Displaying publications 1 - 20 of 38 in total

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  1. Enterovirus 71 from fatal and nonfatal cases of hand, foot and mouth disease epidemics in Malaysia, Japan and Taiwan in 1997-1998
    Shimizu H, Utama A, Yoshii K, Yoshida H, Yoneyama T, Sinniah M, et al.
    Jpn J Infect Dis, 1999 Feb;52(1):12-5.
    PMID: 10808253
    Enterovirus 71 (EV71), one of the major causative agents for hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), is sometimes associated with severe central nervous system diseases. In 1997, in Malaysia and Japan, and in 1998 in Taiwan, there were HFMD epidemics involving sudden deaths among young children, and EV71 was isolated from the HFMD patients, including the fatal cases. The nucleotide sequences of each EV71 isolate were determined and compared by phylogenetical analysis. EV71 strains from previously reported epidemics belonged to genotype A-1, while those from recent epidemics could be divided into two genotypes, A-2 and B. In Malaysia, genotype A-2 was more prevalent, while in Japan and Taiwan, B genotype was more prevalent. Two isolates from fatal cases in Malaysia and one isolate from a fatal case in Japan were genotype A-2. However, all isolates from three fatal cases in Taiwan belonged to genotype B. The severity of the HFMD did not link directly to certain genotypes of EV71.
  2. Association between painful physical symptoms and clinical outcomes in East Asian patients with major depressive disorder: a 3-month prospective observational study
    Ang QQ, Wing YK, He Y, Sulaiman AH, Chiu NY, Shen YC, et al.
    Int J Clin Pract, 2009 Jul;63(7):1041-9.
    PMID: 19570122 DOI: 10.1111/j.1742-1241.2009.02107.x
    Reports from non-Asian populations indicate that painful physical symptoms (PPS) are associated with poorer clinical and functional outcomes in major depressive disorder (MDD). The purpose of this study is to report comparative changes in disease severity, treatment patterns and quality of life observed in East Asian patients with MDD, with and without PPS, as assessed prospectively over a 3-month observation period.
  3. Fulltext Peginterferon alfa-2b in the treatment of Chinese patients with HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B: a randomized trial
    Cheng J, Wang Y, Hou J, Luo D, Xie Q, Ning Q, et al.
    J Clin Virol, 2014 Dec;61(4):509-16.
    PMID: 25200354 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcv.2014.08.008
    In mainland China, peginterferon (PEG-IFN) alfa-2b 1.0μg/kg/wk for 24 weeks is the approved treatment for HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B.
  4. Fulltext Pictet-Spengler reaction-based biosynthetic machinery in fungi
    Yan W, Ge HM, Wang G, Jiang N, Mei YN, Jiang R, et al.
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2014 Dec 23;111(51):18138-43.
    PMID: 25425666 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1417304111
    The Pictet-Spengler (PS) reaction constructs plant alkaloids such as morphine and camptothecin, but it has not yet been noticed in the fungal kingdom. Here, a silent fungal Pictet-Spenglerase (FPS) gene of Chaetomium globosum 1C51 residing in Epinephelus drummondhayi guts is described and ascertained to be activable by 1-methyl-L-tryptophan (1-MT). The activated FPS expression enables the PS reaction between 1-MT and flavipin (fungal aldehyde) to form "unnatural" natural products with unprecedented skeletons, of which chaetoglines B and F are potently antibacterial with the latter inhibiting acetylcholinesterase. A gene-implied enzyme inhibition (GIEI) strategy has been introduced to address the key steps for PS product diversifications. In aggregation, the work designs and validates an innovative approach that can activate the PS reaction-based fungal biosynthetic machinery to produce unpredictable compounds of unusual and novel structure valuable for new biology and biomedicine.
  5. Subjective memory and concentration deficits in medication-free, non-elderly Asians with major depressive disorder: prevalence and their correlates
    Srisurapanont M, Bautista D, Chen CH, Wang G, Udomratn P, Eurviriyanukul K
    J Affect Disord, 2015 Jan 15;171:105-10.
