The proper storage and release of monoamines contributes to a wide range of neuronal activity. Here, we examine the effects of altered vesicular monoamine transport in the nematode C. elegans. The gene cat-1 is responsible for the encoding of the vesicular monoamine transporter (VMAT) in C. elegans and is analogous to the mammalian vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2). Our laboratory has previously shown that reduced VMAT2 activity confers vulnerability on catecholamine neurons in mice. The...

Currently, several vaccines and antivirals across the globe are in clinical trials. Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) was reported to inhibit the SARS-CoV-2 virus in antiviral assays. Here, it raises the curiosity about the molecular target of HCQ inside the cell. It may inhibit some of the viral targets, or some other complex mechanisms must be at disposal towards action mechanisms. In some of the viruses, proteases are experimentally reported to be a potential target of HCQ. However,...

Early detection of neurodevelopmental delay is crucial for intervention and treatment strategies. We analysed associations between newborn DNA methylation (DNAm), neonatal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) neuroimaging data, and neurodevelopment. Neurodevelopment was assessed in 161 children from the South African Drakenstein Child Health Study at 2 years of age using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development III. We performed an epigenome-wide association study of neurodevelopmental delay using DNAm from cord blood. Subsequently, we analysed...

Selenium is an important micronutrient for foetal development. MicroRNAs play an important role in the function of the placenta, in communication between the placenta and maternal systems, and their expression can be altered through environmental and nutritional cues. To investigate the associations between placental selenium concentration and microRNA expression in the placenta, our observational study included 393 mother-child pairs from the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study (NHBCS) and the Rhode Island Child Health Study (RICHS)....

The model of immune-related lncRNA pairs (IRLPs) seems to be an available predictor in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) patients. The aim of our study was to construct a model with IRLPs to predict the survival status and immune landscape of LUAD patients. Based on TCGA-LUAD dataset, a risk assessment model with IRLPs was established. Then, ROC curves were used to assess the predictive accuracy and effectiveness of our model. Next, we identified the difference of survival,...

Bladder cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors worldwide. Accordingly, its incidence and mortality are high. One of the characteristics of cancer is genomic instability. New studies suggest that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an important role in maintaining genomic instability. This study aimed to identify a genomic instability-associated lncRNA signature to predict the outcome of patients with bladder cancer. We downloaded data for bladder cancer patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas database...

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. Despite rapid advances in systemic therapy, GC remains the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths. We aimed to identify a novel prognostic signature associated with FAT2 mutations in GC. We analyzed the expression levels of FAT2-mutant and FAT2-wildtype GC samples obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The Kaplan–Meier survival curve showed that patients with FAT2 mutations showed better prognosis than those without the...

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. Despite rapid advances in systemic therapy, GC remains the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths. We aimed to identify a novel prognostic signature associated with FAT2 mutations in GC. We analyzed the expression levels of FAT2-mutant and FAT2-wildtype GC samples obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The Kaplan–Meier survival curve showed that patients with FAT2 mutations showed better prognosis than those without the...

Malignant melanoma is a life-threatening form of skin cancer with a low response rate to single-agent chemotherapy. Although combined therapies of metformin (MET) and doxorubicin (DOX) are effective in treating a variety of cancers, including breast cancer, their different physicochemical properties and administration routines reduce the effective co-accumulation of both drugs in tumors. Nanoparticles (NPs) have been demonstrated to potentially improve drug delivery efficiency in cancer therapy of, for example, liver and lung cancers. Hence,...

Vascular calcification is a major complication of chronic renal failure, which has been identified as an active process partly driven by osteogenic transition of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). Aspirin could prevent cardiomyocyte damage by inducing heat shock response. This study investigates the effect of aspirin on alleviating VSMC calcification. An in vitro VSMC calcification model was established by 10-day calcification induction in osteogenic medium. VSMCs were grouped as following: control group (normal medium), calcified...

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a complex neuropsychiatric disease with known genetic associations, but without known links to rare variation in the human genome. Here we aim to identify rare genetic variants associated with MDD using deep whole-genome sequencing data in an independent population. We report the sequencing of 1,688 whole genomes in a large sample of male-male Veteran twins. Depression status was classified based on a structured diagnostic interview according to DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria....

Protective symbionts can allow hosts to occupy otherwise uninhabitable niches. Despite the importance of symbionts in host evolution, we know little about how these associations arise. Encountering a microbe that can improve host fitness in a stressful environment may favor persistent interactions with that microbe, potentially facilitating a long-term association. The bacterium Bacillus subtilis protects Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes from heat shock by increasing host fecundity compared to the non-protective Escherichia coli. In this study, we...

As a form of pollution source control and a low-impact development measure, bioretention is a convenient, economical, and effective method for the removal of heavy metals from stormwater runoff, which can adapt to the randomness and uncontrollability of non-point source pollution. However, few studies have assessed the performance of bioretention in the simultaneous removal of multiple heavy metals and the impact of heavy metal migration on the bioretention life cycle. In this study, the removal...

