Osteosarcoma (OSA) is the most common type of cancer that originates in the bone and usually occurs in young children. OSA patients were treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy and surgery, and the ...results were disappointing. Marine antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been the focus of antibiotic research because they are resistant to pathogen infection. Piscidin-1 is an AMP from the hybrid striped bass (Morone saxatilis × M. chrysops) and has approximately 22 amino acids. Research has shown that piscidin-1 can inhibit bacterial infections and has antinociception and anti-cancer properties; however, the regulatory effects of piscidin-1 on mitochondrial dysfunction in cancer cells are still unknown. We aimed to identify the effects of piscidin-1 on mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mtROS) and apoptosis in OSA cells. Our analyses indicated that piscidin-1 has more cytotoxic effects against OSA cells than against lung and ovarian cancer cells; however, it has no effect on non-cancer cells. Piscidin-1 induces apoptosis in OSA cells, regulates mtROS, reduces mitochondrial antioxidant manganese superoxide dismutase and mitochondrial transmembrane potential, and decreases adenosine 5'-triphosphate production, thus leading to mitochondrial dysfunction and apoptosis. The mitochondrial antioxidant, mitoTempo, reduces the apoptosis induced by piscidin-1. Results suggest that piscidin-1 has potential for use in OSA treatment.
Summary
P/TGMS (Photo/thermo‐sensitive genic male sterile) lines are crucial resources for two‐line hybrid rice breeding. Previous studies revealed that slow development is a general mechanism for ...sterility–fertility conversion of P/TGMS in Arabidopsis. However, the difference in P/TGMS genes between rice and Arabidopsis suggests the presence of a distinct P/TGMS mechanism in rice. In this study, we isolated a novel P/TGMS line, ostms19, which shows sterility under high‐temperature conditions and fertility under low‐temperature conditions. OsTMS19 encodes a novel pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) protein essential for pollen formation, in which a point mutation GTA(Val) to GCA(Ala) leads to ostms19 P/TGMS phenotype. It is highly expressed in the tapetum and localized to mitochondria. Under high temperature or long‐day photoperiod conditions, excessive ROS accumulation in ostms19 anthers during pollen mitosis disrupts gene expression and intine formation, causing male sterility. Conversely, under low temperature or short‐day photoperiod conditions, ROS can be effectively scavenged in anthers, resulting in fertility restoration. This indicates that ROS homeostasis is critical for fertility conversion. This relationship between ROS homeostasis and fertility conversion has also been observed in other tested rice P/TGMS lines. Therefore, we propose that ROS homeostasis is a general mechanism for the sterility–fertility conversion of rice P/TGMS lines.
Quantification of dynamics of individual twin boundary (TB) migration such as the velocities and corresponding stresses, is of critical importance for understanding the deformation behavior of ...magnesium alloys. By conducting in-situ cyclic loading experiments on submicron magnesium pillars inside transmission electron microscope (TEM), the dynamics of individual TB migration and the associated twinning-detwinning phenomena are systematically investigated. It is found that the TB can migrate forward and backward under each cyclic loading paths, corresponding to the twinning-detwinning cycles. The TB morphology changes constantly during its migration. Surprisingly, the stress required for TB migration is found to be higher in compression than in tension, and the TB migration velocity in compression is slower than in tension. Such asymmetry is proposed to be associated with different defect environment on either side of TB and the TB structure per se. The considerable amount of energy absorbed during the TB migration is believed to account for at least part of the good damping properties of Mg. Our results are also expected to benefit the modeling of deformation twinning behavior in Mg and other HCP metals.
