Preparation, Characterization, and Antioxidant Properties of Self-Assembled Nanomicelles of Curcumin-Loaded Amphiphilic Modified Chitosan.

Curcumin (Cur) is a phytochemical with various beneficial properties, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer activities. However, its hydrophobicity, poor bioavailability, and stability limit its application in many biological approaches. In this study, a novel amphiphilic chitosan wall material was synthesized. The process was carried out via grafting chitosan with succinic anhydride (SA) as a hydrophilic group and deoxycholic acid (DA) as a hydrophobic group; 1H-NMR, FTIR, and XRD were employed to characterize the amphiphilic chitosan (CS-SA-DA). Using a low-cost, inorganic solvent-based procedure, CS-SA-DA was self-assembled to load Cur nanomicelles. This amphiphilic polymer formed self-assembled micelles with a core-shell structure and a critical micelle concentration (CMC) of 0.093 mg·mL-1. Cur-loaded nanomicelles were prepared by self-assembly and characterized by the Nano Particle Size Potential Analyzer and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The mean particle size of the spherical Cur-loaded micelles was 770 nm. The drug entrapment efficiency and loading capacities were up to 80.80 ± 0.99% and 19.02 ± 0.46%, respectively. The in vitro release profiles of curcumin from micelles showed a constant release of the active drug molecule. Cytotoxicity studies and toxicity tests for zebrafish exhibited the comparable efficacy and safety of this delivery system. Moreover, the results showed that the entrapment of curcumin in micelles improves its stability, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activity.

A statistical framework for predicting critical regions of p53-dependent enhancers.

P53 is the 'guardian of the genome' and is responsible for regulating cell cycle and apoptosis. The genomic p53 binding regions, where activating transcriptional factors and cofactors like p300 simultaneously bind, are called 'p53-dependent enhancers', which play an important role in tumorigenesis. Current experimental assays generally provide a broad peak of each enhancer element, leaving our knowledge about critical enhancer regions (CERs) limited. Under the inspiration of enhancer dissection by CRISPR-Cas9 screen library on genome-wide p53 binding sites, here we introduce a statistical framework called 'Computational CRISPR Strategy' (CCS), to predict whether a given DNA fragment will be a p53-dependent CER by employing 7-mer as feature extractions along with random forest as the regressor. When training on a p53 CRISPR enhancer dataset, CCS not only accurately fitted the top-ranked enriched single guide RNAs (sgRNAs) but also successfully reproduced two known CERs that were validated by experiments. When applying it to an independent testing dataset on a tilling of a 2K-b genomic region of CRISPR-deCDKN1A-Lib, the trained model shows great generalizability by identifying a CER containing five top-ranked sgRNAs. A feature importance analysis further indicates that top-ranked 7-mers are mapped onto informative TF motifs including POU5F1 and SOX5, which are differentially enriched in p53-dependent CERs and are potential factors to make a general p53 binding site to form a p53-dependent CER, providing the interpretability of the trained model. Our results demonstrate that CCS is an alternative way of the CRISPR experiment to screen the genome for mapping p53-dependent CERs.

The role of segmental bioelectrical impedance technique in the assessment of intraperitoneal ultrafiltration volume with peritoneal dialysis patients.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the role of segmental bioelectrical impedance technique (SBIA) in the assessment of intraperitoneal ultrafiltration volume with peritoneal dialysis patients. METHOD: We selected the patients at the Department of Nephrology of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University and measured the segmental bioelectrical impedance by a German Fresenius body composition analyzer (the Fresenius whole body composition measurement (BCM) machine was used as a segmental machine in this study). An alternating current (5 kHz, 0.05-0.7 mA) was continuously released during the measurement. The released current penetrated the peritoneal cavity on both sides of the body, from which the segmental resistance at a frequency of 5 kHz was obtained from the multifrequency data (R5/Ω). Baseline BIA measurements were initiated after the patient entered the supine position for 5-10 min, then dialysate was instilled into the peritoneal cavity. BIA measurements were performed at 10-min intervals during the retention of dialysate in the abdomen and finally ended when dialysate drainage was complete. Real-time intraperitoneal volume estimated by SBIA (IPVSBIA)and ultrafiltration volume estimated by SBIA(UFVSBIA) was calculated. At the same time, the actual ultrafiltration volume at the end of peritoneal dialysis was weighed and measured (UFVMEA). RESULTS: A total of 30 patients were included in the study, 9 patients withdrew from the study due to subjective factors during the measurement process, and 21 patients completed the study. The correlation coefficient R2 of UFVSBIA and UFVMEA was 0.21 (p < 0.05). Bland-Altman analysis showed that the bias of UFVSBIA to the actual UFVMEA was 0.12 L, and the 95% agreement limit was between -0.5 L and 0.74 L, which confirmed that UFVSBIA measured by electrical impedance method and UFVMEA measured by weighing method were in good agreement. The time required to reach the maximum ultrafiltration volume (UFVSBIA) was 108 ± 68 min, and the mean value of the maximum ultrafiltration volume (Max UFVSBIA) was 1.16 ± 0.60 L. CONCLUSION: The segmental bioelectrical impedance technique can be used to assess the intraperitoneal ultrafiltration volume of peritoneal dialysis patients in real-time and effectively. This method may guide the dialysis fluid retention time and the maximum ultrafiltration volume in PD patients.

