalytic Nitric Oxide(NO) oxidation is limited by the lack of oxygen(O) active sites and poor charge carrier separation. To address this challenge, we developed a molecular Cobalt Phthalocyanine modified MIL-68(In)-NH photocatalyst with a robust Built-in electric field(BIEF). In the 2 % CoPc-MIN sample, the BIEF strength is increased by 3.

A positive feedback loop between PFKP and c-Myc drives head and neck squamous cell carcinoma progression.

Background: The aberrant expression of phosphofructokinase-platelet (PFKP) plays a crucial role in the development of various human cancers by modifying diverse biological functions. However, the precise molecular mechanisms underlying the role of PFKP in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) are not fully elucidated.

Methods: We assessed the expression levels of PFKP and c-Myc in tumor and adjacent normal tissues from 120 HNSCC patients.

Traditional Chinese Medicine JianPiHuaTan formula improving quality of life and survival in patients with colorectal cancer through RAS/RAF downstream signaling pathways.

Objective: JianPiHuaTan Formula (JPHTF), a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), has been utilized as an adjunctive therapy for colorectal cancer (CRC). The study aims to evaluate the potential clinical benefits of JPHTF and its effectiveness in inhibiting tumor growth.

Methods: 300 stage II/III CRC patients and 412 advanced CRC patients were enrolled to verify the clinical value of JPHTF in CRC treatment.

FP-Zernike: An Open-source Structural Database Construction Toolkit for Fast Structure Retrieval.

The release of AlphaFold2 has sparked a rapid expansion in protein model databases. Efficient protein structure retrieval is crucial for the analysis of structure models, while measuring the similarity between structures is the key challenge in structural retrieval. Although existing structure alignment algorithms can address this challenge, they are often time-consuming.

Potentially functional variants of CHMP4A and PANX1 in the pyroptosis-related pathway predict survival of patients with non-oropharyngeal head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Background: Pyroptosis has been implicated in the advancement of various cancers. Triggering pyroptosis within tumors amplifies the immune response, thereby fostering an antitumor immune environment. Nonetheless, few published studies have evaluated associations between functional variants in the pyroptosis-related genes and clinical outcomes of patients with non-oropharyngeal head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (NON-ORO HNSCC).