RETRACTED: Monolayers of pigment-protein complexes on a bare gold electrode:Orientation controlled deposition and comparison of electron transfer rate for two configurations

Photosynthetic protein complexes are very efficient in solar energy absorption, excitation transfer, and subsequent electron transfer. These complexes have the potential to be exploited as circuit elements for various bio-hybrid devices, ranging from biosensors to solar cells. In this report, we characterized a bioelectronic composite fabricated by interfacing reaction center-light harvesting 1 (RC-LH1) complex with an un-functionalized gold surface in defined orientation. The orientation of RC-LH1 complex was controlled by using Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) deposition technique: RC-LH1 complexes were attached to the electrode facing either with their primary donor or the acceptor sides by'"forward" or'"reverse" dipping, respectively. Photochronoamperometry was utilized to confirm the integrity of the protein complexes and their orientation. Electrical transport of protein complexes coupled to gold electrode was studied by using conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM). Two distinct current-voltage (I-. V) curves were observed for two different deposition schemes, indicating opposite orientations of RC-LH1 complexes on the electrode. I-. V spectroscopy was also carried out under light illumination, the magnitude of current was considerably increased by the light illumination and the asymmetry of the curves was more pronounced. We show that, RC-LH1 complexes attached to the electrode with primary donor side facing the electrode exhibit much faster electron transfer compared to opposite orientatio

An enhanced brain storm sine cosine algorithm for global optimization problems

The conventional sine cosine algorithm (SCA) does not appropriately balance exploration and exploitation, causing premature convergence, especially for complex optimization problems, such as the complex shifted or shifted rotated problems. To address this issue, this paper proposes an enhanced brain storm SCA (EBS-SCA), where an EBS strategy is employed to improve the population diversity, and by combining it with two different update equations, two new individual update strategies [individual update strategies (IUS): IUS-I and IUS-II] are developed to make effective balance between exploration and exploitation during the entire iterative search process. Double sets of benchmark suites involving 46 popular functions and two real-world problems are employed to compare the EBS-SCA with other metaheuristic algorithms. The experimental results validate that the proposed EBS-SCA achieves the overall best performance including the global search ability, convergence speed, and scalability

A Vector Grouping Learning Brain Storm Optimization Algorithm for Global Optimization Problems

The original brain storm optimization (BSO) method does not rationally compromise global exploration and local exploitation capability, which results in the premature convergence when solving complicated optimization problems like the shifted or shifted rotated functions. To address this problem, the paper develops a vector grouping learning BSO (VGLBSO) method. In VGLBSO, the individuals’ creation based on vector grouping learning (IC-VGL) scheme is first developed to improve the population diversity and compromise the global exploration and local exploitation capability. Moreover, a hybrid individuals’ update (H-IU) scheme is established by reasonably combing two different individuals’ update schemes, which further compromises the global exploration and local exploitation capability. Finally, the random grouping (RG) scheme, instead of K-means grouping is allowed to shrink the computational cost and maintain the diversity of the information exchange between different individuals. Twenty-eight popular benchmark functions are used to compare VGLBSO with 12 BSO and nine swarm intelligence methods. Experimental results present that VGLBSO achieves the best overall performance including the global search ability, convergence speed, and scalability amongst all the compared algorithms

Visualizing alpha-synuclein and iron deposition in M83 mouse model of Parkinson's disease in vivo

