RIPK1 is a death-domain (DD) containing kinase involved in regulating apoptosis, necroptosis and inflammation. RIPK1 activation is known to be regulated by its DD-mediated interaction and ...ubiquitination, though underlying mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Here we show that K627 in human RIPK1-DD and its equivalent K612 in murine RIPK1-DD is a key ubiquitination site that regulates the overall ubiquitination pattern of RIPK1 and its DD-mediated interactions with other DD-containing proteins. K627R/K612R mutation inhibits the activation of RIPK1 and blocks both apoptosis and necroptosis mediated by TNFR1 signaling. However, Ripk1
mutation sensitizes cells to necroptosis and caspase-1 activation in response to TLRs signaling. Ripk1
mice are viable, but develop age-dependent reduction of RIPK1 expression, spontaneous intestinal inflammation and splenomegaly, which can be rescued by antibiotic treatment and partially by Ripk3 deficiency. Furthermore, we show that the interaction of RIPK1 with FADD contributes to suppressing the activation of RIPK3 mediated by TLRs signaling. Our study demonstrates the distinct roles of K612 ubiquitination in mRIPK1/K627 ubiquitination in hRIPK1 in regulating its pro-death kinase activity in response to TNFα and pro-survival activity in response to TLRs signaling.
The simply prepared CuMgAl hydrotalcite (CuMgAl-LDH) has been developed as an efficient catalyst for the aerobic oxidation of ethylbenzene to acetophenone in the presence of N-Hydroxyphthalimide ...(NHPI). Various alkyl arenes could be tolerated under the selected reaction conditions. The kinetic study showed that the oxidation of ethylbenzene is a first-order reaction over CuMgAl-LDH. The mechanism study indicated that CuMgAl-LDH could accelerate not only the conversion of ethylbenzene, but also the transformation of the alcohol intermediate to ketone. The positive effect of surface basicity of the catalyst on the reaction has been observed in the aerobic oxidation of the ethylbenzene.
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•CuMgAl-LDH can efficiently catalyze the aerobic oxidation of ethylbenzene in the presence of NHPI.•Various substrates can be tolerated under the CuMgAl-LDH/NHPI/O2 system.•The kinetic study showed that the oxidation of ethylbenzene is a first-order reaction over CuMgAl-LDH.•The mechanism for the oxidation over CuMgAl-LDH with NHPI was systematically studied.•The positive effect of surface basicity of the catalyst on the reaction has been observed.
Osteoarthritis (OA) is considered to be the most common joint disorder. Exogenous drug intervention is one of the effective means for OA treatment. Clinical applications of numerous drugs are ...restricted owing to the short retention as well as rapid clearance in the joint cavity. A wide variety of carrier-based nanodrugs have been developed, but additional carriers may bring unexpected side effects or even toxicity. Herein, by exploiting the spontaneous fluorescence of Curcumin, we designed a new carrier-free self-assembly nanomedicine Curcumin (Cur)/icariin (ICA) nanoparticles with adjustable particle size, which is composed of two small-molecule natural drugs assembled via π–π stacking interaction. Experimental results revealed that Cur/ICA NPs endowed with little cytotoxicity, high cellular uptake and sustained drug release, could inhibit secretion of inflammatory cytokines and reduce cartilage degeneration. Moreover, both the in vitro and in vivo experiments showed the NPs exerted superior synergism effects in anti-inflammatory and cartilage protection than either Cur or ICA alone, and self-monitored its retention by autofluorescence. Thus, the new self-assembly nano-drug combining Cur and ICA represents a new strategy for the treatment of osteoarthritis.
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•Carrier free nanodrug Cur@ICA via π-π stacking interaction is fabricated.•The nanoparticle presents the ability of autofluorescence and pH responsiveness.•Cur@ICA NPs exhibit an enhanced synergistic therapeutic activity against osteoarthritis.
