Deactivation of soybean agglutinin by enzyme hydrolysis and identification of active peptides from soy proteins

A series of experiments was conducted to eliminate activity of SBA. Deglycosylation decreased activity of SBA by 21%, but not as much as denaturation (23-53%). Single enzymes did not hydrolyze native SBA, but hydrolyzed heat- or organic solutes-denatured SBA. Even after hydrolysis, activity of SBA still was not fully eliminated (44-62% residual). A combination of multiple enzymes with thermolysin fully deactivated heat- or organic solutes-treated SBA. Tea polyphenols, metal ions, chelating agents were also tested and had no significant effect on deactivating SBA. N-acetyl-galactosamine (GalNAc)-agrose beads specifically removed SBA from a protein mixture, but not fully and activity of SBA was not eliminated. Pepsin and pancreatin hydrolysis fully deactivated native SBA. This treatment uses minimum heating, as a result, it was chosen to treat soy white flake (SWF) for feeding trial to evaluate feeding quality. The activity of beta-conglycinin was not reduced by single enzyme hydrolysis, but was fully eliminated by a combination of multiple enzyme treatments. Activity of glycinin was not fully reduced by either single or a combination of multiple enzyme hydrolysis. Similarly, the activities of SWF and soy protein isolate (SPI) were not fully reduced by single or combination of multiple enzyme hydrolysis. Although pepsin and pancreatin treatment did not fully deactivate beta-conglycinin, glycinin, SWF and SPI, this method was used to generate feed material for in vivo evaluation of nutritional quality due to the ability to fully deactivate SBA. The in vitro study showed that the SBA in SWF was deactivated by this treatment, but did not improve chick growth performance compared to the raw SWF, however, the chicks did not show any pancreas enlargement or intestine weight increase compared to the raw soy feeding or a commercial diet, indicating the deactivation of SBA in the material. After enzyme hydrolysis, SBA, beta-conglycinin and glycinin still had hemagglutination activity, this result caused us to hypothesize that certain peptides in these proteins had hemagglutination activity. In order to identify the active peptides, the three proteins were subjected to trypsin hydrolysis, and GalNAc-agrose beads were used to isolate the active peptides. MALDI-TOF (Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight) was used to identify the masses of the peptides, and the masses were compared to the peptide profiles given by theoretical cleavage of the proteins, so that the peptides could be identified. Two peptides from SBA, 24 peptides from beta-conglycinin and 16 peptides from glycinin were identified from the active peptide extracts. In addition, 2, 3 and 3 peptides from SBA, beta-conglycinin and glycinin respectively were synthesized and their activities were assessed using hemagglutination assay. These peptides have hemagglutination activity whereas a synthesized control peptide from SBA did not show any activity. This result confirmed our hypothesis that there are active peptides in soy protein that have hemagglutination activity

Deactivation of Soybean Agglutinin by Enzymatic and Other Physical Treatments

The main objective of this study was to eliminate the hemagglutination activity of an antinutritional factor in soybeans, soybean agglutinin (SBA). A series of experiments was designed to enzymatically modify SBA structure and to use other physical treatments to reduce activity. SBA extract was prepared from soy flour and used as the substrate for all treatments. Deglycosylation by enzyme decreased activity of SBA by 21%, but not to the level of denaturation by heat or by denaturing reagents (47−77% residual activity). Single enzymes, such as trypsin, chymotrypsin, thermolysin, and endoproteinase Glu-C, did not hydrolyze native SBA, but they hydrolyzed heat- or organic solute-denatured SBA. Even after hydrolysis, SBA still had 44−62% residual activity. Combinations of enzymes with thermolysin fully deactivated heat- or guanidine hydrochloride- and urea-treated SBA. Pepsin and pancreatin hydrolysis fully deactivated not only heated but also native SBA. Tea polyphenols, metal ions, and chelating agents were also tested, and they showed no significant effect on SBA activity. N-Acetylgalactosamine−agarose beads specifically but not fully removed SBA from the soy protein mixture. In general, SBA needs to be denatured first for an effective enzymatic hydrolysis, and multiple enzymes are needed to fully deactivate SBA. Pepsin and pancreatin treatment showed great promise in fully reducing SBA activity, and it would be further tested using soy flour as a model system

