The haemagglutinin-neuraminidase protein of velogenic Newcastle disease virus enhances viral infection through NF-κB-mediated programmed cell death.

The haemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) protein, a vital membrane glycoprotein, plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of Newcastle disease virus (NDV). Previously, we demonstrated that a mutation in the HN protein is essential for the enhanced virulence of JS/7/05/Ch, a velogenic variant NDV strain originating from the mesogenic vaccine strain Mukteswar. Here, we explored the effects of the HN protein during viral infection in vitro using three viruses: JS/7/05/Ch, Mukteswar, and an HN-replacement chimeric NDV, JS/MukHN. Through microscopic observation, CCK-8, and LDH release assays, we demonstrated that compared with Mukteswar and JS/MukHN, JS/7/05/Ch intensified the cellular damage and mortality attributed to the mutant HN protein. Furthermore, JS/7/05/Ch induced greater levels of apoptosis, as evidenced by the activation of caspase-3/8/9. Moreover, JS/7/05/Ch promoted autophagy, leading to increased autophagosome formation and autophagic flux. Subsequent pharmacological experiments revealed that inhibition of apoptosis and autophagy significantly impacted virus replication and cell viability in the JS/7/05/Ch-infected group, whereas less significant effects were observed in the other two infected groups. Notably, the mutant HN protein enhanced JS/7/05/Ch-induced apoptosis and autophagy by suppressing NF-κB activation, while it mitigated the effects of NF-κB on NDV infection. Overall, our study offers novel insights into the mechanisms underlying the increased virulence of NDV and serves as a reference for the development of vaccines.

Nuclear translocation of metabolic enzyme PKM2 participates in high glucose-promoted HCC metastasis by strengthening immunosuppressive environment.

Although some cohort studies have indicated a close association between diabetes and HCC, the underlying mechanism about the contribution of diabetes to HCC progression remains largely unknown. In the study, we applied a novel HCC model in SD rat with diabetes and a series of high glucose-stimulated cell experiments to explore the effect of a high glucose environment on HCC metastasis and its relevant mechanism. Our results uncovered a novel regulatory mechanism by which nuclear translocation of metabolic enzyme PKM2 mediated high glucose-promoted HCC metastasis. Specifically, high glucose-increased PKM2 nuclear translocation downregulates chemerin expression through the redox protein TRX1, and then strengthens immunosuppressive environment to promote HCC metastasis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to elucidate the great contribution of a high glucose environment to HCC metastasis from a new perspective of enhancing the immunosuppressive microenvironment. Simultaneously, this work also highlights a previously unidentified non-metabolic role of PKM2 and opens a novel avenue for cross research and intervention for individuals with HCC and comorbid diabetes.

Oxidative compensation mechanism of Fe-S synergetic inhibition of Cd activity in paddy field during flooding and drainage.

It is known that the transformation of Fe and S forms in soil affects the migration and activity of Cd, but the coordinated regulation of Cd activity by Fe and S under different redox conditions is still unclear. Here, Diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT), an in-situ monitoring technique, is used to explore the difference of the regulation of Cd activity in paddy fields with ferrihydrite (FH) and ferrihydrite coprecipitated by sulfate (FH-S) under the flooding and drainage conditions. The addition of FH-S and FH significantly reduced the activity of Cd (Dissolved, Exchanged, and CDGT-Cd). Compared with pure FH, the adsorption extent of Cd in FH was enhanced by increasing concentrations of SO42- (i.e., S/Fe ratio), which is attributed to the decrease in the crystallinity of FH by sulfate. During soil flooding, the addition of FH-S promoted the production of metal sulfide (CdS and FeS/FeS2). The activity of Cd increased after drainage, while the FH-S treatment groups delayed the release of Cd. After 30 days of drainage, the concentration of Cd in FH-S treatment groups decreased by 28.9-44.1 % compared with the control group. The fresh FeS/FeS2 is not the main adsorbent for fixing Cd, and due to the existence of oxidation compensation mechanism, the preferential oxidation of FeS/FeS2 delays the release of Cd in the drainage stage. Our study shed new light on the mechanism of Fe-S synergistic regulation of Cd and remediation of Cd-contaminated soils.

