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α-Catenin plays a critical role in tissue integrity, repair, and embryonic development. However, the post-translational modifications of α-catenin and the correlative roles in regulating cancer progression remain unclear. Here, we report that α-catenin is acetylated by p300, and identify three acetylation sites, K45, K866, and K881. Conversely, α-catenin acetylation can be reversed by deacetylase HDAC6. Mechanistically, α-catenin acetylation releases the transcriptional coactivator Yes-associated protein 1 (Yap1) by blocking the interaction between α-catenin and Yap1, and promotes the accumulation of Yap1 in the nucleus. Through this mechanism, acetylation weakens the capacity of α-catenin to inhibit breast cancer cell proliferation and tumor growth in mice. Meanwhile, we show that CDDP induces acetylation of α-catenin, and acetylated α-catenin resists the apoptosis under CDDP conditions. Additionally, acetylation inhibits the proteasome-dependent degradation of α-catenin, thus enhancing the stability of α-catenin for storage. Taken together, our results demonstrate that α-catenin can be acetylated, an event that is key for the subcellular distribution of Yap1 and subsequent facilitation of breast tumorigenesis.

Orius sauteri(Poppius) is an important predator of many economically important insect pests. The mass rearing of O. sauteriis difficult, limiting its application in pest control. Here we assessed the nutritional quality of eggs of Sitotroga cerealella(Olivier), Agrotis ypsilon(Rottemberg), or Spodoptera litura(Fabricius), and their potential for rearing O. sauteriin the laboratory for two generations. Of species tested, S. cerealellaeggs resulted in the highest survival and reproduction of O. sautericompared to the other two lepidopteran species. Eggs of A. ypsilonwere a suitable diet for the nymphal stage, which developed faster on A. ysiloneggs than those of S. cerealellaeggs. Conversely, eggs of S. liturawere not a suitable diet for O. sauteri, and they disrupted the development and reproduction of O. sauteri. Sitotroga cerealellaeggs showed advantages in all the nutritional components evaluated. Orius sauterifed S. lituraeggs contained significantly lower protein levels than those fed on the other eggs tested. Spodoptera lituraeggs significantly enhanced the CAT activity in O. sauteri, which suggests that some components from S. lituraeggs harmed the development and reproduction of O. sauteri. Based on these results, we suggest using a combined diet for mass rearing of the pirate bug, feeding the nymphs and adults with A. ypsiloneggs and S. cerealellaeggs, respectively. This study contributes to the discovery of artificial diets for mass rearing O. sauteriand other Oriusspecies in the future.

Background Traditional Chinese Medicine Astragalus was commonly used to assist chemo-drug treatment in clinical cancer patients. However, whether Astragalus injection (AGI) reverses drug resistance remains unclear. Therefore, a meta-analysis is necessary to assess the effect of AGI on resistance reversement in cancer patients.Method The studies presenting tumor response rates in cancer patients receiving chemo-drugs treatment in combination with AGI were systematically searched from six common scientific databases until February 2024. The relative risks (RRs) indicating the tumor response rate, 1-year survival rate, and quality of life improvement in clinical patients among two groups were calculated in metan package. The pooled RRs with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to explore the effect of AGI on enhancing drug sensitivity in terms of tumor response, 1-year survival rate and quality of life improvement in cancer patients.Result Fifty-one studies were included for meta-analysis following a thorough screening process that adhered to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. A total of 4613 patients were enrolled in all included trials. Results obtained indicated that AGI significantly enhanced the sensitivity of cancers to chemo-drugs with pooled RRs (95% CI) of 1.25 (1.18, 1.32), prolonged the 1-year survival rate of patients with pooled RRs (95% CI) of 1.34 (1.14, 1.57), improved the quality of life with pooled RRs (95% CI) of 1.61 (1.34, 1.93). Similarly, Astragalus's main component, astragaloside polysaccharides (APS), also enhances drug sensitivity in clinical cancer patients.Conclusion Our findings demonstrated that AGI had the ability to resensitize cancers to chemo-drugs and improve the quality of life of cancer patients. Therefore, AGI could potentially be used as a drug resistance reversal for resistant cancer treatment.

