Natural mineral-derived Fe/Mn-BC as efficient peroxydisulfate activator for 2,4-dichlorophenol removal from wastewater: Performance and sustainable catalytic mechanism.

Iron and manganese oxides/biochar composite materials (Fe/Mn-BC) are promising catalysts in the field of advanced oxidation. High purity chemical reagents are popular precursors for preparing Fe/Mn-BC, while the potential of low-cost natural minerals as precursors has been neglected. In this study, high-efficiency Fe/Mn-BC was synthesized by one-step pyrolysis method using hematite, phosphoromanganese, and bagasse. The synthesized Fe/Mn-BC removed 83.7% 2, 4-dichlorophenol (2, 4-DCP) within 30 min, about 8.8 and 10.6 times better than biochar (BC) and Fe/Mn complex, respectively. The removal of 2, 4-DCP in the Fe/Mn-BC + peroxydisulfate (PDS) system was influenced by catalyst dosage, PDS concentration, initial pH, organic acids, and chromium. Sulfate radical (SO4•-) and hydroxyl radicals (•OH) generated by Fe/Mn-BC-activated PDS have similar contribution to the degradation of 2,4-DCP. A possible removal mechanism of 2, 4-DCP in the Fe/Mn-BC + PDS system was proposed based on Electron Spin Resonance spectroscopy, free radical quenching experiments, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and electrochemical measurement. Fe0 and Fe(II) in Fe/Mn-BC play significant role in catalytic degradation of 2, 4-DCP at the early stage of the reaction (within 0-5 min). Then, the interaction between Mn and BC or structural Mn and structural Fe gradually became dominant in the later stage. Similarly, the electron transfer promoted by biochar also played an important role in this catalysis. This discovery provided a new strategy for developing iron and manganese oxides/biochar composite materials to activate PDS for the elimination of refractory organic pollutants.

MicroRNA-200c plays an oncogenic role in nasopharyngeal carcinoma by targeting PTEN.

Recent studies suggested that microRNA-200 family microRNAs play critical roles in cancer initiation and metastasis. The underlying mechanism remained elusive. In this study, we show that microRNA-200c is upregulated in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells. Manipulation of microRNA-200c levels affected cell growth, migration, and invasion in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell lines. Furthermore, PTEN was identified as a direct target of microRNA-200c. Overexpression of PTEN resulted in similar effects to those of anti-microRNA-200c transfection. In vivo suppression of microRNA-200c level reduced tumor growth in mice. Overall, our data suggest that microRNA-200c plays an oncogenic role in nasopharyngeal carcinoma by targeting PTEN.

Comprehensive assessment of peripheral blood TCRß repertoire in infectious mononucleosis and chronic active EBV infection patients.

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) primary infection is usually asymptomatic, but it sometimes progresses to infectious mononucleosis (IM). Occasionally, some people develop chronic active EBV infection (CAEBV) with underlying immunodeficiency, which belongs to a continuous spectrum of EBV-associated lymphoproliferative disorders (EBV+ LPD) with heterogeneous clinical presentations and high mortality. It has been well established that T cell-mediated immune response plays a critical role in the disease evolution of EBV infection. Recently, high-throughput sequencing of the hypervariable complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3) segments of the T cell receptor (T cell receptor ß (TCRß)) has emerged as a sensitive approach to assess the T cell repertoire. In this study, we fully characterized the diversity of peripheral blood TCRß repertoire in IM (n = 6) and CAEBV patients (n = 5) and EBV-seropositive controls (n = 5). Compared with the healthy EBV-seropositive controls, both IM and CAEBV patients demonstrate a significant decrease in peripheral blood TCRß repertoire diversity, basically, including narrowed repertoire breadth, highly expanded clones, and skewed CDR3 length distribution. However, there is no significant difference between IM and CAEBV patients. Furthermore, we observed some disease-related preferences in TRBV/TRBJ usage and combinations, as well as lots of T cell clones shared by different groups (unique or overlapped) involved in public T cell responses, which provide more detailed insights into the divergent disease evolution.

Haploinsufficiency of HDAC4 does not cause intellectual disability in all affected individuals.

Haploinsufficiency of HDAC4 gene has been reported to result in brachydactyly-"mental retardation" syndrome (BDMR), a condition with significant intellectual impairment, brachydactyly type E, and typical facial features. Presented here are three individuals with haploinsufficiency of HDAC4 who have brachydactyly type E, non-dysmorphic facial features, and normal intelligence. This is in contradistinction to previous reports that haploinsufficiency of HDAC4 is sufficient to cause BDMR.

