pH-Responsive Polyethylene Glycol Engagers for Enhanced Brain Delivery of PEGylated Nanomedicine to Treat Glioblastoma.

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) remains a major obstacle for effective delivery of therapeutics to treat central nervous system (CNS) disorders. Although transferrin receptor (TfR)-mediated transcytosis is widely employed for brain drug delivery, the inefficient release of therapeutic payload hinders their efficacy from crossing the BBB. Here, we developed a pH-responsive anti-polyethylene glycol (PEG) × anti-TfR bispecific antibody (pH-PEG engager) that can complex with PEGylated nanomedicine at physiological pH to trigger TfR-mediated transcytosis in the brain microvascular endothelial cells, while rapidly dissociating from PEGylated nanomedicine at acidic endosomes for efficient release of PEGylated nanomedicine to cross the BBB.

Age-Related Influence on Static and Dynamic Balance Abilities: An Inertial Measurement Unit-Based Evaluation.

Balance control, a complex sensorimotor skill, declines with age. Assessing balance is crucial for identifying fall risk and implementing interventions in the older population. This study aimed to measure age-dependent changes in static and dynamic balance using inertial measurement units in a clinical setting.

A novel MissForest-based missing values imputation approach with recursive feature elimination in medical applications.

Background: Missing values in datasets present significant challenges for data analysis, particularly in the medical field where data accuracy is crucial for patient diagnosis and treatment. Although MissForest (MF) has demonstrated efficacy in imputation research and recursive feature elimination (RFE) has proven effective in feature selection, the potential for enhancing MF through RFE integration remains unexplored.

Methods: This study introduces a novel imputation method, "recursive feature elimination-MissForest" (RFE-MF), designed to enhance imputation quality by reducing the impact of irrelevant features.

Different synaptic mechanisms of intermittent and continuous theta-burst stimulations in a severe foot-shock induced and treatment-resistant depression in a rat model.

Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is a condition wherein patients with depression fail to respond to antidepressant trials. A new form of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), called theta-burst stimulation (TBS), which includes intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) and continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS), is non-inferior to rTMS in TRD treatment. However, the mechanism of iTBS and cTBS underlying the treatment of TRD in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) remains unclear.

Targeting EGFR and Monitoring Tumorigenesis of Human Lung Cancer Cells In Vitro and In Vivo Using Nanodiamond-Conjugated Specific EGFR Antibody.

Nanoprobes provide advantages for real-time monitoring of tumor markers and tumorigenesis during cancer progression and development. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a key protein that plays crucial roles for tumorigenesis and cancer therapy of lung cancers. Here, we show a carbon-based nanoprobe, nanodiamond (ND), which can be applied for targeting EGFR and monitoring tumorigenesis of human lung cancer cells in vitro and in vivo.

The Relationship Between Colles' Fractures and Leukocytosis in the Emergency Department.

In Taiwan, emergency physicians often perform wrist joint reduction and cast immobilization before orthopedic surgeons arrange for surgical management. Prophylactic antibiotics can decrease the risk of wound infection and have been routinely employed in orthopedic surgery. In Taiwan, emergency physicians also regularly perform blood investigations and administer prophylactic antibiotics to prevent infection if the patient exhibits leukocytosis.

One-kilojoule pulsed-power generator for laboratory space sciences.

This paper reports on the assembly of a compact, low-cost, pulsed-power facility used for plasma studies. The construction uses two modules placed on opposite sides of the test chamber to minimize the system impedance and improve access to test samples. The stored energy is 1  kJ with a peak current of 135  kA and a 1592  ns quarter-period time.

Effects of Artemisia annua on experimentally induced leucocytozoonosis in chickens.

The biting midge Culicoides arakawae is the vector for the parasite Leucocytozoon caulleryi. Birds infected with L. caulleryi develop leucocytozoonosis.

CirPred, the first structure modeling and linker design system for circularly permuted proteins.

Background: This work aims to help develop new protein engineering techniques based on a structural rearrangement phenomenon called circular permutation (CP), equivalent to connecting the native termini of a protein followed by creating new termini at another site. Although CP has been applied in many fields, its implementation is still costly because of inevitable trials and errors.

Results: Here we present CirPred, a structure modeling and termini linker design method for circularly permuted proteins.

A secondary structure-based position-specific scoring matrix applied to the improvement in protein secondary structure prediction.

Protein secondary structure prediction (SSP) has a variety of applications; however, there has been relatively limited improvement in accuracy for years. With a vision of moving forward all related fields, we aimed to make a fundamental advance in SSP. There have been many admirable efforts made to improve the machine learning algorithm for SSP.

Coupled nuclear-electronic decay dynamics of O inner valence excited states revealed by attosecond XUV wave-mixing spectroscopy.

Multiple Rydberg series converging to the O2+c4Σ-u state, accessed by 20-25 eV extreme ultraviolet (XUV) light, serve as important model systems for the competition between nuclear dissociation and electronic autoionization. The dynamics of the lowest member of these series, the 3sσg state around 21 eV, has been challenging to study owing to its ultra-short lifetime (<10 fs). Here, we apply transient wave-mixing spectroscopy with an attosecond XUV pulse to investigate the decay dynamics of this electronic state.

Rail-gap switch with a multistep high-voltage triggering system.

A rail-gap switch with a multistep triggering system was developed. The rail-gap switch consisted of two rail-like electrodes and a knife-edge electrode parallel to each other. It was assembled from many pieces and filled with unpressurized-flowing dry air.

