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Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive and highly lethal disease in women, while the oncogenic mechanisms which contribute to TNBC development, progression, and metastasis are poorly investigated and therefore warrant the critical need to identify novel oncogenic signalings and develop new therapeutic targets. Results: We show that Zinc Fingers and Homeoboxes 2 (ZHX2) is amplified or overexpressed in TNBC cell lines and patients. Functionally, depletion of ZHX2 inhibited TNBC cell growth and invasion in vitro, orthotopic tumor growth, and spontaneous lung metastasis in vivo. Mechanistically, ZHX2 bound with hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) family members and positively regulated HIF1α protein level and activity in TNBC. Integrated ChIP-seq and gene expression profiling demonstrated that ZHX2 co-occupied with HIF1α on transcriptionally active promoters marked by H3K4me3 and H3K27ac, thereby promoting gene expression. Among the identified ZHX2 and HIF1α coregulated genes, overexpression of AP2B1, COX20, KDM3A, or PTGES3L could partially rescue TNBC cell growth defect by ZHX2 depletion, suggesting that these downstream targets contribute to the oncogenic role of ZHX2 in an accumulative fashion. Furthermore, multiple residues (R491, R581, and R674) on ZHX2 are important in regulating its phenotype, which correspond with their roles in controlling ZHX2 transcriptional activity in TNBC cells. These studies establish that ZHX2 activates oncogenic HIF1α signaling, therefore serving as a potential therapeutic target for TNBC. Conclusion: ZHX2 has been highlighted as one critical hypoxia-related factors regulator contributing to triple-negative breast cancer in this work, which has enriched the upstream regulatory network of HIF-1α signaling. Moreover, identification of key residuals determining biological function of ZHX2 provides novel approaches for treating TNBC via targeting the hypoxia pathway. Citation Format: Chengheng Liao, Wentong Fang, Rachel Shi, Jeremy Simon, Travis Ptacek, Giada Zurlo, Youqiong Ye, Leng Han, Cheng Fan, Lei Bao, Christopher Llynard Ortiz, Hong-Rui Lin, Ujjawal Manocha, Weibo Luo, Yan Peng, William Y Kim, Lee-Wei Yang, Qing Zhang. ZHX2 promotes HIF1α oncogenic signaling in triple-negative breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2022 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(5 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-08-23.

The centrosome, a non-membranous organelle, constrains various soluble molecules locally to execute its functions. As the centrosome is surrounded by various dense components, we hypothesized that it may be bordered by a putative diffusion barrier. After quantitatively measuring the trapping kinetics of soluble proteins of varying size at centrosomes by a chemically inducible diffusion trapping assay, we find that centrosomes are highly accessible to soluble molecules with a Stokes radius of less than 5.8 nm, whereas larger molecules rarely reach centrosomes, indicating the existence of a size-dependent diffusion barrier at centrosomes. The permeability of this barrier is tightly regulated by branched actin filaments outside of centrosomes and it decreases during anaphase when branched actin temporally increases. The actin-based diffusion barrier gates microtubule nucleation by interfering with γ-tubulin ring complex recruitment. We propose that actin filaments spatiotemporally constrain protein complexes at centrosomes in a size-dependent manner.

Proteins sample an ensemble of conformers under physiological conditions, having access to a spectrum of modes of motions, also called intrinsic dynamics. These motions ensure the adaptation to various interactions in the cell, and largely assist in, if not determine, viable mechanisms of biological function. In recent years, machine learning frameworks have proven uniquely useful in structural biology, and recent studies further provide evidence to the utility and/or necessity of considering intrinsic dynamics for increasing their predictive ability. Efficient quantification of dynamics-based attributes by recently developed physics-based theories and models such as elastic network models provides a unique opportunity to generate data on dynamics for training ML models towards inferring mechanisms of protein function, assessing pathogenicity, or estimating binding affinities.

