Recent Advances in Studies of Molecular Hydrogen against Sepsis.

Sepsis is a syndrome comprised of a series of life-threatening organ dysfunctions caused by a maladjusted body response to infection with no effective treatment. Molecular hydrogen is a new type of antioxidant with strong free radical scavenging ability, which has been demonstrated to be effective for treating various diseases, such as infection, trauma, poisoning, organ ischemia-reperfusion, metabolic diseases, and tumors. Molecular hydrogen exerts multiple biological effects involving anti-inflammation, anti-oxidation, anti-apoptosis, anti-shock, and autophagy regulation, which may attenuate the organ and barrier damage caused by sepsis.

Classification of Antibacterial Peptides Using Long Short-Term Memory Recurrent Neural Networks.

Antimicrobial peptides are short amino acid sequences that may be antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral. Most machine learning methodologies applied to identifying antibacterial peptides have developed feature vectors of identical lengths for each peptide in a given dataset although the peptides themselves may differ in number of amino acids. Features are often chosen which represent certain periodic patterns in the peptide sequence without any initial guidance as to whether such patterns are relevant for the classification task at hand.

Correlation Patterns Between DNA Methylation and Gene Expression in The Cancer Genome Atlas.

Background: DNA methylation is a form of epigenetic modification that has been shown to play a significant role in gene regulation. In cancer, DNA methylation plays an important role by regulating the expression of oncogenes. The role of DNA methylation in the onset and progression of various cancer types is now being elucidated as more large-scale data become available.

A large-scale, ultrahigh-resolution nanoemitter ordered array with PL brightness enhanced by PEALD-grown AlN coating.

III-nitride solid-state microdisplays have significant advantages, including high brightness and high resolution, for the development of advanced displays, high-definition projectors, head-mounted displays, large-capacity optical communication systems, and so forth. Herein, a high-brightness InGaN/GaN multiple-quantum-well (MQW) nanoemitter array with an ultrahigh resolution of 31 750 dpi was achieved by combining a top-down fabrication with surface passivation of plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD)-grown AlN coating. With regard to the nanometer-level top-down etching, the surface damage or defects on the newly-formed sidewall play a significant role in the photoluminescence (PL) quality.

Epstein-Barr virus miR-BART3-3p promotes tumorigenesis by regulating the senescence pathway in gastric cancer.

Epstein-Barr virus-associated gastric cancer (EBVaGC) accounts for about 10% of all gastric cancer cases and has unique pathological and molecular characteristics. EBV encodes a large number of microRNAs, which actively participate in the development of EBV-related tumors. Here, we report that (BART3-3p) promotes gastric cancer cell growth and Moreover, BART3-3p inhibits the senescence of gastric cancer cells induced by an oncogene (RAS) or chemotherapy (irinotecan).

Targeting nuclear β-catenin as therapy for post-myeloproliferative neoplasm secondary AML.

Transformation of post-myeloproliferative neoplasms into secondary (s) AML exhibit poor clinical outcome. In addition to increased JAK-STAT and PI3K-AKT signaling, post-MPN sAML blast progenitor cells (BPCs) demonstrate increased nuclear β-catenin levels and TCF7L2 (TCF4) transcriptional activity. Knockdown of β-catenin or treatment with BC2059 that disrupts binding of β-catenin to TBL1X (TBL1) depleted nuclear β-catenin levels.

Quantifying the relative importance of experimental data points in parameter estimation.

Background: Ordinary differential equations (ODEs) are often used to understand biological processes. Since ODE-based models usually contain many unknown parameters, parameter estimation is an important step toward deeper understanding of the process. Parameter estimation is often formulated as a least squares optimization problem, where all experimental data points are considered as equally important.

EPH receptor A2 governs a feedback loop that activates Wnt/β-catenin signaling in gastric cancer.

The erythropoietin-producing hepatoma (EPH) receptor A2 (EphA2) belongs to the Eph family of receptor tyrosine kinases. EphA2 is highly correlated with the formation of many solid tumors and has been linked to the dysregulation of signaling pathways that promote tumor cell proliferation, migration, and invasion as well as angiogenesis. Deregulation of Wnt signaling is implicated in many forms of human disease including gastric cancer.

Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Iliofemoral Stenting for Post-thrombotic Syndrome.

Objective: Stent placements are considered as a treatment for post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS) with iliofemoral obstruction, but the application of these iliofemoral venous stents has also caused a lot of controversy. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to summarise the efficacy and safety of venous stents in PTS with obstruction in iliofemoral venous segments.

Methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Central Register for Controlled Trials databases and key references were searched up to 15 January 2018.

Beyond Autoantibodies: Biologic Roles of Human Autoreactive B Cells in Rheumatoid Arthritis Revealed by RNA-Sequencing.

Objective: To obtain the comprehensive transcriptome profile of human citrulline-specific B cells from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: Citrulline- and hemagglutinin-specific B cells were sorted by flow cytometry using peptide-streptavidin conjugates from the peripheral blood of RA patients and healthy individuals. The transcriptome profile of the sorted cells was obtained by RNA-sequencing, and expression of key protein molecules was evaluated by aptamer-based SOMAscan assay and flow cytometry.

Molecular mechanisms of EBV-driven cell cycle progression and oncogenesis.

The early stage of oncogenesis is linked to the disorder of the cell cycle. Abnormal gene expression often leads to cell cycle disorders, resulting in malignant transformation of human cells. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is associated with a diverse range of human neoplasms, such as malignant lymphoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma and gastric cancer.

