Functional enhancement of neuronal cell behaviors and differentiation by elastin-mimetic recombinant protein presenting Arg-Gly-Asp peptides

Background: Integrin-mediated interaction of neuronal cells with extracellular matrix (ECM) is important for the control of cell adhesion, morphology, motility, and differentiation in both in vitro and in vivo systems. Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) sequence is one of the most potent integrin-binding ligand found in many native ECM proteins. An elastin-mimetic recombinant protein, TGPG[VGRGD(VGVPG)6]20WPC, referred to as [RGD-V6]20, contains multiple RGD motifs to bind cell-surface integrins. This study aimed to investigate how surface-adsorbed recombinant protein can be used to modulate the behaviors and differentiation of neuronal cells in vitro. For this purpose, biomimetic ECM surfaces were prepared by isothermal adsorption of [RGD-V6]20 onto the tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS), and the effects of protein-coated surfaces on neuronal cell adhesion, spreading, migration, and differentiation were quantitatively measured using N2a neuroblastoma cells.Results: The [RGD-V6]20 was expressed in E. coli and purified by thermally-induced phase transition. N2a cell attachment to either [RGD-V6]20 or fibronectin followed hyperbolic binding kinetics saturating around 2 μM protein concentration. The apparent maximum cell binding to [RGD-V6]20 was approximately 96% of fibronectin, with half-maximal adhesion on [RGD-V6]20 and fibronectin occurring at a coating concentration of 2.4 × 10-7 and 1.4 × 10-7 M, respectively. The percentage of spreading cells was in the following order of proteins: fibronectin (84.3% ± 6.9%) > [RGD-V6]20 (42.9% ± 6.5%) > [V7]20 (15.5% ± 3.2%) > TCPS (less than 10%). The migration speed of N2a cells on [RGD-V6]20 was similar to that of cells on fibronectin. The expression of neuronal marker proteins Tuj1, MAP2, and GFAP was approximately 1.5-fold up-regulated by [RGD-V6]20 relative to TCPS. Moreover, by the presence of both [RGD-V6]20 and RA, the expression levels of NSE, TuJ1, NF68, MAP2, and GFAP were significantly elevated.Conclusion: We have shown that an elastin-mimetic protein consisting of alternating tropoelastin structural domains and cell-binding RGD motifs is able to stimulate neuronal cell behaviors and differentiation. In particular, adhesion-induced neural differentiation is highly desirable for neural development and nerve repair. In this context, our data emphasize that the combination of biomimetically engineered recombinant protein and isothermal adsorption approach allows for the facile preparation of bioactive matrix or coating for neural tissue regeneration. © 2012 Jeon et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.1

A Unified Compression Framework for Efficient Speech-Driven Talking-Face Generation

Virtual humans have gained considerable attention in numerous industries, e.g., entertainment and e-commerce. As a core technology, synthesizing photorealistic face frames from target speech and facial identity has been actively studied with generative adversarial networks. Despite remarkable results of modern talking-face generation models, they often entail high computational burdens, which limit their efficient deployment. This study aims to develop a lightweight model for speech-driven talking-face synthesis. We build a compact generator by removing the residual blocks and reducing the channel width from Wav2Lip, a popular talking-face generator. We also present a knowledge distillation scheme to stably yet effectively train the small-capacity generator without adversarial learning. We reduce the number of parameters and MACs by 28$\times$ while retaining the performance of the original model. Moreover, to alleviate a severe performance drop when converting the whole generator to INT8 precision, we adopt a selective quantization method that uses FP16 for the quantization-sensitive layers and INT8 for the other layers. Using this mixed precision, we achieve up to a 19$\times$ speedup on edge GPUs without noticeably compromising the generation quality.Comment: MLSys Workshop on On-Device Intelligence, 2023; Demo: https://huggingface.co/spaces/nota-ai/compressed_wav2li

Novel LMNA Gene Mutation in a Patient With Atypical Werner's Syndrome

Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) and Werner's syndrome are representative types of progeroid syndrome. LMNA (Lamin A/C) gene mutation with atypical Werner's syndrome have recently been reported. Atypical Werner's syndrome with the severe metabolic complications, the extent of the lipodystrophy is associated with A133L mutation in the LMNA gene and these patients present with phenotypically heterogeneous disorders. We experienced a 15-yr-old Korean female with progeroid features, generalized lipodystrophy, hypertriglyceridemia, fatty liver, steatohepatitis, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Skin fibroblasts from the patient showed marked abnormal nuclear morphology, compared with that from normal persons. Gene analysis revealed that this patient had T506del of exon 2 in the LMNA gene. We report here the first case of atypical Werner's syndrome with frameshift mutation that was caused by T506del

Brief Education on Microvasculature and Pit Pattern for Trainees Significantly Improves Estimation of the Invasion Depth of Colorectal Tumors

Objectives. This study was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of education for trainees on the gross findings identified by conventional white-light endoscopy (CWE), the microvascular patterns identified by magnifying narrow-band imaging endoscopy (MNE), and the pit patterns identified by magnifying chromoendoscopy (MCE) in estimation of the invasion depth of colorectal tumors. Methods. A total of 420 endoscopic images of 35 colorectal tumors were used. Five trainees estimated the invasion depth of the tumors by reviewing the CWE images before education. Afterwards, the trainees estimated the invasion depth of the same tumors after brief education on CWE, MNE and MCE images, respectively. Results. The initial diagnostic accuracy for deep submucosal invasion before education and after education on CWE, MNE, and MCE findings was 54.3%, 55.4%, 67.4%, and 76.6%, respectively. The diagnostic accuracy increased significantly after MNE education (P=0.028). The specificity for deep submucosal invasion before education and after education on CWE, MNE, and MCE findings was 47.9%, 45.7%, 65.0%, and 80.7%, respectively. The specificity increased significantly after MNE (P=0.002) and MCE (P=0.005) education. Conclusion. Brief education on microvascular pattern identification by MNE and pit pattern identification by MCE significantly improves trainees’ estimations of the invasion depth of colorectal tumors

