Incidence of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and brain iron accumulation increases with age. Excess iron accumulation in brain tissues post‐ICH induces oxidative stress and neuronal damage. However, ...the mechanisms underlying iron deregulation in ICH, especially in the aged ICH model have not been well elucidated. Ferroportin1 (Fpn) is the only identified nonheme iron exporter in mammals to date. In our study, we reported that Fpn was significantly upregulated in perihematomal brain tissues of both aged ICH patients and mouse model. Fpn deficiency induced by injecting an adeno‐associated virus (AAV) overexpressing cre recombinase into aged Fpn‐floxed mice significantly worsened the symptoms post‐ICH, including hematoma volume, cell apoptosis, iron accumulation, and neurologic dysfunction. Meanwhile, aged mice pretreated with a virus overexpressing Fpn showed significant improvement of these symptoms. Additionally, based on prediction of website tools, expression level of potential miRNAs in ICH tissues and results of luciferase reporter assays, miR‐124 was identified to regulate Fpn expression post‐ICH. Higher serum miR‐124 levels were correlated with poor neurologic scores of aged ICH patients. Administration of miR‐124 antagomir enhanced Fpn expression and attenuated iron accumulation in aged mice model. Both apoptosis and ferroptosis, but not necroptosis, were regulated by miR‐124/Fpn signaling manipulation. Our study demonstrated the critical role of miR‐124/Fpn signaling in iron metabolism and neuronal death post‐ICH in aged murine model. Thus, Fpn upregulation or miR‐124 inhibition might be promising therapeutic approachs for this disease.
Brain iron accumulation following ICH induced secondary brain injury and neuronal death. However, the mechanisms underlying iron deregulation in aged ICH model is poorly understood. miR‐124/Fpn signaling was downregulated in aged ICH model mice and patients as a protection mechanism. Higher serum miR‐124 levels were correlated with poor neurologic scores of aged patients. Targeting miR‐124/Fpn signaling could reduce the iron accumulation post‐ICH in aged murine model, thus ameliorated hematoma volume, cell apoptosis and neurologic dysfunction through inhibiting apoptosis and ferroptosis.
Successful infection of the host requires secretion of effector proteins to evade or suppress plant immunity. Secretion of effectors in root-infecting fungal pathogens, however, remains unexplored. ...We previously reported that Verticillium dahliae, a root-infecting phytopathogenic fungus, develops a penetration peg from a hyphopodium to infect cotton roots. In this study, we report that a septin ring, requiring VdSep5, partitions the hyphopodium and the invasive hypha and form the specialized fungus-host interface. The mutant strain, VdΔnoxb, in which NADPH oxidase B (VdNoxB) is deleted, impaired formation of the septin ring at the hyphal neck, indicating that NADPH oxidases regulate septin ring organization. Using GFP tagging and live cell imaging, we observed that several signal peptide containing secreted proteins showed ring signal accumulation/secretion at the penetration interface surrounding the hyphal neck. Targeted mutation for VdSep5 reduced the delivery rate of secretory proteins to the penetration interface. Blocking the secretory pathway by disrupting the vesicular trafficking factors, VdSec22 and VdSyn8, or the exocyst subunit, VdExo70, also arrested delivery of the secreted proteins inside the hyphopodium. Reduced virulence was observed when cotton roots were infected with VdΔsep5, VdΔsec22, VdΔsyn8 and VdΔexo70 mutants compared to infection with the isogenic wild-type V592. Taken together, our data demonstrate that the hyphal neck is an important site for protein secretion during plant root infection, and that the multiple secretory routes are involved in the secretion.
The homeostatic link between oxidative stress and autophagy plays an important role in cellular responses to a wide variety of physiological and pathological conditions. However, the regulatory ...pathway and outcomes remain incompletely understood. Here, we show that reactive oxygen species (ROS) function as signaling molecules that regulate autophagy through ataxia‐telangiectasia mutated (ATM) and cell cycle checkpoint kinase 2 (CHK2), a DNA damage response (DDR) pathway activated during metabolic and hypoxic stress. We report that CHK2 binds to and phosphorylates Beclin 1 at Ser90/Ser93, thereby impairing Beclin 1‐Bcl‐2 autophagy‐regulatory complex formation in a ROS‐dependent fashion. We further demonstrate that CHK2‐mediated autophagy has an unexpected role in reducing ROS levels via the removal of damaged mitochondria, which is required for cell survival under stress conditions. Finally, CHK2−/− mice display aggravated infarct phenotypes and reduced Beclin 1 p‐Ser90/Ser93 in a cerebral stroke model, suggesting an in vivo role of CHK2‐induced autophagy in cell survival. Taken together, these results indicate that the ROS‐ATM‐CHK2‐Beclin 1‐autophagy axis serves as a physiological adaptation pathway that protects cells exposed to pathological conditions from stress‐induced tissue damage.
