Contributions from typical sources to microplastics in surface water of a semiarid urban river.

Urban regions are suggested to be the main source of microplastic pollution in rivers. Thus, we investigated the spatiotemporal distribution of microplastics in the surface water of the Lanzhou section of the Yellow River in a semiarid region and the contributions of typical sources. The average concentration of microplastics in the surface water of the river was 0.98 particles (p) L-1. The daily quantity flux and mass flux were 3.63 × 109 p d-1 and 95.38 kg d-1, respectively. Most of the microplastics in the river were fibers and fragments, composed of polyethylene terephthalate, polyamide, polypropylene and polyethylene. A large quantity and mass of microplastics were found in the high-flow period of the river. The hotspots of microplastic pollution were residential and tourist reaches. The spatial distribution of microplastics was influenced by anthropogenic factors. However, the main factor influencing the temporal distribution of microplastics was precipitation seasonality. Most of the microplastics in the surface water originated from drainage ditches. The direct contribution of microplastics from atmospheric deposition was also considerable. Our results suggest that the contribution of microplastics from atmospheric deposition to urban rivers is worthy of attention.

Ace Deficiency Induces Intestinal Inflammation in Zebrafish.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a nonspecific chronic inflammatory disease resulting from an immune disorder in the intestine that is prone to relapse and incurable. The understanding of the pathogenesis of IBD remains unclear. In this study, we found that ace (angiotensin-converting enzyme), expressed abundantly in the intestine, plays an important role in IBD. The deletion of ace in zebrafish caused intestinal inflammation with increased expression of the inflammatory marker genes interleukin 1 beta (il1b), matrix metallopeptidase 9 (mmp9), myeloid-specific peroxidase (mpx), leukocyte cell-derived chemotaxin-2-like (lect2l), and chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 8b (cxcl8b). Moreover, the secretion of mucus in the ace-/- mutants was significantly higher than that in the wild-type zebrafish, validating the phenotype of intestinal inflammation. This was further confirmed by the IBD model constructed using dextran sodium sulfate (DSS), in which the mutant zebrafish had a higher susceptibility to enteritis. Our study reveals the role of ace in intestinal homeostasis, providing a new target for potential therapeutic interventions.

Efficacy and safety of immunosuppressive therapy combined with eltrombopag for severe aplastic anemia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Immunosuppressive therapy (IST) is the first choice for severe aplastic anemia (SAA) patients with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) limitation, and the main factor limiting its efficacy is too few residual hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPC). Eltrombopag (EPAG), as a small molecule thrombopoietin receptor agonist, can stimulate the proliferation of residual HSPC and restore the bone marrow hematopoietic function of patients. In recent years, many studies have observed the efficacy and safety of IST combined with EPAG in the treatment of SAA, but the results are still controversial. The aim of this study is to systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of IST combined with or without EPGA in the treatment of SAA. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of all relevant literature published up to January 19, 2024. Pooled odds ratio (OR) was calculated to compare the rates, along with 95% confidence intervals (CI) and p value to assess whether the results were statistically significant by Review Manager 5.4.1. The p values for the interactions between each subgroup were calculated by Stata 15.1. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and the Cochrane bias risk assessment tools were respectively used to evaluate the quality of the literature with cohort studies and randomized controlled trials. The Review Manager 5.4.1 and Stata 15.1 were used to assess bias risk and perform the meta-analysis. RESULTS: A total of 16 studies involving 2148 patients were included. The IST combined with the EPAG group had higher overall response rate (ORR) than the IST group at 3 months (pooled OR = 2.10, 95% CI 1.58-2.79, p < 0.00001) and 6 months (pooled OR = 2.13, 95% CI 1.60-2.83, p < 0.00001), but the difference between the two groups became statistically insignificant at 12 months (pooled OR = 1.13, 95% CI 0.75-1.72, p = 0.55). The results of complete response rate (CRR) (pooled OR at 3 months = 2.73, 95% CI 1.83-4.09, p < 0.00001, 6 months = 2.76, 95% CI 2.08-3.67, p < 0.00001 and 12 months = 1.38, 95% CI 0.85-2.23, p = 0.19) were similar to ORR. Compared with the IST group, the IST combined with the EPAG group had better overall survival rate (OSR) (pooled OR = 1.70, 95% CI 1.15-2.51, p = 0.008), but there were no statistically significant differences in event-free survival rate (EFSR) (pooled OR = 1.40, 95% CI 0.93-2.13, p = 0.11), clonal evolution rate (pooled OR = 0.68, 95% CI 0.46-1.00, p = 0.05) and other adverse events between the two groups. The results of subgroup analysis showed that different ages were a source of heterogeneity, but different study types and different follow-up times were not. Moreover, all p-values for the interactions were greater than 0.05, suggesting that the treatment effect was not influenced by subgroup characteristics. CONCLUSION: EPAG added to IST enables patients to achieve earlier and faster hematologic responses with a higher rate of complete response. Although it had no effect on overall EFSR, it improved OSR and did not increase the incidence of clonal evolution and other adverse events.

Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR): recent development and future perspectives.

After conventional oil recovery operations, more than half of the crude oil still remains in a form, which is difficult to extract. Therefore, exploring and developing new enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technologies have always been priority research in oilfield development. Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) is a promising tertiary oil recovery technology that has received widespread attention from the global oil industry in recent years due to its environmental friendliness, simplicity of operation, and cost-effectiveness. This review presents the: principle, characteristics, classification, recent development, and applications of MEOR technology. Based on hundreds of field trials conducted worldwide, the microbial strains, nutrient systems, and actual effects used in these technologies are summarized, with an emphasis on the achievements made in the development and application of MEOR in China in recent years. These technical classifications involve: microbial huff and puff recovery (MHPR), microbial flooding recovery (MFR), microbial selective plugging recovery (MSPR), and microbial wax removal and control (MWRC). Most of them have achieved good results, with a success rate of approximately 80%. These successful cases have accumulated into rich experiential indications for the popularization and application of MEOR technology, but there are still important yet uncertain factors that hinder the industrialization of this technology. Finally, based on the extensive research and development of MEOR by the authors, especially in both laboratory and industrial large scales, the main challenges and future perspectives of the industrial application for MEOR are presented.

Analysis of the key influencing factors of China's cross-border e-commerce ecosystem based on the DEMATEL-ISM method.

Systematically analysing the relative importance and hierarchical relationships among the influencing factors of the cross-border e-commerce ecosystem holds rich theoretical value and practical significance for the development of this ecosystem. A total of 19 influencing factors covering four aspects affecting the cross-border e-commerce ecosystem are identified by means of the relevant literature, web pages, research, and discussions with relevant experts and scholars, and the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and interpretative structural modeling (ISM) method is used to analyse the cause-effect correlation of each factor and to obtain a cause-effect diagram and a multi-level recursive structure model. The results show that three factors, i.e., the e-commerce platform development level, cross-border e-commerce competitiveness, and the cross-border e-commerce transaction scale, have a greater degree of influence on the other influencing factors. Additionally, three factors, i.e., the information development level, GDP, and cross-border online shopping demand, are vulnerable to the influence of the other factors. The level of cross-border e-commerce platform development, cross-border e-commerce competitiveness, and inter-firm competition are the root factors and occupy an important position in the cross-border e-commerce ecosystem as influencing factors and influence the stability of the cross-border e-commerce ecosystem by affecting the other factors.

Ethyl ferulate protects against lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury by activating AMPK/Nrf2 signaling pathway.

