Not from Scratch: Predicting Thermophysical Properties through Model-Based Transfer Learning Using Graph Convolutional Networks.

In this study, a framework for the prediction of thermophysical properties based on transfer learning from existing estimation models is explored. The predictive capabilities of conventional group-contribution methods and traditional machine-learning approaches rely heavily on the availability of experimental datasets and their uncertainty. Through the use of a pretraining scheme, which leverages the knowledge established by other estimation methods, improved prediction models for thermophysical properties can be obtained after fine-tuning networks with more accurate experimental data. As our experiments show, for the case of critical properties of compounds, this pipeline not only improves the performance of the models on commonly found organic structures but can also help these models generalize to less explored areas of chemical space, where experimental data is scarce, such as inorganics and heavier organic compounds. Transfer learning from estimation models data also allows for graph-based deep learning models to create more flexible molecular features over a bigger chemical space, which leads to improved predictive capabilities and can give insights into the relationship between molecular structures and thermophysical properties. The generated molecular features can discriminate behavior discrepancy between isomers without the need of additional parameters. Also, this approach shows better robustness to outliers in experimental datasets.

Polyhexamethylene guanidine phosphate-induced necrosis may be linked to pulmonary fibrosis.

Following the humidifier disinfectant incident in Korea, polyhexamethylene guanidine phosphate (PHMG-P) has been used to establish lung fibrosis model animals. Herein, we investigated time-dependent changes after a single PHMG-P instillation (22 µg/lung) to identify the underlying pathogenesis and immune response involved in PHMG-P-induced lung fibrosis. Compared to control mice, body weight loss and blood biochemical and hematological changes were more remarkable in PHMG-P-instilled mice, an increase of total cell counts, infiltration of macrophages and neutrophils and necrotic cell death were also more notable in the lungs of PHMG-P-instilled mice. Pathological lesions were detected from Day 1 after exposure, deteriorating with time. In addition, secretion of anti-inflammatory mediators was rapidly inhibited from 6 h after exposure, and level of IL-24, a tissue repair-related cytokine, was up-regulated in the lungs of PHMG-P-instilled mice until Day 21 post-exposure. In vitro tests using BEAS-2B cells showed that PHMG-P disturbed structural and functional homeostasis of organelles and that intracellular ROS increase was considered as an important cause of PHMG-P-induced cell death. Additionally, co-culture with DNA, a polyanionic compound, clearly inhibited PHMG-P-induced necrosis, and increased IL-1ß and TNF-α level and decreased IL-6 and IL-8 levels were observed following exposure to PHMG-P. Meanwhile, IL-8 secretion increased in cells exposed to PHMG-P-induced cell debris. Therefore, we suggest that necrotic cell debris may importantly contribute to the PHMG-P-induced inflammatory response and pathogenesis. In addition, PHMG-P-induced necrosis may be initiated by high affinity between PHMG-P and cell membrane.

Pulmonary inflammation and cellular responses following exposure to benzalkonium chloride: Potential impact of disrupted pulmonary surfactant homeostasis.

Benzalkonium chloride (BKC) is a prototypical quaternary ammonium disinfectant. Previously, we suggested a no lethal dose level (0.005%) and an LD50 range (0.5-0.05%) of BKC following a single pharyngeal aspiration. Herein, we exposed BKC repeatedly by pharyngeal aspiration for 14 days (0.005 and 0.01%, female mice, total five times with interval of two days, 5 mice/group) and 28 days (0, 0.001, 0.005, and 0.01%, male and female mice, weekly, 16 mice/sex/group). Death following 14 days-repeated exposure did not occur. Meanwhile, chronic pathological lesions were observed in the lung tissues of mice exposed to BKC for 28 days. The total number of bronchial alveolar lavage cells increased, and pulmonary homeostasis of immunologic messenger molecules was disturbed. Following, we investigated BKC-induced cellular responses using human bronchial epithelial cells. The cytotoxicity increased rapidly with concentration. Lysosomal volume, NO production, and lipid peroxidation increased in BKC-treated cells, whereas intracellular ROS level decreased accompanying structural and functional damage of mitochondria. We also found that BKC affected the expression level of immune response, DNA damage, and amino acid biosynthesis-related molecules. More interestingly, lamellar body- and autophagosome-like structures were notably observed in cells exposed to BKC, and necrotic and apoptotic cell death were identified accompanying cell accumulation in the G2/M phase. Therefore, we suggest that repeated respiratory exposure of BKC causes pulmonary inflammation and lung tissue damage and that dead and damaged cells may contribute to the inflammatory response. In addition, the formation process of lamellar body-like structures may function as a key toxicity mechanism.