BACKGROUND Abnormal alpha-synuclein and iron accumulation in the brain play an important role in Parkinson's disease (PD). Herein, we aim at visualizing alpha-synuclein inclusions and iron deposition in the brains of M83 (A53T) mouse models of PD in vivo . METHODS Fluorescently labelled pyrimidoindole-derivative THK-565 was characterized by using recombinant fibrils and brains from 10-11 months old M83 mice, which subsequently underwent in vivo concurrent wide-field fluorescence and volumetric multispectral optoacoustic tomography (vMSOT) imaging. The in vivo results were verified against structural and susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 9.4 Tesla and scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) of perfused brains. Brain slice immunofluorescence and Prussian blue staining were further performed to validate the detection of alpha-synuclein inclusions and iron deposition in the brain, respectively. RESULTS THK-565 showed increased fluorescence upon binding to recombinant alpha-synuclein fibrils and alpha-synuclein inclusions in post-mortem brain slices from patients with Parkinson's disease and M83 mice. i.v. administration of THK-565 in M83 mice showed higher cerebral retention at 20 and 40 minutes post-injection by wide-field fluorescence compared to non-transgenic littermate mice, in congruence with the vMSOT findings. SWI/phase images and Prussian blue indicated the accumulation of iron deposits in the brains of M83 mice, presumably in the Fe $^{3+}$ form, as evinced by the STXM results. CONCLUSION We demonstrated in vivo mapping of alpha-synuclein by means of non-invasive epifluorescence and vMSOT imaging assisted with a targeted THK-565 label and SWI/STXM identification of iron deposits in M83 mouse brains ex vivo

Visualizing alpha-synuclein and iron deposition in M83 mouse model of Parkinson’s disease in vivo

Abstract: Abnormal alpha-synuclein (αSyn) and iron accumulation in the brain play an important role in Parkinson's disease (PD). Herein, we aim to visualize αSyn inclusions and iron deposition in the brains of M83 (A53T) mouse models of PD in vivo. The fluorescent pyrimidoindole derivative THK-565 probe was characterized by means of recombinant fibrils and brains from 10- to 11-month-old M83 mice. Concurrent wide-field fluorescence and volumetric multispectral optoacoustic tomography (vMSOT) imaging were subsequently performed in vivo. Structural and susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 9.4 T as well as scanning transmission x-ray microscopy (STXM) were performed to characterize the iron deposits in the perfused brains. Immunofluorescence and Prussian blue staining were further performed on brain slices to validate the detection of αSyn inclusions and iron deposition. THK-565 showed increased fluorescence upon binding to recombinant αSyn fibrils and αSyn inclusions in post-mortem brain slices from patients with PD and M83 mice. Administration of THK-565 in M83 mice showed higher cerebral retention at 20 and 40 min post-intravenous injection by wide-field fluorescence compared to nontransgenic littermate mice, in congruence with the vMSOT findings. SWI/phase images and Prussian blue indicated the accumulation of iron deposits in the brains of M83 mice, presumably in the Fe3+ form, as evinced by the STXM results. In conclusion, we demonstrated in vivo mapping of αSyn by means of noninvasive epifluorescence and vMSOT imaging and validated the results by targeting the THK-565 label and SWI/STXM identification of iron deposits in M83 mouse brains ex vivo

Gastrodin Rescues Autistic-Like Phenotypes in Valproic Acid-Induced Animal Model

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is an immensely challenging developmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction, restricted/repetitive behavior, and anxiety. GABAergic dysfunction has been postulated to underlie these autistic symptoms. Gastrodin is widely used clinically in the treatment of neurological disorders and showed to modulate GABAergic signaling in the animal brain. The present study aimed to determine whether treatment with gastrodin can rescue valproic acid (VPA) induced autistic-like phenotypes, and to determine its possible mechanism of action. Our results showed that administration of gastrodin effectively alleviated the autistic-associated behavioral abnormalities as reflected by an increase in social interaction and decrement in repetitive/stereotyped behavior and anxiety in mice as compared to those in untreated animals. Remarkably, the amelioration in autistic-like phenotypes was accompanied by the restoration of inhibitory synaptic transmission, α5 GABAA receptor, and type 1 GABA transporter (GAT1) expression in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) of VPA-treated mice. These findings indicate that gastrodin may alleviate the autistic symptoms caused by VPA through regulating GABAergic synaptic transmission, suggesting that gastrodin may be a potential therapeutic target in autism