Molecular fluorophores with the second near‐infrared (NIR‐II) emission hold great potential for deep‐tissue bioimaging owing to their excellent biocompatibility and high resolution. Recently, ...J‐aggregates are used to construct long‐wavelength NIR‐II emitters as their optical bands show remarkable red shifts upon forming water‐dispersible nano‐aggregates. However, their wide applications in the NIR‐II fluorescence imaging are impeded by the limited varieties of J‐type backbone and serious fluorescence quenching. Herein, a bright benzocthiophene (BT) J‐aggregate fluorophore (BT6) with anti‐quenching effect is reported for highly efficient NIR‐II bioimaging and phototheranostics. The BT fluorophores are manipulated to have Stokes shift over 400 nm and aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) property for conquering the self‐quenching issue of the J‐type fluorophores. Upon forming BT6 assemblies in an aqueous environment, the absorption over 800 nm and NIR‐II emission over 1000 nm are boosted for more than 41 and 26 folds, respectively. In vivo visualization of the whole‐body blood vessel and imaging‐guided phototherapy results verify that BT6 NPs are excellent agent for NIR‐II fluorescence imaging and cancer phototheranostics. This work develops a strategy to construct bright NIR‐II J‐aggregates with precisely manipulated anti‐quenching properties for highly efficient biomedical applications.
A bright benzocthiophene J‐aggregate with anti‐quenching property is developed. The J‐type nanoparticles (NPs) are featured with large Stokes shift of 402 nm. After forming aggregates in aqueous milieu, the second near‐infrared (NIR‐II) fluorescence intensity is enhanced ≈26 folds due to aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) effect. The bright J‐type AIE NPs are used to conduct whole‐body blood vessel NIR‐II fluorescence imaging and cancer phototheranostics.
A robust serological test to detect neutralizing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 is urgently needed to determine not only the infection rate, herd immunity and predicted humoral protection, but also vaccine ...efficacy during clinical trials and after large-scale vaccination. The current gold standard is the conventional virus neutralization test requiring live pathogen and a biosafety level 3 laboratory. Here, we report a SARS-CoV-2 surrogate virus neutralization test that detects total immunodominant neutralizing antibodies targeting the viral spike (S) protein receptor-binding domain in an isotype- and species-independent manner. Our simple and rapid test is based on antibody-mediated blockage of the interaction between the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor protein and the receptor-binding domain. The test, which has been validated with two cohorts of patients with COVID-19 in two different countries, achieves 99.93% specificity and 95-100% sensitivity, and differentiates antibody responses to several human coronaviruses. The surrogate virus neutralization test does not require biosafety level 3 containment, making it broadly accessible to the wider community for both research and clinical applications.
Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the common long-term degenerative disorders that primarily affect motor systems. Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are common in individuals with PD and often present ...before motor symptoms. It has been found that gut dysbiosis to PD pathology is related to the severity of motor and non-motor symptoms in PD. Probiotics have been reported to have the ability to improve the symptoms related to constipation in PD patients. However, the evidence from preclinical or clinical research to verify the beneficial effects of probiotics for the motor functions in PD is still limited. An experimental PD animal model could be helpful in exploring the potential therapeutic strategy using probiotics. In the current study, we examined whether daily and long-term administration of probiotics has neuroprotective effects on nigrostriatal dopamine neurons and whether it can further alleviate the motor dysfunctions in PD mice. Transgenic MitoPark PD mice were chosen for this study and the effects of daily probiotic treatment on gait, beam balance, motor coordination, and the degeneration levels of dopaminergic neurons were identified. From the results, compared with the sham treatment group, we found that the daily administration of probiotics significantly reduced the motor impairments in gait pattern, balance function, and motor coordination. Immunohistochemically, a tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-positive cell in the substantia nigra was significantly preserved in the probiotic-treated PD mice. These results showed that long-term administration of probiotics has neuroprotective effects on dopamine neurons and further attenuates the deterioration of motor dysfunctions in MitoPark PD mice. Our data further highlighted the promising possibility of the potential use of probiotics, which could be the relevant approach for further application on human PD subjects.
Escherichia coli has been engineered to produce isobutanol, with titers reaching greater than the toxicity level. However, the specific effects of isobutanol on the cell have never been fully ...understood. Here, we aim to identify genotype–phenotype relationships in isobutanol response. An isobutanol‐tolerant mutant was isolated with serial transfers. Using whole‐genome sequencing followed by gene repair and knockout, we identified five mutations (acrA, gatY, tnaA, yhbJ, and marCRAB) that were primarily responsible for the increased isobutanol tolerance. We successfully reconstructed the tolerance phenotype by combining deletions of these five loci, and identified glucosamine‐6‐phosphate as an important metabolite for isobutanol tolerance, which presumably enhanced membrane synthesis. The isobutanol‐tolerant mutants also show increased tolerance to n‐butanol and 2‐methyl‐1‐butanol, but showed no improvement in ethanol tolerance and higher sensitivity to hexane and chloramphenicol than the parental strain. These results suggest that C4, C5 alcohol stress impacts the cell differently compared with the general solvent or antibiotic stresses. Interestingly, improved isobutanol tolerance did not increase the final titer of isobutanol production.
