Construction of high internal phase Pickering emulsions using cold plasma modified soy protein isolate-proanthocyanidin complex.

Protein-based high internal phase Pickering emulsions (HIPPEs) feature numerous multi-functionalities and widespread applications. However, the direct use of native proteins for the constructions of HIPPEs is limited since it is fragile under various conditions. Here, cold plasma was used to modify soy protein isolates (SPI) to improve their surficial properties. Meanwhile, proanthocyanidins (PA) were applied to interact with cold plasma-treated SPI to form complex. Furthermore, the well-prepared SPI-PA complex was used to construct novel HIPPEs. Results showed cold plasma treatment significantly improved the functionalities of SPI, which were confirmed by surface hydrophobicity (H0 ＜ 500), sulfhydryl (SH) groups and spectral analysis. Further, the emulsification and oxidation resistance of cold plasma treated SPI were enhanced after forming complex with PA. Soybean oils can be stabilized by SPI-PA complexes to form HIPPEs with a lipid oxidation inhibition rate of ＞ 65%, creaming index (CI) ＞ 80%, excellent rheological properties and better stability compared with conventional emulsion systems. Overall, this SPI-PA complexes provides a unique approach to improve the emulsification and oxidation resistance to engineer HIPPEs with versatile applications.

Reducing traffic violations in the online food delivery industry-A case study in Xi'an City, China.

Online food delivery (OFD) is one of the top industries in the Online-to-offline (O2O) commerce sector. Deliverymen need to complete a large number of delivery orders in limited default time every day, which cause high working stress to them. Therefore, a high level of traffic violations and crashes by deliverymen and corresponding negative impact on public safety are observed. To reduce traffic violations by deliverymen and resulting crashes, a hierarchical online food delivery framework is proposed, which is based on data from questionnaire surveys conducted in Xi'an City, China. The study includes the analysis of the root cause correlated with traffic violations during online food delivery as part of an empirical study on the priority delivery fee by applying a conditional price sensitivity measurement (PSM) model. The feasibility and rationality of the framework are further investigated by using cross analysis of urban dwellers' occupation, income, and commuting cost. The results identify that, through rationally shunting the demand of online food delivery, prolonging the default delivery duration, and providing diversified delivery services, the proposed hierarchical online food delivery mechanism is able to relieve the stress of deliverymen during peak hours of food requests. This reduces the willingness of deliverymen to engage in traffic violations, and other risky behaviors during food delivery trips. All of which facilitate high-quality and timely online food delivery service while enabling improved safety of deliverymen and others as part of enhanced public safety and health.

Construction of novel magnetic nanoparticles for enrichment of benzo(α)pyrene from edible oils followed by HPLC determination.

A novel method for benzo(α)pyrene (Bαp) enrichment from an oil matrix was developed by using magnetic nanoparticles (Fe3O4@dopamine/graphene oxide, Fe3O4@DA/GO) as extraction absorbents, and the chemical properties of the synthesized nanoparticles were characterized. Various parameters were investigated to optimize the extraction of Bαp from oils. Under optimal conditions (pH, 4; extraction time, 0.5 min; elution solvent, 1 mL; absorbent weight, 20 mg; elution time, 0.5 min), these nanoparticles showed excellent abilities to enrich Bαp from the saponified oil solution and were easily separated by a magnet. High-performance liquid chromatography plus fluorescence detection (HPLC-FLD) was then applied to determine the Bαp content with excellent linearity (R2 = 0.999). The detection limit was 0.13 µg/kg, while the limit of quantification was 0.42 µg/kg. The spiked recoveries of Bαp in oils ranged from 73.5% to 121%. Compared with previous reports, the proposed method displayed many advantages, including a high efficiency of oil matrix removal, short extraction time, and convenient extraction procedure.

Structural characterization of modified whey protein isolates using cold plasma treatment and its applications in emulsion oleogels.

Cold plasma as a green and expeditious tool was used to modify whey protein isolate (WPI) in order to improve its emulsion capability. The emulsion-based oleogels with antibacterial functions were then constructed using the modified WPI. The modified WPI treated with cold plasma under 10 s at 50 W power significantly lowered the oil-water interface tension. Meanwhile, the fluorescence intensity and the α-helix content of WPI reduced with the cold plasma treatment. It is noted that SEM results showed that the treated WPI had more regular dendritic structures. Such modified WPI was applied to construct oleogels loaded with thyme essential oil and coconut oil, which showed a porous uniform network structure and excellent antimicrobial activities against E.coli. As a proof of concept, this study demonstrated cold plasma could be as a new facile tool to modify food-sourced proteins and expected to enlarge their applications in oleogel productions.

