Abstract:Desmosome not only participates in the connections of epithelial cell and cardiomyocyte to enhance the cell adhesion when subjected to mechanical stress,it also regulates signal pathways of cell behavior.Since the discovery of Pinin(PNN),a desmosome-associated protein,its position and function are controversial.Current results indicate that PNN has two types:a desmosome-like PNN co-localized with desmosomes on the cell membrane,and a karyotype PNN located in the nucleus.The former participates in epithelial cell adhesion,the latter is related to the alternative splicing function of genes.Recent studies have found that PNN is closely related to tumorigenesis via different molecular mechanism.This article reviews the biological function of PNN and its relationship with tumorigenesis.

Abstract:Mitochondria are important organelles for eukaryotic energy metabolism and are the main sites for oxidative phosphorylation of cells to produce ATP.It participates in the physiological functions of cell energy metabolism,maintaining ion concentration gradient,and transmitting apoptosis signals.Diseases such as Alzheimer disease,Parkinson disease,and myocardial infarction are associated with mitochondrial dysfunction. In recent years,it has been found that mitochondrial transfer occurs between cells in the brain,heart,and lung during hypoxia caused by trauma or inflammation.Intercellular mitochondrial transfer,as an evolutionarily conserved phenomenon,may be associated with neurodegradation,cardiovascular disease,and the like.

Abstract:With the wide application of nanomaterials in many fields such as food, drug and biomedicine, their negative impact on the health of human beings in the process of production and use has attracted much attention. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER), an important organelle and functions in folding and assembling of cellular proteins, synthesis of lipids, and storage of free calcium, is sensitive to stress. ER as one of the most sensitive targets of nanomaterials play important role in the toxicity of nanomaterials. This review summarizes the recent studies on the role of ER in the nanotoxicology of several typical nanomaterials, including silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs), titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO₂-NPs), zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs), gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs), silica nanoparticles (SiO₂-NPs), fullerene, single/multi-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs/MWCNTs) and grapheme/grapheme oxide (GO), and analysis the difference. The nanomaterials can cause ER stress, and in turn induce apoptosis, inflammation and autophagy. They can also activate the release of Ca²⁺ from the ER Ca²⁺ stores through IP₃ pathway and further trigger calcium-regulated apoptotic cell death. Nanomaterials tend to accumulate in ER causing damage of ER and inducing ER autophagy.

Abstract:S-glutathionylation, the formation of disulphide of glutathione and target protein cysteine residues, is a post-translational modification that modulates the function of target protein. Besides its formation, the deglutathionylation of protein can also be reversibly catalyzed by glutaredoxin (Grx). The S-glutathionylation modification is also considered to be a protective mechanism for preventing cysteine residues of protein from irreversible oxidation. Since it changes the structure and function of the redox-sensitive thiol-containing protein, S-glutathionylation therefore is a mechanism responsible for the regulation of protein function. The changes in the levels of S-glutathionylation in mammalian cells are associated with many pathologic mechanisms. However, the research of S-glutathionylation in plants is just the beginning. In this paper, the research progress in mechanism, detecting method, and physiological action of S-glutathionylation were reviewed. Finally, the important problems in the future research were also put forward.

Abstract:Mycobacteria tuberculosis (MTB) is the pathogen responsible for tuberculosis. It can exist in the infected-macrophages for a long time and trigger the disease when the appropriate conditions arise. The primary way to kill intracellular bacteria is via the oxygen-independent route. In this route, macrophages mainly rid themselves of parasites by autophagy where autophagosomes and lysosomes are fused into autophagolysosomes. However, MTB can resist to autophagy and avoid being killed by the immune system of host cells in several ways, thereby co-existing with the host. MicroRNAs (miRNA) are endogenous non-coding single-chain RNA molecules that can silence related genes expression in a post-transcriptional manner. They are crucial molecules for mediating inflammatory reactions between MTB and inflammatory cells. Recent studies found that MTB can induce the expression of certain specific miRNAs in macrophages and target genes related to autophagy and therefore inhibit triggering and progression of autophagy. This mechanism confers resistance to autophagy. The present review summarizes the role of miRNA in the resistance to autophagy by MTB.

