A polyguanine/polycytosine (polyG/polyC) tract in the proximal promoter of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene is essential for transcriptional activation. The guanine-rich (G-rich) and cytosine-rich (C-rich) strands on this tract are shown to form specific secondary structures, characterized as G-quadruplexes and i-motifs, respectively. Mutational analysis of the G-rich strand c...

The loop structure plays an important role in many aspects of complex networks and attracts much attention. Among the previous works, Bianconi [Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 118701 (2008)] found that real networks often have very few short loops as compared to random models. In this paper, we focus on the uneven location of loops which makes some parts of the network rich while some other parts sparse ...

RATIONALE Dysregulation of hepatic triglyceride (TG)-rich very low-density lipoproteins (VLDL-TG) in obesity and type 2 diabetes contributes to the dyslipidemia that leads to cardiovascular morbidity. The central nervous system (CNS), particularly the hypothalamus, regulates hepatic lipid metabolism. Although the underlying neurocircuitry remains elusive, glycine has been documented to enhance ...