TSPTFBS: a Docker image for trans-species prediction of transcription factor binding sites in plants.

MOTIVATION: Both the lack or limitation of experimental data of transcription factor binding sites (TFBS) in plants and the independent evolutions of plant TFs make computational approaches for identifying plant TFBSs lagging behind the relevant human researches. Observing that TFs are highly conserved among plant species, here we first employ the deep convolutional neural network (DeepCNN) to build 265 Arabidopsis TFBS prediction models based on available DAP-seq (DNA affinity purification sequencing) datasets, and then transfer them into homologous TFs in other plants. RESULTS: DeepCNN not only achieves greater successes on Arabidopsis TFBS predictions when compared with gkm-SVM and MEME but also has learned its known motif for most Arabidopsis TFs as well as cooperative TF motifs with protein-protein interaction evidences as its biological interpretability. Under the idea of transfer learning, trans-species prediction performances on ten TFs of other three plants of Oryza sativa, Zea mays and Glycine max demonstrate the feasibility of current strategy. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: The trained 265 Arabidopsis TFBS prediction models were packaged in a Docker image named TSPTFBS, which is freely available on DockerHub at https://hub.docker.com/r/vanadiummm/tsptfbs. Source code and documentation are available on GitHub at: https://github.com/liulifenyf/TSPTFBS. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

The relationships among gut microbiota, hypoxia-inducible factor and anaemia with chronic kidney disease.

Gut microbiota plays a vital role in human intestinal homeostasis, correlating strongly with the progression of numerous diseases. Recent researches provide powerful evidence that the connections exist between gut microbiota and renal anaemia. Gut microbiota may have an impact on renal anaemia by regulating the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) signalling, iron metabolism and inflammatory state. Because of this relationship, there may be potential treatments for renal anaemia. In this review, we will first provide an overview of current research progression on anaemia in chronic kidney disease and then introduce the relations among gut microbiota, HIF, and renal anaemia to explore the possible treatment options.

Surface modification of polyamide reverse osmosis membranes with small-molecule zwitterions for enhanced fouling resistance: a molecular simulation study.

Surface modification with small-molecule zwitterions is experimentally proved to be an effective solution to improve the antifouling performance of polyamide membranes. However, there is no comprehensive understanding of their microscopic mechanism. In order to address this issue, in this work we constructed two atomistic models, PA (a pure polyamide membrane) and QDAP-PA (a polyamide membrane surface-modified with QDAP), where QDAP was a zwitterion that was prepared by 2,6-daaminopyridine quaternized with 3-bromopropionic acid experimentally. Density functional theory was adopted to elucidate the variations in the electrostatic potential before and after modification. Then, equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD) simulations were conducted to investigate the structure and hydrophobic/hydrophilic nature of the membrane surface in the two models. Finally, we introduced two typical organic foulants, sodium dodecyl sulfonate (SDS) and dodecyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (DTAC), to evaluate the antifouling performance of the membranes with the umbrella sampling method. The analyses of the membrane structure and properties show that surface modification with small-molecule zwitterions can densify the membrane surface as well as enlarge the distribution of electrostatic potential on the membrane surface. Water molecules tend to have more interactions with the membrane and more hydrogen bonds near the membrane surface are observed in QDAP-PA. The antifouling test supports that QDAP-PA shows a better antifouling performance, as the surface-modified membrane exhibits a stronger resistance to SDS and DTAC. Even if the foulant is adsorbed to the membrane surface, the denser interface region can prevent a further pollution of the foulant. Also, the free energy needed during the process for QDAP-PA to desorb a foulant is relatively small, indicating that this kind of membrane is easy to clean. The current work might provide a comprehensive understanding of the enhanced fouling resistance of polyamide membranes after surface modification with small-molecule zwitterions.

