Janet Coats, managing director of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Consortium on Trust in Media and Technology, is featured in “Fighting AI Deepfakes,” published in I...

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Targeting intracellular signaling molecules that translocate to the nucleus is a promising approach for peptide-based therapeutics. Here, we focused on Smad2/3, key mediators of TGF-β signaling that act as transcription factors upon nuclear entry. To inhibit their nuclear localization, we delivered an Smad2/3-binding SARA peptide into the cytoplasm using our previously developed cell-penetrating carrier, cpPG. A conjugate, SARA-cpPG, was synthesized by linking the SARA peptide to Mal-DKDKC12-K5, a cpPG derivative with an N-terminal maleimide. In A549 cells, SARA-cpPG showed uptake over 20-fold higher than that of the SARA peptide alone and retained cytoplasmic localization. Functionally, SARA-cpPG suppressed TGF-β1-induced actin polymerization and cell migration, comparable to the effects of receptor kinase inhibitor LY2157299. These effects were not observed with cpPG alone or a control conjugate (SARAm-cpPG) containing a nonbinding mutant peptide. Mechanistic studies revealed that SARA-cpPG did not inhibit Smad2/3 phosphorylation but reduced TGF-β target gene expression, suggesting a blockade of nuclear translocation. This suppression was absent in treatments with SARAm-cpPG, cpPG alone, or a non-cytoplasm-specific carrier conjugate (SARA-R8). These findings demonstrate that cpPG enables efficient cytosolic delivery of functional peptides and supports a strategy for intracellular peptide therapeutics targeting nuclear signaling pathways.

Researchers at the Nagoya Institute of Technology (NITech) in Japan have unveiled a groundbreaking advancement in the field of fluorine polymer recycling, presenting a novel method to efficiently defluorinate polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and related polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) at room temperature. This innovative approach leverages sodium dispersion to break down these traditionally resilient compounds, enabling recovery of fluorine in an eco-friendly, energy-efficient manner.

What's Changed Support periodic window in window by @takenori-y in #76 Add goertzel by @takenori-y in #77 Add f0eval by @takenori-y in #79 Add rand by @takenori-y in #82 Fix minor bug of gmm by @t...