● Status of inactivation of pathogenic microorganisms by SO 4 *− is reviewed. ● Mechanism of SO 4 *− disinfection is outlined. ● Possible generation of DBPs during disinfection using SO 4 *− is ...discussed. ● Possible problems and challenges of using SO 4 *− for disinfection are presented.
Sulfate radicals have been increasingly used for the pathogen inactivation due to their strong redox ability and high selectivity for electron-rich species in the last decade. The application of sulfate radicals in water disinfection has become a very promising technology. However, there is currently a lack of reviews of sulfate radicals inactivated pathogenic microorganisms. At the same time, less attention has been paid to disinfection by-products produced by the use of sulfate radicals to inactivate microorganisms. This paper begins with a brief overview of sulfate radicals' properties. Then, the progress in water disinfection by sulfate radicals is summarized. The mechanism and inactivation kinetics of inactivating microorganisms are briefly described. After that, the disinfection by-products produced by reactions of sulfate radicals with chlorine, bromine, iodide ions and organic halogens in water are also discussed. In response to these possible challenges, this article concludes with some specific solutions and future research directions.
Microbial degradation is a cost-effective and environmentally friendly method for removing microcystin-LR (MC-LR). However, the application of free bacteria has limitations due to low operational ...stability and difficulties in recovery. In a previous study, our group successfully isolated a highly efficient MC-LR-degrading bacterium,
sp. YF1, from Taihu. To enhance its practical potential in addressing MC-LR-contaminated water pollution, a novel biological material named polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber @
sp. YF1 (PAN-CF@YF1) was synthesized. The immobilization conditions of strain
sp. YF1 on PAN-CF surfaces were optimized using Box-Behnken design and response surface methodology (RSM), which turned out to be an optimal pH of 7.6 for the culture medium, a ratio of 0.038 g of supporting materials per 100 mL of culture media, and an incubation time of 53.4 h. The resultant PAN-CF@YF1 showed a great degradation effect both for low and high concentrations of MC-LR and exhibited satisfactory cyclic stability (85.75% after six cycles). Moreover, the application of PAN-CF@YF1 in the bioreactors demonstrated effective and sustainable MC-LR removal, with a removal efficiency of 78.83% after three consecutive treatments. Therefore, PAN-CF@YF1 with high degradation activity, environmental compatibility, straightforward preparation, and recyclability shows significant application potential for the bioremediation of MC-LR-contaminated water bodies.
As significant posttranslational modifications, ubiquitination and deubiquitination, whose balance is modulated by ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes and deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs), can regulate many ...biological processes, such as controlling cell cycle progression, signal transduction and transcriptional regulation. Belonging to DUBs, ubiquitin-specific protease 28 (USP28) plays an essential role in turning over ubiquitination and then contributing to the stabilization of quantities of substrates, including several cancer-related proteins. In previous studies, USP28 has been demonstrated to participate in the progression of various cancers. Nevertheless, several reports have recently shown that in addition to promoting cancers, USP28 can also play an oncostatic role in some cancers. In this review, we summarize the correlation between USP28 and tumor behaviors. We initially give a brief introduction of the structure and related biological functions of USP28, and we then introduce some concrete substrates of USP28 and the underlying molecular mechanisms. In addition, the regulation of the actions and expression of USP28 is also discussed. Moreover, we concentrate on the impacts of USP28 on diverse hallmarks of cancer and discuss whether USP28 can accelerate or inhibit tumor progression. Furthermore, clinical relevance, including impacting clinical prognosis, influencing therapy resistance and being the therapy target in some cancers, is depicted systematically. Thus, assistance may be given to future experimental designs by the information provided here, and the potential of targeting USP28 for cancer therapy is emphasized.
Purpose
Cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) always presents as a complex disease process with poor prognosis. The objective of the present study was to explore the influence of solitary or multiple ...cancers on the prognosis of patients with CMM to better understand the landscape of CMM.
Methods
We reviewed the records of CMM patients between 2004 and 2015 from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program. The cumulative incidence function was used to represent the probabilities of death. A novel causal inference method was leveraged to explore the risk difference to death between different types of CMM, and nomograms were built based on competing risk models.
Results
The analysis cohort contained 165,043 patients with CMM as the first primary malignancy. Patients with recurrent CMM and multiple primary tumors had similar overall survival status (p = 0.064), while their demographics and cause-specific death demonstrated different characteristics than those of patients with solitary CMM (
p
< 0.001), whose mean survival times are 75.4 and 77.3 months and 66.2 months, respectively. Causal inference was further applied to unveil the risk difference of solitary and multiple tumors in subgroups, which was significantly different from the total population (
p
< 0.05), and vulnerable groups with high risk of death were identified. The established competing risk nomograms had a concordance index >0.6 on predicting the probabilities of death of CMM or other cancers individually across types of CMM.
Conclusion
Patients with different types of CMM had different prognostic characteristics and different risk of cause-specific death. The results of this study are of great significance in identifying the high risk of cause-specific death, enabling targeted intervention in the early period at both the population and individual levels.
