Considering microplastic characteristics in ecological risk assessment: A case study for China.

Microplastics (MPs) pose a significant global concern, requiring a multifaceted approach to their risk assessment procedures, especially concerning their characteristics in the environment. The Horqin Left Middle Banner in Northeast China was chosen for the research region to investigate the abundance, composition, distribution, and ecological impact of MPs in surface agricultural soils. The concentrations of MPs ranged from 300 to 12800 items/kg, with a median concentration of 1550 items/kg (average = 1994 items/kg).

A perspective of spatial variability and ecological risks of antibiotics in the agricultural-pastoral ecotone soils in eastern Inner Mongolia.

Antibiotics have garnered growing attention as pharmaceuticals ubiquitously present in human society. Within the soil environment, antibiotics exhibit a propensity for high environmental persistence, thereby posing a potential threat to the ecosystem. However, research on antibiotics in agricultural-pastoral ecotone soils is scarce.

Does a Digital Health Application Could Be the Supplement to the Influenza Surveillance System?

Epidemics of seasonal influenza is a major public health concern in china. Historical percentage of influenza-like illness (ILI%) from CDC and health enquiry data from a health-related application were collected, when combining the real-time ILI-related search queries with one-week ago's ILI%, it was able to predict the trend of ILI correctly and timely. Digital health application is potentializing a supplement to the traditional influenza surveillance systems in China.

A Personal Healthcare Knowledge Graph Framework for Diagnosis of Pelvic Masses Diseases.

A Personal Health Knowledge Graph (PHKG) facilitates the efficient integration of potential diagnostic clues from patients' electronic health records with medical knowledge, establishing diagnostic reasoning paths and ensuring accurate, individually interpretable results in the diagnosis of pelvic masses.

Integrating environmental carry capacity based on pesticide risk assessment in soil management: A case study for China.

Pesticides are widely used in agriculture and can pose risks to soil health and environmental quality. This study assessed the occurrence, distribution, ecological risk, and environmental carrying capacity of 56 currently used pesticides and three metabolites in agricultural soils of Horqin Left Middle Banner, a typical Northeast China agricultural area. 29 pesticides were detected, with atrazine, clothianidin, and propiconazole the most common.

Macrophage-mediated tumor-targeted delivery of engineered VNP20009 in anti-PD1 therapy against melanoma.

Bacterial antitumor therapy has great application potential given its unique characteristics, including genetic manipulation, tumor targeting specificity and immune system modulation. However, the nonnegligible side effects and limited efficacy of clinical treatment limit their biomedical applications. Engineered bacteria for therapeutic applications ideally need to avoid their accumulation in normal organs and possess potent antitumor activity.

Bacteria-mediated tumor-targeted delivery of tumstatin (54-132) significantly suppresses tumor growth in mouse model by inhibiting angiogenesis and promoting apoptosis.

Tumor growth is an angiogenesis-dependent process and accompanied by the formation of hypoxic areas. Tumstatin is a tumor-specific angiogenesis inhibitor that suppresses the proliferation and induces the apoptosis of tumorous vascular endothelial cells. VNP20009, an attenuated Salmonella typhimurium strain, preferentially accumulates in the hypoxic areas of solid tumors.

Bacterially mediated drug delivery and therapeutics: Strategies and advancements.

It was already clinically apparent 150 years ago that bacterial therapy could alleviate diseases. Recently, a burgeoning number of researchers have been using bacterial regimens filled with microbial therapeutic leads to diagnose and treat a wide range of disorders and diseases, including cancers, inflammatory diseases, metabolic disorders and viral infections. Some bacteria that were designed to have low toxicity and high efficiency in drug delivery have been used to treat diseases successfully, especially in tumor therapy in animal models or clinical trials, thanks to the progress of genetic engineering and synthetic bioengineering.

Houston Methodist Variant Viewer: An Application to Support Clinical Laboratory Interpretation of Next-generation Sequencing Data for Cancer.

Introduction: Next-generation-sequencing (NGS) is increasingly used in clinical and research protocols for patients with cancer. NGS assays are routinely used in clinical laboratories to detect mutations bearing on cancer diagnosis, prognosis and personalized therapy. A typical assay may interrogate 50 or more gene targets that encompass many thousands of possible gene variants.

p53 binding sites in normal and cancer cells are characterized by distinct chromatin context.

The tumor suppressor protein p53 interacts with DNA in a sequence-dependent manner. Thousands of p53 binding sites have been mapped genome-wide in normal and cancer cells. However, the way p53 selectively binds its cognate sites in different types of cells is not fully understood.

