Expression and characterization of the new antimicrobial peptide AP138L-arg26 anti Staphylococcus aureus

The low activity and yield of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are pressing problems. The improvement of activity and yield through modification and heterologous expression, a potential way to solve the problem, is a research hot-pot. In this work, a new plectasin-derived variant L-type AP138 (AP138L-arg26) was constructed for the study of recombination expression and druggablity. As a result, the total protein concentration of AP138L-arg26 was 3.1 mg/mL in Pichia pastoris X-33 supernatant after 5 days of induction expression in a 5-L fermenter. The recombinant peptide AP138L-arg26 has potential antibacterial activity against selected standard and clinical Gram-positive bacteria (G+, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) 2-16 µg/mL) and high stability under different conditions (temperature, pH, ion concentration) and 2 × MIC of AP138L-arg26 could rapidly kill Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) (> 99.99%) within 1.5 h. It showed a high safety in vivo and in vivo and a long post-antibiotic effect (PAE, 1.91 h) compared with vancomycin (1.2 h). Furthermore, the bactericidal mechanism was revealed from two dimensions related to its disruption of the cell membrane resulting in intracellular potassium leakage (2.5-fold higher than control), and an increase in intracellular adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and reactive oxygen species (ROS), the decrease of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and further intervening metabolism in S. aureus. These results indicate that AP138L-arg26 as a new peptide candidate could be used for more in-depth development in the future. KEY POINTS: • The AP138L-arg26 was expressed in the P. pastoris expression system with high yield • The AP138 L-arg26 showed high stability and safety in vitro and in vivo • The AP138L-arg26 killed S. aureus by affecting cell membranes and metabolism.

PLD2 deletion ameliorates sepsis-induced cardiomyopathy by suppressing cardiomyocyte pyroptosis via the NLRP3/caspase 1/GSDMD pathway

OBJECTIVE

Sepsis-induced cardiomyopathy (SICM) is a life-threatening complication. Phospholipase D2 (PLD2) is crucial in mediating inflammatory reactions and is associated with the prognosis of patients with sepsis. Whether PLD2 is involved in the pathophysiology of SICM remains unknown. This study aimed to investigate the effect of PLD2 knockout on SICM and to explore potential mechanisms.

METHODS

The SICM model was established using cecal ligation and puncture in wild-type and PLD2-knockout mice and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced H9C2 cardiomyocytes. Transfection with PLD2-shRNA lentivirus and a PLD2 overexpression plasmid were used to interfere with PLD2 expression in H9C2 cells. Cardiac pathological alterations, cardiac function, markers of myocardial injury, and inflammatory factors were used to evaluate the SICM model. The expression of pyroptosis-related proteins (NLRP3, cleaved caspase 1, and GSDMD-N) was assessed using western blotting, immunofluorescence, and immunohistochemistry.

RESULTS

SICM mice had myocardial tissue damage, increased inflammatory response, and impaired heart function, accompanied by elevated PLD2 expression. PLD2 deletion improved cardiac histological changes, mitigated cTNI production, and enhanced the survival of the SICM mice. Compared with controls, PLD2-knockdown H9C2 exhibits a decrease in inflammatory markers and lactate dehydrogenase production, and scanning electron microscopy results suggest that pyroptosis may be involved. The overexpression of PLD2 increased the expression of NLRP3 in cardiomyocytes. In addition, PLD2 deletion decreased the expression of pyroptosis-related proteins in SICM mice and LPS-induced H9C2 cells.

CONCLUSION

PLD2 deletion is involved in SICM pathogenesis and is associated with the inhibition of the myocardial inflammatory response and pyroptosis through the NLRP3/caspase 1/GSDMD pathway.

Microcystin-RR promote lipid accumulation through CD36 mediated signal pathway and fatty acid uptake in HepG2 cells

Microcystins (MC)-RR is a significant analogue of MC-LR, which has been identified as a hepatotoxin capable of influencing lipid metabolism and promoting the progression of liver-related metabolic diseases. However, the toxicity and biological function of MC-RR are still not well understood. In this study, the toxic effects and its role in lipid metabolism of MC-RR were investigated in hepatoblastoma cells (HepG2cells). The results demonstrated that MC-RR dose-dependently reduced cell viability and induced apoptosis. Additionally, even at low concentrations, MC-RR promoted lipid accumulation through up-regulating levels of triglyceride, total cholesterol, phosphatidylcholines and phosphatidylethaolamine in HepG2 cells, with no impact on cell viability. Proteomics and transcriptomics analysis further revealed significant alterations in the protein and gene expression profiles in HepG2 cells treated with MC-RR. Bioinformatic analysis, along with subsequent validation, indicated the upregulation of CD36 and activation of the AMPK and PI3K/AKT/mTOR in response to MC-RR exposure. Finally, knockdown of CD36 markedly ameliorated MC-RR-induced lipid accumulation in HepG2 cells. These findings collectively suggest that MC-RR promotes lipid accumulation in HepG2 cells through CD36-mediated signal pathway and fatty acid uptake. Our findings provide new insights into the hepatotoxic mechanism of MC-RR.

Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Complex Reactivity with the Rapid Approach for Proton Transport and Other Reactions (RAPTOR) Software Package

Simulating chemically reactive phenomena such as proton transport on nanosecond to microsecond and beyond time scales is a challenging task. Ab initio methods are unable to currently access these time scales routinely, and traditional molecular dynamics methods feature fixed bonding arrangements that cannot account for changes in the system's bonding topology. The Multiscale Reactive Molecular Dynamics (MS-RMD) method, as implemented in the Rapid Approach for Proton Transport and Other Reactions (RAPTOR) software package for the LAMMPS molecular dynamics code, offers a method to routinely sample longer time scale reactive simulation data with statistical precision. RAPTOR may also be interfaced with enhanced sampling methods to drive simulations toward the analysis of reactive rare events, and a number of collective variables (CVs) have been developed to facilitate this. Key advances to this methodology, including GPU acceleration efforts and novel CVs to model water wire formation are reviewed, along with recent applications of the method which demonstrate its versatility and robustness.

Creation of memory-memory entanglement in a metropolitan quantum network

Towards realizing the future quantum internet1,2, a pivotal milestone entails the transition from two-node proof-of-principle experiments conducted in laboratories to comprehensive multi-node set-ups on large scales. Here we report the creation of memory-memory entanglement in a multi-node quantum network over a metropolitan area. We use three independent memory nodes, each of which is equipped with an atomic ensemble quantum memory3 that has telecom conversion, together with a photonic server where detection of a single photon heralds the success of entanglement generation. The memory nodes are maximally separated apart for 12.5 kilometres. We actively stabilize the phase variance owing to fibre links and control lasers. We demonstrate concurrent entanglement generation between any two memory nodes. The memory lifetime is longer than the round-trip communication time. Our work provides a metropolitan-scale testbed for the evaluation and exploration of multi-node quantum network protocols and starts a stage of quantum internet research.

Effect of structural support size and position on depressed tibial plateau fractures: A finite element analysis

Objective

Structural support for depressed tibial plateau fractures is receiving increasing attention. Currently, there has been little biomechanical evaluation of structural support. This work aimed to investigate the effect of structural support size and position on fracture fixation stability.

Methods

A split-depressed tibial plateau fracture model was created according to the fracture map. Cortical screws combined with structural filler were used for fracture fixation. The filler diameter was set to small, medium and large, and the filler position was set to the center and offset by 1, 2 and 3 mm to study the effect of position and size on stability.

Results

The maximum stress on the implant in all scenarios occurs at the lower contact surface between the anterior screw and the filler. Increased support size resulted in increased mean maximum screw stress, depressed fragment axial displacement and separated fragment transverse displacement (screw stress: 266.6 ± 37.7 MPa vs. 266.7 ± 51.0 MPa vs. 273.8 ± 41.5 MPa; depressed displacement: 0.123 ± 0.036 mm vs. 0.133 ± 0.049 mm vs. 0.158 ± 0.050 mm; separated displacement: 0.402 ± 0.031 mm VS 0.412 ± 0.047 mm VS 0.437 ± 0.049 mm). The larger the offset of the support position was, the larger the peak screw stress and the larger the reduction loss of depressed and separated fragment reduction, regardless of the support size. The medium support combined with the central position presented the minimum of peak stress and reduction loss. Cortical bone was below 2 % and trabecular strain was below 10 % for all scenarios.

Conclusion

Central placement of structural support provides superior stability for the treatment of depressed tibial plateau fractures compared to the eccentric placement. When a support is placed centrally, optimal stability is achieved when the diameter matches the diameter of the depressed region. Thus, the utilization of equal-diameter fillers to provide central support appears to be an ideal selection for depressed tibial plateau fractures.

