A polyfunctionalized carbon framework composite for efficient decontamination of Cr(VI) and polycyclic aromatic nitrides from acidic wastewater.

Developing multifunctional engineered adsorbents is an effective strategy for decontaminating the environment from various pollutants. In this study, a polyfunctionalized carbon-framework composite, MSC-CFM, was synthesized. The composite comprises an aromatic carbon framework enriched with various functional groups, including magnetic nanoparticles, hydroxyl, and amino groups. MSC-CFM was used to decontaminate Cr(VI) and polycyclic aromatic nitrides (p-dimethylaminoazobenzene sulfonate (DAS) and diphenyl-4, 4 '-di [sodium (azo-2 -) -1-amino-naphthalene-4-sulfonate] (DANS)) from acidic wastewater. The adsorption capacities of MSC-CFM for Cr(VI), DAS and DANS, quantified using the Langmuir isotherm model, were 161.28, 310.83, and 1566.09 mg/g, respectively. Cr(VI) and PAHs (DAS and DANS) were monolayer adsorbed controlled by chemisorption. MSC-CFM could maintain good adsorption efficiency after up to 6 adsorption and desorption cycles. The presence of polycyclic aromatic nitrides promoted the adsorption of Cr(VI) in the Cr(VI)-DAS/DANS binary systems. Removal of pollutants by MSC-CFM involved a variety of unreported reaction mechanisms, such as electrostatic attraction, redox reaction, anion exchange, intermolecular hydrogen bonding, complexation reaction, π-π interaction, and anion-π interaction. MSC-CFM, enriched with a variety of functional groups, is a promising new material for environmental protection. It has good potential for practical application in treating polluted wastewater.

Efficacy and Safety of Ongericimab in Chinese Patients With Primary Hypercholesterolemia and Mixed Dyslipidemia.

BACKGROUND: A phase 3 trial was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of ongericimab, a monoclonal antibody that inhibits proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9, as an add-on treatment to optimized lipid-lowering therapy in Chinese patients with primary hypercholesterolemia and mixed dyslipidemia. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 806 patients who were receiving stable and optimized lipid-lowering therapy but did not achieve their low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) targets were enrolled and randomly assigned in a 2:1:2:1 ratio to receive either ongericimab 150 mg or matching placebo every 2 weeks, or ongericimab 300 mg or matching placebo every 4 weeks for 52 weeks. Efficacy and safety were evaluated in 802 patients who received at least 1 dose of ongericimab or placebo. The primary end point was the percentage change in LDL-C from baseline to week 24. Our findings demonstrated that the least-squares mean difference of percentage change in LDL-C from baseline to week 24 was -67.7% (95% CI, -72.5% to -63.0%; P<0.0001) in the ongericimab 150 mg every 2 weeks group compared with the placebo every 2 weeks group, and -61.2% (95% CI, -67.1% to -55.2%; P<0.0001) in the ongericimab 300 mg every 4 weeks group compared with the placebo every 4 weeks group. These reductions were sustained up to week 52. Furthermore, treatment with ongericimab favorably altered other lipid parameters. A similar incidence of adverse events was observed in the ongericimab and placebo groups. CONCLUSIONS: Ongericimab, as an add-on treatment to optimized lipid-lowering therapy, significantly reduced LDL-C and was well-tolerated in Chinese patients with primary hyperlipidemia and mixed dyslipidemia who did not achieve their LDL-C targets. REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT04781114.

Bio-sorption capacity of cadmium and zinc by Pseudomonas monteilii with heavy-metal resistance isolated from the compost of pig manure.

