[Contamination Characteristics and Ecological Risk Assessment of Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products in Drains Flowing into the Yellow River of Ningxia].

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are a group of emerging contaminants causing detrimental effects on aquatic living organisms even at low doses. To investigate the contamination characteristics and ecological risks of PPCPs in drains flowing into the Yellow River of Ningxia, 21 PPCPs were detected and analyzed using solid phase extraction and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry in this study. All 21 targeted compounds were detected in the drains, with total concentrations ranging from 47.52 to 1 700.96 ng·L-1. Ciprofloxacin, acetaminophen, benzophenone-3, and diethyltoluamide were the more commonly detected compounds, with detection frequencies exceeding 80%. The five highest-concentration PPCPs were acetaminophen, diethyltoluamide, caffeine, benzophenone-3, and levofloxacin, with the maximum concentrations of 597.21, 563.23, 559.00, 477.28, and 473.07 ng·L-1, respectively. Spatial analysis showed that the pollution levels of PPCPs in the drains of the four cities were different, with average concentrations of ∑PPCPs in the order of Yinchuan>Shizuishan>Wuzhong>Zhongwei. The total concentration of PPCPs before flowing into the Yellow River ranged from 124.82 to 1 046.61 ng·L-1. Source analysis showed that livestock and poultry breeding wastewater was the primary source for sulfadiazine and oxytetracycline, whereas medical wastewater was the primary source for levofloxacin and ciprofloxacin. The primary sources of triclocarban and triclosan were domestic sewage and industrial wastewater, whereas the primary source of caffeine and diethyltoluamide was domestic sewage. The pollution of diciofenac, cimetidine, triclocarban, and triclosan in the drains was positively correlated with the regional population and economic development level. The ecological risk assessment indicated that levofloxacin, diclofenac, gemfibrozil, benzophenone-3, and triclocarban posed high risks to aquatic organisms in drains flowing into the Yellow River. It is worthwhile to consider the mixture risk of the PPCPs that exhibited high risk at most sampling sites.

LncRNA-mediated cell autophagy: An emerging field in bone destruction in rheumatoid arthritis.

In recent years, research on the mechanism of bone destruction in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has remained in the initial stages, and the mechanism has not been fully elucidated to date. Recent studies have shown that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) participate in RA bone destruction via autophagy, but the specific regulatory mechanism of lncRNA-mediated autophagy is unclear. Therefore, in this article, we review the mechanisms of lncRNA-mediated autophagy in fibroblast-like synoviocytes and chondrocytes in RA bone destruction. We explain that lncRNAs mediate autophagy and participate in many specific pathological processes of RA bone destruction by regulating signalling pathways and the expression of target genes. Specific lncRNAs can be used as markers for molecular diagnosis, mechanistic regulation, treatment and prognosis of RA.