Drought tolerance and plant growth are critical factors affecting rice yield, and identifying genes that can enhance these traits is essential for improving crop resilience and productivity. Using a () mutant of the rice variety Huanghuazhan (HHZ) generated by radiation mutagenesis, we discovered a novel gene, , which plays a dual role in plant biology: it acts as a positive regulator of growth and development, but as a negative regulator of drought resistance. The mutant displayed a marked reduction in plant growth and seed setting rate, yet exhibited an unexpected advantage in terms of drought tolerance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe concentrations of atmospheric pollutants PM, O, SO, NO, and CO together with the meteorological factors of temperature (), relative humidity (RH), wind speed, and other relevant data in Tangshan from 2015 to 2021 were collected to study the variation characteristics of PM and O at different periods in Tangshan City in the past seven years and their influencing factors, to discuss the contributions of air mass transport to PM and O pollution, and to reveal the synergistic influence mechanism of PM and O on atmospheric compound pollution by using correlation analysis and backward trajectory cluster analysis techniques. The results showed that PM concentrations in Tangshan decreased year by year from 2015 to 2021, whereas O concentration showed a unimodal trend, with the peak appearing in 2017. Both PM and O concentrations showed obvious seasonal variation trends; PM was characterized by the highest concentration in winter and the lowest concentration in summer, whereas O was characterized by the highest concentration in summer and the lowest concentration in winter.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMacrocyclic peptides are promising scaffolds for the covalent ligand discovery. However, platforms enabling the direct identification of covalent macrocyclic ligands in a high-throughput manner are limited. In this study, we present an mRNA display platform allowing selection of covalent macrocyclic inhibitors using 1,3-dibromoacetone-vinyl sulfone (DBA-VS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGasdermin D (GSDMD)-mediated pyroptotic cell death drives inflammatory cytokine release and downstream immune responses upon inflammasome activation, which play important roles in host defense and inflammatory disorders. Upon activation by proteases, the GSDMD N-terminal domain (NTD) undergoes oligomerization and membrane translocation in the presence of lipids to assemble pores. Despite intensive studies, the molecular events underlying the transition of GSDMD from an autoinhibited soluble form to an oligomeric pore form inserted into the membrane remain incompletely understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDrinking water treatment plants (DWTPs) in China that pioneered the biological activated carbon (BAC) process have reached 10 years of operation. There has been a renewed focus on biofiltration and the performance of old BAC filters for dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) has been poor, requiring replacement and regeneration of the BAC. Therefore, it is necessary to explore a cost-effective way to improve the water quality of the old BAC filters.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndividual differences in size, experience, and task specialization in natural swarms often result in heterogeneity and hierarchy, facilitating efficient and coordinated task accomplishment. Drawing inspiration from this phenomenon, a general strategy is proposed for organizing magnetic micro/nanorobots (MNRs) with apparent differences in size, shape, and properties into cohesive microswarms with tunable heterogeneity, controlled spatial hierarchy, and collaborative tasking capability. In this strategy, disparate magnetic MNRs can be manipulated to show reversible transitions between synchronization and desynchronization by elaborately regulating parameter sets of the rotating magnetic field.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCalprotectin, a metal ion-binding protein complex, plays a crucial role in the innate immune system and has gained prominence as a biomarker for various intestinal and systemic inflammatory and infectious diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and tuberculosis (TB). Current clinical testing methods rely on enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs), limiting accessibility and convenience. In this study, we introduce the Fab-Enabled Split-luciferase Calprotectin Assay (FESCA), a novel quantitative method for calprotectin measurement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe biological activated carbon (BAC) process has been widely used in drinking water treatment to improve the removal of pollutants, including the precursors of nitrogenous disinfection byproducts (N-DBPs). Nevertheless, old BAC filter effluent DON concentration is heightened, increasing the highly toxic N-DBPs formation potential. Herein, the variation of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) was comprehensively explored during one backwashing cycle, focusing on four BAC age (0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) still have a high risk of recurrence of major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (MACCE). However, there are rare studies on the prediction of MACCE in patients with ACS using lipoprotein a [Lp(a)] combined with fibrinogen. The aim of this study was to analyze the predictive value of Lp(a) combined with fibrinogen for the long-term prognosis of patients with ACS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Med Chem Lett
October 2022
Protein S-acylation is a dynamic and reversible lipid post-translational modification that can affect the activity, stability, localization, and interactions of target proteins. Lipid modification occurs on cysteine residues via a thioester bond and in humans is mediated by 23 Asp-His-His-Cys domain-containing protein acyltransferases (DHHC-PATs). The DHHC-PATs have well-known roles in physiology and disease, but much remains to be discovered about their biological function and therapeutic potential.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEthnopharmacological Relevance: Pueraria lobata (Willd.) Ohwi and Pueraria lobata var. thomsonii (Benth.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Recent investigations have shown that, on average, patients hospitalized with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have a poorer postdischarge prognosis than those hospitalized without COVID-19, but this effect remains unclear among patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) who are on dialysis.
