Pseudomonas aeruginosa outer membrane vesicle-packed sRNAs can enter host cells and regulate innate immune responses.

Bacterial outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) can package and deliver virulence factors into host cells, which is an important mechanism mediating host-pathogen interactions. It has been reported that small RNAs (sRNAs) can be packed into OMVs with varying relative abundance, which might affect the function and/or stability of host mRNAs. In this study, we used OptiPrep density gradient ultra-high-speed centrifugation to purify OMVs from Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Visual metaphor of sadness in poetry comics: a socio-cognitive perspective.

Earlier literature on conceptual metaphor studies has extensively examined verbal metaphors of sadness in different text types and with cultural variations. However, there has been by far limited research on the visual metaphor of sadness. Adopting a socio-cognitive perspective, this study investigates the conceptual metaphor of sadness in the exemplary case of Chinese poetry comics drawn by Cai Zhizhong.

Research trends in multimodal metaphor: a bibliometric analysis.

The concept of multimodal metaphor has generated a growing body of literature over the past decades. However, a systemic review of the domain seems to be lacking in relevant literature. This study, therefore, is an attempt to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the field of multimodal metaphor during 1977-2022, with a focus on 397 relevant publications retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) with the visualization tool VOSviewer.

Perceiving the poetic world: A corpus-assisted transitivity analysis of poetry comics.

While modern adaptations of Chinese classics have drawn keen scholarly interests lately, the comic adaptation of Chinese traditional poetry remains under-investigated. Extending the previous research on intersemiotic translation and comics, this paper, drawing on the analytical framework of systemic functional semiotics, examines distribution of process types of language in poems in comparison with that in comic images in the exemplary case drawn by Cai Zhizhong, using UAM image as the annotation tool. The comic book formulates a multimodal corpus that consists of 1,097 clauses and 605 images.

Salmonella Induces the cGAS-STING-Dependent Type I Interferon Response in Murine Macrophages by Triggering mtDNA Release.

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium ( Typhimurium) elicited strong innate immune responses in macrophages. To activate innate immunity, pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) in host cells can recognize highly conserved pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). Here, we showed that Typhimurium induced a robust type I interferon (IFN) response in murine macrophages.

In Vivo Detection of Circulating Tumor Cells in High-Risk Non-Metastatic Prostate Cancer Patients Undergoing Radiotherapy.

High-risk non-metastatic prostate cancer (PCa) has the potential to progress into lethal disease. Treatment options are manifold but, given a lack of surrogate biomarkers, it remains unclear which treatment offers the best results. Several studies have reported circulating tumor cells (CTCs) to be a prognostic biomarker in metastatic PCa.

Target Cell Pre-enrichment and Whole Genome Amplification for Single Cell Downstream Characterization.

Rare target cells can be isolated from a high background of non-target cells using antibodies specific for surface proteins of target cells. A recently developed method uses a medical wire functionalized with anti-epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) antibodies for in vivo isolation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs). A patient-matched cohort in non-metastatic prostate cancer showed that the in vivo isolation technique resulted in a higher percentage of patients positive for CTCs as well as higher CTC counts as compared to the current gold standard in CTC enumeration.

In Situ Detection and Quantification of AR-V7, AR-FL, PSA, and Point Mutations in Circulating Tumor Cells.

Background: Liquid biopsies can be used in castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) to detect androgen receptor splice variant 7 (AR-V7), a splicing product of the androgen receptor. Patients with AR-V7-positive circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have greater benefit of taxane chemotherapy compared with novel hormonal therapies, indicating a treatment-selection biomarker. Likewise, in those with pancreatic cancer (PaCa), mutations act as prognostic biomarkers.

Multiplex Gene Expression Profiling of In Vivo Isolated Circulating Tumor Cells in High-Risk Prostate Cancer Patients.

Background: Molecular characterization of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is important for selecting patients for targeted treatments. We present, for the first time, results on gene expression profiling of CTCs isolated in vivo from high-risk prostate cancer (PCa) patients compared with CTC detected by 3 protein-based assays-CellSearch, PSA-EPISPOT, and immunofluorescence of CellCollector in vivo-captured CTCs-using the same blood draw.

