Ferroptosis, a subtle talk between immune system and cancer cells: To be or not to be?

Ferroptosis, an established form of programmed cell death discovered in 2012, is characterized by an imbalance in iron metabolism, lipid metabolism, and antioxidant metabolism. Activated CD8 + T cells can trigger ferroptosis in tumor cells by releasing interferon-γ, which initiates the ferroptosis program. Despite the remarkable progress made in treating various tumors with immunotherapy, such as anti-PD1/PDL1, there are still significant challenges to overcome, including limited treatment options and drug resistance. In this review, we exam the potential biological significance of the ferroptosis phenotype using bioinformatics and review the latest advancements in understanding the mechanism of ferroptosis-mediated anti-tumor immunotherapy. Furthermore, we revisit the host immune system, immune microenvironment, ferroptotic defense system, metabolic reprogramming, and key genes that regulate the occurrence and resistance of ferroptosis of tumor cell. Additionally, several immune-combined ferroptosis treatment strategies were put forward to improve immunotherapy efficacy and to provide new insights into reversing anti-tumor immune drug resistance

Economical energy allocation for the landward invasion of Spartina alterniflora in estuaries in the Yellow River Delta, east China

Smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) introduced to China in 1970 s for coastline stabilization threatening the habitat range of native Phragmites australis and even become more adaptive than P. australis. Thus, we used electronic universal testing machine and Van Soest method to compare the morphological and biomechanical responses of these two species to wave interference in the Yellow River Delta, east China. Our study showed that the morphological response of P. australis was more sensitive to waves with shorter individuals in wave zones but larger stem diameter and higher biomass than those in none-wave zones, while S. alterniflora did not exhibit such variations. In wave zones, S. alterniflora invaded P. australis’ habitat regardless higher stem-bending resistance of P. australis with excessive energy allocated in stem growth while decreasing reproduction and fitness. Compared with the none-wave zones, S. alterniflora allocated excessive energy in the stem to resist wind interference, and they are less fitted than P. australis. Thus, economic energy allocation to wave mechanical interference contributed to the successful invasion of S. alterniflora to landward in estuaries. S. alterniflora continued to expand landward in a semi-saline area but the community pattern may maintain the status quo for areas with low salinity and high wave interference

Identification of Specific Substances in the FAIMS Spectra of Complex Mixtures Using Deep Learning

High-field asymmetric ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) spectra of single chemicals are easy to interpret but identifying specific chemicals within complex mixtures is difficult. This paper demonstrates that the FAIMS system can detect specific chemicals in complex mixtures. A homemade FAIMS system is used to analyze pure ethanol, ethyl acetate, acetone, 4-methyl-2-pentanone, butanone, and their mixtures in order to create datasets. An EfficientNetV2 discriminant model was constructed, and a blind test set was used to verify whether the deep-learning model is capable of the required task. The results show that the pre-trained EfficientNetV2 model completed convergence at a learning rate of 0.1 as well as 200 iterations. Specific substances in complex mixtures can be effectively identified using the trained model and the homemade FAIMS system. Accuracies of 100%, 96.7%, and 86.7% are obtained for ethanol, ethyl acetate, and acetone in the blind test set, which are much higher than conventional methods. The deep learning network provides higher accuracy than traditional FAIMS spectral analysis methods. This simplifies the FAIMS spectral analysis process and contributes to further development of FAIMS systems

Adaptive Experimentation in Digital Courseware using MOOClet

Using MOOClet, we demonstrate how we can add adaptivity to existing courseware that allows us to run real-time experiments that leverage multi-armed bandits. Ultimately, this allows us to provide students with the most successful interventions based on live data

Source-sink-flow Characteristics and Super-high Yield Potential of the Super-large-panicle Rice Line DS23 in South China

【Objective】It aims to study the yield performance and source-sink-flow characteristics of new strain of super-large-panicle rice DS23 in early season, and explore the source-flow-sink characteristics and super-high yield potential of DS23, with an aim to provide theoretical basis for high-yield breeding and cultivation of early rice in South China.【Method】The study was conducted under field conditions with the new super-large panicle type strain DS23 as test material and the medium to large panicle type variety YHSM as the control. The leaf area index, SPAD value, accumulation and transport characteristics of non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) in stems, anatomical characteristics of vascular bundles and yield component factors of different panicle types of rice were measured and compared.【Result】The number of grain per panicle, grain weight, sink capacity and yield of DS23 were increased by 37.3%, 4.0%, 33.7% and 15.9% respectively compared to those of YHSM seedlings. The effective number of panicles and seed setting rate were significantly decreased by 6.8% and 15.1% compared to those of YHSM seedlings. There was no significant difference in leaf area index and flag leaf SPAD value between the two varieties at heading stage. Compared with YHSM, total mass of NSC reserved in stem and apparent contribution of transferred NSC to grain yield of DS23 were significantly reduced by 15.3% and 19.8%, respectively, and the apparent transport rate of stem sheath NSC was significantly increased by 10.3%; The DS23 vascular bundle number was significantly increased by 17.3%, and there was no significant difference in the vascular bundle area between the two varieties; DS23 showed no significant change in grain/leaf ratio, with a significant decrease in NSC/spikelet ratio of 34.2% and an increase in vascular bundle load index of 20.4%-60.2%.【Conclusion】The super-large panicle type rice germplasm DS23 planted in early season has a large sink capacity, well-developed vascular bundles transport organization, strong material transformation ability in later stage and great potential for high yield and yield increase. Improvement in seed setting rate is a main direction for exploring its super-high yield potential. The study result lays a theoretical foundation for the breeding of super-large panicle early rice varieties and the research and development of high yield cultivation techniques

