Patient-derived neuron model: Capturing age-dependent adult-onset degenerative pathology in Huntington's disease.

MicroRNAs play a crucial role in directly reprogramming (converting) human fibroblasts into neurons. Specifically, miR-9/9* and miR-124 (miR-9/9*-124) display neurogenic and cell fate-switching activities when ectopically expressed in human fibroblasts by erasing fibroblast identity and inducing a pan-neuronal state. These converted neurons maintain the biological age of the starting fibroblasts and thus provide a human neuron-based platform to study cellular properties in aged neurons and model adult-onset neurodegenerative disorders using patient-derived cells.

Ultra-compact exciton polariton modulator based on van der Waals semiconductors.

With the rapid emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) technology and the exponential growth in data generation, there is an increasing demand for high-performance and highly integratable optical modulators. In this work, we present an ultra-compact exciton-polariton Mach-Zehnder (MZ) modulator based on WS multilayers. The guided exciton-polariton modes arise in an ultrathin WS waveguide due to the strong excitonic resonance.

Longitudinal modeling of human neuronal aging reveals the contribution of the RCAN1-TFEB pathway to Huntington's disease neurodegeneration.

Aging is a common risk factor in neurodegenerative disorders. Investigating neuronal aging in an isogenic background stands to facilitate analysis of the interplay between neuronal aging and neurodegeneration. Here we perform direct neuronal reprogramming of longitudinally collected human fibroblasts to reveal genetic pathways altered at different ages.

Effects of Antimicrobial Administration Route on Growth and Antimicrobial Resistance in Weaned Piglets.

This study aimed to determine how the route of antimicrobial administration affected the growth performance of weaned piglets. Additionally, we aimed to investigate potential differences between antimicrobial resistance developed by antimicrobials administered orally through drinking water, and those administered through feed, in weaned piglets. The research was undertaken on a farm housing 500 sows and involved 150 weaned piglets at 21 days of age.

Comparative genetic characterisation of third-generation cephalosporin-resistant Escherichia coli isolated from integrated and conventional pig farm in Korea.

Objectives: Pig-farming systems consist of integrated or conventional farms, and many antimicrobials are used to treat bacterial infections. The objective of this study was to compare characteristics of third-generation cephalosporin resistance and extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)/pAmpC β-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli between integrated and conventional farms.

Methods: Third-generation cephalosporin-resistant E.

Longitudinal modeling of human neuronal aging identifies RCAN1-TFEB pathway contributing to neurodegeneration of Huntington's disease.

Aging is a common risk factor in neurodegenerative disorders and the ability to investigate aging of neurons in an isogenic background would facilitate discovering the interplay between neuronal aging and onset of neurodegeneration. Here, we perform direct neuronal reprogramming of longitudinally collected human fibroblasts to reveal genetic pathways altered at different ages. Comparative transcriptome analysis of longitudinally aged striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs), a primary neuronal subtype affected in Huntington's disease (HD), identified pathways associated with RCAN1, a negative regulator of calcineurin.

Electric-Field-Driven Trion Drift and Funneling in MoSe Monolayer.

Excitons, electron-hole pairs in semiconductors, can be utilized as information carriers with a spin or valley degree of freedom. However, manipulation of excitons' motion is challenging because of their charge-neutral characteristic and short recombination lifetimes. Here we demonstrate electric-field-driven drift and funneling of charged excitons (i.

Modeling Huntington disease through microRNA-mediated neuronal reprogramming identifies age-associated autophagy dysfunction driving the onset of neurodegeneration.

Huntington disease (HD) is an inherited neurodegenerative disease with adult-onset clinical symptoms. However, the mechanism by which aging triggers the onset of neurodegeneration in HD patients remains unclear. Modeling the age-dependent progression of HD with striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs) generated by direct reprogramming of fibroblasts from HD patients at different disease stages identifies age-dependent decline in critical cellular functions such as autophagy/macroautophagy and onset of neurodegeneration.

