To realize high performance anion exchange membranes (AEMs) for alkaline fuel cells (AFCs), a series of quaternized poly(ether sulfone)s (PESs) with different lengths of flexible spacers linking ...cationic groups and the backbone was synthesized via nucleophilic polycondensation, demethylation and Williamson reactions. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) phase images show clear hydrophilic/hydrophobic phase separation for all the side-chain-type AEMs. The PES-n-QA membrane with hexyleneoxy spacers (n = 6) between the cationic groups and backbone (benzene ring) exhibited the maximum conductivity of 62.7 mS cm-1 (IEC = 1.48 meq. g-1) at 80 degree C. The AEM materials are found to have an improved long-term alkaline stability by extending the length of the flexible spacer (n greater than or equal to 4). The PES-12-QA membrane with a flexible dodeceneoxy spacer demonstrated the highest alkaline stability, where the conductivity and IEC only decreased by 8.1% and 6.9% after immersing in a 1 M aqueous KOH solution at 60 degree C for 720 h. Furthermore, the single fuel cell performance test using PES-6-QA as an AEM showed a maximum power density of 108.3 mW cm-2 at a current density of 250 mA cm-2 at 60 degree C.
Xpert Xpress Flu/RSV is a fast and automated real-time nucleic acid amplification tool for detecting influenza virus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The aim of this study was to verify the ...accuracy of Xpert Xpress Flu/RSV for detecting influenza virus and RSV. PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases were searched up to October 2020. The quality of the original research was assessed using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 guidelines. Meta-DiSc 1.4 software was used to analyze the sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio, and summary receiver operating characteristic curve. Deek’s funnel plot asymmetry test was used to evaluate the publication bias using the Stata 12.0 software. Ten studies with 25 fourfold tables were included in the analysis. The sensitivity of Xpert Xpress Flu/RSV for detecting influenza A, influenza B, and RSV were 0.97, 0.98, and 0.96, respectively, and the specificities were 0.97, 1.00, and 1.00, respectively. Compared with other common clinical real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), Xpert Xpress Flu/RSV is a valuable tool for diagnosing influenza virus and RSV with high sensitivity and specificity.
Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease triggered by oral ingestion of gluten, with certain gluten residues resistant to digestive tract enzymes. Within the duodenum, the remaining peptides incite ...immunogenic responses, including the generation of autoantibodies and inflammation, leading to irreversible damage. Our previous exploration unveiled a glutenase called Bga1903 derived from the Gram-negative bacterium
. The cleavage pattern of Bga1903 indicates its moderate ability to mitigate the toxicity of pro-immunogenic peptides. The crystal structure of Bga1903, along with the identification of subsites within its active site, was determined. To improve its substrate specificity toward prevalent motifs like QPQ within gluten peptides, the active site of Bga1903 underwent site-directed mutagenesis according to structural insights and enzymatic kinetics. Among the double-site mutants, E380Q/S387L exhibits an approximately 34-fold increase in its specificity constant toward the QPQ sequence, favoring glutamines at the P1 and P3 positions compared to the wild type. The increased specificity of E380Q/S387L not only enhances its ability to break down pro-immunogenic peptides but also positions this enzyme variant as a promising candidate for oral therapy for celiac disease.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