Synopsis
Whether hypoxia and nutrient starvation are coupled to cellular autophagy remains unclear. Here, DNA damage response kinases ATM and CHK2 are shown to trigger autophagy in response to reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation, suggesting a novel physiological adaptation pathway toward metabolic stress.
Depletion of CHK2 or ATM impairs oxidative stress‐induced autophagy in MEFs.
CHK2 binds and phosphorylates Beclin1 at Ser90/Ser93, suppressing Beclin1‐Bcl‐2 autophagy regulatory complex formation.
CHK2‐induced autophagy limits intracellular ROS levels by clearing damaged mitochondria.
CHK2‐induced autophagy protects against cell death and tissue damage following cerebral ischemia.
ROS accumulation activates protective autophagy to prevent stress‐induced tissue damage.
Abstract A number of anticancer drugs, such as doxorubicin (DOX), operate only after being transported into the nucleus of cancer cells. Thus it is essential for the drug carriers to effectively ...release the anticancer drugs into the cytoplasm of cancer cells and make them move to nucleus freely. Herein, a pH-responsive charge-reversal polyelectrolyte and integrin αⅤ β3 mono-antibody functionalized graphene oxide (GO) complex is constituted as a nanocarrier for targeted delivery and controlled release of DOX into cancer cells. The DOX loading and releasing in vitro demonstrates that this nanocarrier cannot only load DOX with high efficiency, but also effectively release it under mild acidic pH stimulation. Cellular toxicity assay, confocal laser scanning microscopy and flow cytometer analysis results together confirm that with the targeting nanocarrier, DOX can be selectively transported into the targeted cancer cells. Then they will be effectively released from the nanocarriers in cytoplasm and moved into the nucleus subsequently, stimulating by charge-reverse of the polyelectrolyte in acidic intracellular compartments. The effective delivery and release of the anticancer drugs into nucleus of the targeted cancer cells will lead to a high therapeutic efficiency. Hence, such a targeting nanocarrier prepared from GO and charge-reversal polyelectrolytes is likely to be an available candidate for targeted drug delivery in tumor therapy.
In this paper, we investigate the complexity growth of the tensionless limit of string in the neutral BTZ black hole horizon in massive gravity. When the string approaches the horizon, we observe a ...novel phenomenon for the Nambu–Goto action growth that produces significant difference from tensile string geometry. The string’s tension is then suggested to partially contribute to the growth of the action. We also argue a potential proposal that reconstructs the complexity from the renormalization group (RG) flow.
Accurate modeling and parameter identification of photovoltaic (PV) cells is a difficult task due to the nonlinear characteristics of PV cells. The goal of this paper is to propose a multi strategy ...sine–cosine algorithm (SCA), named enhanced sine–cosine algorithm (ESCA), to evaluate nondirectly measurable parameters of PV cells. The ESCA introduces the concept of population average position to increase the population exploration ability, and at the same time introduces the personal destination agent mutation mechanism and competitive selection mechanism into SCA to provide more search directions for ESCA while ensuring the search accuracy and diversity maintenance. To prove that the proposed ESCA is the best choice for extracting nondirectly measurable parameters of PV cells, ESCA is evaluated by the single‐diode model, the double‐diode model, the three‐diode model, and the photovoltaic module model (PVM), and compared with eight existing popular methods. Experimental results show that ESCA outperforms similar methods in terms of diversity maintenance, high efficiency, and stability. In particular, the proposed ESCA method is less than the SCA by 0.081, 0.144, and 0.578 in the standard deviation statistics metrics of the three PVM models (PV‐PWP201, STM6‐40/36, and STP6‐120/36), respectively. Therefore, the proposed ESCA is an accurate and reliable method for parameter identification of PV cells.
Figure 6. The flowchart of enhanced sine–cosine algorithm.
