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Chimeric antigen receptor-expressing T (CAR-T) cells induce robust antitumor responses in patients with hematologic malignancies. However, CAR-T cells exhibit only limited efficacy against solid tumors such as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), partially due to their limited expansion and persistence. CD8 + T cells, as key components of the adaptive immune response, play a central role in antitumor immunity. Aerobic glycolysis is the main metabolic feature of activated CD8 + T cells. In the tumor microenvironment, however, the uptake of large amounts of glucose by tumor cells and other immunosuppressive cells can impair the activation of T cells. Only when tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in the tumor microenvironment have a glycolytic advantage might the effector function of T cells be activated. Glucose transporter type 1 (GLUT1) and acylglycerol kinase (AGK) can boost glycolytic metabolism and activate the effector function of CD8 +  T cells, respectively. In this study, we generated GPC3-targeted CAR-T cells overexpressing GLUT1 or AGK for the treatment of HCC. GPC3-targeted CAR-T cells overexpressing GLUT1 or AGK specifically and effectively lysed GPC3-positive tumor cells in vitro in an antigen-dependent manner. Furthermore, GLUT1 or AGK overexpression protected CAR-T cells from apoptosis during repeated exposures to tumor cells. Compared with second-generation CAR-T cells, GPC3-targeted CAR-T cells overexpressing GLUT1 or AGK exhibited greater CD8 + T-cell persistence in vivo and better antitumor effects in HCC allograft mouse models. Finally, we revealed that GLUT1 or AGK maintained anti-apoptosis ability in CD8 + T cells via activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway. This finding might identify a therapeutic strategy for advanced HCC., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Pharmacological Society.)

The increasing concerns about health have led to a growing demand for high-quality fried foods. The potential uses of Ligustrum robustum (Rxob.) Blume, a traditional tea in China, as natural additives to enhance the quality of starchy food during frying was studied. Results indicated that L. robustum polyphenols extract (LREs) could improve the quality of fried starchy food, according to the tests of color, moisture content, oil content, texture property, and volatile flavor. The in vitro digestion results demonstrated that LRE reduced the final glucose content from 11.35 ± 0.17 to 10.80 ± 0.70 mmol/L and increased the phenolic content of fried starch foods from 1.23 ± 0.04 to 3.76 ± 0.14 mg/g. The appearance and polarizing microscopy results showed that LRE promoted large starch bulges on the surface of fried starchy foods. Meanwhile, X-ray diffraction results showed that LRE increased the intensity of characteristic diffraction peak of fried starch with a range of 21.8%-28%, and Fourier transform infrared results showed that LRE reduced the damage to short-range order structure of starch caused by the frying process. In addition, LRE increased the aggregation of starch granules according to the SEM observation and decreased the enthalpy of starch gelatinization based on the differential scanning calorimetry results. The present results suggest that LREs have the potential to be utilized as a natural additive for regulating the quality of fried starchy food in food industries. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The enhancement of L. robustum polyphenols on the quality of starchy food during frying was found, and its mechanisms were also explored. This work indicated that L. robustum might be used as a novel economic natural additive for producing high-quality fried foods., (© 2024 Institute of Food Technologists.)

