Current challenges and development strategies of bacteriocins produced by lactic acid bacteria applied in the food industry.

Given the great importance of natural biopreservatives in the modern food industry, lactic acid bacteria (LAB)-producing bacteriocins have gained considerable attention due to their antimicrobial activity against foodborne pathogens and spoilage bacteria. Although numerous LAB-producing bacteriocins have demonstrated efficiency in preserving food quality in various applications, only a limited number of these compounds have been commercially approved to date. The currently unclear gastrointestinal metabolism of bacteriocins may pose safety risks, as well as cytotoxicity and immunogenicity, which need to be seriously considered before their application.

Epitope tagging with genome editing in mice reveals that the proton channel OTOP1 is apically localized and not restricted to Type III "sour" taste receptor cells.

The gustatory system allows animals to assess the nutritive value and safety of foods prior to ingestion. The first step in gustation is the interaction of taste stimuli with one or more specific sensory receptors, that are generally believed to be present on the apical surface of the taste receptor cells. However, this assertion is rarely tested.

Adenosine Deaminase-Like Gene-Carried Lentivirus Toolkit for Identification of DNA N-Methyladenine Origins.

Post-replicative DNA N-methyladenine (pr6mdA) can form via bona fide methylase-catalyzed adenine methylation, playing a pivotal role in embryonic development and other biological processes. Surprisingly, pre-methylated adenine can be erroneously incorporated into DNA as misincorporated N6-methyladenine (i6mdA) via DNA polymerase-mediated replication. Despite pr6mdA and i6mdA sharing identical chemical structures, their biological functions diverge significantly, presenting a substantial challenge in distinguishing between the two.

Structural analysis and blood-enriching effects comparison based on biological potency of Angelica sinensis polysaccharides.

Angelica sinensis is a long-standing medicine used by Chinese medical practitioners and well-known for its blood-tonic and blood-activating effects. Ferulic acid, ligustilide, and eugenol in Angelica sinensis activate the blood circulation; however, the material basis of their blood-tonic effects needs to be further investigated. In this study, five homogeneous Angelica sinensis polysaccharides were isolated, and their sugar content, molecular weight, monosaccharide composition, and infrared characteristics determined.

An Al-BERT-Bi-GRU-LDA algorithm for negative sentiment analysis on Bilibili comments.

The number of online self-learning users has been increasing due to the promotion of various lifelong learning programs. Unstructured commentary text related to their real learning experience regarding the learning process is generally published by users to show their opinions and complaints. The article aims to utilize the dataset of real text comments of 10 high school mathematics courses participated by high school students in the Bilibili platform and construct a hybrid algorithm called the Artificial Intelligence-Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) + Bidirectional Gated Recurrent Unit (BiGRU) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to crunch data and extract their sentiments.

Development strategies and application of antimicrobial peptides as future alternatives to in-feed antibiotics.

The use of in-feed antibiotics has been widely restricted due to the significant environmental pollution and food safety concerns they have caused. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have attracted widespread attention as potential future alternatives to in-feed antibiotics owing to their demonstrated antimicrobial activity and environment friendly characteristics. However, the challenges of weak bioactivity, immature stability, and low production yields of natural AMPs impede practical application in the feed industry.

Protocol for sorting and culturing of mouse early erythroid progenitor BFU-E cells.

Techniques allowing the long-term culture of the burst-forming unit of erythroid (BFU-E) progenitor cells are essential for understanding erythropoiesis. Here, we present a protocol for sorting mouse BFU-E cells and culturing them in a medium that promotes BFU-E cell expansion. We describe steps for isolating BFU-E cells from mouse fetal livers by combining magnetic microbeads with flow cytometry and culturing BFU-E cells with a specific expansion media.

The proton channel OTOP1 is a sensor for the taste of ammonium chloride.

Ammonium (NH), a breakdown product of amino acids that can be toxic at high levels, is detected by taste systems of organisms ranging from C. elegans to humans and has been used for decades in vertebrate taste research. Here we report that OTOP1, a proton-selective ion channel expressed in sour (Type III) taste receptor cells (TRCs), functions as sensor for ammonium chloride (NHCl).

N6-methyl-2'-deoxyadenosine promotes self-renewal of BFU-E progenitor in erythropoiesis.

Red blood cells supply the oxygen required for all human cells and are in demand for emerging blood-loss therapy. Here we identified N6-methyl-2'-deoxyadenosine (6mdA) as an agonist that promotes the hyperproliferation of burst-forming unit erythroid (BFU-E) progenitor cells. In addition, 6mdA represses the apoptosis of erythroid progenitor cells (EPCs).

Chondrogenic Differentiation of Adipose-Derived Stromal Cells Induced by Decellularized Cartilage Matrix/Silk Fibroin Secondary Crosslinking Hydrogel Scaffolds with a Three-Dimensional Microstructure.

Finding an ideal scaffold is always an important issue in the field of cartilage tissue engineering. Both decellularized extracellular matrix and silk fibroin have been used as natural biomaterials for tissue regeneration. In this study, a secondary crosslinking method of γ irradiation and ethanol induction was used to prepare decellularized cartilage extracellular matrix and silk fibroin (dECM-SF) hydrogels with biological activity.

Zinc activation of OTOP proton channels identifies structural elements of the gating apparatus.

