Noninvasive Diagnostic Technique for Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Based on Features of Tongue Images.

Objective: To investigate a new noninvasive diagnostic model for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) based on features of tongue images.

Methods: Healthy controls and volunteers confirmed to have NAFLD by liver ultrasound were recruited from China-Japan Friendship Hospital between September 2018 and May 2019, then the anthropometric indexes and sampled tongue images were measured. The tongue images were labeled by features, based on a brief protocol, without knowing any other clinical data, after a series of corrections and data cleaning.

Prevalence and risk factors of osteoporosis detected by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry among Chinese patients with primary biliary cholangitis.

Background: Osteoporosis is an extrahepatic complication of primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) that increases the risk of fractures and mortality. However, Epidemiological studies of osteoporosis in patients with PBC in China and the Asia-Pacific region is lack.

Aim: To assess the prevalence and clinical characteristics of osteoporosis in Chinese patients with PBC.

Effective assessment of lanthanide ion delivery into live cells by paramagnetic NMR spectroscopy.

We report an effective assessment of lanthanide ion (Ln) delivery into live cells by paramagnetic NMR spectroscopy. Free Ln ions are toxic to live cells resulting in a gradual leakage of target proteins to the extracellular media. The citrate-Ln complex is an efficient and mild reagent over the free Ln form for live cell delivery.

Development and validation of machine learning models for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

Background: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) had become the most prevalent liver disease worldwide. Early diagnosis could effectively reduce NAFLD-related morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to combine the risk factors to develop and validate a novel model for predicting NAFLD.

Stereospecific recognition of a chiral centre over multiple flexible covalent bonds by F-NMR.

High performance in chiral recognition by a reactive F-tag was demonstrated for a variety of enantiomers. The analytes with up to five flexible covalent bonds from the chiral center can be discriminated by a sensitive chiral reporter manifested in the F-NMR spectrum. Simultaneous identification of chiral amines in a mixture and high accuracy ee determination were achieved.

Atherogenic index of plasma combined with waist circumference and body mass index to predict metabolic-associated fatty liver disease.

Background: Early identification of metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is urgent. Atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) is a reference predictor of obesity-related diseases, but its predictive value for MAFLD remains unclear. No studies have reported whether its combination with waist circumference (WC) and body mass index (BMI) can improve the predictive performance for MAFLD.

Distinct stereospecific effect of chiral tether between a tag and protein on the rigidity of paramagnetic tag.

Flexibility between the paramagnetic tag and its protein conjugates is a common yet unresolved issue in the applications of paramagnetic NMR spectroscopy in biological systems. The flexibility greatly attenuates the magnetic anisotropy and compromises paramagnetic effects especially for pseudocontact shift and residual dipolar couplings. Great efforts have been made to improve the rigidity of paramagnetic tag in the protein conjugates, however, the effect of local environment vicinal to the protein ligation site on the paramagnetic effects remains poorly understood.

Efficient Protein-Protein Couplings Mediated by Small Molecules under Mild Conditions.

Protein-protein coupling reactions under physiological conditions that do not impact the three-dimensional structures of the proteins are in high demand. Owing to the combination of phenylsulfonyl and aldehyde groups in 5-fluoro-4-(phenylsulfonyl)picolinaldehyde (FPPA), the fluorine substituent shows high reactivity toward free thiols. In FPPA, the fluorine is more reactive than phenylsulfonyl for free thiols.

Simultaneous Discrimination and Quantification of Enantiomeric Amino Acids under Physiological Conditions by Chiral F NMR Tag.

Enantiomeric analysis is of great significance in chemistry, chemical biology and pharmaceutical research. We herein propose a chiral F NMR tag containing an amino reactive NHS group to discriminate the enantiomeric amino acids under physiological conditions by NMR spectroscopy. The chiral F NMR tag readily forms stable amide products with the amino acids in aqueous solution.

Simultaneous Quantification of Biothiols and Deciphering Diverse GSH Stability in Different Live Cells by F-Tag.

GSH, Cys, Hcy, and HS are important biothiols and play important roles in the living systems. Quantitative and simultaneous determination of these biothiols under physiological conditions is still a challenge. Herein, we developed an effective F-reactive tag that readily interacts with these four biothiols for the generation of stable thioether products that have distinguishable F-chemical shifts.

Simultaneous identification and quantification of amino acids in biofluids by reactive F-tags.

A robust method to identify and quantify amino acids close to physiological conditions by 1D F NMR was established. Each F-derivatized amino acid has its characteristic chemical-shift profile that is readily identified in the mixture of amino acids or in biofluids including fetal bovine serum and cell lysates. The method shows great potential in metabolomics and biochemical analysis.

Nanoporous NiSb to Enhance Nitrogen Electroreduction via Tailoring Competitive Adsorption Sites.

Ambient nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) is attracting extensive interest but still suffers from sluggish kinetics owing to competitive rapid hydrogen evolution and difficult nitrogen activation. Herein, nanoporous NiSb alloy is reported as an efficient electrocatalyst for N fixation, achieving a high ammonia yield rate of 56.9 µg h mg with a Faradaic efficiency of 48.