The tolerance of Pseudomonas monteilii X1, isolated from pig manure compost, to Cd and Zn, as well as its capacity for biosorption, were investigated. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of Cd and Zn for the strain were 550 mg/L and 800 mg/L, respectively. Untargeted metabolomics analysis revealed that organic acids and derivatives, lipids and lipid-like molecules, and organic heterocyclic compounds were the main metabolites. The glyoxylate and dicarboxylate metabolism pathway were significantly enriched under Cd2+ stress. The isothermal adsorption and adsorption kinetics experiments determined that the strain had adsorption capacities of 9.96 mg/g for Cd2+ and 23.4 mg/g for Zn2+. Active groups, such as hydroxyl, carboxyl, and amino groups on the cell surface, were found to participate in metal adsorption. The strain was able to convert Zn2+ into Zn3(PO4)2·4H2O crystal. Overall, this study suggested that Pseudomonas monteilii has potential as a remediation material for heavy metals.

Flexural Properties and Failure Mechanisms of Short-Carbon-Fiber-Reinforced Polylactic Acid Composite Modified with MXene and GO.

Recently, short-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites (SFRTPCs) have been playing a more and more crucial role in the application of automotive interior materials due to their advantages of low density and environmental resistance properties. However, their relevant mechanical properties need to be optimized. Previous investigations revealed that the surface modification of fibers is useful to improve their mechanical properties. In this work, carbon fiber (CF)-reinforced polylactic acid (PLA) composites modified with MXene and graphene oxide (GO) were prepared by twin-screw extrusion and injection molding methods. Short CF was firstly modified with polyetherimide (PEI), then different weight ratios of MXene-GO (1:1) were subsequently modified on PEI-CF. Finally, the flexural properties and failure mechanisms were analyzed. The results showed that MXene-GO was successfully coated on CF surface, and the flexural strength and modulus of CF-PEI-MXene-GO-reinforced PLA (CF-PEI-MG/PLA) composite were improved compared to that of CF/PLA composite. In addition, the fracture sections of the composites were flat and white, and the fibers bonded well with PLA for CF-PEI-0.1MG/PLA composite compared to CF/PLA composite. The present study could provide a reference for further improving the mechanical performance of PLA-related composites.

The mechanisms, regulations, and functions of histone lysine crotonylation.

Histone lysine crotonylation (Kcr) is a new acylation modification first discovered in 2011, which has important biological significance for gene expression, cell development, and disease treatment. In the past over ten years, numerous signs of progress have been made in the research on the biochemistry of Kcr modification, especially a series of Kcr modification-related "reader", "eraser", and "writer" enzyme systems are identified. The physiological function of crotonylation and its correlation with development, heredity, and spermatogenesis have been paid more and more attention. However, the development of disease is usually associated with abnormal Kcr modification. In this review, we summarized the identification of crotonylation modification, Kcr-related enzyme system, biological functions, and diseases caused by abnormal Kcr. This knowledge supplies a theoretical basis for further exploring the function of crotonylation in the future.

The diagnostic value of GICA used for intraoperative lymph node FNA-Tg measurement to evaluate thyroid cancer metastases.

Objective: It is crucial to diagnose lymph node (LN) metastases (LNM) before or during thyroid carcinoma surgery. Measurement of thyroglobulin (Tg) in the fine needle aspirate washout (FNA-Tg) is useful to assist in the diagnosis of LNM for papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). This study aimed to assess the diagnostic performance of a new technique based on a colloidal gold-based immunochromatographic assay (GICA) for intraoperative FNA-Tg in diagnosing LNM. Clinical trial information: This study is registered with chictr.org.cn, ID: ChiCTR2200063561 (registered 11 September, 2022). Methods: This prospective study enrolled 51 PTC patients who underwent cervical LN dissection. A total of 150 LNs dissected from the central and lateral compartments were evaluated by FNA-Tg-GICA at three different time points and compared with frozen sections and the conventional Tg measurement method electrochemiluminescence immunoassay (ECLIA). Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) and area under the curve (AUC), cutoff value to discriminate benign and malignant LNs, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were provided. Results: The cutoff value of FNA-Tg to predict LNM was 110.83 ng/mL for ECLIA and 13.19 ng/mL, 38.69 ng/mL, and 77.17 ng/mL for GICA at 3, 10, and 15 min, respectively. There was no significant difference between the AUCs of GICA at different time points compared to using ECLIA and frozen sections. Besides, the diagnostic performance of GICA and ECLIA showed no significant difference in evaluating LNM from central and lateral compartments or between the TgAb-positive subgroup and TgAb-negative subgroup. Conclusion: GICA is a promising method for intraoperative FNA-Tg measurement and has high value in predicting LNM. It may be a novel alternative or supplementary method to frozen section or ECLIA.

