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Background: Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation with or without CD34+ selection is being used successfully to treat patients with severe and refractory autoimmune disease. This study describes our experience of CD34+ stem cell mobilization, harvesting and selection in autoimmune patients based on conditions in Vietnam - the developing country., Methods: Eight autoimmune patients (four patients with Myasthenia Gravis and four patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus) underwent PBSC mobilization with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and cyclophosphamide. The apheresis was performed on a Terumo BCT Spectra Optia machine. CD34+ hematopoetic stem cells were collected from the leukapheresis by CliniMACS Plus device using CD34 Enrichment KIT. CD34+ cells, T and B lymphocytes were counted on a FACS BD Canto II device., Results: Eight patients (4 MG and 4 SLE) including 5 females and 3 males were involved in this study. The mean age of the patients was 33.13 ± 16.64 years (ranging from 13 to 58 years). The average number of days for mobilization was 7.9 ± 1.6 days, whereas the average number of days for harvesting was 1.5 ± 0.5 days. There was no difference in the number of days for mobilization and harvesting between the MG and SLE groups. The number of CD34+ cells in peripheral blood (PB) on the day of harvesting was 108.37 ± 59.64 x 106 cells/L. There was a significant difference in white blood cell (WBC), neutrophil, monocyte, and platelet cell counts between before and after mobilization. On the day of stem cell harvesting, variables such as WBC, neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, platelet, CD34+ cell counts, and hemoglobin were not different between the MG and SLE groups. The CD34+ recovery percentage following the CD34+ selection procedure was 68.8%, whereas almost 99.9% of the T and B lymphocytes, and NK cells in the PBSC products were eliminated., Conclusions: Very first attempts in mobilizing, harvesting, and selecting CD34+ stem cells were successful, paving the way for autoimmune patients to have autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in Vietnam.

Recently, there have been publications on preparing hybrid materials between noble metal and semiconductor for applications in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates to detect some toxic organic dyes. However, the use of cuprous oxide/silver (Cu 2 O/Ag) to measure the trace amounts of methyl orange (MO) has not been reported. Therefore, in this study, the trace level of MO in water solvent was determined using a SERS substrate based on Cu 2 O microcubes combined with silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs). Herein, a series of Cu 2 O/Ag x ( x = 1-5) hybrids with various Ag amounts was synthesized via a solvothermal method followed by a reduction process, and their SERS performance was studied in detail. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy results confirmed that 10 nm Ag NPs were well dispersed on 200-500 nm Cu 2 O microcubes to form Cu 2 O/Ag heterojunctions. Using the as-prepared Cu 2 O and Cu 2 O/Ag x as MO probe, the Cu 2 O/Ag5 nanocomposite showed the highest SERS activity of all samples with the limit of detection as low to 1 nM and the enhancement factor as high as 4 × 10 8 . The logarithm of the SERS peak intensity at 1389 cm -1 increased linearly with the logarithm of the concentration of MO in the range from 1 nM to 0.1 mM., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2023 The Authors.)

Vietnam has diverse and long-established tea plantations but scientific data on the characteristics of Vietnamese teas are still limited. Chemical and biological properties including total polyphenol and flavonoid contents (TPCs and TFCs), antioxidant activities (DPPH, ABTS, FRAP, and CUPRAC), as well as the contents of caffeine, gallic acid, and major catechins, were evaluated for 28 Vietnamese teas from North and South Vietnam. Higher values of TPCs and TFCs were found for green (non-oxidised) and raw Pu'erh (low-oxidised) teas from wild/ancient tea trees in North Vietnam and green teas from cultivated trees in South Vietnam, as compared to oolong teas (partly oxidised) from South Vietnam and black teas (fully oxidised) from North Vietnam. The caffeine, gallic acid, and major catechin contents depended on the processing, geographical origin, and the tea variety. Several good Pearson's correlations were found (r 2 > 0.9) between TPCs, TFCs, the four antioxidant capacities, and the content of major catechins such as (-)-epicatechin-3-gallate and (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate. Results from principal component analysis showed good discriminations with cumulative variances of the first two principal components varying from 85.3% to 93.7% among non-/low-oxidised and partly/fully oxidised teas, and with respect to the tea origin.

