Research trends of bone tumor treatment with 3D printing technology from 2013 to 2022: a bibliometric analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Bibliometrics was employed in this study to determine the research trends in the worldwide application of 3D printing technology to treat bone tumors over the previous 10 years. METHODS: Published from 2013 to 2022, the papers related to bone tumors treated with 3D printing were located in Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC), PubMed, and Scopus. The screened articles were included in this bibliometric study. From these papers in WoSCC, information on annual publications, journals, keywords, countries, authors, institutions, and cited references were extracted and visualized with CiteSpace (version 6.1.R6) software to investigate the state of bone tumor treatment using 3D printing as well as research hotspots. The Carrot2 online visualization tool and Vosviewer software (version 1.6.20) were employed to visualize the publications from PubMed and Scopus, respectively, in order to ascertain the most popular research topics from both databases. RESULTS: A total of 606, 233, and 364 publications were obtained from WoSCC, PubMed, and Scopus, respectively, between the years 2013 and 2022. In WoSCC, the peak number of publications was found in 2021, with 145 publications published. Acta Biomaterialia (11 publications) and World Neurosurgery (10 publications) were the most prolific journals, and Biomaterials was the journal cited the most (244 times). Yong Zhou was the most productive author with 14 publications, while Kwok-Chuen Wong (69 citations) and William F Enneking, (69 citations) possessed the most citations. The country with the largest quantity of publications was China (207). Among all institutions, Shanghai Jiao Tong University produced the most publications (29). Rapid prototyping was the keyword with the strongest citation burst (4.73). 'Reconstruction', 'surgery', 'resection', and 'design' caught the significant attention of researchers. 3D-printed materials, pelvic reconstruction, mandibular reconstruction, computer-assisted surgical techniques, photothermal therapy, and in vitro experiments were recognized as hot subjects and trends in current research. The most frequently occurring topics in Scopus are not significantly different from those found in WoSCC. The most prevalent research areas in PubMed encompass implant, patient-specific, bioceramic, models, and pelvic.

Zfp106 binds to G-quadruplex RNAs and inhibits RAN translation and formation of RNA foci caused by G4C2 repeats.

Expansion of intronic GGGGCC repeats in the C9orf72 gene causes amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia. Transcription of the expanded repeats results in the formation of RNA-containing nuclear foci and altered RNA metabolism. In addition, repeat-associated non-AUG (RAN) translation of the expanded GGGGCC-repeat sequence results in the production of highly toxic dipeptide-repeat (DPR) proteins. GGGGCC repeat-containing transcripts form G-quadruplexes, which are associated with formation of RNA foci and RAN translation. Zfp106, an RNA-binding protein essential for motor neuron survival in mice, suppresses neurotoxicity in a Drosophila model of C9orf72 ALS. Here, we show that Zfp106 inhibits formation of RNA foci and significantly reduces RAN translation caused by GGGGCC repeats in cultured mammalian cells, and we demonstrate that Zfp106 coexpression reduces the levels of DPRs in C9orf72 patient-derived cells. Further, we show that Zfp106 binds to RNA G-quadruplexes and causes a conformational change in the G-quadruplex structure formed by GGGGCC repeats. Together, these data demonstrate that Zfp106 suppresses the formation of RNA foci and DPRs caused by GGGGCC repeats and suggest that the G-quadruplex RNA-binding function of Zfp106 contributes to its suppression of GGGGCC repeat-mediated cytotoxicity.

HD-Former: A hierarchical dependency Transformer for medical image segmentation.