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The microorganisms associated with a plant influence its growth and fitness. These microorganisms accumulate on the aerial and root surfaces of plants, as well as within the plants, as endophytes, ...although how the interaction between microorganisms protects the plant from pathogens is still little understood. In the current study, the impact of assembled the bacterial communities against the pathogenic fungus to promote
Artemisia annua
L. growths was investigated. We established a model of bacterium–fungus–plant system. Eight bacterial strains and a fungal pathogen
Globisporangium ultimum
(Glo) were isolated from wild
A. annua
roots and leaves, respectively. We assembled the six-bacteria community (C6:
Rhizobium pusense
,
Paracoccus
sp.,
Flavobacterium
sp.,
Brevundimonas
sp.,
Stenotrophomonas
sp., and
Bacillus
sp.) with inhibition, and eight-bacteria community (C8) composing of C6 plus another two bacteria (
Brevibacillus nitrificans
and
Cupriavidus
sp.) without inhibition against Glo in individually dual culture assays. Inoculation of seedlings with C8 significantly reduced impact of Glo. The growth and disease suppression of
A. annua
seedlings inoculated with C8 + Glo were significantly better than those of seedlings inoculated with only Glo. C8 had more inhibitory effects on Glo, and also enhanced the contents of four metabolites in seedling roots compared to Glo treatment only. Additionally, the inhibitory effects of root extracts from
A. annua
seedlings showed that Glo was most sensitive, the degree of eight bacteria sensitivity were various with different concentrations. Our findings suggested that the non-inhibitory bacteria played a vital role in the bacterial community composition and that some bacterial taxa were associated with disease suppression. The construction of a defined assembled bacterial community could be used as a biological fungicide, promoting biological disease control of plants.
Alveolar epithelial cell (AEC) senescence is considered to be a universal pathological feature of many chronic pulmonary diseases. Our previous study found that epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs), ...produced from arachidonic acid (ARA) through the cytochrome P450 cyclooxygenase (CYP) pathway, have significant negative regulatory effects on cellular senescence in AECs. However, the exact mechanisms by which EETs alleviate the senescence of AECs still need to be further explored. In the present study, we observed that bleomycin (BLM) induced enhanced mitophagy accompanied by increased mitochondrial ROS (mito-ROS) content in the murine alveolar epithelial cell line MLE12. While EETs reduced BLM-induced mitophagy and mito-ROS content in MLE12 cells, and the mechanism was related to the regulation of NOX4/Nrf2-mediated redox imbalance. Furthermore, we found that inhibition of EETs degradation could significantly inhibit mitophagy and regulate NOX4/Nrf2 balance to exert anti-oxidant effects in D-galactose-induced premature aging mice. Collectively, these findings may provide new ideas for treating age-related pulmonary diseases by targeting EETs to improve mitochondrial dysfunction and reduce oxidative stress.
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•EETs alleviate alveolar epithelial cell senescence.•14,15-EET inhibits mitophagy by regulating redox imbalance.•14,15-EET inhibits redox imbalance by regulating NOX4/Nrf2.
Prodigiosin, a secondary metabolite isolated from marine Vibrio sp., has antimicrobial and anticancer properties. This study investigated the cell death mechanism of prodigiosin in glioblastoma. ...Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is an aggressive primary cancer of the central nervous system. Despite treatment, or standard therapy, the median survival of glioblastoma patients is about 14.6 month. The results of the present study clearly showed that prodigiosin significantly reduced the cell viability and neurosphere formation ability of U87MG and GBM8401 human glioblastoma cell lines. Moreover, prodigiosin with fluorescence signals was detected in the endoplasmic reticulum and found to induce excessive levels of autophagy. These findings were confirmed by observation of LC3 puncta formation and acridine orange staining. Furthermore, prodigiosin caused cell death by activating the JNK pathway and decreasing the AKT/mTOR pathway in glioblastoma cells. Moreover, we found that the autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine reversed prodigiosin induced autophagic cell death. These findings of this study suggest that prodigiosin induces autophagic cell death and apoptosis in glioblastoma cells.
•The amount of the reacted carbon was estimated with the volume of oxygen injected.•The energy recovery rate to evaluate the gasification efficiency was proposed.•A gasification temperature ...evaluation model was suggested.
