Knocking Down PIAS3 Reduces H2O2-induced Oxidative Stress Injury in HT22 Cells

Oxidative stress is involved in the pathological processes of many neurodegenerative diseases. Protein modification by small ubiquitin-like modifiers (SUMOs) has been implicated in oxidative stress injury. By conjugating SUMOs to their selective protein substrates, SUMO ligases play critical roles in regulating functions of proteins involved in oxidative stress injury. In this study, we screened siRNAs to knockdown the SUMO ligase PIAS3 to assess its role in H2O2-induced injury in HT22 cells. H2O2 stimulation increased total protein SUMOylation, facilitated intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) release, increased cleaved caspase-3 levels, promoted p38 and JNK activation (phosphorylation), upregulated apoptosis, and decreased cell viability. The siRNA against PIAS3 329-347 (siPIAS3-329) markedly downregulated the protein expression of PIAS3 and reversed these effects, whereas siNC (negative control) had no effect. Our findings demonstrate that PIAS3-mediated SUMOylation facilitates oxidative stress injury and p38/JNK-mediated cell apoptosis and that PIAS3 is a potential target to protect against oxidative stress injury.

Hydrogen Production through Distinctive C-C Cleavage during Acetic Acid Reforming at Low Temperature

Acetic acid reforming is a green method for sustainable hydrogen production owing to its renewable source from biomass conversion. However, conventional acetic acid reforming would produce various byproducts, including CO, CH4 and so on. Here, we develop a distinctive method for selective hydrogen production from C-C directional cleavage during acetic acid reforming. Completely different from conventional acetic acid reforming process, acetic acid would react with water over organoruthenium catalyst during its C-C cleavage at low temperature, then produce methanol and formic acid (CH3 COOH+H2 O→CH3 OH+HCOOH). Lastly, methanol and formic acid could further decompose into hydrogen and carbon dioxide over organoruthenium selectively. As a result, there is little CO and CH4 produced in the first step of C-C bond cleavage during acetic acid reforming at 100 °C. Hydrogen production rate is up to 26.8 molH2 /(h-1 *mol-1 Ru ) at 150 °C through a tandem catalysis. A mechanism for C-C cleavage of acetic acid is proposed based on intermediate product analysis and density functional theory (DFT) calculation. Firstly, the C-C single bond was transformed into C=C double bond by dropping one H atom to organoruthenium. Then the coming H2 O molecule reacted with the C=C bond by an addition reaction, forming methanol and formic acid. This research not only proposes distinctive reaction pathway for hydrogen production from acetic acid reforming, but also provides some inspiration for selective C-C bond cleavage during ethanol reforming.

Washed microbiota transplantation reduces glycemic variability in unstable diabetes

BACKGROUND

Dysbiosis of gut microbiota is causally linked to impaired host glucose metabolism. We aimed to study effects of the new method of fecal microbiota transplantation, washed microbiota transplantation (WMT), on reducing glycemic variability (GV) in unstable diabetes.

METHODS

Fourteen eligible patients received three allogenic WMTs and were followed up at 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months. Primary outcomes were daily insulin dose, glucose excursions during meal tests, and GV indices calculated from continuous monitoring or self-monitoring glucose values. Secondary outcomes were multiomics data, including 16S rRNA gene sequencing, metagenomics, and metabolomics to explore underlying mechanisms.

RESULTS

Daily insulin dose and glucose excursions markedly dropped, whereas GV indices significantly improved up to 1 month. WMT increased gut microbial alpha diversity, beta diversity, and network complexity. Taxonomic changes featured lower abundance of genera Bacteroides and Escherichia-Shigella, and higher abundance of genus Prevotella. Metagenomics functional annotations revealed enrichment of distinct microbial metabolic pathways, including methane biosynthesis, citrate cycle, amino acid degradation, and butyrate production. Derived metabolites correlated significantly with improved GV indices. WMT did not change circulating inflammatory cytokines, enteroendocrine hormones, or C-peptide.

CONCLUSIONS

WMT showed strong ameliorating effect on GV, raising the possibility of targeting gut microbiota as an effective regimen to reduce GV in diabetes.

