Loureirin C improves mitochondrial function by promoting NRF2 nuclear translocation to attenuate oxidative damage caused by renal ischemia-reperfusion injury.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common clinical syndrome worldwide, with no effective treatment strategy. Renal ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury is one of the main AKI features, and the excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) production during reperfusion causes severe oxidative damage to the kidney. Loureirin C (LC), an active ingredient in the traditional Chinese medicine Chinese dragon's blood, possesses excellent antioxidative properties, but its role in renal IR injury is not clear. In this study, we evaluated the protective effects of LC against renal IR injury in vivo and in vitro by establishing a mice renal IR injury model and a human proximal renal tubular epithelial cell (HK-2) hypoxia/reoxygenation (HR) model. We found that LC ameliorated renal function and tissue structure injury and inhibited renal oxidative stress and ferroptosis in vivo. In vitro, LC scavenged ROS and attenuated mitochondrial dysfunction in HK-2 cells, thereby inhibiting oxidative cellular injury. Furthermore, we found that LC effectively promoted nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NRF2) nuclear translocation and activated downstream target genes heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) and NADPH quinone oxidoreductase-1 (NQO-1) to enhance cellular antioxidant function. Moreover, NRF2 knockdown and pharmacological inhibition of NRF2 partially eliminated the protective effect of LC. These results confirm that LC can effectively inhibit renal IR injury, and the mechanism may be associated with NRF2 activation by LC.

Reductive dissolution of As-bearing iron oxides: Mediating mechanism of fulvic acid and dissimilated iron reducing bacteria.

Fulvic acid (FA) and iron oxides often play regulating roles in the geochemical behavior and ecological risk of arsenic (As) in terrestrial ecosystems. FA can act as electron shuttles to facilitate the reductive dissolution of As-bearing iron (hydr)oxides. However, the influence of FA from different sources on the sequential conversion of Fe/As in As-bearing iron oxides under biotic and abiotic conditions remains unclear. In this work, we exposed prepared As-bearing iron oxides to FAs derived from lignite (FAL) and plant peat (FAP) under anaerobic conditions, tracked the fate of Fe and As in the aqueous phase, and investigated the reduction transformation of Fe(III)/As(V) with or without the presence of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. The results showed that the reduction efficiency of Fe(III)/As(V) was increased by MR-1, through its metabolic activity and using FAs as electron shuttles. The reduction of Fe(III)/As(V) was closely associated with goethite being more conducive to Fe/As reduction compared to hematite. It is determined that functional groups such as hydroxy, carboxy, aromatic, aldehyde, ketone and aliphatic groups are the primary electron donors. Their reductive capacities rank in the following sequence: hydroxy> carboxy, aromatic, aldehyde, ketone> aliphatic group. Notably, our findings suggest that in the biotic reduction, Fe significantly reduction precedes As reduction, thereby influencing the latter's reduction process across all incubation systems. This work provides empirical support for understanding iron's role in modulating the geochemical cycling of As and is of significant importance for assessing the release risk of arsenic in natural environments.

Deciphering the core bacterial community structure and function and their response to environmental factors in activated sludge from pharmaceutical wastewater treatment plants.

