Generation of KCNH2 heterozygous knockout induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) line (Long and Short QT Syndrome).

KCNH2 (Potassium Voltage-Gated Channel Subfamily H Member) encodes a voltage-activated potassium channel role as rapidly activating-delayed rectifier potassium channel that plays an essential role in the final repolarization of the ventricular action potential. Mutations in this gene can cause long QT syndrome and short QT syndrome. Transcript variants encoding distinct isoforms were also identified. In this study, we generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) from a healthy individual by electroporation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells and generated a KCNH2 heterozygous knockout human iPSC line via CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing. The resulting iPSCs had a normal karyotype, were free of genomically integrated epitomal plasmids, expressed pluripotency markers, and maintained trilineage differentiation potential.

Two-dimensional heavy fermions in the van der Waals metal CeSiI.

Heavy-fermion metals are prototype systems for observing emergent quantum phases driven by electronic interactions1-6. A long-standing aspiration is the dimensional reduction of these materials to exert control over their quantum phases7-11, which remains a significant challenge because traditional intermetallic heavy-fermion compounds have three-dimensional atomic and electronic structures. Here we report comprehensive thermodynamic and spectroscopic evidence of an antiferromagnetically ordered heavy-fermion ground state in CeSiI, an intermetallic comprising two-dimensional (2D) metallic sheets held together by weak interlayer van der Waals (vdW) interactions. Owing to its vdW nature, CeSiI has a quasi-2D electronic structure, and we can control its physical dimension through exfoliation. The emergence of coherent hybridization of f and conduction electrons at low temperature is supported by the temperature evolution of angle-resolved photoemission and scanning tunnelling spectra near the Fermi level and by heat capacity measurements. Electrical transport measurements on few-layer flakes reveal heavy-fermion behaviour and magnetic order down to the ultra-thin regime. Our work establishes CeSiI and related materials as a unique platform for studying dimensionally confined heavy fermions in bulk crystals and employing 2D device fabrication techniques and vdW heterostructures12 to manipulate the interplay between Kondo screening, magnetic order and proximity effects.

Transition Metal Functionalized C30N12S6 as High-Performance Trifunctional Catalysts with Integrated Descriptors toward Hydrogen Evolution, Oxygen Evolution, and Oxygen Reduction Reactions: A Case of High-Throughput First-Principles Screening within the Framework of TM-N2@C30N10S6.

In energy conversion and storage technologies, the design of highly efficient trifunctional electrocatalysts integrating with the high hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution/reduction reaction (OER/ORR) activities is highly desirable. Herein, utilizing first-principles computations, a novel periodically ordered macropore C30N12S6 monolayer was proposed, and the stability analysis attests to its good stability. Single transition metal (TM) atom anchored onto this newly proposed C30N12S6 monolayer to form single-atom catalysts, as achieved by TM-N2@C30N10S6, among which the Co-N2@C30N10S6 is the most promising multifunctional catalyst toward HER/OER/ORR with low overpotential of 0.01/0.59/0.3 V; meanwhile, the Rh-N2@C30N10S6 can be used as a bifunctional OER/ORR catalyst with low overpotential of 0.37/0.44 V, overmatching the landmark Pt (111) and IrO2/RuO2 catalysts. Particularly, the TM-d orbital in TM@CNS is remarkably hybridized with the O-p orbital of oxygenated intermediates, so that the lone electrons initially located at the antibonding orbital pair up and fill the downward bonding orbital, allowing OH* to be suitably adsorbed on TM@CNS, enhancing the catalytic performance. The relevant attributes, such as good stabilities and metallic features, ensured their applications in ambient conditions. Moreover, multilevel descriptors were constructed to clarify the origin of activity on TM@CNS, such as ΔGOH* (Gibbs free energy of OH*), εd (d-band center), COHP (crystal orbital Hamilton population), Nd/Nd + s (number of d/d + s electrons) and φ (descriptor), among which the filling of outer d-electrons of TM atom significantly affects the value of ΔGOH* that can determine the overpotential and, thus, become a key descriptor.

Comprehensive physiological, transcriptomic, and metabolomic analysis of the key metabolic pathways in millet seedling adaptation to drought stress.

Drought is one of the leading environmental constraints that affect the growth and development of plants and, ultimately, their yield and quality. Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) is a natural stress-resistant plant and an ideal model for studying plant drought resistance. In this study, two varieties of foxtail millet with different levels of drought resistance were used as the experimental material. The soil weighing method was used to simulate drought stress, and the differences in growth, photosynthetic physiology, metabolite metabolism, and gene transcriptional expression under drought stress were compared and analyzed. We aimed to determine the physiological and key metabolic regulation pathways of the drought-tolerant millet in resistance to drought stress. The results showed that drought-tolerant millet exhibited relatively stable growth and photosynthetic parameters under drought stress while maintaining a relatively stable level of photosynthetic pigments. The metabolomic, transcriptomic, and gene co-expression network analysis confirmed that the key to adaptation to drought by millet was to enhance lignin metabolism, promote the metabolism of fatty acids to be transformed into cutin and wax, and improve ascorbic acid circulation. These findings provided new insights into the metabolic regulatory network of millet adaptation to drought stress.

Effect of small nuclear ribonucleoprotein polypeptide A on the malignant biological behavior of hepatocellular carcinoma cells and its mechanism / 中国肿瘤生物治疗杂志

@#[摘 要] 目的：探究小核核糖核蛋白多肽A（SNRPA）在肝细胞癌（HCC）组织和细胞中的表达及其调控HCC细胞HepG2和Hep3B恶性生物学行为的作用及其机制。方法: 数据库分析SNRPA在泛癌组织中的表达及其与病理分期、HCC患者预后的相关性。常规培养HepG2和Hep3B细胞，将si-NC，si-SNRPA#1、si-SNRPA#2转染HepG2和Hep3B细胞，实验分为si-NC组、si-SNRPA#1组和si-SNRPA#2组；将SNRPA-vector和SNRPA-oe载体转染LO2细胞，分为SNRPA-vector组和SNRPA-oe组。qPCR法检测正常肝细胞和肝癌细胞以及转染各组HepG2和Hep3B细胞中SNRPA mRNA的表达，MTT法、Transwell法和WB法分别检测转染后各组HepG2和Hep3B细胞的增殖、迁移和侵袭能力以及EMT相关蛋白表达的变化。结果: 数据库分析显示，SNRPA mRNA在多数肿瘤组织中均呈高表达（均P<0.001）且与病理分期有关联（P<0.05或P<0.01）。SNRPA在HCC组织和细胞中均呈高表达（P<0.05或P<0.01），且与HCC患者的预后有关联（P<0.01）。敲减SNRPA表达明显抑制HepG2和Hep3B细胞增殖（P<0.05或P<0.01）而过表达SNRPA则能促进LO2细胞增殖（P<0.01），敲减SNRPA表达明显抑制HepG2和Hep3B细胞的迁移和侵袭能力（均P<0.01），明显促进E-cadherin的表达上调（P<0.01），而抑制N-cadherin、vimentin的表达（P<0.01）。结论: SNRPA在HCC组织及细胞中呈明显高表达，其可能通过调控上皮间质转化（EMT）进程进而促进HepG2和Hep3B细胞的增殖、迁移和侵袭。