Copper-promoted C5-selective bromination of 8-aminoquinoline amides with alkyl bromides

An efficient and practical method for the synthesis of C5-brominated 8-aminoquinoline amides via a copper-promoted selective bromination of 8-aminoquinoline amides with alkyl bromides was developed. The reaction proceeds smoothly in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) under air, employing activated and unactivated alkyl bromides as the halogenation reagents without additional external oxidants. This method features outstanding site selectivity, broad substrate scope, and excellent yields.

Ratio of waist circumference to body mass index: A novel predictor of clinical outcome in hypertension patients

We aim to investigate the influence of waist circumference and body mass index (BMI) on all-cause death and cardiovascular-specific death in patients with hypertension. This prospective cohort study, based on waist circumference and body mass index measurements in patients with hypertension, provided risk estimates of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events. The waist circumference-to-BMI ratio (WtBR) is an anthropometric measure integrating waist circumference and BMI. We utilized multivariable Cox regression analysis, restricted cubic spline model, Kaplan-Meier plot, random forest analysis, and sensitivity analysis to assess the relationship of WtBR with all-cause mortality. Subsequently, Fine-Gray competing risk regression models were applied to precisely evaluate the probability of cardiovascular-specific death attributed to high WtBR. The results indicate that thea deceased group showed significantly higher WtBR and lower BMI compared with the alive groups (P < .05), while no significant difference was observed in waist circumference (P = .373). When analyzed as continuous, the risk of all-cause death elevated with increasing WtBR in the adjusted model with an HR of 2.42 (95% CI, 2.06-2.85). The restricted cubic spline illustrated an elevated risk of all-cause mortality as WtBR increased (J-shaped curve). Nevertheless, WtBR showed no significant association with cardiovascular-specific death and the prediction model exhibited a reliable performance in the testing set. This study supported that WtBR, an anthropometric measure, is independently associated with all-cause death in hypertensive patients. It's advisable to routinely assess waist circumference in hypertensive patients regardless of BMI, in order to more effectively manage the risk of obesity-related health.

Degradation of Organic Dyes by the UCNP/h-BN/TiO2 Ternary Photocatalyst

In this study, upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) with a flower-like morphology were prepared using a urea coprecipitation method. A ternary photocatalyst was first prepared using a solvothermal method involving the use of titanium oxide (TiO2), hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), and UCNPs (Y2O3, Yb3+, and Tm3+) as raw materials. The surface morphology, crystal structure, and functional groups of these materials were then characterized and analyzed through scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry, and other techniques. Photocatalytic experiments were also conducted to investigate the effects of different catalyst types, raw material doping ratios, pH values, and catalyst quantities on the photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B (RhB). The results indicated that doping with h-BN and UCNPs reduced the band gap width of RhB, increased its light absorption rate, and decreased the recombination rate of its photogenerated electrons and holes so that the photocatalytic degradation effect reached 100% within 2 h. After five experimental cycles, the 30% UC-BN-Ti photocatalyst remained highly durable and stable. To investigate the effects of different trapping agents on the degradation of RhB, benzoquinone, isopropanol, and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid disodium salt were used as free-radical-capturing agents. The results indicated that •O2- was the primary active species in the degradation process. Finally, the pathway and mechanism of the degradation of RhB through ternary composite photocatalysis were identified.

Metabolomics and Transcriptomics Analyses of Curcumin Alleviation of Ochratoxin A-Induced Hepatotoxicity

