Protocol for automated N-glycan sequencing using mass spectrometry and computer-assisted intelligent fragmentation.

Biological functions of glycans are intimately linked to fine details in branches and linkages, which make structural identification extremely challenging. Here, we present a protocol for automated N-glycan sequencing using multi-stage mass spectrometry (MSn). We describe steps for release/purification and derivation of glycans and procedures for MSn scanning. We then detail "glycan intelligent precursor selection" to computationally guide MSn experiments. The protocol can be used for both discrete individual glycans and isomeric glycan mixtures. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Sun et al.,1 Huang et al.,2 and Huang et al.3.

[Simultaneous Immobilization of Cadmium and Arsenic in Paddy Soils with Novel Fe-Mn Combined Graphene Oxide].

Novel Fe-Mn combined graphene oxide （GO-FM） material was produced and tested for its efficacy in remediating agricultural soil co-contaminated by Cd and As. In a 60-day soil incubation experiment， the remediation mechanism and immobilization effects of GO and GO-FM at different addition ratios （0.1%， 0.2%， and 0.3%） were investigated in Shangyu and Foshan soils， which had varying physicochemical properties and contamination degrees. The dynamic changes in pH， DOC concentration， bioavailable Cd and As content， and morphology of Cd and As were explored to determine the remediation efficacy of the materials. The results demonstrated that compared with that in the blank control， GO-FM increased the pH in Shangyu soil but decreased the pH in Foshan soil. After culture， both GO and GO-FM increased the soil DOC content. GO-FM decreased the soluble Cd concentration by 5.08%-19.19% and the bioavailability of Cd by 36.57%-42.8% in Foshan soil， and the main immobilization mechanism was electrostatic adsorption， complexation， and hydroxylated metal ion formation. The immobilization ability of GO-FM on Cd was lower than that of Foshan soil due to the influence of electrostatic repulsion in Shangyu acidic soil. However， with the increase in the amount of GO-FM， the trend of increasing the bioavailability of Cd by graphene oxide was inhibited. The addition of 0.2% and 0.3% GO-FM decreased the bioavailability of Cd by 6.45%-13.56% in Shangyu soil. Additionally， GO-FM decreased the bioavailability of As in Shangyu soil and Foshan soil by 4.34%-9.15% and 0.87%-5.71%， respectively. This was due to the immobilization mechanism of oxidation of As by manganese oxides and inner surface chelate between As and the surface hydroxyl group of iron oxides. In summary， the immobilization effect of GO-FM on Cd in Foshan soil was better than that in Shangyu soil， and the immobilization effect of GO-FM on As in Shangyu soil was better than that in Foshan soil， which can provide a theoretical basis and reference for the prevention and control of Cd and As co-contamination in different types of soil.

Deregulation of circRNA hsa_circ_0009109 promotes tumor growth and initiates autophagy by sponging miR-544a-3p in gastric cancer.

Background: Autophagy death of cancer cells is detrimental to apoptosis induced by therapeutic drugs, which promotes tumor progression to a certain extent. Increasing reports have demonstrated the regulatory role of circular RNAs (circRNAs) in autophagy. Here, we aimed to determine the role of hsa_circ_0009109 in autophagy in gastric cancer (GC). Methods: The effects of hsa_circ_0009109 on autophagy were examined using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), transmission electron microscopy, Western blot, and immunofluorescence. The mechanism of hsa_circ_0009109 regulating the miR-544a-3p/bcl-2 axis was analysed using fluorescence in situ hybridization, dual-luciferase reporter, and rescue experiments. Results: Functional testing indicated that hsa_circ_0009109 was significantly down-expressed in GC tissues and cell lines. A reduction in cytoplasmic-derived hsa_circ_0009109 could promote GC progression by accelerating cell proliferation, enhancing migration and invasion, inhibiting apoptosis, and accelerating the cell cycle progression. Besides, hsa_circ_0009109 was found to exert the effect of an autophagy inhibitor such as 3-Methyladenine (3-MA), which was manifested by the weakening of the immunofluorescence of LC3B and the reduction in autophagy-related proteins after overexpression of hsa_circ_0009109, while increased autophagosomes were observed after interference with hsa_circ_0009109. Subsequently, the crosstalk between hsa_circ_0009109 and miR-544a-3p/bcl-2 was verified using dual-luciferase reporter assay. The autophagy status was altered under the regulation of the hsa_circ_0009109-targeted miR-544a-3p/bcl-2 axis. Conclusions: The hsa_circ_0009109 mediated a novel autophagy regulatory network through targeting the miR-544a-3p/bcl-2 axis, which may shed new light on the exploration of therapeutic targets for the clinical treatment of GC.

