Search Our Scientific Publications & Authors

J Chromatogr A 2021 Apr 9;1646:462145. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

Key Laboratory of Nanobiosensing and Nanobioanalysis at Universities of Jilin Province, Department of Chemistry, Northeast Normal University, 5268 Renmin Street, Changchun, Jilin Province 130024, China. Electronic address:

Reactions of biomass conversions are of great importance in fine chemistry for substantial development. While numerous studies have been performed to search for functional materials to catalyze biomass conversions, a robust and high-throughput analytical method is rather limited, which may hamper further integration and automation of the reactions. Here we propose an automatic and sequential method for the investigation of glucose conversion. Read More

J Biol Chem 2021 Apr 19:100683. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, National Poultry Laboratory Animal Resource Center, Heilongjiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Laboratory Animal and Comparative Medicine, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin, China. Electronic address:

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is a devastating pathogen in the swine industry worldwide. MicroRNAs are reported to be involved in virus-host interaction. Here, we used high-throughput sequencing and microRNAs inhibitors to screen possible microRNAs that can inhibit PRRSV infection on its target cell, porcine alveolar macrophages. Read More

Virus Res 2021 Apr 19:198388. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Physics Institute of Sao Carlos, University of Sao Paulo, Av. Joao Dagnone, 1100, Jardim Santa Angelina, São Carlos, 13563-120, Brazil.

The 2015/16 Zika virus (ZIKV) epidemic led to almost 1 million confirmed cases in 84 countries and was associated to the development of congenital microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome. More recently, a ZIKV African lineage was identified in Brazil raising concerns about a future outbreak. The long-term consequences of viral infection emphasizes the need for the development of effective anti-ZIKV drugs. Read More

Biochim Biophys Acta Bioenerg 2021 Apr 19:148430. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology; Center for Disparities in Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, (United States).

The KADP of oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos) identifies the cytosolic ADP concentration which elicits one-half the maximum OxPhos rate. This kinetic parameter is commonly measured to assess mitochondrial metabolic control sensitivity. Here we describe a luciferase-based assay to evaluate the ADP kinetic parameters of mitochondrial ATP production from OxPhos, adenylate kinase (AK), and creatine kinase (CK). Read More

OMICS 2021 Apr 21. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Department of Clinical Laboratories, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Hangzhou, China.

Digital transformation is impacting every facet of science and society, not least because there is a growing need for digital services and products with the COVID-19 pandemic. But the need for digital transformation in diagnostics and personalized medicine field cuts deeper. In the past, personalized/precision medicine initiatives have been unable to capture the patients' experiences and clinical outcomes in real-time and in real-world settings. Read More

Curr Protoc 2021 Apr;1(4):e107

Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio.

Assessing the neurotoxicity of test chemicals has typically been performed using two-dimensionally (2D)-cultured neuronal cell monolayers and animal models. The in vitro 2D cell models are simple and straightforward compared to animal models, which have the disadvantage of being relatively low throughput, expensive, and time consuming. Despite their extensive use in this area of neurotoxicology research, both models often do not accurately recapitulate human outcomes. Read More

PLoS One 2021 22;16(4):e0250019. Epub 2021 Apr 22.

Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Center for Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases (CERID), University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, United States of America.

SARS-CoV-2 has caused a global pandemic, and has taken over 1.7 million lives as of mid-December, 2020. Although great progress has been made in the development of effective countermeasures, with several pharmaceutical companies approved or poised to deliver vaccines to market, there is still an unmet need of essential antiviral drugs with therapeutic impact for the treatment of moderate-to-severe COVID-19. Read More

PLoS One 2021 22;16(4):e0250032. Epub 2021 Apr 22.

School of Life Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China.

Pregnancy is a complicated and long procedure during one or more offspring development inside a woman. A short period of oxygen shortage after birth is quite normal for most babies and does not threaten their health. However, if babies have to suffer from a long period of oxygen shortage, then this condition is an indication of pathological fetal intolerance, which probably causes their death. Read More

PLoS One 2021 22;16(4):e0249884. Epub 2021 Apr 22.

