Multi-proteomic analyses of 5xFAD mice reveal new molecular signatures of early-stage Alzheimer's disease.

An early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease is crucial as treatment efficacy is limited to the early stages. However, the current diagnostic methods are limited to mid or later stages of disease development owing to the limitations of clinical examinations and amyloid plaque imaging. Therefore, this study aimed to identify molecular signatures including blood plasma extracellular vesicle biomarker proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease to aid early-stage diagnosis. The hippocampus, cortex, and blood plasma extracellular vesicles of 3- and 6-month-old 5xFAD mice were analyzed using quantitative proteomics. Subsequent bioinformatics and biochemical analyses were performed to compare the molecular signatures between wild type and 5xFAD mice across different brain regions and age groups to elucidate disease pathology. There was a unique signature of significantly altered proteins in the hippocampal and cortical proteomes of 3- and 6-month-old mice. The plasma extracellular vesicle proteomes exhibited distinct informatic features compared with the other proteomes. Furthermore, the regulation of several canonical pathways (including phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B signaling) differed between the hippocampus and cortex. Twelve potential biomarkers for the detection of early-stage Alzheimer's disease were identified and validated using plasma extracellular vesicles from stage-divided patients. Finally, integrin α-IIb, creatine kinase M-type, filamin C, glutamine γ-glutamyltransferase 2, and lysosomal α-mannosidase were selected as distinguishing biomarkers for healthy individuals and early-stage Alzheimer's disease patients using machine learning modeling with approximately 79% accuracy. Our study identified novel early-stage molecular signatures associated with the progression of Alzheimer's disease, thereby providing novel insights into its pathogenesis.

Copper-Doped ZnO Visible Light Photocatalyst for Degradation of Methylene Blue.

Water pollution due to uncontrolled liberation of industrial toxic chemicals, materials, drugs and dyes is one of the major causes of environmental contamination. Solar energy is one of the natural energy sources that can degrade toxic dyes in the presence of suitable active catalysts. Despite of having several advanced semiconductor-based photocatalysts, there is an open domain for the preparation of economical, cheap and high effective photocatalysts for the degradation of toxic dyes. In this study, we have prepared nanosized Cu-doped ZnO photocatalysts containing different amounts of Cu (0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 wt%) by a hydrothermal process followed by calcination at 500 °C for methylene blue (MB) degradation. The incorporation of Cu into the ZnO lattice and the crystal structure stability of the prepared catalysts are confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and powder X-ray diffraction. Our study shows that the photocatalytic activity of ZnO toward MB degradation under visible light can be effectively enhanced by doping it with Cu.