Mechanism of mercapto-modified palygorskite in reducing soil Cd activity.

Mercapto-modified palygorskite (MP) is an efficient novel amendment with superior ability to decrease soil Cd bioavailability, but the unclear immobilization mechanism has become the bottleneck of its performance improvement and precise application. In order to clarify the Cd reducing mechanism of MP, long-term and short-term soil incubation with three types of soils (paddy soil, alluvial soil and yellow mountain soil) and sorption verification experiments were conducted to investigate the dynamic process of soil labile Cd impacted by MP and the synergetic effects on labile Fe, Mn, S and dissolved organic carbon via in-situ diffusive gradients in thin-films and soil solution sampling techniques. MP with four dosages rapidly and continuously decreased soil labile Cd contents by 14.50 % ∼ 89.16 % in long-term incubation, meanwhile low-dosage MP reduced soil labile Fe and Mn contents, but high-dosage MP increased their contents. With MP dosages increased, the effects of Fe-Mn oxides on soil labile Cd content gradually weakened. MP effectively promoted the reduction of Fe adsorbed by clay minerals and enhanced their ability to adsorb Cd. Short-term incubation showed that MP could decline soil labile Cd by 7.17 % ∼ 44.74 %, especially at the dosage 0.4 %. MP was a reduction catalyst to facilitate Fe reduction, which profited for clay minerals adsorbing Cd. The sorption experiments indicated that 0.30 % MP could adsorb 73.34 % Cd2+, promote the release of Fe2+ from the soil, and stimulate the ability of clay minerals to adsorb Cd. The results revealed that MP decreased soil labile Cd content within 2 d, and MP made soil Cd activity change out of the influence of soil Fe/Mn redox system. The mechanism will be beneficial for the large-scale application of MP in safe utilization of Cd contaminated soil.

Lipidomics and Transcriptomics Differ Liposarcoma Differentiation Characteristics That Can Be Altered by Pentose Phosphate Pathway Intervention.

Liposarcoma (LPS) is a rare and heterogeneous malignancy of adipocytic origin. Well-differentiated liposarcoma (WDLPS) and dedifferentiated liposarcoma (DDLPS) are two of the most common subtypes, showing similar genetic characterizations but distinct biological behaviors and clinical prognosis. Compared to WDLPS, DDLPS is more aggressive and has the potential of metastasis, as the malignant adipocytic tumor's metabolic changes may have taken place during the tumorigenesis of LPSs. Therefore, to investigate the lipid alterations between the two subtypes, high-resolution liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) based untargeted lipidomic analysis was performed onto LPS tissues from 6 WDLPS and 7 DDLPS patients. The lipidomic analysis showed the upregulated phosphatidylcholines and phosphoethanolamines in DDLPS, and the upregulated triglycerides and diglycerides in WDLPS, which might be due to the uncompleted adipocytic dedifferentiation leading to such tumorigenesis. Such a finding was also confirmed by the similarity comparison of two LPS subtypes to the transcriptome of stromal vascular fraction at different differentiation stages. Transcriptomic analysis also demonstrated that metabolic pathways including the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) were upregulated in WDLPS compared to DDLPS. Therefore, the cell line LPS853 was treated with the PPP inhibitor 6-aminonicotinamide ex vivo and the proliferation and invasion of LPS853 was significantly promoted by PPP inhibition, suggesting the potential role of PPP in the development and differentiation of LPS. In conclusion, this study described the altered lipid profiles of WDLPS and DDLPS for the first time, revealing the different differentiation stages of the two subtypes and providing a potential metabolic target for LPS treatment.

Immunotherapy for liposarcoma: emerging opportunities and challenges.

