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Background: Patients with chronic kidney disease stage 5 (CKD5) are predisposed to vascular calcification (VC), but the combined effect of factors associated with VC was sparsely investigated. We applied the relaxed linear separability (RLS) feature selection model to identify features that concomitantly associate with VC in CKD5 patients.Methods: Epigastric arteries collected during surgery from living donor kidney transplant recipients were examined to score the histological extent of medial VC. Sixty-two phenotypic features in 152 patients were entered into RLS model to differentiate between no-minimal VC (n = 93; score 0-1) and moderate-extensive VC (n = 59; score 2-3). The subset of features associated with VC was selected on the basis of cross-validation procedure. The strength of association of the selected features with VC was expressed by the absolute value of 'RLS factor'.Results: Among 62 features, a subset of 17 features provided optimal prediction of VC with 89% of patients correctly classified into their groups. The 17 features included traditional risk factors (diabetes, age, cholesterol, BMI and male sex) and markers of bone metabolism, endothelial function, metabolites, serum antibodies and mitochondrial-derived peptide. Positive RLS factors range from 1.26 to 4.05 indicating features associated with increased risk of VC, and negative RLS factors range from -0.95 to -1.83 indicating features associated with reduced risk of VC.Conclusion: The RLS model identified 17 features including novel biomarkers and traditional risk factors that together concomitantly associated with medial VC. These results may inform further investigations of factors promoting VC in CKD5 patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we have reported sodium tartrate (ST) and Zn2+ as the potential mixed corrosion inhibitors for copper corrosion in drinking water, by using electrochemical impedance and polarization techniques. The results of potentio-dynamic polarization indicated that sodium tartrate could be used as mixed type inhibitor with Zn2+. ST was found to be 92% effective for slowing down both the anodic and cathodic reaction rates. It was additionally found that ST could coat the surface of copper to prevent it from conducting electricity. As the inhibitor concentration increased, the stability of the formed protective layer was also improved. The results obtained from studies like SEM, EDAX, AFM, and water contact angle clearly indicated the development of a barrier by inducing the lotus effect on copper surface. The water contact angle measurement results suggested that the coating formed in the presence of inhibitor was superhydrophobic, and the surface was homogeneous.

In this work, the mixture of trisodium cittrate and Zn2+ was used as binary (hetero type) inhibitor for corrosion inhibition of copper metal in potable water. The binary inhibitor system (Zn2+ and trisodium citrate) was used to form hydrophobic surfaces on copper submerged in potable water. Water contact angle (WCA) was found to be 155°4° when the inhibitor was present, whereas it was 84°2° when there was no inhibitor. These observations suggested the development of superhydrophobic layer on the surface of copper in drinkable water. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS – AC mode), and potentiodynamic polarization (DC mode) experiments conveyed that the copper surface could be protected by utilizing the mixture of trisodium citrate and Zn2+ in potable water. The morphological studies including SEM (coupled with EDX), AFM, and WCA were evidenced the formulation of a hetero-type inhibitor for the corrosion inhibition of copper in potable water. In this study, the decline in the double-layer capacitance and the rise in the charge transfer resistance were due to the adsorption of inhibitor confirming the development of protective layer, which EIS, SEM, EDX, AFM, and WCA studies also supported. Thus, there was a synergism observed between TSC and Zn2+, and the formulation consisting of TSC and Zn2+ provided 83% of inhibition efficiency (IEp). So, it was suggested that the approach reported in this study could be a simple method for obtaining the superhydrophobic copper surface.

