Gene Variation of Endoplasmic Reticulum Aminopeptidases 1 and 2, and Risk of Blood Pressure Progression and Incident Hypertension among 17,255 Initially Healthy Women

Recent studies have demonstrated the importance of endoplasmic reticulum aminopeptidase (ERAP) in blood pressure (BP) homeostasis. To date, no large prospective, genetic–epidemiological data are available on genetic variation within ERAP and hypertension risk. The association of 45 genetic variants of ERAP1 and ERAP2 was investigated in 17,255 Caucasian female participants from the Women's Genome Health Study. All subjects were free of hypertension at baseline. During an 18-year follow-up period, 10,216 incident hypertensive cases were identified. Multivariable linear, logistic, and Cox regression analyses were performed to assess the relationship of genotypes with baseline BP levels, BP progression at 48 months, and incident hypertension assuming an additive genetic model. Linear regression analyses showed associations of four tSNPs (ERAP1: rs27524; ERAP2: rs3733904, rs4869315, and rs2549782; all p < 0.05) with baseline systolic BP levels. Three tSNPs (ERAP1: rs27851, rs27429, and rs34736, all p < 0.05) were associated with baseline diastolic BP levels. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that ERAP1 rs27772 was associated with BP progression at 48 months (p = 0.0366). Multivariable Cox regression analysis showed an association of three tSNPs (ERAP1: rs469783 and rs10050860; ERAP2: rs2927615; all p < 0.05) with risk of incident hypertension. Analyses of dbGaP for genotype–phenotype association and GTEx Portal for gene expression quantitative trait loci revealed five tSNPs with differential association of BP and nine tSNPs with lower ERAP1 and ERAP2 mRNA expression levels, respectively. The present study suggests that ERAP1 and ERAP2 gene variation may be useful for risk assessment of BP progression and the development of hypertension

Atomic decomposition of conceptual DFT descriptors: Application to proton transfer reactions

International audienceIn this study, we present an atomic decomposition, in principle exact, at any point on a given reaction path, of the molecular energy, reaction force and reaction flux, which is based on Bader's atoms-in-molecules theory and on Pendás' interacting quantum atoms scheme. This decomposition enables the assessment of the importance and the contribution of each atom or molecular group to these global properties, and may cast the light on the physical factors governing bond formation or bond breaking. The potential use of this partition is finally illustrated by proton transfers in model biological systems

Optical and electronic activities of biobased films of chitosan/POTE containing gold nanoparticles: Experimental and theoretical analyses

Biobased films consisting of blends of chitosan with poly(octanoic acid 2-thiophen-3-yl-ethyl ester) (POTE), a conducting polymer, and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were prepared, and their thermal, morphological and surface potential properties were studied. POTE was dissolved in THE and mixed with an acidified aqueous solution containing chitosan to obtain chitosan/POTE (CS/POTE) films by solution casting. To produce gold nanoparticles in the CS/POTE films (i.e., CS/POTE/AuNP films), an aqueous solution of KAuCl4 salt at fixed concentration was added to the initial chitosan solution. The fabricated biobased films were characterized by spectroscopic techniques (FT-IR and UV-visible), thermogravimetry, contact angle analysis, polarized light microscopy (PLM), field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) and scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy (SKPFM). The effects of varying POTE composition and the presence of gold nanoparticles in the films were analyzed. For example, the results indicated the existence of interactions between chitosan and POTE, and LPM studies revealed a predominantly amorphous nature of these biobased films. In addition, the optical and surface potential behaviors of the films were examined by UV visible and KPFM techniques. From the UV visible spectra, the optical band gaps were estimated for the samples, and their surface potential maps exhibited differences according to the composition of POTE and the presence of AuNPs. Finally, theoretical electronic calculations provided insight into the contributions of POTE and gold nanoparticles to the electronic activity of the films

The ANANKE Relative-Energy-Gradient (REG) Method to Automate IQA Analysis over Configurational Change

The large volumes of information that arise from telecommunications and cyberspace systems can be represented by massive digraphs. The size of these graphs are so huge that they are unable to be processed by current technologies. The graphs require new and innovative methods of processing and visualizing. Graph surfaces of hierarchical graph slices have been suggested as a way of representing massive digraphs. In this chapter an approach is presented which involves encoding Lipschitz functions into monotone k-logic functions using symmetric chain decompositions (SeD). This approach proposes to address some of the issues concerning huge graphs by providing memory minimization techniques that can be applied to storing graph surfaces

Characterization of the Chemical Reactivity and Selectivity of DNA Bases Through the Use of DFT-Based Descriptors

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