Variants in the gap junction beta-2 (GJB2) gene are the most common cause of hereditary hearing impairment. However, how GJB2 variants lead to local physicochemical and structural changes in the hexameric ion channels of connexin 26 (Cx26), resulting in hearing impairment, remains elusive. In the present study, using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we showed that detached inner-wall N-terminal “plugs” aggregated to reduce the channel ion flow in a highly prevalent V37I variant in humans. To examine the predictability of the computational platform, an artificial mutant, V37M, of which the effect was previously unknown in hearing loss, was created. Microsecond simulations showed that homomeric V37M Cx26 hemichannels had an abnormal affinity between the inner edge and N-termini to block the narrower side of the cone-shaped Cx26, while the most stable heteromeric channels did not. Consistent with these predictions, homozygous V37M transgenic mice exhibited apparent hearing loss, but not their heterozygous counterparts, indicating a recessive inheritance mode. Reduced channel conductivity was found in Gjb2V37M/V37M outer sulcus cells and Claudius cells but not in Gjb2WT/WT cells. We view that the current computational platform could serve as an assessment tool for the pathogenesis and inheritance of GJB2-related hearing impairments and other diseases caused by connexin dysfunction.

The centrosome, a non-membranous organelle, constrains various soluble molecules locally to execute its functions. As the centrosome is surrounded by various dense components, we hypothesized that the centrosome may be bordered by a putative diffusion barrier. After quantitatively measuring the trapping kinetics of soluble proteins of varying size at centrosomes by a chemically inducible diffusion trapping assay, we found that centrosomes were highly accessible to soluble molecules with a Stokes radius of ≤ 5.1 nm, whereas larger molecules rarely reach centrosomes, indicating the existence of a size-dependent diffusion barrier at centrosomes. The permeability of barriers was tightly regulated by branched actin filaments outside of centrosomes. Such barrier gated the microtubule nucleation. We propose that actin filaments spatiotemporally constrain the distribution of molecules at centrosomes in a size-dependent manner.Significance StatementCentrosome maintains its microenvironment without membrane. Whether the dense protein complexes outside centrosomes including pericentriolar matrix, microtubules, and branched actin filaments provide physical obstruction is unclear yet. We here established a series of new tools for quantitative evaluation of the diffusion rates of varisized soluble proteins in different sub-compartments of centrosomes. Our results demonstrated that branched actin filaments, but not pericentriolar matrix or microtubules, around centrosome have acted as a size-dependent diffusion barrier and physically constrain centrosome microtubule nucleation.

Opioids account for 69,000 overdose deaths per annum worldwide and cause serious side effects. Safer analgesics are urgently needed. The endogenous opioid peptide Leu-Enkephalin (Leu-ENK) is ineffective when introduced peripherally due to poor stability and limited membrane permeability. We developed a focused library of Leu-ENK analogs containing small hydrophobic modifications. N-pivaloyl analog KK-103 showed the highest binding affinity to the delta opioid receptor (68% relative to Leu-ENK) and an extended plasma half-life of 37 h. In the murine hot-plate model, subcutaneous KK-103 showed 10-fold improved anticonception (142%MPE·h) compared to Leu-ENK (14%MPE·h). In the formalin model, KK-103 reduced the licking and biting time to ~50% relative to the vehicle group. KK-103 was shown to act through the opioid receptors in the central nervous system. In contrast to morphine, KK-103 was longer-lasting and did not induce breathing depression, physical dependence, and tolerance, showing potential as a safe and effective analgesic.

