Ambient volatile organic compounds in a typical industrial city in southern China: Impacts of aromatic hydrocarbons from new industry.

New industrial parks, including fine chemical, medical manufacturers, etc., are emerging in modern cities in China, whereas their emissions and impacts have not been fully illuminated. In this study, ambient volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in Huizhou were measured in three functional zones, namely new industrial, roadside, and residential zones. The average mixing ratios of total VOCs were as follow: industrial (56.22 ±â€¯15.06 ppbv) > roadside (39.30 ±â€¯12.96 ppbv) > residential (26.03 ±â€¯7.31 ppbv). The ozone formation potential (OFP) and secondary organic aerosol formation potential (SOAP) of VOCs in the industrial zone were 1.5-2.3 and 1.7-3.1 times those in the other zones, respectively. Aromatics contributed the most to OFP (39.8 % - 44.8 %) and SOAP (78.9 % - 91.0 %), with much less contributions to VOCs mixing ratios (18.3 % - 21.2 %). Naphthalene was the most abundant aromatic species across the three zones and ranked among the top contributors to OFP and SOAP among all VOCs species. Source apportionment identified that new industrial emissions and solvent use was the largest VOCs contributor in the industrial zone (53.9 %), traffic-related emissions dominated in the roadside zone (40.7 %), while new industrial and traffic-related emissions contributed similar in the residential zone (32.9 % and 34.7 %, respectively). The carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks of hazardous VOCs were above the acceptable threshold, primarily due to new industrial and traffic-related emissions. Our results suggested to strengthen the control of new industrial emissions and aromatics sources in Huizhou city to improve air quality and protect human health.

Investigating the immunological activity of the Hsp70-P113 fusion protein for Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae detection: a groundbreaking study.

BACKGROUND: Mycoplasmal pneumonia of sheep and goats (MPSG) is an important infectious disease that threatens sheep and goat production worldwide, and Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae (Movi) is one of the major aetiological agents causing MPSG. The aim of this study was to investigate the immunological activity of the Hsp70‒P113 fusion protein derived from Movi and to develop a serological assay for the detection of Movi. METHODS: This study involved codon optimization of the dominant antigenic regions of Movi heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) and adhesin P113. Afterwards, the optimized sequences were inserted into the prokaryotic expression vector pET-30a( +) through tandem linking with the aid of a linker. Once a positive recombinant plasmid (pET-30a-rHsp70-P113) was successfully generated, the expression conditions were further refined. The resulting double gene fusion target protein (rHsp70‒P113) was subsequently purified using ProteinIso® Ni-NTA resin, and the reactivity of the protein was confirmed via SDS‒PAGE and Western blot analysis. An indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (i-ELISA) technique was developed to detect Movi utilizing the fusion protein as the coating antigen. The specificity, sensitivity, and reproducibility of all methods were assessed after each reaction parameter was optimized. RESULTS: The resulting rHsp70-P113 protein had a molecular weight of approximately 51 kDa and was predominantly expressed in the supernatant. Western blot analysis demonstrated its favourable reactivity. The optimal parameters for the i-ELISA technique were as follows: the rHsp70-P113 protein was encapsulated at a concentration of 5 µg/mL; the serum was diluted at a ratio of 1:50; the HRP-labelled donkey anti-goat IgG was diluted at a ratio of 1:6,000. The results of the cross-reactivity assays revealed that the i-ELISA was not cross-reactive with other goat-positive sera against Mycoplasma mycodies subsp. capri (Mmc), Mycoplasma capricolum subsp. capripneumoniae (Mccp), Mycoplasma arginini (Marg), orf virus (ORFV) or enzootic nasal tumour virus of goats (ENTV-2). The sensitivity of this method is high, with a maximum dilution of up to 1:640. The results of the intra- and inter-batch replication tests revealed that the coefficients of variation were both less than 10%, indicating excellent reproducibility. The analysis of 108 clinical serum samples via i-ELISA and indirect haemagglutination techniques yielded significant findings. Among these samples, 43 displayed positive results, whereas 65 presented negative results, resulting in a positivity rate of 39.8% for the i-ELISA method. In contrast, the indirect haemagglutination technique identified 20 positive samples and 88 negative samples, resulting in a positivity rate of 18.5%. Moreover, a comparison between the two methods revealed a conformity rate of 78.7%. CONCLUSION: The results obtained in this study lay the groundwork for advancements in the use of an Movi antibody detection kit, epidemiological inquiry, and subunit vaccines.