Liposarcoma (LPS) is a rare adipocyte-derived malignancy accounting for 20% of all soft tissue sarcomas. Although surgery and chemotherapy are the standard treatment for LPS, the large tumor burden and high recurrence rate make it difficult to treat, especially when the disease progresses. With the progress of immunotherapies in other tumors such as melanoma and lung cancer, interest has been risen in exploring immunotherapy for LPS. This review discusses the understanding of the tumor microenvironment of LPS; the current status of immunotherapy in LPS, including immune checkpoint inhibitors, adoptive cell therapy, cancer vaccines, oncolytic viruses and combination therapies; and the future directions for exploiting strategies to make the effect of immunotherapy stronger and more durable.

Liposarcoma is a rare type of malignant tumor with no effective treatment. Immunotherapy is a new kind of treatment that functions by activating the immune system to kill tumors cells. It has gained significant progress in other cancer types. This review discusses its exploration and application in liposarcoma.

Multilayer Dielectric Nanocomposites with Cross-Linked Dielectric Transition Interlayers for High-Temperature Applications.

In energy storage and transportation systems, polymer dielectrics are widely applied in smart grids, electric vehicles, and power conditioning owing to their incomparable power density and high reliability. However, the dielectric constant (ε) and breakdown strength (Eb) normally cannot be increased simultaneously, which results in insufficient discharged energy density especially at high temperatures. In this work, enhanced Eb and high energy density are archived in multilayer polymer nanocomposites by introducing cross-linked dielectric transition layers. Specifically, the sandwiched composite achieves a huge discharge energy density of 4.64 J cm-3 with a charged-discharged efficiency of 84% at 150 °C and 500 MV m-1. The formation of cross-linked dielectric transition layers between layers of the multilayer nanocomposite could effectively restrain the growth of the electrical tree and greatly increase the Eb. This work presents a strategy for designing high-performance multilayered dielectric polymer nanocomposites by introducing cross-linked dielectric transition layers to reduce the loss from interlayer interfaces.

Fabrication and Characterization of Transparent and Uniform Cellulose/Polyethylene Composite Films from Used Disposable Paper Cups by the "One-Pot Method".

Disposable paper cups are usually composed of high-grade paper board and an inner polyethylene coatings and are extensively used in daily life. However, most disposable paper cups are only used for a short time and then incinerated or accumulated in landfill at the end of their service due to the difficulty in separating the components, leading to a serious threat to our ecosystem. Therefore, developing a facile and green method to recycle and reuse disposable paper cups is vital. By using ionic liquid 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (AmimCl) as a solvent, transparent and homogenous cellulose/polyethylene composite films were successfully prepared from used bamboo-based disposable paper cups through the "one-pot method", without any pre-treatment. It was found that there was a transformation of cellulose I to II after the dissolution and regeneration processes, and the crystallinity degree of the regenerated cellulose-based materials decreased significantly, resulting in a change in thermal properties. Meanwhile, compared to traditional pure cellulose films, the composite films possessed good UV-shielding properties and hydrophobicity. Moreover, they also displayed good mechanical properties. Additionally, the size of the ground PE coatings displayed obvious effects on the structures and properties of the composite films, where the CPE100 (sieved with 100-200 mesh) possessed the most homogeneous texture and the highest tensile strength (82 Mpa), higher than that of commercial polyethylene film (9-12 MPa), showing superiority as packaging or wrapping materials. Consequently, the goals to fabricate uniform cellulose/polyethylene composite films and valorize the solid waste from disposable paper cups were simultaneously achieved by a facile and green "one-pot method".

Transparent Cellulose-Based Films Prepared from Used Disposable Paper Cups via an Ionic Liquid.

