IgGs-Abzymes from the Sera of Patients with Multiple Sclerosis Recognize and Hydrolyze miRNAs

Autoantibodies-abzymes hydrolyzing DNA, myelin basic protein, and oligosaccharides have been revealed in the sera of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). In MS, specific microRNAs are found in blood and cerebrospinal fluid, which are characterized by increased expression. Autoantibodies, specifically hydrolyzing four different miRNAs, were first detected in the blood of schizophrenia patients. Here, we present the first evidence that 23 IgG antibodies of MS patients effectively recognize and hydrolyze four neuroregulatory miRNAs (miR-137, miR-9-5p, miR-219-2-3p, and miR-219-5p) and four immunoregulatory miRNAs (miR-21-3p, miR-146a-3p, miR-155-5p, and miR-326). Several known criteria were checked to show that the recognition and hydrolysis of miRNAs is an intrinsic property of MS IgGs. The hydrolysis of all miRNAs is mostly site-specific. The major and moderate sites of the hydrolysis of each miRNA for most of the IgG preparations coincided; however, some of them showed other specific sites of splitting. Several individual IgGs hydrolyzed some miRNAs almost nonspecifically at nearly all internucleoside bonds or demonstrated a combination of site-specific and nonspecific splitting. Maximum average relative activity (RA) was observed in the hydrolysis of miR-155-5p for IgGs of patients of two types of MS—clinically isolated syndrome and relapsing-remitting MS—but was also high for patients with primary progressive and secondary progressive MS. Differences between RAs of IgGs of four groups of MS patients and healthy donors were statistically significant (p < 0.015). There was a tendency of decreasing efficiency of hydrolysis of all eight miRNAs during remission compared with the exacerbation of the disease.     

The “Angiogenic Switch” and Functional Resources in Cyclic Sports Athletes

Regular physical activity in cyclic sports can influence the so-called “angiogenic switch”, which is considered as an imbalance between proangiogenic and anti-angiogenic molecules. Disruption of the synthesis of angiogenic molecules can be caused by local changes in tissues under the influence of excessive physical exertion and its consequences, such as chronic oxidative stress and associated hypoxia, metabolic acidosis, sports injuries, etc. A review of publications on signaling pathways that activate and inhibit angiogenesis in skeletal muscles, myocardium, lung, and nervous tissue under the influence of intense physical activity in cyclic sports. Materials: We searched PubMed, SCOPUS, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Clinical keys, and e-LIBRARY databases for full-text articles published from 2000 to 2020, using keywords and their combinations. Results: An important aspect of adaptation to training loads in cyclic sports is an increase in the number of capillaries in muscle fibers, which improves the metabolism of skeletal muscles and myocardium, as well as nervous and lung tissue. Recent studies have shown that myocardial endothelial cells not only respond to hemodynamic forces and paracrine signals from neighboring cells, but also take an active part in heart remodeling processes, stimulating the growth and contractility of cardiomyocytes or the production of extracellular matrix proteins in myofibroblasts. As myocardial vascularization plays a central role in the transition from adaptive heart hypertrophy to heart failure, further study of the signaling mechanisms involved in the regulation of angiogenesis in the myocardium is important in sports practice. The study of the “angiogenic switch” problem in the cerebrovascular and cardiovascular systems allows us to claim that the formation of new vessels is mediated by a complex interaction of all growth factors. Although the lungs are one of the limiting systems of the body in cyclic sports, their response to high-intensity loads and other environmental stresses is often overlooked. Airway epithelial cells are the predominant source of several growth factors throughout lung organogenesis and appear to be critical for normal alveolarization, rapid alveolar proliferation, and normal vascular development. There are many controversial questions about the role of growth factors in the physiology and pathology of the lungs. The presented review has demonstrated that when doing sports, it is necessary to give a careful consideration to the possible positive and negative effects of growth factors on muscles, myocardium, lung tissue, and brain. Primarily, the “angiogenic switch” is important in aerobic sports (long distance running). Conclusions: Angiogenesis is a physiological process of the formation of new blood capillaries, which play an important role in the functioning of skeletal muscles, myocardium, lung, and nervous tissue in athletes. Violation of the “angiogenic switch” as a balance between proangiogenic and anti-angiogenic molecules can lead to a decrease in the functional resources of the nervous, musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and respiratory systems in athletes and, as a consequence, to a decrease in sports performance.     

Pickup (critical) velocity of particles

This work presents experimental results on pickup velocity (critical velocity) measurements for a variety of particulate solids. The present experiments together with previously published experiments of a number of researchers encompass about 100 measurements of 24 materials for a wide range of particle sizes, shapes and densities. Based on the experimental results, three zones are defined by establishing simple relationships between the Reynolds and Archimedes numbers. The empirical relationships were further modified by taking into account the pipe diameter and particle shape (sphericity). The three-zone model was shown to reasonably correlate to Geldart's classification groups.     

Metal effects in the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis: Bond-order-conservation-morse-potential approach

We have applied the BOC-MP method to theoretically analyze the metal effects in the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis by calculating the energetics of conceivable elementary steps (the relevant heats of chemisorption and the reaction activation barriers) during CO hydrogenation over the periodic series Fe(110), Ni(111), Pt(111), Cu(111). The basic steps such as dissociation of CO, hydrogenation of carbidic carbon, C-C chain growth by insertion of CH₂ versus CO into the metal-alkyl bonds, and chain termination leading to hydrocarbons (alkanes versus -olefins) or oxygenates are discussed in detail. It is shown that the periodic trends in the ability of metal surfaces to dissociate chemical bonds and those to recombine the bonds are always opposite. In particular, we argue that metallic Fe is necessary to produce the abundance of carbidic carbon from CO but the synthesis of hydrocarbons and oxygenates can effectively proceed only on carbided Fe surfaces which resemble the less active metals such as Pt. More specifically, we project that the C-C chain growth should occur predominantly via CH₂ insertion into the metal-alkyl bond and the primary FT products should be -olefins. These and other model projections are in agreement with experiment.     

