Visual arsenic detection in environmental waters: Innovating with a naked-eye biosensor for universal application.

Arsenic contamination in environmental water sources poses a significant threat to human health, necessitating the development of sensitive and accessible detection methods. This study presents a multidimensional optimization of a bacterial biosensor for the susceptible and deoxyviolacein (DV)-based visual detection of arsenic. The research involved screening six different arsenic resistance (ars) operons and optimizing the genetic circuit to minimize background noise.

Synthetic bacteria designed using ars operons: a promising solution for arsenic biosensing and bioremediation.

The global concern over arsenic contamination in water due to its natural occurrence and human activities has led to the development of innovative solutions for its detection and remediation. Microbial metabolism and mobilization play crucial roles in the global cycle of arsenic. Many microbial arsenic-resistance systems, especially the ars operons, prevalent in bacterial plasmids and genomes, play vital roles in arsenic resistance and are utilized as templates for designing synthetic bacteria.

Pb(II)-inducible proviolacein biosynthesis enables a dual-color biosensor toward environmental lead.

With the rapid development of synthetic biology, various whole-cell biosensors have been designed as valuable biological devices for the selective and sensitive detection of toxic heavy metals in environmental water. However, most proposed biosensors are based on fluorescent and bioluminescent signals invisible to the naked eye. The development of visible pigment-based biosensors can address this issue.

Inhibition of Liver Cancer HepG2 Cell Proliferation by Enzymatically Prepared Low-molecular Citrus Pectin.

Background: Low-molecular citrus pectin (LCP) is a pectin polysaccharide with low molec-ular weight, low degree of crux, and no branching. It is obtained by degrading natural citrus pectin (CP) through physical, chemical and enzymatic methods. LCP has received considerable attention in recent years due to its potential applications in the medical and biological fields.

Elevated cerebrospinal fluid β2-microglobulin levels in patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders.

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) β2-microglobulin (β2-MG) levels elevated in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). We examined the levels of β2-MG in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from 46 patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD), in serum from 21 healthy controls (HC), in CSF from 25 disease controls with non-inflammatory neurological diseases (NIND) with normal CSF results. CSF β2-MG levels were significantly higher in patients with NMOSD than controls and with weak association with the number of white blood cells, protein and lactate levels in CSF.

Elevated cerebrospinal fluid levels of beta-2-microglobulin in patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome and their correlations with clinical features.

Backgrounds: Beta-2-microglobulin (β2-MG) levels vary in many infectious and autoimmune diseases. We investigated plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) β2-MG levels in patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and their correlations with clinical parameters.

Methods: CSF samples from 50 patients with GBS including 19 acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (AIDP), 6 acute motor axonal neuropathy (AMAN), 10 acute motor-sensory axonal neuropathy (AMSAN), 7 Miller-Fisher syndrome (MFS), and 8 unclassified patients were collected.

Increased Cerebrospinal Fluid Uric Acid Levels in Guillain-Barré Syndrome.

Uric acid (UA) is a natural scavenger for peroxynitrite and can reflect antioxidant activity and oxidative stress in several neurological disorders. Changes in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of UA have been reported in patients with multiple sclerosis and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders. The levels of UA in CSF are relatively poorly understood in patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS).

Cerebrospinal fluid lactate level in aquaporin-4 antibody positive neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders: a hint on differential diagnosis and possible immunopathogenesis.

Background: Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) and multiple sclerosis (MS) may be similar to each other in clinical features. The differential diagnosis between them remains challenging in clinical practice. This retrospective study is aimed to describe the difference of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) lactate level between aquaporin-4 antibody (AQP4-Ab) positive NMOSD and MS, to discuss the possible explanation upon immunopathogenesis and the significance in differential diagnosis.

Comparisons Between Infectious and Autoimmune Encephalitis: Clinical Signs, Biochemistry, Blood Counts, and Imaging Findings.

