Stem cells as potential therapeutics for hearing loss.

Hearing impairment is a global health problem. Stem cell therapy has become a cutting-edge approach to tissue regeneration. In this review, the recent advances in stem cell therapy for hearing loss have been discussed.

Multi-Party Quantum Private Comparison Based on Bell States.

Multi-party quantum private comparison (MQPC) assumes responsibility for overseeing the flow of data and communication among diverse entities, wherein it boasts powerful security capabilities that have garnered substantial attention. Most current MQPC protocols rely on difficult-to-prepare quantum states and are inefficient in their use of resources. In this paper, we propose a novel MQPC protocol without entanglement swapping, thereby building upon the assumption of an ideal channel.

Coding and Noncoding RNA Expression Profiles of Spleen CD4 T Lymphocytes in Mice with Echinococcosis.

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a severe and neglected zoonotic disease that poses health and socioeconomic hazards. So far, the prevention and treatment of CE are far from meeting people's ideal expectations. Therefore, to gain insight into the prevention and diagnosis of CE, we explored the changes in RNA molecules and the biological processes and pathways involved in these RNA molecules as infects the host.

Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles and Static Magnetic Field Regulate Neural Stem Cell Proliferation.

Neural stem cells (NSCs) transplantation is a promising approach for the treatment of various neurodegenerative diseases. Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIOs) are reported to modulate stem cell behaviors and are used for medical imaging. However, the detailed effects of SPIOs under the presence of static magnetic field (SMF) on NSCs are not well elucidated.

Two entry tunnels in mouse TAAR9 suggest the possibility of multi-entry tunnels in olfactory receptors.

Orthosteric binding sites of olfactory receptors have been well understood for ligand-receptor interactions. However, a lack of explanation for subtle differences in ligand profile of olfactory receptors even with similar orthosteric binding sites promotes more exploration into the entry tunnels of the receptors. An important question regarding entry tunnels is the number of entry tunnels, which was previously believed to be one.

Evolution of Brain-Expressed Biogenic Amine Receptors into Olfactory Trace Amine-Associated Receptors.

The family of trace amine-associated receptors (TAARs) is distantly related to G protein-coupled biogenic aminergic receptors. TAARs are found in the brain as well as in the olfactory epithelium where they detect biogenic amines. However, the functional relationship of receptors from distinct TAAR subfamilies and in different species is still uncertain.

Autophagy Regulates the Survival of Hair Cells and Spiral Ganglion Neurons in Cases of Noise, Ototoxic Drug, and Age-Induced Sensorineural Hearing Loss.

Inner ear hair cells (HCs) and spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) are the core components of the auditory system. However, they are vulnerable to genetic defects, noise exposure, ototoxic drugs and aging, and loss or damage of HCs and SGNs results in permanent hearing loss due to their limited capacity for spontaneous regeneration in mammals. Many efforts have been made to combat hearing loss including cochlear implants, HC regeneration, gene therapy, and antioxidant drugs.

Convergent olfactory trace amine-associated receptors detect biogenic polyamines with distinct motifs via a conserved binding site.

Biogenic amines activate G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) in the central nervous system in vertebrate animals. Several biogenic amines, when excreted, stimulate trace amine-associated receptors (TAARs), a group of GPCRs in the main olfactory epithelium, and elicit innate behaviors. How TAARs recognize amines with varying numbers of amino groups is largely unknown.

Knockdown of Foxg1 in supporting cells increases the trans-differentiation of supporting cells into hair cells in the neonatal mouse cochlea.

Foxg1 is one of the forkhead box genes that are involved in morphogenesis, cell fate determination, and proliferation, and Foxg1 was previously reported to be required for morphogenesis of the mammalian inner ear. However, Foxg1 knock-out mice die at birth, and thus the role of Foxg1 in regulating hair cell (HC) regeneration after birth remains unclear. Here we used Sox2 Foxg1 mice and Lgr5-EGFP Foxg1 mice to conditionally knock down Foxg1 specifically in Sox2+ SCs and Lgr5+ progenitors, respectively, in neonatal mice.

Frizzled-9+ Supporting Cells Are Progenitors for the Generation of Hair Cells in the Postnatal Mouse Cochlea.

Lgr5+ cochlear supporting cells (SCs) have been reported to be hair cell (HC) progenitor cells that have the ability to regenerate HCs in the neonatal mouse cochlea, and these cells are regulated by Wnt signaling. Frizzled-9 (Fzd9), one of the Wnt receptors, has been reported to be used to mark neuronal stem cells in the brain together with other markers and mesenchymal stem cells from human placenta and bone marrow. Here we used Fzd9-CreER mice to lineage label and trace Fzd9+ cells in the postnatal cochlea in order to investigate the progenitor characteristic of Fzd9+ cells.

The role of FOXG1 in the postnatal development and survival of mouse cochlear hair cells.

The development of therapeutic interventions for hearing loss requires a detailed understanding of the genes and proteins involved in hearing. The FOXG1 protein plays an important role in early neural development and in a variety of neurodevelopmental disorders. Previous studies have shown that there are severe deformities in the inner ear in Foxg1 knockout mice, but due to the postnatal lethality of Foxg1 knockout mice, the role of FOXG1 in hair cell (HC) development and survival during the postnatal period has not been investigated.

Autophagy protects auditory hair cells against neomycin-induced damage.

Aminoglycosides are toxic to sensory hair cells (HCs). Macroautophagy/autophagy is an essential and highly conserved self-digestion pathway that plays important roles in the maintenance of cellular function and viability under stress. However, the role of autophagy in aminoglycoside-induced HC injury is unknown.

Characterization of Lgr5+ Progenitor Cell Transcriptomes after Neomycin Injury in the Neonatal Mouse Cochlea.

Lgr5+ supporting cells (SCs) are enriched hair cell (HC) progenitors in the cochlea. Both and studies have shown that HC injury can spontaneously activate Lgr5+ progenitors to regenerate HCs in the neonatal mouse cochlea. Promoting HC regeneration requires the understanding of the mechanism of HC regeneration, and this requires knowledge of the key genes involved in HC injury-induced self-repair responses that promote the proliferation and differentiation of Lgr5+ progenitors.

Co-expression of the Arabidopsis SOS genes enhances salt tolerance in transgenic tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.).

Crop productivity is greatly affected by soil salinity; therefore, improvement in salinity tolerance of crops is a major goal in salt-tolerant breeding. The Salt Overly Sensitive (SOS) signal-transduction pathway plays a key role in ion homeostasis and salt tolerance in plants. Here, we report that overexpression of Arabidopsis thaliana SOS1+SOS2+SOS3 genes enhanced salt tolerance in tall fescue.