Methods: Leveraging a national ESKD patient claims database administered by the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, we conducted a retrospective cohort study that characterized the effects of in-hospital COVID-19 on all-cause unplanned readmission and death within 30 days of discharge for patients on dialysis. Included in this study were 436,745 live acute-care hospital discharges of 222,154 Medicare beneficiaries on dialysis from 7871 Medicare-certified dialysis facilities between January 1 and October 31, 2020.
As the "writer" enzymes of protein acylation, a dynamic and functionally significant post-translational modification (PTM), DHHC family proteins have emerged in the past decade as both key modulators of cellular homeostasis and as drivers of neoplastic, autoimmune, metabolic, and neurological pathologies. Currently, biological and clinical discovery is hampered by the limitations of existing DHHC family inhibitors, which possess poor physicochemical properties and off-target profiles. However, progress in identifying new inhibitory scaffolds has been meager, in part due to a lack of robust in vitro assays suitable for high-throughput screening (HTS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Renal dialysis is a lifesaving but demanding therapy, requiring 3 weekly treatments of multiple-hour durations. Though travel times and quality of care vary across facilities, the extent to which patients are willing and able to engage in weighing tradeoffs is not known. Since 2015, Medicare has summarized and reported quality data for dialysis facilities using a star rating system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance: There is a need for studies to evaluate the risk factors for COVID-19 and mortality among the entire Medicare long-term dialysis population using Medicare claims data.
Objective: To identify risk factors associated with COVID-19 and mortality in Medicare patients undergoing long-term dialysis.
Design, Setting, And Participants: This retrospective, claims-based cohort study compared mortality trends of patients receiving long-term dialysis in 2020 with previous years (2013-2019) and fit Cox regression models to identify risk factors for contracting COVID-19 and postdiagnosis mortality.
Zhong Nan Da Xue Xue Bao Yi Xue Ban
August 2021
Vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) is one of the main cell types in blood vessel wall, and the VSMC apoptosis is involved in the development of atherosclerosis (AS). In early AS, the apoptosis of VSMC is regarded as a compensatory mechanism for neointimal hyperplasia and lumen stenosis. However, this process will also accelerate the rupture of atherosclerotic plaques, resulting in serious cardiovascular complications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProtein S-acylation is a prevalent post-translational protein lipidation that is dynamically regulated by 'writer' protein S-acyltransferases and 'eraser' acylprotein thioesterases. The protein S-acyltransferases comprise 23 aspartate-histidine-histidine-cysteine (DHHC)-containing proteins, which transfer fatty acid acyl groups from acyl-coenzyme A onto protein substrates. DHHC proteins are increasingly recognized as critical regulators of S-acylation-mediated cellular processes and pathology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProtein -acylation is a dynamic lipid post-translational modification that can modulate the localization and activity of target proteins. In humans, the installation of the lipid onto target proteins is catalyzed by a family of 23 Asp-His-His-Cys domain-containing protein acyltransferases (DHHC-PATs). DHHCs are increasingly recognized as critical players in cellular signaling events and in human disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To examine which factors are driving improvement in the Dialysis Facility Compare (DFC) star ratings and to test whether nonclinical facility characteristics are associated with observed longitudinal changes in the star ratings.
Data Sources: Data were collected from eligible patients in over 6,000 Medicare-certified dialysis facilities from three annual star rating and individual measure updates, publicly released on DFC in October 2015, October 2016, and April 2018.
Study Design: Changes in the star rating and individual quality measures were investigated across three public data releases.
Introduction: The benefits of MPP delay optimization on hemodynamics and ventricular contraction synchronicity can be quantified with cardiac index (CI) and QRS width. A delay with the maximum CI and minimum QRS width may be the optimized settings for multipoint pacing (MPP).
Methods: Twelve patients with advanced heart failure who received cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillation with MPP at the Third People's Hospital of Chengdu from March 2016 to April 2019 were included.
Ultrasonography assessments of optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) is a non-invasive method that may help identify elevated intracranial pressure (ICP). However, this technique was used to evaluate the elevated ICP caused by traumatic brain injury. The objective of this study was to examine clinical cases of the changes in ICP with venous sinus stenosis and venous sinus thrombosis found the advantage of this technique in the application.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRationale: Anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis is an autoimmune disorder that is most frequently induced by ovarian teratoma in young females. The condition can be controlled and reversed via ovarian tumor resection and immunotherapy. However, anti-NMDAR encephalitis induced by bilateral ovarian teratomas with distinct histopathologic types is rarely reported in the literature.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdvanced glycation end products (AGE) are the biomarkers of aging and diabetes which are formed via reactions between glycating agents and biomacromolecules. However, no proteomic study has been reported to systematically investigate the protein substrates of AGEs. In this paper, we used an aniline-based probe to capture the glyoxal-imine intermediate which is the transition sate of glyoxal-derived AGEs.
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