Paper cups are widely employed in daily life with many advantages, but most of the used paper cups are incinerated or landfilled, due to the great challenge of separating the thin inner polyethylene (PE) coating, causing the waste of energy and the pollution of our environment. Therefore, recycling and converting the used paper cups into high-value materials is meaningful and important. In this work, transparent cellulose-based films were successfully prepared from the used paper cups via 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ionic liquid after simple pretreatment. Additionally, the difference in properties and structures of cellulose-based films regenerated in different coagulation baths (water or ethanol) was also explored. It was found that the cellulose-based film possessed good thermal property and displayed better hydrophobicity than the traditional pure cellulose film. Moreover, they also demonstrated good mechanical property and the tensile strength of cellulose-based film regenerated in water can reach 31.5 Mpa, higher than those of cellulose-based film regenerated in ethanol (25.5 Mpa) and non-degradable polyethylene film (9-12 MPa), indicating their great potential as the packaging materials. Consequently, valorization of the low cost used paper cups and preparation of high-valve cellulose-based films were realized simultaneously by a facile and green process.

Cellulose-Based Films with Ultraviolet Shielding Performance Prepared Directly from Waste Corrugated Pulp.

As the most important paper packaging materials, corrugated cartons with a tremendous amount of production demonstrate several advantages and have been widely used in daily life. However, waste corrugated cartons (WCCs) are usually recycled and reused to produce new corrugated cartons, and their properties are decreased dramatically after several cycles. Therefore, recycling and converting WCCs into cellulose-based film with high value is attractive and significant. Herein, without any pretreatment, the waste old corrugated cartons were directly dissolved in ionic liquid 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, and semitransparent cellulose-based films were successfully fabricated. It was indicated that cellulose-based films displayed better UV-shielding property and hydrophobicity than traditional cellulose films. Interestingly, the cellulose-based films regenerated from deionized water displayed higher tensile strength, elongation at break, and toughness. Their tensile strength could reach 23.16 MPa, exhibiting enormous superiority as wrapping and packaging materials to replace the petrochemical polyethylene membrane (8.95 MPa). Consequently, these renewable, biodegradable, and high-valued cellulose-based films were successfully fabricated to simultaneously realize the valorization of old corrugated cartons and supplement the petrochemical plastics.

Transparent cellulose/aramid nanofibers films with improved mechanical and ultraviolet shielding performance from waste cotton textiles by in-situ fabrication.

Cellulose films with biodegradability and intrinsically antistatic property have many applications. However, conventional cellulose films show poor toughness and UV-shielding property, and the major sources are high-grade cotton linter or wood pulp. Herein, by using low-cost waste cotton textiles as the raw materials, we successfully fabricated transparent cellulose/aramid nanofibers (ANFs) films, in which in-situ retained ANFs had a diameter of 20-30 nm and a length of several micrometers. Because ANFs and cellulose chains formed strong hydrogen bonding interactions, the tensile strength and elongation of the resultant cellulose/ANFs film with 1.0 wt% ANFs could reach 54.4 MPa and 15.8%, respectively, increased by 63.4% and 154% compared to those of pure cellulose film (33.3 MPa and 6.2%). Meanwhile, the cellulose/ANFs films show excellent UV-shielding properties and irradiation stability. Hence, the novel cellulose/ANFs films with improved mechanical and UV-shielding performance were in-situ prepared leading to enhance the valorization of waste cotton textiles.

Ultrasensitive ratiometric detection of Pb2+ using DNA tetrahedron-mediated hyperbranched hybridization chain reaction.

A fluorescent sensing strategy was developed for rapid, highly sensitive and specific detection of lead (II) ion (Pb2+) on the basis of Pb2+ DNAzyme-controlled tetrahedral DNA nanostructure (TDN)-mediated hyper-branched hybridization chain reaction (hHCR). In this strategy, DNA hairpins used for HCR amplification are modified on the four vertexes of TDN, which are then used to perform rapid TDN-hHCR in the presence of an initiator strand, producing large-sized cross-linked reaction products and thus giving greatly improved fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) signal output. Pb2+ DNAzyme catalyzes the cleavage of the initiator strand, inhibiting the initiation of TDN-hHCR and giving decreased FRET signal. Synergetic signal amplification of Pb2+ DNAzyme-catalyzed cleavage reaction and subsequent TDN-hHCR confers the sensing platform with ultrahigh sensitivity. As low as 0.25 pM Pb2+ can be detected by using either signal "turn-on" or "turn-off" mode. The whole detection process can be finished within 20 min. Strong anti-interference capacity of FRET-based ratiometric detection and high specificity of Pb2+ DNAzyme endow the sensing platform with great practical application potential, which was demonstrated by the accurate detection of Pb2+ in real river water, fruit, vegetable and grain samples.