[Using Biochar and Iron-calcium Material to Remediate Paddy Soil Contaminated by Cadmium and Arsenic].

In this study, iron-calcium material (FC) and hickory-cattail biochar (BC) were applied to prepare composite material (BF), which was used to repair the combined pollution of cadmium and arsenic in paddy soil to reduce the content of cadmium (Cd) and arsenic (As) in rice grain. Soil pore water, rhizosphere soil, bulk soil, rice plants, and root iron plaque samples were collected during the growth period of rice in a pot experiment to explore the effects and mechanism of FC, BC, and BF on the bioavailability of Cd and As in paddy soil and their contents in plants. The results showed that biochar could significantly (P < 0.05) increase the pH value of bulk soil (0.55-0.66 units) and rhizosphere soil (0.28-0.36 units) and elevate the soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC) content. FC material could significantly (P < 0.05) reduce the pH of bulk soil (0.14-0.27 units) and rhizosphere soil (0.38-0.41 units), as well as the soil DOC content. Iron-calcium materials and composite could simultaneously reduce the contents of available Cd and As in soil pore water, rhizosphere soil, and bulk soil, whereas biochar could reduce the content of Cd but increase the content of As. Among them, a 1% addition of composite had the best effect. The available Cd and As in soil decreased by 41.8%-48.2% and 6.1%-10.1%, respectively. Biochar, iron-calcium materials, and composites improved plant biomass (dry weight of root, stem, leaf, and grain). For example, the dry weights of rice grains under these treatments were higher (48.5%-184.0%) than that of CK, as was the root iron plaque content (7.5%-13.6%). Compared with that in the CK, biochar could effectively reduce the Cd content in rice grain by 21.0%-26.1%. Iron-calcium material and composite could simultaneously reduce the Cd and As contents in rice grain. Among them, the BF treatment had the best effect on the reduction of Cd and As in rice grain, with a decrease of 36.9%-42.0% and 40.4%-44.4%, respectively. The Cd and As contents in rice grain were lower than the national standard values (GB 2762-2017).

Human milk oligosaccharides in milk of mothers with term and preterm delivery at different lactation stage.

Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are structurally diverse unconjugated glycans, and play crucial roles in protecting infants from infections. Preterm birth is one of the leading causes of neonatal mortality, and preterm infants are particularly vulnerable and are in need of improved outcomes from breast-feeding due to the presence of bioactive HMOs. However, studies on specific difference in HMOs as a function of gestation time have been very limited. We established an approach to extract and analyze HMOs based on 96-well plate extraction and mass spectrometry, and determined maternal phenotypes through distinctive fragments in product-ion spectra. We enrolled 85 women delivering at different gestation times (25-41 weeks), and observed different HMOs correlating with gestation time based on 233 samples from the 85 donors. With the increase of postpartum age, we observed a regular changing trajectory of HMOs in composition and relative abundance, and found significant differences in HMOs secreted at different postpartum times. Preterm delivery induced more variations between participants with different phenotypes compared with term delivery, and more HMOs varied with postpartum age in the population of secretors. The sialylation level in mature milk decreased for women delivering preterm while such decrease was not observed for women delivering on term.

Endogenous Plasma Peptides Modulated by Protease in a Time-Dependent Manner as Effective Biomarkers for Preanalytical Quality Control.