Chiral self-sorted multifunctional supramolecular biocoordination polymers and their applications in sensors

Chiral supramolecules have great potential for use in chiral recognition, sensing, and catalysis. Particularly, chiral supramolecular biocoordination polymers (SBCPs) provide a versatile platform for characterizing biorelated processes such as chirality transcription. Here, we selectively synthesize homochiral and heterochiral SBCPs, composed of chiral naphthalene diimide ligands and Zn ions, from enantiomeric and mixed R-ligands and S-ligands, respectively. Notably, we find that the chiral self-sorted SBCPs exhibit multifunctional properties, including photochromic, photoluminescent, photoconductive, and chemiresistive characteristics, thus can be used for various sensors. Specifically, these materials can be used for detecting hazardous amine materials due to the electron transfer from the amine to the SBCP surface and for enantioselectively sensing a chiral species naproxen due to the different binding energies with regard to their chirality. These results provide guidelines for the synthesis of chiral SBCPs and demonstrate their versatility and feasibility for use in various sensors covering photoactive, chemiresistive, and chiral sensors

The assessment of efficacy of porcine reproductive respiratory syndrome virus inactivated vaccine based on the viral quantity and inactivation methods

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There have been many efforts to develop efficient vaccines for the control of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV). Although inactivated PRRSV vaccines are preferred for their safety, they are weak at inducing humoral immune responses and controlling field PRRSV infection, especially when heterologous viruses are involved.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In all groups, the sample to positive (S/P) ratio of IDEXX ELISA and the virus neutralization (VN) titer remained negative until challenge. While viremia did not reduce in the vaccinated groups, the IDEXX-ELISA-specific immunoglobulin G increased more rapidly and to significantly greater levels 7 days after the challenge in all the vaccinated groups compared to the non-vaccinated groups (<it>p </it>< 0.05). VN titer was significantly different in the 10⁶PFU/mL PRRSV vaccine-inoculated and binary ethylenimine (BEI)-inactivated groups 22 days after challenge (<it>p </it>< 0.05). Consequently, the inactivated vaccines tested in this study provided weak memory responses with sequential challenge without any obvious active immune responses in the vaccinated pigs.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The inactivated vaccine failed to show the humoral immunity, but it showed different immune response after the challenge compared to mock group. Although the 10⁶PFU/mL-vaccinated and BEI-inactivated groups showed significantly greater VN titers 22 days after challenge, all the groups were already negative for viremia.</p

A Case of Intestinal Behcet's Disease Similar to Crohn's Colitis

Behcet's disease is a multi-systemic vasculitis and characterized by systemic organ involvement. Although the gastrointestinal and systemic features of Behcet's disease and inflammatory bowel disease overlap to a considerable extent, they are generally viewed as two distinct diseases. A 39-yr-old female was diagnosed as having Behcet's disease. She was admitted to our hospital because of oral and genital ulcer, lower abdominal pain, and frequent diarrhea. Colonosopy showed diffuse involvement of multiple longitudinal ulcers with inflammatory pseudopolyps with a cobblestone appearance and ano-rectal fistula was suspected. These findings are extremely rare in Behcet's disease. However, there were no granulomas, the hallmark of Crohn's colitis. Microscopically, perivasculitis and multiple lymph follicles compatible with Behcet's disease were seen. Although being rarely encountered, multiple longitudinal ulcers, cobblestone appearance, and ano-rectal fistula can develop in Behcet's disease, as in Crohn's colitis. Therefore, Behcet's disease and Crohn's disease may be closely related and part of a spectrum of disease

Health behaviors, periodontal conditions, and periodontal pathogens in spontaneous preterm birth: A case-control study in Korea

Background: This study aims to determine whether periodontal conditions or dental health behaviors are risk factors for preterm birth (PTB), and whether periodontal pathogens are risk indicators for PTB among Korean mothers. Methods: This study was designed as a hospital-based case-control study. Examiner masking was ensured for the validity of the examinations. The mothers included those who gave birth between November 2007 and July 2009 at the obstetrics clinic of a general hospital in Seoul, Korea. Information on demographic and health conditions, periodontal conditions, and microbacterial data was collected. Results: A total of 172 women met the inclusion criteria, 59 mothers who delivered a preterm neonate were assigned to the case group while the other 113 were assigned to the control group. There were no significant differencesin demographic information, oral health conditions, and obstetric characteristics. Among health-related behaviors, only scaling within 12 months before pregnancy showed a significant difference (P = 0.031). Even in the adjusted logistic model, only the difference in the experience of scaling before pregnancy was significant between the PTB cases and the controls (P = 0.039). Periodontal disease did not exhibit a significant relationship with PTB even after adjustment for potential confounding factors. Among the microbacterial factors, only Porphyromonas gingivalis showed a slight difference (P = 0.060). Conclusion: There was a significant difference inscaling experience within 12 months before pregnancy and P. gingivalis showed a marginal difference between the PTB and the control groups but clinical periodontal conditions showed no association with PTB.This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (MOEHRD, Basic Research Promotion Fund, Seoul, Korea; E00230)