WBNPMD: weighted bipartite network projection for microRNA-disease association prediction.

BACKGROUND: Recently, numerous biological experiments have indicated that microRNAs (miRNAs) play critical roles in exploring the pathogenesis of various human diseases. Since traditional experimental methods for miRNA-disease associations detection are costly and time-consuming, it becomes urgent to design efficient and robust computational techniques for identifying undiscovered interactions. METHODS: In this paper, we proposed a computation framework named weighted bipartite network projection for miRNA-disease association prediction (WBNPMD). In this method, transfer weights were constructed by combining the known miRNA and disease similarities, and the initial information was properly configured. Then the two-step bipartite network algorithm was implemented to infer potential miRNA-disease associations. RESULTS: The proposed WBNPMD was applied to the known miRNA-disease association data, and leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) and fivefold cross-validation were implemented to evaluate the performance of WBNPMD. As a result, our method achieved the AUCs of 0.9321 and [Formula: see text] in LOOCV and fivefold cross-validation, and outperformed other four state-of-the-art methods. We also carried out two kinds of case studies on prostate neoplasm, colorectal neoplasm, and lung neoplasm, and most of the top 50 predicted miRNAs were confirmed to have an association with the corresponding diseases based on dbDeMC, miR2Disease, and HMDD V3.0 databases. CONCLUSIONS: The experimental results demonstrate that WBNPMD can accurately infer potential miRNA-disease associations. We anticipated that the proposed WBNPMD could serve as a powerful tool for potential miRNA-disease associations excavation.

LPI-IBNRA: Long Non-coding RNA-Protein Interaction Prediction Based on Improved Bipartite Network Recommender Algorithm.

According to the latest research, lncRNAs (long non-coding RNAs) play a broad and important role in various biological processes by interacting with proteins. However, identifying whether proteins interact with a specific lncRNA through biological experimental methods is difficult, costly, and time-consuming. Thus, many bioinformatics computational methods have been proposed to predict lncRNA-protein interactions. In this paper, we proposed a novel approach called Long non-coding RNA-Protein Interaction Prediction based on Improved Bipartite Network Recommender Algorithm (LPI-IBNRA). In the proposed method, we implemented a two-round resource allocation and eliminated the second-order correlations appropriately on the bipartite network. Experimental results illustrate that LPI-IBNRA outperforms five previous methods, with the AUC values of 0.8932 in leave-one-out cross validation (LOOCV) and 0.8819 ± 0.0052 in 10-fold cross validation, respectively. In addition, case studies on four lncRNAs were carried out to show the predictive power of LPI-IBNRA.

Polyelectrolyte complex/PVA membranes for diffusion dialysis.

Polyelectrolyte complexes (PECs)/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) membranes are prepared from PVA, anion exchange and cation exchange multisilicon copolymers, which contain plenty of functional groups of OH, N(+)(CH3)3/Si(OCH3)3, and SO3Na/Si(OCH3)3, respectively. The OH and Si(OCH3)3 groups can undertake sol-gel reaction to form crosslinking structure, while the N(+)(CH3)3 and SO3Na groups can be combined through electrostatic interaction. The PECs/PVA membranes exhibit improved thermal stability, swelling resistance and flexibility as compared with single anion or cation exchange hybrid membranes. The PECs/PVA membranes have the water uptakes (WR) of 25.3-70.4%, initial decomposition temperatures (IDTs) of 246-285°C, tensile strength of 23.1-33.8 MPa, and elongation at break of 3.5-13.1%. The membranes can be potentially applied for both acid and alkali recovery through diffusion dialysis (DD) process. The separation factor (S) for HCl/FeCl2 mixture can reach up to 89.9, which is about five times higher than that of commercial DF-120 membrane (18.5 at 25°C). The dialysis coefficients of NaOH (UOH) are in the range of 0.014-0.019 m/h, around 7-9 times higher than the value of commercial SPPO membrane (0.002 m/h at 25°C). The membranes also show potential usefulness for industrial acidic and alkali wastes treatment.

Alkali recovery using PVA/SiO2 cation exchange membranes with different -COOH contents.