    PMID: 25303026 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2014.09.007
    BACKGROUND: Subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) in major depressive disorder (MDD) is prevalent and correlated with disability. This study aimed to examine the prevalence rates and correlates of subjective memory deficit (SMD) and subjective concentration deficit (SCD) in medication-free, non-elderly Asians with MDD.
    METHODS: The SMD and SCD were assessed by using two items of the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R). Other measurements of interest included the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), the Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS), and the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36). Adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated.
    RESULTS: Of 515 participants from China, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand, 347 (67.4%) and 377 (73.2%) had SMD and SCD, respectively. In total, 420 participants (81.6%) had SMD alone, SCD alone, and both deficits. Severe depression and poor mental health were significant correlates of SMD. Severe depression, clinically significant disability, poor physical health, and poor mental health were significantly independent correlates of SCD. Compared with young adults (18-34 years), older adults aged 50-65 years had a significantly lower risk of SCD (OR=.33, 95% CI: .19-.57).
    LIMITATIONS: Only two SCL-90-R items were used to assess the SMD and SCD. The exclusion of MDD patients treated with psychotropic medications eliminated many patients commonly seen in typical clinic settings.
    CONCLUSION: SMD and SCD are prevalent in medication-free, non-elderly Asians with MDD. Both deficits are correlated with depression and mental health status. The independent correlation between SCD and disability underscores the crucial role of SCI in MDD.
    KEYWORDS: Asian; Cognitive impairment; Depressive disorders; SCL-90-R; Subjective
  6. Evolving spatio-temporal data machines based on the NeuCube neuromorphic framework: Design methodology and selected applications
    Kasabov N, Scott NM, Tu E, Marks S, Sengupta N, Capecci E, et al.
    Neural Netw, 2016 Jun;78:1-14.
    PMID: 26576468 DOI: 10.1016/j.neunet.2015.09.011
    The paper describes a new type of evolving connectionist systems (ECOS) called evolving spatio-temporal data machines based on neuromorphic, brain-like information processing principles (eSTDM). These are multi-modular computer systems designed to deal with large and fast spatio/spectro temporal data using spiking neural networks (SNN) as major processing modules. ECOS and eSTDM in particular can learn incrementally from data streams, can include 'on the fly' new input variables, new output class labels or regression outputs, can continuously adapt their structure and functionality, can be visualised and interpreted for new knowledge discovery and for a better understanding of the data and the processes that generated it. eSTDM can be used for early event prediction due to the ability of the SNN to spike early, before whole input vectors (they were trained on) are presented. A framework for building eSTDM called NeuCube along with a design methodology for building eSTDM using this is presented. The implementation of this framework in MATLAB, Java, and PyNN (Python) is presented. The latter facilitates the use of neuromorphic hardware platforms to run the eSTDM. Selected examples are given of eSTDM for pattern recognition and early event prediction on EEG data, fMRI data, multisensory seismic data, ecological data, climate data, audio-visual data. Future directions are discussed, including extension of the NeuCube framework for building neurogenetic eSTDM and also new applications of eSTDM.
  7. Fulltext Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition)
    Klionsky DJ, Abdelmohsen K, Abe A, Abedin MJ, Abeliovich H, Acevedo Arozena A, et al.
    Autophagy, 2016;12(1):1-222.
    PMID: 26799652 DOI: 10.1080/15548627.2015.1100356
  8. Fulltext Detection and genetic characterization of canine astroviruses in pet dogs in Guangxi, China
    Zhou H, Liu L, Li R, Qin Y, Fang Q, Balasubramaniam VR, et al.
    Virol J, 2017 08 17;14(1):156.
    PMID: 28814340 DOI: 10.1186/s12985-017-0823-4
    BACKGROUND: Astroviruses (AstVs) have been reported to infect and cause gastroenteritis in most animal species. Human AstVs were regarded the causative agent of viral diarrhea in children. In dogs, little is known about the epidemiology and clinical significance of AstV infection.