Link between characteristics of Fe(III) oxides and critical role in enhancing anaerobic methanogenic degradation of complex organic compounds.

Fe(III) oxides have been investigated to accelerate anaerobic methanogenic degradation of complex organic compounds. However, the critical role linked to the characteristics of different types of Fe(III) oxides is still unclear. Study presented here performed a side-by-side comparison of four types of Fe(III) oxides including Fe(III)-citrate, ferrihydrite, hematite and magnetite to evaluate their effectiveness in methanogenic degradation of phenol. Results showed that, amorphous Fe(III)-citrate group showed the fastest phenol degradation and Fe2+ release among all the groups, followed by poorly crystalline ferrihydrite. Although Fe(III)-citrate group also showed the fastest methane production rate, the efficiency of electron recovery in methane production was only 58-78%, which was evidently lower than that in both crystalline hematite (86-89%) and magnetite (93-97%) groups. Methane production rate with non-conductive ferrihydrite was nearly same as that with conductive magnetite, both of which were significantly higher than that with semi-conductive hematite. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis showed that sludge collected from hematite and magnetite group still respectively presented a relatively intact characteristic spectra involved in hematite and magnetite. Differently, the characteristic spectra involved in ferrihydrite was not evident in sludge collected from ferrihydrite group, whereas the characteristic spectra involved in magnetite was detected. Microbial community analysis showed that, both Fe(III)-citrate and ferrihydrite specially enriched Fe(III)-reducing bacteria capable of degrading phenol into fatty acids (Trichococcus and Caloramator) via dissimilatory Fe(III) reduction. Fe(III)-citrate also stimulated the growth of Syntrophus capable of degrading phenol/benzoate into acetate and proceeding direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET). In magnetite and hematite group, the abundance of Enterococcus species evidently increased, and they might proceed DIET with Methanothrix species in syntrophic conversion of fatty acids into methane.

MicroRNA-301a Promotes Cell Proliferation and Resistance to Apoptosis through PTEN/PI3K/Akt Signaling Pathway in Human Ovarian Cancer.

BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs are endogenous small noncoding RNAs, which play a critical role in regulating various biological and pathologic processes. Furthermore, miR-301a has been detected to be overly expressed in tumorigenic progression of ovarian cancer. However, the effects of miR-301a on ovarian cancer are still unclear. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to investigate the molecular mechanisms of miR-301a in epithelial ovarian cancer cells. METHODS: The miR-301a expression in ovarian cancer cells was detected. Then, cell proliferation, cell cycle, and apoptosis of the miR-301a-mimic-transfected ovarian cancer cells were determined, as well as the effects of the miR-301a mimic on the PTEN/phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling pathway were explored. RESULTS: We found that the miR-301a expression levels were markedly upregulated in ovarian cancer tissues and cells, and upregulation of miR-301a-promoted cell viability and proliferation. Our results also showed that the miR-301a-mimic accelerated cell cycle progression of ovarian cancer cells by targeting the CDK4/Cyclin-D1 pathway but not the CDK2/Cyclin-E pathway. Moreover, transfection of the miR-301a mimic into ovarian cancer cells could decrease the PTEN expression while increasing the PI3K and Akt phosphorylation, as compared with the miR-301a inhibitor group and the negative control group. CONCLUSION: Therefore, miR-301a should be an oncogene in ovarian cancer, and overexpression of miR-301a promoted proliferation of ovarian cancer cells by modulating the PTEN/PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.

Concurrent Validity and Reliability of a Handheld Dynamometer in Measuring Isometric Shoulder Rotational Strength.