Cyclic AMP (cAMP) Receptor Protein-cAMP Complex Regulates Heparosan Production in Escherichia coli Strain Nissle 1917.

Heparosan serves as the starting carbon backbone for the chemoenzymatic synthesis of heparin, a widely used clinical anticoagulant drug. The availability of heparosan is a significant concern for the cost-effective synthesis of bioengineered heparin. The carbon source is known as the pivotal factor affecting heparosan production.

Hydrolysis of by-product adenosine diphosphate from 3'-phosphoadenosine-5'-phosphosulfate preparation using Nudix hydrolase NudJ.

3'-Phosphoadenosine-5'-phosphosulfate (PAPS) is the obligate cosubstrate and source of the sulfonate group in the chemoenzymatic synthesis of heparin, a clinically used anticoagulant drug. Previously, we have developed a method to synthesize PAPS with Escherichia coli crude extracts, which include three overexpressed enzymes and a fourth unidentified protein. The unknown protein degrades adenosine diphosphate (ADP), the by-product of PAPS synthesis reaction.

Enantioselective DNA condensation induced by heptameric lanthanum helical supramolecular enantiomers.

DNA condensation induced by a pair of heptameric La(III) helical enantiomers M-[La7(S-L)6(CO3)(NO3)6(OCH3)(CH3OH)7]·2CH3OH·5H2O and P-[La7(R-L)6(CO3)(NO3)6(OCH3)(CH3OH)5(H2O)2]·2CH3OH·4H2O (M-La and P-La, L=2-(2-hydroxybenzylamino)-3-carbamoylpropanoic acid) has been investigated by UV/vis spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, CD spectroscopy, EMSA, RALS, DLS, and SEM. The enantiomers M-La and P-La could induce CT-DNA condensation at a low concentration as observed in UV/vis spectroscopy. DNA condensates possessed globular nanoparticles with nearly homogeneous sizes in solid state determined by SEM (ca.

Dinuclear nickel(II) triple-stranded supramolecular cylinders: syntheses, characterization and G-quadruplexes binding properties.

Three dinuclear nickel triple-stranded supramolecular cylinders [Ni2(L1)3][ClO4]4 (1), [Ni2(L2)3][ClO4]4 (2) and [Ni2(L3)3][ClO4]4 (3) with bis(pyridylimine) Schiff base containing triphenyl groups in the spacers as ligands were synthesized and characterized. The human telomeric G-quadruplexes binding properties of cylinders 1-3 were evaluated by means of UV-Vis spectroscopy, circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) melting assay. UV-Vis studies revealed that the supramolecular cylinders 1-3 could bind to G-quadruplex DNA with high binding constants (Kb values ranging from 0.

Hexa-kis-(μ₂-4-amino-3,5-dimethyl-4H-1,2,4-triazole)hexa-aqua-tricobalt(II) naphthalene-1,5-disulfonate tetra-chloride.

In the centrosymmetric trinuclear cation of the title compound, [Co₃(C₄H(8)N₄)₆(H₂O)₆](C₁₀H₆O₆S₂)Cl₄, the three Co(II) atoms are bridged by six triazole mol-ecules via the N atoms in the 1,2-positions. The central Co(II) atom, lying on an inversion center, is coordinated by six triazole N atoms while the terminal Co(II) atoms are coordinated by three triazole N atoms and three water O atoms in a distorted octa-hedral geometry. The naphthalene-disulfonate anion is also centrosymmetric.

A new type of entangled coordination network: coexistence of polythreading and polyknotting involved molecular braids.

A fascinating polythreaded coordination network formed by 1D crankshaft shaped chains threading into a 2D undulated sheet in a one-over/one-under interweaving fashion was reported, in which the 2D layer exhibits an unusual polyknotted entanglement containing triple-stranded molecular braids.

Is tongxinluo more effective than isosorbide dinitrate in treating angina pectoris? A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Background: Tongxinluo (TXL), consisting of 12 Chinese Materia Medica items catalogued in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, is commercially available in China, South Korea, and Russia. Hundreds of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) on TXL in treating cardiovascular diseases were conducted and published in China. This study provides a comprehensive Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA)-compliant systematic review with sensitivity and subgroup analyses to evaluate the evidence about whether TXL is more effective than isosorbide dinitrate (ISDN) in treating ischemic heart disease, particularly angina pectoris.