Detection of Adhesion Molecules on Inflamed Macrophages at Early-Stage Using SERS Probe Gold Nanorods

In recent years, it has been shown that inflammatory biomarkers can be used as an effective signal for disease diagnoses. The early detection of these signals provides useful information that could prevent the occurrence of severe diseases. Here, we employed surface-enhanced Raman scattering(SERS) probe gold nanorods(GNRs) as a tool for the early detection of inflammatory molecules in inflamed cells. A murine macrophage cell line(Raw264.7) stimulated with lipopolysaccharide(LPS) was used as a model in this study. The prepared SERS probe GNRs containing 4-mercaptobenzoic acid as a Raman reporter to generate SERS signals were used for detection of intracellular adhesion molecule-1(ICAM-1) in macrophages after treatment with LPS for varying lengths of time. Our results show that SERS probe GNRs could detect significant differences in the expression of ICAM-1 molecules in LPS-treated macrophages compared to those in untreated macrophages after only 1 h of LPS treatment. In contrast, when using fluorescent labeling or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays(ELISA) to detect ICAM-1, significant differences between inflamed and un-inflamed macrophages were not seen until the cells had been treated with LPS for 5 h. These results indicate that our SERS probe GNRs provide a higher sensitivity for detecting biomarker molecules in inflamed macrophages than the conventional fluorescence and ELISA techniques, and could therefore be useful as a potential diagnostic tool for managing disease risk.

Favorable effect of modest alcohol consumption to fatty liver disease

We previously reported that modest alcohol consumption was significantly inversely associated with fatty liver disease.Feng et al pointed out a discrepancy of statistical significance between our current larger scale cohort and a previous cohort.However,the prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease was higher in non or minimal drinkers than those in light drinkers in both cohorts.They also argue that some potential co-factors such as soft drink consumption and genetic variations should be discussed.

The emerging role of Arid5a in cancer: A new target for tumors

AT-rich interactive domain 5a (Arid5a) is a member of the arid family of proteins, which contain a helix-turn-helix domain and an ability to bind to nucleic acids. Current evidence suggests that Arid5a performs dual functions as a transcription factor and an RNA-binding protein in immune, nonimmune, and/ or tumor cells depending on its cellular localization. The contribution of Arid5a to the development of inflammation, autoimmunity, and obesity through its transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulatory functions has broadly been reviewed. Recent studies have indeed revealed an association of Arid5a with cancers, including breast, pancreatic, colorectal, and lung cancers and glioma. Notably, Arid5a affects various aspects of cellular homeostasis, including invasion, metastasis, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, immune evasion, adipogenesis and M1-like tumor-associated macrophage (TAM)-to-M2-like TAM transition. This review aims to summarize current knowledge of Arid5a from a cancer perspective and highlights recent advances in Arid5a-related cancer research. This review may improve the understanding of Arid5a-mediated molecular mechanisms and their relevance to cancers.