Insight Into Biological Targets and Molecular Mechanisms in the Treatment of Arsenic-Related Dermatitis With Vitamin A via Integrated in silico Approach.

Exposure to arsenic (As), an inorganic poison, may lead to skin lesions, including dermatitis. Vitamin A (VA), a fat-soluble vitamin essential for mucous membrane integrity, plays a key role in skin protection. Although the beneficial actions of VA are known, the anti-As-related dermatitis effects of VA action remain unclear. Hence, in this study, we aimed to interpret and identify the core target genes and therapeutic mechanisms of VA action in the treatment of As-related dermatitis through integrated in silico approaches of network pharmacology and molecular docking. We integrated the key VA-biological target-signaling pathway-As-related dermatitis networks for identifying core drug targets and interaction pathways associated with VA action. The network pharmacology data indicated that VA may possess potential activity for treating As-related dermatitis through the effective regulation of core target genes. An enrichment analysis in biological processes further revealed multiple immunoregulation-associated functions, including interferon-gamma production and negative regulation of T-cell activation and production of molecular mediator of immune response. An enrichment analysis in molecular pathways mainly uncovered multiple biological signaling, including natural killer cell mediated cytotoxicity, autophagy, apoptosis, necroptosis, platelet activation involved in cell fate, and immunity regulations. Molecular docking study was used to identify docked well core target proteins with VA, including Jun, tumor protein p53 (TP53), mitogen-activated protein kinase-3 (MAPK3), MAPK1, and MAPK14. In conclusion, the potential use of VA may suppress the inflammatory stress and enhance the immunity against As-related dermatitis. In the future, VA might be useful in the treatment of dermatitis associated with As through multi-targets and multi-pathways in clinical practice.

Cell-modified plasmonic interface for the signal-amplified detection of Cucurbitacin E.

Cucurbitacin E (CuE) plays an important role in anticancer, antichemical carcinogenesis, and body immunity, etc., and the detection of its concentration is meaningful to pharmacological studies and clinical applications. However, the small molecular weight of CuE makes direct detection difficult through a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor. In this work, we propose a cells-amplified signal strategy at the plasmonic interface, realizing the detection of CuE with ultra-low concentration. The seeded HeLa cells are modified onto the surface of the SPR sensor, and a small amount of CuE can lead to the remarkable morphology change of cells and the release of cell-related substances onto the plamonic interface, thus significantly amplifying the signal. Experimental results show that by using an unmodified SPR sensor with the bulk refractive index sensitivity of 2367.3 nm/RIU (RIU: refractive index unit), there no effective signal can be detected during the CuE concentration range of 0-100 nM; whereas, employing the proposed strategy, the signal for CuE detection can be significantly enhanced, resulting in a high detection sensitivity of 0.6196 nm/nM, corresponding to a limit of detection of 45.2 pM (25.2 pg/mL). The proposed cells-based signal amplifying strategy shows great potential applications in drug screening or bio-sensing to small molecules with low concentration.

Tungsten disulfide (WS2) based all-fiber-optic humidity sensor.

We demonstrate a novel all-fiber-optic humidity sensor comprised of a WS2 film overlay on a side polished fiber (SPF). This sensor can achieve optical power variation of up to 6 dB in a relative humidity (RH) range of 35%-85%. In particular, this novel humidity fiber sensor has a linear correlation coefficient of 99.39%, sensitivity of 0.1213 dB/%RH, and a humidity resolution of 0.475%RH. Furthermore, this sensor shows good repeatability and reversibility, and fast response to breath stimulus. This WS2 based all-fiber optic humidity sensor is easy to fabricate, is compatible with pre-established fiber optic systems, and holds great potential in photonics applications such as in all-fiber optic humidity sensing networks.

[Design and Optimization of Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensor Based on Side Polished Single-Mode Fiber].

Fiber-coupling surface Plasmon resonance sensor has attractive advantages of information transmission such as small volume, anti-electric magnetic field interference, and online real-time remote detection. In order to improve the performance of the sensor, the effect of the residual fiber thickness and the silver film thickness to the sensitivity of the sensor and the depth of the resonance peaks and full width ar half maximum (FWHM) are analyzed respectively. The results show that the increasing fiber residual thickness weakens the SPR phenomenon, and that the increasing silver film thickness widens the resonance peak, while the sensitivity of the sensor does not change monotonously. Through the integration of refractive index sensing sensitivity and full width at half maximum, figure of merit is presented and regarded as the optimized objective. The optimal design is achieved in the case of the fiber residual thickness for 66. 5 µm, and the silver film thickness for 50 nm. The optimized design with the figure of merit of 98. 67 is expected to be applied in the bio-chemical sensing and analysis.