Fully Integrated Point-of-Care Platform for the Self-Monitoring of Phenylalanine in Finger-Prick Blood

Development of point-of-care platforms combining reliability and ease of use is a challenge for the evolution of sensing in healthcare technologies. Here, we report the development and testing of a fully integrated enzymatic colorimetric assay for the sensing of phenylalanine in blood samples from phenylketonuria patients. The platform works with a customized mobile app for data acquisition and visualization and comprises an electronic system and a disposable sensor. The sensing approach is based on specific enzymatic phenylalanine recognition, and the optical transduction method is based on in situ gold nanostructure formation. The phenylketonuria (PKU) smart sensor platform is conceived to perform self-monitoring on phenylalanine levels and real-time therapy tuning, thanks to the direct connection with clinicians. Validation of the technologies with a population of patients affected by PKU, together with the concurrent validation of the platform through centralized laboratories, has confirmed the good analytical performances in terms of sensitivity and specificity, robustness, and utility for phenylalanine sensing. The self-monitoring of phenylalanine for the daily identification of abnormal health conditions could facilitate rapid therapy tuning, improving the wellness of PKU patients.

Mixed β-γ-Cyclodextrin Branched Polymer with Multiple Photo-Chemotherapeutic Cargos

The achievement of biocompatible platforms for multimodal therapies is one of the major challenges in the burgeoning field of nanomedicine. Here, we report on a mixed β- and γ-cyclodextrin-based branched polymeric material (βγCD-NOPD) covalently integrating a nitric oxide (NO) photodonor (NOPD) within its macromolecular scaffold, and its supramolecular ensemble with a singlet oxygen (1O2) photosensitizer (PS) Zn(II) phthalocyanine (ZnPc) and the chemodrug Lenvatinib (LVB). This polymer is highly water-soluble and generates NO under visible blue light stimuli with an efficiency of more than 1 order of magnitude higher than that of the single NOPD. The PS, which in an aqueous solution is aggregated and non-photoresponsive, can be entangled in the polymeric network as a photoresponsive monomeric species. In addition, the poorly water-soluble LVB can be co-encapsulated within the polymeric host, which increases the drug solubility by more than 30-fold compared to the free drug and more than 2-fold compared with a similar branched polymer containing only βCD units. The supramolecular nanoensemble, ca. 15 nm in diameter, retains well the photochemical properties of both the NOPD and PS, which can operate in parallel under light stimuli of different energies. Irradiation with blue and red light results in the photogeneration of NO and 1O2 associated with red fluorescence emission, without inducing any photodegradation of LVB. This result is not trivial and is due to the absence of significant, mutual interactions between the NOPD, the PS and LVB both in the ground and excited states, despite these components are confined in the same host. The proposed polymeric nanoplatform may represent a potential trimodal nanomedicine for biomedical research studies, since it combines the double photodynamic action of NO and 1O2, two species that do not suffer multidrug resistance, with the therapeutic activity of a conventional chemodrug.

Flax-Glass Fiber Reinforced Hybrid Composites Exposed to a Salt-Fog/Dry Cycle: A Simplified Approach to Predict Their Performance Recovery

Despite natural fibers gaining significant attention in recent decades, their limited performance and poor durability under humid environments cannot allow them to fully replace their synthetic counterparts as reinforcement for structural composites. In such a context, this paper aims to investigate how exposure to a humid/dry cycle affects the mechanical response of epoxy laminates reinforced with flax and glass fibers. In particular, the main goal is to assess the performance evolution of a glass-flax hybridized stacking sequence in comparison with the full glass and flax fiber reinforced composites. To this end, the investigated composites were first exposed to salt-fog for 15 or 30 days and then to dry conditions (i.e., 50% R.H. and 23 °C) for up to 21 days. The presence of glass fibers in the stacking sequence significantly stabilizes the mechanical performance of composites during the humid/dry cycle. Indeed, hybridization of inner flax laminae with outer glass ones, acting as a protective shield, hinders the composite degradation due to the humid phase also promoting performance recovery during the dry phase. Hence, this work showed that a tailored hybridization of natural fibers with glass fibers represents a suitable approach to extend the service-life of natural fiber reinforced composites exposed to discontinuous humid conditions, thus allowing their employment in practical indoor and outdoor applications. Finally, a simplified theoretical pseudo-second-order model that aimed to forecast the performance recovery shown by composites was proposed and experimentally validated, highlighting good agreement with the experimental data.

