马氏珠母贝(Pinctada fucata martensii)PmHEXL基因的分子特征与表达分析

几丁质作为有机框架主要成分参与贝壳的形成。β-N-乙酰-己糖胺酶(Beta-hexosaminidase/Beta-N-acetylhexosaminidase, HEX)属于糖苷水解酶家族20,在几丁质水解过程发挥重要作用。为了探究Pm HEXL在马氏珠母贝贝壳形成中的作用,本研究利用RACE技术克隆获得Pm HEXL基因c DNA全长序列并检测其在不同组织的表达模式。研究显示,Pm HEXL基因序列全长2 760 bp,其中5'UTR为167 bp,3'UTR为268 bp,开放阅读框(ORF)为2 325 bp,编码774个氨基酸;预测其相对分子量为89.59 kD,理论等电点为5.93;SMART软件分析PmHEXL蛋白质序列,发现它具有典型的GH20、GH20b结构域和CHB-HEX结构域;多序列比对结果显示Pm HEXL与其它物种的HEX具有较高的保守性;qPCR表达分析显示Pm HEXL在外套膜套膜区表达量最高,边缘区次之。综上所述,Pm HEXL可能参与马氏珠母贝贝壳的形成过程。     

木薯SWEETs基因家族生物信息学及表达特性研究

SWEET (sugars will eventually be exported transporters)是植物中新发现的一类编码糖转运蛋白的基因,它在植物生长发育及糖代谢过程中发挥重要作用。该基因家族在木薯(Manihot esculenta)中尚未有详细的报道。本研究从Phytozome数据库获得了28个木薯SWEET候选基因并对其进行生物信息学分析,在华南124的木薯苗中通过荧光定量实验检测SWEET基因在旱胁迫下的表达水平。结果发现木薯SWEET基因被分为4簇,主要分布在第6条和第14条染色体上,编码234 aa与302 aa之间的氨基酸序列;木薯SWEET基因家族的表达在旱胁迫条件下发生了变化,其中明显上调的基因有9个,包括MeSWEET1b、MeSWEET2a、MeSWEET6、MeSWEET9a、MeSWEET9b、MeSWEET12、MeSWEET15a、MeSWEET15b和MeSWEET16c;而表达量明显下调的基因也有9个,为MeSWEET2b、MeSWEET3b、MeSWEET4、MeSWEET7、MeSWEET11、MeSWEET16a、MeSWEET16b、MeSWEET17a和MeSWEET17c。这些结果为进一步阐明SWEET基因家族在木薯中的功能提供理论依据。     

Novel hepacivirus in Asian house shrew,China

<正>Dear Editor,Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a leading global cause of various liver diseases, including chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The genome of HCV is monopartite, single-stranded, positive RNA, about 10 kb in size.HCV is the prototype species of the Hepacivirus genus,which contains 14 species according to the update from the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (Smith et al., 2016). Prior to 2005, humans were thought to be the only     

MCLPMDA: A novel method for miRNA‐disease association prediction based on matrix completion and label propagation

MiRNAs are a class of small non‐coding RNAs that are involved in the development and progression of various complex diseases. Great efforts have been made to discover potential associations between miRNAs and diseases recently. As experimental methods are in general expensive and time‐consuming, a large number of computational models have been developed to effectively predict reliable disease‐related miRNAs. However, the inherent noise and incompleteness in the existing biological datasets have inevitably limited the prediction accuracy of current computational models. To solve this issue, in this paper, we propose a novel method for miRNA‐disease association prediction based on matrix completion and label propagation. Specifically, our method first reconstructs a new miRNA/disease similarity matrix by matrix completion algorithm based on known experimentally verified miRNA‐disease associations and then utilizes the label propagation algorithm to reliably predict disease‐related miRNAs. As a result, MCLPMDA achieved comparable performance under different evaluation metrics and was capable of discovering greater number of true miRNA‐disease associations. Moreover, case study conducted on Breast Neoplasms further confirmed the prediction reliability of the proposed method. Taken together, the experimental results clearly demonstrated that MCLPMDA can serve as an effective and reliable tool for miRNA‐disease association prediction.     