Being a vital cellular process, coat protein complex II (COPII) vesicle trafficking has been found to play a crucial role in liver metabolism. However, its functions and the underlying mechanisms in systemic metabolic homeostasis have not been fully understood. Here, with a newly identified gene trap zebrafish line (sec31anju221), we show that compromised COPII vesicle trafficking leads to biphasic abnormal hepatic metabolism. During the larval stage, deficiency of COPII-mediated trafficking leads to activation of the unfolded protein response and the development of hepatic steatosis. By using epistasis analysis, we found that the eIF2α–ATF4 pathway serves as the primary effector for liver steatosis. In adult sec31anju221 fish, the hepatosteatosis was reversed and the phenotype switched to glycogenic hepatopathy. Proteomic profiling and biochemical assays indicate that sec31anju221 fish are in a state of hypothyroidism. Moreover, our study shows that thyroid hormone treatment alleviates the metabolic defects. This study provides insights into processes of liver diseases associated with vesicle trafficking impairments and expands our understanding of the pathological interplay between thyroid and liver.

Based on first-principles calculations, the adsorption and diffusion of the nitrogen atoms in Ti bulk and Ti surface layer were studied. Al doping is considered in the study of the surface layer. We first calculated and studied N in bulk Ti and obtained that the N atom preferentially occupies the octahedron(O) interstice of the α-Ti bulk, which behaves as a metallic N-containing solid solution at a lower N concentration. And the diffusion energy barrier is the lowest in the α-Ti bulk when it diffuses between two O sites along with the （1¯2 1¯0）direction. Then we studied N adsorption and diffusion of N on the α-Ti(0 0 0 1) surface. The N atoms are predicted to be adsorbed on the FCC and HCP sites of the Ti(0 0 0 1) surface, where the FCC site has lower Ead(adsorption energy). In addition, after doping Al atoms on the Ti surface and sub-surface, the adsorption capacity of the N atom decreases. Especially when the Al atom exists on the Ti surface, this effect is very significant. And the Al atom also reduces the stability of the N atom in the subsurface O site at the same time. Finally, the diffusion process of N atoms from the surface to the subsurface was calculated and compared with and without Al doping. This paper provides fundamental insights into the diffusion mechanism in the nitriding treatment of titanium alloys. These calculation results can infer which titanium alloy is more suitable for nitriding.

Hydrogen bonds stabilized by hydrophobic side groups have been widely applied to realize high toughness of hydrogels. Herein, we studied the effect of the content of the hydrophobic methyl side group on the structure and mechanical properties of tough hydrogen-bonded gelatin/poly (methacrylic acid–co-acrylic acid) (G/Mx-Ay) hydrogels by alternating the content of methacrylic acid (MAA) in the methacrylic acid–acrylic acid copolymer (MAA-co-AA). The content of MAA did not affect the hydrogen-bond formation between the MAA-co-AA and gelatin but affected the phase-separated structure. With an increase in the MAA content, the local structure of the hydrogels with similar water content transformed from a “network” structure to a “bicontinuous” phase-separated structure and to a phase-separated structure with wide size distribution. The hydrogels with the same structure exhibited similar viscoelastic behaviors, and the G/Mx-Ayhydrogels with “bicontinuous” phase separation exhibited the best mechanical properties with an optimal Young’s modulus of ∼7.5 MPa and fracture tensile stress of ∼10 MPa.

Chamber maturation is a significant process in cardiac development. Disorders of this crucial process lead to a range of congenital heart defects. Foxc1a is a critical transcription factor reported to regulate the specification of cardiac progenitor cells. However, little is known about the role of Foxc1a in modulating chamber maturation. Previously, we reported that foxc1a-null zebrafish embryos exhibit disrupted heart structures and functions. In this study, we observe that ventricle structure and cardiomyocyte proliferation are abolished during chamber maturation in foxc1a-null zebrafish embryos. To observe the endogenous localization of Foxc1a in the hearts of living embryos, we insert eyfpat the foxc1agenomic locus using TALEN. Analysis of the knockin zebrafish show that foxc1ais widely expressed in ventricular cardiomyocytes during chamber development. Cardiac RNA sequencing analysis reveals the downregulated expression of the Hippo signaling effector wwtr1. Dual-luciferase and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays reveal that Foxc1a can bind directly to three sites in the wwtr1promoter region. Furthermore, wwtr1mRNA overexpression is sufficient to reverse the ventricle defects during chamber maturation. Conditional overexpression of nkx2.5also partially rescues the ventricular defects during chamber development. These findings demonstrate that wwtr1and nkx2.5are direct targets of Foxc1a during ventricular chamber maturation.