Methods: EpCAM-positive CTCs were isolated in vivo using the CellCollector from 108 high-risk PCa patients and 36 healthy volunteers.

Biological and Molecular Characterization of Circulating Tumor Cells: A Creative Strategy for Precision Medicine?

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are a group of rare cells disseminated from either primary or metastatic tumors into the blood stream. CTCs are considered to be the precursor of cancer metastasis. As a critical component of liquid biopsies, CTCs are a unique tool to understand the formation of metastasis and a valuable source of information on intratumor heterogeneity.

Catch and Release: rare cell analysis from a functionalised medical wire.

Enumeration and especially molecular characterization of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) holds great promise for cancer management. We tested a modified type of an in vivo enrichment device (Catch&Release) for its ability to bind and detach cancer cells for the purpose of single-cell molecular downstream analysis in vitro. The evaluation showed that single-cell analysis using array comparative genome hybridization (array-CGH) and next generation sequencing (NGS) is feasible.

Feedback mechanisms between M2 macrophages and Th17 cells in colorectal cancer patients.

IL-17 and IL-22 are linked to the development of intestinal inflammation and colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the maintenance of IL-17 and IL-22 production, as well as the cell type (Th17) that mediates these cytokines in CRC patients, remains unknown. To examine this, untreated CRC patients and healthy controls were recruited in this study.

Low-Volume On-Chip Single-Cell Whole Genome Amplification for Multiple Subsequent Analyses.

Multiple analyses such as DNA profiling, sequencing, or comparative genome hybridization (CGH) done on the single-cell level long for pre-amplification due to the diploid human genome. Isothermal whole genome amplification allows amplification of long DNA templates from single cells. When analysis needs to be performed under rare cell conditions additional care needs to be taken due to the fact that, even after pre-enrichment, few candidate target cells are still dispersed among an overwhelming number of non-target background cells.

Using Multiplex PCR for Assessing the Quality of Whole Genome Amplified DNA.

This chapter describes a simple and inexpensive multiplex PCR-based method to assess the quality of whole genome amplification (WGA) products generated from heat-induced random fragmented DNA. A set of four primer pairs is used to amplify DNA sequences of WGA products in and downstream of GAPDH gene in yielding 100, 200, 300, and 400 bp fragments. PCR products are analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis and the respective WGA quality is classified according to the number of obtained PCR bands.

Heat-Induced Fragmentation and Adapter-Assisted Whole Genome Amplification Using GenomePlex® Single-Cell Whole Genome Amplification Kit (WGA4).

Whole genome amplification (WGA) is a widely used technique allowing multiplying picogram amounts of target DNA by several orders of magnitude. The technique described here is based on heat-induced random fragmentation yielding DNA strands mainly ranging from 0.1 to 1 kb in length.

TGF-β1 induces epigenetic silence of TIP30 to promote tumor metastasis in esophageal carcinoma.

TGF-β1, a potent EMT (epithelial-mesenchymal transition) inducer present in the tumor microenvironment, is involved in the metastasis and progression of various carcinomas, including esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). TIP30 (30kDa HIV-1 Tat interacting protein) is a putative tumor metastasis suppressor. Here, we found TIP30 was decreased in cells undergoing EMT induced by TGF-β1, an occurrence that was related to promoter hypermethylation.

Subtyping animal influenza virus with general multiplex RT-PCR and Liquichip high throughput (GMPLex).

This study developed a multiplex RT-PCR integrated with luminex technology to rapidly subtype simultaneously multiple influenza viruses. Primers and probes were designed to amplify NS and M genes of influenza A viruses HA gene of H1, H3, H5, H7, H9 subtypes, and NA gene of the N1 and N2 subtypes. Universal super primers were introduced to establish a multiplex RT-PCR (GM RT-PCR).

[Multiplex fluorescent real-time PCR detection of bovine, goat and sheep derived materials in animal products].

We designed the specific primers and TaqMan probes targeting cytochrome b genes of mitochondrial DNA from bovine, goat and sheep. We used different fluorescents to label the probes. After optimization of reaction conditions, we set up a multiplex fluorescent real-time PCR method to detect bovine, goat and sheep derived materials, simultaneously.