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The editorial discusses the crucial role of lipid alterations in cancer development, resistance, and recurrence, emphasizing the significance of lipid metabolism in tumor progression. The study by Gu et al. focuses on the effects of lipid metabolism on hepatocellular carcinoma, constructing a prognostic risk model based on lipid metabolism-associated genes. Additionally, reviews by Maurotti et al. and Cole-Skinner et al. delve into the role of lipid droplets in hepatocarcinoma development and the interplay between lipid metabolism and HMGB1 in non-small cell lung cancer tumors, respectively. The articles underscore the importance of understanding lipid reprogramming and signaling pathways in developing anticancer treatments. [Extracted from the article]

This document is an editorial titled "Lipid alterations in cancer development, resistance, and recurrence." It discusses the importance of lipids in cellular biology and their role in cancer. The editorial highlights the need for a deeper understanding of lipid metabolism in cancer development, progression, and resistance to therapies. It also includes three research articles that explore the effects of lipid metabolism on hepatocellular carcinoma, the role of lipid droplets in hepatocarcinoma development, and the interplay between lipid metabolism and High Mobility Group Box one protein in non-small cell lung cancer tumors. The articles emphasize the potential of targeting lipid metabolism for developing more efficient cancer therapies. [Extracted from the article]

For decades, lipid droplets have been considered as the main cellular organelles involved in the fat storage, because of their lipid composition. However, in recent years, some new and totally unexpected roles have been discovered for them: (i) they are active sites for synthesis and storage of inflammatory mediators, and (ii) they are key players in cancer cells and tissues, especially in cancer stem cells. In this review, we summarize the main concepts related to the lipid droplet structure and function and their involvement in inflammatory and cancer processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Super-hydrophobicity is a well-known and studied phenomenon in the field of surface sciences. In this review we report a novel approach that exploits micro-fabricated super-hydrophobic surfaces for the oriented and self-organized deposition and suspension of DNA filaments and other macromolecules of biological interest. The self-assembled structures obtained with this approach can be used for the characterization of the biological compounds with several methods such as electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman and SERS spectroscopies. Besides imaging, the described method has been applied in several fields such as the sensing of few molecules in diluted solutions and innovative templating growth. We will focus in particular on the direct imaging of DNA molecules by Transmission Electron Microscopy with the capability to resolve structural details of the double helix down to a resolution of 1.5 Å. The review starts with a brief historical note on the discovery of the DNA structure and continues with the results obtained by our group along the last 10 years of activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper shows how a table top superbright microfocus laboratory X-ray source and an innovative restoring-data algorithm, used in combination, allow to analyze the super molecular structure of soft matter by means of Small Angle X-ray Scattering ex-situ experiments. The proposed theoretical approach is aimed to restore diffraction features from SAXS profiles collected from low scattering biomaterials or soft tissues, and therefore to deal with extremely noisy diffraction SAXS profiles/maps. As biological test cases we inspected: i) residues of exosomes' drops from healthy epithelial colon cell line and colorectal cancer cells; ii) collagen/human elastin artificial scaffolds developed for vascular tissue engineering applications; iii) apoferritin protein in solution. Our results show how this combination can provide morphological/structural nanoscale information to characterize new artificial biomaterials and/or to get insight into the transition between healthy and pathological tissues during the progression of a disease, or to morphologically characterize nanoscale proteins, based on SAXS data collected in a room-sized laboratory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The detection of a few molecules in a highly diluted solution is of paramount interest in fields including biomedicine, safety and eco-pollution in relation to rare and dangerous chemicals. Nanosensors based on plasmonics are promising devices in this regard, in that they combine the features of high sensitivity, label-free detection and miniaturization. However, plasmonic-based nanosensors, in common with general sensors with sensitive areas on the scale of nanometres, cannot be used directly to detect molecules dissolved in femto- or attomolar solutions. In other words, they are diffusion-limited and their detection times become impractical at such concentrations. In this Article, we demonstrate, by combining super-hydrophobic artificial surfaces and nanoplasmonic structures, that few molecules can be localized and detected even at attomolar (10?18 mol l?1) concentration. Moreover, the detection can be combined with fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy, such that the chemical signature of the molecules can be clearly determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]