Genome-wide identification and analysis of the IQM gene family in soybean

IQM, a plant-specific calmodulin-binding protein, plays multiple roles in plant growth and development. Although a comprehensive analysis has been carried out on the IQM family genes in Arabidopsis and rice, the number and functions of IQM genes in other species have not been explored. In this study, we identified 15 members of the soybean (Glycine max) IQM gene family using BLASTP tools. These members were distributed on 12 soybean chromosomes and constitute six pairs caused by fragment duplication events. According to phylogeny, the 15 genes were divided into three subfamilies (I, II, and III), and members of the same subfamily had similar gene and protein structures. Yeast two-hybrid experiments revealed that the IQ motif is critical for the binding of GmIQM proteins to GmCaM, and its function is conserved in soybean, Arabidopsis, and rice. Based on real-time PCR, the soybean IQM genes were strongly induced by PEG and NaCl, suggesting their important biological functions in abiotic stress responses. Overall, this genome-wide analysis of the soybean IQM gene family lays a solid theoretical foundation for further research on the functions of GmIQM genes and could serve as a reference for the improvement and breeding of soybean stress resistance traits

HGSMDA: miRNA–Disease Association Prediction Based on HyperGCN and Sørensen-Dice Loss

Biological research has demonstrated the significance of identifying miRNA–disease associations in the context of disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. However, the utilization of experimental approaches involving biological subjects to infer these associations is both costly and inefficient. Consequently, there is a pressing need to devise novel approaches that offer enhanced accuracy and effectiveness. Presently, the predominant methods employed for predicting disease associations rely on Graph Convolutional Network (GCN) techniques. However, the Graph Convolutional Network algorithm, which is locally aggregated, solely incorporates information from the immediate neighboring nodes of a given node at each layer. Consequently, GCN cannot simultaneously aggregate information from multiple nodes. This constraint significantly impacts the predictive efficacy of the model. To tackle this problem, we propose a novel approach, based on HyperGCN and Sørensen-Dice loss (HGSMDA), for predicting associations between miRNAs and diseases. In the initial phase, we developed multiple networks to represent the similarity between miRNAs and diseases and employed GCNs to extract information from diverse perspectives. Subsequently, we draw into HyperGCN to construct a miRNA–disease heteromorphic hypergraph using hypernodes and train GCN on the graph to aggregate information. Finally, we utilized the Sørensen-Dice loss function to evaluate the degree of similarity between the predicted outcomes and the ground truth values, thereby enabling the prediction of associations between miRNAs and diseases. In order to assess the soundness of our methodology, an extensive series of experiments was conducted employing the Human MicroRNA Disease Database (HMDD v3.2) as the dataset. The experimental outcomes unequivocally indicate that HGSMDA exhibits remarkable efficacy when compared to alternative methodologies. Furthermore, the predictive capacity of HGSMDA was corroborated through a case study focused on colon cancer. These findings strongly imply that HGSMDA represents a dependable and valid framework, thereby offering a novel avenue for investigating the intricate association between miRNAs and diseases

Dephosphorylation of Y685-VE-Cadherin Involved in Pulmonary Microvascular Endothelial Barrier Injury Induced by Angiotensin II

Angiotensin II (AngII) caused pulmonary microvascular endothelial barrier injury, which induced acute aortic dissection (AAD) combined with acute lung injury (ALI). However, the exact mechanism is unclear. We investigated the role of dephosphorylation of Y685-VE-cadherin in the AngII induced pulmonary microvascular endothelial barrier injury. Mice or pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (PMVECs) were divided into control group, AngII group, AngII+PP2 (Src kinase inhibitor) group, and PP2 group. PP2 was used to inhibit the phosphorylation of Y685-VE-cadherin. Pathological changes, infiltration of macrophages and neutrophils, and pulmonary microvascular permeability were used to determine the pulmonary microvascular endothelial barrier function. Flow cytometry was used to determine the apoptosis of PMVECs, and immunofluorescence was used to determine the skeletal arrangement. Transendothelial resistance was used to detect the permeability of endothelial barrier. Phosphorylation of Y685-VE-cadherin was significantly reduced after AngII stimulation (P<0.05), together with skeletal rearrangement, and elevation of endothelial permeability which finally induced endothelial barrier injury. After PP2 interference, the phosphorylation of Y685-VE-cadherin was further reduced and the endothelial permeability was further elevated. These data indicated that AngII could induce pulmonary injury by triggering endothelial barrier injury, and such process may be related to the dephosphorylation of Y685-VE-cadherin and the endothelial skeletal rearrangement

The Preparation of Graphene Reinforced Poly(vinyl alcohol) Antibacterial Nanocomposite Thin Film

Methylated melamine grafted polyvinyl benzylchloride (mm-g-PvBCl) was prepared which was used as additive in poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and graphene nanosheets (GNs) were used to reinforce the mechanical strength. Using casting method, antimicrobial nanocomposite films were prepared with the polymeric biocide loading lever of 1 wt%, 5 wt%, and 10 wt%. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) characterization revealed the 2.0 wt% of graphene content in resultant nanocomposites films. XRD showed that the resultant GNs 2 theta was changed from 16.6 degree to 23.3 degree. Using Japanese Industry Standard test methods, the antimicrobial efficiency for the loading lever of 1 wt%, 5 wt%, and 10 wt% was 92.0%, 95.8%, and 97.1%, respectively, against gram negative bacteria E. coli and 92.3%, 99.6%, and 99.7%, respectively, against the gram positive S. aureus. These results indicate the prepared nanocomposite films are the promising materials for the food and drink package applications

