Cumulative remnant cholesterol burden increases the risk of cardiovascular disease among young adults.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that remnant cholesterol (RC) was associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) among middle-aged or older adults. However, lack of evidence on long-term exposures to RC and their role in CVD risk among young adults. We thus aimed to explore the association between cumulative RC burden and CVD in young adults. METHODS: We enrolled participants younger than 45 years free of CVD history in the Kailuan Study who completed the first three health examinations from 2006 to 2010. Cumulative RC burden included cumulative RC burden score, time-weighted cumulative RC, exposure duration of high RC, and time course of RC accumulation. The outcome was the incidence of CVD. Cox proportional hazard models were used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) between cumulative RC burden and CVD risk. RESULTS: A total of 15,219 participants were included (73.70% male, median age 39.13 years). During a median follow-up duration of 8.71 years (interquartile range: 8.4-9.15 years), 502 individuals developed CVD. After adjustment for traditional cardiovascular risk factors, highest risk of CVD was observed in participants with the highest cumulative RC burden score (HR, 1.66; 95% CI, 1.29-2.12), the highest quartile time-weighted cumulative RC (HR,1.50; 95% CI, 1.15-1.96), the longest exposure duration of high RC (HR, 1.71; 95% CI, 1.21-2.42), and those with cumulative RC burden and positive slope (HR, 1.79; 95% CI, 1.35-2.36). CONCLUSIONS: Cumulative RC burden increased the risk of CVD among young adults, suggesting that maintaining low RC levels throughout young adulthood may minimize CVD risk.

Corrigendum: Integrated analysis of single-cell RNA-seq and chipset data unravels PANoptosis-related genes in sepsis.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1247131.].

LncRNA HMOX1 alleviates renal ischemia-reperfusion-induced ferroptotic injury via the miR-3587/HMOX1 axis.

Emerging evidence suggests that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play significant roles in renal ischemia reperfusion (RIR) injury. However, the specific mechanisms by which lncRNAs regulate ferroptosis in renal tubular epithelial cells remain largely unknown. The objective of this study was to investigate the biological function of lncRNA heme oxygenase 1 (lnc-HMOX1) in RIR and its potential molecular mechanism. Our findings demonstrated that the expression of HMOX1-related lnc-HMOX1 was reduced in renal tubular epithelial cells treated with hypoxia-reoxygenation (HR). Furthermore, the over-expression of lnc-HMOX1 mitigated ferroptotic injury in renal tubular epithelial cells in vivo and in vitro. Mechanistically, lnc-HMOX1, as a competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA), promoted the expression of HMOX1 by sponging miR-3587. Furthermore, the inhibition of HMOX1 effectively impeded the aforementioned effects exerted by lnc-HMOX1. Ultimately, the inhibitory or mimic action of miR-3587 reversed the promoting or refraining influence of silenced or over-expressed lnc-HMOX1 on ferroptotic injury during HR. In summary, our findings contribute to a comprehensive comprehension of the mechanism underlying ferroptotic injury mediated by lnc-HMOX1 during RIR. Significantly, we identified a novel lnc-HMOX1-miR-3587-HMOX1 axis, which holds promise as a potential therapeutic target for RIR injury.

A deep semantic network-based image segmentation of soybean rust pathogens.

Introduction: Asian soybean rust is a highly aggressive leaf-based disease triggered by the obligate biotrophic fungus Phakopsora pachyrhizi which can cause up to 80% yield loss in soybean. The precise image segmentation of fungus can characterize fungal phenotype transitions during growth and help to discover new medicines and agricultural biocides using large-scale phenotypic screens. Methods: The improved Mask R-CNN method is proposed to accomplish the segmentation of densely distributed, overlapping and intersecting microimages. First, Res2net is utilized to layer the residual connections in a single residual block to replace the backbone of the original Mask R-CNN, which is then combined with FPG to enhance the feature extraction capability of the network model. Secondly, the loss function is optimized and the CIoU loss function is adopted as the loss function for boundary box regression prediction, which accelerates the convergence speed of the model and meets the accurate classification of high-density spore images. Results: The experimental results show that the mAP for detection and segmentation, accuracy of the improved algorithm is improved by 6.4%, 12.3% and 2.2% respectively over the original Mask R-CNN algorithm. Discussion: This method is more suitable for the segmentation of fungi images and provide an effective tool for large-scale phenotypic screens of plant fungal pathogens.

