Search

The USP25 protein has been reported to participate in the development of several cancers. However, few studies have reported its association with HCC. In our study, USP25 was highly expressed in HCC tissue and HCC cell lines. Importantly, high expression of USP25 in tissues was closely related to poor prognosis. USP25 knockdown markedly reduced the proliferation, migration and invasion of HepG2 and MHCC97H cells, whereas USP25 overexpression led to the opposite effects. In addition, we demonstrated that USP25 interacted with TRIM21 to regulate the protein levels of the EMT (E-cadherin, N-cadherin and Snail) and Wnt/β-catenin pathway (β-catenin, APC, Axin2 and GSK3β) and those of their downstream proteins (C-myc and Cyclin D1). Finally, we verified that knocking out USP25 inhibited tumour growth in vivo and promoted the distant metastasis of the tumor. In summary, our data showed that USP25 was overexpressed in HCC. USP25 promoted the proliferation, migration, invasion and EMT of HCC cells by interacting with TRIM21 to activate the β-catenin signalling pathway.

Photoinhibition of ammonia oxidation occurs widely in aquatic environments and could suppress the nitrification rate, lead to the composition variation of inorganic nitrogen and influence the stability of aquatic ecosystems. Both ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and archaea are sensitive to light. The extent of photoinhibition and the time required for recovery depend on light wavelength, intensity, photon quantity and strains. Strong evidence indicates that photoinhibition in AOB by visible light is mainly caused by irreversible damage to ammonia monooxygenase (AMO) and the degradation of AMO is beneficial to AOB recovery. This review discusses photoinhibition in metabolic pathways used by ammonia oxidizers.

Benzotriazole and its derivatives (BTRs), classified as high-volume production chemicals, have been widely detected in various environmental media, including the atmosphere, water, soil and dust, as well as organisms. However, studies on the pollution characteristics and health impact of PM

Purpose Tissue magnetic susceptibility sign can potentially be detected on susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) phase (SW-P). This study aims to investigate its performance for depicting brain susceptibility structures. Methods A simulation was performed to depict magnetic susceptibility structures of various geometries on SW-P and quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM). Brain MRI was performed on 25 subjects using SWI on a 3 T MRI system. QSM was generated from the same data. SW-P and QSM were analyzed according to radiological assessment for depicting globus pallidus nuclei, optic radiation white matter tracts, and lateral ventricular choroid plexus calcifications. In 11 of these subjects, CT was available and correlated with SW-P and QSM to assess their performance in quantifying calcifications in the choroid plexus. Results In simulation, the appearance of a sphere on SW-P ranged from centric nodule to mixed positive and negative values as the diameter increased. Large cylinders also appeared as mixed positive and negative values. In comparison, QSM correctly depicted the susceptibility distribution of all magnetic structures. On human brain images, SW-P depicted the globus pallidus and optic radiation with mixed positive and negative values, consistent with simulation, and small choroid plexus calcifications as either mixed positive and negative values or as centric nodules; QSM depicted all structures as solid structures with the expected signs. For measuring calcification in the choroid plexus, QSM vs CT linear regression had a higher coefficient of determination compared to SW-P vs CT and SW-P vs QSM. Conclusion Appearance of susceptibility sources on SW-P changes with object size. This problem can be overcome using QSM.

Purpose Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a topic of concern worldwide; however, the impacts of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) on disease severity, therapeutic effect, and mortality of patients with COVID-19 are unclear. Methods All consecutive patients with COVID-19 admitted to the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from January 11 to February 6, 2020, were included in this study. Results A total of 663 patients with COVID-19 were included, while 67 patients with T2DM accounted for 10.1% of the total. Compared with patients with COVID-19 without T2DM, those with T2DM were older (aged 66 years vs 57 years; P < 0.001) and had a male predominance (62.7% vs 37.3%; P = 0.019) and higher prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (61.2% vs 20.6%; P < 0.001) and urinary diseases (9% vs 2.5%; P = 0.014). Patients with T2DM were prone to developing severe (58.2% vs 46.3%; P = 0.002) and critical COVID-19 (20.9% vs 13.4%; P = 0.002) and having poor therapeutic effect (76.1% vs 60.4%; P = 0.017). But there was no obvious difference in the mortality between patients with COVID-19 with and without T2DM (4.5% vs 3.7%; P = 0.732). Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified that T2DM was associated with poor therapeutic effect in patients with COVID-19 (odd ratio [OR] 2.99; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.07-8.66; P = 0.04). Moreover, having a severe and critical COVID-19 condition (OR 3.27; 95% CI, 1.02-9.00; P = 0.029) and decreased lymphocytes (OR 1.59; 95% CI, 1.10-2.34; P = 0.016) were independent risk factors associated with poor therapeutic effect in patients with COVID-19 with T2DM. Conclusions T2DM influenced the disease severity and therapeutic effect and was one of the independent risk factors for poor therapeutic effect in patients with COVID-19.

