The Use of CRISPR/Cas9 as a Tool to Study Human Infectious Viruses

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) systems are a set of versatile gene-editing toolkit that perform diverse revolutionary functions in various fields of application such as agricultural practices, food industry, biotechnology, biomedicine, and clinical research. Specially, as a novel antiviral method of choice, CRISPR/Cas9 system has been extensively and effectively exploited to fight against human infectious viruses. Infectious diseases including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), human papillomavirus (HPV), and other viruses are still global threats with persistent potential to probably cause pandemics. To facilitate virus removals, the CRISPR/Cas9 system has already been customized to confer new antiviral capabilities into host animals either by modifying host genome or by directly targeting viral inherent factors in the form of DNA. Although several limitations and difficulties still need to be conquered, this technology holds great promises in the treatment of human viral infectious diseases. In this review, we will first present a brief biological feature of CRISPR/Cas9 systems, which includes a description of CRISPR/Cas9 structure and composition; thereafter, we will focus on the investigations and applications that employ CRISPR/Cas9 system to combat several human infectious viruses and discuss challenges and future perspectives of using this new platform in the preclinical and clinical settings as an antiviral strategy.

Ranking Biomarkers of Aging by Citation Profiling and Effort Scoring

Aging affects most living organisms and includes the processes that reduce health and survival. The chronological and the biological age of individuals can differ remarkably, and there is a lack of reliable biomarkers to monitor the consequences of aging. In this review we give an overview of commonly mentioned and frequently used potential aging-related biomarkers. We were interested in biomarkers of aging in general and in biomarkers related to cellular senescence in particular. To answer the question whether a biological feature is relevant as a potential biomarker of aging or senescence in the scientific community we used the PICO strategy known from evidence-based medicine. We introduced two scoring systems, aimed at reflecting biomarker relevance and measurement effort, which can be used to support study designs in both clinical and research settings.

The effect of circadian rhythms on shipping accidents

It is a well-known fact that humans are subject to circadian alterations caused by the action of sunlight. This strongly affects their behaviour and skill, making them change their level of alertness from high at daytime to low at night-time. Taking into account this biological feature, and considering that commercial shipping is one of the oldest round-the-clock activities, raises the question whether bridge watchkeepers can carry out their tasks on night shifts with the same level of alertness as on day shifts. Furthermore, night bridge watchkeeping has to be performed in darkness or very dim light to improve the visual capacity of lookouts. A sample of vessel collisions was analysed and it was find out that this kind of accident tends to be more frequent and more serious during the darkness period of the solar day.

Von Humboldt on Language, Contemporary Linguistics, and the Mission of a Linguist

This article examines the ideas of W. von Humboldt on language and their simi­larities and differences with the fundamental ideas about the nature of natural languages within the generative framework founded by N. Chomsky. Chomsky famously argued that von Humboldt expressed and defended some of the key ideas of the generative approach. This paper relates Chomsky’s idea of the innate universal grammar and idea of generative rules as the underlying basis of the lan­guage creativity to the similar ideas of W. von Humboldt. The paper also dis­cusses Humboldt’s problematic from the generative perspective view that natural languages can have a primitive or an advance grammar. The paper considers a possible explanation for the fact that this idea seemed consistent to Humboldt with the idea of the innate universal grammar. The contemporary linguistics views all grammars of all languages as equal because a natural language is con­sidered to be a biological feature of our species developed in the process of evo­lution. This idea was not present in Humboldt’s philosophy, which made it possi­ble for him to think that some natural languages have not fully developed a potential hidden in its speakers. In this regard, the author considers the ques­tion of the social mission of the linguist; emphasizes that this is a fight against prejudices based on unscientific understanding of languages and dialects.

Progress in tumor-derived exosome miRNA regulating tumor metastasis research

Tumor metastasis is the most important biological feature of a malignant tumor. It is also a complex process involving multi-step, multi-gene, and multi-products. Tumor cell-derived exosomes are vesicles secreted by tumor cells, containing proteins, lipids, noncoding RNA, and other components. MicroRNA (miRNA) of tumor cell-derived exosomes affects the tumor cell microenvironment and participates in tumor metastasis by activating various signaling pathways. Here, we summarize the miRNA and its related pathways that affect many factors of tumor metastasis and discuss the role of tumor-derived miRNA in the treatment and prevention of tumor metastasis. We also conclude the targets of tumor-derived miRNA in recent years. This article can provide new ideas for the development of tumor metastasis targeting drugs in the future.

Phylogenetic comparison of egg transparency in ascidians by hyperspectral imaging

The transparency of animals is an important biological feature. Ascidian eggs have various degrees of transparency, but this characteristic has not yet been measured quantitatively and comprehensively. In this study, we established a method for evaluating the transparency of eggs to first characterize the transparency of ascidian eggs across different species and to infer a phylogenetic relationship among multiple taxa in the class Ascidiacea. We measured the transmittance of 199 eggs from 21 individuals using a hyperspectral camera. The spectrum of the visual range of wavelengths (400–760 nm) varied among individuals and we calculated each average transmittance of the visual range as bio-transparency. When combined with phylogenetic analysis based on the nuclear 18S rRNA and the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene sequences, the bio-transparencies of 13 species were derived from four different families: Ascidiidae, Cionidae, Pyuridae, and Styelidae. The bio-transparency varied 10–90% and likely evolved independently in each family. Ascidiella aspersa showed extremely high (88.0 ± 1.6%) bio-transparency in eggs that was maintained in the “invisible” larva. In addition, it was indicated that species of the Ascidiidae family may have a phylogenetic constraint of egg transparency.

Competent treatment of coronavirus

The main biological feature of the virus is its high contagiousness, which is many times higher than that of viruses that cause various acute respiratory infections, including influenza. The root cause is reduced immunity as a result of long-term illiterate vaccination of mankind by generations (author's note). The coronavirus is transmitted from person to person and from animal.