Apoptosis and necroptosis are two distinct cell death mechanisms that may be activated in cells on stimulation by TNFα. It is still unclear, however, how apoptosis and necroptosis may be ...differentially regulated. Here we screened for E3 ubiquitin ligases that could mediate necroptosis. We found that deficiency of Pellino 1 (PELI1), an E3 ubiquitin ligase, blocked necroptosis. We show that PELI1 mediates K63 ubiquitination on K115 of RIPK1 in a kinase-dependent manner during necroptosis. Ubiquitination of RIPK1 by PELI1 promotes the formation of necrosome and execution of necroptosis. Although PELI1 is not directly involved in mediating the activation of RIPK1, it is indispensable for promoting the binding of activated RIPK1 with its downstream mediator RIPK3 to promote the activation of RIPK3 and MLKL. Inhibition of RIPK1 kinase activity blocks PELI1-mediated ubiquitination of RIPK1 in necroptosis. However, we show that PELI1 deficiency sensitizes cells to both RIPK1-dependent and RIPK1-independent apoptosis as a result of down-regulated expression of c-FLIP, an inhibitor of caspase-8. Finally, we show that Peli1
−/− mice are sensitized to TNFα-induced apoptosis. Thus, PELI1 is a key modulator of RIPK1 that differentially controls the activation of necroptosis and apoptosis.
The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) and autophagy are two major intracellular degradative mechanisms that mediate the turnover of complementary repertoires of intracellular proteomes. ...Simultaneously activating both UPS and autophagy might provide a powerful strategy for the clearance of misfolded proteins. However, it is not clear whether UPS and autophagy can be controlled by a common regulatory mechanism. K48 deubiquitination by USP14 is known to inhibit UPS. Here we show that USP14 regulates autophagy by negatively controlling K63 ubiquitination of Beclin 1. Furthermore, we show that activation of USP14 by Akt-mediated phosphorylation provides a mechanism for Akt to negatively regulate autophagy by promoting K63 deubiquitination. Our study suggests that Akt-regulated USP14 activity modulates both proteasomal degradation and autophagy through controlling K48 and K63 ubiquitination, respectively. Therefore, regulation of USP14 provides a mechanism for Akt to control both proteasomal and autophagic degradation. We propose that inhibition of USP14 may provide a strategy to promote both UPS and autophagy for developing novel therapeutics targeting neurodegenerative diseases.
It is important for robot designers to know how to make robots that interact effectively with humans. One key dimension is robot appearance and in particular how humanlike the robot should be. ...Uncanny Valley theory suggests that robots look uncanny when their appearance approaches, but is not absolutely, human. An underlying mechanism may be that appearance affects users' perceptions of the robot's personality and mind. This study aimed to investigate how robot facial appearance affected perceptions of the robot's mind, personality and eeriness. A repeated measures experiment was conducted. 30 participants (14 females and 16 males, mean age 22.5 years) interacted with a Peoplebot healthcare robot under three conditions in a randomized order: the robot had either a humanlike face, silver face, or no-face on its display screen. Each time, the robot assisted the participant to take his/her blood pressure. Participants rated the robot's mind, personality, and eeriness in each condition. The robot with the humanlike face display was most preferred, rated as having most mind, being most humanlike, alive, sociable and amiable. The robot with the silver face display was least preferred, rated most eerie, moderate in mind, humanlikeness and amiability. The robot with the no-face display was rated least sociable and amiable. There was no difference in blood pressure readings between the robots with different face displays. Higher ratings of eeriness were related to impressions of the robot with the humanlike face display being less amiable, less sociable and less trustworthy. These results suggest that the more humanlike a healthcare robot's face display is, the more people attribute mind and positive personality characteristics to it. Eeriness was related to negative impressions of the robot's personality. Designers should be aware that the face on a robot's display screen can affect both the perceived mind and personality of the robot.
