Tracing the entry process of submicrometre plastics in soybean sprouts by leaf-derived fluorescent carbon dots.

As a global emerging contaminant, microplastics (MPs) in water or soil can accumulate in vegetables, making them easily ingested through the diet. With excellent and tunable optical properties, carbon dots (CDs) are highly advantageous for tracing the entry process of MPs. Originally, long-wavelength CDs were synthesized from leaf-derived extracts, and fluorescent submicrometer plastics (CDs-MPs) with clean surfaces and concentrated particle sizes were obtained by soap-free microemulsion polymerization. The concentration of CDs-MPs exhibits a significant linear relationship with long-wavelength fluorescence intensity (λEx/λEm: 415/676 nm). Soybean sprouts (SBS), as an important type of food, are susceptible to contamination of MPs due to their soft epidermis and rapidly growing biomass. The results showed that CDs-MPs could be embedded into the cortex of SBS and enter the plant with cell division and elongation, leading to an increase in pore size on the cell wall surface. After entering the root system, CDs-MPs will pass through the Casparian strip and migrate in the vessels. Then, CDs-MPs enter the leaves through vascular bundles, and the distribution and size of epicuticular wax on leaves have changed. Furthermore, SBS showed resistant growth and increased levels of oxidative response when exposed to MPs/CDs-MPs. It is the first study to demonstrate the application of leaf-derived CDs in the prevention of MPs pollution by revealing the migration behavior of submicrometre plastics in SBS.

Novel preparation of red fluorescent carbon dots for tetracycline sensing and its application in trace determination.

The controllable design of red-emitting carbon dots and further exploration of their application in the trace determination of environmental pollutants remains a tremendous challenge. Herein, the novel strategy for red fluorescent carbon dots (R-CDs) with a higher quantum yield of 58.9% was proposed by doping small-molecule urea into the bio-dye of resazurin for the first time, which can retain the luminophore of precursors and exhibit exceptional optical, advantageous reversibility and outstanding photostability. Importantly, the R-CDs exhibit a remarkable fluorescence reduction towards tetracyclines (TCs) accompanied by a noticeable color change of R-CDs solution from red to yellow, which can realize the trace detection of TCs at strelatively low levels, including tetracycline (TC), oxytetracycline (OTC), and chlortetracycline (CTC). The linear range of TC, CTC, and OTC are 3-40 µM, 4-50 µM, and 2-50 µM, and the corresponding detection limits are 38.5 nM, 64.6 nM, and 45.4 nM, respectively (S/N = 3). Furthermore, the R-CDs demonstrate sensitivity to the physiological pH in the linear range of 4.0-5.0 and 5.0-6.2 with a pKa of 5.61. As a multifunctional fluorescent sensor, R-CDs can provide a new perspective for the preparation of long-wavelength CDs, and further realize the trace determination of environmental pollutants.

Function of Deubiquitinating Enzyme USP14 as Oncogene in Different Types of Cancer.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissues overexpress USP14, which promotes tumor cell proliferation and is associated with shorter overall survival time. METHODS: The expression of USP14 was assayed in many types of cancers. USP14 was up-and down-regulated using appropriate plasmid or lentiviral vector constructs and its effects on proliferation, cell colony number, and apoptosis rate were measured. A human NSCLC cell line was inoculated into nude mice and the survival rates were recorded. RESULTS: We found USP14 amplification and overexpression in many different cancers. The overexpression of USP14 in USP14 low-expression cell lines promoted cell proliferation and migration, whereas USP14 downregulation suppressed tumor cell proliferation, decreased tumor cell colony number, increased apoptosis rate, and decreased cell migration and invasion. CONCLUSION: USP14 plays an oncogenic role in various types of cancer, and may thus represent a new cancer therapy target.

Paraneoplastic syndrome mimicking adult-onset Still's disease caused by advanced lung cancer: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Paraneoplastic syndromes (PNSs) are common complications of lung cancer and often develop preceding the diagnosis of primary malignancy. Rheumatologic PNSs mimicking Adult-Onset Still' s Disease (AOSD) is a rare condition with only a limited number of cases reported in the literature, none of which was associated with lung cancer. It is often difficult to differentiate AOSD-like paraneoplasia from coincidental AOSD based on the clinical manifestations. CASE PRESENTATION: Here we present a 56-year-old man with advanced lung adenocarcinoma who developed a remittent fever together with pharyngodynia and joint pain after first cycle of chemotherapy with paclitaxel plus carboplatin. Although a leukocytosis was detected, no evidence of infection was acquired and empirical antibiotic treatment was ineffective. A temple skin rash, abnormal hepatic function and a remarkable elevated level of serum ferritin occurred later in this patient, which highly supported a potential diagnosis of AOSD. The patient was finally diagnosed as AOSD-like PNS considering the good and prompt response to a short-term administration of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug and subsequent cycles of effective chemotherapy with pemetrexed plus cisplatin. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Though rare, AOSD-like PNS can be one of the potential diagnoses in lung cancer patients with fever of undetermined origin, especially those having no response to antibiotic treatment. Management consists of control of the underlying malignancy and symptomatic treatment of the syndromes with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or corticosteroids.

Multi-ion quantitative mass spectrometry by orthogonal projection method with periodic signal of electrostatic ion beam trap.

In this article, orthogonal projection method (OPM) is introduced which could perform multi-ion quantitative MS with signal of electrostatic ion beam trap (EIBT), and its application has been demonstrated by numerical modeling. To acquire periodic current signal, a model of EIBT with cylindrical-detector is set up to simulate ions' oscillatory motion. Whereafter, OPM is introduced and applied for quantitative MS with sampling time being as short as 200 µs. Comparing with fast Fourier transform (FFT), the MS acquired by OPM is characterized by a more readable spectrum, a much shortened sampling time and the ability to do quantitative analysis. Within the optimum sampling time range, quantitative MS could be performed with accuracy of over 90%. It is found that the lower limit and the upper limit of the optimum sampling time range are all proportional to M(3/2)/δM and its relation is specified by linear regression. Aided by the results of FFT, OPM is applied to a compound tested signal induced by three kinds of ions. It shows that OPM could be performed respectively to each kind of ions without interference from other component of the signal. The resolving power acquired by OPM is about 75 000 with sampling time as short as 10 ms, and the quantitative result that acquired is quite accurate.