GUPNet++: Geometry Uncertainty Propagation Network for Monocular 3D Object Detection

Geometry plays a significant role in monocular 3D object detection. It can be used to estimate object depth by using the perspective projection between object's physical size and 2D projection in the image plane, which can introduce mathematical priors into deep models. However, this projection process also introduces error amplification, where the error of the estimated height is amplified and reflected into the projected depth. It leads to unreliable depth inferences and also impairs training stability. To tackle this problem, we propose a novel Geometry Uncertainty Propagation Network (GUPNet++) by modeling geometry projection in a probabilistic manner. This ensures depth predictions are well-bounded and associated with a reasonable uncertainty. The significance of introducing such geometric uncertainty is two-fold: (1). It models the uncertainty propagation relationship of the geometry projection during training, improving the stability and efficiency of the end-to-end model learning. (2). It can be derived to a highly reliable confidence to indicate the quality of the 3D detection result, enabling more reliable detection inference. Experiments show that the proposed approach not only obtains (state-of-the-art) SOTA performance in image-based monocular 3D detection but also demonstrates superiority in efficacy with a simplified framework.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure

Synthesis of ZnO-ZnCo2O4 hybrid hollow microspheres with excellent lithium storage properties

通讯作者地址: Peng, DLZnO-ZnCo2O4 hybrid hollow microspheres are successfully produced via an annealing process of the pre-fabricated zinc-cobalt citrate hollow microspheres in air. ZnO and ZnCo2O4 have homogeneous distribution within the whole hollow microspheres. The gained hybrid hollow microspheres deliver outstanding lithium storage properties when utilized as the anode material in lithium ion batteries. A high reversible capacity of 1199 mA h g (1) can be retained after 200 cycles. The exceptional electrochemical properties of the hybrid hollow microspheres are ascribed to the synergetic effect between ZnO and ZnCo2O4 nanoparticles, the catalytic effect of Co nanocrystals, the favorable hollow structures together with the nanometer-sized building blocks of hybrid microspheres

Synthesis of ZnO-ZnCo2O4 hybrid hollow microspheres with excellent lithium storage properties

通讯作者地址: Peng, DLZnO-ZnCo2O4 hybrid hollow microspheres are successfully produced via an annealing process of the pre-fabricated zinc-cobalt citrate hollow microspheres in air. ZnO and ZnCo2O4 have homogeneous distribution within the whole hollow microspheres. The gained hybrid hollow microspheres deliver outstanding lithium storage properties when utilized as the anode material in lithium ion batteries. A high reversible capacity of 1199 mA h g (1) can be retained after 200 cycles. The exceptional electrochemical properties of the hybrid hollow microspheres are ascribed to the synergetic effect between ZnO and ZnCo2O4 nanoparticles, the catalytic effect of Co nanocrystals, the favorable hollow structures together with the nanometer-sized building blocks of hybrid microspheres

A 3-Year Longitudinal Study of Effects of Parental Feeding Practices on Child Weight Status: The Childhood Obesity Study in China Mega-Cities

