Therapeutic effects of melittin on paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathic pain and spinal neuronal hyperactivity in male rats.

Introduction: As a taxane-based cytostatic agent, paclitaxel holds a broad spectrum of life-saving properties. However, its use is frequently limited by painful neuropathy in the extremities, which severely hinders the ultimate prognosis of cancer survivors. While bee venom therapy has shown promise in alleviating chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain, the analgesic potential of its primary bioactive components, such as melittin and phospholipase A2 (bvPLA2), remains uncharacterized.

Sonoporation-enhanced the antibacterial efficacy of aminoglycosides against Gram-negative persisters.

Bacterial persisters pose a significant challenge to antibiotic therapy, often causing treatment failure and chronic infections. Improving antibiotic efficacy against persisters is thus clinically crucial. In this study, we developed a low-frequency and low-intensity ultrasound system (40 kHz, 0.

Identification and assessment of Pichia kudriavzevii YS711 isolated from "Jiangshui" with the capacity for uric acid metabolism.

Hyperuricemia, a prevalent metabolic disorder, necessitates novel therapeutic strategies. This study reports the isolation and characterization of Pichia kudriavzevii YS711, a novel strain isolated from the traditional Chinese fermented food "Jiangshui", exhibiting exceptional uric acid (UA) degradation capabilities. In vitro studies demonstrated that YS711 degraded 31.

Current diagnosing strategies for Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its drug resistance: a review.

Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), remains a major global health threat, compounded by the rise of extensively drug-resistant (XDR) and multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains. This review critically examines the current landscape of laboratory diagnostic methods for MTB, encompassing both established techniques and recent advancements. We explore the growth and genetic characteristics of MTB that underpin drug resistance development and detection.

Pressure-induced structural and dielectric changes in liquid water at room temperature.

Understanding the pressure-dependent dielectric properties of water is crucial for a wide range of scientific and practical applications. In this study, we employ a deep neural network trained on density functional theory data to investigate the dielectric properties of liquid water at room temperature across a pressure range of 0.1-1000 MPa.

Recent Advances in Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering for Pathogenic Bacteria Detection: A Review.

Bacterial infection is one of the common infectious diseases in clinical practice, and the research on efficient detection of bacteria has attracted much attention in recent years. Currently, the traditional detection methods of bacteria are mainly based on cell culturing, microscopic examination, and molecular biology techniques, all of which have the disadvantages of complex operation and time-consuming. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) technology has shown prominent advantages in bacterial detection and identification because of the merit of high-sensitivity, fast detection and unique molecular fingerprint spectrum.

Astrocytic GluN2A alleviates sleep deprivation-induced elevation of Aβ through regulating neprilysin and AQP4 via the calcineurin/NFAT pathway.

Sleep disorders can increase amyloid beta (Aβ) burden in the brain and are linked to Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk. The precise mechanism by which sleep disturbances elevate Aβ levels is unclear. Our previous study has demonstrated that knocking down encoding gene Grin2a of astrocytic N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors GluN2A subunit could aggravate sleep deprivation (SD)-induced elevation of Aβ, indicating a protective role of astrocytic GluN2A in SD; but the underlying mechanism needs to be further elucidated.

Activation of astrocytic NMDA receptors counteracted Aβ-induced reduction of BDNF and elevation of GFAP and complement 3 in the hippocampal astrocytes.

N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) play a crucial role in mediating Amyloid-β (Aβ) synaptotoxicity. Our previous studies have demonstrated an opposite (neuroprotection and neurotoxicity) effect of activating astrocytic and neuronal NMDARs with higher dose (10 μM) of NMDA, an agonist of NMDARs. By contrast, activating neuronal or astrocyitc NMDARs with lower dose (1 μM) of NMDA both exerts neuroprotective effect in Aβ-induced neurotoxicity.

Probing structural superlubricity of two-dimensional water transport with atomic resolution.

Low-dimensional water transport can be drastically enhanced under atomic-scale confinement. However, its microscopic origin is still under debate. In this work, we directly imaged the atomic structure and transport of two-dimensional water islands on graphene and hexagonal boron nitride surfaces using qPlus-based atomic force microscopy.

