Interface-Engineered NiFe/Ni-S Nanoparticles for Reliable Alkaline Oxygen Production at Industrial Current: A Sulfur Source Confinement Strategy.

Using powder-based ink appears to be the most suitable candidate for commercializing the membrane electrode assembly (MEA), while research on the powder-based NPM catalyst for anion exchange membrane water electrolyzer (AEMWE) is currently insufficient, especially at high current density. Herein, a sulfur source (NiFe Layered double hydroxide adsorbed SO 4 2 - ${\mathrm{SO}}_4^{2 - }$ ) confinement strategy is developed to integrate Ni3S2 onto the surface of amorphous/crystalline NiFe alloy nanoparticles (denoted NiFe/Ni-S), achieving advanced control over the sulfidation process for the formation of metal sulfides. The constructed interface under the sulfur source confinement strategy generates abundant active sites that increase electron transport at the electrode-electrolyte interface and improve ability over an extended period at a high current density. Consequently, the constructed NiFe/Ni-S delivers an ultra-low overpotential of 239 mV at 10 mA cm-2 and 0.66 mA cm ECSA - 2 ${\mathrm{cm}}_{{\mathrm{ECSA}}}^{ - 2}$ under an overpotential of 300 mV. The AEMWE with NiFe/Ni-S anode exhibits a cell voltage of 1.664 V @ 0.5 A cm-2 and a 400 h stability at 1.0 A cm-2.

Effects of Separation and Purification Methods on Antioxidation, Hypoglycemic and DNA Protection Activity of Fenugreek Polysaccharide.

Six low molecular weight fenugreek polysaccharides (FP) were isolated and purified by ethanol stepwise precipitation (EFP-20, EFP-40, and EFP-60) and DEAE-52 cellulose column method (DFP-0, DFP-0.15, and DFP-0.3), respectively. The effects of different separation and purification techniques on the preliminary properties and biological activities of fenugreek polysaccharides were compared. The results showed that the DEAE-52 cellulose-eluted fractions had a higher total sugar content and displayed a looser structure. The molecular weights of all six fractions were in the range of 4-19 kDa, with significant changes in the ratio of galactose to mannose. All six fractions contained α-D-galactopyranose and ß-D-mannopyranose structures. Activity tests showed that all six fractions possessed antioxidant, hypoglycemic and DNA-protective activities. Among them, the DFP-0 fraction showed the highest activity. Overall, different isolation and purification methods lead to changes in the properties and bioactivities of FP, which provides a theoretical basis for the development and application of FP in functional foods and drugs.

Defect-Engineered ZIF-Derived Non-Pt Cathode Catalyst at 1.5 mg cm-2 Loading for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells.

Due to the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) by non-Pt based catalyst, high loading of catalyst is required to achieve satisfactory fuel cell performance, which inevitably leads to the increase of the catalyst layer thickness with serious mass transport resistance. Herein, a defective zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) derived Co/Fe-N-C catalyst with small mesopores (2-4 nm) and high density of CoFe atomic active sites are prepared by regulating the Fe dosage and pyrolysis temperature. Molecular dynamics simulation and electrochemical tests indicate that > 2 nm mesopores show insignificant influence on the diffusion process of O2 and H2 O molecules, leading to the high utilization of active sites and low mass transport resistance. The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) shows a high-power density of 755 mW cm-2 with only 1.5 mg cm-2 of non-Pt catalyst in the cathode. No apparent performance loss caused by concentration difference can be observed, in particular in the high current density region (1 A cm-2 ). This work emphasizes the importance of small mesopore design in the Co/Fe-N-C catalyst, which is anticipated to provide essential guidance for the application of non-Pt catalysts.

Co-linear common-path shearography with a zero-approaching shear amount and separate control of the spatial carrier for single-shot phase measurement.