Erratum: TUG1 promotes the expression of IFITM3 in hepatocellular carcinoma by competitively binding to miR-29a: Erratum.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.7150/jca.57477.].

Ultrasensitive Electrochemical Biosensor with Powerful Triple Cascade Signal Amplification for Detection of MicroRNA.

In this work, by ingeniously integrating catalytic hairpin assembly (CHA), double-end Mg2+-dependent DNAzyme, and hybridization chain reaction (HCR) as a triple cascade signal amplifier, an efficient concatenated CHA-DNAzyme-HCR (CDH) system was constructed to develop an ultrasensitive electrochemical biosensor with a low-background signal for the detection of microRNA-221 (miRNA-221). In the presence of the target miRNA-221, the CHA cycle was initiated by reacting with hairpins H1 and H2 to form DNAzyme structure H1-H2, which catalyzed the cleavage of the substrate hairpin H0 to release two output DNAs (output 1 and output 2). Subsequently, the double-loop hairpin H fixed on the electrode plate was opened by the output DNAs, to trigger the HCR with the assistance of hairpins Ha and Hb. Finally, methylene blue was intercalated into the long dsDNA polymer of the HCR product, resulting in a significant electrochemical signal. Surprisingly, the double-loop structure of the hairpin H could prominently reduce the background signal for enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N). As a proof of concept, an ultrasensitive electrochemical biosensor was developed using the CDH system with a detection limit as low as 9.25 aM, achieving favorable application for the detection of miRNA-221 in various cancer cell lysates. Benefiting from its enzyme-free, label-free, low-background, and highly sensitive characteristics, the CDH system showed widespread application potential for analyzing trace amounts of biomarkers in various clinical research studies.

MRI-measured periprostatic to subcutaneous adipose tissue thickness ratio as an independent risk factor in prostate cancer patients undergoing radical prostatectomy.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether the periprostatic adipose tissue thickness (PPATT) is an independent prognostic factor for prostate cancer patients after laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (LRP). This retrospective cohort study included consecutive prostate cancer patients who underwent LRP treatment at Wuhan Union Hospital from June 2, 2016, to September 7, 2023. PPATT was defined as the thickness of periprostatic fat and was obtained by measuring the shortest vertical distance from the pubic symphysis to the prostate on the midsagittal T2-weighted MR images. Subcutaneous adipose tissue thickness (SATT) was obtained by measuring the shortest vertical distance from the pubic symphysis to the skin at the same slice with PPATT. The primary outcome of the study was biochemical recurrence (BCR), and the secondary outcome was overall survival (OS). Multivariable Cox regression analysis was used to identify independent prognostic factors for prostate cancer survival and prognosis. Based on the optimal cutoff value, 162 patients were divided into a low PPATT/SATT group (n = 82) and a high PPATT/SATT group (n = 80). During the entire follow-up period (median 23.5 months), 26 patients in the high PPATT/SATT group experienced BCR (32.5%), compared to 18 in the low PPATT/SATT group (22.0%). Kaplan-Meier curve analysis indicated that the interval to BCR was significantly shorter in the high PPATT/SATT group (P = 0.037). Multivariable Cox regression analysis revealed that an increase in the PPATT/SATT ratio was associated with BCR (hazard ratio: 1.90, 95% CI, 1.03-3.51; P = 0.040). The PPATT/SATT ratio is a significant independent risk factor for BCR after LRP for prostate cancer patients.

Mitophagy Promotes Hair Regeneration by Activating Glutathione Metabolism.