[Spatial and Temporal Distribution Characteristics of Ozone Concentration and Health Benefit Assessment in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region from 2015 to 2020].

To evaluate the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of ambient ozone (O3) in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) Region, the land use regression (LUR) model and random forest (RF) model were used to simulate the ambient O3 concentration from 2015 to 2020. Meanwhile, all-cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortalities as well as economic losses attributed to O3 were also estimated. The results showed that upward trends with fluctuation were observed for ambient O3 concentration, mortalities, and economic losses attributable to O3 exposure in the BTH Region from 2015 to 2020. The areas with high O3 concentration and great changes were concentrated in the central and southwestern regions, whereas the concentration in the northern region was low, and the change degree was small. The spatial distribution of the mortalities was also consistent with the spatial distribution of O3 concentration. From 2015 to 2020, the economic losses regarding all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality increased in 13 cities of the BTH Region, whereas the economic losses of respiratory mortality decreased in 4 cities in the BTH Region. The results indicated that the priority areas for O3 control were not uniform. Specifically, Beijing, Tianjin, Hengshui, and Xingtai were vital areas for O3 pollution control in the BTH Region. Differentiated control measures should be adopted based on the characteristics of these target areas to decline O3 concentration and reduce health impacts and economic losses associated with O3 exposure.

[Effects of Biochar on Growth and Pollutant Accumulation of Lettuce in Soil Co-contaminated with Tetracycline and Copper].

Through lettuce potting experiments, the effects of different types of biochar (apple branch, corn straw, and modified sorghum straw biochar with phosphoric acid modification) on lettuce growth under tetracycline (TC) and copper (Cu) co-pollution were investigated. The results showed that compared with those under CK, the addition of biochar treatment significantly increased the plant height, root length, shoot fresh weight, and root fresh weight of lettuce (P < 0.05). The addition of different biochars significantly increased the nitrate nitrogen, chlorophyll, and soluble protein content in lettuce physiological indicators to varying degrees, while also significantly decreasing the levels of malondialdehyde, proline content, and catalase activity. The effects of biochar on lettuce physiological indicators were consistent during both the seedling and mature stages. Compared with those in CK, the addition of biochar resulted in varying degrees of reduction in the TC and Cu contents of both the aboveground and underground parts of lettuce. The aboveground TC and Cu levels decreased by 2.49%-92.32% and 12.79%-36.47%, respectively. The underground TC and Cu levels decreased by 12.53%-55.64% and 22.41%-42.29%, respectively. Correlation analysis showed that nitrate nitrogen, chlorophyll, and soluble protein content of lettuce were negatively correlated with TC content, whereas malondialdehyde, proline content, and catalase activity were positively correlated with TC content. The resistance genes of lettuce were positively correlated with TC content (P < 0.05). In general, modified biochar was found to be more effective in improving lettuce growth quality and reducing pollutant accumulation compared to unmodified biochar, with modified sorghum straw biochar showing the best remediation effect.

Xanthine oxidase inhibitory constituents from the roots of Ampelopsis japonica.

Bioassay-guided purification of the xanthine oxidase (XOD) inhibitory extract of the roots of Ampelopsis japonica resulted in the isolation of two new triterpenoids (1-2), designated Ampejaponoside A and B, along with sixteen known compounds (3-18). The structures of Ampejaposide A and B were elucidated by comprehensive analysis of spectroscopic data with the structures of the known compounds 3-18 confirmed by comparison the spectral data with corresponding values reported in literatures. All the isolates were evaluated for their XOD inhibitory activity in vitro. As a result, compounds 2, 8, and 14-16 displayed significant XOD inhibitory effect, particularly 16 being the most potent with an IC50 value of 0.21 µM, superior to positive substance allopurinol (IC50 1.95 µM). Molecular docking uncovered a unique interaction mode of 16 with the active site of XOD. The current study showed that the triterpenoids and polyphenols from A. japonica could serve as new lead compounds with the potential to speed up the development of novel XOD inhibitors with clinical potential to treat hyperuricaemia and gout.

Study on the Interaction Between C3 Gene Polymorphism and Environment in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Combined with Coronary Artery Disease.