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is one of the mycotoxins that poses a serious threat to human and animal health. Curcumin (CUR) is a major bioactive component of turmeric that provides multiple health benefits. CUR can reduce the toxicities induced by mycotoxins, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain largely unknown. To explore the effects of CUR on OTA toxicity and identify the key regulators and metabolites involved in the biological processes, we performed metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses of livers from OTA-exposed mice. We found that CUR can alleviate the toxic effects of OTA on body growth and liver functions. In addition, CUR supplementation significantly affects the expressions of 1584 genes and 97 metabolites. Integrated analyses of transcriptomic and metabolomic data showed that the pathways including Arachidonic acid metabolism, Purine metabolism, and Cholesterol metabolism were significantly enriched. Pantothenic acid (PA) was identified as a key metabolite, the exogenous supplementation of which was observed to significantly alleviate the OTA-induced accumulation of reactive oxygen species and cell apoptosis. Further mechanistical analyses revealed that PA can downregulate the expression level of proapoptotic protein BAX, enhance the expression level of apoptosis inhibitory protein BCL2, and decrease the level of phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (pERK1/2). This study demonstrated that CUR can alleviate the adverse effects of OTA by influencing the transcriptomic and metabolomic profiles of livers, which may contribute to the application of CUR in food and feed products for the prevention of OTA toxicity.

Enhanced Resonance for Facilitated Modulation of Large-Area Perovskite Films with Stable Photovoltaics

Upscaling efficient and stable perovskite films is a challenging task in the industrialization of perovskite solar cells partly due to the lack of high-performance hole transport materials (HTMs), which can simultaneously promote hole transport and regulate the quality of perovskite films especially in inverted solar cells. Here, a novel HTM based on N-C = O resonance structure is designed for facilitating the modulation of the crystallization and bottom-surface defects of perovskite films. Benefiting from the resonance interconversion (N-C = O and N+ = C-O- ) in donor-resonance-donor (D-r-D) architecture and interactions with uncoordinated Pb2+ in perovskite, the resulting D-r-D HTM with two donor units exhibits not only excellent hole extraction and transport capacities, but also efficient crystallization modulation of perovskite for high-quality photovoltaic films in large area. The D-r-D HTM-based large-area (1.02 cm2 ) devices exhibit high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) up to 21.0%. Moreover, the large-area devices have excellent photo-thermal stability, showing only a 2.6% reduction in PCE under continuous AM 1.5G light illumination at elevated temperature (≈65 °C) for over 1320 h without encapsulation.

Innovative Solid Slippery Coating: Uniting Mechanical Durability, Optical Transparency, Anti-Icing, and Anti-Graffiti Traits

Slippery coatings, such as the slippery liquid-infused porous surface (SLIPS), have gained significant attention for their potential applications in anti-icing and anti-fouling. However, they lack durability when subjected to mechanical impact. In this study, we have developed a robust slippery coating by blending polyurethane acrylate (PUA) with methyltriethoxysilane (MTES) and perfluoropolyether (PFPE) in the solvent of butyl acetate. The resulting mixture is homogeneous and allows for uniform coating on various substrates using a drop coating process followed by drying at 160 °C for 3 h. The cured coating exhibits excellent water repellency (contact angle of ~108° and sliding angle of ~8°), high transparency (average visible transmittance of ~90%), exceptional adherence to the substrate (5B rating according to ASTMD 3359), and remarkable hardness (4H on the pencil hardness scale). Moreover, the coating is quite flexible and can be folded without affecting its wettability. The robustness of the coating is evident in its ability to maintain a sliding angle below 25° even when subjected to abrasion, water jetting, high temperature, and UV irradiation. Due to its excellent nonwetting properties, the coating can be employed in anti-icing, anti-graffiti, and anti-sticking applications. It effectively reduces ice adhesion on aluminum substrates from approximately 217 kPa to 12 kPa. Even after 20 cycles of icing and de-icing, there is only a slight increase in ice adhesion, stabilizing at 40 kPa. The coating can resist graffiti for up to 400 cycles of writing with an oily marker pen and erasing with a tissue. Additionally, the coating allows for easy removal of 3M tape thereon without leaving any residue.