Mitophagy maintains tissue homeostasis by self-eliminating defective mitochondria through autophagy. How mitophagy regulates stem cell activity during hair regeneration remains unclear. Here, we found that mitophagy promotes the proliferation of hair germ (HG) cells by regulating glutathione (GSH) metabolism. First, single-cell RNA sequencing, mitochondrial probe, transmission electron microscopy, and immunofluorescence staining showed stronger mitochondrial activity and increased mitophagy-related gene especially Prohibitin 2 (Phb2) expression at early-anagen HG compared to the telogen HG. Mitochondrial inner membrane receptor protein PHB2 binds to LC3 to initiate mitophagy. Second, molecular docking and functional studies revealed that PHB2-LC3 activates mitophagy to eliminate the damaged mitochondria in HG. RNA-seq, single-cell metabolism, immunofluorescence staining, and functional validation discovered that LC3 promotes GSH metabolism to supply energy for promoting HG proliferation. Third, transcriptomics analysis and immunofluorescence staining indicated that mitophagy was down-regulated in the aged compared to young-mouse HG. Activating mitophagy and GSH pathways through small-molecule administration can reactivate HG cell proliferation followed by hair regeneration in aged hair follicles. Our findings open up a new avenue for exploring autophagy that promotes hair regeneration and emphasizes the role of the self-elimination effect of mitophagy in controlling the proliferation of HG cells by regulating GSH metabolism.

Dietary human milk oligosaccharides reduce allergic airway inflammation by modulating SCFAs level and ILC2 activity.

Group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) play a crucial role in the progression of asthma, yet the regulatory mechanisms modulating ILC2 responses in asthma remain underexplored. Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), vital non-nutritive components of breast milk, are known to significantly shape immune system development and influence the incidence of allergic diseases. However, their impact on ILC2-driven asthma is not fully understood. Our research reveals that dietary HMOs act as potent inhibitors of ILC2 responses and allergic airway inflammation. Treatment with 2'-fucosyllactose (2'-FL) and 6'-sialyllactose (6'-SL) significantly reduced ILC2-related airway inflammation induced by papain or Alternaria alternata in mice, evidenced by decreased eosinophil (EOS) infiltration and lower IL-5 and IL-13 levels in BALF. Notably, while ILC2 expresses HMO receptors, HMO did not act directly on ILC2 but potentially modulated their activity through alterations in gut microbiota derived SCFAs. HMO treatments alleviated airway inflammation in SCFA-dependent manners, with SCFA depletion or receptor blocking reversing these beneficial effects. This study reveals the potential of dietary HMOs in managing asthma through modulation of ILC2 activity and the gut-lung axis, proposing a new therapeutic avenue that utilises the immunomodulatory capacities of nutritional components to combat respiratory diseases.

A comprehensive atlas of pig RNA editome across 23 tissues reveals RNA editing affecting interaction mRNA-miRNAs.

RNA editing is a co-transcriptional/post-transcriptional modification that is mediated by the ADAR enzyme family. Profiling of RNA editing is very limited in pigs. In this study, we collated 3813 RNA-seq data from the public repositories across 23 tissues and carried out comprehensive profiling of RNA editing in pigs. In total, 127,927 A-to-I RNA editing sites were detected. Our analysis showed that 98.2% of RNA editing sites were located within repeat regions, primarily within the pig-specific SINE retrotransposon PRE-1/Pre0_SS elements. Subsequently, we focused on analyzing specific editing sites (SESs) in skeletal muscle tissues. Functional enrichment analyses suggested that they were enriched in signaling pathways associated with muscle cell differentiation, including DMD, MYOD1 and CAV1 genes. Furthermore, we discovered that RNA editing event in the 3`UTR of CFLAR mRNA influenced miR-708-5p binding in this region. In this study, the panoramic RNA editing landscape of different tissues of pigs was systematically mapped, and RNA editing sites and genes involved in muscle cell differentiation were identified. In summary, we identified modifications to pig RNA editing sites and provided candidate targets for further validation.