A multi-targeting strategy to ameliorate high-fat-diet- and fructose-induced (western diet-induced) non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) with supplementation of a mixture of legume ethanol extracts.

NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease) is a multifactorial liver disease related to multiple causes or unhealthy conditions, including obesity and chronic inflammation. The accumulation of excess triglycerides, called steatosis, is known as a hallmark of an imbalance between the rates of hepatic fatty acid uptake/synthesis and oxidation/export. Furthermore, occurrence of NAFLD may lead to a cocktail of disease consequences caused by the altered metabolism of glucose, lipids, and lipoproteins, for instance, insulin resistance, type II diabetes, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), liver fibrosis, and even hepatocarcinogenesis.

Targeted photoresponsive carbazole-coumarin and drug conjugates for efficient combination therapy in leukemia cancer cells.

Phototriggered drug delivery systems (PTDDSs) facilitate controlled delivery of drugs loaded on photoactive platform to the target region under light stimulation. The present study investigated the synthesis and efficacy of carbazole-coumarin (CC)-fused heterocycles as a PTDDS platform for the photocontrolled release of a chemotherapeutic agent, chlorambucil, in an in vitro model of human breast and leukemia cancer cells. CC-fused heterocycles were constructed using 4-hydroxycarbazole as the starting material, and further modification of these heterocycles yielded two CC derivatives.

The Making of a Flight Feather: Bio-architectural Principles and Adaptation.

The evolution of flight in feathered dinosaurs and early birds over millions of years required flight feathers whose architecture features hierarchical branches. While barb-based feather forms were investigated, feather shafts and vanes are understudied. Here, we take a multi-disciplinary approach to study their molecular control and bio-architectural organizations.

Triplet vs πσ state mediated N-H dissociation of aniline.

UV-excited aromatic molecules with N-H/O-H moieties often possess an important nonradiative relaxation pathway, from an optically bright ππ state to a dark dissociative πσ state. We apply a new time-selected photofragment translational spectroscopy method to disclose a previously unknown triplet-mediated N-H dissociation of aniline prevented by the multiphoton dissociative ionization in conventional methods. We further determined the branching fractions of aniline dissociated in the πσ, triplet, and ground states at 248 nm.

Characteristic Distance of Resonance Energy Transfer Coupled with Surface Plasmon Polaritons.

We investigate resonance energy transfer (RET) between a donor-acceptor pair above a gold surface (including bulk and thin-film systems) and explore the distance/frequency dependence of RET enhancements using the theory we developed previously. The mechanism of RET above a gold surface can be attributed to the effects of mirror dipoles, surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs), and retardation. To clarify these effects on RET, we analyze the enhancements of RET by the mirror method, the decomposition of s- and p-polarization, and the SPP dispersion of charge-symmetric and charge-antisymmetric modes.

Excited-state dissociation dynamics of phenol studied by a new time-resolved technique.

Phenol is an important model molecule for the theoretical and experimental investigation of dissociation in the multistate potential energy surfaces. Recent theoretical calculations [X. Xu et al.

MicroRNA-29a mitigation of toll-like receptor 2 and 4 signaling and alleviation of obstructive jaundice-induced fibrosis in mice.

Cholestasis and hepatitis can cause continuous liver damage that may ultimately result in liver fibrosis. In a previous study, we demonstrated that microRNA-29a (miR-29a) protects against liver fibrosis. Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) and TLR4 are pattern recognition receptors of bacterial lipoprotein and lipopolysaccharide, both of which participate in activating hepatic stellate cells and liver fibrosis.

Controlling Ligand Spacing on Surface: Polyproline-Based Fluorous Microarray as a Tool in Spatial Specificity Analysis and Inhibitor Development for Carbohydrate-Protein Interactions.

Multivalent carbohydrate-protein interactions are essential for many biological processes. Convenient characterization for multivalent binding property of proteins will aid the development of molecules to manipulate these processes. We exploited the polyproline helix II (PPII) structure as molecular scaffolds to adjust the distances between glycan ligand attachment sites at 9, 18, and 27 Å on a peptide scaffold.

MicroRNA-29a mitigation of endoplasmic reticulum and autophagy aberrance counteracts in obstructive jaundice-induced fibrosis in mice.

Hepatic fibrosis was caused by a number of signaling pathways that damage liver integrity. We have previously shown that microRNA-29a (miR-29a) protects against liver fibrosis. Aberrant endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and autophagy function reportedly exaggerate hepatic disorders.

Advantage of spatial map ion imaging in the study of large molecule photodissociation.

The original ion imaging technique has low velocity resolution, and currently, photodissociation is mostly investigated using velocity map ion imaging. However, separating signals from the background (resulting from undissociated excited parent molecules) is difficult when velocity map ion imaging is used for the photodissociation of large molecules (number of atoms ≥ 10). In this study, we used the photodissociation of phenol at the S band origin as an example to demonstrate how our multimass ion imaging technique, based on modified spatial map ion imaging, can overcome this difficulty.

Hyaluronan regulates cell behavior: a potential niche matrix for stem cells.

Hyaluronan is a linear glycosaminoglycan that has received special attention in the last few decades due to its extraordinary physiological functions. This highly viscous polysaccharide is not only a lubricator, but also a significant regulator of cellular behaviors during embryogenesis, morphogenesis, migration, proliferation, and drug resistance in many cell types, including stem cells. Most hyaluronan functions require binding to its cellular receptors CD44, LYVE-1, HARE, layilin, and RHAMM.