Pharmaceutical wastewater is recognized for its heightened concentrations of organic pollutants, and biological treatment stands out as an effective technology to remove these organic pollution. Therefore, a comprehensive exploration of core bacterial community compositions, functions, and their responses to environmental factors in pharmaceutical wastewater treatment plants (PWWTPs) is important for understanding the removal mechanism of these organic pollutants. This study comprehensively investigated 36 activated sludge (AS) samples from 15 PWWTPs in China. The results revealed that Proteobacteria (45.41%) was the dominant phylum in AS samples, followed by Bacteroidetes (19.54%) and Chloroflexi (4.13%). While the dominant genera were similar in both aerobic and anaerobic treatment processes, their relative abundances exhibited significant variations. Genera like HA73, Kosmotoga, and Desulfovibrio were more abundant during anaerobic treatment, while Rhodoplanes, Bdellovibrio, and Hyphomicrobium dominated during aerobic treatment. 13 and 10 core operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were identified in aerobic and anaerobic sludge, respectively. Further analysis revealed that core OTUs belonging to genera Kosmotoga, Desulfovibrio, Thauera, Hyphomicrobium, and Chelativorans, were associated with key functions, including sulfur metabolism, methane metabolism, amino acid metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism, toluene degradation, and nitrogen metabolism. Furthermore, this study highlighted the crucial roles of environmental factors, such as COD, NH4+-N, SO42-, and TP, in shaping both the structure and core functions of bacterial communities within AS of PWWTPs. Notably, these factors indirectly affect functional attributes by modulating the bacterial community composition and structure in pharmaceutical wastewater. These findings provide valuable insights for optimizing the efficiency of biochemical treatment processes in PWWTPs.

Multi-omics analysis reveals the collaboration and metabolisms of the anammox consortia driven by soluble/non-soluble Fe(III) as the sole iron element.

Iron is recognized as a physiological requirement for anammox bacteria (AnAOB), with Fe(II) considered to be the most effective form. However, Fe(III), instead of Fe(II) is the common iron form in natural and artificial ecosystems. In this study, the nitrogen removal performance and metabolic mechanisms in anammox consortia with soluble and non-soluble Fe(III) as the sole iron element were investigated. After the 150-day operation, the soluble (FeCl3) and insoluble (Fe2O3) Fe(III)-fed anammox systems reached nitrogen removal rates of 71.84 ± 0.80% and 50.20 ± 0.98%, respectively. AnAOB could survive with soluble (FeCl3) or insoluble (Fe2O3) Fe(III) as the sole iron element, reaching relative abundances of 18.49% and 13.16%, respectively. The results show that the formation of anammox core consortia can enable AnAOB's survival to adverse external conditions of Fe(II) deficiency. Metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analysis reveal that Ca. Kuenenia can only uptake Fe(II) into the cell for metabolisms either independently through the extracellular electron transfer or with the cross-feeding of symbiotic microbes. This study provides insight into the utilization and metabolic mechanisms of Fe(III) in Ca. Kuenenia-dominated consortia, and deepens the understanding of anammox core consortia in the nitrogen, carbon, and iron cycling, further promoting the practical applications of anammox processes.

Microbial interactions play a keystone role in rapid anaerobic ammonium oxidation sludge proliferation and biofilm formation.

Two mature anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) consortia with high/low relative abundance of anammox bacteria were inoculated for the rapid sludge proliferation and biofilm formation in this study, named up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor (UASB1) (high) and UASB2 (low), respectively. Results showed that the nitrogen removal efficiency of UASB2 reached 90.94% after the 120-day operation, which was 13% higher than that of UASB1. Moreover, its biomass amounts were 22.18% (biofilm) and 40.96% (flocs) higher than that of UASB1, respectively. Ca. Kuenenia possessed relative abundances of 29.32% (flocs), 27.42% (biofilm) and 31.56% (flocs), 35.20% (biofilm) in the UASB1 and UASB2, respectively. The relative abundances of genes involved in anammox transformation (hzs, nir) and carbon metabolism (fdh, lgA/B/C, acs) were higher in the UASB2, indicating that Ca. Kuenenia might produce acetate and glycogen to enhance microbial interactions. These findings emphasized the importance of microbial interactions in anammox sludge proliferation and biofilm formation.

A novel framework for investigating the mechanisms of climate change and anthropogenic activities on the evolution of hydrological drought.