Motivation Quaternary structure determination for transmembrane/soluble proteins requires a reliable computational protocol that leverages observed distance restraints and/or cyclic symmetry (Cn symmetry) found in most homo-oligomeric transmembrane proteins. Results We survey 118 X-ray crystallographically solved structures of homo-oligomeric transmembrane proteins (HoTPs) and find that ∼97% are Cn symmetric. Given the prevalence of Cn symmetric HoTPs and the benefits of incorporating geometry restraints in aiding quaternary structure determination, we introduce two new filters, the distance-restraints (DR) and the Symmetry-Imposed Packing (SIP) filters. SIP relies on a new method that can rebuild the closest ideal Cn symmetric complex from docking poses containing a homo-dimer without prior knowledge of the number (n) of monomers. Using only the geometrical filter, SIP, near-native poses of 7 HoTPs in their monomeric states can be correctly identified in the top-10 for 71% of all cases, or 29% among 31 HoTP structures obtained through homology modeling, while ZDOCK alone returns 14 and 3%, respectively. When the n is given, the optional n-mer filter is applied with SIP and returns the near-native poses for 76% of the test set within the top-10, outperforming M-ZDOCK’s 55% and Sam’s 47%. While applying only SIP to three HoTPs that comes with distance restraints, we found the near-native poses were ranked 1st, 1st and 10th among 54 000 possible decoys. The results are further improved to 1st, 1st and 3rd when both DR and SIP filters are used. By applying only DR, a soluble system with distance restraints is recovered at the 1st-ranked pose. Availability and implementation https://github.com/capslockwizard/drsip. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive and highly lethal disease, which warrants the critical need to identify new therapeutic targets. We show that Zinc Fingers and Homeoboxes 2 (ZHX2) is amplified or overexpressed in TNBC cell lines and patients. Functionally, depletion of ZHX2 inhibited TNBC cell growth and invasion in vitro, orthotopic tumor growth, and spontaneous lung metastasis in vivo. Mechanistically, ZHX2 bound with hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) family members and positively regulated HIF1α activity in TNBC. Integrated ChIP-seq and gene expression profiling demonstrated that ZHX2 co-occupied with HIF1α on transcriptionally active promoters marked by H3K4me3 and H3K27ac, thereby promoting gene expression. Among the identified ZHX2 and HIF1α coregulated genes, overexpression of AP2B1, COX20, KDM3A, or PTGES3L could partially rescue TNBC cell growth defect by ZHX2 depletion, suggested that these downstream targets contribute to the oncogenic role of ZHX2 in an accumulative fashion. Furthermore, multiple residues (R491, R581, and R674) on ZHX2 are important in regulating its phenotype, which correspond with their roles on controlling ZHX2 transcriptional activity in TNBC cells. These studies establish that ZHX2 activates oncogenic HIF1α signaling, therefore serving as a potential therapeutic target for TNBC.

MotivationDrug repurposing, where drugs originally approved to treat a disease are reused to treat other diseases, has received escalating attention especially in pandemic years. Structure-based drug design, integrating small molecular docking, molecular dynamic (MD) simulations and AI, has demonstrated its evidenced importance in streamlining new drug development as well as drug repurposing. To perform a sophisticated and fully automated drug screening using all the FDA drugs, intricate programming, accurate drug ranking methods and friendly user interface are very much needed.ResultsHere we introduce a new web server, DRDOCK, Drug Repurposing DOcking with Conformation-sampling and pose re-ranKing - refined by MD and statistical models, which integrates small molecular docking and molecular dynamic (MD) simulations for automatic drug screening of 2016 FDA-approved drugs over a user-submitted single-chained target protein. The drugs are ranked by a novel drug-ranking scheme using log-odds (LOD) scores, derived from feature distributions of true binders and decoys. Users can submit a selection of LOD-ranked poses for further MD-based binding affinity evaluation. We demonstrated that our platform can indeed recover one of the substrates for nsp16, a cap ribose 2′-O methyltransferase, and recommends that fluralaner, tegaserod and fenoterol could be repurposed for the COVID19 treatment with the latter two being confirmed in SARS-CoV2 suppression experiments. All the sampled docking poses and trajectories can be 3D-viewed and played via our web interface. This platform shall be easy-to-use for general scientists and medicinal researchers to carry out drug repurposing within a couple of days which should add value to our timely responses to, particularly, emergent disease outbreaks.Availability and implementationDRDOCK can be freely accessed from https://dyn.life.nthu.edu.tw/drdock/. (Due to the hardware upgrade, the service is NOT available before 7/18, 2021)