A co-linear common-path shearography is proposed with spatial phase shift for single-shot phase measurement. The co-linear common-path configuration brings an enhanced robustness and stability of the measuring system, because the two laterally sheared interfering object waves propagate essentially along the same path, which cancels out the disturbance and noise in surroundings. Two functional features, which break through the limitations in conventional co-linear common-path shearography, are proposed and implemented, namely the zero-approaching shear amount and the separate control of the spatial carrier. Seldom shearography configured by co-linear common-path structure possesses with these two features, because the linearly aligned optics restricts the control parameters in regards to the shear amount and the spatial carrier. In the proposed scheme, an intermediate real image plane is created in the linearly aligned light path to address the issue of zero-approaching shear amount. A 4-f imaging system is embedded with an aperture in between to implement a separate control of the spatial carrier. The zero-approaching shear amount provides the sufficiently small shear to make sure the strain or slope field of complex deformation is resolvable. Meanwhile, the separate control of the spatial carrier further guarantees a well-distributed spatial frequency spectrum when the required zero-approaching shear amount is configured.

Theoretical prediction of emerging high-performance trifunctional ORR/OER/HER single-atom catalysts: transition metals anchored into π-π conjugated graphitic carbon nitride (g-C10N3).

The design of high-performance trifunctional oxygen reduction/oxygen evolution/hydrogen evolution reactions (ORR/OER/HER) electrocatalysts has become the current research focus. In this work, we report a series of single-atom catalysts formed by nine kinds of transition metal (Fe, Co, Ni, Ru, Rh, Pd, Os, Ir, and Pt) anchored in g-C10N3 (namely TM@g-C10N3) as promising trifunctional electrocatalysts to replace precious metal catalysts by density functional theory methods. All TM@g-C10N3 have good thermodynamic and electrochemical stability. Especially, Rh@g-C10N3 and Ir@g-C10N3 exhibit extremely low ORR/OER overpotentials with the values of 0.26/0.28 V and 0.34/0.41 V, respectively. Besides, their hydrogen adsorption free energy values are close to Pt(111), with their values being 0.16 and -0.16 eV, respectively. The calculated results indicate that Rh@g-C10N3 and Ir@g-C10N3 can become trifunctional electrocatalysts with great probability. Through the analysis of the dynamic mechanism for Rh@g-C10N3, it can be concluded that the four-electron ORR pathway is more conducive to occurring on Rh@g-C10N3 because the energy barrier forming this pathway is lower. Besides, the step of *OH + H+ + e- → * + H2O has the highest energy barrier in dynamics, which is consistent with this step being a potential determining step in thermodynamics. Ultimately, the solvation effect considered has little effect on the catalytic performance of screened Rh@g-C10N3 and Ir@g-C10N3, and even at a high temperature of 500 K, the structures of these two catalysts have no significant distortion after 2 ps simulations. Our calculations will provide clear guidance for future experimental synthesis and design of such catalysts.

The associations between three genome-wide risk variants for serum C-peptide of T1D and autoantibody-positive T1D risk, and clinical characteristics in Chinese population.

AIMS: Recent meta-genome-wide association studies identified several genetic variants associated with beta-cell function in type 1 diabetes (T1D). The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between these variants and T1D risk, C-peptide levels, islet-specific autoantibodies, and lipid levels in Chinese Han population. METHODS: A total of 1005 unrelated autoantibody-positive T1D cases and 1417 healthy controls were included, which were genotyped for rs559047, rs9260151, and rs3135002. T1D individuals were measured for both C-peptide and lipid levels. Logistic regression models were used to examine these associations. RESULTS: We found that rs3135002 A allele showed a genome-wide significant association with T1D risk (OR = 0.22, 95% CI = 0.17-0.30; P = 7.49 × 10-27), and significant heterogeneity of effect size was observed between early-onset and later-onset T1D subgroups (I2 = 80% and P = 0.026). Rs559047 had a nominal association with fasting C-peptide levels in newly diagnosed T1D individuals (P = 0.036). Moreover, rs3135002 A allele was significantly associated with GADA positivity (OR = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.30-0.91, P = 0.02). In addition, nominal correlations were observed with HDL levels for rs559047 (P = 0.042), while LDL levels for rs9260151 (P = 0.032) in T1D individuals. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that there are both similarities and differences for the associations of genetic variants among T1D development, progression, and related autoimmunity, metabolic traits.