Climate change and anthropogenic activity are the primary drivers of water cycle changes. Hydrological droughts are caused by a shortage of surface and/or groundwater resources caused by climate change and/or anthropogenic activity. Existing hydrological models have primarily focused on simulating natural water cycle processes, while limited research has investigated the influence of anthropogenic activities on water cycle processes. This study proposes a novel framework that integrates a distributed hydrological model and an attribution analysis method to assess the impacts of climate change and anthropogenic activities on hydrological drought The distributed dualistic water cycle model was applied to the Fuhe River Basin (FRB), and it generated a Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient > 0.85 with a relative error of <5 %. Excluding the year with extreme drought conditions, our analysis revealed that climate change negatively impacted the average drought duration (-105.5 %) and intensity (-23.6 %) because of increasing precipitation. However, anthropogenic activities continued to contribute positively to the drought, accounting for 5.5 % and 123.6 % of the average drought duration and intensity, respectively, because of increased water consumption. When accounting for extreme drought years, our results suggested that climate change has contributed negatively to the average duration of drought (-113.2 %) but positively to its intensity (7.8 %). Further, we found that anthropogenic activities contributed positively to both the average drought duration and intensity (13.2 % and 92.2 %, respectively). While climate change can potentially mitigate hydrological drought in the FRB by boosting precipitation levels, its overall effect may exacerbate drought through the amplification of extreme climate events resulting from global climate change. Therefore, greater attention should be paid to the effects of extreme drought.

Synthesis of nano-Fe3O4/ZnO composites with enhanced antibacterial properties and plant growth promotion via one-pot reaction.

Bordeaux mixture is commonly used in agricultural production due to its certain antibacterial activity. However, it has been observed to promote plant growth at a slow pace. Therefore, it is crucial to explore an effective antibacterial agent that can enhance the antibacterial activity and promote plant growth in commercially available Bordeaux mixture, which can significantly contribute to the development of the agricultural economy. The investigation into inorganic agents with both bacteriostatic and plant-promoting properties has a broad application potential in agriculture. Fe3O4/ZnO (FZ) composites were synthesized from FeCl3, ZnCl2, and NaAc in a "one-pot approach" and analyzed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). To investigate the antibacterial activity and mechanism of FZ nanocomposites, Gram-negative Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) were used as model bacteria, and human mammary epithelial cells and model plant mung bean were used as targets to study the effects of FZ on human and plant growth. The results revealed that at 300 µg/mL for 80 min, the antibacterial efficacy of FZ composites was 99.8% against E. coli, which was 20% greater than that of Bordeaux liquid (FC), and 99.9% against S. aureus, which was 28.6% higher than that of FC. The inhibitory mechanism demonstrated that the substance could efficiently damage the bacterial cell wall of a concentration of 300 µg/mL. The IC50 of the material to human mammary epithelial cells was 49.518 µg/mL, and it also increased mung bean germination, root growth, and chlorophyll content, indicating that the application performance was 1.5 times better than that of FC. Its exceptional performance can be used to treat agricultural diseases.

A new method for predicting the microvascular invasion status of hepatocellular carcinoma through neural network analysis.

AIMS: To determine the relationship between microvascular invasion (MVI) and the clinical features of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and provide a method to evaluate MVI status by neutral network analysis. METHODS: The patients were divided into two groups (MVI-positive group and MVI-negative group). Univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression analysis were carried out to identify the independent risk factors for MVI positivity. Neural network analysis was used to analyze the different importance of the risk factors in MVI prediction. RESULTS: We enrolled 1697 patients in this study. We found that the independent prognostic factors were age, NEU, multiple tumors, AFP level and tumor diameter. By neural network analysis, we proposed that the level of AFP was the most important risk factor for HCC in predicting MVI status (the AUC was 0.704). However, age was the most important risk factor for early-stage HCC with a single tumor (the AUC was 0.605). CONCLUSION: Through the neutral network analysis, we could conclude that the level of AFP is the most important risk factor for MVI-positive patients and the age is the most important risk factor for early-stage HCC with a single tumor.

Donor graft METTL3 gene transfer ameliorates rat liver transplantation ischemia-reperfusion injury by enhancing HO-1 expression in an m6A-dependent manner.

Ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is one of the most common complications in liver transplantation. METTL3 regulates inflammation and cellular stress response by modulating RNA m6A modification level. Here, the study aimed to investigate the role and mechanism of METTL3 in IRI after rat orthotopic liver transplantation. The total RNA m6A modification and METTL3 expression level was consistently down-regulated after 6 h or 24 h reperfusion in OLT, which is negatively associated with the hepatic cell apoptosis. Functionally, METTL3 pretreatment in donor significantly inhibited liver grafts apoptosis, improved liver function and depressed the proinflammatory cytokine/chemokine expression. Mechanistically, METTL3 inhibited apoptosis of grafts via upregulating HO-1. Moreover, m6A dot blot and MeRIP-qPCR assay revealed that METTL3 promoted HO-1 expression in an m6A-dependent manner. In vitro, METTL3 alleviated hepatocytes apoptosis by upregulating HO-1 under hypoxia/reoxygenation condition. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that METTL3 ameliorates rat OLT-stressed IRI by inducing HO-1 in an m6A-dependent manner, highlighting a potential target for IRI in liver transplantation.

The appropriate method of hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma within University of California San Francisco (UCSF) criteria through neural network analysis.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to find effective treatments for the patient within UCSF criteria. METHODS: This study enrolled 1006 patients meeting UCSF criteria, undergoing hepatic resection (HR), divided into two groups: single tumor group and multiple tumors group. We compared and analyzed the risk factors between these two groups' long-term outcomes, through log-rank test, cox proportional hazards model and using neural network analysis to identify the independent risk factors. RESULTS: The 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS rates in single tumor were significantly higher than multiple tumors (95.0%, 73.2% and 52.3% versus 93.9%, 69.7% and 38.0%, respectively, p < 0.001). The 1-, 3- and 5-year RFS rates were 90.3%, 60.7%, and 40.1% in single tumor and 83.4%, 50.7% and 23.8% in multiple tumors, respectively (p < 0.001). And tumor type, anatomic resection and MVI were the independent risk factors for the patient within UCSF criteria. MVI was the most important risk factor affecting OS and RFS rates in neural network analysis. The method of hepatic resection and the number of tumors were also affected OS and RFS rates. CONCLUSION: Anatomic resections should be applied to patients within UCSF criteria, especially for patients with single MVI negative tumours.

Succession of microbial communities reveals the inevitability of anammox core in the development of anammox processes.

The lack of anammox seeds is regarded as the bottleneck of anammox-based processes. Although the interactions in anammox consortia have attracted increasing attention, little is known about the influence of inoculated sludge populations on the growth of anammox bacteria. In this study, four sludge of distinct communities mixed with anammox sludge (the relative abundance of Ca. Kuenenia was 1.96 %) were used as the seeds, respectively for the start-up of anammox processes. Notably, all these mixed microbial communities tend to form a similar microbial community, defined as the anammox core, containing anammox-bacteria (22.9 ± 5.9 %), ammonia-oxidizing-bacteria (0.8 ± 0.7 %), nitrite-oxidizing-bacteria (0.2 ± 0.2 %), Chloroflexi-bacteria (0.7 ± 0.4 %), and heterotrophic-denitrification-bacteria (0.3 ± 0.2 %). It also elucidated that the communities of Nitrosomonas-dominated sludge were the closest to the anammox core, and achieved the highest nitrogen-removal rate of 0.73 kg-N m-3 d-1. This study sheds light on the solution to the shortage of anammox seeds in the full-scale wastewater treatment application.

