T-2 toxin, a trichothecene mycotoxin, is an important environmental pollutant that poses a threat globally to the health of humans and animals. It has been found to induce nephrotoxicity; however, ...the precise molecular mechanism involved remains unclear. In this study, mice were administered at a single dose of 2 mg/kg body weight T-2 toxin intraperitoneally, and kidney function and ultrastructural observations were assessed after 1 d, 3 d, and 7 d. Histopathological findings revealed that exposure to T-2 toxin caused noticeable tubular degeneration, necrosis and epithelial cell shedding in mouse kidneys. Transmission electron microscopy indicated that exposure to T-2 toxin caused mitochondrial swelling and vacuolization. Transcriptomic data revealed significant differences in the expression of 1122, 58, and 391 genes in kidney tissues 1 d, 3 d, or 7 d after T-2 toxin exposure, respectively. Moreover, after 1 d, the downregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were found to be involved in the cell cycle, p53 signaling, and cellular senescence pathways, while the upregulated DEGs were found to be associated with the ribosomal pathway. Temporal changes in gene expression patterns (i.e., after 3 d and 7 d) and disturbances in cellular metabolism during the recovery period (7 d) were detected in mouse kidneys after exposure to T-2 toxin. In conclusion, this study is the first to provide a comprehensive comparative transcriptomic analysis of T-2 toxin exposure-induced nephrotoxicity-related gene regulation at different time points and to investigate the mechanism underlying the nephrotoxicity of T-2 toxin at the mRNA expression level.
•A comprehensive comparative transcriptomic analysis was used to investigate T-2 toxin -induced nephrotoxicity.•A signal dose of T-2 toxin exposure could result in mitochondrial damage and nephrotoxicity in mice.•Cell cycle, p53 signaling, cellular senescence, and ribosomal pathways were involved in T-2 toxin-induced nephrotoxicity.
Earthworms have entirely soft bodies mainly composed of circular and longitudinal muscle bundles but can handle the complexity of unstructured environments with exceptional multifunctionality. Soft ...robots are naturally appropriate for mimicking soft animal structures thanks to their inherent compliance. Here, we explore the new possibility of using this compliance to coordinate the actuation movements of single-type soft actuators for not only high adaptability but the simultaneous multifunctionality of soft robots. A cross-linked actuator coordination mechanism is proposed and explained with a novel conceptual design of a cross-linked network, characterization of modular coordinated kinematics, and a modular control strategy for multiple functions. We model and analyze the motion patterns for these functions, including grabbing, manipulation, and locomotion. This further enables the combination of simultaneous multi-functions with this very simple actuator network structure. In this way, a soft modular robot is developed with demonstrations of a novel continuous-transportation mode, for which multiple objects could be simultaneously transported in unstructured environments with either mobile manipulation or pick-and-place operation. A comprehensive workflow is presented to elaborate the cross-linked actuator coordination concept, analytical modeling, modular control strategy, experimental validation, and multi-functional applications. Our understanding of actuator coordination inspires new soft robotic designs for wider robotic applications.
•Architecture and pore size distribution of POROS HS 50 are determined.•Perfusion effects on the adsorption of biomolecules are visualized.•Perfusion is negligible for proteins up to ...150kDa.•Perfusion becomes significant for a 700kDa protein at 1000cm/h.•100nm VLPs are largely excluded and bind only at the particle surface.
The structural and protein adsorption characteristics of the perfusion chromatography matrix POROS® HS 50 are determined. Transmission electron microscopy shows a broad distribution of pore sizes with 100–500nm through-pores transecting a network of much smaller pores formed by aggregates of microgranules about 100nm in size. Dextran standards, proteins, and virus-like particles (VLPs) show size-exclusion behavior consistent with such a bimodal distribution of pore sizes. For non-binding conditions, the trends in height equivalent to a theoretical plate (HETP) as a function of mobile phase velocity and molecular size are consistent with perfusion suggesting that a fraction of the mobile phase between 0.0005 and 0.0008 flows through the particles. This small fraction provides little or no enhancement of intraparticle mass transfer for relatively small proteins (lysozyme and IgG) even at 1000cm/h, but can contribute substantially to transport for large proteins (thyroglobulin) and VLPs. Intraparticle concentration profiles during transient adsorption are determined by confocal microscopy in batch and flow systems. The profiles are spherically symmetrical indicating a dominance of diffusion for smaller proteins in both batch and flow systems but become highly asymmetrical and skewed in the direction of flow for thyroglobulin at 1000cm/h. Estimates of the convective enhancement of intraparticle transport for these conditions based on the confocal measurements are consistent with estimates of the intraparticle Peclet number and previously published models. Adsorption of VLPs, however, was found to be confined to a thin layer on the outer surface of the particles indicting that bound VLPs block access to the underlying pore network and suggesting that pores larger than those present on the resin studies are needed to take advantage of the effects of perfusion for the adsorption of large VLPs.
