Knowledgebase-Driven Exploration and Experimental Verification of Simvastatin's Inhibitory Impact on P2X7/NLRP3 Inflammasome Pathway.

Depression is a mental health disorder and is the fourth most prevalent disease. Previous studies have suggested that statins are involved in the reduction of neuroinflammation. However, the potential mechanism for this relationship is unclear.

A Low-Field MRI Dataset For Spatiotemporal Analysis of Developing Brain.

Recently, imaging investigation of brain development has increasingly captured the attention of researchers and clinicians in an attempt to understand the link between the brain and behavioral changes. Although high-field MR imaging of infants is feasible, the necessary customizations have limited its accessibility, affordability, and reproducibility. Low-field MR, as an emerging solution for scrutinizing developing brain, has exhibited its unique advantages in safety, portability, and cost-effectiveness.

Apaf-1 is an evolutionarily conserved DNA sensor that switches the cell fate between apoptosis and inflammation.

Apoptotic protease activating factor 1 (Apaf-1) was traditionally defined as a scaffold protein in mammalian cells for assembling a caspase activation platform known as the 'apoptosome' after its binding to cytochrome c. Although Apaf-1 structurally resembles animal NOD-like receptor (NLR) and plant resistance (R) proteins, whether it is directly involved in innate immunity is still largely unknown. Here, we found that Apaf-1-like molecules from lancelets, fruit flies, mice, and humans have conserved DNA sensing functionality.

mTOR signaling mediates energy metabolic equilibrium in bovine and mouse oocytes during the ovulatory phase†.

The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway is activated by luteinizing hormone in preovulatory follicle. However, its impact on ovulation remains inadequately explored. Utilizing in vivo studies and in vitro fertilization, we demonstrated that the negative effect of inhibition of mTOR signaling by rapamycin on oocyte quality during the ovulatory phase, with a notable decrease in the total cell count of blastocysts, a reduction in gastrula size, and fetal degeneration on the 16th day of gestation while not affecting ovulated oocyte count or granulosa cell luteinization.

Atomically Fine-Tuning Organic-Inorganic Carbon Molecular Sieve Membranes for Hydrogen Production.

Polymeric membranes with great processability are attractive for the H/CO separation required for hydrogen production from renewable biomass with carbon capture for utilization and sequestration. However, it remains elusive to engineer polymer architectures to obtain desired sub-3.3 Å ultramicropores to efficiently sieve H from CO.