polymers and gene transfer

RNA interference can be applied to different target genes for treating a variety of diseases, but an appropriate delivery system is necessary to ensure the transport of intact siRNAs to the site of action. In this study, cellulose was dually modified to create a non-viral vector for HDAC3 short interfering RNA (siRNA) transfer into cells. A guanidinium group introduced positive charges into the cellulose to allow complexation of negatively charged genetic material. Furthermore, a biotin group fixed by a polyethylene glycol (PEG) spacer was attached to the polymer to allow, if required, the binding of targeting ligands...

Soil arsenic (As) phytoremediation has long faced the challenge of efficiently absorbing As by plant accumulators while maintaining their health and fast growth. Even at low doses, arsenic is highly toxic to plants. Therefore, plant growth-promoting microorganisms that can mediate As accumulation in plants are of great interest. In this study, the endophyte Enterobacter sp. YG-14 (YG-14) was found to have soil mobilization activity. By constructing a siderophore synthesis gene deletion mutant (ΔentD) of YG-14, the endophyte was confirmed to effectively mobilize Fe-As complexes in mining soil by secreting enterobactin, releasing bioavailable Fe and As to the rhizosphere...

A surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization method combining click chemistry was employed to prepare a novel porphyrin-based covalent organic framework composite grafted with polymer brushes (TAPBB@GMA@AMA@Cys) for the specific enrichment of N-glycopeptides. The material successfully realized the high efficiency enrichment of N-glycopeptides with good selectivity (1:1000), low detection limit (0.2 fmol/μL), and high loading capacity (133.3 mg·g-1 ). The TAPBB@GMA@AMA@Cys was successfully applied to actual sample analysis; 235 N-glycopeptides related to 125 glycoproteins and 210 N-glycopeptides related to 121 glycoproteins were recognized from the serum of normal individuals and Alzheimer's disease patients, respectively...

Graphene oxide (GO) is an oxidized form of graphene accommodating various oxygen-containing functional groups such as hydroxyl, epoxy, and carboxyl groups on its surface. GO has been extensively utilized in various biomedical applications including the delivery of biomolecules and the development of biosensors owing to its beneficial properties such as high surface area, nucleic acid adsorption, and fluorescence quenching through fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). However, despite these favorable properties, the direct utilization of GO in these applications is often limited by low dispersibility in a physiological medium, cytotoxicity, low biocompatibility, and a strong binding affinity of nucleic acids to GO surface...

Florfenicol (FF) raises significant human health and environmental concerns due to its toxicity to the hematology system and the potential spread of antibiotic-resistant genes. Here, a highly sensitive molecularly imprinted photoelectrochemical (PEC) sensor, featuring an In2 O3 /Bi2 S3 S-scheme heterojunction, is proposed to detect FF without an external voltage supply. Compared with conventional II-type heterojunctions, S-scheme heterojunctions efficiently promote carrier separation and enhance the redox capability of the photocatalytic system...

The transfer of regulatory information between distal loci on chromatin is thought to involve physical proximity, but key biophysical features of these contacts remain unclear. For instance, it is unknown how close and for how long two loci need to be in order to productively interact. The main challenge is that it is currently impossible to measure chromatin dynamics with high spatiotemporal resolution at scale. Polymer simulations provide an accessible and rigorous way to test biophysical models of chromatin regulation, yet there is a lack of simple and general methods for extracting the values of model parameters...

Horizontal transfer of F-like plasmids by bacterial conjugation is responsible for disseminating antibiotic resistance and virulence determinants among pathogenic Enterobacteriaceae species, a growing health concern worldwide. Central to this process is the conjugative F pilus, a long extracellular filamentous polymer that extends from the surface of plasmid donor cells, allowing it to probe the environment and make contact with the recipient cell. It is well established that the F pilus can retract to bring mating pair cells in tight contact before DNA transfer...

Based on the efficiency of the catalytic ozonation techniques (HDWS+O3 and MnFe2 O4 @SBC+O3 ) in enhancing the sludge dewaterability, the effectiveness in synchronized abatement antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) was conducted to determine. The results revealed that catalytic ozonation conditioning altered the distribution of target antibiotics (tetracycline (TC), oxytetracycline (OTC), norfloxacin (NOR), ofloxacin (OFL)) in the dewatered filtrate, the dewatered sludge cake and the extra-microcolony/cellular polymers (EMPS/ECPS) layers, achieving the redistribution from solid-phase adsorption to liquid-phase dissolution...

Current regenerative medicine tactics focus on regenerating tissue structures pathologically modified by cell transplantation in combination with supporting scaffolds and biomolecules. Natural and synthetic polymers, bioresorbable inorganic and hybrid materials, and tissue decellularized were deemed biomaterials scaffolding because of their improved structural, mechanical, and biological abilities.Various biomaterials, existing treatment methodologies and emerging technologies in the field of Three-dimensional (3D) and hydrogel processing, and the unique fabric concerns for tissue engineering...

Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines have evolved as promising cancer therapies. These vaccines can be discovered to encode tumor-allied antigens, thus enabling personalized treatment approaches. They can also target cancer-specific mutations and overcome immune evasion mechanisms. They manipulate the body's cellular function to produce antigens, elicit immune responses, and suppress tumors by overcoming limitations associated with specific HLA molecules. However, successfully delivering mRNA into target cells ruins a crucial challenge...