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the combined effect of genetic variation in the C3 gene and environmental factors on the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM) and coronary artery disease(CAD) in a population from Xinjiang, China. Methods: We conducted a hospital-based case-control study with 896 participants (217 with T2DM+CAD and 679 healthy controls). A polymerase chain reaction-ligase detection reaction was used to identify and genotype TagSNPs in the C3 gene, and the influence of the interaction of two SNP loci (rs1047286 and rs11569562) with the environment on T2DM combined with CAD was evaluated through clinical data, statistical analysis of gene frequencies, and the formation of a gene-environment interaction model. Results: We find that rs11569562 GG is an independent protective factor for T2DM and CAD (OR=0.353, p=0.012), and the variants at its locus may be closely associated with Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time (APTT), lipoprotein a (Lp(a)), Apolipoprotein A (APOA), Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST), Aspartate Aminotransferase (ALT) and AST/ALT levels (all P < 0.05); its GG genotype has significantly lower Gensini score and number of stenoses than the GA and AA genotypes. Multifactorial dimensionality reduction (MDR) finds a strong correlation between rs11569562 and AST (antagonistic effect) (4.44%); the role of rs11569562's influence remains strong in terms of the independent effects of each attribute (1.72%). Conclusions: In this study, we find that variants in the C3 gene loci rs11569562 are associated with the incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus combined with coronary heart disease in a Chinese population. It is expected to be an independent predictor of type 2 diabetes mellitus combined with coronary heart disease in the Chinese population. Rs11569562 may be associated with lipid levels and coagulation molecules. Clinical Trial Registration: This trial registered on in 2014 at the China Clinical Trials Registry (ChiCTR-TRC-14005114).

Tea Polyphenol Epigallocatechin Gallate Protects Against Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Associated Endotoxemia in Rats via Modulating Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis and Alleviating Intestinal Barrier Dysfunction and Related Inflammation.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is characterized by fat accumulation and inflammation. Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) has been proven to be effective against NAFLD, but its hepatoprotective mechanisms based on the "gut microbiota-barrier-liver axis" are still not fully understood. Herein, the results demonstrated that EGCG effectively ameliorated NAFLD phenotypes and metabolic disorders in rats fed a high-fat diet (HFD), and inhibited intestinal barrier dysfunction and inflammation, which is also supported in the experiment of Caco-2 cells. Moreover, EGCG could restore gut microbiota diversity and composition, particularly promoting beneficial microbes, including short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) producers, such as Lactobacillus, and suppressing Gram-negative bacteria, such as Desulfovibrio. The microbial modulation raised SCFA levels, decreased lipopolysaccharide levels, inhibited the TLR4/NF-κB pathway, and strengthened intestinal barrier function via Nrf2 pathway activation, thereby alleviating liver steatosis and inflammation. Spearman's correlation analysis showed that 24 key OTUs, negatively or positively associated with NAFLD and metabolic disorders, were also reshaped by EGCG. Our results suggested that a combinative improvement of EGCG on gut microbiota dysbiosis, intestinal barrier dysfunction, and inflammation might be a potential therapeutic target for NAFLD.

Role of diet in the risks of esophageal adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma: an updated umbrella review.

PURPOSE: This updated umbrella review aimed to evaluate the evidence regarding the associations between dietary factors and the risks of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). METHODS: The PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases were searched to identify relevant studies. The quality of the included meta-analyses was evaluated using A MeaSurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews 2 (AMSTAR 2). For each association, the number of cases, random effects pooled effect size, 95% confidence intervals (CIs), heterogeneity, 95% prediction interval (PrI), small-study effect, and excess significance bias were recalculated to determine the evidence level. RESULTS: We identified 33 meta-analyses describing 58 dietary factors associated with ESCC and 29 meta-analyses describing 38 dietary factors associated with EAC. There was convincing evidence regarding the association of 2 dietary factors (areca nut and high alcohol) with the risk of ESCC. There was highly suggestive evidence regarding the association of only 1 dietary factor (healthy pattern) with the risk of ESCC. There was suggestive evidence regarding the association of 11 dietary factors with the risk of ESCC, including fruit, citrus fruit, vegetables, pickled vegetables, maté tea, moderate alcohol, hot beverages and foods, hot tea, salt, folate, and vitamin B6. There was convincing evidence regarding the association of one dietary factor (vitamin B6) with the risk of EAC. There was suggestive evidence regarding the association of 4 dietary factors with the risk of EAC, including processed meat, dietary fibre, carbohydrate, and vitamin B12. The convincing evidence regarding the associations between dietary factors and the risks of ESCC and EAC remained robust in sensitivity analyses. CONCLUSIONS: This umbrella review highlighted convincing evidence regarding the associations of areca nut and high alcohol with a higher risk of ESCC. Additionally, an association between vitamin B6 and a decreased risk of EAC was observed. Further research is needed to examine the dietary factors with weak evidence regarding their associations with ESCC and EAC.