Association between thymus density loss and efficacy in non-small cell lung cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Background: Although the thymus undergoes degeneration with the advancement of age, recent studies have continuously revealed that the thymus possesses the potential for regeneration and may reverse this aging trend. Furthermore, an increasing number of studies indicate an association between thymus function and immunotherapy. Considering that lung cancer patients typically undergo chest computed tomography (CT) scans during treatment, this provides convenient conditions for us to observe thymic remodeling through imaging data. Therefore, exploring the changes in the thymus on CT images is of great significance for understanding its relationship with the efficacy of immunotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. This study investigated the CT imaging characteristics of thymic density changes in patients with advanced NSCLC after immunotherapy. The primary objective was to determine whether changes in thymic density are predictors of response to immunotherapy in patients with NSCLC. Methods: A total of 412 patients with advanced NSCLC who underwent immunotherapy were included. Thymic density measurements were taken initially and after immunotherapy, with the annualized change calculated. Comprehensive analysis, including disease progression, survival, and subgroup assessments, was conducted. The primary outcome was overall survival (OS), and the secondary outcomes were progression-free survival (PFS), objective response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR). Results: The annual change in density of the thymic region ranged from -108 to 108 HU after the initiation of ICIs. Patients were categorized into "loss" or "non-loss" groups (210 vs. 202) based on thymic density changes. Analysis of short-term progression of solid tumors revealed no statistically significant differences in ORR (P=0.55) and DCR (P=0.67) between the two groups. Throughout the entire follow-up period, 41 patients (19.5%) in the "loss" group and 64 patients (31.7%) in the "non-loss" group died. Thymic density reduction was not associated with PFS (P=0.08), but it was positively associated with increased OS (P=0.003). The results were consistent across subgroups. Conclusions: Thymic density changes were observed in nearly all NSCLC patients undergoing immunotherapy, with decreased density associated with longer OS. These findings suggest a potential association between thymic density changes and immune efficacy in NSCLC immunotherapy.

Development and acceptability of a gestational diabetes mellitus prevention system (Better pregnancy) based on a user-centered approach: A clinical feasibility study.

Background: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) can increase the risk of adverse outcomes for both mothers and infants. Preventive interventions can effectively assist pregnant women suffering from GDM. At present, pregnant women are unaware of the importance of preventing GDM, and they possess a low level of self-management ability. Recently, mHealth technology has been used worldwide. Therefore, developing a mobile health app for GDM prevention could potentially help pregnant women reduce the risk of GDM. Objective: To design and develop a mobile application, evaluate its acceptance, and understand the users'using experience and suggestions, thus providing a valid tool to assist pregnant women at risk of GDM in enhancing their self-management ability and preventing GDM. Methods: An evidence-based GDM prevent app (Better pregnancy) was developed using user-centered design methods, following the health belief model, and incorporating GDM risk prediction. A convenient sampling method was employed from June to August 2022 to select 102 pregnant women at risk of GDM for the pilot study. After a week, the app's acceptability was evaluated using an application acceptance questionnaire, and we updated the app based on the feedback from the women. We used SPSS 26.0 for data analysis. Results: The application offers various functionalities, including GDM risk prediction, health management plan, behavior management, health information, personalized guidance and consultation, peer support, family support, and other functions. In total, 102 pregnant women consented to participate in the study, achieving a retention rate of 98%; however, 2% (n = 2) withdrew. The Better pregnancy app's average acceptability score is 4.07 out of 5. Additionally, participants offered several suggestions aimed at enhancing the application. Conclusions: The Better pregnancy app developed in this study can serve as an auxiliary management tool for the prevention of GDM, providing a foundation for subsequent randomized controlled trials.

An evolutionarily conserved pathway mediated by neuroparsin-A regulates reproductive plasticity in ants.

Phenotypic plasticity displayed by an animal in response to different environmental conditions is supposedly crucial for its survival and reproduction. The female adults of some ant lineages display phenotypic plasticity related to reproductive role. In pharaoh ant queens, insemination induces substantial physiological/behavioral changes and implicates remarkable gene regulatory network (GRN) shift in the brain. Here, we report a neuropeptide neuroparsin A (NPA) showing a conserved expression pattern associated with reproductive activity across ant species. Knock-down of NPA in unmated queen enhances ovary activity, whereas injection of NPA peptide in fertilized queen suppresses ovary activity. We found that NPA mainly affected the downstream gene JHBP in the ovary, which is positively regulated by NPA and suppression of which induces elevated ovary activity, and shadow which is negatively regulated by NPA. Furthermore, we show that NPA was also employed into the brain-ovary axis in regulating the worker reproductive changes in other distantly related species, such as Harpegnathos venator ants.

