The role of cholesterol metabolism in tumor therapy, from bench to bed

Cholesterol and its metabolites have important biological functions. Cholesterol is able to maintain the physical properties of cell membrane, play an important role in cellular signaling, and cellular cholesterol levels reflect the dynamic balance between biosynthesis, uptake, efflux and esterification. Cholesterol metabolism participates in bile acid production and steroid hormone biosynthesis. Increasing evidence suggests a strict link between cholesterol homeostasis and tumors. Cholesterol metabolism in tumor cells is reprogrammed to differ significantly from normal cells, and disturbances of cholesterol balance also induce tumorigenesis and progression. Preclinical and clinical studies have shown that controlling cholesterol metabolism suppresses tumor growth, suggesting that targeting cholesterol metabolism may provide new possibilities for tumor therapy. In this review, we summarized the metabolic pathways of cholesterol in normal and tumor cells and reviewed the pre-clinical and clinical progression of novel tumor therapeutic strategy with the drugs targeting different stages of cholesterol metabolism from bench to bedside

Transfusion of Resting Platelets Reduces Brain Hemorrhage After Intracerebral Hemorrhage and tPA-Induced Hemorrhage After Cerebral Ischemia

BackgroundExacerbated blood-brain barrier (BBB) damage is related with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA)-induced brain hemorrhage after stroke. Platelets have long been recognized as the cellular orchestrators of primary haemostasis. Recent studies have demonstrated further that platelets are required for supporting intact mature blood vessels and play a crucial role in maintaining vascular integrity during inflammation. Therefore, we sought to investigate whether platelets could reduce tPA-induced deterioration of cerebrovascular integrity and lead to less hemorrhagic transformation.MethodsMice were subjected to models of collagenase-induced intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and transient middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion. After 2 h of MCA occlusion, tPA (10 mg/kg) was administered as an intravenous bolus injection of 1 mg/kg followed by a 9 mg/kg infusion for 30 min. Immediately after tPA treatment, mice were transfused with platelets. Hemorrhagic volume, infarct size, neurological deficit, tight junction and basal membrane damages, endothelial cell apoptosis, and extravascular accumulation of circulating dextran and IgG, and Evans blue were quantified at 24 h.ResultsPlatelet transfusion resulted in a significant decrease in hematoma volume after ICH. In mice after ischemia, tPA administration increased brain hemorrhage transformation and this was reversed by resting but not activated platelets. Consistent with this, we observed that tPA-induced brain hemorrhage was dramatically exacerbated in thrombocytopenic mice. Transfusion of resting platelets ameliorated tPA-induced loss of cerebrovascular integrity and reduced extravascular accumulation of circulating serum proteins and Evans blue, associated with improved neurological functions after ischemia. No changes were found for infarct volume. Inhibition of platelet receptor glycoprotein VI (GPVI) blunted the ability of platelets to attenuate tPA-induced BBB disruption and hemorrhage after ischemia.ConclusionOur findings demonstrate the importance of platelets in safeguarding BBB integrity and suggest that transfusion of resting platelets may be useful to improve the safety of tPA thrombolysis in ischemic stroke

Research on Construction Risk Control of International Project

From the perspective of China’s construction enterprises, taking the nature of risk and engineering’s characteristics into account. The paper apply the Delphi Method to establish primeval list of international project construction risk, use Analytic Hierarchy Process to conduct a comprehensive evaluation to risk factors in the primeval list of international project construction risk, identify risk factors and put forward coping strategies, The ultimate goal is to provide reference and a basis for risk management of construction companies involved in international project construction

Hong–Ou–Mandel interference of spin–orbit hybrid entangled photons

Structured photons are a crucial resource in both classical and quantum technologies, particularly in spin–orbit hybrid photons, enabling various practical applications ranging from ultra-sensitive metrology techniques to quantum-enhanced information processing tasks. However, the two-photon interference of spin–orbit hybrid photons, which combines polarization modes and complex transverse spatial structures across the beam profile, remains unexplored. Here, we present an experimental observation of Hong–Ou–Mandel (HOM) interference of spin–orbit hybrid photons. The tunable q-plates that work as spin–orbit coupler devices are used to prepare various forms of spin–orbit hybrid entangled photons. By harnessing the match degree in the temporal domain, the coalescence and anti-coalescence effects resulting from the symmetric and anti-symmetric properties of the incident quantum states are observed. Moreover, we demonstrated the feasibility of quantum-enhanced photon polarization gears through HOM interference and theoretically analyze the noise-resilient advantages based on coherent HOM measurements. These results provide an alternative route toward quantum experiments with structured photons that allows for controlling their quantum interference in a compact, stable, and efficient way

Illumina Based Analysis of Bacterial and Fungal Flora in Foreguts and Hindguts of Crucian Carp (Carassius Aumtus) in Retail Markets