Interaction between Dietary Lactoferrin and Gut Microbiota in Host Health

The gut microbiota are known to play an important role in host health and disease. Alterations in the gut microbiota composition can disrupt the stability of the gut ecosystem, which may result in noncommunicable chronic diseases (NCCDs). Remodeling the gut microbiota through personalized nutrition is a novel therapeutic avenue for both disease control and prevention. However, whether there are commonly used gut microbiota-targeted diets and how gut microbiota-diet interactions combat NCCDs and improve health remain questions to be addressed. Lactoferrin (LF), which is broadly used in dietary supplements, acts not only as an antimicrobial in the defense against enteropathogenic bacteria but also as a prebiotic to propagate certain probiotics. Thus, LF-induced gut microbiota alterations can be harnessed to induce changes in host physiology, and the underpinnings of their relationships and mechanisms are beginning to unravel in studies involving humans and animal models.

In Vitro/Vivo Mechanisms of Antibacterial Peptide NZ2114 against Staphylococcus pseudintermedius and Its Biofilms

Staphylococcus pseudintermedius is an opportunistic pathogen commonly found in canines, and has garnered escalating interest due to its potential for zoonotic transmission and increasing antimicrobial resistance. However, the excessive use of antibiotics and the characteristic of S. pseudintermedius forming biofilms make treatment challenging. In this study, the in vivo and in vitro antimicrobial activity and mechanisms of action of NZ2114, a plectasin-derived peptide, against S. pseudintermedius were investigated. NZ2114 exhibited potent antibacterial activity towards S. pseudintermedius (minimum inhibitory concentration, MIC = 0.23 μM) with a lower probability of inducing drug-resistant mutations and efficient bactericidal action, which was superior to those of mopirucin (MIC = 0.25-0.5 μM) and lincomycin (MIC = 4.34-69.41 μM). The results of electron microscopy and flow cytometry showed that NZ2114 disrupted S. pseudintermedius' cell membrane, resulting in cellular content leakage, cytoplasmic membrane shrinkage, and, eventually, cell death. The intracellular ROS activity and Alamar Blue detection showed that NZ2114 interferes with intracellular metabolic processes. In addition, NZ2114 effectively inhibits biofilm formation, and confocal laser scanning microscopy further revealed its antibacterial and anti-biofilm activity (biofilm thickness reduced to 6.90-17.70 μm). The in vivo therapy of NZ2114 in a mouse pyoderma model showed that it was better than lincomycin in effectively decreasing the number of skin bacteria, alleviating histological damage, and reducing the skin damage area. These results demonstrated that NZ2114 may be a promising antibacterial candidate against S. pseudintermedius infections.

Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of antibacterial peptide NZX in Staphylococcus aureus mastitis mouse model

Staphylococcus aureus is associated with dairy mastitis, which causes serious economic losses to dairy farming industry. Antibacterial peptide NZX showed good antibacterial activity against S. aureus. This study aimed to evaluate pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of NZX against S. aureus-induced mouse mastitis. NZX exhibited potent in vitro antibacterial activity against the test S. aureus strains (minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC): 0.23-0.46 μM), low mutant prevention concentration (MPC: 1.18-3.68 μM), and a long post antibiotic effect (PAE: 2.20-8.84 h), which was superior to those of lincomycin and ceftiofur. Antibacterial mechanisms showed that NZX could penetrate the cell membrane, resulting in obvious cell membrane perforation and morphological changes, and bind to intracellular DNA. Furthermore, NZX had a good stability in milk environment (retention rate: 85.36%, 24 h) than that in mammary homogenate (47.90%, 24 h). In mouse mastitis model, NZX (25-400 μg/gland) could significantly reduce the bacterial load of mammary tissue in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, NZX (100 μg/gland) could relieve the inflammatory symptoms of mammary tissue, and significantly decreased its pathological scores. The concentration-time curve of NZX (100 μg/gland) in the mammary tissue was plotted and the corresponding pharmacokinetic parameters were obtained by non-compartment model calculation. Those parameters of Tmax, T1/2, Cmax and AUC were 0.5 h, 35.11 h, 32.49 μg/g and 391 μg·h/g, respectively. Therefore, these results suggest that NZX could act as a promising candidate for treating dairy mastitis disease caused by S. aureus. KEY POINTS: • NZX could kill S. aureus by dual mechanism involved in membrane and DNA disruption • NZX could relieve S. aureus-induced mouse mastitis • Pharmacokinetic parameters of NZX in mouse mammary gland were obtained.

Causality of the gut microbiome and atherosclerosis-related lipids: a bidirectional Mendelian Randomization study

AIMS

Recent studies have indicated an association between intestinal flora and lipids. However, observational studies cannot indicate causality. In this study, we aimed to investigate the potentially causal relationships between the intestinal flora and blood lipids.

METHODS

We performed a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian Randomization (MR) analysis to investigate the causal relationship between intestinal flora and blood lipids. Summary statistics of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) for the 211 intestinal flora and blood lipid traits (n = 5) were obtained from public datasets. Five recognized MR methods were applied to assess the causal relationship with lipids, among which, the inverse-variance weighted (IVW) regression was used as the primary MR method. A series of sensitivity analyses were performed to test the robustness of the causal estimates.

RESULTS

The results indicated a potential causal association between 19 intestinal flora and dyslipidemia in humans. Genus Ruminococcaceae, Christensenellaceae, Parasutterella, Terrisporobacter, Parabacteroides, Class Erysipelotrichia, Family Erysipelotrichaceae, and order Erysipelotrichales were associated with higher dyslipidemia, whereas genus Oscillospira, Peptococcus, Ruminococcaceae UCG010, Ruminococcaceae UCG011, Dorea, and Family Desulfovibrionaceae were associated with lower dyslipidemia. After using the Bonferroni method for multiple testing correction, Only Desulfovibrionaceae [Estimate = -0.0418, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.9362-0.9826, P = 0.0007] exhibited stable and significant negative associations with ApoB levels. The inverse MR analysis did not find a significant causal effect of lipids on the intestinal flora. Additionally, no significant heterogeneity or horizontal pleiotropy for IVs was observed in the analysis.

CONCLUSION

The study suggested a causal relationship between intestinal flora and dyslipidemia. These findings will provide a meaningful reference to discover dyslipidemia for intervention to address the problems in the clinic.

The effects of glycosylation modifications on monocyte recruitment and foam cell formation in atherosclerosis

The monocyte recruitment and foam cell formation have been intensively investigated in atherosclerosis. Nevertheless, as the study progressed, it was obvious that crucial molecules participated in the monocyte recruitment and the membrane proteins in macrophages exhibited substantial glycosylation modifications. These modifications can exert a significant influence on protein functions and may even impact the overall progression of diseases. This article provides a review of the effects of glycosylation modifications on monocyte recruitment and foam cell formation. By elaborating on these effects, we aim to understand the underlying mechanisms of atherogenesis further and to provide new insights into the future treatment of atherosclerosis.

Polylactic Glycolic Acid-Mediated Delivery of Plectasin Derivative NZ2114 in Staphylococcus epidermidis Biofilms

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are antibiotic candidates; however, their instability and protease susceptibility limit clinical applications. In this study, the polylactic acid-glycolic acid (PLGA)-polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) drug delivery system was screened by orthogonal design using the double emulsion-solvent evaporation method. NZ2114 nanoparticles (NZ2114-NPs) displayed favorable physicochemical properties with a particle size of 178.11 ± 5.23 nm, polydispersity index (PDI) of 0.108 ± 0.10, ζ potential of 4.78 ± 0.67 mV, actual drug-loading rate of 4.07 ± 0.37%, encapsulation rate of 81.46 ± 7.42% and cumulative release rate of 67.75% (120 h) in PBS. The results showed that PLGA encapsulation increased HaCaT cell viability by 20%, peptide retention in 50% serum by 24.12%, and trypsin tolerance by 4.24-fold. Meanwhile, in vitro antimicrobial assays showed that NZ2114-NPs had high inhibitory activity against Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis) (4-8 μg/mL). Colony counting and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) confirmed that NZ2114-NPs were effective in reducing the biofilm thickness and bacterial population of S. epidermidis G4 with a 99% bactericidal rate of persister bacteria, which was significantly better than that of free NZ2114. In conclusion, the results demonstrated that PLGA nanoparticles can be used as a reliable NZ2114 delivery system for the treatment of biofilm infections caused by S. epidermidis.