Enhancing microalgal biomass production in lab-scale raceway ponds through innovative computational fluid dynamics-based electrode deflectors.

The design of novel electrode deflector structures (EDSs) introduced a promising strategy for enhancing raceway ponds performance, increasing carbon fixation, and improving microalgal biomass accumulation. The computational fluid dynamics, based flow field principles, proved that the potency of arc-shaped electrode deflector structures (A-EDS) and spiral electrode deflector structures (S-EDS) were optimal. These configurations yielded superior culture effects, notably reducing dead zones by 9.1% and 11.7%, while elevating biomass increments of 14.7% and 11.5% compared to the control, respectively. In comparison to scenarios without electrostatic field application, the A-EDS group demonstrated pronounced post-stimulation growth, exhibiting an additional biomass increase of 11.2%, coupled with a remarkable 23.6% surge in CO2 fixation rate and mixing time reduction by 14.7%. A-EDS and S-EDS, combined with strategic electric field integration, provided a theoretical basis for promoting microalgal biomass production and enhancing carbon fixation in a raceway pond environment to similar production practices.

2D BA2PbI4 Regulating PbI2 Crystallization to Induce Perovskite Growth for Efficient Solar Cells.

Using seeds to control the crystallization of perovskite film is an effective strategy for achieving high-efficiency perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Owing to their excellent environmental stability brought by their long alkyl chain, n-butylammonium (BA) cations are widely used for fabricating efficient and stable PSCs. However, BA-based 2D perovskite is seldom been investigated as a seed. Here, BA2PbI4 is employed to regulate the crystallization of PbI2, acting as nucleation centers. As a result, porous PbI2 film with high crystallinity is obtained, which allows the realization of perovskite film with preferential crystal orientations of (001) and large grain size of over 2 µm. The corresponding PSC achieves a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 24.30% and exhibits satisfactory stability, retaining 91.70% of the initial PCE after 300 h of thermal aging at 85°C.

Reverse genetic study reveals the molecular targets of chordotonal organ TRPV channel modulators.

Insecticides have been widely used for the control of insect pests that have a significant impact on agriculture and human health. A better understanding of insecticide targets is needed for effective insecticide design and resistance management. Pymetrozine, afidopyropen and flonicamid are reported to target on proteins that located on insect chordotonal organs, resulting in the disruption of insect coordination and the inhibition of feeding. In this study, we systematically examined the susceptibility of six Drosophila melanogaster mutants (five transient receptor potential channels and one mechanoreceptor) to three commercially used insecticides, in order to identify the receptor subunits critical to the insect's response to insecticides. Our results showed that iav1, nan36aand wtrw1 mutants exhibited significantly reduced susceptibility to pymetrozine and afidopyropen, but not to flonicamid. The number of eggs produced by the three mutant females were significantly less than that of the w1118 strain. Meanwhile, the longevity of all male mutants and females of nan36a and wtrw1 mutants was significantly shorter than that of the w1118 strain as the control. However, we observed no gravitaxis defects in wtrw1 mutants and the anti-gravitaxis of wtrw1 mutants was abolished by pymetrozine. Behavioral assays using thermogenetic tools further confirmed the bioassay results and supported the idea that Nan as a TRPV subfamily member located in Drosophila chordotonal neurons, acting as a target of pymetrozine, which interferes with Drosophila and causes motor deficits with gravitaxis defects. Taken together, this study elucidates the interactions of pymetrozine and afidopyropen with TRPV channels, Nan and Iav, and TRPA channel, Wtrw. Our research provides another evidence that pymetrozine and afidopyropen might target on nan, iav and wtrw channels and provides insights into the development of sustainable pest management strategies.

