Potential implications of SARS-CoV-2 oral infection in the host microbiota

The oral cavity, as the entry point to the body, may play a critical role in the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 infection that has caused a global outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Available data indicate that the oral cavity may be an active site of infection and an important reservoir of SARS-CoV-2. Considering that the oral surfaces are colonized by a diverse microbial community, it is likely that viruses have interactions with the host microbiota. Patients infected by SARS-CoV-2 may have alterations in the oral and gut micro-biota, while oral species have been found in the lung of COVID-19 patients. Furthermore, interactions between the oral, lung, and gut microbiomes appear to occur dynamically whereby a dysbiotic oral microbial community could influence respiratory and gastrointest-inal diseases. However, it is unclear whether SARS-CoV-2 infection can alter the local home-ostasis of the resident microbiota, actively cause dysbiosis, or influence cross-body sites interactions. Here, we provide a conceptual framework on the potential impact of SARS- CoV-2 oral infection on the local and distant microbiomes across the respiratory and gastro-intestinal tracts (‘oral-tract axes’), which remains largely unexplored. Studies in this area could further elucidate the pathogenic mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 and the course of infection as well as the clinical symptoms of COVID-19 across different sites in the human host

Phenyl 3-meth­oxy-4-phen­oxy­benzoate

In the title mol­ecule, C20H16O4, the two outermost phenyl rings form dihedral angles of 79.80 (7) and 69.35 (7)° with the central benzene ring. In the crystal structure, weak inter­molecular C—H⋯O inter­actions link the mol­ecules into ribbons propagating along [10]

Hesperidin Protects against Acute Alcoholic Injury through Improving Lipid Metabolism and Cell Damage in Zebrafish Larvae

Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is a series of abnormalities of liver function, including alcoholic steatosis, steatohepatitis, and cirrhosis. Hesperidin, the major constituent of flavanone in grapefruit, is proved to play a role in antioxidation, anti-inflammation, and reducing multiple organs damage in various animal experiments. However, the underlying mechanism of resistance to alcoholic liver injury is still unclear. Thus, we aimed to investigate the protective effects of hesperidin against ALD and its molecular mechanism in this study. We established an ALD zebrafish larvae model induced by 350 mM ethanol for 32 hours, using wild-type and transgenic line with liver-specific eGFP expression Tg (lfabp10α:eGFP) zebrafish larvae (4 dpf). The results revealed that hesperidin dramatically reduced the hepatic morphological damage and the expressions of alcohol and lipid metabolism related genes, including cyp2y3, cyp3a65, hmgcra, hmgcrb, fasn, and fads2 compared with ALD model. Moreover, the findings demonstrated that hesperidin alleviated hepatic damage as well, which is reflected by the expressions of endoplasmic reticulum stress and DNA damage related genes (chop, gadd45αa, and edem1). In conclusion, this study revealed that hesperidin can inhibit alcoholic damage to liver of zebrafish larvae by reducing endoplasmic reticulum stress and DNA damage, regulating alcohol and lipid metabolism

Phototunable biomemory based on light-mediated charge trap

Phototunable biomaterial‐based resistive memory devices and understanding of their underlying switching mechanisms may pave a way toward new paradigm of smart and green electronics. Here, resistive switching behavior of photonic biomemory based on a novel structure of metal anode/carbon dots (CDs)‐silk protein/indium tin oxide is systematically investigated, with Al, Au, and Ag anodes as case studies. The charge trapping/detrapping and metal filaments formation/rupture are observed by in situ Kelvin probe force microscopy investigations and scanning electron microscopy and energy‐dispersive spectroscopy microanalysis, which demonstrates that the resistive switching behavior of Al, Au anode‐based device are related to the space‐charge‐limited‐conduction, while electrochemical metallization is the main mechanism for resistive transitions of Ag anode‐based devices. Incorporation of CDs with light‐adjustable charge trapping capacity is found to be responsible for phototunable resistive switching properties of CDs‐based resistive random access memory by performing the ultraviolet light illumination studies on as‐fabricated devices. The synergistic effect of photovoltaics and photogating can effectively enhance the internal electrical field to reduce the switching voltage. This demonstration provides a practical route for next‐generation biocompatible electronics

Functional Polymorphisms of CTLA4 Associated with Aggressive Periodontitis in the Chinese Han Population

Background/Aims: CTLA4 has been identified functioning as a protein receptor which functions as an immune checkpoint, downregulating the immune system. Susceptibility to aggressive periodontitis (AgP) is influenced by gene polymorphisms related to the immune response. In this study, we focused on SNPs in the 3’-UTR of CTLA4 among Chinese AgP patients, and investigated any further relationships between the SNPs and miRNAs. Methods: This case–control study included 120 AgP patients and 150 healthy controls. Genotyping was used to detect allele distribution. Cell transfection and the dual luciferase reporter assay were performed to investigate the potential functions of SNPs located in the 3’UTR of CTLA4. Results: The data show that patients with a history of smoking were more susceptible compared to controls, exhibiting deeper probing depth, greater attachment loss and more sites of bleeding on probing. The results of genotyping analysis revealed that individuals with the GA and AA genotypes, and with the A carrier had a decreased risk (P = 0.015, P = 0.03). Furthermore, patients with the G allele might be regulated by miR-105, which caused a down-regulation of CTLA4. The carriers of the GG genotype exhibited the worst results of attachment loss and bleeding on probing. Conclusion: These findings show that rs56102377 in the 3’-UTR of CTLA4 may act as a protective factor by disrupting the regulatory role of miR-105 in CTLA4 expression. Thus, our study highlighted a potential role of these polymorphisms as genetic susceptibility biomarkers of periodontitis in Chinese Han populations

Collaborative processing and data optimization of environmental perception technologies for autonomous vehicles

Purpose Autonomous driving depends on the collection, processing and analysis of environmental information and vehicle information. Environmental perception and processing are important prerequisite for the safety of self-driving of vehicles; it involves road boundary detection, vehicle detection, pedestrian detection using sensors such as laser rangefinder, video camera, vehicle borne radar, etc. Design/methodology/approach Subjected to various environmental factors, the data clock information is often out of sync because of different data acquisition frequency, which leads to the difficulty in data fusion. In this study, according to practical requirements, a multi-sensor environmental perception collaborative method was first proposed; then, based on the principle of target priority, large-scale priority, moving target priority and difference priority, a multi-sensor data fusion optimization algorithm based on convolutional neural network was proposed. Findings The average unload scheduling delay of the algorithm for test data before and after optimization under different network transmission rates. It can be seen that with the improvement of network transmission rate and processing capacity, the unload scheduling delay decreased after optimization and the performance of the test results is the closest to the optimal solution indicating the excellent performance of the optimization algorithm and its adaptivity to different environments. Originality/value In this paper, the results showed that the proposed method significantly improved the redundancy and fault tolerance of the system thus ensuring fast and correct decision-making during driving.</p