Constructing highly efficient bifunctional catalysts for oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution by modifying MXene with transition metal.

Exploring highly active electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) has become a growing interest in recent years. Herein, an efficient pathway for designing MXene-based ORR/OER catalysts is proposed. It involves introducing non-noble metals into Vo (vacancy site), H1 and H2 (the hollow sites on top of C and the metal atom, respectively) sites on M2CO2 surfaces, named TM-VO/H1/H2-M2CO2 (TM = Fe, Co, Ni, M = V, Nb, Ta). Among these recombination catalysts, Co-H1-V2CO2 and Ni-H1-V2CO2 exhibit the most promising ORR catalytic activities, with low overpotential values of 0.35 and 0.37 V, respectively. Similarly, Fe-H1-V2CO2, Co-VO-Nb2CO2, and Ni-H2-Nb2CO2 possess low OER overpotential values of 0.29, 0.39, and 0.44 V, respectively, suggesting they have enormous potential as effective catalysts for OER. Notably, Co-H2-Ta2CO2 possesses the lowest potential gap value of 0.53 V, demonstrating it has an extraordinary bifunctional catalytic activity. The excellent catalytic performance of these recombination catalysts can be elucidated through an electronic structure analysis, which primarily relies on the electron-donating capacity and synergistic effects between transition metals and sub-metals. These results provide theoretical guidance for designing new ORR and OER catalysts using 2D MXene materials.

Predictive Analysis of Linoleic Acid in Red Meat Employing Advanced Ensemble Models of Bayesian and CNN-Bi-LSTM Decision Layer Fusion Based Hyperspectral Imaging.

Rapid non-destructive testing technologies are effectively used to analyze and evaluate the linoleic acid content while processing fresh meat products. In current study, hyperspectral imaging (HSI) technology was combined with deep learning optimization algorithm to model and analyze the linoleic acid content in 252 mixed red meat samples. A comparative study was conducted by experimenting mixed sample data preprocessing methods and feature wavelength extraction methods depending on the distribution of linoleic acid content. Initially, convolutional neural network Bi-directional long short-term memory (CNN-Bi-LSTM) model was constructed to reduce the loss of the fully connected layer extracted feature information and optimize the prediction effect. In addition, the prediction process of overfitting phenomenon in the CNN-Bi-LSTM model was also targeted. The Bayesian-CNN-Bi-LSTM (Bayes-CNN-Bi-LSTM) model was proposed to improve the linoleic acid prediction in red meat through iterative optimization of Gaussian process acceleration function. Results showed that best preprocessing effect was achieved by using the detrending algorithm, while 11 feature wavelengths extracted by variable combination population analysis (VCPA) method effectively contained characteristic group information of linoleic acid. The Bi-directional LSTM (Bi-LSTM) model combined with the feature extraction data set of VCPA method predicted 0.860 Rp2 value of linoleic acid content in red meat. The CNN-Bi-LSTM model achieved an Rp2 of 0.889, and the optimized Bayes-CNN-Bi-LSTM model was constructed to achieve the best prediction with an Rp2 of 0.909. This study provided a reference for the rapid synchronous detection of mixed sample indicators, and a theoretical basis for the development of hyperspectral on-line detection equipment.

Characterizing and decoding the key odor-active compounds in fresh, pasteurized, and high pressure processing sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.) juice.

