Mol Plant Microbe Interact
October 2024
Flexible laser-scribed graphene (LSG) substrates with gold nanoislands have been developed as biochips for in situ electrochemical (EC) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) biodetection (biomolecules and viral proteins). A flexible biochip was fabricated using CO laser engraving polyimide (PI) films to form a 3D porous graphene-like nanostructure. Gold nanoislands were deposited on the LSG substrates to enhance the intensity of the Raman signals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSpectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc
December 2023
Sustained local delivery of meloxicam by polymeric structures is desirable for preventing subacute inflammation and biofilm formation following tissue incision or injury. Our previous study demonstrated that meloxicam release from hot-melt extruded (HME) poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) matrices could be controlled by adjusting the drug content. Increasing drug content accelerated the drug release as the initial drug release generated a pore network to facilitate subsequent drug dissolution and diffusion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHumanit Soc Sci Commun
March 2023
Employee assistance programs (EAPs) provide work, living, and health services to help employees overcome personal and organizational obstacles that affect their productivity. Most businesses in Taiwan are small or medium-sized, and their scale, stage of development, and resources affect their implementation of EAPs. This study explored EAPs and related measures that organizations can implement in each stage of their development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFor effective resolution of regional subacute inflammation and prevention of biofouling formation, we have developed a polymeric implant that can release meloxicam, a selective cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 inhibitor, in a sustained manner. Meloxicam-loaded polymer matrices were produced by hot-melt extrusion, with commercially available biocompatible polymers, poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL), poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA), and poly(ethylene vinyl acetate) (EVA). PLGA and EVA had a limited control over the drug release rate partly due to the acidic microenvironment and hydrophobicity, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe developed a method based on surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and a sample pretreatment process for rapid, sensitive, reproducible, multiplexed, and low-cost detection of illegal drugs in urine. The abuse of new psychoactive substances (NPS) has become an increasingly serious problem in many countries. However, immunoassay-based screening kits for NPS are usually not available because of the lack of corresponding antibodies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSystemic acquired resistance (SAR) is a mechanism that plants utilize to connect a local pathogen infection to global defense responses. N-hydroxy-pipecolic acid (NHP) and a glycosylated derivative are produced during SAR, yet their individual roles in this process are currently unclear. Here, we report that Arabidopsis thaliana UGT76B1 generated glycosylated NHP (NHP-Glc) in vitro and when transiently expressed alongside Arabidopsis NHP biosynthetic genes in two Solanaceous plants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of this trial was to evaluate the effects of an immunomodulatory supplement (OmniGen AF, OG; Phibro Animal Health Corp.) and heat stress on hormonal, inflammatory, and immunological responses of lactating dairy cows. Sixty multiparous Holstein cows were randomly assigned to 4 treatments in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement using 2 environments: cooled using fans and misters, or noncooled, and 2 top-dressed feed supplements (56 g/d): OG or a placebo (CTL).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInflammation that is not resolved in due course becomes a chronic disease. The treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases involves a long-term use of anti-inflammatory drugs such as corticosteroids and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, often accompanied by dose-dependent side effects. Local drug delivery systems have been widely explored to reduce their off-target side effects and the medication frequency, with several products making to the market or in development over the years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The major aim of the present study was to determine the effects of quercetin, a well-known flavonoid, on attenuating cisplatin (CDDP)-induced fat loss and the possible mechanisms.
Methods: Tumor-bearing nude mice and tumor-free BALB/c mice were administrated with CDDP alone or in combination with quercetin by a diet containing 0.1% or 1% quercetin (LQ or HQ) or by intraperitoneal injection (IQ) to determine the effects of quercetin on the anticancer effect of CDDP or CDDP-induced fat loss.