Ethyl ferulate (EF) is abundant in Rhizoma Chuanxiong and grains (e.g., rice and maize) and possesses antioxidative, antiapoptotic, antirheumatic, and anti-inflammatory properties. However, its effect on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced acute lung injury (ALI) is still unknown. In the present study, we found that EF significantly alleviated LPS-induced pathological damage and neutrophil infiltration and inhibited the gene expression of proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1ß, and IL-6) in murine lung tissues. Moreover, EF reduced the gene expression of TNF-α, IL-1ß, IL-6, and iNOS and decreased the production of NO in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells and BMDMs. Mechanistic experiments revealed that EF prominently activated the AMPK/Nrf2 pathway and promoted Nrf2 nuclear translocation. AMPK inhibition (Compound C) and Nrf2 inhibition (ML385) abolished the beneficial effect of EF on the inflammatory response. Furthermore, the protective effect of EF on LPS-induced ALI was not observed in Nrf2 knockout mice. Taken together, the results of our study suggest that EF ameliorates LPS-induced ALI in an AMPK/Nrf2-dependent manner. These findings provide a foundation for developing EF as a new anti-inflammatory agent for LPS-induced ALI/ARDS therapy.

A bibliometric analysis of food safety governance research from 1999 to 2019.

Although the number of food governance-related studies increased rapidly in the recent decade, the current academic research still lacked systematic integration of food safety governance. To clarify the development trends of research therein, this study summarized research articles concerning food safety governance by the Web of Science Core Collection. An in-depth bibliometric analysis was then conducted through CiteSpace to summarize the current characters and hot spots of food safety governance research, and predicted future research trends. Results showed that food safety governance was multidisciplinary, which included environmental science, food science, economics, and agriculture. The United States had the largest number of relevant articles, and Wageningen University was the most influential scientific research institution. Among all the journals in this field, Food Policy ranked the first in publication volume and co-citation frequency. The development of food safety governance research was divided into three processes, namely the separate formulation of the standards for public and private sectors, the joint implementation of these standards, and co-governance by multiple sectors. The most popular research hot spots in this field were food safety policy integration and public-private partnership of food safety governance. Lower- and middle-income countries focused more on food supply and food system design, and regrettably not on food safety. Higher-income countries cared more about food safety and food nutrition. Besides, researchers of higher-income countries also concentrated on consumers' voices in participating in food safety governance. Food safety co-governance, online food governance, the willingness to buy safe food, and food safety governance under pandemics were considered as future research directions.