Influence of centroid acceleration acquisition and filtering class on head injury criterion evaluation

BACKGROUND

Although the Head Injury Criteria (HIC) has been widely applied to assess head impact injuries, it faces two outstanding problems: 1) HIC is affected strongly by the cut-off frequency when processing acceleration signals. And these cut-off frequencies are experiential and lack unified guidelines; 2) If the head was impacted on a different part, should the corresponding HIC threshold be the same? If these problems are not resolved, it could potentially lead to a critical misinterpretation of the safety assessment.

METHODS

Finite element method was used to reconstruct head impacts. The head model includes tissues like skull, brainstem, cerebrospinal fluid, etc. The head model was impacted in the frontal, occipital, parietal or lateral direction with different impact velocities. Acceleration signals of the head model were extracted directly from the skull and the head centroid node. To obtain a robust HIC, the filtering class of acceleration signals were analyzed carefully. Then, the relation between rigid body HIC and the centroid node HIC were studied systematically.

RESULTS

When the filtering class of rigid body acceleration and centroid node acceleration reached the cut-off frequency, the corresponding derivative of HIC tended to change smoothly. Using these cut-off frequencies, robust HICs were obtained. The rigid body HIC far exceeded that of centroid node HIC, such as 8, 9, 14 and 31 times exceeded in the frontal, occipital, parietal and lateral impact conditions, respectively. Moreover, approximate linear relations were found between the rigid body HIC and the centroid node HIC in different impact directions, respectively. From these relations, the injury thresholds of rigid body HIC of various directions were given quantitatively.

CONCLUSIONS

The rational filtering class like CFC 800 and CFC 700 were given for rigid body HIC and centroid node HIC, respectively. The rigid body HIC had a significant discrepancy from the centroid node HIC. Linear relations between the rigid body HIC and centroid node HIC were found, and their slopes changed with impact directions. From these relations, we can adjust the injury thresholds reasonably if the head receives different impacts. These findings can effectively enhance the applicability of HIC.

HAND2 suppresses favipiravir efficacy in treatment of Borna disease virus infection

Borna disease virus (BoDV-1) is a bornavirus prototype that infects the central nervous system of various animal species and can cause fatal encephalitis in various animals including humans. Among the reported anti-BoDV-1 treatments, favipiravir (T-705) is one of the best candidates since it has been shown to be effective in reducing various bornavirus titers in cell culture. However, T-705 effectiveness on BoDV-1 is cell type-dependent, and the molecular mechanisms that explain this cell type-dependent difference remain unknown. In this study, we noticed a fact that T-705 efficiently suppressed BoDV-1 in infected 293T cells, but not in infected SH-SY5Y cells, and sought to identify protein(s) responsible for this cell-type-dependent difference in T-705 efficacy. By comparing the transcriptomes of BoDV-1-infected 293T and SH-SY5Y cells, we identified heart- and neural crest derivatives-expressed protein 2 (HAND2) as a candidate involved in T-705 interference. HAND2 overexpression partly attenuated the inhibitory effect of T-705, whereas HAND2 knockdown enhanced this effect. We also demonstrated an interaction between T-705 and HAND2. Furthermore, T-705 impaired HAND2-mediated host gene expression. Because HAND2 is an essential transcriptional regulator of embryogenesis, T-705 may exhibit its adverse effects such as teratogenicity and embryotoxicity through the impairment of HAND2 function. This study provides novel insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying T-705 interference in some cell types and inspires the development of improved T-705 derivatives for the treatment of RNA viruses.

A mendelian randomization study investigates the causal relationship between immune cell phenotypes and cerebral aneurysm

Background: Cerebral aneurysms (CAs) are a significant cerebrovascular ailment with a multifaceted etiology influenced by various factors including heredity and environment. This study aimed to explore the possible link between different types of immune cells and the occurrence of CAs. Methods: We analyzed the connection between 731 immune cell signatures and the risk of CAs by using publicly available genetic data. The analysis included four immune features, specifically median brightness levels (MBL), proportionate cell (PC), definite cell (DC), and morphological attributes (MA). Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was conducted using the instrumental variables (IVs) derived from the genetic variation linked to CAs. Results: After multiple test adjustment based on the FDR method, the inverse variance weighted (IVW) method revealed that 3 immune cell phenotypes were linked to the risk of CAs. These included CD45 on HLA DR+NK (odds ratio (OR), 1.116; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.001-1.244; p = 0.0489), CX3CR1 on CD14- CD16- (OR, 0.973; 95% CI, 0.948-0.999; p = 0.0447). An immune cell phenotype CD16- CD56 on NK was found to have a significant association with the risk of CAs in reverse MR study (OR, 0.950; 95% CI, 0.911-0.990; p = 0.0156). Conclusion: Our investigation has yielded findings that support a substantial genetic link between immune cells and CAs, thereby suggesting possible implications for future clinical interventions.

Exploration of the Pharmacological Mechanism of Vitexicarpin against Triple-Negative Breast Cancer in Network Pharmacology

BACKGROUND

Vitexicarpin (VIT), an isoflavone derived from various medicinal herbs, has shown promising anti-tumor activities against multiple cancer cells. However, the understanding of the mechanisms and potential targets of VIT in treating triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) remains limited.

METHODS

The potential VIT targets were searched for in the Super-PRED online database, while the TNBC targets were acquired in the DisGeNET database, and the Veeny database was used to identify the VIT and TNBC targets that overlapped. Then, GO and KEGG enrichment analyses were carried out in the DAVID database. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed to acquire the hub targets in the STRING database, and the overall survival analysis of the hub targets was examined in the Kaplan-Meier plotter database. Afterward, molecular docking was performed to evaluate the binding capabilities between VIT and the hub targets. In order to measure the effect of VIT on proliferation, apoptosis, and cell cycle arrest in the TNBC cell lines-MDA-MB-231 and HCC-1937-the Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay and flow cytometry analysis were performed. The Western blot and pull-down assays were used to verify the molecular mechanisms by modulating the hub targets.

RESULTS

The network pharmacology results identified a total of 37 overlapping genes that were shared by VIT and TNBC. The results of the PPI network and molecular docking analyses showed that HSP90AA1, CREBBP, and HIF-1A were key targets of VIT against TNBC. However, the pull-down results suggested that VIT could directly bind to HSP90AA1 and HIF-1A, yet not to CREBBP. The results of the in vitro tests showed that VIT decreased proliferation and induced apoptosis in MDA-MB-231 and HCC-1937 cells, in a dose-dependent manner, while the cell cycle arrest occurred at the G2 phase. Mechanistically, the Western blot assay demonstrated that VIT decreased the expression of HSP90AA1, CREBBP, and HIF-1A.

CONCLUSIONS

VIT inhibited growth and induced apoptosis of TNBC cells by modulating HIF-1A, HSP90AA1, and CREBBP expression. Our findings suggest that VIT is a potential drug for TNBC therapy.

Plectasin: from evolution to truncation, expression, and better druggability

Non-computational classical evolution analysis of plectasin and its functional relatives can especially contribute tool value during access to meet requirements for their better druggability in clinical use. Staphylococcus aureus is a zoonotic pathogen that can infect the skin, blood, and other tissues of humans and animals. The impact of pathogens on humans is exacerbated by the crisis of drug resistance caused by the misuse of antibiotics. In this study, we analyzed the evolution of anti-Staphylococcus target functional sequences, designed a series of plectasin derivatives by truncation, and recombinantly expressed them in Pichia pastoris X-33, from which the best recombinant Ple-AB was selected for the druggability study. The amount of total protein reached 2.9 g/L following 120 h of high-density expression in a 5-L fermenter. Ple-AB was found to have good bactericidal activity against gram-positive bacteria, with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values ranging between 2 and 16 μg/mL. It showed good stability and maintained its bactericidal activity during high temperatures, strong acid and alkali environments. Notably, Ple-AB exhibited better druggability, including excellent trypsin resistance, and still possessed approximately 50% of its initial activity following exposure to simulated intestinal fluids for 1 h. In vitro safety testing of Ple-AB revealed low hemolytic activity against mouse erythrocytes and cytotoxicity against murine-derived macrophages. This study successfully realized the high expression of a new antimicrobial peptide (AMP), Ple-AB, in P. pastoris and the establishment of its oral administration as an additive form with high trypsin resistance; the study also revealed its antibacterial properties, indicating that truncation design is a valuable tool for improving druggability and that the candidate Ple-AB may be a novel promising antimicrobial agent.