Natural Polyphenol-Vanadium Oxide Nanozymes for Synergistic Chemodynamic/Photothermal Therapy.

The selection of suitable nanozymes with easy synthesis, tumor specificity, multifunction, and high therapeutics is meaningful for tumor therapy. Herein, a facile one-step assembly approach was employed to successfully prepare a novel kind of natural polyphenol tannic acid (TA) hybrid with mixed valence vanadium oxide nanosheets (TA@VOx NSs). In this system, VOx is assembled with TA through metal-phenolic coordination interaction to both introduce superior peroxidase-like activity and high near infrared (NIR) absorption owing to partial reduction of vanadium from V5+ to V4+ . The presence of mixed valence vanadium oxide in TA@VOx NSs is proved to be the key for the catalytic reaction of hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2 ) to . OH, and the corresponding catalytic mechanism of H2 O2 by TA@VOx NSs is proposed. Benefitting from such peroxidase-like activity of TA@VOx NSs, the overproduced H2 O2 of the tumor microenvironment allows the realization of tumor-specific chemodynamic therapy (CDT). As a valid supplement to CDT, the NIR absorption enables TA@VOx NSs to have NIR light-mediated conversion ability for photothermal therapy (PTT) of cancers. Furthermore, in vitro and in vivo experiments confirmed that TA@VOx NSs can effectively inhibit the growth of tumors by synergistic CDT/PTT. These results offer a promising way to develop novel vanadium oxide-based nanozymes for enhanced synergistic tumor-specific treatment.

Hemophilia Gene Therapy: New Development from Bench to Bed Side.

Novel gene therapy strategies have changed the prognosis of many inherited diseases in recent years. New development in genetic tools and study models has brought us closer to a complete cure for hemophilia. This review will address the latest gene therapy research in hemophilia A and B including gene therapy tools, genetic strategies and animal models. It also summarizes the results of recent clinical trials. Potential solutions are discussed regarding the current barriers in gene therapy for hemophilia.

NIR-II light-modulated thermosensitive hydrogel for light-triggered cisplatin release and repeatable chemo-photothermal therapy.

Cisplatin is one of the most effective chemotherapeutic agents, although its clinical use is limited by severe nephrotoxicity. Multifunctional platform for spatiotemporally controlled delivery of cisplatin and multimodal synergistic therapy is highly desirable in antitumor research. Herein, for the first time, an injectable, NIR-II light-modulated and thermosensitive hydrogel is synthesized through supramolecular self-assembly of a conjugated polymer and α-cyclodextrin. This hydrogel intrinsically features NIR responsive characteristics and thermo-responsive properties. The conjugated polymer (poly(N-phenylglycine)) not only tethers the poly(ethylene glycol) chains to enable the hydrogel formation, but also serves as the NIR-absorbing mediators. Accordingly, one particular benefit of this hydrogel is that its building blocks absorb NIR-II light and mediate the photothermal conversion itself, offering the important advantage of a prolonged retention time and thus permitting repeatable treatment upon a single-injection of this hydrogel. Under NIR-II laser irradiation, the localized photothermal effect not only ablates the highly metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), but also triggers the on-demand cisplatin release through the thermo-responsive gel-sol transition, thus resulting in enhanced antitumor activity and reduced off-target toxicity. This work not only provides a novel multifunctional platform for NIR-triggered cisplatin release and chemo-photothermal combination therapy, but also presents a promising strategy for the rational design of NIR light-responsive hydrogels for the intervention of highly aggressive cancers.

Poly(N-phenylglycine)-Based Nanoparticles as Highly Effective and Targeted Near-Infrared Photothermal Therapy/Photodynamic Therapeutic Agents for Malignant Melanoma.