    FINDINGS: In this study, we collected and tested 253 rectal swabs from pet dogs; of which 64 samples (25.3%) tested positive for AstVs with diarrhea and 15 more samples (5.9%) also was identified as AstVs, however without any clinical signs. Phylogenetic analysis of 39 partial ORF1b sequences from these samples revealed that they are similar to AstVs, which can be subdivided into three lineages. Interestingly, out of the 39 isolates sequenced, 16 isolates are shown to be in the Mamastrovirus 5/canine astrovirus (CAstV) lineage and the remaining 23 isolates displayed higher similarities with known porcine astrovirus (PoAstV) 5 and 2. Further, analysis of 13 capsid sequences from these isolates showed that they are closely clustered with Chinese or Italy CAstV isolates.

    CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that CAstVs commonly circulate in pet dogs, and our sequencing results have shown the genomic diversity of CAstVs leading to increasing number of clusters.

  9. Limonoids and triterpenoid from fruit of Swietenia macrophylla
    Sun YP, Zhu LL, Liu JS, Yu Y, Zhou ZY, Wang G, et al.
    Fitoterapia, 2018 Mar;125:141-146.
    PMID: 29325928 DOI: 10.1016/j.fitote.2018.01.004
    Five new limonoids, swieteliacates A-E (1-5) and a tirucallane-type triterpenoid, swietesenin (6), together with four known compounds (7-10) were isolated from fruit of Swietenia macrophylla. Their structures were determined by spectroscopic analyses. The new compounds were tested in vitro for their cytotoxic effects against five human cancer cell lines. Compound 2 exhibited moderate cytotoxic activities against SW480 and HL-60 cancer cell lines with IC50 values of 30.6 and 32.9μM, respectively.
  10. Fulltext Fine-mapping of prostate cancer susceptibility loci in a large meta-analysis identifies candidate causal variants
    Dadaev T, Saunders EJ, Newcombe PJ, Anokian E, Leongamornlert DA, Brook MN, et al.
    Nat Commun, 2018 06 11;9(1):2256.
    PMID: 29892050 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04109-8
    Prostate cancer is a polygenic disease with a large heritable component. A number of common, low-penetrance prostate cancer risk loci have been identified through GWAS. Here we apply the Bayesian multivariate variable selection algorithm JAM to fine-map 84 prostate cancer susceptibility loci, using summary data from a large European ancestry meta-analysis. We observe evidence for multiple independent signals at 12 regions and 99 risk signals overall. Only 15 original GWAS tag SNPs remain among the catalogue of candidate variants identified; the remainder are replaced by more likely candidates. Biological annotation of our credible set of variants indicates significant enrichment within promoter and enhancer elements, and transcription factor-binding sites, including AR, ERG and FOXA1. In 40 regions at least one variant is colocalised with an eQTL in prostate cancer tissue. The refined set of candidate variants substantially increase the proportion of familial relative risk explained by these known susceptibility regions, which highlights the importance of fine-mapping studies and has implications for clinical risk profiling.
  11. Fulltext Association analyses of more than 140,000 men identify 63 new prostate cancer susceptibility loci
    Schumacher FR, Al Olama AA, Berndt SI, Benlloch S, Ahmed M, Saunders EJ, et al.
    Nat Genet, 2018 07;50(7):928-936.
