Glioblastoma is one of the most aggressive and lethal forms of brain cancer, characterized by rapid angiogenesis and infiltration of tumor-associated macrophages in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Given the limited efficacy of single-targeting tumor cell therapies against glioblastoma, regulating the TME has emerged as a promising strategy to improve therapeutic outcomes. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) was used to assess the association between ligand-dependent nuclear receptor corepressor (LCoR) expression and glioblastoma. LCoR expression in patient glioma specimens was examined by qRT‑PCR and Western blot. LCoR was knocked down or overexpressed in glioblastoma cell lines (SF295, SNB19) using lentiviral vectors, followed by functional assays for proliferation, migration, invasion, angiogenesis, chemokine secretion, and monocyte migration. Subcutaneous and orthotopic mouse models were established to evaluate tumor growth, angiogenesis, and macrophage infiltration via immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence. Transcriptome sequencing was performed on LCoR‑overexpressing cells to explore underlying mechanisms. In addition, mice were treated with the small-molecule compound deoxynyboquinone to assess its therapeutic effect via LCoR‑mediated regulation. TCGA analysis reveals lower LCoR expression in glioblastoma than in normal tissues, correlating with improved patient survival. Clinical samples further confirm reduced LCoR expression in tumor versus peri-tumor tissues. LCoR knockdown significantly enhanced the proliferation, migration, and invasion of glioblastoma cells, whereas LCoR overexpression inhibited these malignant phenotypes. Mechanistically, LCoR suppressed VEGF and HIF-1α expression in tumor cells, thereby reducing angiogenesis and tumor sphere formation. Transcriptome sequencing revealed that LCoR is involved in immune regulation. Further experiments demonstrated that LCoR inhibited chemokine secretion, thereby reducing monocyte migration and macrophage M2 polarization. In subcutaneous and orthotopic glioblastoma mouse models, LCoR overexpression suppressed tumor growth by inhibiting angiogenesis and macrophage M2 polarization. Treatment with the deoxynyboquinone reduced angiogenesis and macrophage infiltration in the TME through LCoR-mediated downregulation of MCP-1, thereby blocking glioblastoma progression. LCoR serves as a potential therapeutic target against glioblastoma. Upregulating LCoR can inhibit glioblastoma development by suppressing angiogenesis and immune evasion within the TME.

The development of biomass pellet fuels represents an important pathway for achieving a low-carbon energy transition. Based on the particle breakage behavior of the feedstock, this study investigated the mesoscopic characteristics of the densification process of shiitake mushroom residue (SMR) biomass using piston compression experiments and the discrete element method (DEM). The results indicate that the increase in the relative breakage rate exhibits a negative quadratic relationship with time. After breakage, the particle size distribution is mainly concentrated between the minimum and intermediate values of the original particle size, showing a bimodal tendency with enrichment at both ends and a relatively sparse distribution in the intermediate range. Similarly, the reduction in the voidage of the formed pellets also exhibits a negative quadratic relationship with time. SEM/EDS analyses reveal the presence of hard siliceous nodules and abundant pore structures within the pellets. Due to the combined effects of arching and die-wall friction, the compactness and hardness of the formed pellets gradually decrease along the pressure transmission direction, accompanied by an increase in voidage, and the hardness at the pellet center is significantly lower than that at the edge. After introducing sinusoidal vibration at the bottom of the mold, under the conditions of an amplitude of 1.5mm and a frequency of 5-7.5Hz, the axial and circumferential hardness of the pellet became significantly more uniform, indicating a marked improvement in pellet quality. The results of this study can provide valuable references for the theoretical understanding and engineering applications of biomass Pelletizing.