Aerobic denitrification is the key process in the elimination of nitrogen from aquaculture wastewater, especially for wastewater with high dissolved oxygen and low carbon/nitrogen (C/N) ratio. However, a low C/N ratio, especially in low-temperature environments, restricts the activity of aerobic denitrifiers and decreases the nitrogen elimination efficiency. In this study, an iron-based multi-solid carbon source composite that immobilized aerobic denitrifying bacteria ZS1 (IMCSCP) was synthesized to treat aerobic (DO > 5 mg/L), low temperature (<15 °C) and low C/N ratio (C/N = 4) aquaculture wastewater...

The increased global cultivation area of genetically modified (GM) crops has caused severe controversies over potential health and environmental risks worldwide. There is an urgent need to verify even trace amount of a particular GM material in products. Herein, a two primers-induced cascade exponential amplification reaction combined with cationic conjugated polymers (CCPs)-based visual detection method is developed for rapid and ultrasensitive detection of GM crops. This method only uses two primers to specifically recognize the four regions of the target gene, which is easier for primer design and probably more suitable for the detection of shorter targets...

Hydrogen (H2 ) is the primary electron donor for methane formation in ruminants, but the H2 -producing organisms involved are largely uncharacterized. This work integrated studies of microbial physiology and genomics to characterize rumen bacterial isolate NK3A20 of the family Lachnospiraceae . Isolate NK3A20 was the first recognized isolate of the NK3A20 group, which is among the ten most abundant bacterial genera in 16S rRNA gene surveys of rumen microbiota. NK3A20 produced acetate, butyrate, H2 , and formate from glucose...

Tremendous efforts have been made to improve polymeric property in gene delivery performances, especially when obstacle of transferring gene construct into difficult-to-transfect cells occurs. Innovations in the area of fluorination and fluorinated compounds with biomedical potential in medicinal chemistry are believed to assist in the development of new therapeutics. Fluorine modified polymers have shown to navigate the gene transfection cellular barriers and promoted the transfection outcomes. Gene transfer into some liver cancer cells and human leukemia cells has always been a challenge...

Here, a hybrid scaffold of polyvinyl alcohol/sodium alginate (PVA/SA) was used to prepare solid carbon sources (SCSs) for treating low carbon/nitrogen wastewater. The four SCSs were divided into two groups, biodegradable polymers group (including polyvinyl alcohol-sodium alginate (PS) and PS-PHBV (PP), and blended SCSs (PS-PHBV-wood chips (PPW) and PS-PHBV-wheat straw (PPS). After the leaching experiments, no changes occurred in elemental composition and functional groups of the SCSs, and the released dissolved organic matter showed a lower degree of humification and higher content of labile molecules in the blended SCSs groups using EEM and FT-ICR-MS...

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and microplastics (MPs) are recognized as emerging contaminants and threats to global human health. Despite both of them being significantly detected in their "hotspots", i.e., waste activated sludge (WAS), rare studies on how MPs affect ARGs and antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) in anaerobic sludge digestion are available. Herein, the fate of ARGs and ARB after exposure to MPs of three dosages (10, 30, and 80 particles/g-TS), three polymer types (LDPE, PET, and PS), and three branching extents (LDPE, LLDPE, and HDPE) in anaerobic sludge digestion was investigated...

The human polysialyltransferases ST8Sia II and ST8Sia IV catalyze the transfer of several Neu5Ac residues onto glycoproteins forming homopolymers with essential roles during different physiological processes. In salmonids, heterogeneous set of sialic acids polymers have been described in ovary and on eggs cell surface and three genes st8sia4, st8sia2-r1 and st8sia2-r2 were identified that could be implicated in these heteropolymers. The three polysialyltransferases from the salmonid Coregonus maraena were cloned, recombinantly expressed in HEK293 cells and the ST8Sia IV was biochemically characterized...

The bacterial cell envelope is the structure with which the bacterium both engages with, and is protected from, its environment. Within this envelop is a conserved peptidoglycan polymer which confers shape and strength to the cell envelop. The enzymatic processes that build, remodel, and recycle the chemical components of this cross-linked polymer are preeminent targets of antibiotics, and exploratory targets for emerging antibiotic structures. We report a comprehensive kinetic and structural analysis for one such enzyme, the Pseudomonas aeruginosa anhydro-N-acetylmuramic acid (anhNAM) kinase (AnmK)...

In situ monitoring multidrug release in complex cellular microenvironments is significant, and currently, it is still a great challenge. In this work, a smart nanocarrier with the capability of codelivery of small molecules and gene materials as well as with Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-modulated fluorescence lifetime is fabricated by integrating gold nanoparticles (the acceptor) into dual-mesoporous silica loaded with multiple drugs (the donor). Once internalized into tumor cells, in weakly acidic environments, the conformation switch of the polymer grafted on nanocarriers causes its shedding from the mesopores, triggering the release of drugs...

Considering nucleic acids as the language of life and the genome as the instruction manual of cells, their targeted modulation promises great opportunities in treating and healing diseases. In addition to viral gene transfer, the overwhelming power of non-viral mRNA-based vaccines is driving the development of novel gene transporters. Thereby, various nucleic acids such as DNA (pDNA) or RNA (mRNA, siRNA, miRNA, gRNA, or ASOs) need to be delivered, requiring a transporter due to their high molar mass and negative charge in contrast to classical agents...