Use of strontium-enriched bioactive bone cement in enhancing tendon osteointegration in a rabbit anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction model

Conference Theme: Defying the Aging Spine: Our Mission ContinuesConcurrent Free Papers 5 - Sports: no. 5.17Introduction: It was hypothesised that strontium led to accelerated healing of strontium-enriched calcium phosphate cement (Sr-CPC)–treated soft tissue tendon graft within the bone tunnel in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. This hypothesis was tested in a rabbit ACL reconstruction model using Achilles tendon allograft. Methods: A total of 30 bilateral ACL reconstructions were performed in 15 rabbits. The graft on the tested limb was treated with Sr-CPC, while that on the contralateral limb was treated with CPC. Three were sacrificed for histomorphometric analysis respectively at 3, 6, 9, 12, and 24 weeks after the index operation. Histomorphometric analysis of the healing of graft was done by 2 independent observers in 42 histological zones per animal using a scoring system of 0 to 9. The data were analysed by Mann-Whitney U test. Results: Accelerated healing of the graft within bone tunnel was noted in the strontium-treated limb at 3, 6, 9, and 12 weeks after the operation (p < 0.001) when compared with the CPC-treated limb. Complete healing of the graft by Sharpey’s fibre formation at 9 weeks and early evidence of remodelling into normal ACL insertion site at 12 weeks were noted in the SrCPC group. The healing of the graft in the CPC-treated limb was noted 3 to 6 weeks slower than the Sr-CPC group. Conclusion: Strontium is the main contributing factor leading to accelerated healing of Sr-CPC–treated soft tissue tendon graft in a rabbit ACL reconstruction model.postprin

Use of strontium-enriched bioactive bone cement in enhancing tendon osteointegration in a rabbit anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction model

Conference Theme: Defying the Aging Spine: Our Mission ContinuesConcurrent Free Papers 5 - Sports: no. 5.17Introduction: It was hypothesised that strontium led to accelerated healing of strontium-enriched calcium phosphate cement (Sr-CPC)–treated soft tissue tendon graft within the bone tunnel in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. This hypothesis was tested in a rabbit ACL reconstruction model using Achilles tendon allograft. Methods: A total of 30 bilateral ACL reconstructions were performed in 15 rabbits. The graft on the tested limb was treated with Sr-CPC, while that on the contralateral limb was treated with CPC. Three were sacrificed for histomorphometric analysis respectively at 3, 6, 9, 12, and 24 weeks after the index operation. Histomorphometric analysis of the healing of graft was done by 2 independent observers in 42 histological zones per animal using a scoring system of 0 to 9. The data were analysed by Mann-Whitney U test. Results: Accelerated healing of the graft within bone tunnel was noted in the strontium-treated limb at 3, 6, 9, and 12 weeks after the operation (p < 0.001) when compared with the CPC-treated limb. Complete healing of the graft by Sharpey’s fibre formation at 9 weeks and early evidence of remodelling into normal ACL insertion site at 12 weeks were noted in the SrCPC group. The healing of the graft in the CPC-treated limb was noted 3 to 6 weeks slower than the Sr-CPC group. Conclusion: Strontium is the main contributing factor leading to accelerated healing of Sr-CPC–treated soft tissue tendon graft in a rabbit ACL reconstruction model.postprin

Downregulation of ASPP2 in choriocarcinoma contributes to increased migratory potential through Src signaling pathway activation

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Improved prediction of RNA secondary structure by integrating the free energy model with restraints derived from experimental probing data.

PublishedEvaluation StudiesJournal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tRecently, several experimental techniques have emerged for probing RNA structures based on high-throughput sequencing. However, most secondary structure prediction tools that incorporate probing data are designed and optimized for particular types of experiments. For example, RNAstructure-Fold is optimized for SHAPE data, while SeqFold is optimized for PARS data. Here, we report a new RNA secondary structure prediction method, restrained MaxExpect (RME), which can incorporate multiple types of experimental probing data and is based on a free energy model and an MEA (maximizing expected accuracy) algorithm. We first demonstrated that RME substantially improved secondary structure prediction with perfect restraints (base pair information of known structures). Next, we collected structure-probing data from diverse experiments (e.g. SHAPE, PARS and DMS-seq) and transformed them into a unified set of pairing probabilities with a posterior probabilistic model. By using the probability scores as restraints in RME, we compared its secondary structure prediction performance with two other well-known tools, RNAstructure-Fold (based on a free energy minimization algorithm) and SeqFold (based on a sampling algorithm). For SHAPE data, RME and RNAstructure-Fold performed better than SeqFold, because they markedly altered the energy model with the experimental restraints. For high-throughput data (e.g. PARS and DMS-seq) with lower probing efficiency, the secondary structure prediction performances of the tested tools were comparable, with performance improvements for only a portion of the tested RNAs. However, when the effects of tertiary structure and protein interactions were removed, RME showed the highest prediction accuracy in the DMS-accessible regions by incorporating in vivo DMS-seq data.National Key Basic Research Program of China [2012CB316503]; National High-Tech Research and Development Program of China [2014AA021103]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [31271402]; Tsinghua University Initiative Scientific Research Program [2014z21045]; Hong Kong Research Grants Council Early Career Scheme [419612 to K.Y.]; National Science Foundation [1339282 to D.H.M.]; Computing Platform of the National Protein Facilities (Tsinghua University). Funding for open access charge: National Natural Science Foundation of China [31271402]

