The metabolic repression effect of carbon-ion radiotherapy in synchronous hormone-sensitive oligometastatic prostate cancer

BackgroundMetastatic prostate cancer (PCa) poses a significant public health concern. While radiation therapy (RT) is commonly utilized in the treatment of synchronous oligometastatic hormone sensitive prostate cancer (OM-HSPC), the occurrence of biochemical recurrence still remains. To deepen our understanding and optimize the outcome of OM-HSPC, we conducted this study to investigate the characteristics of PCa progression and explore potential synergistic mechanisms involving carbon-ion radiotherapy (CIRT) and neoadjuvant androgen deprivation treatment (naADT) in OM-HSPC.MethodsMetabolomic analysis was conducted with 72 urinary samples (at different timepoints) from 33 Patients (T2-3N0M0-1b) and 18 healthy volunteers by using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). MetaboAnalyst website and R software were employed for metabolomic analysis and visualization (using the criteria of p value < 0.05 and |FC|>1.5). The impact of CIRT on metabolism were further verified and explored through in vitro and in vivo experiments.ResultsWe found that most metabolites (223 out of 233) were upregulated in treatment-naïve PCa samples compared to healthy samples. After naADT, 60 core risk metabolites were still significantly related to PCa’s progression, and the glutamine level which was significantly higher in OM-HSPC compared to other groups. Remarkably, after CIRT treatment, the glutamine levels in OM-HSPC were significantly reduced to the level of healthy samples. Experiments further confirmed CIRT’s ability to suppress glutamine levels in PCa tumors and its potential enhancement with glutamine deprivation intervention.ConclusionCIRT with naADT might synergistically inhibit HS-OMPC development, progression and even the ADT resistance through glutamine metabolism repression, moreover, the glutamine metabolism might be a novel target to further improved the efficacy of CIRT

Purification and Partial Characterization of Bacteriocin Lac-B23, a Novel Bacteriocin Production by Lactobacillus plantarum J23, Isolated From Chinese Traditional Fermented Milk

The exploration and evaluation of bacteriocin-producing lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have been one of the powerful means to food preservation. A total of 300 strains were isolated from Chinese traditional fermented milk products. A bacteriocin-producing LAB, named Lactobacillus plantarum J23, was screened and identified. Bacteriocin Lac-B23 from L. plantarum J23 was purified by 80% ammonium sulfate precipitation, cation-exchange chromatography, and reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. Molecular weight of bacteriocin Lac-B23 was determined to be approximately 6.73 kDa by tricine sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis, and it was confirmed as a novel bacteriocin by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Moreover, bacteriocin Lac-B23 showed thermal stability when heated at below 100°C for 30 min, pH stability between pH 2.0 and 12.0, and sensitivity to trypsin, proteinase K, and proteinase E. The antimicrobial activity of bacteriocin could be enhanced by addition of Fe2+, Mn2+, and ethyl alcohol, and inhibited by Cu2+, K+, Ca2+, Zn2+, Mg2+, and sodium chloride. The results suggested bacteriocin Lac-B23 to have potential application prospects in the food industry

An field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based device for charge-state readout of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond with nanosecond feedback speed

Ionization of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond from the NV− to NV0 state is a destructive process in applications, where a large amount of time is cost for high-fidelity readout. To this end, real-time adaptive feedback would be helpful to improve the readout efficiency. Here, we develop a field programmable gate array-based device that supports complex calculation and real-time feedback at the nanosecond level. This device integrates a time tagger for photon input, a programmable logic arrays for real-time calculation, and a 20-channel pulse streamer for control output. Based on this device, we demonstrate a high-efficiency of real-time charge-state readout. With this device, the signal-to-noise ratio of maximal adaptive-decision-based charge-state readout can be significantly reduced. Moreover, we demonstrate an application of NV− purification with the real-time feedback, where the contrast of spin-state-dependent fluorescence is improved from 31.7% to 35.0%. The device can be easily extended to other quantum systems

EFHD1 expression is correlated with tumor-infiltrating neutrophils and predicts prognosis in gastric cancer