Assessing multiple conformations of lanthanide binding tags for proteins using a sensitive F-reporter.

Quantifying the isomeric species of metal complexes in solution is difficult. 19F NMR herein was used to determine the abundance of isomeric species and dynamic properties of lanthanide binding tags. The results suggest that 19F is an efficient reporter in assessing and screening paramagnetic tags suitable for protein NMR analysis.

Dynamic Exchange of the Metal Chelating Moiety: A Key Factor in Determining the Rigidity of Protein-Tag Conjugates in Paramagnetic NMR.

Site-specific labeling of proteins with a paramagnetic tag is an efficient way to provide atomic-resolution information about the dynamics, interactions, and structures of the proteins and protein-ligand complexes. The paramagnetic effects manifested in NMR spectroscopy generally contain paramagnetic relaxation enhancement, pseudocontact shifts (PCSs), and residual dipolar coupling (RDC), and these effects correlate closely with the flexibility of protein-tag conjugates. The rigidity of the paramagnetic tag is greatly important in decoding the structural details of macromolecular complexes, because paramagnetic averaging reduces the PCSs and RDCs.

Chronic Oral Administration of Magnesium-L-Threonate Prevents Oxaliplatin-Induced Memory and Emotional Deficits by Normalization of TNF-α/NF-κB Signaling in Rats.

Antineoplastic drugs such as oxaliplatin (OXA) often induce memory and emotional deficits. At present, the mechanisms underlying these side-effects are not fully understood, and no effective treatment is available. Here, we show that the short-term memory deficits and anxiety-like and depression-like behaviors induced by intraperitoneal injections of OXA (4 mg/kg per day for 5 consecutive days) were accompanied by synaptic dysfunction and downregulation of the NR2B subunit of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors in the hippocampus, which is critically involved in memory and emotion.

Normalization of magnesium deficiency attenuated mechanical allodynia, depressive-like behaviors, and memory deficits associated with cyclophosphamide-induced cystitis by inhibiting TNF-α/NF-κB signaling in female rats.

Background: Bladder-related pain symptoms in patients with bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis (BPS/IC) are often accompanied by depression and memory deficits. Magnesium deficiency contributes to neuroinflammation and is associated with pain, depression, and memory deficits. Neuroinflammation is involved in the mechanical allodynia of cyclophosphamide (CYP)-induced cystitis.

Site-Specific Tagging of Proteins with Paramagnetic Ions for Determination of Protein Structures in Solution and in Cells.

High-resolution NMR spectroscopy is sensitive to local structural variations and subtle dynamics of biomolecules and is an important technique for studying the structures, dynamics, and interactions of these molecules. Small-molecule probes, including paramagnetic tags, have been developed for this purpose. Paramagnetic effects manifested in magnetic resonance spectra have long been recognized as valuable tools for chemical analysis of small molecules, and these effects were later applied in the fields of chemical biology and structural biology.

Resonance Assignments of Lowly Populated and Unstable Enzyme Intermediate Complex under Real-Time Conditions.

Unstable and low-abundance protein complexes represent a large family of transient protein complexes that are difficult to characterize, even by means of high-resolution NMR spectroscopy. A method to assign the NMR signals of these unstable complexes through a combination of selective isotope labeling of amino acids in a protein and site-specific labeling the protein with a paramagnetic tag is presented herein. By using this method, the resonances of unstable thioester intermediate complex (lifetime <5 h and highest concentration ≈20 μm) generated by Staphylococcus aureus sortase A and its peptide substrate under a real-time reaction have been assigned.

Neuregulin-1-ErbB signaling promotes microglia activation contributing to mechanical allodynia of cyclophosphamide-induced cystitis.

Aims: Central sensitization playsimportant roles in cyclophosphamide (CYP)-induced cystitis. In addition, as a visceral pain, CYP-induced chronic pain shares common pathophysiological mechanisms with neuropathic pain. Previous studies demonstrated that neuregulin-1 (Nrg1)-ErbB signaling contributes to neuropathic pain, but whether and how this signaling influences mechanical allodynia in CYP-induced cystitis is unclear.

Conversion of an amide to a high-energy thioester by Staphylococcus aureus sortase A is powered by variable binding affinity for calcium.

Thioesters are key intermediates in biology, which often are generated from less energy-rich amide precursors. Staphylococcus aureus sortase A (SrtA) is an enzyme widely used in biotechnology for peptide ligation. The reaction proceeds in two steps, where the first step involves the conversion of an amide bond of substrate peptide into a thioester intermediate with the enzyme.

Stable and rigid DTPA-like paramagnetic tags suitable for in vitro and in situ protein NMR analysis.

Organic synthesis of a ligand with high binding affinities for paramagnetic lanthanide ions is an effective way of generating paramagnetic effects on proteins. These paramagnetic effects manifested in high-resolution NMR spectroscopy are valuable dynamic and structural restraints of proteins and protein-ligand complexes. A paramagnetic tag generally contains a metal chelating moiety and a reactive group for protein modification.