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Construction of step-scheme (S-scheme) heterojunction (HJ) structures is an excellent strategy to achieve efficient photogenerated carrier separation and retain strong redox ability. Recently, the development of efficient S-scheme HJ photocatalysts for the degradation of environmental organic pollutants has attracted considerable attention. In this work, a novel S-scheme CdS/Pt/Bi 2 MoO 6 (CPB) photocatalyst was prepared for the first time by sonochemical and solvothermal methods. By anchoring Pt nanoparticles (NPs) at the interface between CdS nanorods (NRs) and Bi 2 MoO 6 nanosheets (NSs), the migration of photogenerated electron-hole pairs along the stepped path was achieved. The ternary CPB samples were characterized by various analytical techniques, and their photocatalytic performance was investigated by conducting simulated fuel denitrification under visible-light irradiation. It was found that the CPB-4 composites exhibited the highest pyridine degradation activity, which reached 94% after 4 h of visible-light irradiation. The superior photocatalytic performance of the CPB-4 composite could be attributed to the synergistic effect of the Pt NPs and Bi 2 MoO 6 NRs on the photocatalytic degradation as well as to the introduction of Pt and Bi 2 MoO 6 , which led to an excellent response and large specific surface area of the CPB-4 composite. Lastly, the bridging role of the Pt NPs introduced into the S-scheme system was also notable, as it effectively improved the separation and transfer of the CdS/Bi 2 MoO 6 interfaces for the photogenerated electron-hole pairs while retaining strong redox ability., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

The air purification in intensive care units (ICU) involving the removal of smog and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), disinfection, and sterilization are closely linked to important health issues. The environmental photocatalysis technology that could decompose gaseous pollutants into small molecular inorganic substances provides the potential solution. In a chamber of 30-m 3 simulated ICU, photocatalytic purifier with ZnSn(OH) 6 nanoparticles photocatalyst is set up to treat 10 VOCs with concentration below 2 ppm. Compared with regular purifiers of plasma and activated carbon, the present photocatalytic purifier can completely eliminate 10 varieties of low-concentration irritating VOCs without CO production. The continuous tests show that loading of 600 g ZnSn(OH) 6 has capacity to treat large volumes of VOCs and remains high removal efficiencies up to 600-h operation. The results suggest that the photocatalytic purifier could be potentially applied for the treatment of contaminated indoor air particularly ICU. The mechanism of ZnSn(OH) 6 photocatalysis is proposed to interpret the high performance and mineralization of the degradation process.

Background: Although vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) is known to play a key role in causing retinal edema, whether and how VEGF-A induces intracellular edema in the retina still remains unclear., Methods: Sprague-Dawley rats were rendered diabetic with intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin. Intravitreal injection of ranibizumab was performed 8 weeks after diabetes onset. rMC-1 cells (rat Müller cell line) were treated with glyoxal for 24 h with or without ranibizumab. The expression levels of inwardly rectifying K + channel 4.1 (Kir4.1), aquaporin 4 (AQP4), Dystrophin 71 (Dp71), VEGF-A, glutamine synthetase (GS) and sodium-potassium-ATPase (Na + -K + -ATPase) were examined using Western blot. VEGF-A in the supernatant of the cell culture was detected with ELISA. The intracellular potassium and sodium levels were detected with specific indicators., Results: Compared with normal control, protein expressions of Kir4.1 and AQP4 were down-regulated significantly in diabetic rat retinas, which were prevented by ranibizumab. The above changes were recapitulated in vitro. Similarly, the intracellular potassium level in glyoxal-treated rMC-1 cells was increased, while the intracellular sodium level and Na + -K + -ATPase protein level remained unchanged, compared with control. However, ranibizumab treatment decreased intracellular sodium, but not potassium., Conclusion: Ranibizumab protected Müller cells from diabetic intracellular edema through the up-regulation of Kir4.1 and AQP4 by directly binding VEGF-A. It also caused a reduction in intracellular osmotic pressure.

Flea distribution in northern region of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and fluctuations of the annual fleas index in Alataw Pass were investigated. During a 4-year (2015-2018) study, 5789 fleas were collected directly from 15 mammals at eight counties in northern XUAR of northwestern China. Nineteen flea species, belonging to sixteen genera and seven families, were further confirmed by four genetic markers ( 18S rDNA , 28S rDNA , COI and COII ) after morphological observation. Pulex irritans and Paraceras crispum parasitizing Asian badgers ( Meles leucurus ) were recorded for the first time. In addition, the fluctuations of the annual fleas index in Alataw Pass were surveyed. Xenopsylla gerbilli minax , Xenopsylla conformis conformis and Nosopsyllus laeviceps laeviceps were highly detected in the warm season while Paradoxopsyllus repandus , Ctenophthalmus dolichus dolichus and Coptopsylla lamellifer ardua were only found in the cold season. These findings extend our knowledge of flea species, distribution and annual fluctuations especially in China-Kazakhstan border., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (© 2019 The Author(s).)

