The rapid, highly sensitive, and accurate detection of bacteria is the focus of various fields, especially food safety and public health. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), with the advantages of being fast, sensitive, and nondestructive, can be used to directly obtain molecular fingerprint information, as well as for the on-line qualitative analysis of multicomponent samples. It has therefore become an effective technique for bacterial detection. Within this progress report, advances in the detection of bacteria using SERS and other compatible techniques are discussed in order to summarize its development in recent years. First, the enhancement principle and mechanism of SERS technology are briefly overviewed. The second part is devoted to a label-free strategy for the detection of bacterial cells and bacterial metabolites. In this section, important considerations that must be made to improve bacterial SERS signals are discussed. Then, the label-based SERS strategy involves the design strategy of SERS tags, the immunomagnetic separation of SERS tags, and the capture of bacteria from solution and dye-labeled SERS primers. In the third part, several novel SERS compatible technologies and applications in clinical and food safety are introduced. In the final part, the results achieved are summarized and future perspectives are proposed.

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Insulin, the most potent anabolic hormone, is critical for somatic growth and metabolism in vertebrates. Type 2 diabetes, which is the primary cause of hyperglycemia, results from an inability of insulin to signal glycolysis and gluconeogenesis. Our previous study showed that double knockout of insulin receptor a ( insra) and b ( insrb) caused β-cell hyperplasia and lethality from 5 to 16 days postfertilization (dpf) (Yang BY, Zhai G, Gong YL, Su JZ, Han D, Yin Z, Xie SQ. Sci Bull (Beijing) 62: 486-492, 2017). In this study, we characterized the physiological roles of Insra and Insrb, in somatic growth and fueling metabolism, respectively. A high-carbohydrate diet was provided for insulin receptor knockout zebrafish from 60 to 120 dpf to investigate phenotype inducement and amplification. We observed hyperglycemia in both insra-/- fish and insrb-/- fish. Impaired growth hormone signaling, increased visceral adiposity, and fatty liver were detected in insrb-/- fish, which are phenotypes similar to the lipodystrophy observed in mammals. More importantly, significantly diminished protein levels of P-PPARα, P-STAT5, and IGF-1 were also observed in insrb-/- fish. In insra-/- fish, we observed increased protein content and decreased lipid content of the whole body. Taken together, although Insra and Insrb show overlapping roles in mediating glucose metabolism through the insulin-signaling pathway, Insrb is more prone to promoting lipid catabolism and protein synthesis through activation of the growth hormone-signaling pathway, whereas Insra primarily acts to promote lipid synthesis via glucose utilization.

Background Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a subtype of esophageal cancer with high incidence and mortality. Due to the poor 5-year survival rates of patients with ESCC, exploring novel diagnostic markers for early ESCC is emergent. Collagen, the abundant constituent of extracellular matrix, plays a critical role in tumor growth and epithelial-mesenchymal transition. However, the clinical significance of collagen genes in ESCC has been rarely studied. In this work, we systematically analyzed the gene expression of whole collagen family in ESCC, aiming to search for ideal biomarkers. Methods Clinical data and gene expression profiles of ESCC patients were collected from The Cancer Genome Atlas and the gene expression omnibus databases. Bioinformatics methods, including differential expression analysis, survival analysis, gene sets enrichment analysis (GSEA) and co-expression network analysis, were performed to investigate the correlation between the expression patterns of 44 collagen family genes and the development of ESCC. Results A total of 22 genes of collagen family were identified as differentially expressed genes in both the two datasets. Among them, COL1A1, COL10A1 and COL11A1 were particularly up-regulated in ESCC tissues compared to normal controls, while COL4A4, COL6A5 and COL14A1 were notably down-regulated. Besides, patients with low COL6A5 expression or high COL18A1 expression showed poor survival. In addition, a 7-gene prediction model was established based on collagen gene expression to predict patient survival, which had better predictive accuracy than the tumor-node-metastasis staging based model. Finally, GSEA results suggested that collagen genes might be tightly associated with PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway, p53 pathway, apoptosis, cell cycle, etc. Conclusion Several collagen genes could be potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for ESCC. Moreover, a novel 7-gene prediction model is probably useful for predicting survival outcomes of ESCC patients. These findings may facilitate early detection of ESCC and help improves prognosis of the patients.