A Predictive Model to Evaluate the HbeAg Positivity of Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Patients in Clinics: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background and Objective: The study aims to investigate the correlation between Hepatitis B 'e' antigen (HBeAg) and HBV DNA levels, and to find a convenient tool to estimate the HBV DNA level for clinicians. Materials and Methods: We enrolled 1020 patients in this cross-sectional study and divided them into four groups: an HbeAg-positive and -negative group, and high and low HBV DNA levels groups. Results: Alanine aminotransferase (ALT), Albumin (ALB) and HBeAg are independent risk factors for CHB patients. When the level of HBeAg is higher than 16.15 S/CO, it is four times more likely that the patients will have high levels of HBV DNA than those who do not. The ALT and TB are independent risk factors in HBeAg-negative patients with a high HBV DNA level. We have drawn three predictive models to estimate the HBV DNA levels for those with the chronic hepatitis B virus (CHB), and those that are HBeAg-positive and HBeAg-negative (Y1 = 0.004 × ALT(IU/L) + 1.412 × HBeAg (S/CO) - 0.029 × ALB (g/L) + 0.779, the AUC is 0.672, and the cutoff value is -0.072, there the sensitivity is 0.615, the specificity is 0.648, PPV is 65.182% and NPV is 60.837%; Y2 = 0.007 × HBeAg (S/CO) - 0.016 × HGB (g/L) + 3.070, the AUC is 0.724, and the cutoff value is 1.216, where the sensitivity is 0.626, the specificity is 0.897, PPV is 94.118% and NPV is 34.437%; Y3 = -0.005 × ALT(IU/L) + 0.006 × TB (umol/L) + 0.385, the AUC is 0.661, and the cutoff value is 0.263, where the sensitivity is 0.677, the specificity is 0.587, PPV is 66.820% and NPV is 40.774%, respectively). We propose that HBeAg is the most important risk factor for the patient with a high HBV DNA level, however, it is not as important in the HBeAg-positive group. Conclusions: HBeAg is an independent risk factor that reflects the level of HBV DNA with a strong correlation. Patient with HBeAg (-) should combine TB and ALT to estimate the level of HBV DNA.

Uncommon Cause of Right Upper Quadrant Pain Treated by Laparoscopic Surgery: A Case Report.

Introduction: Right upper quadrant pain is a very common symptom of cholecystitis. Right upper quadrant pain caused by fish bone perforation of the stomach wall is rare. Case Presentation: We report a 42-year-old woman who was admitted to our hospital with "1-month history of dull progressive right upper quadrant pain radiating to the back." Computed tomography of the abdomen revealed a linear, high-density body between the stomach wall and the liver. On history, the patient stated she had eaten a bony fish a month prior but did not note any significant pain at the time. Laparoscopy revealed a fish bone 2 cm in length half on the surface of the caudate lobe of the liver, and no perforation of the gastrointestinal tract was found. The postoperative course was uncomplicated, and the patient was discharged home on day 3 after surgery. Conclusion: The case of right upper quadrant pain caused by the fish bone is very rare. Radiological examinations play a significant role in the diagnosis of fish bone ingestion. Laparoscopic surgery is technically feasible and safe for the treatment of patients with fish bone ingestion.

Trends and environmental factors of arsenic in sediments from the five lake ecoregions, China.

The behavior and risk of arsenic (As) closely relate to its geochemical fractionation and environmental factors in sediments. The soluble (F1), reducible (F2), oxidizable (F3), and residual fraction (F4) of As were extracted in the sediments from Lake Hulun, Wuliangsuhai, and Dalinor of Inner Mongolia Plateau. Coupled with lakes from Eastern and Northeast Plain, Yunnan-Guizhou and Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, the responses of As fractions to environmental conditions were investigated according to the spatial distribution of As fractionations in five lake ecoregions at a national scale of China. Generally, F1 was more sensitive to environmental changes, and the pH presented significantly negative effects on the amount of soluble As, while water depth played an important role in regulating the distribution of the fraction F2 and F4. The As pools in surface lake sediments presented a latitudinal zonation due to the gradient effects of climate and anthropogenic activities on nutrient decomposition, and their influence on the capacity of sediments holding As. This work indicated that nutrients played a coordinating role in regulating the impacts of climate and environmental factors on As fractionation in aquatic environments.