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Background: Avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC) can cause localized or systemic infections, collectively known as avian colibacillosis, resulting in huge economic losses to poultry industry globally per year. In addition, increasing evidence indicates that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play a critical role in regulating host inflammation in response to bacterial infection. However, the role of lncRNAs in the host response to APEC infection remains unclear. Results: Here, we found 816 differentially expressed (DE) lncRNAs and 1,798 DE mRNAs in APEC infected chicken macrophages by RNAseq. The identified DE lncRNA-mRNAs were involved in Toll like receptor signaling pathway, VEGF signaling pathway, fatty acid metabolism, phosphatidylinositol signaling system, and other types of O-glycan biosynthesis. Furthermore, we found the novel lncRNA TCONS_00007391 as an important immune regulator in APEC infection was able to regulate the inflammatory response by directly targeting CD86. Conclusion: These findings provided a better understanding of host response to APEC infection and also offered the potential drug targets for therapy development against APEC infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CoNi LDH nanostructures with large specific surface areas were prepared through a facile sonochemical approach in the solutions with different pH values. The CoNi LDH exhibited battery-type electrochemical response with the highest capacity of 740.8C/g at 1 A/g in 2 M of KOH electrolyte. The assembled CoNi LDH//AC hybrid supercapacitor delivered the highest energy density of 35.6 W h kg−1 at the power density of 781.1 W kg−1. [Display omitted] • CoNi LDH nanostructures with large surface area were sonochemically prepared. • A high specific capacity of 740.8C/g at 1 A/g was delivered. • Just a little capacity decay over 5000 cycles at a high current density of 8 A/g. • The HSC device delivered an energy density of 35.6 W h kg−1 at 781.1 W kg−1. Fabricating battery-type electrode materials with large specific surface area and mesopores is an efficient method for enhancing the electrochemical performance of supercapacitors. This method may provide more active sites for Faradic reactions and shorten the ion-diffusion paths. In this study, the CoNi layered double hydroxides (LDHs) with the morphology of nanoflowers and nanoflakes were prepared in solutions with pH values of 7.5 (CoNi LDH-7.5) and 8.5 (CoNi LDH-8.5) via a simple sonochemical approach. These CoNi LDHs possessed large specific surface areas and favourable electrochemical properties. The CoNi LDH-7.5 delivered a specific capacity of 740.8C/g at a current density of 1 A/g, surpassing CoNi LDH-8.5 with 668.1C/g. The hybrid supercapacitor (HSC) was assembled with activated carbon as the anode and CoNi LDH as the cathode to assess its practical application potential in the field of electrochemical energy storage. The CoNi LDH-7.5//AC HSC achieved the highest energy density of 35.6 W h kg−1 at a power density of 781.1 W kg−1. In addition, both HSCs exhibited little capacity decay over 5,000 cycles at a high current load of 8 A/g. These electrochemical properties of CoNi LDHs make them promising candidates for battery-type electrode materials. The current sonochemical method is simple and can be applied to the preparation of other LDHs-based electrode materials with favourable electrochemical performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lactic acid, traditionally considered as a metabolic waste product arising from glycolysis, has undergone a resurgence in scientific interest since the discovery of the Warburg effect in tumor cells. Numerous studies have proved that lactic acid could promote angiogenesis and impair the function of immune cells within tumor microenvironments. Nevertheless, the precise molecular mechanisms governing these biological functions remain inadequately understood. Recently, lactic acid has been found to induce a posttranslational modification, lactylation, that may offer insight into lactic acid's non-metabolic functions. Notably, the posttranslational modification of proteins by lactylation has emerged as a crucial mechanism by which lactate regulates cellular processes. This article provides an overview of the discovery of lactate acidification, outlines the potential "writers" and "erasers" responsible for protein lactylation, presents an overview of protein lactylation patterns across different organisms, and discusses the diverse physiological roles of lactylation. Besides, the article highlights the latest research progress concerning the regulatory functions of protein lactylation in pathological processes and underscores its scientific significance for future investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microfluidic Paper‐based Analytical Devices (µPADs) have emerged as a new class of microfluidic systems, offering numerous advantages over traditional microfluidic chips. These advantages include simplicity, cost‐effectiveness, stability, storability, disposability, and portability. As a result, various designs for different types of assays are developed and investigated. In recent years, µPADs are combined with conventional detection methods to enable rapid on‐site detection, providing