Forecasting Individual Patients' Best Time for Surgery in Colon-Rectal Cancer by Tumor Regression during and after Neoadjuvant Radiochemotherapy

The standard treatment of locally advanced rectal cancer is neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy before surgery. For those patients experiencing a complete clinical response after the treatment, a watch-and-wait strategy with close monitoring may be practicable. In this respect, the identification of biomarkers of the response to therapy is extremely important. Many mathematical models have been developed or used to describe tumor growth, such as Gompertz's Law and the Logistic Law. Here we show that the parameters of those macroscopic growth laws, obtained by fitting the tumor evolution during and immediately after therapy, are a useful tool for evaluating the best time for surgery in this type of cancer. A limited number of experimental observations of the tumor volume regression, during and after the neoadjuvant doses, permits a reliable evaluation of a specific patient response (partial or complete recovery) for a later time, and one can evaluate a modification of the scheduled treatment, following a watch-and-wait approach or an early or late surgery. Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy effects can be quantitatively described by applying Gompertz's Law and the Logistic Law to estimate tumor growth by monitoring patients at regular intervals. We show a quantitative difference in macroscopic parameters between partial and complete response patients, reliable for estimating the treatment effects and best time for surgery.

Oligomeric State and Holding Activity of Hsp60

Similar to its bacterial homolog GroEL, Hsp60 in oligomeric conformation is known to work as a folding machine, with the assistance of co-chaperonin Hsp10 and ATP. However, recent results have evidenced that Hsp60 can stabilize aggregation-prone molecules in the absence of Hsp10 and ATP by a different, "holding-like" mechanism. Here, we investigated the relationship between the oligomeric conformation of Hsp60 and its ability to inhibit fibrillization of the Ab40 peptide. The monomeric or tetradecameric form of the protein was isolated, and its effect on beta-amyloid aggregation was separately tested. The structural stability of the two forms of Hsp60 was also investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), light scattering, and circular dichroism. The results showed that the protein in monomeric form is less stable, but more effective against amyloid fibrillization. This greater functionality is attributed to the disordered nature of the domains involved in subunit contacts.

MBS: a genome browser annotation track for high-confident microRNA binding sites in whole human transcriptome

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding ribonucleic acids (RNAs) that play a role in many regulatory pathways in eukaryotes. They usually exert their functions by binding mature messenger RNAs. The prediction of the binding targets of the endogenous miRNAs is crucial to unravel the processes they are involved in. In this work, we performed an extensive miRNA binding sites (MBS) prediction over all the annotated transcript sequences and made them available through an UCSC track. MBS annotation track allows to study and visualize the human miRNA binding sites transcriptome-wide in a genome browser, together with any other available information the user is interested in. In the creation of the database that underlies the MBS track, three consolidated algorithms of miRNA binding prediction have been used: PITA, miRanda and TargetScan, and information about the binding sites predicted by all of them has been collected. MBS track displays high-confident miRNA binding sites for the whole length of each human transcript, both coding and non-coding ones. Each annotation can redirect to a web page with the details of the miRNA binding and the involved transcripts. MBS can be easily applied to retrieve specific information such as the effects of alternative splicing on miRNA binding or when a specific miRNA binds an exon-exon junction in the mature RNA. Overall, MBS will be of great help for studying and visualizing, in a user-friendly mode, the predicted miRNA binding sites on all the transcripts arising from a gene or a region of interest. Database URL https://datasharingada.fondazionerimed.com:8080/MBS.