Background
Patients with steroid 5α‐reductase 2 deficiency (5α‐RD) caused by SRD5A2 (OMIM #607306) variants present variable genotypes and phenotypes. The genotype‐phenotype correlations remain ...unclear.
Methods
We investigated genotype‐phenotype correlations of SRD5A2 variants in a large Chinese single‐center cohort. Phenotypes were categorized using the external masculinization score (EMS), urethral meatus and gonad position, and penile length‐standard deviation score.
Results
Of the 130 included patients, 113 had hypospadias, and 17 had a normal urethral meatus position. Testosterone/dihydrotestosterone (T/DHT) values were not significantly associated with phenotypic severity (p = 0.539–0.989). Of the 31 SRD5A2 variants, including 10 novel variants, p.R227Q was the most prevalent (39.62%), followed by p.Q6* (16.92%), p.R246Q (13.46%), and p.G203S (10.38%). Compared to biallelic missense mutations, biallelic nonsense mutations were associated with a lower EMS and urethral meatus score (p = 0.009 and p = 0.024, respectively). Patients homozygous for p.R227Q exhibited mild and variable phenotypes, while those homozygous for p.Q6*, p.R246Q, or p.G203S showed consistently severe phenotypes. The phenotypes were variable and milder in patients with compound heterozygosity for p.R227Q and these mutations.
Conclusion
T/DHT does not predict phenotype severity. The most prevalent SRD5A2 variant in Han Chinese is p.R227Q, which is associated with milder phenotypes and greater phenotypic variability. SRD5A2 variants may significantly influence phenotypic variation.
Patients homozygous for p.R227Q exhibited mild and variable phenotypes while those with homozygous p.Q6*, p.R246Q, and p.G203S showed consistently severe phenotypes. When those mutations were compound heterozygotes for p.R227Q, the genotypes were variable and milder.
Nanoplastics have attracted increasing attention in recent years due to their widespread existence in the environment and the potential adverse effects on living organisms. In this paper, the toxic ...effects of nanoplastics on organisms were systematically reviewed. The translocation and absorption of nanoplastics, as well as the release of additives and contaminants adsorbed on nanoplastics in the organism body were discussed, and the potential adverse effects of nanoplastics on human health were evaluated. Nanoplastics can be ingested by organisms, be accumulated in their body and be transferred along the food chains. Nanoplastics showed effects on the growth, development and reproduction of organisms, and disturbing the normal metabolism. The toxic effects on living organisms mainly depended on the surface chemical properties and the particle size of nanoplastics. Positively charged nanoplastics showed more significant effects on the normal physiological activity of cells than negatively charged nanoplastics, and smaller particle sized nanoplastics could more easily penetrate the cell membranes, hence, accumulated in tissues and cells. Additionally, the release of additives and contaminants adsorbed on nanoplastics in organism body poses more significant threats to organisms than nanoplastics themselves. However, there are still knowledge gaps in the determination and quantification of nanoplastics, as well as their contaminant release mechanisms, degradation rates and process from large plastics to nanoplastics, and the transportation of nanoplastics along food chains. These challenges would hinder the risk assessment of nanoplastics in the environment. It is necessary to further develop the risk assessment of nanoplastics and deeply investigate its toxicological effects.
Display omitted
•Recent advances in toxicological research of nanoplastics have been reviewed.•Potential toxic effects of nanoplastics on ecosystems and human health are discussed.•Using environmental concentrations of nanoplastics to test is necessary.
Congenital growth hormone deficiency (GHD) is a rare and etiologically heterogeneous disease. We aim to screen disease-causing mutations of GHD in a relatively sizable cohort and discover underlying ...mechanisms
a candidate gene-based mutational burden analysis.
We retrospectively analyzed 109 short stature patients associated with hormone deficiency. All patients were classified into two groups: Group I (n=45) with definitive GHD and Group II (n=64) with possible GHD. We analyzed correlation consistency between clinical criteria and molecular findings by whole exome sequencing (WES) in two groups. The patients without a molecular diagnosis (n=90) were compared with 942 in-house controls for the mutational burden of rare mutations in 259 genes biologically related with the GH axis.
In 19 patients with molecular diagnosis, we found 5 possible GHD patients received known molecular diagnosis associated with GHD (
c.2329T>A, c.7131C>G,
c.731G>A,
c.1102delC,
c.187_207dup). By mutational burden analysis of predicted deleterious variants in 90 patients without molecular diagnosis, we found that
(
= 0.005),
(
= 0.006),
(
= 0.021) and
(
= 0.040) represented top genes enriched in GHD patients.
Our study revealed the discrepancies between the laboratory testing and molecular diagnosis of GHD. These differences should be considered when for an accurate diagnosis of GHD. We also identified four candidate genes that might be associated with GHD.
•MS-biochar exhibited better catalytic ability than GP, GO and MWCNT.•ASS was the most important contributor for MS-400/600 while CM dominated MS-800.•ASS was effective for SO4− formation and CM was ...primarily committed to OH.•Iron compounds, doped-nitrogen and graphitic carbon were proved as catalytic sites.•Two internal electron transfer paths among MS-biochar’s CM were proposed.
