Comparative Study of the Biological Activities of the Skin Secretions from Six Common Chinese Amphibians

Water soluble skin secretions of six common Chinese amphibians were studied for their biological and enzymatic activities.The skin secretions of Tylototriton verrucosus,Bombina maxima ,and Bufo andrewsi were found toxic to mice with the intraperitoneal LD 50 of 11 5?mg/kg,18 8?mg/kg,and 264?mg/kg,respectively.No acute lethal toxicities were observed for the skin secretions of Rana nigromaculata,Rana guentheri and Rana limnocharis in a dose up to 500?mg/kg.The lethal toxicities of the skin secretions of T verrucosus and B maxima to mice are in the same grade as those of Viperidae snake venoms.The toxic components in T verrucosus and B maxima skin secretions are the proteins with molecular weights ranging from 3 to 60?kDa.All the skin secretions had both proteolytic activity and trypsin inhibitory activity.The skin secretions from T verrucosus , B maxima and B andrewsi also displayed wide spectrum antimicrobial activity.On the other hand,the skin secretions from B andrewsi and B maxima showed cytotoxicity on human cancer cells.All the six samples had not significant effects on mammalian blood coagulation system.Phospholipase A 2 activity was only found in the skin secretions of T verrucosus .None of these skin secretions showed acetylcholine esterase activity.

Transcriptome and metabolome analysis reveal that oral secretions from Helicoverpa armigera and Spodoptera litura influence wound-induced host response in cotton

Cotton(Gossypium hirsutum)is an important fiber crop worldwide.Insect attack causes cotton yield and quality losses.However,little is known about the mechanism of cotton response to insect attack.We simulated insect feeding by applying insect oral secretions(OS)to wounds,and combined transcriptome and metabolome analysis to investigate how OS from two major pest species(Helicoverpa armigera and Spodoptera litura)affect cotton defense responses.We found that respectively 12,668 and 13,379 genes were differentially expressed in comparison with wounding alone.On addition of OS,the jasmonic acid signaling pathway was rapidly and strongly induced,whereas genes involved in salicylic acid biosynthesis were downregulated.On constructing a coexpression gene network,we identified a hub gene encoding a leucine-rich repeat receptor kinase that may play an important role in early signal recognition and transduction.OS from the two insect species altered the abundance of flavonoid-related compounds in different patterns.Gossypol remained in lower concentration after OS application than after wounding alone,suggesting a suppressive effect of OS on cotton defense response.This study illustrated transcriptional and metabolic changes of cotton in responding to OS from two chewing insect species,identified potential key response genes,and revealed evidence for OS inhibition of wounding-induced cotton defense response.

Treatment of a mouse model of collagen antibody-induced arthritis with human adipose-derived secretions

The use of adipose-derived cells as a treatment for a variety of diseases is becoming increasingly common. These therapies include the use of cultured mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and freshly isolated stromal vascular fraction (SVF) alone, or in conjunction with other cells such as adipocytes. There is a substantial amount of literature published on the therapeutic properties of MSCs and their secretions as the main driver of their therapeutic effect. However, there is little data available on the therapeutic potential of secretions from SVF, either with or without adipocytes. We investigated the ability of secretions from human adipose SVF alone and the SVF co-cultured with adipocytes as a proxy for cell therapy, to ameliorate an inflammatory disorder. This ethics approved study involved the treatment of collagen antibody-induced arthritis (CAIA) in mice with secretions from SVF, SVF co-cultured with adipocytes, or a vehicle control via both intravenous (IV) and intramuscular (IM) routes. Treatment outcome was assessed by paw volume, ankle size and clinical arthritis score measurements. Serum samples were obtained following euthanasia and analysed for a panel of 32 mouse cytokines and growth factors. The dose and timing regime used for the IM administration of both human secretion mixtures did not significantly ameliorate arthritis in this model. The IV administration of SVF adipocyte co-culture secretions reduced the paw volume, and significantly reduced the ankle size and clinical arthritis score when compared to the IV vehicle control mice. This was a superior therapeutic effect than treatment with SVF secretions. Furthermore, treatment with SVF adipocyte coculture secretions resulted in a significant reduction in serum levels of key cytokines, IL-2 and VEGF, involved in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis. Therefore, the SVF cocultured with adipocytes is an attractive therapeutic for inflammatory conditions.

