Parsimonious estimation of hourly surface ozone concentration across China during 2015-2020.

Surface ozone is an important air pollutant detrimental to human health and vegetation productivity, particularly in China. However, high resolution surface ozone concentration data is still lacking, largely hindering accurate assessment of associated environmental impacts. Here, we collected hourly ground ozone observations (over 6 million records), remote sensing products, meteorological data, and social-economic information, and applied recurrent neural networks to map hourly surface ozone data (HrSOD) at a 0.1° × 0.1° resolution across China during 2015-2020. The coefficient of determination (R2) values in sample-based, site-based, and by-year cross-validations were 0.72, 0.65 and 0.71, respectively, with the root mean square error (RMSE) values being 11.71 ppb (mean = 30.89 ppb), 12.81 ppb (mean = 30.96 ppb) and 11.14 ppb (mean = 31.26 ppb). Moreover, it exhibits high spatiotemporal consistency with ground-level observations at different time scales (diurnal, seasonal, annual), and at various spatial levels (individual sites and regional scales). Meanwhile, the HrSOD provides critical information for fine-resolution assessment of surface ozone impacts on environmental and human benefits.

Transcriptome Analysis and Identification of Cadmium-Induced Oxidative Stress Response Genes in Different Meretrix meretrix Developmental Stages.

Cadmium (Cd) is one of the major pollutants in the aquatic environment, and it can easily accumulate in aquatic animals and result in toxic effects by changing the metabolism of the body, causing a serious impact on the immune system, reproductive system, and the development of offspring. The clam Meretrix meretrix is one of the commercially important species that is cultivated in large-scale aquaculture in China. To elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms of Cd2+ in the developmental processes, fertilized eggs and larvae of M. meretrix at different developmental stages were exposed to Cd2+ (27.2 mg L-1 in natural seawater) or just natural seawater without Cd2+ (control), and high-throughput transcriptome sequencing and immunohistochemistry techniques were used to analyze the toxic effects of Cd on larvae at different early developmental stages. The results revealed 31,914 genes were differentially expressed in the different stages of M. meretrix development upon treatment with Cd2+. Ten of these genes were differentially expressed in all stages of development examined, but they comprised only six unigenes (CCO, Ndh, HPX, A2M, STF, and pro-C3), all of which were related to the oxidative stress response. Under Cd exposure, the expression levels of CCO and Ndh were significantly upregulated in D-shaped and pediveliger larvae, while pro-C3 expression was significantly upregulated in the fertilized egg, D-shaped larva, and pediveliger. Moreover, HPX, A2M, and STF expression levels in the fertilized egg and pediveliger larvae were also significantly upregulated. In contrast, CCO, Ndh, HPX, A2M, STF, and pro-C3 expression levels in the postlarva were all downregulated under Cd exposure. Besides the genes with changes in expression identified by the transcriptome, the expression of two other oxidative stress-related genes (MT and Nfr2) was also found to change significantly in the different developmental stages of M. meretrix upon Cd exposure, confirming their roles in combating oxidative stress. Overall, the findings of this study indicated that Cd would interfere with cellular respiration, ion transport, and immune response through inducing oxidative stress, and changes in the expression of oxidative stress-related genes might be an important step for M. meretrix to deal with the adverse effects of Cd at different stages of its development.

[Effect of Morus alba extract sanggenon C on growth and proliferation of glioblastoma cells].

Glioblastoma is the most common primary cranial malignancy, and chemotherapy remains an important tool for its treatment. Sanggenon C(San C), a class of natural flavonoids extracted from Morus plants, is a potential antitumor herbal monomer. In this study, the effect of San C on the growth and proliferation of glioblastoma cells was examined by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium(MTT) assay and 5-bromodeoxyuridinc(BrdU) labeling assay. The effect of San C on the tumor cell cycle was examined by flow cytometry, and the effect of San C on clone formation and self-renewal ability of tumor cells was examined by soft agar assay. Western blot and bioinformatics analysis were used to investigate the mechanism of the antitumor activity of San C. In the presence of San C, the MTT assay showed that San C significantly inhibited the growth and proliferation of tumor cells in a dose and time-dependent manner. BrdU labeling assay showed that San C significantly attenuated the DNA replication activity in the nucleus of tumor cells. Flow cytometry confirmed that San C blocked the cell cycle of tumor cells in G_0/G_1 phase. The soft agar clone formation assay revealed that San C significantly attenuated the clone formation and self-renewal ability of tumor cells. The gene set enrichment analysis(GSEA) implied that San C inhibited the tumor cell division cycle by affecting the myelocytomatosis viral oncogene(MYC) signaling pathway. Western blot assay revealed that San C inhibited the expression of cyclin through the regulation of the MYC signaling pathway by lysine demethylase 4B(KDM4B), which ultimately inhibited the growth and proliferation of glioblastoma cells and self-renewal. In conclusion, San C exhibits the potential antitumor activity by targeting the KDM4B-MYC axis to inhibit glioblastoma cell growth, proliferation, and self-renewal.