Endovascular repair of type B aortic dissection with the restrictive bare stent technique: morphologic changes, technique details, and outcomes.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to present our experience and assess the morphologic changes of the descending aorta after the restrictive bare stent (RBS) technique in the treatment of type B aortic dissection (TBAD).

Patients And Methods: A retrospective study was conducted of 22 consecutive patients with TBAD who underwent RBS treatment between February 2012 and June 2016. Indications for the RBS procedure included radiological evidence of true lumen (TL) compression or collapse and/or tortuosity index (TI) of the descending aorta >1.

Microfluidic generation of transient cell volume exchange for convectively driven intracellular delivery of large macromolecules.

Efficient intracellular delivery of target macromolecules remains a major obstacle in cell engineering and other biomedical applications. We discovered a unique cell biophysical phenomenon of transient cell volume exchange by using microfluidics to rapidly and repeatedly compress cells. This behavior consists of brief, mechanically induced cell volume loss followed by rapid volume recovery.

Endovascular Repair of Anomalous Splenic Artery Aneurysm with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Splenic artery aneurysm with systemic lupus erythematosus is rare but serious. We report a case of a 45-year-old female with systemic lupus erythematosus who presented with a splenic artery aneurysm of anomalous origin from the superior mesenteric artery. This is the first time to report about using an endovascular approach to treat splenic artery aneurysm combined with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Epstein-Barr Virus MicroRNA miR-BART5-3p Inhibits p53 Expression.

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is the first human virus found to encode many microRNAs. It is etiologically linked to nasopharyngeal carcinoma and EBV-associated gastric carcinoma. During the latent infection period, there are only a few EBV proteins expressed, whereas EBV microRNAs, such as the BamHI-A region rightward transcript (BART) microRNAs, are highly expressed.

Review: the Role and Mechanisms of Macrophage Autophagy in Sepsis.

Sepsis is a systemic inflammatory response syndrome caused by infection. The core mechanism underlying sepsis is immune dysfunction, with macrophages, as important cells of the innate immune system, playing an essential role. Autophagy has been shown to be closely related to inflammation and immunity, and autophagy enhancement in sepsis can play a protective role by negatively regulating abnormal macrophage activation, modulating macrophage polarization phenotype, reducing activation of the inflammasome and release of inflammatory factors, and affecting macrophage apoptosis.

Automatically generate two-dimensional gating hierarchy from clustered cytometry data.

Cytometry is an important technique widely used in medicine and biological research. Biologists traditionally analyze single-cell cytometry data by manual gating, which can be subjective and labor intensive. To address this issue, many automated and semiautomated methods have been developed.

Electric-field driven photoluminescence probe of photoelectric conversion in InGaN-based photovoltaics.

The spatial distribution of electric field in photovoltaic multiple quantum wells (MQWs) is extremely important to dictate the mutual competition of photoelectric conversion and optical transition. Here, electric-field-driven photoluminescence (PL) in both steady-state and transient-state has been utilized to directly investigate the internal photoelectric conversion processes in InGaN-based MQW photovoltaic cell. As applying the reversed external electric field, the compensation of the quantum confined stark effect (QCSE) in InGaN QW is beneficial to help the photoabsorbed minor carriers drift out from the localized states, whereas extremely weakening the PL radiative recombination.

A High-Speed Imaging Method Based on Compressive Sensing for Sound Extraction Using a Low-Speed Camera.

This paper reports an efficient method for sound extraction from high-speed light spot videos reconstructed from the coded light spot images captured with a low-speed camera based on compressive sensing, but at the expense of consuming time. The proposed method first gets the high-speed video of the light spot that is illuminated on the vibrating target caused by sound. Then the centroid of the light spot is used to recover the sound.

Space microgravity drives transdifferentiation of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells from osteogenesis to adipogenesis.

Bone formation is linked with osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in the bone marrow. Microgravity in spaceflight is known to reduce bone formation. In this study, we used a real microgravity environment of the SJ-10 Recoverable Scientific Satellite to examine the effects of space microgravity on the osteogenic differentiation of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs).

Biophysical subsets of embryonic stem cells display distinct phenotypic and morphological signatures.

The highly proliferative and pluripotent characteristics of embryonic stem cells engender great promise for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, but the rapid identification and isolation of target cell phenotypes remains challenging. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to characterize cell mechanics as a function of differentiation and to employ differences in cell stiffness to select population subsets with distinct mechanical, morphological, and biological properties. Biomechanical analysis with atomic force microscopy revealed that embryonic stem cells stiffened within one day of differentiation induced by leukemia inhibitory factor removal, with a lagging but pronounced change from spherical to spindle-shaped cell morphology.

PEGylated Self-Assembled Nano-Bacitracin A: Probing the Antibacterial Mechanism and Real-Time Tracing of Target Delivery in Vivo.

Although nano-self-assemblies of hydrophobic-modified bacitracin A with poly(d,l-lactic- co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) (nano-BA) have demonstrated promising antibacterial activities, the application of nano-BA was severely compromised by low water solubility. In this study, a series of PEGylated PLGA copolymers were selected to conjugate with the N-terminus of bacitracin A to construct PEGylated self-assembled nano-BAs and to further develop nano-self-assemblies of bacitracin A with strong antibacterial potency and high solubility. Compared with nano-BA, all PEGylated nano-BAs, except nano-BA, exhibited strong antibacterial efficiency against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria by inducing loss of cytoplasmic membrane potential, membrane permeabilization, and leakage of calcein from artificial cell membranes.