DYRK1A inhibition suppresses STAT3/EGFR/Met signalling and sensitizes EGFR wild‐type NSCLC cells to AZD9291

DYRK1A is considered a potential cancer therapeutic target, but the role of DYRK1A in NSCLC oncogenesis and treatment requires further investigation. In our study, high DYRK1A expression was observed in tumour samples from patients with lung cancer compared with normal lung tissues, and the high levels of DYRK1A were related to a reduced survival time in patients with lung cancer. Meanwhile, the DYRK1A inhibitor harmine could suppress the proliferation of NSCLC cells compared to that of the control. As DYRK1A suppression might be effective in treating NSCLC, we next explored the possible specific molecular mechanisms that were involved. We showed that DYRK1A suppression by siRNA could suppress the levels of EGFR and Met in NSCLC cells. Furthermore, DYRK1A siRNA could inhibit the expression and nuclear translocation of STAT3. Meanwhile, harmine could also regulate the STAT3/EGFR/Met signalling pathway in human NSCLC cells. AZD9291 is effective to treat NSCLC patients with EGFR‐sensitivity mutation and T790 M resistance mutation, but the clinical efficacy in patients with wild‐type EGFR remains modest. We showed that DYRK1A repression could enhance the anti‐cancer effect of AZD9291 by inducing apoptosis and suppressing cell proliferation in EGFR wild‐type NSCLC cells. In addition, harmine could enhance the anti‐NSCLC activity of AZD9291 by modulating STAT3 pathway. Finally, harmine could enhance the anti‐cancer activity of AZD9291 in primary NSCLC cells. Collectively, targeting DYRK1A might be an attractive target for AZD9291 sensitization in EGFR wild‐type NSCLC patients.     

Absence of estrogen receptor beta leads to abnormal adipogenesis during early tendon healing by an up‐regulation of PPARγ signalling

Achilles tendon injury is one of the challenges of sports medicine, the aetiology of which remains unknown. For a long time, estrogen receptor β (ERβ) has been known as a regulating factor of the metabolism in many connective tissues, such as bone, muscle and cartilage, but little is known about its role in tendon. Recent studies have implicated ERβ as involved in the process of tendon healing. Tendon‐derived stem cells (TDSCs) are getting more and more attention in tendon physiological and pathological process. In this study, we investigated how ERβ played a role in Achilles tendon healing. Achilles tendon injury model was established to analyse how ERβ affected on healing process in vivo. Cell proliferation assay, Western blots, qRT‐PCR and immunocytochemistry were performed to investigate the effect of ERβ on TDSCs. Here, we showed that ERβ deletion in mice resulted in inferior gross appearance, histological scores and, most importantly, increased accumulation of adipocytes during the early tendon healing which involved activation of peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor γ (PPARγ) signalling. Furthermore, in vitro results of ours confirmed that the abnormity might be the result of abnormal TDSC adipogenic differentiation which could be partially reversed by the treatment of ERβ agonist LY3201. These data revealed a role of ERβ in Achilles tendon healing for the first time, thereby providing a new target for clinical treatment of Achilles tendon injury.     

New 4,5‐seco‐20(10→5)‐abeo‐Abietane Diterpenoids with Anti‐Inflammatory Activity from Isodon lophanthoides var. graciliflorus (Benth.) H.Hara

Three new 4,5‐seco‐20(10→5)‐abeo‐abietane diterpenoids, 16‐hydroxysalvilenone ( 1 ), 15‐hydroxysalprionin ( 2 ), and 11β,15‐dihydroxysalprionin‐12‐one ( 3 ), and nine known abietane diterpenoids, 4 – 12 , along with one known sempervirane diterpenoid, hispidanol A ( 13 ), were isolated from the aerial parts of Isodon lophanthoides var. graciliflorus. The structures of compounds 1 – 3 were determined on the basis of spectroscopic methods including extensive analysis of NMR and mass spectroscopic data. All diterpenoids were tested for their TNF‐α inhibitory effects on LPS‐induced RAW264.7 cells. Compound 9 (16‐acetoxyhorminone) was the most potent with an IC₅₀ value of 3.97±0.70 μm .     

