Mimickers

Many living and artificial systems show similar emergent behavior and collective motions on different scales, starting from swarms of bacteria to synthetic active particles, herds of mammals, and crowds of people. What all these systems often have in common is that new collective properties like flocking emerge from interactions between individual self-propelled or driven units. Such systems are naturally out-of-equilibrium and propel at the expense of consumed energy. Mimicking nature by making self-propelled or externally driven particles and studying their individual and collective motility may allow for deeper understanding of physical underpinnings behind collective motion of large groups of interacting objects or beings...

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The development of a bio-sensing strategy based on CRISPR/Cas that is exceptionally sensitive is crucial for the identification of trace molecules. Colorimetric miRNA detection utilizing CRISPR/Cas13a-triggered DNAzyme signal amplification was described in this article. The developed strategy was implemented for miRNA-21 detection as a proof of concept. The cleavage activity of Cas13a was triggered when the target molecule bonded to the Cas13a-crRNA complex and cleaved uracil ribonucleotides (rU) in the substrate probe...

A novel dual-mode fluorometric and colorimetric sensing platform is reported for determining glutathione S-transferase (GST) by utilizing polyethyleneimine-capped silver nanoclusters (PEI-AgNCs) and cobalt-manganese oxide nanosheets (CoMn-ONSs) with oxidase-like activity. Abundant active oxygen species (O2 •- ) can be produced through the CoMn-ONSs interacting with dissolved oxygen. Afterward, the pink oxDPD was generated through the oxidation of colorless N,N-diethyl-p-phenylenediamine (DPD) by O2 •- , and two absorption peaks at 510 and 551 nm could be observed...

Probiotics are crucial components for maintaining a healthy gut microbiota in pigs, especially during the weaning period. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) derived from the gastrointestinal tract of wild boars can serve as an abundant source of beneficial probiotic strains with suitable properties for use in pig husbandry. In this study, we analyzed and characterized 15 strains of Limosilactobacillus mucosae obtained from the gut contents of wild boars to assess their safety and suitability as probiotic candidates...

X-linked nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (X-NDI) is a rare congenital disease caused by inactivating mutations of the vasopressin type-2 receptor (AVPR2), characterized by impaired renal concentrating ability, dramatic polyuria, polydipsia and risk of dehydration. The disease, which still lacks a cure, could benefit from the pharmacologic stimulation of other GPCRs, activating the cAMP-intracellular pathway in the kidney cells expressing the AVPR2. On the basis of our previous studies, we here hypothesized that the β3-adrenergic receptor could be such an ideal candidate...

PURPOSE: Aimed to investigate the role of multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mp-MRI) in the diagnosis of granulomatous prostatitis caused by intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG). METHODS: In this prospective, single-center study, 10 male patients who were given intravesical BCG due to intermediate- and high-risk bladder cancer were included. Before transurethral resection of bladder tumors (TURB), all patients were evaluated by mp-MRI, serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA), and digital rectal examination (DRE)...

Lipid rafts, which are dynamic nanodomains in the plasma membrane, play a crucial role in intermembrane processes by clustering together and growing in size within the plane of the membrane while also aligning with each other across different membranes. However, the physical origin of layer by layer alignment of lipid rafts remains to be elucidated. Here, by using fluorescence imaging and synchrotron X-ray reflectivity in a phase-separated multilayer system, we find that the alignment of raft-mimicking Lo domains is regulated by the distance between bilayers...

Clinical endocrinologists encounter in their practice patients with thyroid diseases on a daily basis. Still, diagnosis of rare structural thyroid disorders can be quite challenging. In some instances, they do not only impersonate but can also conceal, other conditions such as thyroid carcinomas. We describe a series of patients with structural thyroid disorders including 1) anaplastic thyroid carcinoma initially presenting with features of thyroid abscess; 2) unicentric hyaline vascular Castleman's disease of the thyroid embedded in a stroma of papillary thyroid carcinoma; and 3) primary thyroid lymphoma with a rapid and fulminant evolution...

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a rare, life-threatening hematological disorder of immune dysregulation associated with significant challenges in diagnosis and management. Described as primary HLH secondary to genetic defects or more commonly secondary to infections, it can also occur secondary to malignancy, i.e., malignancy-associated hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (M-HLH). A five-year-old male child presented with left cervical adenopathy and a high-spiking fever for two weeks. He had pallor, anasarca, multiple enlarged and matted cervical lymph nodes, respiratory distress, and hepatomegaly...