[Effect of caveolin-1 scaffolding domain peptides on heme oxygenase-1 activity increasing and M1/M2 phenotype polarization in rat alveolar macrophages induced by lipopolysaccharide].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of caveolin-1 scaffolding domain (CSD) peptides on heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) activity increasing and M1/M2 phenotype polarization in rat alveolar macrophages (AMs) induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). METHODS: Bioinformatics was used to analyze the binding of full-length wild-type CSD polypeptide and 101 amino acid deleted truncated mutant CSD polypeptide (Δ101CSD) to HO-1. Primary AMs were isolated from rats, when cell fusion reached 80%, they were synchronized with serum-free medium and divided into five groups: no treatment was given to the blank control group; LPS group was treated with 100 µg/L LPS for 16 hours; LPS + hemin group was treated with 100 µg/L LPS and 20 µmol/L hemin for 16 hours; wild-type CSD polypeptide + LPS + hemin group was pretreated with 10 µmol/L wild-type CSD polypeptide 6 hours before LPS treatment; Δ101CSD + LPS + hemin group was pretreated with 10 µmol/L Δ101CSD polypeptide 6 hours before LPS treatment. After treatment for 16 hours, the co-localization between caveolin-1 (Cav-1) and HO-1 was displayed by confocal microscope; the mRNA expressions of inflammatory cytokines interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß) and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and M1/M2 polarization cytokines tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), leukocyte differentiation antigen 206 (CD206) and IL-10 were determined by real-time fluorescent quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR); the HO-1 activity and nitric oxide (NO) production were determined by spectrophotometry. RESULTS: Bioinformatics analysis showed: both wild-type CSD and Δ101CSD peptides could bind to HO-1, and there was no significant difference in the binding ability between the two peptides, but the deletion of 101 Arg resulted in the disappearance of part of the binding region between Δ101CSD and HO-1. The results of laser confocal microscopy showed: the expressions of Cav-1 and HO-1 were lowed in the blank control group, and Cav-1 was bound to HO-1 in LPS group and LPS + hemin group. Both wild-type CSD and Δ101CSD peptides pretreatment could significantly reduce the binding of HO-1 to Cav-1 induced by LPS. HO-1 activity analysis showed: after LPS stimulation, the activity of HO-1 was significantly higher than that of the blank control group; the activity of HO-1 induced by LPS was increased by hemin; after pretreatment with two kinds of CSD peptides, the activity of HO-1 was further increased, and the effect of wild-type CSD peptide was more significant, which showed a statistically significant difference as compared with that of LPS + hemin group (pmol×mg-1×h-1: 3 683±266 vs. 2 408±132, P < 0.05). RT-qPCR results showed: LPS could induce elevation of cytokines and M1 markers and decrease of M2 markers, while hemin could inhibit LPS-induced inflammatory response and M1/M2 phenotypic polarization. Compared with LPS + hemin group, after pretreatment with wild-type CSD peptide, the levels of inflammatory factors in AMs were decreased, and the mRNA expression levels of TNF-α and iNOS, M1 markers, were decreased [TNF-α mRNA (2-ΔΔCt): 6.82±0.05 vs. 8.70±0.24, iNOS mRNA (2-ΔΔCt): 331.50±32.05 vs. 506.70±0.10, both P < 0.05], and IL-10 mRNA expression level was increased (2-ΔΔCt: 269.09±6.54 vs. 119.05±3.30, P < 0.05). The deletion of 101 site partially weakened the inhibitory effect of CSD peptides on inflammatory factors and only reduced the expression of iNOS mRNA (2-ΔΔCt: 429.11±8.92 vs. 506.70±0.10, P < 0.05), indicating that its ability to transform AMs from M1 phenotype to M2 phenotype was poor. The two peptides had no effect on the expression of CD206. CONCLUSIONS: Wild-type CSD had beneficial effects of anti-inflammation by reducing Cav-1 binding to HO-1 induced by LPS, restoring the HO-1 activity and driving M2 phenotype in alveolar macrophages.

[Effect of brucine on secretion function and proliferation capability of T lymphocytes in patients with aplastic anemia].

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of brucine on secretion of TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-4 and proliferation of T lymphocytes in patients with aplastic anemia (AA), and to explore its mechanism. Peripheral blood T lymphocytes from 10 patients with AA and 10 healthy volunteers were isolated, purified and cultured. T lymphocytes from the patients were divided into 0, 100, 200 and 400 µg/ml brucine-treated groups. T lymphocytes from healthy volunteers were used as control group. After being cultured for 72 hours, the levels of TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-4 in the supernatant of cultured T lymphocytes from AA patients were detected by ELISA, and the proliferation of T lymphocytes from AA patients was detected by MTT. The results showed that compared with the normal control group, the levels of TNF-α and IFN-γ in the culture supernatant significantly increased, and IL-4 was significantly decreased. The levels of TNF-α and IFN-γ in the culture supernatant of brucine treated groups were lower, and were dependent on the concentration of brucine. However, the levels of IL-4 were found to be not obviously changed. The inhibition rate of T lymphocytes in 100, 200 and 400µg/ml brucine-treated groups were (13.61 ± 4.31)%, (14.28 ± 4.31)% and (15.12 ± 4.56)% respectively, among which the differences were not statistically significant. It is concluded that the brucine can reduce the levels of TNF-α and IFN-γ through inhibiting the proliferation of T lymphocytes in AA patients, which provides experimental basis for therapy of AA patients.