Abstract:Although the harm of mental illness is serious,its pathogenesis remains unclear,clinical treatment is not effective,and there are obvious individual differences.Recent precision medical research has discovered the role of gene polymorphism in the individualized treatment of drugs.Based on the three major systems of serotonin,norepinephrine and dopaminergic,this article systematically reviewed the research progress of psychiatric pharmacogenomics and imaging pharmacogenomics studies,and explored in depth the mechanism of action of the brain,the mechanism of drug action,and gene-drug-brain interactions.We found that genetic polymorphisms such as SLC6A4,BDNF,FKBP5,COMT,and dopamine-related receptors were found to correlate with the occurrence of multiple mental disorders and the efficacy of antidepressant treatment,and consequently may be candidates for the diagnosis of related mental disorders.The cortical and subcortical brain regions including the amygdala,the hippocampus,the orbitofrontal cortex,the anterior cingulate cortex and the prefrontal lobe may be the key targets of the effect of different neurotransmitter gene polymorphisms on the biochemical process of psychotropic drugs.These related important brain areas may become biological markers for the diagnosis and treatment of related mental disorders.However,in the establishment of psychotropic drug-gene-neuroimaging-behavior causal chain,there are still many contradictory results and limitations.Therefore,the studies on homogenous clinical trials and epigenetic effects can be recommended as future research trends.

Abstract:The onset of age-related differences in time perception occur late in human life.Research demonstrated that the proposed internal clock slows down and its variation increases as people get old.The general cognitive abilities such as attention and memory decline with age,leading to decline in time perception.Temporal estimation depends on the interaction of multiple brain regions,including regions that are consistently involved in temporal processing(the core networks)and regions that are activated when processing context-dependent information(the context networks).It suggests that time perception depends on the function of "core-context" brain networks.Some neurodegeneration diseases affect the networks.Patients with these diseases showed poor performance in temporal tasks.Within a certain age range,older people could maintain relatively good temporal cognitive function as younger adults through cognitive compensation strategies.Future studies would explore how to slow down aging process by cognitive training as well as brain stimulation techniques.

Abstract:Hair shaft is one kind of important biological evidence and is widely collected in the crime scene. However,it is very difficult to obtain full STR profiles as the nuclear DNA of hair shaft has degraded seriously. Mitochondrial DNA examination is the routine method for hair shaft,but it can not be used to identify individuals. Therefore,it is important to explore more genetic information of hair shaft in order to offer more clues for crime investigation.Protein is chemically more robust than DNA and can persist for a longer period.Proteins also contains genetic variation in the form of single amino acid polymorphisms(SAPs),which can be used to infer the status of non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms(nsSNPs)for forensic ancestry analysis.Here,we used mass spectrometry-based shotgun proteomics to characterize hair shaft proteins in104Chinese Han subjects. A total of552nsSNPs were imputed from703SAPs in460proteins.88nsSNPs were selected according to a call rate of15%,then validated using Sanger sequencing.Finally,clustering analysis and population random match probability calculation were performed to infer the ancestry of19Han Chinese individuals,and individual genotypes of1000genome populations were employed as reference data.The results demonstrated that nsSNPs imputed from hair shaft can be used to distinguish East Asian,European and African population.

Abstract:Cell adhesion plays an important role in regulating diverse physiological functions of cells,and quantitatively characterizing the adhesive behaviors at single-cell level benefits understanding the biology of cells.The advent of atomic force microscopy(AFM)provides a powerful method for investigating the biophysical properties of biological systems at micro/nanoscale under aqueous conditions,and particularly AFM-based single-cell force spectroscopy(SCFS)is able to measure the adhesion forces of single cells.Nevertheless,current SCFS assays are commonly performed on adherent cells,and SCFS studies on mammalian suspended cells are still scarce.In this work,AFM-based SCFS was utilized to measure the adhesion forces of lymphoma cells.First, the adhesion forces between lymphoma cells and rituximab(an antibody which binds to the CD20antigen on lymphoma cells to activate immunotherapy)were investigated.Then the effects of antibody concentration and experimental parameters on the adhesion force measurements were investigated.Next,the intercellular adhesion forces between lymphoma cells were quantified.The research demonstrates the capabilities of AFM-based SCFS in detecting the adhesive behaviors of mammalian suspended cells and also provides novel insights into the adhesion of lymphoma cells,which will have potential impacts on single-cell biomechanical assays.