Sodium MRI of the skin using a surface coil to investigate and reduce signal loss and bias.

Purpose: The purpose was to improve sodium MRI of human skin using a surface coil and twisted projection imaging with smaller, reshaped voxels.

Methods: Calf skin sodium images were acquired in 14 healthy adults using twisted projection imaging with short TE ˜ 0.1 ms, first with a volume coil and voxels (1.

RNA interference-mediated silencing of ctl13 inhibits innate immunity and development in stored pest Tribolium castaneum.

C-type lectins (CTLs) play a pivotal role in the regulation of insect immunity and growth, making them potential molecular targets for RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated pest control. Although multiple CTLs have been identified in the genomes of various insects, their specific functions and underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. In the present study, a novel CTL, Tcctl13 with a single CRD, was identified in Tribolium castaneum.

Fall Detection Method for Infrared Videos Based on Spatial-Temporal Graph Convolutional Network.

The timely detection of falls and alerting medical aid is critical for health monitoring in elderly individuals living alone. This paper mainly focuses on issues such as poor adaptability, privacy infringement, and low recognition accuracy associated with traditional visual sensor-based fall detection. We propose an infrared video-based fall detection method utilizing spatial-temporal graph convolutional networks (ST-GCNs) to address these challenges.

Point-of-Care Testing of Whole Blood for Liver Injury Auxiliary Diagnosis with Biothiols Activable Chemiluminescent Probe.

Liver injury significantly affects a patient's health and quality of life. However, timely and convenient diagnosis of this disease via whole blood detection remains challenging due to the lack of user-friendly and fast readout blood test methods. Herein, we developed such a method for the swift auxiliary diagnosis of liver injury via whole blood detection using a customed point-of-care testing (POCT) system consisting of a biothiols-activatable chemiluminescent probe and a hand-held POCT device.

NRIMD, a Web Server for Analyzing Protein Allosteric Interactions Based on Molecular Dynamics Simulation.

Long-range allosteric communication between distant sites and active sites in proteins is central to biological regulation but still poorly characterized, limiting the development of protein engineering and drug design. Addressing this gap, NRIMD is an open-access web server for analyzing long-range interactions in proteins from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, such as the effect of mutations at distal sites or allosteric ligand binding at allosteric sites on the active center. Based on our recent works on neural relational inference using graph neural networks, this cloud-based web server accepts MD simulation data on any length of residues in the alpha-carbon skeleton format from mainstream MD software.

Mechanistic insights into the conversion of flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) to 8-formyl FAD in formate oxidase: a combined experimental and in-silico study.

Formate oxidase (FOx), which contains 8-formyl flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), exhibits a distinct advantage in utilizing ambient oxygen molecules for the oxidation of formic acid compared to other glucose-methanol-choline (GMC) oxidoreductase enzymes that contain only the standard FAD cofactor. The FOx-mediated conversion of FAD to 8-formyl FAD results in an approximate 10-fold increase in formate oxidase activity. However, the mechanistic details underlying the autocatalytic formation of 8-formyl FAD are still not well understood, which impedes further utilization of FOx.

Effect of depression and the antidepressant fluoxetine on osseointegration-A pre-clinical in vivo experimental study.

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the effect of depression and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors on implant osseointegration and bone healing.

Methods: Forty-eight 6- to 8-week-old SPF Sprague-Dawley male rats were randomly divided into four groups: the Control group, the Fluoxetine group, the Depression group and the De&Flu group. The rats in the Depression group and the De&Flu group were subjected to a depression modelling process, and the rats in the Control group and the Fluoxetine group were raised normally.

Improving the efficiency and environmental safety of emamectin benzoate through a pH-responsive metal-organic framework microencapsulation strategy.

Herein, we developed a technique for loading nanopesticides onto Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) to control Spodoptera litura. The average short-axis length of the synthesized carrier emamectin benzoate@PCN-222 @hyaluronic acid (EB@PCN-222 @HA) was ∼40 nm, with an average long-axis length of ∼80 nm. This enabled the manipulation of its size, contact angle, and surface tension on the surface of leaves.

