Curcumin-Dichloroacetate Hybrid Molecule as an Antitumor Oral Drug against Multidrug-Resistant Advanced Bladder Cancers.

Tumor cells produce excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) but cannot detoxify ROS if they are due to an external agent. An agent that produces toxic levels of ROS, specifically in tumor cells, could be an effective anticancer drug. CMC-2 is a molecular hybrid of the bioactive polyphenol curcumin conjugated to dichloroacetate (DCA) via a glycine bridge.

Monosilicon Derivatives of Phenanthrene and Pyrene as Potential Singlet Fission Materials for High-Performance Solar Cells.

Singlet fission (SF) is a process in which the energy of a singlet-excited molecule is divided into two triplet excitations. This is a special case of an internal conversion that is spin-allowed and extremely fast. Ideally, this process utilizes one photon to produce two electron-hole pairs.

Ethnobotanical survey of medicinal and ritual plants utilized by the indigenous communities of Benguet province, Philippines.

Background: The Sto. Niño site in Benguet province, Philippines was once a mining area that has now been transformed into an agricultural land. In this area, there has been significant integration of the three indigenous people (IPs) Ibaloi, Kankanaeys and Kalanguyas with the Ilocano community.

Caught in the crossfire: biodiversity conservation paradox of sociopolitical conflict.

The current state of global biodiversity is confronted with escalating threats arising from human-induced environmental changes and a growing array of unpredictable challenges. However, effective conservation efforts are often hindered by limited knowledge, especially in developing economies such as the Philippines. The limitations imposed by these shortfalls in biodiversity knowledge hamper the capacity to protect biodiversity in light of the continuing extinction crisis.

Troriluzole rescues glutamatergic deficits, amyloid and tau pathology, and synaptic and memory impairments in 3xTg-AD mice.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative condition in which clinical symptoms are highly correlated with the loss of glutamatergic synapses. While later stages of AD are associated with markedly decreased glutamate levels due to neuronal loss, in the early stages, pathological accumulation of glutamate and hyperactivity contribute to AD pathology and cognitive dysfunction. There is increasing awareness that presynaptic dysfunction, particularly synaptic vesicle (SV) alterations, play a key role in mediating this early-stage hyperactivity.

Acceptability of heart rate-based remote monitoring of smoking status.

Introduction: Digital interventions present a scalable solution to overcome barriers to smoking cessation treatment, and changes in resting heart rate (HR) may offer a viable option for monitoring smoking status remotely. The goal of this study was to explore the acceptability of using smartphone cameras and activity trackers to measure heart rate for use in a smoking cessation intervention.

Methods: Participants (N=410), most of whom identified as female (75.

The Cerebellum Is Sensitive to the Lexical Properties of Words During Spoken Language Comprehension.

Over the past few decades, research into the function of the cerebellum has expanded far beyond the motor domain. A growing number of studies are probing the role of specific cerebellar subregions, such as Crus I and Crus II, in higher-order cognitive functions including receptive language processing. In the current fMRI study, we show evidence for the cerebellum's sensitivity to variation in two well-studied psycholinguistic properties of words-lexical frequency and phonological neighborhood density-during passive, continuous listening of a podcast.

Feasibility and Acceptability of a Mobile Game to Support Smoking Cessation: Repeated Measures Study.

Background: Approximately half of smokers attempt to quit, but 90% of these attempts fail. Video game-based interventions have the potential to address common barriers to evidence-based smoking cessation treatment, including high cost, lack of health care access, and low engagement.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a video game-based smoking cessation intervention called Inspired and its impact on the 7-day smoking point prevalence at the 30-day follow-up.

Monitoring lipopolysaccharide-induced macrophage polarization by surface-enhanced Raman scattering.

Macrophages are among the most important components of the innate immune system where the interaction of pathogens and their phagocytosis occur as the first barrier of immunity. When nanomaterials interact with the human body, they have to face macrophages as well. Thus, understanding of nanomaterials-macrophage interactions and underlying mechanisms is crucial.

A metagenomics-based approach to decipher the resistome and mobilome of two seahorse species, Hippocampus barbouri and Hippocampus comes.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the abundance and diversity of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in seahorses (Hippocampus barbouri and Hippocampus comes) and their surrounding environment.

Methods: A combination of shotgun metagenomics and bioinformatics was used to investigate the resistome of both seahorse species.

Results: The analyses demonstrated a higher abundance of ARGs in seahorse-associated microbiomes, particularly in skin and gut samples, compared to those from water and sediment.

