4 research outputs found
AMPpred-MFA: An Interpretable Antimicrobial Peptide Predictor with a Stacking Architecture, Multiple Features, and Multihead Attention
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are small molecular polypeptides
that can be widely used in the prevention and treatment of microbial
infections. Although many computational models have been proposed
to help identify AMPs, a high-performance and interpretable model
is still lacking. In this study, new benchmark data sets are collected
and processed, and a stacking deep architecture named AMPpred-MFA
is carefully designed to discover and identify AMPs. Multiple features
and a multihead attention mechanism are utilized on the basis of a
bidirectional long short-term memory (LSTM) network and a convolutional
neural network (CNN). The effectiveness of AMPpred-MFA is verified
through five independent tests conducted in batches. Experimental
results show that AMPpred-MFA achieves a state-of-the-art performance.
The visualization interpretability analyses and ablation experiments
offer a further understanding of the model behavior and performance,
validating the importance of our feature representation and stacking
architecture, especially the multihead attention mechanism. Therefore,
AMPpred-MFA can be considered a reliable and efficient approach to
understanding and predicting AMPs
A Flower-like Brain Targeted Selenium Nanocluster Lowers the Chlorogenic Acid Dose for Ameliorating Cognitive Impairment in APP/PS1 Mice
Aβ aggregation-related neuroinflammation and imbalance
of
brain glucose homeostasis play important roles in the pathological
process of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Chlorogenic acid (CGA)
is one of the most common dietary polyphenols with neuroprotective
effects. However, due to the low bioavailability of CGA, its application
dose is usually high in vivo. In our previous study, the spherical
selenium nanoparticles act as drug carriers to improve the bioactivity
of resveratrol. Here, the brain-targeting peptide (TGN peptide) and
CGA were used to prepare a new flowerlike selenium nanocluster (TGN-CGA@SeNCs)
for enhancing the bioavailability of CGA. After decoration on selenium
nanoclusters, the solubility and stability of CGA was obviously increased.
Oral administration of a low dose of CGA (80 mg/kg/body weight) only
slightly inhibited Aβ aggregate-related neuroinflammation and
glucose homeostasis disorder in the brain. Moreover, CGA showed less
effect on increasing the diversity and richness of gut microbiota.
At the same concentration, the CGA-modified selenium nanocluster (CGA@SeNCs)
and TGN-CGA@SeNCs showed better function in ameliorating the gut microbiota
disorder. Especially, TGN-CGA@SeNCs significantly increased the relative
abundance of Turicibacter, Colidextribacter, Ruminococcus, Alloprevotella, and Alistipes against oxidative stress, inflammation,
and glucose homeostasis imbalance. Notably, only TGN-CGA@SeNCs can
transport through the blood–brain barrier (BBB), and TGN-CGA@SeNCs
showed better effects than CGA@SeNCs in regulating Aβ aggregation
and improving brain glucose homeostasis. These results broadened the
application of TGN-CGA@SeNCs, effectively improving the bioactivity
of CGA, which also lowers the CGA dose for preventing AD progression
Reduced Graphene Oxide (rGO)/BiVO<sub>4</sub> Composites with Maximized Interfacial Coupling for Visible Lght Photocatalysis
This paper describes the construction
of reduced graphene oxide
(rGO)/BiVO<sub>4</sub> composites with maximized interfacial coupling
and their application as visible light photocatalysts. Thin rGO sheets
(<5 nm) could completely cover BiVO<sub>4</sub> polyhedrons with
highly active (040) facets exposed through an evaporation-induced
self-assembly process. In addition to the increased surface adsorption
effect of rGO, a considerable enhancement of the photoactivity of
BiVO<sub>4</sub> has been demonstrated through the degradation of
methylene blue upon the covering of rGO. The improved photocatalytic
activity is attributed to the formation of well-defined rGO/BiVO<sub>4</sub> interfaces, which greatly enhances the charge separation
efficiency
DataSheet_1_Synaptic Ultrastructure Might Be Involved in HCN1-Related BDNF mRNA in Withdrawal-Anxiety After Ethanol Dependence.XLSX
<p>Withdrawal from ethanol dependence has been associated with heightened anxiety and reduced expression of Brain-derived neurotropic factor which promotes the synaptic transmission and plasticity of synapses. Hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channel 1 regulates expression; however, whether Hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channel 1-related Brain-derived neurotropic factor is involved in the synaptic ultrastructure that generates withdrawal-anxiety has been poorly perceived. Sprague–Dawley rats were treated with ethanol 3–9% (v/v) for a period of 21 days. Conditioned place preference and body weight were investigated during ethanol administration. Rats were subjected to behavioral testing and biochemical assessments after ethanol withdrawal, which was induced by abrupt discontinuation of the treatment. The results showed that the ethanol administration induced severe ethanol dependence behaviors, with higher body weight and more time in the ethanol-paired compartment. After withdrawal, rats had a higher total ethanol withdrawal score and explored less. Additionally, increased Hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channel 1 protein and gene expression and decreased Brain-derived neurotropic factor protein and gene expression were detected in the Ethanol group. Eventually, there was a negative correlation between the level of Brain-derived neurotropic factor mRNA and Hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channel 1 protein. Importantly, the synaptic ultrastructure changed in the Ethanol group, including increased synaptic cleft width and reduction in postsynaptic density thickness or synaptic curvature. The synthesis of the Brain-derived neurotropic factor mRNA could be down-regulated by higher Hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channel 1 protein expression. Changes in synaptic ultrastructure may be induced by lower Brain-derived neurotropic factor protein, which could be associated with the withdrawal-anxiety that is experiences after ethanol dependence.</p