CONTEXT: Measuring isometric shoulder rotational strength is clinically important for evaluating motor disability in athletes with shoulder injuries. Recent evidence suggests that handheld dynamometry may provide a low-cost and portable method for the clinical assessment of isometric shoulder strength. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the concurrent validity and the intrarater and interrater reliability of handheld dynamometry for measuring isometric shoulder rotational strength. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Biomechanics laboratory. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-nine young, healthy participants. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The peak isometric strength of the internal rotators and external rotators, measured by handheld dynamometry (in newton) and isokinetic dynamometry (in newton meter). INTERVENTIONS: Maximal isometric shoulder rotational strength was measured as participants lay supine with 90° shoulder abduction, neutral rotation, 90° elbow flexion, and forearm pronation. Measurements were performed independently by 2 different physiotherapists and in 3 different sessions to evaluate interrater and intrarater reliability. The data obtained by handheld dynamometry were compared with those obtained by isokinetic testing to evaluate concurrent validity. RESULTS: The intraclass correlation coefficients for interrater reliability in measuring maximum isometric shoulder external and internal rotation strength were .914 (95% confidence interval [CI], .842-.954) and .842 (95% CI, .720-.914), respectively. The intrarater reliability values of the method for measuring maximal shoulder external and internal rotation strength were 0.865 (95% CI, 0.757-0.927) and 0.901 (95% CI, 0.820-0.947), respectively. The Pearson correlation coefficients between the handheld and isokinetic dynamometer measurements were .792 (95% CI, .575-.905) for external rotation strength and .664 (95% CI, .419-.839) for internal rotation strength. CONCLUSIONS: The handheld dynamometer showed good to excellent reliability and moderate to good validity in measuring maximum isometric shoulder rotational strength. Therefore, handheld dynamometry could be acceptable for health and sports professionals in field situations to evaluate maximum isometric shoulder rotational strength.

Performance and microbial community analysis of bioaugmented activated sludge for nitrogen-containing organic pollutants removal.

Nitrogen-containing organic pollutants (quinoline, pyridine and indole) are widely distributed in coking wastewater, and bioaugmentation with specific microorganisms may enhance the removal of these recalcitrant pollutants. The bioaugmented system (group B) was constructed through inoculation of two aromatics-degrading bacteria, Comamonas sp. Z1 (quinoline degrader) and Acinetobacter sp. JW (indole degrader), into the activated sludge for treatment of quinoline, indole and pyridine, and the non-bioaugmented activated sludge was used as the control (group C). Both groups maintained high efficiencies (> 94%) for removal of nitrogen-containing organic pollutants and chemical oxygen demand (COD) during the long-term operation, and group B was highly effective at the starting period and the operation stage fed with raw wastewater. High-throughput sequencing analysis indicated that nitrogen-containing organic pollutants could shape the microbial community structure, and communities of bioaugmented group B were clearly separated from those of non-bioaugmented group C as observed in non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) plot. Although the inoculants did not remain their dominance in group B, bioaugmentation could induce the formation of effective microbial community, and the indigenous microbes might play the key role in removal of nitrogen-containing organic pollutants, including Dokdonella, Comamonas and Pseudoxanthomonas. Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt) analysis suggested that bioaugmentation could facilitate the enrichment of functional genes related to xenobiotics biodegradation and metabolism, probably leading to the improved performance in group B. This study indicated that bioaugmentation could promote the removal of nitrogen-containing organic pollutants, which should be an effective strategy for wastewater treatment.

In silico study of structure and water dynamics in CNT/polyamide nanocomposite reverse osmosis membranes.

CNT-based reverse osmosis membranes have long been regarded as one of the most promising candidates for water desalination. However, it is a pity that there is no complete understanding of the exact role of CNTs in those nanocomposite membranes. To address this issue, three atomistic models of PA (pure polyamide membrane), PA-CNT1 (polyamide nanocomposite membrane with an embedded carbon nanotube oriented vertical to the membrane surface) and PA-CNT2 (polyamide nanocomposite with an embedded carbon nanotube oriented parallel to the membrane surface) were constructed respectively in this work. Then, equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD) and non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulations were conducted to investigate the structure and water dynamics in these three models. The EMD simulations revealed a better stacking of the PA matrix due to the addition of the CNT and this impact was more significant in PA-CNT1 than in PA-CNT2. Meanwhile, PA matrix near the mouth of the CNT was found to behave as an obstruction that hindered the exchange of water molecules inside and outside the CNT. In NEMD simulations, we found that water molecules were guided away from the CNT because of the better stacked surrounding PA matrix. The partially covered CNT might not help to increase water flux in PA-CNT1 while guided water molecules and the smaller polymer region afftected by the CNT contributed to a relatively high flux in PA-CNT2. The current work might serve as a comprehensive understanding of the role of CNTs in the reverse osmosis process.