A double-blind, prospective study was designed to determine whether consumption of 39 g/d of isolated soy protein or casein (control) would influence colonic cell proliferation patterns. Twenty-nine subjects (19 men and 10 women) consumed soy, and 13 subjects (9 men and 4 women) consumed casein supplements for 1 y. All subjects had a history of adenomatous polyps or colon cancer. Average age was 59 y (range 37-70 y). Compliance for soy consumption was excellent ([is greater than] 92%) as indicated by isoflavone excretion in bimonthly, random urine specimens. There were no adverse changes in blood or urine chemistry values associated with soy or casein consumption. This study used cell proliferation patterns in colonic mucosa as surrogate biomarkers to indicate cancer risk. Subjects at increased risk of developing colon cancer have altered cell proliferation patterns in the colonic mucosa. Increased frequency of cell proliferation in the upper 40% of the crypt indicates delayed or reduced differentiation and increased risk for developing colon cancer. Also, there is a tendency for an increased mitotic index throughout the crypt for individuals predisposed to colon cancer. Proliferation zones and mitotic indices were measured by immunohistochemical detection of proliferative nuclear antigen (PCNA) in colon biopsies obtained before and after supplementation. There was a significant reduction in mitotic index (P = 0.02) and proliferation zone (P = 0.06) in subjects who consumed the soy supplement. The labeling index and proliferation zone were unchanged (P [is greater than] 0.95) for subjects who consumed casein. Because the presence of PCNA indicates that a cell is capable of division, lack of PCNA implies that the cell has terminally differentiated. These results suggest that it is feasible to eat enough soy to enhance cell differentiation in colon mucosa and thereby reduce risk of colon cancer in an at-risk population. [Protein Technologies International, Inc. provided the soy protein isolate (Supro) and casein supplements.]

Advances in spatial proteomics and protein colocalization are a driving force in the understanding of cellular mechanisms and their influence on biological processes. New methods in the field of spatial proteomics call for the development of algorithms and open up new avenues of research. The newly introduced Molecular Pixelation (MPX) provides spatial information on surface proteins and their relationship with each other in single cells. This allows for in silico representation of neighborhoods of membrane proteins as graphs. In order to analyze this new data modality, we adapted local assortativity in networks of MPX single-cell graphs and created a method that is able to capture detailed information on the spatial relationships of proteins. The introduced method can evaluate the pairwise colocalization of proteins and access higher-order similarity to investigate the colocalization of multiple proteins at the same time. We evaluated the method using publicly available MPX datasets where T cells were treated with a chemokine to study uropod formation. We demonstrate that adjusted local assortativity detects the effects of the stimuli at both single- and multiple-marker levels, which enhances our understanding of the uropod formation. We also applied our method to treating cancerous B-cell lines using a therapeutic antibody. With the adjusted local assortativity, we recapitulated the effect of rituximab on the polarity of CD20. Our computational method together with MPX improves our understanding of not only the formation of cell polarity and protein colocalization under stimuli but also advancing the overall insight into immune reaction and reorganization of cell surface proteins, which in turn allows the design of novel therapies. We foresee its applicability to other types of biological spatial data when represented as undirected graphs., Competing Interests: All authors are current or past employees of Pixelgen Technologies AB commercializing products based on Molecular Pixelation., (Copyright © 2024 Rhomberg-Kauert, Karlsson, Thiagarajan, Kallas, Karlsson, Fredriksson, Dahlberg and Martinez Barrio.)

The spatial distribution of cell surface proteins governs vital processes of the immune system such as intercellular communication and mobility. However, fluorescence microscopy has limited scalability in the multiplexing and throughput needed to drive spatial proteomics discoveries at subcellular level. We present Molecular Pixelation (MPX), an optics-free, DNA sequence-based method for spatial proteomics of single cells using antibody-oligonucleotide conjugates (AOCs) and DNA-based, nanometer-sized molecular pixels. The relative locations of AOCs are inferred by sequentially associating them into local neighborhoods using the sequence-unique DNA pixels, forming >1,000 spatially connected zones per cell in 3D. For each single cell, DNA-sequencing reads are computationally arranged into spatial proteomics networks for 76 proteins. By studying immune cell dynamics using spatial statistics on graph representations of the data, we identify known and new patterns of spatial organization of proteins on chemokine-stimulated T cells, highlighting the potential of MPX in defining cell states by the spatial arrangement of proteins., (© 2024. The Author(s).)