Isotope tracers for lead and strontium sources in the Tieguanyin tea garden soils and tea leaves.

The concentrations of Pb & Sr in Tieguanyin tea leaves and soils from 15 tea gardens of Anxi, China, were determined and the sources of Pb & Sr in soil and leaf samples were analysed using isotope tracing technology. The results showed pH in soils had significant correlations to both acid-extractable Pb & Sr in soils and new leaves. The Pb concentration in leaves was significantly lower than that in soils, especially the acid-extractable Pb in soils. The low Bio-concentration Factor (BCF) indicated the bioavailable Pb in soils could not easily be transferred to leaves. The contribution rates of parent material were 61%-100% and 45%-100% for total Pb isotope and acid-extractable Pb isotope in soils, respectively, indicating a low impact of human activity. A sizeable influence of parent material for leaves was also observed, suggesting that Pb may be present in the dust-fall. Although Sr concentrations in leaves were not high, they exceeded that in soils. The high BCF also indicated that tea has a high capacity to accumulate Sr, with the coincidence that Sr87/Sr86 in the acid-extractable isotope in soils were similar to new leaves. A Pb-Sr joint tracer indicated that Sr in old and new leaves may be influenced by parent material and anthropogenic sources, respectively.

Circadian clock associates with tumor microenvironment in thoracic cancers.

The application of cancer chronotherapy is to treat cancers based on at specific times during circadian rhythms. Previous studies have characterized the impact of circadian clock on tumorigenesis and specific immune cells. Here, by using multi-omics computation techniques, we systematically characterized the distinct roles of core circadian clock genes in thoracic cancers including lung adenocarcinoma, lung squamous cell carcinoma, and esophageal carcinoma. Strikingly, a wide range of core clock genes are epigenetically altered in lung adenocarcinomas and lung squamous cell carcinomas but not esophageal carcinomas. Further cancer hallmark analysis reveals that several core clock genes highly correlate with apoptosis and cell cycle such as RORA and PER2. Interestingly, our results reveal that CD4 and CD8 T cells are correlated with core clock molecules especially in lung adenocarcinomas and lung squamous cell carcinomas, indicating that chrono-immunotherapy may serve as a candidate option for future cancer management.