High-Yield Preparation of American Oyster Defensin (AOD) via a Small and Acidic Fusion Tag and Its Functional Characterization

The marine peptide, American oyster defensin (AOD), is derived from Crassostrea virginica and exhibits a potent bactericidal effect. However, recombinant preparation has not been achieved due to the high charge and hydrophobicity. Although the traditional fusion tags such as Trx and SUMO shield the effects of target peptides on the host, their large molecular weight (12-20 kDa) leads to the yields lower than 20% of the fusion protein. In this study, a short and acidic fusion tag was employed with a compact structure of only 1 kDa. Following 72 h of induction in a 5 L fermenter, the supernatant exhibited a total protein concentration of 587 mg/L. The recombinant AOD was subsequently purified through affinity chromatography and enterokinase cleavage, resulting in the final yield of 216 mg/L and a purity exceeding 93%. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of AOD against Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Streptococcus galactis ranged from 4 to 8 μg/mL. Moreover, time-killing curves indicated that AOD achieved a bactericidal rate of 99.9% against the clinical strain S. epidermidis G-81 within 0.5 h at concentrations of 2× and 4× MIC. Additionally, the activity of AOD was unchanged after treatment with artificial gastric fluid and intestinal fluid for 4 h. Biocompatibility testing demonstrated that AOD, at a concentration of 128 μg/mL, exhibited a hemolysis rate of less than 0.5% and a cell survival rate of over 83%. Furthermore, AOD's in vivo therapeutic efficacy against mouse subcutaneous abscess revealed its capability to restrain bacterial proliferation and reduce bacterial load, surpassing that of antibiotic lincomycin. These findings indicate AOD's potential for clinical usage.

A cleavable chimeric peptide with targeting and killing domains enhances LPS neutralization and antibacterial properties against multi-drug resistant E. coli

Pathogenic Escherichia coli is one of the most common causes of diarrhea diseases and its characteristic component of the outer membrane-lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a major inducer of sepsis. Few drugs have been proven to kill bacteria and simultaneously neutralize LPS toxicity. Here, the chimeric peptides-R7, A7 and G7 were generated by connecting LBP14 (LPS-targeting domain) with L7 (killing domain) via different linkers to improve antibacterial and anti-inflammatory activities. Compared to parent LBP14-RKRR and L7, the antibacterial activity of R7 with a cleavable "RKRR" linker and the "LBP14-RKRR + L7" cocktail against Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium and Staphylococcus aureus was increased by 2 ~ 4-fold. Both A7 and G7 with non-cleavable linkers almost lost antibacterial activity. The ability of R7 to neutralize LPS was markedly higher than that of LBP14-RKRR and L7. In vivo, R7 could be cleaved by furin in a time-dependent manner, and release L7 and LBP14-RKRR in serum. In vivo, R7 can enhance mouse survival more effectively than L7 and alleviate lung injuries by selective inhibition of the NF-κB signaling pathways and promoting higher IAP activity. It suggests that R7 may be promising dual-function candidates as antibacterial and anti-endotoxin agents.

Fault logic and data-driven model for operation reliability analysis of the flap deflection angle

To effectively perform the reliability analysis of the flap deflection angle, the reliability analysis framework is developed by introducing fault logic and a data-driven model. Herein, the fault logic analysis is used to study the fault mechanism and filter out the characteristic fault parameters that can be used to collect input data for data-driven modelling; the data-driven modelling is employed to establish a reliability analysis model with a small amount of input data. Under this proposed framework, the improved dung beetle optimization algorithm for back propagation (IDBO-BP) method is developed to perform the reliability modelling of the flap deflection angle. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework, we study the fault logic of flap symmetry and establish a surrogate model of flap deflection based on the fault parameters and the IDBO-BP algorithm. According to the predicted results of the flap deflection angle, the reliability model based on the fault mechanism can reflect the actual flap motion. At the same time, the proposed IDBO-BP algorithm has excellent modelling and simulation property by comparing with other optimization algorithms. Thus, the efforts of this study provide a new solution to the problem of reliable analysis with uncertain fault parameters. This article is part of the theme issue 'Physics-informed machine learning and its structural integrity applications (Part 1)'.

Perspective: A proposal on solutions of modern supply chain construction for lactoferrin

Lactoferrin is an iron-binding glycoprotein of the transferrin family that is found in most bodily fluids of mammals and has a variety of biological and beneficial functions, with great importance in health enhancement as a supplement for humans and other animals. More than 300 t of lactoferrin were produced in 2021, and this number is expected to grow yearly by 10% to 12%, to over 580 t in 2030. With new and important functions of lactoferrin being revealed and studied, focus on its industrial production and application is increasing accordingly. However, lactoferrin is mainly sourced from cheese whey or skim milk by cation-exchange column chromatography, which is a costly and low-quality method. A potential solution for lactoferrin global supply chain construction is proposed in this article as a complement to traditional routes of purification from whey or skim milk. The large-scale production of lactoferrin, mainly by recombinant yeast, mammal, and grain systems, as well as the market niche and product design, are discussed.

Identification and validation of hub genes involved in foam cell formation and atherosclerosis development via bioinformatics

Background

Foam cells play crucial roles in all phases of atherosclerosis. However, until now, the specific mechanisms by which these foam cells contribute to atherosclerosis remain unclear. We aimed to identify novel foam cell biomarkers and interventional targets for atherosclerosis, characterizing their potential mechanisms in the progression of atherosclerosis.

Methods

Microarray data of atherosclerosis and foam cells were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Differentially expression genes (DEGs) were screened using the "LIMMA" package in R software. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis and Gene Ontology (GO) annotation were both carried out. Hub genes were found in Cytoscape after a protein-protein interaction (PPI) enrichment analysis was carried out. Validation of important genes in the GSE41571 dataset, cellular assays, and tissue samples.

Results

A total of 407 DEGs in atherosclerosis and 219 DEGs in foam cells were identified, and the DEGs in atherosclerosis were mainly involved in cell proliferation and differentiation. CSF1R and PLAUR were identified as common hub genes and validated in GSE41571. In addition, we also found that the expression of CSF1R and PLAUR gradually increased with the accumulation of lipids and disease progression in cell and tissue experiments.

Conclusion

CSF1R and PLAUR are key hub genes of foam cells and may play an important role in the biological process of atherosclerosis. These results advance our understanding of the mechanism behind atherosclerosis and potential therapeutic targets for future development.

The SGLT2 Inhibitor Canagliflozin Reduces Atherosclerosis by Enhancing Macrophage Autophagy

It has been shown that SGLT2 suppresses atherosclerosis (AS). Recent studies indicate that autophagy widely participates in atherogenesis. This study aimed to assess the effect of canagliflozin (CAN) on atherogenesis via autophagy. Macrophages and ApoE - / - mice were used in this study. In macrophages, the results showed that CAN promoted LC3II expression and autophagosome formation. Furthermore, the cholesterol efflux assay demonstrated that CAN enhanced cholesterol efflux from macrophages via autophagy, resulting in lower lipid droplet concentrations in macrophages. The western blot revealed that CAN regulated autophagy via the AMPK/ULK1/Beclin1 signaling pathway. CAN resulted in increased macrophage autophagy in atherosclerotic plaques of ApoE - / - mice, confirming that CAN could inhibit the progression of AS via promoting macrophage autophagy. The current study found that CAN reduced the production of atherosclerotic lesions, which adds to our understanding of how SGLT2 inhibitors function to delay the progression of AS.

A multiscale residual U-net architecture for super-resolution ultrasonic phased array imaging from full matrix capture data

Ultrasonic phased array imaging using full-matrix capture (FMC) has raised great interest among various communities, including the nondestructive testing community, as it makes full use of the echo space to provide preferable visualization performance of inhomogeneities. The conventional way of FMC data postprocessing for imaging is through beamforming approaches, such as delay-and-sum, which suffers from limited imaging resolution and contrast-to-noise ratio. To tackle these difficulties, we propose a deep learning (DL)-based image forming approach, termed FMC-Net, to reconstruct high-quality ultrasonic images directly from FMC data. Benefitting from the remarkable capability of DL to approximate nonlinear mapping, the developed FMC-Net automatically models the underlying nonlinear wave-matter interactions; thus, it is trained end-to-end to link the FMC data to the spatial distribution of the acoustic scattering coefficient of the inspected object. Specifically, the FMC-Net is an encoder-decoder architecture composed of multiscale residual modules that make local perception at different scales for the transmitter-receiver pair combinations in the FMC data. We numerically and experimentally compared the DL imaging results to the total focusing method and wavenumber algorithm and demonstrated that the proposed FMC-Net remarkably outperforms conventional methods in terms of exceeding resolution limit and visualizing subwavelength defects. It is expected that the proposed DL approach can benefit a variety of ultrasonic array imaging applications.

