Objectives: Tools are needed to evaluate the risk of developing Parkinson disease (PD) in at-risk populations. In this study, we examine differences in alpha-synuclein seed amplification assay (αSyn-SAA) qualitative results and amplification parameters between nonmanifesting carriers (NMCs) of PD-related pathogenic variants, prodromal PD, and PD and the risk of developing a synucleinopathy in participants with prodromal PD.
Methods: Cross-sectional and longitudinal CSF αSyn-SAA results from participants in the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative were analyzed.
Atmospheric and room temperature plasma mutation and co-mutation with ethanol were employed to generate Haematococcus pluvialis mutants AV3 and AV8. These mutants were screened using multiple indices of chlorophyll fluorescence, quantum yield, lethality, growth rate, dry cell weight, and lipid content. Compared to the wild strain, the mutants demonstrated genetic stability (*p > 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLancet Neurol
December 2024
Nat Med
September 2024
Investigational therapeutics that target toxic species of α-synuclein (αSyn) aim to slow down or halt disease progression in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Here this 44-week, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, single-center phase 1 study investigated safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of UB-312, an active immunotherapeutic targeting pathological αSyn, in patients with PD. The primary outcome measures were adverse event frequency and change in anti-αSyn antibody titers in blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Lewy body disease, a frequently observed co-pathology in Alzheimer's disease (AD), can be identified antemortem in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) by α-synuclein seed amplification assay (αS-SAA). The prevalence and clinical impact of CSF αS-SAA positivity in AD are still unknown.
Methods: αS-SAA was performed on CSF samples from 240 AD patients (preclinical, prodromal, and dementia stages), 85 controls, 84 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), and 21 patients with PD with dementia or dementia with Lewy bodies.
Haematococcus lacustris is a precious algal species renowned for its ability to simultaneous production of astaxanthin and lipid. However, its slow growth rate necessitates the development of appropriate mutagenesis methodologies to effectively enhance its synchronous production of both astaxanthin and lipid. This study introduced the co-mutation of Atmospheric and Room Temperature Plasma (ARTP) and ethanol.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGadolinium-doped carbon dots (Gd-CDs), as a new class of nanomaterial, has a wide application prospect in targeted imaging and monitoring diagnosis and treatment of liver cancer because of their good fluorescence (FL)-magnetic resonance (MR) imaging properties. First, Gd-CDs were synthesized by hydrothermal method with gadodiamide as gadolinium source, citric acid as carbon source and silane coupling agent (KH-792) as coupling agent with FL quantum yield (QY) of 48.2%.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBasal-like breast cancer (BLBC) is the most aggressive subtype with poor prognosis; however, the mechanisms underlying aggressiveness in BLBC remain poorly understood. In this study, we showed that in contrast to other subtypes, inositol monophosphatase 2 (IMPA2) was dramatically increased in BLBC. Mechanistically, IMPA2 expression was upregulated due to copy number amplification, hypomethylation of IMPA2 promoter and MYC-mediated transcriptional activation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcute kidney injury (AKI) is a serious disorder associated with significant morbidity and mortality. AKI and ischemia/reperfusion (hypoxia/reoxygenation, H/R) injury can be induced due to several reasons. Paeoniflorin (PF) is a traditional herbal medicine derived from Paeonia lactiflora Pall.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParkinsonism Relat Disord
December 2023
Introduction: Synucleinopathies such as Parkinson's disease (PD) and multiple system atrophy (MSA) can be challenging to diagnose due to the symptom overlap with, for example, atypical parkinsonisms like progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal degeneration (CBD). Seed amplification assays (SAA), developed for the detection of α-synuclein (αSyn) aggregates in CSF, have been successful when used as a biomarker evaluation for synucleinopathies. In this study, we investigated the potential of this assay to not only detect αSyn seeds in CSF, but also discriminate between movement disorders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLancet Neurol
May 2023
Background: Emerging evidence shows that α-synuclein seed amplification assays (SAAs) have the potential to differentiate people with Parkinson's disease from healthy controls. We used the well characterised, multicentre Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) cohort to further assess the diagnostic performance of the α-synuclein SAA and to examine whether the assay identifies heterogeneity among patients and enables the early identification of at-risk groups.
