Explore the vast range of titles available.

Phase separation is a cellular phenomenon where macromolecules aggregate or segregate, giving rise to biomolecular condensates resembling \"droplets\" and forming distinct, membrane-free compartments. This process is pervasive in biological cells, contributing to various essential cellular functions. However, when phase separation goes awry, leading to abnormal molecular aggregation, it can become a driving factor in the development of diseases, including tumor. Recent investigations have unveiled the intricate connection between dysregulated phase separation and tumor pathogenesis, highlighting its potential as a novel therapeutic target. This article provides an overview of recent phase separation research, with a particular emphasis on its role in tumor, its therapeutic implications, and outlines avenues for further exploration in this intriguing field.

Lactate has long been viewed as a “waste product” of anaerobic glycolysis, with its role in health and disease often overlooked. However, recent discoveries of lactylation—a novel post-translational modification involving lactate—have sparked a renewed understanding of lactate’s functions. Lactylation alters the molecular structure of proteins with different cellular localizations, enabling the regulation of their functions and aggregation in specific spatiotemporal contexts, with its impact on biomolecular phase separation being one of its primary effects. However, it remains unknown how lactylation dynamically regulates the spatiotemporal specificity of phase separation and its role in diseases. This article provides an overview of the regulatory mechanisms of biomolecular phase separation driven by lactylation, aiming to offer fresh insights into the role of lactylation in normal and disease-related biological processes while deepening our understanding of its research value and biological significance.

Click chemistry reactions, characterized by their high efficiency, strong selectivity, unique in vivo pre-targeting capabilities, and bioorthogonality, have shown great promise in nuclear medicine in recent years. In particular, the trans-cyclooctene (TCO)-tetrazine (Tz) reaction, based on the inverse electron demand Diels–Alder (IEDDA) mechanism, has garnered increasing attention due to its significant advantages in the synthesis and bioconjugation of radiopharmaceuticals. The advancement of nuclear medicine currently faces multiple challenges, including low synthesis efficiency of radiopharmaceuticals, insufficient specificity, and poor biocompatibility. The introduction of click chemistry offers new strategies to address these issues. This paper aims to introduce the fundamental principles of click chemistry and the unique features of the IEDDA mechanism, analyze the specific applications of the TCO-Tz reaction in medical imaging and targeted therapy, and explore its potential applications and future directions in nuclear medicine research.

Objective. Immunotherapy has proven effective in treating advanced gastric cancer (AGC), yet its benefits are limited to a subset of patients. Our aim is to swiftly identify prognostic biomarkers using cytokines to improve the precision of clinical guidance and decision-making for PD-1 inhibitor-based cancer immunotherapy in AGC. Materials and Methods. The retrospective study compared 36 patients with AGC who received combined anti-PD-1 immunotherapy and chemotherapy (immunochemotherapy) with a control group of 20 patients who received chemotherapy alone. The concentrations of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-2R, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, and IL-17 in the serum were assessed using chemiluminescence immunoassay at three distinct time intervals following the commencement of immunochemotherapy. Results. When compared to controls, patients undergoing immunochemotherapy demonstrated a generalized rise in cytokine levels after the start of treatment. However, patients who benefited from immunochemotherapy showed a decrease in IL-6 or IL-8 concentrations throughout treatment (with varied trends observed for IL-1β, IL-2R, IL-10, IL-17, and TNF-α) was evident in patients benefiting from immunochemotherapy but not in those who did not benefit. Among these markers, the combination of IL-6, IL-8, and CEA showed optimal predictive performance for short-term efficacy of immunochemotherapy in AGC patients. Conclusion. Reductions in IL-6/IL-8 levels observed during immunochemotherapy correlated with increased responsiveness to treatment effectiveness. These easily accessible blood-based biomarkers are predictive and rapid and may play a crucial role in identifying individuals likely to derive benefits from PD-1 blockade immunotherapy.

Phyllotreta striolata is a major pest of Brassica chinensis, with chemical pesticides being the primary method for pest control. However, their negative impact on crop growth and environmental risks have prompted the search for low-toxicity, environmentally friendly alternatives. This study systematically evaluates the control effectiveness of two commonly used chemical pesticides, Zu Jia® and Jie Tiao®, along with their impact on the growth characteristics of B. chinensis and compares them to the biopesticide Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) strain G033A. The control efficacy was assessed by measuring the insect population reduction rate and plant physiological indicators (weight, plant height, chlorophyll content, and root length). The differences between biopesticide and the two chemical pesticide treatments were analyzed. The results indicated that both Bt strain G033A and the chemical pesticides significantly controlled P. striolata. However, chemical pesticides (Zu Jia® and Jie Tiao®) significantly reduced the chlorophyll content, plant height, and weight of B. chinensis (p < 0.05), whereas Bt strain G033A had no significant adverse effects on these plant traits (p > 0.05). The colonization characteristics of the Bt strain suggest potential for sustained pest control, while chemical pesticides exhibited rapid pest suppression effects. The findings highlight a novel IPM strategy that integrates the long-lasting efficacy of Bt biopesticides with the rapid action of chemical pesticides, offering a more sustainable and balanced approach to P. striolata management in B. chinensis cultivation.

Microbial pesticides can be significantly improved by adjuvants. At present, microbial pesticide formulations are mainly wettable powders and suspension concentrations, which are usually produced with adjuvants such as surfactants, carriers, protective agents, and nutritional adjuvants. Surfactants can improve the tension between liquid pesticides and crop surfaces, resulting in stronger permeability and wettability of the formulations. Carriers are inert components of loaded or diluted pesticides, which can control the release of active components at appropriate times. Protective agents are able to help microorganisms to resist in adverse environments. Nutritional adjuvants are used to provide nutrients for microorganisms in microbial pesticides. Most of the adjuvants used in microbial pesticides still refer to those of chemical pesticides. However, some adjuvants may have harmful effects on non-target organisms and ecological environments. Herein, in order to promote research and improvement of microbial pesticides, the types of microbial pesticide formulations were briefly reviewed, and research progress of adjuvants and their applications in microbial pesticides were highlighted, the challenges and the future perspectives towards sustainable green adjuvants of microbial pesticides were also discussed in this review.

