Article
Chemistry, Physical
Weiping Du, Yang Zheng, Xiujuan Wang, Juncheng Lei, Hao Wang, Xiao Tian, Siyu Zou, Julien Bloino, Qian Gou, Walther Caminati, Jens-Uwe Grabow
Summary: Phenyl isocyanide was chosen as a model to investigate the pi-pi interaction modulated by the -NC group. The rotational spectroscopic investigation and theoretical analyses revealed that the phenyl isocyanide dimer has a scissor-like configuration controlled by dispersive forces and pi-pi stacking. Additionally, this study provides the first evidence that mono-substitution of an -NC group on benzene can activate the meta position in forming noncovalent interactions.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Aimin Li, Shenglun Xiong, Wei Zhou, Huijuan Zhai, Yuanchu Liu, Qing He
Summary: The new superphane, with an aesthetically pleasing structure, was successfully synthesized via a one-pot method using hexakis-amine and m-phthalaldehyde in a [2+6] manner. It demonstrated the capability of entrapping a water dimer within its cavity, as confirmed by mass spectroscopy, crystallographical analysis, NMR spectroscopy, and theoretical calculations.
CHEMICAL COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Immunology
Tarannum Taznin, Kaushalya Perera, Yann Gibert, Alister C. Ward, Clifford Liongue
Summary: This study investigated the expression and function of CRLF3, an evolutionarily significant protein, in early development, particularly in blood and immune cells, using zebrafish as a model. The study found that CRLF3 was expressed in multiple embryonic tissues and played a crucial role in primitive hematopoiesis and early definitive hematopoiesis.
FRONTIERS IN IMMUNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Immunology
Sabrina Uehlein, Xin Ding, Janina Floesser, Selma Schmidt, Julia Steitz, Maya Bille, Florian Schnitter, Steffen Baltes, Armin Saalmueller, Wilhelm Gerner, Thomas Herrmann, Anna Frey, Thomas Kerkau, Ulrich Hofmann, Niklas Beyersdorf
Summary: Pigs are utilized as animal models for studying human diseases and immune system development due to their size, anatomical similarities, and ability to undergo genetic manipulations. The understanding of CD28 expression and function in porcine T cells has been expanded, with new antibodies showing enhancements in proliferation and cytokine secretion. Additionally, a pilot study in pigs suggests that low-dose CD28-SA infusion may lead to selective expansion of CD4(+) regulatory T cells in humans.
JOURNAL OF IMMUNOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Xianlong Gao, Garrett A. Enten, Anthony J. DeSantis, Matthias Majetschak
Summary: This study utilized various biotechniques to confirm that chemokine receptor 4, atypical chemokine receptor 3, alpha(1a)-adrenoceptor, and arginine vasopressin receptor 1A can form hetero-oligomers composed of 2-4 different protomers, with ligand binding and hetero-oligomerization regulating agonist-induced signaling transduction. These findings suggest that receptor hetero-oligomers have unique signaling properties different from individual protomers, providing a mechanism for context-dependent receptor function.
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Chanqi Ye, Xiaoxiao Yan, Xiaomeng Dai, Ruyin Chen, Qiong Li, Shuaishuai Xu, Qi Jiang, Feifei Yan, Suzhen Xu, Chun-Xia Zhao, Peng Zhao, Dong Chen, Jian Ruan
Summary: This study designs and synthesizes snowman-like tumor-targeting nanoparticles that improve drug delivery and enhance anti-tumor therapy. In vivo tests demonstrate that these nanoparticles can effectively reduce tumor-associated macrophages and activate immune responses in the tumor microenvironment.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Physiology
Debbra Y. Knorr, Denise Hartung, Kristin Schneider, Luzia Hintz, Hanna S. Pies, Ralf Heinrich
Summary: This study identified a conserved endogenous cytokine in locust hemolymph that activates CRLF3 and connected anti-apoptotic processes in hemocytes and neurons, providing insights into cytokine evolution and potential clinical applications.