FGF9 Recruits β-Catenin to Increase Hepatic ECM Synthesis and Promote NASH-Driven HCC

Most nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) patients develop severe fibrosis through extracellular matrix (ECM) accumulation, which can lead to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Fibroblast growth factor 9 (FGF9) is involved in serial types of cancer; however, the specific role of FGF9 in NASH-driven HCC is not fully understood. This study finds that FGF9 is increased in patients with NASH-associated HCC. Furthermore, NASH-driven HCC mice models by feeding wildtype mice with high-fat/high-cholesterol (HFHC) diet and low dose carbon tetrachloride (CCl4 ) treatment is established; and identified that hepatic FGF9 is increased; with severe fibrosis. Additionally, AAV-mediated knockdown of FGF9 reduced the hepatic tumor burden of NASH-driven HCC mice models. Hepatocyte-specific FGF9 transgenic mice (FGF9Alb ) fed with a HFHC diet without CCl4 treatment exhibited an increased hepatic ECM and tumor burden. However, XAV-939 treatment blocked ECM accumulation and NASH-driven HCC in FGF9Alb mice fed with HFHC diet. Molecular mechanism studies show that FGF9 stimulated the expression of ECM related genes in a β-catenin dependent manner; and FGF9 exerts its effect on β-catenin stability via the ERK1/2-GSK-3β signaling pathway. In summary, the data provides evidence for the critical role of FGF9 in NASH-driven HCC pathogenesis; wherein it promotes the tumors formation through the ECM pathway.

Site Mutation Improves the Expression and Antimicrobial Properties of Fungal Defense

Although antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have highly desirable intrinsic characteristics in their commercial product development as new antimicrobials, the limitations of AMPs from experimental to scale development include the low oral bioavailability, and high production costs due to inadequate in vitro/in vivo gene expression- and low scale. Plectasin has good bactericidal activity against Staphylococcus and Streptococcus, and the selective bactericidal activity greatly reduces the damage to the micro-ecosystem when applied in vivo. However, its expression level was relatively low (748.63 mg/L). In view of these situations, this study will optimize and modify the structure of Plectasin, hoping to obtain candidates with high expression, no/low toxicity, and maintain desirable antibacterial activity. Through sequence alignment, Plectasin was used as a template to introduce the degenerate bases, and the screening library was constructed. After three different levels of screening, the candidate sequence PN7 was obtained, and its total protein yield in the supernatant was 5.53 g/L, with the highest value so far for the variants or constructs from the same ancestor source. PN7 had strong activity against several species of Gram-positive bacteria (MIC value range 1~16 μg/mL). It was relatively stable in various conditions in vitro; in addition, the peptide showed no toxicity to mice for 1 week after intraperitoneal injection. Meanwhile, PN7 kills Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 43300 with a mode of a quicker (>99% S. aureus was killed within 2 h, whereas vancomycin at 2× MIC was 8 h.) and longer PAE period. The findings indicate that PN7 may be a novel promising antimicrobial agent, and this study also provides a model or an example for the design, modification, or reconstruction of novel AMPs and their derivatives.

LHAR: Lightweight Human Activity Recognition on Knowledge Distillation

Sensor-based Human Activity Recognition (HAR) is widely used in daily life and is the basic-level bridge to virtual healthcare in the metaverse. The current challenge is the low recognition accuracy for personalized users on smart wearable devices. The limited resource cannot support large deep learning models updated locally. Besides, integrating and transmitting sensor data to the cloud would reduce the efficiency. Considering the tradeoff between performance and complexity, we propose a Lightweight Human Activity Recognition (LHAR) framework. In LHAR, we combine the cross-people HAR task with the lightweight model task. LHAR framework is designed on the teacher-student architecture and the student network consists of multiple depthwise separable convolution layers to achieve fewer parameters. The dark knowledge distilled from the complex teacher model enhances the generalization ability of LHAR. To achieve effective knowledge distillation, we propose two optimization methods. Firstly, we train the teacher model by ensemble learning to promote teacher performance. Secondly, a multi-channel data augmentation method is proposed for the diversity of the dataset, which is a plug-in operation for the ensemble teacher model. In the experiments, we compare LHAR with state-of-art models in comparison evaluation, ablation study and the hyperparameter analysis, which proves the better performance of LHAR in efficiency and effectiveness.

Loss of AMPKα2 promotes melanoma tumor growth and brain metastasis

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a critical cellular energy sensor at the interface of metabolism and cancer. However, the role of AMPK in carcinogenesis remains unclear. Here, through analysis of the TCGA melanoma dataset, we found that PRKAA2 gene that encodes the α2 subunit of AMPK is mutated in ∼9% of cutaneous melanomas, and these mutations tend to co-occur with NF1 mutations. Knockout of AMPKα2 promoted anchorage-independent growth of NF1-mutant melanoma cells, whereas ectopic expression of AMPKα2 inhibited their growth in soft agar assays. Moreover, loss of AMPKα2 accelerated tumor growth of NF1-mutant melanoma and enhanced their brain metastasis in immune-deficient mice. Our findings support that AMPKα2 serves as a tumor suppressor in NF1-mutant melanoma and suggest that AMPK could be a therapeutic target for treating melanoma brain metastasis.

Molecular Modification of Kex2 P1' Site Enhances Expression and Druggability of Fungal Defensin

Pichia pastoris is the widely used expression system for producing recombinant secretory proteins. It is known that Kex2 protease plays a vital role in the process of protein secretion, in which the P1' site affects its cleavage efficiency. To enhance the expression level of fungal defensin-derived peptide NZ2114, this work attempts to optimize the P1' site of Kex2 by replacing it with 20 amino acids in turn. The results showed that when the amino acid of the P1' site was changed to Phe (F), the yield of target peptide significantly increased from 2.39 g/L to 4.81 g/L. Additionally, the novel peptide F-NZ2114 (short for FNZ) showed strong antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive (G⁺) bacteria, especially for Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus agalactiae (MIC: 4-8 μg/mL). The FNZ was very stable and retained high activity in various conditions; in addition, a low cytotoxicity and no hemolysis were observed even at a high concentration of 128 μg/mL, and a longer postantibiotic effect was reached. The above results indicate that this engineering strategy provided a feasible optimization scheme for enhancing the expression level and druggability of this antimicrobial peptide from fungal defensin and other similar targets by this updated recombinant yeast.

Impact of Borna Disease Virus Infection on the Transcriptome of Differentiated Neuronal Cells and Its Modulation by Antiviral Treatment

Borna disease virus (BoDV-1) is a highly neurotropic RNA virus that causes neurobehavioral disturbances such as abnormal social activities and memory impairment. Although impairments in the neural circuits caused by BoDV-1 infection induce these disturbances, the molecular basis remains unclear. Furthermore, it is unknown whether anti-BoDV-1 treatments can attenuate BoDV-1-mediated transcriptomic changes in neuronal cells. In this study, we investigated the effects of BoDV-1 infection on neuronal differentiation and the transcriptome of differentiated neuronal cells using persistently BoDV-1-infected cells. Although BoDV-1 infection did not have a detectable effect on intracellular neuronal differentiation processes, differentiated neuronal cells exhibited transcriptomic changes in differentiation-related genes. Some of these transcriptomic changes, such as the decrease in the expression of apoptosis-related genes, were recovered by anti-BoDV-1 treatment, while alterations in the expression of other genes remained after treatment. We further demonstrated that a decrease in cell viability induced by differentiation processes in BoDV-1-infected cells can be relieved with anti-BoDV-1 treatment. This study provides fundamental information regarding transcriptomic changes after BoDV-1 infection and the treatment in neuronal cells.

Thinking on the Construction of Antimicrobial Peptide Databases: Powerful Tools for the Molecular Design and Screening

With the accelerating growth of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), there is an urgent need for new antimicrobial agents with low or no AMR. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been extensively studied as alternatives to antibiotics (ATAs). Coupled with the new generation of high-throughput technology for AMP mining, the number of derivatives has increased dramatically, but manual running is time-consuming and laborious. Therefore, it is necessary to establish databases that combine computer algorithms to summarize, analyze, and design new AMPs. A number of AMP databases have already been established, such as the Antimicrobial Peptides Database (APD), the Collection of Antimicrobial Peptides (CAMP), the Database of Antimicrobial Activity and Structure of Peptides (DBAASP), and the Database of Antimicrobial Peptides (dbAMPs). These four AMP databases are comprehensive and are widely used. This review aims to cover the construction, evolution, characteristic function, prediction, and design of these four AMP databases. It also offers ideas for the improvement and application of these databases based on merging the various advantages of these four peptide libraries. This review promotes research and development into new AMPs and lays their foundation in the fields of druggability and clinical precision treatment.

