Formaldehyde (HCHO) is a major indoor pollutant and long-term exposure to HCHO may cause health problems such as nasal tumors and skin irritation. Photocatalytic oxidation is considered as the most ...promising strategy for the decomposition of HCHO. Herein, for the first time, a direct g-C
3
N
4
-TiO
2
Z-scheme photocatalyst without an electron mediator was prepared by a facile calcination route utilizing affordable P25 and urea as the feedstocks. Photocatalytic activities of the as-prepared samples were evaluated by the photocatalytic oxidation decomposition of HCHO in air. It was shown that the photocatalytic activity of the prepared Z-scheme photocatalysts was highly dependent on the g-C
3
N
4
content. At the optimal g-C
3
N
4
content (sample U100 in this study), the apparent reaction rate constant was 7.36 × 10
−2
min
−1
for HCHO decomposition, which exceeded that of pure P25 (3.53 × 10
−2
min
−1
) by a factor of 2.1. The enhanced photocatalytic activity could be ascribed to the formation of a g-C
3
N
4
-TiO
2
Z-scheme photocatalyst, which results in the efficient space separation of photo-induced charge carriers. Considering the ease of the preparation method, this work will provide new insights into the design of high-performance Z-scheme photocatalysts for indoor air purification.
g-C
3
N
4
-TiO
2
Z-scheme photocatalysts exhibit higher photocatalytic activity than pure g-C
3
N
4
or TiO
2
towards the decomposition of indoor formaldehyde.
Chocolate is a popular food for its unique flavor and taste, rich nutritional value, and the psychological values brought to people. The raw material production of chocolate, product manufacturing, ...sales and transportation have different degrees of environmental impact. This review explores the environmental hot spots in the life cycle of chocolate and puts forward corresponding suggestions for the improvement. By applying a systematic review method, this paper collected 25 articles on life cycle assessment (LCA) of the environmental impact of the chocolate industry. It is found that the life cycle of chocolate has the highest environmental impact in the raw material production and chocolate manufacturing stages (accounting for 77-97% of total impacts), among which milk powder, sugar and cocoa derivatives are the important contributors to significant environmental burden. Dark chocolate generates the lowest carbon emissions (1.67 kg CO
eq/kg product) among existing chocolate categories, while the chocolate confectionery products release the highest carbon emissions (6.76 kg CO
eq/kg product) among chocolate-containing products. Improvement measures are proposed for reducing environmental impacts and for selecting environmentally friendly product formulae. This study can provide benchmarking for the chocolate industry and improves the understanding of life cycle environmental impacts of chocolate products.
This study aims to assess the effects of 8-week virtual reality (VR) training on balance and lower extremity muscle strength in adolescents with intellectual disability (ID).
Thirty adolescents with ...intellectual disability were randomly divided into the virtual reality group and control group. The participants in the virtual reality group and the control group received the virtual reality training and the physical education (PE) course, respectively, for 8 weeks. The Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Timed Up and Go (TUG) test and lower extremity muscle strength were measured before and after the training.
The between-group results showed that the participants in the virtual reality group increased the muscle strength of hip flexors (
< 0.001), hip extensors (
= 0.002), hip abductors (
< 0.001), knee flexors (
< 0.001), knee extensors (
= 0.002) and ankle plantar flexors (
= 0.042) significantly after training, compared to the control group. However, no significant improvement was found in the berg balance scale and timed up and go scores between the virtual reality group and control group after training (
> 0.05). The within-group results showed that the strength of all the muscle groups significantly increased after training in the virtual reality group (
< 0.05) compared to the baseline. However, no significant difference was found in the muscle strength in the control group before and after training. The within-group berg balance scale and timed up and go scores showed no significant improvements in both groups.
Virtual reality training intervention might be effective in improving the lower extremity muscle strength, but no significant improvement was found on balance ability in adolescents with intellectual disability.
To investigate the effect of cAMP response element-binding protein H (CREBH) on metabolic associated fatty liver disease by regulating sirtuin 3 (SIRT3).
