Novel LDLR variants affecting low density lipoprotein metabolism identified in familial hypercholesterolemia.

BACKGROUND: Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is an autosomal dominant disease of lipid metabolism mainly caused by mutations in the low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) gene. Genetic detection of patients with FH help with precise diagnosis and treatment, thus reducing the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) and other related diseases. The study aimed to identify the causative gene mutations in a Chinese FH family and reveal the pathogenicity and the mechanism of these mutations. METHODS AND RESULTS: Whole exome sequencing was performed in a patient with severe lipid metabolism dysfunction seeking fertility guidance from a Chinese FH family. Two LDLR variants c.1875 C > G (p.N625K; novel variant) and c.1448G > A (p.W483*) were identified in the family. Wildtype and mutant LDLR constructs were established by the site-direct mutagenesis technique. Functional studies were carried out by cell transfection to evaluate the impact of detected variants on LDLR activity. The two variants were proven to affect LDL uptake and binding, resulting in cholesterol clearance reduction to different degrees. According to The American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) Standards and Guidelines, the W483* variant was classified as "Pathogenic", while the N625K variant as "VUS". CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide novel experimental evidence of functional alteration by LDLR variants identified in our study and expand the mutational spectrum of LDLR mutation induced FH.

RotNet: A Rotationally Invariant Graph Neural Network for Quantum Mechanical Calculations.

Deep learning has proven promising in biological and chemical applications, aiding in accurate predictions of properties such as atomic forces, energies, and material band gaps. Traditional methods with rotational invariance, one of the most crucial physical laws for predictions made by machine learning, have relied on Fourier transforms or specialized convolution filters, leading to complex model design and reduced accuracy and efficiency. However, models without rotational invariance exhibit poor generalization ability across datasets. Addressing this contradiction, this work proposes a rotationally invariant graph neural network, named RotNet, for accurate and accelerated quantum mechanical calculations that can overcome the generalization deficiency caused by rotations of molecules. RotNet ensures rotational invariance through an effective transformation and learns distance and angular information from atomic coordinates. Benchmark experiments on three datasets (protein fragments, electronic materials, and QM9) demonstrate that the proposed RotNet framework outperforms popular baselines and generalizes well to spatial data with varying rotations. The high accuracy, efficiency, and fast convergence of RotNet suggest that it has tremendous potential to significantly facilitate studies of protein dynamics simulation and materials engineering while maintaining physical plausibility.

Spatial-temporal distribution and potential risk of pesticides in ambient air in the North China Plain.

The intensive use of pesticides in the North China Plain (NCP) has resulted in widespread contamination of pesticides in the local atmosphere, posing risks to air quality and human health. However, the occurrence and distribution of atmospheric pesticides in the NCP as well as their risk assessment have not been well investigated. In this study, 300 monthly samples were collected using passive air samplers with polyurethane foam at ten rural sites with different crop systems in Quzhou county, the NCP, from June 2021 to May 2022. The pesticides were quantified using mass-spectrometric techniques. Our results revealed that chlorpyrifos, carbendazim, and atrazine were the most frequently found pesticides in the air samples, with detection frequencies of ≥ 87 % across the samples. The average concentrations of atmospheric pesticides during spring (7.47 pg m-3) and summer (16.05 pg m-3) were significantly higher than those during autumn (2.04 pg m-3) and winter (1.71 pg m-3), attributable to the intensified application of pesticides during the warmer seasons. Additionally, cash crop sites exhibited higher concentrations (10.26 pg m-3) of atmospheric pesticides compared to grain crop (5.59 pg m-3) and greenhouse sites (3.81 pg m-3), primarily due to more frequent pesticides spraying events in cash crop fields. These findings indicate a distinct spatial-temporal distribution pattern of atmospheric pesticides influenced by both seasons and crop systems. Furthermore, the model-based inhalation risk assessment indicates that inhalation exposure to atmospheric pesticides is unlikely to pose a significant public concern.

