A brain somatic RHEB doublet mutation causes focal cortical dysplasia type II

Shanshan Zhao,Zhenghui Li,Muxian Zhang,Lingliang Zhang,Honghua Zheng,Jinhuan Ning,Yanyan Wang,Feng-Peng Wang,Xiaobin Zhang,Hexia Gan,Yuanqing Wang,Xian Zhang,Hong Luo,Guojun Bu,Huaxi Xu,Yi Yao,Yun-wu 생화학분자생물학회 2019 Experimental and molecular medicine Vol.51 No.-

Focal cortical dysplasia type II (FCDII) is a cerebral cortex malformation characterized by local cortical structure disorganization, neuronal dysmorphology, and refractory epilepsy. Brain somatic mutations in several genes involved in the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway are associated with FCDII, but they are only found in a proportion of patients with FCDII. The genetic causes underlying the development FCDII in other patients remain unclear. Here, we carried out whole exome sequencing and targeted sequencing in paired brain–blood DNA from patients with FCDII and identified a brain somatic doublet mutation c.(A104T, C105A) in the Ras homolog, mTORC1 binding (RHEB) gene, which led to the RHEB p.Y35L mutation in one patient with FCDII. This RHEB mutation carrier had a dramatic increase of ribosomal protein S6 phosphorylation, indicating mTOR activation in the region of the brain lesion. The RHEB p.Y35L mutant protein had increased GTPλS-binding activity compared with wild-type RHEB. Overexpression of the RHEB p. Y35L variant in cultured cells also resulted in elevated S6 phosphorylation compared to wild-type RHEB. Importantly, in utero electroporation of the RHEB p.Y35L variant in mice induced S6 phosphorylation, cytomegalic neurons, dysregulated neuron migration, abnormal electroencephalogram, and seizures, all of which are found in patients with FCDII. Rapamycin treatment rescued abnormal electroencephalograms and alleviated seizures in these mice. These results demonstrate that brain somatic mutations in RHEB are also responsible for the pathogenesis of FCDII, indicating that aberrant activation of mTOR signaling is a primary driver and potential drug target for FCDII.

Minus-C odorant binding protein TcasOBP7G contributes to reproduction and defense against phytochemical in the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum

Gao Shanshan,Zhang Xinyi,Zhou Can,Zhang Guangyan,Zhang Yong-lei,Li Rui-min,Zhang Kun-peng 한국응용곤충학회 2023 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.26 No.4

Insect odorant binding proteins (OBPs) paly an important role in the recognition and transmission signals. One odorant binding protein gene, TcasOBP7G, was significantly up-regulated after exposure to eucalyptol. Never theless, the causal role of TcasOBP7G in Tribolium castaneum is still unclear. Here, TcasOBP7G was cloned and characterized from T. castaneum, aligning with the typical characteristic of Minus-C OBPs. The analysis of gene expression profile showed that TcasOBP7G is highly expressed at late larval and adult stage, with particularly high expression levels in ovary and testis of adults, suggesting that TcasOBP7G might be associated with reproduction of T. castaneum. Furthermore, RNAi of TcasOBP7G led to a decrease in spawning, while the development of gonads was normal, suggesting that TcasOBP7G may medicate the reproduction of T. castaneum. Additionally, the mRNA level of TcasOBP7G was significantly increased after exposure to eucalyptol, and knockdown of TcasOBP7G resulted in an increased susceptibility of T. castaneum to eucalyptol, indicating that TcasOBP7G is associated with the tolerance of T. castaneum to eucalyptol. Altogether, these results indicate that TcasOBP7G is required for both reproduction and defense against phytochemical in T. castaneum. This study will provide a theoretical basis for the development of novel control strategies based on the olfaction of insects.

