Self-assembled aptamer nanoparticles for enhanced recognition and anticancer therapy through a lysosome-independent pathway.

Aptamers and aptamer-drug conjugates (ApDCs) have shown some success as targeted therapies in cancer theranostics. However, their stability in complex media and their capacity to evade lysosomal breakdown still need improvement. To address these challenges, we herein developed a one-step self-assembly strategy to improve the stability of aptamers or ApDCs, while simultaneously enhancing their delivery performance and therapeutic efficiency through a lysosome-independent pathway.

Efficacy and safety of gut microbiome-targeted treatment in patients with depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: The study aimed to comprehensively analyze and establish a framework for evaluating the efficacy of microbiome-targeted treatment (MTT) for depression.

Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure database for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on MTT in treating depression until October 19, 2023. A meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of MTT.

Continual learning in the presence of repetition.

Continual learning (CL) provides a framework for training models in ever-evolving environments. Although re-occurrence of previously seen objects or tasks is common in real-world problems, the concept of repetition in the data stream is not often considered in standard benchmarks for CL. Unlike with the rehearsal mechanism in buffer-based strategies, where sample repetition is controlled by the strategy, repetition in the data stream naturally stems from the environment.

Toward 95.5% Efficient Red Emissive Carbon Dots: Oxidation State Enhancing Radiative Electron-Transition of Indole Fluorophore.

Red fluorescence carbon dots (CDs) are promising for diverse applications and have attracted tremendous research interest. However, it is still challenging to achieve red fluorescence CDs with high fluorescence quantum yields (QYs > 50%). Herein, three kinds of red fluorescence CDs with QYs of 53.

Apelin-13 reverses bupivacaine-induced cardiotoxicity: an experimental study.

Introduction: Cardiac arrest or arrhythmia caused by bupivacaine may be refractory to treatment. Apelin has been reported to directly increase the frequency of spontaneous activation and the propagation of action potentials, ultimately promoting cardiac contractility. This study aimed to investigate the effects of apelin-13 in reversing cardiac suppression induced by bupivacaine in rats.

Optimized multiple-attribute group decision-making through employing probabilistic hesitant fuzzy TODIM and EDAS technique and application to teaching quality evaluation of international Chinese course in higher vocational colleges.

With the construction and development of the "the Belt and Road", the international community has an increasing demand for high-quality technical and skilled talents who both understand Chinese and have an international perspective. Exploring a Chinese curriculum system suitable for the development of international students is conducive to promoting the international development of vocational education, improving the quality of international student training, providing talent support for Chinese and foreign enterprises, and promoting the "going out" of Chinese enterprises and international production capacity cooperation. The training of international students in higher vocational colleges starts late, has little experience, lacks theoretical innovation, and lacks the development characteristics of vocational education.

A Comprehensive Investigation of Active Learning Strategies for Conducting Anti-Cancer Drug Screening.

It is well-known that cancers of the same histology type can respond differently to a treatment. Thus, computational drug response prediction is of paramount importance for both preclinical drug screening studies and clinical treatment design. To build drug response prediction models, treatment response data need to be generated through screening experiments and used as input to train the prediction models.

Integration of Computational Docking into Anti-Cancer Drug Response Prediction Models.

Cancer is a heterogeneous disease in that tumors of the same histology type can respond differently to a treatment. Anti-cancer drug response prediction is of paramount importance for both drug development and patient treatment design. Although various computational methods and data have been used to develop drug response prediction models, it remains a challenging problem due to the complexities of cancer mechanisms and cancer-drug interactions.

The efficacy of a device-based approach to microorganism disinfection and protein removal for orthokeratology lenses in varied clinical circumstances.

Purpose: RigidCare is an electrolysis-based device that recently obtained approval from the US's FDA to sterilise microorganisms and remove proteins for orthokeratology (O-K) lenses. The study was conducted to investigate the device's performance in varied clinical circumstances.

Methods: Trial lenses and private lenses were employed by O-K lens wearers from five hospitals for an evaluation of disinfection and sterilisation and an assessment of protein removal, respectively.

Sufentanil Improves the Analgesia Effect of Continuous Femoral Nerve Block After Total Knee Arthroplasty.

Purpose: We examined whether the addition of sufentanil to local anesthetics improves the quality of continuous femoral nerve block in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA).

Patients And Methods: With institutional ethical approval and having obtained written informed consent from each, 35 patients scheduled for elective bilateral TKA with ASA I or II physical status were studied. Bilateral femoral perineural catheters were preoperatively inserted.

Facilitating Lung Collapse for Thoracoscopic Surgery Utilizing Endobronchial Airway Occlusion Preceded by Pleurotomy and One-minute Suspension of Two-lung Ventilation.

Objectives: To assess when and whether clamping the double-lumen endobronchial tube (DLT) limb of the non-ventilated lung is more conducive to a rapid and effective lung deflation than simply allowing the open limb of the DLT to communicate with the atmosphere.

Design: This was a single-center, single-blind, randomized, controlled trial.

Setting: The trial was performed in a single institutional setting.

C2H2 Zinc Finger Transcription Factors Associated with Hemoglobinopathies.

