Glutamine and serum starvation alters the ATP production, oxidative stress, and abundance of mitochondrial RNAs in extracellular vesicles produced by cancer cells.

Induction of autophagy represents an effective survival strategy for nutrient-deprived or stressed cancer cells. Autophagy contributes to the modulation of communication within the tumor microenvironment. Here, we conducted a study of the metabolic and signaling implications associated with autophagy induced by glutamine (Gln) and serum starvation and PI3K/mTOR inhibitor and autophagy inducer NVP-BEZ235 (BEZ) in the head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cell line FaDu.

Long-term zinc treatment alters the mechanical properties and metabolism of prostate cancer cells.

The failure of intracellular zinc accumulation is a key process in prostate carcinogenesis. Although prostate cancer cells can accumulate zinc after long-term exposure, chronic zinc oversupply may accelerate prostate carcinogenesis or chemoresistance. Because cancer progression is associated with energetically demanding cytoskeletal rearrangements, we investigated the effect of long-term zinc presence on biophysical parameters, ATP production, and EMT characteristics of two prostate cancer cell lines (PC-3, 22Rv1).

Assessment of retinal vein pulsation through video-ophthalmoscopy and simultaneous biosignals acquisition.

The phenomenon of retinal vein pulsation is still not a deeply understood topic in retinal hemodynamics. In this paper, we present a novel hardware solution for recording retinal video sequences and physiological signals using synchronized acquisition, we apply the photoplethysmographic principle for the semi-automatic processing of retinal video sequences and we analyse the timing of the vein collapse within the cardiac cycle using of an electrocardiographic signal (ECG). We measured the left eyes of healthy subjects and determined the phases of vein collapse within the cardiac cycle using a principle of photoplethysmography and a semi-automatic image processing approach.

Autophagy modulators influence the content of important signalling molecules in PS-positive extracellular vesicles.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are important mediators of intercellular communication in the tumour microenvironment. Many studies suggest that cancer cells release higher amounts of EVs exposing phosphatidylserine (PS) at the surface. There are lots of interconnections between EVs biogenesis and autophagy machinery.

Johann Gregor Mendel: the victory of statistics over human imagination.

In 2022, we celebrated 200 years since the birth of Johann Gregor Mendel. Although his contributions to science went unrecognized during his lifetime, Mendel not only described the principles of monogenic inheritance but also pioneered the modern way of doing science based on precise experimental data acquisition and evaluation. Novel statistical and algorithmic approaches are now at the center of scientific work, showing that work that is considered marginal in one era can become a mainstream research approach in the next era.

Pentamethinium salts suppress key metastatic processes by regulating mitochondrial function and inhibiting dihydroorotate dehydrogenase respiration.

Mitochondria generate energy and building blocks required for cellular growth and function. The notion that mitochondria are not involved in the cancer growth has been challenged in recent years together with the emerging idea of mitochondria as a promising therapeutic target for oncologic diseases. Pentamethinium salts, cyan dyes with positively charged nitrogen on the benzothiazole or indole part of the molecule, were originally designed as mitochondrial probes.

Multispectral retinal video-ophthalmoscope with fiber optic illumination.

Multispectral imaging is used in various applications including astronomy, industry and agriculture. In retinal imaging, the single-shot multispectral image stack is typically acquired and analyzed. This multispectral analysis can provide information on various structural or metabolic properties.

mRNA Subtype of Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts Significantly Affects Key Characteristics of Head and Neck Cancer Cells.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) belong among severe and highly complex malignant diseases showing a high level of heterogeneity and consequently also a variance in therapeutic response, regardless of clinical stage. Our study implies that the progression of HNSCC may be supported by cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in the tumour microenvironment (TME) and the heterogeneity of this disease may lie in the level of cooperation between CAFs and epithelial cancer cells, as communication between CAFs and epithelial cancer cells seems to be a key factor for the sustained growth of the tumour mass. In this study, we investigated how CAFs derived from tumours of different mRNA subtypes influence the proliferation of cancer cells and their metabolic and biomechanical reprogramming.

Cancer cell viscoelasticity measurement by quantitative phase and flow stress induction.

Cell viscoelastic properties are affected by the cell cycle, differentiation, and pathological processes such as malignant transformation. Therefore, evaluation of the mechanical properties of the cells proved to be an approach to obtaining information on the functional state of the cells. Most of the currently used methods for cell mechanophenotyping are limited by low robustness or the need for highly expert operation.

Incorporation of Low Concentrations of Gold Nanoparticles: Complex Effects on Radiation Response and Fate of Cancer Cells.

: In oncology research, a long-standing discussion exists about pros and cons of metal nanoparticle-enhanced radiotherapy and real mechanisms behind the tumor cell response to irradiation (IR) in presence of gold nanoparticles (GNPs). A better understanding of this response is, however, necessary to develop more efficient and safety nanoparticle (NP) types designed to disturb specific processes in tumor cells. : We combined 3D confocal microscopy and super-resolution single molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) to analyze, at the multiscale, the early and late effects of 10 nm-GNPs on DNA double strand break (DSB) induction and repair in tumor cells exposed to different doses of photonic low-LET (linear energy transfer) radiation.

DeepFoci: Deep learning-based algorithm for fast automatic analysis of DNA double-strand break ionizing radiation-induced foci.

DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), marked by ionizing radiation-induced (repair) foci (IRIFs), are the most serious DNA lesions and are dangerous to human health. IRIF quantification based on confocal microscopy represents the most sensitive and gold-standard method in radiation biodosimetry and allows research on DSB induction and repair at the molecular and single-cell levels. In this study, we introduce DeepFoci - a deep learning-based fully automatic method for IRIF counting and morphometric analysis.