FRONTIERS IN PHYSIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Oncology
Michelle K. Becker-Hapak, Niraj Shrestha, Ethan McClain, Michael J. Dee, Pallavi Chaturvedi, Gilles M. Leclerc, Lynne I. Marsala, Mark Foster, Timothy Schappe, Jennifer Tran, Sweta Desai, Carly C. Neal, Patrick Pence, Pamela Wong, Julia A. Wagner, David A. Russler-Germain, Xiaoyun Zhu, Catherine M. Spanoudis, Victor L. Gallo, Christian A. Echeverri, Laritza L. Ramirez, Lijing You, Jack O. Egan, Peter R. Rhode, Jin-an Jiao, Gabriela J. Muniz, Emily K. Jeng, Caitlin A. Prendes, Ryan P. Sullivan, Melissa M. Berrien-Elliott, Hing C. Wong, Todd A. Fehniger
Summary: NK cells show promise as a cellular therapy for cancer, but challenges in production of required reagents exist. A novel HFPC platform was developed to activate NK cells against cancer, showing potential for advancement in clinical GMP-grade memory-like NK cell production.
CANCER IMMUNOLOGY RESEARCH
(2021)
Review
Immunology
John Le, Yathushigan Kulatheepan, Samithamby Jeyaseelan
Summary: The respiratory system has various innate immune mechanisms to cope with microbial infections and limit tissue damage. Macrophages, neutrophils, dendritic cells, epithelial cells, and endothelial cells play key roles in this immune response. Recognition of invading microorganisms by the myeloid and structural cells of the respiratory system triggers a signaling cascade that leads to the activation of transcription factors, induction of cytokines/chemokines, recruitment of immune cells, and subsequent clearance of microbes.
FRONTIERS IN IMMUNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Hematology
Daniel A. Lichtenstein, Fiorella Schischlik, Lipei Shao, Seth M. Steinberg, Bonnie Yates, Hao-Wei Wang, Yanyu Wang, Jon Inglefield, Alina Dulau-Florea, Francesco Ceppi, Leandro C. Hermida, Kate Stringaris, Kim Dunham, Philip Homan, Parthav Jailwala, Justin Mirazee, Welles Robinson, Karen M. Chisholm, Constance Yuan, Maryalice Stetler-Stevenson, Amanda K. Ombrello, Jianjian Jin, Terry J. Fry, Naomi Taylor, Steven L. Highfill, Ping Jin, Rebecca A. Gardner, Haneen Shalabi, Eytan Ruppin, David F. Stroncek, Nirali N. Shah
Summary: In a subset of patients with cytokine release syndrome (CRS), chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell toxicities resembling hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) can occur, known as carHLH. This study comprehensively characterized the manifestations and timing of carHLH, highlighting factors such as preinfusion natural killer cell lymphopenia and higher bone marrow T-cell:NK cell ratio associated with its development. Additionally, carHLH was characterized by persistent elevation of HLH-associated inflammatory cytokines following CAR T-cell expansion.
Article
Psychiatry
Michal Korostynski, Dzesika Hoinkis, Marcin Piechota, Slawomir Golda, Joanna Pera, Agnieszka Slowik, Tomasz Dziedzic
Summary: TLR4-dependent cytokine synthesis was not associated with greater post-stroke depressive symptoms in this study. However, circulating IL-6 might be associated with depressive symptoms occurring at 3 months after stroke.