This study examined the longitudinal associations between parental feeding practices and child weight status, and their potential modification effects by child sex, age, and maternal and paternal educations among children. Data were collected from 2015 to 2017 of 2139 children aged 6–17 years and their parents in five Chinese mega-cities. Parental feeding practices were assessed using 11-items from Child Feeding Questionnaire. Waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), body mass index (BMI), and general and central obesity were measured and analyzed using a mixed-effects model. Three parental feeding patterns were identified by factor analysis including “concern”, “pressure to eat”, and “control”. Concern was associated with higher BMI z-score, WHtR (βs ranged from 0.01 to 0.16), and general obesity (ORs ranged from 1.29 to 6.41) among children aged ≤12 years and >12 years, regardless of child sex and parental educations. Pressure to eat was associated with lower BMI z-score (β = −0.08, p < 0.001), WHtR (β = −0.004, p < 0.01), and general (OR = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.42, 0.66) and central obesity (OR = 0.72, 95% CI = 0.58, 0.90) among children aged ≤12 years. Further analyses showed that significant associations were found for children with maternal or paternal education of college and above. Control was associated with increased risk of general and central obesity among children with maternal education of college and above, regardless of age. Our study indicates that higher concern and lower pressure to eat were associated with increased risk of obesity among children. Control was associated with increased risk of obesity among children with maternal education of college and above. Future childhood obesity preventions may optimize parental feeding practices.This work was supported by China Medical Board (grant number: 16-262), National Institutes of Health (grant number: U54 HD070725), United Nations Children’s Fund (grant number: UNICEF 2018-Nutrition-2.1.2.3), the Chinese National Key Research and Development Program (grant number: 2017YFC0907200 and 2017YFC0907201), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (8210120946), Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi (2020JQ-094), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2019M653669), Young Talent Fund of Association for Science and Technology in Shaanxi, China (20220301)

Engineering oxygen vacancies in hierarchically Li-rich layered oxide porous microspheres for high-rate lithium ion battery cathode

Abstract(#br)Lithium-rich layered oxides always suffer from low initial Coulombic efficiency, poor rate capability and rapid voltage fading. Herein, engineering oxygen vacancies in hierarchically Li 1.2 Mn 0.54 Ni 0.13 Co 0.13 O 2 porous microspheres (L@S) is carried out to suppress the formation of irreversible Li 2 O during the initial discharge process and improve the Li + diffusion kinetics and structural stability of the cathode mateiral. As a result, the prepared L@S cathode delivers high initial Coulombic efficiency of 92.3% and large specific capacity of 292.6 mA h g −1 at 0.1 C. More importantly, a large reversible capacity of 222 mA h g −1 with a capacity retention of 95.7% can be obtained after 100 cycles at 10 C. Even cycled at ultrahigh rate of 20 C, the L@S cathode can..

miRNA-135a promotes breast cancer cell migration and invasion by targeting HOXA10

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>miRNAs are a group of small RNA molecules regulating target genes by inducing mRNA degradation or translational repression. Aberrant expression of miRNAs correlates with various cancers. Although miR-135a has been implicated in several other cancers, its role in breast cancer is unknown. <it>HOXA10 </it>however, is associated with multiple cancer types and was recently shown to induce p53 expression in breast cancer cells and reduce their invasive ability. Because <it>HOXA10 </it>is a confirmed miR-135a target in more than one tissue, we examined miR-135a levels in relation to breast cancer phenotypes to determine if miR-135a plays role in this cancer type.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Expression levels of miR-135a in tissues and cells were determined by poly (A)-RT PCR. The effect of miR-135a on proliferation was evaluated by CCK8 assay, cell migration and invasion were evaluated by transwell migration and invasion assays, and target protein expression was determined by western blotting. GFP and luciferase reporter plasmids were constructed to confirm the action of miR-135a on downstream target genes including <it>HOXA10</it>. Results are reported as means ± S.D. and differences were tested for significance using 2-sided Student"s t-test.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we report that miR-135a was highly expressed in metastatic breast tumors. We found that the expression of miR-135a was required for the migration and invasion of breast cancer cells, but not their proliferation. <it>HOXA10</it>, which encodes a transcription factor required for embryonic development and is a metastasis suppressor in breast cancer, was shown to be a direct target of miR-135a in breast cancer cells. Our analysis showed that miR-135a suppressed the expression of <it>HOXA10 </it>both at the mRNA and protein level, and its ability to promote cellular migration and invasion was partially reversed by overexpression of <it>HOXA10</it>.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In summary, our results indicate that miR-135a is an onco-miRNA that can promote breast cancer cell migration and invasion. <it>HOXA10 </it>is a target gene for miR-135a in breast cancer cells and overexpression of <it>HOXA10 </it>can partially reverse the miR-135a invasive phenotype.</p