Single-pixel p-graded-n junction spectrometers

Abstract Ultra-compact spectrometers are becoming increasingly popular for their promising applications in biomedical analysis, environmental monitoring, and food safety. In this work, we report a single-pixel-photodetector spectrometer with a spectral range from 480 nm to 820 nm, based on the AlGaAs/GaAs p-graded-n junction with a voltage-tunable optical response. To reconstruct the optical spectrum, we propose a tailored method called Neural Spectral Fields (NSF) that leverages the unique wavelength and bias-dependent responsivity matrix. Our spectrometer achieves a high spectral wavelength accuracy of up to 0.30 nm and a spectral resolution of up to 10 nm. Additionally, we demonstrate the high spectral imaging performance of the device. The compatibility of our demonstration with the standard III-V process greatly accelerates the commercialization of miniaturized spectrometers

Integrating genome-wide CRISPR immune screen with multi-omic clinical data reveals distinct classes of tumor intrinsic immune regulators

Background Despite approval of immunotherapy for a wide range of cancers, the majority of patients fail to respond to immunotherapy or relapse following initial response. These failures may be attributed to immunosuppressive mechanisms co-opted by tumor cells. However, it is challenging to use conventional methods to systematically evaluate the potential of tumor intrinsic factors to act as immune regulators in patients with cancer.Methods To identify immunosuppressive mechanisms in non-responders to cancer immunotherapy in an unbiased manner, we performed genome-wide CRISPR immune screens and integrated our results with multi-omics clinical data to evaluate the role of tumor intrinsic factors in regulating two rate-limiting steps of cancer immunotherapy, namely, T cell tumor infiltration and T cell-mediated tumor killing.Results Our studies revealed two distinct types of immune resistance regulators and demonstrated their potential as therapeutic targets to improve the efficacy of immunotherapy. Among them, PRMT1 and RIPK1 were identified as a dual immune resistance regulator and a cytotoxicity resistance regulator, respectively. Although the magnitude varied between different types of immunotherapy, genetically targeting PRMT1 and RIPK1 sensitized tumors to T-cell killing and anti-PD-1/OX40 treatment. Interestingly, a RIPK1-specific inhibitor enhanced the antitumor activity of T cell-based and anti-OX40 therapy, despite limited impact on T cell tumor infiltration.Conclusions Collectively, the data provide a rich resource of novel targets for rational immuno-oncology combinations

Leptin concentration and risk of coronary heart disease and stroke: A systematic review and meta-analysis

<div><p>Background and purpose</p><p>Although high leptin concentration has been shown to be correlated with established vascular risk factors, epidemiologic studies have reported inconclusive results on the association between leptin and cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Therefore, a meta-analysis was performed to evaluate this issue.</p><p>Methods</p><p>We searched Pubmed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library from their inception to Jan 2016 for both case-control and cohort studies that assessed leptin concentration and CVD risk. Reports with odds ratio (OR), risk ratio (RR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were considered. The data were extracted by two investigators independently.</p><p>Results</p><p>A total of 13 epidemiologic studies totaling 4257 CVD patients and 26710 controls were included. A significant inverse association was shown between leptin and coronary heart disease (CHD), with an overall OR of 1.16 (95% CI: 1.02–1.32), but not for stroke (OR = 1.21, 95% CI 0.98–1.48) under sociodemographic adjustment. Further adjustment for additional cardiovascular risk factors resulted in ORs of 1.16 (95% CI 0.97–1.40) for CHD and 1.10 (95% CI 0.89–1.35) for stroke. The findings remained when analyses were restricted to high-quality studies and indicated OR estimates of 1.07 (95% CI 0.96–1.19) for CHD and 0.98 (95% CI 0.76–1.25) for stroke. In a subgroup meta-analysis, a high leptin level was not independently associated with CHD in both females (OR = 1.03, 95% CI 0.86–1.23) and males (OR = 1.09, 95% CI 0.95–1.26) or with stroke in both females (OR = 1.13, 95% CI 0.87–1.47) and males (OR = 0.80, 95% CI 0.59–1.09). There was no significant publication bias as suggested by Egger test outcomes.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>Our findings indicate that high leptin levels may not be associated with risks of CHD and stroke. Further large, well-designed prospective cohort studies are needed to fully evaluate the role of leptin on the risk of CVD.</p></div