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The screening results were reported based on the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis of the samples of exfoliated cervical cells from 354 women. Their spectra can be sorted into two types based on the emerging or not of the absorption bands near 970 cm−1 and 1 170 cm−1: T1 (83.1%) type without emerging, and T2 (16.9%) type with obviously emerging. All of the samples assigned to T1 were cytologically diagnosed as normal or within normal limits (Pap I). 28.9% and 71.1% of samples exhibiting T2 profile, were cytologically evaluated as Pap I and abnormal respectively. 3 women in the abnormal group were diagnosed as to have cervical cells with changes associated with high grade of inflammation, cervical scar and cervical erosion. Furthermore, based on the progressive change of the relative intensities of the absorption bands, both T1 and T2 profiles can be categorized into 6 subtypes. The observed heterogeneous spectra and the progressive changes in the absorption frequencies and the relative intensities exhibit features suggestive of the progressive process of cervical lesion. The FTIR method has the potential to complement the cytological smear for large-volume screening of cervical lesions.

The compositions of the secondary structures of protein in the human breast normal, hyperplasia, fibroadenoma and invasive ductal carcinoma tissues have been estimated from the Fourier self deconvolved spectra, the second derivative spectra and the curve-fitting analysis of the amide I bands in their spectra. Some parameters of the secondary structures of proteins in these 4 types of tissues are significantly different and located in separate ranges. Fibroadenoma tissue demonstrates the most remarkable difference in the compositions of α-helical and atypical helical structures. The carcinoma tissue has the highest ratio of the intermolecular β-sheet content and the intramolecular β-sheet content. This noticeable difference in the secondary structure may have important implications for analyzing the properties and types of human breast disease.

Some remarkable FTIR spectral differences are observed and the differences at the molecular level are extracted between benign and malignant breast tissue samples. For the malignant tissue, the relative content of nucleic acids is increased whereas the collagen is decreased . The proteins are phosphorylated and become more flexible and disordered. And these significant differences have important implications not only for probing the process of the breast lesion at the molecular level, but also for evaluating the histological types and grades of breast diseases.

The circadian rhythms exhibited in the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus are generated by an oscillator comprised of the proteins KaiA, KaiB, and KaiC. An external signal that commonly affects the circadian clock is light. Previously, we reported that the bacteriophytochrome-like protein CikA passes environmental signals to the oscillator by directly binding a quinone and using cellular redox state as a measure of light in this photosynthetic organism. Here, we report that KaiA also binds the quinone analog 2,5-dibromo-3-methyl-6-isopropyl- p -benzoquinone (DBMIB), and the oxidized form of DBMIB, but not its reduced form, decreases the stability of KaiA in vivo, causes multimerization in vitro, and blocks KaiA stimulation of KaiC phosphorylation, which is central to circadian oscillation. Our data suggest that KaiA directly senses environmental signals as changes in redox state and modulates the circadian clock.

Circadian rhythms are endogenous cellular programs that time metabolic and behavioral events to occur at optimal times in the daily cycle. Light and dark cycles synchronize the endogenous clock with the external environment through a process called entrainment. Previously, we identified the bacteriophytochrome-like circadian input kinase CikA as a key factor for entraining the clock in the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942. Here, we present evidence that CikA senses not light but rather the redox state of the plastoquinone pool, which, in photosynthetic organisms, varies as a function of the light environment. Furthermore, CikA associates with the Kai proteins of the circadian oscillator, and it influences the phosphorylation state of KaiC during resetting of circadian phase by a dark pulse. The abundance of CikA varies inversely with light intensity, and its stability decreases in the presence of the quinone analog 2,5-dibromo-3-methyl-6-isopropyl- p -benzoquinone (DBMIB). The pseudo-receiver domain of CikA is crucial for sensitivity to DBMIB, and it binds the quinone directly, a demonstration of a previously unrecognized ligand-binding role for the receiver fold. Our results suggest that resetting the clock in S. elongatus is metabolism-dependent and that it is accomplished through the interaction of the circadian oscillator with CikA.