Publications by authors named "Zhaorong Li"

The current study compared the radical scavenging and α-glucosidase inhibition potentials of ellagic acid (EA) and its metabolites, urolithins (Uros), and further explored the structure-activity relationship. The outcomes indicated that urolithin M5 (Uro-M5), EA, and urolithin M6 (Uro-M6) exhibited superior 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging activity; EA and urolithin D (Uro-D) expressed better ABTS scavenging ability, and EA and Uro-M5 showed preferable α-glucosidase inhibition activity. The results of CD spectra and fluorescence spectral analysis explained the interaction between Uros and α-glucosidase.

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Coreopsis tinctoria buds grow at high altitudes and have unique medicinal and health effects. This study focused on the chemical components of gradient ethanol extracts of Coreopsis tinctoria buds and their impact on the gut microbiota and its metabolites. UPLC-Q-Exactive-MS results disclosed the presence of 24 distinct chemicals in the extracts, marein, and quercetin-3-β-D-glucoside as the predominant antioxidants.

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cv. Fubaiju (CMF) is regarded as one of the three most renowned varieties of white in China, and different extraction methods have significant effects on its composition and activities. Therefore, six extractions were used in this study to assess the effects on extracts.

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Article Synopsis
  • Current metagenomic tools struggle to identify highly divergent RNA viruses, prompting the development of a deep learning algorithm called LucaProt to improve detection in diverse ecosystems.
  • LucaProt combines sequence and structural data to identify a significant number of RNA virus sequences, uncovering 161,979 potential species and 180 supergroups, including some with long and complex genomes.
  • The study not only confirmed some of these novel RNA viruses but also demonstrated their presence across various environments, showcasing the vast diversity of RNA viruses and enhancing our understanding and documentation of the global RNA virome.
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This work aimed to evaluate the potential positive effects of Sargassum fusiform polysaccharides (SFP) as add-on adjuncts to sitagliptin (SIT) in treating diabetes in rats. The results showed that both SIT and SIT co-administrated with SFP (SIT+SFP) could improve hyperglycemia, glucose tolerance, insulin resistance and hyperlipidemia, and SIT+SFP exhibited better effects in alleviating the levels of blood glucose, glucose tolerance, insulin resistance index, cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol compared to SIT administration. Intestinal flora analysis showed that SIT+SFP treatment significantly restored the beneficial composition of gut flora as compared with SIT administration, such as the increase of Lactobacillus, Romboutsia, Blautia, Bifidobacterium, Bacteroides, Ruminococcaceae_UCG_014 and Ruminococcus_1, and the decrease of Helicobacter, Escherichia-Shigella and Pseudomonas.

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Cell-cell interactions are essential for the function and contextual regulation of biological tissues. We present a platform for high-throughput microfluidics-supported genetic screening of functional regulators of cell-cell interactions. Systematic perturbation of encapsulated associated cells followed by sequencing (SPEAC-seq) combines genome-wide CRISPR libraries, cell coculture in droplets and microfluidic droplet sorting based on functional read-outs determined by fluorescent reporter circuits to enable the unbiased discovery of interaction regulators.

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This study investigates a novel approach for assessing the health status of rotating machinery transmission systems by analyzing the dynamic degradation of bearings. The proposed method generates multi-dimensional data by creating virtual states and constructs a multi-dimensional model using virtual state-space in conjunction with mechanism model analysis. Innovatively, the Hammerstein-Wiener (HW) modeling technique from control theory is applied to identify these dynamic multi-dimensional models.

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Cancer development and progression are generally associated with gene dysregulation, often resulting from changes in the transcription factor (TF) sequence or expression. Identifying key TFs involved in cancer gene regulation provides a framework for potential new therapeutics. This study presents a large-scale cancer gene TF-DNA interaction network, as well as an extensive promoter clone resource for future studies.

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Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (APP) causes porcine pleuropneumonia (PCP), which is clinically characterized by acute hemorrhagic, necrotizing pneumonia, and chronic fibrinous pneumonia. Although many measures have been taken to prevent the disease, prevention and control of the disease are becoming increasingly difficult due to the abundance of APP sera, weak vaccine cross-protection, and increasing antibiotic resistance in APP. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop novel drugs against APP infection to prevent the spread of APP.

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Disease-associated astrocyte subsets contribute to the pathology of neurologic diseases, including multiple sclerosis and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an experimental model for multiple sclerosis. However, little is known about the stability of these astrocyte subsets and their ability to integrate past stimulation events. Here we report the identification of an epigenetically controlled memory astrocyte subset that exhibits exacerbated pro-inflammatory responses upon rechallenge.

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Cancer development and progression are generally associated with dysregulation of gene expression, often resulting from changes in transcription factor (TF) sequence or expression. Identifying key TFs involved in cancer gene regulation provides a framework for potential new therapeutics. This study presents a large-scale cancer gene TF-DNA interaction network as well as an extensive promoter clone resource for future studies.

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Protein structure prediction is a longstanding issue crucial for identifying new drug targets and providing a mechanistic understanding of protein functions. To enhance the progress in this field, a spectrum of computational methodologies has been cultivated. AlphaFold2 has exhibited exceptional precision in predicting wild-type protein structures, with performance exceeding that of other methods.