Leather shavings are generated as solid waste in the leather industry and may cause environmental pollution if not disposed judiciously. These solid wastes, primarily composed of collagen fibers (CFs), can be recycled as biomass composites. However, CFs are incompatible with natural rubber (NR) due to its hydrophilicity. Conventionally, the compatibility has been improved by utilizing silane coupling agents (SCAs) along with a large number of organic solvents, which further contribute to environmental pollution. In this study, we developed a novel complex coupling agent (CCA) to enhance the compatibility between CF and NR. The CCA was synthesized through a coordination reaction between Cr(III) and α-methacrylic acid (MAA). Cr(III) in the coupling agent coordinates with the active groups in CFs, while the unsaturated double bonds in MAA facilitate covalent crosslinking between the CCA and NR, improving compatibility. The coordination bonding between CF and NR exhibits strong interfacial interaction, endowing the composites with desirable mechanical properties. Moreover, the proposed method is an economical and green approach that can be used to synthesize CF-based composites without requiring organic solvents. Herein, a strategy promoted sustainable development in the leather industry has been established., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Effects of structural characteristics of phenolic compounds on the oxidation of glycerol trioleate were investigated, and the action rule and mechanism were further explored. By using thermal and multispectral analyses, all tested phenolic compounds significantly inhibited the oxidation of glycerol trioleate, and reduced the decomposition of CC and ester bonds of glycerol trioleate, which were attributed to their capability to inhibit the production of free radicals. Quercetin and gallic acid were the most effective among the condensed and hydrolyzable phenolic compounds in present study, respectively. For condensed phenolic compounds, the hydroxyl groups in B ring, substitution in C ring, and the structure of C ring played a crucial role in their inhibitory action. For hydrolyzable phenolic compounds, the amount of hydroxyl groups and their molecular weight had obvious effects on their inhibitory action. According to the measurement of molecular electrostatic potential and frontier molecular orbitals by density functional theory, the large maximum electrostatic potential and the small energy gap value were beneficial to enhance the inhibitory capability of phenolic compounds on the oxidation of glycerol trioleate. All present results suggested the potential action rule and molecular mechanism about the inhibitory effects of phenolic compounds on the oxidation of glycerol trioleate., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Nonhealing skin wounds are a problematic complication associated with diabetes. Therapeutic gases delivered by biomaterials have demonstrated powerful wound healing capabilities. However, the cellular responses and heterogeneity in the skin regeneration process after gas therapy remain elusive. Here, we display the benefit of the carbon monoxide (CO)-releasing hyaluronan hydrogel (CO@HAG) in promoting diabetic wound healing and investigate the cellular responses through single-cell transcriptomic analysis. The presented CO@HAG demonstrates wound microenvironment responsive gas releasing properties and accelerates the diabetic wound healing process in vivo . It is found that a new cluster of Cxcl14 + fibroblasts with progenitor property is accumulated in the CO@HAG-treated wound. This cluster of Cxcl14 + fibroblasts is yet unreported in the skin regeneration process. CO@HAG-treated wound macrophages feature a decrease in pro-inflammatory property, while their anti-inflammatory property increases. Moreover, the TGF-β signal between the pro-inflammatory (M1) macrophage and the Cxcl14 + fibroblast in the CO@HAG-treated wound is attenuated based on cell-cell interaction analysis. Our study provides a useful hydrogel-mediated gas therapy method for diabetic wounds and new insights into cellular events in the skin regeneration process after gas-releasing biomaterials therapy., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2024 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

Objectives: To explore the association between assisted reproductive technology (ART) and birth weight discordance in twins (BWDT)., Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on twin infants born between January 2011 and December 2020 at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, with complete basic birth data. The impact of ART on the occurrence of BWDT was identified by the multivariate logistic regression analysis., Results: A total of 3 974 pairs of twins were included, with 1 431 conceived naturally and 2 543 through ART. Neonates in the ART group had higher birth weights than those in the naturally conceived group ( P <0.001). The incidence of BWDT was lower in the ART group compared to the naturally conceived group (16.17% vs 21.09%, P <0.001). The multivariate logistic regression analysis, adjusting for confounding factors such as maternal age, parity, pre-pregnancy body mass index, gestational diabetes, hypothyroidism, gestational age, and chorionic properties, showed no significant difference in the risk of BWDT between the ART and naturally conceived groups ( P >0.05)., Conclusions: ART is not associated with the risk of BWDT.