Homeostatic Synaptic Plasticity of Miniature Excitatory Postsynaptic Currents in Mouse Cortical Cultures Requires Neuronal Rab3A.

Following prolonged activity blockade, amplitudes of miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents (mEPSCs) increase, a form of plasticity termed "homeostatic synaptic plasticity." We previously showed that a presynaptic protein, the small GTPase Rab3A, is required for full expression of the increase in miniature endplate current amplitudes following prolonged blockade of action potential activity at the mouse neuromuscular junction in vivo (Wang et al., 2011), but it is unknown whether this form of Rab3A-dependent homeostatic plasticity shares any characteristics with central synapses.

Adaptive Filtering with Fitted Noise Estimate (AFFiNE): Blink Artifact Correction in Simulated and Real P300 Data.

(1) Background: The electroencephalogram (EEG) is frequently corrupted by ocular artifacts such as saccades and blinks. Methods for correcting these artifacts include independent component analysis (ICA) and recursive-least-squares (RLS) adaptive filtering (-AF). Here, we introduce a new method, AFFiNE, that applies Bayesian adaptive regression spline (BARS) fitting to the adaptive filter's reference noise input to address the known limitations of both ICA and RLS-AF, and then compare the performance of all three methods.

Possible roles of phytochemicals with bioactive properties in the prevention of and recovery from COVID-19.

Introduction: There have been large geographical differences in the infection and death rates of COVID-19. Foods and beverages containing high amounts of phytochemicals with bioactive properties were suggested to prevent contracting and to facilitate recovery from COVID-19. The goal of our study was to determine the correlation of the type of foods/beverages people consumed and the risk reduction of contracting COVID-19 and the recovery from COVID-19.

Complete genome sequence of O157:H7 phage Φ241.

We report the genome sequence of phage Φ241 infecting O157:H7. Phage Φ241 was isolated from an industrial cucumber fermentation at high acidity (pH 3.7) and high salinity (5% NaCl).

Pathways to therapy resistance: The sheltering effect of the bone marrow microenvironment to multiple myeloma cells.

Multiple Myeloma (MM) is a malignant expansion of plasma cells in the bone marrow (BM), resulting in a disease characterized by symptoms of end organ damage from light chain secretion, crowding of the BM, and bone lesions. Although the past two decades have been characterized by numerous novel therapies emerging, the disease remains incurable due to intrinsic or acquired drug resistance. A major player in MM's drug resistance arises from its intimate relationship with the BM microenvironment (BMME).

Correction: Hale et al. Differential Expression Profiling Reveals Stress-Induced Cell Fate Divergence in Soybean Microspores. 2020, , 1510.

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Fine-scale characterization of the soybean rhizosphere microbiome via synthetic long reads and avidity sequencing.

Background: The rhizosphere microbiome displays structural and functional dynamism driven by plant, microbial, and environmental factors. While such plasticity is a well-evidenced determinant of host health, individual and community-level microbial activity within the rhizosphere remain poorly understood, due in part to the insufficient taxonomic resolution achieved through traditional marker gene amplicon sequencing. This limitation necessitates more advanced approaches (e.

Effects of Cannabis on Glutamatergic Neurotransmission: The Interplay between Cannabinoids and Glutamate.

There has been a significant increase in the consumption of cannabis for both recreational and medicinal purposes in recent years, and its use can have long-term consequences on cognitive functions, including memory. Here, we review the immediate and long-term effects of cannabis and its derivatives on glutamatergic neurotransmission, with a focus on both the presynaptic and postsynaptic alterations. Several factors can influence cannabinoid-mediated changes in glutamatergic neurotransmission, including dosage, sex, age, and frequency of use.

A comparative metabolomics analysis of Açaí (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) fruit, food powder, and botanical dietary supplement extracts.

Introduction: Euterpe oleracea Mart. (açaí) is a botanical of interest to many who seek functional foods that provide antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Cancer patients are increasingly taking botanical dietary supplements containing açaí to complement their conventional therapeutics, which may lead to serious adverse events.

A prognostic matrix gene expression signature defines functional glioblastoma phenotypes and niches.

Background: Interactions among tumor, immune, and vascular niches play major roles in driving glioblastoma (GBM) malignancy and treatment responses. The composition, heterogeneity, and localization of extracellular core matrix proteins (CMPs) that mediate such interactions, however, are not well understood.

Methods: Here, through computational genomics and proteomics approaches, we analyzed the functional and clinical relevance of CMP expression in GBM at bulk, single cell, and spatial anatomical resolution.