Medical image segmentation is a compelling fundamental problem and an important auxiliary tool for clinical applications. Recently, the Transformer model has emerged as a valuable tool for addressing the limitations of convolutional neural networks by effectively capturing global relationships and numerous hybrid architectures combining convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and Transformer have been devised to enhance segmentation performance. However, they suffer from multilevel semantic feature gaps and fail to account for multilevel dependencies between space and channel. In this paper, we propose a hierarchical dependency Transformer for medical image segmentation, named HD-Former. First, we utilize a Compressed Bottleneck (CB) module to enrich shallow features and localize the target region. We then introduce the Dual Cross Attention Transformer (DCAT) module to fuse multilevel features and bridge the feature gap. In addition, we design the broad exploration network (BEN) that cascades convolution and self-attention from different percepts to capture hierarchical dense contextual semantic features locally and globally. Finally, we exploit uncertain multitask edge loss to adaptively map predictions to a consistent feature space, which can optimize segmentation edges. The extensive experiments conducted on medical image segmentation from ISIC, LiTS, Kvasir-SEG, and CVC-ClinicDB datasets demonstrate that our HD-Former surpasses the state-of-the-art methods in terms of both subjective visual performance and objective evaluation. Code: https://github.com/barcelonacontrol/HD-Former.

SDMI-Net: Spatially Dependent Mutual Information Network for semi-supervised medical image segmentation.

Semi-supervised medical image segmentation strives to polish deep models with a small amount of labeled data and a large amount of unlabeled data. The efficiency of most semi-supervised medical image segmentation methods based on voxel-level consistency learning is affected by low-confidence voxels. In addition, voxel-level consistency learning fails to consider the spatial correlation between neighboring voxels. To encourage reliable voxel-level consistent learning, we propose a dual-teacher affine consistent uncertainty estimation method to filter out some voxels with high uncertainty. Moreover, we design the spatially dependent mutual information module, which enhances the spatial dependence between neighboring voxels by maximizing the mutual information between the local voxel blocks predicted from the dual-teacher models and the student model, enabling consistent learning at the block level. On two benchmark medical image segmentation datasets, including the Left Atrial Segmentation Challenge dataset and the BraTS-2019 dataset, our method achieves state-of-the-art performance in both quantitative and qualitative aspects.

Multiplatform High-Definition Ion Mobility Separations of the Largest Epimeric Peptides.

Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) has become a versatile tool to fractionate complex mixtures, distinguish structural isomers, and elucidate molecular geometries. Along with the whole MS field, IMS/MS advances to ever larger species. A topical proteomic problem is the discovery and characterization of d-amino acid-containing peptides (DAACPs) that are critical to neurotransmission and toxicology. Both linear IMS and FAIMS previously disentangled d/l epimers with up to ∼30 residues. In the first study using all three most powerful IMS methodologies─trapped IMS, cyclic IMS, and FAIMS─we demonstrate baseline resolution of the largest known d/l peptides (CHH from Homarus americanus with 72 residues) with a dynamic range up to 100. This expands FAIMS analyses of isomeric modified peptides, especially using hydrogen-rich buffers, to the ∼50-100 residue range of small proteins. The spectra for d and l are unprecedentedly strikingly similar except for a uniform shift of the separation parameter, indicating the conserved epimer-specific structural elements across multiple charge states and conformers. As the interepimer resolution tracks the average for smaller DAACPs, the IMS approaches could help search for yet larger DAACPs. The a priori method to calibrate cyclic (including multipass) IMS developed here may be broadly useful.

A chaperone-like function of FUS ensures TAZ condensate dynamics and transcriptional activation.

The Hippo pathway has important roles in organ development, tissue homeostasis and tumour growth. Its downstream effector TAZ is a transcriptional coactivator that promotes target gene expression through the formation of biomolecular condensates. However, the mechanisms that regulate the biophysical properties of TAZ condensates to enable Hippo signalling are not well understood. Here using chemical crosslinking combined with an unbiased proteomics approach, we show that FUS associates with TAZ condensates and exerts a chaperone-like effect to maintain their proper liquidity and robust transcriptional activity. Mechanistically, the low complexity sequence domain of FUS targets the coiled-coil domain of TAZ in a phosphorylation-regulated manner, which ensures the liquidity and dynamicity of TAZ condensates. In cells lacking FUS, TAZ condensates transition into gel-like or solid-like assembles with immobilized TAZ, which leads to reduced expression of target genes and inhibition of pro-tumorigenic activity. Thus, our findings identify a chaperone-like function of FUS in Hippo regulation and demonstrate that appropriate biophysical properties of transcriptional condensates are essential for gene activation.