Effect of Texture and Microstructure on Tensile Behaviors in the Polycrystalline Pure Niobium

Shanshan Zhang,Yuancai Liu,Tiewei Xu,Mingxue Sun,Qi Zhang,Yong Wan 대한금속·재료학회 2021 METALS AND MATERIALS International Vol.27 No.10

Pure polycrystalline niobium had different texture and microstructure due to the RCD-60, RCD-84 and CD-84 fabricationprocesses and recrystallization at 1000 °C for 2 h. The tensile behaviors and texture evolutions of the niobium were investigatedto reveal the correlation of initial texture/microstructure and tensile properties. The crucial differences of microstructureand orientations after recrystallization would influence tensile properties of the niobium. The differences of tensile behaviorsduring tension testing correspond to the different microstructure and texture evolution in the niobium. The enhanced ⟨110⟩ //RD texture during the tensile deformation indicates that orientations of sub-structures are arranging along the tensile axis inthe RCD-60 niobium. The RCD-84 and CD-84 niobium present the other phenomenon, that sub-structures near the fractureoccur a significant rotation and the ⟨110⟩ // RD texture has been slightly changed after tensile failure. The recrystallizedniobium fabricated by the RCD-84 obtains excellent tensile properties with ultimate tensile strength of 364 MPa and elongationof 55%. The strain hardening rate of the CD-84 niobium is the highest during the initial stage of tensile deformation,and becomes lower than that of the RCD-84 niobium after the 16% strain. Furthermore, the analysis of Taylor factors isapplied to reveal the difference of hardening rates during tensile deformation due to different fabrication and recrystallizationprocesses of the polycrystalline niobium.

A new hybrid method for bearing fault diagnosis based on CEEMDAN and ACPSO-BP neural network

Shanshan Song,Shuqing Zhang,Wei Dong,Xiaowen Zhang,Wei Ma 대한기계학회 2023 JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol.37 No.11

As an important part of rotating machinery, the failure of bearings will cause serious vibration and noise of mechanical equipment, which will affect the normal operation of the equipment and even lead to economic losses and casualties. To accurately and efficiently diagnose the working state and fault category of bearings, a new fault diagnosis method for rolling bearings based on the complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition with adaptive noise (CEEMDAN), weighted permutation entropy (WPE) and adaptive chaotic particle swarm optimization back propagation (BP) neural network (ACPSO-BP) was proposed. CEEMDAN and WPE were used to extract fault features and optimize the feature vector by mean domain specification principles. ACPSO optimizes the convergence speed and recognition accuracy of the BP neural network by introducing an adaptive tent mapping interval. The experimental results on bearing data from Western Reserve University and actual wind turbine data show that the proposed diagnosis method can achieve high fault recognition accuracy with a small number of training samples.

Ultrafast Channel II process induced by a 3-D texture with enhanced acceptor order ranges for high-performance non-fullerene polymer solar cells

Chen, Shanshan,Lee, Sang Myeon,Xu, Jianqiu,Lee, Jungho,Lee, Kyu Cheol,Hou, Tianyu,Yang, Yankang,Jeong, Mingyu,Lee, Byongkyu,Cho, Yongjoon,Jung, Sungwoo,Oh, Jiyeon,Zhang, Zhi-Guo,Zhang, Chunfeng,Xiao, The Royal Society of Chemistry 2018 ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE Vol.11 No.9

<P>To achieve efficient non-fullerene polymer solar cells (NF-PSCs), an in-depth understanding of the key properties that govern the power output is necessary. Herein, three trialkylsilyl substituted benzodithiophene-based polymer donors (PJ1, PJ2, and PJ3) were synthesized with fine-tuning of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO)/lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) and optical absorption. Using the polymer series paired with absorption-complementary small molecular acceptors (SMAs), namely, <I>m</I>-ITIC, IDIC, and AIDIC, we systematically studied the performance of a 3 × 3 matrix of NF-PSCs. An increasing open-circuit voltage with deepening HOMOs of the polymer donors, and the enhanced short-circuit current (<I>J</I>SC) and fill factor (FF) were ascribed to the well-intermixed blend morphology containing enhanced SMA order ranges with mixed face-on and edge-on orientations, the so-called 3-D texture. Such an optimal microstructure is best exemplified in the PJ2:IDIC combination, affording a highest efficiency of 12.01% with a simultaneously high <I>J</I>SC of 17.0 mA cm<SUP>−2</SUP> and FF of 75.3%. The devices with an active layer thickness of 300 nm still maintain an impressive efficiency approaching 10% with a decent FF of 60.0%. Moreover, the Channel II process, <I>i.e.</I>, photoinduced hole transfer through acceptor excitation, was demonstrated to be crucially important for photocurrent generation. This study highlights the importance of optimizing the trade-off between charge separation/transport and domain size to achieve high-performance NF-PSCs.</P>

