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Category: chemistry – Page 8

Study maps gene activity linked to neurotransmission in living brains

Researchers have identified a distinct and reproducible gene expression program associated with neurotransmission in the living human brain, offering unprecedented insight into the molecular mechanisms that support human cognition, emotion, and behavior. The findings were published February 19 in Molecular Psychiatry.

Neurotransmission-the electrical and chemical signaling between neurons-is fundamental to all brain function. Until now, most gene expression studies of the human brain have relied on postmortem tissue, limiting scientists’ ability to understand which genes are actively involved in real-time neuronal communication.

In this study, investigators integrated gene expression profiling from the prefrontal cortex with direct intracranial measures of neurotransmission collected from the brains of more than 100 individuals as they underwent neurosurgical procedures. By combining molecular data with real-time physiological recordings, the team identified a coordinated set of genes whose activity tracks with neuronal signaling-a transcriptional program associated with neurotransmission.

AI model predicts chemical effects on gene expression, speeding drug discovery

Inside a diseased cell, the genes are in chaos. Some are receiving signals to overproduce a protein. Others are reducing activity to abnormal levels. Up is down and down is up. The right molecule could restore order, reversing dysregulation in specific genes. But finding the ideal compound could require examining millions of chemicals for their influence on hundreds or thousands of genes.

An MSU-led team of researchers has demonstrated a better way. Using machine learning trained on enormous amounts of published data, they were able to predict how chemicals will influence gene expression, based solely on the structure of the chemical.

Their study, recently published in the journal Cell, has discovered compounds that are promising for treatment of two difficult diseases: the most aggressive form of liver cancer and a chronic lung disease with no curative options.

Deep-learning-based de novo discovery and design of therapeutics that reverse disease-associated transcriptional phenotypes

Bulk and single-cell transcriptomics are widely used to characterize diseases and cellular states but remain underexplored for de novo drug discovery. Here, we present a strategy to screen and optimize compounds by matching disease transcriptomic profiles with compound-induced transcriptomic features predicted from chemical structures using a deep-learning model.

Gene expression program linked to neurotransmission in the living human brain identified

Researchers have identified a distinct and reproducible gene expression program associated with neurotransmission in the living human brain, offering unprecedented insight into the molecular mechanisms that support human cognition, emotion, and behavior. The findings were published in Molecular Psychiatry.

Neurotransmission—the electrical and chemical signaling between neurons—is fundamental to all brain function. Until now, most gene expression studies of the human brain have relied on postmortem tissue, limiting scientists’ ability to understand which genes are actively involved in real-time neuronal communication.

In this study, investigators integrated gene expression profiling from the prefrontal cortex with direct intracranial measures of neurotransmission collected from the brains of more than 100 individuals as they underwent neurosurgical procedures. By combining molecular data with real-time physiological recordings, the team identified a coordinated set of genes whose activity tracks with neuronal signaling—a transcriptional program associated with neurotransmission.

Laser-assisted electron scattering seen with circularly polarized light for the first time

Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have succeeded in detecting laser-assisted electron scattering (LAES) using circularly polarized light for the first time. The use of circularly polarized light promises valuable insights into how atomic scale “helicity” impacts how electrons interact with matter and light.

Using synchronized femtosecond laser pulses and electron pulses directed at argon atoms, they succeeded in detecting a LAES signal showing excellent agreement with theory. The findings are published in The Journal of Chemical Physics.

LAES is a cutting-edge tool for understanding how electrons interact with matter under the influence of strong fields. When electrons are fired at atoms or molecules, they are scattered in all directions; the presence of strong light can change the way in which the scattering takes place due to an exchange of energy with the surrounding light field.

First-of-its-kind ion pump developed for seawater desalination, energy and biomedical applications

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, Israel’s Tel Aviv University and other institutions have developed a first-of-its-kind membrane through which charged molecules pass using nothing more than a rapidly switching low-voltage signal. This “ratchet-based ion pump” has no moving parts and requires no chemical reactions.