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Article Synopsis
  • Protein function annotation has been a challenging area in biology, with traditional computational methods struggling due to an imbalance in annotated protein data (long-tail problem).
  • The new strategy called AnnoPRO aims to improve this by using advanced techniques like multi-scale protein representation and long short-term memory decoding for better protein function predictions.
  • Case studies show AnnoPRO outperforms existing methods, and its source code and models are available for public use online.
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Astrocytes play important roles in the central nervous system (CNS) physiology and pathology. Indeed, astrocyte subsets defined by specific transcriptional activation states contribute to the pathology of neurologic diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS) and its pre-clinical model experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) . However, little is known about the stability of these disease-associated astrocyte subsets, their regulation, and whether they integrate past stimulation events to respond to subsequent challenges.

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(APP) is responsible for causing Porcine pleuropneumonia (PCP) in pigs. However, using vaccines and antibiotics to prevent and control this disease has become more difficult due to increased bacterial resistance and weak cross-immunity between different APP types. Naringin (NAR), a dihydroflavonoid found in citrus fruit peels, has been recognized as having significant therapeutic effects on inflammatory diseases of the respiratory system.

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Critically ill patients with Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) often develop secondary bacterial infections that pose a significant threat to patient life safety, making the development of drugs to prevent bacterial infections in the lungs critical to clinical care. Naringin (NAR) is one of the significant natural flavonoids rich in Pummelo Peel (Hua Ju Hong), with anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antioxidant activities, and is commonly used in treating respiratory tract infectious diseases. In this study, the in vitro and in vivo findings revealed that, after (Kpn) infection, NAR inhibited overactivation of the nuclear factor kappa-B(NF-κB) signaling pathway in alveolar macrophages of mice, reduced neutrophil (NEs) recruitment, and lowered the induced production of proinflammatory markers, such as Interleukin-6(IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor α(TNF-α).

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Article Synopsis
  • RNAs are crucial for various biological processes and can interact with other molecules, but current computational methods for identifying these interactions are limited.
  • The study presents a new encoding algorithm designed specifically for RNAs and their interactions, which includes many innovative features and allows for better integration of interacting partners.
  • This algorithm outperforms existing methods in testing and is available for public use on the provided websites.
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Cooperativity and antagonism between transcription factors (TFs) can drastically modify their binding to regulatory DNA elements. While mapping these relationships between TFs is important for understanding their context-specific functions, existing approaches either rely on DNA binding motif predictions, interrogate one TF at a time, or study individual TFs in parallel. Here, we introduce paired yeast one-hybrid (pY1H) assays to detect cooperativity and antagonism across hundreds of TF-pairs at DNA regions of interest.

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Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease that destroys the integrity of tooth-supporting tissue. Periodontitis is listed as a major oral disease by the World Health Organization and is a public-health problem affecting global oral and systemic health. The fourth national oral health epidemiological survey has revealed that periodontitis is one of the most common oral problems in China.

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Dendritic cells (DCs) have a role in the development and activation of self-reactive pathogenic T cells. Genetic variants that are associated with the function of DCs have been linked to autoimmune disorders, and DCs are therefore attractive therapeutic targets for such diseases. However, developing DC-targeted therapies for autoimmunity requires identification of the mechanisms that regulate DC function.

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Motivation: With the rapid advances of RNA sequencing and microarray technologies in non-coding RNA (ncRNA) research, functional tools that perform enrichment analysis for ncRNAs are needed. On the one hand, because of the rapidly growing interest in circRNAs, snoRNAs, and piRNAs, it is essential to develop tools for enrichment analysis for these newly emerged ncRNAs. On the other hand, due to the key role of ncRNAs' interacting target in the determination of their function, the interactions between ncRNA and its corresponding target should be fully considered in functional enrichment.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the role of B cells in anti-tumor immunity, challenging the focus on T and natural killer cells in cancer immunotherapies.
  • Researchers identified a specific subset of B cells that expand in lymph nodes during melanoma growth, characterized by the expression of TIM-1 and various co-inhibitory molecules.
  • The findings suggest that targeting TIM-1 on B cells can enhance anti-tumor responses and facilitate the activation of tumor-specific T cells, promoting tumor inhibition.
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Dendritic cells (DCs) control the generation of self-reactive pathogenic T cells. Thus, DCs are considered attractive therapeutic targets for autoimmune diseases. Using single-cell and bulk transcriptional and metabolic analyses in combination with cell-specific gene perturbation studies we identified a negative feedback regulatory pathway that operates in DCs to limit immunopathology.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Researchers focused on understanding cell-cell interactions in the central nervous system and their roles in neurological diseases, but current knowledge of specific molecular pathways is limited.
  • - They developed a new genetic screening method that utilizes CRISPR-Cas9, cell coculture, and microfluidic technology to explore how cells communicate with each other.
  • - Using their method, called SPEAC-seq, they discovered that a protein produced by microglia, known as amphiregulin, can help reduce harmful responses from astrocytes in conditions like multiple sclerosis.
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