Excavation of gene markers associated with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma based on interrelationships of gene expression.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) accounts for 95% of all pancreatic cancer cases, posing grave challenges to its diagnosis and treatment. Timely diagnosis is pivotal for improving patient survival, necessitating the discovery of precise biomarkers. An innovative approach was introduced to identify gene markers for precision PDAC detection. The core idea of our method is to discover gene pairs that display consistent opposite relative expression and differential co-expression patterns between PDAC and normal samples. Reversal gene pair analysis and differential partial correlation analysis were performed to determine reversal differential partial correlation (RDC) gene pairs. Using incremental feature selection, the authors refined the selected gene set and constructed a machine-learning model for PDAC recognition. As a result, the approach identified 10 RDC gene pairs. And the model could achieve a remarkable accuracy of 96.1% during cross-validation, surpassing gene expression-based models. The experiment on independent validation data confirmed the model's performance. Enrichment analysis revealed the involvement of these genes in essential biological processes and shed light on their potential roles in PDAC pathogenesis. Overall, the findings highlight the potential of these 10 RDC gene pairs as effective diagnostic markers for early PDAC detection, bringing hope for improving patient prognosis and survival.

Scoring method of English composition integrating deep learning in higher vocational colleges.

Along with the progress of natural language processing technology and deep learning, the subjectivity, slow feedback, and long grading time of traditional English essay grading have been addressed. Intelligent English automatic scoring has been widely concerned by scholars. Given the limitations of topic relevance feature extraction methods and traditional automatic grading methods for English compositions, a topic decision model is proposed to calculate the topic relevance score of the topic richness in English composition. Then, based on the Score of Relevance Based on Topic Richness (TRSR) calculation method, an intelligent English composition scoring method combining artificial feature extraction and deep learning is designed. From the findings, the Topic Decision (TD) model achieved the best effect only when it was iterated 80 times. The corresponding accuracy, recall and F1 value were 0.97, 0.93 and 0.95 respectively. The model training loss finally stabilized at 0.03. The Intelligent English Composition Grading Method Integrating Deep Learning (DLIECG) method has the best overall performance and the best performance on dataset P. To sum up, the intelligent English composition scoring method has better effectiveness and reliability.

Quantitative differentiation of toxicity contributions and predicted global risk of fipronil and its transformation products to aquatic invertebrates.

Biotransformation often alters chemical toxicity, yet its impacts on risk assessment are hardly quantified due to the challenges in acquiring internal exposure-based thresholds for chemicals that are readily metabolizable. Here, we integrated toxic unit and toxicokinetics to quantitatively assess toxicity contributions and potential risk of both parent compound and transformation products (TPs) to aquatic organisms, using fipronil (FIP) as a representative toxicant. In aquatic invertebrates Chironomus dilutus and Hyalella azteca, approximately 90 % of FIP was transformed to fipronil sulfone (SUL). FIP and SUL exhibited similar intrinsic toxicity to these organisms, which was contrary to conventional perception that SUL was more toxic than FIP. However, biotransformation was still important in risk assessment because the TP had 10-fold slower depuration rate than FIP. The amphipod H. azteca was found to be as sensitive to FIPs as the insect C. dilutus, which was previously considered ten times more sensitive based on external thresholds. This discrepancy has led to overlooking the toxicity of FIP to H. azteca in regional risk assessments. Lastly, we predicted the lethal risk of FIPs in global surface water. When using external thresholds for prediction, FIPs in 3.4 % of the water samples were lethally toxic to H. azteca, and the percentage of water samples at risk increased to 14 % when internal thresholds were used and SUF dominated the risk. This study presents an improved method for quantifying aquatic risk of readily metabolized toxicants. Our findings underscore the urgency of considering TPs in water quality assessments, especially for sensitive species that are at risk in the environment.

A fungal P450 enzyme from Fusarium equiseti HG18 with 7ß-hydroxylase activity in biosynthesis of ursodeoxycholic acid.

