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In recent years, as the infectious diseases caused by pathogens such as novel coronavirus and mpox (formerly called monkeypox) spread globally, the significance of identification, preservation, and sharing of pathogenic resources become prominent. Along with the rapid development of biorepositories, it is imperative to evaluate their operation in a scientific manner. By using the literature review and modified Delphi method, this study develops a benchmarking tool for the comprehensive evaluation of the operation of biorepositories for pathogenic resources. The effective response rates of both rounds of expert surveys were 100 %. The authority coefficients (Cr) were 0.82 and 0.85, respectively, manifesting the reliability of consultation results. In the second-round survey, the Kendall’s coefficient of concordance (Kendall’s W) of all indicators ranged from 0.09 to 0.31 (P

Summary: This study introduces VitTCR, a predictive model based on the vision transformer (ViT) architecture, aimed at identifying interactions between T cell receptors (TCRs) and peptides, crucial for developing cancer immunotherapies and vaccines. VitTCR converts TCR-peptide interactions into numerical AtchleyMaps using Atchley factors for prediction, achieving AUROC (0.6485) and AUPR (0.6295) values. Benchmark analysis indicates VitTCR’s performance is comparable to other models, with further comparative studies suggested to understand its effectiveness in varied contexts. Additionally, integrating a positional bias weight matrix (PBWM), derived from amino acid contact probabilities in structurally resolved pMHC-TCR complexes, slightly improves VitTCR’s accuracy. The model’s predictions show weak yet statistically significant correlations with immunological factors like T cell clonal expansion and activation percentages, underscoring the biological relevance of VitTCR’s predictive capabilities. VitTCR emerges as a valuable computational tool for predicting TCR-peptide interactions, offering insights for immunotherapy and vaccine development.

On September 16, 2022, the first imported monkeypox case was reported in the Chinese Mainland. Laboratory tests including nucleic acid detection were carried out in Chongqing Nan'an Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and Chongqing Center for Disease Control and Prevention. After that, monkeypox virus was isolated by the Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention and preserved at the National Pathogen Resource Center on September 18, 2022. The National Pathogen Resource Center shared the basic information of monkeypox virus strain, samples, biosafety, strain imaging, RT-PCR primers, and probes sequence timely to support the prevention and control of monkeypox epidemic and facilitate the scientific research on vaccine development, drug screening and evaluation of monkeypox virus in the future.

With the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), it is essential to share pathogens and their data information safely, transparently, and timely. At the same time, it is also worth exploring how to share the benefits of using the provided pathogenic microorganisms fairly and equitably. There are some mechanisms for the management and sharing of pathogenic microbial resources in the world, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the United States, the Europe, and China. This paper studies these mechanisms and puts forward “PICC” principles, including public welfare principle, interests principle, classified principle, and category principle, to strengthen cooperation, improve efficiency, and maintain biosafety.

Long-term and stable preservation of bacteriophages is of crucial importance. Although many efforts have been made in the past decades to explore the influence of external factors on bacteriophage preservation, there is still little understanding, and a systematic description is lacking. In this study, we explored the influence of different factors on the preservation of lytic bacteriophage VP3, one of the typing bacteriophages of Vibrio cholerae O1 biotype El Tor, and attempted to optimize its preservation. We examined external factors, including temperature, solution, and cryoprotectant, in stable cooling/freezing conditions or alternate cooling/freezing and thawing. We found that whether in Luria-Bertani (LB) medium or SM buffer, in terms of 20-week stable cooling or freezing, −20 °C was the most damaging while 4 °C, −80 °C, and −196 °C were protective. Thirteen cycles of alternate cooling/freezing and thawing caused a loss in the survival rates of bacteriophages. The addition of cryoprotectant, glycerol (30%, w/v) or dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO, 10%, w/v) significantly improved the survival rates of bacteriophages preserved at −20 °C. However, at 4 °C, −80 °C, and −196 °C, the cryoprotectant effect was only slightly positive or even harmful. In summary, for bacteriophage VP3, the best preservation method is to directly preserve the bacteriophage stocks in LB medium at −80 °C or −196 °C instead of storing them in SM buffer or adding cryoprotectant. Our results provided insights into the external influencing factors on bacteriophage VP3 during preservation at low temperature and can be applied to the optimization of bacteriophage preservation in the future.

The fabrication of micro/nanostructure arrays on nickel or nickel alloy surfaces is still a challenge because of the high hardness and low thermal conductivity. Motivated by this, this study proposed the ultraprecision tool-servo cutting process to fabricate micro/nanostructure arrays on the nickel surfaces. Experimental results showed the micro-lens array and sawtooth-shaped nanostructure array were successfully fabricated on pure nickel surfaces. The fabrication error of the micro-lens array is

20(S)-Rh2 is a ginsenoside isolated from Panax ginseng, which exhibits anti-cancer activities on various human cancer cells. A novel 20(S)-Rh2 derivative, 2-Deoxy-Rh2 was synthesized and hybridized with protopanaxadiol and 2-deoxy-glucose in an attempt to enhance the anticancer activity. Through screening the antitumor effect against various cell lines by MTT assay, 2-Deoxy-Rh2 especially resulted in a concentration-dependent and time-dependent inhibition of viability in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells. Multiple methods were used to explore the cellular and molecular mechanisms of 2-Deoxy-Rh2 as a potent anti-cancer agent. In MCF-7 cells, 2-Deoxy-Rh2 triggered apoptosis, stimulated ROS production and disrupted normal mitochondrial membrane potential. Meantime, 2-Deoxy-Rh2 eff ;ectively suppressed the glucose uptake capabilities and intracellular ATP production. The cellular oxygen consumption rate (OCR) and extracellular acidification rate (ECAR) were significantly decreased in response to 2-Deoxy-Rh2, which were carried out to assess the overall glycolytic flux and mitochondrial respiration. Docking studies and molecular dynamics simulations were performed to verify the binding mode of 2-DG and 2-Deoxy-Rh2 with hexokinase II, with results showing that 2-Deoxy-Rh2 could easily fit into the similar active site of 2-DG, finally binding to hexokinase II to suppress glycolysis. Taken together, the results suggest that 2-Deoxy-Rh2 exhibited remarkable anticancer activity based on regulating mitochondrial apoptosis pathway, dampening glycolysis and inhibiting mitochondrial respiration, which support development of 2-Deoxy-Rh2 as a potential agent for cancer therapy.