Detection of intracellular lamellar bodies as a screening marker for fibrotic lesions.

With the rapid increase in application of disinfectants worldwide as a method to block the spread of coronavirus, many new products are being introduced into the market without thorough verification of their impacts on human health and the environment. In the present study, we aimed to propose a screening marker for materials that can induce fibrotic lung disease using disinfectants, which had been demonstrated as causative materials of chronic inflammation and interstitial fibrosis. We first calculated the corresponding LC50 level based on results from cell viability test and exposed the LC50 level of disinfectants to human bronchial epithelial cells for 24 h. Formation of lamellar body-like structures, cleavage of the nuclear matrix, structural damage of mitochondria were found in the cytosol of the treated cells. We also dosed disinfectants by pharyngeal aspiration to mice to determine the LD0 level. The mice were sacrificed on Day 14 after a single dosing, and lamellar body-like structures were observed in the lung tissue of mice. Herein, we hypothesize that DNA damage and metabolic disturbance may play central roles in disinfectant-induced adverse health effects. Additionally, we propose that formation of lamellar bodies can be a screening marker for interstitial fibrosis.

Molecular Dynamics Study on Graphene-Nanoflake Sensor Sandwiched Between Crossed Graphene-Nanoribbon Junctions.

We present a design of a nanoscale inertial measurement unit or a data archive using a graphene-nanoflake (GNF) sandwiched between crossed graphene-nanoribbon (GNR) junctions. When an external force applied is below the retracting force, the inertial force exerted on the movable GNF can telescope it. Then, the self-restoring force increases as the attractive van der Waals force between the GNF and the GNRs, which enables the GNF to automatically and fully retract back into the sandwich position immediately after the externally applied force is released. When the external force exceeds the retracting force, the GNF escapes from the crossed GNR junctions, which enables the device to be used as non-volatile memory. The heterostructure of GNR/h-BN/GNR can be considered as an advanced structure in the proposed scheme.

Synthesis of Cadmium Telluride Nanoparticles Using Thioglycolic Acid, Thioglycerol, and L-Cysteine.

Cadmium telluride (CdTe) nanoparticles (NPs) are known for their unique physical and chemical properties. NP synthesis via a size-controlled procedure has become an intriguing research topic because NPs exhibit novel optical and physical properties depending on their size. Their sizes and properties can vary depending on the types and concentrations of stabilizers, which are bound to the surface of the NPs and protect the NPs from aggregation. In this study, we synthesized CdTe NPs stabilized by thioglycolic acid (TGA), 1-thioglycerol (TGC), and L-cysteine (L-C). The ratio of stabilizer to Cd2+ was 1:2.4. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and photoluminescence (PL) were employed for characterization of the NPs. The average sizes of the synthesized NPs were 4.2, 4.1, and 3.7 nm for TGA, TGC, and L-C, respectively. The maximum fluorescent emission peaks of the three NP solutions were at 554.9, 551.6, and 538.3 nm for TGA, TGC, and L-C, respectively. The produced particles were crystalline in structure with a face-centered cubic (fcc) system.

Discovery of plasma biomarkers for predicting the severity of coronary artery atherosclerosis by quantitative proteomics.