Non-cryopreservation temperature exposure (NCE) is a vital preanalytical factor for assessing plasma quality. NCE can introduce undesirable errors in clinical diagnosis or when developing biomarkers of diseases. Biomarkers that can effectively indicate the changes in sample quality caused by long-term NCE (0-several days) are limited. Low-molecular-weight (LMW) peptides in the plasma are modulated by endogenous proteases. These protease activities are significantly correlated with NCE temperatures and duration, indicating a potential link of these protease reactions with the preanalytical quality of plasma samples. In this study, two groups of plasma samples were aged at room temperature (RT, 57 samples) and 4 °C (69 samples) for different durations (0, 1, 2, 5, and 10 days), and LMW peptidomics were analyzed through nanopore-assisted matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The analysis revealed 10 peptides that consistently exhibited time-dependent changes, which were used to develop multiple-variable models for predicting the changes in sample quality resulting from extended NCE. These biomarker models exhibited outstanding performance in distinguishing poor-quality samples aged at both RT and 4 °C. To validate the findings, tests on samples from validation sets were conducted by analysts who were blinded to the detailed conditions, which revealed a high specificity (94.3-96.9%) and sensitivity (90.5-99.3%). These results indicate the potential of these peptides as novel biomarkers of quality control.

Delivery of spike-RBD by bacterial type three secretion system for SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development.

COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread throughout the world with an urgent demand for a safe and protective vaccine to effectuate herd protection and control the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Here, we report the development of a bacterial vector COVID-19 vaccine (aPA-RBD) that carries the gene for the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Live-attenuated strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (aPA) were constructed which express the recombinant RBD and effectively deliver RBD protein into various antigen presenting cells through bacterial type 3 secretion system (T3SS) in vitro. In mice, two-dose of intranasal aPA-RBD vaccinations elicited the development of RBD-specific serum IgG and IgM. Importantly, the sera from the immunized mice were able to neutralize host cell infections by SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus as well as the authentic virus variants potently. T-cell responses of immunized mice were assessed by enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) and intracellular cytokine staining (ICS) assays. aPA-RBD vaccinations can elicit RBD-specific CD4+and CD8+T cell responses. T3SS-based RBD intracellular delivery heightens the efficiency of antigen presentation and enables the aPA-RBD vaccine to elicit CD8+T cell response. Thus, aPA vector has the potential as an inexpensive, readily manufactured, and respiratory tract vaccination route vaccine platform for other pathogens.

Fresnel Diffraction Strategy Enables the Fabrication of Flexible Superomniphobic Surfaces.

Doubly re-entrant surfaces inspired by springtails exhibit excellent repellency to low-surface-tension liquid. However, the flexible doubly re-entrant surfaces are difficult to fabricate, especially for the overhang of the structure. Herein, we demonstrate a simple Fresnel aperture diffraction modulation strategy in microscale lithography coupled with a molding process to obtain the flexible doubly re-entrant superomniphobic surfaces with nanoscale overhangs. The negative nanoscale overhang features were formed in a single-layer photoresist due to the fine-modulation of the optical intensity fluctuation of the Fresnel aperture diffraction. The as-prepared flexible non-fluorinated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) doubly re-entrant microstructure based on the Fresnel aperture diffraction (D-BF) surface (without any additional treatments) could repel ethanol droplets (21.8 mN m-1) in the Cassie-Baxter state. The robust nanoscale overhangs obtained by the molding process enable the maximum breakthrough pressure for the low-surface-tension ethanol droplets on the D-BF surfaces up to about 230 Pa, allowing ethanol liquids with Weber numbers up to 8.7 to fully bounce off. The fabricated non-fluorinated D-BF superomniphobic surface maintains outstanding liquid repellency after the surface wettability modification and deformation test.

Study of sewage oxygenation treatment based on gas magnetization mechanism.

