Overexpression of Peroxisome-Localized GmABCA7 Promotes Seed Germination in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Peroxisome is one of the important organelles for intracellular lipid metabolism in plant cells and ß-oxidation of fatty acids in peroxisomes provides the energy for oil-containing seed germination. In this study, we identified an ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter gene, GmABCA7 from soybean, which is highly expressed in the different developmental stages of seeds. Transient expression of GmABCA7 in tobacco epidermal cells showed that GmABCA7 was specifically localized at the peroxisomes. Overexpression of GmABCA7 in Arabidopsis does not change seed phenotypes, or the overall levels of lipid, protein and sugar stored in the seeds; however, the transgenic seeds produced more gluconeogenic pathway precursors such as succinate and malate and germinated earlier compared to the wild type seeds. These results suggest that GmABCA7 may affect the ß-oxidation of fatty acids and play an important role in seed germination.

Ecological environment quality evaluation and evolution analysis of a rare earth mining area under different disturbance conditions.

The negative impacts of the overexploitation of resources on regional environments have become increasingly obvious. The contradiction between the environment and development and the management of the ecological environment in mining areas are urgent problems to be solved. This paper uses Landsat images from four temporal phases from 1991 to 2018 in the Lingbei mining area of Dingnan County, China, to construct a rare earth remote sensing-based ecological index (RE-RSEI) suitable for rare earth mining areas and to analyze the impacts of different rare earth mining methods, mining scales and environmental management measures on the mining area environment over the past 27 years. The results show that since 1991, due to the mining techniques of "pond leaching" and "heap leaching" and the soil condition, mining has caused severe damage to the land and vegetation, and the ecological environment quality of the entire mining area has been seriously reduced with its RE-RSEI value dropping from 0.744 to 0.675. After 2010, through the optimization of mining technology and the government's attention to ecological environmental governance, the quality of the ecological environment was slowly restored, and the recovery effect at some mine sites was remarkable. The RE-RSEI model has good applicability to rare earth mining areas, can intuitively reflect the destruction and restoration of the ecological environment of rare earth mining areas under different mining modes, and provides scientific guidance for promoting the coordination of the development and utilization of rare earth resources and mine ecological environmental protection and sustainable development.

Effects of modified 8-week reminiscence therapy on the older spouse caregivers of stroke survivors in Chinese communities: A randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of a modified 8-week reminiscence therapy on the burden, positive experience, and life satisfaction of older spouse caregivers and the life satisfaction of stroke survivors. METHODS: We conducted a randomized controlled trial by using 75 older stroke couples recruited from communities in Zhengzhou, China. We randomly assigned participants to 1 of 3 groups: Group 1 (G1 , 25 couples, all attend intervention) and Group 2 (G2 , 22 couples, only caregivers attend intervention), who participated in a modified 8-week reminiscence therapy, and a waiting list (control) group (G3 , 28 couples). Interviewers blinded to treatment group assignment administered the life satisfaction to both stroke survivors and caregivers, caregiver burden, and positive experience for caregivers, at preintervention, immediately postintervention, and at 1 month and 3 months after cessation of the intervention. RESULTS: We found a statistically significant interaction between treatment groups and assessment time points for the 4 outcome measures (P < .001). Although the effects were decreased after intervention at 1 month, the improvement in caregivers' positive experience, life satisfaction, burden, and life satisfaction of stroke survivors were still significant (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: The use of a modified 8-week reminiscence therapy in this study sample improved the life satisfaction of stroke survivors and their spouse caregivers, improved the positive experience of caregivers, and decreased the burden of caregivers.

Benefit finding for Chinese family caregivers of community-dwelling stroke survivors: A cross-sectional study.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To identify whether benefit finding is a mediator or moderator in the relationship between caregiver burden and psychological well-being (anxiety and depression) in Chinese family caregivers of community-dwelling stroke survivors. BACKGROUND: Family caregivers not only bear a heavy burden, a high level of anxiety and depression, but also experience benefit finding (positive effects result from stressful events). However, the relationships among benefit finding, caregiver burden and psychological well-being in Chinese family caregivers are not well known. DESIGN: This study was a cross-sectional correlational design. METHODS: Caregivers (n = 145) of stroke survivors were recruited from two communities in Zhengzhou, China. Data were collected by face-to-face interviews with structured questionnaires, examining caregiver burden, benefit finding and psychological well-being of caregivers. A hierarchical regression analysis explored whether caregiver burden and benefit finding were associated with anxiety and depression of caregivers. The moderator role of benefit finding was examined by testing the significance of the interaction between caregiver burden and benefit finding. A mediational model was used to test benefit finding as a mediator between caregiver burden and psychological well-being of caregivers using process in spss 21.0. RESULTS: Caregiver burden and benefit finding were significantly associated with both anxiety and depression of caregivers. Benefit finding did not portray a moderating role, but portrayed the mediator role in the relationship between caregiver burden, anxiety and depression in caregivers. CONCLUSION: This study provides the preliminary evidence to nurses that intervention focus on benefit finding may help improve the psychological well-being of caregivers. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: This study offers nurses rational for assessing caregiver's negative emotions and benefit finding. By targeting benefit finding, the nurse may guide caregivers in benefit identification and implement interventions to reduce anxiety, depression and caregiver burden.