Effect of mechanical combined with electromagnetic stirring on the dispersity of carbon fibers in the aluminum matrix.

In order to improve the uneven distribution of carbon fibers (CFs) in the matrix by traditional single mechanical stirring, mechanical combined with electromagnetic (M-E) stirring was used to prepare short carbon fibers reinforced aluminum matrix (Csf/Al) composites. The 3-D flow field of aluminum melt under mechanical/M-E stirring were calculated and compared. The calculation results show that the complexity of flow field under M-E stirring could be significantly enhanced relative to a single mechanical stirring, especially there was a strong melt flow near the crucible wall due to the skin effect. It was found that except the inertial force under mechanical stirring and the melt collision with the crucible walls, CFs were also subjected to the electromagnetic force and the oscillating flow between the eddy currents, which would promote the dispersity of the short CFs in the composites. The experimental results are consistent with the calculation results. The experimental results show that the distribution of CFs at each position in the composite samples prepared under M-E stirring was stable. The uniform distribution of CFs in the composites would play an important role in improving the overall performance of the Csf/Al composites.

Characteristic of adsorption cadmium of red soil amended with a ferromanganese oxide-biochar composite.

The increasing scarcity of arable land necessitates the development of effective decontamination techniques to re-gain contaminated areas and make them suitable for agricultural and other activities. Herein, we prepare a ferromanganese binary oxide-biochar composite (FMBC) and compare its potential for remediating Cd-contaminated red soil with that of biochar (BC), showing that (i) the obtained adsorption data are well described by the Langmuir model and (ii) Cd adsorption capacity increases with increasing adsorbent dosage. Specifically, the Cd adsorption capacity of FMBC-amended soil (6.72 mg g-1) is demonstrated to significantly exceed that of BC-amended red soil (4.85 mg g-1) and that of the control (2.28 mg g-1) and increases with increasing temperature and pH, while the results of instrumental analyses indicate that Cd sorption on the soil surface occurs via the formation of CdO and Cd(OH)2. Thus, FMBCs are concluded to play an important role in the adsorption of Cd, having the potential to prevent red soil acidification and improve soil quality, and are found to be promising remediation materials for mitigating the risks posed by Cd-contaminated red soil.

Characterization of the dissociation kinetics of Cd and Ni in soils based on diffusive gradients in thin films technique.

A new theoretical method was established for the combinatorial calculation of the dissociation rate constant (K-1) of the metal-organic complexes (MLs), the concentration of free ionic soil metals (CM), the labile concentration of soil metal-organic complexes (CML) based on diffusive gradients in thin-films (DGT) technique with a range of diffusive layer thicknesses (0.053-0.173 mm) in soils. The fitting results agreed well with the determined values. The values of K-1, CML and CM were calculated without other morphological analysis software and the fitting results agreed well with the determined values with some advantages such as the use of fewer hypothetical parameters, ease of calculation, the full embodiment of the contribution of MLs to the labile content. According to the results of model fitting, cation exchange capacity and soil organic matter were found to be the key environmental factors for K-1 values of Cd and Ni, respectively. The labile contents of Cd and Ni in soil were closely related with pH, soil organic matter and the total contents of heavy metals.

A Continuously Regenerable Chiral Ammonia Borane for Asymmetric Transfer Hydrogenations.

A novel chiral ammonia borane was designed and developed through the dehydrogenation of ammonia borane with a chiral phosphoric acid, which was highly effective for the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of imines and ß-enamino esters to afford high levels of reactivities and enantioselectivities. Significantly, this chiral ammonia borane can be continuously regenerated during the transfer hydrogenation with the assistance of water and ammonia borane, which made it possible to obtain satisfactory results using only 0.1 mol % of the chiral phosphoric acid. Notably, the role of chiral phosphoric acid is to produce the chiral ammonia borane.