Diagnostic Value of Quantitative Ultrasound for Osteoporosis in Elderly Women: A Meta-Analysis.

Objective: To assess the reliability of quantitative ultrasound (QUS) in diagnosing and screening osteoporosis in elder women. Methods: We conducted a systematic search of the online databases, including PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and China National Knowledge, and screened the studies according to the inclusion criteria. We directly extract or calculate the value of true positive (TP), false positive (FP), false negative (FN), and true negative (TN) from eligible studies. We sought to evaluate the diagnostic parameters of QUS, containing the pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and area under the curve (AUC). Results: Twelve studies were included in this study with a total of 2260 women. QUS showed a pooled diagnostic odds ratio of 5.07 (95% CI 3.28-7.84), sensitivity of 0.69 (95% CI 0.65-0.72), specificity of 0.67 (95% CI 0.64-0.69), and an AUC of 0.7523 (Q*=0.6953). There was no obvious heterogeneity and threshold effect according to the Spearman correlation coefficient (P = 0.059). No significant publication bias was found through the Deek's funnel. Conclusion: Our study suggested that the diagnostic value of QUS for osteoporosis in elder women was acceptable, but the accuracy still needed to be improved, QUS can be recommended as a pre-screening tool for osteoporosis to determine whether DXA measurement was needed.

Capturing Protein-Protein Interactions with Acidic Amino Acids Reactive Cross-Linkers.

Acidic residues (Asp and Glu) have a high prevalence on protein surfaces, but cross-linking reactions targeting these residues are limited. Existing methods either require high-concentration coupling reagents or have low structural compatibility. Here a previously reported "plant-and-cast" strategy is extended to develop heterobifunctional cross-linkers. These cross-linkers first react rapidly with Lys sidechains and then react with Asp and Glu sidechains, in a proximity-enhanced fashion. The cross-linking reaction proceeds at neutral pH and room temperature without coupling reagents. The efficiency and robustness of cross-linking using model proteins, ranging from small monomeric proteins to large protein complexes are demonstrated. Importantly, it is shown that this type of cross-linkers are efficient at identifying protein-protein interactions involving acidic domains. The Cross-linking mass spectrometry (XL-MS) study with p53 identified 87 putative binders of the C-terminal domain of p53. Among them, SARNP, ZRAB2, and WBP11 are shown to regulate the expression and alternative splicing of p53 target genes. Thus, these carboxylate-reactive cross-linkers will further expand the power of XL-MS in the analysis of protein structures and protein-protein interactions.

Analysis of the risk factors in patients with unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion.

PROBLEM: We aimed to explore the risk factors in patients with unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion (URSA) and to provide a basis for clinically targeted therapy. METHOD OF STUDY: This case-control study comprised 202 patients with URSA treated at our hospital and 115 women in early pregnancy with a normal birth history during the same period. After procuring the data we conducted a multivariate logistic regression analysis of risk factors related to URSA. RESULTS: Logistic regression analysis showed (i) that the number of spontaneous abortions (SAs; odds ratio [OR] = 492.123), the levels of autoantibodies (OR = 19.322) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α; OR = 9.615), and the CT and TT genotypes of methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T (OR = 6.217 and 15.009, respectively) were risk factors for URSA and (ii) that 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-(OH)D; OR = 0.919) was a protective factor. The most important risk factor was a history of one or more SAs, with the risk of pregnancy loss increasing 491.123-fold. Every unit increase in serum 25-(OH)D reduced the risk of SA by 8.1%. CONCLUSIONS: The risk factors for URSA included the number of SAs, the levels of autoantibodies and TNF-α, and the MTHFR C677T T allele; 25-(OH)D was a protective factor. We recommend that women diagnosed with URSA receive intervention as soon as possible so as to actively reduce the incidence of recurrent SA.