The intestinal microbiota of fish are the major cause for spoilage. To elucidate the bacterial and fungal community of guts, the bacterial and fungal taxa in foreguts and hindguts of crucian carp (Carassius aumtus) were analyzed by Illumina-based sequencing. Results suggested that the foreguts contained more diverse bacteria than those in hindguts; nevertheless, the hindguts contained more diverse fungi than foreguts. The anaerobic bacterial genera Cetobacteri Desulfovibrio and Shewanella in foreguts were still detected in hindguts. The fungal taxa in foreguts were different from those in hindguts. The dominant fungal genera Alternaia (78.6%), Massarina (0.8%) and Fusarium (0.2%) were only detected in hindguts. It was considered that the Alternaria, Emericella, and Cochliobolus might derive from the diets of&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; crucian carp. The activities of Desulfovibrio might be responsible for the changes in odour, flavor and texture of the fish meat. The H2S produced by Desulfovibrio is potentially a major toxin to the fish gut epithelium and promoted the fi sh spoilage processes. The results are helpful for manipulation of intestinal flora to preserve fresh crucian carp in tanks.</p

New Methods to Remove Rhizoplane Bacterial DNA of Banana

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of different surface sterilization protocols on retained rhizoplane bacterial DNA of banana. Viable rhizoplane bacteria and bacterial DNA copies of banana roots were treated with four sterilization agents: 75% ethanol and sodium hypochlorite solution (5% available chlorine), chlorine dioxide (0.2%), peroxyacetic acid (0.4%), and formaldehyde (36%) with different incubation times. Retained viable bacteria and bacterial DNA of banana roots treated were compared based on viable count, and qPCR and MPN-PCR methods. Root treatments with peroxyacetic acid (0.4%) and formaldehyde (36%) for 5 min could remove most (99.9999%) of viable rhizoplane bacteria. Chlorine dioxide (0.2%), peroxyacetic acid (0.4%), and formaldehyde (36%) could remove 99.9% of bacterial DNA segments of 16S rRNA gene, whereas, formaldehyde (36%) could remove 99.99% of whole 16S rRNA genes of rhizoplane bacteria. The surface sterilization protocol that included incubation with formaldehyde (36%) for 9 min and further treatment with 0.1 mol l-1 NaOH for 10 min might be an effective sterilization method to remove rhizoplane bacterial rRNA genes in the study of endophytic bacterial communities of banana roots.</p

Research on dynamic characteristics of wind turbine tower with different analysis methods

A wind turbine located in Yunnan is taken as an example in this paper. By using the analytical method and the finite element method, the modal analysis of wind turbine tower is carried out, then the structural dynamic behavior is obtained. Based on the comparison of the results from different calculation methods, the rigidity and the resonance of tower induced by wind wheel rotation are studied. The research shows that, the finite element model is simplified, while the results of this method are rich; the transient resonance inevitably appears for two times in the starting process for the flexible wind tower which has the structure of symmetry basically; while in the normal operation stage, the wind wheel would not induce the resonance for flexible tower. The research provides a theoretical basis for the design of wind turbine tower

Dendroremediation Potential of Six <i>Quercus</i> Species to Polluted Soil in Historic Copper Mining Sites

Green remediation of severely contaminated soils around mining sites can be achieved using suitable woody plants such as Quercus species, but their phytoremediation potential has not been well evaluated yet. Six Quercus species, which were popular in ecological restoration and landscape application in east China, were selected and evaluated for their phytoremediation potential of metal polluted soil using a pot experiment that lasted for 150 d. The results suggested that Quercus species exhibited high tolerance to multi-metal contamination of Cu (9839 mg·kg−1), Cd (8.5 mg·kg−1), and Zn (562 mg·kg−1) with a tolerance index (TI) ranging from 0.52 to 1.21. Three Quercus (Q. pagoda, Q. acutissima, and Q. nuttallii) showed relatively higher tolerance with TIs of 1.08, 1.09, and 1.21, respectively. Above-ground tissues accounted for most of the total biomass in T1 (mixture of clean and polluted soil, 50%) and T2 (100% polluted soil) treatments for most species. The Cu contents in plant tissues were in the order of root > leaf > stem, whereas Zn exhibited the order of leaf > stem > root, and Cd showed divergent mobility within the Quercus species. All the Quercus species exhibited higher capacity for Zn phytoextraction with translocation factor (TF) over 1 and Cu/Cd phytostabilization with TFs lower than 1. The analytic hierarchy process-entropy weight model indicated that Q. virginiana and Q. acutissima were two excellent species with evident phytoremediation capacity of Cu, Cd, and Zn co-contaminated soil. Taken together, Quercus species showed great potential for phytoremediation of soils severely polluted by Cu, Cd, and Zn around historic mining sites. Application of Quercus species is a green remediation option with low-maintenance cost and prospective economic benefit for phytomanagement of historic mining sites

MOESM1 of Surface display of ACC deaminase on endophytic Enterobacteriaceae strains to increase saline resistance of host rice sprouts by regulating plant ethylene synthesis

Additional file 1. Additional figures

Symbolic execution based test-patterns generation algorithm for hardware Trojan detection

Hardware Trojan detection is a very difficult challenge. However, the combination of symbolic execution and metamorphic testing is useful for detecting hardware Trojans in Verilog code. In this paper, symbolic execution and metamorphic testing were combined to detect internal conditionally triggered hardware Trojans in the register-transfer level design. First, control flow graphs of Verilog code were generated. Next, parallel symbolic execution and satisfiability modulo theories solver generated test patterns. Finally, metamorphic testing detected the hardware Trojans. The work used Trust-Hub benchmarks in experiments