    PMID: 29892016 DOI: 10.1038/s41588-018-0142-8
    Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and fine-mapping efforts to date have identified more than 100 prostate cancer (PrCa)-susceptibility loci. We meta-analyzed genotype data from a custom high-density array of 46,939 PrCa cases and 27,910 controls of European ancestry with previously genotyped data of 32,255 PrCa cases and 33,202 controls of European ancestry. Our analysis identified 62 novel loci associated (P G>C, p.Pro1054Arg) in ATM and rs2066827 (OR = 1.06; P = 2.3 × 10-9; T>G, p.Val109Gly) in CDKN1B. The combination of all loci captured 28.4% of the PrCa familial relative risk, and a polygenic risk score conferred an elevated PrCa risk for men in the ninetieth to ninety-ninth percentiles (relative risk = 2.69; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.55-2.82) and first percentile (relative risk = 5.71; 95% CI: 5.04-6.48) risk stratum compared with the population average. These findings improve risk prediction, enhance fine-mapping, and provide insight into the underlying biology of PrCa1.
  12. GIS-based groundwater potential analysis using novel ensemble weights-of-evidence with logistic regression and functional tree models
    Chen W, Li H, Hou E, Wang S, Wang G, Panahi M, et al.
    Sci Total Environ, 2018 Sep 01;634:853-867.
    PMID: 29653429 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.04.055
    The aim of the current study was to produce groundwater spring potential maps using novel ensemble weights-of-evidence (WoE) with logistic regression (LR) and functional tree (FT) models. First, a total of 66 springs were identified by field surveys, out of which 70% of the spring locations were used for training the models and 30% of the spring locations were employed for the validation process. Second, a total of 14 affecting factors including aspect, altitude, slope, plan curvature, profile curvature, stream power index (SPI), topographic wetness index (TWI), sediment transport index (STI), lithology, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), land use, soil, distance to roads, and distance to streams was used to analyze the spatial relationship between these affecting factors and spring occurrences. Multicollinearity analysis and feature selection of the correlation attribute evaluation (CAE) method were employed to optimize the affecting factors. Subsequently, the novel ensembles of the WoE, LR, and FT models were constructed using the training dataset. Finally, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, standard error, confidence interval (CI) at 95%, and significance level P were employed to validate and compare the performance of three models. Overall, all three models performed well for groundwater spring potential evaluation. The prediction capability of the FT model, with the highest AUC values, the smallest standard errors, the narrowest CIs, and the smallest P values for the training and validation datasets, is better compared to those of other models. The groundwater spring potential maps can be adopted for the management of water resources and land use by planners and engineers.
  13. Genomic evaluations of Wolbachia and mtDNA in the population of coconut hispine beetle, Brontispa longissima (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)
    Ali H, Muhammad A, Bala NS, Wang G, Chen Z, Peng Z, et al.
    Mol Phylogenet Evol, 2018 10;127:1000-1009.
    PMID: 29981933 DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2018.07.003
    Wolbachia pipientis is a diverse, ubiquitous and most prevalent intracellular bacterial group of alpha-Proteobacteria that is concerned with many biological processes in arthropods. The coconut hispine beetle (CHB), Brontispa longissima (Gestro) is an economically important pest of palm cultivation worldwide. In the present study, we comprehensively surveyed the Wolbachia-infection prevalence and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) polymorphism in CHB from five different geographical locations, including China's Mainland and Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. A total of 540 sequences were screened in this study through three different genes, i.e., cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI), Wolbachia outer surface protein (wsp) and multilocus sequencing type (MLST) genes. The COI genetic divergence ranges from 0.08% to 0.67%, and likewise, a significant genetic diversity (π = 0.00082; P = 0.049) was noted within and between all analyzed samples. In the meantime, ten different haplotypes (H) were characterized (haplotype diversity = 0.4379) from 21 different locations, and among them, H6 (46 individuals) have shown a maximum number of population clusters than others. Subsequently, Wolbachia-prevalence results indicated that all tested specimens of CHB were found positive (100%), which suggested that CHB was naturally infected with Wolbachia. Wolbachia sequence results (wsp gene) revealed a high level of nucleotide diversity (π = 0.00047) under Tajima's D test (P = 0.049). Meanwhile, the same trend of nucleotide diversity (π = 0.00041) was observed in Wolbachia concatenated MLST locus. Furthermore, phylogenetic analysis (wsp and concatenated MLST genes) revealed that all collected samples of CHB attributed to same Wolbachia B-supergroup. Our results strongly suggest that Wolbachia bacteria and mtDNA were highly concordant with each other and Wolbachia can affect the genetic structure and diversity within the CHB populations.
