量子点在癌症研究中的应用

半导体量子点具有长时间、多目标和灵敏度高等独特的光化学性质,这些特性使量子点成为细胞标记和生物应用中得到了广泛的应用。利用量子点目标定位癌细胞,对于寻找癌变部位具有指导的作用。近年来,利用量子点作为光动力学治疗癌症的能量供体也得到了一定的研究。简单地介绍了量子点独特的光学性质,并从量子点标记癌细胞、可视化癌细胞表面功能和在光动力学治疗癌症等方面综述了量子点在癌症诊断和治疗中的应用。     

光谱技术在血液诊断学上的应用

光谱技术能够了解物质结构、物质成分和它们的含量,且分析灵敏度和精度极高.光谱技术不仅可以测定生物组织的光学特性参数,而且光谱本身含有组织分子的许多信息.本文主要介绍:利用光谱技术应用于血液诊断学上的原理;医学上对癌症、白血病等疾病的传统诊断方法及其不足之处;应用光谱技术在诊断学上研究的现状,包括利用血清荧光光谱进行癌症的诊断、利用光声光谱进行白血病的诊断以及利用吸收光谱测量血液中微量元素的含量来诊断疾病;讨论利用光谱技术进行诊断存在的问题并展望其在疾病诊断上的应用前景.     

偏振光成像技术用于肿瘤病变检测的研究进展

偏振光成像是一种非标记、无损伤检测技术,它与现有非偏振光学方法硬件兼容,但能提供更丰富的样品结构和光学信息,并且对亚波长微观结构变化十分敏感.最近,偏振光成像方法在生物医学,特别是肿瘤癌症检测领域显示出很好的应用前景.本文介绍了常用的偏振光散射成像方法,包括偏振差、偏振度、旋转线偏振成像、偏振显微、穆勒矩阵成像等,并展示这些偏振方法在生物医学领域,特别是癌症检测方面的最新研究进展.目前偏振差、偏振度等成像方法已被初步用于皮肤癌的诊断,而穆勒矩阵包含更为丰富的组织微观结构信息,因而具有更好的诊断应用前景.通过对穆勒矩阵进行分解、变换等处理,可获得具有明确物理意义的成像参数,并发展为针对不同应用的特异性方法.目前,随着新型光源、偏振器件和探测器的出现,特别是数据计算处理能力的急剧提升,偏振成像在数据解释和测量方法方面的研究快速发展,已经在生物医学领域显示出很好的应用前景.     

共振喇曼光谱技术在恶性肿瘤诊断中的应用

目的：探讨共振喇曼光谱技术用于早期恶性肿瘤诊断的研究。方法：利用氩离子激光作为线偏振光的特点,采集偏振荧光光谱,对荧光光谱的偏振态进行分析。利用不同荧光物质的荧光可能具有不同偏振态的特点减少其它荧光物质的荧光对光谱分析的影响。血清样品产生的荧光也具有确定的偏振性。对所检测病人血清经激光分析仪进行喇曼光谱技术分析,光谱数据经计算机软件处理,自动显示图谱和数据,并直接给出各项指标及诊断提示。本结果与细胞病理学结果进行了对照研究。结果：恶性肿瘤样本176例,检测出阳性病例141例,阳性符合率为80.1%;良性肿瘤样本52例,4例阳性,假阳性率为7.7%;正常体检样本248例,检测结果均为阴性。结论：喇曼光谱技术适用于肿瘤初筛、普查及早期诊断,有推广应用前途。     

共振喇曼光谱技术在恶性肿瘤诊断中的应用

目的:探讨共振喇曼光谱技术用于早期恶性肿瘤诊断的研究。方法:利用氩离子激光作为线偏振光的特点,采集偏振荧光光谱,对荧光光谱的偏振态进行分析。利用不同荧光物质的荧光可能具有不同偏振态的特点减少其它荧光物质的荧光对光谱分析的影响。血清样品产生的荧光也具有确定的偏振性。对所检测病人血清经激光分析仪进行喇曼光谱技术分析,光谱数据经计算机软件处理,自动显示图谱和数据,并直接给出各项指标及诊断提示。本结果与细胞病理学结果进行了对照研究。结果:恶性肿瘤样本176例,检测出阳性病例141例,阳性符合率为80.1%;良性肿瘤样本52例,4例阳性,假阳性率为7.7%;正常体检样本248例,检测结果均为阴性。结论:喇曼光谱技术适用于肿瘤初筛、普查及早期诊断,有推广应用前途。     