Aquaculture ponds are simple and unique ecosystems, which are affected intensively by human activities. In this mini-review, we focus our attention on the distribution and community diversity of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) in pond water and sediments, as well as the possible ecological mechanisms involved. Moreover, we discuss the possibility of increasing the activity of ammonia-oxidizing organisms in order to improve the water quality in aquaculture ponds. Compared with eutrophic lakes, the significantly higher ammonia concentration in pond water does not lead to significantly higher AOB levels, and the abundance of AOA is too low to quantify accurately. Similar to eutrophic lakes, high abundances of AOA and AOB are present in the surface sediments at the same time, where the oxidation of ammonia is performed mainly by AOB. AOB and AOA exhibit significant seasonal variations in aquaculture ponds, which are affected by the temperature, pH, and dissolved oxygen. The dominant AOB species are Nitrosomonas and the Nitrosospira lineage in pond environments. Nitrososphaera or members of the Nitrososphaera-like cluster dominate the AOA species in surface sediments, whereas the Nitrosopumilus cluster dominates the deeper sediments. AOB and AOA can be enriched on artificial substrates suspended in the pond water, thereby potentially improving the water quality.

Benzotriazole and its derivatives (BTRs), classified as high-volume production chemicals, have been widely detected in various environmental media, including the atmosphere, water, soil and dust, as well as organisms. However, studies on the pollution characteristics and health impact of PM2.5 related BTRs are so far limited. This study is the first to demonstrate the regional scale distribution of PM2.5-bound BTRs and their potential cardiotoxicities. Optimized methods of extraction, purification and GC-EI-MS/MS were applied to characterize and analyze PM2.5-bound BTRs from three cities in China during the winter of 2018. The concentration of ∑BTRs in Taiyuan (6.28 ng·m−3) was more than three times that in Shanghai (1.53 ng·m−3) and Guangzhou (1.99 ng·m−3). Benzotriazole (BTR) and 5-methyl-1H-benzotriazole (5TTR) contributed more than 80% of ∑BTRs concentration as the major pollutants among three cities. The correlation analysis indicated that there was a positive correlation between temperature and concentration of BTR and a negative correlation between temperature and concentration of 5TTR. In addition, the risk of BTRs exposure to toddlers should be paid more attention in Taiyuan by the human exposure assessment. Furthermore, toxicity screening by experimental methods indicated that 4-methyl-1H-benzotriazole (4TTR) was the most harmful to cardiomyocytes. The western blot assay showed a ROS-mediated mitochondrial apoptosis signaling pathway was activated after exposure to 4TTR in neonatal rat cardiomyocytes (NRCMs). On the other hand, metabolomics revealed that exposure of 4TTR to NRCMs disturbed mitochondrial energy metabolism by disturbing pantothenate and coenzyme A synthesis pathway. Our study not only clarifies the contamination profiles of PM2.5-bound BTRs in typical Chinese cities but also reveals their cardiotoxicities associated with mitochondrial dysfunction.

ObjectivesAn outbreak of the highly contagious severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has sickened thousands of people in China. The purpose of this study was to explore the early clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD).MethodsThis is a retrospective analysis of patients with COVID-19 from a single centre. All patients underwent real-time reverse transcription PCR for SARS-CoV-2 on admission. Demographic and clinical factors and laboratory data were reviewed and collected to evaluate for significant associations.ResultsThe study included 541 patients with COVID-19. A total of 144 (26.6%) patients had a history of CVD. The mortality of patients with CVD reached 22.2%, which was higher than that of the overall population of this study (9.8%). Patients with CVD were also more likely to develop liver function abnormality, elevated blood creatinine and lactic dehydrogenase (pConclusionsConsidering the high prevalence of CVD, a thorough CVD assessment at diagnosis and early intervention are recommended in COVID-19 patients with CVD. Patients with CVD are more vulnerable to deterioration.