The enhanced effect of key microorganisms in chromium contaminated soil in Cr(VI) reduction.

The escalating threat of Cr(VI) pollution to the environment and human health can be effectively controlled through microbial methods, which are promising, safe, and ecofriendly. To enhance Cr(VI) removal efficiency, scholars have been optimizing strains. However, synergies between in-situ soil particles and crucial microorganisms in soil have rarely been investigated. In this study, Cr(VI) was removed by collaborating with in-situ soil particles and key microorganisms in the soil. The results indicated that within 48 hours, the removal rate of Cr(VI) reached over 99% in the soils+microflora system, which was 45% higher than that of the microflora system alone. Factors such as Cr(VI) concentration, soil dosage, pH level, oxygen availability, and electron donors influenced the removal efficiency of Cr(VI) in the soils+microflora system. The cyclic experiments showed that soil particles effectively prevented chromium invasion on microflora, promoting the growth of crucial microorganisms. The addition of microflora can effectively regulate the composition of soil flora and enhance the efficiency of chromium reduction. Moreover, two strains each of Ochrobactrum sp. and Paenarthrobacter sp., exhibiting remarkable tolerance to Cr(VI), were successfully isolated from these soils, significantly enhancing the reduction capacity of the indigenous microflora towards Cr(VI). Additionally, 16S rRNA-PCR sequence analysis revealed that in-situ soil particles not only synergistically collaborated with the resident microflora for efficient removal of Cr(VI), but also facilitated the proliferation of key microbiota such as Ochrobactrum sp. and Paenarthrobacter sp. Remarkably, when exposed to an initial concentration of 50 mg/L Cr(VI), complete removal was achieved by Paenarthrobacter-2 within a time frame as short as 60 hours. This research found four novel highly efficient strains for reducing Cr(VI) and provides an innovative method for the synergistic interaction between indigenous soil microflora and soil particles to remove heavy metal ions from wastewater.

An efficient, economical, and easy mass production biochar supported zero-valent iron composite derived from direct-reduction natural goethite for Cu(II) and Cr(VI) remove.

In this study, a novel biochar-supported zero-valent iron (ZVI) composite was synthesised by a one-pot co-pyrolysis reduction method, and was used to remove Cu(II) and Cr(VI). The raw materials for the composite were derived from natural bagasse/straw and goethite. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetry (TG), and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis were used to characterise the biochar and biochar-supported ZVI composites. Batch removal experiments on the effects of the initial pH and citric acid concentrations were performed as well as kinetic studies and isotherm experiments. The composite materials showed better Cu(II) and Cr(VI) removal performance than single biochar and mineral. The removal of Cu(II) and Cr(VI) is pH-dependent, and proceeds via heterogeneous multilayer chemisorption. Electrochemical analysis revealed that straw biochar-supported ZVI composite exhibited greater electrical conductivity and electron transfer rate than pure biochar and ZVI. FTIR spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) elucidated the uptake mechanism, showing that Cu(II) and Cr(VI) were easily adsorbed onto the biochar surface and were then reduced by ZVI. These results indicate that biochar-supported ZVI composite is effective for heavy metal remediation, which is economical, environment-friendly, and suitable for mass production.

Long non-coding RNA SNHG1 functions as a competitive endogenous RNA to regulate PDCD4 expression by sponging miR-195-5p in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) potentially regulates tumorigenesis. LncRNA small nucleolar RNA host gene 1 (SNHG1) expression remains high in hepatocellular carcinoma cells; however, its biological mechanism in hepatocellular carcinoma remains unknown. In this study, SNHG1 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma cells was detected by qRT-PCR. Proliferative and migratory potentials of hepatocellular carcinoma cells were determined by CCK-8 and Transwell assay, respectively. Then, the nude mice model of xenograft was employed to verify the effect of SNHG1 on tumor formation in vivo. We identified the potential target of SNHG1 through bioinformatics and dual-luciferase reporter gene. Furthermore, Western blot and RIP assay was used for clarifying their interaction and functions in regulating the development of hepatocellular carcinoma. Our results indicated a high expression of SNHG1 in hepatocellular carcinoma cells. Downregulation of SNHG1 inhibited proliferative and migratory potentials of hepatocellular carcinoma cells in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, the expression of programmed cell death 4 (PDCD4) was positively regulated by SNHG1 through competing with miR-195-5p. These results indicated that SNHG1 participated in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma as a ceRNA to competitively bind to miR-195-5p and thus mediate PDCD4 expression.