INTRODUCTION: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients with diabetes is the leading cause of death. Finding early biomarkers for detecting asymptomatic patients with CVD can improve survival. Recently, plasma proteomics-targeted selected reaction monitoring/multiple reaction monitoring analyses (MRM)-has emerged as highly specific and sensitive tools compared with classic ELISA methods. The objective was to identify differentially regulated proteins according to the severity of the coronary artery atherosclerosis. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: A discovery cohort, a verification cohort and a validation cohort consisted of 18, 53, and 228 subjects, respectively. The grade of coronary artery stenosis was defined as a percentage of luminal stenosis of the major coronary arteries. Participants were divided into six groups, depending on the presence of diabetes and the grade of coronary artery stenosis. Two mass spectrometric approaches were employed: (1) conventional shotgun liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry for a discovery and (2) quantitative MRM for verification and validation. An analysis of the covariance was used to examine the biomarkers' predictivity beyond conventional cardiovascular risks. RESULTS: A total of 1349 different proteins were identified from a discovery cohort. We selected 52 proteins based on the tandem mass tag quantitative analysis then summarized as follows: chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 7 (CXCL7), apolipoprotein C-II (APOC2), human lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP) and dedicator of cytokinesis 2 (DOCK2) in diabetes; CXCL7, APOC2, LBP, complement 4A (C4A), vitamin D-binding protein (VTDB) and laminin ß1 subunit in non-diabetes. Analysis of covariance showed that APOC2, DOCK2, CXCL7 and VTDB were upregulated and C4A was downregulated in patients with diabetes showing severe coronary artery stenosis. LBP and VTDB were downregulated in patients without diabetes, showing severe coronary artery stenosis. CONCLUSION: We identified significant associations between circulating APOC2, C4A, CXCL7, DOCK2, LBP and VTDB levels and the degree of coronary artery stenosis using the MRM technique.

Molecular Dynamics Study of Graphene Nanoflake Shuttle Device on Graphene Nanoribbon with Carbon Nanotube Blocks.

Superlubric motions of graphene nanoflakes (GNFs) on graphene have opened up more applications of graphene for micromachines and nanomachines. Here, we investigate the dynamic behavior of a GNF shuttle on a graphene nanoribbon (GNR) with carbon nanotube (CNT) blocks via molecular dynamics simulations. The GNF moves on a GNR superlubrically, and the CNTs as building blocks induce bistable potential wells so that the GNF is stabilized. MD simulation results indicate that when a GNF shuttle approaches the CNTs, a potential well is created by an increase in the attractive van der Waals energy between the GNF and CNTs, and bistability at the local energy minima positions can be achieved near the CNTs. In order for the GNF shuttle to escape the local energy minima positions, a high external force must be applied to overcome the potential energy barrier. However, after the GNF shuttle escapes from one of the bistable positions, only a low external force is required to stabilize the GNF shuttle. This work explicitly demonstrates that a GNF-GNR/CNT system could be applied to alternative nonvolatile memory and high-speed mass storage by using GNR-CNT arrays.

Phase I and pharmacokinetic study of the vascular-disrupting agent CKD-516 (NOV120401) in patients with refractory solid tumors.

We report a phase I pharmacological study of an oral formulation of CKD-516, a vascular-disrupting agent, in patients with refractory solid tumors. Twenty-seven patients (16 in the dose-escalation cohort and 11 in the expansion cohort) received a single daily dose (5-25 mg) of CKD-516 five days per week. Nausea (67%) and diarrhea (63%) were the most common treatment-related adverse events. The recommended phase II dose of oral CKD-516 was 20 mg/d (15 mg/d with a body surface area (BSA) <1.65 m2 ). Notably, S-516 half-lives in patients receiving 15-20 mg CKD-516/d significantly differed between patients with and without splenomegaly that is suggestive of portal hypertension associated with liver cirrhosis (6.1 vs 4.6 hours, respectively). Of 11 patients without splenomegaly who completed at least one cycle of a daily CKD-516 dose of either 15 or 20 mg, only one patient (9.1%) suffered from any dose-limiting toxicity. We conclude that a daily oral dose of 15 or 20 mg CKD-516 five days per week could be tolerable in patients without liver cirrhosis.

Iws1 and Spt6 Regulate Trimethylation of Histone H3 on Lysine 36 through Akt Signaling and are Essential for Mouse Embryonic Genome Activation.

