Publications by authors named "Mengmeng Zheng"

Aspergillus oryzae is a widely used host for heterologous expression of fungal natural products. However, the vectors previously developed are not convenient for use and screening positive transformants by PCR and fermentation is time- and effort-consuming. Hence, three plug-and-play vectors were developed here for multi-gene expression and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry detection was introduced to screen positive transformants.

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Glutathione S-transferase (GST) has been established to play an important role in regulating the responses of plants to stress, although its function and mechanisms of action in the cadmium (Cd)-tolerant remain unclear. In this study, we sought to identify a Cd-responsive gene from for functional analysis and mechanistic characterization. We accordingly identified a member of the gene family, , which plays a positive role in adaptation of to Cd.

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The biofouling adhering to underwater facilities has a negative impact on the environment, energy, and economic development. However, conventional anti-adhesion organic silicon and organic fluorine materials often have poor adhesion properties and mechanical stability when combined with substrates. This work presents a novel strategy for preparing composite antifouling coatings that low surface energy plant-based carnauba wax (CW) covering through rough substrates and chemically bond with flexible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) oligomers or polymers.

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Novel bioconjugation reactions have been heavily pursued for the past two decades. A myriad of conjugation reactions have been developed for labeling molecules of interest in their native context as well as for constructing multifunctional molecular entities or stimuli-responsive materials. A growing cluster of bioconjugation reactions were realized by tapping into the unique properties of boron.

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Leukemia spread in the bone marrow typically is greater in the axial skeleton than in the appendicular skeleton. We report an unusual pattern of FDG-avid bone marrow infiltration that is more prominent in the appendicular skeleton than the axial skeleton in a pediatric patient with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

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Background: We aimed to introduce our modified hand-assisted retroperitoneoscopic living donor nephrectomy (HARPLDN) technique and define the learning curve.

Methods: One hundred thirty-eight kidney donors who underwent modified HARPLDN by the same surgeon between May 2015 and March 2022 were included. A cumulative sum (CUSUM) learning curve analysis was performed with the total operation time as the study outcome.

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Traditional fungi β-glucan commonly possesses high molecular weight with poor water solubility, which remains significant challenge in the drug development and medical application. Water-soluble β-glucan with high molecular weight (dHSCG) of 560 kDa, low molecular weight (dLSCG) of 60 kDa, and sulfated derivative (SCGS) with a molecular weight of 146 kDa and sulfate degree at 2.04 were obtained through well-controlled degradation and sulfated modification from Saccharomyces cerevisiae in this study.

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Background: Uncontrolled cellular proliferation may result in the progression of diseases such as cancer that promote organism death. Programmed cell death (PCD) is an important mechanism that ensures the quality and quantity of cells, which could be developed as a potential biomarker for disease diagnosis and treatment.

Methods: RNA-seq data and clinical information of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), and 1548 PCD-related genes were collected.

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Background: Mitochondrial proteins assume a pivotal role in the onset and progression of diverse diseases. Nonetheless, the causal interconnections with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) demand meticulous exploration. Mendelian randomization analysis is a method used in observational epidemiological studies to predict the relationship between exposure factors and outcomes using genetic variants as instrumental variables.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the role of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MNK) in macrophages during infections, particularly focusing on its influence on pro-inflammatory cytokine production and macrophage function.
  • Inhibition of MNK in macrophage cells led to reduced production of key cytokines, tumor necrosis factor alpha and interleukin-6, without altering their transcription levels, while knockout of MNK1 improved the cells' ability to digest and eliminate bacteria.
  • The research also found that MNK1's effects on phagocytosis and bacterial clearance are linked to the mTORC1 signaling pathway rather than the MNK1-eIF4E pathway, emphasizing the MNK1-m
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Background: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a malignant epithelial carcinoma arising from the nasopharyngeal mucosal lining. Diagnosis of NPC at early stage can improve the outcome of patients and facilitate reduction in cancer mortality. The most significant change between cancer cells and normal cells is the variation of cell nucleus.

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Background: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is an aggressive and highly metastatic malignant tumor. Despite recent therapeutic advances, resistance to Taxol (the generic name of paclitaxel) therapy remains a major challenge in clinical management. Therefore, it is imperative to explore the potential mechanisms of paclitaxel resistance in NPC.

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Background: Breast cancer is one of the common malignancies in women. Evidence has demonstrated that FBXO45 plays a pivotal role in oncogenesis and progression. However, the role of FBXO45 in breast tumorigenesis remains elusive.