Total Chemical Synthesis of Glycosylated TREM2 Ectodomain.

Mutations in a microglia-associated gene TREM2 increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease. Currently, structural and functional studies of TREM2 mainly rely on recombinant TREM2 proteins expressed from mammalian cells. However, using this method, it is difficult to achieve site-specific labeling. Here, we present the total chemical synthesis of the 116 amino acid TREM2 ectodomain. Rigorous structural analysis ensured correct structural fold after refolding. Treating microglial cells with refolded synthetic TREM2 enhanced microglial phagocytosis, proliferation, and survival. We also prepared TREM2 constructs with defined glycosylation patterns and found that glycosylation at N79 is critical to the thermal stability of TREM2. This method will provide access to TREM2 constructs with site-specific labeling, such as fluorescent labeling, reactive chemical handles, and enrichment handles, to further advance our understanding of TREM2 in Alzheimer's disease.

Detecting Active Deconjugating Enzymes with Genetically Encoded Activity-Based Ubiquitin and Ubiquitin-like Protein Probes.

Post-translational modification of proteins by Ubiquitin (Ub) and Ubiquitin-like proteins (Ubls) can be reversed by deconjugating enzymes, which have been implicated in different pathways and associated with various human diseases. To understand the activity and dynamics of deconjugating enzymes, multiple synthetic and semi-synthetic Ub/Ubl probes have been developed, and some of them have been applied to screen inhibitors of deconjugating enzymes. Since these Ub/Ubl probes are generally not cell-permeable, different strategies have been developed to deliver Ub/Ubl probes to live cells. However, till now, no Ub/Ubl probes can be expressed in live cells to directly report on the activities of deconjugating enzymes in the most relevant cellular environment. Here, we genetically encoded cross-linkable Ub/Ubl probes in live E. coli and HEK293T cells. These probes can cross-link with deconjugating enzymes in vitro and in vivo. Using these Ub probes combined with mass spectrometry, we have successfully identified endogenous deconjugating enzymes in live cells. We believe that these genetically encoded Ub/Ubl probes are valuable for investigating biological functions of deconjugating enzymes in physiological environments.

Top-Down Ion Mobility Separations of Isomeric Proteoforms.

Continuing advances in proteomics highlight the ubiquity and biological importance of proteoforms─proteins with varied sequence, splicing, or distribution of post-translational modifications (PTMs). The preeminent example is histones, where the PTM pattern encodes the combinatorial language controlling the DNA transcription central to life. While the proteoforms with distinct PTM compositions are distinguishable by mass, the isomers with permuted PTMs commonly coexisting in cells generally require separation before mass-spectrometric (MS) analyses. That was accomplished on the bottom-up and middle-down levels using chromatography or ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), but proteolytic digestion obliterates the crucial PTM connectivity information. Here, we demonstrate baseline IMS resolution of intact isomeric proteoforms, specifically the acetylated H4 histones (11.3 kDa). The proteoforms with a single acetyl moiety on five alternative lysine residues (K5, K8, K12, K16, K20) known for distinct functionalities in vivo were constructed by two-step native chemical ligation and separated using trapped IMS at the resolving power up to 350 on the Bruker TIMS/ToF platform. Full resolution for several pairs was confirmed using binary mixtures and by unique fragments in tandem MS employing collision-induced dissociation. This novel capability for top-down proteoform characterization is poised to open major new avenues in proteomics and epigenetics.

Uncover New Reactivity of Genetically Encoded Alkyl Bromide Non-Canonical Amino Acids.

