The potential roles of salivary biomarkers in neurodegenerative diseases.

Current research efforts on neurodegenerative diseases are focused on identifying novel and reliable biomarkers for early diagnosis and insight into disease progression. Salivary analysis is gaining increasing interest as a promising source of biomarkers and matrices for measuring neurodegenerative diseases. Saliva collection offers multiple advantages over the currently detected biofluids as it is easily accessible, non-invasive, and repeatable, allowing early diagnosis and timely treatment of the diseases. Here, we review the existing findings on salivary biomarkers and address the potential value in diagnosing neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Based on the available research, ß-amyloid, tau protein, α-synuclein, DJ-1, Huntington protein in saliva profiles display reliability and validity as the biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases.

Bacterial nanocellulose membrane with opposite surface charges for large-scale and large-area osmotic energy harvesting and ion transport.

How to optimize ion-exchange membrane materials has been the key for researchers recently working on the use of reverse electrodialysis to harvest osmotic energy. Based on the considerations of improving membrane performance and conversion to large-area industrial production, this work first proposes an easy-industrialized strategy to treat bacterial cellulose membranes by hot pressing and hot pressing with etherification modification, and then to obtain anion-selective and cation-selective membrane pairs (PBC-M and NBC-M) with opposite charges. The PBC-M obtained by multi-step treatment has excellent hydrophobicity, good surface charge density, and more favorable nanochannel size for the functioning of double layer. The maximum output power density of 44.1 mW m-2 was obtained in artificial river water and seawater simulated salinity gradient power generation. Applied to a larger test area, the power output of the system where a single membrane is located can reach 2.2 × 10-3 mW, which is ahead of similar experimental products. The two membranes prepared can also be used in combination, which provides a new idea for full cell design. It's important to open up a new route for optimizing nanofluidic channel design, regulating ion flux transport, and advancing the large-scale industrialization of biomass nanofluidic membrane RED system.

Research on Cyanobacterial-Bloom Detection Based on Multispectral Imaging and Deep-Learning Method.

Frequent outbreaks of cyanobacterial blooms have become one of the most challenging water ecosystem issues and a critical concern in environmental protection. To overcome the poor stability of traditional detection algorithms, this paper proposes a method for detecting cyanobacterial blooms based on a deep-learning algorithm. An improved vegetation-index method based on a multispectral image taken by an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was adopted to extract inconspicuous spectral features of cyanobacterial blooms. To enhance the recognition accuracy of cyanobacterial blooms in complex scenes with noise such as reflections and shadows, an improved transformer model based on a feature-enhancement module and pixel-correction fusion was employed. The algorithm proposed in this paper was implemented in several rivers in China, achieving a detection accuracy of cyanobacterial blooms of more than 85%. The estimate of the proportion of the algae bloom contamination area and the severity of pollution were basically accurate. This paper can lay a foundation for ecological and environmental departments for the effective prevention and control of cyanobacterial blooms.

Comparative analysis of metabolic variations, antioxidant potential and cytotoxic effects in different parts of Chelidonium majus L.

Metabolic variations, antioxidant potential and cytotoxic effects were investigated in the different plant parts like the leaf, stem, flower, pod, and root of C. majus L. using spectroscopic and chromatographic methods. Total phenolics and flavonoids were studied in the different parts of C. majus L., leaf showed higher flavonoid content (137.43 mg/g), while the pod showed the highest phenolic (23.67 mg/g) content, when compared with the stem, flower and root. In the ABTS antioxidant assay, the flower extract showed 57.94% effect, while the leaf, pod and root extract exhibited 39.10%, 36.08% and 28.88% activity, respectively. The pod and leaf extracts demonstrated the potential effect, exhibiting 45.46 and 41.61% activity, respectively, for the DPPH assay. Similar to the phosphomolybdenum assay, the flower revealed higher antioxidant activity (46.82%) than the other plant parts. The in vitro SRB assay facilitated evaluation of the cytotoxic effect against the HeLa and CaSki human cervical cancerous cells. The extract displayed dose-dependent inhibitory effect on both the cell lines. The highest cytotoxic effect was observed in the pod and flower extracts post 48 h of exposure at 1000 µg/mL. The results of C. majus L. offered new insights in the preliminary steps regarding the development of a high value product for phytomedicine applications though promising metabolic variations with antioxidant and anticancer potentials.

Pectin in biomedical and drug delivery applications: A review.