Aminobenzaldehyde convelently modified graphitic carbon nitride photocatalyst through Schiff base reaction: Regulating electronic structure and improving visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity for moxifloxacin degradation.

Graphitic carbon nitride (GCN) has been demonstrated to be a potential visible-light-driven photocatalyst for eliminating organic pollutants. However, its practical application is limited by low photocatalytic efficiency originating from high recombination of photogenerated charges. In this work, the electronic structure of GCN was regulated by doping aminobenzaldehyde (ABA) into the skeleton through a solid-state Schiff base reaction. Photoelectrochemical characterizations illustrated that the obtained catalyst (CNABA) exhibited narrower band gap, lower recombination rate of photoinduced electron-hole pair and higher charge transfer ability than the pristine GCN, further indicating its excellent photocatalytic activity. Using moxifloxacin (MOX) as a model pollutant, the ABA doping content was firstly optimized and the optimal activity of the CNABA photocatalyst was 3.1 times higher than that of the GCN. Subsequently, the effects of pH value, photocatalyst dosage and MOX concentration on the photocatalytic behavior were also studied. Superior stability and photocatalytic reusability were confirmed by five repeated tests. By substituting tap water/natural lake water for deionized water and sunlight for xenon light, the CNABA also exhibited high elimination efficiency, implying its good practicability. Superoxide radical, hydroxyl radical and photogenerated hole were identified as the main active species to degrade MOX. Finally, possible degradation pathways for MOX to mineralize small molecules were proposed by determining intermediate products during photocatalysis. This work provides a solid-state method to rationally design aromatic system-modified GCN photocatalysts, and the obtained CNABA is a promising visible-light-driven photocatalyst for eliminating antibiotics.

Roles of Interleukin-6-mediated immunometabolic reprogramming in COVID-19 and other viral infection-associated diseases.

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a highly pleiotropic glycoprotein factor that can modulate innate and adaptive immunity as well as various aspects of metabolism, including glycolysis, fatty acid oxidation and oxidative phosphorylation. Recently, the expression and release of IL-6 is shown to be significantly increased in numerous diseases related to virus infection, and this increase is positively correlated with the disease severity. Immunity and metabolism are two highly integrated and interdependent systems, the balance between them plays a pivotal role in maintaining body homeostasis. IL-6-elicited inflammatory response is found to be closely associated with metabolic disorder in patients with viral infection. This brief review summarizes the regulatory role of IL-6 in immunometabolic reprogramming among seven viral infection-associated diseases.

Correlation of SARS­CoV­2 to cancer: Carcinogenic or anticancer? (Review).

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS­CoV­2) is highly infectious and pathogenic. Among patients with severe SARS­CoV­2­caused by corona virus disease 2019 (COVID­19), those complicated with malignant tumor are vulnerable to COVID­19 due to compromised immune function caused by tumor depletion, malnutrition and anti­tumor treatment. Cancer is closely related to the risk of severe illness and mortality in patients with COVID­19. SARS­CoV­2 could promote tumor progression and stimulate metabolism switching in tumor cells to initiate tumor metabolic modes with higher productivity efficiency, such as glycolysis, for facilitating the massive replication of SARS­CoV­2. However, it has been shown that infection with SARS­CoV­2 leads to a delay in tumor progression of patients with natural killer cell (NK cell) lymphoma and Hodgkin's lymphoma, while SARS­CoV­2 elicited anti­tumor immune response may exert a potential oncolytic role in lymphoma patients. The present review briefly summarized potential carcinogenicity and oncolytic characteristics of SARS­CoV­2 as well as strategies to protect patients with cancer during the COVID­19 pandemic.

Spatiotemporal changes in desertified land in rare earth mining areas under different disturbance conditions.