In the process of sewage treatment, the sewage usually needs to be aerated, so the oxygenation efficiency is an important indicator for the aerator. The general oxygenation technique is to inject large amount of natural air into the aeration tank over long time, which has lower efficiency and leads to dramatic waste of energy. Based on the gas-liquid fusion mass transfer model and combined the oxygen enrichment mechanism by magnetization of the gas into the aerator, a novel method to improve the efficiency of wastewater oxygenation is proposed. This method is based on the fact that oxygen and nitrogen exhibit completely different magnetic characteristics in gradient magnetic fields, and then the special shaped permanent magnets can be used to build a target gradient magnetic field to increase the oxygen content as the gas is injected into the sewage by the aerator, which reaches the oxygenation enhancement effect. Through theoretical analysis and experiments, it is concluded that the efficiency of sewage oxygenation treatment is dramatically improved with the permanent magnet oxygen enrichment technique.

Spatial variation, sources identification and risk assessment of soil heavy metals in a typical Torreya grandis cv. Merrillii plantation region of southeastern China.

Torreya grandis (Torreya grandis cv. Merrillii) is a unique nut tree species in China. Currently, researches on Torreya grandis focus on nuts quality and yield, while few works are related to the soil quality of Torreya grandis plantation. In this study, the typical Torreya grandis production areas of Zhuji, Shengzhou, Keqiao and Dongyang cities along the Kuaiji Mountain were selected. A total of 121 topsoil samples (0-20 cm) were collected based on a grid of 1 km × 1 km. The results indicated that the average concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, As, Ni and Pb in soils were 0.12, 49.01, 27.95, 14.28, 26.97 and 40.28 mg kg-1, respectively. The concentrations of six heavy metals all exceeded the background values, and there were different degrees of pollution levels. The results of Moran's I indicated that the spatial high-high clusters of soil heavy metals were mainly distributed in Zhuji and the junction of Shengzhou and Keqiao. The partial least squares path analysis of structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) showed that OM and soil nutrients had extremely significant effects on soil heavy metals. Sources identification of principle component analysis (PCA) and positive matrix factorization model (PMF) revealed that agricultural activities, natural factors and mining were the main sources of soil heavy metals. The human health risks caused by soil heavy metals pollution were generally acceptable based on Monte Carlo simulation method. For the heavy-metal polluted area, management measures should be considered in order to protect human health.

Spatial variation of heavy metals and their ecological risk and health risks to local residents in a typical e-waste dismantling area of southeastern China.

There is an increasing concern that soils in e-waste recycling regions are severely contaminated by unregulated e-waste dismantling activities. Hence, it is urgent to reveal the spatial variation of hazardous elements in arable lands close to e-waste stacking and dismantling areas and their potential risks to human beings. We collected 349 topsoil samples based on an intensive grid of 100 m × 100 m in southeastern China. The average concentrations of heavy metals were 1.25 (Cd), 35.44 (Ni), 77.68 (Cr), 77.38 (Pb), 122.14 (Cu), 203.39 (Zn), 0.21 (Hg), and 4.74 (As) mg kg-1, respectively. Compared to the risk screening values of hazardous elements in Chinese agricultural land, Cd and Cu were severely accumulated in the soils. The results of ecological risk analysis revealed that Cd posed the crucial risk among the studied elements. However, the levels of non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk were still within the acceptable quantity for adults. Spatial distribution by kriging interpolation displayed that the heavy metals were mainly distributed close to e-waste dismantling sites.

Proteomics and post-translational modifications analysis of umbilical mesenchymal stem cells aging.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are considered to be critical for regenerative medicine. However, long-term culturing of MSCs will induce aging of MSCs, and thereafter impair cellular function. Changes in proteomics have been reported to be involved in cell aging, and therefore investigations on cell aging of MSCs at levels of proteomics and post-translational protein modifications (PTM) are ultimately important. In the present study, human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hUMSCs) were exposed to different culture conditions for either 7 or 30 days. Proteins changes during cell culture were investigated using tandem mass tag (TMT) labeling quantitative approach, and N-glycosylation patterns were analyzed using multistage mass spectrometry. We identified 66 proteins (fold change >1.50) that were differentially expressed in long-term culture. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis showed that aging exerts a side effect on hUMSCs by affecting various molecular functions and biological processes, such as lysosome, autophagy and post-translational protein modification. Glycosylation analysis indicates that cell N-glycan patterns are associated with aging of MSCs. Our results presented here should contribute to future studies on cell aging and cellular quality controls related to MSCs as regenerative medicine.