Biochar stimulates growth of novel species capable of direct interspecies electron transfer in anaerobic digestion via ethanol-type fermentation.

The study presented here was to evaluate the effects of combining biological ethanol-type fermentation pretreatment (BEFP) with biochar on the growth of novel species capable of direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) and methanogenesis in anaerobic co-digestion (AcoD) of kitchen wastes (KWs) and waste activated sludge (WAS). The results showed that, after BEFP, the genera capable of extracellular electron transfer to Fe(III) oxides or the elemental sulfur, such as Geobacter, Sphaerochaeta and Sporanaerobacter species, were detected, which however were not detected in the seed sludge. In the presence of biochar, their abundance was further increased, suggesting that biochar stimulated their growth. With biochar, methane production rate increased by about 44% and the effluent concentration of total organic substrates further declined, compared with that without biochar. With biochar, methane production efficiency reached 241.6 mL/g-COD, more than 30% higher than that without biochar (185.0 mL/g-COD), suggesting that more energy from the oxidation of organic substrates was converted into methane. Analysis of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and three-dimensional excitation emission matrix (3D-EEM) showed that decomposition of complex organic compounds in KWs and WAS was enhanced, since the novel species might proceed DIET with methanogens and participate in the metabolism of complex organic compounds.

Seasonal variations of soil bacterial communities in Suaeda wetland of Shuangtaizi River estuary, Northeast China.

Estuarine wetland is the transitional interface linking terrestrial with marine ecosystems, and wetland microbes are crucial to the biogeochemical cycles of nutrients. The soil samples were collected in four seasons (spring, S1; summer, S2; autumn, S3; and winter, S4) from Suaeda wetland of Shuangtaizi River estuary, Northeast China, and the variations of bacterial community were evaluated by high-throughput sequencing. Soil properties presented a significant seasonal change, including pH, carbon (C) and total nitrogen (TN), and the microbial diversity, richness and structure also differed with seasons. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) and Mantel tests implied that soil pH, C and TN were the key factors structuring the microbial community. Gillisia (belonging to Bacteroidetes) and Woeseia (affiliating with Gammaproteobacteria) were the two primary components in the rhizosphere soils, displaying opposite variations with seasons. Based on PICRUSt (Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States) prediction, the xenobiotics biodegradation related genes exhibited a seasonal decline, while the majority of biomarker genes involved in nitrogen cycle showed an ascending trend. These findings could advance the understanding of rhizosphere microbiota of Suaeda in estuarine wetland.

Hyperspectral Imaging Based Method for Rapid Detection of Microplastics in the Intestinal Tracts of Fish.

Microplastics (MPs) in aquatic organisms are raising increasing concerns regarding their potential damage to ecosystems. To date, Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy techniques have been widely used for detection of MPs in aquatic organisms, which requires complex protocols of tissue digestion and MP separation and are time- and reagent-consuming. This novel approach directly separates, identifies, and characterizes MPs from the hyperspectral image (HSI) of the intestinal tract content in combination with a support vector machine classification model, instead of using the real digestion/separation protocols. The procedures of HSI acquisition (1 min) and data analysis (5 min) can be completed within 6 min plus the sample preparation and drying time (30 min) where necessary. This method achieved a promising efficiency (recall >98.80%, precision >96.22%) for identifying five types of MPs (particles >0.2 mm). Moreover, the method was also demonstrated to be effective on field fish from three marine fish species, revealing satisfying detection accuracy (particles >0.2 mm) comparable to Raman analysis. The present technique omits the digestion protocol (reagent free), thereby significantly reducing reagent consumption, saving time, and providing a rapid and efficient method for MP analysis.

Molecular dynamics simulation studies of the structure and antifouling performance of a gradient polyamide membrane.