Genetically encoded non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs) with electrophilic moieties are excellent tools to investigate protein-protein interactions (PPIs) both in vitro and in vivo. These ncAAs, including a series of alkyl bromide-based ncAAs, mainly target cysteine residues to form protein-protein cross-links. Although some reactivities towards lysine and tyrosine residues have been reported, a comprehensive understanding of their reactivity towards a broad range of nucleophilic amino acids is lacking. Here we used a recently developed OpenUaa search engine to perform an in-depth analysis of mass spec data generated for Thioredoxin and its direct binding proteins cross-linked with an alkyl bromide-based ncAA, BprY. The analysis showed that, besides cysteine residues, BprY also targeted a broad range of nucleophilic amino acids. We validated this broad reactivity of BprY with Affibody/Z protein complex. We then successfully applied BprY to map a binding interface between SUMO2 and SUMO-interacting motifs (SIMs). BprY was further applied to probe SUMO2 interaction partners. We identified 264 SUMO2 binders, including several validated SUMO2 binders and many new binders. Our data demonstrated that BprY can be effectively used to probe protein-protein interaction interfaces even without cysteine residues, which will greatly expand the power of BprY in studying PPIs.

Soluble TREM2 inhibits secondary nucleation of Aß fibrillization and enhances cellular uptake of fibrillar Aß.

Triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2) is a single-pass transmembrane receptor of the immunoglobulin superfamily that is secreted in a soluble (sTREM2) form. Mutations in TREM2 have been linked to increased risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). A prominent neuropathological component of AD is deposition of the amyloid-ß (Aß) into plaques, particularly Aß40 and Aß42. While the membrane-bound form of TREM2 is known to facilitate uptake of Aß fibrils and the polarization of microglial processes toward amyloid plaques, the role of its soluble ectodomain, particularly in interactions with monomeric or fibrillar Aß, has been less clear. Our results demonstrate that sTREM2 does not bind to monomeric Aß40 and Aß42, even at a high micromolar concentration, while it does bind to fibrillar Aß42 and Aß40 with equal affinities (2.6 ± 0.3 µM and 2.3 ± 0.4 µM). Kinetic analysis shows that sTREM2 inhibits the secondary nucleation step in the fibrillization of Aß, while having little effect on the primary nucleation pathway. Furthermore, binding of sTREM2 to fibrils markedly enhanced uptake of fibrils into human microglial and neuroglioma derived cell lines. The disease-associated sTREM2 mutant, R47H, displayed little to no effect on fibril nucleation and binding, but it decreased uptake and functional responses markedly. We also probed the structure of the WT sTREM2-Aß fibril complex using integrative molecular modeling based primarily on the cross-linking mass spectrometry data. The model shows that sTREM2 binds fibrils along one face of the structure, leaving a second, mutation-sensitive site free to mediate cellular binding and uptake.

Binding Sites of a Positron Emission Tomography Imaging Agent in Alzheimer's ß-Amyloid Fibrils Studied Using 19F Solid-State NMR.

Amyloid imaging by positron emission tomography (PET) is an important method for diagnosing neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. Many 11C- and 18F-labeled PET tracers show varying binding capacities, specificities, and affinities for their target proteins. The structural basis of these variations is poorly understood. Here we employ 19F and 13C solid-state NMR to investigate the binding sites of a PET ligand, flutemetamol, to the 40-residue Alzheimer's ß-amyloid peptide (Aß40). Analytical high-performance liquid chromatography and 19F NMR spectra show that flutemetamol binds the current Aß40 fibril polymorph with a stoichiometry of one ligand per four to five peptides. Half of the ligands are tightly bound while the other half are loosely bound. 13C and 15N chemical shifts indicate that this Aß40 polymorph has an immobilized N-terminus, a non-ß-sheet His14, and a non-ß-sheet C-terminus. We measured the proximity of the ligand fluorine to peptide residues using 19F-13C and 19F-1H rotational-echo double-resonance (REDOR) experiments. The spectra show that three segments in the peptide, 12VHH14, 18VFF20, and 39VV40, lie the closest to the ligand. REDOR-constrained docking simulations indicate that these three segments form multiple binding sites, and the ligand orientations and positions at these sites are similar across different Aß polymorphs. Comparison of the flutemetamol-interacting residues in Aß40 with the small-molecule binding sites in other amyloid proteins suggest that conjugated aromatic compounds preferentially bind ß-sheet surface grooves lined by aromatic, polar, and charged residues. These motifs may explain the specificity of different PET tracers to different amyloid proteins.

