Droplet-based microfluidic platform for detecting agonistic peptides that are self-secreted by yeast expressing a G-protein-coupled receptor.

Background: Single-cell droplet microfluidics is an important platform for high-throughput analyses and screening because it provides an independent and compartmentalized microenvironment for reaction or cultivation by coencapsulating individual cells with various molecules in monodisperse microdroplets. In combination with microbial biosensors, this technology becomes a potent tool for the screening of mutant strains. In this study, we demonstrated that a genetically engineered yeast strain that can fluorescently sense agonist ligands via the heterologous expression of a human G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) and concurrently secrete candidate peptides is highly compatible with single-cell droplet microfluidic technology for the high-throughput screening of new agonistically active peptides.

Soundscape Preference of Urban Residents in China in the Post-pandemic Era.

This research aims to explore the reality of the soundscape preferences of Chinese urban residents in general public landscape in the post-pandemic era, and then to propose design recommendations to meet the practical needs of people's preferences for landscape-especially soundscapes-in the post-pandemic era. In this study, we utilized the subjective evaluation method to conduct an online questionnaire in 29 Chinese provinces which experienced severe pandemic caseloads and collected 860 valid responses. This study revealed people's preference for landscape and soundscape in the post-pandemic era.

Development of photosensitizer-loaded lipid droplets for photothermal therapy based on thiophene analogs.

Photothermal therapy (PTT) was considered as one of the most promising cancer therapies to overcome the severe side effects caused by chemotherapy. Hence, four thiophene analogs were developed to construct novel organic photothermal agents (PTAs) for many biomedical applications in cancer biosensing and photothermal therapies. The efficacy of four compounds was demonstrated by studies of photothermal properties as well as photothermal therapeutic effects.

A visible and near-infrared dual-fluorescent probe for discrimination between Cys/Hcy and GSH and its application in bioimaging.

Biothiols such as cysteine (Cys), homocysteine (Hcy) and glutathione (GSH) play important roles in various physiological and pathological processes, and due to their similar structures and reaction activities, it is still challenging to simultaneously discriminate between GSH and Cys/Hcy in vivo. Hence, a novel fluorescent probe for simultaneously discriminating GSH and Cys/Hcy in biological samples is highly desirable. Herein, we presented two enhanced fluorescent probes (Cy1 and Cy2) with doubly-activated dual emission for sensitive and discriminative detection of Cys/Hcy and GSH.

Inhibition or activation of Pseudomonas species lipase by 1,2-ethylene-di-N-alkylcarbamates in detergents.

1,2-Ethylene-di-N-n-propylcarbamate (1) is characterized as an essential activator of Pseudomonas species lipase while 1,2-ethylene-di-N-n-butyl-, t-butyl-, n-heptyl-, and n-octyl-carbamates (2-5) are characterized as the pseudo substrate inhibitors of the enzyme in the presence of the detergent taurocholate or triton X-100. The inhibition and activation reactions are more sensitive in taurocholate than in triton X-100. From CD studies, the enzyme changes conformations in the presence of the detergent and further alters conformations by addition of the carbamate activator or inhibitor into the enzyme-detergent adduct.