Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Derived Exosomes Attenuate Murine Cytomegalovirus-Infected Pneumonia via NF-κB/NLRP3 Signaling Pathway.

Reactivation and infection with cytomegalovirus (CMV) are frequently observed in recipients of solid organ transplants, bone marrow transplants, and individuals with HIV infection. This presents an increasing risk of allograft rejection, opportunistic infection, graft failure, and patient mortality. Among immunocompromised hosts, interstitial pneumonia is the most critical clinical manifestation of CMV infection.

Studying Salt-Induced Shifts in Gene Expression Patterns of Glucosinolate Transporters and Glucosinolate Accumulation in Two Contrasting Species.

crops are well known for the accumulation of glucosinolates-secondary metabolites crucial for plants' adaptation to various stresses. Glucosinolates also functioning as defence compounds pose challenges to food quality due to their goitrogenic properties. Their disruption leaves plants susceptible to insect pests and diseases.

Hyper-expression of GFP-fused active hFGF21 in tobacco chloroplasts.

Human fibroblast growth factor 21 (hFGF21) is a promising candidate for metabolic diseases. In this study, a tobacco chloroplast transformation vector, pWYP21406, was constructed that consisted of codon-optimized encoding gene hFGF21 fused with GFP at its 5' terminal; it was driven by the promoter of plastid rRNA operon (Prrn) and terminated by the terminator of plastid rps16 gene (Trps16). Spectinomycin-resistant gene (aadA) was the marker and placed in the same cistron between hFGF21 and the terminator Trps16.

The determinants of COVID-19 vaccine uptake among migrants from 109 countries residing in China: A cross-sectional study.

Background: The present study aimed to investigate the prevalence of COVID-19 vaccine uptake among foreign migrants in China and to explore the determinants of their vaccine uptake behavior.

Methods: From June to October 2021, we used convenience and snowball sampling to recruit a sample of 764 participants from five cities in which the overwhelming majority of foreign migrants in China live. The chi-square (χ) tests were used to examine vaccination distribution according to demographic characteristics.

Efficient expression of fusion human epidermal growth factor in tobacco chloroplasts.

Background: Chloroplast transformation is a robust technology for the expression of recombinant proteins. Various types of pharmaceutical proteins including growth factors have been reported in chloroplasts via chloroplast transformation approach at high expression levels. However, high expression of epidermal growth factor (EGF) in chloroplasts with the technology is still unavailable.

Successful production of human epidermal growth factor in tobacco chloroplasts in a biologically active conformation.

Human epidermal growth factor (hEGF) is an important therapeutic compound with multiple applications particularly in pharmaceutical industry. Human EGF has already been expressed in different expression systems, however, the production of hEGF with bioactivity in chloroplasts has not been successful so far. In this study, we expressed a 6 × His-tagged hEGF in tobacco chloroplasts in its native conformation for the potential of large-scale production of hEGF for industrial applications.

Stable and efficient expression of human brain-derived neurotrophic factor in tobacco chloroplasts.

Background: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is an intensively studied neurotrophin that promotes various physiological processes, such as acceleration of cell proliferation and differentiation, and is, therefore widely used in clinical applications.

Methods And Results: In this study, an expression vector with a codon-optimized hBDNF gene was constructed and transferred into chloroplasts of tobacco by gene-gun. After three or four rounds of selection with optimal spectinomycin concentration, hBDNF was integrated into the chloroplast genome of homoplastomic plants, as confirmed by PCR and Southern hybridization.

Production of active human FGF21 using tobacco mosaic virus-based transient expression system.

Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family has a wide range of metabolic processes. FGF21 exerts critical physiological functions in clinical application. This study aimed to explore a convenient and highly efficient approach for rhFGF21 expression using TMV-TES.

A Rapid Pipeline for Pollen- and Anther-Specific Gene Discovery Based on Transcriptome Profiling Analysis of Maize Tissues.

Recently, crop breeders have widely adopted a new biotechnology-based process, termed Seed Production Technology (SPT), to produce hybrid varieties. The SPT does not produce nuclear male-sterile lines, and instead utilizes transgenic SPT maintainer lines to pollinate male-sterile plants for propagation of nuclear-recessive male-sterile lines. A late-stage pollen-specific promoter is an essential component of the pollen-inactivating cassette used by the SPT maintainers.

Cucurbitacin IIb induces apoptosis and cell cycle arrest through regulating EGFR/MAPK pathway.

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is considered as a valid target in the clinical trials of anticancer therapy and tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) of EGFR are approved for cancer treatments. In present work, cucurbitacin IIb (CuIIb) was confirmed to exhibit the proliferation inhibitory activity in A549 cells. CuIIb induced apoptosis via STAT3 pathway, which was mitochondria-mediated and caspase-dependent.

Contrasting Responses to Stress Displayed by Tobacco Overexpressing an Algal Plastid Terminal Oxidase in the Chloroplast.

