Development and application of decontamination methods for the re-use of laboratory grade plastic pipette tips.

During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, a need for methods to decontaminate and reuse personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical plastics became a priority. In this investigation we aimed to develop a contamination evaluation protocol for laboratory pipette tips, after decontamination. Decontamination methods tested in this study included cleaning with a common laboratory detergent (2.

Removal of liquid scintillator exudates by the metal organic frameworks materials: The role of functional groups.

The leakage of Liquid scintillator exudates has brought potential harm to the environment. Attributed to the large specific surface area and high modifiability, high-performance adsorbents based on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) can effectively remove organic pollutants. In this work, we use different functional groups to prepare the material of UIO-66(Zr).

Inverting methanol dehydrogenation selectivity by crowding atomic Ni species over α-MoC catalysts.

Metal carbides with earth-abundant elements are widely regarded as promising alternatives of noble metal catalysts. Although comparable catalytic performances have been observed for metal carbides in several types of reactions, precise control of reaction pathways on them remains a formidable challenge, partially due to strong adsorption of reactants or intermediates. In this study, we show that bimolecular dehydrogenation of methanol to methyl formate and H2 is kinetically favored on bare α-MoC catalysts, while monomolecular dehydrogenation to CO and H2 becomes the dominant pathway when α-MoC is decorated with crowding atomic Ni species.

Mitochondria-Nucleus Migration Probe for Ultrasensitive Monitoring of mtDNA Damage in Living Cells.

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) damage is a prevalent phenomenon that has been proven to be implicated in a wide spectrum of diseases. However, the progressive attenuation of probe signals in response to mtDNA damage within living cells inherently limits the sensitivity and precision of current probes for detecting mtDNA damage. Herein, we employ an innovative organelle signal ratio imaging approach, utilizing the mitochondria-nucleus migration probe MCQ, to achieve unparalleled sensitivity in detecting mtDNA damage in living cells.

An immunoinformatics and extensive molecular dynamics study to develop a polyvalent multi-epitope vaccine against cryptococcosis.

Cryptococcosis is a lethal mycosis instigated by the pathogenic species Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii, primarily affects the lungs, manifesting as pneumonia, and the brain, where it presents as meningitis. Mortality rate could reach 100% if infections remain untreated in cryptococcal meningitis. Treatment options for cryptococcosis are limited and and there are no licensed vaccines clinically available to treat or prevent cryptococcosis.

LC-MS profiling and cytotoxic activity of Angiopteris helferiana against HepG2 cell line: Molecular insight to investigate anticancer agent.

Liver cancer is one of the most prevalent malignant diseases in humans and the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality globally. Angiopteris helferiana was mentioned as a possible anticancer herb according to ethnomedicinal applications. However, the molecular docking and chemical profiling of the bioactive phytoconstituents accountable for the reported anticancer action still require research.

Identification and characterization of a human MORC2 DNA binding region that is required for gene silencing.

The eukaryotic microrchidia (MORC) protein family are DNA gyrase, Hsp90, histidine kinase, MutL (GHKL)-type ATPases involved in gene expression regulation and chromatin compaction. The molecular mechanisms underlying these activities are incompletely understood. Here, we studied the full-length human MORC2 protein biochemically.

Structure-guided design and synthesis of C22- and C32-modified FK520 analogs with enhanced activity against human pathogenic fungi.

Invasive fungal infections are a leading cause of death worldwide. Translating molecular insights into clinical benefits is challenging because fungal pathogens and their hosts share similar eukaryotic physiology. Consequently, current antifungal treatments have limited efficacy, may be poorly fungicidal in the host, can exhibit toxicity, and are increasingly compromised by emerging resistance.

Molecular basis of hemoglobin binding and heme removal in .

To successfully mount infections, nearly all bacterial pathogens must acquire iron, a key metal cofactor that primarily resides within human hemoglobin. causes the life-threatening respiratory disease diphtheria and captures hemoglobin for iron scavenging using the surface-displayed receptor HbpA. Here, we show using X-ray crystallography, NMR, and in situ binding measurements that selectively captures iron-loaded hemoglobin by partially ensconcing the heme molecules of its α subunits.