[Novel Insight into the Adsorption Mechanism of Fe-Mn Oxide-Microbe Combined Biochar for Cd(â ¡) and As(â ¢)].

A Fe-Mn oxide-microbe combined biochar (FM-DB) was prepared to simultaneously remove Cd(Ⅱ) and As(Ⅲ) contamination in an aqueous system. In the FM-DB, the best ratio of Fe-Mn oxide (FMBO) and carya cathayensis shell biochar (CCSB) was 3%+3%. The material had good acid resistance, mechanical strength, and mass transfer performance, and the maximum removal rates for Cd(Ⅱ) and As(Ⅲ) in the binary system were 77.29% and 99.94%, respectively. Characterization confirmed that the FM-DB was successfully prepared and had a rich functional group structure. The single-factor adsorption test results for Cd(Ⅱ) and As(Ⅲ) showed that the composite material had a certain adsorption capacity affected by initial pH, equilibration time, and initial concentration for Cd(Ⅱ) and As(Ⅲ) under different conditions. The adsorption isotherm and kinetic data indicated the adsorption equilibrium time for Cd(Ⅱ) and As(Ⅲ) was 3.5 h and 8 h, and the maximum capacity was 59.27 mg·g-1and 84.73 mg·g-1, respectively. The adsorption of Cd(Ⅱ) and As(Ⅲ) was mainly affected by the electron exchange, electron sharing, and complexation on the surface of the material. The whole adsorption process was a combination of single-layer adsorption and multi-layer adsorption on an uneven surface. The adsorption process was a multi-step process, including outer surface diffusion and inner particle diffusion. In addition, comparing the removal rate of composite materials in the single-component system and the binary system, a mutual promotion of adsorption between Cd(Ⅱ) and As(Ⅲ) was found under the binary system. In conclusion, oxide-microbe combined biochar could be an efficient adsorption material and was suitable for the remediation of aqueous system pollution caused by Cd(Ⅱ) and As(Ⅲ).

A stepwise mutagenesis approach using histidine and acidic amino acid to engineer highly pH-dependent protein switches.

Antibody-based drugs can be highly toxic, because they target normal tissue as well as tumor tissue. The pH value of the extracellular microenvironments around tumor tissues is lower than that of normal tissues. Therefore, antibodies that engage in pH-dependent binding at slightly acidic pH are crucial for improving the safety of antibody-based drugs. Thus, we implemented a stepwise mutagenesis approach to engineering pH-dependent antibodies capable of selective binding in the acidic microenvironment in this study. The first step involved single-residue histidine scanning mutagenesis of the antibody's complementarity-determining regions to prescreen for pH-dependent mutants and identify ionizable sensitive hot-spot residues that could be substituted by acidic amino acids to obtain pH-dependent antibodies. The second step involved single-acidic amino acid residue substitutions of the identified residues and the assessment of pH-dependent binding. We identified six ionizable sensitive hot-spot residues using single-histidine scanning mutagenesis. Nine pH-dependent antibodies were isolated using single-acidic amino acid residue mutagenesis at the six hot-spot residue positions. Relative to wild-type anti-CEA chimera antibody, the binding selectivity of the best performing mutant was improved by approximately 32-fold according to ELISA and by tenfold according to FACS assay. The mutant had a high affinity in the pH range of 5.5-6.0. This study supports the development of pH-dependent protein switches and increases our understanding of the role of ionizable residues in protein interfaces. The stepwise mutagenesis approach is rapid, general, and robust and is expected to produce pH-sensitive protein affinity reagents for various applications.

A 10-year monitoring of soil properties dynamics and soil fertility evaluation in Chinese hickory plantation regions of southeastern China.