Small molecule regulators of microRNAs identified by high-throughput screen coupled with high-throughput sequencing.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate fundamental biological processes by silencing mRNA targets and are dysregulated in many diseases. Therefore, miRNA replacement or inhibition can be harnessed as potential therapeutics. However, existing strategies for miRNA modulation using oligonucleotides and gene therapies are challenging, especially for neurological diseases, and none have yet gained clinical approval. We explore a different approach by screening a biodiverse library of small molecule compounds for their ability to modulate hundreds of miRNAs in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons. We demonstrate the utility of the screen by identifying cardiac glycosides as potent inducers of miR-132, a key neuroprotective miRNA downregulated in Alzheimer's disease and other tauopathies. Coordinately, cardiac glycosides downregulate known miR-132 targets, including Tau, and protect rodent and human neurons against various toxic insults. More generally, our dataset of 1370 drug-like compounds and their effects on the miRNome provides a valuable resource for further miRNA-based drug discovery.

Predictors of immune persistence induced by two-dose BBIBP-CorV vaccine in high-risk occupational population.

BACKGROUND: The immune protection from infection may wane over time as neutralizing antibody levels decline. We aimed to develop a nomogram to predict long-term immune persistence induced by two-dose BBIBP-CorV vaccine and calculate the neutralizing antibody decline probability of individuals. METHODS: In the initial study, a total of 809 participants were recruited and randomly allocated (1:1:1) to vaccination group with three two-dose schedules on days 0 and 14, 0 and 21, or 0 and 28. The participants with neutralizing antibody titers of 16 or above on day 28 after the second dose were followed up at month 3, 6 and 10. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression model and nomogram model were used to identify predictors associated with maintaining of neutralizing antibody levels during 10 months after the second dose. RESULTS: A total of 744 participants followed up at day 28 after the second dose. The participants with age ≥ 50 (aHR = 3.556, 95 %CI: 1.141-4.884, P = 0.028) were associated with a high risk of response loss (titers < 16). The participants who were in 0-28 d group (aHR = 0.403, 95 %CI: 0.177-0.919, P = 0.031), had an influenza vaccination history (aHR = 0.468, 95 %CI: 0.267-0.921, P = 0.033) or were female (aHR = 0.542, 95 %CI: 0.269-0.935, P = 0.035) tended to maintain immune persistence during 10 months after the second dose. The nomogram was constructed and showed moderate discrimination[C-index:0.711 (95 %CI: 0.652-0.770); AUC: 0.731 (95 %CI: 0.663-0.792)] and good calibration. CONCLUSIONS: From 28 days to 10 months after receipt of the second dose of the BBIBP-CorV vaccine, neutralizing antibody levels were substantially decreased, especially among men, among persons 50 years of age or older, among persons with the 0-14 d group, and among persons without history of influenza vaccination. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR2100041705, ChiCTR2100041706.

Enhancing the accumulation of lipid and docosahexaenoic acid in Schizochytrium sp. by co-overexpression of phosphopantetheinyl transferase and ω-3 fatty acid desaturase.

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) as one of ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), plays a key role in brain development, and is widely used in food additives and the pharmaceutical industry. Schizochytrium sp. is often considered as a satisfactory strain for DHA industrialization. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of phosphopantetheinyl transferase (PPTase) and ω-3 fatty acid desaturase (FAD) for regulating DHA content in Schizochytrium sp. PPTase is essential to activate the polyketide-like synthase (PKS) pathway, which can transfer apo-acyl-carrier protein (apo-ACP) into holo-ACP, and plays a key role in DHA synthesis. Moreover, DHA and docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) are synthesized by the PKS pathway simultaneously, so high DPA synthesis limits the increase of DHA content. In addition, the detailed mechanisms of PKS pathway have not been fully elucidated, so it is difficult to improve DHA content by modifying PKS. However, ω-3 FAD can convert DPA into DHA, and it is the most direct and effective way to increase DHA content and reduce DPA content. Based on this, PPTase was overexpressed to enhance the synthesis of DHA by the PKS pathway, overexpressed ω-3 FAD to convert the co-product of the PKS pathway into DHA, and co-overexpressed PPTase and ω-3 FAD. With these strategies, compared with wild type, the final lipid, and DHA titer were 92.5 and 51.5 g L-1 , which increased by 46.4% and 78.1%, respectively. This study established an efficient DHA production strain, and provided some feasible strategies for industrial DHA production in Schizochytrium sp.

Binding Affinity and Mechanisms of Potential Antidepressants Targeting Human NMDA Receptors.

