Publications by authors named "Ya-Jun Wang"

Objectives: To observe the effect of electroacupuncture (EA) on the proliferation of hippocampal neurons and Wnt/β-catenin and Notch signaling pathways in depression like behavior rats, so as to explore its mechanism underlying improvement of depression.

Methods: SD rats were randomly divided into blank, model, medication and EA groups, with 12 rats in each group. The depression model was established by chronic unpredictable mild stimulation combined with solitary raising for 35 consecutive days.

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Driven by adaptive evolution, animals have developed a variety of adaptive traits that are critical to their survival and reproduction. Unraveling the molecular mechanisms of adaptive evolution is of key significance for understanding important biological phenomena such as species diversification and phenotypic convergence, etc. With the development and maturation of multi-omics technologies, genomic non-coding DNA regulatory elements have been proven to play important regulatory roles in the evolution of adaptive traits in animals.

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Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is marked by a progressive loss of central vision and is the third leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. The exact mechanisms driving the progression of this macular degenerative condition remain elusive, and as of now, there are no available preventative measures for dry AMD. According to ancient records, ginseng affects the eyes by brightening them and enhancing wisdom.

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Cells can adapt to diverse topographical substrates through contact guidance, which regulates the cellular and nuclear morphologies and functions. How adaptive deformation of the cell body and nucleus coordinates to protect genetic material within mechanical microenvironments remains poorly understood. In this study, we engineered micrometer-level narrow-spacing micropillars to mimic constricted extracellular topographies in vivo, enabling us to explore variances in the nuclear architecture, cytoskeleton distribution, and chromatin conformation.

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The rhizosphere, where plant roots interact intensely with the soil, is a crucial but understudied area in terms of the impact of virus infection. In this study, we investigated the effects of lily symptomless virus (LSV) and cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) on the Lanzhou lily (Lilium davidii var. unicolor) rhizosphere using metagenomics and bioinformatics analysis.

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Background: Damage to the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is vital for the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Ginsenoside Rg2 (G-Rg2) has been shown to improve a variety of brain injuries, but whether G-Rg2 can improve the BBB leakage related to AD is still unclear.

Purpose: Illuminate the effect and mechanism of G-Rg2 on AD-related BBB damage.

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Article Synopsis
  • Water scarcity and pollution are critical issues, making wastewater recycling and treatment increasingly important, with a focus on artificial intelligence (AI) for effective solutions.
  • AI technologies, like artificial neural networks (ANN), adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), and support vector machine (SVM), are beneficial in predicting the removal of various pollutants and assessing water quality parameters in wastewater treatment.
  • The review highlights both the strengths and limitations of AI in this field, while also addressing ongoing research needs and future challenges related to integrating AI in environmental applications.
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Cell migration is a fundamental and functional cellular process, influenced by a complex microenvironment consisting of different cells and extracellular matrix. Recent research has highlighted that, besides biochemical cues from the microenvironment, physical cues can also greatly alter cellular behavior. However, due to the complexity of the microenvironment, little is known about how the physical interactions between migrating cells and surrounding microenvironment instructs cell movement.

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  • * A fluorescent anthracene derivative called Lyso-Mito is developed, which targets the acidity changes in lysosomes of cancer cells, effectively activating a membranolytic model for treatment.
  • * This innovative approach allows for improved cancer diagnosis and treatment with minimal toxicity and drug resistance, integrating the cellular environment without needing additional functional components.
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  • This study focuses on improving the enzyme Fe-type Nitrile hydratase (Fe-type NHase) from Pseudomonas fluorescens by mutating a specific residue (Q86) in its substrate access tunnel, which enhanced its catalytic performance.
  • The modified enzyme, PfNHase-αQ86W, demonstrated significantly increased catalytic activity towards various nitrile substrates, with a notable 17.32-fold improvement in efficiency for benzonitrile compared to the wild type.
  • Structural analyses revealed changes in the enzyme's entrance tunnel and substrate-binding pocket, which contributed to a shift in substrate preference from aliphatic to aromatic nitriles, supported by molecular dynamics simulations.
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As most teleosts are unable to synthesize vitamin C, supplemental diets containing vitamin C diets play a crucial role in fish health. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of dietary vitamin C on the intestinal enzyme activity and intestinal microbiota of silver pomfre (Pampus argenteus). Four experimental diets were supplemented with basic diets containing 300 mg of vitamin C/kg (group tjl3), 600 mg of vitamin C/kg (group tjl6), and 1200 mg of vitamin C/kg (group tjl12), as well as vitamin C-free supplemental basic diet (group tjl0), respectively.

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Chiral alcohols are essential building blocks of numerous pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals. Aldo-keto reductases (AKRs) constitute a superfamily of oxidoreductases that catalyze the reduction of aldehydes and ketones to their corresponding alcohols using NAD(P)H as a coenzyme. Knowledge about the crucial roles of AKRs immobilization in the biocatalytic synthesis of chiral alcohols is expanding.

