Heterologous Expression of a Novel CH Zinc Finger Gene, , Improved Salt Tolerance in Arabidopsis.

Growing evidence indicates that some grass species are more tolerant to various abiotic and biotic stresses than many crops. Zinc finger proteins play important roles in plant abiotic and biotic stresses. Although genes coding for these proteins have been cloned and identified in various plants, their function and underlying transcriptional mechanisms in the halophyte are barely known.

Red Blood Cell Aggregation-Associated Dietary Pattern Predicts Hyperlipidemia and Metabolic Syndrome.

Red blood cell (RBC) aggregation and iron status are interrelated and strongly influenced by dietary factors, and their alterations pose a great risk of dyslipidemia and metabolic syndrome (MetS). Currently, RBC aggregation-related dietary patterns remain unclear. This study investigated the dietary patterns that were associated with RBC aggregation and their predictive effects on hyperlipidemia and MetS.

Uniform sensing layer of immiscible enzyme-mediator compounds developed via a spray aerosol mixing technique towards low cost minimally invasive microneedle continuous glucose monitoring devices.

In this study, a uniformly mixed sensing layer of typically immiscible compounds, such as tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) mediator and glucose oxidase (GOx) enzyme, was developed using a simultaneous spray deposition technique ideal for mass production of glucose sensors at low cost while exhibiting enhanced amperometric response. For comparison, the sensors were fabricated via three different methods: conventional drop-cast of TTF and GOx compounds in subsequent layers (DL), spray deposition of the compounds in subsequent layers (SL), and spray mixing of the compounds as one uniform layer (SM). Uniformity of the sensing layers was investigated via Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDX) techniques demonstrating an even distribution of the TTF and GOx throughout the sensing layer for the SM sensors.

Delivery of Fluorescent Probes Using Streptolysin O for Fluorescence Microscopy of Living Cells.

Methods to efficiently deliver fluorophores across the cell membrane are crucial for imaging the dynamics of intracellular proteins using fluorescence. Here we describe a simple protocol for permeabilizing living cells using streptolysin O, a bacterial toxin, which allows transient uptake of fluorescent probes for labeling specific intracellular proteins. The technique is applicable for delivering different classes of fluorescent probes with a molecular weight of <150 kDa, and it is also applicable to a variety of different cell lines.

Associations of body condition score with health conditions related to overweight and obesity in cats.

Objectives: To explore the associations of cat body condition score with various health conditions, such as diabetes mellitus, dermatological conditions and hypertension, that have been shown to relate to overweight and/or obesity in cats, dogs or humans.

Materials And Methods: Electronic patient records between January 3, 2005 and June 21, 2015 were obtained from a cat-focused primary accession clinic in metropolitan Sydney where the body condition score of cats was routinely evaluated. Binomial logistic regression modelling was conducted to investigate the associations, after adjusting for age, sex and breed, between 21 health conditions and body condition score recorded on a 9-point scale.

Supramolecular Polymer-Based Fluorescent Microfibers for Switchable Optical Waveguides.

We report the switchable optical waveguide microfibers based on fluorescent supramolecular polymer for the first time. The pillar[5]arene-based supramolecular polymeric microfibers were prepared easily from the viscous solution of bispillar[5]arene host (bisP5A) and diphenylanthracene-derived guest (GD). The resulting microfibers  act as an active optical waveguide material with long propagation distance (400 μm) and low optical propagation loss (0.

Electrochemical Biosensing of Algal Toxins in Water: The Current State-of-the-Art.

Due to increasing stringency of water legislation and extreme consequences that failure to detect some contaminants in water can involve, there has been a strong interest in developing electrochemical biosensors for algal toxin detection during the past decade, evidenced by literature increasing from 2 journal papers pre-2009 to 24 between 2009 and 2018. In this context, this review has summarized recent progress of successful algal toxin detection in water using electrochemical biosensing techniques. Satisfactory detection recoveries using real environmental water samples and good sensor repeatability and reproducibility have been achieved, along with some excellent limit-of-detection (LOD) reported.

Clonal analysis of Salmonella-specific effector T cells reveals serovar-specific and cross-reactive T cell responses.