SIRT4 acts as a tumor suppressor in gastric cancer by inhibiting cell proliferation, migration, and invasion.

BACKGROUND: Previous study has proven that SIRT4 is downregulated in gastric cancer (GC), but the role of SIRT4 has not been clearly understood. The aim of our work was to explore in detail the function and mechanism of SIRT4 in GC. METHODS: A total of 86 pairs of GC tumor tissues and adjacent normal tissues were collected, and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting analyses were used to determine the expression of SIRT4. RESULTS: Our study revealed that the expression of SIRT4 was downregulated in GC tissues and cells. In addition, the low expression of SIRT4 was negatively correlated with tumor size, pathological grade, and lymph node metastasis, which predicted a poor prognosis. Multiple functional experiments, including Cell Counting Kit-8 assay as well as colony formation assay, demonstrated SIRT4 suppressed cell proliferation. Moreover, we found epithelial-mesenchymal transition was regulated by SIRT4, thereby regulating cell migration and invasion. CONCLUSION: Overall, our findings show that SIRT4 serves as a tumor suppressor in GC and might act as a novel biomarker and a therapeutic target of GC.

Early onset renal cell carcinoma in an adolescent girl with germline FLCN exon 5 deletion.

Birt-Hogg-Dube (BHD) disease is an autosomal dominant cancer syndrome characterized by benign skin tumors, renal cancer and spontaneous pneumothorax and is caused by mutations in the Folliculin (FLCN) gene. Benign skin tumors and pneumothorax occur in the majority of patients affected by BHD syndrome, but only 30-45% of them develop renal cell carcinoma (RCC) with a median age of diagnosis at 48. The earliest onset of RCC in a BHD patient has been reported at age 20. Here we report a case of a 14 year-old patient with germline FLCN mutation leading to an early-onset bulky RCC that could not be classified strictly according to existing histological types. Germline genetic testing revealed a deletion at FLCN exon 5. The father of the patient was identified as the asymptomatic carrier. We report the youngest patient with BHD-related RCC. This early onset presentation supports genetic testing of at-risk patients and initiation of imaging surveillance for RCC in early adolescence. In addition, future studies are necessary to understand the determinants of reduced penetrance in BHD disease.

A gene-based information gain method for detecting gene-gene interactions in case-control studies.

Currently, most methods for detecting gene-gene interactions (GGIs) in genome-wide association studies are divided into SNP-based methods and gene-based methods. Generally, the gene-based methods can be more powerful than SNP-based methods. Some gene-based entropy methods can only capture the linear relationship between genes. We therefore proposed a nonparametric gene-based information gain method (GBIGM) that can capture both linear relationship and nonlinear correlation between genes. Through simulation with different odds ratio, sample size and prevalence rate, GBIGM was shown to be valid and more powerful than classic KCCU method and SNP-based entropy method. In the analysis of data from 17 genes on rheumatoid arthritis, GBIGM was more effective than the other two methods as it obtains fewer significant results, which was important for biological verification. Therefore, GBIGM is a suitable and powerful tool for detecting GGIs in case-control studies.

Chromosome integrity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: the interplay of DNA replication initiation factors, elongation factors, and origins.

The integrity of chromosomes during cell division is ensured by both trans-acting factors and cis-acting chromosomal sites. Failure of either these chromosome integrity determinants (CIDs) can cause chromosomes to be broken and subsequently misrepaired to form gross chromosomal rearrangements (GCRs). We developed a simple and rapid assay for GCRs, exploiting yeast artificial chromosomes (YACs) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We used this assay to screen a genome-wide pool of mutants for elevated rates of GCR. The analyses of these mutants define new CIDs (Orc3p, Orc5p, and Ycs4p) and new pathways required for chromosome integrity in DNA replication elongation (Dpb11p), DNA replication initiation (Orc3p and Orc5p), and mitotic condensation (Ycs4p). We show that the chromosome integrity function of Orc5p is associated with its ATP-binding motif and is distinct from its function in controlling the efficiency of initiation of DNA replication. Finally, we used our YAC assay to assess the interplay of trans and cis factors in chromosome integrity. Increasing the number of origins on a YAC suppresses GCR formation in our dpb11 mutant but enhances it in our orc mutants. This result provides potential insights into the counterbalancing selective pressures necessary for the evolution of origin density on chromosomes.