A heat-stable microparticle platform for oral micronutrient delivery.

Micronutrient deficiencies affect up to 2 billion people and are the leading cause of cognitive and physical disorders in the developing world. Food fortification is effective in treating micronutrient deficiencies; however, its global implementation has been limited by technical challenges in maintaining micronutrient stability during cooking and storage. We hypothesized that polymer-based encapsulation could address this and facilitate micronutrient absorption.

Measuring Tau-microtubule affinity through cosedimentation assays.

Microtubule cosedimentation assays have long been used to study the affinity of interactions between Tau protein and microtubules. While these assays are very useful for characterizing and comparing the effects of alterations to either Tau or the microtubule filaments, they can also be problematic. We provide a set of straightforward instructions for performing these assays and point out a number of challenges and pitfalls that can complicate their interpretation.

Interactions between Tau and Different Conformations of Tubulin: Implications for Tau Function and Mechanism.

Tau is a multifaceted neuronal protein that stabilizes microtubules (MTs), but the mechanism of this activity remains poorly understood. Questions include whether Tau binds MTs laterally or longitudinally and whether Tau's binding affinity depends on the nucleotide state of tubulin. We observed that Tau binds tightly to Dolastatin-10 tubulin rings and promotes the formation of Dolastatin-10 ring stacks, implying that Tau can crosslink MT protofilaments laterally.

Delta frequency optogenetic stimulation of the thalamic nucleus reuniens is sufficient to produce working memory deficits: relevance to schizophrenia.

Background: Low-frequency (delta/theta) oscillations in the thalamocortical system are elevated in schizophrenia during wakefulness and are also induced in the N-methyl-D-asparate receptor hypofunction rat model. To determine whether abnormal delta oscillations might produce functional deficits, we used optogenetic methods in awake rats. We illuminated channelrhodopsin-2 in the thalamic nucleus reuniens (RE) at delta frequency and measured the effect on working memory (WM) performance (the RE is involved in WM, a process affected in schizophrenia [SZ]).

Using MTBindingSim as a tool for experimental planning and interpretation.

MTBindingSim is a program that enables users to simulate experiments in which proteins or other ligands (e.g., drugs) bind to microtubules or other polymers under various binding models.

Biochemical evidence that human EB1 does not bind preferentially to the microtubule seam.

EB1 is a highly conserved microtubule (MT) plus end tracking protein (+TIP) involved in regulating MT dynamics, but the mechanisms of its effects on MT polymerization remain undefined. Resolving this question requires understanding how EB1 interacts with MTs. Previous electron microscopy of the S.

Taxol-stabilized microtubules promote the formation of filaments from unmodified full-length Tau in vitro.

Tau is a neuronal protein that stabilizes the microtubule (MT) network, but it also forms filaments associated with Alzheimer's disease. Understanding Tau-MT and Tau-Tau interactions would help to establish Tau function in health and disease. For many years, literature reports on Tau-MT binding behavior and affinity have remained surprisingly contradictory (e.