Background: Universal coverage of evidence-based interventions for perinatal health, often part of evidence-based guidelines, could prevent most perinatal deaths, particularly if entire communities were engaged in the implementation. Social innovations may provide creative solutions to the implementation of evidence-based guidelines, but successful use of social innovations relies on the engagement of communities and health system actors. This proof-of-concept study aimed to assess whether an earlier successful social innovation for improved neonatal survival that employed regular facilitated Plan-Do-Study-Act meetings on the commune level was feasible and acceptable when implemented on multiple levels of the health system (52 health units) and resulted in actions with plausibly favourable effects on perinatal health and survival in Cao Bang province, northern Vietnam., Methods: The Integrated Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (i-PARIHS) framework guided the implementation and evaluation of the Perinatal Knowledge-Into-Practice (PeriKIP) project. Data collection included facilitators' diaries, health workers' knowledge on perinatal care, structured observations of antenatal care, focus group discussions with facilitators, their mentors and representatives of different actors of the initiated stakeholder groups and an individual interview with the Reproductive Health Centre director. Clinical experts assessed the relevance of the identified problems and actions taken based on facilitators' diaries. Descriptive statistics included proportions, means, and t-tests for the knowledge assessment and observations. Qualitative data were analysed by content analysis., Results: The social innovation resulted in the identification of about 500 relevant problems. Also, 75% of planned actions to overcome prioritised problems were undertaken, results presented and a plan for new actions to achieve the group's goals to enhance perinatal health. The facilitators had significant roles, ensuring that the stakeholder groups were established based on principles of mutual respect. Overall, the knowledge of perinatal health and performance of antenatal care improved over the intervention period., Conclusions: The establishment of facilitated local stakeholder groups can remedy the need for tailored interventions and grassroots involvement in perinatal health and provide a scalable structure for focused efforts to reduce preventable deaths and promote health and well-being., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Annexin V forms trimeric structures which further assemble into two-dimensional crystal (2D crystal) lattices on negatively charged phospholipid bilayer in a Ca2+-dependent manner. It is also known that annexin V 2D crystals show two types of symmetric patterns with six-fold symmetry (p6) and three-fold symmetry (p3). The p6 lattice also contains additional trimers in the gaps between the p6 axes, which are also referred to as non-p6 trimers because they do not participate in the formation of the p6 lattice. We here show that the annexin V N-terminal has significant influence on 2D crystal formation using high-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM) observations. We also present a quick purification method to purify recombinant annexin V without any residual affinity tag after protein purification in ~3h., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2022 Yamada et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Leaf senescence, the last stage of leaf development, is essential for whole-plant fitness as it marks the relocation of nutrients from senescing leaves to reproductive or other developing organs. Temporally coordinated physiological and functional changes along leaf aging are fine-tuned by a highly regulated genetic program involving multi-layered regulatory mechanisms. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are newly emerging as hidden players in many biological processes; however, their contribution to leaf senescence has been largely unknown. Here, we performed comprehensive analyses of RNA-seq data representing all developmental stages of leaves to determine the genome-wide lncRNA landscape along leaf aging. A total of 771 lncRNAs, including 232 unannotated lncRNAs, were identified. Time-course analysis revealed 446 among 771 developmental age-related lncRNAs (AR-lncRNAs). Intriguingly, the expression of AR-lncRNAs was regulated more dynamically in senescing leaves than in growing leaves, revealing the relevant contribution of these lncRNAs to leaf senescence. Further analyses enabled us to infer the function of lncRNAs, based on their interacting miRNA or mRNA partners. We considered functionally diverse lncRNAs including antisense lncRNAs (which regulate overlapping protein-coding genes), competitive endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs; which regulate paired mRNAs using miRNAs as anchors), and mRNA-interacting lncRNAs (which affect the stability of mRNAs). Furthermore, we experimentally validated the senescence regulatory function of three novel AR-lncRNAs including one antisense lncRNA and two mRNA-interacting lncRNAs through molecular and phenotypic analyses. Our study provides a valuable resource of AR-lncRNAs and potential regulatory networks that link the function of coding mRNA and AR-lncRNAs. Together, our results reveal AR-lncRNAs as important elements in the leaf senescence process., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Kim, Lee, Kang, Trang, Lee, Lee, Jeong and Lim.)

Background/purpose: The characteristic of soft tissue changes in buccal shelf area during function is unclear. This study aimed for evaluating the potential denture covering area in buccal shelf area in different ranges of mouth opening by a digital approach., Materials and Methods: Nineteen qualified dentate participants were enrolled. An intraoral scanner was used to record soft tissue in buccal shelf area in different ranges of mandibular opening, which were maximum intercuspation, 10 mm, 20 mm, and 30 mm of interincisal distance. The experiment was performed by two examiners. The common area of each range was generated within the clinically acceptable denture adaptation range, which was represented as the potential denture covering area. Data were statistically analyzed using descriptive statistic, one-way repeated measure ANOVA, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and the Pearson correlation test., Results: Trends of the mean distance of the potential denture covering area increased from the frenum area to the second premolar and the first molar area then decreased in the second molar area, along with the ranges of mouth opening increased. The distance in the second molar area had drastic percentage changes during the mouth opening. The mean distances changed significantly when the mouth opening increased ( P  < 0.001). All ICC values of intra-, inter-rater reliability indicated good to excellent reliability. The correlation between the results from two examiners was strong ( P  < 0.001)., Conclusion: The characteristic of the denture covering area posteriorly to the first molar area is inversely proportional in length to ranges of mouth opening., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest relevant to this article., (© 2022 Association for Dental Sciences of the Republic of China. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V.)