Recent advances of the mammalian target of rapamycin signaling in mesenchymal stem cells.

Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a serine/threonine kinase involved in a variety of cellular functions, such as cell proliferation, metabolism, autophagy, survival and cytoskeletal organization. Furthermore, mTOR is made up of three multisubunit complexes, mTOR complex 1, mTOR complex 2, and putative mTOR complex 3. In recent years, increasing evidence has suggested that mTOR plays important roles in the differentiation and immune responses of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). In addition, mTOR is a vital regulator of pivotal cellular and physiological functions, such as cell metabolism, survival and ageing, where it has emerged as a novel therapeutic target for ageing-related diseases. Therefore, the mTOR signaling may develop a large impact on the treatment of ageing-related diseases with MSCs. In this review, we discuss prospects for future research in this field.

[Analysis on property of meridian supramolecules by biological evolution path].

With human placed in the whole nature, by following the biologic evolution path, the property of channel structure for "imprinting template" in meridian and zang-fu was explored with supramolecular chemistry. In the history of biologic evolution, each molecule in "molecule society" gradually developed into various highly-ordered supramolecular bodies based on self-identification, self-assembly, self-organization, self-replicating of"imprinting template", and thereby the original biochemical system was established, and finally evolved into human. In the forming process of supramolecular bodies, the channel structure of"imprinting template" in guest supramolecular bodies would be kept by host supramolecular bodies, and communicate with the outside to exchange materials, energy, information, otherwise life phenomenon could not continue, for which it was the chemical nature of biolo-gical supramolecular bodies for body to develop meridian. Therefore, the human was a gigantic and complicated supramolecules body in biological nature, and possessed the supramolecules "imprinting template" at each stage of evolution, for which the meridians were formed. When meridians converged, acupoints appeared; when acupointsconverged, zang-fu appeared. With the promotion of the blood from heart, according to"imprinting template", the guest supramolecular bodies and host meridian produced qi-analysis, which was the qi-phenomenon of guest in meridian. It presented as zang-fu image of physiology and pathology as well as action regularities of medication and acupuncture tolerance, by which current various meridian viewpoints could be explained and propose the hypothesis of meridian supramolecular bodies. The meridian and its phenomenon was decide by its "imprinting template" of supramolecular bodies and self-reaction regularities, which abided through the living nature. This was the substance for meridian biology.

[Investigation on supramolecular mechanism of multi-component overall control in Chinese medicine controlled sustained-release preparation].

Controlled sustained-release preparation (CSRP) is a definitely important source of innovative medicines, however, its further researches and development are limited due to the complexity of Chinese medicine (CM) compositions, and a series of unclear key problems like the apparent properties from physical and chemical aspects. Combined with the CM characteristics of the multiple components and synergistic effect, a series of bottleneck problems in the preparation of CSRP were analyzed. Then the mechanism and influences of supermolecular chemical theory in the CSRP about the multiple-components overall-control were explored under the guideline of "overall control, synchronous dissolution" in CSRP, based on the previous explications about supramolecular chemistry theories and with the application of single component precision controlling technologies. The supermolecular mechanism of multi-component overall control and synchronous release of the CSRP was investigated, providing an useful academic reference for the research and development of the CSRP and laying the theoretical and technical foundation for the manufacturing process of CSRP.

[Solubilization characteristics of licorice based on supramolecular "imprinted template" theory].

To investigate the effect of the ingredient group of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) with different "imprinted template" on the supramolecular solubilization ability of licorice, in order to lay a theoretical foundation for explaining the solubilization phenomenon of the components of TCM. Based on the independent supramolecular "imprinted template" rules, molecular connectivity index (MCI) and the correlation of n-octanol-water partition coefficient (logP) were used to indicate hydrophilic lipophilic capacity of TCM, and the extractum rate was used to indicate the solubilization effect of licoriceon single TCM herbs or compounds. The solubilization ability of licorice was evaluated based on MCI, logP and the extractum rate. According to the results, the correlation coefficient between MCI and logP for single herbs was 0.942, and that for single herb adding licorice was 0.916. The extractum rate of most herbs was increased after adding licorice. The correlation coefficient among the extractum rate as well as MCI and logP change values before and after adding licorice were respectively 0.837, 0.405. The correlation coefficient between MCI and logP for eight compounds was 0.937. Meanwhile, licorice had a solubilization effect on the remaining 7 compound except for Huangqi decoction. Therefore, licorice shows the solubilization effect through the independent supramolecular "imprinted template", so as to improve the hydrophilic lipophilic ability. There was a high positive correlation between the MCI and logP in ingredients for TCM, which could be used as important parameters to indicate the "imprinted template" feature for components of TCM. The study on the solubilizing effect of TCM with the supramolecular "imprinted template" theory was feasible, and will lay a foundation for the reform of single-herb dosage form.