Detection of chronic wasting disease prions in the farm soil of the Republic of Korea.

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a highly contagious prion disease occurring in free-ranging and farmed cervids. CWD continues to spread uncontrolled across North America, and cases continue to be detected almost every year in the Republic of Korea. CWD-infected animals contaminate the soil by releasing infectious prions through their excreta, and shed prions accumulate and remain infectious in the soil for years.

Interferon regulatory factor 2 of red-spotted grouper (Epinephelus akaara): Insights into its transcriptional profiling, antiviral potential, and function in macrophage polarization.

Interferon regulatory factor 2 (IRF2) is a member of the IRF family that is specifically involved in diverse immune responses via interferon (IFN)/IRF-dependent signaling pathways. In this study, IRF2 of Epinephelus akaara (EAIRF2) was identified and characterized by evaluating its structural and functional properties. EAIRF2 showed the highest homology with IRF2 of Epinephelus coioides and clustered with teleosts in the phylogenetic tree.

A bird's-eye view of the biological mechanism and machine learning prediction approaches for cell-penetrating peptides.

Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) are highly effective at passing through eukaryotic membranes with various cargo molecules, like drugs, proteins, nucleic acids, and nanoparticles, without causing significant harm. Creating drug delivery systems with CPP is associated with cancer, genetic disorders, and diabetes due to their unique chemical properties. Wet lab experiments in drug discovery methodologies are time-consuming and expensive.

mtSTAT3 suppresses rheumatoid arthritis by regulating Th17 and synovial fibroblast inflammatory cell death with IL-17-mediated autophagy dysfunction.

Th17 cells are activated by STAT3 factors in the nucleus, and these factors are correlated with the pathologic progression of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Recent studies have demonstrated the presence of STAT3 in mitochondria, but its function is unclear. We investigated the novel role of mitochondrial STAT3 (mitoSTAT3) in Th17 cells and fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLSs) and analyzed the correlation of mitoSTAT3 with RA.