Inclusion of the C-Terminal Domain in the ß-Sheet Core of Heparin-Fibrillized Three-Repeat Tau Protein Revealed by Solid-State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy.

Many neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease are characterized by pathological ß-sheet filaments of the tau protein, which spread in a prion-like manner in patient brains. To date, high-resolution structures of tau filaments obtained from patient brains show that the ß-sheet core only includes portions of the microtubule-binding repeat domains and excludes the C-terminal residues, indicating that the C-terminus is dynamically disordered. Here, we use solid-state NMR spectroscopy to identify the ß-sheet core of full-length 0N3R tau fibrillized using heparin. Assignment of 13C and 15N chemical shifts of the rigid core of the protein revealed a single predominant ß-sheet conformation, which spans not only the R3, R4, R' repeats but also the entire C-terminal domain (CT) of the protein. This massive ß-sheet core qualitatively differs from all other tau fibril structures known to date. Using long-range correlation NMR experiments, we found that the R3 and R4 repeats form a ß-arch, similar to that seen in some of the brain-derived tau fibrils, but the R1 and R3 domains additionally stack against the CT, reminiscent of previously reported transient interactions of the CT with the microtubule-binding repeats. This expanded ß-sheet core structure suggests that the CT may have a protective effect against the formation of pathological tau fibrils by shielding the amyloidogenic R3 and R4 domains, preventing side-on nucleation. Truncation and post-translational modification of the CT in vivo may thus play an important role in the progression of tauopathies.

In vitro 0N4R tau fibrils contain a monomorphic ß-sheet core enclosed by dynamically heterogeneous fuzzy coat segments.

Misfolding of the microtubule-binding protein tau into filamentous aggregates is characteristic of many neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and progressive supranuclear palsy. Determining the structures and dynamics of these tau fibrils is important for designing inhibitors against tau aggregation. Tau fibrils obtained from patient brains have been found by cryo-electron microscopy to adopt disease-specific molecular conformations. However, in vitro heparin-fibrillized 2N4R tau, which contains all four microtubule-binding repeats (4R), was recently found to adopt polymorphic structures. Here we use solid-state NMR spectroscopy to investigate the global fold and dynamics of heparin-fibrillized 0N4R tau. A single set of 13C and 15N chemical shifts was observed for residues in the four repeats, indicating a single ß-sheet conformation for the fibril core. This rigid core spans the R2 and R3 repeats and adopts a hairpin-like fold that has similarities to but also clear differences from any of the polymorphic 2N4R folds. Obtaining a homogeneous fibril sample required careful purification of the protein and removal of any proteolytic fragments. A variety of experiments and polarization transfer from water and mobile side chains indicate that 0N4R tau fibrils exhibit heterogeneous dynamics: Outside the rigid R2-R3 core, the R1 and R4 repeats are semirigid even though they exhibit ß-strand character and the proline-rich domains undergo large-amplitude anisotropic motions, whereas the two termini are nearly isotropically flexible. These results have significant implications for the structure and dynamics of 4R tau fibrils in vivo.

Glutamine Side Chain 13C═18O as a Nonperturbative IR Probe of Amyloid Fibril Hydration and Assembly.

