PLA2G12A protects against diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance by enhancing energy expenditure and clearance of circulating triglycerides.

Secreted phospholipase A2s are involved in the development of obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and cardiovascular disease, which have become serious and growing health concerns worldwide. Integration of genome-wide association study and gene co-expression networks analysis showed that the secreted phospholipase A2 group XIIA (PLA2G12A) may participate in hepatic lipids metabolism. Nevertheless, the role of PLA2G12A in lipid metabolism and its potential mechanism remain elusive. Here, we used AAV9 vector carrying human PLA2G12A gene to exogenously express hPLA2G12A in the liver of mice. We demonstrated that the overexpression of hPLA2G12A resulted in a significant decrease in serum lipid levels in wild-type mice fed with chow diet or high-fat diet (HFD). Moreover, hPLA2G12A treatment protected against diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance in mice fed a HFD. Notably, we found that hPLA2G12A treatment confers protection against obesity and hyperlipidemia independent of its enzymatic activity, but rather by increasing physical activity and energy expenditure. Furthermore, we demonstrated that hPLA2G12A treatment induced upregulation of ApoC2 and Cd36 and downregulation of Angptl8, which contributed to the increase in clearance of circulating triglycerides and hepatic uptake of fatty acids without affecting hepatic de novo lipogenesis, very low-density lipoprotein secretion, or intestinal lipid absorption. Our study highlights the potential of PLA2G12A gene therapy as a promising approach for treating obesity, insulin resistance and T2DM.

Investigation of the photolysis process of benzo(a)anthracene (BaA) on polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polystyrene (PS) microplastics: Plastics aging effect, transformation products and toxicity assessment.

Microplastics (MPs) and persistent pollutants (POPs) are new pollutants that are extensively studied worldwide. To fill the gaps that the degradation processes and mechanisms of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on the surface of most MPs are still unclear, the photochemical transformation of benzo(a)anthracene (BaA) on polyvinyl chloride (PVC) MPs and polystyrene (PS) MPs in water were investigated and compared. The photolysis of BaA on the surface of PS in water proceeded easier than that on PVC within the 48 h irradiation period, with the pseudo-first-order rate constant of 0.0489 min-1 and 0.0181 min-1, respectively, which can be ascribed to the smaller particle size and more OH production of PS MPs. Due to the light competition between the chromophore and BaA as well as the light-shielding effect, aged MPs showed an inhibitory effect on the degradation of BaA compared with pristine MPs. For BaA/PVC MPs system, the degradation of BaA in real water was not significantly affected by coexisting ions and humic acid (HA) (p < 0.05), while slight inhibitory effect on the degradation of BaA appeared for PS MPs in different water matrices (UP: 86.97 %, YR: 84.47 %, PR: 81.42 % and HR: 83.21 %). According to the electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) test, quenching experiment and probe experiment, the relative contribution of direct photolysis (PVC: 82.02 %; PS: 69.54 %) and indirect photolysis (PVC: 17.98 %; PS: 30.46 %) was confirmed. A total of 14 products were identified, and the product types were not affected by plastics aging. The results of the toxicity assessment indicated that although some intermediate products remained toxic to aquatic organisms, the toxicity of most products was lower than that of BaA. This study provides new insights into the environmental fate of PAHs and the role of MPs in the photolysis process of contaminants in surface water.

Assessment of the UV/DCCNa and UV/NaClO oxidation process for the removal of diethyl phthalate (DEP) in the aqueous system.

In this work, the removal and transformation process of diethyl phthalate (DEP) in UV/dichloroisocyanurate (UV/DCCNa) and UV/sodium hypochlorite (UV/NaClO) systems were compared to evaluate the application potential of UV/DCCNa technology. Compared with UV/NaClO, UV/DCCNa process has the advantage of DEP removal and caused a higher degradation efficiency (93.8%) within 45 min of oxidation in ultrapure water due to the sustained release of hypochloric acid (HOCl). Fourteen intermediate products were found by high-resolution mass spectrometry, and the transformation patterns including hydroxylation, hydrolysis, chlorination, cross-coupling, and nitrosation were proposed. The oxidation processes were also performed under quasi-realistic environmental conditions, and it was found that DEP could be effectively removed in both systems, with yields of disinfection byproduct meeting the drinking water disinfection standard (<60.0 µg/L). Comparing the single system, the removal of DEP decreased in the mixed system containing five kinds of PAEs, which could be attributed to the regeneration of DEP and the competitive effect of •OH occurred among the Dimethyl phthalate (DMP), DEP, Dipropyl phthalate (DPrP), Diallyl phthalate (DAP) and Diisobutyl phthalate (DiBP). However, a greater removal performance presented in UV/DCCNa system compared with UV/NaClO system (69.4% > 62.1%). Further, assessment of mutagenicity and developmental toxicity by Toxicity Estimation Software Tool (T.E.S.T) software indicated that UV/DCCNa process has fewer adverse effects on the environment and is a more environmentally friendly chlorination method. This study may provide some guidance for selecting the suitable disinfection technology for drinking water treatment.