Methods: This cross-sectional analysis is based on assessments done at enrolment for PPMI participants (including people with sporadic Parkinson's disease from LRRK2 and GBA variants, healthy controls, prodromal individuals with either rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder (RBD) or hyposmia, and non-manifesting carriers of LRRK2 and GBA variants) from 33 participating academic neurology outpatient practices worldwide (in Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, the UK, and the USA).
Mol Neurodegener
April 2023
Mov Disord
April 2023
Background: Misfolded α-synuclein (αSyn) aggregates (αSyn-seeds) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are biomarkers for synucleinopathies such as Parkinson's disease (PD). αSyn-seeds have been detected in prodromal cases with isolated rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (iRBD).
Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the accuracy of the αSyn-seed amplification assay (αS-SAA) in a comprehensively characterized cohort with a high proportion of PD and iRBD CSF samples collected at baseline.
Terpenes are the largest and most diverse class of plant specialized metabolites. Sesterterpenes (C25), which are derived from the plastid methylerythritol phosphate pathway, were recently characterized in plants. In Arabidopsis thaliana, four genes encoding geranylfarnesyl diphosphate synthase (GFPPS) (AtGFPPS1 to 4) are responsible for the production of GFPP, which is the common precursor for sesterterpene biosynthesis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTerpenoids are the most diverse class of plant primary and specialized metabolites, and -prenyltransferases (-PTs) are the first branch point to synthesize precursors of various chain lengths for further metabolism. Whereas the catalytic mechanism of the enzyme is known, there is no reliable method for precisely predicting the functions of -PTs. With the exponentially increasing number of available -PTs genes in public databases, an in silico functional prediction method for this gene family is urgently needed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The purpose of this study was to determine the sensitivity and specificity of α-synuclein seed amplification assay (αSyn-SAA) in antemortem and postmortem cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of autopsy-confirmed patients with different distributions of pathological αSyn, co-pathologies, and clinical diagnoses.
Methods: The αSyn-SAA was used to test antemortem CSF samples from 119 subjects with a variety of clinical syndromes and standardized neuropathological examinations from Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) and University of California San Diego (UCSD; 56 additional postmortem CSF samples available). The αSyn-SAA was also applied to frontal cortex and amygdala homogenates.
With the rapid growth of China's economy, the increase in water demand has threatened the sustainable development of groundwater. Construction of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project alleviated this problem. Zhengzhou, with a large population and high-intensity energy consumption, is a water-receiving city of the South-to-North Water Diversion Central Line Project (CLP).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlants belonging to the genus Taraxacum are widespread all over the world, which contain rubber-producing and non-rubber-producing species. However, the genomic basis underlying natural rubber (NR) biosynthesis still needs more investigation. Here, we presented high-quality genome assemblies of rubber-producing T.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTerpenes, the largest group of plant-specialized metabolites, have received considerable attention for their highly diverse biological activities. Monoterpenes (C10), sesquiterpenes (C15), diterpenes (C20), and triterpenes (C30) have been extensively investigated at both the biochemical and molecular levels over the past two decades. Sesterterpenes (C25), an understudied terpenoid group, were recently described by plant scientists at the molecular level.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClass I terpene synthase (TPS) generates bioactive terpenoids with diverse backbones. Sesterterpene synthase (sester-TPS, C25), a branch of class I TPSs, was recently identified in Brassicaceae. However, the catalytic mechanisms of sester-TPSs are not fully understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEvid Based Complement Alternat Med
December 2019
This study was aimed to investigate whether ginsenoside Rb1 (GS-Rb1) from the cardioprotective Chinese medicine ginseng can reduce hypoxia-reoxygenation (HR)-induced damage to cardiomyocytes by protecting the mitochondria. Mitochondria-mediated apoptosis plays a key role during myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury (MIRI). When MIRI occurs, the continuous opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) causes mitochondrial damage and ultimately leads to apoptosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
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