Decorating two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials with nanoparticles provides an effective method to integrate their physicochemical properties. In this work, we present the hydrothermal growth process of 2D zinc oxide nanoplates (ZnO NPls), then silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were uniformly distributed on the surface of ZnO NPls through the reduction procedure of silver nitrate with sodium borohydride to create a metal-semiconductor hybrid. The amount of AgNPs on the ZnO NPls' surface was carefully controlled by varying the volume of silver nitrate (AgNO 3 ) solution. Moreover, the effect of AgNPs on the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) property of ZnO NPls was thoroughly investigated by using methylene blue (MB) as the target molecule. After calculation, the maximum enhancement factor value for 10 -4 M of MB reached 6.2 × 10 6 for the peak at 1436 cm -1 and the limit of detection was 10 -9 M. In addition, the hybrid nanosystem could distinguish MB with good reproducibility over a wide range of concentrations, from 10 -9 to 10 -4 M. The SERS mechanism is well elucidated based on the chemical and electromagnetic mechanisms related to the synergism of ZnO and Ag in the enhancement of Raman signal. Abundant hot spots located at the gap between adjacent separate Ag nanoparticles and ZnO nanoplates which formed a strong local electromagnetic field and electron transfer between ZnO and Ag are considered to be the key factors affecting the SERS performance of our prepared ZnO/Ag substrates. In this research, we found high sensitivity of ZnO nanoplates/Ag nanoparticles in detecting MB molecules. This unique metal-semiconductor hybrid nanosystem is advantageous for the formation of Raman signals and is thus suitable for the trace detection of methylene blue., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) can reveal genetic variations associated with a phenotype in the absence of any hypothesis of candidate genes. The problem of false-positive sites linked with the responsible site might be bypassed in bacteria with a high homologous recombination rate, such as Helicobacter pylori , which causes gastric cancer. We conducted a small-sample GWAS (125 gastric cancer cases and 115 controls) followed by prediction of gastric cancer and control (duodenal ulcer) H. pylori strains. We identified 11 single nucleotide polymorphisms (eight amino acid changes) and three DNA motifs that, combined, allowed effective disease discrimination. They were often informative of the underlying molecular mechanisms, such as electric charge alteration at the ligand-binding pocket, alteration in subunit interaction, and mode-switching of DNA methylation. We also identified three novel virulence factors/oncoprotein candidates. These results provide both defined targets for further informatic and experimental analyses to gain insights into gastric cancer pathogenesis and a basis for identifying a set of biomarkers for distinguishing these H. pylori -related diseases.

Aim: To develop a novel Helicobacter pylori ( H. pylori ) CagA antibody enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) suitable for detecting serum anti-CagA antibodies with high sensitivity., Methods: Recombinant East Asian-type CagA protein was purified and immobilized for ELISA. Serum samples from 217 Vietnamese individuals (110 H. pylori -infected and 107 uninfected individuals) were applied. Conventional ELISA from Western-type CagA and our East Asian-type CagA ELISA were evaluated by comparing 38 subjects with the Western-type genotype and 72 subjects with the East Asian-type cagA genotype. Histological scores of the gastric mucosa were determined using the updated Sydney System to examine the relationship with anti-CagA antibody titers., Results: Recombinant 70-100 kDa fragments were immobilized on the ELISA plate. In ROC analysis, the area under the curve of our East Asian-type CagA ELISA was comparable to that of conventional CagA ELISA. The sensitivity of the two ELISAs differed depending on the cagA genotype. The sensitivity of East Asian-type CagA ELISA was higher for subjects infected with East Asian-type cagA H. pylori ( P < 0.001), and the sensitivity of the conventional CagA ELISA tended to be higher for subjects infected with Western cagA H. pylori ( P = 0.056). The titer of anti-CagA antibody tended to correlate with monocyte infiltration scores ( r = 0.25, P = 0.058) and was inversely correlated with H. pylori density ( r = -0.26, P = 0.043)., Conclusion: The novel ELISA is useful to detect anti-CagA antibodies in East Asian countries, and the titer may be a marker for predicting chronic gastritis.

A microwave-assisted protocol was developed for the construction of 2-amino-1H-imidazole/triazole conjugates starting from the previously described 2-hydroxy-2,3-dihydro-1H-imidazo[1,2-a]pyrimidin-4-ium salts. The process involves a one-pot hydrazinolysis/Dimroth-rearrangement of these salts followed by a ligand-free copper nanoparticle-catalyzed azide-alkyne Huisgen cycloaddition. The 2-amino-1H-imidazole/triazole conjugates showed moderate to high preventive activity against biofilms of S. Typhimurium, E. coli, P. aeruginosa and S. aureus. The most active compounds had BIC50 values between 1.3 and 8 μM. A remarkable finding was that introduction of the triazole moiety into the side chain of 2-aminoimidazoles with a long (C8-C13) 2N-alkyl chain did drastically improve their activity. Conclusively, the 2-amino-1H-imidazole/triazole scaffold provides a lead structure for further design and development of novel biofilm inhibitors.