Effect of exogenous Ca on the physiology and growth indicators of pakchoi under foliar and root fluorine stress.

Fluorine (F) is not an essential element for vegetation and excessive F can be phytotoxic to plant growth, which can cause fluorosis to human beings by ingesting F-contaminated plant. Although there have been some studies focusing on the toxicity of F to plants and the retarding effect of Ca to F-stress plant, atmospheric F contamination to vegetation and the role of the application of foliar Ca are scantly reported. This study investigated several biochemical parameters to evaluate F toxicity under both F-exposure (root and leaf F-exposure) and the remedial effects of foliar Ca. The results showed that F concentration of pakchoi leaves was correlated with exogenous F level positively in both foliar and root F-exposure series, and F concentration of pakchoi roots was only changed under root F-exposure treatments. Ca supplement (0.5 g/L and 1 g/L) significantly decreased plant F concentration. Both F-exposure treatments caused lipid peroxidation in plants and exogenous Ca alleviated the toxicity of F to pakchoi. Meanwhile, chlorophyll-a concentration was decreased by foliar and root F, whereas chlorophyll-b concentration was only affected by foliar F, and chlorophyll-a concentration could be elevated by exogenous Ca but chlorophyll-b could not. It was concluded that both atmospheric and root F can impair pakchoi growth and disturb photosynthesis, and foliar Ca showed an ameliorative effect to F toxicity of pakchoi through alleviating chlorophyll decomposition, increasing protein content and alleviating oxidative damage.

Novel pathogenic variants in CUBN uncouple proteinuria from renal function.

BACKGROUND: Proteinuria is an unfavorable clinical condition highly associated with a risk of renal and cardiovascular disease in chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, whether all proteinuria forms are linked to renal impairment are still unclear. Cubilin is an endocytic receptor highly expressed in renal proximal tubules mediating uptake of albumin, transferrin and α1-microglobulin. METHODS: Exome sequencing method initially identified candidate genes. With the application of exome sequencing combined with Sanger sequencing, we further focused on CUBN through bioinformatics analysis. The pathogenic effects of the potentially causative variants were verified utilizing complementary analysis of clinical data and systematic characterization of the variants' expression and function with clinical samples and in vitro experiments in HEK293T cell lines along with in vivo experiments in mice. RESULTS: In this study, we identified four novel variants locating after the vitamin B12 (vitB12)-binding domain of Cubilin (encoded by CUBN, NM_001081.3: c.4397G > A (p.C1466Y), c.6796C > T (p.R2266X), c.6821 + 3A > G and c.5153_5154delCT (p.S1718X)) in two families. Moreover, the variants severely affected the expression and function of Cubilin in renal proximal tubules and caused albuminuria, increasing levels in urine transferrin and α1-microglobulin, but without progressive glomerular filtration barrier (GFB) impairment, vitB12 deficiencies or abnormal blood levels of HDL and albumin. Further mechanistic insights showed that the variants after the vitB12-binding domain of CUBN merely disrupted the association with Amnionless (AMN) that exhibited aberrant localization in cell cytoplasm rather than membrane. CONCLUSIONS: Here, our findings suggested that different mutation types after the vitB12-binding domain of CUBN uncouple proteinuria from glomerular filtration barrier, that may be an unexpectedly common benign condition in humans and may not require any proteinuria-lowering treatment or renal biopsy.

Remediation of fluoride contaminated soil with nano-hydroxyapatite amendment: Response of soil fluoride bioavailability and microbial communities.

Nano-hydroxyapatite (NHAP), possessing high defluoridation capacity, has been widely used to remove fluoride (F) from polluted water, but little is known about how it affects the bioavailability and toxicity of soil F towards plants. Here, the impact of NHAP (2% w/w) amendment on immobilization, speciation and accumulation of F was studied in a soil-plant system. The results revealed that the NHAP amendment worked effectively to reduce levels of water-soluble F (37.3%-87.8%) and increase available P (76.6%-147%). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis indicated that the formation of insoluble CaF2 and the ion exchange of F- with OH- into NHAP might be involved in the mechanism of F immobilization and soil pH elevation. Exposure to NHAP significantly decreased the abundance of Cyanobacteria in tested soils, and Gemmatimonadetes abundance in bulk soil was significantly higher than that in rhizosphere soil at 1,000 mg kg-1 F spiked level. Additionally, NHAP amendment decreased F accumulation in wheat shoots (9.10%-18.7%) and roots (3.88%-22.4%), which could mainly be attributed to the reduction of soil bioavailable F and the supplement of Ca from NHAP. These results suggest that NHAP could be a promising amendment to be applied to acidic soil contaminated with F.

Heat-sensitive moxibustion self-administration in patients in the community with primary hypertension: A protocol for a multi-center, pragmatic, non-randomized trial.

BACKGROUND: Although the efficacy of antihypertensive drugs has been well established for primary hypertension, their effectiveness is always limited by side effects and poor compliance. Heat-sensitive moxibustion is an innovative acupoint stimulation therapy that is promising as a community health care intervention for hypertension. AIMS: This study aims to evaluate the pragmatic effectiveness and safety of heat-sensitive moxibustion self-administration by patients in the community with primary hypertension. METHODS: This study will adopt a multi-center, pragmatic, nonrandomized design. Six hundred patients with primary hypertension will be recruited from 4 communities. Each patient will choose to either receive heat-sensitive moxibustion self-administration + original antihypertensive drugs or maintain their original antihypertensive drugs without heat-sensitive moxibustion for 1 year. EXPECTED OUTCOMES: The primary outcome will be changes in systolic and diastolic blood pressures and the percentage changes in the doses of antihypertensive drugs. The secondary outcomes will be changes in quality of life assessed by a validated patient-reported outcome scale and the levels of fasting blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin, total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, urinary albumin, and serum creatinine. The proportion of patients with poor compliance with the heat-sensitive moxibustion regimen will also be evaluated as a secondary outcome. The safety of heat-sensitive moxibustion will be considered by analyzing the incidence of all and serious adverse events and their correlation with heat-sensitive moxibustion. DISCUSSION: The findings of this study will provide pragmatic evidence for heat-sensitive moxibustion self-administration in patients in the community with primary hypertension and may also establish an ethical basis for further randomized controlled trials. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The protocol of this trial was registered in ClinicalTrials.gov at May 11, 2020 (No. NCT04381520).

[Transformation of phosphorus forms in the construction process of phosphate reduction system of hypersaline and high-phosphorus wastewater].

Transformation of phosphorus forms in the construction process of biological phosphate reduction system was discussed in treating saline and high-phosphorus pickled mustard tube wastewater to resolve problems encountered with present phosphorus removal technology. A phosphate reduction system under hypersaline condition (salinity, 7% , measured by NaCl) was successfully constructed, when the reactor was started with 3% salinity wastewater and the salinity was increased through two stages, at influent organic loading (COD) 0.45 kg x (m3 x d)(-1), phosphorus loading (PO4(3-)-P) 5.0 g x (m3 x d)(-1), DO 6 mg/L, 30 degrees C and without sludge discharge. Phosphorus balance and transformation of phosphorus forms in sludge was studied on 26 running cycles of this phosphorus reduction system. Results show that averagely 41.8 mg x L(-1) of external phosphorus gets lost per day, and that 155 mg of internal phosphorus in sludge gets lost through the path of phosphorus forms transformation and phosphate reduction, which accounted for 14.2% of the external phosphorus loss and 12.5% of the total phosphorus loss, respectively. The transformation path of phosphorus forms in sludge is Org-P --> NaOH85-P --> HCl-P --> NaOH-P --> BD-P --> H2 O-P.