Pharmaceutics
November 2024
This review explores the potential of peptide-based biomaterials to enhance biomedical applications through self-assembly, biological responsiveness, and selective targeting. Peptides are presented as versatile agents for antimicrobial activity and drug delivery, with recent approaches incorporating antimicrobial peptides into self-assembling systems to improve effectiveness and reduce resistance. The review also covers peptide-based nanocarriers for cancer drug delivery, highlighting their improved stability, targeted delivery, and reduced side effects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiological invasion poses a significant threat to biodiversity conservation and also results in substantial economic loss including the excessive cost of management to control it. Still, its impact on plant sexual reproduction strategies remains underexplored in natural settings. We conducted a field experiment on native Phragmites australis and invasive Spartina alterniflora in Bohai Bay and assessed plant size (aboveground biomass and height) and sexual reproduction (ear biomass, reproductive allocation, etc.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMaterials with multifunctionality affect society enormously. However, the inability to surmount multiple functionality trade-offs limits the discovery of next-generation multifunctional materials. Departing from conventional alloying design philosophy, we present a hierarchical nanostructure (HNS) strategy to simultaneously break multiple performance trade-offs in a material.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdenocarcinoma of the pancreas (PAAD) is one of the deadliest malignant tumors, and messenger ribonucleic acid vaccines, which constitute the latest generation of vaccine technology, are expected to lead to new ideas for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. The Cancer Genome Atlas-PAAD and Genotype-Tissue Expression data were merged and analyzed. Weighted gene coexpression network analysis was used to identify gene modules associated with tumor mutational burden among the genes related to both immunity and oxidative stress.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
July 2024
Research Question: What impact does dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) have on ovarian angiogenesis and function in a rat model of with premature ovarian insufficiency (POI), and what are the potential mechanisms of action?
Design: DHEA was added to a culture of human microvascular endothelial cells (HMEC-1) to investigate its effects on cell proliferation, migration and tube formation. A rat model of POI was established by intraperitoneal injection of cyclophosphamide, followed by continuous oral administration of DHEA or vehicle for 28 days. Ovarian angiogenesis, follicular growth and granulosa cell survival in ovarian tissues were assessed through haematoxylin and eosin staining, immunohistochemistry and TdT (terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase)-mediated dUTP nick-end labelling (TUNEL).
Introduction: Infertility affects 8-12% of couples worldwide, with 15-30% classified as unexplained infertility (UI). Thyroid autoimmunity (TAI), the most common autoimmune disorder in women of reproductive age, may impact fertility and pregnancy outcomes. However, the underlying mechanism is unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAutophagy is a central biodegradation pathway critical in eliminating intracellular cargo to maintain cellular homeostasis and improve stress resistance. At the same time, the key component of the mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade regulating cell wall integrity signaling MoMkk1 has an essential role in the autophagy of the rice blast fungus . Still, the mechanism of how MoMkk1 regulates autophagy is unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The anti-Programmed Death-Ligand 1 (termed aPD-L1) immune checkpoint blockade therapy has emerged as a promising treatment approach for various advanced solid tumors. However, the effect of aPD-L1 inhibitors limited by the tumor microenvironment makes most patients exhibit immunotherapy resistance.
Methods: We conjugated the Sialyl Lewis X with a polyethylene glycol-coated ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide (USPIO-PEG) to form UPS nanoparticles (USPIO-PEG-SLe, termed UPS).
Reprod Biol Endocrinol
December 2023
A novel carbon dot/g-CN nanocomposite (CCN) exhibiting enhanced photocatalytic activity was developed and used as a photoactive nanofiller to construct corn starch/carboxymethyl cellulose (CS/CMC)-based functional films. The morphologies and structures of the CCN-CS/CMC composite films were investigated with scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The effects of the CCN on the physicochemical properties and antibacterial activities of the films were analyzed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The roles of low molecular mass polypeptide 2 (LMP2) and transporter-associated with antigen processing (TAP2) in tumorigenesis are controversial. Here we aimed to explore the effect of LMP2 and TAP2 on the oncogenesis and metastasis of cervical cancer cells.