Viscous emulsions with poor fluidity and high adhesion are extremely difficult to separate. Herein, high-flux separation of viscous emulsions is realized by developing structural engineered collagen fibers (CFs)-based composite membrane that featured 3D conductive hierarchical fiber structure with the spaced carbon nanofibers (CNFs) and activated carbon (AC) serving as conductive network and competitive adsorption-based demulsifying sites, respectively. The as-designed membrane structure boosts fast spreading of emulsion droplets on membrane surface aided by the synergistic effect of joule heat in situ generated by the spaced CNFs and the capillary effect derived from CFs, which guarantees the full contact of viscous emulsions with the spaced AC for achieving ultra-efficient demulsifying. The permeation of resultant oily filtrate is accelerated by the capillary effect of hierarchically fibrous structured CFs to exhibit fast transport kinetics, therefore accomplishing high-flux separation. The structural engineered membrane achieves high-performance separation toward different viscous emulsions (55.4-123.7 mPa·s) with separation efficiency >99.9% and flux high up to 259 L m -2 h -1 . The investigations provide a novel structural engineering strategy for realizing high-performance separation of viscous emulsions., (© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Purpose: This study described the preoperative nutritional status of infants with nonrestricted ventricular septal defects (VSDs) and evaluated its effect on postoperative recovery., Methods: We retrospectively collected data from infants with nonrestricted VSD who received surgical treatment in our hospital from January 2020 to December 2021 and analyzed their preoperative nutritional status and postoperative recovery., Results: Fifty (53.8%) patients were underweight (weight for age Z score (WAZ) ≤-1), and 31 (33.3%) patients were malnourished (WAZ ≤-2). The mechanical ventilation time, duration of intensive care unit stay and hospital stay time after surgery of patients with WAZ ≤-2 were significantly longer than those of patients with WAZ >-2 (p < 0.05). The results of linear correlation analysis showed that age, WAZ and prealbumin were negatively correlated with mechanical ventilation time, duration of intensive care unit stay and hospital stay time after surgery, respectively. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that mechanical ventilation time = 7.080 - 0.668 WAZ - 0.013 prealbumin - 0.618 age (R2: 0.729, F: 79.773, p: 0.001); duration of intensive care unit admission = 11.775 - 1.385 WAZ - 0.018 prealbumin - 0.102 age (R2: 0.714, F: 74.072, p: 0.001); and hospital stay time = 17.663 - 1.673 WAZ - 0.017 prealbumin - 1.07 age (R2: 0.711, F: 72.842, p: 0.001)., Conclusion: The incidence of malnutrition in infants with nonrestricted VSD was very high, and malnutrition had a significant adverse effect on postoperative recovery. Malnutrition significantly prolonged mechanical ventilation time, duration of intensive care unit stay and hospital stay after surgery.

This study explores new applications of black phosphorus quantum dots (BPQDs) by adding them to self-healing material systems for the first time. Self-healing polyurethane with an ultra-small amount of BPQDs has biomimetic intelligent responsiveness and achieves balance between its mechanical and self-healing properties. By adding 0.0001 wt% BPQDs to self-healing polyurethane, the fracture strength of the material increases from 3.0 to 12.3 MPa, and the elongation at break also increases from 750% to 860%. Meanwhile, the self-healing efficiency remains at 98%. The addition of BPQDs significantly improves the deformation recovery ability of the composite materials and transforms the surface of self-healing polyurethane from hydrophilic to hydrophobic, making it suitable for applications in fields such as electronic skin and flexible wearable devices. This study provides a simple and feasible strategy for endowing self-healing materials with biomimetic intelligent responsiveness using a small amount of BPQDs., (© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Furniture is identified as a vital volatile organic compound (VOC) emission source in the indoor environment. Leather has become the most common raw and auxiliary fabric material for upholstered furniture, particularly with extensive consumption in sofas, due to its abundant resources and efficient functions. Despite being widely traded across the world, little research has been conducted on the VOCs released by leather materials and their health risk assessment in the indoor environment. Accordingly, this study investigated the VOC emissions of leather with different grades and the health risk of the inhalation exposure. Based on the ultra-fast gas phase electronic nose (EN) and GC-FID/Qtof, the substantial emissions of aliphatic aldehyde ketones (Aks), particularly hexanal, appear to be the cause of off-flavor in medium and low grade (MG and LG) sofa leathers. The health risk assessment indicated that leather materials barely pose non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic effects to residents. Given the abundance of VOC sources and the accumulation of health risks in the indoor environment, more stringent specifications concerning qualitative and quantitative content should be extended to provide VOC treatment basic for the manufacturing industry and obtain better indoor air quality., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

