On-site detection of OTA and AFB1 based on branched hybridization chain reaction coupled with lateral flow assay.

Mycotoxins are widely prevalent in various agricultural commodities, whose excessive consumption can pose significant risks to human health. In this study, we developed a facile mycotoxin detection platform based on branched hybridization chain reaction coupled with lateral flow assay. Ochratoxin A/Aflatoxin B1 bind to aptamers triggering the release of initiators, which leads to bHCR amplification and forms three-dimensional dendritic DNA nanostructures.

Mitophagy Promotes Hair Regeneration by Activating Glutathione Metabolism.

Mitophagy maintains tissue homeostasis by self-eliminating defective mitochondria through autophagy. How mitophagy regulates stem cell activity during hair regeneration remains unclear. Here, we found that mitophagy promotes the proliferation of hair germ (HG) cells by regulating glutathione (GSH) metabolism.

HCR-Assisted RTF-EXPAR-Based Lateral Flow Analysis for Sensitive Detection of H1N1 Influenza Virus.

The H1N1 influenza virus is a significant pathogen responsible for seasonal influenza, and its frequent outbreaks pose substantial challenges to global public health. The present study successfully developed a lateral flow analysis platform that integrates reverse transcription-free exponential amplification reaction (RTF-EXPAR) and hybridization chain reaction (HCR) processes with functionalized quantum dots for the direct detection of H1N1 influenza virus RNA, eliminating the need for reverse transcription. The fluorescence signal on the band recorded with a smartphone can be utilized for the quantitative determination of the target.

Advancements of CRISPR technology in public health-related analysis.

Pathogens and contaminants in food and the environment present significant challenges to human health, necessitating highly sensitive and specific diagnostic methods. Traditional approaches often struggle to meet these requirements. However, the emergence of the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) system has revolutionized nucleic acid diagnostics.

A portable CRISPR-Cas12a triggered photothermal biosensor for sensitive and visual detection of Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes.

The detection of foodborne pathogens is crucial for ensuring the maintenance of food safety. In the present study, a portable CRISPR-Cas12a triggered photothermal biosensor integrating branch hybrid chain reaction (bHCR) and DNA metallization strategy for sensitive and visual detection of foodborne pathogens was proposed. The sheared probes were utilized to block the locker probes, which enabled preventing the assembly of bHCR in the absence of target bacteria, while target bacteria can activate the cleavage of sheared probes through CRISPR-Cas12a.

Research progress of microfluidics-based food safety detection.

High demands for food safety detection and analysis have been advocated with people's increasing living standards. Even though numerous analytical testing techniques have been proposed, their widespread adoption is still constrained by the high limit of detection, narrow detection ranges, and high implementation costs. Due to their advantages, such as reduced sample and reagent consumption, high sensitivity, automation, low cost, and portability, using microfluidic devices for food safety monitoring has generated significant interest.

Microfluidic-based platforms for cell-to-cell communication studies.

Intercellular communication is critical to the understanding of human health and disease progression. However, compared to traditional methods with inefficient analysis, microfluidic co-culture technologies developed for cell-cell communication research can reliably analyze crucial biological processes, such as cell signaling, and monitor dynamic intercellular interactions under reproducible physiological cell co-culture conditions. Moreover, microfluidic-based technologies can achieve precise spatial control of two cell types at the single-cell level with high throughput.

COX2-ATP Synthase Regulates Spine Follicle Size in Hedgehogs.

Skin evolves essential appendages with adaptive patterns that synergistically insulate the body from environmental insults. How similar appendages in different animals generate diversely-sized appendages remain elusive. Here we used hedgehog spine follicles and mouse hair follicles as models to investigate how similar follicles form in different sizes postnatally.

Facile prepared microfluidic chip for multiplexed digital RT-qPCR test.

The chip-based digital polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is an indispensable technique for amplifying and quantifying nucleic acids, which has been widely employed in molecular diagnostics at both fundamental and clinical levels. However, the previous designs have yet to achieve widespread application due to limitations in complex chip fabrication, pretreatment procedures, special surface properties, and low throughput. This study presents a facile digital microfluidic chip driven by centrifugal force for digital PCR analysis.

