Immunomodulatory commensal bacteria modify host immunity through delivery of regulatory microbial-derived products to host cells. Extracellular membrane vesicles (MVs) secreted from symbiont commensals represent one such transport mechanism. How MVs exert their anti-inflammatory effects or whether their tolerance-inducing potential can be used for therapeutic purposes remains poorly defined. In this study, we show that MVs isolated from the human lactic acid commensal bacteria Pediococcus pentosaceus suppressed Ag-specific humoral and cellular responses. MV treatment of bone marrow–derived macrophages and bone marrow progenitors promoted M2-like macrophage polarization and myeloid-derived suppressor cell differentiation, respectively, most likely in a TLR2-dependent manner. Consistent with their immunomodulatory activity, MV-differentiated cells upregulated expression of IL-10, arginase-1, and PD-L1 and suppressed the proliferation of activated T cells. MVs’ anti-inflammatory effects were further tested in acute inflammation models in mice. In carbon tetrachloride–induced fibrosis and zymosan-induced peritonitis models, MVs ameliorated inflammation. In the dextran sodium sulfate–induced acute colitis model, systemic treatment with MVs prevented colon shortening and loss of crypt architecture. In an excisional wound healing model, i.p. MV administration accelerated wound closure through recruitment of PD-L1–expressing myeloid cells to the wound site. Collectively, these results indicate that P. pentosaceus–derived MVs hold promise as therapeutic agents in management/treatment of inflammatory conditions. Key Points P. pentosaceus MVs possess potent anti-inflammatory immunotherapeutic potential. P. pentosaceus MVs upregulate IL-10, Arg-1, and PD-L1 levels on myeloid cells. MVs promote M2-like macrophage and MDSC differentiation.

The new ball-type metallo bisphthalocyanines (Co₂Pc₂ and Zn₂Pc₂) were synthesized from the corresponding [4,4′-bis(dicoumaroylphthalonitrile)] which can be obtained from the reaction of 3,3′-methylenebis(4-hydroxy-2H-chromen-2-one) and 4-nitrophthalonitrile. The structures of the newly synthesized compounds have been confirmed and characterized by elemental analysis, UV/Vis, IR and ¹H NMR spectroscopies and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Solar cells of the configuration ITO/Co₂Pc₂/C60/Al and ITO/Zn₂Pc₂/C60/Al were fabricated. The effect of the thickness of the active Pc layer – the thickness of the Pc layer was varied from 15 to 80 nm – on solar cells parameters has been investigated. A nearly thickness independent open circuit voltage was observed in both structures. The maximum photovoltaic conversion efficiency, short circuit current and fill factor were observed in ITO/Zn₂Pc₂/C60/Al cell with 80 nm Pc layer to be 0.255%, 1 mA cm⁻² and 0.38, respectively. The redox properties of the ball-type complexes were investigated by cyclic voltammetry, controlled-potential coulometry and in situ spectroelectrochemistry in DMSO–TBAP. The electrochemical measurements showed that the complexes form ring-based and/or metal-based mixed-valence species, due to the remarkable intramolecular interactions between the two metal phthalocyanine units. The Vulcan XC-72(VC)/Nafion(Nf)/Co₂Pc₂ modified glassy carbon electrode showed much higher catalytic performance towards oxygen reduction, compared to the VC/Nf/Zn₂Pc₂ modified one. It was found that the VC/Nf/Co₂Pc₂ catalyst is nearly insensitive to the presence of methanol. In the presence of 1 M methanol in the electrolyte, the catalytic performance of the Co₂Pc₂-based catalyst in oxygen reduction was much better than that of the Pt-based one. Thus, it was shown that the VC/Nf/Co₂Pc₂ catalyst can be a good alternative to VC/Nf/Pt as a cathode catalyst in direct methanol fuel cells.

Early and accurate diagnosis of gastric cancer is vital for effective and targeted treatment. It is known that glycosylation profiles differ in the cancer tissue development process. This study aimed to profile the N-glycans in gastric cancer tissues to predict gastric cancer using machine learning algorithms. The (glyco-) proteins of formalin-fixed parafilm embedded (FFPE) gastric cancer and adjacent control tissues were extracted by chloroform/methanol extraction after the conventional deparaffinization step. The N-glycans were released and labeled with a 2-amino benzoic (2-AA) tag. The MALDI-MS analysis of the 2-AA labeled N-glycans was performed in negative ionization mode, and fifty-nine N-glycan structures were determined. The relative and analyte areas of the detected N-glycans were extracted from the obtained data. Statistical analyses identified significant expression levels of 14 different N-glycans in gastric cancer tissues. The data were separated based on the physical characteristics of N-glycans and used to test in machine-learning models. It was determined that the multilayer perceptron (MLP) was the most appropriate model with the highest sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, Matthews correlation coefficient, and f1 scores for each dataset. The highest accuracy score (96.0 ± 1.3) was obtained from the whole N-glycans relative area dataset, and the AUC value was determined as 0.98. It was concluded that gastric cancer tissues could be distinguished from adjacent control tissues with high accuracy using mass spectrometry-based N-glycomic data.

The phthalodinitrile derivative (3) was prepared by the reaction of 4,4′-(octahydro-4,7-methano-5H-inden-5-ylidene)bisphenol (1) and 4-nitrophthalonitrile (2) with dry DMF as the solvent in the presence of the base K₂CO₃ by the method of nucleophilic substitution of an activated nitro group in an aromatic ring. The template reaction of 3 with the corresponding metal salts gave the novel bi-nuclear ball-type metallophthalocyanines, MPcs {M = Co (4), Cu (5), Zn (6)}. Newly synthesized compounds were characterized by elemental analysis, UV-vis, FT-IR (ATR), MALDI-TOF mass and ¹H-NMR spectroscopy techniques. The electronic spectra exhibit an intense π → π* transition of characteristic Q and B bands of the Pc core. The dielectric properties and interface between the spin coated films of 4–6 and a p-type silicon substrate have been studied by fabricating metal–insulator–semiconductor capacitors. The results indicated that the frequency dependence of the dielectric permittivity, ε′(ω), exhibits non-Debye type relaxation for all the temperatures investigated. The ac conductivity results indicated that the conduction mechanism can be explained by a hopping model at low temperatures (<430 K) and a free band conduction mechanism at high temperatures (≥430 K). The density of interface state calculations on these novel compounds showed that the combination of Au/4/p-Si is a promising structure with a high dielectric constant and a low interface trap density suitable for metal-oxide-semiconductor devices. The electrochemical properties of the Pc complexes were examined by cyclic voltammetry, differential voltammetry and controlled potential coulometry on platinum in non-aqueous media. The complexes showed ring-based and/or metal-based mixed-valence behaviours as a result of the remarkable interaction between the two Pc rings and/or metal centres. The mixed-valence splitting values for the complexes suggested that the mixed valence species are considerably stable. The Vulcan XC-72(VC)/Nafion(Nf)/4 modified glassy carbon electrode showed much a higher catalytic performance towards oxygen reduction than those of VC/Nf/5 and VC/Nf/6 modified ones.