  14. Author Correction: Association analyses of more than 140,000 men identify 63 new prostate cancer susceptibility loci
    Schumacher FR, Olama AAA, Berndt SI, Benlloch S, Ahmed M, Saunders EJ, et al.
    Nat Genet, 2019 02;51(2):363.
    PMID: 30622367 DOI: 10.1038/s41588-018-0330-6
    In the version of this article initially published, the name of author Manuela Gago-Dominguez was misspelled as Manuela Gago Dominguez. The error has been corrected in the HTML and PDF version of the article.
  15. Protective effect of daidzein against streptozotocin-induced Alzheimer's disease via improving cognitive dysfunction and oxidative stress in rat model
    Wei J, Yang F, Gong C, Shi X, Wang G
    J Biochem Mol Toxicol, 2019 Jun;33(6):e22319.
    PMID: 30897277 DOI: 10.1002/jbt.22319
    Oxidative stress is performing an essential role in developing Alzheimer's disease (AD), and age-related disorder and other neurodegenerative diseases. In existing research, we have aimed at investigating the daidzein (4',7-dihydroxyisoflavone) effect (10 and 20 mg/kg of body weight), as a free radical scavenger and antioxidant in streptozotocin (STZ) infused AD in rat model. Daidzein treatment led to significant improvement in intracerebroventricular-streptozotocin (ICV-STZ)-induced memory and learning impairments that was evaluated by Morris water maze test and spontaneous locomotor activity. It significantly restored the alterations in malondialdehyde, catalase, superoxide dismutase, and reduced glutathione levels. In addition, histopathological observations in cerebral cortex and hippocampal areas confirmed the neuroprotective effect of daidzein. These outcomes provide experimental proof showing preventive effect of daidzein on memory, learning dysfunction and oxidative stress in case of ICV-STZ rats. In conclusion, daidzein offers a potential treatment module for various neurodegenerative disorders with regard to mental deficits like AD.
  16. Fulltext Elevated CO2 improves both lipid accumulation and growth rate in the glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase engineered Phaeodactylum tricornutum
    Wu S, Gu W, Huang A, Li Y, Kumar M, Lim PE, et al.
    Microb Cell Fact, 2019 Sep 23;18(1):161.
    PMID: 31547820 DOI: 10.1186/s12934-019-1214-x
    BACKGROUND: Numerous studies have shown that stress induction and genetic engineering can effectively increase lipid accumulation, but lead to a decrease of growth in the majority of microalgae. We previously found that elevated CO2 concentration increased lipid productivity as well as growth in Phaeodactylum tricornutum, along with an enhancement of the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway (OPPP) activity. The purpose of this work directed toward the verification of the critical role of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH), the rate-limiting enzyme in the OPPP, in lipid accumulation in P. tricornutum and its simultaneous rapid growth rate under high-CO2 (0.15%) cultivation.

    RESULTS: In this study, G6PDH was identified as a target for algal strain improvement, wherein G6PDH gene was successfully overexpressed and antisense knockdown in P. tricornutum, and systematic comparisons of the photosynthesis performance, algal growth, lipid content, fatty acid profiles, NADPH production, G6PDH activity and transcriptional abundance were performed. The results showed that, due to the enhanced G6PDH activity, transcriptional abundance and NAPDH production, overexpression of G6PDH accompanied by high-CO2 cultivation resulted in a much higher of both lipid content and growth in P. tricornutum, while knockdown of G6PDH greatly decreased algal growth as well as lipid accumulation. In addition, the total proportions of saturated and unsaturated fatty acid, especially the polyunsaturated fatty acid eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; C20:5, n-3), were highly increased in high-CO2 cultivated G6PDH overexpressed strains.