An optimized total focusing method based on delay-multiply-and-sum for nondestructive testing

Total focusing method (TFM) attracts much interest because of high image resolution and large inspection coverage. However, the synthetic focusing approach based on delay-and-sum beamforming employs only the defect information contained in the dataset while ignoring the spatial information of the array signals, leading to limited imaging performance mixed with artifacts and noise. In addition, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) suffers due to single-element emission of full matrix capture. This work combines a modified delay-multiply-and-sum (DMAS) beamforming approach with conventional synthetic focusing in the TFM algorithm, to achieve optimization of TFM imaging performance. DMAS-based TFM is able to take full advantage of the defect and spatial information in the array dataset, and to generate new frequency components for better image reconstruction. As demonstrated on a series of comparative simulation and experimental results, the imaging results of the optimized TFM provide a considerable improvement in SNR. Better lateral spatial resolution is also achieved due to the increased number of equivalent transducer elements and second harmonic component. Therefore, this work provides a quite promising alternative solution for the post-processing of ultrasonic phased array with improved imaging performance.

A new dataset for mongolian online handwritten recognition

This paper introduces a new traditional Mongolian word-level online handwriting dataset, MOLHW. The dataset consists of handwritten Mongolian words, including 164,631 samples written by 200 writers and covering 40,605 Mongolian common words. These words were selected from a large Mongolian corpus. The coordinate points of words were collected by volunteers, who wrote the corresponding words on the dedicated application for their mobile phones. Latin transliteration of Mongolian was used to annotate the coordinates of each word. At the same time, the writer's identification number and mobile phone screen information were recorded in the dataset. Using this dataset, we propose an encoder-decoder Mongolian online handwriting recognition model with a deep bidirectional gated recurrent unit and attention mechanism as the baseline evaluation model. Under this model, the optimal performance of the word error rate (WER) on the test set was 24.281%. Furthermore, we present the experimental results of different Mongolian online handwriting recognition models. The experimental results show that compared with other models, the model based on Transformer could learn the corresponding character sequences from the coordinate data of the dataset more effectively, with a 16.969% WER on the test set. The dataset is now freely available to researchers worldwide. The dataset can be applied to handwritten text recognition as well as handwritten text generation, handwriting identification, and signature recognition.

Identification of Key Genes from the Visceral Adipose Tissues of Overweight/Obese Adults with Hypertension through Transcriptome Sequencing

Overweight and obese (OW/OB) adults are at increased risk of hypertension due to visceral adipose tissue (VAT) inflammation. In this study, we explored gene level differences in the VAT of hypertensive and normotensive OW/OB patients. VAT samples obtained from six OW/OB adults (three hypertensive, three normotensive) were subjected to transcriptome sequencing analysis. Gene set enrichment analysis was conducted for all gene expression data to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) with |log2 (fold change)| ≥ 1 and q < 0.05. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes functional enrichment analyses were performed on the DEGs, and hub genes were identified by constructing a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. The proposed hub genes were validated using quantitative real-time PCR in ten other samples from five hypertensive and five normotensive patients. In addition, we performed ROC analysis and Spearman correlation analysis. A total of 84 DEGs were identified between VAT samples from OW/OB patients with and without hypertension, among which 21 were significantly upregulated and 63 were significantly downregulated. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that spleen function was related to hypertension in OW/OB adults. Meanwhile, PPI network analysis identified the following top 10 hub genes: CD79A, CR2, SELL, CD22, IL7R, CCR7, TNFRSF13C, CXCR4, POU2AF1, and JAK3. Through qPCR verification, we found that CXCR4, CD22, and IL7R were statistically significant. qPCR verification suggested that RELA was statistically significant. However, qPCR verification indicated that NFKB1 and KLF2 were not statistically significant. These hub genes were mainly regulated by the transcription factor RELA. The AUC of ROC analysis for CXCR4, IL7R, and CD22 was 0.92. What is more, VAT CXCR4 and CD22 were positively related to RELA relative expression levels. Taken together, our research demonstrates that CXCR4, IL7R, and CD22 related to VAT in hypertensive OW/OB adults could serve as future therapeutic targets.

Myeloid-derived itaconate suppresses cytotoxic CD8+ T cells and promotes tumour growth

The tumour microenvironment possesses mechanisms that suppress anti-tumour immunity. Itaconate is a metabolite produced from the Krebs cycle intermediate cis-aconitate by the activity of immune-responsive gene 1 (IRG1). While it is known to be immune modulatory, the role of itaconate in anti-tumour immunity is unclear. Here, we demonstrate that myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) secrete itaconate that can be taken up by CD8+ T cells and suppress their proliferation, cytokine production and cytolytic activity. Metabolite profiling, stable-isotope tracing and metabolite supplementation studies indicated that itaconate suppressed the biosynthesis of aspartate and serine/glycine in CD8+ T cells to attenuate their proliferation and function. Host deletion of Irg1 in female mice bearing allografted tumours resulted in decreased tumour growth, inhibited the immune-suppressive activities of MDSCs, promoted anti-tumour immunity of CD8+ T cells and enhanced the anti-tumour activity of anti-PD-1 antibody treatment. Furthermore, we found a significant negative correlation between IRG1 expression and response to PD-1 immune checkpoint blockade in patients with melanoma. Our findings not only reveal a previously unknown role of itaconate as an immune checkpoint metabolite secreted from MDSCs to suppress CD8+ T cells, but also establish IRG1 as a myeloid-selective target in immunometabolism whose inhibition promotes anti-tumour immunity and enhances the efficacy of immune checkpoint protein blockade.

Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy companied with multiple-related diseases

Objective

To elucidate the clinical, radiologic characteristics of Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) associated with the other diseases.

Materials and methods

Clinical data were retrospectively collected from hospitalized patients with LHON associated with the other diseases at the Neuro-Ophthalmology Department at the Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital (PLAGH) from December 2014 to October 2018.

Results

A total of 13 patients, 24 eyes (10 men and 3 women; mean age, 30.69 ± 12.76 years) with LHON mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations, were included in the cohort. 14502(5)11778(4)11778 &11696(1)12811(1)11696(1)3460(1). One patient was positive for aquaporin-4 antibody (AQP4-Ab), and two were positive for myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody (MOG-Ab). Three patients were associated with idiopathic optic neuritis (ON). Two patients were with compression optic neuropathy. Three patients were with the central nervous system (CNS) diseases. One patient was with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) and one with idiopathic orbital inflammatory syndrome (IOIS). At the onset, visual acuity (VA) in eighteen eyes was below 0.1, one eye was 0.5, five eyes were above 0.5, while VA in sixteen eyes was below a 0.1 outcome, three eyes experienced moderate vision loss. MRI images showed T2 lesions and enhancement in nine patients who received corticosteroids treatment; additional immune modulators treatment was performed on two patients. None of the patients had relapse during the follow-up time.

Conclusion

Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy can be accompanied with multiple-related diseases, especially different subtypes of ON, which were also exhibited with IOIS and compression optic neuropathy for the first time in this cohort. This condition may be a distinct entity with an unusual clinical and therapeutic profile.

Two-stage isolated AC/DC converter and its compound control strategy

With the continued development of the new energy vehicle industry, two-stage isolated AC/DC converters are widely used because of their simple topology and easy control characteristics. In this study, we investigate the front-stage Buck power factor correction (PFC) converter and rear-stage full-bridge converter. The main circuit design and component selection were completed through a detailed analysis of the circuit characteristics. In terms of the control strategy, the front-stage adopting PI control and parameter adaptive terminal sliding mode control strategy were proposed for the rear-stage full-bridge converter. This new compound control strategy ensures an optimal regulation of the system under different operating conditions. Simulation analysis verified the correctness of the system topology and control strategy. Based on an analysis of the main parameters of the system, a low-power experimental prototype was trial-produced. The experimental results show that under the same load switching conditions, the parameter-adaptive terminal sliding mode control enhanced faster dynamic regulation and stronger robustness than the conventional PI control. The study is also a good reference in terms of engineering work.

