Recent advances in CRISPR-Cas system for Saccharomyces cerevisiae engineering.

Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae) is a crucial industrial platform for producing a wide range of chemicals, fuels, pharmaceuticals, and nutraceutical ingredients. It is also commonly used as a model organism for fundamental research.

Effectiveness of nirmatrelvir/ritonavir in hospitalized haematological malignancy patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19: A retrospective study.

Patients with haematological malignancies (HMs) are highly vulnerable to COVID-19 due to their immunocompromised status, which leads to prolonged viral clearance and severe outcomes. Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir has shown efficacy in reducing severity and mortality in high-risk COVID-19 outpatients, but its effectiveness in hospitalized HM patients remains unclear. We conducted a retrospective study to assess the effectiveness of nirmatrelvir/ritonavir on mortality and viral clearance in hospitalized HM patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 during China's first COVID-19 surge.

Overexpression of Circ-Astn1 Suppresses Hyperglycemia-Induced Endothelial Cell Damage via the miR-138-5p/SIRT1 Axis.

Objective: To elucidate the regulatory mechanism of circRNAs in diabetic retinopathy.

Methods: Next-generation sequencing (NGS) was employed to identify circRNAs that are abnormally expressed in endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) under hyperglycemia (HG) conditions. The regulatory mechanism and predicted targets of this circRNA were also studied via bioinformatics analysis, luciferase reporter assays, angiogenic differentiation experiments, flow cytometry, and RT-qPCR.

Blocking constitutive autophagy rescues the loss of acquired heat resistance in Arabidopsis fes1a.

High temperature is one of several major abiotic stresses that can cause substantial loss of crop yields. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are key components of heat stress resistance. Mutation of FES1A, an auxiliary molecular chaperone of HSP70, leads to defective acquired thermotolerance.

Elevated Bile Acids Induce Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders in Chronic Liver Diseases.

Background & Aims: Sleep disorders (SDs) are common in chronic liver diseases (CLDs). Some SDs arise from impaired internal clock and are, hence, circadian rhythm SDs (CRSDs). Bile acids (BAs), whose levels are increased in many CLDs, reciprocally interact with circadian rhythm.

Capillary effect-based selective sealing strategy for increasing piezoelectric MEMS speaker performance.

To address the serious acoustic performance deterioration induced by air leakage in the low-frequency range and the asynchronous vibration in electroacoustic transduction structures near the resonant frequency, a novel sealing strategy is proposed that targets one of the most widely reported piezoelectric MEMS speaker designs. This design consists of multiple cantilever beams, in which the air gaps between cantilevers are automatically and selectively filled with liquid polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) via the capillary effect, followed by curing. In the proof-of-concept demonstration, the sound pressure level (SPL) within the frequency range lower than 100 Hz markedly increased after sealing in an experiment using an IEC ear simulator.

SIRPG promotes lung squamous cell carcinoma pathogenesis via M1 macrophages: a multi-omics study integrating data and Mendelian randomization.

Background: Squamous cell carcinoma of the lung (LUSC) is a severe and highly lethal malignant tumor of the respiratory system, and its molecular mechanisms at the molecular level remain unc\lear.

Methods: We acquired RNA-seq data from 8 surgical samples obtained from early-stage LUSC and adjacent non-cancerous tissues from 3 different centers. Utilizing Deseq2, we identified 1088 differentially expressed genes with |LogFC| > 1 and a p-value < 0.

Approaches to improve the translation of safety, pharmacokinetics and therapeutic index of ADCs.

1. Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are an important class of cancer therapies. They are complex molecules, comprising an antibody, a cytotoxic payload, and a linker.

Potential targets and therapeutics for cancer stem cell-based therapy against drug resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common digestive malignancyin the world, which is frequently diagnosed at late stage with a poor prognosis. For most patients with advanced HCC, the therapeutic options arelimiteddue to cancer occurrence of drug resistance. Hepatic cancer stem cells (CSCs) account for a small subset of tumor cells with the ability of self-renewal and differentiationin HCC.

Minimal residual disease in systemic light chain amyloidosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Purpose: Minimal residual disease (MRD) is a validated prognostic factor in several hematological malignancies. However, its role in systemic light chain (AL) amyloidosis remains controversial, and this systematic review and meta-analysis aims to fill this gap.

Methods: We searched for relevant studies on Pubmed, Embase, and Cochrane Controlled Register of Trials, nine studies involving 451 patients were included and meta-analyzed.

Efficacy and Safety of Hepatic Arterial Infusion Therapy with Cinobufacini in Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Macrovascular Invasion: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background: The presence of macrovascular invasion (MVI) is associated with poor prognosis in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Cinobufacini therapy via hepatic arterial infusion (HAI) in advanced HCC patients with MVI.

Methods: The clinical records of 130 consecutive patients with unresectable advanced HCC and MVI who had received Cinobufacini or cisplatin plus 5-fluorouracil (CF) treatment via HAI were retrospectively analyzed.

A Comprehensive Immunocapture-LC-MS/MS Bioanalytical Approach in Support of a Biotherapeutic Ocular PK Study.

BI-X, a therapeutic protein under development for the treatment of human ocular disease via intravitreal administration, binds to its therapeutic targets and endogenous albumin in the vitreous humor. A monkey ocular pharmacokinetic (PK) study following BI-X administration was conducted to measure drug and albumin levels in plasma, the vitreous humor, the aqueous humor, and retina tissue at various timepoints post-dose. A comprehensive bioanalytical approach was implemented in support of this study.

On-Demand Dynamic Terahertz Polarization Manipulation Based on Pneumatically Actuated Metamaterial.

In this paper, a new tuning strategy is proposed by incorporating a pneumatically actuated metamaterial to achieve on-demand polarization manipulation at THz frequencies. Through controlling the actuation pressure, the device function can be flexibly switched among three types of polarization conversion capabilities within the same operation frequency band, from 1.3 THz to 1.

Observational evidence of strong forcing from aerosol effect on low cloud coverage.

Aerosols cool Earth's climate indirectly by increasing low cloud brightness and their coverage (Cf), constituting the aerosol indirect forcing (AIF). The forcing partially offsets the greenhouse warming and positively correlates with the climate sensitivity. However, it remains highly uncertain.

AlN-based piezoelectric MEMS deformable mirror.

An AlN-based piezoelectric micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) continuous membrane deformable mirror (DM) prototype is presented for the first time. Its effective aperture diameter is 5 mm and it is equipped with 25 independently controlled actuators. Owing to the advantages associated with the AlN piezoelectric thin-film technology, attractive characteristics including CMOS compatible fabrication, bidirectional linear and negligible hysteresis actuation, and excellent linear superposition control capability have been successfully demonstrated.

Recent advances of artificial intelligence in melanoma clinical practice.

Skin melanoma is a lethal cancer. The incidence of melanoma is increasing rapidly in all regions of the world. Despite significant breakthroughs in melanoma treatment in recent years, precise diagnosis of melanoma is still a challenge in some cases.

Uniform design and deep learning based liquid lens optimization strategy toward improving dynamic optical performance and lowering driving force.

An efficient optimization strategy for liquid lens combining the uniform design and the deep learning is proposed to achieve improved dynamic optical performance and lowering driving force simultaneously. The membrane of the liquid lens is designed into a plano-convex cross-section, in which the contour function of the convex surface as well as the central membrane thickness is especially optimized. The uniform design method is initially utilized to select a part of uniformly distributed and representative parameter combinations from all possible parameter range, and their performance data is then obtained through simulation using MATLAB to control COMSOL and ZEMAX.