    CONCLUSIONS: The successful of overexpression and antisense knockdown of G6PDH well demonstrated the positive influence of G6PDH on algal growth and lipid accumulation in P. tricornutum. The improvement of algal growth, lipid content as well as polyunsaturated fatty acids in high-CO2 cultivated G6PDH overexpressed P. tricornutum suggested this G6PDH overexpression-high CO2 cultivation pattern provides an efficient and economical route for algal strain improvement to develop algal-based biodiesel production.

  17. Fulltext Irigenin treatment alleviates doxorubicin (DOX)-induced cardiotoxicity by suppressing apoptosis, inflammation and oxidative stress via the increase of miR-425
    Guo L, Zheng X, Wang E, Jia X, Wang G, Wen J
    Biomed Pharmacother, 2020 May;125:109784.
    PMID: 32092815 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopha.2019.109784
    Doxorubicin (DOX) is an eff ;ective chemotherapeutic drug to suppress the progression of various types of tumors. However, its clinical application has been largely limited due to its potential cardiotoxicity. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are emerged as critical regulators of cardiac injury. This study was aimed to explore the effects of irigenin (IR), as an isoflavonoid isolated from the rhizome of Belamcanda chinensis, on DOX-induced cardiotoxicity using the in vivo and in vitrostudies. The results indicated that DOX-induced fibrosis, cardiac dysfunction and injury were markedly attenuated by IR through reducing apoptosis, oxidative stress and inflammation in heart tissue samples. Importantly, DOX resulted in a remarkable decrease of miR-425 in heart tissues and cells, which was significantly rescued by IR. Receptor-interacting protein kinase 1 (RIPK1) was discovered to be a direct target of miR-425. DOX induced over-expression of RIPK1 both in vivo and in vitro, which were greatly decreased by IR. Transfection with miR-425 mimic could inhibit RIPK1 expression, whereas reducing miR-425 increased RIPK1 expression levels. In parallel to miR-425 over-expression, RIPK1 knockdown could attenuate apoptosis, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and inflammation in HL-1 cells. However, over-expression of RIPK1 markedly abolished miR-425 mimic-induced apoptosis, ROS accumulation and inflammatory response in DOX-exposed cells. Herein, miR-425 could ameliorate cardiomyocyte injury through directly targeting RIPK1. Furthermore, activation of miR-425 by IR markedly improved DOX-induced cardiotoxicity, and therefore IR could be considered as a promising therapeutic agent for the treatment of cardiac injury.
  18. Degradation of MicroRNA miR-466d-3p by Japanese Encephalitis Virus NS3 Facilitates Viral Replication and Interleukin-1β Expression
    Jiang H, Bai L, Ji L, Bai Z, Su J, Qin T, et al.
    J Virol, 2020 07 16;94(15).
    PMID: 32461319 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.00294-20
    Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) infection alters microRNA (miRNA) expression in the central nervous system (CNS). However, the mechanism contributing to miRNA regulation in the CNS is not known. We discovered global degradation of mature miRNA in mouse brains and neuroblastoma (NA) cells after JEV infection. Integrative analysis of miRNAs and mRNAs suggested that several significantly downregulated miRNAs and their targeted mRNAs were clustered into an inflammation pathway. Transfection with miRNA 466d-3p (miR-466d-3p) decreased interleukin-1β (IL-1β) expression and inhibited JEV replication in NA cells. However, miR-466d-3p expression increased after JEV infection in the presence of cycloheximide, indicating that viral protein expression reduced miR-466d-3p expression. We generated all the JEV coding proteins and demonstrated NS3 helicase protein to be a potent miRNA suppressor. The NS3 proteins of Zika virus, West Nile virus, and dengue virus serotype 1 (DENV-1) and DENV-2 also decreased miR-466d-3p expression. Results from helicase-blocking assays and in vitro unwinding assays demonstrated that NS3 could unwind pre-miR-466d and induce miRNA dysfunction. Computational models and an RNA immunoprecipitation assay revealed arginine-rich domains of NS3 to be crucial for pre-miRNA binding and degradation