Protocol for evaluating the activity of R2 retrotransposons in mammalian cells.

R2 retrotransposons can be harnessed to insert genes at targeted sites by all-RNA delivery, presenting a new technology for next-generation biotherapeutics. Here, we report a protocol for evaluating the gene integration activity of R2 retrotransposons in mammalian cells. We describe the construction of vectors separately expressing R2 protein and donor, the process of liposome transfection, and flow cytometry.

Association Between Coffee Intake and Common Mental Disorders: Insights From Genetic Analysis.

The study found a significant causal relationship between coffee intake and obsessive-compulsive disorder, showing a negative correlation. There was no causal relationship between coffee intake and other mental disorders. The sensitivity analysis test found no pleiotropy affecting the results, and no single nucleotide polymorphism had a major impact on the robustness of the results, indicating that the results are stable and reliable.

RNA N4-acetylcytidine modification and its role in health and diseases.

N4-acetylcytidine (ac4C) modification is a crucial RNA modification widely present in eukaryotic RNA. Previous studies have demonstrated that ac4C plays a pivotal role in viral infections. Despite numerous studies highlighting the strong correlation between ac4C modification and cancer progression, its detailed roles and molecular mechanisms in normal physiological processes and cancer progression remain incompletely understood.

Exploring the relationship between total serum calcium and melanoma development: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Melanoma is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. The continuous exploration and reporting of risk factors of melanoma is important for standardizing and reducing the incidence of the disease. Calcium signaling is a promising therapeutic target for melanoma; however, the relationship between total serum calcium levels and melanoma development remains unclear.

Geny: a genotyping tool for allelic decomposition of killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor genes.

Introduction: Accurate genotyping of Killer cell Immunoglobulin-like Receptor (KIR) genes plays a pivotal role in enhancing our understanding of innate immune responses, disease correlations, and the advancement of personalized medicine. However, due to the high variability of the KIR region and high level of sequence similarity among different KIR genes, the generic genotyping workflows are unable to accurately infer copy numbers and complete genotypes of individual KIR genes from next-generation sequencing data. Thus, specialized genotyping tools are needed to genotype this complex region.