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Objective • Many randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have reported the effect of probiotics on reducing plasma lipids with inconsistent results. An explicit systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted in this study to evaluate the effect of probiotics on the lipid profile of healthy and hyperlipidemia participants. Methods • A comprehensive literature search of RCTs was conducted using PubMed, Embase, World Health Organization (WHO) Global Index Medicus, WHO clinical trial registry, and Clinicaltrials.gov. Inclusion criteria included RCTs comparing the use of any strain of a specified probiotic with the placebo control group. The change in lipid profiles was analyzed. Results • The probiotics can decrease the total cholesterol (TC) level in hyperlipidemia participants but not healthy persons (MD = -0.43, 95% CI -0.60 – -0.25, P < .01; MD = -0.09, 95% CI -0.26 – 0.08, P > .05). Probiotics did not reduce high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) in patients with hyperlipidemia or healthy people (MD = -0.01, 95% CI -0.09 – 0.07, P > .05; MD = 0.02, 95% CI -0.04 – 0.09, P > .05). Furthermore, probiotics can reduce the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) level both in hyperlipidemia and healthy persons (MD = -0.34, 95% CI -0.43 – -0.26, P < .01; MD = -0.15, 95% CI -0.28 – -0.02, P < .05). Lastly, the effect of probiotics on reducing triglyceride (TG) levels was significant in hyperlipidemia persons but not in the healthy population (MD = -0.20, 95% CI -0.37 – -0.04, P < .01; MD = -0.01, 95% CI -0.02 – 0.04, P > .05). Conclusions • Through our analysis, the effect of probiotics on lowering plasma lipid was more obvious in hyperlipidemia participants than healthy population. However, further studies are required to confirm the findings due to pronounced clinical heterogeneity [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intracellular viscosity is a fundamental physical parameter that indicates the functioning of cells. In this work, we developed a simple boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY)-based probe, BTV, for cellular mitochondria viscosity imaging by coupling a simple BODIPY rotor with a mitochondria-targeting unit. The BTV exhibited a significant fluorescence intensity enhancement of more than 100-fold as the solvent viscosity increased. Also, the probe showed a direct linear relationship between the fluorescence lifetime and the media viscosity, which makes it possible to trace the change of the medium viscosity. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that BTV could achieve practical applicability in the monitoring of mitochondrial viscosity changes in live cells through fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aggregation of amyloid β-peptide (Aβ) is implicated in the pathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD), with the soluble, Aβ oligomeric species thought to be the critical pathological species. Identification and characterization of intermediate species formed during the aggregation process is crucial to the understanding of the mechanisms by which oligomeric species mediate neuronal toxicity and following disease progression. Probing these species proved to be extremely challenging, as evident by the lack of reliable sensors, due to their heterogeneous and transient nature. We describe here an oligomer-specific fluorescent chemical probe, BoDipy-Oligomer (BD-Oligo), developed through the use of the diversity-oriented fluorescent library approach (DOFLA) and high-content, imaging-based screening. This probe enables dynamic oligomer monitoring during fibrillogenesis in vitro and shows in vivo Aβ oligomers staining possibility in the AD mice model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of municipal road engineering is a complex system engineering, and its internal components are interconnected and mutually restricted, and the relationship is intricate. The quality of its construction plan directly affects the realization of the project's quality, safety, environment, progress, cost, and other goals, and the project construction plan occupies an important position in the construction of the project. The selection of construction plans for municipal road projects involves a wide range of areas. According to the characteristics of specific municipal road engineering projects, it is very important to establish a scientific construction scheme intelligent generation model and select the optimal construction scheme suitable for the project from many feasible construction schemes, which has very important theoretical research value and practical application value. After analyzing the knowledge characteristics of road construction technology and the content of road construction schemes, this study decomposes the knowledge of road construction schemes into two parts: case characteristics and solutions. Then, according to the needs of case retrieval technology, the data storage form of each subdivision index is proposed and the value range is explained, and a complete structure form of the road construction scheme case database is formed. Combined with actual engineering cases, the feasibility and applicability of the intelligent generation method of the road construction scheme based on the KNN algorithm is confirmed, which provides a new idea for the automation of road construction scheme preparation and the improvement of the scheme application effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of structurally novel anion receptors 3, 4, and 5 in which a ferrocene unit and a fluorescent moiety are linked to two imidazolium rings have been designed and prepared from 1,1′-bis(imidazolylmethyl)ferrocene. Their crystal structures revealed that these receptors are capable of incorporating anions such as PF6− and Br−. Consequently, the anion binding studies were carried out using various techniques including electrochemistry (CV and OSWV), fluorescence, UV-vis, and 1H NMR spectroscopy. All the receptors showed a special electrochemical response to the F− anion with a remarkable cathodic shift of more than 260 mV and displayed a unique selectivity for F− and AcO− anions with fluorescence enhancement over various other anions of present interest (Cl−, Br−, I−, HSO4−, H2PO4−). In addition, for receptor 5, obvious absorption changes were observed when the H2PO4− anion was added while other anions (F−, Cl−, Br−, I−, AcO−, HSO4−) showed only a minor influence on the UV-vis spectra. 1H NMR titrations demonstrated that receptors 3 and 4 can bind anions through (C–H)+⋯X− hydrogen bonds and showed strong affinity and high selectivity for the AcO− anion in acetonitrile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen sulfi de (H2S) has been recognized as one of most important gaseous signaling molecules mediated by a variety of physiological and pathological processes. Yet, its functions remain largely elusive due to the lack of potent monitoring methods. Hereby this issue is addressed with a powerful new platform--dye-assembled upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs). A series of chromophores with different absorption bands and fast responses towards H2S is combined with UCNPs and results in a library of H2S sensors with responsive emission signals ranging from the visible to the near-infrared (NIR) region. These nanoprobes demonstrate highly selective and rapid responses to H2S in vitro and in cells. Furthermore, H2S levels in blood can be detected using the developed nanoprobes. Hence the reported H2S sensing platform can serve as a powerful diagnostic tool to research H2S functions and to investigate H2S-related diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigation of the genetic functions in complex biological systems is a challenging step in recent year. Hence, several valuable and interesting research projects have been developed with novel ideas to find out the unknown functions of genes or proteins. To validate the applicability of their novel ideas, various approaches are built up. To date, the most promising and commonly used approach for discovering the target proteins from biological system using small molecule is well known a forward chemical genetics which is considered to be more convenient than the classical genetics. Although, the forward chemical genetics consists of the three basic components, the target identification is the most challenging step to chemical biology researchers. Hence, the diverse target identification methods have been developed and adopted to disclose the small molecule bound protein. Herein, in this review, we briefly described the first two parts chemical toolbox and screening, and then the target identifications in forward chemical genetics are thoroughly described along with the illustrative real example case study. In the tabular form, the different biological active small molecules which are the successful examples of target identifications are accounted in this research review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]