Chain entanglement was very important for adjusting the processability and mechanical property of nascent ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). So far, it is still a mystery to unravel the formation mechanism of entanglements when the ethylene polymerization is conducted by the heterogeneous catalysts. In this study, a series of weakly entangled UHMWPE was synthesized by the polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane/MgCl2 nanoaggregates modified Ziegler–Natta catalysts. The structure of nanoaggregates was evaluated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, density functional theory simulations, and scanning probe microscope experiments, where the coordination strategy of MgCl2 and hydroxyl of POSS was investigated. These nanoaggregates presented extremely low activity on ethylene polymerization and were proved to serve as isolators for separating the active sites and growing chains. The entanglement density of nascent UHMWPE (reflected by the value of initial storage modulus G′(t=0)) was exponentially decayed with the polymerization activity of increased numbers of nanoaggregates. Importantly, this exponentially decayed effect contributed by increased numbers of POSS/MgCl2 isolators offset the rapid power function increment of entanglements upon rising the temperature, which was the essential reason for the successful synthesis of weakly entangled UHMWPE even at 85 °C. Finally, we have proposed the dependence and sensitivity of G′(t=0) (i.e., indicating the initial entanglement density of nascent polymers) on the polymerization activity, which was able to trace the formation of entanglements during polymerization through the POSS modified heterogeneous catalyst.

Leprosy, a chronic infectious disease, results from the uncultivable pathogen Mycobacterium leprae (M. leprae), and usually progresses to peripheral neuropathy and permanent progressive deformity if not treated. Previously published genetic studies have identified 18 gene/loci significantly associated with leprosy at the genome-wide significant level. However as a complex disease, only a small proportion of leprosy risk could be explained by those gene/loci. To further identify more susceptibility gene/loci, we hereby performed a three-stage GWAS comprising 8,156 leprosy patients and 15,610 controls of Chinese ancestry. Four novel loci were identified including rs6807915 on 3p25.2 (P=1.94 × 10−8, OR=0.89), rs4720118 on 7p14.3 (P=3.85 × 10−10, OR=1.16), rs55894533 on 8p23.1 (P=5.07 × 10−11, OR=1.15) and rs10100465 on 8q24.11 (P=2.85 × 10−11, OR=0.85). Altogether, these findings have provided new insight and significantly expanded our understanding of the genetic basis of leprosy.

Although genome-wide association studies have greatly advanced our understanding of the contribution of common noncoding variants to leprosy susceptibility, protein-coding variants have not been systematically investigated. We carried out a three-stage genome-wide association study of protein-coding variants in Han Chinese, of whom were 7,048 leprosy patients and 14,398 were healthy control subjects. Seven coding variants of exome-wide significance were discovered, including two rare variants: rs145562243 in NCKIPSD (P = 1.71 × 10, odds ratio [OR] = 4.35) and rs149308743 in CARD9 (P = 2.09 × 10, OR = 4.75); three low-frequency variants: rs76418789 in IL23R (P = 1.03 × 10, OR = 1.36), rs146466242 in FLG (P = 3.39 × 10, OR = 1.45), and rs55882956 in TYK2 (P = 1.04 × 10, OR = 1.30); and two common variants: rs780668 in SLC29A3 (P = 2.17 × 10, OR = 1.14) and rs181206 in IL27 (P = 1.08 × 10, OR = 0.83). Discovered protein-coding variants, particularly low-frequency and rare ones, showed involvement of skin barrier and endocytosis/phagocytosis/autophagy, in addition to known innate and adaptive immunity, in the pathogenesis of leprosy, highlighting the merits of protein-coding variant studies for complex diseases.