Zr‐based porphyrin metal–organic framework (MOF‐525) nanocrystals with a crystal size of about 140 nm are synthesized and incorporated into perovskite solar cells. The morphology and crystallinity of ...the perovskite thin film are enhanced since the micropores of MOF‐525 allow the crystallization of perovskite to occur inside; this observation results in a higher cell efficiency of the obtained MOF/perovskite solar cell.
This work reveals the intrinsic carrier transport behavior of 2D organolead halide perovskites based on phase‐pure homologous (n = 1, 2, and 3) Ruddelsden–Popper perovskite (RPP) (BA)2(MA)n−1PbnI3n+1 ...single crystals. The 2D perovskite field effect transistors with high‐quality exfoliated 2D perovskite bulk crystals are fabricated, and characteristic output and transfer curves are measured from individual single‐crystal flakes with various n values under different temperatures. Unipolar n‐type transport dominated the electrical properties of all these 2D RPP single crystals. The transport behavior of the 2D organolead halide hybrid perovskites exhibits a strong dependence on the n value and the mobility substantially increases as the ratio of the number of inorganic perovskite slabs per organic spacer increases. By extracting the effect of contact resistances, the corrected mobility values for n = 1, 2, and 3 are 2 × 10−3, 8.3 × 10−2, and 1.25 cm2 V−1 s−1 at 77 K, respectively. Furthermore, by combining temperature‐dependent electrical transport and optical measurements, it is found that the origin of the carrier mobility dependence on the phase transition for 2D organolead halide perovskites is very different from that of their 3D counterparts. Our findings offer insight into fundamental carrier transport behavior of 2D organic–inorganic hybrid perovskites based on phase‐pure homologous single crystals.
2D organolead halide perovskite field effect transistors, which are fabricated based on phase‐pure homologous (n = 1, 2, and 3) Ruddelsden–Popper perovskite (BA)2(MA)n−1PbnI3n+1 single crystals are demonstrated. A strong dependence of carrier transport behavior of the 2D organolead halide hybrid perovskites on the n value is revealed.
Go for gold: As‐prepared insulin–Au nanoclusters (NCs) show intense red fluorescence, excellent biocompatibility, and preservation of natural insulin bioactivity in lowering the blood‐glucose level. ...Their versatility in applications is demonstrated by fluorescence imaging, X‐ray computed tomography, and insulin–inhibitor interactions (see picture; IDE=insulin‐degrading enzyme).
Photosynthetic efficiency might be a key factor determining plant resistance to abiotic stresses. Plants can sense when growing conditions are not favorable and trigger an internal response at an ...early stage before showing external symptoms. When a high amount of salt enters the plant cell, the membrane system and function of thylakoids in chloroplasts could be destroyed and affect photosynthetic performance if the salt concentration is not regulated to optimal values. Oryza species have salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive genotypes; however, very few studies have investigated the genetic architecture responsible for photosynthetic efficiency under salinity stress in cultivated rice.
We used an imaging-based chlorophyll fluorometer to monitor eight rice varieties that showed different salt tolerance levels for four consecutive days under control and salt conditions. An analysis of the changes in chlorophyll fluorescence parameters clearly showed the maximum quantum efficiency of PSII in sensitive varieties was significantly reduced after NaCl treatment when compared to tolerant varieties. A panel of 232 diverse rice accessions was then analyzed for chlorophyll fluorescence under salt conditions, the results showed that chlorophyll fluorescence parameters such as F
and NPQ were higher in Japonica subspecies, ΦPSII of Indica varieties was higher than that in other subgroups, which suggested that the variation in photosynthetic efficiency was extensively regulated under salt treatment in diverse cultivated rice. Two significant regions on chromosome 5 were identified to associate with the fraction of open PSII centers (qL) and the minimum chlorophyll fluorescence (F
). These regions harbored genes related to senescence, chloroplast biogenesis and response to salt stress are of interest for future functional characterization to determine their roles in regulating photosynthesis.
Rice plant is very sensitive to salinity stress, especially at young seedling stage. Our work identified the distribution pattern of chlorophyll fluorescence parameters in seedlings leaf and their correlations with salt tolerance level in a diverse gene pool. We also revealed the complexity of the genetic architecture regulating rice seedling photosynthetic performance under salinity stress, the germplasm analyzed in this study and the associated genetic information could be utilized in rice breeding program.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Radiomics, which extract large amount of quantification image features from diagnostic medical images had been widely used for prognostication, treatment response prediction and cancer detection. The ...treatment options for lung nodules depend on their diagnosis, benign or malignant. Conventionally, lung nodule diagnosis is based on invasive biopsy. Recently, radiomics features, a non-invasive method based on clinical images, have shown high potential in lesion classification, treatment outcome prediction.
Lung nodule classification using radiomics based on Computed Tomography (CT) image data was investigated and a 4-feature signature was introduced for lung nodule classification. Retrospectively, 72 patients with 75 pulmonary nodules were collected. Radiomics feature extraction was performed on non-enhanced CT images with contours which were delineated by an experienced radiation oncologist.
Among the 750 image features in each case, 76 features were found to have significant differences between benign and malignant lesions. A radiomics signature was composed of the best 4 features which included Laws_LSL_min, Laws_SLL_energy, Laws_SSL_skewness and Laws_EEL_uniformity. The accuracy using the signature in benign or malignant classification was 84% with the sensitivity of 92.85% and the specificity of 72.73%.
The classification signature based on radiomics features demonstrated very good accuracy and high potential in clinical application.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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