Motivation Programmed ribosomal frameshifting (PRF) is widely used by viruses and bacteria to produce different proteins from a single mRNA template. How steric hindrance of a PRF-stimulatory mRNA structure transiently modifies the conformational dynamics of the ribosome, and thereby allows tRNA slippage, remains elusive. Results Here, we leverage linear response theories and resolution-exchanged simulations to construct a structural/dynamics model that connects and rationalizes existing structural, single-molecule and mutagenesis data by resolution-exchanged structural modelling and simulations. Our combined theoretical techniques provide a temporal and spatial description of PRF with unprecedented mechanistic details. We discover that ribosomal unfolding of the PRF-stimulating pseudoknot exerts resistant forces on the mRNA entrance of the ribosome, and thereby drives 30S subunit rolling. Such motion distorts tRNAs, leads to tRNA slippage, and in turn serves as a delicate control of cis-element’s unwinding forces over PRF. Availability and implementation All the simulation scripts and computational implementations of our methods/analyses (including linear response theory) are included in the bioStructureM suite, provided through GitHub at https://github.com/Yuan-Yu/bioStructureM. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

DynOmics (dynomics.pitt.edu) is a portal developed to leverage rapidly growing structural proteomics data by efficiently and accurately evaluating the dynamics of structurally resolved systems, from individual molecules to large complexes and assemblies, in the context of their physiological environment. At the core of the portal is a newly developed server, ENM 1.0, which permits users to efficiently generate information on the collective dynamics of any structure in PDB format, user-uploaded or database-retrieved. ENM 1.0 integrates two widely used elastic network models (ENMs)—the Gaussian Network Model (GNM) and the Anisotropic Network Model (ANM), extended to take account of molecular environment. It enables users to assess potentially functional sites, signal transduction or allosteric communication mechanisms, and protein–protein and protein–DNA interaction poses, in addition to delivering ensembles of accessible conformers reconstructed at atomic details based on the global modes of motions predicted by the ANM. The ‘environment’ is defined in a flexible manner, from lipid bilayer and crystal contacts, to substrate or ligands bound to a protein, or surrounding subunits in a multimeric structure or assembly. User-friendly interactive features permit users to easily visualize how the environment alter the intrinsic dynamics of the query systems. ENM 1.0 can be accessed at http://enm.pitt.edu/ or http://dyn.life.nthu.edu.tw/oENM/.

It has been an established idea in recent years that protein is a physiochemically connected network. Allostery, understood in this new context, is a manifestation of residue communicating between remote sites in this network, and hence a rising interest to identify functionally relevant communication pathways and the frequent communicators within. Previous studies rationalized the coupling between functional sites and experimentally observed allosteric sites by theoretically discovered high positional/velocity/thermal correlations between these sites. However, for one to systematically discover previously unobserved allosteric sites in any receptor/enzyme providing the position of functional (orthosteric) sites, these high correlations may not be able to identify remote allosteric sites because of a number of false-positives while many of those are located in proximity to the functional site. Also, whether allosteric sites should be found in equilibrium or non-equilibrium state of a protein to be more biologically relevant is not clear, neither is the directionality preference of aforementioned propagating signals. In this study, we devised a time-dependent linear response theory (td-LRT) integrating intrinsic protein dynamics and perturbation forces that excite protein’s temporary reconfiguration at the non-equilibrium state, to describe atom-specific time responses as the propagating mechanical signals and discover that the most frequent remote communicators can be important allosteric sites, mutation of which would deteriorate the hydride transfer rate in DHFR by 2 to 3 orders. The preferred directionality of the signal propagation can be inferred from the asymmetric connection matrix (CM), where the coupling strength between a pair of residues is suggested by their communication score (CS) in the CM, which is found consistent with experimentally characterized nonadditivity of double mutants. Also, the intramolecular communication centers (ICCs), having high CSs, are found evolutionarily conserved, suggesting their biological importance.

