Cu-THQ-EFG Composite for Highly Selective Electrochemical CO2 Reduction to Formate at Low Overpotentials.

Metal organic framework (MOFs) are promising materials for electrocatalysis. However, the active sites of bulk MOFs crystal normally cannot be fully utilized because of the slow reagent penetration of pores and blockage of active sites. Herein, we report a facile way to deposit copper-benzoquinoid (Cu-THQ) on the edge-functionalized graphene (EFG) which prevented material's aggregation. EFG used as a substrate provides higher electrical conductivity and stability in water than previously utilized graphene oxide (GO). Besides, the plate-like morphology of EFG proved to be more beneficial to support the MOF, because of the functional groups on its edge regions and much lower resistance compared to the sheet GO. Therefore, EFG can boost the resultant material's catalytic activity for CO2 electroreduction (CO2RR). Furthermore, Cu-THQ exhibits high selectivity for formate formation in CO2RR. Representing as the only CO2 reduced liquid product, formate can be separated from gaseous products and further extracted from the electrolyte for practical use. The electrocatalytic results of Cu-THQ-EFG indicate the composite exhibits a higher current density of -3 mA/cm2 and faradaic efficiency of -0.25 V vs. RHE, corresponding to 50 mV of overpotential. Moreover, it features a less negative on-set potential of -0.22 V vs. RHE, which is close to the equilibrium potential of CO2RR (-0.2 V vs. RHE) and is 0.16 V more positive than the on-set potential of Cu-THQ-GO (-0.38 V vs. RHE).

Whole-exome Sequencing of Prostate Cancer in Sardinian Identify Recurrent UDP-glucuronosyltransferase Amplifications.

Globally, prostate cancer is the third most common cancer in the world, and the second most common cancer in men. However, rates for incidence and mortality vary considerably with race, ethnicity, and geography. Over 97 significantly mutated genes that have been identified in prostate cancer; however, a lack of genomic prostate cancer studies focusing on different racial and ethnic groups and racial mixing pose a serious challenge to universalize these findings. The Sardinian population is an isolated Mediterranean population that has a high frequency of centenarians and a much lower incidence of prostate cancer than found in males in mainland Europe. Here, we conducted a genomic prostate cancer study on a Sardinian cohort diagnosed with local prostate cancer. Our data reveals a low rate of ERG fusion in Sardinian prostate cancer. Interestingly, we identified a novel BTBD7-SLC2A5 fusion that occurred in 13% of the patients. We also found that the UGT2B4 on 4q13.2 was amplified in 20% of the Sardinian patients but rarely amplified in patients of other population. These observations underscore the importance of the inter-population molecular heterogeneity of prostate cancer. In addition, we examined the expression of UGT2B4 in 497 prostate cancer patients derived from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. We found that high expression of UGT2B4 was associated with low-grade prostate cancer and upregulation of UGT2B4 in tumors was associated with upregulation of metabolism pathways such as 'de novo' IMP biosynthetic process, glutamine and monocarboxylic acid metabolism. These data provide insight into clinical relevance and functional mechanism of UGT2B4. Further understanding functional mechanism of UGT2B4 amplification and BTBD7-SLC2A5 fusion will aid in developing drugs to benefit the prostate cancer patients.

Identification of the distribution of human endogenous retroviruses K (HML-2) by PCR-based target enrichment sequencing.

BACKGROUND: Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs), suspected to be transposition-defective, may reshape the transcriptional network of the human genome by regulatory elements distributed in their long terminal repeats (LTRs). HERV-K (HML-2), the most preserved group with the least number of accumulated of mutations, has been associated with aberrant gene expression in tumorigenesis and autoimmune diseases. Because of the high sequence similarity between different HERV-Ks, current methods have limitations in providing genome-wide mapping specific for individual HERV-K (HML-2) members, a major barrier in delineating HERV-K (HML-2) function. RESULTS: In an attempt to obtain detailed distribution information of HERV-K (HML-2), we utilized a PCR-based target enrichment sequencing protocol for HERV-K (HML-2) (PTESHK) loci, which not only maps the presence of reference loci, but also identifies non-reference loci, enabling determination of the genome-wide distribution of HERV-K (HML-2) loci. Here we report on the genomic data obtained from three individuals. We identified a total of 978 loci using this method, including 30 new reference loci and 5 non-reference loci. Among the 3 individuals in our study, 14 polymorphic HERV-K (HML-2) loci were identified, and solo-LTR330 and N6p21.32 were identified as polymorphic for the first time. CONCLUSIONS: Interestingly, PTESHK provides an approach for the identification of the genome-wide distribution of HERV-K (HML-2) and can be used for the identification of polymorphic loci. Since polymorphic HERV-K (HML-2) integrations are suspected to be related to various diseases, PTESHK can supplement other emerging techniques in accessing polymorphic HERV-K (HML-2) elements in cancer and autoimmune diseases.

[Cloning, expression and characterization of chiral alcohol dehydrogenase from Rhodococcus erythropolis ATCC 4277].

OBJECTIVE: We characterized alcohol dehydrogenase from Rhodococcus erytropolis to catalyze ketoesters or ketones. METHODS: We cloned alcohol dehydrogenase gene (adh) of 1047 bp from Rhodococcus erythropolis ATCC 4277, inserted the open reading frame of adh into vector pET-22b(+) and expressed in auto-inducing media for 24 h at 15 degrees C. The enzyme activity was determined at 30 degrees C using acetophenone as substrate. RESULTS: Under the above conditions, the specific enzyme activity of crude extract was 2.6 U/mg. The optimal pH was between 6.0 and 6.5 and the enzyme can survived up to 60 degrees C. After incubation at 60 degrees C for 5 h, 80% enzyme activity remained. The optimal substrate among beta-ketoesters examined was ethyl acetoaetate. Ethyl 4-chloroacetoacetate was catalyzed by whole cell in aqueous phase. After chiral liquid chromatography, the product showed (R)-enantioselective. CONCLUSION: The study shows that the enzyme might have potential in beta-ketoesters transformation on industrial scale.