Depression, a mental disorder that plagues the world, is a burden on many families. There is a great need for new, fast-acting antidepressants to be developed. N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) is an ionotropic glutamate receptor that plays an important role in learning and memory processes and its TMD region is considered as a potential target to treat depression. However, due to the unclear binding sites and pathways, the mechanism of drug binding lacks basic explanation, which brings great complexity to the development of new drugs. In this study, we investigated the binding affinity and mechanisms of an FDA-approved antidepressant (S-ketamine) and seven potential antidepressants (R-ketamine, memantine, lanicemine, dextromethorphan, Ro 25-6981, ifenprodil, and traxoprodil) targeting the NMDA receptor by ligand-protein docking and molecular dynamics simulations. The results indicated that Ro 25-6981 has the strongest binding affinity to the TMD region of the NMDA receptor among the eight selected drugs, suggesting its potential effective inhibitory effect. We also calculated the critical binding-site residues at the active site and found that residues Leu124 and Met63 contributed the most to the binding energy by decomposing the free energy contributions on a per-residue basis. We further compared S-ketamine and its chiral molecule, R-ketamine, and found that R-ketamine had a stronger binding capacity to the NMDA receptor. This study provides a computational reference for the treatment of depression targeting NMDA receptors, and the proposed results will provide potential strategies for further antidepressant development and is a useful resource for the future discovery of fast-acting antidepressant candidates.

Activation of ß2-adrenergic receptors prevents AD-type synaptotoxicity via epigenetic mechanisms.

We previously reported that prolonged exposure to an enriched environment (EE) enhances hippocampal synaptic plasticity, with one of the significant mechanistic pathways being activation of ß2-adrenergic receptor (ß2-AR) signaling, thereby mitigating the synaptotoxic effects of soluble oligomers of amyloid ß-protein (oAß). However, the detailed mechanism remained elusive. In this work, we recorded field excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSP) in the CA1 region of mouse hippocampal slices treated with or without toxic Aß-species. We found that pharmacological activation of ß2-AR, but not ß1-AR, selectively mimicked the effects of EE in enhancing LTP and preventing oAß-induced synaptic dysfunction. Mechanistic analyses showed that certain histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors mimicked the benefits of EE, but this was not seen in ß2-AR knockout mice, suggesting that activating ß2-AR prevents oAß-mediated synaptic dysfunction via changes in histone acetylation. EE or activation of ß-ARs each decreased HDAC2, whereas Aß oligomers increased HDAC2 levels in the hippocampus. Further, oAß-induced inflammatory effects and neurite degeneration were prevented by either ß2-AR agonists or certain specific HDAC inhibitors. These preclinical results suggest that activation of ß2-AR is a novel potential therapeutic strategy to mitigate oAß-mediated features of AD.

Advances in Genetics and Epigenetics of Developmental Coordination Disorder in Children.

Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a developmental disorder characterized by impaired motor coordination, often co-occurring with attention deficit disorder, autism spectrum disorders, and other psychological and behavioural conditions. The aetiology of DCD is believed to involve brain changes and environmental factors, with genetics also playing a role in its pathogenesis. Recent research has identified several candidate genes and genetic factors associated with motor impairment, including deletions, copy number variations, single nucleotide polymorphisms, and epigenetic modifications. This review provides an overview of the current knowledge in genetic research on DCD, highlighting the importance of continued research into the underlying genetic mechanisms. While evidence suggests a genetic contribution to DCD, the evidence is still in its early stages, and much of the current evidence is based on studies of co-occurring conditions. Further research to better understand the genetic basis of DCD could have important implications for diagnosis, treatment, and our understanding of the condition's aetiology.

Small Molecule Regulators of microRNAs Identified by High-Throughput Screen Coupled with High-Throughput Sequencing.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate fundamental biological processes by silencing mRNA targets and are dysregulated in many diseases. Therefore, miRNA replacement or inhibition can be harnessed as potential therapeutics. However, existing strategies for miRNA modulation using oligonucleotides and gene therapies are challenging, especially for neurological diseases, and none have yet gained clinical approval. We explore a different approach by screening a biodiverse library of small molecule compounds for their ability to modulate hundreds of miRNAs in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons. We demonstrate the utility of the screen by identifying cardiac glycosides as potent inducers of miR-132, a key miRNA downregulated in Alzheimer's disease and other tauopathies. Coordinately, cardiac glycosides downregulate known miR-132 targets, including Tau, and protect rodent and human neurons against various toxic insults. More generally, our dataset of 1370 drug-like compounds and their effects on the miRNome provide a valuable resource for further miRNA-based drug discovery.