The plastid terminal oxidase (PTOX) - an interfacial diiron carboxylate protein found in the thylakoid membranes of chloroplasts - oxidizes plastoquinol and reduces molecular oxygen to water. It is believed to play a physiologically important role in the response of some plant species to light and salt (NaCl) stress by diverting excess electrons to oxygen thereby protecting photosystem II (PSII) from photodamage. PTOX is therefore a candidate for engineering stress tolerance in crop plants.

Engineering microalgae through chloroplast transformation to produce high-value industrial products.

The last few years have seen an ever-increasing interest in the exploitation of microalgae as an alternative platform to produce high-value products such as biofuels, industrial enzymes, therapeutic proteins, including antibodies, hormones, and vaccines. Due to some unique attractive features, engineering of the chloroplast genome provides a promising platform for the production of high-value targets because it allows manipulation of metabolic processes in ways that would be impossible, or at least prohibitively difficult through traditional approaches. Since its initial demonstration in 1988 in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, genetic tools have been developed, which have made it possible to produce high-value molecules in different species.

Cucurbitacin IIa interferes with EGFR-MAPK signaling pathway leads to proliferation inhibition in A549 cells.

Cucurbitacin IIa (CuIIa), a tetracyclic triterpenoid harboring anticancer activity, was investigated in A549 cells to reveal its mechanism of targeting on epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling pathway. Results showed that CuIIa was capable of inducing apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase. The transcription of EGFR pathway genes and their proteins accumulation was inconsistently influenced by CuIIa.

Identification of 20(R, S)-protopanaxadiol and 20(R, S)-protopanaxatriol for potential selective modulation of glucocorticoid receptor.

Although glucocorticoids (GCs) are widely used as anti-inflammatory drugs, they are often accompanied by adverse effects, which are mainly due to the transactivation of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) target genes. In order to screen novel plant-derived GR ligands (phytocorticoids) capable of separating transrepression from transactivation, this work focuses on the estimation of 20(R, S)-protopanaxadiol [PPD(R, S)] and 20(R, S)-protopanaxatriol [PPT(R, S)] for their dissociated characteristics. The reporter gene assay shows that ginsenosides cannot enhance glucocorticoid-responsive element-driven genes.

Association Analysis and Identification of ZmHKT1;5 Variation With Salt-Stress Tolerance.

The high-affinity potassium transporter (HKT) genes are essential for plant salt stress tolerance. However, there were limited studies on HKTs in maize (), and it is basically unknown whether natural sequence variations in these genes are associated with the phenotypic variability of salt tolerance. Here, the characterization of was reported.

Stable plastid transformation of rice, a monocot cereal crop.

Rice is one of the most important cereal crops and its biotechnology has been pursued to meet the food demand of ever-growing global population. Rice plastid transformation has been a great challenge to achieve homoplastomic plants due to its low efficiency of regeneration. In this experiment, Japonica rice line 19 was chosen to be the receptor for plastid transformation.

ZmSTK1 and ZmSTK2, encoding receptor-like cytoplasmic kinase, are involved in maize pollen development with additive effect.

Pollen germination and pollen tube growth are important physiological processes of sexual reproduction of plants and also are involved in signal transduction. Our previous study reveals that ZmSTK1 and ZmSTK2 are two receptor-like cytoplasmic kinases (RLCK) homologs in Zea mays as members of receptor-like protein kinase (RLK) subfamily, sharing 86% identity at the amino acid level. Here, we report that ZmSTK1 and ZmSTK2, expressed at late stages of pollen development, regulate maize pollen development with additive effect.

Isolation and characterization of a novel pollen-specific promoter in maize (Zea mays L.).

ZmSTK2_USP, located on the long arm of chromosome 4, belongs to the serine/threonine kinase gene in maize. The sequence analysis of 2100 bp upstream from the start codon ATG has shown that it contains cis-element motifs and two types of anther/pollen-specific promoter elements (GTGA and AGAAA), suggesting that it is the pollen-specific promoter. To investigate the function of ZmSTK2_USP promoter, the GUS gene fusion system was employed.

Testing the Role of the N-Terminal Tail of D1 in the Maintenance of Photosystem II in Tobacco Chloroplasts.

A key step in the repair of photoinactivated oxygen-evolving photosystem II (PSII) complexes is the selective recognition and degradation of the damaged PSII subunit, usually the D1 reaction center subunit. FtsH proteases play a major role in D1 degradation in both cyanobacteria and chloroplasts. In the case of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp.

Production of Bioactive Recombinant Bovine Chymosin in Tobacco Plants.

Chymosin (also known as rennin) plays an essential role in the coagulation of milk in the cheese industry. Chymosin is traditionally extracted from the rumen of calves and is of high cost. Here, we present an alternative method to producing bovine chymosin from transgenic tobacco plants.