Human proteins incorporated into tick-borne encephalitis virus revealed by in situ proximity ligation

The role of small extracellular vesicles in spreading and inhibiting arthropod-borne diseases

Arthropod-borne diseases (ABDs) refer to a group of viral pathogens that affect a wide range of vertebrate hosts, including humans and non-human primates. In addition to being transmitted by mosquitoes and ticks, arthropods can also spread pathogens that cause severe human diseases. On the other hand, extracellular vesicles (EVs) can serve as cross-placental drug delivery vehicles (DDVs) to the fetus and even as antigen-presenting cells (APCs). To this end, the current review aimed to examine the role of small EVs (sEVs) in the transmission and inhibition of arthropod-borne viruses, also known as arboviruses. First, a deeper understanding of the mechanistic aspects of how these vesicles function during insect-pathogen interactions is required. Next, scalability and yield optimization must be addressed while introducing EV-based therapeutics on an industrial scale in order to implement them effectively. Finally,it is recommended to consider that sEV-mediated transfer plays a crucial role in the spread of ABDs. This is because it transfers pathogenic agents between cells within vectors, resulting in subsequent transmission to hosts. Consequently, sEVs provide potential targets for the development of novel therapies that inhibit pathogen replication or reduce arthropod vector populations. Future research in this area should emphasize how these vesicles function within host-vector systems, using advanced imaging techniques - such as high-resolution microscopy (HRM) - and cost-effective methods, in order to produce sufficient quantities for large-scale implementation.

Recent advances in rolling circle amplification-based biosensing strategies-A review

Rolling circle amplification (RCA) is an efficient enzymatic isothermal reaction that using circular probe as a template to generate long tandem single-stranded DNA or RNA products under the initiation of short DNA or RNA primers. As a simplified derivative of natural rolling circle replication which synthesizes copies of circular nucleic acids molecules such as plasmids, RCA amplifies the circular template rapidly without thermal cycling and finds various applications in molecular biology. Compared with other amplification strategies, RCA has many obvious advantages. Firstly, because of the strict complementarity required in ligation of a padlock probe, it endows the RCA reaction with high specificity and can even be utilized to distinguish single base mismatches. Secondly, through the introduction of multiple primers, exponential amplification can be achieved easily and leads to a good sensitivity. Thirdly, RCA products can be customized by manipulating circular templates to generate functional nucleic acids such as aptamer, DNAzymes and restriction enzyme sites. Moreover, the RCA has good biocompatibility and is especially suitable for in situ detection. Therefore, RCA has attracted considerable attention as an efficient and potential tool for highly sensitive detection of biomarkers. Herein, we comprehensively introduce the fundamental principles of RCA technology, summarize it from three aspects including initiation mode, amplification mode and signal output mode, and discuss the recent application of RCA-based biosensor in this review.