Structures of NHC Hg(ii) and Ag(i) complexes and selective recognition of nitrate anion

Eight N-heterocyclic carbene Hg(ii) and Ag(i) complexes were prepared, and the selective recognition of nitrate anion was studied.

Study on the treatment of simulated coking wastewater by O3 and O3/Fenton processes in a rotating packed bed

A rotating packed bed was used to intensify the O₃ and O₃/Fenton processes for coking wastewater treatment.

Silver(i)-based energetic coordination polymers: synthesis, structure and energy performance

Two energetic compounds were reported to illustrate the substituent effect of nitrogen-rich heterocycles on the energy performance of energetic materials.

NHC macrometallocycles of mercury(ii) and silver(i): synthesis, structural studies and recognition of Hg(ii) complex 4 for silver ion

Seven NHC macrometallocycles (Hg(ii) and Ag(i)) were prepared, and the recognition of Ag⁺ using (NHC)₂–Hg–I₂ (4) as a host was studied.

Specific histone modifications regulate the expression of AhR in 16HBE cells exposed to benzo(a)pyrene

Our study identified specific histone modifications that were involved in down regulation of the transcription of AhR, conferring cells resistance to cellular damage.

In situ synthesized 3D heterometallic metal–organic framework (MOF) as a high-energy-density material shows high heat of detonation, good thermostability and insensitivity

A 3D heterometallic metal–organic framework has been synthesized in situ using Mtta formed from acetonitrile and azide, and structurally characterized.

Two-dimensional graphene-like C2N: an experimentally available porous membrane for hydrogen purification

The two-dimensional porous C₂N sheet exhibits an extremely high selectivity and large permeance in favour of H₂ among other atmospheric gases.

A Dy2 single-molecule magnet with benzoate anions and phenol-O− bridging groups

A Dy₂ single-molecule magnet, namely [Dy₂(H₃L)₂(PhCOO)₄]·4H₂O (1), was obtained from the reaction of Dy(PhCOO)₃ with 1,5-bis(2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylidene)carbonohydrazide (H₄L).

Role of synaptic structural plasticity in impairments of spatial learning and memory induced by developmental lead exposure in Wistar rats

Lead (Pb) is found to impair cognitive function. Synaptic structural plasticity is considered to be the physiological basis of synaptic functional plasticity and has been recently found to play important roles in learning and memory. To study the effect of Pb on spatial learning and memory at different developmental stages, and its relationship with alterations of synaptic structural plasticity, postnatal rats were randomly divided into three groups: Control; Pre-weaning Pb (Parents were exposed to 2 mM PbCl₂ 3 weeks before mating until weaning of pups); Post-weaning Pb (Weaned pups were exposed to 2 mM PbCl₂ for 9 weeks). The spatial learning and memory of rats was measured by Morris water maze (MWM) on PND 85–90. Rat pups in Pre-weaning Pb and Post-weaning Pb groups performed significantly worse than those in Control group (p<0.05). However, there was no significant difference in the performance of MWM between the two Pb-exposure groups. Before MWM (PND 84), the number of neurons and synapses significantly decreased in Pre-weaning Pb group, but not in Post-weaning Pb group. After MWM (PND 91), the number of synapses in Pre-weaning Pb group increased significantly, but it was still less than that of Control group (p<0.05); the number of synapses in Post-weaning Pb group was also less than that of Control group (p<0.05), although the number of synapses has no differences between Post-weaning Pb and Control groups before MWM. In both Pre-weaning Pb and Post-weaning Pb groups, synaptic structural parameters such as thickness of postsynaptic density (PSD), length of synaptic active zone and synaptic curvature increased significantly while width of synaptic cleft decreased significantly compared to Control group (p<0.05). Our data demonstrated that both early and late developmental Pb exposure impaired spatial learning and memory as well as synaptic structural plasticity in Wistar rats.

BRAF mutation correlates with recurrent papillary thyroid carcinoma in Chinese patients

PURPOSE

We investigated correlations of somatic BRAF V600E mutation and RET/PTC1 rearrangement with recurrent disease in Chinese patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (ptc).

METHODS

This prospective study included 214 patients with ptc histologically confirmed between November 2009 and May 2011 at a single institute.

RESULTS

We found somatic BRAF V600E mutation in 68.7% and RET/PTC1 rearrangement in 25.7% of the patients. Although BRAF mutation was not significantly associated with clinicopathologic features such as patient sex or age, multicentric disease, thyroid capsule invasion, tumour stage, or nodal metastasis, it was significantly associated with recurrent disease. Multivariate analysis revealed that BRAF mutation and tumour size were independent risk factors associated with recurrent disease, with odds ratios of 9.072 and 2.387 respectively. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve increased 8.3% when BRAF mutation was added to the traditional prognostic factors, but that effect was statistically nonsignificant (0.663 vs. 0.746, p = 0.124). RET/PTC1 rearrangement and nodal metastasis were significantly associated in all patients (p = 0.042), marginally associated in ptc patients (p = 0.051), but not associated in microptc patients (p = 0.700). RET/PTC1 rearrangement was not significantly associated with recurrent disease.

