Single-cell sequencing technologies in bladder cancer research: Applications and challenges.

Bladder cancer is among the most common malignant tumors with highly heterogeneous molecular characteristics. Despite advancements of the available therapeutic options, several bladder cancer patients exhibit unsatisfactory clinical outcomes. The lack of specific biomarkers for effective targeted therapy or immunotherapy remains a major obstacle in treating bladder cancer. The rapid development of single-cell techniques is transforming our understanding of the intra-tumoral heterogeneity, thereby providing us with a powerful high-throughput sequencing tool that can reveal tumorigenesis, progression, and invasion in bladder tumors. In this review, we summarise and discuss how single-cell sequencing technologies have been applied in bladder cancer research, to advance our collective knowledge on the heterogeneity of bladder tumor cells, as well as to provide new insights into the complex ecosystem of the tumor microenvironment. The application of single-cell approaches also uncovers the therapeutic resistance mechanism in bladder cancer and facilitates the detection of urinary-exfoliated tumor cells. Moreover, benefiting from the powerful technical advantages of single-cell techniques, several key therapeutic targets and prognostic models of bladder cancer have been identified. It is hoped that this paper can provide novel insights into the precision medicine of bladder cancer.

Single-cell RNA-seq of UVB-radiated skin reveals landscape of photoaging-related inflammation and protection by vitamin D.

Ultraviolet rays are a potential threat to nature. It can accelerate skin aging by causing skin damage, cell infiltration, and inflammation. The present study investigated UV-irradiated mouse skin through single-cell sequencing. We observed that UV-irradiated mouse skin mainly induced inflammation of fibroblasts and demonstrated differential gene expression. Cell prediction revealed the significance of macrophages in tissue repair. Furthermore, cell culture studies substantiated vitamin D-induced inhibitory effect on skin inflammation. These findings thus indicate some references for skin photo-protection.

A persistent luminescence resonance energy transfer-based molecular beacon probe for the highly sensitive detection of microRNA in biological samples.

Herein, a time-resolved luminescence resonance energy transfer (TR-LRET) molecular beacon (MB) probe employing persistent luminescence nanoparticles (PLNPs) as the energy donors was first constructed, and further designed for microRNA21 (miR21) sensing. This probe (named as PLNPs-MB) was facilely fabricated by covalent bioconjugation between poly-(acrylic acid) (PAA) modified near-infrared (NIR) emissive PLNPs i.e. ZnGa2O4:Cr3+ and functionalized MB oligonucleotide (5'-NH2 and 3'-BHQ3). Accordingly, PLNPs and BHQ3 were in close proximity to each other, leading to the occurrence of LRET and obvious persistent luminescence (PL) quenching. In the presence of miR21, loop of the PLNP-MB was hybridized, accompanying BHQ3 away from PLNPs and the restraint of LRET process. As a result, PL of the PLNPs was recovered, which built the foundation of miR21 quantification. The probe provided a linear response range from 0.1 to 10 nM for miR21 detection. Quantification limit of this probe was competitive and about 1-2 orders of magnitude lower than that of other reported MB probes for nucleic acid. Moreover, the proposed probe was successfully adopted for miR21 detection in biological fluids (human serum, cell extraction). This work also provided a sensitive detection nanoplatform for other targets through modifying diverse MBs onto the surface of PLNPs.

Synthesis and promotion angiogenesis effect of chrysin derivatives coupled to NO donors.

Two types of new chrysin derivatives were prepared by coupling NO donors of alkyl nitrate and furazan derivatives and were fully characterized by (1)H NMR and other techniques. These compounds were tested in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs-12) and all the compounds exhibited cell proliferation. Notable effects of promoting angiogenesis were observed for all the modified compounds using chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay.

Correlation between the glass transition temperatures and repeating unit structure for high molecular weight polymers.

A set of five-parameter descriptors, sum MV(ter)(R(ter)), L(F), DeltaX(SB), sum PEI, and Q(+/-), are developed to express the chain stiffness (or mobility) and the intermolecular forces of polymers. Investigated results show a good correlation (R = 0.9517, R(2) = 0.9056, s = 20.86 K) between the glass transition temperatures (T(g)s) and the five parameters for a diverse set of 88 polymers. The descriptors are easy to calculate directly from the repeating unit structure and have clear physical meanings. This approach provides a new insight for Quantitative Structure-Property Relationship (QSPR) correlation of glass transition temperatures of high molecular weight polymers.