超短脉冲技术测量癌细胞荧光光谱与荧光寿命

研究用于癌症诊断与治疗的光敏剂血卟啉（hematoporphyrin derivative,HPD）的超快光动力学过程,采用超短脉冲激光光谱技术和皮秒时间相关单光子计数系统,测量经血卟啉培养的活体癌细胞与正常细胞的荧光光谱、荧光寿命特性及荧光峰值强度随时间变化曲线,并测量单一细胞内部不同位置的荧光寿命特性,观测到：癌细胞样品在645 nm处具有特有的光谱谱峰;癌细胞样品荧光寿命的快成分约150 ps慢成分约1200 ps,而正常细胞样品快成分约300 ps慢成分约2500 ps;癌细胞样品的荧光峰值强度经12小时衰减约10%,而正常细胞样品衰减约55%;在细胞内部荧光寿命300 ps的快成分十分显著,且中心部位血卟啉浓度最高.癌细胞与正常细胞的荧光光谱、荧光寿命特性及荧光峰值强度随时间变化曲线相差十分明显,反映了癌细胞与正常细胞对血卟啉亲和特性有显著的差异,测量结果确认了荧光光谱技术诊断与治疗癌症的可行性,并对发展超短脉冲激光光谱技术早期诊断与治疗癌症具有重要的指导意义和临床应用价值.     

组织模型偏振散射光谱特性研究

结合偏振门技术和米氏散射理论,建立了组织模型的偏振散射差分光谱理论模型.计算分析了粒子群的平均尺寸、相对折射率变化时后向偏振散射差分光谱的特征.结果表明,利用偏振门技术测量的差分光谱主要是来自表层粒子的光信号,偏振散射差分光谱对粒子平均尺寸及相对折射率的变化比较敏感,随着粒子平均尺寸的增加,光谱振荡频率将增加,而随着相对折射率的减小,光谱的振幅减小,且差分光强值减小.该方法对于早期癌症检测具有潜在应用意义.     

美将推出两种辨认癌细胞的新仪器

最近在美国物理学会会议上推出了两种新型医疗仪器。一种是不久将问世的“智能手术刀”,它能立即告诉医生切除的是癌细胞还是健康组织。另一种正在研制的“智能分光镜”,则是利用光来检测正在癌变细胞的细微变化,从而有助于癌症的早期诊断。     

近红外荧光染料IR-783在膀胱癌中的成像研究

目的:观察研究近红外荧光染料IR-783在膀胱癌中的特异性成像。方法:通过染料与膀胱癌细胞及正常细胞共孵育,观察近红外荧光染料IR-783是否能够实现膀胱癌细胞的选择性成像。利用细胞器示踪剂观察近红外荧光染料在膀胱癌细胞内的共定位;使用IR-783检测循环血液中及尿液中的膀胱癌细胞。结果:近红外荧光染料IR-783可被膀胱癌细胞选择性摄取。IR-783可选择性聚集在膜性细胞器如线粒体和溶酶体内,这种选择性聚集作用使IR-783可以保持较长的染色效果。近红外染料可以检测到血液或尿液极少量的膀胱癌细胞。结论:近红外荧光染料IR-783能够被膀胱癌细胞特异性吸收,可用于血液和尿液中膀胱肿瘤细胞的特异性诊断,具有重要的临床应用前景。     

基于纳米颗粒光学特性的癌症检测

这篇综述总结了一些基于纳米颗粒光学特性来检测癌症生物标志物和癌细胞的方法。利用纳米颗粒的癌症诊断技术正在逐渐替代传统技术。尽管仍存在一些缺点,但与传统方法相比,基于纳米颗粒的传感器在生物标记检测或癌细胞检测应用中还是有很多优势。这项先进的技术在即时癌症诊断中将非常有用,并且成本低廉,非常有希望成为人性化检测平台的一部分。     

A Unique Protease Cleavage Site Predicted in the Spike Protein of the Novel Pneumonia Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Potentially Related to Viral Transmissibility

正Dear Editor,In December 2019, a novel human coronavirus caused an epidemic of severe pneumonia(Coronavirus Disease 2019,COVID-19) in Wuhan, Hubei, China(Wu et al. 2020; Zhu et al. 2020). So far, this virus has spread to all areas of China and even to other countries. The epidemic has caused 67,102 confirmed infections with 1526 fatal cases     

Curcuminoids as inhibitors of thioredoxin reductase: A receptor based pharmacophore study with distance mapping of the active site

