Aims:  The objective of this study was to assess in vitro, whether heat‐killed (HK) lactic acid bacteria cells and fractionations of HK cells could suppress the viability of human cancer cells and inhibit the cytotoxicity associated with oxidative stress. Methods and Results:  Among the strains, the HK cells of Lactobacillus acidophilus 606 and Lactobacillus casei ATCC 393 exhibited the most profound inhibitory activity in all of the tested cell lines. HK cells of L. acidophilus 606 were determined to be less toxic to healthy human embryo fibroblasts (hEF cells) than were HK cells of L. casei ATCC 393. The soluble polysaccharides from L. acidophilus 606 evidenced the most effective anticancer activity, but inhibited hEF cell growth by only 20%. The soluble polysaccharides from L. acidophilus 606 were partly observed to induce apoptosis in the HT‐29 cells by DNA fragmentation and propidium iodine staining. Both the HK cells of L. acidophilus 606 and the soluble polysaccharide components of this strain also exhibited potent antioxidative activity. Conclusions:  Our findings suggest that the soluble polysaccharide fraction from L. acidophilus 606 may constitute a novel anticancer agent, which manifests a high degree of selectivity for human cancer cells and antioxidative agent in the food industry. Significance and Impact of the Study:  These soluble polysaccharide components from Lactobacillus may be applied to various foods, and used as adjuncts for cancer therapy and prevention.

Disproportionate impairment of naming nouns versus verbs and the opposite pattern have been reported in cases of focal brain damage or degenerative disease, indicating that processing of nouns and verbs may rely on different brain regions. However, it has not been clear whether it is the spoken word forms or the meanings (or both) of nouns and verbs that depend on separate neural regions. We tested oral and written naming of nouns and verbs, matched in difficulty, in patients with nonfluent primary progressive aphasia (nonfluent PPA; n = 15), fluent primary progressive aphasia (fluent PPA; n = 7), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis with frontotemporal dementia (ALS-FTD; n = 6). Patients with nonfluent PPA and ALS-FTD, both individually and as groups, were significantly more impaired on verb naming than on noun naming and significantly more impaired on oral naming than written naming. Patients with fluent PPA showed the opposite pattern for both word class and modality, significantly more impaired naming of nouns versus verbs and significantly more impaired written versus oral naming. Results indicate that separate regions of the brain are essential for access to oral and written word forms of verbs and nouns, and that these neural regions can be differentially damaged in separate forms of PPA.

Rapid and sensitive detection of influenza virus is of soaring importance to prevent further spread of infections and adequate clinical treatment. Herein, an ultrasensitive colorimetric assay called magnetic nano(e)zyme-linked immunosorbent assay (MagLISA) is suggested, in which silica-shelled magnetic nanobeads (MagNBs) and gold nanoparticles are combined to monitor influenza A virus up to femtogram per milliliter concentration. Two essential strategies for ultrasensitive sensing are designed, i.e., facile target separation by MagNBs and signal amplification by the enzymelike activity of gold nanozymes (AuNZs). The enzymelike activity was experimentally and computationally evaluated, where the catalyticity of AuNZ was tremendously stronger than that of normal biological enzymes. In the spiked test, a straightforward linearity was presented in the range of 5.0 × 10-5.0 × 10g·mL in detecting the influenza virus A (New Caledonia/20/1999) (H1N1). The detection limit is up to 5.0 × 10 g·mL only by human eyes, as well as up to 44.2 × 10 g·mL by a microplate reader, which is the lowest record to monitor influenza virus using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-based technology as far as we know. Clinically isolated human serum samples were successfully observed at the detection limit of 2.6 PFU·mL. This novel MagLISA demonstrates, therefore, a robust sensing platform possessing the advances of fathomable sample separation, enrichment, ultrasensitive readout, and anti-interference ability may reduce the spread of influenza virus and provide immediate clinical treatment.

A synthetic way of chiral zirconium quantum dots (Zr QDs) was presented for the first time using L(+)-ascorbic acid acts as a surface as well as chiral ligands. Different spectroscopic and microscopic analysis was performed for thorough characterization of Zr QDs. As-synthesized QDs exhibited fluorescence and circular dichroism properties, and the peaks were located at 412 nm and 352 nm, respectively. MTT assay was performed to test the cytotoxicity of the synthesized Zr QDs against rat brain glioma C6 cells. Synthesized QDs was further conjugated with anti-infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) antibodies of coronavirus to form an immunolink at the presence of the target analyte and anti-IBV antibody-conjugated magneto-plasmonic nanoparticles (MPNPs). The fluorescence properties of immuno-conjugated QD–MP NPs nanohybrids through separation by an external magnetic field enabled biosensing of coronavirus with a limit of detection of 79.15 EID/50 μL.

A plasmon-assisted fluoro-immunoassay (PAFI) was developed for the detection of the influenza virus by using Au nanoparticle (Au NP)-decorated carbon nanotubes (AuCNTs) that were synthesized using phytochemical composites at room temperature in deionized water. Specific antibodies (Abs) against the influenza virus were conjugated onto the surface of AuCNTs and cadmium telluride quantum dots (QDs), which had a photoluminescence intensity that varied as a function of virus concentration and a detection limit of 0.1 pg/mL for all three types of influenza viruses examined. The clinically isolated influenza viruses (A/Yokohama/110/2009 (H3N2)) were detected in the range of 50-10,000 PFU/mL, with a detection limit of 50 PFU/mL. From a series of proof-of-concept and clinical experiments, the developed PAFI biosensing system provided robust signal production and enhancement, as well as an excellent selectivity and sensitivity for influenza viruses. This nanoparticle-based technique could be potentially developed as an efficient detection platform for the influenza virus.

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