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BackgroundAdolescence is a critical period for bone development, and peak bone mass may be reached in late adolescence. Boosting bone accumulation at this time can help preserve adult bone health and avoid osteoporosis later in life. Body mass index (BMI) has been found to have a favorable impact on bone mineral density (BMD) in previous research. However, excessive obesity is harmful to health and may lead to various systemic diseases. Therefore, finding an appropriate BMI to maintain a balance between obesity and BMD is critical for adolescents.MethodsThe datasets from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011–2020 were used in a cross-sectional investigation. Multivariate linear regression models were used to examine the linear connection between BMI and BMD. Fitted smoothing curves and threshold effect analysis were used to describe the nonlinear relationship. Subgroup analyses were then conducted based on gender and age.ResultsThis population-based study included a total of 6,143 adolescents aged 8–19 years. In a multivariate linear regression analysis, a good association between BMI and total BMD was shown [0.014 (0.013, 0.014)]. This positive association was maintained in all subgroup analyses grouped by sex and age. Furthermore, the association between BMI and BMD was nonlinear with a saturation point present, as evidenced by smoothed curve fitting. According to the threshold effect study, with an age group of two years, adolescents of different ages had different BMI saturation values with respect to BMD.ConclusionsOur study showed a significant positive and saturated association between BMI and BMD in adolescents aged 8–19 years. Maintaining BMI at saturation values may reduce other adverse effects while achieving optimal BMD.

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ObjectivesAlthough several studies have reviewed the suicidal risk of antidepressants, the conclusions remain inconsistent. We, therefore, performed a meta-analysis of observational studies to address the association between exposure to antidepressants, especially selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and the risk of suicide and suicide attempt in children and adolescents.MethodsMEDLINE and Embase were searched from January 1990 to April 2021. Seventeen cohort and case-control studies were identified that reported suicide or suicide attempt in children and young adults (aged 5–25 years) who were exposed to any antidepressants. We extracted the estimates and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) from each publication.ResultsThe results showed that antidepressant exposure significantly increased the risk of suicide and suicide attempt when compared with no antidepressant usage among children and adolescents. The pooled relative risk (RR) was 1.38 (95% CI: 1.16–1.64; I2 = 83.1%). Among the antidepressants, SSRI use was associated with an increased risk of suicide and suicide attempt, and the pooled RR was 1.28 (95% CI: 1.09–1.51; I2 = 68.8%). In subgroup analysis, the attempted suicidal risk of antidepressant and SSRI was significantly increased (RR = 1.35, 95% CI: 1.13–1.61; I2 = 86.2% for all antidepressants; and RR = 1.26, 95% CI: 1.06–1.48; I2 = 73.8% for SSRIs), while the completed suicidal risk of antidepressant and SSRI was not statistically significant (RR = 2.32, 95% CI: 0.82–6.53; I2 = 6.28% for all antidepressants; and RR = 1.88, 95% CI: 0.74–4.79; I2 = 52.0% for SSRIs). In addition, the risk of suicide and suicide attempt between SSRIs and other antidepressants was similar (RR 1.13, 95% CI: 0.87–1.46, I2 = 32.4%).ConclusionThe main findings of this meta-analysis provide some evidence that antidepressant exposure seems to have an increased suicidal risk among children and young adults. Since untreated depression remains one of the largest risk factors for suicide and the efficacy of antidepressants is proven, clinicians should evaluate carefully their patients and be cautious with patients at risk to have treatment emergence or worsening of suicidal ideation (TESI/TWOSI) when prescribing antidepressants to children and young patients.