Publications by authors named "Zhixin Ma"

Treating bone infections and ensuring bone recovery is one of the major global problems facing modern orthopedics. Prolonged antibiotic use may increase the risk of antimicrobial resistance, and inflammation caused by biofilms can obstruct tissue healing, making bone infection treatment even more challenging. The optimal treatment strategy combines immune response modification to promote osteogenesis with effective bacterial infection removal that does not require long-term antibiotic use.

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  • Researchers created a new type of ZnO/NiO p-n heterojunction photoelectrochemical (PEC) catalyst that improves charge separation and transfer efficiency for enhancing reactions in a photo-enhanced zinc-air battery (PZAB).
  • The design of the heterojunction promotes an internal electric field, which helps speed up charge movement and enhances the efficiency of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER).
  • The study also used density functional theory (DFT) calculations to explain how this catalyst works by lowering the energy barriers for key reactions and showing effective separation of charges when exposed to light, ultimately leading to better performance in PZABs.
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Background: Steroid hormones (SH) during pregnancy are associated with the development of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Early and mid-Down syndrome screening is used to assess the risk of Down syndrome in the fetus. It is unclear whether changes in SH during this period can be used as an early predictor of GDM.

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  • Stem cells need a special environment, called a niche, to grow and behave properly.
  • Glial cells, which support neuron development, help transport iron to neural stem cells, which is important for them to create energy and keep multiplying.
  • If glial cells don’t make enough ferritin (an iron storage protein), the neural stem cells struggle to grow, which may lead to problems in brain development and could help in finding ways to fight tumors.
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Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) commonly exhibits tolerance to cisplatin treatment, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Within the tumor microenvironment, macrophages play a role in resisting the cytotoxic effects of chemotherapy by engaging in efferocytosis to clear apoptotic cells induced by chemotherapeutic agents. The involvement of extracellular vesicles (EVs), an intercellular communicator within the tumor microenvironment, in regulating the efferocytosis for the promotion of drug resistance has not been thoroughly investigated.

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  • - Smallpox, caused by the variola virus, was eradicated in 1979 but remains a potential biological weapon due to its high contagion and mortality rate of up to 30%.
  • - Researchers developed a peptide vaccine using immunoinformatics tools to activate immunity against the variola virus, focusing on safe and effective T-cell and B-cell epitopes with a strong binding affinity to immune receptors.
  • - This new vaccine design not only aims to provide effective protection against the variola virus but also offers insights into vaccine strategies for current threats like monkeypox.
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For the development of a competitive ELISA (cELISA) to detect serum antibodies against the Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. Mycoides (Mmm) (strain PG1), the causative agent of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP), all the proteins of this pathogen were analyzed. Then, a specific extracellular region of a transmembrane protein with the potential for diagnosis was identified.

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Cofilin (CFL1) is one critical member of the actin deploy family (ADF). Overexpression of CFL1 is associated with aggressive features and poor prognosis in malignancies. We evaluated the expression of CFL1 in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia in the chronic phase (CML-CP), acute myelocytic leukemia (AML) and healthy controls.

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Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common joint disease known for cartilage degeneration, leading to a substantial burden on individuals and society due to its high disability rate. However, current clinical treatments for cartilage defects remain unsatisfactory due to the unclear mechanisms underlying cartilage regeneration. Tissue engineering hydrogels have emerged as an attractive approach in cartilage repair.

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Stem cells are heterogeneous to generate diverse differentiated cell types required for organogenesis; however, the underlying mechanisms that differently maintain these heterogeneous stem cells are not well understood. In this study, we identify that Golgi-to-endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retrograde transport specifically maintains type II neuroblasts (NBs) through the Notch signaling. We reveal that intermediate neural progenitors (INPs), immediate daughter cells of type II NBs, provide Delta and function as the NB niche.

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In view of the increased levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that disturb the osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs), the repair of diabetic bone defects remains a great challenge. Herein, a factor-free hydrogel is reported with ROS scavenging and responsive degradation properties for enhanced diabetic bone healing. These hydrogels contain ROS-cleavable thioketal (TK) linkers and ultraviolet (UV)-responsive norbornene (NB) groups conjugated with 8-arm PEG macromers, which are formed via UV crosslinking-mediated gelation.

