Background: The aging of skin is a diversified biological phenomenon, influenced by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. However, the specific mechanism of skin photoaging is not yet completely elucidated.
Methods: Gene expression profiles for photoaging patients were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) collection.
Mixed ionic-electronic conductors have great potential as materials for energy storage applications. However, despite their promising properties, only a handful of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) provide efficient pathways for both ion and electron transport. This work reports a proton-electron dual-conductive MOF based on tetrathiafulvalene(TTF)-phosphonate linkers and lanthanum ions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParkinsonism Relat Disord
November 2024
Introduction: Parkinson's disease (PD) patients are prone to fall and fall-related injuries (FI). Vascular disease is common in PD and is positively associated with falls in elderly. We aimed to evaluate the association of vascular disease with FI risk in PD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn plants, vegetative growth is controlled by synergistic and/or antagonistic effects of many regulatory factors. Here, the authors demonstrate that the ubiquitin ligase seven in absentia1 (SINA1) mammalian BTF2-like transcription factors, Drosophila synapse-associated proteins, and yeast DOS2-like proteins (BSD1) function as a regulatory module to control vegetative growth in tomato via regulation of the production of plant growth hormone gibberellin (GA). SINA1 negatively regulates the protein level of BSD1 through ubiquitin-proteasome-mediated degradation, and the transgenic tomato over-expressing SINA1 (SINA1-OX) resembles the dwarfism phenotype of the BSD1-knockout (BSD1-KO) tomato plant.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSingle-cell sequencing is frequently affected by "omission" due to limitations in sequencing throughput, yet bulk RNA-seq may contain these ostensibly "omitted" cells. Here, we introduce the single cell trajectory blending from Bulk RNA-seq (BulkTrajBlend) algorithm, a component of the OmicVerse suite that leverages a Beta-Variational AutoEncoder for data deconvolution and graph neural networks for the discovery of overlapping communities. This approach effectively interpolates and restores the continuity of "omitted" cells within single-cell RNA sequencing datasets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTwo-dimensional conductive metal-organic frameworks (2D cMOFs) are an emerging class of crystalline van der Waals layered materials with tunable porosity and high electrical conductivity. They have been used in a variety of applications, such as energy storage and conversion, chemiresistive sensing, and quantum information. Although designing new conductive 2D cMOFs and studying their composition/structure-property relationships have attracted significant attention, there are still very few examples of 2D cMOFs that exhibit room-temperature electrical conductivity above 1 S cm, the value exhibited by activated carbon, a well-known porous and conductive material that serves in myriad applications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRare-earth metal complexes of the parent benzene tetraanion and neutral inverse-sandwich rare-earth metal arene complexes have remained elusive. Here, we report the first neutral inverse-sandwich rare-earth metal complexes of the parent benzene tetraanion supported by a monoanionic β-diketiminate (BDI) ligand. Reduction of the trivalent rare-earth metal diiodide precursors (BDI)MI(THF) (BDI = HC(C(Me)N[CH-(3-pentyl)-2,6]); M = Y, 1-Y; M = Sm, 1-Sm) in benzene or -xylene by potassium graphite yielded the neutral inverse-sandwich rare-earth metal arene complexes [(BDI)M(THF) ](μ-η,η-arene) (M = Y, Sm; arene = benzene, 2-M; arene = -xylene, 3-M).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs global climate change continues, drought episodes have become increasingly frequent. Studying plant stress tolerance is urgently needed to ensure food security. The common ice plant is one of the model halophyte plants for plant stress biology research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDrugs of abuse are thought to promote addiction in part by "hijacking" brain reward systems, but the underlying mechanisms remain undefined. Using whole-brain FOS mapping and in vivo single-neuron calcium imaging, we found that drugs of abuse augment dopaminoceptive ensemble activity in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and disorganize overlapping ensemble responses to natural rewards in a cell type-specific manner. Combining FOS-Seq, CRISPR-perturbation, and single-nucleus RNA sequencing, we identified as a molecular substrate that regulates cell type-specific signal transduction in NAc while enabling drugs to suppress natural reward consumption.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMuscles featuring high frequency and high stroke linear actuation are essential for animals to achieve superior maneuverability, agility, and environmental adaptability. Artificial muscles are yet to match their biological counterparts, due to inferior actuation speed, magnitude, mode, or adaptability. Inspired by the hierarchical structure of natural muscles, artificial muscles are created that are powerful, responsive, robust, and adaptable.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent studies have examined whether the internal selection mechanism functions similarly for perception and visual working memory (VWM). However, the process of how we access and manipulate object representations distributed in a 3D space remains unclear. In this study, we utilized a memory search task to investigate the effect of depth on object selection and manipulation within VWM.