TRANSLATIONAL PSYCHIATRY
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Hijai R. Shin, Y. Rose Citron, Lei Wang, Laura Tribouillard, Claire S. Goul, Robin Stipp, Yusuke Sugasawa, Aakriti Jain, Nolwenn Samson, Chun-Yan Lim, Oliver B. Davis, David Castaneda-Carpio, Mingxing Qian, Daniel K. Nomura, Rushika M. Perera, Eunyong Park, Douglas F. Covey, Mathieu Laplante, Alex S. Evers, Roberto Zoncu
Summary: LYCHOS, a lysosomal cholesterol signaling protein, senses cholesterol concentration and interacts with mTORC1 to regulate cellular growth and metabolism.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Lu Feng, Chen Li, Lin-Wen Zeng, Deng Gao, Yu-Hao Sun, Li Zhong, Heng Lin, Hong-Bing Shu, Shu Li
Summary: This study reveals that the plasma membrane-associated E3 ubiquitin ligase MARCH3 negatively regulates IL-3-triggered signaling. MARCH3 is associated with IL-3R alpha, promoting its degradation and inhibiting IL-3-induced physiological functions and inflammatory diseases. MARCH3 deficiency aggravates IL-3-amplified expression of inflammatory cytokines, organ damage, and inflammatory death in sepsis.
SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION AND TARGETED THERAPY
(2022)
Article
Cell Biology
Jiao Wang, Di Zhao, Cheng-Zhi Ding, Feng Guo, Li-Na Wu, Feng-Jiao Huang, Yan-Ling Liu, Shui-Ying Zhao, Ying Xin, Sheng-Nan Ma, Hong-Fei Ji, Xiang Wang, Li-Rui Wei
Summary: miR-194 suppresses GLP-1 synthesis in L cells by inhibiting TCF7L2-mediated gcg transcription and Foxa1-mediated pcsk1 transcription, while also being involved in PA-induced apoptosis of L cells.
CELL DEATH & DISEASE
(2021)
Article
Oncology
Rui Ma, Ting Lu, Zhenlong Li, Kun-Yu Teng, Anthony G. Mansour, Melissa Yu, Lei Tian, Bo Xu, Shoubao Ma, Jianying Zhang, Tasha Barr, Yong Peng, Michael A. Caligiuri, Jianhua Yu
Summary: The study demonstrated that the combination therapy of an oncolytic virus expressing the IL15/IL15Rα complex and off-the-shelf EGFR-CAR NK cells elicited strong antitumor responses in glioblastoma. This therapy significantly inhibited tumor growth and improved survival rates, offering a promising strategy for the clinical management of this devastating disease.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Xu Dong, Ling-Yun Qin, Zhou Gong, Sanbo Qin, Huan-Xiang Zhou, Chun Tang
Summary: Nonspecific binding of crowder proteins with functional proteins is common in vivo, with bovine serum albumin weakly but preferentially interacting with the histidine carrier protein (HPr). This competition with HPr's specific partner protein, EIN, decreases the binding affinity and accelerates dissociation of the native complex, while Ficoll-70 stabilizes the complex and slows dissociation. Atomistic modeling of macromolecular crowding rationalizes the experimental data and provides insights into protein-crowder interactions.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Konstantinos Mazarakos, Huan-Xiang Zhou
Summary: In this study, a mean-field theoretical model and molecular dynamics simulations are used to demonstrate that the multiphase organization of multi-component condensates undergoes a second phase transition, driven by the difference in attraction strengths between different components. The phase transitions are observed by decreasing the temperature, leading to condensate separation from the bulk phase and component demixing within the condensates. Molecular dynamics simulations of model mixtures verify the existence of a critical temperature for demixing and predicted binodals.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Divya Kota, Huan-Xiang Zhou
Summary: This study found that macromolecular regulators have effects on the material properties of biomolecular condensates, including phase equilibrium, interfacial tension, viscoelasticity, fusion speed, etc. These results illustrate the opportunities for tuning material properties.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Biology
Aayush Gupta, Souvik Dey, Alan Hicks, Huan-Xiang Zhou
Summary: This study developed generative autoencoders that can learn from short molecular dynamics simulations and generate full conformational ensembles of intrinsically disordered proteins.
COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Sanbo Qin, Alan Hicks, Souvik Dey, Ramesh Prasad, Huan-Xiang Zhou
Summary: This study identified the membrane-association characteristics of intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) in proteins and developed a web server called ReSMAP for predicting residue-specific membrane-association propensities from IDR sequences.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Souvik Dey, Matthew MacAinsh, Huan-Xiang Zhou
Summary: For intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), the dynamics of the backbone play a key role in encoding their function. The dynamics are regulated by local interactions, secondary structures, and glycines. These sequence-dependent changes in backbone dynamics allow IDPs to respond to binding partners in a versatile manner.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL THEORY AND COMPUTATION
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Konstantinos Mazarakos, Ramesh Prasad, Huan-Xiang Zhou
Summary: Phase separation of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) is a phenomenon associated with many essential cellular processes. However, there is still a difficulty in computing the binodal from molecular dynamics simulations of IDPs. In this study, a new method called SpiDec is proposed, which allows for the accurate determination of the phase equilibrium of IDPs.
FRONTIERS IN MOLECULAR BIOSCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Matthew MacAinsh, Huan-Xiang Zhou
Summary: Tau, an intrinsically disordered protein, binds to both microtubules and acidic membranes. This study used molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the dynamic binding of Tau to an acidic membrane. The simulations validated the interaction between amphipathic helices in Tau and the membrane, and showed similarities and differences in residue contacts between Tau and microtubules. This mimicry facilitates both the anchoring of microtubules to membranes and the transfer of Tau from membranes to microtubules.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Huan-Xiang Zhou
Summary: This article introduces an approach for estimating the lower and upper bounds of sample data using O(N) operations. The approach calculates the mean values of the smallest and largest x values in N-point samples and fits them as functions of N to obtain the estimates for the bounds. Application to synthetic data demonstrates the accuracy and reliability of this approach.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Souvik Dey, Huan-Xiang Zhou
Summary: This study used molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the regulation of the IDP N-WASP, finding that intramolecular interactions keep N-WASP in an autoinhibited state and PIP2 binding can activate it by freeing the acidic motif, which interacts with Arp2/3 to initiate actin polymerization. Competition exists between PIP2 and the acidic motif for binding to the basic region. Even at a 30% PIP2 level in the membrane, the acidic motif only contacts the basic region in 8.5% of the population.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Johansen B. Amin, Miaomiao He, Ramesh Prasad, Xiaoling Leng, Huan-Xiang Zhou, Lonnie P. Wollmuth
Summary: NMDA receptors have two gates that are regulated by distinct subunits, with one gate mainly regulating single channel events and the other gate mainly regulating entry and exit from clusters. The unique kinetics of NMDARs contribute to their role in synaptic signaling, with clusters of rapid opening and closing separated by long silent periods.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Biology
Sean T. Smrt, Cristian A. Escobar, Souvik Dey, Timothy A. Cross, Huan-Xiang Zhou
Summary: Mtb infects a quarter of the worldwide population and the rising drug resistance makes it urgent to better understand Mtb cell division. The study reveals that the transmembrane protein FtsQ may serve as a membrane anchor of the Mtb Z-ring, and its disordered cytoplasmic region interacts with multiple partners, indicating its potential role in cell division and as a drug target.
COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biology
Guodong Hu, Huan-Xiang Zhou
Summary: The SAM/SAH riboswitch binds SAM and SAH with similar affinities. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal the role of Mg2+ ions in stabilizing the RNA structure, widening the groove for ligand entry, and facilitating ribosome binding. Mg2+ plays vital roles in the function of the SAM/SAH riboswitch.
COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY
(2023)
Meeting Abstract
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Shaoyong Li, Shuyuan Chen, Zhongwan Li, Runyuan Zhang, Xing Lan, Yuling Jiang, Yanyan Zheng, Changpeng Wan, Xiaodong Pang, Lijun Wang, Guo-Jie Ye, Zhenhua Wu
Meeting Abstract
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Shaoyong Li, Pengfei Yu, Zhongwan Li, Xiaodong Pang, Lijun Wang, Jianhua Mao, Zhihong Lu, Zhenhua Wu, Guo-Jie Ye