The mRNA processing and export factor, Iws1, interacts with the histone H3/H4 chaperone, Spt6 (Supt6 in mouse gene ontology) and recruits the lysine methyltransferase, Setd2, to chromatin to regulate H3K36me3. This recruitment is known to be crucial for pre-mRNA splicing and Iws1 has been shown to interact with REF1/Aly to mediate mRNA export. However, the role of this complex has not yet been examined in embryonic development. Here, we show that knockdown of either Iws1 or Supt6 blocked embryo development, primarily at the 8/16-cell stage, indicating that Iws1 and Supt6 are crucial for mouse preimplantation development. In the knockdown embryos, we observed decreases in pre-mRNA splicing, mRNA export and the expression of the lineage-specific transcription factor, Nanog. We found that either Iws1 or Supt6 are required for H3K36 trimethylation and that concurrent knockdown of both Iws1 and Supt6 blocks embryonic development at the 2-cell stage. We show that H3K36me3 is modulated by the Pi3k/Akt pathway, as inhibition of this pathway reduced the global level of H3K36me3 while activation of the pathway increased the level of this modification in 2-cell embryos. We observed that Iws1 interacts with nuclear Akt in early embryos, and herein propose that Akt modulates H3K36me3 through interaction with Iws1. Together, our results indicate that the Iws1 and Supt6 play crucial roles in embryonic genome activation, lineage specification, and histone modification during mouse early development.

Phase I trial of intravenous Ad5CRT in patients with liver metastasis of gastrointestinal cancers.

We conducted a phase 1 trial for single-dose intravenous Ad5CRT, a replication-defective adenovirus vector expressing HSVtk (herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase) modulated by a specific trans-splicing ribozyme that targets human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT)-encoding RNAs. Dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs) were evaluated in 15 patients at dose levels of 0.1-2 × 1012 virus particles. Patients well tolerated study treatment. During the DLT evaluation period, none of the 15 patients developed any grade 4 toxicities or treatment discontinuation that was related to agents investigated by this trial. The most frequent treatment-related adverse event was fever/chill (26.7%). Of the 18 patients, no patients achieved a partial or complete response, and the median progression-free survival for 18 patients was 1.1 months (95% CI, 1.0-1.3) and the results suggest no clinical benefit from this treatment. Ad5CRT's circulating virus half-life was approximately 10 min. Maximum tolerated dose was 2 × 1012 virus particles. Single-dose intravenous Ad5CRT was feasible and well tolerated in patients with gastrointestinal cancer liver metastasis. Ad5CRT did not provide meaningful clinical benefit, and the reason for the lack of efficacy was not entirely clear because no pharmocodynamic assessment was made.

RhoGAP domain-containing fusions and PPAPDC1A fusions are recurrent and prognostic in diffuse gastric cancer.

We conducted an RNA sequencing study to identify novel gene fusions in 80 discovery dataset tumors collected from young patients with diffuse gastric cancer (DGC). Twenty-five in-frame fusions are associated with DGC, three of which (CLDN18-ARHGAP26, CTNND1-ARHGAP26, and ANXA2-MYO9A) are recurrent in 384 DGCs based on RT-PCR. All three fusions contain a RhoGAP domain in their 3' partner genes. Patients with one of these three fusions have a significantly worse prognosis than those without. Ectopic expression of CLDN18-ARHGAP26 promotes the migration and invasion capacities of DGC cells. Parallel targeted RNA sequencing analysis additionally identifies TACC2-PPAPDC1A as a recurrent and poor prognostic in-frame fusion. Overall, PPAPDC1A fusions and in-frame fusions containing a RhoGAP domain clearly define the aggressive subset (7.5%) of DGCs, and their prognostic impact is greater than, and independent of, chromosomal instability and CDH1 mutations. Our study may provide novel genomic insights guiding future strategies for managing DGCs.

Melatonin supplementation during prolonged in vitro maturation improves the quality and development of poor-quality porcine oocytes via anti-oxidative and anti-apoptotic effects.

Poor-quality oocytes (those with 1-2 layers of cumulus cells) typically possess low meiotic competence and development. Prolonging the duration of in vitro maturation (IVM; 52 hr) can enhance the maturation rate of poor-quality oocytes, but it does not improve subsequent embryonic development. This likely reflects the increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and apoptosis seen in these oocytes compared with the non-prolonged IVM (44 hr) group. Melatonin is a free radical scavenger, anti-oxidant and anti-apoptotic agent that reported to enhance the quality of embryos by inhibiting ROS generation and apoptosis. Therefore, we herein investigated whether melatonin combined with prolonged IVM (52 hr) could improve the quality and development of poor-quality oocytes. We supplemented IVM and/or in vitro culture (IVC) media with various concentrations (0, 10-7 , 10-6 , 10-5 M) of melatonin, and estimated parameters related to oocyte quality and development. The addition of melatonin (10-6 M) to a prolonged IVM system improved the oocyte quality and development compared with those of the melatonin-free poor-quality oocytes group, and that this was due to decreases in ROS generation, apoptosis, and DNA damage. When melatonin was added during both IVM (10-6 M) and IVC (10-6 M), we observed a cumulative positive influence on the embryonic development and quality; this treatment enhanced the expression level of Oct4 and decreased the levels of ROS, DNA damage, and apoptosis. Together, these findings suggest that the combination of melatonin plus prolonged IVM can improve the quality and development of poor-quality porcine oocytes via anti-oxidative and anti-apoptotic effects.

