Publications by authors named "Jingxin Rao"

Ergothioneine (ERG), a sulfur-containing natural antioxidant with significant biomedical potentials, has long been limited by low productivity in microbial fermentation. Here, we report the first high-efficiency in vitro reconstruction of a multi-enzyme cascade for ERG biosynthesis. To address the rate-limiting histidine methylation step, we employed a synergistic strategy integrating machine learning-based kinetic prediction (CataPro, DLkcat), molecular dynamics simulations, and conformational dynamics analysis to guide site-directed mutagenesis of Mycolicibacrterium smegmatis EgtD.

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Polyketide synthases (PKSs) are among the most complex enzymatic systems in nature, responsible for synthesizing a broad array of polyketides including antibiotics, antifungal agents, and immunosuppressants. Cis-Acyltransferase (AT) PKSs, distinguished by their multiple modules, diverse catalytic domains, and engineering flexibility, hold significant promise for synthetic biology and natural product discovery. However, even minor alterations to individual domains can propagate structural and functional changes throughout the assembly line, posing a major challenge to the rational design of cis-AT PKSs for diverse polyketides production.

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Article Synopsis
  • Obesity and overweight, as measured by BMI, pose risks to metabolic health, but BMI doesn't provide details on body composition like FFMI and FMI do.
  • A study with over 10,000 adults used DXA scanning to analyze how FFMI and FMI relate to diabetes and prediabetes, finding significant associations.
  • The results indicated that higher FFMI and FMI levels are independently linked to an increased risk of diabetes and prediabetes, with a linear relationship observed.
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Lysine lactylation (Kla), an epigenetic mark triggered by lactate during glycolysis, including the Warburg effect, bridges metabolism and gene regulation. Enzymes such as p300 and HDAC1/3 have been pivotal in deciphering the regulatory dynamics of Kla, though questions about additional regulatory enzymes, their specific Kla substrates, and the underlying functional mechanisms persist. Here, we identify SIRT1 and SIRT3 as key "erasers" of Kla, shedding light on their selective regulation of both histone and non-histone proteins.

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Ensuring drug safety in the early stages of drug development is crucial to avoid costly failures in subsequent phases. However, the economic burden associated with detecting drug off-targets and potential side effects through safety screening and animal testing is substantial. Drug off-target interactions, along with the adverse drug reactions they induce, are significant factors affecting drug safety.

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Compound-protein interactions (CPIs) are critical in drug discovery for identifying therapeutic targets, drug side effects, and repurposing existing drugs. Machine learning (ML) algorithms have emerged as powerful tools for CPI prediction, offering notable advantages in cost-effectiveness and efficiency. This review provides an overview of recent advances in both structure-based and non-structure-based CPI prediction ML models, highlighting their performance and achievements.

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  • Lipophilicity plays a critical role in drug behavior, influencing factors like solubility, absorption, and toxicity; thus, predicting its value (logD7.4) is essential for effective drug development.
  • Developing a new prediction model called RTlogD helps tackle the data shortage problem by utilizing chromatographic retention time, pKa values, and logP within a multitask learning framework.
  • The RTlogD model shows improved accuracy and effectiveness over existing tools, enhancing the precision of logD predictions, which could be valuable for real-world drug discovery applications.
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Background: Saccharomyces cerevisiae AN120 osw2∆ spores were used as a host with good resistance to unfavorable environment. This work was undertaken to develop a new yeast spore-encapsulation of Candida parapsilosis Glu228Ser/(S)-carbonyl reductase II and Bacillus sp. YX-1 glucose dehydrogenase for efficient chiral synthesis in organic solvents.

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