Lactating dairy cows exhibit a myriad of responses to heat stress. These responses partially facilitate the thermal balance between heat gain and heat loss, but also account for reduction in productivity. Decreased milk yield is the most recognized impact of heat stress on a dairy cow and results in significant economic loss to dairy producers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe 14-3-3 phospho-binding proteins with scaffolding activity play central roles in the regulation of enzymes and signaling complexes in eukaryotes. In plants, 14-3-3 isoforms are required for disease resistance and key targets of pathogen effectors. Here, we examined the requirement of the tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) 14-3-3 isoform (TFT) protein family for Xv3 disease resistance in response to the bacterial pathogen Xanthomonas euvesicatoria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
May 2018
Systemic acquired resistance (SAR) is a global response in plants induced at the site of infection that leads to long-lasting and broad-spectrum disease resistance at distal, uninfected tissues. Despite the importance of this priming mechanism, the identity and complexity of defense signals that are required to initiate SAR signaling is not well understood. In this paper, we describe a metabolite, -hydroxy-pipecolic acid (-OH-Pip) and provide evidence that this mobile molecule plays a role in initiating SAR signal transduction in We demonstrate that FLAVIN-DEPENDENT MONOOXYGENASE 1 (FMO1), a key regulator of SAR-associated defense priming, can synthesize -OH-Pip from pipecolic acid , and exogenously applied -OH-Pip moves systemically in and can rescue the SAR-deficiency of mutants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiological substances based on proteins, including vaccines, antibodies, and enzymes, typically degrade at room temperature over time due to denaturation, as proteins unfold with loss of secondary and tertiary structure. Their storage and distribution therefore relies on a "cold chain" of continuous refrigeration; this is costly and not always effective, as any break in the chain leads to rapid loss of effectiveness and potency. Efforts have been made to make vaccines thermally stable using treatments including freeze-drying (lyophilisation), biomineralisation, and encapsulation in sugar glass and organic polymers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Arabidopsis thaliana T-DNA insertion mutant glucose hypersensitive (ghs) 40-1 exhibited hypersensitivity to glucose (Glc) and abscisic acid (ABA). The ghs40-1 mutant displayed severely impaired cotyledon greening and expansion and showed enhanced reduction in hypocotyl elongation of dark-grown seedlings when grown in Glc concentrations higher than 3 %. The Glc-hypersensitivity of ghs40-1 was correlated with the hyposensitive phenotype of 35S::AtGHS40 seedlings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis work characterizes an anther/pollen-specific gene that encodes potential intermediate filament (IF)-binding glycoproteins in lily (Lilium longiflorum Thunb. cv. Snow Queen) anthers during the development and pollen germination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Arabidopsis thaliana T-DNA insertion mutant rh57-1 exhibited hypersensitivity to glucose (Glc) and abscisic acid (ABA). The other two rh57 mutants also showed Glc hypersensitivity similar to rh57-1, strongly suggesting that the Glc-hypersensitive feature of these mutants results from mutation of AtRH57. rh57-1 and rh57-3 displayed severely impaired seedling growth when grown in Glc concentrations higher than 3%.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfection with influenza virus is a major public health problem, causing serious illness and death each year. Emergence of drug-resistant influenza virus strains limits the effectiveness of drug treatment. Importantly, a dual H275Y/I223R mutation detected in the pandemic influenza A 2009 virus strain results in multidrug resistance to current neuraminidase (NA) drugs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe three-dimensional (3D) biochips prepared in this study are composed of a glass microscopy slide arrayed with amino aerogel dots. The amino aerogel was produced using the sol-gel process, with an ionic liquid as the template followed by a solvent extraction to remove the template and build a three-dimensional mesoporous structure. The FTIR spectrum verified that the major template was removed and the (29)Si solid-state NMR spectra recognized the cross-linkages in the SiO(2) network structure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMesoporous aerogel was produced under regular atmospheric conditions using the sol-gel polymerization of tetraethyl orthosilicate with an ionic liquid as both solvent and active agent. This was then used to build a three-dimensional structure to recognize nucleotide acids. Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, (29)Si solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance, and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller instruments were used to characterize this 3D aerogel, demonstrating that it had high porosity and large internal networking surface area that could capture nucleotide acids.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe homology modeling technique has been used to construct the structure of enterovirus 71 (EV 71) capsid protein VP1. The protein is consisted of 297 amino acid residues and treated as the target. The amino acid sequence identity between the target protein and sequences of template proteins 1EAH, 1PIV, and 1D4M searched from NCBI protein BLAST and WorkBench protein tools were 38, 37, and 36%, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Increased prevalence of esophagitis has been recognized in the West. Helicobacter pylori infection, particularly virulent strains, is proposed as a protective factor against the development of gastroesophageal reflux disease. To evaluate the relationship of reflux esophagitis with virulent H.
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