of host miRNAs. Importantly, site-directed mutagenesis of conserved residues in NS3 revealed that R226G and R202W reduced the binding affinity and degradation of pre-miR-466d. These results expand the function of flavivirus helicases beyond unwinding duplex RNA to degrade pre-miRNAs. Hence, we revealed a new mechanism for NS3 in regulating miRNA pathways and promoting neuroinflammation.IMPORTANCE Host miRNAs have been reported to regulate JEV-induced inflammation in the CNS. We found that JEV infection could reduce expression of host miRNA. The helicase region of the NS3 protein bound specifically to miRNA precursors and could lead to incorrect unwinding of miRNA precursors, thereby reducing the expression of mature miRNAs. This observation led to two major findings. First, our results suggested that JEV NS3 protein induced miR-466d-3p degradation, which promoted IL-1β expression and JEV replication. Second, arginine molecules on NS3 were the main miRNA-binding sites, because we demonstrated that miRNA degradation was abolished if arginines at R226 and R202 were mutated. Our study provides new insights into the molecular mechanism of JEV and reveals several amino acid sites that could be mutated for a JEV vaccine.
  19. Innovative hydrolysis of corn stover biowaste by modified magnetite laccase immobilized nanoparticles
    Gou Z, Ma NL, Zhang W, Lei Z, Su Y, Sun C, et al.
    Environ Res, 2020 09;188:109829.
    PMID: 32798948 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109829
    Intensive studies have been performed on the improvement of bioethanol production by transformation of lignocellulose biomass. In this study, the digestibility of corn stover was dramatically improved by using laccase immobilized on Cu2+ modified recyclable magnetite nanoparticles, Fe3O4-NH2. After digestion, the laccase was efficiently separated from slurry. The degradation rate of lignin reached 40.76%, and the subsequent cellulose conversion rate 38.37% for 72 h at 35 °C with cellulase at 50 U g-1 of corn stover. Compared to those of free and inactivated mode, the immobilized laccase pre-treatment increased subsequent cellulose conversion rates by 23.98% and 23.34%, respectively. Moreover, the reusability of immobilized laccase activity remained 50% after 6 cycles. The storage and thermal stability of the fixed laccase enhanced by 70% and 24.1% compared to those of free laccase at 65 °C, pH 4.5, respectively. At pH 10.5, it exhibited 16.3% more activities than its free mode at 35 °C. Our study provides a new avenue for improving the production of bioethanol with immobilized laccase for delignification using corn stover as the starting material.
  20. Rapid fabrication of oxygen defective α-Fe2O3(110) for enhanced photoelectrochemical activities
    Mohamad Noh MF, Ullah H, Arzaee NA, Ab Halim A, Abdul Rahim MAF, Mohamed NA, et al.
    Dalton Trans, 2020 Sep 14;49(34):12037-12048.
    PMID: 32869793 DOI: 10.1039/d0dt00406e
    Defect engineering is increasingly recognized as a viable strategy for boosting the performance of photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting using metal oxide-based photoelectrodes. However, previously developed methods for generating point defects associated with oxygen vacancies are rather time-consuming. Herein, high density oxygen deficient α-Fe2O3 with the dominant (110) crystal plane is developed in a very short timescale of 10 minutes by employing aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition and pure nitrogen as a gas carrier. The oxygen-defective film exhibits almost 8 times higher photocurrent density compared to a hematite photoanode with a low concentration of oxygen vacancies which is prepared in purified air. The existence of oxygen vacancies improves light absorption ability, accelerates charge transport in the bulk of films, and promotes charge separation at the electrolyte/semiconductor interface. DFT simulations verify that oxygen-defective hematite has a narrow bandgap, electron-hole trapped centre, and strong adsorption energy of water molecules compared to pristine hematite. This strategy might bring PEC technology another step further towards large-scale fabrication for future commercialization.
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