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Abstract Bladder cancer (BC) is a common malignancy, and it accounts for one of the highest management costs among urogenital cancers. As a non-invasive method, urine cytology plays an important role in the detection of exfoliated tumor cells (ETCs) for early diagnosis of BC. However, urine cytology suffers from its low sensitivity and reliance on microscopic examination. To address this issue, an integrated filtration device was developed with a pore size of 5 μm that isolated and enriched ETCs from discarded urine samples, and then quantified ETCs using a microchip ELISA method. The results revealed that the number of urinary ETCs from BC patients (n = 35) was obviously higher than the number of ETCs from healthy donors (n = 20). The ROC curve showed that the integrated filtration microfluidic device had a sensitivity of 77.1% when the specificity was set at 90% in identifying BC patients. Thus, the integrated filtration device holds great potential for the screening of BC or the follow-up analysis of treatment efficacy in point-of-care (POC) settings. Graphical abstract Bladder cancer (BC) is a common malignancy, and it accounts for one of the highest management costs among urogenital cancers. As a non-invasive method, urine cytology plays an important role in the detection of exfoliated tumor cells (ETCs) for early diagnosis of BC. However, urine cytology suffers from its low sensitivity and reliance on microscopic examination. To address this issue, an integrated filtration device was developed with a pore size of 5 μm that isolated and enriched ETCs from discarded urine samples, and then quantified ETCs using a microchip ELISA method. The results revealed that the number of urinary ETCs from BC patients (n = 35) was obviously higher than the number of ETCs from healthy donors (n = 20). The ROC curve showed that the integrated filtration microfluidic device had a sensitivity of 77.1% when the specificity was set at 90% in identifying BC patients. Thus, the integrated filtration device holds great potential for the screening of BC or the follow-up analysis of treatment efficacy in point-of-care testing (POCT). Image 1 Highlights • An integrated microfiltration device was developed for isolation and enrichment of exfoliated tumor cells from urine sample. • A microchip ELISA method was developed for quantification of exfoliated tumor cells with the aid of a smart phone. • The integrated microfiltration device had a sensitivity of 77.1% when specificity was set at 90% in identifying BC patients. • The device holds the potential for bladder cancer screening and treatment efficacy monitoring in point-of-care settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The morphology and the drug sensitivity of the strain GYX2014-1 isolated from the hepatic pancreatic tissue of moribund Litopenaeus vannamei were evaluated by conventional culture characteristics, physical and chemical characteristics, and molecular biology methods. Detection of extracellulase and hemolysin activity shows that the isolated GYX2014-1 has protease, lipase, gelatinase activity, but none of amylase, or lecithinase activity. The 16S rRNA gene (GenBank accession number: KT781675) was analyzed, and a phylogenetic tree analysis showed that the isolated pathogen was most closely related to V. vulnificus (GenBank accession number: NR 118570)—a match of more than 99%. The phenotypic traits and molecular biology of isolated bacteria, determined their identity as Vibrio vulnificus (V. vulnificus). In addition, artificially infected L. vannamei with Vibrio vulnificus appeared with the same disease symptoms as those of naturally infected shrimp. Drug sensitivity tests showed that V. vulnificus is highly sensitive to fosfomycin, cefradine and sinomin, and was resistant to penicillin, amikacin and kanamycin. This experiment is the first to separate V. vulnificus from L. vannamei, and the findings of this study can be used as a reference for disease control and health management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liver diseases can be caused by viral infection, metabolic disorder, alcohol consumption, carcinoma or injury, chronically progressing to end-stage liver disease or rapidly resulting in acute liver failure. In either situation, liver transplantation is most often sought for life saving, which is, however, significantly limited by severe shortage of organ donors. Until now, tremendous multi-disciplinary efforts have been dedicated to liver regenerative medicine, aiming at providing transplantable cells, microtissues, or bioengineered whole liver via tissue engineering, or maintaining partial liver functions via extracorporeal support. In both directions, new compatible biomaterials, stem cell sources, and bioengineering approaches have fast-forwarded liver regenerative medicine towards potential clinical applications. Another important progress in this field is the development of liver-on-a-chip technologies, which enable tissue engineering, disease modeling, and drug testing under biomimetic extracellular conditions. In this review, we aim to highlight the last decade's progress in liver regenerative medicine from liver tissue engineering, bioartificial liver devices (BAL), to liver-on-a-chip platforms, and then to present challenges ahead for further advancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, nanotechnology has attracted much attention in the field of biomedicine and sensing technology. As one of the simplest and most effective methods to prepare nanofiber materials, electrospinning technology has a lot of application research in biomedical fields such as sensor detection, drug delivery, and tissue engineering because of its high porosity, large surface area to volume ratio, and uniform size. In this review, we summarized the latest application progress of electrospinning materials in biomedicine, sensing, and textile industry and discussed the challenges and future development direction of electrospinning technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has become the primary cause of global deaths and inflicts an enormous healthcare burden on both developed and developing countries. Frequent monitoring of CVD-associated risk factors such as the level of lipids (e.g., triglyceride (TG) and total cholesterol (TC)) and lipoproteins (e.g., low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL)) can effectively help prevent disease progression and improve clinical outcomes. However, measurement of these risk factors is generally integrated into an automated analyzer, which is prohibitively expensive and highly instrument-dependent for routine testing in primary care settings. As such, a variety of rapid, simple and portable nanomaterial-based biosensors have been developed for measuring the level of lipids (TG and TC) and lipoproteins (LDL and HDL) towards the management of CVD at the point-of-care (POC). In this review, we first summarize traditional methods for measurement of lipids and lipoproteins, and then present the latest advances in developing nanomaterial-based biosensors that can potentially monitor the risk factors of CVD at the POC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the poor prognosis of unresectable advanced gastric cancer (GC), novel therapeutic strategies are needed. The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling cascade, the most frequently activated pathway in GC, plays an important role in tumorigenesis and metastasis. The MAPK/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) pathway is an attractive therapeutic target for GC. In this study, trametinib, a mitogen-activated protein/extracellular signal-regulated kinase kinase (MEK) inhibitor, reduced the p-ERK level and significantly increased signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) phosphorylation in GC cells, resulting in reduced sensitivity to trametinib. Physapubescin B (PB), a steroidal compound extracted from the plant Physalis pubescens L., inhibited the proliferation and induced the apoptosis of GC cells by suppressing STAT3 phosphorylation. The combination of PB and trametinib suppressed the STAT3 phosphorylation induced by trametinib, and synergistically suppressed gastric tumor growth in vitro and in vivo. Together, these results indicate that inhibition of both MEK and STAT3 may be effective for patients with MAPK/ERK pathway-addicted GC. • PB suppresses the proliferation and induces the apoptosis of GC cells. • PB inhibits the transcriptional and post-transcriptional activity of STAT3. • PB and trametinib synergistically induce the apoptosis of GC cells. • The combination of PB and trametinib suppresses both ERK and STAT3 phosphorylation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]