Harnessing Bacterial Agents to Modulate the Tumor Microenvironment and Enhance Cancer Immunotherapy.

Cancer immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment by leveraging the immune system to attack tumors. However, its effectiveness is often hindered by the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME), where a complex interplay of tumor, stromal, and immune cells undermines antitumor responses and allows tumors to evade immune detection. This review explores innovative strategies to modify the TME and enhance immunotherapy outcomes, focusing on the therapeutic potential of engineered bacteria.

A Rapid-Patterning 3D Vessel-on-Chip for Imaging and Quantitatively Analyzing Cell-Cell Junction Phenotypes.

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a dynamic interface that regulates the molecular exchanges between the brain and peripheral blood. The permeability of the BBB is primarily regulated by the junction proteins on the brain endothelial cells. In vitro BBB models have shown great potential for the investigation of the mechanisms of physiological function, pathologies, and drug delivery in the brain.

Matrix stiffness regulates the tight junction phenotypes and local barrier properties in tricellular regions in an iPSC-derived BBB model.

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) can respond to various mechanical cues such as shear stress and substrate stiffness. In the human brain, the compromised barrier function of the BBB is closely associated with a series of neurological disorders that are often also accompanied by the alteration of brain stiffness. In many types of peripheral vasculature, higher matrix stiffness decreases barrier function of endothelial cells through mechanotransduction pathways that alter cell-cell junction integrity.

The neurology of space flight; How does space flight effect the human nervous system?

Rationale And Hypothesis: Advancements in technology, human adaptability, and funding have increased space exploration and in turn commercial spaceflight. Corporations such as Space X and Blue Origin are exploring methods to make space tourism possible. This could lead to an increase in the number of patients presenting with neurological diseases associated with spaceflight.

Learning Chemistry of Complex Reaction Systems via a Python First-Principles Reaction Rule Stencil (pReSt) Generator.

Complex reaction networks can be generated with automated network generators from initial reactants and reaction rules. Reaction rule specification is central to network generation. These reaction rules are, at present, user-defined based on (intuitive) expert knowledge of chemistry and are often transferred from gas-phase to surface processes.

Intersecting roles of ER stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, autophagy, and calcium homeostasis in HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder.

HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND) is a collective term describing the spectrum of neurocognitive deficits that arise from HIV infection. Although the introduction to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has prolonged the lifespan of HIV patients, neurocognitive impairments remain prevalent, as patients are left perpetually with HIV. Currently, physicians face a challenge in treating HAND patients, so a greater understanding of the mechanisms underlying HAND pathology has been a growing focus in HIV research.

An integrated platform for mucin-type O-glycosylation network generation and visualization.

Mucin-type O-glycans have profound effects on the structure and stability of glycoproteins. O-Glycans on the cell surface proteins also modulate the cell's interactions with the surrounding environments and other cells. The synthetic pathway of O-glycans involves a large number of enzymes with diverse substrate specificity.

Automated network generation and analysis of biochemical reaction pathways using RING.

This paper describes how Rule Input Network Generator (RING), a network generation computational tool, can be adopted to generate a variety of complex biochemical reaction networks. The reaction language incorporated in RING allows representation of chemical compounds in biological systems with various structural complexity. Complex molecules such as oligosaccharides in glycosylation pathways can be described using a simplified representation of their monosaccharide building blocks and glycosidic bonds.