The Effect of Environmental Enrichment on Glutathione-Mediated Xenobiotic Metabolism and Antioxidation in Normal Adult Mice.

Olfactory bulb (OB) plays an important role in protecting against harmful substances via the secretion of antioxidant and detoxifying enzymes. Environmental enrichment (EE) is a common rehabilitation method and known to have beneficial effects in the central nervous system. However, the effects of EE in the OB still remain unclear. At 6 weeks of age, CD-1® (ICR) mice were assigned to standard cages or EE cages. After 2 months, we performed proteomic analysis. Forty-four up-regulated proteins were identified in EE mice compared to the control mice. Gene Ontology analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes Pathway demonstrated that the upregulated proteins were mainly involved in metabolic pathways against xenobiotics. Among those upregulated proteins, 9 proteins, which participate in phase I or II of the xenobiotic metabolizing process and are known to be responsible for ROS detoxification, were validated by qRT-PCR. To explore the effect of ROS detoxification mediated by EE, glutathione activity was measured by an ELISA assay. The ratio of reduced glutathione to oxidized glutathione was significantly increased in EE mice. Based on a linear regression analysis, GSTM2 and UGT2A1 were found to be the most influential genes in ROS detoxification. For further analysis of neuroprotection, the level of iNOS and the ratio of Bax to Bcl-2 were significantly decreased in EE mice. While TUNEL+ cells were significantly decreased, Ki67+ cells were significantly increased in EE mice, implicating that EE creates an optimal state for xenobiotic metabolism and antioxidant activity. Taken together, our results suggested that EE protects olfactory layers via the upregulation of glutathione-related antioxidant and xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes, eventually lowering ROS-mediated inflammation and apoptosis and increasing neurogenesis. This study may provide an opportunity for a better understanding of the beneficial effects of EE in the OB.

Crab-Shell Biotemplated SnO2 Composite Anodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries.

SnO2 composite materials infiltrated into the hollow carbon channels of a crab-shell biotemplate were hydrothermally synthesized and utilized as anodes for lithium-ion batteries. Varying the reaction temperatures and times of the hydrothermal reaction yielded different SnO2 nanoparticle shapes, characterized by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The materials prepared at 100 °C (sample S100) were spherical, amorphous in nature, and successfully infiltrated into the hollow carbon channels, while those prepared at 180 °C (sample S180) yielded many rod-like particles on the outer surfaces of the channels. The S100 electrode exhibited better cyclability, corresponding to a capacity of 298 mAh g-1 at 100 cycles, and high rate capability with a capacity retention of 54% at 3 A g-1. The enhanced electrochemical performance of S100 could be attributed to the configuration of the SnO2 particles infiltrating the carbon-coated hollow channels, which accommodated large volume changes during (de)lithiation.

α-Solanine impairs oocyte maturation and quality by inducing autophagy and apoptosis and changing histone modifications in a pig model.

In this study, we used a pig model to investigate the effects of α-solanine (a natural toxin found mainly in potato sprouts) on oocyte maturation, quality and subsequent embryonic development. We found that α-solanine (10 µM) disturbed meiotic resumption and increased abnormal spindle formation and altered the cortical granule (CG) distribution compared with the untreated group. α-Solanine triggered autophagy and apoptosis by increasing the expressions of autophagy-related genes (LC3, ATG7, and LAMP2) and apoptotic related genes (BAX and CASP3). Exposure of porcine oocytes to α-solanine significantly increased the levels of H3K36me3 and H3K27me3. Moreover, α-solanine significantly reduced the cleavage and blastocyst formation rates, decreased the total and inner cell mass cells numbers, and increased apoptosis in these porcine embryos. Taken together, our data indicate that α-solanine toxically impairs oocyte maturation and quality by triggering autophagy/apoptosis and facilitating epigenetic modifications. Furthermore, α-solanine suppressed subsequent embryonic development and reduced embryo quality.