ERK5 promotes autocrine expression to sustain mitogenic balance for cell fate specification in human pluripotent stem cells.

The homeostasis of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) requires the signaling balance of extracellular factors. Exogenous regulators from cell culture medium have been widely reported, but little attention has been paid to the autocrine factor from hPSCs themselves. In this report, we demonstrate that extracellular signal-related kinase 5 (ERK5) regulates endogenous autocrine factors essential for pluripotency and differentiation. ERK5 inhibition leads to erroneous cell fate specification in all lineages even under lineage-specific induction. hPSCs can self-renew under ERK5 inhibition in the presence of fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) and transforming growth factor ß (TGF-ß), although NANOG expression is partially suppressed. Further analysis demonstrates that ERK5 promotes the expression of autocrine factors such as NODAL, FGF8, and WNT3. The addition of NODAL protein rescues NANOG expression and differentiation phenotypes under ERK5 inhibition. We demonstrate that constitutively active ERK5 pathway allows self-renewal even without essential growth factors FGF2 and TGF-ß. This study highlights the essential contribution of autocrine pathways to proper maintenance and differentiation.

Medium acidosis drives cardiac differentiation during mesendoderm cell fate specification from human pluripotent stem cells.

Effective lineage-specific differentiation is essential to fulfilling the great potentials of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs). In this report, we investigate how modulation of medium pH and associated metabolic changes influence mesendoderm differentiation from hPSCs. We show that daily medium pH fluctuations are critical for the heterogeneity of cell fates in the absence of exogenous inducers. Acidic environment alone leads to cardiomyocyte generation without other signaling modulators. In contrast, medium alkalinization is inhibitory to cardiac fate even in the presence of classic cardiac inducers. We then demonstrate that acidic environment suppresses glycolysis to facilitate cardiac differentiation, while alkaline condition promotes glycolysis and diverts the differentiation toward other cell types. We further show that glycolysis inhibition or AMPK activation can rescue cardiac differentiation under alkalinization, and glycolysis inhibition alone can drive cardiac cell fate. This study highlights that pH changes remodel metabolic patterns and modulate signaling pathways to control cell fate.

Graph Convolutional Multi-Label Hashing for Cross-Modal Retrieval.

Cross-modal hashing encodes different modalities of multimodal data into low-dimensional Hamming space for fast cross-modal retrieval. In multi-label cross-modal retrieval, multimodal data are often annotated with multiple labels, and some labels, e.g.", ocean" and "cloud", often co-occur. However, existing cross-modal hashing methods overlook label dependency that is crucial for improving performance. To fulfill this gap, this article proposes graph convolutional multi-label hashing (GCMLH) for effective multi-label cross-modal retrieval. Specifically, GCMLH first generates word embedding of each label and develops label encoder to learn highly correlated label embedding via graph convolutional network (GCN). In addition, GCMLH develops feature encoder for each modality, and feature fusion module to generate highly semantic feature via GCN. GCMLH uses teacher-student learning scheme to transfer knowledge from the teacher modules, i.e., label encoder and feature fusion module, to the student module, i.e., feature encoder, such that learned hash code can well exploit multi-label dependency and multimodal semantic structure. Extensive empirical results on several benchmarks demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method over existing state-of-the-arts.

Effect of Guanidinoacetic Acid on Production Performance, Serum Biochemistry, Meat Quality and Rumen Fermentation in Hu Sheep.