College of Biological Engineering, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, P. R. China.

Excessive use of chemical fertilizers in agricultural practices have demonstrated a significant impact on microbial diversity and community in soil by altering soil physical and chemical properties, thereby leading to a certain degree of soil salinization and nutritional imbalances. As an organic amendment, maize straw has been widely used to improve soil quality; however, its effect on the soil bacterial community remains limited in Calcarie-Fluvie Cambisols soil in semi-humid arid plateau of North China. In the present experiment, we investigated the effects of continuous straw utilization and fertilization on bacterial communities in Shouyang, Shanxi province, China. Read More

J Chem Inf Model 2021 Apr 22. Epub 2021 Apr 22.

School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, United Kingdom.

The quantum mechanical bespoke (QUBE) force-field approach has been developed to facilitate the automated derivation of potential energy function parameters for modeling protein-ligand binding. To date, the approach has been validated in the context of Monte Carlo simulations of protein-ligand complexes. We describe here the implementation of the QUBE force field in the alchemical free-energy calculation molecular dynamics simulation package SOMD. Read More

J Am Soc Mass Spectrom 2021 Apr 22. Epub 2021 Apr 22.

Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, United States.

There is an unmet need to develop analytical strategies that not only characterize the lipid composition of the viral envelope but also do so on a time scale that would allow for high-throughput analysis. With that in mind, we report the use of atmospheric pressure (AP) matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) combined with lithium adduct consolidation to profile total lipid extracts rapidly and confidently from enveloped viruses. The use of AP-MALDI reduced the dependency of using a dedicated MALDI mass spectrometer and allowed for interfacing the MALDI source to a mass spectrometer with the desired features, which included high mass resolving power (>100000) and tandem mass spectrometry. Read More

J Med Chem 2021 Apr 22. Epub 2021 Apr 22.

Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Institute for Translational Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, United States.

The central melanocortin-3 and melanocortin-4 receptors (MC3R, MC4R) are key regulators of body weight and energy homeostasis. Herein, the discovery and characterization of first-in-class small molecule melanocortin agonists with selectivity for the melanocortin-3 receptor over the melanocortin-4 receptor are reported. Identified via "unbiased" mixture-based high-throughput screening approaches, pharmacological evaluation of these pyrrolidine bis-cyclic guanidines resulted in nanomolar agonist activity at the melanocortin-3 receptor. Read More

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 2021 Apr 22. Epub 2021 Apr 22.

Joint International Research Laboratory of Agriculture and Agri-Product Safety, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Crop Genomics and Molecular Breeding, Co-Innovation Center for Modern Production Technology of Grain Crops, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225009, China.

Soil microbial communities are affected by environmental factors. Contamination with heavy metals such as cadmium (Cd) can decrease soil microbial species richness and substantially alter soil microbial species composition. Investigations of the microbial communities in Cd-contaminated soils are necessary to obtain data for soil bioremediation efforts. Read More

Anal Methods 2021 Apr;13(15):1778-1787

Key Laboratory of Photochemical Conversion and Optoelectronic Materials, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China. and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.

Drug discovery is a complex process in which many challenges need to be overcome, from the discovery of a drug candidate to ensuring the efficacy and safety of the candidate in humans. Modern analytical methods allow tens of thousands of drug candidates to be screened for their inhibition of specific enzymes or receptors. In recent years, fluorescent probes have been used for the detection and diagnosis of human pathogens as well as high-throughput screening. Read More

Anal Chem 2021 Apr 22. Epub 2021 Apr 22.

Drug Discovery Science and Technology, AbbVie Inc., North Chicago, Illinois 60064, United States.

Mass spectrometry (MS) can provide high sensitivity and specificity for biochemical assays without the requirement of labels, eliminating the risk of assay interference. However, its use had been limited to lower-throughput assays due to the need for chromatography to overcome ion suppression from the sample matrix. Direct analysis without chromatography has the potential for high throughput if sensitivity is sufficient despite the presence of a matrix. Read More

Huan Jing Ke Xue 2021 May;42(5):2531-2540

College of Environmental Science and Engineering, China West Normal University, Nanchong 637002, China.