Monitoring the temporal and spatial variation of soil properties is helpful to understand the evolution of soil properties and adjust the management method in time. Soil fertility evaluation is an urgent need to understand soil fertility level and prevent soil degradation. Here, we conducted an intensive field investigation in Chinese hickory (Carya cathayensis Sarg.) plantation to clarify the spatial and temporal variation of soil properties and its influencing factors, and to evaluate the change of soil fertility. The results showed that the soil pH and soil organic carbon (SOC) significantly increased from 2008 to 2018, while available nitrogen (AN) significantly decreased from 2008 to 2018. The semi-variance revealed that except available phosphorus (AP), the spatial dependencies of soil properties increased from 2008 to 2018. An increasing south-north gradient was found for soil AN, AP, available potassium (AK) and SOC and a decreasing south-north gradient was found for soil pH. The average soil fertility in the whole area was increased from 2008 to 2018. Our findings demonstrated that the changes of the management measures were the reason for the change of soil properties from 2008 to 2018. Therefore, rational fertilization strategies and sod cultivation are recommended to maintain the long-term development of the producing forest.

The effect of N-glycosylation of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein on the virus interaction with the host cell ACE2 receptor.

The densely glycosylated spike (S) protein highly exposed on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) surface mediates host cell entry by binding to the receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). However, the role of glycosylation has not been fully understood. In this study, we investigated the effect of different N-glycosylation of S1 protein on its binding to ACE2. Using real-time surface plasmon resonance assay the negative effects were demonstrated by the considerable increase of binding affinities of de-N-glycosylated S1 proteins produced from three different expression systems including baculovirus-insect, Chinese hamster ovarian and two variants of human embryonic kidney 293 cells. Molecular dynamic simulations of the S1 protein-ACE2 receptor complex revealed the steric hindrance and Coulombic repulsion effects of different types of N-glycans on the S1 protein interaction with ACE2. The results should contribute to future pathological studies of SARS-CoV-2 and therapeutic development of Covid-19, particularly using recombinant S1 proteins as models.

[Spatial Distribution Characteristics and Risk Assessment of Cadmium Pollution in Soil-crops system of an E-waste Dismantling Area].

With the rapid development of electronic technology, soil heavy metal contamination caused by electronic waste dismantling activities has attracted the attention of many researchers. To investigate the contamination status and spatial distribution of Cd in soil-crop systems around an e-waste dismantling area, 171 pairs of soil and crop samples were collected for analysis. The concentrations of cadmium in root vegetable soil, leaf vegetable soil, solanaceous vegetable soil, and orchard soil were (1.292±0.647), (1.010±0.201), (0.921±0.125), and (0.861±0.135) mg·kg-1, respectively. The average values of cadmium in these four soil types were 10.0, 7.8, 7.1, and 6.3 times the background values of soil Cd in Zhejiang Province, respectively, and 4.31, 3.4, 3.07, and 2.72 times the risk screening values for soil contamination of agricultural land, clearly indicating cadmium accumulation in the soil. However, only a small percentage of crops contained cadmium levels that exceeded food safety limits. Moreover, different types of crops showed different capacities for cadmium enrichment and can be ranked accordingly: leaf vegetables > root vegetables > solanaceous vegetables > fruits. The single factor pollution index and the potential ecological risk assessment revealed severe Cd contamination in the study area, with a high potential ecological risk. Cadmium exposure posed a higher health risk for children than for adults. However, the single heavy metal cadmium pollution index does not indicate a threat to local residents at this time. Moran's I index and kriging interpolation results revealed that Cd has significant spatial autocorrelation, with high values mainly concentrating around the e-waste dismantling area, indicating a significant correlation with e-waste dismantling activities.

[Simultaneous Immobilization of Arsenic, Lead, and Cadmium in Paddy Soils Using Two Iron-based Materials].