Secreted PGK1 and IGFBP2 contribute to the bystander effect of miR-10b gene editing in glioma.

MicroRNA-10b (miR-10b) is an essential glioma driver and one of the top candidates for targeted therapies for glioblastoma and other cancers. This unique miRNA controls glioma cell cycle and viability via an array of established conventional and unconventional mechanisms. Previously reported CRISPR-Cas9-mediated miR-10b gene editing of glioma cells in vitro and established orthotopic glioblastoma in mouse models demonstrated the efficacy of this approach and its promise for therapy development. However, therapeutic gene editing in patients' brain tumors may be hampered, among other factors, by the imperfect delivery and distribution of targeting vectors. Here, we demonstrate that miR-10b gene editing in glioma cells triggers a potent bystander effect that leads to the selective cell death of the unedited glioma cells without affecting the normal neuroglial cells. The effect is mediated by the secreted miR-10b targets phosphoglycerate kinase 1 (PGK1) and insulin-like growth factor binding protein 2 (IGFBP2) that block cell-cycle progression and induce glioma cell death. These findings further support the feasibility of therapeutic miR-10b editing without the need to target every cell of the tumor.

A deep transfer learning-based protocol accelerates full quantum mechanics calculation of protein.

Effective full quantum mechanics (FQM) calculation of protein remains a grand challenge and of great interest in computational biology with substantial applications in drug discovery, protein dynamic simulation and protein folding. However, the huge computational complexity of the existing QM methods impends their applications in large systems. Here, we design a transfer-learning-based deep learning (TDL) protocol for effective FQM calculations (TDL-FQM) on proteins. By incorporating a transfer-learning algorithm into deep neural network (DNN), the TDL-FQM protocol is capable of performing calculations at any given accuracy using models trained from small datasets with high-precision and knowledge learned from large amount of low-level calculations. The high-level double-hybrid DFT functional and high-level quality of basis set is used in this work as a case study to evaluate the performance of TDL-FQM, where the selected 15 proteins are predicted to have a mean absolute error of 0.01 kcal/mol/atom for potential energy and an average root mean square error of 1.47 kcal/mol/$ {\rm A^{^{ \!\!\!o}}} $ for atomic forces. The proposed TDL-FQM approach accelerates the FQM calculation more than thirty thousand times faster in average and presents more significant benefits in efficiency as the size of protein increases. The ability to learn knowledge from one task to solve related problems demonstrates that the proposed TDL-FQM overcomes the limitation of standard DNN and has a strong power to predict proteins with high precision, which solves the challenge of high precision prediction in large chemical and biological systems.

VitroGel-loaded human MenSCs promote endometrial regeneration and fertility restoration.

Introduction: Intrauterine adhesions (IUA), also known as Asherman's syndrome, is caused by trauma to the pregnant or non-pregnant uterus, which leads to damaged endometrial basal lining and partial or total occlusion of the uterine chambers, resulting in abnormal menstruation, infertility, or recurrent miscarriage. The essence of this syndrome is endometrial fibrosis. And there is no effective treatment for IUA to stimulate endometrial regeneration currently. Recently, menstrual blood-derived stem cells (MenSCs) have been proved to hold therapeutic promise in various diseases, such as myocardial infarction, stroke, diabetes, and liver cirrhosis. Methods: In this study, we examined the effects of MenSCs on the repair of uterine adhesions in a rat model, and more importantly, promoted such therapeutic effects via a xeno-free VitroGel MMP carrier. Results: This combined treatment reduced the expression of inflammatory factors, increased the expression of anti-inflammatory factors, restricted the area of endometrial fibrosis, diminished uterine adhesions, and partially restored fertility, showing stronger effectiveness than each component alone and almost resembling the sham group. Discussion: Our findings suggest a highly promising strategy for IUA treatment.

Maternal exposure to PM2.5 induces cognitive impairment in offspring via cerebellar neuroinflammation and oxidative stress.