Background Identifying the early-stage colon adenocarcinoma (ECA) patients who have lower risk cancer vs. the higher risk cancer could improve disease prognosis. Our study aimed to explore whether the glandular morphological features determined by computational pathology could identify high risk cancer in ECA via H&E images digitally. Methods 532 ECA patients retrospectively from 2 independent data centers, as well as 113 from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), were enrolled in this study. Four tissue microarrays (TMAs) were constructed across ECA hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained slides. 797 quantitative glandular morphometric features were extracted and 5 most prognostic features were identified using minimum redundancy maximum relevance to construct an image classifier. The image classifier was evaluated on D2/D3 = 223, D4 = 46, D5 = 113. The expression of Ki67 and serum CEA levels were scored on D3, aiming to explore the correlations between image classifier and immunohistochemistry data and serum CEA levels. The roles of clinicopathological data and ECAHBC were evaluated by univariate and multivariate analyses for prognostic value. Results The image classifier could predict ECA recurrence (accuracy of 88.1%). ECA histomorphometric-based image classifier (ECAHBC) was an independent prognostic factor for poorer disease-specific survival [DSS, (HR = 9.65, 95% CI 2.15–43.12, P = 0.003)]. Significant correlations were observed between ECAHBC-positive patients and positivity of Ki67 labeling index (Ki67Li) and serum CEA. Conclusion Glandular orientation and shape could predict the high risk cancer in ECA and contribute to precision oncology. Computational pathology is emerging as a viable and objective means of identifying predictive biomarkers for cancer patients.

An approach to culturing attached and suspended forms of Rhodopseudomonas faecalis by using compound fish feed with tap water in transparent containers is reported in this study. The ratio of fish feed to tap water was 14.3–50.8 g/L, and no other inoculum or substances were added during the culture process. When the ratio of fish feed to tap water was 14.3 g/L, the highest total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and total dissolved carbon content recorded in the water in the containers were approximately 730 mg/L, 356 mg/L, and 1,620 mg/L, respectively, during the process of feed decay. Comamonas, Rhodopseudomonas, and Clostridium successively dominated during the culture process. Rhodopseudomonas was the most common dominant genus in both the attached and suspended forms when the water was dark red, and the relative operational taxonomic unit abundance reached 80‒89% and 24.8%, respectively. The dominant species was R. faecalis. The maximum thickness of attached bacteria and the biomass of attached Rhodopseudomonas reached up to 0.56 mm and 7.5 mg/cm2, respectively. This study provides a method for the mass culture of Rhodopseudomonas by using the fermentation of aquatic compound fish feed., Culture of attached and suspended forms of Rhodopseudomonas faecalis by using compound fish feed with tap water in transparent containers was achieved in a greenhouse. When the ratio of fish feed to tap water was 14.3 g/L during the culture, the maximum thickness of attached bacteria and the increased biomass of attached Rhodopseudomonas produced reached up to 0.56 mm and 7.5 mg/cm2, respectively.

In this study, polyethylene filter cotton (PFC) was used as a suspended biocarrier to remove ammonium from aquaculture ponds. The concentration of the ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB amoA gene reached ~107 copies cm−3 in the PFC after 16–19 days of incubation, whereas only 101–102 copies cm−3 were present in the aquaculture water. The effects of temperature, pH, and dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration on the nitrification rate were evaluated in the laboratory. The nitrification rate of PFC enriched with AOB reached 0.035 ± 0.002 mg N cm−3 PFC h−1 measured at pH 7.0–8.5, 28 °C, and a DO concentration of 6.0–7.0 mg L−1. These results suggest that the use of PFC as a suspended biocarrier in aquaculture ponds is a feasible and cheap method for removing ammonium ion in situ.

An annual investigation into the abundance of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in fresh water aquaculture ponds was performed by quantitative PCR of the amoA gene. The results showed that AOB were the main ammonia-oxidizing microorganisms in water, and significantly higher copy numbers of the AOB amoA gene were observed in the summer (Aug 2012), while no significant differences were detected among the other three seasons. AOA showed low abundances throughout the year. The predominance of AOB in aquaculture water was suggested to be related to photoinhibition. Both the AOB and AOA amoA genes in aquaculture pond sediments showed typical seasonal patterns. The maximum density of AOB was observed in the autumn (Nov 2012) and winter (Jan 2013), while the maximum density of AOA was observed in winter. The minimum densities of both AOA and AOB occurred in the summer. The concentration of the AOA amoA gene was higher than that of the AOB amoA gene in sediments by almost one order of magnitude, which indicates that AOA are the dominant ammonia-oxidizing microorganisms in the aquaculture pond sediments. Dissolved oxygen is suggested to be the key factor determining the predominance of AOA in pond sediments.

