Editing MC1R in human melanoma cells by CRISPR/Cas9 and functional analysis.

MC1R (melanocortin 1 receptor) encodes the melanocortin-1 receptor, which can activate intracellular cAMP synthesis under the stimulation of the α-melanocyte stimulating hormone (α-MSH) ligand. Increased cAMP then activates the protein kinase A (PKA) pathway, resulting in the up-regulation of the expression of the microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) which is a critical regulatory factor of melanin synthesis, and tyrosinase (TYR), the rate-limiting enzyme of melanin synthesis tyrosinase (TYR), and ultimately affects production of eumelanin and pheomelanin, and the coat color phenotype of mammalian species. Previous reports have indicated that the mutation A243T in the transmembrane domain 6 (TM6) of MC1R protein might disrupt the function of MC1R, contributing to the red phenotype in Duroc pig.

Diagnosis and surgical treatment of non-lesional temporal lobe epilepsy with unilateral amygdala enlargement.

Objective: Exploring the role of amygdala enlargement (AE) in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) without ipsilateral mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS) using comprehensive presurgical workup tools including traditional tools, automatically volumetric analysis, high-density EEG (HD-EEG) source imaging (HD-ESI), and stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG).

Methods: Nine patients diagnosed with TLE-AE who underwent resective surgeries encompassing the amygdala were retrospectively studied. HD-ESI was obtained using 256-channel HD-EEG on the individualized head model.

Inhibition of autophagy triggers melatonin-induced apoptosis in glioblastoma cells.

Background: Autophagy is considered to be another restorative focus for the treatment of brain tumors. Although several research have demonstrated that melatonin induces autophagy in colon cancer and hepatoma cells, there has not been any direct evidence of whether melatonin is capable of inducing autophagy in human glioma cells.

Results: In the present research, we report that melatonin or its agonist, agomelatine, induced autophagy in A172 and U87-MG glioblastoma cells for a concentration-and time-dependent way, which was significantly attenuated by treatment with luzindole, a melatonin receptor antagonist.

Learning Shapelets for Improving Single-Molecule Nanopore Sensing.

The nanopore technique employs a nanoscale cavity to electrochemically confine individual molecules, achieving ultrasensitive single-molecule analysis based on evaluating the amplitude and duration of the ionic current. However, each nanopore sensing interface has its own intrinsic sensing ability, which does not always efficiently generate distinctive blockade currents for multiple analytes. Therefore, analytes that differ at only a single site often exhibit similar blockade currents or durations in nanopore experiments, which often produces serious overlap in the resulting statistical graphs.