Genetic dissection of the impact of lncRNA AI662270 during the development of atherosclerosis.

BACKGROUND: Atherosclerosis is driven by synergistic interactions between pathological biomechanical and lipid metabolic factors. Long noncoding RNAs (LncRNAs) have been implicated in atherogenesis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential mechanism of lncRNA AI662270 on macrophage cholesterol transport in atherosclerosis. METHODS: Apolipoprotein E deficiency (ApoE-/-) mice were fed a high fat diet for 16 weeks to construct atherosclerotic model, and the mice were injected with recombinant lentivirus carrying AI662270 gene to overexpress AI662270. Macrophages were cleared by liposomal clondronate in vivo. Fundamental experiments and functional assays, hematoxylin and eosin staining, oil red O staining and others, were performed to evaluate the function of AI662270 on atherogenesis. Peritoneal macrophages were treated with oxidized low density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) to simulate in vitro model. Mechanism assays, RNA-interacting protein immunoprecipitation, RNA-protein pulldown and others, were performed to study the regulatory mechanism of AI662270 in macrophages. RESULTS: The novel AI662270 was mainly enriched in macrophages, but not in endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells and fibroblasts of mouse atherosclerotic lesions and was upregulated by ox-LDL. Overexpression of AI662270 resulted in lipid accumulation, larger atherosclerotic plaques and cardiac dysfunction in vivo. After macrophages were removed, the pro-atherogenic effect of AI662270 disappeared. Downregulation of AI662270 in macrophages protected against foam cell formation by potentiating cholesterol efflux and reducing intracellular total cholesterol. The opposite effect was observed in macrophage-specific AI662270-overexpressed cells in vitro. AI662270 bound to adenosine triphosphate-binding cassette transporter A1 (Abca1) responsible for regulating cholesterol efflux in macrophages. Forced expression of AI662270 in macrophages decreased Abca1 expression. The reverse occurred when expression of AI662270 was repressed. CONCLUSION: These findings reveal an essential role for AI662270 in atherosclerosis progression by regulating cholesterol efflux from macrophages.

Resveratrol on the Metabolic Reprogramming in Liver: Implications for Advanced Atherosclerosis.

Background/Aims: Atherosclerosis (AS) is one of the major leading causes of death globally, which is highly correlated with metabolic abnormalities. Resveratrol (REV) exerts beneficial effects on atherosclerosis. Our aim is to clarify the involvement of liver metabolic reprogramming and the atheroprotective effects of REV. Methods: ApoE-deficient mice were administered with normal diet (N), high-fat diet (H), or HFD with REV (HR). Twenty-four weeks after treatment, Oil Red O staining was used to assess the severity of AS. Non-targeted metabolomics was employed to obtain metabolic signatures of the liver from different groups. Results: High-fat diet-induced AS was alleviated by REV, with less lipid accumulation in the lesions. The metabolic profiles of liver tissues from N, H, and HR groups were analyzed. A total of 1,146 and 765 differentially expressed features were identified between N and H groups, and H and HR groups, respectively. KEGG enrichment analysis uncovered several metabolism-related pathways, which are potential pathogenesis mechanisms and therapeutic targets including "primary bile acid biosynthesis," "phenylalanine metabolism," and "glycerophospholipid metabolism." We further conducted trend analysis using 555 metabolites with one-way ANOVA, where p < 0.05 and PLS-DA VIP >1. We found that REV could reverse the detrimental effect of high-fat diet-induced atherosclerosis. These metabolites were enriched in pathways including "biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids" and "intestinal immune network for IgA production." The metabolites involved in these pathways could be the potential biomarkers for AS-related liver metabolic reprogramming and the mechanism of REV treatment. Conclusions: REV exerted atheroprotective effects partially by modulating the liver metabolism.

Linking energy sector and air quality models through downscaling: Long-run siting of electricity generators to account for spatial variability and technological innovation.

Modeling the air pollution implications of long-term energy transitions requires a downscaling process as an intermediate step between national-scale energy models and fine-scaled air quality models. Traditional "Grow-in-Place" (GIP) downscaling methods assume that future patterns of generator siting and emissions will be similar to those in the past. However, rapid technological change and shifting policy might yield very different future spatial patterns of power emissions. Here, we propose a "Site-and-Grow" (SAG) downscaling framework to couple the Electricity Market Module (EMM) of the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) with the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model to simulate future changes in emissions from power sector. The SAG framework consists of two steps. First, we downscale regional energy information to subregions using a modified generation expansion model under the assumption that economic fundamentals drive decisions at that scale. Second, we use GIS-based screening to locate potential sites for new power plants, and specify the final county-level placement using a multicriteria value function, assuming that land use and environmental constraints are most influential. The method is implemented in one EMM region (Carolinas and Virginia) as a case study. We compare spatial and temporal variability of downscaled emissions using both GIP and SAG methods, as well as emissions differences among four NEMS scenarios (base case, high natural gas consumption, high penetration of electric vehicles, and marine vessel electrification in ports). The results indicate that coal power plant emissions such as SO2 and NOx continue to dominate emissions from all other traditional power plants even in 2040, which suggests that emission changes will mainly be determined by where old coal plants are retired. An ANOVA (analysis of variance) comparison of four energy scenarios with two downscaling methods shows that the choice of downscaling method can contribute as much to emissions patterns as much as the choice of scenario.

The Dawn of Lead-Free Perovskite Solar Cell: Highly Stable Double Perovskite Cs2AgBiBr6 Film.

Recently, lead-free double perovskites have emerged as a promising environmentally friendly photovoltaic material for their intrinsic thermodynamic stability, appropriate bandgaps, small carrier effective masses, and low exciton binding energies. However, currently no solar cell based on these double perovskites has been reported, due to the challenge in film processing. Herein, a first lead-free double perovskite planar heterojunction solar cell with a high quality Cs2AgBiBr6 film, fabricated by low-pressure assisted solution processing under ambient conditions, is reported. The device presents a best power conversion efficiency of 1.44%. The preliminary efficiency and the high stability under ambient condition without encapsulation, together with the high film quality with simple processing, demonstrate promise for lead-free perovskite solar cells.

Flower-Shaped Mg3Al1-xFex-CO3 Layered Double Hydroxides Derived Adsorbents with Tunable Memory Effect for Environmental Remediation.

Herein, flower-shaped ternary layered double hydroxides (LDHs) Mg3Al1-xFex-CO3 with tunable memory effect as promising adsorbents was developed for the removal of acid red 88 anionic dye. All the samples were prepared using a co-precipitation method and were thoroughly characterized using several analytical techniques. The influence of Fe/(Al + Fe) ratio on the memory effect and dye adsorption capacity of Mg3Al1-xFex-CO3 LDHs was evaluated. Among all samples, Mg3Fe0.1Al0.9CO3 LDH resulted in the best adsorption capacity of 2709 mg/g in the first cycle. Comparing to Mg3Al1-CO3 and Mg3Fe1-CO3 LDHs, it also showed much better cycling performance during 4 cycles at 30 °C and atmospheric pressure. The influence of regeneration temperature was also investigated and found that 400 °C exhibit best performance. The detailed studies demonstrated that the adsorption capacity of Mg3Al1-CO3 can be improved by partially replacing Al by Fe.