Towards Building a Digital Library Service Metadata Model on the Semantic Web

Guo Shanshan,Wenyu Zhang,Zhang Shuai,Ming Cai 보안공학연구지원센터 2015 International Journal of Database Theory and Appli Vol.8 No.5

In the current era of big data, digital library (DL) is migrating towards the directions of semantic exchanges and service interactions to facilitate DL users to search, share and reuse the digital resources in a more effective and efficient manner. This paper explores Semantic Web technologies for ontology-based modeling of DL service metadata across ubiquitous DLs, enabling to add semantics to DL services to address issues related to representation, cooperation and accessibility of services in or across the communities. In particular, the DL service metadata ontology addresses the dynamic behavior of a DL service by nesting the stateful changes, constraint rules and mapping rules to achieve the dynamic coherence for seamless service interoperability in the service lifecycle. The operation of the prototype system is demonstrated to validate the implementation of the proposed approach through access and visualization in a usage scenario.

Alpha radionuclide-chelated radioimmunotherapy promoters enable local radiotherapy/chemodynamic therapy to discourage cancer progression

Jiajia Zhang,Feize Li,Yuzhen Yin,Ning Liu,Mengqin Zhu,Han Zhang,Weihao Liu,Mengdie Yang,Shanshan Qin,Xin Fan,Yuanyou Yang,Kun Zhang,Fei Yu 한국생체재료학회 2022 생체재료학회지 Vol.26 No.4

Background: Astatine-211 is an α-emitter with high-energy α-ray and high cytotoxicity for cancer cells. However, the targeted alpha therapy (TAT) also suffers from insufficient systematic immune activation, resulting in tumor metastasis and relapse. Combined immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) with chemodynamic therapy (CDT) could boost antitumor immunity, which may magnify the immune responses of TAT. This study aims to discourage tumor metastasis and relapse by tri-model TAT-CDT-ICB strategy. Methods: We successfully designed Mn-based radioimmunotherapy promoters (211At-ATE-MnO2-BSA), which are consisting of 211At, MnO2 and bovine serum albumin (BSA). The efficacy of 211At-ATE-MnO2-BSA was studied as monotherapy or in combination with anti-PD-L1 in both metastatic and relapse models. The immune effects of radioimmunotherapy promoters on cytotoxic T lymphocytes and dendritic cells (DCs) were analyzed by flow cytometry. Enzymelinked immunosorbent assay and immunofluorescence were used to explore the underlying mechanism. Results: Such radioimmunotherapy promoters could not only enhance the therapeutic outcomes of TAT and CDT, but also induce robust anti-cancer immune activity by activating dendritic cells. More intriguingly, 211At-ATE-MnO2-BSA could effectively suppress the growths of primary tumors and distant tumors when combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Conclusions: The tri-model TAT-CDT-ICB strategy provides a long-term immunological memory, which can protect against tumor rechallenge after eliminating original tumors. Therefore, this work presents a novel approach for TATCDT-ICB tri-modal cancer therapy with repressed metastasis and relapse in clinics.

9.73% Efficiency Nonfullerene All Organic Small Molecule Solar Cells with Absorption-Complementary Donor and Acceptor

Bin, Haijun,Yang, Yankang,Zhang, Zhi-Guo,Ye, Long,Ghasemi, Masoud,Chen, Shanshan,Zhang, Yindong,Zhang, Chunfeng,Sun, Chenkai,Xue, Lingwei,Yang, Changduk,Ade, Harald,Li, Yongfang American Chemical Society 2017 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY - Vol.139 No.14

