Roles and Mechanisms of Astragaloside IV in Combating Neuronal Aging.

Aging can lead to changes in the cellular milieu of the brain. These changes may exacerbate, resulting in pathological phenomena (including impaired bioenergetics, aberrant neurotransmission, compromised resilience and neuroplasticity, mitochondrial dysfunction, and the generation of free radicals) and the onset of neurodegenerative diseases. Furthermore, alterations in the energy-sensing pathways can accelerate neuronal aging but the exact mechanism of neural aging is still elusive.

Novel Loss-of-Function Mutations in Displayed Different Phenotypic Spectrum in Humans and Mice.

Male infertility is a prevalent disorder distressing an estimated 70 million people worldwide. Despite continued progress in understanding the causes of male infertility, idiopathic sperm abnormalities such as multiple morphological abnormalities of sperm flagella (MMAF) still account for about 30% of male infertility. Recurrent mutations in have been reported to cause MMAF in various populations, but the underlying mechanism is still poorly explored.

Homozygous mutations in C14orf39/SIX6OS1 cause non-obstructive azoospermia and premature ovarian insufficiency in humans.

Human infertility is a multifactorial disease that affects 8%-12% of reproductive-aged couples worldwide. However, the genetic causes of human infertility are still poorly understood. Synaptonemal complex (SC) is a conserved tripartite structure that holds homologous chromosomes together and plays an indispensable role in the meiotic progression.

Exonuclease 5 is dispensable for meiotic progression and male fertility in mouse.

Exonuclease 5 (Exo5) belongs to a class of bi-directional, ssDNA-specific exonucleases that mainly involved in the DNA repair pathways. Exo5 has been reported to be crucial for DNA- DNA mismatch repair (MMR) in several human cell lines. However, its in vivo function in mammals still needs to be explored.