Two mouse models of fatty liver induced by a ...methionine-choline deficient (MCD) diet and a high-fat (HF) diet and an in vitro model of palmitic acid (PA) induced lipid-overloaded hepatocytes were constructed to detect the expression of CREBH, SIRT3, total acetylation, and downstream protein interactions and lipid metabolism phenotype, which were further validated in CREBH−/− mice and lentivirus-overexpressing CREBH hepatocytes.
In fatty liver and lipid overload models, the expressions of CREBH and SIRT3 were down-regulated and their expression was positively correlated, accompanied by an increase in the level of total protein acetylation. Overexpression of CREBH alleviated excess lipid accumulation, impaired viability, and the ability to metabolize energy through the fatty acid oxidation pathway in hepatocytes in vitro. Furthermore, overexpression of CREBH restored the interaction of the deacetylase SIRT3 with the molecules carnitine palmitoyl-transferase 2 (CPT2) and long-chain acyl CoA dehydrogenase (ACADL) involved in the fatty acid oxidation pathway and their deacetylation status. However, CREBH−/− aggravated the damage of lipid metabolism in the liver tissue of mice.
CREBH increased the enzymatic activity of downstream factors by positively regulating the expression of SIRT3, which promoted the oxidative decomposition of fatty acids in hepatocytes and played an important role in fatty acid oxidation in MAFLD.
Abbreviations: CREBH, cAMP response element-binding protein H; SIRT3, sirtuin 3; CPT2, carnitine palmitoyl-transferase 2; ACADL, long-chain acyl CoA dehydrogenase; MCD, methionine-choline deficient; HF, high-fat; PA, palmitic acid; MAFLD, metabolic associated fatty liver disease; CD, chow diet; MOI, optimal multiplicity of infection; qRT-PCR, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction; K-Ac, lysine acetylation; PPARα, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha; OE, overexpression; MCAD, medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase; ACADVL, very-long-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase; ACAT1, acetyl-CoA acetyltransferase 1; ECHS1, enoyl-CoA hydratase-1; HMGCS2, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA synthetase 2; PTMs, post-translational modifications. Display omitted
•The expression of CREBH is positively correlated with SIRT3.•CREBH alleviates hepatocyte lipid accumulation by upregulating SIRT3.•CREBH promotes deacetylation and enzyme activation of CPT2 and ACADL involved in fatty acid oxidation by upregulating SIRT3.•CREBH deficiency aggravates lipid metabolism disorders in MAFLD mice.
Resolvin D1 (RvD1) was previously reported to relieve inflammation and liver damage in several liver diseases, but its potential role in liver fibrosis remains elusive. The aim of our study was to ...investigate the effects and underlying mechanisms of RvD1 in hepatic autophagy in liver fibrosis.
, male C57BL/6 mice were intraperitoneally injected with 20% carbon tetrachloride (CCl4, 5 ml/kg) twice weekly for 6 weeks to establish liver fibrosis model. RvD1 (100 ng or 300 ng/mouse) was added daily in the last 2 weeks of the modeling period.
, lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated LX-2 cells were co-treated with increasing concentrations (2.5-10 nM) of RvD1. The degree of liver injury was measured by detecting serum AST and ALT contents and H&E staining. Hepatic fibrosis was assessed by masson's trichrome staining and metavir scoring. The qRT-PCR, western blot, immunohistochemistry, and immunofluorescence were applied to liver tissues or LPS-activated LX-2 cells to explore the protective effects of RvD1 in liver fibrosis. Our findings reported that RvD1 significantly attenuated CCl4 induced liver injury and fibrosis by decreasing plasma AST and ALT levels, reducing collagen I and α-SMA accumulation and other pro-fibrotic genes (CTGF, TIMP-1 and Vimentin) expressions in mouse liver, restoring damaged histological architecture and improving hepatic fibrosis scores.