Chemical Composition of Bawei Longzuan Granule and Its Anti‐Arthritic Activity on Collagen‐Induced Arthritis in Rats by Inhibiting Inflammatory Responses

Bawei Longzuan granule (BLG) is a representative Zhuang medicine preparation. The present work aims to characterize the chemical constituents of BLG and evaluate its anti‐arthritic activity. The major chemical constituents of BLG were tentatively identified by ultra‐performance liquid chromatography‐quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (UPLC‐Q‐TOF/MS), which revealed the presence of some alkaloids (e. g., magnoflorine, sinomenine and nitidine) and flavonoids (e. g., hesperidin, diosmin and sinensetin) that may be partly responsible for the anti‐arthritic effect of BLG. In addition, the collagen‐induced arthritis (CIA) model in rats was induced by intradermal injection of bovine collagen‐II in complete Freund's adjuvant at the base of tail. The CIA rats received oral administration of BLG (1.25, 2.5 and 5 g/kg) for 30 days. Then, various indicators were determined to evaluate its anti‐arthritic activity, including paw swelling, arthritic score, body weight, knee joint pathology, thymus index and spleen index. Additionally, the serum levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)‐α, interferon (IFN)‐γ, interleukin (IL)‐1β, IL‐6, IL‐4 and IL‐10 were measured to determine the underlying mechanisms. The results showed that BLG efficiently ameliorated the severity of arthritis in CIA rats by decreasing paw swelling and arthritis score and improving the histological lesions of knee joint. Moreover, the serum levels of several pro‐inflammatory cytokines (i. e., IL‐1β, TNF‐α, IL‐6 and IFN‐γ) were downregulated, whereas two anti‐inflammatory factors (i. e., IL‐4 and IL‐10) were upregulated after BLG administration. These results indicated that BLG possessed promising therapeutic effect on collagen‐induced arthritis by inhibiting inflammatory responses. BLG can be used as a complementary or alternative traditional medicine to treat rheumatoid arthritis.     

Confined Fe2VO4⊂Nitrogen‐Doped Carbon Nanowires with Internal Void Space for High‐Rate and Ultrastable Potassium‐Ion Storage

Developing low‐cost, high‐capacity, high‐rate, and robust earth‐abundant electrode materials for energy storage is critical for the practical and scalable application of advanced battery technologies. Herein, the first example of synthesizing 1D peapod‐like bimetallic Fe₂VO₄ nanorods confined in N‐doped carbon porous nanowires with internal void space (Fe₂VO₄?NC nanopeapods) as a high‐capacity and stable anode material for potassium‐ion batteries (KIBs) is reported. The peapod‐like Fe₂VO₄?NC nanopeapod heterostructures with interior void space and external carbon shell efficiently prevent the aggregation of the active materials, facilitate fast transportation of electrons and ions, and accommodate volume variation during the cycling process, which substantially boosts the rate and cycling performance of Fe₂VO₄. The Fe₂VO₄?NC electrode exhibits high reversible specific depotassiation capacity of 380 mAh g^?1 at 100 mA g^?1 after 60 cycles and remarkable rate capability as well as long cycling stability with a high capacity of 196 mAh g^?1 at 4 A g^?1 after 2300 cycles. The first‐principles calculations reveal that Fe₂VO₄?NC nanopeapods have high ionic/electronic conductivity characteristics and low diffusion barriers for K⁺‐intercalation. This study opens up new way for investigating high‐capacity metal oxide as high‐rate and robust electrode materials for KIBs.