Tamsulosin ameliorates bone loss by inhibiting the release of Cl through wedging into an allosteric site of TMEM16A.

TMEM16A, a key calcium-activated chloride channel, is crucial for many physiological and pathological processes such as cancer, hypertension, and osteoporosis, etc. However, the regulatory mechanism of TMEM16A is poorly understood, limiting the discovery of effective modulators. Here, we unveil an allosteric gating mechanism by presenting a high-resolution cryo-EM structure of TMEM16A in complex with a channel inhibitor that we identified, Tamsulosin, which is resolved at 2.

Molecular basis of Spns1-mediated lysophospholipid transport from the lysosome.

Spns1 mediates the rate-limiting efflux of lysophospholipids from the lysosome to the cytosol. Deficiency of Spns1 is associated with embryonic senescence, as well as liver and skeletal muscle atrophy in animal models. However, the mechanisms by which Spns1 transports lysophospholipid and proton sensing remain unclear.

Elucidation of a distinct photoreduction pathway in class II photolyase.

Class II photolyases (PLs) are a distant subclade in the photolyase/cryptochrome superfamily, displaying a unique Trp-Tyr tetrad for photoreduction and exhibiting a lower quantum yield (QY) of DNA repair (49%) than class I photolyases (82%) [M. Zhang, L. Wang, S.

Tsg101 mimicry of canonical E2 enzymes underlies its role in ubiquitin signaling.

Tsg101 is a highly conserved protein best known as an early-functioning component of cellular ESCRT machinery participating in recognition, sorting, and trafficking of cellular cargo to various intracellular destinations. It shares sequence and structural homology to canonical ubiquitin-conjugating (E2) enzymes and is linked to diverse events regulated by Ub signaling. How it might fulfill these roles is unclear.

Trojan horse peptide conjugates remodel the activity spectrum of clinical antibiotics.

Infections caused by gram-negative pathogens continue to be a major risk to human health because of the innate antibiotic resistance endowed by their unique cell membrane architecture. Nature has developed an elegant solution to target gram-negative strains, namely by conjugating toxic antibiotic warheads to a suitable carrier to facilitate the active import of the drug to a specific target organism. Microcin C7 (McC) is a Trojan horse peptide-conjugated antibiotic that specifically targets enterobacteria by exploiting active import through oligopeptide transport systems.

CryoSeek II: Cryo-EM analysis of glycofibrils from freshwater reveals well-structured glycans coating linear tetrapeptide repeats.

Despite the recent breakthrough in structure determination and prediction of proteins, the structural investigation of carbohydrates remains a challenge. Here, we report the cryo-EM analysis of a glycofibril found in the freshwater in the Tsinghua Lotus Pond. The fibril, which we name TLP-4, is made of a linear chain of tetrapeptide repeats coated with >4 nm thick glycans.

Antibacterial effects of thyme oil loaded solid lipid and chitosan nano-carriers against Salmonella Typhimurium and Escherichia coli as food preservatives.

Objectives: Escherichia coli and Salmonella Typhimurium are frequent causes of foodborne illness affecting many people annually. In order to develop natural antimicrobial agents against these microorganisms, thyme oil (TO) was considered as active antibacterial ingredient. TO contains various bioactive compounds that exhibit antimicrobial properties.

When do science recommendations stop being effective? The case of the sprawl of diesel electricity generators in Beirut.

Lebanon, plagued by political and economic crises, experienced a government collapse in early 2020, leading to an electrical nationwide blackout by 2023. Diesel generators were used to compensate for the absence of power production from the national provider, Electricité du Liban (EDL). To investigate the effect of the crisis on the levels of 16 EPA particle bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PPAHs), an annual comparative analysis of three locations within Beirut started in 2022 and ended in 2023.

Highly Efficient Photocatalytic CO2-to-CO on Ni-Based Cationic Polymer with TiO2-Assisted Exfoliation and Stabilization.

