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AIM: To investigate the effects of γ-synuclein on autophagy and apoptosis of colon cancer cells induced by endoplasmic reticulum stress, as well as the protective effect on the cells. METHODS: Gene expression profile chip analysis was performed to compare the cDNA expression profiles between human colon cancer HCT116 cells with γ-synuclein knockdown and HCT116 cells with control siRNA, and to identify potential molecules related to autophagy and apoptosis. In colon cancer cell lines, the functional effects of γ-synuclein on autophagy and apoptosis induced by thapsigargin (TG), an endoplasmic reticulum stress-inducing agent, were systematically explored by conducting immunofluorescence staining, Western blot, CCK-8 assay, flow cytometry, and transmission electron microscopy. Western blot was used to detect the expression of γ-synuclein protein, autophagy-related proteins [microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3), beclin-1, autophagy-related protein 5 (ATG5) and ATG7], and apoptosis-related proteins [poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), pro-caspase-3, and pro-caspase-9]. To further analyze the mechanism of γ-synuclein in regulating autophagy and apoptosis, extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERIK) inhibitor PD98059, ERII inhibitor SP600125 and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNII) activator anisomycin were applied separately to test HCT116 cells transfected with 7-synuclein siRNA. Subsequently, autophagy proteins, apoptosis proteins, and ERK and JNII pathway-related proteins were detected by Western blot. RESULTS: The TG-induced autophagy of colon cancer cells mainly occurred at the early stage (0~24 h), and apoptosis mainly occurred at the late stage (36~48 h). Endoplasmic reticulum stress up-regulated the expression of γ-synuclein in colon cancer cells, which was associated with enhanced autophagy. γ-Synuclein promoted autophagy by activating ERK and JNII pathways at the early stage (0~24 h), and inhibited apoptosis by blocking JNII pathways at the late stage (24~48 h) to protect HCT116 cells. In our model, γ-synuclein was observed to play a critical role in the transition from endoplasmic reticulum stress-induced autophagy to apoptosis. CONCLUSION: In the context of endoplasmic reticulum stress, 7-synuclein promotes autophagy and inhibits apoptosis by regulating ERK and JNII signaling pathways, thus protecting colon cancer cells. This provides a potential idea for anti-tumor therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogels show great potential in agriculture and other fields due to their excellent water absorption. However, traditional hydrogels are predominantly made from petroleum-based materials, which are difficult to degrade and pose environmental challenges. Additionally, traditional hydrogels exhibit inadequate mechanical properties, making the development of biodegradable hydrogels with high mechanical strength and cost-effectiveness a significant challenge. This study utilizes cassava starch as the primary framework, polyvinyl alcohol as the flexible soft segment, and crosslinks with epichlorohydrin to synthesize a novel biodegradable and cost-effective hydrogel. The hydrogel underwent modification through the incorporation of carboxylated nanofibers and sodium bicarbonate. The hydrogel's characteristics were assessed through Fourier infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy, swelling examination, and compressive stress evaluation. The primary focus was placed on investigating the hydrogel's mechanical properties and its swelling behavior in aqueous solutions. The influence of nanofiber content on the hydrogel's properties was appraised. The integration of nanofibers significantly enhanced the compressive strength of the hydrogel, reaching an impressive 135.35 kPa, which is notably higher than the 33.88 kPa displayed by the conventional starch hydrogel. Simultaneously, when compared to the unaltered common starch hydrogel, the hydrogel fortified with nano-fibrils exhibited improvements in the swelling rate and thermal stability, exhibiting an increase of 20.54% and 12.20%, respectively. To address the rapid release rate of chlorine dioxide, the new hydrogel was dried, then separately absorbed sodium chlorite and citric acid, and subsequently stacked to create a binary solid slow-release chlorine dioxide system. The actual effect of the slow-release system on the preservation of fruits was tested using cherry tomatoes as experimental subjects. The results showed that the deterioration rate and vitamin C retention rate of cherry tomatoes were significantly improved under the action of the slow-release system. The loss of vitamin C in cherry tomatoes under the influence of the SSRCD hydrogel system was 37.73% lower than that observed in the control group. Due to its good mechanical properties and economy, this innovative hydrogel is not only suitable for applications in the field of fruit preservation but is also expected to be widely used in public health, medical and various other domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A low‐power multibit delta–sigma modulator (DSM) based on a passive and unattenuated summation scheme is proposed. The summation circuit achieves multiplication of the voltage signal carried on the summation capacitor through a bidirectional sampling technique, thereby compensating for the inherent attenuation caused by passive summation, which eliminates the need for an active operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) to achieve perfect summation. Here, a second‐order DSM based on a 4‐bit first‐order passive noise‐shaping (NS) SAR quantizer is employed to satisfy the SNDR requirements exceeding 100 dB, which validates the reliability of the summation scheme. In addition, a cascoded floating inverter amplifier (FIA) is used as the core OTA to further improve system energy efficiency. Simulation results demonstrate that at a supply voltage of 1.2 V and a bandwidth of 20 kHz, the SNDR reaches 102.62 dB, power consumption is only 148.32 μW, and the Schreier figure‐of‐merit (FoM) of the SNDR is 183.92 dB. The results demonstrate that the proposed DSM has considerable potential for widespread application in the audio domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]