Discovery of gastric cancer specific biomarkers by the application of serum proteomics.

Current diagnostic markers for gastric cancer are not sufficiently specific or sensitive for use in clinical practice. The aims of this study are to compare the proteomes of serum samples from patients with gastric cancers and normal controls, and to develop useful tumor markers of gastric cancer by quantitative proteomic analysis. We identified a total of 388 proteins with a ≤1% FDR and with at least two unique peptides from the sera of each group. Among them, 215, 251, and 260 proteins were identified in serum samples of patients in an advanced cancer group, early cancer group, and normal control group, respectively. We selected differentially expressed proteins in cancer patients compared with those of normal controls via semiquantitative analyses comparing the spectral counts of identified proteins. These differentially expressed proteins were successfully verified using an MS-based quantitative assay, multiple reactions monitoring analysis. Four proteins (vitronectin, clusterin isoform 1, thrombospondin 1, and tyrosine-protein kinase SRMS) were shown to have significant changes between the cancer groups and the normal control group. These four serum proteins were able to discriminate gastric cancer patients from normal controls with sufficient specificity and selectivity.

Schematics and Energetics of Bucky Shuttle Memory on Graphene Nanoribbon Array.

Conjugated carbon nanomaterials such as fullerene-nanotube, fullerene-graphene, and nanotube-graphene hybrids have great potential for various applications. This paper presents the schematics and energetics of a nonvolatile nanomemory element based on a fullerene-nanotube-graphene hybrid. The system proposed was composed of C60 fullerene and a nanotube placed on two graphene-nanoribbons with a gap. The C60 fullerene encapsulated in the nanotube can shuttle between two graphene-nanoribbons along the nanotube under the alternatively applied force fields. When the encapsulated C60 fullerene settles on the graphene-nanoribbons, the local energy minima are achieved from the attractive van der Waals potential energies. Since the C60 fullerene retains its position on the graphene-nanoribbon without external force fields, the proposed system can then operate a nonvolatile memory device.

Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study on Energy Exchange Between Vibration Modes of a Square Graphene Nanoflake Oscillator.

Superlubricity in nanoscale graphene structures has been of interest for developing graphene-based nanoelectromechanical systems, as well as for the study of basic mechanical properties. Here, we investigated the translational and rotational motions of a square graphene nanoflake with retracting motions by performing classical molecular dynamics simulations. Our results show that the kinetic energy of the translational motion was exchanged into the kinetic energy of the rotational motion. Thus, square graphene nanoflake oscillators have very low quality factors in translational motions. We discuss that square graphene nanoflakes have great potential to be a core component in nanoelectromechanical systems by detecting their motions with ultrahigh sensitivity to facilitate the development of sensor, memory, and quantum computing.

Effects of peptide acetylation and dimethylation on electrospray ionization efficiency.

Peptide acetylation and dimethylation have been widely used to derivatize primary amino groups (peptide N-termini and the ε-amino group of lysines) for chemical isotope labeling of quantitative proteomics or for affinity tag labeling for selection and enrichment of labeled peptides. However, peptide acetylation results in signal suppression during electrospray ionization (ESI) due to charge neutralization. In contrast, dimethylated peptides show increased ionization efficiency after derivatization, since dimethylation increases hydrophobicity and maintains a positive charge on the peptide under common LC conditions. In this study, we quantitatively compared the ESI efficiencies of acetylated and dimethylated model peptides and tryptic peptides of BSA. Dimethylated peptides showed higher ionization efficiency than acetylated peptides for both model peptides and tryptic BSA peptides. At the proteome level, peptide dimethylation led to better protein identification than peptide acetylation when tryptic peptides of mouse brain lysate were analyzed with LC-ESI-MS/MS. These results demonstrate that dimethylation of tryptic peptides enhanced ESI efficiency and provided up to two-fold improved protein identification sensitivity in comparison with acetylation.