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Two-dimensional (2D) nanofluidic membranes are competitive candidates for osmotic energy harvesting and have been greatly developed. However, the use of diverse inherent characteristics of 2D nanosheets, such as electronic or optoelectronic properties, to achieve intelligent ion transport, still lacks sufficient exploration. Here, a cellulose nanofiber/molybdenum oxide (CNF/MoO) heterogeneous nanofluidic membrane with high performance solar-osmotic energy conversion is reported, and how surface plasmon resonances (SPR) regulate selective cation transport is revealed.

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The deposition and intercalation of metal atoms can induce superconductivity in monolayer and bilayer graphenes. For example, it has been experimentally proved that Li-deposited graphene is a superconductor with critical temperature of 5.9 K, Ca-intercalated bilayer graphene CCaC and K-intercalated epitaxial bilayer graphene CKC are superconductors with of 2-4 K and 3.

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Linkage chemistry and functional molecules derived from the stereogenic sulfur(VI) centre have important applications in organic synthesis, bioconjugation, drug discovery, agrochemicals and polymeric materials. However, existing approaches for the preparation of optically active S(VI)-centred compounds heavily rely on synthetic chiral S(IV) pools, and the reported linkers of S(VI) lack stereocontrol. A modular assembly method, involving sequential ligand exchange at the S(VI) centre with precise control of enantioselectivity, is appealing but remains elusive.

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Article Synopsis
  • Tumor-derived circulating exosomes (TDEs) show promise as noninvasive biomarkers for cancer detection, but accurately measuring them is a challenge.
  • Researchers developed a microfluidic magnetic detection system (μFMS) utilizing DNA tetrahedral probes and magnetic nanoparticles, which enhances sensitivity and speed in TDE analysis.
  • The μFMS system demonstrated a wide detection range and equivalent performance in serum compared to a simpler solution, indicating its potential as a clinically useful tool for cancer diagnosis and treatment monitoring.
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Falling in between traditional small molecules and antibodies in size, peptides are emerging as a privileged therapeutic modality, one that can harness the benefits of both small molecule and antibody drugs. To discover potential peptide therapeutics, it is highly desirable to have high throughput screening platforms that can assess peptides with diverse and non-natural functional motifs. With this contribution, we present a novel phage library that incorporates two distinct designer groups.

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endophthalmitis is a devastating eye infection that causes rapid blindness through the release of extracellular tissue-destructive exotoxins. The phagocytic and antibacterial functions of ocular cells are the keys to limiting ocular bacterial infections. In a previous study, we identified a new virulence gene, (different from the original gene), that was strongly associated with the gene of .

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Herein, a triphenylamine derivative (TP-3PY) possessing 4-(4-bromophenyl)pyridine (PY) as an electron-accepting group and tris[-(4-pyridylvinyl)phenyl]amine (TPA) with large two-photon absorption cross-sections as an electron-donating group was obtained, and showed intense absorption in the visible light region ( = 509 nm) and weak near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence emission at 750 nm. After complexation with cucurbit[8]uril (CB[8]), TP-3PY showed bright NIR fluorescence emission at 727 nm and phosphorescence emission at 800 nm. When the supramolecular assembly (TP-3PY⊂CB[8]) further interacted with dodecyl-modified sulfonatocalix[4]arene (SC4AD), the fluorescence and phosphorescence emissions were further enhanced at 710 and 734 nm, respectively.

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Duckweed is a cadmium (Cd) hyperaccumulator. However, its enrichment characteristics and physiological responses to Cd have not been systematically studied. The physiological responses, enrichment characteristics, diversity of endophytic bacterial communities, and isolation of Cd-resistant endophytes in duckweed (Lemna minor 0014) were studied for different durations and Cd concentrations.

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The global pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), commonly known as COVID-19, poses significant risk to human health worldwide. The primary strategy for controlling the disease is through vaccination. However, there is an urgent need to establish confidence in the safety of global vaccination efforts, particularly among populations with allergies, as evidence on the adverse effects of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in this group remains limited.

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Salvianolic acid A (SAA), a major active ingredient of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge (Danshen), displays strong antiproliferative activity against cancer cells. However, their protein targets remain unknown. Here, we deconvoluted the protein targets of SAA using chemoproteomics and phosphoproteomics.

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ZnInS (ZIS) is widely used in the field of photocatalytic hydrogen production due to its unique photoelectric properties. Nonetheless, the photocatalytic performance of ZIS usually faces problems of poor conductivity and rapid recombination of charge carriers. Heteroatom doping is often regarded as one of the effective strategies for improving the catalytic activity of photocatalysts.

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Profiling drug-protein interactions is critical for understanding a drug's mechanism of action and predicting the possible adverse side effects. However, to comprehensively profile drug-protein interactions remains a challenge. To address this issue, we proposed a strategy that integrates multiple mass spectrometry-based omics analysis to provided global drug-protein interactions, including physical interactions and functional interactions, with rapamycin (Rap) as a model.

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