By changing -COOH content in poly(acrylic acid-co-methacryloxypropyl trimethoxy silane (poly(AA-co-γ-MPS)), a series of PVA/SiO(2) cation exchange membranes are prepared from sol-gel process of poly(AA-co-γ-MPS) in presence of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). The membranes have the initial decomposition temperature (IDT) values of 236-274 °C. The tensile strength (TS) ranges from 17.4 MPa to 44.4 MPa. The dimensional stability in length (DS-length) is in the range of 10%-25%, and the DS-area is in the range of 21%-56% in 65 °C water. The water content (W(R)) ranges from 61.2% to 81.7%, the ion exchange capacity (IEC) ranges from 1.69 mmol/g to 1.90 mmol/g. Effects of -COOH content on diffusion dialysis (DD) performance also are investigated for their potential applications. The membranes are tested for recovering NaOH from the mixture of NaOH/Na(2)WO(4) at 25 - 45 °C. The dialysis coefficients of NaOH (U(OH)) are in the range of 0.006-0.032 m/h, which are higher than those of the previous membranes (U(OH): 0.0015 m/h, at 25 °C). The selectivity (S) can reach up to 36.2. The DD performances have been correlated with the membrane structure, especially the continuous arrangement of -COOH in poly(AA-co-γ-MPS) chain.

Guanidylated hollow fiber membranes based on brominated poly (2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (BPPO) for gold sorption from acid solutions.

Novel guanidylated hollow fiber membranes are prepared based on brominated poly (2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (BPPO) under mild reaction conditions. 1H-pyrazole-1-carboxamidine hydrochloride (HPCA) is employed for the guanidylation in aqueous solution at room temperature. The obtained guanidylated PPO hollow fiber membranes (GPPO HFMs) contain 0.31-0.95 mmol/g guanidyl groups and show high affinity to tetrachloroauric anions (AuCl(4)(-)) in acid solutions. For 0.1M HCl solution containing 57.8 mg gold/L, the sorption amount can get as high as 130 mg/g. Besides, the GPPO HFMs show preferable selectivity toward gold in multicomponent solution containing Mg(II), Fe(III), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), Zn(II) and Pb(II). A system of comparison experiments involving the sorption behavior of GPPO HFMs and quaternary aminated HFMs are also performed. The results reveal that driving forces for the high adsorption of gold mainly involve complexation mechanism. Overall, the obtained GPPO HFM is a promising chelating material for the recovery of gold.

Organic-inorganic hybrid anion exchange hollow fiber membranes: a novel device for drug delivery.

The clinical use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) (such as sodium salicylate (NaSA)) for the treatment of chronic arthritis is limited due to the adverse effects and patient non-compliance. In order to solve these problems, anion exchange hollow fiber membranes (AEHFMs) are proposed for the first time here as potential drug carriers. Brominated poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (BPPO) is used as the starting membrane material. In-situ sol-gel process of γ-methacryloxypropyl trimethoxysilane (γ-MPS) in BPPO matrix is operated so as to enhance the membranes' thermal and dimensional stability. The performances of the membranes in controlled release of the drug (NaSA as the model drug) are improved accordingly. Loading and release experiments illustrate that the hybrid AEHFM can bind salicylate (SA⁻) at a high loading efficiency (28.4%), and the retention of the drug on the membrane matrix is significantly prolonged (drug released in 7 days under physiological condition: 51.9%, neglecting the drug bound by protein). Meanwhile, the membrane is biocompatible and can support the adherence, growth, and survival of human cells. Overall, the prepared AEHFM is a promising scaffolding material for drug delivery and tissue engineering.

Bionic multisilicon copolymers used as novel cross-linking agents for preparing anion exchange hybrid membranes.

Bionic multisilicon copolymers have long-main chains and many branched chains, and contain multifunctional groups of -N(+)(CH(3))(3)Cl(-) and -Si(OCH(3))(3), which are similar to the stem, branch, fruit, and acetabula of a vine from bionic aspect, respectively. They have high flexibility, charge density, and cross-linking ability and thus can be used as novel cross-linking agents for preparing anion-exchange hybrid membranes. High content of -Si(OCH(3))(3) groups (68-78%) is suitable to enhance membrane stabilities. The membranes are stable in 65 °C water up to 120 h and can keep integrity in 2 mol/L NaOH for 192 h. High content of -N(+)(CH(3))(3)Cl(-) groups (42-55%) is suitable to enhance membrane electrical properties. The membranes have low membrane resistance (R(m), 0.59-0.94 Ω cm(2)) and high diffusion dialysis performance. The acid (H(+)) dialysis coefficients (U(H)) are in the range of 0.007-0.075 m h(-1) at room temperature and 0.015-0.115 m h(-1) at 40 °C. The separation factor (S(H/Fe)) can reach up to 43 at room temerature and 49 at 40 °C. All of the membranes are highly homogeneous, mechanically stable (21-31 MPa, 25-147%), and thermally stable (227-275 °C for halide form membranes, and 157-172 °C for OH(-) form membranes). Hence, the investigation of multisilicon copolymers will give rise to a new developing field in material and membrane sciences.