CONCLUSIONS

BRAF positivity is an independent predictor of recurrent disease in ptc.

First Report of Potato virus Y Strain N-Wilga Infecting Chrysanthemum in China

Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat.) is a commercially important ornamental grown worldwide, and is also extensively used as an edible and medicinal plant. In the present work, viruses and viroids infecting chrysanthemum were investigated in China in 2012 and 2013. Typical viral symptoms were observed in field-grown chrysanthemum with leaf yellowing and mottled leaves in Wenjiang District, Sichuan Province, China. The incidence of these symptoms in the field was 12.3%. Chrysanthemum virus B (CVB), Tomato aspermy virus (TAV), Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), Tobacoo mosaic virus (TMV), Chrysanthemum stunt viroid (CSVd), and Chrysanthemum chlorotic mottle viroid (CChMVd), which had previously been reported to infect chrysanthemum in China (2,3), were not detected by RT-PCR assay. Since these symptomatic chrysanthemum plants grew next to a tobacco field, viruses affecting tobacco were suspected as possible cause. Sixteen symptomatic leaves and 12 non-symptomatic leaves were collected and tested for Potato virus Y (PVY) presence using commercial PVY-specific DAS-ELISA kits (Catalog no. PSA20001, Agdia) Six samples were found positive for PVY. RT-PCR tests using specific primers for CP gene (CP-F 5'-ACTGTGATGAATGGGCTTATG-3'; CP-R 5'-GGCATATATGGTTCCTTTTTG-3') (4) amplified a single, expected 218-bp DNA fragment from chrysanthemum extracts from all six samples positive for PVY in ELISA. These six PCR fragments were sequenced and found 100% identical to each other. The sequence (GenBank Accession No. KJ174515) shared 99% identity with corresponding sequences of several PVY isolates (NC_001616, EF026076, HM590407, and JQ924288). The same six positive samples were subjected to a multiplex RT-PCR assay (1) to identify the PVY strain type, and all six PVY samples from Sichuan were found to belong to the PVY^N-Wi strain. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the PVY^N-Wi strain infecting chrysanthemum in Sichuan, China. References: (1) M. Chikh Ali et al. Plant Dis. 10:1370, 2013. (2) E. A. Nassar et al. Int. J. Virol. 8:14, 2012. (3) H. Yamamoto et al. J. Gen. Plant Pathol. 71:156, 2005. (4) J. Q. Zhang et al. J. Phytopathol. 161:92, 2013.

A combined method to quantify the retinal metabolic rate of oxygen using photoacoustic ophthalmoscopy and optical coherence tomography

Quantitatively determining physiological parameters at a microscopic level in the retina furthers the understanding of the molecular pathways of blinding diseases, such as diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma. An essential parameter, which has yet to be quantified noninvasively, is the retinal oxygen metabolic rate (rMRO2). Quantifying rMRO2 is challenging because two parameters, the blood flow rate and hemoglobin oxygen saturation (sO2), must be measured together. We combined photoacoustic ophthalmoscopy (PAOM) with spectral domain-optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) to tackle this challenge, in which PAOM measured the sO2 and SD-OCT mapped the blood flow rate. We tested the integrated system on normal wild-type rats, in which the measured rMRO2 was 297.86 ± 70.23 nl/minute. This quantitative method may shed new light on both fundamental research and clinical care in ophthalmology in the future.

PFP/ESG: automated protein function prediction servers enhanced with Gene Ontology visualization tool

Protein function prediction (PFP) is an automated function prediction method that predicts Gene Ontology (GO) annotations for a protein sequence using distantly related sequences and contextual associations of GO terms. Extended similarity group (ESG) is another GO prediction algorithm that makes predictions based on iterative sequence database searches. Here, we provide interactive web servers for the PFP and ESG algorithms that are equipped with an effective visualization of the GO predictions in a hierarchical topology.

AVAILABILITY

PFP/ESG servers are freely available at http://kiharalab.org/web/pfp.php and http://kiharalab.org/web/esg.php, or access both at http://kiharalab.org/pfp_esg.php.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Modulation of interhemispheric functional coordination in electroconvulsive therapy for depression

Considerable evidence suggests that depression is related to interhemispheric functional coordination deficits. For depression, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the most rapid and effective therapy, but its underlying mechanism remains unknown. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of ECT on the interhemispheric functional coordination in depression patients. We used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to observe the change of interhemispheric functional coordination with the method of voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) in 11 depressed patients before and after ECT, compared with 15 healthy controls. The results showed that, compared with depression patients before ECT, VMHC was significantly increased in superior frontal gyri (BA 8), middle frontal gyri (two clusters: BA 8/9 and BA 10) and angular gyri (BA 39) in depression patients after ECT. Compared with healthy controls, VMHC in those areas was significantly lower in the middle frontal gyri (BA 8/9) and angular gyri (BA 39) in depression patients before ECT, but no significant difference was observed in the superior frontal gyri (BA 8) and middle frontal gyri (BA 10). There was no significant correlation between the changes of Hamilton Depression Rating Scale scores and changed VMHC values in those four areas in depression patients. The results suggest that ECT selectively modulated interhemispheric functional coordination in depression patients. Such may play an important mechanistic role in the treatment of depression, and may afford a useful avenue for optimizing treatment.

