Enhanced laccase production by mutagenized Myrothecium verrucaria using corn stover as a carbon source and its potential in the degradation of 2-chlorophen.

Chlorophenols are widely used in industry and are known environmental pollutants. The degradation of chlorophenols is important for environmental remediation. In this study, we evaluated the biodegradation of 2-chlorophenol using crude laccase produced by Myrothecium verrucaria. Atmospheric and room temperature plasma technology was used to increase laccase production. The culture conditions of the M-6 mutant were optimized. Our results showed that corn stover could replace glucose as a carbon source and promote laccase production. The maximum laccase activity of 30.08 U/mL was achieved after optimization, which was a 19.04-fold increase. The biodegradation rate of 2-chlorophenol using crude laccase was 97.13%, a positive correlation was determined between laccase activity and degradation rate. The toxicity of 2-CP was substantially reduced after degradation by laccase solution. Our findings show the feasibility of the use of corn stover in laccase production by M. verrucaria mutant and the subsequent biodegradation of 2-chlorophenol using crude laccase.

One-Step Synthesis of Nitrogen-Doped Porous Biochar Based on N-Doping Co-Activation Method and Its Application in Water Pollutants Control.

In this work, birch bark (BB) was used for the first time to prepare porous biochars via different one-step methods including direct activation (BBB) and N-doping co-activation (N-BBB). The specific surface area and total pore volume of BBB and N-BBB were 2502.3 and 2292.7 m2/g, and 1.1389 and 1.0356 cm3/g, respectively. When removing synthetic methyl orange (MO) dye and heavy metal Cr6+, both BBB and N-BBB showed excellent treatment ability. The maximum adsorption capacities of BBB and N-BBB were 836.9 and 858.3 mg/g for MO, and 141.1 and 169.1 mg/g for Cr6+, respectively, which were higher than most previously reported biochar adsorbents. The probable adsorption mechanisms, including pore filling, π-π interaction, H-bond interaction, and electrostatic attraction, supported the biochars' demonstrated high performance. In addition, after five recycles, the removal rates remained above 80%, which showed the high stability of the biochars. This work verified the feasibility of the one-step N-doping co-activation method to prepare high-performance biochars, and two kinds of biochars with excellent performance (BBB and N-BBB) were prepared. More importantly, this method provides new directions and ideas for the development and utilization of other biomasses.

A multifactorial analysis of FAP to regulate gastrointestinal cancers progression.

Background: Fibroblast activation protein (FAP) is a cell-surface serine protease that has both dipeptidyl peptidase as well as endopeptidase activities and could cleave substrates at post-proline bond. Previous findings showed that FAP was hard to be detected in normal tissues but significantly up-regulated in remodeling sites like fibrosis, atherosclerosis, arthritis and embryonic tissues. Though increasing evidence has demonstrated the importance of FAP in cancer progression, no multifactorial analysis has been developed to investigate its function in gastrointestinal cancers until now. Methods: By comprehensive use of datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC), scTIME Portal and Human Protein Atlas (HPA), we evaluated the carcinogenesis potential of FAP in gastrointestinal cancers, analyzing the correlation between FAP and poor outcomes, immunology in liver, colon, pancreas as well as stomach cancers. Then liver cancer was selected as example to experimentally validate the pro-tumor and immune regulative role of FAP in gastrointestinal cancers. Results: FAP was abundantly expressed in gastrointestinal cancers, such as LIHC, COAD, PAAD and STAD. Functional analysis indicated that the highly-expressed FAP in these cancers could affect extracellular matrix organization process and interacted with genes like COL1A1, COL1A2, COL3A1 and POSTN. In addition, it was also observed that FAP was positively correlated to M2 macrophages infiltration across these cancers. To verify these findings in vitro, we used LIHC as example and over-expressed FAP in human hepatic stellate LX2 cells, a main cell type that produce FAP in tumor tissues, and then investigate its role on LIHC cells as well as macrophages. Results showed that the medium from FAP-over-expressed LX2 cells could significantly promote the motility of MHCC97H and SK-Hep1 LIHC cells, increase the invasion of THP-1 macrophages and induce them into pro-tumor M2 phenotype. Conclusion: In summary, we employed bioinformatic tools and experiments to perform a comprehensive analysis about FAP. Up-regulation of FAP in gastrointestinal cancers was primarily expressed in fibroblasts and contributes to tumor cells motility, macrophages infiltration and M2 polarization, revealing the multifactorial role of FAP in gastrointestinal cancers progression.

Hepatocyte-targeted delivery using oleanolic acid-loaded liposomes for enhanced hepatocellular carcinoma therapy.

Drug-loaded liposomes have been shown to be effective in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the systemic non-specific distribution of drug-loaded liposomes in tumor patients is a critical therapeutic challenge. To address this issue, we developed galactosylated chitosan-modified liposomes (GC@Lipo) that could selectively bind to the asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGPR), which is highly expressed on the membrane surface of HCC cells. Our study demonstrated that the GC@Lipo significantly enhanced the anti-tumor efficacy of oleanolic acid (OA) by enabling targeted drug delivery to hepatocytes. Remarkably, treatment with OA-loaded GC@Lipo inhibited the migration and proliferation of mouse Hepa1-6 cells by upregulating E-cadherin expression and downregulating N-cadherin, vimentin, and AXL expressions, compared to a free OA solution and OA-loaded liposomes. Furthermore, using an axillary tumor xenograft mouse model, we observed that OA-loaded GC@Lipo led to a significant reduction in tumor progression, accompanied by concentrated enrichment in hepatocytes. These findings strongly support the clinical translation of ASGPR-targeted liposomes for the treatment of HCC.