Available evidence suggest that exposure to PM2.5 during pregnancy is associated with reduced cognitive function in offspring. This study aimed to investigate the effects of maternal exposure to PM2.5 on offspring cognitive function and to elucidate the underlying mechanisms. In this work, pregnant C57BL/6 female mice were exposed to concentrated ambient PM2.5 or filtered air from day 0.5 (=vaginal plug) to day 15.5 in the Shanghai Meteorological and Environmental Animal Exposure System, and offspring cerebellar tissues were collected on embryonic day 15.5, as well as postnatal days 0, 10 and 42. The mean PM2.5 concentrations exposed to the pregnant mice were 73.06 ± 4.90 µg/m3 and 11.15 ± 2.71 µg/m3 in the concentrated ambient PM2.5 and filtered air chambers, respectively. Maternal concentrated PM2.5 exposure was negatively correlated with offspring spatial memory significantly as assessed by the Morris water maze. Compared with the filtered air group, PM2.5-exposed offspring mice had reduced cerebellar microglia. Both RNA and protein levels of IL-8 and TNF-α were elevated in the concentrated ambient PM2.5 group. PM2.5 exposure increased the level of 8-OHG in miRNA of microglia and Purkinje cells in 6-week-old offspring. The level of prostaglandin F2α (8-iso-PGF2Aα) in the cerebellum was increased at different growing stages of offspring after gestational exposure of PM2.5. These results suggested that maternal air pollution exposure might cause inflammatory damage and oxidative stress to the cerebellum, contributing to reduced cognitive performance in mice offspring.

Immune persistence induced by two-dose BBIBP-CorV vaccine with different intervals, and immunogenicity and safety of a homologous booster dose in high-risk occupational population.

BACKGROUND: The immune persistence of neutralizing antibodies elicited by BBIBP-CorV vaccines on day 0-14, 0-21 and 0-28 schedule, and the immunogenicity and safety of a homologous booster dose after different priming vaccination regimens is scarcely reported. METHODS: : Responders (GMT≥16) at day 28, after priming with the two-dose vaccine, were followed up at 3, 6, and 10 months. Eligible participants received a homologous booster dose at month 10 and were followed-up 28 days post-booster. RESULTS: The GMT of neutralizing antibodies in 0-28d-10 m and 0-21d-10 m group were significantly higher than 0-14d-10 m group from month 3 (71.6 & 64.2 vs 46.4, p < 0.001) to month 10 (32.4 & 28.8 vs 20.3, p < 0.001) after the second dose. On day 28 post-booster, a remarkable rebound in neutralizing antibodies (246.2, 277.5, and 288.6, respectively) was observed in the three groups. All adverse reactions were mild after booster injection. CONCLUSIONS: The priming two-dose BBIBP-CorV vaccine with 0-28 days and 0-21 days schedule could lead to a longer persistence of neutralizing antibody than the 0-14 days schedule. Regardless of the priming vaccination regimens, a homologous booster dose led to a strong rebound in neutralizing antibodies and might persist for at least 18 months.

Metabolic Rewiring in Glioblastoma Cancer: EGFR, IDH and Beyond.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a highly invasive and incurable tumor, is the humans' foremost, commonest, and deadliest brain cancer. As in other cancers, distinct combinations of genetic alterations (GA) in GBM induce a diversity of metabolic phenotypes resulting in enhanced malignancy and altered sensitivity to current therapies. Furthermore, GA as a hallmark of cancer, dysregulated cell metabolism in GBM has been recently linked to the acquired GA. Indeed, Numerous point mutations and copy number variations have been shown to drive glioma cells' metabolic state, affecting tumor growth and patient outcomes. Among the most common, IDH mutations, EGFR amplification, mutation, PTEN loss, and MGMT promoter mutation have emerged as key patterns associated with upregulated glycolysis and OXPHOS glutamine addiction and altered lipid metabolism in GBM. Therefore, current Advances in cancer genetic and metabolic profiling have yielded mechanistic insights into the metabolism rewiring of GBM and provided potential avenues for improved therapeutic modalities. Accordingly, actionable metabolic dependencies are currently used to design new treatments for patients with glioblastoma. Herein, we capture the current knowledge of genetic alterations in GBM, provide a detailed understanding of the alterations in metabolic pathways, and discuss their relevance in GBM therapy.

Novel Homozygous PADI6 Variants in Infertile Females with Early Embryonic Arrest.