<P>In the last two years, polymer solar cells (PSCs) developed quickly with n-type organic semiconductor (n-OSs) as acceptor. In contrast, the research progress of nonfullerene organic solar cells (OSCs) with organic small molecule as donor and the n-OS as acceptor lags behind. Here, we synthesized a D-A structured medium bandgap organic small molecule H11 with bithienyl-benzodithiophene (BDTT) as central donor unit and fluorobenzo-triazole as acceptor unit, and achieved a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 9.73% for the all organic small molecules OSCs with H11 as donor and a low bandgap n-OS IDIC as acceptor. A control molecule H12 without thiophene conjugated side chains on the BDT unit was also synthesized for investigating the effect of the thiophene conjugated side chains on the photovoltaic performance of the p-type organic semiconductors (p-OSs). Compared with H12, the 2D-conjugated H11 with thiophene conjugated side chains shows intense absorption, low-lying HOMO energy level, higher hole mobility and ordered bimodal crystallite packing in the blend films. Moreover, a larger interaction parameter (chi) was observed in the H11 blends calculated from Hansen solubility parameters and differential scanning calorimetry measurements. These special features combined with the complementary absorption of H11 donor and IDIC acceptor resulted in the best PCE of 9.73% for nonfullerene all small molecule OSCs up to date. Our results indicate that fluorobenzotriazole based 2D conjugated p-OSs are promising medium bandgap donors in the nonfullerene OSCs.</P>

Characterization and identification of OsFTL8 gene in rice

Zhang Siju,Jin Yajun,Hao Hongjiao,Liang Shanshan,Ma Xuan,Luan Weijiang 한국식물생명공학회 2020 Plant biotechnology reports Vol.14 No.6

The rice genome contains 13 Flowering Locus T-Like (FT-Like) genes, among which, OsFTL2/Hd3a and OsFTL3/RFT1 are characterized as forigen-encoding genes, promoting rice fowering under short-day and long-day conditions, respectively. However, the functions of the other FT-Like members are still unknown in rice. In this study, we characterized and identifed a member of FT-Like family, OsFTL8 gene. The investigation of photoperiodic expression pattern showed that OsFTL8 transcription was mainly induced under short-day conditions. The qRT-PCR and GUS staining assays indicated that OsFTL8 was broadly expressed in various organs, including stems, leaves and panicles. OsFTL8 overexpression transgenic lines and its knockout mutants displayed no obvious change in their heading date, compared with the wild type. However, the pollen viability and seed setting rate were decreased in the overexpression transgenic lines. OsFTL8 localizes in both nucleus and cytoplasm. And we found that OsFTL8 does not interact with OsFD1 in vivo, suggesting that OsFTL8 may not be the component of forigen activation complex (FAC). In summary, our results indicate that OsFTL8 is associated with pollen viability and not involved in regulating rice fowering time, implying functional divergence of FT-Like members.

A glassy carbon electrode modified with a composite consisting of electrodeposited chitosan and carboxylated multi‑walled carbon nanotubes for simultaneous voltammetric determination of dopamine, serotonin and melatonin

Shanshan Tang,Axin Liang,Miao Liu,Wei Wang,Fulai Zhang,Aiqin Luo 한국탄소학회 2023 Carbon Letters Vol.33 No.7

A glassy carbon electrode modified with a composite consisting of electrodeposited chitosan and carboxylated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (e-CS/MWCNTs/GCE) was used as a working electrode for simultaneous determination of dopamine (DA), serotonin (5-HT) and melatonin (MT), which were related to circadian rhythms. The electrochemical characterizations of the working electrode were carried out via electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and chronocoulometry. It was found that electrochemical modification method, that was cyclic voltammetry, may can cause continuous CS polymerization on MWCNTs surface to form a dense membrane with more active sites on the electrode, and the electrochemically active surface area of e-CS/MWCNTs/GCE obtained was about 7 times that of GCE. The electrochemical behaviour of DA, 5-HT and MT on working electrode were carried out via differential pulse voltammetry and cyclic voltammetry. The results showed that e-CS/MWCNTs/GCE solved the problem that the bare electrode could not detect three substances simultaneously, and can catalyze oxidation potential difference as low as 0.17 V of two substances reaction at the same time, indicating very good electrocatalytic activity. By optimizing the detection conditions, the sensor showed a good linear response to DA, 5-HT and MT in the range of 20-1000 μmol/L, 9-1000 μmol/L and 20-1000 μmol/L, and the detection limits were 12 μmol/L, 10 μmol/L and 22 μmol/L (S/N = 3), respectively. In addition, the proposed sensor was successfully applied to the simultaneous detection of DA, 5-HT and MT in human saliva samples.