External stimuli-driven catalytic hydrogels for biomedical applications.

Hydrogels, bearing three-dimensional networks formed through chemical or physical crosslinking of hydrophilic macromolecules, benefit from their biocompatibility, tunable properties, and high loading capacities, and thus hold great promise for biomedical applications. Recent advancements have increasingly focused on the integration of non-invasive external stimuli-such as light, heat, electricity, magnetism, and ultrasound-into hydrogel design. These external stimuli-driven catalytic hydrogels can dynamically respond to these stimuli, allowing for high spatial and temporal precision in their application.

Early-life exposure to mycotoxin zearalenone exacerbates aberrant immune response, oxidative stress, and mortality of Caenorhabditis elegans under pathogen Bacillus thuringiensis infection.

Zearalenone (ZEN) is a prevalent mycotoxin that severely impacts human and animal health. However, the possible interactions between ZEN exposure, pathogen infection, immune system, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) were rarely investigated. We studied the effects of early-life ZEN (50 µM) exposure on the immune response of Caenorhabditis elegans against Bacillus thuringiensis infection and the associated mechanisms.

Interruption of the long non-coding RNA HOTAIR signaling axis ameliorates chemotherapy-induced cachexia in bladder cancer.

Background: Cisplatin-based chemotherapy is the first line of treatment for bladder cancer. However, cisplatin induces muscle wasting associated with NF-κB and cancer cachexia. HOTAIR, an oncogenic long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), promotes cancer progression in different cancers.

Prenatal Bisphenol a Exposure, DNA Methylation, and Low Birth Weight: A Pilot Study in Taiwan.

Prenatal exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) may increase the risk of abnormal birth outcomes, and DNA methylation might mediate these adverse effects. This study aimed to investigate the effects of maternal BPA exposure on maternal and fetal DNA methylation levels and explore whether epigenetic changes are related to the associations between BPA and low birth weight. We collected urine and blood samples originating from 162 mother-infant pairs in a Taiwanese cohort study.

The aquatic animals' transcriptome resource for comparative functional analysis.

Background: Aquatic animals have great economic and ecological importance. Among them, non-model organisms have been studied regarding eco-toxicity, stress biology, and environmental adaptation. Due to recent advances in next-generation sequencing techniques, large amounts of RNA-seq data for aquatic animals are publicly available.

Integrated MicroRNA-mRNA Analysis Reveals miR-204 Inhibits Cell Proliferation in Gastric Cancer by Targeting CKS1B, CXCL1 and GPRC5A.

Gastric cancer (GC) is the second most frequent cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. MicroRNAs are single-stranded RNA molecules of 21-23 nucleotides that regulate target gene expression through specific base-pairing interactions between miRNA and untranslated regions of targeted mRNAs. In this study, we generated a multistep approach for the integrated analysis of miRNA and mRNA expression.

Structure-based assessment of disease-related mutations in human voltage-gated sodium channels.

Voltage-gated sodium (Na) channels are essential for the rapid upstroke of action potentials and the propagation of electrical signals in nerves and muscles. Defects of Na channels are associated with a variety of channelopathies. More than 1000 disease-related mutations have been identified in Na channels, with Na1.

Mechanistic insights into caspase-9 activation by the structure of the apoptosome holoenzyme.

Mammalian intrinsic apoptosis requires activation of the initiator caspase-9, which then cleaves and activates the effector caspases to execute cell killing. The heptameric Apaf-1 apoptosome is indispensable for caspase-9 activation by together forming a holoenzyme. The molecular mechanism of caspase-9 activation remains largely enigmatic.

Functional characterization of human equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1.

Equilibrative nucleoside transporters (ENTs), which facilitate cross-membrane transport of nucleosides and nucleoside-derived drugs, play an important role in the salvage pathways of nucleotide synthesis, cancer chemotherapy, and treatment for virus infections. Functional characterization of ENTs at the molecular level remains technically challenging and hence scant. In this study, we report successful purification and biochemical characterization of human equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (hENT1) in vitro.

Structural Insights into the Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1)-Mediated Cholesterol Transfer and Ebola Infection.

Niemann-Pick disease type C (NPC) is associated with mutations in NPC1 and NPC2, whose gene products are key players in the endosomal/lysosomal egress of low-density lipoprotein-derived cholesterol. NPC1 is also the intracellular receptor for Ebola virus (EBOV). Here, we present a 4.

Transcriptome sequencing based annotation and homologous evidence based scaffolding of Anguilla japonica draft genome.

Background: Anguilla japonica (Japanese eel) is currently one of the most important research subjects in eastern Asia aquaculture. Enigmatic life cycle of the organism makes study of artificial reproduction extremely limited. Henceforth genomic and transcriptomic resources of eels are urgently needed to help solving the problems surrounding this organism across multiple fields.

Atomic structure of the apoptosome: mechanism of cytochrome c- and dATP-mediated activation of Apaf-1.

The apoptotic protease-activating factor 1 (Apaf-1) controls the onset of many known forms of intrinsic apoptosis in mammals. Apaf-1 exists in normal cells as an autoinhibited monomer. Upon binding to cytochrome c and dATP, Apaf-1 oligomerizes into a heptameric complex known as the apoptosome, which recruits and activates cell-killing caspases.

Rational design of a photo-responsive UVR8-derived protein and a self-assembling peptide-protein conjugate for responsive hydrogel formation.

Responsive hydrogels hold great potential in controllable drug delivery, regenerative medicine, sensing, etc. We introduced in this study the first example of a photo-responsive protein for hydrogel formation. Based on the first example of the crystal structure of a photo-responsive protein, Arabidopsis thaliana protein UVR8, we designed and expressed its derived protein UVR8-1 with a hexa-peptide WRESAI.

Urokinase-type plasminogen activator resulting from endometrial carcinogenesis enhances tumor invasion and correlates with poor outcome of endometrial carcinoma patients.

The purpose of this study was to identify the dysregulated genes involved in the tumorigenesis and progression of endometrial endometrioid adenocarcinoma (EEC), and their possible mechanisms. Endometrial specimens including normal endometrial tissues, atypical endometrial hyperplasia, and EEC were analyzed. The expression profiles were compared using GeneChip Array.

MethHC: a database of DNA methylation and gene expression in human cancer.

We present MethHC (http://MethHC.mbc.nctu.

A systematic review of microRNA expression profiling studies in human gastric cancer.

Gastric cancer (GC) is the second leading cause of global cancer mortality. Most GC patients are diagnosed with advanced-stage disease and show extremely poor prognosis. All of the GC research has a common interest to search for the specific and sensitive biomarkers for early diagnosis of GC.

Structure and mechanism of a nitrate transporter.

The nitrate/nitrite transporters NarK and NarU play an important role in nitrogen homeostasis in bacteria and belong to the nitrate/nitrite porter family (NNP) of the major facilitator superfamily (MFS) fold. The structure and functional mechanism of NarK and NarU remain unknown. Here, we report the crystal structure of NarU at a resolution of 3.

miRTar: an integrated system for identifying miRNA-target interactions in human.

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules that are ~22-nt-long sequences capable of suppressing protein synthesis. Previous research has suggested that miRNAs regulate 30% or more of the human protein-coding genes. The aim of this work is to consider various analyzing scenarios in the identification of miRNA-target interactions, as well as to provide an integrated system that will aid in facilitating investigation on the influence of miRNA targets by alternative splicing and the biological function of miRNAs in biological pathways.