Novel Function of Extracellular Matrix Protein 1 in Suppressing Th17 Cell Development in Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the CNS characterized by demyelination and axonal damage. Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is a well-established animal model for human MS. Although Th17 cells are important for disease induction, Th2 cells are inhibitory in this process. In this article, we report the effect of a Th2 cell product, extracellular matrix protein 1 (ECM1), on the differentiation of Th17 cells and the development of EAE. Our results demonstrated that ECM1 administration from day 1 to day 7 following the EAE induction could ameliorate the Th17 cell responses and EAE development in vivo. Further study of the mechanism revealed that ECM1 could interact with αv integrin on dendritic cells and block the αv integrin-mediated activation of latent TGF-ß, resulting in an inhibition of Th17 cell differentiation at an early stage of EAE induction. Furthermore, overexpression of ECM1 in vivo significantly inhibited the Th17 cell response and EAE induction in ECM1 transgenic mice. Overall, our work has identified a novel function of ECM1 in inhibiting Th17 cell differentiation in the EAE model, suggesting that ECM1 may have the potential to be used in clinical applications for understanding the pathogenesis of MS and its diagnosis.

Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalytic Activation of Inert Sulfur Ylides for 3-Acyl Oxindole Synthesis.

Bicarbonyl-substituted sulfur ylide is a useful, but inert reagent in organic synthesis. Usually, harsh reaction conditions are required for its transformation. For the first time, it was demonstrated that a new, visible-light photoredox catalytic annulation of sulfur ylides under extremely mild conditions, permits the synthesis of oxindole derivatives in high selectivities and efficiencies. The key to its success is the photocatalytic single-electron-transfer (SET) oxidation of the inert amide and acyl-stabilized sulfur ylides to reactive radical cations, which easily proceeds with intramolecular C-H functionalization to give the final products.

Construction of microgravity biological knowledge graph and its applications in anti-osteoporosis drug prediction.

Microgravity in the space environment can potentially have various negative effects on the human body, one of which is bone loss. Given the increasing frequency of human space activities, there is an urgent need to identify effective anti-osteoporosis drugs for the microgravity environment. Traditional microgravity experiments conducted in space suffer from limitations such as time-consuming procedures, high costs, and small sample sizes. In recent years, the in-silico drug discovery method has emerged as a promising strategy due to the advancements in bioinformatics and computer technology. In this study, we first collected a total of 184,915 literature articles related to microgravity and bone loss. We employed a combination of dependency path extraction and clustering techniques to extract data from the text. Afterwards, we conducted data cleaning and standardization to integrate data from several sources, including The Global Network of Biomedical Relationships (GNBR), Curated Drug-Drug Interactions Database (DDInter), Search Tool for Interacting Chemicals (STITCH), DrugBank, and Traditional Chinese Medicines Integrated Database (TCMID). Through this integration process, we constructed the Microgravity Biology Knowledge Graph (MBKG) consisting of 134,796 biological entities and 3,395,273 triplets. Subsequently, the TransE model was utilized to perform knowledge graph embedding. By calculating the distances between entities in the model space, the model successfully predicted potential drugs for treating osteoporosis and microgravity-induced bone loss. The results indicate that out of the top 10 ranked western medicines, 7 have been approved for the treatment of osteoporosis. Additionally, among the top 10 ranked traditional Chinese medicines, 5 have scientific literature supporting their effectiveness in treating bone loss. Among the top 20 predicted medicines for microgravity-induced bone loss, 15 have been studied in microgravity or simulated microgravity environments, while the remaining 5 are also applicable for treating osteoporosis. This research highlights the potential application of MBKG in the field of space drug discovery.

A systematic analysis of genotype-phenotype associations with PLA2G6.

BACKGROUND: PLA2G6-associated neurodegeneration (PLAN) can be categorized into infantile neuroaxonal dystrophy (INAD), atypical neuroaxonal dystrophy (aNAD), neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (NBIA), and early-onset parkinsonism (EOP). OBJECTIVES: To determine the genotype-phenotype association in PLAN. METHODS: "PLA2G6" or "PARK14" or "phospholipase A2 group VI" or "iPLA2ß" were searched across MEDLINE from June 23, 1997, to March 1, 2023. A total of 391 patients were identified, and 340 patients of them were finally included in the assessment. RESULTS: The loss of function (LOF) mutation ratios were significantly different (p < 0.001), highest in INAD, followed by NBIA, aNAD, and EOP. Four ensemble scores (i.e., BayesDel, VARITY, ClinPred, and MetaRNN) were assessed to predict the deleteriousness of missense mutations and demonstrated significant differences (p < 0.001). Binary logistic regression analyses demonstrated that LOF mutations were independently associated with brain iron accumulation (p = 0.006) and ataxia (p = 0.025). CONCLUSIONS: LOF or more deleterious missense mutations are more likely to promote the development of serious phenotype of PLAN, and LOF mutations are independently associated with brain iron accumulation and ataxia.