MiR-424-5p reversed epithelial-mesenchymal transition of anchorage-independent HCC cells by directly targeting ICAT and suppressed HCC progression

Resistance to anoikis and Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) are two processes critically involved in cancer metastasis. In this study, we demonstrated that after anchorage deprival, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells not only resisted anoikis, but also exhibited EMT process. Microarray expression profiling revealed that expression of miR-424-5p was significantly decreased in anoikis-resistant HCC cells. Ectopic overexpression of miR-424-5p was sufficient to reverse resistance to anoikis, block EMT process and inhibit malignant behaviors of HCC cells. Target analysis showed that a potent β-catenin inhibitor, ICAT/CTNNBIP1 was a direct target of miR-424-5p. Further study demonstrated that miR-424-5p reversed resistance to anoikis and EMT of HCCs by directly targeting ICAT and further maintaining the E-cadherin/β-catanin complex on the cellular membrance. In vivo study further demonstrated that miR-424-5p significantly inhibited the tumorigenicity of HCC cells in nude mice. Clinical investigation demonstrated that miR-424-5p was significantly downregulated in HCC tissues compared with that of the non-cancerous liver tissues, and this decreased expression of miR-424-5p was significantly correlated with higher pathological grades and more advanced TNM stages. Therefore, aberrant expression of miR-424-5p is critically involved in resistance to anoikis and EMT during the metastatic process of HCC, and its downregulation significantly contributes to liver cancer progression.

Heavy metal-induced metallothionein expression is regulated by specific protein phosphatase 2A complexes

Induction of metallothionein (MT) expression is involved in metal homeostasis and detoxification. To identify the key pathways that regulate metal-induced cytotoxicity, we investigate how phosphorylated metal-responsive transcription factor-1 (MTF-1) contributed to induction of MT expression. Immortal human embryonic kidney cells (HEK cells) were treated with seven kinds of metals including cadmium chloride (CdCl2), zinc sulfate (ZnSO4), copper sulfate(CuSO4), lead acetate (PbAc), nickel sulfate (NiSO4), sodium arsenite (NaAsO2), and potassium bichromate (K2Cr2O7). The MT expression was induced in a dose-response and time-dependent manner upon various metal treatments. A cycle of phosphorylation and dephosphorylation was required for translocation of MTF-1 from cytoplasm to nucleus, leading to the up-regulation of MTs expression. Protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) participated in regulating MT expression through dephosphorylation of MTF-1. A loss-of-function screen revealed that the specific PP2A complexes containing PR110 were involved in metal-induced MT expression. Suppression of PP2A PR110 in HEK cells resulted in the persistent MTF-1 phosphorylation and the disturbance of MTF-1 nuclear translocation, which was concomitant with a significant decrease of MT expression and enhanced cytotoxicity in HEK cells. Notably, MTF-1 was found in complex with specific PP2A complexes containing the PR110 subunit upon metal exposure. Furthermore, we identify that the dephosphorylation of MTF-1 at residue Thr-254 is directly regulated by PP2A PR110 complexes and responsible for MTF-1 activation. Taken together, these findings delineate a novel pathway that determines cytotoxicity in response to metal treatments and provide new insight into the role of PP2A in cellular stress response.

Hypoxia inducible factor-1α suppresses Peroxiredoxin 3 expression to promote proliferation of CCRCC cells

Peroxiredoxin 3 (Prx3) is a mitochondrial member of the antioxidant family of thioredoxin peroxidases that uses mitochondrial thioredoxin 2 as a source of reducing equivalents to scavenge hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Here, we report that the protein levels of Prx3 are significantly reduced in VHL-deficient clear cell renal cell carcinoma (CCRCC). Furthermore, stabilization of HIF-1α protein, caused either by VHL deficiency under normoxia, or by hypoxia, significantly reduced Prx3 expression. Luciferase-reporter and chromatin-immunoprecipitation assays indicated that HIF-1α binds to the hypoxia-responsive elements of PRDX3 promoter and represses its transcription. Finally, shRNA-based assays suggested that Prx3 downregulation is required for the HIF-1α-dependent proliferation of CCRCC cells. Taken together, our results shed new light onto the mechanism of HIF-1α-dependent proliferation in CCRCC cells.