The polyamide (PA) layer on the surface of thin-film-composite reverse osmosis membranes is the core aspect of membrane-based desalination technology. In recent years, molecular dynamics simulations have been increasingly used to disclose the physicochemical properties of the PA layer. However, the currently reported all-atom PA layer models do not exhibit gradient variation of the structural properties of the layer, and they can only represent the innermost region of the PA layer. With the help of our recently developed universal toolkit "MembrFactory", this paper reports a modeling method that can be used to construct a gradient crosslinking model and surface grafting model for the PA layer. A fully atomistic model of the PA layer was constructed, in which the degree of crosslinking (DC) was changed gradiently along the thickness direction. The structure of the PA layer model and the transport dynamics of the water molecules within it were systematically investigated using equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. We found that the DC is the lowest and the water molecules have the strongest self-diffusion ability in the interfacial region of the PA layer model. Meanwhile, the pore size is distributed widely in the region. Subsequently, we modified the surface of the PA layer model with PEG coatings, and their coverage ratio was around 75%. The radial distribution function analysis showed that water molecules prefer to coordinate with the oxygen atoms in PEG. Furthermore, two contaminant molecules, 1-ethyl-2-methyl benzene and n-decane, were selected to investigate the antifouling properties of the PEG-modified PA layer. By analysing the trajectories of the pollutants and calculating the potential of the mean force, we found that the antifouling performance of a PEG-modified PA layer is not only related to the hydrophobicity and the size of the pollutant, but is also related to the coverage ratio of the PEG layer.

LncRNA CASC11 promotes the cervical cancer progression by activating Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway.

BACKGROUND: Studies have shown that cancer susceptibility candidate 11 (CASC11), a newly discovered long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), was aberrantly overexpressed in hepatic carcinoma, gastric cancer and colorectal cancer. However, its effects on cervical cancer has been kept unknown up to now. The present study was aimed to investigate the relationship between lncRNA CASC11 and cervical cancer and further explore the mechanism of CASC11 effect on cervical cancer progression. MATERIALS: Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to detect the expressions of CASC11 in cancerous and adjacent normal tissues of patients with cervical cancer as well as in cell lines. The proliferation, migration, invasion and apoptosis were assayed after transfecting the cell with si-CASC11 or pcDNA3.1-CASC11. TOP/FOP-Flash luciferase reporter assay and western blot were used to analysis the activation of Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway. Si-CASC11-transfected HeLa cells were subcutaneously inoculated into male athymic (nude) mice to investigate the effect of CASC11 on the tumor formation. RESULTS: We discovered that CASC11, the expression of which was positively associated with the tumor size and the FIGO staging and negatively related to the patients' survival rate, was up-regulated in the cervical cancer tissues and cell lines. Silencing CASC11 inhibited the proliferation, migration as well as invasion and promoted the cell apoptosis. Conversely, overexpression of CASC11 facilitated the cancer cell's proliferation, migration and invasion ability and suppressed the apoptosis. Further study showed that CASC11 promoted the migration and invasion of cervical cancer cells by activating Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway and silencing CASC11 inhibited the tumor growth in vivo. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated that CASC11 promoted the cervical cancer progression by activating Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway for the first time, which provides a new target or a potential diagnostic biomarker of the treatment for cervical cancer.

Complete Genome Sequence of Bacillus cereus CC-1, A Novel Marine Selenate/Selenite Reducing Bacterium Producing Metallic Selenides Nanomaterials.

Metallic selenides nanomaterials are widely used in many fields, especially for photothermal therapy and thermoelectric devices. However, the traditional chemogenic methods are energy-intensive and environmentally unfriendly. In this study, the first complete genome data of a metallic selenides producing bacterium Bacillus cereus CC-1 was reported. This strain can not only reduce selenite and selenate into elemental selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs), but also synthesize several metallic selenides nanoparticles when adding metal ions (Pb2+, Ag+ and Bi3+) and selenite simultaneously. The size of the genome is 5,308,319 bp with 36.07% G+C content. Several putative genes responsible for heavy metal resistance, salt resistance, and selenate reduction were found. This genome data provide fundamental information, which support the use of this strain for the production of biocompatible photothermal and thermoelectric nanomaterials under mild conditions.

