Editorial: Targeting nucleotide metabolism for enhancing antitumor immunity.

Editorial

(S)-3-Acetyl-3-[(R)-1-(4-bromo­phen­yl)-2-nitro­eth­yl]oxolan-2-one

The title compound, C14H14BrNO5, has two chiral C atoms. The quaternary C atom in the oxolanone ring has an S configuration, while the adjacent tertiary C atom has an R configuration. The oxolanone ring adopts an envelope conformation, with the flap C atom lying 0.298 (3) Å from the mean plane of the remaining four atoms. In the crystal, mol­ecules are connected into chains along [010] via weak C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds

An automated pipeline for bouton, spine, and synapse detection of in vivo two-photon images

Abstract Background In the nervous system, the neurons communicate through synapses. The size, morphology, and connectivity of these synapses are significant in determining the functional properties of the neural network. Therefore, they have always been a major focus of neuroscience research. Two-photon laser scanning microscopy allows the visualization of synaptic structures in vivo, leading to many important findings. However, the identification and quantification of structural imaging data currently rely heavily on manual annotation, a method that is both time-consuming and prone to bias. Results We present an automated approach for the identification of synaptic structures in two-photon images. Axon boutons and dendritic spines are structurally distinct. They can be detected automatically using this image processing method. Then, synapses can be identified by integrating information from adjacent axon boutons and dendritic spines. In this study, we first detected the axonal boutons and dendritic spines respectively, and then identified synapses based on these results. Experimental results were validated manually, and the effectiveness of our proposed method was demonstrated. Conclusions This approach will helpful for neuroscientists to automatically analyze and quantify the formation, elimination and destabilization of the axonal boutons, dendritic spines and synapses

Successive Waste as Reagent: Two More Steps Forward in a Pinnick Oxidation

The successful development of the classical Pinnick oxidation into a new and promising oxidative lactonization reaction is reported. Chiral 3-oxindolepropionic aldehydes, Michael adducts of 3-olefinic oxindoles with aliphatic aldehydes, are directly converted to spirocyclic oxindole-γ-lactones solely by sodium chlorite via a tandem Pinnick oxidation/chlorination/substitution sequence. This reaction uses waste ClO^– generated in the initial Pinnick oxidation as an ecofriendly halogenating agent for the subsequent chlorination, and then it utilizes the byproduct OH^– formed in the chlorination to facilitate the final internal substitution

MutEx: a multifaceted gateway for exploring integrative pan-cancer genomic data.

Somatic mutation and gene expression dysregulation are considered two major tumorigenesis factors. While independent investigations of either factor pervade, studies of associations between somatic mutations and gene expression changes have been sporadic and nonsystematic. Utilizing genomic data collected from 11 315 subjects of 33 distinct cancer types, we constructed MutEx, a pan-cancer integrative genomic database. This database records the relationships among gene expression, somatic mutation and survival data for cancer patients. MutEx can be used to swiftly explore the relationship between these genomic/clinic features within and across cancer types and, more importantly, search for corroborating evidence for hypothesis inception. Our database also incorporated Gene Ontology and several pathway databases to enhance functional annotation, and elastic net and a gene expression composite score to aid in survival analysis. To demonstrate the usability of MutEx, we provide several application examples, including top somatic mutations associated with the most extensive expression dysregulation in breast cancer, differential mutational burden downstream of DNA mismatch repair gene mutations and composite gene expression score-based survival difference in breast cancer. MutEx can be accessed at http://www.innovebioinfo.com/Databases/Mutationdb_About.php