Cytochrome P450 enzyme with 7ß-hydroxylation capacity has attracted widespread attentions due to the vital roles in the biosynthesis of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), a naturally active molecule for the treatment of liver and gallbladder diseases. In this study, a novel P450 hydroxylase (P450FE) was screen out from Fusarium equiseti HG18 and identified by a combination of genome and transcriptome sequencing, as well as heterologous expression in Pichia pastoris. The biotransformation of lithocholic acid (LCA) by whole cells of recombinant Pichia pastoris further confirmed the C7ß-hydroxylation with 5.2% UDCA yield. It was firstly identified a fungal P450 enzyme from Fusarium equiseti HG18 with the capacity to catalyze the LCA oxidation producing UDCA. The integration of homology modeling and molecular docking discovered the substrate binding to active pockets, and the key amino acids in active center were validated by site-directed mutagenesis, and revealed that Q112, V362 and L363 were the pivotal residues of P450FE in regulating the activity and selectivity of 7ß-hydroxylation. Specifically, V362I mutation exhibited 2.6-fold higher levels of UDCA and higher stereospecificity than wild-type P450FE. This advance provided guidance for improving the catalytic efficiency and selectivity of P450FE in LCA hydroxylation, indicative of the great potential in green synthesis of UDCA from biologically toxic LCA.

Cathepsin K inhibition alleviates periodontal bone resorption by promoting type H vessel formation through PDGF-BB/PDGFR-ß axis.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the effects of cathepsin K (CTSK) inhibition on type H vessel formation and alveolar bone resorption within periodontitis. METHODS: Conditioned media derived from preosteoclasts pretreated with the CTSK inhibitor odanacatib (ODN), ODN supplemented small interfering RNA targeting PDGF-BB (si-PDGF-BB), or PBS were prepared, to assess their proangiogenic effects on endothelial cells (HUVECs). A series of angiogenic-related assays were conducted to evaluate HUVEC proliferation, migration, and tube formation abilities in vitro. In addition, qRT-PCR and Western blot assays were employed to examine the expression levels of genes/proteins related to PDGF-BB/PDGFR-ß axis components. A mouse periodontitis model was established to evaluate the effects of CTSK inhibition on type H vessel formation. RESULTS: CTSK inhibition promoted PDGF-BB secretion from preosteoclasts and proliferation, migration, and tube formation activities of HUVECs in vitro. However, the conditioned medium from preosteoclasts pretreated by si-PDGF-BB impaired the angiogenic activities of HUVECs. This promoted angiogenesis function by CTSK inhibition may be mediated by the PDGF-BB/PDGFR-ß axis. Functionally, in vivo studies demonstrated that CTSK inhibition significantly accelerated type H vessel formation and alleviated bone loss within periodontitis. CONCLUSION: CTSK inhibition promotes type H vessel formation and attenuates alveolar bone resorption within periodontitis via PDGF-BB/PDGFR-ß axis.

Plant-based dietary patterns and risk of esophageal cancer: A prospective cohort study spanning 17 years.

Objective: Plant-based diets have multiple health benefits for cancers; however, little is known about the association between plant-based dietary patterns and esophageal cancer (EC).This study presents an investigation of the prospective associations among three predefined indices of plant-based dietary patterns and the risk of EC. Methods: We performed endoscopic screening for 15,709 participants aged 40-69 years from two high-risk areas of China from January 2005 to December 2009 and followed the cohort until December 31, 2022. The overall plant-based diet index (PDI), healthful plant-based diet index (hPDI), and unhealthful plant-based diet index (uPDI), were calculated using survey responses to assess dietary patterns. We applied Cox proportional hazard regression to estimate the multivariable hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) of EC across 3 plant-based diet indices and further stratified the analysis by subgroups. Results: The final study sample included 15,184 participants in the cohort. During a follow-up of 219,365 person-years, 176 patients with EC were identified. When the highest quartile was compared with the lowest quartile, the pooled multivariable-adjusted HR of EC was 0.50 (95% CI, 0.32-0.77) for hPDI. In addition, the HR per 10-point increase in the hPDI score was 0.42 (95% CI, 0.27-0.66) for ECs. Conversely, uPDI was positively associated with the risk of EC, and the HR was 1.80 (95% CI, 1.16-2.82). The HR per 10-point increase in the uPDI score was 1.90 (95% CI, 1.26-2.88) for ECs. The associations between these scores and the risk of EC were consistent in most subgroups. These results remained robust in sensitivity analyses. Conclusions: A healthy plant-based dietary pattern was associated with a reduced risk of EC. Emphasizing the healthiness and quality of plant-based diets may be important for preventing the development of EC.

Genetic Diversity Analysis and Core Germplasm Construction of Rubus chingii Hu.