In humans, specific aberrations in β-globin results in sickle cell disease and β-thalassemia, symptoms of which can be ameliorated by increased expression of fetal globin (HbF). Two recent CRISPR-Cas9 screens, centered on ∼1500 annotated sequence-specific DNA binding proteins and performed in a human erythroid cell line that expresses adult hemoglobin, uncovered four groups of candidate regulators of HbF gene expression. They are (1) members of the nucleosome remodeling and deacetylase (NuRD) complex proteins that are already known for HbF control; (2) seven C2H2 zinc finger (ZF) proteins, including some (ZBTB7A and BCL11A) already known for directly silencing the fetal γ-globin genes in adult human erythroid cells; (3) a few other transcription factors of different structural classes that might indirectly influence HbF gene expression; and (4) DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) that maintains the DNA methylation marks that attract the MBD2-associated NuRD complex to DNA as well as associated histone H3 lysine 9 methylation.

Oligonucleotide nanoassemblies with allyl bromide scaffold-based small molecules.

The development of oligonucleotide nanoassemblies with small molecules has shown great potential in bio-medical applications. However, the interaction of negatively charged oligonucleotides with halogenated small molecules represents a scientific challenge. Here, we introduced a distinct allyl bromide halogenated scaffold, which exhibits specific interaction with adenine nucleic bases of the oligonucleotides, thus leading to the formation of self-assembled nanostructures.

TULIP: An RNA-seq-based Primary Tumor Type Prediction Tool Using Convolutional Neural Networks.

Background: With cancer as one of the leading causes of death worldwide, accurate primary tumor type prediction is critical in identifying genetic factors that can inhibit or slow tumor progression. There have been efforts to categorize primary tumor types with gene expression data using machine learning, and more recently with deep learning, in the last several years.

Methods: In this paper, we developed four 1-dimensional (1D) Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models to classify RNA-seq count data as one of 17 highly represented primary tumor types or 32 primary tumor types regardless of imbalanced representation.

2D Ruddlesden-Popper perovskite sensitized SnPS ultraviolet photodetector enabling high responsivity and fast speed.

As the newly developed wide-bandgap semiconductors, two-dimensional layered metal phosphorus chalcogenides (2D LMPCs) exhibit enormous potential applications in ultraviolet (UV) photodetection due to their superior optoelectronic performance. However, 2D LMPC-based UV photodetectors generally suffer from low responsivity and slow response speed, which hinder their practical applications. Here, we present an effective strategy of sensitizing 2D LMPC UV photodetectors with a 2D Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) perovskite to enable high responsivity and fast response speed.

Introducing the Bacterial and Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center (BV-BRC): a resource combining PATRIC, IRD and ViPR.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) established the Bioinformatics Resource Center (BRC) program to assist researchers with analyzing the growing body of genome sequence and other omics-related data. In this report, we describe the merger of the PAThosystems Resource Integration Center (PATRIC), the Influenza Research Database (IRD) and the Virus Pathogen Database and Analysis Resource (ViPR) BRCs to form the Bacterial and Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center (BV-BRC) https://www.bv-brc.

The Potential of miR-370-3p and miR-495-3p Serving as Biomarkers for Sepsis-Associated Acute Kidney Injury.

Objective: This study is aimed at evaluating the miR-370-3p and miR-495-3p expression in the urine of patients with sepsis-associated acute kidney injury (SA-AKI) and exploring its diagnosis value in for SA-AKI.

Methods: 184 sepsis invalids were collected and divided two groups (non-AKI group or AKI group) according to whether they had acute kidney injury. RT-qPCR was utilized to measure miR-370-3p and miR-495-3p expressions.

Pancytopenia Due to Possible Drug-Drug Interactions Between Low-Dose Methotrexate and Proton Pump Inhibitors.

Methotrexate (MTX) has been widely used with a wide range of doses in the treatment of certain neoplastic diseases, severe psoriasis, and rheumatoid arthritis. At higher dose, monitoring of serum MTX elimination is performed because delayed elimination can result in serious and potentially life-threatening toxicities. A number of medications, including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), salicylates, phenylbutazone, phenytoin, sulfonamides, and some oral antibiotics, are known to interact with MTX therapy through various mechanisms.

KGF-2 Protects against Lung Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury by Inhibiting Inflammation-Induced Damage to Endothelial Barrier Function.

Lung ischemia-reperfusion injury (LIRI), which has a mortality rate of approximately 50%, is a popular topic in critical care research. Keratinocyte growth factor-2 (KGF-2) is secreted by mesenchymal cells, and it is effective in promoting the proliferation, migration, and differentiation of various epithelial cells. To date, however, only a few reports on KGF-2-related regulators in LIRI have been published.

Comparison of Two Main Orthokeratology Lens Designs in Efficacy and Safety for Myopia Control.

Purpose: This study aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of corneal refractive therapy (CRT) lenses and vision shaping treatment (VST) lenses for myopia control in children.

Methods: Medical records of 1,001 children (2,002 eyes) who had been fitted with orthokeratology lenses for over 1.5 years were retrospectively reviewed.

Self-Assembled Nanoparticles for Tumor-Triggered Targeting Dual-Mode NIRF/MR Imaging and Photodynamic Therapy Applications.

In this study, the self-assembling strategy was used to synthesize a therapeutic and diagnostic nanosystem for tumor-triggered targeting dual-mode near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF)/magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and photodynamic therapy applications. This theranostic nanosystem was synthesized based on the self-assembling of the short peptide (PLGVRGRGDC) and the gadolinium chelator (diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid) functionalized amphiphilic DSPE-PEG, followed by loading with the insoluble photosensitizer therapeutic agent chlorin e6 (Ce6). The formed theranostic nanosystem can accumulate in the matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2) rich tumor sites guided by the enhanced permeability and retention effect and MMP2-substrate peptide (PLGVR) targeting.