Effects of returning peach branch waste to fields on soil carbon cycle mediated by soil microbial communities.

In recent years, the rise in greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture has worsened climate change. Efficiently utilizing agricultural waste can significantly mitigate these effects. This study investigated the ecological benefits of returning peach branch waste to fields (RPBF) through three innovative strategies: (1) application of peach branch organic fertilizer (OF), (2) mushroom cultivation using peach branches as a substrate (MC), and (3) surface mulching with peach branches (SM). Conducted within a peach orchard ecosystem, our research aimed to assess these resource utilization strategies' effects on soil properties, microbial community, and carbon cycle, thereby contributing to sustainable agricultural practices. Our findings indicated that all RPBF treatments enhance soil nutrient content, enriching beneficial microorganisms, such as Humicola, Rhizobiales, and Bacillus. Moreover, soil AP and AK were observed to regulate the soil carbon cycle by altering the compositions and functions of microbial communities. Notably, OF and MC treatments were found to boost autotrophic microorganism abundance, thereby augmenting the potential for soil carbon sequestration and emission reduction. Interestingly, in peach orchard soil, fungal communities were found to contribute more greatly to SOC content than bacterial communities. However, SM treatment resulted in an increase in the presence of bacterial communities, thereby enhancing carbon emissions. Overall, this study illustrated the fundamental pathways by which RPBF treatment affects the soil carbon cycle, providing novel insights into the rational resource utilization of peach branch waste and the advancement of ecological agriculture.

Facile construction of robust Ru-Co3O4 Mott-Schottky catalyst enabling efficient dehydrogenation of ammonia borane for hydrogen generation.

Developing efficient catalysts for the dehydrogenation of ammonia borane (AB) is important for the safe storage and controlled release of hydrogen, but it is a challenging task. In this study, we designed a robust Ru-Co3O4 catalyst using the Mott-Schottky effect to induce favorable charge rearrangement. The self-created electron-rich Co3O4 and electron-deficient Ru sites at heterointerfaces are indispensable for the activation of the B-H bond in NH3BH3 and the OH bond in H2O, respectively. The synergistic electronic interaction between the electron-rich Co3O4 and electron-deficient Ru sites at the heterointerfaces resulted in an optimal Ru-Co3O4 heterostructure that exhibited outstanding catalytic activity for the hydrolysis of AB in the presence of NaOH. The heterostructure had an extremely high hydrogen generation rate (HGR) of 12238 mL min-1 gcat-1 and an expected high turnover frequency (TOF) of 755 molH2 molRu-1 min-1 at 298 K. The activation energy needed for the hydrolysis was low (36.65 kJ mol-1). This study opens up a new avenue for the rational design of high-performance catalysts for AB dehydrogenation based on the Mott-Schottky effect.

Evaluating the Effect of Circ-Sirt1 on the Expression of SIRT1 and Its Role in Pathology of Pulmonary Hypertension.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a disease that plagues a major portion of the world's population, and there is currently no effective cure for this ailment. The proliferation and migration of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMC) are known to be the pathological basis of pulmonary vascular remodeling in pulmonary hypertension. Studies in the past have shown involvement of CircRNA in the pathology of pulmonary as well as cardiovascular diseases. However, there are very few studies that have analyzed the relationship between CircRNA and PAH. The aim of this study was to explore this relationship by using rat PAH model. A hypoxic, PAH rat model was constructed for this study and the subsequently produced hypoxia-induced rat PASMC cells were utilized to demonstrate the reduction in expression of circular RNA of Silent information regulator factor 2-related enzyme 1 (circ-Sirt1) and SIRT1 mRNA in response to hypoxia, through cell function tests, cell rescue tests, and physical tests. We found that the expression of circ-Sirt1 and SIRT1 decreased in the PAH rat model induced by hypoxia. It was also revealed that the overexpression of circ-SIRT1 increased SIRT1 levels, but inhibited the expression of transforming growth factor (TGF)-ß1, Smad3, and Smad7, and weakened PASMC cell vitality, proliferation, and migration ability. The findings of the present study indicate that circ-Sirt1 regulates the expression of SIRT1 mRNA and inhibits TGF-ß1/Smad3/Smad7 mediated proliferation and migration of PASMC. This provides a new insight into the molecular mechanism of pulmonary artery vascular remodeling in PAH and may aid in the development of novel therapeutic options for management of PAH.

Construction of a Nano-Controlled Release Methotrexate Delivery System for the Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis by Local Percutaneous Administration.

A drug delivery system was specifically designed for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by local percutaneous administration and the nano-controlled release of methotrexate (MTX). The release behavior of MTX from the synthesized MTX-mSiO2@PDA system was investigated in vitro and in vivo. The obtained results show that after 48 h, twice as much MTX (cumulative amount) is released at pH 5.5 than at pH 7.4. This suggests that the MTX-mSiO2@PDA system exhibits a good pH sensitivity. In vitro local percutaneous administration experiments revealed that the cumulative amount of MTX transferred from MTX-mSiO2@PDA to pH 5.0 receptor fluid through the whole skin was approximately three times greater than the amount transferred to pH 7.4 receptor fluid after 24 h. Moreover, in vivo experiments conducted on a complete induced arthritis (CIA) model in DBA/1 mice demonstrated that the thickness of a mouse's toes decreases to nearly 65% of the initial level after 27 days of local percutaneous MTX-mSiO2@PDA administration. Compared to the mice directly injected with MTX, those administered with MTX-mSiO2@PDA by local percutaneous application exhibit much lower toe thickness deviation, which indicates that the latter group experiences a better cure stability. Overall, these results demonstrate that the local percutaneous administration of MTX delivery systems characterized by nano-controlled release may play an important role in RA therapy.