A one-step microwave-assisted polyol method was developed to fabricate green luminescent carbon dots (CDs). By using sucrose as the carbon source and diethylene glycol (DEG) as the reaction medium, ...the CDs were obtained within one minute under microwave irradiation. The as-prepared DEG stabilized CDs (DEG-CDs) had an average diameter about 5nm and could be readily dispersed in water with transparent appearance in day light while emitted unique green luminescence upon a 360nm excitation. Moreover, these green luminescent DEG-CDs could be efficiently uptaken by C6 glioma cells and exhibited a low cytotoxicity, suggesting their potentials in bio-imaging applications.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Hot spot gene mutations in splicing factor 3b subunit 1 (SF3B1) are observed in many types of cancer and create abundant aberrant mRNA splicing, which is profoundly implicated in tumorigenesis. Here, ...we identified that the SF3B1 K700E (SF3B1K700E) mutation is strongly associated with tumor growth in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Knockdown of SF3B1 significantly retarded cell proliferation and tumor growth in a cell line (Panc05.04) with the SF3B1K700E mutation. However, SF3B1 knockdown had no notable effect on cell proliferation in two cell lines (BxPC3 and AsPC1) carrying wild‐type SF3B1. Ectopic expression of SF3B1K700E but not SF3B1WT in SF3B1‐knockout Panc05.04 cells largely restored the inhibitory role induced by SF3B1 knockdown. Introduction of the SF3B1K700E mutation in BxPC3 and AsPC1 cells also boosted cell proliferation. Gene set enrichment analysis demonstrated a close correlation between SF3B1 mutation and aerobic glycolysis. Functional analyses showed that the SF3B1K700E mutation promoted tumor glycolysis, as evidenced by glucose consumption, lactate release, and extracellular acidification rate. Mechanistically, the SF3B1 mutation promoted the aberrant splicing of PPP2R5A and led to the activation of the glycolytic regulator c‐Myc via post‐translational regulation. Pharmacological activation of PP2A with FTY‐720 markedly compromised the growth advantage induced by the SF3B1K700E mutation in vitro and in vivo. Taken together, our data suggest a novel function for SF3B1 mutation in the Warburg effect, and this finding may offer a potential therapeutic strategy against PDAC with the SF3B1K700E mutation.
SF3B1 mutations have been previously implicated in tumorigenesis. Here, we investigate the role of SF3B1K700E mutation in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). SF3B1K700E led to aberrant splicing of PPP2R5A, coupled with c‐Myc activation higher aerobic glycolysis rate and growth advantage of tumor cells. Taken together, our data describe a novel function for SF3B1 K700E mutations in the Warburg effect. Inhibition of SF3B1 K700E mutation may potentially serve as a novel therapeutic strategy for patients with PDAC.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
In this work, shrimp shell waste was used as a novel precursor for the production of a net-like porous activated carbon by solution-processed carbonization and chemical activation with phosphoric ...acid (H3PO4). The H3PO4 activation of activated carbon from shrimp shell (PS-Ac) was characterized in terms of textural, surface and morphological properties by N2 sorption, Raman, HR-TEM and SEM-EDS analyses. It showed that PS-Ac was a net-like porous material with mesoporous structures. The average pore size and BET surface area were 4.5nm and 560.6m2g−1, respectively. The obtained PS-Ac was then employed for the adsorption of methylene blue (MB) dyes and systematically investigated the effect of solution pH, initial concentration, contact time and temperature for MB adsorption. Experimental data were well described by the Langmuir isotherm and the pseudo-second order model with the maximum adsorption capacity of 826mgg−1(MB), which showed to be high compared to other ACs reported in the literature. Thermodynamic parameters indicated that PS-Ac for MB adsorption process was spontaneous and endothermic. Moreover, coupled with experimental results, FT-IR and XPS analysis suggested that the adsorption mechanism of MB onto PS-Ac was possible attributed to electrostatic interaction between the surface of functional groups (PO43−, COO−, O) on adsorbent and the cation ions MB-N+ in the basic solution.