Internet technology has been assimilated into children’s educational system on an in-depth level. In particular, the number of children who use the internet for entertainment has been rapidly increasing. However, there has been a debate as to whether internet entertainment can have a detrimental impact on children’s cognitive ability. This paper investigates the effect of internet entertainment on the cognitive ability of children in the Chinese context. The results show no evidence of associations between internet entertainment and children’s cognitive ability. However, the additional analysis provides preliminary evidence suggesting that internet entertainment can be beneficial to children who use it for entertainment only on weekends but detrimental for those who spend leisure time online daily. In addition, the findings are robust in a variety of sensitivity tests. We also examine whether the effects of internet entertainment on children’s cognitive ability in different family environments are heterogeneous. The findings suggest that parents’ internet habits, parents’ internet supervision, parental relationship, family education and living area play a moderating role in the relationship between internet entertainment and children’s cognitive ability. This study offers useful insights into the current global debate on the nexus between internet entertainment and children’s cognitive ability and also provides suggestions for parents, children, regulators and policymakers.

Objective To investigate the potential of group I pepsinogen (PG I) and group II pepsinogen (PG II) as diagnostic markers for recurrence in gastric cancer (GC) patients post-total gastrectomy. Methods Ninety-six patients who underwent total gastrectomy for GC between June 2022 and June 2023 were included in this study. Clinical data, serum samples, and ascites samples were collected. Patients were categorized based on recurrence status at the time of sample collection and the primary tumor site. PG I and PG II levels were determined using a chemiluminescent immunoassay, and their clinical utility following total gastrectomy for GC was evaluated via receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results This study included 96 GC patients who underwent total gastrectomy, 55 of whom experienced postoperative recurrence (57.29%). The levels of serum PG I (27.86 (27.04, 30.97) vs. 26.05 (24.16, 27.09) ng/mL; P  < 0.0001) and PG II (1.95 (1.23, 3.05) vs. 0.63 (0.47, 0.90) ng/mL; P  < 0.0001) were significantly greater in the recurrent group compared to the non-recurrent group. The secretion of PG I and/or PG II by metastatic cancer cells correlated with the primary lesion site. When the cut-off value for serum PG I was 26.93 ng/mL, the area under the curve (AUC) for PG I was 0.77. When the cut-off value for serum PG II was 0.96 ng/mL, the AUC reached 0.90. The combined AUC was 0.97. Conclusion These findings suggest that serum PG I and PG II are valuable biomarkers for identifying GC patients with biochemical recurrence post-total gastrectomy.

This study investigated the effects of fertilizers on the biofilm formation, ultraviolet (UV) resistance, and insecticidal activity of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Bacillus thuringiensis, a widely used microbial pesticide, has a minimal environmental impact and is highly effective against specific pests but is susceptible to environmental factors in field applications. Bacterial biofilms provide protection for Bt, enhancing its survival and functionality in the environment. However, the mechanisms by which fertilizers regulate the characteristics of microbial pesticides and enhance biofilm formation are not well understood. This study evaluated the effects of six fertilizers on the bacterial biofilm formation, the UV resistance, and the insecticidal activities of Bt wettable powders. The results demonstrated that fertilizers significantly enhanced the performance of three Bt preparations (Lv’an, Kang’xin, and Lu’kang). A compound fertilizer with 8.346 g/L of KCl, 2.751 g/L of ZnSO4·7H2O, and 25.681 μL/mL of humic acid was identified by response surface optimization, achieving the maximum BBF formation with OD595 value of 2.738. Furthermore, KH2PO4, HA, and ZnSO4·7H2O notably improved the survivability of Bt preparations under prolonged UV exposure, with the compound fertilizer providing the greatest protection. What’s more, fertilizers reduced the LC50 values of all Bt preparations, with the compound fertilizer decreasing the LC50 of the Lv’an Bt wettable powder to 0.139 g/L, a 3.12-fold increase in efficacy. This study demonstrated that fertilizers significantly enhance the UV resistance and insecticidal activity of Bt wettable powders by promoting bacterial biofilm formation. Herein, this study provides new strategies and theoretical support for Bt applications in modern sustainable agriculture.

Optoelectronic tweezers (OET) has advanced within the past decade to become a promising tool for cell and microparticle manipulation. Its incompatibility with high conductivity media and limited throughput remain two major technical challenges. Here a novel manipulation concept and corresponding platform called Self-Locking Optoelectronic Tweezers (SLOT) are proposed and demonstrated to tackle these challenges concurrently. The SLOT platform comprises a periodic array of optically tunable phototransistor traps above which randomly dispersed single cells and microparticles are self-aligned to and retained without light illumination. Light beam illumination on a phototransistor turns off the trap and releases the trapped cell, which is then transported downstream via a background flow. The cell trapping and releasing functions in SLOT are decoupled, which is a unique feature that enables SLOT’s stepper-mode function to overcome the small field-of-view issue that all prior OET technologies encountered in manipulation with single-cell resolution across a large area. Massively parallel trapping of more than 100,000 microparticles has been demonstrated in high conductivity media. Even larger scale trapping and manipulation can be achieved by linearly scaling up the number of phototransistors and device area. Cells after manipulation on the SLOT platform maintain high cell viability and normal multi-day divisibility.