N-glycosylation at N57/100/110 affects CD44s localization, function and stability in hepatocellular carcinoma.

The glycosylation levels of proteins in cancer cells are closely related to cancer invasion and migration. CD44 is a transmembrane glycoprotein that is significantly overexpressed in a variety of tumor cells and has been proven to promote the migration and motility of cancer cells, but the effect of its N-glycosylation modification on CD44 protein function in tumors is less studied. Here, we investigated the effect of six N-glycan chains (N25/57/100/110/120/255) on CD44s localization, function and stability in hepatocarcinoma cells. When the six sites were mutated, we found that CD44s lost its membrane localization in Huh7 and MHCC-97H cells. On this basis, we identified three glycosylation sites on CD44s (N57, N100 and N110) that played key roles in intracellular localization. When N57, N100 and N110 were mutated together, CD44 localized to the cytoplasm, while another three-site mutant (N25/N120/N255) was still anchored to the membrane. In addition, the ability of CD44-N57Q/N100Q/N110Q to promote the metastasis and invasion of Huh7 and 97H cells was weakened compared with that of CD44-N25Q/N120Q/N255Q. Furthermore, CD44-N57Q/N100Q/N110Q accumulated abnormally in the ER, and a high level of the ER stress (ERS) marker BiP was detected at the same time compared with wild-type CD44. When the lysosome inhibitor CQ was added, the content of mutant protein that triggered ERS significantly increased, which indicated that the degradation mode of CD44-N57Q/N100Q/N110Q after ERS was mainly through the lysosomal pathway (ERLAD). The results revealed that the N-glycosylation sites N57, N100 and N110 mutated on CD44s affected its function and degraded it by lysosomes after triggering ERS. These findings provide data for new studies on ER-related degradation, further promote the study of the glycan chain function of CD44 and furnish new ideas for the treatment of liver cancer metastasis.

N-glycosylation by N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase IVa enhances the interaction of integrin ß1 with vimentin and promotes hepatocellular carcinoma cell motility.

N-glycosylation has been revealed to be tightly associated with cancer metastasis. As a key transferase that catalyzes the formation of ß1,4 N-acetylglucosamine (ß1,4GlcNAc) branches on the mannose core of N-glycans, N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase IVa (GnT-IVa) has been reported to be involved in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) metastasis by forming N-glycans; however, the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. In the current study, we found that GnT-IVa was upregulated in HCC tissues and positively correlated with worse outcomes in HCC patients. We found that GnT-IVa could promote tumor growth in mice; notably, this effect was attenuated after mutating the enzymatic site (D445A) of GnT-IVa, suggesting that GnT-IVa regulated HCC progression by forming ß1,4GlcNAc branches. To mechanistically investigate the role of GnT-IVa in HCC, we conducted GSEA and GO functional analysis as well as in vitro experiments. The results showed that GnT-IVa could enhance HCC cell migration, invasion and adhesion ability and increase ß1,4GlcNAc branch glycans on integrin ß1 (ITGB1), a tumor-associated glycoprotein that is closely involved in cell motility by interacting with vimentin. Interruption of ß1,4GlcNAc branch glycan modification on ITGB1 could suppress the interaction of ITGB1 with vimentin and inhibit cell motility. These results revealed that GnT-IVa could promote HCC cell motility by affecting the biological functions of ITGB1 through N-glycosylation. In summary, our results revealed that GnT-IVa is highly expressed in HCC and can form ß1,4GlcNAc branches on ITGB1, which are essential for interactions with vimentin to promote HCC cell motility. These findings not only proposed a novel mechanism for GnT-IVa in HCC progression but also revealed the significance of N-glycosylation on ITGB1 during the process, which may provide a novel target for future HCC therapy.

Studies on reference intervals for platelet counts in three cities in China and one in Japan.

Hematological parameters including platelet counts, etc. were determined in 1,140 healthy subjects living in four cities: Suzhou (Jiangsu Province), Chengdu (Sichuan Province) and Harbin (Heilongjang Province) in China, and Kobe in Japan. Then, the reference intervals for platelet counts were calculated and compared. The reference interval for platelet count of subjects aged between 18 and 60 years was 60-259 x 10(9)/L in Suzhou and 52-202 x 10(9)L in Chengdu, and subjects with platelet counts of 100 x 10(9)/L or less accounted for about 30% of the subjects examined in these cities. The reference intervals in Harbin and Kobe were within the range of 150-350 x 10(9)/L, and no subject having a platelets count of 100 x 10(9)/L or less was detected. Mean platelet volume (MPV) determined concurrently was negatively correlated with platelet count, and the reference intervals for MPV in Chengdu and Suzhou were higher than those in Harbin and Kobe.