Natural macromolecules have attracted increasing attention due to their biocompatibility, low toxicity, and biodegradability. Pectin is one of the few polysaccharides with biomedical activity, consequently a candidate in biomedical and drug delivery Applications. Rhamnogalacturonan-II, a smaller component in pectin, plays a major role in biomedical activities. The ubiquitous presence of hydroxyl and carboxyl groups in pectin contribute to their hydrophilicity and, hence, to the favorable biocompatibility, low toxicity, and biodegradability. However, pure pectin-based materials present undesirable swelling and corrosion properties. The hydrophilic groups, via coordination, electrophilic addition, esterification, transesterification reactions, can contribute to pectin's physicochemical properties. Here the properties, extraction, and modification of pectin, which are fundamental to biomedical and drug delivery applications, are reviewed. Moreover, the synthesis, properties, and performance of pectin-based hybrid materials, composite materials, and emulsions are elaborated. The comprehensive review presented here can provide valuable information on pectin and its biomedical and drug delivery applications.

DNA-Based Reprogramming Strategy of Receptor-Mediated Cellular Behaviors: From Genetic Encoding to Nongenetic Engineering.

The precise regulation of fundamental cellular behaviors, such as cell adhesion, proliferation, migration, differentiation, and cell-cell interactions, is essential in multicellular organisms. The regulation of cellular behaviors largely relies on the receptor-mediated sensing and transduction of the extracellular ligands. The precise manipulation of ligand-induced receptor activation via molecular engineering approaches will offer fundamental insight into physiological processes, facilitating the rational design of cell-based therapeutics to treat diseases. DNA is a highly attractive biomolecule as it works through either genetically encoding the functional protein or rationally fabricating functional nanomaterials. Recently accumulated research in functional nucleic acids and DNA nanotechnology makes it possible to construct dynamic and complex nanodevices to modulate receptor-mediated signaling and cellular behaviors. This review summarizes the recent advances in state-of-art of DNA technologies in engineering the interaction between ligand and cell-surface receptor, mainly highlighting the design principles and the emerging applications of DNA-based nongenetic engineering strategies for receptor-mediated cellular behaviors. We expect that significant advancements in DNA-based engineering strategies will enable the emergence of applications in cell-based therapy in regenerative medicine and cancer immunotherapy.

Regulating effect of baicalin on IKK/IKB/NF-kB signaling pathway and apoptosis-related proteins in rats with ulcerative colitis.

OBJECTIVE: This study was aimed to explore effect of baicalin on IKK/IKB/NF-kB signaling pathway and apoptosis-related proteins in rats with ulcerative colitis (UC). METHODS: Histopathological observation and scores of colon tissue were performed in the UC rat model. IKK/IKB/NF-kB signaling pathway and apoptosis-related proteins were measured by Western blotting. RESULTS: Baicalin significantly increased the activity of SOD, CAT and GSH-Px in colon tissue of rats with UC, but significantly decreased the content of MDA, IL-1ß, MPO, PEG2 and TNF-α in colon tissue of rats with UC. In the molecular mechanism, baicalin significantly decreased the expression of cleaved-caspase3, cleaved-caspase9, Bcl-2/Bax, cyt-c, NF-kB p-65, p-IKKß/IKKß and p-IKBα/IKBα. Baicalin could significantly inhibit p-IKBα/IKBα content change, but had no significant effect on p-IKKß/IKKß. CONCLUSION: Baicalin may have a regulating effect on IKK/IKB/NF-kB signaling pathway and apoptosis-related proteins in UC rats.

[Genotypes distribution of hepatitis C virus through multi-center, large sample studies among chronic hepatitis C patients in Chinese Han population].

OBJECTIVE: To understand the distribution of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes in China. METHODS: A national multi-center, large sample epidemiological survey was carried out and certified by an international third-party testing organization. Internationally accepted method for sequencing analysis of viral genotype was used. RESULTS: Patients were those suffered from the 4 major genotypes of chronic hepatitis C, including nine subtypes, which were dominated by genotype 1 (69.6%), with type 1b in particular (accounting for 68.38%). Among the rare gene-6, we saw more subtypes of 6a. In the south, central, and north areas, there was no significant difference seen between the south and the north areas in the distribution of the genotype 1. However, the rate of gene type 2a increased gradually from south to north. In terms of less common type of gene 3b and gene-6, they were seen mainly in the southern provinces. CONCLUSION: In China, Patients with chronic hepatitis C had 4 HCV genotypes, with 9 subtypes. The rarely seen genotypes 3b and 6 were mainly distributed in the southern provinces.