The non-thermal and thermal effects on aroma of sea buckthorn juice have rarely been investigated. In this study, 57 odor compounds were identified in fresh sea buckthorn juice (FSBJ), high pressure processing sea buckthorn juice (HSBJ), and pasteurized sea buckthorn juice (PSBJ), including 29 esters, 8 aldehydes, 1 ketone, 5 alcohols, 5 acids, 6 terpenoids, and 3 others. Ethyl 2-methylbutanoate, ethyl 3-methylbutanoate, ethyl hexanoate, and ethyl 2-hydroxy-3-methylbutanoate with flavor dilution factors ranging from 729 to 59,049 contributed to the fruity odors of FSBJ and HSBJ. Besides, the formation of off-odor compounds including hexanal, nonanal, furfural, 3-methylbutanoic acid, and dimethyl disulfide with odor activity values ≥ 1, imparts fatty, roasted, sweaty, and cooked odor in PSBJ. The variations of vitamin C and reducing sugar are significantly associated with changes in odor-active compounds during pasteurized processing. These findings provide new insights that high pressure processing minimizes the adverse effects of pasteurization.

Epidemiological investigation and pathogenicity analysis of waterfowl astroviruses in some areas of China.

Waterfowl astroviruses are mainly duck astroviruses and goose astroviruses, of which duck astroviruses (DAstV-3, -4), goose astroviruses (GoAstV-1, -2) are the four new waterfowl 21 astroviruses in recent years, which can lead to enteritis, viral hepatitis, gout and reduce the growth performance of waterfowl, affecting the healthy development of the waterfowl farming industry. Since no targeted drugs or vaccines on the market, studies on the epidemiology of the virus are necessary for vaccine development. In this study, we collected 1546 waterfowl samples from 13 provinces in China for epidemiological investigation. The results showed that 260 samples (16.8%) were positive. Four species of astrovirus were detected in 13 provinces except Fujian province. Among the four sites tested, the highest positive rates were found in farms and slaughterhouses. Cross-host and mixed infection were observed in four species of waterfowl astroviruses. The whole genome of 17 isolates was sequenced and compared with published sequences. Genetic evolution and homology analysis showed that the isolated strains had high similarity to their reference sequences. To assess the pathogenicity of GoAstV, 7-day-old goslings were inoculated with GoAstV-1 and GoAstV-2 by the intramuscular route, and infected geese showed similar clinical signs, such as anorexia, depression, and weight loss. Organ damage was seen after infection, with histopathological changes in the heart, liver, spleen, kidney, and intestine, and higher viral loads in throat and anal swabs. These findings increase our understanding of the pathogenicity of GoAstV-1 and GoAstV-2 in goslings and provide more references for future research.

Physical and oxidative stability of flaxseed oil-in-water emulsions prepared by natural lignin-carbohydrate complex.

Flaxseed oil, rich in α-linolenic acid, plays a crucial role in various physiological processes. However, its stability presents certain challenges. In this study, the natural lignin-carbohydrate complex (LCC) was used to prepare the physical and oxidative stability of flaxseed oil-in-water emulsions. The LCC was characterized by HPLC, GPC, and FT-IR. The stability of emulsions was evaluated by viscosity, modulus, and micro-morphology changes. Then, the oxidation products were monitored by UV-vis spectrophotometer and HPLC. The results revealed that the high internal phase emulsion (HIPE) was successfully prepared with 2.5 wt% LCC at an oil/water ratio of 75/25 (v/v). Small droplet size (13.361 µm) and high viscosity (36,500 mPa·s) were found even after 30-day storage. Steric interactions of the LCC play a crucial role in ensuring stability, intricately linked to the interfacial properties of the emulsion. Meanwhile, the oxidative stability of α-linolenic acid in the encapsulated flaxseed oil was significantly higher than that in the bulk flaxseed oil. The results revealed that the LCC as a suitable emulsifier opens a new window for the storage of functional lipids rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Improvement of antibacterial activity of polysaccharides via chemical modification: A review.

