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Mercury (Hg) is a ubiquitous contaminant in the environment and its methylated form, methylmercury (MeHg), poses a worldwide health concern for humans and wildlife, primarily through fish consumption. Global production of forest fire ash, derived from wildfires and prescribed burns, is rapidly increasing due to a warming climate, but their interactions with aqueous and sedimentary Hg are poorly understood. Herein, we compared the differences of wildfire ash with activated carbon and biochar on the sorption of aqueous inorganic Hg and sedimentary Hg methylation. Sorption of aqueous inorganic Hg was greatest for wildfire ash materials (up to 0.21 μg g-1 or 2.2 μg g-1 C) among all of the solid sorbents evaluated. A similar Hg adsorption mechanism for activated carbon, biochar made of walnut, and wildfire ash was found that involves the formation of complexes between Hg and oxygen-containing functional groups, especially the -COO group. Notably, increasing dissolved organic matter from 2.4 to 70 mg C L-1 remarkably reduced Hg sorption (up to 40% reduction) and increased the time required to reach Hg-sorbent pseudo-equilibrium. Surprisingly, biochar and wildfire ash, but not activated carbon, stimulated MeHg production during anoxic sediment incubation, possibly due to the release of labile organic matter. Overall, our study indicates that while wildfire ash can sequester aqueous Hg, the leaching of its labile organic matter may promote production of toxic MeHg in anoxic sediments, which has an important implication for potential MeHg contamination in downstream aquatic ecosystems after wildfires.

Cyanidin-3-O-galactoside and cyanidin-3-O-arabinoside (purity >98%) were isolated from black chokeberry by preparative high-performance liquid chromatography, and an animal experiment was conducted to investigate the pharmacokinetics of two anthocyanin monomers after intravenous administration. The results showed that cyanidin-3-O-galactoside has preferable druggability than cyanidin-3-O-arabinoside in pharmacokinetic area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CD44, cluster of differentiation 44 is a typical marker of stem cells. At present, it has been found that CD44 is prevalent in various human malignant tumors, but its expression regulation mechanism is still not clear. The initiation of gene expression, the modification of RNA levels, and the regulation of protein levels are the main factors affecting the expression level of genes, and the most critical one is the regulation of gene expression by signaling pathways. Up to now, there has been no report on the role of MKL-1 in the cloning of the cd44 promoter. Therefore, this study intends to clone the cd44 gene promoter, construct its luciferase reporter gene vector, transfect the MKL-1 overexpression vector, and analyze how it affects transcriptional activity, in order to further study the expression regulation of cd44. The mechanism provides a powerful tool in the future.

Abnormal cell proliferation caused by abnormal transcription regulation mechanism seems to be one of the reasons for the progression of breast cancer and also the pathological basis. MicroRNA-142-5p (miR-142-5p) is a low-expressed miRNA in breast cancer. The role of MKL-1s regulation of DNMT1 in breast cancer cell proliferation and migration is still unclear. MKL-1 (myocardin related transcription factor A) can bind to the conserved cis -regulatory element CC (A/T) 6GG (called CarG box) in the promoter to regulate the transcription of miR-142-5p. The expressions of miR-142-5p and MKL-1 are positively correlated. In addition, it has been proved that DNMT1 is the target of miR-142-5p, which inhibits the expression of DNMT1 by targeting the 3-UTR of DNMT1, thereby forming a feedback loop and inhibiting the migration and proliferation of breast cancer. Our data provide important and novel insights into the MKL-1/miR-142-5p/DNMT1/maspin signaling pathway and may become a new idea for breast cancer diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 2-year field experiment was conducted in 2011 and 2012 to investigate the effects of phosphorus (P) fertilization on the leaf area index (LAI), dry matter accumulation (DMA), and P use efficiency (PUE) of maize in wheat/maize/soybean intercropping system. Five P fertilization rates were installed, i. e. , 0, 45, 90, 135, and 180 kg P2 O5 •hm-2 for wheat, marked as WP0, WP1, WP2, WP3, and WP4, respectively, and 0, 37.5, 75, 112.5, and 150 kg P2O5•hm-2 for maize, marked as MP0, MP1, MP2, MP3, and MP4, respectively. During the coexisted growth periods of wheat and maize, P fertilization increased the LAI, leaf area duration (LAD), and stem and leaf DMA of maize significantly. After the jointing stage of maize, the maize LAI, LAD, DMA, and crop growth rate (CGR) all decreased after an initial increase with the increasing P rate, with the maximum growth in treatment MP2 or MP3. During the reproductive stage of maize, the maize dry mass translocation from vegetative to reproductive organ increased with increasing P fertilization rate, and the grain yield of both maize and whole cropping system increased firstly and decreased then, with the maximum grain yield of maize and whole cropping system being 6588 and 11955 kg•hm-2 in treatment P3, respectively. The P apparent recovery efficiency of maize was the highest (26.3%) in treatment MP2, being 82.6%, 38.4%, and 152.9% higher than that in MP1 (14.4%), MP3(19.0%), and MP4(10.4%), respectively. In sum, for the wheat/maize/soybean intercropping system, applying appropriate amount of P fertilizer could promote maize growth, alleviate the impact of wheat on maize, and consequently, increase the P apparent recovery efficiency of maize. In this study, the appropriate P fertilization rate was 75-112. 5 kg P2O5•hm-2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metformin is an oral biguanide used to treat diabetes. Recent study showed it may interfere was related to cancer progression and has a positive effect on cancer prevention and treatment, which attracts a new hot research topic. Here we show that Metformin suppressed the proliferation but induced apoptosis of gastric cells. Notably, Metformin enhanced gastriccell apoptosis via modulating AMPK signaling. Furthermore, Metformin and miR-365 synergistically promote the apoptosis of gastric cancer cells by miR-365-PTEN-AMPK axis. Our study unraveled a novel signaling axis in the regulation in gastric cancer, which could be amplified by the application of metformin. The new effect of metformin potentiates its novel therapeutic application in the future. AVAILABILITY OF DATA AND MATERIALS: The data generated during this study are included in this article and its supplementary information files are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