Advances in mass-spectrometry have generated increasingly large-scale proteomics datasets containing tens of thousands of phosphorylation sites (phosphosites) that require prioritization. We develop ...a bioinformatics tool called HotPho and systematically discover 3D co-clustering of phosphosites and cancer mutations on protein structures. HotPho identifies 474 such hybrid clusters containing 1255 co-clustering phosphosites, including RET p.S904/Y928, the conserved HRAS/KRAS p.Y96, and IDH1 p.Y139/IDH2 p.Y179 that are adjacent to recurrent mutations on protein structures not found by linear proximity approaches. Hybrid clusters, enriched in histone and kinase domains, frequently include expression-associated mutations experimentally shown as activating and conferring genetic dependency. Approximately 300 co-clustering phosphosites are verified in patient samples of 5 cancer types or previously implicated in cancer, including CTNNB1 p.S29/Y30, EGFR p.S720, MAPK1 p.S142, and PTPN12 p.S275. In summary, systematic 3D clustering analysis highlights nearly 3,000 likely functional mutations and over 1000 cancer phosphosites for downstream investigation and evaluation of potential clinical relevance.
•A China total diet study on exposure to nine BDGEs was comprehensively assessed.•BADGE and BADGE·2H2O is exposure of greater concern compared to BFDGEs.•Meats, eggs, and aquatic products are the ...main source of dietary exposure.•Current BDGEs exposure levels do not pose risks to general population.
Despite the widespread use of bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (BADGE) and bisphenol F diglycidyl ether (BFDGE) in various consumer products as protective plasticizer, studies on human dietary exposure to these compounds are scare. In this study, nine bisphenol diglycidyl ethers (BDGEs) including BADGE, BFDGE, and seven of their derivatives were determined in the Chinese adult population based on composite dietary samples collected from the sixth (2016–2019) China total diet study (TDS). Contamination level of nine BDGEs was determined in 288 composite dietary samples from 24 provinces in China. BADGE·2H2O and BADGE are the most frequently detected and BADGE·2H2O presented the highest mean concentration (2.402 μg/kg). The most contaminated food composite is meats, with a mean ∑9BDGEs of 8.203 μg/kg, followed by aquatic products (4.255 μg/kg), eggs (4.045 μg/kg), and dairy products (3.256 μg/kg). The estimated daily intake (EDI) of ∑9BDGEs based on the mean and 95th percentile concentrations are 121.27 ng/kg bw/day and 249.71 ng/kg bw/day. Meats, eggs, and aquatic products are the main source of dietary exposure. Notably, beverages and water, alcohols were the main contributors of dietary exposure to BADGE and BADGE·2H2O, followed by animal-derived foods. Dietary exposure assessment demonstrated that human dietary BDGEs do not pose risks to general population based on the mean and 95th percentile hazard index with < 1. This is the first comprehensive national dietary exposure assessment of BDGEs in Chinese general population.
Deficits in responding to joint attention (RJA) are early symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Currently, no automated tools exist for identifying and quantifying RJA behaviors. A few eye ...tracking studies have investigated RJA in ASD children but have produced conflicting results. In addition, little is known about the trajectory of RJA development through developmental age. Here, a new video was designed including 12 clips of an actor pointing to or looking at an object. Eye tracking technology was used to monitor RJA in three groups: 143 ASD children assessed with the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) (4–7 years old), 113 age- and gender-matched typically developing children (TDC), and 43 typically developing adults (TDA) (19–32 years old). RJAfinder was developed in R and MATLAB to quantify RJA events from the eye tracking data. RJA events were compared among the three groups. Spearman correlation coefficients between total number of RJA events in ASD and the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) scores were calculated. A logistic regression model was built using the average valid sampling rate and the total number of RJA events as two predictive variables to classify ASD and TDC groups. ASD children displayed statistically significantly less RJA events than the TDC and TDA groups with medium-to-large-sized effects. ASD and TDC children both displayed more RJA events in response to pointing stimuli than to looking stimuli. Our logistic regression model predicted ASD tendency with 0.76 accuracy in the testing set. RJA ability improved more slowly between the ages of 4–7 years old in the ASD group than in the TDC group. In ASD children, RJA ability showed negative correlation with SRS total T-score as well as the scores of five subdomains. Our study provides an automated tool for quantifying RJA and insights for the study of RJA in ASD children, which may help improve ASD screening, subtyping, and behavior interventions.