, RvD1 also repressed the LPS induced LX-2 cells activation and proliferation. These significant improvements mainly attributed to the inhibiting effect of RvD1 on autophagy in the process of hepatic stellate cell (HSC) activation, as demonstrated by decreased ratio of LC3-II/I and elevated p62 after RvD1 treatment. In addition, using AZD5363 (an AKT inhibitor that activates autophagy) and AZD8055 (an mTOR inhibitor, another autophagy activator), we further verified that RvD1 suppressed autophagy-mediated HSC activation and alleviated CCl4 induced liver fibrosis partly through AKT/mTOR pathway. Overall, these results demonstrate that RvD1 treatment is expected to become a novel therapeutic strategy against liver fibrosis.
The electrochemical detection of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) has become more and more important in industrial production, daily life, biological process, green energy chemistry, and other fields ...(especially for the detection of low concentration of H2O2). Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) are promising candidates to replace the established H2O2 sensors based on precious metals or enzymes. This review summarizes recent advances in MOF-based H2O2 electrochemical sensors, including conductive MOFs, MOFs with chemical modifications, MOFs-composites, and MOF derivatives. Finally, the challenges and prospects for the optimization and design of H2O2 electrochemical sensors with ultra-low detection limit and long-life are presented.
Background:
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the world’s second most deadly cancer, and metabolic reprogramming is its distinguishing feature. Among metabolite profiling, variation in amino acid ...metabolism supports tumor proliferation and metastasis to the most extent, yet a systematic study on the role of amino acid metabolism-related genes in HCC is still lacking. An effective amino acid metabolism-related prediction signature is urgently needed to assess the prognosis of HCC patients for individualized treatment.
Materials and Methods:
RNA-seq data of HCC from the TCGA-LIHC and GSE14520 (GPL3921) datasets were defined as the training set and validation set, respectively. Amino acid metabolic genes were extracted from the Molecular Signature Database. Univariate Cox and LASSO regression analyses were performed to build a predictive risk signature. K-M curves, ROC curves, and univariate and multivariate Cox regression were conducted to evaluate the predictive value of this risk signature. Functional enrichment was analyzed by GSEA and CIBERSORTx software.
Results:
A nine-gene amino acid metabolism-related risk signature including B3GAT3, B4GALT2, CYB5R3, GNPDA1, GOT2, HEXB, HMGCS2, PLOD2, and SEPHS1 was constructed to predict the overall survival (OS) of HCC patients. Patients were separated into high-risk and low-risk groups based on risk scores and low-risk patients had lower risk scores and longer survival time. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression verified that this signature was an independent risk factor for HCC. ROC curves showed that this risk signature can effectively predict the 1-, 2-, 3- and 5-year survival times of patients with HCC. Additionally, prognostic nomograms were established based on the training set and validation set. These genes were closely correlated with the immune regulation.
Conclusion:
Our study identified a nine-gene amino acid metabolism-related risk signature and built predictive nomograms for OS in HCC. These findings will help us to personalize the treatment of liver cancer patients.
SnRK2.6 (SUCROSE NONFERMENTING 1-RELATED PROTEIN KINASE2.6) has been characterized as a molecular switch for the intracellular abscisic acid (ABA) signal-transduction pathway. Normally, SnRK2.6 is ...kept in an "off" state, forming a binary complex with protein phosphatase type 2Cs (PP2Cs). Upon stressful conditions, SnRK2.6 turns into an "on" state by its release from PP2Cs and then phosphorylation at Ser175. However, how the "on" and "off" states for SnRK2.6 are fine-tuned, thereby controlling the initiation and braking processes of ABA signaling, is still largely unclear. SnRK2.6 activity was tightly regulated through protein post-translational modifications (PTM), such as persulfidation and phosphorylation. Taking advantage of molecular dynamics simulations, our results showed that Cys131/137 persulfidation on SnRK2.6 induces destabilized binding and weakened interactions between SnRK2.6 and HAB1 (HYPERSENSITIVE TO ABA1), an important PP2C family protein. This unfavorable effect on the association of the SnRK2.6-HAB1 complex suggests that persulfidation functions are a positive regulator of ABA signaling initiation. In addition, Ser267 phosphorylation in persulfidated SnRK2.6 renders a stable physical association between SnRK2.6 and HAB1, a key characterization for SnRK2.6 inhibition. Rather than Ser175, HAB1 cannot dephosphorylate Ser267 in SnRK2.6, which implies that the retained phosphorylation status of Ser267 could ensure that the activated SnRK2.6 reforms the binary complex to cease ABA signaling. Taken together, our findings expand current knowledge concerning the regulation of persulfidation and phosphorylation on the state transition of SnRK2.6 and provide insights into the fine-tuned mechanism of ABA signaling.
