Activation of GSK‐3 disrupts cholinergic homoeostasis in nucleus basalis of Meynert and frontal cortex of rats

The cholinergic impairment is an early marker in Alzheimer's disease (AD), while the mechanisms are not fully understood. We investigated here the effects of glycogen synthase kinse‐3 (GSK‐3) activation on the cholinergic homoeostasis in nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM) and frontal cortex, the cholinergic enriched regions. We activated GSK‐3 by lateral ventricular infusion of wortmannin (WT) and GF‐109203X (GFX), the inhibitors of phosphoinositol‐3 kinase (PI3‐K) and protein kinase C (PKC), respectively, and significantly decreased the acetylcholine (ACh) level via inhibiting choline acetyl transferase (ChAT) rather than regulating acetylcholinesterase (AChE). Neuronal axonal transport was disrupted and ChAT accumulation occurred in NBM and frontal cortex accompanied with hyperphosphorylation of tau and neurofilaments. Moreover, ChAT expression decreased in NBM attributing to cleavage of nuclear factor‐κB/p100 into p52 for translocation into nucleus to lower ChAT mRNA level. The cholinergic dysfunction could be mimicked by overexpression of GSK‐3 and rescued by simultaneous administration of LiCl or SB216763, inhibitors of GSK‐3. Our data reveal the molecular mechanism that may underlie the cholinergic impairments in AD patients.     

NiS2/FeS Holey Film as Freestanding Electrode for High‐Performance Lithium Battery

In this work, a freestanding NiS₂/FeS holey film (HF) is prepared after electrochemical anodic and chemical vapor deposition treatments. With the combination of good electrical conductivity and holey structure, the NiS₂/FeS HF presents superior electrochemical performance, due to the following reasons: (i) Porous structure of HF provides a large surface area and more active sites/channels/pathways to enhance the ion/mass diffusion. Moreover, the porous structure can reduce the damage from the volumetric expansion. (ii) The as‐prepared electrode combines the current collector (residual NiFe alloy) and active materials (sulfides) together, thus reducing the resistance of the electrode. Additionally, the good conductivity of HF can improve electron transport. (iii) Sulfides are more stable as active materials than sulfur, showing only a small capacity decay while retaining high cyclability performance. This work provides a promising way to develop high energy and stable electrode for Li‐S battery.     

二烯丙基二硫对荷S180肉瘤小鼠的辐射增敏效应

研究大蒜素重要活性成分二烯丙基二硫(Diallyl disulfide,DADS)对荷S180肉瘤小鼠的辐射增敏效应。利用X射线对荷瘤小鼠全身辐照。测量肿瘤体积、重量;检测肿瘤组织中细胞凋亡及Bcl-2、Bax、caspase-3等凋亡因子的表达。同时测定了DADS对S180细胞增殖及细胞内活性氧(reactive oxygen species,ROS)的影响。结果显示:与对照组、单纯药物组及单纯辐照组相比,DADS联合辐照组小鼠的肿瘤体变小、重量减轻(P<0.01);肿瘤组织中TUNEL阳性细胞增多(P<0.01);Bax、caspase-3表达增强,而Bcl-2表达减弱。此外,DADS引起了S180细胞内大量ROS的产生。结果提示DADS对荷S180肉瘤小鼠具有辐射增敏效应,其机制与上调Bax、Caspase-3、下调Bcl-2表达及诱导肿瘤细胞产生ROS有关。     

A Novel Endogenous Induction of ColE7 Expression in a csrA Mutant of Escherichia coli

Carbon storage regulator A (CsrA) is an important regulator that controls central metabolic pathways and a variety of physiological functions. We found that disruption of csrA in cells containing the ColE7 operon caused a 12-fold increase in colicin E7 production. Moreover, real-time RT-PCR demonstrated a decrease of around 50 % in the lexA mRNA of the csrA mutant. However, the cellular level of RecA protein and its mRNA were not significantly different from the wild type strain. Our results suggest that a novel induction mechanism might exist in E. coli that allows the expression of ColE7 operon in response to a metabolic shift. Proteomic analysis suggested that csrA deficient mutant may adapt PEP-glyoxylate cycle for energy production. Thus, the physiological changes in the csrA mutant may be similar to carbon source limitation for initiating the expression of ColE7 operon in response to stringent environmental conditions.     