Micro-flow cell washing technique combined with single-cell Raman spectroscopy for rapid and automatic antimicrobial susceptibility test of pathogen in urine.

Facing the rapid spread of antimicrobial resistance, methods based on single-cell Raman spectroscopy have proven their advances in reducing the turn-around time (TAT) of antimicrobial susceptibility tests (AST). However, the Raman-based methods are still hindered by the prolonged centrifugal cell washing procedure, which may require complex labor operation and induce high mechanical stress, resulting in a pretreatment time of over 1 h as well as a high cell-loss probability. In this study, we developed a micro-flow cell washing device and corresponding Raman-compatible washing chips, which were able to automatically remove the impurities in the samples, retain the bacterial cell and perform Raman spectra acquisition in situ.

Imaging surface structure and premelting of ice Ih with atomic resolution.

Ice surfaces are closely relevant to many physical and chemical properties, such as melting, freezing, friction, gas uptake and atmospheric reaction. Despite extensive experimental and theoretical investigations, the exact atomic structures of ice interfaces remain elusive owing to the vulnerable hydrogen-bonding network and the complicated premelting process. Here we realize atomic-resolution imaging of the basal (0001) surface structure of hexagonal water ice (ice Ih) by using qPlus-based cryogenic atomic force microscopy with a carbon monoxide-functionalized tip.

Raman Flow Cytometry and Its Biomedical Applications.

Raman flow cytometry (RFC) uniquely integrates the "label-free" capability of Raman spectroscopy with the "high-throughput" attribute of traditional flow cytometry (FCM), offering exceptional performance in cell characterization and sorting. Unlike conventional FCM, RFC stands out for its elimination of the dependency on fluorescent labels, thereby reducing interference with the natural state of cells. Furthermore, it significantly enhances the detection information, providing a more comprehensive chemical fingerprint of cells.

Advances in miniature CRISPR-Cas proteins and their applications in gene editing.

The CRISPR-Cas system consists of Cas proteins and single-stranded RNAs that recruit Cas proteins and specifically target the nucleic acid. Some Cas proteins can accurately cleave the target nucleic acid under the guidance of the single-stranded RNAs. Due to its exceptionally high specificity, the CRISPR-Cas system is now widely used in various fields such as gene editing, transcription regulation, and molecular diagnosis.

Nanoscale one-dimensional close packing of interfacial alkali ions driven by water-mediated attraction.

The permeability and selectivity of biological and artificial ion channels correlate with the specific hydration structure of single ions. However, fundamental understanding of the effect of ion-ion interaction remains elusive. Here, via non-contact atomic force microscopy measurements, we demonstrate that hydrated alkali metal cations (Na and K) at charged surfaces could come into close contact with each other through partial dehydration and water rearrangement processes, forming one-dimensional chain structures.

Correlation analysis between Raman spectral signature and transcriptomic features of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae.

The Raman microspectroscopy technology has been successfully applied to evaluate the molecular composition of living cells for identifying cell types and states, but the rationale behind it was not well investigated. In this study, we acquired single-cell Raman spectra (SCRS) of three Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) strains with different Carbapenem resistant mechanisms and analyzed them with machine learning algorithm.

Mechanisms involved in the antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects of xanthotoxin.

Xanthotoxin (XAT) is a natural furanocoumarin clinically used in the treatment of skin diseases such as vitiligo and psoriasis. Recent studies have also investigated its effects on anti-inflammatory, anti-cognitive dysfunction, and anti-amnesia as a guideline for clinic application. However, little is known about its effects on pain relief.

Sleep deprivation aggravated amyloid β oligomers-induced damage to the cerebellum of rats: Evidence from magnetic resonance imaging.

For quite a long time, researches on Alzheimer's disease (AD) primarily focused on the cortex and hippocampus, while the cerebellum has been ignored because of its abnormalities considered to appear in the late stage of AD. In recent years, increasing evidence suggest that the cerebellar pathological changes possibly occur in the preclinical phase of AD, which is also associated with sleep disorder. Sleep disturbance is a high risk factor of AD.