Curcumin is the yellow pigment of turmeric that interacts irreversibly forming an adduct with thioredoxin reductase (TrxR), an enzyme responsible for redox control of cell and defence against oxidative stress. Docking at both the active sites of TrxR was performed to compare the potency of three naturally occurring curcuminoids, namely curcumin, demethoxy curcumin and bis-demethoxy curcumin. Results show that active sites of TrxR occur at the junction of E and F chains. Volume and area of both cavities is predicted. It has been concluded by distance mapping of the most active conformations that Se atom of catalytic residue SeCYS498, is at a distance of 3.56 from C13 of demethoxy curcumin at the E chain active site, whereas C13 carbon atom forms adduct with Se atom of SeCys 498. We report that at least one methoxy group in curcuminoids is necessary for interation with catalytic residues of thioredoxin. Pharmacophore of both active sites of the TrxR receptor for curcumin and demethoxy curcumin molecules has been drawn and proposed for design and synthesis of most probable potent antiproliferative synthetic drugs.     

Comparative morphology of the carpel in the Liliaceae: Hewardieae, Petrosavieae, and Tricyrteae

The young pistils in the melanthioid tribes, Hewardieae, Petrosavieae and Tricyrteae, are uniformly tricarpellate and syncarpous. They lack raphide idioblasts. All are multiovulate, with bitegmic ovules. The Petrosavieae are marked by the presence of septal glands and incomplete syncarpy. Tepals and stamens adhere to the ovary in the Hewardieae and the Petrosavieae but not in the Tricyrteae. Two vascular bundles occur in the stamens of the Hewartlieae and Tricyrtis latifolia. Ventral bundles in the upper part of the ovary of the Hewardieae are continuous with compound septal bundles and placental bundles in the lower part. Putative ventral bundles occur in the alternate position in the Tricyrteae and putative placental bundles in the opposite. position in the Petrosavieae. The dichtomously branched stigma in each carpel of the Tricyrteae is supplied by a bifurcated dorsal bundle.     

Enterovirus 71 3C proteolytically processes the histone H3 N-terminal tail during infection

Highlights
1. The N-terminal tail of histone H3 is specifically cleaved during EV71 infection.
2. Viral protease 3C is identified as a protease responsible for proteolytically processing the N-terminal H3 tail.
3. Our finding reveals a new epigenetic regulatory mechanism for Enterovirus 71 in virus-host interactions.     

Detection of EBV and HHV6 in the Brain Tissue of Patients with Rasmussen’s Encephalitis

Rasmussen’s encephalitis (RE) is a rare pediatric neurological disorder, and the exact etiology is not clear. Viral infection may be involved in the pathogenesis of RE, but conflicting results have reported. In this study, we evaluated the expression of both Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and human herpes virus (HHV) 6 antigens in brain sections from 30 patients with RE and 16 control individuals by immunohistochemistry. In the RE group, EBV and HHV6 antigens were detected in 56.7% (17/30) and 50% (15/30) of individuals, respectively. In contrast, no detectable EBV and HHV6 antigen expression was found in brain tissues of the control group. The co-expression of EBV and HHV6 was detected in 20.0% (6/30) of individuals. In particular, a 4-year-old boy had a typical clinical course, including a medical history of viral encephalitis, intractable epilepsy, and hemispheric atrophy. The co-expression of EBV and HHV6 was detected in neurons and astrocytes in the brain tissue, accompanied by a high frequency of CD8⁺ T cells. Our results suggest that EBV and HHV6 infection and the activation of CD8⁺ T cells are involved in the pathogenesis of RE.     

Perinatal Vertical Transmission of Chikungunya Virus in Ruili,a Town on the Border between China and Myanmar

正Dear Editor,Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), an arbovirus in the family of Togaviridae, genus Alphavirus, is transmitted by the A.aegyptii or A. albopictus mosquito, and causes disease in humans characterized by fever, rash, and arthralgia (Silva and Dermody 2017; Suhrbier 2019). It was first reported in 1953 in Tanzania, and caused only a few outbreaks and sporadic cases in Africa and Asia in last century. However, in the epidemic in 2004, CHIKV acquired mutations that conferred enhanced transmission by the A. albopictus mosquito(Schuffenecker et al. 2006). Since then, it has successively caused outbreaks in Africa, the Indian Ocean, South East Asia, the South America, and Europe (Zeller et al. 2016).     

Development of a Novel Reverse Transcription Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Method for Rapid Detection of SARS-CoV-2

In conclusion, the novel visual RT-LAMP assay is a simple, rapid, and sensitive approach for detection of SARS-CoV-2, and it is ready for application in primary care and community hospitals or health care centers, and even patients' own houses in response to the current SARS-CoV-2 epidemic because the assay does not require sophisticated equipment and skilled personnel. Furthermore, it is also ready to be used in fields for screening samples from wild animals and environments to facilitate the identification of potential intermediate hosts that mediate the cross-species transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from bats to humans.