Age-related Huntington's disease progression modeled in directly reprogrammed patient-derived striatal neurons highlights impaired autophagy.

Huntington's disease (HD) is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder with adult-onset clinical symptoms, but the mechanism by which aging drives the onset of neurodegeneration in patients with HD remains unclear. In this study we examined striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs) directly reprogrammed from fibroblasts of patients with HD to model the age-dependent onset of pathology. We found that pronounced neuronal death occurred selectively in reprogrammed MSNs from symptomatic patients with HD (HD-MSNs) compared to MSNs derived from younger, pre-symptomatic patients (pre-HD-MSNs) and control MSNs from age-matched healthy individuals.

Fabrication and Evaluation of Gellan Gum/Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogel for Retinal Tissue Engineering Biomaterial and the Influence of Substrate Stress Relaxation on Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells.

Cell therapies for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) treatment have been developed by integrating hydrogel-based biomaterials. Until now, cell activity has been observed only in terms of the modulus of the hydrogel. In addition, cell behavior has only been observed in the 2D environment of the hydrogel and the 3D matrix.

Biomimetic sponge using duck's feet derived collagen and hydroxyapatite to promote bone regeneration.

Collagen, a natural biomaterial derived from animal tissues, has attracted the attention of biomedical material researchers because of its excellent cell affinity and low rejection . In this study, collagen was extracted using livestock by-product flippers, and an experiment was performed to assess its application as a scaffold for bone tissue implantation. For this purpose, we fabricated 2%, and 3% duck's feet derived collagen (DC) sponges.

The Analysis of Emotion Authenticity Based on Facial Micromovements.

People tend to display fake expressions to conceal their true feelings. False expressions are observable by facial micromovements that occur for less than a second. Systems designed to recognize facial expressions (e.

Pluronic F-127/Silk Fibroin for Enhanced Mechanical Property and Sustained Release Drug for Tissue Engineering Biomaterial.

Herein, an injectable thermosensitive hydrogel was developed for a drug and cellular delivery system. The composite was prepared by facile physical mixing of pluronic F-127 (PF) and silk fibroin (SF) in an aqueous solution. The chemical structure, transparency, viscosity, injectability, degradation kinetic, cumulative release of dexamethasone (Dex), a type of corticosteroid drug, and size distribution of the fabricated hydrogels were characterized.

Author Correction: Striatal neurons directly converted from Huntington's disease patient fibroblasts recapitulate age-associated disease phenotypes.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Integration of Single-Photon Emitters in 2D Materials with Plasmonic Waveguides at Room Temperature.

Efficient integration of a single-photon emitter with an optical waveguide is essential for quantum integrated circuits. In this study, we integrated a single-photon emitter in a hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) flake with a Ag plasmonic waveguide and measured its optical properties at room temperature. First, we performed numerical simulations to calculate the efficiency of light coupling from the emitter to the Ag plasmonic waveguide, depending on the position and polarization of the emitter.

Monolithic Interface Contact Engineering to Boost Optoelectronic Performances of 2D Semiconductor Photovoltaic Heterojunctions.

In optoelectronic devices based on two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor heterojunctions, the efficient charge transport of photogenerated carriers across the interface is a critical factor to determine the device performances. Here, we report an unexplored approach to boost the optoelectronic device performances of the WSe-MoS - heterojunctions via the monolithic-oxidation-induced doping and resultant modulation of the interface band alignment. In the proposed device, the atomically thin WO layer, which is directly formed by layer-by-layer oxidation of WSe, is used as a charge transport layer for promoting hole extraction.

Substrate-directed synthesis of MoS nanocrystals with tunable dimensionality and optical properties.

Two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD) crystals are a versatile platform for optoelectronic, catalytic and quantum device studies. However, the ability to tailor their physical properties through explicit synthetic control of their morphology and dimensionality is a major challenge. Here we demonstrate a gas-phase synthesis method that substantially transforms the structure and dimensionality of TMD crystals without lithography.

