Anxiety is common in patients suffering from chronic pain. Here, we report anxiety-like behaviors in mouse models of chronic pain and reveal that nNOS-expressing neurons in ventromedial prefrontal ...cortex (vmPFC) are essential for pain-induced anxiety but not algesia, using optogenetic and chemogenetic strategies. Additionally, we determined that excitatory projections from the posterior subregion of paraventricular thalamic nucleus (pPVT) provide a neuronal input that drives the activation of vmPFC nNOS-expressing neurons in our chronic pain models. Our results suggest that the pain signal becomes an anxiety signal after activation of vmPFC nNOS-expressing neurons, which causes subsequent release of nitric oxide (NO). Finally, we show that the downstream molecular mechanisms of NO likely involve enhanced glutamate transmission in vmPFC CaMKIIα-expressing neurons through S-nitrosylation-induced AMPAR trafficking. Overall, our data suggest that pPVT excitatory neurons drive chronic pain-induced anxiety through activation of vmPFC nNOS-expressing neurons, resulting in NO-mediated AMPAR trafficking in vmPFC pyramidal neurons.
Alginate oligosaccharides (AOs) prepared through enzymatic reaction by diverse alginate lyases under relatively controllable and moderate conditions possess versatile biological activities. But ...widely used commercial alginate lyases are still rather rare due to their poor properties (e.g., lower activity, worse thermostability, ion tolerance, etc.). In this work, the alginate lyase Alyw208, derived from Vibrio sp. W2, was expressed in Yarrowia lipolytica of food grade and characterized in order to obtain an enzyme with excellent properties adapted to industrial requirements. Alyw208 classified into the polysaccharide lyase (PL) 7 family showed maximum activity at 35 °C and pH 10.0, indicating its cold-adapted and high-alkaline properties. Furthermore, Alyw208 preserved over 70% of the relative activity within the range of 10–55 °C, with a broader temperature range for the activity compared to other alginate-degrading enzymes with cold adaptation. Recombinant Alyw208 was significantly activated with 1.5 M NaCl to around 2.1 times relative activity. In addition, the endolytic Alyw208 was polyG-preferred, but identified as a bifunctional alginate lyase that could degrade both polyM and polyG effectively, releasing AOs with degrees of polymerization (DPs) of 2–6 and alginate monomers as the final products (that is, DPs 1–6). Alyw208 has been suggested with favorable properties to be a potent candidate for biotechnological and industrial applications.
The selective oxidation of methane to high value‐added liquid oxygenated compounds under mild conditions is of great significance to promote the efficient utilization of the carbon source, but it ...also faces the dilemma of low activity and over‐oxidation. Here, ZnTi‐layered double hydroxides (LDH)‐A200 photocatalysts with Pd loading are prepared to achieve efficient oxidation of methane, with O2 as an oxidant under ambient condition. The highest generation rate of C1 liquid products (methanol and formaldehyde) reaches 4924.47 µmol g−1 h−1 with a selectivity close to 100% over 0.5Pd‐ZnTi‐LDH‐A200, which is 20 times higher than that of bare ZnTi‐LDH‐A200. The photochemical results show that the modified photocatalysts present much higher generation and separation efficiency of electron‐hole pairs. In situ X–ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicates that Pd nanoparticles are the hole acceptor, which is beneficial to charge separation in the photocatalysis. Furthermore, electron spinresonance spectroscopy and temperature–programmed–desorption analysis prove that Pd loading is helpful to the adsorption of methane and oxygen on the surface of ZnTi‐LDH‐A200, promoting the production of reactive oxygen species and activation of methane. All these factors work together to promote the efficient conversion of CH4 to high value‐added C1 oxygenates.
Pd‐assisted layered double hydroxides facilitate the photocatalytic conversion of CH4 to high value‐added C1 oxygenated compounds with nearly 100% selectivity under ambient conditions using O2 as the oxidant. The loaded Pd not only acts as the adsorption sites of CH4, but also acts as the hole acceptor to active CH4 and promote the separation of photocarriers.
Tensor network states and parton wave functions are two pivotal methods for studying quantum many-body systems. This work connects these two subjects as we demonstrate that a variety of parton wave ...functions, such as projected Fermi sea and projected fermionic or bosonic paired states, can be represented exactly as tensor networks. The results can be compressed into matrix product states with moderate bond dimensions so various physical quantities can be computed efficiently. For the projected Fermi sea, we develop an excellent compression scheme with high fidelity using maximally localized Wannier orbitals. Numerical calculations on two parton wave functions demonstrate that our method exceeds commonly adopted Monte Carlo methods in some aspects. It produces energy and correlation function with very high accuracy that is difficult to achieve using Monte Carlo method. The entanglement measures that were almost impossible to compute before can also be obtained easily using our method.
