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Polydrug use is well documented in synthetic cathinone users, although the consequences of such use are not well characterized. In pre-clinical research, a pre-exposure to a drug has been reported to attenuate the aversive effects of other drugs which has implications for their abuse potential. The goal of the present study was to investigate the impact of pre-exposure to the synthetic cathinone methylone on the aversive effects of MDPV and MDMA.Male and female Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to 10 mg/kg of methylone every 4th day (for a total of five injections) prior to taste avoidance training with 1.8 mg/kg of MDPV or 1 mg/kg of MDMA.MDPV and MDMA induced taste avoidance in males and females (all p's 0.05). In males, methylone pre-exposure attenuated the avoidance induced by MDPV and MDMA (all p's 0.05) with the attenuation greater with MDPV. In females, methylone pre-exposure attenuated avoidance induced by MDPV (all p's 0.05), but it had no effect on those induced by MDMA (all p's 0.05).The effects of exposure to methylone on taste avoidance induced by MDPV and MDMA were drug- (MDPVMDMA) and sex- (MDMA only in males) dependent. The attenuating effects of methylone pre-exposure on MDPV and MDMA were discussed in terms of their shared neurochemical action. These findings suggest that a history of methylone use may reduce the aversive effects of MDPV and MDMA which may have implications for polydrug use involving the synthetic cathinones.

Due to the tumor immune escape mechanism, strategies like the utilization of bispecific antibodies were used to assist immunotherapy. Herein a visible polymer–inorganic hybrid gene vehicle had been prepared to deliver anti-EpCAM/anti-CD3 encoding minicircle DNA into normal cells thus these transfected cells effectively secreted bispecific antibody with bioactivity. In the experiments, this compound system exhibited excellent biocompatibility, high transfection efficiency and ultrasensitive imaging capacity. Furthermore, the transfected cells could be detected under the MR imaging system and the gene product showed an outstanding immune effect. In conclusion, this nanocomposite showed synergistic advantages in gene delivery and non-invasive MR imaging.

Triple-negative breast cancer has few biomarkers to guide benefit from immunotherapy; furthermore, the biochemical features of the tumor microenvironment including acidosis, hypoxia, and high hydrogen peroxide concentrations, significantly modulate cancer cell metabolism and metastatic potential, and associate with bad outcomes from chemo-radiotherapy and surgery. Herein, a theranostic nanocomposite with a dual imaging modality and chemical phototherapeutic capacity has been used for breast cancer cell inhibition, which is developed to self-assemble superparamagnetic iron oxide nanocrystals and IR-780 iodides in one system. Due to the magnetic resonance and near-infrared Ⅱ fluorescence capacity, this nanocomposite serves as a contrast agent for the high-sensitivity, accurate cancer diagnosis and facilitates imaging-guided phototherapy. Furthermore, this nanocomposite not only performs dual enzyme-like activities in the tumor microenvironment, but also carries out the bioeffect of hyperthermia and oxidative stress, which could repolarize tumor-associated macrophages from the tumor-promoting M2 phenotype into the tumoricidal M1 phenotype, reduce the number of immunosuppressive cells, and execute immune activation. Through simultaneous chemical phototherapy and anti-tumor immunity, this iron oxide-based nanocomposite successfully suppresses tumor growth and metastasis, and has good biocompatibility in normal tissues and organs; thus, it might provide new insights into the development of a novel cancer therapy strategy.

Estuarine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are strongly impacted by environmental changes, including changes in salinity, temperature, transparency, dissolved oxygen, and nutritional status. Many previous studies on fish community biodiversity examined species richness and composition but failed to consider functional traits and diversity. In this study, we applied a functional approach to explore how environmental factors affect the functional diversities and traits of fish communities in the Pearl River Estuary (PRE). During 24 scientific surveys, a total of 15 387 individuals were sampled, belonging to 112 species, 95 genera, and 56 families, with freshwater species being the more abundant category. Seasonal changes significantly affected the functional dispersion and quadratic entropy Q of the fish community. Temperature and NO3 were critical environmental factors that determined the functional diversity of the fish community. Structural and functional composition varied significantly among seasons. Species composition was more dissimilar than functional composition among the different river mouths. Overall, we assessed the functional diversity of the fish community and revealed that environmental factors, such as turbidity, total nitrogen, and NO3, affect functional traits and diversity of the fish community in the PRE.

Estuaries are important in terms of biodiversity, biogeochemical function, and ecological balance due to their intense land-sea interactions. The sustainability of estuarine ecosystem function relies on a good understanding of the ecological processes related to microbial communities. However, microbial community assembly in such ecosystems is still not well understood. Here, based on 16S rRNA sequencing, we investigated the bacterioplankton community structure in the Pearl River Estuarine system during the wet and dry seasons. Results showed that there were significant seasonal and spatial variations in the bacterioplankton communities of the estuary, with seasonal variations being more remarkable. Multiple bacterioplankton with different abundances in the wet and dry seasons were observed, e.g., the class Actinobacteria and Oxyphotobacteria were enriched in the wet season, whereas Alphaproteobacteria and Saccharimonadia were more abundant in the dry season. Both variation partitioning and null model analysis revealed that environmental filtering dominated the bacterioplankton community assembly in the Pearl River Estuary. Water physical properties (e.g., salinity and temperature), nutrient content (e.g., nitrate), and upstream land use (e.g., urban land cover) together determined the distribution of the bacterioplankton composition in this highly urbanized estuarine ecosystem. These findings would help improve our understanding of the bacterioplankton communities in estuarine ecosystems and provide a theoretical foundation for estuarine ecological health management.