Special mining methods and red soil lead to large-scale land degradation and desertification in ion-type rare earth (RE) mining areas. Therefore, it is crucial for ecological management and restoration of mining areas to accurately understand the evolution process of desertification. In this study, remote sensing Landsat images from 1986 to 2019 were used to extract desertified land information from the Lingbei mining areas, Dingnan County, Ganzhou, China. To improve the reliability of the experiment, samples selected from Google images were used for verification to compare the accuracy of the desertification difference index (DDI) model and random forest (RF) algorithm for extracting land desertification information. The results showed that compared with the DDI model, the overall accuracy and kappa coefficient of the RF model based on multiple features were improved by 7% and 9.37%, respectively, indicating its higher applicability. Spatiotemporal change analysis of desertification in the mining area showed that the total area of desertification in the mining area increased most rapidly during 1986-1994 and reached 60.75 km2. The area of desertified land increased continuously from 1994 to 2004 and reached a maximum of 143.08 km2 in 2004. The area of desertified land decreased by 50.27 km2, but the severe desertified land (SDL) area increased by 1.69 km2 during 2004-2011. The area of desertified land gradually declined and stabilized from 2011 to 2019. Analysis of the desertification process in mining areas under different disturbance conditions showed that the desertified land disturbed by RE mining was most severely damaged. There is still an area of 16.77 km2 in the process of restoration, of which 2.24 km2 belongs to the SDL level. Moderate desertified land (MDL) and light desertified land (LDL) have not been completely contained and require the attention of the relevant departments to ensure their timely reclamation.

Targeting galectins in T cell-based immunotherapy within tumor microenvironment.

Over the past few years, tumor immunotherapy has emerged as an innovative tumor treatment and owned incomparable advantages over other tumor therapy. With unique complexity and uncertainty, immunotherapy still need helper to apply in the clinic. Galectins, modulated in tumor microenvironment, can regulate the disorders of innate and adaptive immune system resisting tumor growth. Considering the role of galectins in tumor immunosuppression, combination therapy of targeted anti-galectins and immunotherapy may be a promising tumor treatment. This brief review summarizes the expression and immune functions of different galectins in tumor microenvironment and discusses the potential value of anti-galectins in combination with checkpoint inhibitors in tumor immunotherapy.

Unmet care needs of community-dwelling stroke survivors: a systematic review of quantitative studies.

OBJECTIVES: Understanding the unmet needs of community-dwelling stroke survivors is essential for further intervention. This systematic review was performed to summarise their unmet needs from a quantitative viewpoint. DESIGN: Systematic review using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. DATA SOURCES: A comprehensive search of six databases was conducted from inception to February 2020: PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, SCOPUS and CBM. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed. Unmet needs were categorised, and a pooled analysis of the main outcomes was conducted. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR SELECTING STUDIES: We included quantitative studies focused on the unmet needs of stroke survivors who live at homes rather than in any other institutionalised organisation. RESULTS: In total, 32 of 2660 studies were included, and 1980 unmet needs were identified. The prevalence of patients with unmet needs ranged from 15.08% to 97.59%, with a median of 67.20%; the median number of unmet needs per patient ranged from 2 to 8 (0-31). The prevalence of unmet needs was high at 6 months post-stroke (62.14%) and 2 years post-stroke (81.37%). After categorisation, the main concerns among these patients were revealed to be information support, physical function and mental health; a few studies reported unmet needs related to leisure exercise, return to work and so on. Additionally, differences in the measurement tools used across studies affect what unmet needs participants report. CONCLUSIONS: Sufficient, accurate, individualised and dynamic information support is a priority among community-dwelling stroke survivors. Physical function and mental health are also the most significant concerns for re-achieving social participation. It is essential to design and disseminate standard, effective and time-saving tools to assess unmet needs. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42018112181.

Exosomal microRNAs-mediated intercellular communication and exosome-based cancer treatment.

Exosomes are extracellular vesicles with a diameter of about 30 to 100 nm, which play a crucial role in intercellular communication. Compared with normal cells, the release rate of tumor-derived exosomes (TDEs) significantly increased, and exosomal contents, especially microRNAs (miRNAs), greatly changed. TDEs contribute to the proliferation, metastasis and resistance of tumor cells, regulate immune response and tumor autophagy, and mediate tumor-stroma communication. In addition, exosomes may be involved in tumor complications. In view of the role of exosomes in intercellular communication, exosomes have been developed as tumor biomarkers, therapeutic targets, and drug delivery systems for tumor diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. Despite the many advantages of exosomes, there are many challenges in exosomal development and application, such as incomprehensive understanding of biological functions, safety and specificity for therapeutic use. This article reviews the biogenesis of TDEs and focuses on the role of exosomal miRNAs in intercellular communication and exosome-based treatment for cancer.