results comparable to expensive and sophisticated large‐scale testing methods that require more time and skilled personnel. The application of µPAD techniques is extensive in environmental quality control/analysis, clinical diagnosis, and food safety testing, paving the way for on‐site real‐time diagnosis as a promising future development. This review focuses on the recent research advancements in the design, fabrication, material selection, and detection methods of µPADs. It provides a comprehensive understanding of their principles of operation, applications, and future development prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report an unexpected direct transfer hydrogenation (TH) from 8-alkoxyjulolidine as a strong electron donor to tricyanofuran-based hemicyanines and tandem condensation for the synthesis of push–pull chromophores. Density functional theory calculations identify the α-hydride transfer of julolidine derivatives, instead of nucleophilic addition, as the key initial step of reaction cascades, followed by efficient β-deprotonation to generate a nucleophilic enamine of isojuloline that condenses in situ with a second equivalent of hemicyanines as electrophiles. The scheme represents an exceptional example of TH reactions from 8-alkoxyjulolidine to highly polarizable hemicyanines, notably under simple reaction conditions without using potent catalysts of metal complexes or Lewis acids. The resulting products of isojuloline-based merocyanines exhibit strong near-infrared (NIR) absorption and large first hyperpolarizabilities. The study suggests that direct TH can be exploited to construct new NIR merocyanines by following rational, regioselective condensation pathways for photonic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The creation of versatile platforms for developing dual‐channel near‐infrared fluorescent (NIRF) and photoacoustic (PA) probes, especially those engineered to minimize channel crosstalk, is crucial for precise biomarker detection. However, such platforms remain scarce. To bridge this gap, this study introduces an innovative cyanine‐based platform, CySN. The CySN platform showcases remarkable wavelength‐shifting properties, including large fluorescent modality shift (68 nm) and PA modality shift (145 nm) after the decaging reaction. These substantial changes lead to an exceptionally high ratiometric NIRF change of 603‐fold and ratiometric PA change of 261‐fold. Leveraging the CySN platform, dual‐channel NIRF/PA probes have been successfully developed for detecting both small molecule biomarker (H2O2) and enzyme biomarker (esterase). These probes demonstrate the ability to detect their targets through dual‐channel NIRF/PA detection with high sensitivity and selectivity in vitro. Furthermore, the probes effectively harness NIRF signals to image target analytes in living cells. Notably, the probes demonstrate the capability to accurately diagnose tumors by detecting tumor markers (H2O2 and esterase), revealing a 3.6 to 7‐fold ratiometric PA enhancement over normal tissue. Therefore, the CySN platform holds the potential to further advance the development of dual‐channel NIRF/PA probes for biomolecule detection in disease diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protein acetylation is one of the extensively studied post-translational modifications (PTMs) due to its significant roles across a myriad of biological processes. Although many computational tools for acetylation site identification have been developed, there is a lack of benchmark dataset and bespoke predictors for non-histone acetylation site prediction. To address these problems, we have contributed to both dataset creation and predictor benchmark in this study. First, we construct a non-histone acetylation site benchmark dataset, namely NHAC, which includes 11 subsets according to the sequence length ranging from 11 to 61 amino acids. There are totally 886 positive samples and 4707 negative samples for each sequence length. Secondly, we propose TransPTM, a transformer-based neural network model for non-histone acetylation site predication. During the data representation phase, per-residue contextualized embeddings are extracted using ProtT5 (an existing pre-trained protein language model). This is followed by the implementation of a graph neural network framework, which consists of three TransformerConv layers for feature extraction and a multilayer perceptron module for classification. The benchmark results reflect that TransPTM has the competitive performance for non-histone acetylation site prediction over three state-of-the-art tools. It improves our comprehension on the PTM mechanism and provides a theoretical basis for developing drug targets for diseases. Moreover, the created PTM datasets fills the gap in non-histone acetylation site datasets and is beneficial to the related communities. The related source code and data utilized by TransPTM are accessible at https://www.github.com/TransPTM/TransPTM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing responsive nanoplatforms as carriers for photosensitizers represents an effective strategy to overcome the challenges associated with photodynamic therapy (PDT), including poor solubility, low bioavailability, and high systemic toxicity. Drawing inspiration from the morphology transitions