The incidence of colorectal cancer and cancer death rate are increasing every year, and the affected population is becoming younger. Traditional Chinese medicine therapy has a unique effect in ...prolonging survival time and improving the prognosis of patients with colorectal cancer. Oridonin has been reported to have anti-cancer effects in a variety of tumors, but the exact mechanism remains to be investigated.
Cell Counting Kit-8 assay (CCK8) and 5-Ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU) staining assay, Tranwell, and Wound healing assays were performed to measure cell proliferation, invasion, and migration capacities, respectively. The protein and mRNA expression levels of various molecules were reflected by Western blot and Reverse Transcription quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qRT-PCR). Transcription Factor 4 (TCF4) and its target genes were analyzed by Position Weight Matrices (PWMs) software and the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Immunofluorescence (IF) was performed to visualize the expression and position of Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) stress biomarkers. The morphology of the ER was demonstrated by the ER tracker-red. Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) levels were measured using a flow cytometer (FCM) or fluorescent staining. Calcium ion (Ca
) concentration was quantified by Fluo-3 AM staining. Athymic nude mice were modeled with subcutaneous xenografts.
Oridonin inhibited the proliferation, invasion, and migration of colorectal cancer, and this effect was weakened in a concentration-dependent manner by ER stress inhibitors. In addition, oridonin-induced colorectal tumor cells showed increased expression of ER stress biomarkers, loose morphology of ER, increased vesicles, and irregular shape. TCF4 was identified as a regulator of ER stress by PWMs software and GEO survival analysis. In vitro and in vivo experiments confirmed that TCF4 inhibited ER stress, reduced ROS production, and maintained Ca
homeostasis. In addition, oridonin also activated TP53 and inhibited TCF4 transactivation, further exacerbating the elevated ROS levels and calcium ion release in tumor cells and inhibiting tumorigenesis in colorectal cancer cells in vivo.
Oridonin upregulated TP53, inhibited TCF4 transactivation, and induced ER stress dysregulation in tumor cells, promoting colorectal cancer cell death. Therefore, TCF4 may be one of the important nodes for tumor cells to regulate ER stress and maintain protein synthesis homeostasis. And the inhibition of the TP53/TCF4 axis plays a key role in the anti-cancer effects of oridonin.
Silica hollow microspheres with moonscape-like rough surface (RS) and macroporous surface (MS) have been controllably synthesized by a water–oil–water three-phase emulsion method, which are used as ...supports of the heterogeneous catalysts for the catalytic hydrogenation of nitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR). It is found that Pd can be uniformly dispersed on both amino-functionalized RS and MS supports and both the catalysts show high hydrogenation activity with 100% selectivity to C=C bonds. However, the reusability of Pd/N-RS is much better than that of Pd/N-MS, maintaining 92% of activity without any regeneration treatment after five times of recycling experiment. The high activity retention is because the moonscape-like surface of the RS support is favorable for the contact of NBR macromolecules with the active sites, and more importantly, the NBR macromolecules do not need to diffuse into the interior of the catalyst, leading to fast desorption of the hydrogenated NBR from the surface of catalyst and re-exposure of the active sites.
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