Millimeter wave-based patient setup verification and motion tracking during radiotherapy.

Background: Position verification and motion monitoring are critical for safe and precise radiotherapy (RT). Existing approaches to these tasks based on visible light or x-ray are suboptimal either because they cannot penetrate obstructions to the patient's skin or introduce additional radiation exposure. The low-cost mmWave radar is an ideal solution for these tasks as it can monitor patient position and motion continuously throughout the treatment delivery.

Alfalfa confers tolerance to cadmium stress through activating the iron deficiency response in .

Cadmium (Cd) pollution severely affects plant growth and development, posing risks to human health throughout the food chain. Improved iron (Fe) nutrients could mitigate Cd toxicity in plants, but the regulatory network involving Cd and Fe interplay remains unresolved. Here, a transcription factor gene of alfalfa, was verified to respond to iron deficiency and Cd stress.

(De)carboxylation mechanisms of heteroaromatic substrates catalyzed by prenylated FMN-dependent UbiD decarboxylases: An in-silico study.

The UbiD enzymes are proposed to catalyze reversible (de)carboxylation reaction of unsaturated carboxylic acids using prenylated flavin mononucleotide (prFMN) as a cofactor. This positions UbiD enzymes as promising candidates for converting CO into valuable chemicals. However, their industrial-scale biotransformation is currently constrained by low conversion rates attributed to thermodynamic limitations.

, A Metal Transporter Gene of Alfalfa, Increases Iron Accumulation and Benefits Cadmium Resistance.

Iron (Fe) is necessary for plant growth and development. The mechanism of uptake and translocation in Cadmium (Cd) is similar to iron, which shares iron transporters. Yellow stripe-like transporter (YSL) plays a pivotal role in transporting iron and other metal ions in plants.

Radar remote sensing reveals potential underestimation of rainfall erosivity at the global scale.

Rainfall kinetic energy (RKE) constitutes one of the most critical factors that drive rainfall erosivity on surface soil. Direct measurements of RKE are limited, relying instead on the empirical relations between kinetic energy and rainfall intensity ( relation), which have not been well regionalized for data-scarce regions. Here, we present the first global rainfall microphysics-based RKE () flux retrieved from radar reflectivity at different frequencies.

A Quencher-Based Blood-Autofluorescence-Suppression Strategy Enables the Quantification of Trace Analytes in Whole Blood.

Precise quantification of trace components in whole blood via fluorescence is of great significance. However, the applicability of current fluorescent probes in whole blood is largely hindered by the strong blood autofluorescence. Here, we proposed a blood autofluorescence-suppressed sensing strategy to develop an activable fluorescent probe for quantification of trace analyte in whole blood.

Antibiotic Resistance, Molecular Characteristics and Risk Factors of Carbapenem-Resistant in Clinical Isolates.

Background: The global epidemic of carbapenem-resistant (CRKP) has become a significant public health challenge. This study aimed to investigate the antibiotic resistance and molecular characteristics of CRKP and the clinical characteristics of infected patients.

Methods: Sixty-two clinically isolated CRKP strains were collected for the first time from the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University in Zhejiang Province.

Molecular dynamics simulation guided distal mutation of Thermotoga naphthophila β-glucosidase for significantly enhanced synthesis of galactooligosaccharides and expanded product scope.

For efficient enzymatic production of health-beneficial galactooligosaccharides (GOSs), a glycone (-1)/aglycone (+2) subsite mutation strategy to engineer a thermophilic GH1 β-glucosidase (Tn0602) from Thermotoga naphthophila RKU-10 was introduced. Six single mutation variants (F226G, N246G, N246E, N222F, N222Y, G224T) and two double mutants (F226GF414S, F226GF414Y) were designed. The +2-subsite variant F226G produced 136 mM galactooligosaccharide 1.

Neural relational inference to learn long-range allosteric interactions in proteins from molecular dynamics simulations.