Detection of anomalies in cycling behavior with convolutional neural network and deep learning

Background

Cycling has always been considered a sustainable and healthy mode of transport. With the increasing concerns of greenhouse gases and pollution, policy makers are intended to support cycling as commuter mode of transport. Moreover, during Covid-19 period, cycling was further appreciated by citizens as an individual opportunity of mobility. Unfortunately, bicyclist safety has become a challenge with growing number of bicyclists in the 21st century. When compared to the traditional road safety network screening, availability of suitable data for bicycle based crashes is more difficult. In such framework, new technologies based smart cities may require new opportunities of data collection and analysis.

Methods

This research presents bicycle data requirements and treatment to get suitable information by using GPS device. Mainly, this paper proposed a deep learning-based approach "BeST-DAD" to detect anomalies and spot dangerous points on map for bicyclist to avoid a critical safety event (CSE). BeST-DAD follows Convolutional Neural Network and Autoencoder (AE) for anomaly detection. Proposed model optimization is carried out by testing different data features and BeST-DAD parameter settings, while another comparison performance is carried out between BeST-DAD and Principal Component Analysis (PCA).

Result

BeST-DAD over perform than traditional PCA statistical approaches for anomaly detection by achieving 77% of the F-score. When the trained model is tested with data from different users, 100% recall is recorded for individual user's trained models.

Conclusion

The research results support the notion that proper GPS trajectory data and deep learning classification can be applied to identify anomalies in cycling behavior.

The nerve growth factor-delivered signals in prostate cancer and its associated microenvironment: when the dialogue replaces the monologue

Prostate cancer (PC) represents the most diagnosed and the second most lethal cancer in men worldwide. Its development and progression occur in concert with alterations in the surrounding tumor microenvironment (TME), made up of stromal cells and extracellular matrix (ECM) that dynamically interact with epithelial PC cells affecting their growth and invasiveness. PC cells, in turn, can functionally sculpt the TME through the secretion of various factors, including neurotrophins. Among them, the nerve growth factor (NGF) that is released by both epithelial PC cells and carcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) triggers the activation of various intracellular signaling cascades, thereby promoting the acquisition of a metastatic phenotype. After many years of investigation, it is indeed well established that aberrations and/or derangement of NGF signaling are involved not only in neurological disorders, but also in the pathogenesis of human proliferative diseases, including PC. Another key feature of cancer progression is the nerve outgrowth in TME and the concept of nerve dependence related to perineural invasion is currently emerging. NGF released by cancer cells can be a driver of tumor neurogenesis and nerves infiltrated in TME release neurotransmitters, which might stimulate the growth and sustainment of tumor cells.In this review, we aim to provide a snapshot of NGF action in the interactions between TME, nerves and PC cells. Understanding the molecular basis of this dialogue might expand the arsenal of therapeutic strategies against this widespread disease.

NETME: on-the-fly knowledge network construction from biomedical literature

BACKGROUND

The rapidly increasing biological literature is a key resource to automatically extract and gain knowledge concerning biological elements and their relations. Knowledge Networks are helpful tools in the context of biological knowledge discovery and modeling.

RESULTS

We introduce a novel system called NETME, which, starting from a set of full-texts obtained from PubMed, through an easy-to-use web interface, interactively extracts biological elements from ontological databases and then synthesizes a network inferring relations among such elements. The results clearly show that our tool is capable of inferring comprehensive and reliable biological networks.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41109-021-00435-x.

Development of "Quadrello di Ovino", a Novel Fresh Ewe's Cheese

This work was performed to produce a new soft ewe's milk cheese, namely "Quadrello di ovino" (QdO) cheese, to enlarge ewe's dairy product portfolio of South Italy, barely limited to Pecorino cheese typology. Cheese making was performed applying the technology for "Crescenza" cheese typology with some modifications. In particular, pasteurized ewes' milk was inoculated with two commercial starter formulations (SF1 and SF2) of Streptococcus thermophilus to obtain two different productions (QdO-P1 and QdO-P2, respectively). Plate counts demonstrated the ability of both starter formulations to drive the fermentation process, since S. thermophilus counts reached 109 CFU/g in both productions. Generally, the two starter formulations did not affect the chemical composition of QdO cheeses that contained, on average, 64.08% dry matter of which approximately 54.99% were fats and 36.39% proteins. Among chemical parameters, significant differences were registered for secondary lipid oxidation state (significantly lower for QdO-P2), fatty acids and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). However, the differences registered among cheese VOCs from were not perceived by the panelists who recognized both cheese productions highly similar, although QdO-P2 cheeses were mostly appreciated by the judges. This study allowed to produce a novel fresh ovine cheese with specific chemical and sensorial characteristics well appreciated by consumers.