Dual-Interface Engineering in Perovskite Solar Cells with 2D Carbides.

Passivating the interfaces between the perovskite and charge transport layers is crucial for enhancing the power conversion efficiency (PCE) and stability in perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Here we report a dual-interface engineering approach to improving the performance of FA0.85 MA0.15 Pb(I0.95 Br0.05 )3 -based PSCs by incorporating Ti3 C2 Clx Nano-MXene and o-TB-GDY nanographdiyne (NanoGDY) into the electron transport layer (ETL)/perovskite and perovskite/ hole transport layer (HTL) interfaces, respectively. The dual-interface passivation simultaneously suppresses non-radiative recombination and promotes carrier extraction by forming the Pb-Cl chemical bond and strong coordination of π-electron conjugation with undercoordinated Pb defects. The resulting perovskite film has an ultralong carrier lifetime exceeding 10 µs and an enlarged crystal size exceeding 2.5 µm. A maximum PCE of 24.86 % is realized, with an open-circuit voltage of 1.20 V. Unencapsulated cells retain 92 % of their initial efficiency after 1464 hours in ambient air and 80 % after 1002 hours of thermal stability test at 85 °C.

Sunlight filtered via translucent-colored polyvinyl chloride sheets enhanced the light absorption capacity and growth of Arthrospira platensis cultivated in a pilot-scale raceway pond.

In this research, the effects of filtered sunlight traveling through translucent-colored polyvinyl chloride (PVC) sheets on the photoconversion efficiency of Arthrospira platensis are investigated. Filtered sunlight improves the phycobilisome's capacity to completely absorb and transport it to intracellular photosystems. Findings indicated that filtered sunlight via orange-colored PVC sheet increased biomass dry weight by 21% (2.80 g/L), while under blue-colored PVC sheet decreased by 32% (1.49 g/L), when compared with translucent-colored (control) PVC sheet (2.19 g/L) after 120 h of culture. The meteorological conditions during the 1st week of cultivation reported higher light flux than the subsequent weeks. Furthermore, sunlight filtered through orange PVC sheet enhanced protein, allophycocyanin, phycocyanin, chlorophyll-a and carotenoids synthesis by 13%, 15%, 13%, 22%, and 27%, respectively. This practical and inexpensive solar radiation filtration system supports large-scale production of tailored bioactive compounds from microalgae with high growth rate.

Enhanced Dielectric Properties of All-Cellulose Composite Film via Modulating Hydroxymethyl Conformation and Hydrogen Bonding Network.

Cellulose-based dielectrics with attractive dielectric performance are promising candidates to develop eco-friendly electrostatic energy storage devices. Herein, all-cellulose composite films with superior dielectric constant were fabricated by manipulating the dissolution temperature of native cellulose, where we revealed the relationship among the hierarchical microstructure of the crystalline structure, the hydrogen bonding network, the relaxation behavior at a molecular level, and the dielectric performance of the cellulose film. The coexistence of cellulose I and cellulose II led to a weakened hydrogen bonding network and unstable C6 conformations. The increased mobility of cellulose chains in the cellulose I-amorphous interphase enhanced the dielectric relaxation strength of side groups and localized main chains. As a result, the as-prepared all-cellulose composite films exhibited a fascinating dielectric constant of as high as 13.9 at 1000 Hz. This work proposed here provides a significant step toward fundamentally understanding the dielectric relaxation of cellulose, thus developing high-performance and eco-friendly cellulose-based film capacitors.

Circular RNA FEACR inhibits ferroptosis and alleviates myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury by interacting with NAMPT.