Rubus chingii Hu is the only species that is used for both edible and medicinal purposes among the 194 species of the genus Rubus in China. It is well known for its sweet and sour fresh fruits that are rich in vitamins and for its dried immature fruits that are used to treat kidney-related ailments. This study aims to evaluate genetic diversity and population structure and build a core germplasm repository of 132 R. chingii accessions from the provinces of Jiangxi and Fujian, using Hyper-seq-derived single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. This is the first genetic study of R. chingii based on SNP molecular markers, and a total of 1,303,850 SNPs and 433,159 insertions/deletions (InDels) were identified. Low values for observed heterozygosity, nucleotide diversity (Pi) and fixation indexes (Fis) indicated low genetic diversity within populations, and an analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed that 37.4% and 62.6% of the variations were found between populations and within samples, respectively. Four main clusters were identified by means of neighbor-joining (NJ) trees, the ADMIXTURE program and principal component analysis (PCA). Based on the genetic diversity, we finally constructed 38 representative core collections, representing 50% of the total core germplasm samples and 95.3% of the genotypes. In summary, the results of our study can provide valuable information on the genetic structure of R. chingii germplasm resources, which is helpful for further explorations of potential high-quality genes and for formulating future breeding and conservation strategies.

Discovery of two novel bioactive algicidal substances from Brevibacillus sp. via metabolomics profiling and back-validation.

Identifying potent bacterial algicidal agents is essential for the development of effective, safe, and economically viable algaecides. Challenges in isolating and purifying these substances from complex secretions have impeded progress in this field. Metabolomics profiling, an efficient strategy for identifying metabolites, was pioneered in identifying bacterial algicidal substances in this study. Extracellular secretions from different generations of the algicidal bacterium Brevibacillus sp. were isolated for comprehensive analysis. Specifically, a higher algicidal efficacy was observed in the secretion from Generation 3 (G3) of Brevibacillus sp. compared to Generation 1 (G1). Subsequent metabolomics profiling comparing G3 and 1 revealed 83 significantly up-regulated metabolites, of which 9 were identified as potential algicidal candidates. Back-validation highlighted the potency of 4-acetamidobutanoic acid (4-ABC) and 8-hydroxyquinoline (8-HQL), which exhibited robust algicidal activity with 3d-EC50 values of 6.40 mg/L and 92.90 µg/L, respectively. These substances disrupted photosynthetic activity in M. aeruginosa by ceasing electron transfer in PSⅡ, like the impact exerted by Brevibacillus sp. secretion. These findings confirmed that 4-ABC and 8-HQL were the main algicidal components derived from Brevibacillus sp.. Thus, this study presents a streamlined strategy for identifying bacterial algicidal substances and unveils two novel and highly active algicidal substances. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATION: Harmful cyanobacterial blooms (HCBs) pose significant environmental problems and health effects to humans and other organisms. The increasing frequency of HCBs has emerged as a pressing global concern. Bacterial-derived algicidal substances are expected to serve as effective, safe, and economically viable algaecides against HCBs. This study presents a streamlined strategy for identifying bacterial algicidal substances and unveils two novel substances (4-ABC and 8-HQL). These two substances demonstrate remarkable algicidal activity and disrupt the photosynthetic system in M. aeruginosa. They hold potential as prospective algaecides for addressing HCBs.

Impact of mildly evaluated thyroid-stimulating hormone levels on in vitro fertilization or intracytoplasmic sperm injection outcomes in women with the first fresh embryo transfer: a large study from China.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the association between mild elevation of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels and pregnancy outcomes of in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatments in women with the first fresh embryo transfer. METHODS: Large single-center retrospective cohort study of 15,728 patients from January 2018 to December 2022 were enrolled in the analyses. Clinical pregnancy rates, live birth rates, miscarriage rates, and ectopic pregnancy rates were compared between the TSH levels < 2.5 mIU/L group (N = 10,932) and TSH levels ≥ 2.5 mIU/L group (N = 4796). Subgroup analysis was performed for patients with TSH levels ≥ 2.5 mIU/L, dividing them into the thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPO)-negative group (N = 4524) and the TPO-positive group (N = 272). RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the aforementioned pregnancy outcomes between the TSH levels < 2.5 mIU/L group and TSH levels ≥ 2.5 mIU/L group. Similarly, no significant differences were observed in the pregnancy outcomes between the TPO-negative group and the TPO-positive group. CONCLUSION: Mildly elevated pre-conception TSH levels in thyroid-normal infertile patients did not have an impact on pregnancy outcomes of IVF/ICSI treatments.