Although nanobodies have superior characteristics to conventional antibodies, their affinities are often lower because of a single interaction site for antigen binding. Therefore, in the current study, a bioinformatics approach was employed to enhance the affinity of a humanized anti-VEGF nanobody even that of the commercially available antibody, bevacizumab. The in vitro safe dose and the affinity of the wild and mutated nanobodies were determined and compared to bevacizumab. The best mutated nanobodies (MHNb136 and MHNb256) were selected by implementing umbrella sampling simulation to improve the binding affinity of the wild-type nanobody (WHNb) to VEGF. In vitro safety investigations were performed on nanobodies with doses of 12.5, 25, 50, and 100 µg, equivalent to the dose of bevacizumab as the conventional treatment. Ultimately, umbrella sampling results showed that MHNb136 and MHNb256 bind to VEGF more strongly, with ΔG values of -39.3 and -32.64 kcal/mol, respectively, than WHNb, which has a ΔG value of -19.05 kcal/mol. BIACORE assay results indicated that MHNb136 and MHNb256 bind to VEGF with higher affinity than bevacizumab as a reference. Eventually, MHNb136 and MHNb256 can be subjected for further clinical investigation due to the superiority to bevacizumab.

In vitro culture of callus is an effective method for conserving the genetic resources of economically important crops. However, continuous subculturing is a costly and labor-intensive process. Therefore, establishing an efficient in vitro long-term conservation system applicable to various plant species is required. In this study, calli derived from five medicinal plant species, Camellia japonica (Cj), Centella asiatica (Ca), Ligusticum afficinale (Lo), Panax ginseng (Pg), and Sageratia thea (St) were used to optimize storage conditions and establish a suitable in vitro conservation strategy. Calli cultures were maintained on the appropriate culture medium at 5 °C for 120 days. Cell viability and regrowth rate were assessed during the storage period, and correlations between growth and antioxidant traits were examined. Subsequently, pretreatment optimization using sucrose (3–9%), MeJA (0-200 µM), and CTR (0–20 mg/L) was performed using RSM, and the effects of pretreatment and storage temperature on callus conservation were evaluated. In addition, machine learning models such as GRNN, MLP, RF, SVR, and XGBoost were applied to the experimental data. The findings demonstrated that, in comparison to Ca and St, Lo, Pg, and Cj exhibited noticeably higher antioxidant capacity while maintaining high cell viability and regrowth rates. Interestingly, Ca and St drastically decreased viability and regrowth after 60 days, whereas Lo, Pg, and Cj maintained viability and regeneration for up to 90 days. Both TPC and AC (measured by FRAP assay) showed a high positive correlation with cell viability and growth rate, according to correlation analysis. RSM predicted that the optimal pretreatment medium for enhancing antioxidant capacity was the species-specific proliferation medium supplemented with 3% sucrose, 135 µM MeJA, and 20 mg/L CTR, while the highest TSSC was achieved using the species-specific proliferation medium supplemented with 9% sucrose and 200 µM MeJA. When the storage temperature was set to 15 °C following the antioxidant-enhancing pretreatment derived from the RSM optimization, all five species showed improved cell viability and regrowth rates, among the storage methods. Among the ML models tested, XGBoost demonstrated the most stable and accurate predictive performance for both viability and regrowth during in vitro conservation. SHAP-based analysis of the XGBoost model, focusing on regrowth rate, revealed that storage duration was the most influential factor affecting regrowth prediction, followed by storage temperature, while pretreatment conditions showed secondary but meaningful contributions. This study demonstrates that long-term callus conservation is closely associated with AC and TPC. Medium supplemented with sucrose 3%, 135 µM MeJA, and 20 mg/L CTR, followed by storage at 15 °C, significantly improved viability and regrowth, and calli could be maintained up to 120 days without subculturing. This approach provides an efficient and broadly applicable in vitro strategy for the conservation of diverse plant genetic resources.

