Grail is a crucial regulator of various biological processes, including the development of T-cell anergy, antiviral innate immune response, and cancer. However, the role of Grail in adipogenesis and obesity remains unclear. Here, we demonstrated that Grail knockdown in vitro leads to a decrease in PPARγ expression, resulting in adipogenesis inhibition. However, Grail overexpression induced the same effects. Grail was shown to interact with PPARγ, targeting it for degradation and modulating its adipogenic activity. PPARγ expression was shown to be considerably reduced in Grail knockout (KO) mice fed normal diet or high-fat diet (HFD). The administration of both normal diet or HFD to Grail KO mice led to lower adipose mass and body weight than those in the wild-type mice. HFD-fed Grail KO mice had improved glucose and insulin tolerance. Taken together, our results indicate that Grail plays a pivotal role in adipogenesis and diet-induced obesity by regulating PPARγ activity.

BackgroundYersinia pestis is a contributing agent to the epidemic disease, plague, which killed an estimated 200 million people during historical times. In this study, a rapid, cheap, sensitive, and specific technique, the lateral flow assay (F1 strips), has been successfully developed to detect this pathogen, by using paired monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) against Y. pestis capsule like fraction 1 (F1) protein. Compared with the polyclonal antibody (PAb) based F1 strips, the Mab-based F1 strips have a remarkable increased detection limitation (10 to 100 folds). Furthermore, besides the limitation and specificity evaluation, the application of this F1 strip on simulated clinical samples indicate the LFA can be a good candidate to detect plague.MethodsRecombinant F1 antigen was expressed and purified from a series of works. The various anti-F1 monoclonal antibodies generated from hybridoma cells were screened with the ELISA technique. To evaluate the feasibility of this Y. pestis F1 test strip, the F1 protein/Y. pestis was spiked into simulated clinical samples such as human serum, mouse bronchoalveolar lavage fluids, and mouse blood to mimic natural infection status. Additionally, this technique was applied to detect the Y. pestis in the environment-captured rats, to evaluate the practical usefulness of the strips.ResultsBy using this MAb-based-LFA technique, 4 ng/ml of recombinant F1-protein and 103 CFU/ml of Y. pestis could be detected in less than 10 mins, which is at least 10-folds than that of the PAb format. On the other hand, although various Yersinia strains were applied to the strips, only Y. pestis strain showed a positive result; all other Yersinia species did not produce a positive signal, indicating the high efficiency and specificity of the MAb-based F1-strips.ConclusionBased on our findings, we suggest that the MAb-format-LFA will be valuable as a diagnostic tool for the detection of Y. pestis. This report shows that the F1 strip is sufficient to support not only the detection of plague in simulated clinical samples, but also it may be a good candidate to meet the epidemiological surveillance during an outbreak of the biological warfare.

PurposeThe aim of this research is to explore the influence of channel integration quality on consumer perception and response from the individual customer perspective.Design/methodology/approachThis study collected 517 online questionnaires from residents in Taipei (Taiwan) and Shenzhen (China) in 2020 based on quota sampling. The empirical study employed structural equation modeling.FindingsBased on the empirical results, the primary path indicated that channel-service configuration positively affected experience quality, which mainly positively affected customer engagement. The secondary path showed that channel-service configuration positively affected experience quality, which positively affected customer empowerment. Furthermore, experience quality and relationship proneness are mediating variables concerning the impact of channel integration quality on customer responses.Research limitations/implicationsThis study had time and budget limitations; thus, 517 questionnaires were collected from Taipei and Shenzhen. If the budget allows, it would be better to collect 1,000 questionnaires in total (500 from Taipei and 500 from Shenzhen).Practical implicationsRetailers should realize the core of omni-channel retailing, which is no longer concentrated on the “quantity” of channels but on consumers. When omni-channel retailers integrate online and offline channels, the retailers should try to understand what consumers want and then provide similar and diverse products and services in different channels so that consumers have more choices.Originality/valueThe novelty of this research is the investigation of the mediation effect of channel integration quality and consumer responses on retailers and consumers, and enriching current research on omni-channel retailing from the bottom-up perspective, as well as a comprehensive study on the two types of channel integration quality and two types of consumer responses.

Purpose This paper aims to use utilitarian benefits, hedonic benefits and corporate social responsibility to influence the consumer’s sense of brand identity and brand trust in social enterprise products and, thus, favourably affect repurchase intention. Design/methodology/approach This study dispatched 430 questionnaires in Taiwan. The top six social enterprises in the organic food industry in Taiwan that accounted for 84.0% of total green organic stores and they were selected for field investigation. This study used structural equation modelling. Findings The main path indicates that corporate social responsibility has a largely positive effect going through brand identity and brand trust, and then affecting the decision to repurchase. Therefore, the image of` corporate social responsibility was the greatest driving force. The secondary path indicated that utilitarian benefits positively affected brand identity and brand trust, which, in turn, positively affected repurchase intention. Therefore, utilitarian benefits were the secondary driving force of repurchasing social enterprise products. Practical implications This study indicates that social enterprises need to carry out effective corporate social responsibility to create a sense of strong brand trust in consumers’ minds. Empirical results can benefit social marketers for their product launches and promotions. Social enterprises can realize consumer differentiation preferences. With the effective grasp the information of consumer perception, the social marketers can turn passive into active and catch the marketing opportunities by the brand identity and trust to the content of the marketing programs design. Originality/value The novelty of this study is to propose an identity-repurchase intention (IRI) model, based on consumer information processing lens and self-congruency theory, to investigate the social enterprise perspective.

Enterovirus 71 (EV71) is responsible for the outbreaks of hand-foot-and-mouth disease in the Asia-Pacific region. To produce the virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine, we previously constructed recombinant baculoviruses to co-express EV71 P1 polypeptide and 3CD protease using the Bac-to-Bac(®) vector system. The recombinant baculoviruses resulted in P1 cleavage by 3CD and subsequent VLP assembly in infected insect cells, but caused either low VLP yield or excessive VLP degradation. To tackle the problems, here we explored various expression cassette designs and flashBAC GOLD™ vector system which was deficient in v-cath and chiA genes. We found that the recombinant baculovirus constructed using the flashBAC GOLD™ system was insufficient to improve the EV71 VLP yield. Nonetheless, BacF-P1-C3CD, a recombinant baculovirus constructed using the flashBAC GOLD(TM) system to express P1 under the polh promoter and 3CD under the CMV promoter, dramatically improved the VLP yield while alleviating the VLP degradation. Infection of High Five(TM) cells with BacF-P1-C3CD enhanced the total and extracellular VLP yield to ≈268 and ≈171 mg/L, respectively, which enabled the release of abundant VLP into the supernatant and simplified the downstream purification. Intramuscular immunization of mice with 5 μg purified VLP induced cross-protective humoral responses and conferred protection against lethal virus challenge. Given the significantly improved extracellular VLP yield (≈171 mg/L) and the potent immunogenicity conferred by 5 μg VLP, one liter High Five(TM) culture produced ≈12,000 doses of purified vaccine, thus rendering the EV71 VLP vaccine economically viable and able to compete with inactivated virus vaccines.