Identifying tumor-cell-specific markers and elucidating their epigenetic regulation and spatial heterogeneity provides mechanistic insights into cancer etiology. Here, we perform snRNA-seq and ...snATAC-seq in 34 and 28 human clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) specimens, respectively, with matched bulk proteogenomics data. By identifying 20 tumor-specific markers through a multi-omics tiered approach, we reveal an association between higher ceruloplasmin (CP) expression and reduced survival. CP knockdown, combined with spatial transcriptomics, suggests a role for CP in regulating hyalinized stroma and tumor-stroma interactions in ccRCC. Intratumoral heterogeneity analysis portrays tumor cell-intrinsic inflammation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) as two distinguishing features of tumor subpopulations. Finally, BAP1 mutations are associated with widespread reduction of chromatin accessibility, while PBRM1 mutations generally increase accessibility, with the former affecting five times more accessible peaks than the latter. These integrated analyses reveal the cellular architecture of ccRCC, providing insights into key markers and pathways in ccRCC tumorigenesis.
To protect the safety of food bought from the online catering sector, the former State Food and Drug Administration of China issued two separate regulations in 2016 and 2017. Independently, the ...Shanghai government formulated local regulations, including the Shanghai Online Catering Service Supervision and Management Measures, to strengthen food safety supervision in this megacity with the largest catering sector in China. This study explored factors that influence consumer perceptions of the performance of online catering food safety regulations using survey data from 1050 respondents collected in 2019. The results indicate that consumers believe that Shanghai’s online catering industry has improved by varying degrees in terms of food freshness, ingredient traceability, foreign matter control, food temperature control, internal packaging hygiene and environmental protection, and satisfaction with food safety. The factors that influenced the listed features include the number and effectiveness of government-issued regulations regarding the online catering sector, effectiveness of ordering platform food safety regulations, employee training frequency, employee food safety awareness, delivery box cleanliness and courier personal hygiene, consumer trust in ordering platform services, and consumer confidence in government supervision. These factors significantly and positively affected the consumers’ perceptions of the performance of food safety regulations in the online catering sector.
Background
Stroke, including ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke, possesses complex pathological mechanisms such as neuroinflammation, oxidative stress and blood-brain barrier damage. Astrocyte ...functions have been reported during injury, neuroprotection and cell crosstalk. It plays a key role in exacerbating stroke injury, promoting neurological repair and enhancing neuroregeneration.
Aim
This holistic bibliometric analysis aimed to provide a general overview of the recent advancement and the hotspots in the field of stroke and astrocyte from 2001 to 2021.
Materials and methods
Publications between 2001 and 2021, related to stroke and astrocyte were retrieved from the Web of Science (WOS) and analyzed in Gephi and VOSviewer.
Results
In total, 3789 documents were extracted from the WOS databases. The publications showed stable growth since 2001. The United States and China were the most prolific countries and University of California San Francisco and Oakland University were the most influential institutes. The top four most productive journals were Brain Research, Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, Glia and Journal of Neuroinflammation. Keywords frequency and co-occurrence analysis revealed that the topics related to “micro-RNA”, “toll like receptor”, “neuroinflammation”, “autophagy” and “interleukin” were research frontiers. The field of stroke and astrocyte focused on several aspects, such as the role of astrocytes in the treatment of stroke, metabolic changes in astrocytes, the protective role of apoptosis in astrocytes after oxidative stress injury and neurovascular units.
Conclusion
This comprehensive bibliometric study provides an updated perspective on the trend of research associated with stroke and astrocyte. It will benefit scientific community to identify the important issues, future directions and provide a novel understanding of stroke pathophysiology, hotspots and frontiers to facilitate future research direction.
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