The value of B7-H3 expression in expressed prostatic secretions in differential diagnosis of patients with inflammatory elevation of PSA in t-PSA gray zone

Objective To investigate the value of BT-H3 in expressed prostatic secretions ( EPS) in differential diagnosis of patients with inflammatory elevation of PSA in t - PSA gray zone ( 4 - 10 ng /ml) . Methods One hundred and sixteen patients from ages of 19 to 80 years ( mean,40 years) were studied. In the group there

Effect of Helicobacter pylori cdrA on interleukin-8 secretions and nuclear factor kappa B activation

AIM： To investigate genetic diversity of Helicobacter pylori （H. pylorl） cell division-related gene A （cdrA） and its effect on the host response.METHODS： Inactivation of H. py/ori cdrA, which is involved in ceil division and morphological elonga- tion, has a role in chronic persistent infections. Ge- netic property of H. pylori cdrA was evaluated using polymerase chain reaction and sequencing in 128 （77 American and 51 Japanese） clinical isolates obtained from 48 and 51 patients, respectively. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was performed to measure in- terleukin-8 （IL-8） secretion with gastric biopsy speci- mens obtained from American patients colonized with cdrA-positive or -negative strains and AGS cells co- cultured with wild-type HPK5 （cdrA-positive） or its de- rivative HPKT510 （cdrA-disruptant）. Furthermore, the cytotoxin-associated gene A （cagA） status （transloca- tion and phosphorylation） and kinetics of transcription factors [nuclear factor-kappa B （NF-~：B） and inhibition kappa B] were investigated in AGS cells co-cultured with HPK5, HPKT510 and its derivative HPKSCA （cagA- disruptant） by western blotting analysis with immuno- precipitation. RESULTS： Genetic diversity of the H. pylori cdrA gene demonstrated that the cdrA status segregated into two categories including four allele types, cdrA-positive （al- lele types, I and 11 ） and cdrA-negative （allele types; 111 and IV） categories, respectively. Almost all Japanese isolates were cdrA-positive （ 1 ： 7.8% and 11 ： 90.2%）, whereas 16.9% of American isolates were cdrA-positive （11） and 83.1% were cdrA-negative （nl： 37.7% and IV： 45.5%）, indicating extended diversity of cdrA in individual American isolates. Comparison of each isolate from different regions （antrum and corpus） in the stomach of 29 Americans revealed that cdrA status was identical in both isolates from different regions in 17 cases. However, 12 cases had a different cdrA al- lele and 6 of them exhibited a different cdrA category between two regions in the stomach. Furthermore, in 5 of the 6 cases possessing a different cdrA category, cdrA-negative isolate existed in the corpus, suggesting that cdrA-negative strain is more adaptable to coloni- zation in the corpus. IL-8 secretions from AGS revealed that IL-8 levels induced by a cdrA-disrupted HPKT510 was significantly lower （P 〈 0.01） compared to wild- type HPK5： corresponding to 50%-60% of those of wild-type HPK5. These data coincided with in vivo data that an average value of IL-8 in biopsy specimens from cdrA-positive and cdrA-negative groups was 215.6 and 135.9 pg/mL, respectively. Western blotting analysis documented that HPKT510 had no effect on CagA translocation and phosphorylation, however, nuclear accumulation of NF-κB was lower by HPKT510 com- pared to HPK5. CONCLUSION： Colonization by a cdrA-negative or cdrA-dysfunctional strain resulted in decreased IL-8 production and repression of NF-κB, and hence, atten- uate the host immunity leading to persistent infection.

