Perishable foods at undesired temperatures can generate foodborne illnesses that present significant societal costs. To certify refrigeration succession in a food‐supply chain, a flexible, easy‐to‐interpret, damage‐tolerant, and sensitive time‐temperature indicator (TTI) that uses a self‐healing nanofiber mat is devised. This mat is opaque when refrigerated due to nanofiber‐induced light scattering, but becomes irreversibly transparent at room temperature through self‐healing‐induced interfibrillar fusion leading to the appearance of a warning sign. The mat monitors both freezer (−20 °C) and chiller (2 °C) successions and its timer is tunable over the 0.5–22.5 h range through control of the polymer composition and film thickness. The thin mat itself serves as both a temperature sensor and display; it does not require modularization, accurately measures localized or gradient heat, and functions even after crushing, cutting, and when weight‐loaded in a manner that existing TTIs cannot. It also contains no drainable chemicals and is attachable to various shapes because it operates through an intrinsic physical response.

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AMLPS identified patients with a poor DFS and OS, and it was independent of age, pathologic stage, and various inflammatory markers.

BackgroundGinsenoside Rh2 has been known to enhance the activity of immune cells, as well as to inhibit the growth of tumor cells. Although the repertoire of genes regulated by Rh2 is well-known in many cancer cells, the epigenetic regulation has yet to be determined, especially for comprehensive approaches to detect methylation changes.MethodsThe effect of Rh2 on genome-wide DNA methylation changes in breast cancer cells was examined by treating cultured MCF-7 with Rh2. Pyrosequencing analysis was carried out to measure the methylation level of a global methylation marker, LINE1. Genome-wide methylation analysis was carried out to identify epigenetically regulated genes and to elucidate the most prominent signaling pathway affected by Rh2. Apoptosis and proliferation were monitored to examine the cellular effect of Rh2.ResultsLINE1 showed induction of hypomethylation at specific CpGs by 1.6–9.1% (p < 0.05). Genome-wide methylation analysis identified the “cell-mediated immune response”-related pathway as the top network. Cell proliferation of MCF-7 was retarded by Rh2 in a dose-dependent manner. Hypermethylated genes such as CASP1, INSL5, and OR52A1 showed downregulation in the Rh2-treated MCF-7, while hypomethylated genes such as CLINT1, ST3GAL4, and C1orf198 showed upregulation. Notably, a higher survival rate was associated with lower expression of INSL5 and OR52A1 in breast cancer patients, while with higher expression of CLINT1.ConclusionThe results indicate that Rh2 induces epigenetic methylation changes in genes involved in immune response and tumorigenesis, thereby contributing to enhanced immunogenicity and inhibiting the growth of cancer cells.

During the outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus(MERS-CoV) in 2015, one hemodialysis patient was infected with MERS-CoV, and the remaining hemodialysis(HD) patients (n = 83) and medical staff (n = 12) had to undergo dialysis treatment in an isolated environment. This study was performed to investigate the effects of stress caused by dialysis treatment under isolation. Plasma samples from the HD patients and medical staff were collected at the time of isolation(M0), the following month(M1), and three months after isolation(M3). Parameters for stress included circulating cell-free genomic DNA(ccf-gDNA), circulating cell-free mitochondria DNA(ccf-mtDNA), and pentraxin-3(PTX-3). Decreased values of Hct, kt/v and ca x p were recovered after the end of two weeks of isolation. The levels of ccf-gDNA and ccf-mtDNA were the highest at M0 and decreased gradually in both HD patients and the medical staff. The normalization of ccf-gDNA and ccf-mtDNA was significantly delayed in HD patients compared with the response in the medical staff. PTX-3 increased only in HD patients and was highest at M0, and it then gradually decreased. Medical isolation and subnormal quality of care during the MERS outbreak caused extreme stress in HD patients. Plasma cell-free DNA and PTX-3 seems to be good indicators of stress and quality of care in HD patients.

In our previous study, the Kelch domain-containing 7B (KLHDC7B) was revealed to be hypermethylated at the promoter but upregulated in breast cancer. In this study, we identified a long non-coding RNA, ST8SIA6-AS1 (STAR1), whose expression was significantly associated with KLHDC7B in breast cancer (R2 = 0.3466, P < 0.01). Involvement of the two genes in tumorigenesis was examined via monitoring their effect on cellular as well as molecular events after each gene dysregulation in cultured mammary cell lines. Apoptosis of MCF-7 decreased by 49.5% and increased by 33.1%, while proliferation noted increase and decrease by up- and downregulation of KLHDC7B, respectively, suggesting its oncogenic property. STAR1, however, suppressed cell migration and increased apoptosis. Network analysis identified many target genes that appeared to have similar regulation, especially in relation to the interferon signaling pathway. Concordantly, expression of genes such as IFITs, STATs, and IL-29 in that pathway was affected by KLHDC7B and STAR1. Taken together, KLHDC7B and STAR1 are both overexpressed in breast cancer and significantly associated with gene modulation activity in the interferon signaling pathway during breast tumorigenesis.

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