Otopetrin proteins (OTOPs) form proton-selective ion channels that are expressed in diverse cell types where they mediate detection of acids or regulation of pH. In vertebrates there are three family members: OTOP1 is required for formation of otoconia in the vestibular system and it forms the receptor for sour taste, while the functions of OTOP2 and OTOP3 are not yet known. Importantly, the gating mechanisms of any of the OTOP channels are not well understood.

Efficacy and safety of adjuvant therapy with PD‑1/PD‑L1 inhibitors in cancer.

Anti-programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1)/programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 (PD-L1) antibodies have been widely used in cancers. The present study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in human cancers. Studies were searched from Cochrane Library, PubMed and Embase databases.

Structural insights into molecular mechanism for N-adenosine methylation by MT-A70 family methyltransferase METTL4.

METTL4 belongs to a subclade of MT-A70 family members of methyltransferase (MTase) proteins shown to mediate N-adenosine methylation for both RNA and DNA in diverse eukaryotes. Here, we report that Arabidopsis METTL4 functions as U2 snRNA MTase for N-2'-O-dimethyladenosine (mAm) in vivo that regulates flowering time, and specifically catalyzes N-methylation of 2'-O-methyladenosine (Am) within a single-stranded RNA in vitro. The apo structures of full-length Arabidopsis METTL4 bound to S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) and the complex structure with an Am-containing RNA substrate, combined with mutagenesis and in vitro enzymatic assays, uncover a preformed L-shaped, positively-charged cavity surrounded by four loops for substrate binding and a catalytic center composed of conserved residues for specific Am nucleotide recognition and N-methylation activity.

Structural motifs for subtype-specific pH-sensitive gating of vertebrate otopetrin proton channels.

Otopetrin (OTOP) channels are proton-selective ion channels conserved among vertebrates and invertebrates, with no structural similarity to other ion channels. There are three vertebrate OTOP channels (OTOP1, OTOP2, and OTOP3), of which one (OTOP1) functions as a sour taste receptor. Whether extracellular protons gate OTOP channels, in addition to permeating them, was not known.

Comprehensive analysis of molecular mechanism and a novel prognostic signature based on small nuclear RNA biomarkers in gastric cancer patients.

Small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs) are rarely reported in cancer. This study is based on The Cancer Genome Atlas genome-wide data set to explore the prognostic value and molecular mechanism of snRNAs in gastric cancer (GC). Gene ontology, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes, and gene set enrichment analysis were used to explore the molecular mechanism of snRNAs.

The effect and mechanism of miR-30e-5p targeting SNAI1 to regulate epithelial-mesenchymal transition on pancreatic cancer.

Accumulating evidence indicates that abnormally expressed microRNAs (miRNAs, miRs) contribute to cancer progression. Nonetheless, the role of miR-30e-5p in pancreatic cancer (PCa) remains unclear. In this study, using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis, we found that miR-30e-5p expression was downregulated in human PCa tissues compared with that in normal para-cancerous tissues.

Serum-derived miR-574-5p-containing exosomes contribute to liver fibrosis by activating hepatic stellate cells.

Aim: To investigate the association of serum exosomes miR-574-5p with liver fibrosis, and explore the effect and mechanism of serum exosomes on HSC activation.

Materials And Methods: Using serum samples collected from healthy adults and patients with liver cirrhosis, we extracted human serum exosomes via ultra-high-speed centrifugation, and co-cultured them with hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) line LX2. LX-2-mediated intake of human serum exosomes was examined by confocal microscopy.

Protonation-Suppression-Free LC-MS/MS Analysis for Profiling of DNA Cytosine Modifications in Adult Mice.

DNA cytosine modifications are important epigenetic marks. To elucidate their roles by a large scale of comparative studies, it is important to quantify the abundance of DNA cytosine modifications accurately. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) is a golden option.

Crosstalk network among multiple inflammatory mediators in liver fibrosis.

Liver fibrosis is the common pathological basis of all chronic liver diseases, and is the necessary stage for the progression of chronic liver disease to cirrhosis. As one of pathogenic factors, inflammation plays a predominant role in liver fibrosis communication and interaction between inflammatory cells, cytokines, and the related signaling pathways. Damaged hepatocytes induce an increase in pro-inflammatory factors, thereby inducing the development of inflammation.

Epigenetically reprogrammed methylation landscape drives the DNA self-assembly and serves as a universal cancer biomarker.

Epigenetic reprogramming in cancer genomes creates a distinct methylation landscape encompassing clustered methylation at regulatory regions separated by large intergenic tracks of hypomethylated regions. This methylation landscape that we referred to as Methylscape is displayed by most cancer types, thus may serve as a universal cancer biomarker. To-date most research has focused on the biological consequences of DNA Methylscape changes whereas its impact on DNA physicochemical properties remains unexplored.

Inhibition of hepatic stellate cell proliferation by bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells via regulation of the cell cycle in rat.

The present study aimed to observe the effect of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in vitro on hepatic stellate cell (HSC) RhoA signaling factors and the expression of the cell cycle regulators P27 and cyclin D1. Rat HSC-T6 and fibroblast cells were divided into control, negative control and MSC experimental groups. The cell proliferation rate was examined using the WST8 assay.