The aim of this study was to provide a reference for wetland resource management and ecological restoration by analyzing the influence of land use changes on the soil fungal community and its function and to identify the potential natural restoration ability of degraded riverside wetlands in the Songhua River. In July 2018, soil fungi in a natural wetland, paddy field, sand mining slash, and restoration wetland along the downstream of the Songhua River were amplified by PCR. PCR products were sequenced using the Illumina MiSeq PE300 high-throughput sequencing platform. Read More

Huan Jing Ke Xue 2021 May;42(5):2402-2412

College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China.

The process parameters and sludge properties of an in-situ sludge ozone-reduction system were investigated under different ozone dosages and sludge ages. Subsequently, 75 mg·g (as O/MLVSS) was selected as the appropriate ozone dosage to satisfy the wastewater treatment capacity and in-situ sludge ozone-reduction. The calibration coefficient results of the sludge yield formula indicated that was reduced from 0. Read More

Huan Jing Ke Xue 2021 May;42(5):2385-2395

Key Laboratory of Beijing for Water Quality Science and Water Environment Recovery Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China.

Mature aerobic granular sludge was inoculated at room temperature in an anaerobic/aerobic alternating continuous flow system. The system consisted of two independent anaerobic and aerobic tanks. Actual domestic sewage was used as the influent to explore the influence of the gas intensity and hydraulic residence time on the continuous flow system. Read More

Huan Jing Ke Xue 2021 May;42(5):2169-2178

Institute of Polar Environment & Anhui Key Laboratory of Polar Environment and Global Change, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.

The composition, physical and chemical properties, sources, and temporal and spatial changes in airborne particulate matter have been extensively investigated in previous studies. However, less is known about bioaerosols, which are mainly composed of bacteria and fungi and constitute up to 25% of the total airborne particulate matter. In this study, we used inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and ion chromatography to determine the concentrations of trace elements and water-soluble ions in atmospheric particulates, respectively. Read More

J Leukoc Biol 2021 Apr 22. Epub 2021 Apr 22.

Department of Pediatrics, The Seventh Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China.

Class switch recombination (CSR) changes the effector functions of antibodies and is carried out by classical and alternative nonhomologous end joining (c-NHEJ and A-EJ) of repetitive switch (S) region double-strand breaks (DSBs). The master DNA damage response (DDR) kinase ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) is critical for CSR in part by suppressing S region DSB resection. However, whether another related DDR kinase ATM- and Rad3-related (ATR) plays similar role in CSR remains elusive. Read More

NAR Genom Bioinform 2021 Jun 14;3(2):lqab023. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETH Zurich, 4058 Basel, Switzerland.

High-throughput single-cell sequencing (scSeq) technologies are revolutionizing the ability to molecularly profile B and T lymphocytes by offering the opportunity to simultaneously obtain information on adaptive immune receptor repertoires (VDJ repertoires) and transcriptomes. An integrated quantification of immune repertoire parameters, such as germline gene usage, clonal expansion, somatic hypermutation and transcriptional states opens up new possibilities for the high-resolution analysis of lymphocytes and the inference of antigen-specificity. While multiple tools now exist to investigate gene expression profiles from scSeq of transcriptomes, there is a lack of software dedicated to single-cell immune repertoires. Read More

Biol Methods Protoc 2021 19;6(1):bpab003. Epub 2021 Mar 19.

Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, 405 Liverpool Street, Darlinghurst, New South Wales 2010, Australia.

is one of the 59 medically actionable genes recommended by the American College of Medical Genetics for reporting of incidental findings from clinical genomic sequencing. However, half of the reported variants in the ClinVar database are classified as variants of uncertain significance. In the absence of strong clinical phenotypes, there is a need for functional phenotyping to help decipher the significance of variants identified incidentally. Read More

Sci Rep 2021 Apr 21;11(1):8614. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

CEB - Centre of Biological Engineering, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal.