To ensure a physicochemically desired sequence motif to adapt a specific type of secondary structures, we compile an α-helix database allowing complicate search patterns to facilitate a data-driven design of therapeutic peptides. Nearly 1.7 million helical peptides in >130 thousand proteins are extracted along with their interacting partners from the protein data bank (PDB). The sequences of the peptides are indexed with patterns and gaps and deposited in our Therapeutic Peptide Design dataBase (TP-DB). We here demonstrate its utility in three medicinal design cases. By our pattern-based search engine but not PHI-BLAST, we can identify a pathogenic protein, Helicobacter pylori neutrophil-activating protein (HP-NAP), a virulence factor of H. pylori, which contains a motif DYKYLE that belongs to the affinity determinant motif DYKXX[DE] of the FLAG-tag and can be recognized by the anti-FLAG M2 antibody. By doing so, the known purification-tag-specific antibody is repurposed into a diagnostic kit for H. pylori. Also by leveraging TP-DB, we discovered a stretch of helical peptide matching the potent membrane-insertion pattern WXXWXXW, elucidated by MD simulations. The newly synthesized peptide has a better minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and much lower cytotoxicity against Candida albicans (fungus) than that of previously characterized homologous antimicrobial peptides. In a similar vein, taking the discontinued anchoring residues in the helix-helix interaction interface as the search pattern, TP-DB returns several helical peptides as potential tumor suppressors of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) whose helicity and binding affinity were examined by MD simulations. Taken together, we believe that TP-DB and its pattern-based search engine provide a new opportunity for a (secondary-)structure-based design of peptide drugs and diagnostic kits for pathogens without inferring evolutionary homology between sequences sharing the same pattern. TP-DB is made available at http://dyn.life.nthu.edu.tw/design/.

Motivation Quaternary structure determination for proteins is difficult especially for transmembrane proteins. Even if the monomeric constituents of complexes have been experimentally resolved, computational prediction of quaternary structures is a challenging task particularly for higher order complexes. It is essential to have a reliable computational protocol to predict quaternary structures of both transmembrane and soluble proteins leveraging experimentally determined distance restraints and/or cyclic symmetry (Cn symmetry) found in most homo-oligomeric transmembrane proteins. Results We survey 115 X-ray crystallographically solved structures of homo-oligomeric transmembrane proteins (HoTPs) to discover that 90% of them are Cn symmetric. Given the prevalence of Cn symmetric HoTPs and the benefits of incorporating geometry restraints in aiding quaternary structure determination, we introduce two new filters, the distance-restraints (DR) filter and the Symmetry-Imposed Packing (SIP) filter which takes advantage of the statistically derived tilt angle cutoff and the Cn symmetry of HoTPs without prior knowledge of the number (“n”) of monomers. Using only the geometrical filter, SIP, near-native poses of the 115 HoTPs can be correctly identified in the top-5 for 52% of all cases, or 49% among the HoTPs having an n >2 (~60% of the dataset), while ZDOCK alone returns 41% and 24%, respectively. Applying only SIP to three HoTPs with distance restraints, the near-native poses for two HoTPs are ranked 1st and the other 7th among 54,000 possible decoys. With both filters, the two remain 1st while the other improved to 2nd. While a soluble system with distance restraints is recovered at the 1st-ranked pose by applying only DR. Availability and Implementation https://github.com/capslockwizard/drsip Supplementary information Supplementary methods and results are available.