Adsorption of Cu(II) and Cd(II) from aqueous solutions by ferromanganese binary oxide-biochar composites.

Remediation of heavy metal-contaminated soil and water bodies necessitates the continuous development of effective decontamination techniques. To address this issue, ferromanganese binary oxide-biochar composites (FMBC) were prepared using impregnation/sintering methods, and their physicochemical properties and morphologies were examined. Kinetic modeling and adsorption isotherms were used to characterize the adsorption of Cu(II) and Cd(II) on FMBC, revealing that adsorption was well represented by pseudo-second-order kinetics (R2>0.99) and the Langmuir isotherm model. The prepared FMBC exhibited maximum Cu(II) and Cd(II) adsorption capacities of 64.9 and 101.0mg/g, respectively, exceeding the corresponding values of biochar (21.7 and 28.0mg/g, respectively). Moreover, adsorption was favored by increased pH and high humic acid concentration. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared analyses confirmed that the heavy metal ions adsorbed on FMBC were divalent, indicating that the uptake of Cu(II) and Cd(II) was mainly due to the formation of strong mono- or multidentate inner-sphere complexes (e.g., COO-M (M=Cu or Cd) and Fe-Mn-O-M). Thus, the prepared composites exhibited potential applications as excellent adsorbents for Cu(II) and Cd(II) removal from contaminated water.

Borane-Catalyzed Transfer Hydrogenations of Pyridines with Ammonia Borane.

With the use of ammonia borane as a hydrogen source, a borane catalyzed metal-free transfer hydrogenation of pyridines was successfully realized for the first time to furnish a variety of piperidines in 44-88% yields with moderate to excellent cis-selectivities. The ease in handling without requiring high pressure H2 makes this transfer hydrogenation practical and useful.

[Applications of Geostatistical Analyses and Stochastic Models to Identify Sources of Soil Heavy Metals in Wuqing District, Tianjin,China].

A survey on soil samples was conducted to study the heavy metal pollutions and their potential sources in Wuqing District, Tianjin, China. A total of 578 topsoil samples were collected and the concentrations of eight heavy metals, namely, Cd, Pb, Cu, Zn, Cr, Ni, As (metalloid) and Hg were analyzed. A summary of descriptive statistics, principal component analysis, geostatistical analysis and stochastic forest regression models were applied to study the spatial and temporal variation and identify proportional contribution from either natural or anthropogenic sources for the eight heavy metals in topsoils of the study region. The results indicated that the average concentrations of all the heavy metals except for Cr in the topsoils exceeded their corresponding natural-background values. As, Ni and Cr were mainly contributed by natural sources (i.e., soil parent materials). Cu and Zn originated from both the soil parent materials and sewage irrigation. Pb and Cd originated mainly from non-point source pollution and partially from point source. Hg originated from sewage irrigation. It was proved that combination of multi-technologies provides an effective way to delineate multiple heavy metal pollution sources.

Identification of a microRNA signature in endothelial cells with mechanical stretch stimulation.

The current study aimed to verify an miRNA signature in endothelial cells undergoing mechanical stretch stimulation. In the present study, microarray profiling was conducted in order to identify the differential expression of miRNAs in endothelial cells undergoing mechanical stimulation, compared with unstimulated endothelial cells. The microarray data was then validated by reverse transcription­quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Genes and signaling pathways regulated by the miRNAs were investigated in silico using Gene Ontology and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes or Genomes, which are ontological and network­mapping algorithms. The microarray data collected demonstrated that 38 miRNAs exhibited significant differential expression in endothelial cells with mechanical stretch stimulation. Of these, 20 were upregulated and 18 were downregulated. The results from the in silico analysis indicated that the miRNAs identified were participants in mechanical stretch­induced endothelial dysfunction. During the initial stage of vein graft failure, which is induced by endothelial dysfunction, a unique miRNA signature was identified. The identified miRNAs are suggested to be involved in the pathological processes of traumatic injury.