in biological systems, a general approach to enhance PDT that utilizes enzyme‐responsive nanoplatforms is developed. The transformation of phosphopeptide/photosensitizer co‐assembled nanoparticles is first demonstrated into nanofibers when exposed to cytoplasmic enzyme alkaline phosphatase. This transition is primarily driven by alkaline phosphatase‐induced changes of the nanoparticles in the hydrophilic and hydrophobic balance, and intermolecular electrostatic interactions within the nanoparticles. The resulting nanofibers exhibit improved ability of generating reactive oxygen species (ROS), intracellular accumulation, and retention in cancer cells. Furthermore, the enzyme‐responsive nanoplatform is expanded to selectively target mitochondria by mitochondria‐specific enzyme sirtuin 5 (SIRT5). Under the catalysis of SIRT5, the succinylated peptide/photosensitizer co‐assembled nanoparticles can be transformed into nanofibers specifically within the mitochondria. The resulting nanofibers exhibit excellent capability of modulating mitochondrial activity, enhanced ROS formation, and significant anticancer efficacy via PDT. Consequently, the enzyme‐instructed in situ fibrillar transformation of peptide/photosensitizers co‐assembled nanoparticles provides an efficient pathway to address the challenges associated with photosensitizers. It is envisaged that this approach will further expand the toolbox for enzyme‐responsive biomaterials for cancer therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Conventional PET/CT imaging reconstruction is typically performed using voxel size of 3.0–4.0 mm in three axes. It is hypothesized that a smaller voxel sizes could improve the accuracy of small lesion detection. This study aims to explore the advantages and conditions of small voxel imaging on clinical application. Methods: Both NEMA IQ phantom and 30 patients with an injected dose of 3.7 MBq/kg were scanned using a total-body PET/CT (uEXPLORER). Images were reconstructed using matrices of 192 × 192, 512 × 512, and 1024 × 1024 with scanning duration of 3 min, 5 min, 8 min, and 10 min, respectively. Results: In the phantom study, the contrast recovery coefficient reached the maximum in matrix group of 512 × 512, and background variability increased as voxel size decreased. In the clinical study, SUVmax, SD, and TLR increased, while SNR decreased as the voxel size decreased. When the scanning duration increased, SNR increased, while SUVmax, SD, and TLR decreased. The SUVmean was more reluctant to the changes in imaging matrix and scanning duration. The mean subjective scores for all 512 × 512 groups and 1024 × 1024 groups (scanning duration ≥ 8 min) were over three points. One false-positive lesion was found in groups of 512 × 512 with scanning duration of 3 min, 1024 × 1024 with 3 min and 5 min, respectively. Meanwhile, the false-negative lesions found in group of 192 × 192 with duration of 3 min and 5 min, 512 × 512 with 3 min and 1024 × 1024 with 3 min and 5 min were 5, 4, 1, 4, and 1, respectively. The reconstruction time and storage space occupation were significantly increased as the imaging matrix increased. Conclusions: PET/CT imaging with smaller voxel can improve SUVmax and TLR of lesions, which is advantageous for the diagnosis of small or hypometabolic lesions if with sufficient counts. With an 18F-FDG injection dose of 3.7 MBq/kg, uEXPLORER PET/CT imaging using matrix of 512 × 512 with 5 min or 1024 × 1024 with 8 min can meet the image requirements for clinical use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jasmine, a recently domesticated shrub, is renowned for its use as a key ingredient in floral tea and its captivating fragrance, showcasing significant ornamental and economic value. When cultivated to subtropical zone, a significant abiotic stress adaptability occurs among different jasmine varieties, leading to huge flower production changes and plantlet survival. The bZIP transcription factors (TFs) are reported to play indispensable roles in abiotic stress tolerance. Here, we performed a genome-level comparison of bZIPs using three-type jasmine genomes. Based on their physicochemical properties, conserved motif analysis and phylogenetic analysis, about 63 bZIP genes were identified and clustered in jasmine genomes, noting a difference of one member compared to the other two types of jasmines. The HTbZIP genes were categorized into 12 subfamilies compared with A. thaliana. In cis-acting element analysis, all genes contained light-responsive elements. The abscisic acid response element (ABRE) was the most abundant in HTbZIP62 promoter, followed by HTbZIP33. Tissue-specific genes of the bZIPs may play a crucial role in regulating the development of jasmine organs and tissues, with HTbZIP36 showing the most significant expressions in roots. Combined with complicated protein interactions, HTbZIP62 and HTbZIP33 might play a crucial role in the ABA signaling pathway and stress tolerance. Combined with RT-qPCR analysis, SJbZIP37/57/62 were more sensitive to ABA response genes compared with other bZIPs in DJ amd HT genomes. Our findings provide a useful resource for further research on the regulation of key genes to improve abiotic stress tolerance in jasmine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• CircWWP2 was created by back-splicing of exons 2 to 4 of the