The genetic diversity and population genetic structure of Culter alburnus were investigated using mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) and ribosomal 16S subunit (16S rRNA) gene sequences. A total of 89 individuals from four localities were included in the analysis. Overall, 12 polymorphic sites were observed and 10 haplotypes were defined. The C. alburnus populations were characterized by high haplotype diversity (0.587 ± 0.047) and low nucleotide diversity (0.00197 ± 0.00073). Pairwise fixation index ( F ST ) analysis indicated significant genetic differentiation among different populations. The hierarchical analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) analysis also showed significant genetic divergence ( φ ST = 0.3792, P C. alburnus populations, and should be considered as different management unit for effective conservation and management purposes. This study provides new information for genetic assessment and will be crucial for establishing fisheries management and strategies for this species.

Changes in the critical swimming speed (Ucrit , cm s(-1) ) with ontogeny of 2·5-12·5 month-old juvenile anadromous Chinese sturgeon Acipenser sinesis were measured in a modified Blazka-type swimming tunnel. The absolute Ucrit increased with length, mass and age; the relative U(')crit (body lengths, s(-1) ), however, decreased. Juvenile A. sinesis did not display a parr-smolt transformation at the length or age threshold to tolerate full-strength seawater.

Bream pond aquaculture plays a very important role in China's aquaculture industry and is the main source of aquatic products. To regulate and control pond water quality and sediment, a movable solar pond aquaculture water quality regulation machine (SMWM) was designed and used. This machine is solar-powered and moves on water, and its primary components are a solar power supply device, a sediment lifting device, a mechanism for walking on the water's surface and a control system. The solar power supply device provides power for the machine, and the water walking mechanism drives the machine's motion on the water. The sediment lifting device orbits the main section of the machine and affects a large area of the pond. Tests of the machine's mechanical properties revealed that the minimum illumination necessary for the SMWM to function is 13,000 Lx and that its stable speed on the water is 0.02-0.03 m/s. For an illumination of 13,000-52,500 Lx, the sediment lifting device runs at 0.13-0.35 m/s, and its water delivery capacity is 110-208 m(3)/h. The sediment lifting device is able to fold away, and the angle of the suction chamber can be adjusted, making the machine work well in ponds at different water depths from 0.5 m to 2 m. The optimal distance from the sediment lifting device to the bottom of the pond is 10-15 cm. In addition, adjusting the length of the connecting rod and the direction of the traction rope allows the SMWM to work in a pond water area greater than 80%. The analysis of water quality in Wuchang bream (Parabramis pekinensis) and silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) culture ponds using the SMWM resulted in decreased NH3(+)-N and available phosphorus concentrations and increased TP concentrations. The TN content and the amount of available phosphorus in the sediment were reduced. In addition, the fish production showed that the SMWM enhanced the yields of Wuchang bream and silver carp by more than 30% and 24%, respectively. These results indicate that the SMWM may be suitable for Wuchang bream pond aquaculture in China and that it can be used in pond aquaculture for regulating and controlling water quality.

The effects of a portable solar water quality control machine (PSWM) on water quality and sediment of aquaculture ponds were studied in bream aquaculture ponds in Shanghai, China. PSWM operation reduced the temperature and dissolved oxygen (DO) differences between upper and lower water levels. Concentrations of NH4 +-N, NO2 −-N, TN, TP, COD and TSS increased rapidly and reached maximums at 12 h. The density and biomass of phytoplankton and levels of chlorophyll a reached maximums after 40 h of PSWM operation. In a 165-day study, the mean concentrations of NH4 +-N, NO2 −-N and the available phosphorous (AP) in the PSWM ponds were significantly lower than in the control ponds, but the TP was significantly greater than the control ponds. Compared with the test began, the thickness of the sediment in PSWM ponds declined by 12.4 ± 4.3 cm, the control ponds increased by 5.0 ± 2.3 cm and the TN and AP levels in sediment significantly declined. PSWM treatment increased the production of bream and silver carp by 30 and 25%, respectively, and the feed coefficient was reduced by 24.2%. Use of PSWM in bream aquaculture ponds improved water quality, reduced sediment, reduced aquaculture pollution emissions and increased production.