BACKGROUND: Emerging research has reported that circular RNAs (circRNAs) play important roles in cardiac cell death after myocardial ischemia and reperfusion (I/R). Ferroptosis, a new form of cell death discovered in recent years, has been proven to participate in the regulation of myocardial I/R. This study used circRNA sequencing to explore the key circRNA in the regulation of cardiac ferroptosis after I/R and study the mechanisms of potential circRNA function. METHODS: We performed circRNA sequencing to explore circRNAs differentially expressed after myocardial I/R. We used quantitative polymerase chain reactions to determine the circRNA expression in different tissues and detect the circRNA subcellular localization in the cardiomyocyte. Gain- and loss-of-function experiments were aimed to examine the function of circRNAs in cardiomyocyte ferroptosis and cardiac tissue damage after myocardial I/R. RNA pull-down was applied to explore proteins interacting with circRNA. RESULTS: Here, we identified a ferroptosis-associated circRNA (FEACR) that has an underlying regulatory role in cardiomyocyte ferroptosis. FEACR overexpression suppressed I/R-induced myocardial infarction and ameliorated cardiac function. FEACR inhibition induces ferroptosis in cardiomyocytes and FEACR overexpression inhibits hypoxia and reoxygenation-induced ferroptosis. Mechanistically, FEACR directly bound to nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) and enhanced the protein stability of NAMPT, which increased NAMPT-dependent Sirtuin1 (Sirt1) expression, which promoted the transcriptional activity of forkhead box protein O1 (FOXO1) by reducing FOXO1 acetylation levels. FOXO1 further upregulated the transcription of ferritin heavy chain 1 (Fth1), a ferroptosis suppressor, which resulted in the inhibition of cardiomyocyte ferroptosis. CONCLUSIONS: Our finding reveals that the circRNA FEACR-mediated NAMPT-Sirt1-FOXO1-FTH1 signaling axis participates in the regulation of cardiomyocyte ferroptosis and protects the heart function against I/R injury. Thus, FEACR and its downstream factors could be novel targets for alleviating ferroptosis-related myocardial injury in ischemic heart diseases.

Acid-Modulated Construction of Cyclopenta[b]indole and Cyclohepta[b]indole via Unprecedented C3/C2 Carbocation Rearrangement.

p-TsOH-catalyzed cycloaddition of various 3-vinylindoles and (indol-2-yl)diphenylmethanols in acetonitrile gave the functionalized cyclopenta[b]indoles in good yields and with high diastereoselectivity via [3 + 2] cycloaddition reaction. More importantly, FeCl3-catalyzed annulation reaction afforded unexpected functionalized cyclohepta[1,2-b:4,5-b']diindoles in satisfactory yields, in which a formal [4 + 3] cycloaddition and an unprecedented C3/C2 carbocation rearrangement were first confirmed by the determination of single-crystal structure.

Hybrid Metasurfaces for Perfect Transmission and Customized Manipulation of Sound Across Water-Air Interface.

Extreme impedance mismatch causes sound insulation at water-air interfaces, limiting numerous cross-media applications such as ocean-air wireless acoustic communication. Although quarter-wave impedance transformers can improve transmission, they are not readily available for acoustics and are restricted by the fixed phase shift at full transmission. Here, this limitation is broken through impedance-matched hybrid metasurfaces assisted by topology optimization. Sound transmission enhancement and phase modulation across the water-air interface are achieved independently. Compared to the bare water-air interface, it is experimentally observed that the average transmitted amplitude through an impedance-matched metasurface at the peak frequency is enhanced by ≈25.9 dB, close to the limit of the perfect transmission 30 dB. And nearly 42 dB amplitude enhancement is measured by the hybrid metasurfaces with axial focusing function. Various customized vortex beams are experimentally realized to promote applications in ocean-air communication. The physical mechanisms of sound transmission enhancement for broadband and wide-angle incidences are revealed. The proposed concept has potential applications in efficient transmission and free communication across dissimilar media.