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) ranks third in terms of mortality worldwide. The tumor microenvironment is critical for the progression of gastric cancer. This study investigated the association between EF-hand domain containing 1 (EFHD1) expression and its clinical significance in the tumor microenvironment (TME) of gastric cancer. Methods: We used bioinformatic analyses to assess the relevance of EFHD1 mRNA in the TME of gastric carcinoma tissues and its relationship with clinical features. Therefore, we performed multiplex immunohistochemistry analyses to determine the potential role of the EFHD1 protein in the TME of gastric cancer. Results: EFHD1 expression increased dramatically in gastric cancer tissues compared to levels in non-cancerous tissue samples (t = 6.246, P < 0.001). The EFHD1 protein presentation was associated with invasion depth (χ2 = 19.120, P < 0.001) and TNM stages (χ2 = 14.468, P = 0.002). Notably, EFHD1 protein expression was significantly related to CD66b + neutrophil infiltration of the intratumoral (r = 0.420, P < 0.001) and stromal (r = 0.367, P < 0.001) TME in gastric cancer. Additionally, Cox regression analysis revealed that EFHD1 was an independent prognostic predictor (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.262, P < 0.001) in patients with gastric cancer. Conclusions: Our study revealed the pattern of EFHD1 overexpression in the TME of patients with gastric cancer and demonstrated its utility as a biomarker for unfavorable clinical outcomes, thereby providing a potential immunotherapy target

Molecular structure of imidazoline inhibitor and quantum chemical analysis of corrosion inhibition performance of Zn atom

The adsorption potential energy curves of imidazoline compounds and Zn atom were calculated by quantum chemistry method.The adsorption energy, imidazoline ring, the coordination bond length between nitrogen atom and Zn atom, the double atom interaction energy and the overlapping population number were obtained.The results show that the introduction of power-providing groups or substituted aromatics into imidazoline ring can enhance the chemical adsorption force between N and Zn. The calculation results can provide a useful theoretical basis for the design of corrosion inhibitors with better performance

Use of an Improved Matching Algorithm to Select Scaffolds for Enzyme Design Based on a Complex Active Site Model

<div><p>Active site preorganization helps native enzymes electrostatically stabilize the transition state better than the ground state for their primary substrates and achieve significant rate enhancement. In this report, we hypothesize that a complex active site model for active site preorganization modeling should help to create preorganized active site design and afford higher starting activities towards target reactions. Our matching algorithm ProdaMatch was improved by invoking effective pruning strategies and the native active sites for ten scaffolds in a benchmark test set were reproduced. The root-mean squared deviations between the matched transition states and those in the crystal structures were < 1.0 Å for the ten scaffolds, and the repacking calculation results showed that 91% of the hydrogen bonds within the active sites are recovered, indicating that the active sites can be preorganized based on the predicted positions of transition states. The application of the complex active site model for <i>de novo</i> enzyme design was evaluated by scaffold selection using a classic catalytic triad motif for the hydrolysis of <i>p</i>-nitrophenyl acetate. Eighty scaffolds were identified from a scaffold library with 1,491 proteins and four scaffolds were native esterase. Furthermore, enzyme design for complicated substrates was investigated for the hydrolysis of cephalexin using scaffold selection based on two different catalytic motifs. Only three scaffolds were identified from the scaffold library by virtue of the classic catalytic triad-based motif. In contrast, 40 scaffolds were identified using a more flexible, but still preorganized catalytic motif, where one scaffold corresponded to the α-amino acid ester hydrolase that catalyzes the hydrolysis and synthesis of cephalexin. Thus, the complex active site modeling approach for <i>de novo</i> enzyme design with the aid of the improved ProdaMatch program is a promising approach for the creation of active sites with high catalytic efficiencies towards target reactions.</p></div

Matching results and active site residue sidechain repacking results in scaffold 1mpx.

<p>(A) Superposition of native and matched active sites for hydrolysis of cephalexin on scaffold 1mpx. (B) Conformations of repacked residues based on matched cephalexin on scaffold 1mpx. The transition states are shown in ball and stick model and colored in pink. The active site residues are shown in stick model. Atoms O, N, and C in crystal structures are colored in red, teal, and gray, respectively. Matched residues are colored in red. The hydrogen bonds in crystal structures are shown in dotted green lines, and the predicted hydrogen bonds are shown in dotted pink lines. The distances between hydrogen bonding donors and acceptors are shown in Å and labeled besides the dotted lines.</p