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•Net-like porous of PS-Ac was developed by carbonization and H3PO4 activation.•The surface of PS-Ac possessed abundance of phosphate, hydroxyl and carboxyl groups.•PS-Ac exhibited excellent effect for MB dyes with qmax of 828mgg−1.•Mechanism for MB adsorption on PS-Ac was elucidated.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Dengue fever virus (DENV) is a global health threat that is becoming increasingly critical. However, the pathogenesis of dengue has not yet been fully elucidated. In this study, we employed ...bioinformatics analysis to identify potential biomarkers related to dengue fever and clarify their underlying mechanisms. The results showed that there were 668, 1901, and 8283 differentially expressed genes between the dengue-infected samples and normal samples in the GSE28405, GSE38246, and GSE51808 datasets, respectively. Through overlapping, a total of 69 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, of which 51 were upregulated and 18 were downregulated. We identified twelve hub genes, including MX1, IFI44L, IFI44, IFI27, ISG15, STAT1, IFI35, OAS3, OAS2, OAS1, IFI6, and USP18. Except for IFI44 and STAT1, the others were statistically significant after validation. We predicted the related microRNAs (miRNAs) of these 12 target genes through the database miRTarBase, and finally obtained one important miRNA: has-mir-146a-5p. In addition, gene ontology (GO) and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment were carried out, and a protein–protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed to gain insight into the actions of DEGs. In conclusion, our study displayed the effectiveness of bioinformatics analysis methods in screening potential pathogenic genes in dengue fever and their underlying mechanisms. Further, we successfully predicted IFI44L and IFI6, as potential biomarkers with DENV infection, providing promising targets for the treatment of dengue fever to a certain extent.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Cryptococcus is a conditional pathogenic fungus causing cryptococcosis, which is one of the most serious fungal diseases faced by humans. Lateral flow immunochromatographic assay (LFA) is ...successfully applied to the rapid detection of cryptococcal antigens. Studies were retrieved systematically from the Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library before July 2019. The quality of the studies was assessed by Review Manager 5.0 based on the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Study guidelines. The extracted data from the included studies were analyzed by Meta-DiSc 1.4. Stata 12.0 software was used to detect the publication bias. A total of 15 articles with 31 fourfold tables were adopted by inclusion and exclusion criteria. The merged sensitivity and specificity in serum were 0.98 and 0.98, respectively, and those in the cerebrospinal fluid were 0.99 and 0.99, respectively. Compared to the urine and other samples, LFA in serum and cerebrospinal fluid is favorable evidence for the diagnosis of cryptococcosis with high specificity and sensitivity.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Tremendous research efforts have been devoted to fabricating high quality quantum dots (QDs) for applications in biology and medicine. Much of this research was pursued with an ultimate goal of using ...QDs in clinical applications. However, a great deal of concern has been voiced about the potential hazards of QDs due to their heavy-metal content. Many studies have demonstrated toxicity of various QDs in cell culture studies. However, in a smaller number of studies using small animal models (mice and rats), no abnormal behaviour or tissue damage was noticed over periods of months after the systemic administration of QDs. Nevertheless, the correlation of these results with the potential for negative effects of QD on humans remains unclear. Many urgent questions must be answered before the QDs community moves into the clinical research phase. This review provides an overview of the toxicity assessment of QDs, ranging from cell culture studies to animal models and discusses their findings. Guidelines for using various nonhuman primate models for QD toxicity studies are highlighted. This review article is intended to promote the awareness of current developments of QD applications in biology, the potential toxicity of QDs, and approaches to minimizing toxicity.
This review summarizes studies of quantum dot toxicity carried out over the past few years in systems ranging from cell culture to non-human primates.
A novel approach known as intraosseous regional administration (IORA) has emerged as a technique for delivering prophylactic antibiotics, and it results in higher tissue concentrations around the ...knee. It is hypothesized that IORA of cefazolin for antibiotic prophylaxis during total knee arthroplasty will result in sustained effective levels for a longer duration. The aim of the current study was to investigate temporal changes in peri-knee cefazolin blood concentrations after IORA of cefazolin.
Twelve rabbits were randomly divided into two groups, with six rabbits in each group. In control group a single intravenous bolus injection of cefazolin (10 mL, 100 mg) was administered into the marginal ear vein. In experimental groupexperimental group the same dose of cefazolin was injected into the left tibial marrow cavity after tourniquet inflation at the base of the left thigh. Blood samples were collected periodically at different timepoints, and cefazolin concentrations were determined.
The intraosseous treatment resulted in significant differences in plasma cefazolin concentrations at all timepoints. Experimental group exhibited higher plasma cefazolin concentrations than control group.
Cefazolin in intraosseous regional prophylaxis exhibits effectiveness in intraoperative antibiotic prophylaxis by maintaining concentrations above the minimum inhibitory concentration for extended durations, rather than relying solely on high concentrations.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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