One-Pot Synthesis and Excited-State Dynamics of Null Exciton-Coupled Diketopyrrolopyrroles Oligo-Grids

Exciton coupling in molecular aggregates plays a vital role in impacting and fine-tuning optoelectronic materials and their efficiencies in devices. A versatile platform to decipher aggregation-property relationships is built around multichromophoric architectures. Here, a series of cyclic diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) oligomers featuring nanoscale gridarene structures and rigid bifluorenyl spacers are designed and synthesized via one-pot Friedel-Crafts reaction. DPP dimer [2]Grid and trimer [3]Grid, which are cyclic rigid nanoarchitectures of rather different sizes, are further characterized via steady-state and time-resolved absorption and fluorescence spectroscopies. They exhibit monomer-like spectroscopic signatures in the steady-state measurements, from which null exciton couplings are derived. Moreover, in an apolar solvent, high fluorescence quantum yields and excited-state dynamics that resembled DPP monomer are gathered. In a polar solvent, the localized singlet excited state on a single DPP dissociates into the adjacent null coupling DPP with charge transfer characteristics. This pathway facilitates the evolution of the symmetry-broken charge-separated state (SB-CS). Notable is the fact that the SB-CS of [2]Grid is, on one hand, in equilibrium with the singlet excited state and promotes, on the other hand, the formation of the triplet excited state with a yield of 32% via charge recombination.

MLK3 localizes mainly to the cytoplasm and promotes oxidative stress injury via a positive feedback loop

Activation of mixed lineage kinase 3 (MLK3) by phosphorylation at Thr277/Ser281 stimulates downstream apoptotic pathways and ultimately leads to cell injury. MLK3 is reported to localize to both the cytoplasm and nucleus in human ovarian cancer cells and immortalized ovarian epithelial cells (T80 and T90 cells), and phosphorylation at Thr477 is required for the cytoplasmic retention of MLK3 in T80 cells. However, the subcellular distribution of MLK3 in other cell types has rarely been reported, and whether phosphorylation of MLK3 at Thr277/Ser281 affects its subcellular distribution is unknown. Here, our bioinformatics analysis predicted that MLK3 was mainly distributed in the cytoplasm and nucleus. In the human HEK293T embryonic kidney cell line and murine HT22 hippocampal neuronal cell line, endogenous MLK3 was more abundant in the cytoplasm and less abundant in the nucleus. In addition, overexpressed Myc-tagged MLK3 and EGFP-tagged MLK3 were also observed to localize mainly to the cytoplasm. MLK3 that was activated by phosphorylation at Thr277/Ser281 was mainly distributed in the cytoplasm, and phosphorylation deficient (T277A/S281A) and mimic (T277E/S281E) mutants both showed distributions similar to that of wild type (wt) MLK3, further proving that phosphorylation at Thr277/Ser281 was not involved in regulating MLK3 subcellular localization. In HEK293T cells, H2O2 stimulation accelerated MLK3 phosphorylation (activation), and this phosphorylation was reduced by the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine in a dose-dependent manner. Overexpressing wt MLK3 promoted the production of intracellular reactive oxygen species and increased cell apoptosis, both of which were enhanced by the phosphorylation-mimic (T277E/S281E) MLK3 variant but not by the phosphorylation-deficient (T277A/S281A) MLK3 variant. These findings provided additional evidence for the cytoplasmic and nuclear distribution of MLK3 in HEK293T cells or HT22 cells and revealed the pivotal role of MLK3 in the positive feedback loop of oxidative stress injury.

Manipulating Molecular Structure to Trigger Ultrafast and Long-Life Potassium Storage of Fe0.4 Ni0.6 S Solid Solution

Currently, the main obstacle to the widespread utilization of metal chalcogenides (MSx ) as anode for potassium-ion batteries (PIBs) is their poor rate capability and inferior cycling stability as a result of the undesirable electrical conductivity and severe pulverization of the nanostructure during large K-ions intercalation-extraction processes. Herein, an ultrafast and long-life potassium storage of metal chalcogenide is rationally demonstrated by employing Fe0.4 Ni0.6 S solid-solution (FNS/C) through molecular structure engineering. Benefiting from improved electroactivity and intense interactions within the unique solid solution phase, the electrical conductivity and structure durability of Fe0.4 Ni0.6 S are vastly improved. As anticipated, the FNS/C electrode delivers superior rate properties (538.7 and 210.5 mAh g-1 at 0.1 and 10 A g-1 , respectively) and long-term cycle stability (180.8 mAh g-1 at 5 A g-1 after 2000 cycles with a capacity decay of 0.011% per cycle). Moreover, the potassium storage mechanisms of Fe0.4 Ni0.6 S solid solution are comprehensively revealed by several in situ characterizations and theoretical calculations. This innovative molecular structure engineering strategy opens avenues to achieve high-quality metal chalcogenides for future advanced PIBs.

