No abstract

This paper describes a simple and sensitive aptamer/graphene oxide (GO) based assay for insulin detection. GO can protect DNA from nuclease cleavage, but aptamers can be detached from the GO surface by specific target binding. This exposes the aptamers to enzymatic cleavage and releases the target for a new cycle. Cycling of targets leads to significant signal amplification and low LOD.

Highlights BioAider is an efficient tool for high-throughput analysis of viral genomes. BioAider monitors viral variation that facilitates epidemic control of COVID-19. 14 substitution hotspots in SARS-CoV-2 genome indicates viral polymorphism. NSP13-Y541C was found to be a crucial substitution key viral replication. The unique SSRX repeats on N protein suggests the animal origin of SARS-CoV-2.

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These key miRNAs may functions as potential candidate biomarkers for the clinical diagnosis, classification and prognosis for GC.

A key goal of modernmedicine is target-specific therapeutic intervention.However, most drugs lackselectivity, resulting in“off-target” side effects.To address the requirements of “targeted therapy,”aptamers, which are artificial oligonucleotides,have beenusedas novel targeting ligands to construct aptamer drug conjugates (ApDC)that can specifically bind to a broad spectrum of targets, including diseased cells. Accordingly, the applicationof aptamers in targeted drug delivery has attracted broad interest due to their impressive selectivity and affinity, low immunogenicity, easy synthesis with high reproducibility, facile modification, and relatively rapid tissue penetration with no toxicity. Functionally, aptamers themselves can be used as macromolecular drugs, and they are also commonly used in biomarker discovery and targeted drug delivery. In this review,we will highlight the most recent advances in the development of aptamers and aptamer conjugates, and discuss their potential in targeted therapy.

Highlights The exposure risk of SARS-CoV-2 in diverse environments in hospital was compared. The nucleic acid of SARS-CoV-2 in air and surfaces suggested the potential risk. It is necessary to monitor and disinfect the SARS-CoV-2 in hospital environment. Ventilation, sterilization may help to reduce the potential risk for HCWs. Different strategies were discussed in combating infectious disease.

Accumulating evidence shows the important role of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) networks for predicting survival in tumor patients. However, prognostic biomarkers for lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) are still lacking. The objective of this study is to identify a lncRNA signature for evaluation of overall survival (OS) in 474 LUSC patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. A total of 474 RNA sequencing profiles in LUSC patients with clinical data were obtained, providing a large sample of RNA sequencing data, and 83 LUSC-specific lncRNAs, 26 miRNAs, and 85 mRNAs were identified to construct the ceRNA network (fold change>2, P<0.05). Among these above 83 LUSC-specific lncRNAs, 22 were assessed as closely related to OS in LUSC patients using a univariate Cox proportional regression model. Meanwhile, two (FMO6P and PRR26) of the above 22 OS-related lncRNAs were identified using a multivariate Cox regression model to construct a risk score as an independent indicator of the prognostic value of the lncRNA signature in LUSC patients. LUSC patients with low-risk scores were more positively correlated with OS (P<0.001). The present study provides a deeper understanding of the lncRNA-related ceRNA network in LUSC and suggests that the two-lncRNA signature could serve as an independent biomarker for prognosis of LUSC.