Porous organic polymers have shown great potential in photocatalytic CO2 reduction due to their unique tunable structure favoring gas adsorption and metal sites integration. However, efficient photocatalysis in porous polymers is greatly limited by the low surface reactivity and electron mobility of bulk structure. Herein, we incorporate TiO2 nanoparticles and Ni(II) sites into a layered cationic imidazolium polymer (IP), in which the imidazolium moieties and free anions can stabilize the key intermediates and enhance the reaction kinetics of CO2 reduction.

Synthesis and Properties of Donor-Acceptor-Type Cyclobisbiphenylenecarbonyls.

The scalable synthesis of figure-eight π-systems is challenging for the conventional bottom-up approach. We have recently reported that the oxidative inner-bond cleavage of commercially available dibenzo[g,p]chrysene efficiently furnishes a figure-eight π-acceptor, cyclobisbiphenylenecarbonyl (CBBC), in large quantity. Furthermore, its donor-acceptor-type derivative with four N-carbazolyl substituents at the meta-positions of the carbonyl groups exhibited thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) and circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) with a high |gCPL| value of 1.

Citrate-modified bacterial cellulose as a potential scaffolding material for bone tissue regeneration.

Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a novel biocompatible polymeric biomaterial with a wide range of biomedical uses, like tissue engineering (TE) scaffolds, wound dressings, and drug delivery. Although BC lacks good cell adhesion due to limited functionality, its tunable surface chemistry still holds promise. Here, hydroxyapatite (HA) was incorporated into a citrate-modified BC (MBC) using the biomimetic synthesis in simulated body fluid (SBF).

Different pixel sizes of topographic data for prediction of soil salinity.

Modeling techniques can be powerful predictors of soil salinity across various scales, ranging from local landscapes to global territories. This study was aimed to examine the accuracy of soil salinity prediction model integrating ANNs (artificial neural networks) and topographic factors with different cell sizes. For this purpose, soil salinity was determined at 103 points in the east of Mashhad, Razavi Khorasan, Iran.

VeloxChem: GPU-Accelerated Fock Matrix Construction Enabling Complex Polarization Propagator Simulations of Circular Dichroism Spectra of G-Quadruplexes.

An automatic code generated C++/HIP/CUDA implementation of the (auxiliary) Fock, or Kohn-Sham, matrix construction for execution in GPU-accelerated hardware environments is presented. The module is developed as part of the quantum chemistry software package VeloxChem, employing localized Gaussian atomic orbitals. The performance and scaling characteristics are analyzed in view of the specific requirements for self-consistent field optimization and response theory calculations.

XPB: an Extendable Polymer Builder for High-Throughput and High-Quality Generation of Complex Polymer Structures.

The efficient generation of complex initial structures for polymers remains a critical challenge in the field of molecular simulation. This necessitates the development of high-quality and highly efficient modeling algorithms. Inspired by fundamental polymerization reactions, we propose a general algorithm for an efficient de novo polymer model building, resulting in the development of the eXtendable Polymer Builder (XPB) package.

Profiling endogenous airway proteases and antiproteases and modeling proteolytic activation of Influenza HA using in vitro and ex vivo human airway surface liquid samples.

Imbalance of airway proteases and antiproteases has been implicated in diseases such as COPD and environmental exposures including cigarette smoke and ozone. To initiate infection, endogenous proteases are commandeered by respiratory viruses upon encountering the airway epithelium. The airway proteolytic environment likely contains redundant antiproteases and proteases with diverse catalytic mechanisms, however a proteomic profile of these enzymes and inhibitors in airway samples has not been reported.

A drop dispenser for simplifying on-farm detection of foodborne pathogens.

Nucleic-acid biosensors have emerged as useful tools for on-farm detection of foodborne pathogens on fresh produce. Such tools are specifically designed to be user-friendly so that a producer can operate them with minimal training and in a few simple steps. However, one challenge in the deployment of these biosensors is delivering precise sample volumes to the biosensor's reaction sites.