Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

36 open-access papers in Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology, free to watch.

4:27

Cyclophilin D deficiency exacerbates diet-induced obesity and selectively enhances skeletal muscle mitochondrial respiration in male mice

Jazzmin L. Hembree, William A. Abplanalp, John W. Elrod, Paul T. Pfluger

What if making one part of the body’s energy machinery work harder did not prevent weight gain, but actually came with more body fat? In male mice, that is exactly the puzzle this study found. Here is the surprising twist: deleting cyclophilin D made male mice more vulnerable to diet-induced obesity, yet it also increased ADP-stimulated mitochondrial respiration specifically in skeletal muscle.

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5:03

Evaluating the biorational profile of selected insecticides in Spodoptera littoralis: from nutritional disruption and genotoxicity to in silico risk analysis

Heba M. Hamama, Yasmin Adel Fergani, Saba Irshad

A pesticide can stop a caterpillar from eating, yet the more important warning may appear inside its cells. This study compares both effects instead of treating pest control as a single yes-or-no question. What if an insecticide can stop a crop pest from eating, yet another one leaves the strongest signal of DNA damage? This study compares both effects instead of treating pest control as a single question.

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4:22

MD-LLM-2: A Transferable Language Model of Molecular Dynamics with Physical Conditioning and Explicit Path Probabilities

Mhd Hussein Murtada, Z. Faidon Brotzakis, Michele Vendruscolo

Proteins are constantly changing shape, but watching every tiny movement can take far longer than the movement itself. This study asks whether a language model can learn those motions and predict what happens under new physical conditions. What if molecular dynamics could be treated like language: structures become tokens, trajectories become sentences, and every generated path comes with an explicit probability? This paper tests that idea across proteins, temperatures, and force-field conditions.

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3:46

Unlocking the Regulatory Genome by ARGUS: An Evidence-Constrained Agentic Framework for Interpreting Single Nucleotide Variants

Pratik Dutta, Matthew B. Obusan, Max Chao, Rekha Sathian, Nimisha Papineni, Ramana V. Davuluri

Most disease-linked changes in DNA sit outside genes, where their effects are hard to read. An AI can sound confident about them, and still invent the evidence, so this system is designed to stop and say when the evidence is not enough. What if the safest genomics AI is not the one that always gives an answer, but the one that knows when evidence cannot support a verdict? ARGUS builds that restraint directly into its investigation loop.

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3:37

Part of the Family: Children’s Experiences with Their Companion Animals in the Context of Domestic Violence and Abuse

Jane Callaghan, Lisa Fellin, Stavroula Mavrou, Joanne H. Alexander, Vasiliki Deligianni-Kouimtzi, Maria Papathanassiou, Judith Sixsmith

For a child living with domestic abuse, a pet may be more than a beloved animal. It may be a source of comfort, safety, and the feeling of being heard, while also becoming part of the danger. For children living with domestic violence and abuse, a pet can be much more than a pet: a family member, a source of comfort, and sometimes part of the control and danger itself.

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3:18

Impaired bisecting GlcNAc reprogrammed M1 polarization of macrophage

Xin He, Bowen Wang, Wenli Deng, Jinhua Cao, Zengqi Tan, Xiang Li, Feng Guan

Immune cells can help attack a tumor or help it grow. This study suggests that a tiny sugar pattern on their surface helps decide which role they take, and removing it pushes them toward attack. A tiny change in a sugar structure may help push macrophages toward an anti-tumor state. This study traces that switch from bisecting GlcNAc, to Lgals3bp, to NF-kappa B signaling.