Objective: Infectious encephalitis (IE) and autoimmune encephalitis (AE) are symptomatically similar in clinic, however essentially different in pathogenesis. Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify specific features to distinguish the two types of encephalitis for early effective diagnosis and treatments through a comparative analysis.

Methods: Fifty-nine IE patients and 36 AE patients were enrolled.

Increased cerebrospinal fluid YKL-40 levels are associated with disease severity of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders.

Background: Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) is a severe immune-mediated inflammatory central nervous system (CNS) syndrome. YKL-40, as a new inflammatory marker, has been studied in many autoimmunity and CNS diseases. Our aim of this study was to investigate cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum YKL-40 levels in patients with NMOSD and their association with disease severity.

Correlation between serum levels of endothelin-1 and disease severity in patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders.

Aims: Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) are aquaporin-4 antibody-mediated diseases of the central nervous system. Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is an inflammatory cytokine released by vascular endothelial cells and activated astrocytes. Previous studies have reported the aberrant expressions of cytokines/chemokines in patients diagnosed with NMOSD.

Novel methods in glycomics: a 2019 update.

: Glycomics, which aims to define the glycome of a biological system to better assess the biological attributes of the glycans, has attracted increasing interest. However, the complexity and diversity of glycans present challenging barriers to glycome definition. Technological advances are major drivers in glycomics.

Laboratory Evolution of GH11 Endoxylanase Through DNA Shuffling: Effects of Distal Residue Substitution on Catalytic Activity and Active Site Architecture.

Endoxylanase with high specific activity, thermostability, and broad pH adaptability is in huge demand. The mutant library of GH11 endoxylanase was constructed via DNA shuffling by using the catalytic domain of xylanase A (BaxA) and TF xylanase A (TfxA) as parents. A total of 2,250 colonies were collected and 756 of them were sequenced.

Recombinant rice xylanase inhibitor (RIXI) expressed in Escherichia coli and its inhibitory activity on family GH11endo-xylanases.

The rice xylanase inhibitor gene, rixi, was cloned from rice genome. The open reading frame of rixi was 915 bp and encoded 304 amino acids with the theoretical molecular mass of 33.9 kDa.

Recombinant Bacillus amyloliquefaciens xylanase A expressed in Pichia pastoris and generation of xylooligosaccharides from xylans and wheat bran.

In this study, BaxA (GenBank: KM624029), which encodes the Bacillus amyloliquefaciens xylanase A (BaxA), was highly expressed in Pichia pastoris GS115 under the control of the AOX1 promoter. The recombinant xylanase, namely rePBaxA, was purified to homogeneity by using Ni-affinity resin and its molecular weight was 35.0kDa.

In-depth mapping of the mouse brain N-glycoproteome reveals widespread N-glycosylation of diverse brain proteins.

N-glycosylation is one of the most prominent and abundant posttranslational modifications of proteins. It is estimated that over 50% of mammalian proteins undergo glycosylation. However, the analysis of N-glycoproteins has been limited by the available analytical technology.

pGlyco: a pipeline for the identification of intact N-glycopeptides by using HCD- and CID-MS/MS and MS3.

Confident characterization of the microheterogeneity of protein glycosylation through identification of intact glycopeptides remains one of the toughest analytical challenges for glycoproteomics. Recently proposed mass spectrometry (MS)-based methods still have some defects such as lack of the false discovery rate (FDR) analysis for the glycan identification and lack of sufficient fragmentation information for the peptide identification. Here we proposed pGlyco, a novel pipeline for the identification of intact glycopeptides by using complementary MS techniques: 1) HCD-MS/MS followed by product-dependent CID-MS/MS was used to provide complementary fragments to identify the glycans, and a novel target-decoy method was developed to estimate the false discovery rate of the glycan identification; 2) data-dependent acquisition of MS3 for some most intense peaks of HCD-MS/MS was used to provide fragments to identify the peptide backbones.