To tackle the complexity of cross-reactive and pathogen-specific T cell responses against related Salmonella serovars, we used mass cytometry, unbiased single-cell cloning, live fluorescence barcoding, and T cell-receptor sequencing to reconstruct the Salmonella-specific repertoire of circulating effector CD4 T cells, isolated from volunteers challenged with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi) or Salmonella Paratyphi A (S. Paratyphi).

Interesterified palm olein lowers postprandial glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide response in type 2 diabetes.

Purpose: We aim to investigate the postprandial effects of palm olein (PO) and chemically interesterified palm olein (IPO) with different proportions of palmitic acid at the sn-2 position using high oleic sunflower oil (HOS) as control fat on concentrations of gut hormones, glucose homeostasis, satiety, lipid and inflammatory parameters in type 2 diabetic (T2D) subjects.

Methods: Using a randomised double-blind crossover design, 21 (men = 6, women = 15) T2D subjects consumed test meals (3.65 MJ) consisting of a high fat muffin (containing 50 g test fats provided as PO, IPO or HOS) and a milkshake.

Bystander CD8 T cells are abundant and phenotypically distinct in human tumour infiltrates.

Various forms of immunotherapy, such as checkpoint blockade immunotherapy, are proving to be effective at restoring T cell-mediated immune responses that can lead to marked and sustained clinical responses, but only in some patients and cancer types. Patients and tumours may respond unpredictably to immunotherapy partly owing to heterogeneity of the immune composition and phenotypic profiles of tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) within individual tumours and between patients. Although there is evidence that tumour-mutation-derived neoantigen-specific T cells play a role in tumour control, in most cases the antigen specificities of phenotypically diverse tumour-infiltrating T cells are largely unknown.

One Leader's Journey Toward Empanelment.

Empanelment is an important step toward managing population health. Achieving empanelment in a fee-for-service world necessitates organizational support for panel size measurement and creativity regarding use of panel size to inform access decisions. Empanelment efforts and access must be balanced to create sustainable, high-quality care models and to improve practitioner and patient experiences.

Optimization of Microwave-assisted Extraction of Silymarin from Straws by Response Surface Methodology and Quantification by High-Performance Liquid Chromatograph Method.

Background: , a member of the Aster family, is a well-known Chinese herb and the source of a popular antioxidant that is extensively used in Asia. The abundant straws are still underutilized and wastefully discarded to pollute the environment.

Objective: To solve the above problem and better utilize straws, the objective of this study was to optimize the conditions for extraction of silymarin from straws.

The impact of ischemia-reperfusion injuries on skin resident murine dendritic cells.

Pressure ulcers are a chronic problem for patients or the elderly who require extended periods of bed rest. The formation of ulcers is due to repeated cycles of ischemia-reperfusion (IR), which initiates an inflammatory response. Advanced ulcers disrupt the skin barrier, resulting in further complications.

Developmental Analysis of Bone Marrow Neutrophils Reveals Populations Specialized in Expansion, Trafficking, and Effector Functions.

Neutrophils are specialized innate cells that require constant replenishment from proliferative bone marrow (BM) precursors as a result of their short half-life. Although it is established that neutrophils are derived from the granulocyte-macrophage progenitor (GMP), the differentiation pathways from GMP to functional mature neutrophils are poorly defined. Using mass cytometry (CyTOF) and cell-cycle-based analysis, we identified three neutrophil subsets within the BM: a committed proliferative neutrophil precursor (preNeu) which differentiates into non-proliferating immature neutrophils and mature neutrophils.

A hedgehog pathway-dependent gene signature is associated with poor clinical outcomes in Luminal A breast cancer.

Purpose: High expression of glioma-associated oncogene homolog-1 (GLI1) is associated with poor prognosis in estrogen receptor (ER) positive breast cancers. We sought to define a GLI1-dependent gene signature in ER-positive tumors that could further stratify patients at higher risk for disease recurrence and potentially lead to novel combination therapies.

Methods: We identified an inverse correlation between GLI1 expression and distant disease-free survival (DFS) using a dataset developed at MD Anderson Cancer Center (Hatzis dataset) containing clinical data from 508 breast cancer patients.