Strong and super tough: Layered ceramic‐polymer composites with bio‐inspired morphology

Bio‐inspired layered ceramic‐polymer composites with high strength and toughness were prepared from sintered aluminum oxide ceramic sheets and cationically curing epoxy resins toughened with poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL). The architecture of the composite is inspired by nacre but is arranged on a larger scale. Ceramic sheets with a nominal thickness of 250 μm were assembled into composite plates by adhesive layers with a nominal thickness of 20 μm. Before the manufacturing of the composites, the stress‐strain properties of the polymer component were tailored by the variation in the PCL content between 0 and 39 wt%. For composites with 4 and 15 ceramic layers, the bending strengths achieved 327 MPa and 376 MPa, which are higher than that of pure ceramic sheets. Moreover, composites with 15 ceramic layers show a 16 times higher toughness compared to that of the pure ceramic sheets. The results indicate that the toughness of the layered composites increases significantly with the number of layers. Inspired by the geometrical ratio of the natural sheet composite nacre, we have achieved a similar strength but a 2 times higher toughness than nacre by only adding up to 6 vol% of the polymer.     

Apparatus for studies of high-temperature chemical reactions in single particle systems

We report a compact microgravity flight apparatus for characterization of high-temperature chemical reactions in single particle systems. The apparatus employs an infrared CO(2) laser to ignite 1-5 mm samples while video images, thermocouple measurements, laser on/off status, and XYZ accelerometer signals are synchronously recorded. Different operating modes permit preignition quenching, ignition, and combustion experiments to be performed. The apparatus was successfully utilized during microgravity experiments on board NASA research aircraft.     

Enzymatic synthesis of monosaccharide fatty acid esters and their comparison with conventional products

5-O-Acyl-1,2-O-isopropylidene-D-xylofuranose and 6-O-acyl1,2∶3,4-di-O-isopropylidene-D-galactopyranose were enzymatically prepared from the corresponding monosaccharide acetals and commercial (crude) fatty acid mixtures. Subsequent acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of the isopropylidene group(s) gave monosaccharide esters with overall yields of 59–88%, where the monoester content was at least 80% (galactose oleate) and typically 90% for the other preparations. In contrast to sugar fatty acid esters prepared by conventional, high-temperature (trans)esterification, the enzymatically obtained monosaccharide esters contained no appreciable quantities of undersirable side products, and the only contaminants were monosaccharides and fatty acids.     

Memory effects in the structure silicon single crystal-ferroelecltric film

The memory effects in the structure: (Ba Sr) TiO₃ film-silicon single crystal have been studied, It is shown that for explaining them it is necessary to take into account both the natural unipolarity of (Ba, Sr) TiO₃ film and the injection of carriers from Si. In terms of the results obtained a conclusion has been made on the possibility of using such structures as currentless cells memory for long-term storage of information.     

S-states of helium-like ions

A simple Mathematica (version 7) code for computing S-state energies and wave functions of two-electron (helium-like) ions is presented. The elegant technique derived from the classical papers of Pekeris (1958, 1959, 1962, 1965, 1971) [1], [2] and [3] is applied. The basis functions are composed of the Laguerre functions. The method is based on the perimetric coordinates and specific properties of the Laguerre polynomials. Direct solution of the generalized eigenvalues and eigenvectors problem is used, distinct from the Pekeris works. No special subroutines were used, only built-in objects supported by Mathematica. The accuracy of the results and computation times depend on the basis size. The ground state and the lowest triplet state energies can be computed with a precision of 12 and 14 significant figures, respectively. The accuracy of the higher excited states calculations is slightly worse. The resultant wave functions have a simple analytical form, that enables calculation of expectation values for arbitrary physical operators without any difficulties. Only three natural parameters are required in the input.The above Mathematica code is simpler than the earlier version (Liverts and Barnea, 2010 [4]). At the same time, it is faster and more accurate.

Program summary

Program title: TwoElAtomSL(SH)Catalogue identifier: AEHY_v1_0Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEHY_v1_0.htmlProgram obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen?s University, Belfast, N. IrelandLicensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.htmlNo. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 11 434No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 540 063Distribution format: tar.gzProgramming language: Mathematica 7.0Computer: Any PCOperating system: Any which supports Mathematica; tested under Microsoft Windows XP and Linux SUSE 11.0RAM:?¹⁰⁹ bytesClassification: 2.1, 2.2, 2.7, 2.9Nature of problem: The Schrödinger equation for atoms (ions) with more than one electron has not been solved analytically. Approximate methods must be applied in order to obtain the wave functions or another physical attributes from quantum mechanical calculations.Solution method: The S-wave function is expanded into a triple set of basis functions which are composed of the exponentials combined with the Laguerre polynomials in the perimetric coordinates. Using specific properties of the Laguerre polynomials, solution of the two-electron Schrödinger equation reduces to solving the generalized eigenvalues and eigenvector problem for the proper Hamiltonian. The unknown exponential parameter is determined by means of minimization of the corresponding eigenvalue (energy).Restrictions: First, the too large length of expansion (basis size) takes the too large computation time and operative memory giving no perceptible improvement in accuracy. Second, the number of shells Ω in the wave function expansion enables one to calculate the excited nS-states up to n=Ω+1 inclusive.Running time: 2–60 minutes (depends on basis size and computer speed).