Green and biogenic silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are widely researched as anticancer treatments; nevertheless, in vivo data on cyanobacteria-derived formulations and their apoptotic mechanisms are limited. To assess the antitumor activity, hematological safety, and apoptosis-related pathways of Desertifilum tharense-derived AgNPs, provided either independently or in conjunction with Desertifilum exopolysaccharides (EPS), in a mouse Ehrlich cell carcinoma (ECC) model. Male Swiss albino mice were assigned to five groups: healthy control, AgNP toxicity control, tumor control, AgNP-treated tumor, and AgNPs + EPS-treated tumor. Endpoints encompassed body weight, thigh tumor volume, hematological profiling, histology, immunohistochemistry identification of cleaved caspase 3, and real-time PCR quantification of BAX, BCL-2, and caspase 3 mRNA, utilizing the BAX/BCL-2 ratio as an indicator of apoptotic equilibrium. Tumor control subjects exhibited significant increases in body weight and tumor volume, along with anemia, leukocytosis, and altered leukocyte differentials. The AgNP-treated groups had markedly decreased tumor sizes and partial restoration of hematological parameters, whereas healthy mice treated solely with AgNP maintained values within physiological limits. Tumor sections from treated mice exhibited significant necrosis and a treatment-dependent increase in cleaved caspase 3 staining, most apparent and widespread in the AgNPs + EPS group. Gene expression analysis demonstrated a considerable upregulation of BAX and caspase 3, alongside a downregulation of BCL-2 in treated tumors, with the combination formulation exhibiting the highest BAX/BCL-2 ratio, indicative of pronounced activation of mitochondria-mediated apoptosis. Desertifilum-derived AgNPs demonstrate in vivo antitumor efficacy against ECC with satisfactory hematological safety and induce caspase 3 dependent, mitochondria-mediated apoptosis via regulation of the BAX/BCL-2 axis. The co-administration with EPS enhances the pro-apoptotic gene and protein profile, endorsing cyanobacteria-based AgNP/EPS systems as viable candidates for future nano-based cancer therapies.

Bacterial endophytes are a rich source for the bioprospection of chemical compounds with biological activities for application as bio-fungicides. The potential fungicidal activity of secondary metabolites from Bacillus MHSD_36 was evaluated in vitro and in silico against Botrytis cinerea. The secondary metabolites showed both spore germination and mycelial growth inhibition against B. cinerea. In silico analysis confirmed the presence of gene clusters involved in the synthesis of secondary metabolites, from terpenes, beta-lactams and nonribosomal peptides classes, with antimicrobial activity. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry putatively identified secondary metabolites mainly composed of metabolites from the terpenoids and oligopeptide classes. Furthermore, molecular docking analysis revealed that the identified secondary metabolites exhibited a strong binding affinity towards B. cinerea pathogenicity factors, including aspartic protease, cutinase, lipase, and pectin methyltransferase. The strongest binding affinity (-6.644 kcal/mol) was observed towards aspartic protease, which was greater than the highest binding affinity (-4.783 kcal/mol) with a commercially used synthetic fungicide, captan. The annotated metabolites had a low predicted acute toxicity. Therefore, secondary metabolites from Bacillus MHSD_36 are composed of compounds with potential fungicidal activity against B. cinerea.

Studies on the effect of deep frying of oils and their blend in specified frying cycles is unavailable in the open scientific literature. Thus, we investigated fluctuations in the quality of palm oil, shea butter, and their blend as affected by repeated usage in deep-frying of cheese. Crude palm oil, shea butter, and their blend (1:1 w/w) were subjected to deep frying of cheese at 150 °C for 15 minutes, repeated eight times, repeated for six (6) consecutive days. These oil quality indices such as free fatty acid (FFA), peroxide value, p-anisidine value, color index, iodine value, acid value, saponification value, specific gravity and refractive index changes in oil quality were determined. Kinetic rate and Arrhenius equation were used to determine deterioration rate and activation energy. Data were analyzed using ANOVA and regression at α= = 0.05. The FFA values of palm oil (6.09 - 8.03%), shea butter (2.12 - 2.91%), and their blend rate (3.30 - 4.50%) increased significantly (p < 0.05). Palm oil recorded a high value of peroxide (6.20 meqO2/kg), while the lowest value was recorded by shea butter (3.20 meqO2/kg). The p-anisidine value of palm oil was higher (91.77%) after the sixth frying cycle than shea butter (11.00%) and their blend (46.17%). A slight difference in iodine value was observed in the blend (4.89 - 3.82%), while a significant decrease (4.73 g − 0.90 g) was observed in palm oil. A high smoke point was recorded for shea butter (222.7 °C and 226.4°C), palm oil (204.3 °C and 218.2°C) and the blend oil (212.2 °C and 216.6°C) within the six frying cycles. The study indicated that the oils and their blend can be repeatedly used for six frying cycles of deep fat frying of cheese since all the quality parameters fall within the range recommended by the Codex Alimentarius Commission for edible oil. Blend oil exhibited best stability during repeated deep-frying while shea butter and palm oil were considerably less stable.