Structure-encoded conformational dynamics are crucial for biomolecular functions. However, there is insufficient evidence to support the notion that dynamics play a role in guiding protein-nucleic acid interactions. Here, we show that protein-DNA docking orientation is a function of protein intrinsic dynamics, but the binding site itself does not display unique patterns in the examined spectrum of motions. This revelation is made possible by a novel technique that locates "dynamics interfaces" in proteins across which protein parts are anticorrelated in their slowest dynamics. A striking statistic is that such interfaces intersect the DNA in 97% of the 104 examined cases. These findings were then used to screen decoys generated by rigid-body docking of DNA molecules onto DNA-binding proteins. Using our method, the chance to discern near-native poses from non-native decoys increased by 2.5- and 1.6-fold, as compared to a random guess and methods based on surface complementarity, respectively. Hence, dynamically allowed protein-DNA docking orientations can work as new filters to cull and rerank docking poses and therefore enhance the predictability of DNA-binding sites that themselves do not have distinct dynamics features. Computer software implementing the method can be accessed via http://dyn.life.nthu.edu.tw/IDD/DNA.htm .

Table S1. Minimal inhibitory concentration breakpoints for Enterobacteriaceae. (DOCX 16 kb)

Gaussian network model (GNM) is a simple yet powerful model for investigating the dynamics of proteins and their complexes. GNM analysis became a broadly used method for assessing the conformational dynamics of biomolecular structures with the development of a user-friendly interface and database, iGNM, in 2005. We present here an updated version, iGNM 2.0 http://gnmdb.csb.pitt.edu/, which covers more than 95% of the structures currently available in the Protein Data Bank (PDB). Advanced search and visualization capabilities, both 2D and 3D, permit users to retrieve information on inter-residue and inter-domain cross-correlations, cooperative modes of motion, the location of hinge sites and energy localization spots. The ability of iGNM 2.0 to provide structural dynamics data on the large majority of PDB structures and, in particular, on their biological assemblies makes it a useful resource for establishing the bridge between structure, dynamics and function.

We provide evidence supporting that protein–protein and protein–ligand docking poses are functions of protein shape and intrinsic dynamics. Over sets of 68 protein–protein complexes and 240 nonhomologous enzymes, we recognize common predispositions for binding sites to have minimal vibrations and angular momenta, while two interacting proteins orient so as to maximize the angle between their rotation/bending axes (>65°). The findings are then used to define quantitative criteria to filter out docking decoys less likely to be the near-native poses; hence, the chances to find near-native hits can be doubled. With the novel approach to partition a protein into “domains” of robust but disparate intrinsic dynamics, 90% of catalytic residues in enzymes can be found within the first 50% of the residues closest to the interface of these dynamics domains. The results suggest an anisotropic rather than isotropic distribution of catalytic residues near the mass centers of enzymes.

Human S100A9 (Calgranulin B) is a Ca(2+)-binding protein, from the S100 family, that often presents as a homodimer in myeloid cells. It becomes an important mediator during inflammation once calcium binds to its EF-hand motifs. Human RAGE protein (receptor for advanced glycation end products) is one of the target-proteins. RAGE binds to a hydrophobic surface on S100A9. Interactions between these proteins trigger signal transduction cascades, promoting cell growth, proliferation, and tumorigenesis. Here, we present the solution structure of mutant S100A9 (C3S) homodimer, determined by multi-dimensional NMR experiments. We further characterize the solution interactions between mS100A9 and the RAGE V domain via NMR spectroscopy. CHAPS is a zwitterionic and non-denaturing molecule widely used for protein solubilizing and stabilization. We found out that CHAPS and RAGE V domain would interact with mS100A9 by using (1)H-(15)N HSQC NMR titrations. Therefore, using the HADDOCK program, we superimpose two binary complex models mS100A9-RAGE V domain and mS100A9-CHAPS and demonstrate that CHAPS molecules could play a crucial role in blocking the interaction between mS100A9 and the RAGE V domain. WST-1 assay results also support the conclusion that CHAPS inhibits the bioactivity of mS100A9. This report will help to inform new drug development against cell proliferation.