Infrared (IR) spectroscopy has provided considerable insight into the structures, dynamics, and formation mechanisms of amyloid fibrils. IR probes, such as main chain 13C═18O, have been widely employed to obtain site-specific structural information, yet only secondary structures and strand-to-strand arrangements can be probed. Very few nonperturbative IR probes are available to report on the side-chain conformation and environments, which are critical to determining sheet-to-sheet arrangements in steric zippers within amyloids. Polar residues, such as glutamine, contribute significantly to the stability of amyloids and thus are frequently found in core regions of amyloid peptides/proteins. Furthermore, polyglutamine (polyQ) repeats form toxic aggregates in several neurodegenerative diseases. Here we report the synthesis and application of a new nonperturbative IR probe-glutamine side chain 13C═18O. We use side chain 13C═18O labeling and isotope dilution to detect the presence of intermolecularly hydrogen-bonded arrays of glutamine side chains (Gln ladders) in amyloid-forming peptides. Moreover, the line width of the 13C═18O peak is highly sensitive to its local hydration environment. The IR data from side chain labeling allows us to unambiguously determine the sheet-to-sheet arrangement in a short amyloid-forming peptide, GNNQQNY, providing insight that was otherwise inaccessible through main chain labeling. With several different fibril samples, we also show the versatility of this IR probe in studying the structures and aggregation kinetics of amyloids. Finally, we demonstrate the capability of modeling amyloid structures with IR data using the integrative modeling platform (IMP) and the potential of integrating IR with other biophysical methods for more accurate structural modeling. Together, we believe that side chain 13C═18O will complement main chain isotope labeling in future IR studies of amyloids and integrative modeling using IR data will significantly expand the power of IR spectroscopy to elucidate amyloid assemblies.

Designing a Green Fluorogenic Protease Reporter by Flipping a Beta Strand of GFP for Imaging Apoptosis in Animals.

A family of proteases called caspases mediate apoptosis signaling in animals. We report a GFP-based fluorogenic protease reporter, dubbed "FlipGFP", by flipping a beta strand of the GFP. Upon protease activation and cleavage, the beta strand is restored, leading to reconstitution of the GFP and fluorescence. FlipGFP-based TEV protease reporter achieves 100-fold fluorescence change. A FlipGFP-based executioner caspase reporter visualized apoptosis in live zebrafish embryos with spatiotemporal resolution. FlipGFP also visualized apoptotic cells in the midgut of Drosophila. Thus, the FlipGFP-based caspase reporter will be useful for monitoring apoptosis during animal development and for designing reporters of proteases beyond caspases. The design strategy can be further applied to a red fluorescent protein for engineering a red fluorogenic protease reporter.

Exposing the Nucleation Site in α-Helix Folding: A Joint Experimental and Simulation Study.

One of the fundamental events in protein folding is α-helix formation, which involves sequential development of a series of helical hydrogen bonds between the backbone C═O group of residues i and the -NH group of residues i + 4. While we now know a great deal about α-helix folding dynamics, a key question that remains to be answered is where the productive helical nucleation event occurs. Statistically, a helical nucleus (or the first helical hydrogen-bond) can form anywhere within the peptide sequence in question; however, the one that leads to productive folding may only form at a preferred location. This consideration is based on the fact that the α-helical structure is inherently asymmetric, due to the specific alignment of the helical hydrogen bonds. While this hypothesis is plausible, validating it is challenging because there is not an experimental observable that can be used to directly pinpoint the location of the productive nucleation process. Therefore, in this study we combine several techniques, including peptide cross-linking, laser-induced temperature-jump infrared spectroscopy, and molecular dynamics simulations, to tackle this challenge. Taken together, our experimental and simulation results support an α-helix folding mechanism wherein the productive nucleus is formed at the N-terminus, which propagates toward the C-terminal end of the peptide to yield the folded structure. In addition, our results show that incorporation of a cross-linker can lead to formation of differently folded conformations, underscoring the need for all-atom simulations to quantitatively assess the proposed cross-linking design.