The identification, adaptive evolutionary analyses and mRNA expression levels of homeobox (hox) genes in the Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis

BACKGROUND

Arthropods are the largest group in the animal kingdom and are morphologically characterized by heterorhythmic segments. Brachyuran decapod crustaceans undergo brachyurization metamorphosis in the early developmental process, characterized by a reduced abdomen that is folded beneath the cephalothorax and inserted between the pereiopods or in a special cavity. As the main cause of major alterations in the evolution of animal body plans, Hox genes encode transcription factors and are involved in bilaterian anterior-posterior axis patterning.

RESULTS

We found eight Hox genes (labial, proboscipedia, Deformed, zerknüllt, Sex combs reduced, Antennapedia, Ultrabithorax, fushi tarazu, abdominal-A and Abdominal-B) in Eriocheir sinensis. The phylogenetic topology of 13 arthropod Hox genes was closely related to traditional taxonomic groupings. Genome collinearity analysis was performed using genomic data and chromosomal location data of E. sinensis and Portunus trituratus. We found that their chromosomes were highly collinear, and there was a corresponding collinear relationship between the three Hox genes (lab, ftz and Abd-B). The mRNA expression levels of Scr and Antp fluctuated significantly in different developmental stages of E. sinensis, especially in the brachyurization stages. Evolutionary analysis indicated the presence of positively selected sites in Ubx.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, we used genome-wide analysis to identify and analyze all members of the Hox genes in E. sinensis. Our data will contribute to a better understanding of Hox genes in E. sinensis and provide useful molecular evolutionary information for further investigation on their roles in the brachyurization of crabs.

Biological Recognition-Based Electrochemical Aptasensor for Point-of-Care Detection of cTnI

As a "gold standard biomarker", cardiac troponin I (cTnI) is widely used to diagnose acute myocardial infarction (AMI). For an early clinical diagnosis of AMI, it is necessary to develop a facile, fast and on-site device for cTnI detection. According to this demand, a point-of-care electrochemical aptasensor was developed for cTnI detection by coupling the advantages of screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) with those of an aptamer. Thiol and methylene blue (MB) co-labelled aptamer (MB-Apt-SH) was assembled on the surface of hierarchical flower-like gold nanostructure (HFGNs)-decorated SPCE (SPCE-HFGNs) to recognize and analyze cTnI. In the presence of cTnI, the specific biological recognition reaction between cTnI and aptamer caused the decrease in electrochemical signal. Under the optimal condition, this designed aptasensor showed wide linear range (10 pg/mL-100 ng/mL) and low detection limit for (8.46 pg/mL) for cTnI detection with high selectivity and stability. More importantly, we used a mobile phone coupled with a simple APP to efficiently detect cTnI in 10 μL 100% human serum samples, proving that this aptasensor has a promising potential in point-of-care testing.

Simultaneous Pyrolysis of Coal and Biomass in a Drop-Tube-Fixed-Bed Reactor

Copyrolysis of coal and biomass has been extensively studied to exploit its inherent synergistic effects; however, the different pyrolysis temperature zones of coal and biomass seriously affect the realization of these effects. Therefore, a new copyrolysis method (preheating the coal to a certain temperature and then adding the biomass in a drop-tube-fixed-bed reactor, denoted as M1) was designed herein to achieve "simultaneous" pyrolysis of coal and biomass. The yields of products and the characteristics of M1-produced tar were estimated and compared with those of tar obtained by fixed-bed-reactor (denoted as M2)-based copyrolysis. M1 achieved a higher tar yield and lower water content than M2. The M1-generated tar exhibited a lower free-radical concentration, higher H/C ratio, higher levels of uncondensed aromatic hydrogen, and shorter side-chains than that produced by M2. The temperature of HLBE coal at which the WSs were fed to the reactor in M1, denoted as T _F, affects the "simultaneous" pyrolysis. T _F values of 300, 400, and 500 °C were studied, and it was found that the tar yield obtained at a T _F of 400 °C (the main pyrolysis temperature of coal) is the highest, the water yield is the lowest, and the free-radical concentration of the tar is also the lowest among the investigated samples.