Antialcohol and Hepatoprotective Effects of Tamarind Shell Extract on Ethanol-Induced Damage to HepG2 Cells and Animal Models.

Alcohol liver disease (ALD) is one of the leading outcomes of acute and chronic liver injury. Accumulative evidence has confirmed that oxidative stress is involved in the development of ALD. In this study, we used chick embryos to establish ALD model to study the hepatoprotective effects of tamarind shell exttract (TSE). Chick embryos received 25% ethanol (75 µL) and TSE (250, 500, 750 µg/egg/75 µL) from embryonic development day (EDD) 5.5. Both ethanol and TSE were administrated every two days until EDD15. Ethanol-exposed zebrafish and HepG2 cell model were also employed. The results suggested that TSE effectively reversed the pathological changes, liver dysfunction and ethanol-metabolic enzyme disorder in ethanol-treated chick embryo liver, zebrafish and HepG2 cells. TSE suppressed the excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) in zebrafish and HepG2 cells, as well as rebuilt the irrupted mitochondrial membrane potential. Meanwhile, the declined antioxidative activity of glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and superoxide dismutase (SOD), together with the content of total glutathione (T-GSH) were recovered by TSE. Moreover, TSE upregulated nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NRF2) and heme oxyense-1 (HO-1) expression in protein and mRNA level. All the phenomena suggested that TSE attenuated ALD through activating NRF2 to repress the oxidative stress induced by ethanol.

Numerical simulation of vortex flow field generated in a novel nested-bottled photobioreactor to improve Arthrospira platensis growth.

In this study, computational fluid dynamics were employed to examined clockwise and anticlockwise vortexes in the rising and down coming sections of novel nested-bottle photobioreactor. The radial velocity was increased by four times which significantly reduced dead zones compared to traditional PBR. The (NB-PBR) comprised of integrated bottles connected by curved tubes (d = 4 cm) that generated dominant vortices as the microalgae solution flows through each section (h = 10 cm). The (NB-PBR) was independent of the inner and outer sections which increased the mixing time and mass-transfer coefficient by 13.33 % and 42.9 %, respectively. Furthermore, the results indicated that the (NB-PBR) showed higher photosynthesis efficiency preventing self-shading and photo-inhibition, resulting in an increase in biomass yield and carbon dioxide fixation by 35 % and 35.9 %, respectively.

Knockout of the odorant receptor co-receptor, orco, impairs feeding, mating and egg-laying behavior in the fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda.

The olfactory transduction system of insects is involved in multiple behavioral processes such as foraging, mating, and egg-laying behavior. In the insect olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs), the odorant receptor co-receptor (Orco) is an obligatory component that is required for dimerization with odorant receptors (ORs) to form a ligand-gated ion channel complex. The ORs/Orco heteromeric complex plays a crucial role in insect olfaction. To explore the function of OR-mediated olfaction in the physiological behavior of the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda, we applied CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing to mutate its Orco gene and constructed a homozygous mutant strain of Orco (Orco-/-) by genetic crosses. Electroantennogram (EAG) analysis showed that the responses of Orco-/- male moths to two universal sex pheromones, Z9-14: Ac and Z7-12: Ac, were abolished. We found that Orco-/- males cannot successfully mate with female moths. An oviposition preference assay confirmed that Orco-/- female moths had a reduced preference for the optimal host plant maize. A larval feeding assay revealed that the time for Orco-/- larvae to locate the food source was significantly longer than in the wild-type. Overall, in the absence of Orco, the OR-dependent olfactory behavior was impaired in both larval and adult stages. Our results confirm that Orco is essential for multiple behavioral processes related to olfaction in the fall armyworm.

Machine learning for identifying benign and malignant of thyroid tumors: A retrospective study of 2,423 patients.