All tissues of organisms will become old as time goes on. In recent years, epigenetic investigations have found that there is a close correlation between DNA methylation and aging. With the ...development of DNA methylation research, a quantitative statistical relationship between DNA methylation and different ages was established based on the change rule of methylation with age, it is then possible to predict the age of individuals. All the data in this work were retrieved from the Illumina HumanMethylation BeadChip platform (27K or 450K). We analyzed 16 sets of healthy samples and 9 sets of diseased samples. The healthy samples included a total of 1899 publicly available blood samples (0⁻103 years old) and the diseased samples included 2395 blood samples. Six age-related CpG sites were selected through calculating Pearson correlation coefficients between age and DNA methylation values. We built a gradient boosting regressor model for these age-related CpG sites. 70% of the data was randomly selected as training data and the other 30% as independent data in each dataset for 25 runs in total. In the training dataset, the healthy samples showed that the correlation between predicted age and DNA methylation was 0.97, and the mean absolute deviation (MAD) was 2.72 years. In the independent dataset, the MAD was 4.06 years. The proposed model was further tested using the diseased samples. The MAD was 5.44 years for the training dataset and 7.08 years for the independent dataset. Furthermore, our model worked well when it was applied to saliva samples. These results illustrated that the age prediction based on six DNA methylation markers is very effective using the gradient boosting regressor.
•We compared responses to a robot with responses to a computer in a health context.•Participants spoke and smiled more towards the robot than the tablet.•Participants were more likely to follow ...relaxation instructions when given by the robot.•The robot was rated more favourably and more likeable than the tablet.•Robots can offer advantages over a computer tablet in healthcare.
The population of the world is ageing, particularly in developed countries. As the population’s age increases, the healthcare workforce is becoming progressively unable to meet the high healthcare demands of the elderly population. Increasingly, technology is being used to solve this dilemma. Using a sample from the general population (n=65), this study examined how people interacted with either a robot or a tablet computer delivering healthcare instructions. During this interaction, the robot/tablet asked them several health-related questions, and to perform limited physical tests and a relaxation exercise. Results showed participants had more positive interactions with the robot compared to the computer tablet, including increased speech and positive emotion (smiling), and participation in the relaxation exercise. Further results showed the robot was rated higher on scales of trust, enjoyment, and desire for future interaction. This suggests that robots may offer benefits over and above computer tablets in delivering healthcare. These results further demonstrate that the physical nature of technology is important in determining responses to healthcare interactions.
Forced expression of selected transcription factors can transform somatic cells into embryonic stem cell (ESC)-like cells, termed induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). There is no consensus ...regarding the preferred tissue from which to harvest donor cells for reprogramming into iPSCs, and some donor cell types may be more prone than others to accumulation of epigenetic imprints and somatic cell mutations. Here, we present a simple, reproducible, noninvasive method for generating human iPSCs from renal tubular cells present in urine. This procedure eliminates many problems associated with other protocols, and the resulting iPSCs display an excellent ability to differentiate. These data suggest that urine may be a preferred source for generating iPSCs.
Chemotherapy has been the standard treatment for liver cancer. However, intrinsic or acquired drug resistance remains a major barrier to successful treatment. At present, the underlying molecular ...mechanisms of chemoresistance in liver cancer have not been elucidated. Dipeptidyl peptidase 9 (DPP9) is a member of the dipeptidyl peptidase IV family that has been found to be highly expressed in a variety of tumors, including liver cancer. It is unclear whether DPP9 affects chemoresistance in liver cancer. In this study, we find that DPP9 weakens the responses of liver cancer cells to chemotherapy drugs by up-regulating NQO1 and inhibiting intracellular ROS levels. In terms of mechanism, DPP9 inhibits ubiquitin-mediated degradation of NRF2 protein by binding to KEAP1, up-regulates NRF2 protein levels, promotes mRNA transcription of NQO1, and inhibits intracellular ROS levels. In addition, the NQO1 inhibitor dicoumarol can enhance the efficacy of chemotherapy drugs in liver cancer cells. Collectively, our findings suggest that inhibiting DPP9/NQO1 signaling can serve as a potential therapeutic strategy for liver cancer.
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