The device opens the door to advances in water desalination, lithium ion harvesting from seawater, heavy-metal removal from drinking water, battery recycling and various biomedical applications. The team’s findings are outlined in a paper published recently in Nature Materials.

Molecular chains with bite: Customized carbon nanoribbons open a cleaner path to molecular electronics

The longest chains of the conductive polymer poly(p-phenylene; PPP) produced to date are just under one micrometer (thousandth of a millimeter) long—almost an order of magnitude longer than previously possible. A research team from the fields of chemistry and physics led by Prof. Dr. Michael Gottfried from Marburg University, Germany, has demonstrated for the first time that PPP can be synthesized on surfaces via a specific ring-opening polymerization as genuine chain growth.

The statistically most frequently measured length is around 170 nanometers—with one outlier reaching nearly 1,000 nanometers—a record. The new, halogen-free process does not produce any disruptive by-products, thus opening up a particularly clean approach to ultra-long, conjugated polymer chains.

The results have been published by the interdisciplinary team from the Universities of Marburg, Giessen and Leipzig and Chinese researchers in the journal Nature Chemistry.

Abstract: Patients with recurrent kidney stone disease stand to benefit from personalized diagnostics

In this Research Article, Ruxandra Bachmann-Gagescu & team integrate blood and urine biochemistry with genetics to improve interpretation of genetic findings in adults with kidney stone disease—the approach has prognostic value, enabling personalized risk assessment.

3Department of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

4National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) Kidney. CH, Bern, Switzerland.

5Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.

Plastic bottles transformed into Parkinson’s drug using bacteria

A drug to treat Parkinson’s disease can be made from waste plastic bottles using a pioneering method, a study shows. The approach harnesses the power of bacteria to transform post-consumer plastic into L-DOPA, a frontline medication for the neurological disorder. It is the first time a natural, biological process has been engineered to turn plastic waste into a therapeutic for a neurological disease, researchers say.

Scientists at the University of Edinburgh engineered E. coli bacteria to turn a type of plastic used widely in food and drink packaging—polyethylene terephthalate, or PET—into L-DOPA. The process involves first breaking down PET waste—some 50 million tonnes of which are produced annually—into chemical building blocks of terephthalic acid. Molecules of terephthalic acid are then transformed into L-DOPA by the engineered bacteria through a series of biological reactions.

Using the new technique to produce L-DOPA is more sustainable than traditional methods of making pharmaceuticals, which rely on the use of finite fossil fuels, the team says.

Ultrasound-based technology to deliver large therapeutics into cancer cells

In the study, the authors equipped these microbubbles with synthetic nucleic acid strands designed to bind with specific biochemical receptors that appear on the cell membranes of cancer cells but not healthy cells. They then tried several combinations of ultrasound frequencies and intensities to find the perfect pairing for opening pores in the cell membranes to allow the PROTACs to enter.

Once the optimal settings were identified, the researchers validated the platform by attaching fluorescent molecules to the PROTACs. They conducted separate experiments on cancer cells and healthy cells to compare the delivery efficiency. After a minute of ultrasound exposure, the cells treated with SonoPIN glowed seven times brighter than those treated with traditional PROTAC delivery methods, indicating that they were taking in many PROTACs. This resulted in half of the cancer cells self-destructing, while 99% of the healthy cells remained viable.

Moving forward, the researchers plan to test this approach in mouse models and have already applied for a patent covering the work. By injecting the PROTACs and cancer-seeking microbubbles into their veins and focusing the ultrasound waves on tumor locations, they believe SonoPIN could form a highly potent cancer-killing technology with few side effects. sciencenewshighlights ScienceMission.

Engineers have demonstrated a technique that uses microbubbles and ultrasound to help relatively large cancer drugs enter tumor cells and cause them to self-destruct.

Dubbed “Sonoporation-assisted Precise Intracellular Nanodelivery”—or SonoPIN for short—the technology caused 50% of targeted cancer cells in a benchtop experiment to self-destruct, while leaving 99% of non-targeted cells healthy. The results show promise for precisely delivering a wide variety of large-molecule therapeutics to cells with few off-target effects.

The research appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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