Cyclic Peptide Mimotopes for the Detection of Serum Anti–ATIC Autoantibody Biomarker in Hepato-Cellular Carcinoma

Tumor-associated (TA) autoantibodies have been identified at the early tumor stage before developing clinical symptoms, which holds hope for early cancer diagnosis. We identified a TA autoantibody from HBx-transgenic (HBx-tg) hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) model mouse, characterized its target antigen, and examined its relationship to human HCC. The mimotopes corresponding to the antigenic epitope of TA autoantibody were screened from a random cyclic peptide library and used for the detection of serum TA autoantibody. The target antigen of the TA autoantibody was identified as an oncogenic bi-functional purine biosynthesis protein, ATIC. It was upregulated in liver cancer tissues of HBx-tg mouse as well as human HCC tissues. Over-expressed ATIC was also secreted extracellularly via the cancer-derived exosomes, which might cause auto-immune responses. The cyclic peptide mimotope with a high affinity to anti-ATIC autoantibody, CLPSWFHRC, distinguishes between serum samples from HCC patients and healthy subjects with 70.83% sensitivity, 90.68% specificity (AUC = 0.87). However, the recombinant human ATIC protein showed a low affinity to anti-ATIC autoantibody, which may be incompatible as a capture antigen for serum TA autoantibody. This study indicates that anti-ATIC autoantibody can be a potential HCC-associated serum biomarker and suggests that autoantibody biomarker’s efficiency can be improved by using antigenic mimicry to native antigens present in vivo.     

A network clock model for time awareness in the Internet of things and artificial intelligence applications

The Journal of Supercomputing - The Internet has immeasurably changed all aspects of life, from work to social relationships. The Internet of things (IoT) promises to add a new dimension by making...     

Solution‐Processable Photonic Inks of Mie‐Resonant Hollow Carbon–Silica Nanospheres

Hollow carbon–silica nanospheres that exhibit angle‐independent structural color with high saturation and minimal absorption are made. Through scattering calculations, it is shown that the structural color arises from Mie resonances that are tuned precisely by varying the thickness of the shells. Since the color does not depend on the spatial arrangement of the particles, the coloration is angle independent and vibrant in powders and liquid suspensions. These properties make hollow carbon–silica nanospheres ideal for applications, and their potential in making flexible, angle‐independent films and 3D printed films is explored.     

A Self-Healing Nanofiber-Based Self-Responsive Time-Temperature Indicator for Securing a Cold-Supply Chain

Perishable foods at undesired temperatures can generate foodborne illnesses that present significant societal costs. To certify refrigeration succession in a food-supply chain, a flexible, easy-to-interpret, damage-tolerant, and sensitive time-temperature indicator (TTI) that uses a self-healing nanofiber mat is devised. This mat is opaque when refrigerated due to nanofiber-induced light scattering, but becomes irreversibly transparent at room temperature through self-healing-induced interfibrillar fusion leading to the appearance of a warning sign. The mat monitors both freezer (−20 °C) and chiller (2 °C) successions and its timer is tunable over the 0.5–22.5 h range through control of the polymer composition and film thickness. The thin mat itself serves as both a temperature sensor and display; it does not require modularization, accurately measures localized or gradient heat, and functions even after crushing, cutting, and when weight-loaded in a manner that existing TTIs cannot. It also contains no drainable chemicals and is attachable to various shapes because it operates through an intrinsic physical response.     

BCGAN: A CGAN-based over-sampling model using the boundary class for data balancing

The Journal of Supercomputing - A class imbalance problem occurs when a dataset is decomposed into one majority class and one minority class. This problem is critical in the machine learning...     

Correction to: Comparative study on anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties of hydroponic ginseng and soil-cultured ginseng

Food Science and Biotechnology - The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. The presentation of the row “Total (μg/g)” in Table 2 was incorrect.     

Addressing amorphization and transgranular fracture of B4C through Si doping and TiB2 microparticle reinforcing

Over the last two decades, many studies have contributed to improving our understanding of the brittle failure mechanisms of boron carbide and provided a road map for inhibiting the underlying mechanisms and improving the mechanical response of boron carbide. This paper provides a review of the design and processing approaches utilized to address the amorphization and transgranular fracture of boron carbide, which are mainly based on what we have found through 9 years of work in the field of boron carbides as armor ceramics.