Two iron-based materials, Fe-Ca composite (FeCa) and Fe-Mn binary oxide (FMBO), were applied to immobilize As, Pb, and Cd in heavy metal contaminated paddy soils. Seven kinds of paddy soil (tidal soil) contaminated by arsenic, lead and cadmium were collected from Shangyu, Shaoxing (SY), Foshan, Guangdong (FS), Shaoguan, Guangdong (SG), LiuYang, Hunan (LY), Ganzhou, Jiangxi (GZ), Dushan, Guizhou (DS), and Ma'anshan, Anhui (MAS). The effects of iron-based materials on the dynamic changes of As, Pb, and Cd concentration in soil solution, the stabilization efficacy of available As, Pb, and Cd in soil, and the effects of soil types and properties on stabilization efficacy were studied through soil incubation experiment. The results showed that the content of soil dissolved As, Pb, and Cd were lower in iron-based material treatments than in control throughout the incubation. The addition of two iron-based materials significantly reduced the availability of Cd, Pb, and As. Moreover, the stabilization efficiency of FeCa for As was higher than FMBO, but no significant difference was found in the stabilization efficiency of Pb and Cd between two materials. The stabilization efficiency of As, Pb, and Cd in FeCa treatments could be ordered as GZ > SG > DS and MAS; FS>SY, LY, and SG>MAS; SY, GZ, and DS>MAS, respectively. While the stabilization efficiency for As, Pb, and Cd in FMBO could be ordered as SY, LY, and GZ > DS > FS; FS > GZ > SY; DS > LY > MAS, respectively. In addition, the statistical results showed that the stabilization efficiencies of various soils under the treatment of iron-based materials were significantly correlated with sand content (negatively correlated for As), soil pH (positively correlated for Pb), and clay content (negatively correlated for Cd). In conclusion, the two iron-based materials evaluated in this study may be effective stabilization agents for remediating different types of arsenic-, lead-, and cadmium-contaminated soils.

Glycosylation of Anti-Thyroglobulin IgG1 and IgG4 Subclasses in Thyroid Diseases.

OBJECTIVE: Thyroglobulin antibodies (TgAb), principally comprising immunoglobulin G (IgG), are frequently found in healthy individuals. Previously, we showed that the glycosylation levels of TgAb IgG differed across various thyroid diseases, suggesting an important role of glycosylation on antibodies in the pathogenesis of thyroid diseases. Since IgG1 and IgG4 are the primary TgAb IgG subclasses, this study aimed to investigate the glycosylation of TgAb IgG1 and IgG4 subclasses in thyroid diseases. METHODS: TgAb IgG was purified by affinity chromatography from the serum of patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) (n = 16), Graves' disease (GD) (n = 8), papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) (n = 6), and PTC with histological lymphocytic thyroiditis (PTC-T) (n = 9) as well as healthy donors (n = 10). TgAb IgG1 and IgG4 concentrations were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and a lectin microassay was used to assess TgAb IgG1 and IgG4 glycosylation. RESULTS: Significantly elevated mannose, sialic acid, and galactose levels on TgAb IgG1 were found in HT and PTC patients compared to GD patients and healthy controls (all p < 0.05). The mannose, sialic acid, and core fucose levels on TgAb IgG1 in PTC-T patients were higher than in healthy controls (all p < 0.05). Additionally, TgAb IgG1 from PTC-T patients exhibited lower sialylation than that from patients with PTC and higher fucosylation than that from patients with HT (both p < 0.05). However, TgAb IgG4 glycosylation did not differ among the five groups (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Our study describes different distributions of TgAb IgG1 glycosylation in various thyroid diseases. The aberrantly increased glycosylation levels of TgAb IgG1 observed in HT, PTC, and PTC-T might be indicative of immune disorders and participate in the pathogenesis of these diseases.

Causal link between immunoglobulin G glycosylation and cancer: A potential glycobiomarker for early tumor detection.

Changes in immunoglobulin G (IgG) glycan structures are currently believed to closely related to the emergence of cancer. In this review, we summarize the current body of evidence suggesting that differences in serum IgG glycosylation patterns correspond to changes in multiple types of cancer. Modifications include IgG terminal N-link galactosylation, IgG core fucosylation, IgG terminal sialylation, and IgG terminal bisecting N-acetylglucosamine. IgG N-glycomic alterations represent promising novel biomarkers for non-invasive-cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and progression monitoring; they are characterized by high sensitivity and specificity, compensating for previously identified glycobiomarkers.