Acidosis activates breast cancer ferroptosis through ZFAND5/SLC3A2 signaling axis and elicits M1 macrophage polarization.

Acidosis is involved in multiple pathways in tumor cells and immune cells among the tumor microenvironment (TME). Ferroptosis is a nonapoptotic and iron-dependent form of cell death characterized by accumulation of lipid peroxidation involved in various cancers. The role of ferroptosis in the breast cancer (BC) acidic microenvironment remains unrevealed. Here, we reported that short-term acidosis induced ferroptosis of BC cells in the zinc finger AN1-type domain 5 (ZFAND5)/solute carrier family 3 member 2 (SLC3A2) dependent manner to suppress tumor growth using in silico and multiple biological methods. Mechanistically, we demonstrated that short-term acidosis increased total/lipid reactive oxygen species (ROS) level, decreased glutathione (GSH) level and induced the morphological changes of mitochondria. Specifically, acidosis restrained the protein stability of SLC3A2 by promoting its ubiquitination process. The prognostic analysis showed that higher expression of ZFAND5 and lower expression of SLC3A2 were correlated with longer overall survival of BC patients, respectively. Furthermore, in combination with ferroptosis agonist metformin, short-term acidosis could synergistically inhibit viability and enhance the ferroptosis of BC cells. Meanwhile, by the exploration of immune cells, short-term acidosis also induced M1 macrophage polarization, triggering processes of phagocytosis and ferroptosis in BC cells. This study demonstrated that short-term acidosis induced BC cell ferroptosis through ZFAND5/SLC3A2 signaling axis and promoted phagocytosis and ferroptosis of BC cells with M1 macrophage polarization, which might be a new mechanism for BC therapy.

Navigating the Decision to Disclose Mental Illness in the Workplace: The Role of Leader Motivating Language and Perceived Organizational Support.

Mental health disclosure in the workplace has drawn much attention as it comes with multiple benefits such as reducing financial burden, facilitating relationships, and counteracting related stress. Drawing on insights from the disclosure decision-making model, motivating language theory, and organizational support theory, the study presents a model that pictures the underlying mechanisms of the disclosure decision-making process. The findings from a survey of 416 participants suggested that the direction-giving and empathic language strategy can lead to employees' perceived organizational support. Such perception can help them reduce anticipated negative outcomes when considering disclosure and increase their disclosure efficacy, which in turn increases their disclosure intention.

Spatial-Temporal Evolution of Health Impact and Economic Loss upon Exposure to PM2.5 in China.

Exposure to PM2.5 can seriously endanger public health. Policies for controlling PM2.5 need to consider health hazards under different circumstances. Unlike most studies on the concentration, distribution, and influencing factors of PM2.5, the present study focuses on the impact of PM2.5 on human health. We analysed the spatial-temporal evolution of health impact and economic loss caused by PM2.5 exposure using the log-linear exposure-response function and benefit transfer method. The results indicate that the number of people affected by PM2.5 pollution fluctuated and began to decline after reaching a peak in 2014, benefiting from the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan. Regarding the total economic loss, the temporal pattern continued to rise until 2014 and then declined, with an annual mean of 86,886.94 million USD, accounting for 1.71% of China's GDP. For the spatial pattern, the health impact and economic loss show a strong spatial correlation and remarkable polarisation phenomena, with high values in East China, North China, Central China, and South China, but low values in Southwest China, Northwest China, and Northeast China. The spatial-temporal characterisation of PM2.5 health hazards is visualised and analysed accordingly, which can provide a reference for more comprehensive and effective policy decisions.

Catalytic pyrolysis of biomass wastes over Org-CaO/Nano-ZSM-5 to produce aromatics: Influence of catalyst properties.

Catalytic pyrolysis of biomass wastes is a promising way to produce aromatics. Based on the conventional CaO/ZSM-5 system, this study aims to improve the aromatics yields by developing an upgraded system which combined nanosized ZSM-5 with CaO from organic calcium precursors (Org-CaO/NZSM-5). The results showed that the aromatics proportion in bio-oil from pyrolysis of Jatropha de-oiled cake with Org-CaO/NZSM-5 increased to 93%. The corresponding yield of BTX (benzene, toluene and xylene) and naphthalene was around 70% which was almost twice than that with conventional CaO/ZSM-5. Org-CaO showed better thermal cracking ability and deoxygenation with more hydrocarbons intermediates and higher H/Ceff of vapors, contributing to enhanced formation of BTX over NZSM-5. NZSM-5 contained much more mesopores and acid sites on external surface, promoting higher conversion of bulky molecules into naphthalenes. Compared with peanut shell, corncob and bagasse pyrolysis, Jatropha de-oiled cake pyrolysis produced much higher aromatics with Org-CaO/NZSM-5.

A light-controlled cell lysis system in bacteria.

Intracellular products (e.g., insulin), which are obtained through cell lysis, take up a big share of the biotech industry. It is often time-consuming, laborious, and environment-unfriendly to disrupt bacterial cells with traditional methods. In this study, we developed a molecular device for controlling cell lysis with light. We showed that intracellular expression of a single lysin protein was sufficient for efficient bacterial cell lysis. By placing the lysin-encoding gene under the control of an improved light-controlled system, we successfully controlled cell lysis by switching on/off light: OD600 of the Escherichia coli cell culture was decreased by twofold when the light-controlled system was activated under dark condition. We anticipate that our work would not only pave the way for cell lysis through a convenient biological way in fermentation industry, but also provide a paradigm for applying the light-controlled system in other fields of biotech industry.