Protein composition of extracellular vesicles from skin secretions of the amphibian Bombina maxima

DEAR EDITOR,Extracellular vesicles(EVs)are important for the transport of biologically active materials and for intercellular communication.As an exposed mucosa,amphibian skin participates in many essential physiological processes.To date,however,little is known about EVs in amphibian skin.Here,we successfully isolated EVs from the skin secretions of Bombina maxima,and characterized the EVs using nanoparticle tracking,western blotting,and electron microscopy.

A Novel Insulinotropic Peptide from the Skin Secretions of Amolops loloensis Frog

Various kinds of biologically active peptides have previously been isolated from the skin secretions of Amolops loloensis frog,such as antimicrobial peptides,bradykinin-like peptides and algesic peptides.A novel insulinotropic peptide named amolopin was identified in A.loloensis frog’s skin secretion.Its primary structure sequence was determined by Edman degradation as:FLPIVGKSLSGLSGKL-NH2.BLAST search indicates that the amino acid sequence of amolopin is quite different from other known insulin secretagogues,including mastoparan,exendins and a-latrotoxin,nor does it like incretins(e.g.glucagons like peptide-1 and glucose-dependent insulinotropic ploypeptide)either.However,amolopin shows certain structural similarity with amphibian antimicrobial temporins and vespid chemotactic peptides isolated from Vespa magnifica.Amolopin can stimulate insulin release in INS-1 cells in a dose-dependent manner.Primary investigation on its action mechanisms reveals that amolopin does not increase the influx of Ca2?.In conclusion,a novel 16-amino acid peptide with insulin-releasing activity is initially discovered from the skin secretion of A.loloensis frog.Further work is necessary to evaluate its potential as novel anti-diabetic candidate.

Egg-associated secretions from the brown planthopper(Nilaparvata lugens)activate rice immune responses

The brown planthopper(BPH,Nilaparvata lugens)is a notorious sap-sucking insect pest that damages rice(Oryza sativa)plants throughout Asia.During BPH feeding,saliva enters rice plant tissues,whereas during oviposition egg-associated secretions(EAS)are deposited in damaged plant tissue.Dynamic changes in rice to planthopper salivary effectors have been widely reported.However,the effects of EAS from planthopper on rice immunity remains largely unexplored.In this study,we found that both infestation of rice by gravid BPH female adults and treatment with the EAS elicited a strong and rapid accumulation of jasmonic acid(JA),JA-isoleucine,and hydrogen peroxide in rice.EAS enhanced plant defenses not only in rice but also in tobacco,and these impaired the performance of BPH on rice,as well as the performance of aphids and whiteflies on tobacco.High-throughput proteome sequencing of EAS led to 110 proteins being identified and 53 proteins with 2 or more unique peptides being detected.Some proteins from BPH EAS were also found in the salivary proteome from herbivores,suggesting potential evolutionary conservation of effector functions across feeding and oviposition;however,others were only identified in EAS,and these are likely specifically related to oviposition.These findings point to novel proteins affecting interactions between planthoppers and rice during oviposition,providing an additional source of information for effector studies.

Secretions from hypochlorous acid-treated tumor cells delivered in a melittin hydrogel potentiate cancer immunotherapy

Autologous tumor cells and cell-derived secretions(CDS)can induce antitumor immune responses.The conditions in which cells are cultured and treated impact CDS,and cellular insults alter their composition and function.In this study,we generated CDS from tumor cells exposed to normal culture conditions,hypoxia,cisplatin,radiotherapy,photodynamic therapy,or hypochlorous acid(HOCl).In vitro HOCl-CDS showed the strongest stimulatory effects on dendritic cells and macrophages compared to CDS generated by hypoxia,cisplatin,radiotherapy or photodynamic therapy.To improve HOCl-CDS activity at the tumor site,we loaded HOCl-CDS into a melittin-encapsulated hydrogel scaffold.When injected intratumorally,the HOCl-CDS hydrogel promoted tumor cell death,cytotoxic T lymphocyte infiltration,and tumor-associated macrophage reprogramming towards an M1 phenotype.The hydrogel inhibited tumor growth and prolonged the survival of mice bearing B16-F10 melanoma.Furthermore,hydrogel-delivered HOCl-CDS augmented the antitumor effects of immune checkpoint blockade.These results underscore the importance of the CDS generation method and delivery approach for improving cancer immunotherapy.