New insights into molecular chaperone TRAP1 as a feasible target for future cancer treatments.

Tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated protein 1 (TRAP1), a molecular chaperone, is a major member of the mitochondrial heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) family. Studies have shown that TRAP1 can prevent hypoxia-induced damage to cardiomyocytes, maintain cardiomyocytes viability and mitochondrial membrane potential, and protect cardiomyocytes. In addition, it can also protect astrocytes from ischemic damage in vitro. In recent years, there have been many new discoveries in tumors. The abnormal expression of TRAP1 is closely related to the occurrence and development of various tumors. TRAP1 protein seems to be a central regulatory protein, involved in the activation of various oncogenic proteins and signaling pathways, and has a balanced function at tumor transformation and the intersection of different metabolic processes. Targeting its chaperone activity and molecular interactions can destroy the metabolism and survival adaptability of tumor cells, paving the way for the development of highly selective mitochondrial anti-tumor drugs. Moreover, the combination of TRAP1 inhibition and current traditional cancer therapies has shown promising applications. These findings have important implications for the diagnosis and treatment of tumors. Therefore, we reviewed the recently identified functions of the molecular chaperone TRAP1 in cancer development and progression, as well as the discovery and recent advances in selective TRAP1 inhibitors as anticancer drug therapies, opening up new attractive prospects for exploring strategies for targeting TRAP1 as a tumor cell target.

Roles of galectin-3 in metabolic disorders and tumor cell metabolism.

The galactoside-binding protein galectin-3 is commonly overexpressed by cancer cells and promotes cancer progression and metastasis. Over the past few years, evidence has emerged that galectin-3 is also overexpressed in several metabolic malfunction conditions such as diabetes, obesity and atherosclerosis and is involved in the regulation of the occurrence and development of these diseases. Recently, Galectin-3 expression is shown also to be associated with glycolysis and mitochondrial metabolism in tumors, and promotes tumor metabolic reprogramming for their adaption to the microenvironment stress imposed by oxygen and nutrients deprivation. This brief review summarizes the current understanding of the roles and actions of galectin-3 in these metabolic diseases and in tumor metabolism.

Galectin-3 expression and secretion by tumor-associated macrophages in hypoxia promotes breast cancer progression.

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) have been shown to be associated with poor prognosis of cancer and are predominately localized in the hypoxia regions of tumor. We demonstrated in this study that hypoxia increases the synthesis and secretion of galectin-3 by TAMs. The increased expression of galectin-3 in TAMs was seen to be associated with nucleation of transcription factor NF-κB through generation and activation of ROS and promoted tumor growth and metastasis in vitro and in mice through multiple molecular mechanisms. It was found that the TAMs-mediated promotion of tumor growth and metastasis in hypoxia was inhibited by administration of macrophage-depletion agent clodronate liposomal (CL) or galectin-3 inhibitor modified citric pectin (MCP) in orthotopic syngeneic mammary adenocarcinoma model and metastasis model. Co-administration of anti-angiogenesis agent sorafenib or bevacizumab with CL and MCP showed to cause stronger inhibition of tumor growth and metastasis than administration of each agent alone. These results indicate that hypoxia-induced galectin-3 expression and secretion from TAMs promotes tumor growth and metastasis. Targeting the actions of galectin-3 in hypoxia may be a potential therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment.

Validity and reliability of Chinese version of Adult Carer Quality of Life questionnaire (AC-QoL) in family caregivers of stroke survivors.

The Adult Carer Quality of Life questionnaire (AC-QoL) is a reliable and valid instrument used to assess the quality of life (QoL) of adult family caregivers. We explored the psychometric properties and tested the reliability and validity of a Chinese version of the AC-QoL with reliability and validity testing in 409 Chinese stroke caregivers. We used item-total correlation and extreme group comparison to do item analysis. To evaluate its reliability, we used a test-retest reliability approach, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), together with Cronbach's alpha and model-based internal consistency index; to evaluate its validity, we used scale content validity, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) via principal component analysis with varimax rotation. We found that the CFA did not in fact confirm the original factor model and our EFA yielded a 31-item measure with a five-factor model. In conclusions, although some items performed differently in our analysis of the original English language version and our Chinese language version, our translated AC-QoL is a reliable and valid tool which can be used to assess the quality of life of stroke caregivers in mainland China. Chinese version AC-QoL is a comprehensive and good measurement to understand caregivers and has the potential to be a screening tool to assess QoL of caregiver.