Increasing the Image Contrast via Fast Fluorescence Photobleaching.

This paper focuses on the analysis of image sequences acquired during fast photobleaching using a standard wide-field microscope. We show that the photobleaching rate estimated for each pixel is not constant for the whole field of view, but it provides a new spatially variant parametric image related to the cell structure and diffusion of fluorophores. We also provide an alternative way to estimate a pixel-wise photobleaching rate with significantly less computation time than exponential model fitting.

Parametric Deconvolution for Cancer Cells Viscoelasticity Measurements from Quantitative Phase Images.

In this contribution, we focused on optimising a dynamic flow-based shear stress system to achieve a reliable platform for cell shear modulus (stiffness) and viscosity assessment using quantitative phase imaging. The estimation of cell viscoelastic properties is influenced by distortion of the shear stress waveform, which is caused by the properties of the flow system components (i.e.

Determination of Renal Distribution of Zinc, Copper, Iron, and Platinum in Mouse Kidney Using LA-ICP-MS.

The main dose-limiting side effect of cisplatin is nephrotoxicity. The utilization of cisplatin is an issue of balancing tumour toxicity versus platinum-induced nephrotoxicity. In this study, we focused on intraorgan distribution of common essential trace elements zinc, copper, and iron in healthy mouse kidneys and distribution of platinum after cisplatin treatment.

Self-supervised pretraining for transferable quantitative phase image cell segmentation.

In this paper, a novel U-Net-based method for robust adherent cell segmentation for quantitative phase microscopy image is designed and optimised. We designed and evaluated four specific post-processing pipelines. To increase the transferability to different cell types, non-deep learning transfer with adjustable parameters is used in the post-processing step.

Silicane Derivative Increases Doxorubicin Efficacy in an Ovarian Carcinoma Mouse Model: Fighting Drug Resistance.

The development of cancer resistance continues to represent a bottleneck of cancer therapy. It is one of the leading factors preventing drugs to exhibit their full therapeutic potential. Consequently, it reduces the efficacy of anticancer therapy and causes the survival rate of therapy-resistant patients to be far from satisfactory.

DNA repair in head and neck tumor cells and possibilities of its monitoring to estimate individual tumor radioresistance and selection of optimal primary treatment.

In order to maximize post-therapeutic quality of life, radio(chemo)therapy becomes preferred over surgery in head-and-neck tumor (HNT) treatment. However, the therapy selection is only based on the clinical experience and patient's preferences as the radiosensitivity markers remain unknown. New possibilities of deciding on the best primary therapy, moving us towards personalized medicine based on quantifiable biomarkers, have been opened by studies on DNA radiation damage and repair in individual patients tumors.

Broad-Spectrum Antiviral Activity of 3'-Deoxy-3'-Fluoroadenosine against Emerging Flaviviruses.

Emerging flaviviruses are causative agents of severe and life-threatening diseases, against which no approved therapies are available. Among the nucleoside analogues, which represent a promising group of potentially therapeutic compounds, fluorine-substituted nucleosides are characterized by unique structural and functional properties. Despite having first been synthesized almost 5 decades ago, they still offer new therapeutic opportunities as inhibitors of essential viral or cellular enzymes active in nucleic acid replication/transcription or nucleoside/nucleotide metabolism.

Ni and TiO nanoparticles cause adhesion and cytoskeletal changes in human osteoblasts.

Titanium-based alloys have established a crucial role in implantology. As material deteriorates overtime, nanoparticles of TiO and Ni are released. This study is focused on the impact of TiO and Ni nanoparticles with size of 100 nm on cytoskeletal and adhesive changes in human physiological and osteoarthritic osteoblasts.

The Quantitative-Phase Dynamics of Apoptosis and Lytic Cell Death.

Cell viability and cytotoxicity assays are highly important for drug screening and cytotoxicity tests of antineoplastic or other therapeutic drugs. Even though biochemical-based tests are very helpful to obtain preliminary preview, their results should be confirmed by methods based on direct cell death assessment. In this study, time-dependent changes in quantitative phase-based parameters during cell death were determined and methodology useable for rapid and label-free assessment of direct cell death was introduced.

Iterative machine learning based rotational alignment of brain 3D CT data.

The optimal rotational alignment of brain Computed Tomography (CT) images to a required standard position has a crucial importance for both automatic and manual diagnostic analysis. In this contribution, we present a novel two-step iterative approach for the automatic 3D rotational alignment of brain CT data. The angles of axial and coronal rotations are determined by an unsupervised by localisation of the Midsagittal Plane (MSP) method.

Cell segmentation methods for label-free contrast microscopy: review and comprehensive comparison.

Background: Because of its non-destructive nature, label-free imaging is an important strategy for studying biological processes. However, routine microscopic techniques like phase contrast or DIC suffer from shadow-cast artifacts making automatic segmentation challenging. The aim of this study was to compare the segmentation efficacy of published steps of segmentation work-flow (image reconstruction, foreground segmentation, cell detection (seed-point extraction) and cell (instance) segmentation) on a dataset of the same cells from multiple contrast microscopic modalities.

Cisplatin enhances cell stiffness and decreases invasiveness rate in prostate cancer cells by actin accumulation.

We focused on the biomechanical and morphological characteristics of prostate cancer cells and their changes resulting from the effect of docetaxel, cisplatin, and long-term zinc supplementation. Cell population surviving the treatment was characterized as follows: cell stiffness was assessed by atomic force microscopy, cell motility and invasion capacity were determined by colony forming assay, wound healing assay, coherence-controlled holographic microscopy, and real-time cell analysis. Cells of metastatic origin exhibited lower height than cells derived from the primary tumour.