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMesembryanthemum crystallinum (common ice plant), a facultative CAM plant, shifts from C to CAM photosynthesis under salt stress, enhancing water use efficiency. Here we used transcriptomics, proteomics, and targeted metabolomics to profile molecular changes during the diel cycle of C to CAM transition. The results confirmed expected changes associated with CAM photosynthesis, starch biosynthesis and degradation, and glycolysis/gluconeogenesis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPost-extraction alveolar bone atrophy greatly hinders the subsequent orthodontic tooth movement (OTM) or implant placement. In this study, we synthesized biodegradable bifunctional bioactive calcium phosphorus nanoflowers (NFs) loaded with abaloparatide (ABL), namely ABL@NFs, to achieve spatiotemporal management for alveolar bone regeneration. The NFs exhibited a porous hierarchical structure, high drug encapsulation efficacy, and desirable biocompatibility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Liver aging, marked by cellular senescence and low-grade inflammation, heightens susceptibility to chronic liver disease and worsens its prognosis. Insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2) has been implicated in numerous aging-related diseases. Nevertheless, its role and underlying molecular mechanisms in liver aging remain largely unexplored.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPoly(glycolic acid) (PGA) is a biodegradable polymer with high gas barrier properties, mechanical strength, and heat deflection temperature. However, PGA's brittleness severely limits its application in packaging, creating a need to develop PGA-based copolymers with improved elasticity that maintain its barrier properties and hydrolytic degradability. In this work, a series of PGBAT (poly(glycolic acid--butylene) adipate--butylene terephthalate) copolymers containing 21-92% glycolic acid () with values of 46,700-50,600 g mol were synthesized via melt polycondensation, and the effects of altering the on PGBAT's thermomechanical properties and hydrolysis rate were investigated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAddiction prioritizes drug use over innate needs by "hijacking" brain circuits that direct motivation, but how this develops remains unclear. Using whole-brain FOS mapping and single-neuron calcium imaging, we find that drugs of abuse augment ensemble activity in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and disorganize overlapping ensemble responses to natural rewards in a cell-type-specific manner. Combining "FOS-Seq", CRISPR-perturbations, and snRNA-seq, we identify as a shared molecular substrate that regulates cell-type-specific signal transductions in NAc while enabling drugs to suppress natural reward responses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlobal climate change and population growth are persistently posing threats to natural resources (e.g., freshwater) and agricultural production.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWith the birth of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology, genomic data in public databases have increased exponentially. Unfortunately, exogenous contamination or intracellular parasite sequences in assemblies could confuse genomic analysis. Meanwhile, they can provide a valuable resource for studies of host-microbe interactions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlatelet-rich fibrin (PRF) is an autologous growth factor carrier that promotes bone tissue regeneration, but its effectiveness is restrained by poor storage capabilities, uncontrollable concentration of growth factors, unstable shape, etc. Herein, we developed a photocrosslinkable composite hydrogel by incorporating lyophilized PRF exudate (LPRFe) into the carboxymethyl chitosan methacryloyl (CMCSMA)/gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) hydrogel to effectively solve the dilemma of PRF. The hydrogel possessed suitable physical properties and sustainable release ability of growth factors in LPRFe.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBats have received increasing attention because of some unique biological features they possess. TRIM is a large family of proteins that participate in diverse cellular functions, such as antiviral immunity, DNA damage repair, tumor suppression, and aging. These functional areas appear to be highly consistent with the special characteristics of bats, such as tolerance to viruses and DNA damage generated in flight, low cancer incidence, and longevity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo elucidate the role of post-translational modifications (PTMs) in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein's structure and virulence, we generated a high-resolution map of 87 PTMs using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry data on the extracted spike protein from SARS-CoV-2 virions and then reconstituted its structure heterogeneity caused by PTMs. Nonetheless, Alphafold2, a high-accuracy artificial intelligence tool to perform protein structure prediction, relies solely on primary amino acid sequence, whereas the impact of PTM, which often modulates critical protein structure and function, is much ignored. To overcome this challenge, we proposed the mutagenesis approach-an in silico, site-directed amino acid substitution to mimic the influence of PTMs on protein structure due to altered physicochemical properties in the post-translationally modified amino acids-and then reconstituted the spike protein's structure from the substituted sequences by Alphafold2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPancharatnam-Berry (PB) metasurfaces have demonstrated mighty capability to manipulate electromagnetic (EM) waves, and exhibited potential applications for devices with broadband and efficient functionality. However, it remains a challenge to simultaneously achieve broadband and efficient wavefront manipulation for terahertz (THz) components with simple profiles. Herein, we introduce a simple ultra-thin PB metasurface with superior properties in the THz region.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMethods Enzymol
October 2022
Among all post-translational modifications of proteins, phosphorylation is one of the most common and most studied. Since plants are sessile organisms, many physiological processes on which their survival depends are regulated by phosphorylation and dephosphorylation. Understanding the extent to which a plant proteome is phosphorylated at specific developmental stages and/or under certain environmental conditions is essential for identifying molecular switches that regulate physiological processes and responses.
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