Antibiotic residue and bacterial resistance induced by antibiotic abuse have seriously threatened food safety and human healthiness. Thus, the development and application of safe, high-efficiency, and environmentally friendly antibiotic alternatives are urgently necessary. Apart from antitumor, antivirus, anti-inflammatory, gut microbiota regulation, immunity improvement, and growth promotion activities, polysaccharides also have antibacterial activity, but such activity is relatively low, which cannot satisfy the requirements of food preservation, clinical sterilization, livestock feeding, and agricultural cultivation. Chemical modification not only provides polysaccharides with better antibacterial activity, but also promotes easy operation and large-scale production. Herein, the enhancement of the antibacterial activity of polysaccharides via acetylation, sulfation, phosphorylation, carboxymethylation, selenation, amination, acid graft, and other chemical modifications is reviewed. Meanwhile, a new trend on the application of loading chemically modified polysaccharides into nanostructures is discussed. Furthermore, possible limitations and future recommendations for the development and application of chemically modified polysaccharides with better antibacterial activity are suggested.

Sulfidation of CoCuOx Supported on Nickel Foam to Form a Heterostructure and Oxygen Vacancies for a High-Performance Anion-Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyzer.

Anion-exchange membrane water electrolyzer (AEMWE) is attracting attention for hydrogen production owing to its ability to employ nonprecious metal catalysts and high energy conversion efficiency. Spinel-structured transition metal oxides exhibit excellent potential in oxygen evolution reaction (OERs). Nevertheless, the research on highly active and durable spinel-structured electrodes for the anodic OER of AEMWE is deficient. Herein, a self-supported S-CoCu oxide/nickel foam (S-CoCuOx/NF) anode was synthesized through a two-step method (electrodeposition and sulfidation). The formation of abundant oxygen vacancies and heterostructure collaboratively enhances the electron and mass transfer, resulting in an overpotential of 313 mV at 100 mA cm-2 for OER. For the lab-scale AEMWE system with the S-CoCuOx/NF anode, a current density of 1 A cm-2 was obtained at 1.87 V (cell voltage) with high durability for 110 h (1 A cm-2) at 60 °C. The results will provide insights into developing the spinel structure-derived anode for high-performance AEMWE.

Rapid detection of H5 subtype avian influenza virus using CRISPR Cas13a based-lateral flow dipstick.

Due to its high mortality rate, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), a notifiable animal illness designated by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), has caused enormous financial losses to the poultry sector. The H5 subtype of avian influenza virus (H5-AIV) is regarded as the most common highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) that threatens public health and safety. Virus isolation and reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) are usually used to detect H5-AIV and are important for the timely diagnosis and control of H5-AIV. However, these methods are time-consuming and require a significant amount of effort. In this study, we established a recombinase-aided amplification (RAA) combined with CRISPR-Cas13a and lateral flow dipstick (LFD) assay for the detection of H5-AIV. The results showed that the process can be completed within 40 min at 37°C. The method had a detection limit of 0.1 copy/µL, which was comparable to the RT-qPCR. There was no cross-reactivity with H3-AIV, H7-AIV, H9-AIV, H10-AIV, IBV, NDV, RVA and DAstV. The kappa value of RT-RAA-Cas13a-LFD and RT-qPCR in 380 clinical samples was 0.89 (κ>0.75). In conclusion, we established a convenient, efficient and accurate method to detect H5-AIV, and the results can be visualized and interpreted using LFD, which can be adapted to the needs of grassroots laboratories and field-deployable assays. This approach provides a new perspective for clinical H5-AIV diagnosis and has great potential for application in clinical quarantine of the poultry farming.

IMAGE COMPRESSION BASED ON IMPORTANCE USING OPTIMAL MASS TRANSPORTATION MAP.