In this study, zein, Pluronic F127, artemisia argyis essence, and butyl titanate are used to craft zein-based hybrid microcapsule by interfacial condensation and anti-solvent precipitation approach. Morphology and structure of the hybrid microcapsule were characterized by SEM, UDFM, FTIR, XRD and XPS, separately. Sustained release behavior and self-cleaning performance of the hybrid microcapsule were also observed. The results indicated that the average size of zein-based hybrid microcapsule was approximately 6 μm with stable structure. It is worth noting that, this double-shelled microcapsule possessed sustained release behaviors, only 9% of AAE was released after 9 h. Significantly, the TiO2in the outer shell endows the composite coating with superior self-cleaning performance. The as-prepared hybrid microcapsule finishing material is a good candidate for bio-based functional coatings applied in various fields including leather, paper, painting, cosmetics and so on.

ABSTRACTAdenosine-to-inosine (A-to-I) editing is one of the most prevalent post-transcriptional RNA modifications in metazoan. This reaction is catalysed by enzymes called adenosine deaminases acting on RNA (ADARs). RNA editing is involved in the regulation of protein function and gene expression. The numerous A-to-I editing sites have been identified in both coding and non-coding RNA transcripts. These editing sites are also found in various genes expressed in the central nervous system (CNS) and play an important role in neurological development and brain function. Aberrant regulation of RNA editing has been associated with the pathogenesis of neurological and psychiatric disorders, suggesting the physiological significance of RNA editing in the CNS. In this review, we discuss the current knowledge of editing on neurological disease and development.

The potential toxicity of nitrite to organisms and the environment makes it necessary to build a sensitive and accurate nitrite detection platform. The oxidation-modified carbon fiber electrode (OMCF) with a rougher surface and oxygen-containing functional groups is constructed by a simple high-temperature calcined treatment at 400 °C for 2 h for sensitive detection of nitrite. The amperometric test results exhibit that OMCF has two linear ranges of 1–1000 µM and 1000–6000 µM. Besides, its corresponding sensitivities are 988.57 and 668.51 µA mM−1cm−2, respectively. The low detection limit is 0.1 µM. Importantly, the OMCF can be used to detect nitrite in a drop of water or medical samples. In addition, the OMCF with a length of 150 cm was successfully synthesized. The nine sections of the above OMCF are randomly selected to detect nitrite, which shows good reproducibility. Therefore, this work provides a facile method for preparing OMCFs with high sensitivity and wide linear range for the electrochemical detection of nitrite in urine and enables large-scale electrode production for medical applications.

Polyphenylsulfone resin (PPSU), holding significance across various domains, was successfully welded by the laser transmission welding (LTW). In order to optimize the morphology and mechanical properties of the weld seam, the Sn film was chosen as an intermediate layer and the mechanism governing the formation control and mechanical performance was unveiled. Without the addition of Sn film, weld formation was subpar, marked by defects such as bubbles occurring in the weld seam, particularly under moderate power conditions. After introducing Sn film as a metal absorbent, the molten pool pores were stabilized and the temperature distribution was optimized during LTW process, which promoted the welding process stability and facilitated the mixing and agitation of the molten pool. The Energy-dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) were conducted on cross-sections of the weld seam. Analysis revealed the formation of newly forged metallic bonds (SnC) between the metal and the PPSU, which were instrumental in bolstering the shear strength of the weld seam. After using the Sn as intermediate layer, the shear strength of welding joints increased from 23.21 MPa to 29.14 MPa. At optimal intermediate-layer thickness, the shear fracture exhibited predominantly a plastic tearing micro-pit morphology instead of brittle fracture rock pattern.

Failure to properly repair damaged due to myocardial infarction is a major cause of heart failure. In contrast with adult mammals, zebrafish hearts show remarkable regenerative capabilities after substantial damage. To characterize protein dynamics during heart regeneration, we employed an HPLC–ESI–MS/MS (mass spectrometry) approach. Myocardium tissues were taken from sham-operated fish and ventricle-resected sample at three different time points (2, 7, and 14 days); dynamics of protein expression were analyzed by an ion-current-based quantitative platform. More than 2000 protein groups were quantified in all 16 experiments. Two hundred and nine heart-regeneration-related protein groups were quantified and clustered into six time-course patterns. Functional analysis indicated that multiple molecular function and metabolic pathways were involved in heart regeneration. Interestingly, Ingenuity Pathway Analysis revealed that P53 signaling was inhibited during the heart regeneration, which was further verified by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR). In summary, we applied systematic proteomics analysis on regenerating zebrafish heart, uncovered the dynamics of regenerative genes expression and regulatory pathways, and provided invaluable insight into design regenerative-based strategies in human hearts.