The cephalic labial gland secretions of two socially parasitic bumblebees Bombus hyperboreus （Alpinobombus） and Bombus inexspectatus （ Thoracobombus） question their inquiline strategy

Social parasitic Hymenopterans have evolved morphological, chemical, and behavioral adaptations to overcome the sophisticated recognition and defense systems of their social host to invade host nests and exploit their worker force. In bumblebees, so- cial parasitism appeared in at least 3 subgenera independently： in the subgenus Psithyrus consisting entirely of parasitic species, in the subgenus Alpinobombus with Bombus hy- perboreus, and in the subgenus Thoracobombus with B. inexspectatus. Cuckoo bumblebee males utilize species-specific cephalic labial gland secretions for mating purposes that can impact their inquiline strategy. We performed cephalic labial gland secretions in B. hyperboreus, B. inexspectatus and their hosts. Males of both parasitic species exhibited high species specific levels of cephalic gland secretions, including different main com- pounds. Our results showed no chemical mimicry in the cephalic gland secretions between inquilines and their host and we did not identify the repellent compounds already known in other cuckoo bumblebees.

Multi-dimensional multiplexing optical secret sharing framework with cascaded liquid crystal holograms

Secret sharing is a promising technology for information encryption by splitting the secret information into different shares.However,the traditional scheme suffers from information leakage in decryption process since the amount of available information channels is limited.Herein,we propose and demonstrate an optical secret sharing framework based on the multi-dimensional multiplexing liquid crystal(LC)holograms.The LC holograms are used as spatially separated shares to carry secret images.The polarization of the incident light and the distance between different shares are served as secret keys,which can significantly improve the information security and capacity.Besides,the decryption condition is also restricted by the applied external voltage due to the variant diffraction efficiency,which further increases the information security.In implementation,an artificial neural network(ANN)model is developed to carefully design the phase distribution of each LC hologram.With the advantage of high security,high capacity and simple configuration,our optical secret sharing framework has great potentials in optical encryption and dynamic holographic display.

A novel secreted protein FgHrip1 from Fusarium graminearum triggers immune responses in plants

Fusarium graminearum,the primary pathogenic fungus responsible for Fusarium head blight(FHB)in wheat,secretes abundant chemical compounds that interact with host plants.In this study,a secreted protein FgHrip1,isolated from the culture filtrate of F.graminearum,was found to induce typical cell death in tobacco.The FgHrip1 gene was then cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli.Further bioassay analysis showed that the recombinant FgHrip1 induced early defense induction events,such as reactive oxygen species(ROS)production,callose deposition,and up-regulation of defense-related genes in tobacco.Furthermore,FgHrip1 significantly enhanced immunity in tobacco seedlings against Pseudomonas syringae pv.tabaci 6605(Pst.6605)and tobacco mosaic virus(TMV).FgHrip1-treated wheat spikes also exhibited defense-related transcript accumulation and developed immunity against FHB infection.Whereas the expression of FgHrip1 was induced during the infection process,the deletion of the gene impaired the virulence of F.graminearum.Our results suggest that FgHrip1triggers immunity and induces disease resistance in tobacco and wheat,thereby providing new insight into strategy for biocontrol of FHB.