RAMRSGL: A Robust Adaptive Multinomial Regression Model for Multicancer Classification.

In view of the challenges of the group Lasso penalty methods for multicancer microarray data analysis, e.g., dividing genes into groups in advance and biological interpretability, we propose a robust adaptive multinomial regression with sparse group Lasso penalty (RAMRSGL) model. By adopting the overlapping clustering strategy, affinity propagation clustering is employed to obtain each cancer gene subtype, which explores the group structure of each cancer subtype and merges the groups of all subtypes. In addition, the data-driven weights based on noise are added to the sparse group Lasso penalty, combining with the multinomial log-likelihood function to perform multiclassification and adaptive group gene selection simultaneously. The experimental results on acute leukemia data verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

The diagnosis and treatment of cardiac lymphangioma: A case report and literature review.

RATIONALE: Cardiac lymphangioma is a rare disease. Until now, there have been only a few cases of cardiac lymphangioma reported in the literature. PATIENT CONCERNS: We report the case of a 57-year-old female patient with cardiac lymphangioma from atrial septum. DIAGNOSIS: Color Doppler echocardiography was performed, which revealed a tumor occupying a large amount of space in the left and right atrium. INTERVENTIONS: The patient underwent thoracoscopic cardiac tumor resection under general anesthesia according to the procedure used for benign tumors. OUTCOMES: The patient recovered completely and was discharged home. Follow-up color Doppler echocardiography scans obtained from 6 months to 2 years after the operation showed no recurrent mass. LESSONS: Once the tumor is detected, surgical treatment should be implemented as soon as possible.

[Influence of cationic cyclopeptide on microstructure and permeability of Caco-2 cell membrane].

The microstructure of cationic cyclopeptide (TD-34) treated Caco-2 cell membrane was observed, and we discussed the relationship between membrane structure and insulin transmembrane permeability. Atomic force microscope (AFM) was used to observe living cell membrane in air condition and tapping mode. Results showed that the surface of Caco-2 cell membrane treated with TD-34 lost its smoothness and nearly doubled its roughness. Apparent permeability coefficients (P(app)) of insulin in Caco-2 cell monolayers increased 2.5 times. In conclusion, AFM can be used to observe microstructure of cationic cyclopeptide treated cell membrane and cationic cyclopeptide enhanced insulin delivery across Caco-2 cell membrane by increasing membrane fluidity.

A potential mechanism of a cationic cyclopeptide for enhancing insulin delivery across Caco-2 cell monolayers.

Effective delivery of therapeutic biomolecules across biomembranes is a challenging topic. A cationic cyclopeptide named TD-34 (ACSSKKSKHCG) was reported to improve insulin delivery across biomembranes effectively. Based on our previous work, we investigated the mechanism of TD-34 for enhancing insulin across Caco-2 cell monolayers. Transport studies of insulin, TD-34 and insulin accompanied with TD-34 were performed respectively using Caco-2 cell monolayers at different conditions. Transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) value was monitored for 24 h immediately after the beginning of transport experiments. Moreover, the tight junction protein (Claudin-1) was localized by confocal immunofluorescence microscopy. Results showed the transport of insulin alone across biomembranes was attributable to multiple routes including passive diffusion. When TD-34 accompanied with or without insulin was treated on Caco-2 cell monolayers, TEER values decreased reversibly, and it was correlated with the reappearance of tight junction proteins by immunostaining assay. It was concluded that the cationic cyclopeptide (TD-34) had the potential to enhance paracellular delivery of insulin across Caco-2 cell monolayers by loosening tight junction reversibly.

Effect of cationic cyclopeptides on transdermal and transmembrane delivery of insulin.

Poor permeability of stratum corneum limits the transportation of insulin across the skin. A transdermal peptide has exhibited enhancement activity on insulin transdermal delivery. A series of cationic cyclopeptides based on the sequence of TD-1 (ACSSSPSKHCG) were designed by the partial arginine or lysine scan method. Among these peptides, TD-34 (ACSSKKSKHCG) with bis-substituted lysine in N-5 and N-6 showed the best transdermal enhancement activity, with the blood glucose level lowered to about 26% of initial after administrating 2.1 IU insulin with 0.5 µmol of TD-34 in 100 µL of saline for 8 h to diabetic rats in vivo. In addition, the transmembrane permeability in Caco-2 cell monolayers (BL→AP) exhibited preferable correlation with percutaneous absorption of insulin (R(2) = 0.73). It can be concluded that the appropriate content and position of cationic group in cyclopeptides may improve percutaneous absorption and transmembrane ability of insulin, and Caco-2 cell monolayers (BL→AP) might be applied to predict the percutaneous absorption of insulin chaperoned by a transdermal peptide in vivo.