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  • Energy metabolism and cell migration are closely linked, with mechanical confinement influencing different movement styles, particularly the transition from mesenchymal to amoeboid movement.
  • This study used DNA-based nanomachines to investigate how mitochondria and ATP levels change during cell migration in varied mechanical environments.
  • Findings revealed that fast-moving amoeboid cells conserve energy better than their mesenchymal counterparts by repositioning mitochondria, suggesting potential therapeutic strategies for targeting cancer metastasis.
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The aldo-keto reductase (AKR) KdAKR from Kluyvermyces dobzhanskii can reduce t-butyl 6-chloro-(5S)-hydroxy-3-oxohexanoate ((5S)-CHOH) to t-butyl 6-chloro-(3R,5S)-dihydroxyhexanoate ((3R,5S)-CDHH), which is the key chiral intermediate of rosuvastatin. Herein, a computer-aided design that combined the use of PROSS platform and consensus design was employed to improve the stability of a previously constructed mutant KdAKR . Experimental verification revealed that S196C, T232A, V264I and V45L produced improved thermostability and activity.

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Maintaining genomic stability is a prerequisite for proliferating NPCs to ensure genetic fidelity. Though histone arginine methylation has been shown to play important roles in safeguarding genomic stability, the underlying mechanism during brain development is not fully understood. Protein arginine N-methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) is a type II protein arginine methyltransferase that plays a role in transcriptional regulation.

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Background: Initial choices of antimicrobial therapy for most cases of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in children under 5 years of age are typically based on local epidemiology, risk factors assessment, and subsequent clinical parameters and positive cultures, which can lead to the underdiagnosis and underestimation of lung infections caused by uncommon pathogens. Contezolid, an orally administered oxazolidinone antibiotic, gained approval from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) of China in June 2021 for managing complicated skin and soft tissue infections (cSSTI) caused by staphylococcus aureus (SA), streptococcus pyogenes, or streptococcus agalactis. Owing to its enhanced safety profile and ongoing clinical progress, the scope of contezolid's clinical application continues to expand, benefiting a growing number of patients with Gram-positive bacterial infections.

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Carbonyl reductases are useful for producing optically active alcohols from their corresponding prochiral ketones. Herein, we applied a computer-assisted strategy to increase the thermostability of a previously constructed carbonyl reductase, LsCR (N101D/A117G/F147L/E145A), which showed an outstanding activity in the synthesis of the ticagrelor precursor (1S)-2-chloro-1-(3,4-difluorophenyl)ethanol. The stability changes introduced by mutations at the flexible sites were predicted using the computational tools FoldX, I-Mutant 3.

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Nocardia seriolae is the primary aetiological agent of nocardiosis in fish, which causes mass mortality in freshwater and marine fish. β-ketoacyl-ACP synthase (KAS) is one of the essential enzymes in the synthesis of mycolic acids (MASs) in Mycobacterium spp. and has been chosen as the target for therapeutic intervention in mycobacterial diseases.

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Article Synopsis
  • Atorvastatin is a popular drug for lowering cholesterol and treating heart-related conditions, emphasizing its clinical importance.
  • The article details the synthetic processes for atorvastatin, including traditional methods like Paal-Knorr synthesis and newer strategies for creating its components.
  • It also reviews various analytical techniques used to monitor atorvastatin and its impurities, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each method.
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  • - This study introduces a new method for creating acicular aragonite using AOD slag, highlighting its potential to reduce CO emissions in steel plants while producing valuable products through proper control of reaction conditions.
  • - The research identified key factors affecting carbonation efficiency, with reaction temperature being the most crucial, and found that higher temperatures and longer reaction times led to better aragonite precipitation.
  • - The optimal conditions for acicular aragonite production were determined as 8 hours of reaction time, a magnesium-to-calcium ratio of 0.8, a temperature of 120 °C, and a stirring speed of 200 rpm, yielding high-quality crystals with specific dimensions.
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Aldo-keto reductases (AKRs) are important biocatalysts that can be used to synthesize chiral pharmaceutical alcohols. In this study, the catalytic activity and stereoselectivity of a NADPH-dependent AKR from Kluyveromyces dobzhanskii (KdAKR) toward t-butyl 6-chloro (5S)-hydroxy-3-oxohexanoate ((5S)-CHOH) were improved by mutating its residues in the loop regions around the substrate-binding pocket. And the thermostability of KdAKR was improved by a consensus sequence method targeted on the flexible regions.

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The design and development of high-performance, low-cost catalysts with long-term durability are crucial for hydrogen generation from water electrolysis. Interfacial engineering is an appealing strategy to boost the catalytic performance of electrode materials toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, we report a simple phosphidation followed by sulfidation treatment to construct heterogeneous cobalt phosphide-cobalt sulfide nanowire arrays on carbon cloth (CoP/CoS/CC).

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Structural information can help engineer enzymes. Usually, specific amino acids in particular regions are targeted for functional reconstruction to enhance the catalytic performance, including activity, stereoselectivity, and thermostability. Appropriate selection of target sites is the key to structure-based design, which requires elucidation of the structure-function relationships.

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The emerging outbreak of monkeypox is closely associated with the viral infection and spreading, threatening global public health. Virus-induced cell migration facilitates viral transmission. However, the mechanism underlying this type of cell migration remains unclear.

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Background: A positive resection margin is a major risk factor for local breast cancer recurrence after breast-conserving surgery (BCS). Preoperative imaging examinations are frequently employed to assess the surgical margin.

Aim: To investigate the role and value of preoperative imaging examinations [magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), molybdenum target, and ultrasound] in evaluating margins for BCS.

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