Abnormal cell proliferation caused by abnormal transcription regulation mechanism seems to be one of the reasons for the progression of breast cancer and also the pathological basis. MicroRNA-142-5p (miR-142-5p) is a low-expressed miRNA in breast cancer. The role of MKL-1s regulation of DNMT1 in breast cancer cell proliferation and migration is still unclear. MKL-1 (myocardin related transcription factor A) can bind to the conserved cis -regulatory element CC (A/T) 6GG (called CarG box) in the promoter to regulate the transcription of miR-142-5p. The expressions of miR-142-5p and MKL-1 are positively correlated. In addition, it has been proved that DNMT1 is the target of miR-142-5p, which inhibits the expression of DNMT1 by targeting the 3-UTR of DNMT1, thereby forming a feedback loop and inhibiting the migration and proliferation of breast cancer. Our data provide important and novel insights into the MKL-1/miR-142-5p/DNMT1/maspin signaling pathway and may become a new idea for breast cancer diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis.

A 2-year field experiment was conducted in 2011 and 2012 to investigate the effects of phosphorus (P) fertilization on the leaf area index (LAI), dry matter accumulation (DMA), and P use efficiency (PUE) of maize in wheat/maize/soybean intercropping system. Five P fertilization rates were installed, i.e., 0, 45, 90, 135, and 180 kg P2O5 x hm(-2) for wheat, marked as WP0, WP1, WP2, WP3, and WP4, respectively, and 0, 37.5, 75, 112.5, and 150 kg P2O5 x hm(-2) for maize, marked as MP0, MP1, MP2, MP3, and MP4, respectively. During the coexisted growth periods of wheat and maize, P fertilization increased the LAI, leaf area duration (LAD), and stem and leaf DMA of maize significantly. After the jointing stage of maize, the maize LAI, LAD, DMA, and crop growth rate (CGR) all decreased after an initial increase with the increasing P rate, with the maximum growth in treatment MP2 or MP3. During the reproductive stage of maize, the maize dry mass translocation from vegetative to reproductive organ increased with increasing P fertilization rate, and the grain yield of both maize and whole cropping system increased firstly and decreased then, with the maximum grain yield of maize and whole cropping system being 6588 and 11955 kg x hm(-2) in treatment P3, respectively. The P apparent recovery efficiency of maize was the highest (26.3%) in treatment MP2, being 82.6%, 38.4%, and 152.9% higher than that in MP1 (14.4%), MP3 (19.0%), and MP4 (10.4%), respectively. In sum, for the wheat/maize/soybean intercropping system, applying appropriate amount of P fertilizer could promote maize growth, alleviate the impact of wheat on maize, and consequently, increase the P apparent recovery efficiency of maize. In this study, the appropriate P fertilization rate was 75-112.5 kg P2O5 x hm(-2).