Demand for efficient image transmission and storage is increasing rapidly because of the continuing growth of multimedia technology and VR and AR applications. In this paper, we proposed an image compression method based on the recognition of importance of regions in images. As not all the information in an image is equally useful, we can identify important regions in an image for high fidelity compression and accept a comparatively more lossy compression about less important regions of the image. First, we segment images to two parts, namely, foreground and background, where the foreground represents the more important component and the background is of less importance. Second, we apply optimal mass transportation mapping in a GAN (generative adversarial network) framework to both the foreground and background to magnify the foreground and shrink the background while keeping the shape and total image area unchanged. As a result, in the processed image, the ratio of foreground to background is larger than the corrresponding ratio in the original image. This ratio is controllable in our process, giving users the ability to control the degree of compression. The GAN-processed image is then used for compression. To restore the image, we apply a GAN model to the compressed image and recover the ratio of foreground and background using an optimal mass transportation map. Test results show that our method is highly effective in reconstructing detail of important components in compressed images while achieving a high compression ratio.

Changes in Soil Physico-Chemical and Microbiological Properties During Natural Succession: A Case Study in Lower Subtropical China.

Vegetation succession can change the function and quality of the soil. Exploring the changes in soil properties during secondary forest restoration is of great significance to promote forest restoration and improve the ecological service function of subtropical ecosystems in South China. In this study, we chose three typical forests in subtropical China as restoration sequences, broadleaf-conifer mixed forest (EF), broad-leaved forest (MF), and old-growth forest (LF), to study the changes in soil physico-chemical and biological properties and the changes of soil comprehensive quality during the secondary succession of subtropical forest. The results showed that the soil physical structure was optimized with the progress of forest succession. The soil bulk density decreased gradually with the progress of forest restoration, which was significantly affected by soil organic carbon (p < 0.01). In LF, the soil moisture increased significantly (p < 0.05), and its value can reach 47.85 ± 1.93%, which is consistent with the change of soil porosity. With the recovery process, soil nutrients gradually accumulated. Except for total phosphorus (TP), there was obvious surface enrichment of soil nutrients. Soil organic carbon (15.43 ± 2.28 g/kg), total nitrogen (1.08 ± 0.12 g/kg), and total phosphorus (0.43 ± 0.03 g/kg) in LF were significantly higher than those in EF (p < 0.05). The soil available nutrients, that is, soil available phosphorus and available potassium decreased significantly in LF (p < 0.05). In LF, more canopy interception weakened the P limitation caused by atmospheric acid deposition, so that the soil C:P (37.68 ± 4.76) and N:P (2.49 ± 0.24) in LF were significantly lower than those in EF (p < 0.05). Affected by TP and moisture, microbial biomass C and microbial biomass N increased significantly in LF, and the mean values were 830.34 ± 30.34 mg/kg and 46.60 ± 2.27 mg/kg, respectively. Further analysis showed that total soil porosity (TSP) and TP (weighted value of 0.61) contributed the most to the final soil quality index (SQI). With the forest restoration, the SQI gradually increased, especially in LF the value of SQI was up to 0.84, which was significantly higher than that in EF and MF (p < 0.05). This result is of great significance to understanding the process of restoration of subtropical forests and improving the management scheme of subtropical secondary forests.

Ultra-dense dislocations stabilized in high entropy oxide ceramics.

Dislocations are commonly present and important in metals but their effects have not been fully recognized in oxide ceramics. The large strain energy raised by the rigid ionic/covalent bonding in oxide ceramics leads to dislocations with low density (∼106 mm-2), thermodynamic instability and spatial inhomogeneity. In this paper, we report ultrahigh density (∼109 mm-2) of edge dislocations that are uniformly distributed in oxide ceramics with large compositional complexity. We demonstrate the dislocations are progressively and thermodynamically stabilized with increasing complexity of the composition, in which the entropy gain can compensate the strain energy of dislocations. We also find cracks are deflected and bridged with ∼70% enhancement of fracture toughness in the pyrochlore ceramics with multiple valence cations, due to the interaction with enlarged strain field around the immobile dislocations. This research provides a controllable approach to establish ultra-dense dislocations in oxide ceramics, which may open up another dimension to tune their properties.

Prediction Intervals for Synthetic Control Methods.