Key Clinical Message
Splenic tissue outside the normal anatomical site can be collectively referred to as ectopic spleen. Clinically, the commonest causes of ectopic spleen include accessory spleen, ...splenic tissue implantation, and splenogonadal fusion (SGF). Accessory spleen is mostly caused by congenital dysplasia, is mostly located near the spleen, and may be supplied by the splenic artery. Splenic implantation is mostly caused by autologous spleen tissue transplantation caused by trauma or surgery. SGF is the abnormal fusion of the spleen with the gonad or with the mesonephric derivatives. As a rare developmental malformation, it is difficult to make a correct diagnosis preoperatively, and easily misdiagnosed as a testicular tumor cause lifelong harm to patients. An 18‐year‐old male student who developed left testicular pain without obvious cause that radiated to the perineum 4 months prior to presentation. He was diagnosed with cryptorchidism 12 years ago and underwent orchiopexy without intraoperative frozen section examination. An ultrasound was performed, identifying hypoechoic nodules in the left testis, suggestive of seminoma. During surgery, the testicular tumor revealed a dark red tissue and the diagnosis of a pathological ectopic splenic tissue was made. Because the clinical manifestations of SGF are not specific, misdiagnosis and unnecessary orchiectomy may occur. If a complete preoperative examination which includes biopsy or intraoperative frozen section is performed, unnecessary orchiectomy can be effectively avoided and bilateral fertility can be preserved.
Tetraphenylethylene and its derivatives are a class of aggregation-induced emission (AIE) compounds that are most extensively and successfully studied. It has been found that the simplest TPE is easy ...to crystallize into homochiral M crystals or P crystals. However, no research on circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) of TPE solid is documented. In this paper, we report that TPE can grow into big and nonefflorescent single crystals in single helical conformation and has large birefringence that is comparative with commercially available products. The TPE single crystals can emit strong CPL with a very high g lum value up to 0.53. Moreover, the sense and magnitude of CPL signals can be willfully tuned by simple rotation of the single crystal due to anisotropy of the crystals. This simple and promising CPL photonic material integrates emission, chirality, and birefringence together in one single crystal without needing an additional chiral dopant or conjugate polymer that can produce linearly polarized light. After being ground into fine powder and pressed as KBr pellets, the obtained nanocrystals of TPE also emit strong CPL light. Exceptionally, by mixing other achiral luminescent dyes together with TPE powder in KBr pellets, induced CPL signals were obtained, which could give full-color CPL emission. Although there were no interactions between TPE and the dyes in the pellets, induced CPL signals were realized through radiative energy transfer, providing a very simple method for the tuning of CPL emission.
Effects of molecular vacancies on the decomposition mechanisms and reaction dynamics of condensed-phase β-HMX at various temperatures were studied using ReaxFF molecular dynamics simulations. Results ...show that three primary initial decomposition mechanisms, namely, N−NO2 bond dissociation, HONO elimination, and concerted ring fission, exist at both high and lower temperatures. The contribution of the three mechanisms to the initial decomposition of HMX is influenced by molecular vacancies, and the effects vary with temperature. At high temperature (2500 K), molecular vacancies remarkably promote N−N bond cleavage and concerted ring breaking but hinder HONO formation. N−N bond dissociation and HONO elimination are two primary competing reaction mechanisms, and the former is dominant in the initial decomposition. Concerted ring breaking of condensed-phase HMX is not favored at high temperature. At lower temperature (1500 K), the most preferential initial decomposition pathway is N−N bond dissociation followed by the formation of NO3 (O migration), although all three mechanisms are promoted by molecular vacancies. The promotion effect on concerted ring breaking is considerable at lower temperature. Products resulting from concerted ring breaking appear in the defective system but not in the perfect crystal. The mechanism of HONO elimination is less important at lower temperature. We also estimated the reaction rate constant and activation barriers of initial decomposition with different vacancy concentrations. Molecular vacancies accelerate the decomposition of condensed-phase HMX by increasing the reaction rate constant and reducing activation barriers.
Lithium–sulfur batteries hold great promise for serving as next generation high energy density batteries. However, the shuttle of polysulfide induces rapid capacity degradation and poor cycling ...stability of lithium–sulfur cells. Herein, we proposed a unique lithium–sulfur battery configuration with an ultrathin graphene oxide (GO) membrane for high stability. The oxygen electronegative atoms modified GO into a polar plane, and the carboxyl groups acted as ion-hopping sites of positively charged species (Li+) and rejected the transportation of negatively charged species (S n 2–) due to the electrostatic interactions. Such electrostatic repulsion and physical inhibition largely decreased the transference of polysulfides across the GO membrane in the lithium–sulfur system. Consequently, the GO membrane with highly tunable functionalization properties, high mechanical strength, low electric conductivity, and facile fabrication procedure is an effective permselective separator system in lithium–sulfur batteries. By the incorporation of a permselective GO membrane, the cyclic capacity decay rate is also reduced from 0.49 to 0.23%/cycle. As the GO membrane blocks the diffusion of polysulfides through the membrane, it is also with advantages of anti-self-discharge properties.