Protein allostery is a biological process facilitated by spatially long-range intra-protein communication, whereby ligand binding or amino acid change at a distant site affects the active site remotely. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation provides a powerful computational approach to probe the allosteric effect. However, current MD simulations cannot reach the time scales of whole allosteric processes.

Computational Study on the Effect of Inactivating/Activating Mutations on the Inhibition of MEK1 by Trametinib.

Activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway regulated by human MAP kinase 1 (MEK1) is associated with the carcinogenesis and progression of numerous cancers. In addition, two active mutations (P124S and E203K) have been reported to enhance the activity of MEK1, thereby eventually leading to the tumorigenesis of cancer. Trametinib is an MEK1 inhibitor for treating EML4-ALK-positive, EGFR-activated, and KRAS-mutant lung cancers.

How oncogenic mutations activate human MAP kinase 1 (MEK1): a molecular dynamics simulation study.

Approximately 30% of all types of human cancers possess a constitutively activated the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway while MAP kinase 1 (MEK1) is a critical component of this pathway. It has been reported mutations could improve the activity of MEK1 to result in cell proliferation and transformation, which is a known oncogenic event in various cancer types. In this study, eight molecular dynamics simulations, molecular mechanics Poisson-Boltzmann surface area (MM-PBSA), combined with protein structure network were performed to explore the mechanism that mutations activate MEK1.

Exploration of Catalytic Selectivity for Aminotransferase (BtrR) Based on Multiple Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

The aminotransferase from (BtrR), which is involved in the biosynthesis of butirosin, catalyzes the pyridoxal phosphate (PLP)-dependent transamination reaction to convert valienone to β-valienamine (a new β-glycosidase inhibitor for the treatment of lysosomal storage diseases) with an optical purity enantiomeric excess value. To explore the stereoselective mechanism of valienamine generated by BtrR, multiple molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed for the BtrR/PLP/valienamine and BtrR/PLP/β-valienamine complexes. The theoretical results showed that β-valienamine could make BtrR more stable and dense than valienamine.

Insights from molecular dynamics simulations and steered molecular dynamics simulations to exploit new trends of the interaction between HIF-1α and p300.

Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) is a transcription factor that plays an important role in the expression of genes, whose function is exerted through protein-protein interactions (PPIs), such as the transcriptional co-activator (CREB)-binding protein (CBP) and p300. Under hypoxic conditions, HIF-1is stabilized and translocated to CBP or p300, leading to the hypoxic response cascade. Furthermore, the PPI between HIF and p300/CBP is a potential cancer target for their role in the hypoxic response.

Probing inhibition mechanisms of adenosine deaminase by using molecular dynamics simulations.

Adenosine deaminase (ADA) catalyzes the deamination of adenosine, which is important in purine metabolism. ADA is ubiquitous to almost all human tissues, and ADA abnormalities have been reported in various diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis. ADA can be divided into two conformations based on the inhibitor that it binds to: open and closed forms.

Adaptive Steered Molecular Dynamics Combined With Protein Structure Networks Revealing the Mechanism of Y68I/G109P Mutations That Enhance the Catalytic Activity of D-psicose 3-Epimerase From .

The scarcity, richness, and other important physiological functions of D-psicose make it crucial to increase the yield of D-psicose. The production of D-psicose can be accomplished by D-psicose 3-epimerase (DPEase) from (DPEase) catalyzing the substrate D-fructose. Although the catalytic efficiency of the DPEase has been raised via using the site-directed mutagenesis (Y68I/G109P) technique, structure-activity relationship in the wild-type DPEase and Y68I/G109P mutant is currently poorly understood.

Theoretical Study on Zearalenol Compounds Binding with Wild Type Zearalenone Hydrolase and V153H Mutant.

Zearalenone hydrolase (ZHD) is the only reported α/β-hydrolase that can detoxify zearalenone (ZEN). ZHD has demonstrated its potential as a treatment for ZEN contamination that will not result in damage to cereal crops. Recent researches have shown that the V153H mutant ZHD increased the specific activity against α-ZOL, but decreased its specific activity to β-ZOL.