In this paper, UCG simulation experiments were carried out on selected coal samples to study the effects of the gasification agent ratio on the product gas composition and calorific value under different oxygen concentrations. Moreover, an energy recovery evaluation method based on stoichiometric theory was established based on the carbon (C) balance in the generated gas content, and the energy recovery rate and coal consumption of the underground gasification process were evaluated. Based on the composition of the produced gas and the thermodynamic law of conservation, an evaluation model of the underground coal gasification temperature field was established. The gasification chamber temperature in each stage was evaluated by calculating the reaction heat and sensible heat. The experimental and research results showed that when the volume fraction of oxygen in a gasification agent was in the range 40–70 % and the calorific value of the produced gas increased from 10.48 MJ/m3 to 12.48 MJ/m3. The calorific value of the produced gas increased with an increasing oxygen concentration. Furthermore, the energy recovery rate increased from 69.63 % to 83.88 %, indicating that the gasification efficiency of the UCG experiment can be significantly improved with an increasing oxygen concentration. The error between the theoretical value of the coal consumption and the actual monitoring value was within 10 %, which effectively evaluates the coal consumption in the gasification process. The theoretical calculation temperature was consistent with the experimental monitoring temperature results, and the reaction heat was found to also be linearly correlated with the gasification temperature. Therefore, this method can effectively determine the gasification chamber temperature. These monitoring and evaluation methods are expected to guide the analysis of subsurface field experiments.
College athletes are a group often affected by anxiety. Few interventional studies have been conducted to address the anxiety issues in this population.
We conducted a mobile-delivered mindfulness ...intervention among college athletes to study its feasibility and efficacy in lowering their anxiety level and improving their mindfulness (measured by the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire FFMQ).
In April 2019, we recruited 290 college athletes from a public university in Shanghai, China, and 288 of them were randomized into an intervention group and a control group (closed trial), with the former (n=150) receiving a therapist-guided, smartphone-delivered mindfulness-based intervention and the latter receiving mental health promotion messages (n=138). We offered in-person instructions during the orientation session for the intervention group in a classroom, with the therapist interacting with the participants on the smartphone platform later during the intervention. We used generalized linear modeling and the intent-to-treat approach to compare the 2 groups' outcomes in dispositional anxiety, precompetition anxiety, and anxiety during competition, plus the 5 dimensions of mindfulness (measured by the FFMQ).
Our intent-to-treat analysis and generalized linear modeling found no significant difference in dispositional anxiety, precompetition anxiety, or anxiety during competition. Only the "observation" facet of mindfulness measures had a notable difference between the changes experienced by the 2 groups, whereby the intervention group had a net gain of .214 yet fell short of reaching statistical significance (P=.09). Participants who specialized in group sports had a higher level of anxiety (β=.19; SE=.08), a lower level of "nonjudgemental inner experience" in FFMQ (β=-.07; SE=.03), and a lower level of "nonreactivity" (β=-.138; SE=.052) than those specializing in individual sports.
No significant reduction in anxiety was detected in this study. Based on the participant feedback, the time availability for mindfulness practice and session attendance for these student athletes in an elite college could have compromised the intervention's effectiveness. Future interventions among this population could explore a more student-friendly time schedule (eg, avoid final exam time) or attempt to improve cognitive and scholastic outcomes.
Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR1900024449; https://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.html?proj=40865.
Background
During anther development, the tapetum provides essential nutrients and materials for pollen development. In rice, multiple transcription factors and enzymes essential for tapetum ...development and pollen wall formation have been cloned from male-sterile lines.
Results
In this study, we obtained several lines in which the MYB transcription factor
OsMS188
was knocked out through the CRISPR-Cas9 approach. The
osms188
lines exhibited a male-sterile phenotype with aberrant development and degeneration of tapetal cells, absence of the sexine layer and defective anther cuticles.
CYP703A3
,
CYP704B2
,
OsPKS1
,
OsPKS2
,
DPW
and
ABCG15
are sporopollenin synthesis and transport-related genes in rice. Plants with mutations in these genes are male sterile, with a defective sexine layer and anther cuticle. Further biochemical assays demonstrated that OsMS188 binds directly to the promoters of these genes to regulate their expression.
UDT1
,
OsTDF1
,
TDR
,
bHLH142
and
EAT1
are upstream regulators of rice tapetum development. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSAs) and activation assays revealed that TDR directly regulates
OsMS188
expression. Additionally, protein interaction assays indicated that TDR interacts with OsMS188 to regulate downstream gene expression.
Conclusion
Overall, OsMS188 is a key regulator of tapetum development and pollen wall formation. The gene regulatory network established in this work may facilitate future investigations of fertility regulation in rice and in other crop species.
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