Plasma cell-free DNA promise monitoring and tissue injury assessment of COVID-19.

Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) is a complex disease that affects billions of people worldwide. Currently, effective etiological treatment of COVID-19 is still lacking; COVID-19 also causes damages to various organs that affects therapeutics and mortality of the patients. Surveillance of the treatment responses and organ injury assessment of COVID-19 patients are of high clinical value. In this study, we investigated the characteristic fragmentation patterns and explored the potential in tissue injury assessment of plasma cell-free DNA in COVID-19 patients. Through recruitment of 37 COVID-19 patients, 32 controls and analysis of 208 blood samples upon diagnosis and during treatment, we report gross abnormalities in cfDNA of COVID-19 patients, including elevated GC content, altered molecule size and end motif patterns. More importantly, such cfDNA fragmentation characteristics reflect patient-specific physiological changes during treatment. Further analysis on cfDNA tissue-of-origin tracing reveals frequent tissue injuries in COVID-19 patients, which is supported by clinical diagnoses. Hence, our work demonstrates and extends the translational merit of cfDNA fragmentation pattern as valuable analyte for effective treatment monitoring, as well as tissue injury assessment in COVID-19.

Two novel human coronavirus OC43 genotypes circulating in hospitalized children with pneumonia in China.

HCoV-OC43 is one of the mildly pathogenic coronaviruses with high infection rates in common population. Here, 43 HCoV-OC43 related cases with pneumonia were reported, corresponding genomes of HCoV-OC43 were obtained. Phylogenetic analyses based on complete genome, orf1ab and spike genes revealed that two novel genotypes of HCoV-OC43 have emerged in China. Obvious recombinant events also can be detected in the analysis of the evolutionary dynamics of novel HCoV-OC43 genotypes. Estimated divergence time analysis indicated that the two novel genotypes had apparently independent evolutionary routes. Efforts should be conducted for further investigation of genomic diversity and evolution analysis of mildly pathogenic coronaviruses.

Examining environmental regulation efficiency of haze control and driving mechanism: evidence from China.

The problem of haze pollution in China is still serious, and it is an important issue how to measure and improve environmental regulation efficiency of haze control (EREHC) in China. To explore the spatial evolution characteristics and influencing factors of EREHC in each province in China, this paper builds an evaluation system for EREHC in China and calculates EREHC values in 30 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities in China from 2003 to 2015 through the super-efficiency slacks-based measure (SE-SBM) model. Moreover, the influencing factors and the driving mechanism of EREHC in China are examined by using the Theil index, Moran's I index, and the geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model. The results are as follows. (1) During the sample period, EREHC in each province in China is mostly favorable, and the average efficiency value is approximately 0.5. EREHC has been declining only in some regions in China. (2) EREHC in eastern China is the best, followed by western China, and EREHC in central China is the lowest. The inter-regional difference in EREHC has been declining over time. (3) EREHC is positively correlated with economic level, the industrial upgrading, and the opening to the outside world, but negatively correlated with energy mix and labor force quality. The positive and negative effects of the level of scientific and technological input are different among the three economic regions. The results indicate that EREHC in China is generally at low level, which presents the spatial difference characteristic of "High East and Low West." It will help improve regional EREHC to raise the level of regional economic development, deepen industrial upgrading, and open to the outside world.

Drivers of the decoupling indicator between the economic growth and energy-related CO2 in China: A revisit from the perspectives of decomposition and spatiotemporal heterogeneity.

As China becomes the world's largest country for carbon emissions, it becomes one of China's major tasks to seek a path of coordinated development between the environment and the economy. Decoupling analysis is a significant method for analysing the relationship between economic growth and carbon emissions. This paper studies the changes and causes of decoupling index at two levels. At the national level, this paper decomposes the decoupling of carbon emissions from GDP into three parts. Then, the Laspeyers method is adopted to decompose the contribution of each part. At the regional level, this paper decomposes the decoupling index into eight influencing factors, and employs Geographically Temporally Weighted Regression (GTWR) to investigate the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the influencing factors in each region. The following conclusions are generated: (1) At the national level, decoupling of carbon emissions from GDP consists of weak decoupling and expansive coupling. (2) At the national level, the decoupling effect of carbon emissions from fossil energy is an important negative driver for index changes of carbon emissions decoupled from GDP. The decoupling effect of total energy consumption from GDP is an important positive driver for index changes of carbon emissions decoupled from GDP. However, the decoupling effect of fossil energy from total energy consumption is a minimal positive driver. (3) At the regional level, decoupling of carbon emissions from GDP consists of weak decoupling, expansive coupling, and expansive negative decoupling in most years. (4) At the regional level, each influencing factor shows spatial and temporal heterogeneity based on GTWR. In terms of policy implications, central and western regions should increase the degree of openness to the outside world and strengthen the rectification of high-pollution and high-emission enterprises. Meanwhile, it's important to accelerate the industrialisation process and reduce excessive dependence on fossil fuels such as coal.