Publications by authors named "Kaien Liu"

Article Synopsis
  • Amyloid fibrils are linked to neurodegenerative diseases; polysaccharides play a key role in recognizing these fibrils and influencing their harmful effects.
  • The study used cryo-electron microscopy to observe changes in the structure of α-synuclein fibrils when bound to heparin, revealing that structural alterations depend on the specific type and structure of the polysaccharides.
  • Heparin-like oligosaccharides can block the spread of α-syn fibrils and inhibit their formation, highlighting potential therapeutic uses for these molecules in treating amyloid-related conditions.
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The aggregation of α-synuclein (α-syn) into amyloid fibrils, a key process in the development of Parkinson's disease (PD) and other synucleinopathies, is influenced by a range of factors such as charged biopolymers, chaperones, and metabolites. However, the specific impacts of different biopolymers on α-syn fibril structure are not well understood. In our work, we found that different polyanions and polycations, such as polyphosphate (polyP), polyuridine (polyU), and polyamines (including putrescine, spermidine, and spermine), markedly altered the fibrillation kinetics of α-syn in vitro.

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α-synuclein (α-syn) assembles into structurally distinct fibril polymorphs seen in different synucleinopathies, such as Parkinson's disease and multiple system atrophy. Targeting these unique fibril structures using chemical ligands holds diagnostic significance for different disease subtypes. However, the molecular mechanisms governing small molecules interacting with different fibril polymorphs remain unclear.

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The consensus problem for second-order multiagent systems with absolute velocity damping under directed topologies is investigated. In contrast to the existing results, which rely on a sufficiently large common absolute velocity damping gain above a lower bound dependent on global information, this paper focuses on novel algorithms to overcome this limitation. A novel consensus algorithm, where different agents use different absolute velocity damping gains, is first proposed.

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