Relationship between Severity of Lumbar Spinal Stenosis and Ligamentum Flavum Hypertrophy and Serum Inflammatory Factors.

Objective: This study is aimed at investigating the correlation between lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) severity, ligamentum flavum hypertrophy, and the upregulation of inflammatory markers.

Methods: From March 2019 and May 2022, eighty-five inpatients with LSS were enlisted as the study's research group, while sixty-five patients hospitalized for lumbar intervertebral disc herniation over the same time period served as the study's control group. Moreover, mild, moderate, and severe subgroups of patients were created within the research population based on their LSS severity.

An AAV-based, room-temperature-stable, single-dose COVID-19 vaccine provides durable immunogenicity and protection in non-human primates.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has affected more than 185 million people worldwide resulting in over 4 million deaths. To contain the pandemic, there is a continued need for safe vaccines that provide durable protection at low and scalable doses and can be deployed easily. Here, AAVCOVID-1, an adeno-associated viral (AAV), spike-gene-based vaccine candidate demonstrates potent immunogenicity in mouse and non-human primates following a single injection and confers complete protection from SARS-CoV-2 challenge in macaques.

An aptly industrialized bioprocess for lactic acid production from corn stover using thermotolerant microbial consortia.

Chemical pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass is a critical step in the conversion of lignocellulose to biofuels and biochemical. The main drawback of this pretreatment process is the formation of inhibitors which exhibit combined toxicity to microorganisms and result to low product concentrations and yields. In this study, the selection of microbial consortia by enrichment on hydrolysate of HSO-pretreated corn stover (pre-CS) without detoxification has been investigated as an efficient way to develop new strategies for lignocellulose utilization.

Immunogenicity of an AAV-based, room-temperature stable, single dose COVID-19 vaccine in mice and non-human primates.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has affected more than 70 million people worldwide and resulted in over 1.5 million deaths. A broad deployment of effective immunization campaigns to achieve population immunity at global scale will depend on the biological and logistical attributes of the vaccine.

Impact of virus-antibody interactions on viral clearance in anion exchange chromatography.

Viral clearance is an important performance metric for the downstream process of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) due to its impact on patient safety. Anion exchange chromatography (AEX) has been well-accepted in the industry as one of the workhorse techniques for removing viruses, and is considered to be able to achieve high log clearance values under most operating conditions. However, it is not uncommon for viral clearance results on AEX to fall below the desired level despite operating under conditions that should achieve high clearance levels according to conventional wisdom of how this mode of chromatography operates.

Simultaneous liquefaction, saccharification, and fermentation of L-lactic acid using aging paddy rice with hull by an isolated thermotolerant Enterococcus faecalis DUT1805.

Simultaneous liquefaction, saccharification, and fermentation (SLSF) has attracted much attention for the production of bio-based chemicals, including L-lactic acid, due to its high efficiency and low cost. In this study, a lactic acid-producing bacterium with high tolerance of temperature up to 55 °C was isolated and characterized as Enterococcus faecalis DUT1805. Various strategies of stepwise controlled temperature were proposed and investigated for glucose utilization.

Understanding the Effect of Atomic-Scale Surface Migration of Bridging Ions in Binding LiPO to the Surface of Spinel Cathode Materials.

Spinel cathode materials (e.g., LiMnO and LiNiMnO) with strongly bonded surface coatings are desirable for delivering improved electrochemical performance in long-term cycling.

A structural model for glutathione-complexed iron-sulfur cluster as a substrate for ABCB7-type transporters.

Glutathione-complexed [2Fe-2S] cluster is shown to significantly stimulate the ATPase activity of an ABCB7-type transporter in both solution and proteoliposome-bound forms (KD ∼ 68 μM). The cluster is a likely natural substrate for this transporter, which has been implicated in cytosolic Fe-S cluster protein maturation. A possible substrate-binding site is identified on a new structural model for the active transporter.

Glutathione-complexed iron-sulfur clusters. Reaction intermediates and evidence for a template effect promoting assembly and stability.

Assembly and stabilization of a glutathione-complexed [2Fe-2S] cluster is promoted by aggregation of glutathione. The cluster core selects the tetramer species from a collection of equilibrating solution aggregate species, and in turn the core is stabilized toward hydrolytic degradation. Studies of glutathione derivatives, in combination with mass spectrometric and Mössbauer investigations provide insight on reaction intermediates during formation of [2Fe-2S](GS)4(2-).

Human ferredoxin-2 displays a unique conformational change.

Human ferredoxin-1 (hFd1) and human ferredoxin-2 (hFd2) share high sequence similarity but serve on distinct cellular pathways. A unique conformational change is observed when holo hFd2 is warmed to physiological temperatures, or higher. Enzymatic studies show that this conformational change causes the increase of affinity between hFd2 and adrenodoxin reductase.

Glutathione complexed Fe-S centers.

Glutathione (γ-glutamyl-cysteinyl-glycine, GSH) is a major thiol-containing peptide with cellular levels of up to 10 mM. (1) Several recent reports have demonstrated glutaredoxins (Grx) to form [Fe(2)S(2)] cluster-bridged dimers, where glutathione provides two exogenous thiol ligands, and have implicated such species in cellular iron sulfur cluster biosynthesis. We report the finding that glutathione alone can coordinate and stabilize an [Fe(2)S(2)] cluster under physiological conditions, with optical, redox, Mössbauer, and NMR characteristics that are consistent with a [Fe(2)S(2)](GS)(4) composition.

Structural, Mechanistic and Coordination Chemistry of Relevance to the Biosynthesis of Iron-Sulfur and Related Iron Cofactors.

Iron-sulfur clusters are an important class of protein-bound prosthetic center that find wide utility in nature. Roles include electron transfer, enzyme catalysis, protein structure stabilization, and regulation of gene expression as transcriptional and translational sensors. In eukaryotes their biosynthesis requires a complex molecular machinery that is located within the mitochondrion, while bacteria exhibit up to three independent cluster assembly pathways.

Mechanism of glutaredoxin-ISU [2Fe-2S] cluster exchange.

Exchange of [2Fe-2S] centers between Grx2 and the cluster scaffold protein ISU, and characterization of two mutually exclusive Grx2 binding sites on ISU by isothermal titration calorimetry supports a direct link for Grx and glutathione involvement in ISU promoted Fe-S cluster biosynthesis.

A structural and functional homolog supports a general role for frataxin in cellular iron chemistry.

Bacillus subtilis YdhG lacks sequence homology, but demonstrates structural and functional similarity to the frataxin family, supporting a general cellular role for frataxin-type proteins in cellular iron homeostasis.

Iron-sulfur cluster biosynthesis: functional characterization of the N- and C-terminal domains of human NFU.

Human NFU (also known as HIRIP5) has been implicated in cellular iron-sulfur cluster biosynthesis. Bacterial and yeast forms are smaller than the human protein and are homologous to the C-terminal domain of the latter. This C-terminal domain contains a pair of redox active cysteines and demonstrates thioredoxin-like activity by mediating persulfide bond cleavage of sulfur-loaded NifS (an IscS-type protein), the sulfide donor for [2Fe-2S] cluster assembly on ISU-type scaffold proteins.