广西百色公篓遗址石制品的初步研究

公篓遗址位于广西百色市田阳县境内, 地处百色盆地右江南岸第四级阶地, 地理坐标为23°45.568'N, 106°42.210'E。该遗址最早发现于上世纪八十年代, 当时采集石制品88件, 是百色盆地较早发现的一处旧石器时代遗址; 2010年我们对遗址进行复查时又采集石制品14件, 本文对两次采集的石制品进行了分析。石制品类型有石核、石片、砍砸器、手镐、刮削器、手斧和断块, 其中砍砸器数量最多; 原料来源于遗址附近第四级阶地的砾石层, 有石英岩、硅质岩、石英、粉砂岩、细砂岩和角砾岩6种, 以石英岩为主; 石制品以大型和中型为主, 也有一定数量的小型石制品; 剥片和修理方法主要为锤击法。根据地貌和地层可以判断该遗址年代为中更新世早期。     

幽门螺杆菌感染与胃黏膜上皮细胞DNA甲基化的研究进展

在癌症发生表观遗传学研究中,DNA甲基化是研究最多也最深入的一种机制,异常甲基化可导致胃黏膜上皮细胞癌变.幽门螺杆菌(Helicobacter pylori,Hpylori)是胃癌的第Ⅰ类致癌原,在“慢性浅表性胃炎-慢性萎缩性胃炎-肠上皮化生-不典型增生-胃癌”的癌变模式中可能起先导作用.胃癌相关基因的异常甲基化和H.pylori的致癌机制均是目前研究的热点,本研究综述H.pylori感染与胃黏膜上皮细胞DNA异常甲基化的关系,阐述H.pylori感染介导慢性炎症诱发胃黏膜上皮细胞DNA甲基化的机制.     

原油微生物群落构成及降解菌降解特性的研究

为分离得到高效原油降解菌,直接向原油中加入营养物刺激,培养一段时间后原油乳化降解。气相色谱法、红外光谱法和紫外吸收均表明降解菌体系具有较强的降解原油烃的能力。采用细菌16S rDNA通用引物和PCR扩增等方法,构建原油降解菌体系16S rDNA克隆文库,并对所构建的文库进行分析。同时,从降解菌体系中分离得到一株降解菌,鉴定结果表明所分离的细菌为短小芽孢杆菌(Bacillus pumilus)。采用气相色谱技术对降解过程中的原油烃的变化进行分析,结果显示原油烃类组分会随着降解时间的变化而发生变化,降解菌表现出其对烷烃类物质的降解能力。     

Engineering tolerance and accumulation of lead and cadmium in transgenic plants

We have studied the utility of the yeast protein YCF1, which detoxifies cadmium by transporting it into vacuoles, for the remediation of lead and cadmium contamination. We found that the yeast YCF1-deletion mutant DTY167 was hypersensitive to Pb(II) as compared with wild-type yeast. DTY167 cells overexpressing YCF1 were more resistant to Pb(II) and Cd(II) than were wild-type cells, and accumulated more lead and cadmium. Analysis of transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants overexpressing YCF1 showed that YCF1 is functionally active and that the plants have enhanced tolerance of Pb(II) and Cd(II) and accumulated greater amounts of these metals. These results suggest that transgenic plants expressing YCF1 may be useful for phytoremediation of lead and cadmium.     

ProDCoNN: Protein design using a convolutional neural network

Designing protein sequences that fold to a given three-dimensional (3D) structure has long been a challenging problem in computational structural biology with significant theoretical and practical implications. In this study, we first formulated this problem as predicting the residue type given the 3D structural environment around the C _α atom of a residue, which is repeated for each residue of a protein. We designed a nine-layer 3D deep convolutional neural network (CNN) that takes as input a gridded box with the atomic coordinates and types around a residue. Several CNN layers were designed to capture structure information at different scales, such as bond lengths, bond angles, torsion angles, and secondary structures. Trained on a very large number of protein structures, the method, called ProDCoNN (protein design with CNN), achieved state-of-the-art performance when tested on large numbers of test proteins and benchmark datasets.