Background:The ulcerative colitis (UC) associated immune cell network was revealed by analyzing the immune cell composition of inflamed and uninflamed mucosal biopsy samples from the same patients with UC. For differentially expressed macrophages, the differentially expressed genes (DEGs), functional enrichment analyses, and protein–protein interaction (PPI) network was analyzed to understand further the role of macrophages in the occurrence and development of disease.Methods:GSE 179285 dataset and GSE123141 dataset were downloaded from the GEO database. We used the CIBERSORT algorithm to map immune cell infiltration between paired inflamed and uninflamed intestinal mucosal biopsies. GO and KEGG functional enrichment analyses were used to analyze DEGs in intestinal macrophage populations. The PPI network was constructed by the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes (STRING) database. Immunohistochemistry and qPCR were used to verify hub genes in the mouse model of UC.Results:The inflamed tissues had a higher infiltration of M1 macrophages and M0 macrophages. M2 macrophages, naive B cells, gamma delta T cells (γδT cells), and resting mast cells were more abundant in uninflamed tissues. Functional enrichment analyses showed that the 141 DEGs are involved in multiple processes in the inflammatory response. The three genes (LCN2, CXCL1, SAA1) had the highest degrees of connectivity and may be hub genes. LCN2was significantly overexpressed in colitis tissues compared with normal control tissues in the mouse model of UC.Conclusion:Changes in macrophages were notable in the inflamed mucosa of UC patients. 141 DEGs were entered into GO and KEGG functional enrichment analyses; three hub gene candidates were selected.Highlights:There were significant differences in the distribution of macrophages in the inflamed and uninflamed mucosa of UC patients.Functional enrichment analyses of DEGs in UC-associated intestinal macrophages were displayed.Three genes (LCN2, CXCL1, SAA1) were identified as hub gene candidates.

In polycrystalline bismuth telluride-based thermoelectric materials, mechanical-deformation-induced donor-like effects can introduce a high concentration of electrons to change the thermoelectric properties through the evolution of intrinsic point defects. However, the evolution law of these point defects during sample preparation remains elusive. Herein, we systematically investigate the evolution of intrinsic point defects in n-type Bi2Te3-based materials from the perspective of thermodynamics and kinetics, in combination with positron annihilation measurement. It is found that not only the mechanical deformation but also the sintering temperature is vital to the donor-like effect. The mechanical deformation can promote the formation of cation vacancies and facilitate the donor-like effect, and the sintering process can provide excess energy for Bi antisite atoms to surmount the diffusion potential barrier. This work provides us a better understanding of the evolution law of intrinsic point defects in Bi2Te3-based alloys and guides us to control the carrier concentration by manipulating intrinsic point defects.

Perovskite oxide films are widely used in various commercial industries. However, they are usually prepared at high temperature and in oxygen ambience, detrimental to most transparent and flexible substrates and bottom conductive electrodes such as indium tin oxide (ITO). It remains challenging to integrate perovskite oxides into transparent and flexible electronics. Here, the 1.2 wt % Ag-doped ITO (Ag-ITO) grown on a mica substrate is employed as the bottom electrode, which can withstand high temperature and repeated bending, and then we achieve the transparent, flexible, fatigue-free, and optical-read ferroelectric nonvolatile memories based on the mica/Ag-ITO/Bi3.25La0.75Ti3O12/ITO structures. The as-prepared memories show ∼80% transmittance for visible lights and fatigue-free performance after more than 108writing/erasing cycles. These performances are stable after repeated bending down to 3 mm in a curvature radius. More importantly, the “1/0” state of the memory can be read out by the photovoltaic current rather than destructive polarization switching, an emergent functionality for many applications. This work substantially promotes the applications of perovskite oxide films in transparent and flexible electronics, including wearable devices.

A novel composite material: Poly-(e-lysine)-chitosan cross-linked by glutataldehyde (GTA) was prepared in this study. The composite polymer was investigated through FTIR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction to confirm the structure. Then porous structure was fabricated by freeze-drying the material, the results of the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and compress property measurement indicated that the composite material is a promising candidate material for scaffold in Tissue Engineering.