Thyroid tumors, one of the common tumors in the endocrine system, while the discrimination between benign and malignant thyroid tumors remains insufficient. The aim of this study is to construct a diagnostic model of benign and malignant thyroid tumors, in order to provide an emerging auxiliary diagnostic method for patients with thyroid tumors. The patients were selected from the Chongqing General Hospital (Chongqing, China) from July 2020 to September 2021. And peripheral blood, BRAFV600E gene, and demographic indicators were selected, including sex, age, BRAFV600E gene, lymphocyte count (Lymph#), neutrophil count (Neu#), neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR), red blood cell distribution width (RDW), platelets count (PLT), red blood cell distribution width-coefficient of variation (RDW-CV), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and parathyroid hormone (PTH). First, feature selection was executed by univariate analysis combined with least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) analysis. Afterward, we used machine learning algorithms to establish three types of models. The first model contains all predictors, the second model contains indicators after feature selection, and the third model contains patient peripheral blood indicators. The four machine learning algorithms include extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), random forest (RF), light gradient boosting machine (LightGBM), and adaptive boosting (AdaBoost) which were used to build predictive models. A grid search algorithm was used to find the optimal parameters of the machine learning algorithms. A series of indicators, such as the area under the curve (AUC), were intended to determine the model performance. A total of 2,042 patients met the criteria and were enrolled in this study, and 12 variables were included. Sex, age, Lymph#, PLR, RDW, and BRAFV600E were identified as statistically significant indicators by univariate and LASSO analysis. Among the model we constructed, RF, XGBoost, LightGBM and AdaBoost with the AUC of 0.874 (95% CI, 0.841-0.906), 0.868 (95% CI, 0.834-0.901), 0.861 (95% CI, 0.826-0.895), and 0.837 (95% CI, 0.802-0.873) in the first model. With the AUC of 0.853 (95% CI, 0.818-0.888), 0.853 (95% CI, 0.818-0.889), 0.837 (95% CI, 0.800-0.873), and 0.832 (95% CI, 0.797-0.867) in the second model. With the AUC of 0.698 (95% CI, 0.651-0.745), 0.688 (95% CI, 0.639-0.736), 0.693 (95% CI, 0.645-0.741), and 0.666 (95% CI, 0.618-0.714) in the third model. Compared with the existing models, our study proposes a model incorporating novel biomarkers which could be a powerful and promising tool for predicting benign and malignant thyroid tumors.

Tripeptide Leu-Pro-Phe from Corn Protein Hydrolysates Attenuates Hyperglycemia-Induced Neural Tube Defect in Chicken Embryos.

Neural tube defect (NTD) is the most common and severe embryopathy causing embryonic malformation and even death associated with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Leu-Pro-Phe (LPF) is an antioxidative tripeptide isolated from hydrolysates of corn protein. However, the biological activity of LPF in vivo and in vitro remains unclear. This study is aimed at investigating the protective effects of tripeptide LPF against NTD in the high glucose exposure condition and delineate the underlying biological mechanism. We found that LPF alleviated NTD in the high glucose-exposed chicken embryo model. In addition, DF-1 chicken embryo fibroblast was loaded with high glucose for induction of oxidative stress and abnormal O-GlcNAcylation in vitro. LPF significantly decreased accumulation of reactive oxygen species and content of malondialdehyde in DF-1 cells but increased the ratio of reduced glutathione and oxidized glutathione in chick embryo. Oxygen radical absorbance capacity results showed that LPF itself had good free radical scavenging capacity and could enhance antioxidant activity of the cell content. Mechanistic studies suggested that the resistance of LPF to oxidative damage may be related to promotion of NRF2 expression and nuclear translocation. LPF alleviated the overall O-GlcNAcylation level of cellular proteins under high glucose conditions and restored the level of Pax3 protein. Collectively, our findings indicate that LPF peptide could act as a nutritional supplement for the protection of development of embryonic neural tube affected by GDM.