Effect of NZ2114 against Streptococcus dysgalactiae biofilms and its application in murine mastitis model

Bovine mastitis caused by Streptococcus dysgalactiae (S. dysgalactiae) is usually treated with antibiotics, which may potentially increase drug resistance as the abuse. NZ2114, a variant of fungal defensin plectasin, displayed a potent antibacterial activity against S. dysgalactiae. The inhibition/eradication effect of the antimicrobial peptide NZ2114 on the early/mature biofilm of S. dysgalactiae CVCC 3938 was evaluated, as well as the elimination of bacteria in mature biofilms. In this study, NZ2114 displayed potent antibacterial activity against S. dysgalactiae CVCC 3938 and three clinical isolated S. dysgalactiae strains (0.11-0.45 μM). The early biofilm inhibition of S. dysgalactiae CVCC 3938 was 55.5–85.9% after treatment with NZ2114 at concentrations of 1–16 × MIC, which was better than that of vancomycin at the same concentration. The mature biofilm eradication rate was up to 92.7–97.6% with the increasing concentration (2–16 × MIC) of NZ2114, and the eradication rate did not change significantly with further increase of NZ2114 concentration, while the biofilm eradication rate of vancomycin-treated group at the same concentration remained at 92.5%. NZ2114 reduced the number of persister bacteria in biofilm. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) further demonstrated that NZ2114 could effectively reduce the biofilm thickness and bacterial number of S. dysgalactiae CVCC 3938. In vivo therapeutic effect of NZ2114 on murine mastitis model showed that NZ2114 was better than vancomycin in alleviating mammary gland inflammation by regulating cytokines production, inhibiting bacterial proliferation, and reducing the number of mammary gland bacteria. These data suggested that NZ2114 is a potential peptide candidate for the treatment of mastitis.

Development and validation of a novel cellular senescence-related prognostic signature for predicting the survival and immune landscape in hepatocellular carcinoma

Background: Cellular senescence is a typical irreversible form of life stagnation, and recent studies have suggested that long non-coding ribonucleic acids (lncRNA) regulate the occurrence and development of various tumors. In the present study, we attempted to construct a novel signature for predicting the survival of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the associated immune landscape based on senescence-related (sr) lncRNAs.

Method: Expression profiles of srlncRNAs in 424 patients with HCC were retrieved from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. Lasso and Cox regression analyses were performed to identify differentially expressed lncRNAs related to senescence. The prediction efficiency of the signature was checked using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, Kaplan–Meier analysis, Cox regression analyses, nomogram, and calibration. The risk groups of the gene set enrichment analysis, immune analysis, and prediction of the half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) were also analyzed. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was used to confirm the levels of AC026412.3, AL451069.3, and AL031985.3 in normal hepatic and HCC cell lines.

Results: We identified 3 srlncRNAs (AC026412.3, AL451069.3, and AL031985.3) and constructed a new risk model. The results of the ROC curve and Kaplan–Meier analysis suggested that it was concordant with the prediction. Furthermore, a nomogram model was constructed to accurately predict patient prognosis. The risk score also correlated with immune cell infiltration status, immune checkpoint expression, and chemosensitivity. The results of qPCR revealed that AC026412.3 and AL451069.3 were significantly upregulated in hepatoma cell lines.

Conclusion: The novel srlncRNA (AC026412.3, AL451069.3, and AL031985.3) signatures may provide insights into new therapies and prognosis predictions for patients with HCC.

Increased sulfur-containing amino acid content and altered conformational characteristics of soybean proteins by rebalancing 11S and 7S compositions

Soybean proteins are limited by their low contents of methionine and cysteine. Herein, 7S globulin accumulation was reduced using RNA interference to silence CG-β-1 expression, and the content of the A2B1a subunit was largely increased under the soybean seed-specific oleosin8 promoter. The results showed that the sulfur-containing amino acid content in soybean seeds drastically improved, reaching 79.194 nmol/mg, and the 11S/7S ratio had a 1.89-fold increase compared to the wild-type acceptor. The secondary structures of 11S globulin were also altered, and the β-sheet content increased with decreasing β-turn content, which was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and circular dichroism analysis. Our findings suggested that raising the accumulation of 11S glycinin at the expense of reducing the content of 7S globulin is an attractive and precise engineering strategy to increase the amount of sulfur-containing amino acids, and soybean proteins with A2B1a subunits of 11S isolates improved, and β-subunits of 7S fractions reduced simultaneously might be an effective new material for food production.

Integrated analysis of intestinal microbiota and host gene expression in colorectal cancer patients

Introduction. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers and poses heavy burden on global health. The relationship between mucosal microbiome composition and colorectal gene expression are rarely studied. In this study, we integrated transcriptome data with microbiome data to investigate the relationship between them in colorectal cancer patients.Gap statement. Previous studies have identified the contribution of gut microbiota and DEGs to the pathogenesis of CRC, but the relationship between mucosal microbiome composition and colorectal gene expression are rarely studied.Aim. In this study, we integrated transcriptome data with microbiome data to investigate the relationship between mucosal microbiome composition and colorectal gene expression.Methodology. First, three independent CRC gene expression profiles (GSE184093, GSE156355 and GSE146587) from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) were used to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Second, another dataset (GSE163366) was used to analyse gut mucosal microbiome differential abundance. GO (Gene Ontology) function and KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes) pathway enrichment analyses of the DEGs were performed. Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) of the DEGs were constructed. The Spearman correlation analysis was computed between host DEGs and gut microbiome abundance data.Results. A total of 1036 upregulated DEGs and 1194 downregulated DEGs between noncancerous tissues and cancerous tissues were identified based on the analysis. One significant module with a score 37.65 was selected out via MCODE including 41 upregulated DEGs, which are were mostly enriched in two pathways, including microtubule binding and tubulin binding. In particular, significant negative correlations are prevalent between Fusobacterium and the 41 DEGs with the correlation ranging between -0.54 and -0.35, and there commonly exist significant positive correlations between Blautia and the 41 DEGs with the correlation ranging between 0.42 and 0.54, indicating that Fusobacterium and Blautia are two of the most important microbes interacting with the gene regulation.Conclusion. Our results demonstrate significant correlation between some gut microbes and DEGs, providing a comprehensive bioinformatics analysis of them for future investigation into the molecular mechanisms and biomarkers.

Resveratrol reduces p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphorylation by activating Sirtuin 1 to alleviate cognitive dysfunction after traumatic brain injury in mice

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is characterized by neuronal loss and subsequent brain damage and can be accompanied by transient or permanent neurological dysfunction. The recovery of cognitive function after TBI is a challenge. This study aimed at investigating whether treatment with resveratrol (RSV) could prevent cognitive dysfunction after TBI in mice. TBI mouse model using weight drop-impact method. Male mice aged from 7 to 9 weeks were randomly divided into four groups: TBI group, TBI + vehicle group, TBI + RSV group, and sham-operated control group. The animals from the TBI + vehicle group and TBI + RSV group were intraperitoneally injected at 3 and 24 h post-TBI with placebo and RSV (3%, 5 ml/kg), respectively. Two days after TBI, the hippocampus of mice was extracted, and western blot analysis was performed for Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), synaptophysin (SYP), p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), and P-p38 MAPK. Moreover, behavioral functions of TBI mice were evaluated by Y maze to determine RSV efficacy in preventing cognitive impairment in TBI. RSV increased the expression of SIRT1 protein, which in turn activated the phosphorylation of p38 MAPK. Taken together, our findings suggest that RSV exerts a strong beneficial effect on improving neurological function induced by TBI.

Correlation between apparent diffusion coefficient and tumor-stroma ratio in hybrid 18F-FDG PET/MRI: preliminary results of a rectal cancer cohort study

Background

To explore possible correlations between the tumor-stroma ratio (TSR) and different imaging features of fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (¹⁸F-FDG PET/MRI) in untreated rectal cancer patients.

Methods

A patients with rectal cancer were included in this study. All participants were examined preoperatively with whole-body ¹⁸F-FDG PET/MRI. Two pathologists evaluated the TSR of tumors together. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values and PET-related parameters of the primary lesions were measured and compared between the stroma-high and stroma-low groups. Pearson's correlation or Spearman's rank correlation were used to evaluate the correlation between the ADC values, PET-related parameters, and pathological indices.

Results

Our results showed that in the untreated rectal cancer patients, the ADC mean values correlated with the TSR (r=0.327; P=0.007), and stroma-high (low TSR) rectal cancer corresponded to relatively lower ADC mean values (813.54±88.68 vs. 879.92±133.18; P=0.018). The ADC mean and ADC minimum (ADCmin) values were found to be negatively correlated with the pathological T stages (r=-0.384, P=0.001; r=-0.416, P=0.001, respectively) as well as the largest tumor diameters (r=-0.340, P=0.005; r=-0.314, P=0.010, respectively) of rectal cancer. In addition, the pathological T stages correlated with all PET-related metabolic parameters, including mean standard uptake value (SUV), maximum SUV (SUVmax), metabolic tumor volume (MTV), and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) (r=0.338, P=0.006; r=0.350, P=0.004; r=0.326, P=0.007; and r=0.472, P<0.001, respectively). Our results also identified associations between the ADCmin values and SUVmean, SUVmax, and TLG (r=-0.335, P=0.006; r=-0.343, P=0.005; and r=-0.343, P=0.005, respectively). However, there were no statistical correlations between the PET/MRI parameters and the immunohistochemical (IHC) results.