Mechanical stimuli-induced CCL2 restores adult mouse cells to regenerate hair follicles.

Aged cells have declined regenerative ability when subjected to environmental insult. Here we elucidate the mechanism by which mechanical stimulus induces hair regeneration at the microenvironmental regulation level using the hair plucking and organoid culture models. We observed that the skin cells harvested from post-plucking day 3 (PPD3) have the best self-organizing ability during skin organoid culture and have the highest hair regeneration upon transplantation.

Precisely controlled and deeply penetrated micro-nano hybrid multifunctional motors with enhanced antibacterial activity against refractory biofilm infections.

The biofilm resistance of microorganisms has severe economic and environmental implications, especially the contamination of facilities associated with human life, including medical implants, air-conditioning systems, water supply systems, and food-processing equipment, resulting in the prevalence of infectious diseases. Once bacteria form biofilms, their antibiotic resistance can increase by 10-1,000-fold, posing a great challenge to the treatment of related diseases. In order to overcome the contamination of bacterial biofilm, destroying the biofilm's matrix so as to solve the penetration depth dilemma of antibacterial agents is the most effective way.

Isotope-dilution liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for quantification of human retinol binding protein 4 in serum.

Serum retinol binding protein 4 levels play critical roles in the early diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring of diabetic kidney disease. In this paper, an liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry approach for the absolute quantification of serum RBP4 with high sensitivity and specificity was presented. Following series of procedures including denaturation, reduction, alkylation and trypsin digestion, the signature peptides of RBP4 were separated on the HPLC system by gradient elution.

Signaligner Pro: A Tool to Explore and Annotate Multi-day Raw Accelerometer Data.

Human activity recognition using wearable accelerometers can enable detection of physical activities to support novel human-computer interfaces. Many of the machine-learning-based activity recognition algorithms require multi-person, multi-day, carefully annotated training data with precisely marked start and end times of the activities of interest. To date, there is a dearth of usable tools that enable researchers to conveniently visualize and annotate multiple days of high-sampling-rate raw accelerometer data.

Posture and Physical Activity Detection: Impact of Number of Sensors and Feature Type.

Unlabelled: Studies using wearable sensors to measure posture, physical activity (PA), and sedentary behavior typically use a single sensor worn on the ankle, thigh, wrist, or hip. Although the use of single sensors may be convenient, using multiple sensors is becoming more practical as sensors miniaturize.

Purpose: We evaluated the effect of single-site versus multisite motion sensing at seven body locations (both ankles, wrists, hips, and dominant thigh) on the detection of physical behavior recognition using a machine learning algorithm.

An Open-Source Monitor-Independent Movement Summary for Accelerometer Data Processing.

Background: Physical behavior researchers using motion sensors often use acceleration summaries to visualize, clean, and interpret data. Such output is dependent on device specifications (e.g.

Investigating Health Risk Environments in Housing Programs for Young Adults: Protocol for a Geographically Explicit Ecological Momentary Assessment Study.

Background: Young adults who experience homelessness are exposed to environments that contribute to risk behavior. However, few studies have examined how access to housing may affect the health risk behaviors of young adults experiencing homelessness.

Objective: This paper describes the Log My Life study that uses an innovative, mixed-methods approach based on geographically explicit ecological momentary assessment (EMA) through cell phone technology to understand the risk environment of young adults who have either enrolled in housing programs or are currently homeless.

A Pilot Study of Perceptual-Motor Training for Peripheral Prisms.

Purpose: Peripheral prisms (p-prisms) shift peripheral portions of the visual field of one eye, providing visual field expansion for patients with hemianopia. However, patients rarely show adaption to the shift, incorrectly localizing objects viewed within the p-prisms. A pilot evaluation of a novel computerized perceptual-motor training program aiming to promote p-prism adaption was conducted.