Cryptanalysis of efficient semi-quantum secret sharing protocol using single particles

In paper[Chin.Phys.B 32070308(2023)],Xing et al.proposed a semi-quantum secret sharing protocol by using single particles.We study the security of the proposed protocol and find that it is not secure,that is,the three dishonest agents,Bob,Charlie and Emily can collude to obtain Alice's secret without the help of David.

Verifiable quantum secret sharing scheme based on orthogonal product states

In the domain of quantum cryptography,the implementation of quantum secret sharing stands as a pivotal element.In this paper,we propose a novel verifiable quantum secret sharing protocol using the d-dimensional product state and Lagrange interpolation techniques.This protocol is initiated by the dealer Alice,who initially prepares a quantum product state,selected from a predefined set of orthogonal product states within the C~d■C~d framework.Subsequently,the participants execute unitary operations on this product state to recover the underlying secret.Furthermore,we subject the protocol to a rigorous security analysis,considering both eavesdropping attacks and potential dishonesty from the participants.Finally,we conduct a comparative analysis of our protocol against existing schemes.Our scheme exhibits economies of scale by exclusively employing quantum product states,thereby realizing significant cost-efficiency advantages.In terms of access structure,we adopt a(t, n)-threshold architecture,a strategic choice that augments the protocol's practicality and suitability for diverse applications.Furthermore,our protocol includes a rigorous integrity verification mechanism to ensure the honesty and reliability of the participants throughout the execution of the protocol.

A verifiable essential secret image sharing scheme based on HLRs(VESIS-(t,s,k,n))

In traditional secret image sharing schemes,a secret image is shared among shareholders who have the same position.But if the shareholders have two different positions,essential and non‐essential,it is necessary to use essential secret image sharing schemes.In this article,a verifiable essential secret image sharing scheme based on HLRs is proposed.Shareholder's share consists of two parts.The first part is produced by the shareholders,which prevents the fraud of dealers.The second part is a shadow image that is produced by using HLRs and the first part of share.The verification of the first part of the shares is done for the first time by using multilinear and bilinear maps.Also,for verifying shadow images,Bloom Filters are used for the first time.The proposed scheme is more efficient than similar schemes,and for the first part of the shares,has formal security.

Towards privacy-preserving and efficient word vector learning for lightweight IoT devices

Nowadays,Internet of Things(IoT)is widely deployed and brings great opportunities to change people's daily life.To realize more effective human-computer interaction in the IoT applications,the Question Answering(QA)systems implanted in the IoT services are supposed to improve the ability to understand natural language.Therefore,the distributed representation of words,which contains more semantic or syntactic information,has been playing a more and more important role in the QA systems.However,learning high-quality distributed word vectors requires lots of storage and computing resources,hence it cannot be deployed on the resource-constrained IoT devices.It is a good choice to outsource the data and computation to the cloud servers.Nevertheless,it could cause privacy risks to directly upload private data to the untrusted cloud.Therefore,realizing the word vector learning process over untrusted cloud servers without privacy leakage is an urgent and challenging task.In this paper,we present a novel efficient word vector learning scheme over encrypted data.We first design a series of arithmetic computation protocols.Then we use two non-colluding cloud servers to implement high-quality word vectors learning over encrypted data.The proposed scheme allows us to perform training word vectors on the remote cloud servers while protecting privacy.Security analysis and experiments over real data sets demonstrate that our scheme is more secure and efficient than existing privacy-preserving word vector learning schemes.

An Efficient and Secure Privacy-Preserving Federated Learning Framework Based on Multiplicative Double Privacy Masking

With the increasing awareness of privacy protection and the improvement of relevant laws,federal learning has gradually become a new choice for cross-agency and cross-device machine learning.In order to solve the problems of privacy leakage,high computational overhead and high traffic in some federated learning schemes,this paper proposes amultiplicative double privacymask algorithm which is convenient for homomorphic addition aggregation.The combination of homomorphic encryption and secret sharing ensures that the server cannot compromise user privacy from the private gradient uploaded by the participants.At the same time,the proposed TQRR(Top-Q-Random-R)gradient selection algorithm is used to filter the gradient of encryption and upload efficiently,which reduces the computing overhead of 51.78%and the traffic of 64.87%on the premise of ensuring the accuracy of themodel,whichmakes the framework of privacy protection federated learning lighter to adapt to more miniaturized federated learning terminals.