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Ferroptosis induction through the suppression of glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) and apoptosis-inducing factor mitochondria-associated 2 (AIFM2) has proven to be an effective approach in eliminating chemotherapy-resistant cells of various types. However, a comprehensive understanding of the roles of GPX4 and AIFM2 in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has not yet been achieved. Using cBioPortal, DepMap, GEPIA, Metascape, and ONCOMINE, we compared the transcriptional expression, survival data, gene mutation, methylation, and network analyses of GPX4- and AIFM2-associated signaling pathways in AML.

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Proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin type 9 (PCSK9) is a clinically validated target on the treatment of cardiovascular disease (CVD). PCSK9 can regulate the hepatocyte surface low density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) level by binding to LDLR and leading to their degradation in the lysosome. The clinical use of two monoclonal antibodies (alirocumab and evolocumab, approved in 2015) and one small interfering RNA (inclisiran, approved in 2020) which can inhibit PCSK9 function proved that they are very effective in lowering low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C).

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Circular RNAs (circRNAs), a type of endogenous noncoding RNA (ncRNA), exert vital roles in leukemia progression and are promising prognostic factors. Here, we report a novel circRNA, circSLC25A13 (hsa_circ_0081188), which was increased in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients with poor overall survival (OS) comparing to patients with good prognosis. Knockdown of circSLC25A13 in AML cells inhibited proliferation and increased cell apoptosis in vitro and in vivo.

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Acoustic black holes (ABHs) are effective at suppressing vibrations at high frequencies, but their performance at low frequencies is limited. This paper aims to improve the low-frequency performance of ABH plates through the design of a metamaterial acoustic black hole (MMABH) plate. The MMABH plate consists of a double-layer ABH plate with a set of periodic local resonators installed between the layers.

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Glutamine metabolic reprogramming in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) cells contributes to the decreased sensitivity to antileukemic drugs. Leukaemic cells, but not their myeloid counterparts, largely depend on glutamine. Glutamate dehydrogenase 1 (GDH1) is a regulation enzyme in glutaminolysis.

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Acyl-CoA synthetase long chain family member 5 (ACSL5), is a member of the acyl-CoA synthetases (ACSs) family that activates long chain fatty acids by catalyzing the synthesis of fatty acyl-CoAs. The dysregulation of ACSL5 has been reported in some cancers, such as glioma and colon cancers. However, little is known about the role of ACSL5 in acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is known as an age-related irreversible neurodegenerative disease. AD seriously endangers the health of the elderly, but there is still no effective treatment. In the past several decades, the significant role of astrocytes in the process of AD has been universally acknowledged.

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Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is a rare liver disease occurring during pregnancy that is characterized by disordered bile acid (BA) metabolism. It is related to adverse clinical outcomes in both the mother and fetus. Our aim was to evaluate the BA metabolism profiles in different types of ICP and investigate the association between specific BAs and perinatal complications in ICP patients.

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Objective: To explore the effect of maternal body mass index (BMI) on steroid hormone profiles in women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and those with normal glucose tolerance (NGT).

Methods: We enrolled 79 women with NGT and 80 women with GDM who had a gestational age of 24-28 weeks. The participants were grouped according to their BMI.

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Aims: There is growing evidence that the gut microbiota plays a significant part in the pathophysiology of chronic stress. The dysbiosis of the gut microbiota closely relates to dysregulation of microbiota-host cometabolism. Composition changes in the gut microbiota related to perturbations in metabolic profiles are vital risk factors for disease development.

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The importance of the microbiome is increasingly prominent. For example, the human microbiome has been proven to be strongly associated with health conditions, while the environmental microbiome is recognized to have a profound influence on agriculture and even the global climate. Furthermore, the microbiome can serve as a fascinating reservoir of genes that encode tremendously valuable compounds for industrial and medical applications.

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Introduction: Nowadays,the mechanical ventilation (MV) aims to rest the respiratory muscles while providing adequate gas exchange, and it has been a part of basic life support during general anesthesia as well as in critically ill patients with and without respiratory failure. However, MV itself has the potential to cause or worsen lung injury, which is also known as ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI). Thus, the early diagnosis of VILI is of great importance for the prevention and treatment of VILI.

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Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is characterized by glycemia and insulin disorders. Bile acids (BAs) have emerged as vital signaling molecules in glucose metabolic regulation. BA change in GDM is still unclear, which exerts great significance to illustrate the change of BAs in GDM.

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