INTRODUCTION: Over the few last decades, dermoscopy has become an invaluable and popular imaging technique that complements the diagnostic armamentarium of dermatologists, being employed for both tumors and inflammatory diseases. Whereas distinction between neoplastic and inflammatory lesions is often straightforward based on clinical data, there are some scenarios that may be troublesome, e.g., solitary inflammatory lesions or tumors superimposed to a widespread inflammatory condition that may share macroscopic morphological findings...

OBJECTIVE: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI), which are prevalent conditions among post-9/11 veterans, increase risks of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD) and degenerative synucleinopathy. Rates and predictors of RBD symptoms were investigated by screening post-9/11 veterans for RBD with a validated questionnaire. METHODS: In this cross-sectional analysis, consecutive patients in the Houston Translational Research Center for TBI and Stress Disorders (TRACTS) were screened with the English translation of the RBD Questionnaire-Hong Kong (RBDQ-HK)...

PURPOSE: We examined magnetic field dependent SNR gains and ability to capture them with multichannel receive arrays for human head imaging in going from 7 T, the most commonly used ultrahigh magnetic field (UHF) platform at the present, to 10.5 T, which represents the emerging new frontier of >10 T in UHFs. METHODS: Electromagnetic (EM) models of 31-channel and 63-channel multichannel arrays built for 10.5 T were developed for 10...

BACKGROUND: Untargeted metabolomics and proteomics were employed to investigate the intracellular response of yak rumen epithelial cells (YRECs) to conditions mimicking subacute rumen acidosis (SARA) etiology, including exposure to short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), low pH5.5 (Acid), and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) exposure for 24 h. RESULTS: These treatments significantly altered the cellular morphology of YRECs. Metabolomic analysis identified significant perturbations with SCFA, Acid and LPS treatment affecting 259, 245 and 196 metabolites (VIP > 1, P < 0...

A double septin ring accompanies cytokinesis in yeasts and mammalian cells. In budding yeast, reorganisation of the septin collar at the bud neck into a dynamic double ring is essential for actomyosin ring constriction and cytokinesis. Septin reorganisation requires the Mitotic Exit Network (MEN), a kinase cascade essential for cytokinesis. However, the effectors of MEN in this process are unknown. Here we identify the F-BAR protein Hof1 as a critical target of MEN in septin remodelling. Phospho-mimicking HOF1 mutant alleles overcome the inability of MEN mutants to undergo septin reorganisation by decreasing Hof1 binding to septins and facilitating its translocation to the actomyosin ring...

Objective. We present the first fully two-dimensional attenuation imaging technique developed for pulse-echo ultrasound systems. Unlike state-of-the-art techniques, which use line-by-line acquisitions, our method uses steered emissions to constrain attenuation values at each location with multiple crossing wave paths, essential to resolve the spatial variations of this tissue property. Approach. At every location, we compute normalized cross-correlations between the beamformed images that are obtained from emissions at different steering angles...

Differentiated vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (d-VIN) is an HPV-independent precursor to vulvar squamous cell carcinoma. The histology of d-VIN lesions is difficult to differentiate from that of non-neoplastic epithelial disorders, especially lichen sclerosus (LS). The authors present a case of LS, where relying on histopathology alone could have led to misdiagnosis. The patient was a 17-year-old female patient with clinical features of vulvar dermatitis and LS for 2 years. She was counseled to apply clobetasol 0...

Organoids have emerged as robust tools for unravelling the mechanisms that underly tissue development. They also serve as important in vitro systems for studying fundamentals of stem cell behavior and for building advanced disease models. During early development, a crucial step in the formation of the central nervous system is patterning of the neural tube dorsal-ventral (DV) axis. Here we describe a simple and rapid culture protocol to produce human neuroepithelial (NE) cysts and DV-patterned organoids from single human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs)...

Mesothelin (MSLN) is a cell-surface protein that is expressed on many cancers, which makes it a popular target for antibody-based cancer therapy. However, MSLN is shed from cancer cells at high levels via proteases that cleave at its membrane-proximal C-terminal region. Shed MSLN accumulates in patient fluids and tumors and can block antibody-based MSLN-targeting drugs from killing cancer cells. A previously established monoclonal antibody (mAb), 15B6, binds MSLN at its protease-sensitive C-terminal region and does not bind shed MSLN...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a cause of chronic respiratory tract infections in people with cystic fibrosis (CF), non-CF bronchiectasis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Prolonged infection allows accumulation of mutations and horizontal gene transfer, increasing the likelihood of adaptive phenotypic traits. Adaptation is proposed to arise first in bacterial populations colonising upper airway environments. Here, we model this process using an experimental evolution approach. P. aeruginosa PAO1, which is not airway adapted, was serially passaged, separately, in media chemically reflective of upper or lower airway environments...