Receptor-binding and subsequent signal-activation of interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) are essential to immune and proinflammatory responses. We mutated 12 residues to identify sites important for biological activity and/or receptor binding. Four of these mutants with mutations in loop 9 (T117A, E118K, E118A, E118R) displayed significantly reduced biological activity. Neither T117A nor E118K mutants substantially affected receptor binding, whereas both mutants lack the IL-1β signaling in vitro but can antagonize wild-type (WT) IL-1β. Crystal structures of T117A, E118A and E118K revealed that the secondary structure or surface charge of loop 9 is dramatically altered compared with that of wild-type chicken IL-1β. Molecular dynamics simulations of IL-1β bound to its receptor (IL-1RI) and receptor accessory protein (IL-1RAcP) revealed that loop 9 lies in a pocket that is formed at the IL-1RI/IL-1RAcP interface. This pocket is also observed in the human ternary structure. The conformations of above mutants in loop 9 may disrupt structural packing and therefore the stability in a chicken IL-1β/IL-1RI/IL-1RAcP signaling complex. We identify the hot spots in IL-1β that are essential to immune responses and elucidate a mechanism by which IL-1β activity can be inhibited. These findings should aid in the development of new therapeutics that neutralize IL-1 activity.

Objective: The present study was designed to determine the neuroprotective effect of Abelmoschus esculentus L. on alloxan-induced diabetic neuropathy in rats.Methods: Diabetes was induced in rats with a single intraperitoneal injection of alloxan monohydrate (130 mg/kg b.w). The ethanol extract of A. esculentus L. at a dose of 100 and 200 mg/kg of body weight was administered at single dose per day to alloxan-induced diabetic rats for 21 days. The fasting blood glucose was screened in the intermittent on day 0, day 14, and day 21. Behavioral tests such as thermal hyperalgesia test and rotarod performance test were performed to assess the thermal sensitivity and muscle grip strength. At the end of the study period, experimental animals were sacrificed and sciatic nerve tissues were obtained for histopathological investigation.Results: Animals treated with A. esculentus L. extarct at a dose of 200 mg/kg of body weight significantly reduced (p

Attempting different approaches to explore the best practice of optimizing mobile security and productivity is necessary to improve the Taiwan navy’s maneuverability and capability in the information age. This thesis uses a system engineering approach to research various mobile security technologies and applications that can provide the Taiwan navy with appropriate smartphone systems to develop a secure and productive smartphone incorporation plan. Having addressed system requirements, considered stakeholders’ concerns, and analyzed commercial off-the-shelf products, preliminary results have shown that Apple iOS is the most secure and productive system for smartphone incorporation in the Taiwan navy. Before rolling out a comprehensive incorporation plan, it is essential to evaluate the recommended technologies through a pilot program that simulates realistic naval activities to further correct deficiencies and determine the feasibility of the selected technologies. The intent of this research is to convince the Taiwan navy that secure smartphone incorporation is achievable through leveraging appropriate smartphone technologies and corresponding strategy, policy, and training. http://archive.org/details/thesystemenginee1094545888 Lieutenant, Taiwan Navy Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

An assessment of the equilibrium dynamics of biomolecular systems, and in particular their most cooperativefluctuations accessibleundernative state conditions, is a first step towards understanding molecular mechanisms relevant to biological function. We present a web-based system, oGNM that enables users to calculate online the shape and dispersion of normal modes of motion for proteins, oligonucleotides and their complexes, or associated biological units, using the Gaussian Network Model (GNM). Computations with the new engine are 5–6 orders of magnitude faster than those using conventional normal mode analyses. Two cases studies illustrate the utility of oGNM. The first shows that the thermal fluctuations predicted for 1250 non-homologous proteins correlate well with X-ray crystallographic data over a broad range [7.3–15 A u ] of inter-residue interaction cutoff distances and the correlations improve with increasing observation temperatures. The second study, focused on 64 oligonucleotides and oligonucleotide–protein complexes, shows that good agreement with experiments is achieved by representing each nucleotide by three GNM nodes (as opposed to one-node-per-residue in proteins) along with uniform interaction ranges for all components of the complexes. These results open the way to a rapid assessment of the dynamics of DNA/ RNA-containing complexes. The server can be accessed at http://ignm.ccbb.pitt.edu/GNM_Online_ Calculation.htm.