Guanidinoacetic acid (GAA) can effectively improve the metabolism of energy and proteins by stimulating creatine biosynthesis. We present a study exploring the impact of GAA on production performance, serum biochemistry, meat quality and rumen fermentation in Hu sheep. A total of 144 weaned male Hu sheep (body weight 16.91 ± 3.1 kg) were randomly assigned to four groups with three replicates of twelve sheep in each group. The diets were supplemented with 0 (CON), 500 (GAA-1), 750 (GAA-2) and 1000 mg/kg (GAA-3) of GAA (weight of feed), respectively. After a comprehensive 90-day experimental period, we discovered that the supplementation of GAA had a remarkable impact on various muscle parameters. Specifically, it significantly enhanced the average daily growth (ADG) of the animals and improved the shear force and fiber diameter of the muscle, while also reducing the drip loss and muscle fiber density. Furthermore, the addition of GAA to the feed notably elevated the serum concentrations of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), total protein (TP) and globulin (GLB), as well as the enzyme activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px). Concurrently, there was a decrease in the levels of triglycerides (TG) and malondialdehyde (MDA) in the serum. In addition, GAA decreased the pH and the acetate-to-propionate ratio and increased the total volatile fatty acids (TVFA) and ammoniacal nitrogen (NH3-N) levels of rumen fluid. Additionally, GAA upregulated acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) gene expression in the Hu sheep's muscles. In conclusion, our findings suggest that GAA supplementation not only enhances muscle quality but also positively affects serum biochemistry and ruminal metabolism, making it a potential candidate for improving the overall health and performance of Hu sheep.

The mechano-chemical circuit in fibroblasts and dendritic cells drives basal cell proliferation in psoriasis.

Psoriasis is an intractable immune-mediated disorder that disrupts the skin barrier. While studies have dissected the mechanism by which immune cells directly regulate epidermal cell proliferation, the involvement of dermal fibroblasts in the progression of psoriasis remains unclear. Here, we identified that signals from dendritic cells (DCs) that migrate to the dermal-epidermal junction region enhance dermal stiffness by increasing extracellular matrix (ECM) expression, which further promotes basal epidermal cell hyperproliferation. We analyzed cell-cell interactions and observed stronger interactions between DCs and fibroblasts than between DCs and epidermal cells. Using single-cell RNA (scRNA) sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, immunostaining, and stiffness measurement, we found that DC-secreted LGALS9 can be received by CD44+ dermal fibroblasts, leading to increased ECM expression that creates a stiffer dermal environment. By employing mouse psoriasis and skin organoid models, we discovered a mechano-chemical signaling pathway that originates from DCs, extends to dermal fibroblasts, and ultimately enhances basal cell proliferation in psoriatic skin.

The complete chloroplast genome sequences of nine melon varieties (Cucumis melo L.): lights into comparative analysis and phylogenetic relationships.

Melon (Cucumis melo L.) is one of the most extensively grown horticulture crops of the world. Based on the morphological characters, melon was formerly divided into two subspecies, Cucumis melo ssp. melo and C. melo ssp. agrestis. However, the present methods are still inadequate to distinguish between them. The phylogenetic analysis based on chloroplast genome sequences could provide essential evidence for the classification of melon varieties. We sequenced the chloroplast genomes of nine different melon varieties by the Illumina Hiseq and performed bioinformatic analyses including repeat element analysis, genome comparison and phylogenetic analysis. The results showed that the melon chloroplast genome has a typical quadripartite structure that was conserved across the analyzed sequences. Its length ranges between 155, 558 and 156, 569 bp, with a total GC content varying from 36.7% to 37%. We found 127-132 genes in melon chloroplast genomes, including 85-87 protein-coding regions, 34-37 tRNA and 6-8 rRNA genes. The molecular structure, gene order, content, codon usage, long repeats, and simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were mostly conserved among the nine sequenced genomes. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the chloroplast genome could clearly distinguish between C. melo ssp. melo and C. melo ssp. agrestis. This study not only provides valuable knowledge on melon chloroplasts, but also offers a theoretical basis and technical support for the genetic breeding of melons.

Draft genome assemblies of the ponerine ant Odontoponera transversa and the carpenter ant Camponotus friedae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).