Malignant melanoma is a highly aggressive tumor resistant to chemotherapy. Therefore, the development of new highly effective therapeutic agents for the treatment of malignant melanoma is highly desirable. In this study, a new class of polymeric photothermal agents based on poly(N-phenylglycine) (PNPG) suitable for use in near-infrared (NIR) phototherapy of malignant melanoma is designed and developed. PNPG is obtained via polymerization of N-phenylglycine (NPG). Carboxylate functionality of NPG allows building multifunctional systems using covalent bonding. This approach avoids complicated issues typically associated with preparation of polymeric photothermal agents. Moreover, PNPG skeleton exhibits pH-responsive NIR absorption and an ability to generate reactive oxygen species, which makes its derivatives attractive photothermal therapy (PTT)/photodynamic therapy (PDT) dual-modal agents with pH-responsive features. PNPG is modified using hyaluronic acid (HA) and polyethylene glycol diamine (PEG-diamine) acting as the coupling agent. The resultant HA-modified PNPG (PNPG-PEG-HA) shows negligible cytotoxicity and effectively targets CD44-overexpressing cancer cells. Furthermore, the results of in vitro and in vivo experiments reveal that PNPG-PEG-HA selectively kills B16 cells and suppresses malignant melanoma tumor growth upon exposure to NIR light (808 nm), indicating that PNPG-PEG-HA can serve as a very promising nanoplatform for targeted dual-modality PTT/PDT of melanoma.

Profiling of differentially expressed genes in sheep T lymphocytes response to an artificial primary Haemonchus contortus infection.

BACKGROUND: Haemonchus contortus is a common bloodsucking nematode causing widespread economic loss in agriculture. Upon H. contortus infection, a series of host responses is elicited, especially those related to T lymphocyte immunity. Existing studies mainly focus on the general immune responses of sheep T lymphocyte to H. contortus, lacking investigations at the molecular level. The objective of this study was to obtain a systematic transcriptional profiling of the T lymphocytes in H. contortus primary-infected sheep. METHODS: Nematode-free sheep were orally infected once with H. contortus L3s. T lymphocyte samples were collected from the peripheral blood of 0, 3, 30 and 60 days post infection (dpi) infected sheep. Microarrays were used to compare gene transcription levels between samples. Quantitative RT-PCR was employed to validate the microarray data. Gene Ontology and KEGG pathway analysis were utilized for the annotation of differentially expressed genes. RESULTS: Our microarray data was consistent with qPCR results. From microarrays, 853, 242 and 42 differentially expressed genes were obtained in the 3d vs. 0d, 30d vs. 0d and 60d vs. 0d comparison groups, respectively. Gene Ontology and KEGG pathway analysis indicated that these genes were involved in metabolism, signaling, cell growth and immune system processes. Functional analysis of significant differentially expressed genes, such as SLC9A3R2, ABCB9, COMMD4, SUGT1, FCER1G, GSK3A, PAK4 and FCER2, revealed a crucial association with cellular homeostasis maintenance and immune response. Our data suggested that maintaining both effective immunological response and natural cellular activity are important for T lymphocytes in fighting against H. contortus infection. CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide a substantial list of candidate genes in sheep T lymphocytes response to H. contortus infection, and contribute novel insights into a general immune response upon infection.

Expression of Caenorhabditis elegans-expressed Trans-HPS, partial aminopeptidase H11 from Haemonchus contortus.

Aminopeptidase H11 present in the surface of intestine microvilli in Haemonchus contortus was identified as the most effective antigen candidate. However, its recombinant forms produced in Escherichiacoli, insect cells and yeast could not provide promising protection against H. contortus challenge, probably due to the inappropriate glycosylation and/or conformational folding. Herein, partial H11 containing the potential zinc-binding domain and two predicted glycosylation sites (nt 1 bp-1710 bp, Trans-HPS) was subcloned downstream of 5' flanking region of Caenorhabditis elegans cpr-1 gene in pPD95.77 vector, with the deletion of GFP gene. The recombinant was expressed in C. elegans and verified by blotting with anti-H11 and anti-Trans-HPS rabbit polyclonal antibodies and anti-His monoclonal antibody. Stably inherited Trans-HPS in worm descendants was achieved by integration using UV irradiation. Immunization with the crude Trans-HPS extracted from transgenic worms resulted in 37.71% reduction in faecal egg counts (FEC) (P<0.05) and 24.91% reduction in worm burden, but an upward curve with moderate rate of daily FEC in goats. These results suggested an apparent delay against H. contortus egg-laying in goats, which differed from that with bacteria-origin form of partial H11 (nt 670 bp-1710 bp, HPS) (26.04% reduction in FEC and 18.46% reduction in worm burden). These findings indicate the feasibility of sufficient C. elegans-expressed H11 for the immunological research and vaccine development.