Correction to: Multiple brain abscesses treated by extraction of the maxillary molars with chronic apical lesion to remove the source of infection.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s40902-019-0208-2.].

Multiple brain abscesses treated by extraction of the maxillary molars with chronic apical lesion to remove the source of infection.

Background: Brain abscess is a life-threatening condition that occurs due to complications during a neurosurgical procedure, direct cranial trauma, or the presence of local or distal infection. Infection in the oral cavity can also be considered a source of brain abscess.

Case Presentation: A 45-year-old male patient was transported with brain abscess in the subcortical white matter.

MicroRNAs Overcome Cell Fate Barrier by Reducing EZH2-Controlled REST Stability during Neuronal Conversion of Human Adult Fibroblasts.

The ability to convert human somatic cells efficiently to neurons facilitates the utility of patient-derived neurons for studying neurological disorders. As such, ectopic expression of neuronal microRNAs (miRNAs), miR-9/9 and miR-124 (miR-9/9-124) in adult human fibroblasts has been found to evoke extensive reconfigurations of the chromatin and direct the fate conversion to neurons. However, how miR-9/9-124 break the cell fate barrier to activate the neuronal program remains to be defined.

Striatal neurons directly converted from Huntington's disease patient fibroblasts recapitulate age-associated disease phenotypes.

In Huntington's disease (HD), expansion of CAG codons in the huntingtin gene (HTT) leads to the aberrant formation of protein aggregates and the differential degeneration of striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs). Modeling HD using patient-specific MSNs has been challenging, as neurons differentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells are free of aggregates and lack an overt cell death phenotype. Here we generated MSNs from HD patient fibroblasts through microRNA-based direct neuronal conversion, bypassing the induction of pluripotency and retaining age signatures of the original fibroblasts.

MicroRNAs Induce a Permissive Chromatin Environment that Enables Neuronal Subtype-Specific Reprogramming of Adult Human Fibroblasts.

Directed reprogramming of human fibroblasts into fully differentiated neurons requires massive changes in epigenetic and transcriptional states. Induction of a chromatin environment permissive for acquiring neuronal subtype identity is therefore a major barrier to fate conversion. Here we show that the brain-enriched miRNAs miR-9/9 and miR-124 (miR-9/9-124) trigger reconfiguration of chromatin accessibility, DNA methylation, and mRNA expression to induce a default neuronal state.

SUMO-Modified FADD Recruits Cytosolic Drp1 and Caspase-10 to Mitochondria for Regulated Necrosis.

Fas-associated protein with death domain (FADD) plays a key role in extrinsic apoptosis. Here, we show that FADD is SUMOylated as an essential step during intrinsic necrosis. FADD was modified at multiple lysine residues (K120/125/149) by small ubiquitin-related modifier 2 (SUMO2) during necrosis caused by calcium ionophore A23187 and by ischemic damage.

Modification of DBC1 by SUMO2/3 is crucial for p53-mediated apoptosis in response to DNA damage.

DBC1 is a major inhibitor of SIRT1, which plays critical roles in the control of diverse cellular processes, including stress response and energy metabolism. Therefore, the DBC1-SIRT1 interaction should finely be regulated. Here we report that DBC1 modification by Small Ubiquitin-like Modifier 2/3 (SUMO 2/3), but not by SUMO1, is crucial for p53 transactivation under genotoxic stress.

Modification of ASC1 by UFM1 is crucial for ERα transactivation and breast cancer development.

Biological roles for UFM1, a ubiquitin-like protein, are largely unknown, and therefore we screened for targets of ufmylation. Here we show that ufmylation of the nuclear receptor coactivator ASC1 is a key step for ERα transactivation in response to 17β-estradiol (E2). In the absence of E2, the UFM1-specific protease UfSP2 was bound to ASC1, which maintains ASC1 in a nonufmylated state.