Differential evolution-assisted salp swarm algorithm with chaotic structure for real-world problems

There is a new nature-inspired algorithm called salp swarm algorithm (SSA), due to its simple framework, it has been widely used in many fields. But when handling some complicated optimization problems, especially the multimodal and high-dimensional optimization problems, SSA will probably have difficulties in convergence performance or dropping into the local optimum. To mitigate these problems, this paper presents a chaotic SSA with differential evolution (CDESSA). In the proposed framework, chaotic initialization and differential evolution are introduced to enrich the convergence speed and accuracy of SSA. Chaotic initialization is utilized to produce a better initial population aim at locating a better global optimal. At the same time, differential evolution is used to build up the search capability of each agent and improve the sense of balance of global search and intensification of SSA. These mechanisms collaborate to boost SSA in accelerating convergence activity. Finally, a series of experiments are carried out to test the performance of CDESSA. Firstly, IEEE CEC2014 competition fuctions are adopted to evaluate the ability of CDESSA in working out the real-parameter optimization problems. The proposed CDESSA is adopted to deal with feature selection (FS) problems, then five constrained engineering optimization problems are also adopted to evaluate the property of CDESSA in dealing with real engineering scenarios. Experimental results reveal that the proposed CDESSA method performs significantly better than the original SSA and other compared methods.

DDIT4 S-Nitrosylation Aids p38-MAPK Signaling Complex Assembly to Promote Hepatic Reactive Oxygen Species Production

Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling plays a significant role in reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. The authors have previously shown that Brahma-related gene 1 (BRG1), a chromatin remodeling protein, contributes to hepatic ROS accumulation in multiple animal and cellular models of liver injury. Here it is reported that DNA damage-induced transcript 4 (DDIT4) is identified as a direct transcriptional target for BRG1. DDIT4 overexpression overcomes BRG1 deficiency to restore ROS production whereas DDIT4 knockdown phenocopies BRG1 deficiency in suppressing ROS production in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, DDIT4 coordinates the assembly of the p38-MAPK signaling complex to drive ROS production in an S-nitrosylation dependent manner. Molecular docking identifies several bioactive DDIT4-inteacting compounds including imatinib, nilotinib, and nateglinide, all of which are confirmed to attenuate hepatic ROS production, dampen p38-MAPK signaling, and ameliorate liver injury by influencing DDIT4 S-nitrosylation. Importantly, positive correlation between ROS levels and BRG1/DDIT4/S-nitrosylated DDIT4 levels is detected in human liver biopsy specimens. In conclusion, the data reveal a transcription-based signaling cascade that contributes to ROS production in liver injury.

Combined bulked segregant sequencing and traditional linkage analysis for identification of candidate gene for purple leaf sheath in maize

Anthocyanin accumulation in various maize tissues plays important roles in plant growth and development. In addition, some color-related traits can be used as morphological markers in conventional maize breeding processes and purity identification of hybrid seeds. Here, we noticed that the leaf sheath color was controlled by a dominant gene, because purple (PSH) and green leaf sheaths (GSH) were separated at a ratio of 3:1 in an F2 population. To map the gene, an F2 and a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population were derived from a cross between inbred line T877 (PSH) and DH1M (GSH). The PSH locus was mapped to the genomic region within 128.8 to 138.4 Mb using a bulked segregant sequencing approach. This position was further validated by linkage mapping using 190 F2 plants with GSH. Subsequently, the PSH locus was fine-mapped into an interval of 304.2 kb. A maize gene, GRMZM5G822829, was identified in this region, encoding a bHLH transcription factor. The expression level of this gene in T877 was found to be 9-fold higher than that of DH1M. In conclusion, our results suggest that GRMZM5G822829 is the putative candidate gene conferring leaf sheath color in maize.