Intraviral protein–protein interactions are crucial for replication, pathogenicity, and viral assembly. Among these, virus assembly is a critical step as it regulates the arrangements of viral structural proteins and helps in the encapsulation of genomic material. SARS-CoV-2 structural proteins play an essential role in the self-rearrangement, RNA encapsulation, and mature virus particle formation. In SARS-CoV, the membrane protein interacts with the envelope and spike protein in Endoplasmic Reticulum Golgi Intermediate Complex (ERGIC) to form an...

Early detection of neurodevelopmental delay is crucial for intervention and treatment strategies. We analyzed associations between newborn DNA methylation (DNAm), neonatal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) neuroimaging data, and neurodevelopment. Neurodevelopment was assessed in 161 children from the South African Drakenstein Child Health Study at two years of age using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development III. We performed an epigenome-wide association study of neurodevelopmental delay using DNAm from cord blood. Subsequently, we analyzed...

Behavioral experience and flexibility are crucial for survival in a constantly changing environment. Despite evolutionary pressures to develop adaptive behavioral strategies in a dynamically changing sensory landscape, the underlying neural correlates have not been well explored. Here, we use genetically encoded voltage imaging to measure signals in primary somatosensory cortex (S1) during sensory learning and behavioral adaptation in the mouse. In response to changing stimulus statistics, mice adopt a strategy that modifies their detection behavior...

The emergence and recurrence of ovarian cancer are associated with ovarian cancer stem cells. For cancer treatment, gene delivery of microbubbles (MB)-mediated microRNA (miRNA) is considered as a promising approach. In this study, our aim is to investigate the effects of MB-mediated let-7b-5p inhibitor on the proliferation and stemness characteristics of ovarian cancer (OVCA) cells. Let-7b-5p inhibitor mediated by MB was prepared (termed MB-let-7b-5p inhibitor), and the effects of MB-let-7b-5p inhibitor and let-7b-5p inhibitor on...

The model of immune-related lncRNA pairs (IRLPs) seems to be an available predictor in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) patients. The aim of our study was to construct a model with IRLPs to predict the survival status and immune landscape of LUAD patients. Based on TCGA-LUAD dataset, a risk assessment model with IRLPs was established. Then, ROC curves were used to assess the predictive accuracy and effectiveness of our model. Next, we identified the difference of survival,...

1. Human population expansion into wildlife habitats has increased interest in the behavioral ecology of human-wildlife interactions. To date, however, the socio-ecological factors that determine whether, when or where wild animals take risks by interacting with humans and anthropogenic factors still remains unclear. 2. We adopt a comparative approach to address this gap, using social network analysis (SNA). SNA, increasingly implemented to determine human impact on wildlife ecology, can be a powerful tool to understand...

Porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) is a potentially emerging zoonotic pathogen that causes severe diarrhea in young pigs, with a risk of fatal dehydration. Its pathogenicity on neonatal piglet has been previously reported, however, it is less known if the coinfection with immunosuppressive pathogens can influence PDCoV disease manifestation. Here, a coinfection model of PDCoV and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), a global-spread immunosuppressive virus, was set to study their interaction. Weaning pigs in the...

The experiment investigates the survival of Caenorhabditis elegans host populations when exposed to a bacterial parasite, Serratia marcescens. Exposed host populations were either large (500 individuals) or small (25 or 50 individuals) and were either susceptible or resistant to the disease. Populations of C. elegans were evolved against either heat-killed or live bacteria. After 13 generations of host evolution, we exposed the worms again to the bacteria to determine whether the worms lost, gained, or...

New SARS-CoV-2 mutants have been continuously indentified with enhanced transmission ever since its outbreak in early 2020. As an RNA virus, SARS-CoV-2 has a high mutation rate due to the low fidelity of RNA polymerase. To study the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) dynamics of SARS-CoV-2, 158 SNPs with high confidence were identified by deep meta-transcriptomic sequencing, and the most common SNP type was C > T. Analyses of intra-host population diversity revealed that intra-host quasispecies’...

COVID-19 pandemic was started in Wuhan city of China in December 2019; immensely affected global population. Herein, an effort was made to identify potential inhibitors from active phytochemicals of Pueraria tuberosa (PTY-2) via molecular docking study. Our study showed five potential inhibitors (Robinin, Genistin, Daidzin, Hydroxytuberosone, Tuberostan) against Mpro and five inhibitors (Robinin, Anhydrotuberosin, Daidzin, Hydroxytuberosone, Stigmasterol) against TMPRSS2. Out of these, Robinin, Daidzin and Hydroxytuberosone were common inhibitors for Mpro and TMPRSS2. Among these,...

As a form of pollution source control and a low-impact development measure, bioretention is a convenient, economical, and effective method for the removal of heavy metals from stormwater runoff, which can adapt to the randomness and uncontrollability of non-point source pollution. However, few studies have assessed the performance of bioretention in the simultaneous removal of multiple heavy metals and the impact of heavy metal migration on the bioretention life cycle. In this study, the removal...