Highlights d SARS-CoV-2 spike protein interacts with heparan sulfate and ACE2 through the RBD d Heparan sulfate promotes Spike-ACE2 interaction d SARS-CoV-2 infection is co-dependent on heparan sulfate and ACE2 d Heparin and non-anticoagulant derivatives block SARS-CoV-2 binding and infection

The rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 has a significant impact on global health, travel and economy. Therefore, preventative and therapeutic measures are urgently needed. Here, we isolated neutralizing antibodies from convalescent COVID-19 patients using a SARS-CoV-2 stabilized prefusion spike protein. Several of these antibodies were able to potently inhibit live SARS-CoV-2 infection at concentrations as low as 0.007 µg/mL, making them the most potent human SARS-CoV-2 antibodies described to date. Mapping studies revealed that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein contained multiple distinct antigenic sites, including several receptorbinding domain (RBD) epitopes as well as previously undefined non-RBD epitopes. In addition to providing guidance for vaccine design, these mAbs are promising candidates for treatment and prevention of COVID-19.

We aimed to characterize microbiota of the gastric mucosa as it progress to intestinal type of cancer. Study included five patients each of non-atrophic gastritis (NAG), intestinal metaplasia (IM) and intestinal-type gastric cancer (GC). Gastric tissue was obtained and DNA extracted for microbiota analyses using the microarray G3 PhyloChip. Bacterial diversity ranged from 8 to 57, and steadily decreased from NAG to IM to GC (p = 0.004). A significant microbiota difference was observed between NAG and GC based on Unifrac-presence/absence and weighted-Unifrac-abundance metrics of 283 taxa (p < 0.05). HC-AN analyses based on presence/absence of 238 taxa revealed that GC and NAG grouped apart, whereas IM overlapped with both. An ordinated analyses based on weighted-Unifrac distance given abundance of 44 taxa showing significance across categories revealed significant microbiota separation between NAG and GC. This study is the first to show a gradual shift in gastric microbiota profile from NAG to IM to GC.

SUMMARYFew regulators of phenylpropanoids have been identified in monocots having potential as biofuel crops. Here we demonstrate the role of the maize (Zea mays) R2R3-MYB factor ZmMYB31 in the control of the phenylpropanoid pathway. We determined its in vitro consensus DNA-binding sequence as ACC T / A ACC, and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) established that it interacts with two lignin gene promoters in vivo. To explore the potential of ZmMYB31 as a regulator of phenylpropanoids in other plants, its role in the regulation of the phenylpropanoid pathway was further investigated in Arabidopsis thaliana. ZmMYB31 downregulates several genes involved in the synthesis of monolignols and transgenic plants are dwarf and show a significantly reduced lignin content with unaltered polymer composition. We demonstrate that these changes increase cell wall degradability of the transgenic plants. In addition, ZmMYB31 represses the synthesis of sinapoylmalate, resulting in plants that are more sensitive to UV irradiation, and induces several stress-related proteins. Our results suggest that, as an indirect effect of repression of lignin biosynthesis, transgenic plants redirect carbon flux towards the biosynthesis of anthocyanins. Thus, ZmMYB31 can be considered a good candidate for the manipulation of lignin biosynthesis in biotechnological applications.

Many bacterial pathogens inject into host cells effector proteins that are substrates for host tyrosine kinases such as Src and Abl family kinases. Phosphorylated effectors eventually subvert host cell signaling, aiding disease development. In the case of the gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori, which is a major risk factor for the development of gastric cancer, the only known effector protein injected into host cells is the oncoprotein CagA. Here, we followed the hierarchic tyrosine phosphorylation of H. pylori

No abstract

Brain-inspired neuromorphic computing has the potential to revolutionize the current computing paradigm with its massive parallelism and potentially low power consumption. However, the existing approaches of using digital complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor devices (with "0" and "1" states) to emulate gradual/analog behaviors in the neural network are energy intensive and unsustainable; furthermore, emerging memristor devices still face challenges such as nonlinearities and large write noise. Here, an electrochemical graphene synapse, where the electrical conductance of graphene is reversibly modulated by the concentration of Li ions between the layers of graphene is presented. This fundamentally different mechanism allows to achieve a good energy efficiency (<500 fJ per switching event), analog tunability (>250 nonvolatile states), good endurance, and retention performances, and a linear and symmetric resistance response. Essential neuronal functions such as excitatory and inhibitory synapses, long-term potentiation and depression, and spike timing dependent plasticity with good repeatability are demonstrated. The scaling study suggests that this simple, two-dimensional synapse is scalable in terms of switching energy and speed.

No abstract