Methods: The expressions of LMP2 and TAP2 in cervical cancer and normal tissues were determined by qPCR.
The regeneration of thin endometrium still remains as a great challenge in the field of reproductive medicine. Stem cells-based therapy has been considered as a promising strategy for the restoration of thin endometrium. However, the low transplantation and retention rate of stem cells and loss of stemness due to in vitro expansion limits the therapeutic efficacy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper investigates the dynamics of a glucose-insulin regulatory system model that incorporates: (1) insulin-degrading enzyme in the insulin equation; and (2) discrete time delays respectively in the insulin production term, hepatic glucose production term, and the insulin-degrading enzyme. We provide rigorous results of our model including the asymptotic stability of the equilibrium solution and the existence of Hopf bifurcation. We show that analytically and numerically at a certain value the time delays driven stability or instability occurs when the corresponding model has an interior equilibrium.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStarch has great potential to replace petroleum-based plastics in food packaging applications. However, starch films often exhibit poor mechanical and barrier properties, and are vulnerable to moisture and bacterial contamination. This study proved that the incorporation of eggshell powder (ES) enhanced the hydrogen bonding in starch-based films significantly, which contributed to improved tensile strength, Young's modulus, and water resistance of the films.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhotodynamic therapy has been used as a treatment option for cancer; however, the existing TiO photosensitizer does not have the ability to specifically target cancer cells. This lack of selectivity reduces its effectiveness in overcoming cancer resistance. To improve photodynamic therapy outcomes, an innovative solution is proposed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Invasion of the endometrium by trophoblast cells is a key event during pregnancy, although the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Aquaporin 9 (AQP 9) is expressed in many eukaryotes and is associated with cell invasion. The objective of this study was to evaluate the significance of AQP9 in recurrent spontaneous abortion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study investigates a T-type field-free spin-orbit torque device with an in-plane magnetic layer coupled to a perpendicular magnetic layer via a non-magnetic spacer. The device utilizes a Co/Ta/CoTb structure, in which the in-plane Co layer and the perpendicular CoTb layer are ferromagnetically (FM) coupled through the Ta spacer. 'T-type' refers to the magnetization arrangement in the FM/spacer/FIM structure, where the magnetization in FM is in-plane, while in FIM, it is out-of-plane.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate whether oral antibiotics (doxycycline and metronidazole) combined with intrauterine perfusion (gentamicin and dexamethasone) are beneficial for patients with repeated implantation failure (RIF) and chronic endometritis (CE) to improve clinical pregnancy outcomes.
Methods: Patients with RIF and CE were diagnosed using hysteroscopy and histology together. A total of 42 patients were enrolled in the study.
IEEE Trans Neural Netw Learn Syst
March 2024
This article investigates the fault-tolerant formation control (FTFC) problem for networked fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) against faults. To constrain the distributed tracking errors of follower UAVs with respect to neighboring UAVs in the presence of faults, finite-time prescribed performance functions (PPFs) are developed to transform the distributed tracking errors into a new set of errors by incorporating user-specified transient and steady-state requirements. Then, the critic neural networks (NNs) are developed to learn the long-term performance indices, which are used to evaluate the distributed tracking performance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci
May 2023
Ultrafiltration-high performance liquid chromatography (UF-HPLC) and high resolution biochromatogram (HR-biochromatogram), have been proven to be effective methods for the rapid discovery of enzyme inhibitors in natural medicines. In attempt to conquer false-positive and false- negative screening results, a new multi-stage strategy based on the complementarity of UF-HPLC and HR-biochromatogram has been proposed for the fast screening of tyrosinase inhibitory components using the fibrous root of Bletilla striata as a case study. For the first two stages, UF- HPLC and HR-biochromatogram, were applied individually for the screening of high-affinity tyrosinase ligands and tyrosinase inhibitors.
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