Optical penetration of surface-enhanced micro-scale spatial offset Raman spectroscopy in turbid gel and biological tissue

The limited penetration of photons in biological tissue restricts the deep-tissue detection and imaging application.The micro-scale spatially offset Raman spectroscopy(micro-SORS)with an optical fiber probe,colleting photons from deeper regions by offsetting the position of laser excitation from the collection optics in a range of hundreds of microns,shows great potential to be integrated with endoscopy for inside-body noninvasive detection by circumventing this restric-tion,particularly with the combination of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy(SERS).However,a detailed tissue penetration study of micro-SORS in combination with SERS is still lacking.Herein,we compared the signal decay of enhanced Raman nanotags through the tissue phantom of agarose gel and the biological tissue of porcine muscle in the near-infrared(NIR)region using a portable Raman spectrometer with a micro-SORS probe(2.1 mm in diameter)and a conventional hand-held probe(9.7mm in diameter).Two kinds of Raman nanotags were prepared from gold nanorods decorated with the nonresonant(4-nitrobenzenethiol)or resonant Raman reporter molecules(IR-780 iodide).The SERS measurements show that the penetration depths of two Raman nanotags are both over 2 cm in agarose gel and 3 mm in porcine muscle.The depth could be improved to over 4 cm in agarose gel and 5 mm in porcine tissue when using the micro-SORS system.This demonstrates the superiority of optical-fiber micro-SORS system over the conventional Raman detection for the detection of nanotags in deeper layers in the turbid medium and biological tissue,offering the possibility of combining the micro-SORS technique with SERS for noninvasive in vivo endoscopy-integrated clinical application.

Ovarian teratoma related anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor encephalitis:A case series and review of the literature

BACKGROUND Anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor(NMDAR)encephalitis is a rare but important complication of ovarian teratoma.Between July 2012 and December 2019,six patients with ovarian teratoma-associated anti-NMDAR encephalitis were enrolled in our hospital and their clinical characteristics,treatment,and follow-up were reviewed.We also conducted a systematic literature review of ovarian teratoma related anti-NMDAR encephalitis reports between January 2014 and December 2019.AIM To better understand anti-NMDAR encephalitis through literature review and patients enrolled in our hospital.METHODS The six patients enrolled in the study were those diagnosed with anti-NMDAR encephalitis.Their history,clinical manifestations,and medications were recorded and optimum treatment provided in addition to maintaining a record of the follow-ups.In addition,we also extensively surveyed the literature and provide summarized data from 155 published cases of anti-NMDAR encephalitis from 130 case reports.PubMed and Scopus were the sources of these publications and the time period covered was 6 years ranging from January 2014 through December 2019.RESULTS The six patients enrolled for this study presented with typical symptoms resulting in a diagnosis of ovarian teratoma induced anti-NMDAR encephalitis.Appropriate interventions led to a positive outcome in all the patients,with five of six patients reporting full recovery and the sixth patient recovering with a few deficits.No death was recorded.The literature survey comprising of 155 patients cases across 130 case reports of anti-NMDAR encephalitis clearly indicated an upward trend in the reports/diagnosis in China,particularly in the surveyed time from 2014 through 2019.The majority of patients(150/155)underwent surgical intervention resulting in positive outcome.No treatment intervention was mentioned for one case while the four patients who were not surgically operated succumbed to the disease.CONCLUSION Suspected anti-NMDAR encephalitis should be quickly evaluated for anti-NMDAR antibodies since early diagnosis is important.In case of a tumor,its earliest and complete removal is recommended.Finally,early use of corticosteroids and IgG-depleting strategies(intravenous immunoglobulin or plasma exchange)may improve outcome.

Binary organic nanoparticles with enhanced reactive oxygen species generation capability for photodynamic therapy

Photodynamic therapy(PDT)takes advantage of photosensitizers(PSs)to generate reactive oxygen species(ROS)for cell killing when excited by light.It has been widely used in clinic for therapy of multiple cancers.Currently,all the FDA-approved PSs,including porphyrin,are all small organic molecules,suffering from aggregation-caused quenching(ACQ)issues in biological environment and lacking tumor targeting capability.Nanoparticles(NPs)with size between 20 nm and 200 nm possess tumor targeting capability due to the enhanced permeability and retention(EPR)effect.It is urgent to develop a new strategy to form clinical-approved-PSs-based NPs with improved ROS generation capability.In this study,we report a strategy to overwhelm the ACQ of porphyrin by doping it with a type of aggregation-induced emission(AIE)luminogen to produce a binary NPs with high biocompatibility,and enhanced fluorescence and ROS generation capability.Such NPs can be readily synthesized by mixing a porphyrin derivative,Ce6 with a typical AIE luminogen,TPE-Br.Here,our experimental results have demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of this strategy,endowing it a great potential in clinical applications.

Decreased expression of m6A demethylase ALKBH5 in decidua contributes to preeclampsia via m6A-CORIN-HuR pathway

Preeclampsia(PE)is a pregnancy-specific hypertensive disorder which poses a severe threat to maternal and fetal health.1 Defective decidualization may contribute to PE.^(2) N6-methyladenosine(m6A)is associated with various diseases.The regulatory mechanism of m6A in PE is not well established to date.We aimed to identify differentially expressed m6A and explore its regulatory role in the pathogenesis of PE.

精细调节免疫系统以对抗癌症:工程共生菌群的出现

Engineered bacteria are bacteria that have been genetically modified to exhibit new traits or functions.The use of engineered bacteria to elicit targeted immune responses represents a promising area of research.A recent publication in Science[1]reported an engineered skin commensal bacterium that stably expresses tumor antigens could exhibit robust anti-tumor memory T cell responses,without causing local or systemic inflammation.This original research study provided a safe,simple,and durable approach to redirect bacterial colonist-induced T cells against a target of therapeutic interest,thus proposing a powerful strategy for clinical translation in anti-tumor treatment.

ChatGPT for scientific paper writing-promises and perils

The use of artificial itelligence(AI)in academic paper witing is witnessing a surge in popularity.Specifically,ChatGPT,a member of the generative pre-rained transformer(GPT)family of large language models(LLMs),has found application across diverse scientific and medical domains,encompassing detection of drug interactions,drug safety monitoring,medical image analysis,and the refinement of research papers.

骨髓间充质干细胞释放miR-1180上调Wnt信号通路活性并促进卵巢癌细胞糖酵解和化疗耐药能力的研究（英文）

目的:已知骨髓间充质干细胞在癌症的发生发展中起有重要作用,本研究分析它们在增强卵巢癌化疗耐药能力中的具体作用。创新点:发现骨髓间充质干细胞可以通过释放微小RNA(micro RNA)影响卵巢癌化疗耐药能力,并确定了介导此作用的micro RNA分子和相关作用机制。方法:收集骨髓间充质干细胞条件培养基,以微阵列方法分析其中microRNA表达谱。针对所获高表达microRNA,分析它(们)对细胞内糖酵解及相关化疗耐药行为的影响。通过生物信息学方法查找所获microRNA的靶基因,分析信号作用机制。纳入59名卵巢癌患者,以Kaplan-Merier生存分析方法考察所获microRNA分子表达程度的临床预后意义。结论:迁移至卵巢癌组织内的骨髓间充质干细胞可释放mi R-1180分子。MiR-1180分子进入癌细胞后,识别并下调SFRP1蛋白(分泌型Wnt受体,起信号抑制作用),由此提高Wnt通路活性。活化后的Wnt信号通路可增强癌细胞内糖酵解水平(即Warburg效应),从而引起糖酵解依赖性化疗耐药行为。