Conclusions

This study indicated that the intratumoral heterogeneity measured by PET/MRI may reflect characteristics of the tumor microenvironment. Hence, PET/MRI parameters might be helpful in predicting tumor aggressiveness and prognosis.

Performance Analysis of an Absorption Heat Pump System for Waste Heat and Moisture Cascade Recovery from Flue Gas

The typical flue gas exhaust temperature of coal-fired boilers is up to 150 °C. There is a considerable amount of waste heat that cannot be efficiently recovered. This study describes a zero-energy consumption absorption heat pump system that can improve the thermal efficiency and recover moisture. In the proposed system, lithium bromide solution serves as the recyclable heat-transfer medium, which absorbs sensible heat at the outlet of the air preheater by a generator. The latent heat of the flue gas is absorbed by an evaporator, and the condensate water appears. Theoretical investigation and mathematical models are built. Meanwhile, the operating parameters of the system are displayed. The results showed that the acid dew point of flue gas is related to the water content. The sorption heat pump efficiency (coefficient of performance) increased to 1.64. Compared with the two-stage heat exchanger system, 24.4 t/h condensate water and 47.21 MW waste heat were recovered. The flue gas temperature at the chimney entrance was reduced by 4.18 °C.

Study on the cohesive shear characteristics and intrinsic modelling of the root-tailing soil interface of Amorpha fruticosa

To study the soil consolidation effect of shrub plant roots on tailings soil and to explore the frictional characteristics of plant roots on tailings soil, three experimental conditions of the root-soil interface were established by using a modified indoor direct shear instrument with binders such as liquid sodium silicate and cyanoacrylate to conduct direct shear frictional tests at the root-soil interface using the roots of the typical slope protection plant Amorpha fruticosa. The Gompertz improved curve model was established by using the relationship between shear stress and shear displacement and the trend of the root-soil interface parameter index. The results were compared between the improved Gompertz curve model and the Clough-Duncan hyperbolic model, and a two-factor coupled improved Gompertz interfacial intrinsic structure model with normal stress and cohesive strength factor was established. The results showed that the interface shear stress and shear displacement showed strain hardening characteristics at different normal pressures for cohesive strength ratios of 1.5 and 1.7 at the root-tailing soil interface. At a cohesive strength ratio of 1.6, strain-softening was observed from 100 to 300 kPa and strain hardening was observed at 400 kPa. The improved Gompertz curve model predicts the shear stress and shear displacement curves at the root-soil interface with different cohesive strengths more reasonably than the Clough-Duncan hyperbolic model, and the maximum accuracy can be improved by nearly 40%. The two-factor coupled improved Gompertz curve model can fit the shear stress versus shear displacement relationship at the A. fruticosa root-tailing soil interface.

miR-887-3p Inhibits the Progression of Colorectal Cancer via Downregulating DNMT1 Expression and Regulating P53 Expression

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most diagnosed cancer worldwide and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Many researchers have reported that abnormal microRNAs (miRs) were expressed in CRC and participated in the occurrence and progression of CRC. However, there are few reports of miR-887-3p regulating CRC development. In the current study, we investigated the abnormal expression of miR-887-3p and also demonstrated its regulatory role and detailed molecular mechanism in CRC. Initially, miRNA expression data were obtained from TCGA-COAD that consisted of 453 CRC samples and 8 normal tissue samples. These were downloaded and analyzed to compare the expression level of miR-887-3p in CRC tissues to that in normal tissues. Moreover, 32 pairs of surgically resected CRC tumors and para-cancer tissues from our hospital were collected. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was performed to detect miR-887-3p expression levels in CRC tissues, para-cancer tissues, several CRC cell lines, and an intestinal epithelial cell line. Following miR-887-3p mimic transfection in colon cancer SW480 cell line, the regulatory roles of miR-887-3p on cell proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, migration, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) were detected through CCK-8, flow cytometry, transwell assay, and Western blot. After potential targeting protein was predicted by bioinformatic websites, the luciferase reporter assay and Western blot were used to confirm the target of miR-887-3p. The targeting protein expressions were detected by Western blot and qRT-PCR. The relationship between miR-887-3p level and the effect of miR-887-3p on P53 expression was evaluated by Western blot and qRT-PCR. The effects of miR-887-3p on CRC cell growth in vivo by xenograft tumor experiments were investigated, and Ki-67 in tumor tissue was determined by immunohistochemistry. Results. The COAD data demonstrated that the expression levels of miR-887-3p in CRC clinical sample tissues and cell line cultures were remarkably lower than para-cancer normal tissues and NCM460 cells (normal colonic epithelial cell line). Functional experiments demonstrated that overexpression of miR-887-3p in SW480 cells significantly reduced proliferation, migration, invasion, and EMT, and promoted cancer cell apoptosis. Additionally, Western blot, qRT-PCR, and luciferase reporter assays confirmed that DNMT1 was a downstream target of miR-887-3p. Moreover, the blocking of DNMT1 by miR-887-3p mimics also promoted P53 expression. Finally, overexpression of DNMT1 in SW480 cells could partially reverse the regulatory effect of miR-887-3p mimics on CRC cell development. From in vivo experiments, overexpression of miR-887-3p could inhibit tumor growth in CRC xenograft mice and reduce the Ki-67 level. Conclusion. The microRNA miR-887-3p is a potential biomarker of CRC. It inhibited CRC cell proliferation, invasion, and EMT, and promoted cell apoptosis through targeting and downregulating DNMT1 and promoting P53 expression. Therefore, miR-887-3p may be a good biomarker and therapeutic target for CRC treatment.

Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Fungal Defensin NZX Against Staphylococcus aureus-Induced Mouse Peritonitis Model

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is one of the most common pathogenic bacteria responsible for causing a life-threatening peritonitis disease. NZX, as a variant of fungal defensin plectasin, displayed potent antibacterial activity against S. aureus. In this study, the antibacterial and resistance characteristics, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of NZX against the S. aureus E48 and S. aureus E48-induced mouse peritonitis model were studied, respectively. NZX exhibited a more rapid killing activity to S. aureus (minimal inhibitory concentration, 1 μg/ml) compared with linezolid, ampicillin and daptomycin, and serial passaging of S. aureus E48 for 30 days at 1/2 × MIC, NZX had a lower risk of resistance compared with ampicillin and daptomycin. Also, it displayed a high biocompatibility and tolerance to physiological salt, serum environment, and phagolysosome proteinase environment, except for acid environment in phagolysosome. The murine serum protein-binding rate of NZX was 89.25% measured by ultrafiltration method. Based on the free NZX concentration in serum after tail vein administration, the main pharmacokinetic parameters for T_1/2, C_max, V_d, MRT, and AUC ranged from 0.32 to 0.45 h, 2.85 to 20.55 μg/ml, 1469.10 to 2073.90 ml/kg, 0.32 to 0.56 h, and 1.11 to 8.89 μg.h/ml, respectively. Additionally, the in vivo pharmacodynamics against S. aureus demonstrated that NZX administrated two times by tail vein at 20 mg/kg could rescue all infected mice in the lethal mouse peritonitis model. And NZX treatment (20 mg/kg) significantly reduced CFU counts in the liver, lung, and spleen, especially for intracellular bacteria in the peritoneal fluid, which were similar or superior to those of daptomycin. In vivo efficacies of NZX against total bacteria and intracellular bacteria were significantly correlated with three PK/PD indices of ƒAUC/MIC, ƒC_max/MIC, and ƒT% > MIC analyzed by a sigmoid maximum-effect model. These results showed that NZX may be a potential candidate for treating peritonitis disease caused by intracellular S. aureus.

Sodium-Based Cylindrical Plasmonic Waveguides in the Near-Infrared

Subwavelength optical field confinement and low-loss propagation are of great significance for compact photonic integration. However, the field confinement capability of plasmonic devices is always accompanied by the inherent Ohmic loss. Although recent studies have shown that sodium (Na) exhibits lower loss than noble metals in the near-infrared band, the field confinement ability has not been adequately assessed. Meanwhile, the high chemical reactivity of Na should be regulated for practical application. Two dielectric-coated Na nanowires, consisting of cylindrical Na nanowires with one or two dielectric layers as claddings, are proposed and investigated in this paper. Based on finite element calculations, we thoroughly study the modal fields and low-loss propagation properties of dielectric-coated Na nanowires. The results demonstrate that Na exhibits lower loss and stronger field confinement than the typical plasmonic material silver. These findings indicate the performance of plasmonic devices can be considerably improved by employing the metal Na compared with devices using noble metals, which may promote the applications in subwavelength photonic devices.