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is an important trigger for the expansion and recruitment of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), which are regarded to be major coordinators of the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. In this study, we constructed IL-6-knockdown breast cancer mice models to explore the molecular events involved in the IL-6-mediated effects on MDSC development. We defined a subset of early-stage MDSCs (e-MDSCs) with the phenotype of CD11b + Gr-1 - F4/80 - MHCII - in IL-6 high-expressing 4T1 mice mammary carcinoma models, which were the precursors of CD11b + Gr-1 + conventional MDSCs. Furthermore, sustained suppression of SOCS3 and aberrant hyperactivation of the JAK/STAT signaling pathway was exclusively detected in wide-type 4T1 tumor-bearing mice, which promoted the accumulation of e-MDSCs in situ and their immunosuppressive capability in vitro . After blocking the IL-6/STAT3 signaling pathway with the IL-6 receptor antibody or STAT3 antagonist JSI-124 in tumor-bearing mice, significant shrinkage of primary tumors and decrease in lung metastatic nodules were observed in vivo , accompanied by the dramatic decrease of e-MDSC recruitment and recovery of anti-tumor T cell immunity. Thus, SOCS3 suppression accelerated the IL-6-mediated growth and metastasis of mammary carcinoma via affecting myeloid differentiation in breast cancer. Moreover, the IL-6/STAT3 signaling pathway might be a promising candidate target in developing novel therapeutic strategies to eliminate e-MDSCs and improve breast cancer prognosis.

Heterosis has long been exploited for crop breeding; however, the genetic mechanisms, particularly the initial establishment of heterosis during the early vegetative growth phase, remain elusive. The biggest challenge for that is to exclude noise genes from the identified heterosis-related candidates. Herein, we use nutrient-deficient hybrid with no measurable growth heterosis as control. After filtering these irrelevant genes, only 336 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), which is significantly lower than in previous reports, were identified as heterosis-related genes in a superhybrid rice of Liang-You-Pei-Jiu (LYP9) at early-tillering stage. Among the DEGs that could be mapped to quantitative trait loci (QTL), approximately 72.8% could be covered by yield or growth vigor-related QTL, thereby suggesting that our DEGs were reliable and may have potential value to rice breeding. Among the 336 DEGs identified, a majority showed intermediate expression relative to that of its parental lines (i.e. additive effects), particularly, expression was frequently more similar to the paternal line rather than the maternal line (44.1% versus 32.7%); the remaining 27.1% were exclusively up- or down-regulated between the hybrid and either parent. Interestingly, up-regulated genes encoded various enzymes, whereas down-regulated genes were enriched in responses to stress, indicating that hybrids may benefit from both activating metabolism-related pathways and alleviating fitness cost through allelic interactions. Furthermore, a significantly larger proportion of divergent genes and higher nonsynonymous substitutions rates were detected in these DEGs, suggesting a potential contribution to the establishment of heterosis in superhybrid rice LYP9., (© 2016 American Society of Plant Biologists. All Rights Reserved.)

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that function as endogenous silencers of target genes, previous studies have shown that miR-335 play an important role in suppressing metastasis and migration in human cancer including gastric cancer (GC). However, the mechanisms which result in aberrant expression of miR-335 in GC are still unknown. Recent studies have shown that the silencing of some miRNAs is associated with DNA hypermethylation. In this study, we find the promoter of miR-335 we embedded in CpG island by accessing to bioinformatics data and the low expression of miR-335 in 5 gastric cell lines can be restored by 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-Aza-dC) treatment. So we postulated that the miR-335 genes undergo epigenetic inactivation in GC. Subsequently, in GC cells and tissues, we performed quantitative real-time PCR (RTQ-PCR) to assess the expression of miR-335, and methylation-specific PCR (MSP) and bisulfite sequence-PCR (BSP) to evaluate the DNA methylation status in the CpG islands upstream of MiR-335. The result showed that the expression of miR-335 was significantly reduce in gastric cancer cell lines and tumor tissues compared to matched normal gastric tissues, and cell lines, and which is inverse correlation with DNA hypermethylation of miR-335 both in GC cells lines and tissues, but not in normal tissues. In addition, we found that the lower miR-335 expression induced by abnormal methylation may be mainly involved in gastric cell invasion and metastasis in GC tissues. No statistical significance was found about miR-335 expression and methylation level between healthy individuals with and without H. pylori (HP) infection. Finally, we carry out miRNA transfection, RTQ-PCR and western blot assay to find the RAS p21 protein activator (GTPase activating protein) 1 (RASA1) may be the possible target genes which lead to the gastric cell invasion and metastasis, furthermore, the re-expression of endogenous miR-335 by 5-Aza-dC treatment can exert effects similar to exogenous miRNAs transfection. Taken together, our results suggest that miR-335 may be silenced by promoter hypermethylation and play important roles in gastric cell invasion and metastasis through its target genes, such as RASA1. Its methylation level might be a predictive epigenetic marker of GC and remodeling on the expression by demethylation can provided a potential therapeutic strategy.