WWP2 gene. • Overexpression of circWWP2 can promote the LPS induced cellular injury via decreasing cell viability, increasing NO product and pro-inflammatory cytokines. • Thirteen miRNAs were identified to interact with circWWP2 , which potentially target 3,264 genes. • The target genes were enriched in the pathways of lysosomes, IgA-producing intestinal immune networks for IgA production, and Notch signaling pathway. CircRNA, a non-coding RNA, is an ideal biomarker and a suitable potential therapeutic target for various disease due to its high stability, species conservation and cell/tissue specificity. Our previous study has found a circular RNA WWP2 (circWWP2) was significantly decreased in chicken macrophages during bacterial infection. However, the function of circWWP2 in chicken macrophages remains unclear. In this study, it was demonstrated that circWWP2 was a stable circular RNA created by back-splicing of exons 2 to 4 of WWP2 via PCR amplification, Sanger sequencing, RNase R exonuclease digestion, and RT-qPCR. Moreover, bioinformatics analysis showed circWWP2 could interact with 13 miRNAs and target 3,264 genes, which were significantly enriched in lysosomes, IgA-producing intestinal immune networks for IgA production, and Notch signaling pathway. Furthermore, CCK8 and RT-qPCR indicated that overexpression of circWWP2 could promote lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced cellular injury by decreasing cell viability and increasing the expression levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and pro-apoptosis genes, and NO production. CircWWP2 may exert a potential target for the treatment of bacterial infection. Further experiments are necessary to validate the specific mechanism that circWWP2 regulates LPS induced cellular immune responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular RNAs (circRNA) originate from back-splicing events that link a downstream 5'splice site to an upstream 3′ splice site. Circular RNA has been shown to be involved in gene expression, interacting with microRNA and RNA binding proteins to affect transcription, splicing, translation, and other processes. However, little is known about the potential function of chicken circRNAs that trigger the pathogenesis. In a previous study, a circular RNA DNAJB6 (circDNAJB6) was identified as a typical covalently closed circular RNA that is abundant in chicken macrophages upon bacterial infection. It was identified that circDNAJB6 was formed by reverse splicing of exons 2 to 5 of the DNAJB6 gene by PCR amplification, Sanger sequencing, and RNase R exonuclease treatment. Moreover, circDNAJB6 had ability to exacerbate the lipopolysaccharides (LPS) induced cellular injury via reducing cell viability, increasing NO product and pro-inflammatory cytokines. In addition, bioinformatic analysis showed that five miRNAs were identified to interact with circDNAJB6 , potentially targeting 75 genes, which were significantly enriched in the pathways of autophagy-animal and MAPK signaling. This study has provided and broadened a better understanding the function of circDNAJB6 , which may exert potential biomarkers and act as potential targets for the treatment of bacterial infection. • CircDNAJB6 was formed by reverse splicing of exons 2 to 5 of the DNAJB6 gene. • CircDNAJB6 can exacerbate the LPS induced cellular injury via increasing NO product and pro-inflammatory cytokines. • Five miRNAs were identified to interact with circDNAJB6 , which potentially target 75 genes. • The target genes were enriched in the pathways of autophagy-animal and MAPK signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previously reported light-controlled nitric oxide donors are usually activated by blue or green light. The insufficient ability of short wavelength light to penetrate tissues and its potential phototoxicity to living organisms greatly restricted in vivo applications. This study presents the development of a novel mitochondria-targeted nitric oxide donor, R–NO , capable of controlled nitric oxide and photosensitizer release under white light irradiation in mitochondria. R–NO is capable of generating nitric oxide and R–NH , a novel photosensitizer that can produce O 2 •- upon irradiation with a single light source. In addition, the highly toxic ONOO− can be produced by the rapid reaction of nitric oxide and O 2 •-. Harnessing the synergistic effects of PDT, nitric oxide therapy and highly toxic ONOO−, the proliferation and migration of cancer cells can be significantly inhibited upon light irradiation with R–NO. Futhermore, our MTT experiments demonstrated that simultaneous producing of O 2 •- and nitric oxide in the same region is crucial for efficient cancer cell inhibition. These interesting findings underscore the enhanced synergistic effect achieved by combining PDT and NO therapy in a single molecule for cancer cell treatment. [Display omitted] • A novel mitochondria-targeted nitric oxide donor has been provided. • The controlled nitric oxide and photosensitizer release under white light irradiation has been proved. • The synergistic effects of PDT, nitric oxide therapy and highly toxic ONOO− has been investigated. • The proliferation and migration of cancer cells have been significantly inhibited upon light irradiation with R–NO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]