Is It Possible to Produce Certified Hazelnut Plant Material in Sicily? Identification and Recovery of Nebrodi Genetic Resources, in vitro Establishment, and Innovative Sanitation Technique From Apple Mosaic Virus

Eight Sicilian cultivars of hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.), namely-Curcia, Nociara Collica, Panottara Collica, Panottara Galati Grande, Parrinara, Panottara Baratta Piccola, Enzo, and Rossa Galvagno, registered into the Italian Cultivar Register of fruit tree species in 2017 were selected from Nebrodi area and established in vitro. The aim of the work was to carry out the sanitation of the cultivars and get virus-free plants from the most important viral pathogen threat, the apple mosaic virus. Virus-free plant material is essential for the production of certified plants from Sicilian hazelnut cultivars, complying the CE (cat. CAC) quality and the technical standards established in 2017 for voluntary certification by the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies (MIPAAF). In this study, we investigated the possibility of establishing in vitro true-to-type and virus-free hazelnut plantlets via the encapsulation technology of apexes. The in vitro shoot proliferation rates were assessed for the different cultivars, sampling periods, temperature treatments, and type of explant used for culture initiation. Viability, regrowth, and conversion rates of both conventional meristem tip culture (MTC) and not conventional (MTC combined with the encapsulation technology) sanitation techniques were evaluated.

Co-Loading of Temozolomide and Curcumin into a Calix[4]arene-Based Nanocontainer for Potential Combined Chemotherapy: Binding Features, Enhanced Drug Solubility and Stability in Aqueous Medium

The co-delivery of anticancer drugs into tumor cells by a nanocarrier may provide a new paradigm in chemotherapy. Temozolomide and curcumin are anticancer drugs with a synergistic effect in the treatment of multiform glioblastoma. In this study, the entrapment and co-entrapment of temozolomide and curcumin in a p-sulfonato-calix[4]arene nanoparticle was investigated by NMR spectroscopy, UV-vis spectrophotometry, isothermal titration calorimetry, and dynamic light scattering. Critical micellar concentration, nanoparticle size, zeta potential, drug loading percentage, and thermodynamic parameters were all consistent with a drug delivery system. Our data showed that temozolomide is hosted in the cavity of the calix[4]arene building blocks while curcumin is entrapped within the nanoparticle. Isothermal titration calorimetry evidenced that drug complexation and entrapment are entropy driven processes. The loading in the calixarene-based nanocontainer enhanced the solubility and half-life of both drugs, whose medicinal efficacy is affected by low solubility and rapid degradation. The calixarene-based nanocontainer appears to be a promising new candidate for nanocarrier-based drug combination therapy for glioblastoma.

Light Scattering as an Easy Tool to Measure Vesicles Weight Concentration

Over the last few decades, liposomes have emerged as promising drug delivery systems and effective membrane models for studying biophysical and biological processes. For all applications, knowing their concentration after preparation is crucial. Thus, the development of methods for easily controlling vesicles concentration would be of great utility. A new assay is presented here, based on a suitable analysis of light scattering intensity from liposome dispersions. The method, tested for extrusion preparations, is precise, easy, fast, non-destructive and uses a tiny amount of sample. Furthermore, the scattering intensity can be measured indifferently at different angles, or even by using the elastic band obtained from a standard spectrofluorimeter. To validate the method, the measured concentrations of vesicles of different matrix compositions and sizes, measured by light scattering with different angles and instruments, were compared to the data obtained by the standard Stewart assay. Consistent results were obtained. The light scattering assay is based on the assessment of the mass fraction lost in the preparation, and can be applied for methods such as extrusion, homogenization, French press and other microfluidic procedures.