Strong associations of nine-point body condition scoring with survival and lifespan in cats.

Objectives: The objective of the study was to investigate the associations of a nine-point body condition score (BCS) with survival time and lifespan in cats.

Methods: Electronic patient records from a cat-dominant primary practice in metropolitan Sydney, Australia, where the body condition of cats was regularly recorded using a nine-point BCS scale were obtained. The maximum BCS of each cat during the visits was used as the primary exposure variable.

A Novel Neuroprotective Mechanism for Lithium That Prevents Association of the p75-Sortilin Receptor Complex and Attenuates proNGF-Induced Neuronal Death and .

Neurotrophins play critical roles in the survival, maintenance and death of neurons. In particular, proneurotrophins have been shown to mediate cell death following brain injury induced by status epilepticus (SE) in rats. Previous studies have shown that pilocarpine-induced seizures lead to increased levels of proNGF, which binds to the p75-sortilin receptor complex to elicit apoptosis.

MAIT cell clonal expansion and TCR repertoire shaping in human volunteers challenged with Salmonella Paratyphi A.

Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are innate-like T cells that can detect bacteria-derived metabolites presented on MR1. Here we show, using a controlled infection of humans with live Salmonella enterica serovar Paratyphi A, that MAIT cells are activated during infection, an effect maintained even after antibiotic treatment. At the peak of infection MAIT cell T-cell receptor (TCR)β clonotypes that are over-represented prior to infection transiently contract.

CerR, a Single-Domain Regulatory Protein of the LuxR Family, Promotes Cerecidin Production and Immunity in Bacillus cereus.

Cerecidins are small lantibiotics from that were obtained using a semi- biosynthesis strategy and showed prominent antimicrobial activities against certain Gram-positive bacteria. However, the parental strain As 1.1846 is incapable of producing cerecidins, most probably due to the transcriptional repression of the cerecidin gene cluster.

Reprograming of Glucose Metabolism by Zerumbone Suppresses Hepatocarcinogenesis.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most prevalent and highly aggressive liver malignancy with limited therapeutic options. Here, the therapeutic potential of zerumbone, a sesquiterpene derived from the ginger plant , against HCC was explored. Zerumbone inhibited proliferation and clonogenic survival of HCC cells in a dose-dependent manner by arresting cells at the G-M phase and inducing apoptosis.

Yimu San improves obstetric ability of pregnant mice by increasing serum oxytocin levels and connexin 43 expression in uterine smooth muscle.

Prolonged farrowing remains one of the critical challenges in intensive pig farming. This study aims to explore the effects and mechanism of Yimu San (YMS), a Chinese veterinary medicine micro mist, on delivery ability with mouse models. Thirty-two pregnant mice were randomly divided into a control group and low-YMS, med-YMS, and high-YMS groups.

miRNA-122 Protects Mice and Human Hepatocytes from Acetaminophen Toxicity by Regulating Cytochrome P450 Family 1 Subfamily A Member 2 and Family 2 Subfamily E Member 1 Expression.

Acetaminophen toxicity is a leading cause of acute liver failure (ALF). We found that miRNA-122 (miR-122) is down-regulated in liver biopsy specimens of patients with ALF and in acetaminophen-treated mice. A marked decrease in the primary miR-122 expression occurs in mice on acetaminophen overdose because of suppression of its key transactivators, hepatocyte nuclear factor (HNF)-4α and HNF6.

Medication adherence, medical record accuracy, and medication exposure in real-world patients using comprehensive medication monitoring.

Background: Poor adherence to medication regimens and medical record inconsistencies result in incomplete knowledge of medication therapy in polypharmacy patients. By quantitatively identifying medications in the blood of patients and reconciling detected medications with the medical record, we have defined the severity of this knowledge gap and created a path toward optimizing medication therapy.

Methods And Findings: We validated a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry assay to detect and/or quantify 38 medications across a broad range of chronic diseases to obtain a comprehensive survey of patient adherence, medical record accuracy, and exposure variability in two patient populations.