Uncertainty quantification is a fundamental problem in the analysis and interpretation of synthetic control (SC) methods. We develop conditional prediction intervals in the SC framework, and provide conditions under which these intervals offer finite-sample probability guarantees. Our method allows for covariate adjustment and non-stationary data. The construction begins by noting that the statistical uncertainty of the SC prediction is governed by two distinct sources of randomness: one coming from the construction of the (likely misspecified) SC weights in the pre-treatment period, and the other coming from the unobservable stochastic error in the post-treatment period when the treatment effect is analyzed. Accordingly, our proposed prediction intervals are constructed taking into account both sources of randomness. For implementation, we propose a simulation-based approach along with finite-sample-based probability bound arguments, naturally leading to principled sensitivity analysis methods. We illustrate the numerical performance of our methods using empirical applications and a small simulation study. Python, R and Stata software packages implementing our methodology are available.

Genetic Expression Screening of Arsenic Trioxide-Induced Cytotoxicity in KG-1a Cells Based on Bioinformatics Technology.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a malignant tumor of the hematopoietic system, and leukemia stem cells are responsible for AML chemoresistance and relapse. KG-1a cell is considered a leukemia stem cell-enriched cell line, which is resistant to chemotherapy. Arsenic trioxide (ATO) is effective against acute promyelocytic leukemia as a first-line treatment agent, even as remission induction of relapsed cases. ATO has a cytotoxic effect on KG-1a cells, but the mechanism remains unclear. Our results demonstrated that ATO can inhibit cell proliferation, induce apoptosis, and arrest KG-1a cells in the G2/M phase. Using transcriptome analysis, we investigated the candidate target genes regulated by ATO in KG-1a cells. The expression profile analysis showed that the ATO had significantly changed gene expression related to proliferation, apoptosis, and cell cycle. Moreover, MYC, PCNA, and MCM7 were identified as crucial hub genes through protein-protein interaction network analysis; meanwhile, the expressions of them in both RNA and protein levels are down-regulated as confirmed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction and Western blot. Thus, our study suggests that ATO not only inhibits the expression of MYC, PCNA, and MCM7 but also leads to cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in KG-1a cells. Overall, this study provided reliable clues for improving the ATO efficacy in AML.

Differences in Maturation Status and Immune Phenotypes of Circulating Helios+ and Helios- Tregs and Their Disrupted Correlations With Monocyte Subsets in Autoantibody-Positive T1D Individuals.

CD4 Tregs are involved in the regulation of various autoimmune diseases but believed to be highly heterogeneous. Studies have indicated that Helios controls a distinct subset of functional Tregs. However, the immunological changes in circulating Helios+ and Helios- Tregs are not fully explored in type 1 diabetes (T1D). Here, we elucidated the differences in maturation status and immune regulatory phenotypes of Helios+ and Helios- Tregs and their correlations with monocyte subsets in T1D individuals. As CD25-/low FOXP3+ Tregs also represent a subset of functional Tregs, we defined Tregs as FOXP3+CD127-/low and examined circulating Helios+ and Helios- Treg subpopulations in 68 autoantibody-positive T1D individuals and 68 age-matched healthy controls. We found that expression of both FOXP3 and CTLA4 diminished in Helios- Tregs, while the proportion of CD25-/low Tregs increased in Helios+ Tregs of T1D individuals. Although the frequencies of neither Helios+ nor Helios- Tregs were affected by investigated T1D genetic risk loci, Helios+ Tregs correlated with age at T1D diagnosis negatively and disease duration positively. Moreover, the negative correlation between central and effector memory proportions of Helios+ Tregs in healthy controls was disrupted in T1D individuals. Finally, regulatory non-classical and intermediate monocytes also decreased in T1D individuals, and positive correlations between these regulatory monocytes and Helios+/Helios- Treg subsets in healthy controls disappeared in T1D individuals. In conclusion, we demonstrated the alternations in maturation status and immune phenotypes in Helios+ and Helios- Treg subsets and revealed the missing association between these Treg subsets and monocyte subsets in T1D individuals, which might point out another option for elucidating T1D mechanisms.