Accumulation, biodegradation and toxicological effects of N-ethyl perfluorooctane sulfonamidoethanol on the earthworms Eisenia fetida exposed to quartz sands.

While N-ethyl perfluorooctane sulfonamidoethanol (EtFOSE) is a precursor of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), its bioaccumulation, transformation and toxicological effects in earthworms (Eisenia fetida) exposed to quartz sands are poorly understood. The present study showed that except for parent EtFOSE, N-ethylperfluorooctane sulfonamide acetate (EtFOSAA), N-ethyl perfluorooctane sulfonamide (EtFOSA), perfluorooctane sulfonamide acetate (FOSAA), perfluorooctane sulfonamide (FOSA) and PFOS were detected in earthworms, with EtFOSAA as the primary biotransformation product. The biota-to-sand accumulation factor (BSAF) and uptake rate coefficient (ku) of EtFOSE were 5.7 and 0.542/d, respectively. The elimination rate constants (ke) decreased in the order EtFOSA (0.167/d) ∼ FOSAA (0.147/d) > FOSA (0.119/d) ∼ EtFOSAA (0.117/d) > EtFOSE (0.095/d) > PFOS (0.069/d). No significant effects were observed in malondialdehyde (MDA) contents and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activities between EtFOSE treatments and controls. EtFOSE could cause significant accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in earthworms. Peroxidase (POD), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) were significantly activated by 41.4-74.3%, 37.2-44.4% and 32.4-52.3% from day 4-10, respectively, while 8-Hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) levels were elevated by 47.7-70.3% from day 8-10, demonstrating that EtFOSE induced oxidative stress and oxidative DNA damage in earthworms. Significant increase of glutathione-S-transferase (GST) with 41.6-62.8% activation (8-10 d) gave indirect evidence on the conjugation of EtFOSE or its corresponding metabolites during phase II of detoxication. This study provides important information on the fate and potential risks of EtFOSE to terrestrial invertebrates.

Efficacy and pharmacokinetics of subcutaneous exendin (9-39) in patients with post-bariatric hypoglycaemia.

AIM: To evaluate the efficacy, pharmacokinetic (PK) profile and tolerability of subcutaneous (s.c.). exendin 9-39 (Ex-9) injection in patients with post-bariatric hypoglycaemia (PBH). METHODS: Nine women who had recurrent symptomatic hypoglycaemia after undergoing Roux-en-Y gastric bypass were enrolled in this 2-part, single-blind, single-ascending-dose study. In Part 1, a single participant underwent equimolar low-dose intravenous (i.v.) vs s.c. Ex-9 administration; in Part 2, 8 participants were administered single ascending doses of s.c. Ex-9 during an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Glycaemic, hormonal, PK and symptomatic responses were compared with those obtained during the baseline OGTT. RESULTS: Although an exposure-response relationship was observed, all doses effectively prevented hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia and improved associated symptoms. On average, the postprandial glucose nadir was increased by 66%, peak insulin was reduced by 57%, and neuroglycopenic symptoms were reduced by 80%. All doses were well tolerated with no treatment-emergent adverse events observed. CONCLUSIONS: Injection s.c. of Ex-9 appears to represent a safe, effective and targeted therapeutic approach for treatment of PBH. Further investigation involving multiple doses with chronic dosing is warranted.

Understanding the temperature effect on transport dynamics and structures in polyamide reverse osmosis system via molecular dynamics simulations.

The structures and transport dynamics of water and salt ions in polyamide (PA) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes as well as the temperature effects on the RO process were systematically investigated using a fully atomistic simulation method. By comparing the experimental data of the commercial membrane FT-30 and the available MD simulation results, the reliability of our PA RO model was validated. In addition, the groups on the polymer chains that preferentially participated in the coordination shells of salt ions were determined. Moreover, we found that the self-diffusion coefficients of both ions reduced by two orders of magnitude due to interactions between the ions and the polymer chains. Furthermore, NEMD simulations showed that the temperature has both positive and negative effects on the water flux. Although increasing the temperature can enhance the mobility of water molecule, it also can reduce the size of water clusters, which hampers an increase in the water flux. The decrease in size of the largest water clusters can partly explain the decrease in water flux when salt ions exist in the membrane. The current work provides a comprehensive understanding of the structure and transport behaviour of water and salt ions in the RO membranes.