The edible fungi have both edible and medicinal functions, in which terpenoids are one of the most important active ingredients. Terpenoids possess a wide range of biological activities and show ...great potential in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. In this review, the diverse biological activities of edible fungi terpenoids were summarized with emphasis on the mechanism of anti-cancer and anti-inflammation. Subsequently, this review focuses on advances in knowledge and understanding of the biosynthesis of terpenoids in edible fungi, especially in the generation of sesquiterpenes, diterpenes, and triterpenes. This paper is aim to provide an overview of biological functions and biosynthesis developed for utilizing the terpenoids in edible fungi.
In this work, oxygen vacancy‐rich C/TiO2 (OV‐C/TiO2) samples are prepared by a one‐step calcination approach using Ti3C2 MXene as the precursor, and used for the photocatalytic N2 reduction. The NH3 ...yields of all the prepared OV‐C/TiO2 samples exceed those achieved on commercial anatase TiO2 and P25, with both H2O and CH3OH as the proton sources. Among them, the OV‐C/TiO2‐600 offers the remarkable NH3 synthesis rates, which are 41.00 µmol g−1 h−1 (with H2O as the proton source) and 84.00 µmol g−1 h−1 (with CH3OH as the proton source). The photocurrent and fluorescence spectra show that OV‐C/TiO2‐600 exhibit the highest generation/separation rate and longest lifetime of photocarriers among all the prepared samples. ESR and TPD experiments confirm much more efficient chemisoption of N2 on the surface of the prepared OV‐C/TiO2‐600 than that on the surface of the commercial anatase TiO2. Moreover, DFT calculations further demonstrate that N2 conversion to NH3 through a Gibbs free energy release leading alternating pathway with a low energy barriers, on the oxygen vacancy on TiO2 surface.
This work fabricates a novel TiO2 architecture with abundant vacancies in a repeatable way, by using Ti3C2 MXene as the precursor. The fabricated novel TiO2 architecture is demonstrated to be highly effective for the photocatalytic NH3 synthesis process, with both H2O and CH3OH as proton sources.
Neurotrophic factors can promote the proliferation and differentiation of neural stem cells (NSCs). Here we report that the possibility of using bFGF in combination with BDNF and NGF to promote ...proliferation and differentiation of NSCs in vitro. C57BL/6 mouse NSCs were cultured, passaged and stained by immunofluorescence for nestin and GFP. According to different neurotrophic factors added to NSCs, seven experiment groups (NGF, BDNF, bFGF, bFGF+NGF, bFGF+BDNF, NGF+BDNF and NGF+BDNF+bFGF) and a blank control group were established. One week after induction and differentiation, results showed that there was significant difference in the percentage of NSCs differentiating into neurons among the experiment groups. The percentage in the multi-factor groups was significantly higher than that in the single-factor groups (p<0.05), among which the percentage was the highest in NGF+BDNF+bFGF group. In the two-factor groups, the percentage in bFGF+NGF and bFGF+BDNF groups was significantly higher than that in NGF+BDNF group (p<0.05). The NSCs growth curves showed that cells proliferated continuously with the time of culture prolonging, but there was significant difference between the group containing bFGF and that without bFGF. Our results demonstrate that combined use of NGF/BDNF/bFGF significantly improved the ability of NSCs proliferation and differentiation.
Reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) is a sensitive technique for quantifying gene expression, but its success depends on the stability of the reference gene(s) used for data ...normalization. Only a few studies on validation of reference genes have been conducted in fruit trees and none in banana yet. In the present work, 20 candidate reference genes were selected, and their expression stability in 144 banana samples were evaluated and analyzed using two algorithms, geNorm and NormFinder. The samples consisted of eight sample sets collected under different experimental conditions, including various tissues, developmental stages, postharvest ripening, stresses (chilling, high temperature, and pathogen), and hormone treatments. Our results showed that different suitable reference gene(s) or combination of reference genes for normalization should be selected depending on the experimental conditions. The RPS2 and UBQ2 genes were validated as the most suitable reference genes across all tested samples. More importantly, our data further showed that the widely used reference genes, ACT and GAPDH, were not the most suitable reference genes in many banana sample sets. In addition, the expression of MaEBF1, a gene of interest that plays an important role in regulating fruit ripening, under different experimental conditions was used to further confirm the validated reference genes. Taken together, our results provide guidelines for reference gene(s) selection under different experimental conditions and a foundation for more accurate and widespread use of RT-qPCR in banana.
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