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  • Item type: Item , DissertationAccess status: Open Access ,
  • Item type: Item , ZeitschriftenaufsatzAccess status: Open Access ,
    Acute and Chronic Effects of a High-Intensity Interval training shock microcycle on cell-free DNA : a rrandomized controlled trial
    (2025) Tomaskovic, Aleksandar; Strepp, Tilmann; Stöggl, Thomas Leonhard; Neuberger, Elmo W. I.; Simon, Perikles; Haller, Nils
    Background This study aimed to evaluate acute and chronic exercise-induced changes in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) concentrations during a 7-day high-intensity interval training (HIIT) shock microcycle in trained endurance athletes. Thirty-five participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a HIIT-only group (HSM), a HIIT plus low-intensity training group (HSM + LIT), and a control group maintaining regular training. The intervention included 10 HIIT sessions (5 × 4 min at 90–95% maximum heart rate) over 7 days, with HSM + LIT completing an additional 30 min of low-intensity training after each session. Physiological exercise testing (PET) was conducted at baseline, 3-, 7-, and 14-days post-intervention. On days 2 and 7 during the intervention, HIIT sessions were supervised in both morning and afternoon, and venous blood samples were collected at rest, immediately post-exercise, and 30 min post-exercise to measure cfDNA for 90 and 222 bp fragments. Correlations between cfDNA and physiological exercise variables such as peak power output (PPO), running velocity at lactate threshold (LT), and VO₂max were analyzed. Results cfDNA90 (10.4-fold, p < 0.001) and cfDNA222 (12.4-fold, p < 0.001) increased significantly after PET. In addition, cfDNA90 (17.1-fold, p < 0.001) and cfDNA222 (20.2-fold, p < 0.001) increased after HIIT, both remaining significantly elevated 30 min post-HIIT (both p < 0.001). cfDNA90 concentrations were higher in afternoon (22.4-fold) compared to morning HIIT sessions (17.2-fold, p < 0.001). A significant interaction effect was found between group and measurement point for cfDNA90 (p < 0.001) and cfDNA222 (p < 0.001), with higher concentrations in HSM + LIT compared to HSM 30 min post-HIIT. cfDNA90 showed moderate correlations with PPO (r = 0.48, p < 0.001), LT (r = 0.36, p < 0.001) and VO₂max (r = 0.30, p = 0.01). cfDNA222 correlated moderately with VO₂max (r = 0.34, p = 0.001) and slightly with PPO (r = 0.21, p = 0.05). No chronic changes in cfDNA were observed throughout the study period. Conclusions cfDNA is a reliable marker for detecting acute exercise-induced stress. However, the potential of cfDNA for detecting chronic adaptations in short-term, high-intensity interval training settings, such as a HIIT shock cycle, appears limited thus far.
  • Item type: Item , ZeitschriftenaufsatzAccess status: Open Access ,
    Computational investigation of the sequence context of arginine/glycine-rich motifs in the human proteome
    (2025) Schumbera, Eric; Dormann, Dorothee; Walther, Andreas; Andrade-Navarro, Miguel A.
    Arginine-glycine (RG)-rich motifs are among the most prevalent RNA-binding elements within intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) of proteins and play crucial roles in RNA metabolism, gene regulation, and the formation of membraneless organelles via liquid phase separation (LLPS). Despite their biological relevance and implication in neurological disorders and cancer, the sequence features and context dependencies that define functional RG motifs remain poorly characterized owing to their disordered nature and sequence variability. In this study, we present a computational framework to dissect the sequence and structural context of RG motifs across the human proteome. By contrasting a functionally defined positive dataset—enriched for RNA-binding and phase-separating proteins—with a negative dataset of RG motif proteins lacking these annotations, we identified distinct compositional and contextual signatures. RG motifs in the functionally defined positive dataset show increased enrichment of phenylalanine, tyrosine, aspartic acid, and asparagine, both within and around the motif, as well as nonrandom spatial relationships with structured RNA-binding domains. Notably, phenylalanine and tyrosine exhibit divergent positional and functional profiles, suggesting distinct mechanistic roles. Our analysis highlights the potential of sequence-based approaches to uncover functional determinants in disordered protein regions and further advances our understanding of the properties of RG motifs, offering a transferable framework for the study of other low-complexity motifs.