Persulfate-based advanced oxidation process is a powerful countermeasure for water remediation, where effective and low-cost catalysts are still needed. Herein, a one-pot synthetic method for magnetic nitrogen-doped sludge biochar (MS-biochar) was presented, which exhibited better catalytic property with PDS for tetracycline degradation than typical graphitic carbon (graphite powder, graphene oxide and multiwalled carbon nanotubes) and two other types biochars. EDAX manifested the uniform dispersion of elements in MS-biochar. Similar to “top-down”, a research thought from whole to part of MS-biochar for contribution measurement was presented, where acid-soluble substance (ASS) was the most important contributor for MS-400/600 while carbon matrix (CM) was dominant for MS-800. Quenching and EPR demonstrated a free-radicals pathway in MS-biochar/PDS, where ASS mainly assumed to be effective for SO4− and CM was primarily committed to OH generation. EDAX, XPS and Raman studies proved three kinds of catalytic sites, namely the iron compounds, doped nitrogen and graphitic carbon. And their activating mechanism were discussed where one internal electron migration path (from sp3 to nanocrystalline sp2 carbon) has been first proposed. Reusability, metal leaching detection and pharmaceutical wastewater application indicated the potential of MS-biochar. This work not only presents a potential resource-based disposal of sewage sludge, a novel research thought from whole to part for materials performance measurement, but also provides guidance for carbon materials’ design for persulfate activation, especially for sp2 and sp3 co-hybridized carbons.
Objective: To provide new information about androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS), we studied growth patterns in Chinese children with AIS. Subjects: Data are from 118 untreated AIS patients who were ...admitted to eight pediatric endocrine centers from January 2010 to December 2019. Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, clinical data were collected from a multicenter database. We compared physical assessment data among AIS patients and standard growth charts for Chinese pediatric population. Results: 1. Children with AIS grew slightly less than the mean before 6 months of age, and then, height gradually increased before 12 years of age, from the median to +1 standard deviation (SD), according to the standard reference for Chinese pediatric population. After 12 years of age, height showed differently in profiles: The mean height in AIS patients gradually decreased from the mean to −1 SD, according to the standard for Chinese boys, and increased from the mean to +2 SD, according to the standard for Chinese girls. 2. The weights of children with AIS were greater than the mean standards of Chinese pediatric population from newborn to 11 years of age. From 12−16 years of age, the mean weight of children with AIS showed different profiles, from the mean to −1 SD, according to the standard for Chinese boys and from the mean to +1.5 SD, according to the standard for Chinese girls. 3. Weight standard deviation (WtSDS) and target height (THt) in northern Chinese AIS patients were significantly higher than those from the southern region (p = 0.035, 0.005, respectively). Age in northern Chinese AIS patients was significantly younger than those from the southern region (p = 0.034). No difference was found among birth weight (BW), birth length (BL), height standard deviation (HtSDS) and body mass index (BMI) in AIS patients from different regions (p > 0.05). 4. HtSDS and WtSDS in complete AIS (CAIS) patients were higher than those in partial AIS (PAIS) patients without significant difference (p > 0.05). Conclusions: Growth of children with AIS varied to different degrees. AIS patients seemed not to experience a puberty growth spurt. CAIS and PAIS patients show little difference in their growth. Regional differences have no effect on the height but influence the weight of AIS patients.
Display omitted
•Alkali-acid modified MS-biochar was superior to single alkali/acid modified ones in adsorption performance.•SNMS-800 owing obviously increased porosity showed enhanced TC adsorption ...reaching to 286.913 mg/g.•Magnetic sludge biochar’s pore size was closely related to its TC adsorption strength.•Pyrolysis temperatures showed great influence on MS-biochars’ property.•SNMS-800 showed stable TC adsorption in natural water samples along with good reusability.
Municipal sewage sludge (MS)-derived biochar shows low-cost superiority as a potential adsorbent in organic contaminants removal, but limited by its poor adsorption capacity and heavy metal leaking risk. Herein, a novel and effective alkali-acid combined method was proposed for its modification and applied to tetracycline adsorption. The associative facilitation between the alkali and acid modifications was explored, and the influences of pyrolysis temperatures on MS-biochar’s properties were investigated. The successfully preserved γ-Fe2O3 vested SNMS-800 with magnetism. It turned out that SNMS-800 exhibited optimum performance for tetracycline removal with adsorption capacity up to 286.913 mg/g, where all goodness-of-fit indexes of isothermal models were measured by MPSD model. The strong adsorption mechanisms were dominated by two considerable interactions, including strong π-π stacking interaction and pore-filling effect due to the significantly enhanced porosity which was proved by density functional theory model calculations. It manifested that appropriate multiple relation (1.7–6 times) between adsorbent’s pore size and adsorbate size closely related to the adsorption strength. The remarkably improved and stable adsorption capacity, extremely low-cost, easy magnetic preparation, and good reusability in natural water samples entrusted SNMS-800 with good potential for actual aqueous contaminant removal on a large scale. Meanwhile, it provides a clue for materials modification starting with its specific components, and supplies a cost-effective way for municipal sewage sludge’s resource disposal.
PDF