Experimental Measurement of the Berry Curvature from Anomalous Transport

Geometrical properties of energy bands underlie fascinating phenomena in a wide-range of systems, including solid-state materials, ultracold gases and photonics. Most famously, local geometrical characteristics like the Berry curvature can be related to global topological invariants such as those classifying quantum Hall states or topological insulators. Regardless of the band topology, however, any non-zero Berry curvature can have important consequences, such as in the semi-classical evolution of a wave packet. Here, we experimentally demonstrate for the first time that wave packet dynamics can be used to directly map out the Berry curvature. To this end, we use optical pulses in two coupled fibre loops to study the discrete time-evolution of a wave packet in a 1D geometrical "charge" pump, where the Berry curvature leads to an anomalous displacement of the wave packet under pumping. This is both the first direct observation of Berry curvature effects in an optical system, and, more generally, the proof-of-principle demonstration that semi-classical dynamics can serve as a high-resolution tool for mapping out geometrical properties

Versatile and on-demand biologics co-production in yeast

Current limitations to on-demand drug manufacturing can be addressed by technologies that streamline manufacturing processes. Combining the production of two or more drugs into a single batch could not only be useful for research, clinical studies, and urgent therapies but also effective when combination therapies are needed or where resources are scarce. Here we propose strategies to concurrently produce multiple biologics from yeast in single batches by multiplexing strain development, cell culture, separation, and purification. We demonstrate proof-of-concept for three biologics co-production strategies: (i) inducible expression of multiple biologics and control over the ratio between biologic drugs produced together; (ii) consolidated bioprocessing; and (iii) co-expression and co-purification of a mixture of two monoclonal antibodies. We then use these basic strategies to produce drug mixtures as well as to separate drugs. These strategies offer a diverse array of options for on-demand, flexible, low-cost, and decentralized biomanufacturing applications without the need for specialized equipment

Additional molecular testing of saliva specimens improves the detection of respiratory viruses

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Differential Dynamics of Transposable Elements during Long-Term Diploidization of Nicotiana Section Repandae (Solanaceae) Allopolyploid Genomes

PubMed ID: 23185607This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Vibration investigation for telecom structures with smartphone camera: case studies

This is the final version. Available on open access from Springer via the DOI in this recordData availability: The authors declare that the research data supporting this publication are provided within this paper.Telecom structures such as high guyed masts are tall and flexible, so that not only the main structure but also the components (i.e., guy cable and antenna) suffer from vibrations induced by wind or earthquakes. The installation of contact inertial accelerometers for high guyed mast cables or antenna can be logistically challenging and the original vibration state may be influenced by these sensors. With convenient implementation and acceptable accuracy, computer vision technologies have been applied for vibration tests both in labs and field. In this paper, videos taken with smartphone cameras are processed to extract guy cable and antenna vibration information for telecom structures and, as a result, providing an efficient cost-effective method for vibration investigation of this type of structure. The video processing method can also be used in similar cases for other structures

Omicron variant susceptibility to neutralizing antibodies induced in children by natural SARS-CoV-2 infection or COVID-19 vaccine

The novel SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant may increase the risk of re-infection and vaccine breakthrough infections as it possesses key mutations in the spike protein that affect neutralizing antibody response. Most studies on neutralization susceptibility were conducted using specimens from adult COVID-19 patients or vaccine recipients. However, since the paediatric population has an antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 infection that is distinct from the adult population, it is critical to assess the neutralization susceptibility of pediatric serum specimens. This study compared the neutralization susceptibility of serum specimens collected from 49 individuals of <18 years old, including 34 adolescent BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine recipients, and 15 recovered COVID-19 patients aged between 2 and 17. We demonstrated that only 38.2% of BNT162b2 vaccine recipients and 26.7% of recovered COVID-19 patients had their serum neutralization titre at or above the detection threshold in our live virus microneutralization assay. Furthermore, the neutralizing antibody titer against the Omicron variant was substantially lower than those against the ancestral virus or the Beta variant. Our results suggest that vaccine recipients and COVID-19 patients in the pediatric age group will likely be more susceptible to vaccine breakthrough infections or reinfections due to the Omicron variant than previous variants