Early embryonic arrest denotes premature termination of development in preimplantation embryos, which is one of the major phenotypes of recurrent assisted reproduction failure. Padi6 is proven to be a member of the subcortical maternal complex (SCMC) in mice, which is essential in oocyte maturation and embryogenesis. We and other groups previously found that biallelic mutations in PADI6 caused female infertility manifesting as early embryonic arrest. In this study, we identified two novel homozygous variants (p.Cys163Arg, and p. Trp475*) of PADI6 in two infertile patients from a cohort of 75 females with the phenotype of early embryonic arrest. An in vitro expression study indicated severe decrease of PADI6, which might destruct the stability of SCMC. Our study expands the mutational spectrum of PADI6 and further supports the causality between PADI6 mutations and female infertility.

Promoter and enhancer RNAs regulate chromatin reorganization and activation of miR-10b/HOXD locus, and neoplastic transformation in glioma.

miR-10b is silenced in normal neuroglial cells of the brain but commonly activated in glioma, where it assumes an essential tumor-promoting role. We demonstrate that the entire miR-10b-hosting HOXD locus is activated in glioma via the cis-acting mechanism involving 3D chromatin reorganization and CTCF-cohesin-mediated looping. This mechanism requires two interacting lncRNAs, HOXD-AS2 and LINC01116, one associated with HOXD3/HOXD4/miR-10b promoter and another with the remote enhancer. Knockdown of either lncRNA in glioma cells alters CTCF and cohesin binding, abolishes chromatin looping, inhibits the expression of all genes within HOXD locus, and leads to glioma cell death. Conversely, in cortical astrocytes, enhancer activation is sufficient for HOXD/miR-10b locus reorganization, gene derepression, and neoplastic cell transformation. LINC01116 RNA is essential for this process. Our results demonstrate the interplay of two lncRNAs in the chromatin folding and concordant regulation of miR-10b and multiple HOXD genes normally silenced in astrocytes and triggering the neoplastic glial transformation.

A nuclear function for an oncogenic microRNA as a modulator of snRNA and splicing.

BACKGROUND: miRNAs are regulatory transcripts established as repressors of mRNA stability and translation that have been functionally implicated in carcinogenesis. miR-10b is one of the key onco-miRs associated with multiple forms of cancer. Malignant gliomas exhibit particularly striking dependence on miR-10b. However, despite the therapeutic potential of miR-10b targeting, this miRNA's poorly investigated and largely unconventional properties hamper the clinical translation. METHODS: We utilized Covalent Ligation of Endogenous Argonaute-bound RNAs and their high-throughput RNA sequencing to identify miR-10b interactome and a combination of biochemical and imaging approaches for target validation. They included Crosslinking and RNA immunoprecipitation with spliceosomal proteins, a combination of miRNA FISH with protein immunofluorescence in glioma cells and patient-derived tumors, native Northern blotting, and the transcriptome-wide analysis of alternative splicing. RESULTS: We demonstrate that miR-10b binds to U6 snRNA, a core component of the spliceosomal machinery. We provide evidence of the direct binding between miR-10b and U6, in situ imaging of miR-10b and U6 co-localization in glioma cells and tumors, and biochemical co-isolation of miR-10b with the components of the spliceosome. We further demonstrate that miR-10b modulates U6 N-6-adenosine methylation and pseudouridylation, U6 binding to splicing factors SART3 and PRPF8, and regulates U6 stability, conformation, and levels. These effects on U6 result in global splicing alterations, exemplified by the altered ratio of the isoforms of a small GTPase CDC42, reduced overall CDC42 levels, and downstream CDC42 -mediated effects on cell viability. CONCLUSIONS: We identified U6 snRNA, the key RNA component of the spliceosome, as the top miR-10b target in glioblastoma. We, therefore, present an unexpected intersection of the miRNA and splicing machineries and a new nuclear function for a major cancer-associated miRNA.

Biosynthesis and evaluation of a novel highly water-soluble quercetin glycoside derivative.

Quercetin (1) was converted into quercetin 7-O-succinyl glucoside (2) by used Bacillus amyloliquefaciens FJ18 as a solvent-resistant whole-cell biocatalyst. The structure of the new compound was confirmed by LC-MS analysis and NMR spectroscopy. The water-solubility of this novel quercetin 7-O-succinyl glucoside (2) was approximately 1000 times higher than that of native quercetin (2). Quercetin (1) and quercetin 7-O-succinyl glucoside (2) exhibited significant DPPH scavenging capacity with IC50 values of 23.55 and 36.05 µM, respectively. Both compounds showed moderate cytotoxic effects against the two human cancer cell lines (MCF-7 and HepG2) with IC50 values ranging from 39.45-63.38 µM.