OBJECTIVES: Ants are ecologically dominant insects in most terrestrial ecosystems, with more than 14,000 extant species in about 340 genera recorded to date. However, genomic resources are still scarce for most species, especially for species endemic in East or Southeast Asia, limiting the study of phylogeny, speciation and adaptation of this evolutionarily successful animal lineage. Here, we assemble and annotate the genomes of Odontoponera transversa and Camponotus friedae, two ant species with a natural distribution in China, to facilitate future study of ant evolution. DATA DESCRIPTION: We obtained a total of 16 Gb and 51 Gb PacBio HiFi data for O. transversa and C. friedae, respectively, which were assembled into the draft genomes of 339 Mb for O. transversa and 233 Mb for C. friedae. Genome assessments by multiple metrics showed good completeness and high accuracy of the two assemblies. Gene annotations assisted by RNA-seq data yielded a comparable number of protein-coding genes in the two genomes (10,892 for O. transversa and 11,296 for C. friedae), while repeat annotations revealed a remarkable difference of repeat content between these two ant species (149.4 Mb for O. transversa versus 49.7 Mb for C. friedae). Besides, complete mitochondrial genomes for the two species were assembled and annotated.

Fabrication of black wolfberry anthocyanin-based hydrogels for monitoring freshness and extending shelf-life of Dolang lamb.

In this study, a black wolfberry anthocyanin-based indication label (BWIL) was developed using black wolfberry pigment (BWP) in combination with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) (PVA:CMC = 4:3). The potential use of BWIL for monitoring the freshness of Dorang lamb was further investigated. As revealed, physical cross-linking occurred between PVA, CMC and BWP during the preparation of BWIL. The addition of BWP promoted the internal cross-linking, porosity, and thermal stability of BWIL significantly (p < 0.05). Specifically, BWIL showed a distinct color change when exposed to the refrigerated conditions of Dorang lamb. After 6 days, 12 days and 16 days of lamb refrigeration, the ΔE of BWIL was 26.3, 28.6 and 30.7, respectively, which far exceeded the human eyes' color threshold discernible (ΔE = 3.5). Besides, the ΔE of BWIL was significantly correlated with pH, fat oxidation, and TVB-N content of Dorang lamb (p < 0.05). This result indicated that BWIL could be used for identifying the freshness of lamb accurately. Importantly, the shelf-life of lamb with BWIL was extended from 6 days to 16 days, which suggests that BWIL would be an effective tool for real-time freshness monitoring and shelf-life extending of Dorang lamb.

Guizhi Fuling Wan attenuates tetrachloromethane-induced hepatic fibrosis in rats via PTEN/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Treatment options for hepatic fibrosis, a prevalent liver condition closely linked to cirrhosis, are currently limited. While Guizhi Fuling Wan (GFW), a pill derived from traditional Chinese herbs, has been reported to possess hepatoprotective properties, its therapeutic effect and mechanism in hepatic fibrosis remain elusive. AIM OF THE STUDY: This study aimed to evaluate the anti-fibrotic impact of GFW and its underlying mechanisms in both in vivo and in vitro settings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Tetrachloromethane (CCl4) was used to induce hepatic fibrosis in male rats. In vitro, activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) was triggered by platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB). In vivo, liver function, pathological alterations, and HSC activation were evaluated. Additionally, the impact of GFW on the activated phenotypes of Lieming Xu-2 (LX-2) cells was examined in vitro. Network pharmacology was employed to identify the potential targets of GFW in hepatic fibrosis. Lastly, the impact of GFW on the PTEN/AKT/mTOR pathway and PTEN ubiquitination in HSCs was investigated. RESULTS: GFW alleviated CCl4-induced liver damage and scarring in rats in a dose-dependent manner and suppressed HSC activation in vivo. Moreover, GFW inhibited the proliferation, migration, differentiation, and extracellular matrix (ECM) production of activated HSCs in vitro. GFW also promoted autophagy and apoptosis of HSCs. Meanwhile, network pharmacology and in vitro studies suggested that GFW inhibits the AKT/mTOR pathway by preventing PTEN degradation by suppressing ubiquitination. CONCLUSION: GFW attenuates Ccl4-induced hepatic fibrosis in male rats by regulating the PTEN/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway, positioning it as a potential candidate for the treatment of hepatic fibrosis.