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5:36

Tetra-O-methyl-nordihydroguaiaretic acid inhibits energy metabolism and synergistically induces anticancer effects with temozolomide on LN229 glioblastoma tumors implanted in mice while preventing obesity in normal mice that consume high-fat diets

Kotohiko Kimura, Jong Ho Chun, Yu‐Ling Lin, Yu‐Chuan Liang, Tiffany L. B. Jackson, Ru Chih C. Huang

What if a cancer treatment could attack a tumor by disrupting its energy supply, and work more strongly when paired with an existing drug? In mice, that is what this study found, while the same substance also limited weight gain on a high-fat diet. What if a cancer treatment worked partly by disrupting the tumor’s fuel systems, and the same compound also limited weight gain in mice eating a high-fat diet? This study tests that surprising combination.

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4:01

Comprehensive analysis regarding the prognostic significance of downregulated ferroptosis-related gene AKR1C2 in gastric cancer and its underlying roles in immune response

Wei Liu, Fan Zhang, Keda Yang, Yuanliang Yan

In stomach cancer, a gene involved in a form of cell death appears in smaller amounts than usual. The surprising part is that patients with more of this gene tended to have better outcomes. A gene linked to ferroptosis is reduced in gastric cancer, yet patients with more of it tend to have better outcomes. This study asks whether AKR1C2 could connect tumor prognosis with the immune response.

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4:08

FZD1/KLF10-hsa-miR-4762-5p/miR-224-3p-circular RNAs axis as prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets for glioblastoma: a comprehensive report

Fang Jia, Lixia Zhang, Zhengye Jiang, Guowei Tan, Zhanxiang Wang

Glioblastoma is often rapidly fatal, yet this study points to two molecular signals whose levels were linked with how long patients survived. The bigger promise is a connected warning system, not a single marker. What if glioblastoma prognosis could be read through a molecular tug-of-war between circular RNAs, microRNAs, and genes? This study builds that network and highlights two genes tied to patient survival.

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3:32

Prediction of pathological complete response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy for HER2-negative breast cancer patients with routine immunohistochemical markers

Lothar Häberle, Ramona Erber, Paul Gaß, Alexander Hein, Melitta Niklos, Bernhard Volz, Carolin C. Hack, Rüdiger Schulz‐Wendtland, Hanna Huebner, Chloë Goossens, Matthias Christgen, Thilo Dörk, Tjoung-Won Park-Simon, Andreas Schneeweiß, M. Untch, Valentina Nekljudova, Sibylle Loibl, Arndt Hartmann, Matthias W. Beckmann, Peter Andreas Fasching

Before chemotherapy even begins, information from a breast biopsy may help estimate whether the treatment is likely to erase all visible cancer, and whether that result will matter for the person’s future. A routine biopsy contains more than a diagnosis: this study asks whether ordinary clinical information and immunohistochemical markers can estimate a patient’s chance of completely responding to chemotherapy, and what that estimate means for prognosis.

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2:59

Feature selection with a genetic algorithm can help improve the distinguishing power of microbiota information in monozygotic twins' identification

Guangping Fu, Guanju Ma, Shujie Dou, Qian Wang, Lihong Fu, Xiaojing Zhang, Chaolong Lu, Bin Cong, Shujin Li

Identical twins can share the same DNA, yet the microscopic life in their mouths may still carry clues that separate one person from the other. The surprising part is that using less information can make those clues stronger. Identical twins can be nearly indistinguishable by ordinary genetic markers, but their saliva microbiota may still carry a useful signal. This study asks whether selecting only the strongest microbial features can make that signal work better.

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3:25

Plasmidome in mcr-1 harboring carbapenem-resistant enterobacterales isolates from human in Thailand

Parichart Boueroy, Thidathip Wongsurawat, Piroon Jenjaroenpun, Peechanika Chopjitt, Rujirat Hatrongjit, Sathaporn Jittapalapong, Anusak Kerdsin

A dangerous form of antibiotic resistance may not need bacteria to reproduce. It can travel in small DNA packages, moving between different bacteria and potentially taking last-resort treatment out of reach. What happens when bacteria become resistant to both carbapenems and colistin, two critical last-line options? This study traces the mobile DNA that may let mcr-1 move between bacterial hosts in Thai hospitals.

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