Unusual Bicyclo[3.2.1]Octanoid Neolignans from Leaves of Piper crocatum and Their Effect on Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Activity

Three undescribed bicyclo[3.2.1]octanoid neolignan glucosides, along with a known neolignan, were isolated from the leaves of Piper crocatum Ruiz & Pav. Their chemical structures were elucidated using extensive spectroscopic analyses including 1D and 2D NMR experiments and HR-ESI-MS analysis, as well as through comparison with previously reported data. Two compounds were assessed for their inhibitory effect against pyruvate dehydrogenase E1α S300 phosphorylation. The fluorescent image suggested that both compounds (60 µM) revealed a stronger inhibition effect than the positive control (dichloroacetate, DCA 5 mM), with IC50 values of 99.82 µM and 80.25 µM, respectively.

Hydrothermal synthesis of carbon nanodots from wine cork and biocompatible fluorescent probe

We presented a low-cost and simple method to synthesize carbon nanodots (CDs) from waste wine cork using hydrothermal synthesis. The structural and optical properties of the CDs are characterized by TEM, FTIR, Raman, UV-Vis absorption, and photoluminescence (PL) spectra. The analysis results indicated the average diameter of CDs ⁓ 6.2 ± 2.7 nm. Optical measurements showed the phenomenon of excitation-dependent PL and the formation of functional groups on the surface of the particles. CDs with a quantum yield of 1.54% was calculated using quinine sulfate as reference. Furthermore, a probe of wine cork-derived CDs in bioimaging has been successfully applied in living mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). After treatment with CDs, MSCs exhibited fluorescence including green, yellow, and red colors under the excitation wavelengths in the range 330–385 nm, 450–480 nm, and 510–550 nm, respectively. The achievement demonstrated potential applications of fluorescent CDs in the field of the fluorescent image.

A deep generative model of 3D single-cell organization

We introduce a framework for end-to-end integrative modeling of 3D single-cell multi-channel fluorescent image data of diverse subcellular structures. We employ stacked conditional β-variational autoencoders to first learn a latent representation of cell morphology, and then learn a latent representation of subcellular structure localization which is conditioned on the learned cell morphology. Our model is flexible and can be trained on images of arbitrary subcellular structures and at varying degrees of sparsity and reconstruction fidelity. We train our full model on 3D cell image data and explore design trade-offs in the 2D setting. Once trained, our model can be used to impute structures in cells where they were not imaged and to quantify the variation in the location of all subcellular structures by generating plausible instantiations of each structure in arbitrary cell geometries. We apply our trained model to a small drug perturbation screen to demonstrate its applicability to new data. We show how the latent representations of drugged cells differ from unperturbed cells as expected by on-target effects of the drugs.

Biliary cystadenoma a case report

Biliary cystadenoma (BCA) is a rare cystic neoplasm of liver with malignant potential and female predominance, mostly asymptomatic that will lead to late identification. BCAs are mostly do not communicate with Biliary tract but communication was reported in some studies, BCA has higher rate of recurrence after incomplete removal so the standard management is complete resection or partial hepatectomy. We report a case of BCA in 72-year aged female with ECOG score 3. Computed tomography showed BCA involving segment II, III, IV and VIII of liver without any malignant features, which was treated with laparoscopic deroofing with omentopexy and no recurrence at 1 year follow up. We used indocyanine green-fluorescent image to look for biliary communication. This study aims to report that minimal accesses surgery with deroofing and omentopexy can be alternative treatment for BCA without any malignant features in a poor performance status and use of Indocyanine green-fluorescent image to avoid biliary injury and rule out communication.

Comparison of Antiviral Activity of Gemcitabine with 2′-Fluoro-2′-Deoxycytidine and Combination Therapy with Remdesivir against SARS-CoV-2

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The virus still spreads globally through human-to-human transmission. Nevertheless, there are no specific treatments clinically approved. This study aimed to compare antiviral activity of gemcitabine and its analogue 2′-fluoro-2′-deoxycytidine (2FdC) against SARS-CoV-2 as well as cytotoxicity in vitro. Fluorescent image-based antiviral assays revealed that gemcitabine was highly potent, with a 50% effective concentration (EC50) of 1.2 μM, more active than the well-known nucleoside monophosphate remdesivir (EC50 = 35.4 μM). In contrast, 2FdC was marginally active (EC50 = 175.2 μM). For all three compounds, the 50% cytotoxic concentration (CC50) values were over 300 μM toward Vero CCL-81 cells. Western blot and quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction analyses verified that gemcitabine blocked viral protein expression in virus-infected cells, not only Vero CCL-81 cells but also Calu-3 human lung epithelial cells in a dose-dependent manner. It was found that gemcitabine has a synergistic effect when combined with remdesivir. This report suggests that the difluoro group of gemcitabine is critical for the antiviral activity and that its combination with other evaluated antiviral drugs, such as remdesivir, could be a desirable option to treat SARS-CoV-2 infection.