Blockchain-Based Key Management Scheme Using Rational Secret Sharing

Traditional blockchain key management schemes store private keys in the same location,which can easily lead to security issues such as a single point of failure.Therefore,decentralized threshold key management schemes have become a research focus for blockchain private key protection.The security of private keys for blockchain user wallet is highly related to user identity authentication and digital asset security.The threshold blockchain private key management schemes based on verifiable secret sharing have made some progress,but these schemes do not consider participants’self-interested behavior,and require trusted nodes to keep private key fragments,resulting in a narrow application scope and low deployment efficiency,which cannot meet the needs of personal wallet private key escrow and recovery in public blockchains.We design a private key management scheme based on rational secret sharing that considers the self-interest of participants in secret sharing protocols,and constrains the behavior of rational participants through reasonable mechanism design,making it more suitable in distributed scenarios such as the public blockchain.The proposed scheme achieves the escrow and recovery of personal wallet private keys without the participation of trusted nodes,and simulate its implementation on smart contracts.Compared to other existing threshold wallet solutions and keymanagement schemes based on password-protected secret sharing(PPSS),the proposed scheme has a wide range of applications,verifiable private key recovery,low communication overhead,higher computational efficiency when users perform one-time multi-key escrow,no need for trusted nodes,and personal rational constraints and anti-collusion attack capabilities.

Improvement of glucose metabolism in middle-aged mice on a high-fat diet by whole-grain highland barley is related to low methionine levels

Methionine restriction(MR)is an effective dietary strategy to regulate energy metabolism and alleviate oxidative stress and inflammation in the body,especially in the middle-aged and elderly population.However,the high methionine content of meat products makes this dietary strategy impossible to combine with protein supplementation and MR.Highland barley(HB),a low-methionine cereal,not only provides the body with protein but also has improved glucose metabolism and antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.Therefore,this study evaluated the feasibility of HB as a source of methionine-restricted dietary protein and the potential mechanisms.Middle-aged C57BL/6J mice were fed a control diet(CON),a high-fat diet(HFD),a whole-grain HB high-fat diet(HBHF),or a HBHF+methionine diet(HBHFmet)for 25 weeks.The results showed that the HBHF could keep the body weight,fasting glucose,insulin,homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance(HOMA-IR),blood lipids,inflammation,and oxidative stress of HFD mice at normal levels.Compared with the HFD groups,HBHF inhibited pancreatic cell apoptosis and improved insulin secretion while improving hepatic and skeletal muscle glucose metabolism.However,these efficacies were attenuated in HBHFmet group mice.These findings suggest that HBHF has an MR strategy.

A Probing Model of Secret Key Generation Based on Channel Autocorrelation Function

Secret key generation(SKG)is a promising solution to the problem of wireless communications security.As the first step of SKG,channel probing affects it significantly.Although there have been some probing schemes,there is a lack of research on the optimization of the probing process.This study investigates how to optimize correlated parameters to maximize the SKG rate(SKGR)in the time-division duplex(TDD)mode.First,we build a probing model which includes the effects of transmitting power,the probing period,and the dimension of sample vectors.Based on the model,the analytical expression of the SKGR is given.Next,we formulate an optimization problem for maximizing the SKGR and give an algorithm to solve it.We conclude the SKGR monotonically increases as the transmitting power increases.Relevant mathematical proofs are given in this study.From the simulation results,increasing appropriately the probing period and the dimension of the sample vector could increase the SKGR dramatically compared to a yardstick,which indicates the importance of optimizing the parameters related to the channel probing phase.