Association between Preexisting Sleep Disorders and Oncologic Outcome in Patients with Oral Cavity Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Nationwide Propensity Score-Matched Population-Based Cohort Study.

Purpose: To investigate the effects of preexisting sleep disorders on the oncologic outcomes of patients receiving standard treatments for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Methods: The patients recruited from the Taiwan Cancer Registry Database who had received surgery for stage I−IVB OSCC. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to analyze all-cause mortality, locoregional recurrence (LRR), and distant metastasis (DM).

Emerging biomaterials for downstream manufacturing of therapeutic proteins.

Downstream processing is considered one of the most challenging phases of industrial manufacturing of therapeutic proteins, accounting for a large portion of the total production costs. The growing demand for therapeutic proteins in the biopharmaceutical market in addition to a significant rise in upstream titers have placed an increasing burden on the downstream purification process, which is often limited by high cost and insufficient capacities. To achieve efficient production and reduced costs, a variety of biomaterials have been exploited to improve the current techniques and also to develop superior alternatives.

Diagnosis of immunomarkers in vivo via multiplexed surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy with gold nanostars.

In this work, we demonstrate the targeted diagnosis of immunomarker programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) and simultaneous detection of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in breast cancer tumors in vivo using gold nanostars (AuNS) with multiplexed surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). Real-time longitudinal tracking with SERS demonstrated maximum accumulation of AuNS occurred 6 h post intravenous (IV) delivery, enabling detection of both biomarkers simultaneously. Raman signal correlating to both PD-L1 and EGFR decreased by ∼30% in control tumors where receptors were pre-blocked prior to AuNS delivery, indicating both the sensitivity and specificity of SERS in distinguishing tumors with different levels of PD-L1 and EGFR expression.

Bioinspired supramolecular engineering of self-assembling immunofibers for high affinity binding of immunoglobulin G.

Many one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures are constructed by self-assembly of peptides or peptide conjugates containing a short β-sheet sequence as the core building motif essential for the intermolecular hydrogen bonding that promotes directional, anisotropic growth of the resultant assemblies. While this molecular engineering strategy has led to the successful production of a plethora of bioactive filamentous β-sheet assemblies for interfacing with biomolecules and cells, concerns associated with effective presentation of α-helical epitopes and their function preservation have yet to be resolved. In this context, we report on the direct conjugation of the protein A mimicking peptide Z33, a motif containing two α-helices, to linear hydrocarbons to create self-assembling immuno-amphiphiles (IAs).

Conformation Preservation of α-Helical Peptides within Supramolecular Filamentous Assemblies.

Hydrogen-bonded β-sheets are the most commonly explored building motifs for creating peptide-based filamentous nanostructures; however, most bioactive epitopes must assume an α-helix conformation to exert their functions. Incorporating α-helical sequences into β-sheet-forming peptides often involves the use of a flexible spacer to alleviate the steric impact of the intermolecular hydrogen bonding on the α-helical conformation. In this context, we report our findings on the alkylation-regulated conformation preservation of α-helical peptides within their filamentous assemblies.