Triple-negative breast cancer is the most aggressive subtype of invasive breast cancer with a poor prognosis and no approved targeted therapy. Hence, the identification of new and specific ligands is essential to develop novel targeted therapies. In this study, we aimed to identify new aptamers that bind to highly metastatic breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells using the cell-SELEX technology aided by high throughput sequencing. Read More

Sci Rep 2021 Apr 21;11(1):8671. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Institute of Marine Sciences, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Biotechnology and STU-UNIVPM Joint Algal Research Center, College of Science, Shantou University, Shantou, China.

Macroalgae host various symbionts on their surface, which play a critical role in their growth and development processes. However, there is still incomplete understanding of this epiphytic bacteria-host algae interactions. This study comprehensively analysed variation of the epiphytic bacterial communities (EBC) composition of red macroalga Gracilariopsis lemaneiformis at different geographic locations and environmental factors (i. Read More

mSphere 2021 Apr 21;6(2). Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, USA

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to place an immense burden on societies and health care systems. A key component of COVID-19 control efforts is serological testing to determine the community prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 exposure and quantify individual immune responses to prior SARS-CoV-2 infection or vaccination. Here, we describe a laboratory-developed antibody test that uses readily available research-grade reagents to detect SARS-CoV-2 exposure in patient blood samples with high sensitivity and specificity. Read More

SLAS Discov 2021 Apr 21:24725552211008862. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Helmholtz Zentrum München, Assay Development and Screening Platform, Institute of Molecular Toxicology and Pharmacology, Neuherberg, Germany.

Small-molecule screening is a powerful approach to identify modulators of either specific biological targets or cellular pathways with phenotypic endpoints. A myriad of assay technologies are available to assess the activity of enzymes, monitor protein-protein interactions, measure transcription factor activity in reporter assays, or detect cellular features and activities using high-content imaging. A common challenge during small-molecule screening is, however, the presence of hit compounds generating assay interference, thereby producing false-positive hits. Read More

SLAS Discov 2021 Apr 21:24725552211000675. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Molecular Targets Program, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD, USA.

The transfer of the small protein ubiquitin to a target protein is an intricately orchestrated process called ubiquitination that results in modulation of protein function or stability. Proper regulation of ubiquitination is essential, and dysregulation of this process is implicated in several human diseases. An example of a ubiquitination cascade that is a central signaling node in important disease-associated pathways is that of CBLB [a human homolog of a viral oncogene asitas -lineage ymphoma (CBL) from the Cas NS-1 murine retrovirus], a RING finger ubiquitin ligase (E3) whose substrates include a number of important cell-signaling kinases. Read More

Future Med Chem 2021 Apr 22. Epub 2021 Apr 22.

Alzheimer's Research UK UCL Drug Discovery Institute, University College London, Cruciform Building, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK.

Notum has recently been identified as a negative regulator of Wnt signaling through the removal of an essential palmitoleate group from Wnt proteins. There are emerging reports that Notum plays a role in human disease, with published data suggesting that targeting Notum could represent a new therapeutic approach for treating cancer, osteoporosis and neurodegenerative disorders. Complementary hit-finding strategies have been applied with successful approaches that include high-throughput screening, activity-based protein profiling, screening of fragment libraries and virtual screening campaigns. Read More

Cell Rep 2021 Apr;35(3):109026

Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne-(EPFL-SV), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. Electronic address:

Organoids allow the recapitulation of intestinal homeostasis and cancerogenesis in vitro; however, RNA sequencing (RNA-seq)-based methods for drug screens are missing. We develop targeted organoid sequencing (TORNADO-seq), a high-throughput, high-content drug discovery platform that uses targeted RNA-seq to monitor the expression of large gene signatures for the detailed evaluation of cellular phenotypes in organoids. TORNADO-seq is a fast, highly reproducible time- and cost-effective ($5 per sample) method that can probe cell mixtures and their differentiation state in the intestinal system. Read More