High rate performance of the carbon encapsulated Li4Ti5O12 for lithium ion battery

Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) is attractive alternative anode material with excellent cyclic performance and high rate after coating modifications of the conductive materials. Anatase TiO2 and glucose were applied of the synthesis of the carbon coated LTO (C@LTO). XRD results showed that all the major diffractions from the spinel structure of LTO can be found in the C@LTO such as (111), (311), (400) but there are no observations of the Carbon diffraction peaks. Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) data shows C@LTO resistance was nearly half of the LTO value. Rate performance showed that capacity of C@LTO was higher than that of the pure LTO from 0.1 C, 0.2 C, 1 C, 2 C, 5 C and 10 C, which indicates that this is a promising approach to prepare the high performance LTO anode. Keywords: Li-ion batteries, Rate performance, Carbon materials, Li4Ti5O12 anod

Reduced graphene oxide encapsulated sulfur spheres for the lithium-sulfur battery cathode

Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) encapsulated sulfur spheres for the Li-S batteries were prepared via the redox reaction between sodium polysulfide. XRD spectra showed that the diffraction peak of graphite oxide (GO) at 10° disappeared, while the relatively weak diffraction peak at 27° belongs to graphene emerged. FT-IR spectra showed that the vibrations of the functional groups of GO, such as 3603 cm−1, 1723 cm−1and 1619 cm−1 which contributed from OH, COC and CO respectively, disappeared when compared to the spectra of GSC. SEM observations indicated that the optimum experimental condition followed as: mass ratio of GO and S was 1:1, 10% NaOH was used to adjust the pH. EDX analysis showed that the sulfur content reached at 68.8% of the composite material. The resultant electric resistance was nearly less than GO’s resistance in three orders of magnitude under same condition. Further electrochemical performance tests showed a coulombic efficiency was 96% from the first cycle capacity was 827 mAh g−1, to 388 mAh g−1 in the 100 cycles. This study carries substantial significance to the development of Li-S battery cathode materials. Keywords: Lithium-sulfur battery, Graphene, Sulfur spheres, Cathode materia

Preparation of Titanium nitride nanomaterials for electrode and application in energy storage

The Titanium nitride was made by the carbamide and titanic chloride precursors. XRD results indicate that the precursor ratio N:Ti 3:1 leads to higher crystallinity. SEM and EDX demonstrated that Ti and N elements were distributed uniformly with the ratio of 1:1. The TiN used as the electrode material for supercapacitor was also studied. The specific capacities were changed from 407 F.g−1 to 385 F.g−1, 364 F.g−1 and 312 F.g−1, when the current densities were changed from 1 A.g−1 to 2 A.g−1, 5 A.g−1 and 10 A.g−1, respectively. Chronopotentiometry tests showed high coulombic efficiency. Cycling performance of the TiN electrode was evaluated by CV at a scanning rate of 50 mV.s−1 for 20,000 cycles and there was about 9.8% loss. These results indicate that TiN is a promising electrode material for the supercapacitors. Keywords: Energy storage, Nanomaterials, Anode, Titanium nitride, Supercapacitor

JAK2/STAT3 Pathway Was Associated with the Protective Effects of IL-22 On Aortic Dissection with Acute Lung Injury

Patients with aortic dissection (AD) may present acute lung injury (ALI) that may affect the prognosis. In this study, we aim to investigate the roles and mechanism of IL-22 in the pathogenesis of AD complicated with ALI. Six hundred and twenty-one AD patients were included, and the incidence of ALI and pulmonary CT findings were analyzed. Mouse ALI model was established through AngII, and then IL-22 injection and AG490 were given. The pathological changes, infiltration of inflammatory cells, and expression of STAT3 were determined. For the in vitro experiment, cultivated pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (PMVECs) were treated by angiotensin II (AngII), followed by treating with IL-22 and/or AG490. The expression and migration of STAT3 was determined. Flow cytometry was carried out to evaluate the apoptosis. IL-22 contributed to the expression of STAT3 in lung tissues and attenuation of ALI. IL-22 obviously inhibited the apoptosis of PMVECs mediated by AngII and downregulated the expression and intranuclear transmission of STAT3. Such phenomenon was completely inhibited upon administration of AG490, an inhibitor of JAK2. Our data showed IL-22 contributed to the inhibition of PMVEC apoptosis mediated by AngII through activating the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway, which may attenuate the ALI induced by AngII

Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidine and thieno[2,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives as novel EGFRL858R/T790M inhibitors

AbstractEGFR mutations have been identified in 20,000 reported NSCLC (non-small cell lung cancer) samples, and exon 19 deletions and L858R mutations at position 21, known as “classical” mutations, account for 85–90% of the total EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) mutations. In this paper, two series of EGFR kinase inhibitors were designed and synthesised. Among them, compound B1 showed an IC50 value of 13 nM for kinase inhibitory activity against EGFRL858R/T790M and more than 76-fold selectivity for EGFRWT. Furthermore, in an in vitro anti-tumour activity test, compound B1 showed an effective anti-proliferation activity against H1975 cells with an IC50 value of 0.087 μΜ. We also verified the mechanism of action of compound B1 as a selective inhibitor of EGFRL858R/T790M by cell migration assay and apoptosis assay