As an important member of the graphene family, vertical graphene (VG) has broad applications like field emission, energy storage, and sensors owing to its fascinating physical and chemical properties. Among various fabrication methods for VG, plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) is most employed because of the fast growth rate at relatively low temperature for the high-quality VG. However, to date, relations between growth manner of VG and growth parameters such as growth temperature, dosage of gaseous carbon source, and electric power to generate plasma are still less known, which in turn hinder the massive production of VG for further applications. In this study, the growth behavior of VG was studied as functions of temperature, plasma power, and gas composition (or chamber pressure). It was found that the growth behavior of VG is sensitive to the growth conditions mentioned above. Although conditions with high growth temperature, large flow rate of mixed gas of methane and carrier gases, and high plasma power may be helpful for the fast growth of VG, brunching of VG is simultaneously enhanced, which in turn decreases the vertical growth nature of VG. High-quality VG can be achieved by optimizing the growth parameters. It was revealed that the vertical growth nature of VG is governed by the electric field at the interfacial layer between VG and the substrate, for which its strength is influenced by the density of plasma. These findings are important for the general understanding of the VG growth and provided a feasible way for the controllable fabrication of VG using the remote PECVD method which is usually believed to be unsuitable for the fabrication of VG., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

Feather waste is produced in millions of tons globally every year, resulting in a waste of biomass resources and even environmental pollution. A sustainable strategy for utilizing feather waste was proposed by preparing a clean deliming agent for ammonia-nitrogen (NH 3 -N) reduction in leather manufacture and biological treatment efficiency improvement of tannery wastewater. Briefly, chicken feather wastes were deeply hydrolyzed with sulfuric acid, and the optimized keratin hydrolysate (KH opt ) that contained 53.6% crude protein and 41.2% amino acids, such as glutamic acid, serine, proline, leucine, phenylalanine, glycine, valine, and arginine, was obtained and used to delime limed cattle hides. The appropriate ratio of amino acids in KH opt gave KH opt a great pH-buffering capacity and maintained a stable float pH of approximately 9 throughout the deliming process. The isoelectric points of KH opt (3.8) and the limed hide (6.3) were both lower than the float pH, thereby bringing about an electrostatic repulsion between the KH opt and the hide surface, which is helpful for KH opt to penetrate and deswell the limed hide rapidly. Moreover, the KH opt deliming effectively removed calcium from the limed hide and achieved leather comparable to conventional leather for commercial applications. KH opt reduced the NH 3 -N concentrations of deliming effluent and tannery wastewater by 91.1% and 80.6%, respectively, compared with the conventional deliming agent (ammonium sulfate), and dramatically increased the biological treatment efficiency of tannery wastewater. The results showed that efficient and high-value use of feather waste was made by preparing KH opt for sustainable leather manufacturing., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

SO 2 removal is critical to flue gas purification. However, based on performance and cost, materials under development are hardly adequate substitutes for active carbon-based materials. Here, we engineered biomass-derived nanostructured carbon nanofibers integrated with highly dispersed bimetallic Ti/CoO x nanoparticles through the thermal transition of metal-phenolic functionalized industrial leather wastes for synergistic SO 2 adsorption and in situ catalytic conversion. The generation of surface-SO 3 2- and peroxide species (O 2 2- ) by Ti/CoO x achieved catalytic conversion of adsorbed SO 2 into value-added liquid H 2 SO 4 , which can be discharged from porous nanofibers. This approach can also avoid the accumulation of the adsorbed SO 2 , thereby achieving high desulfurization activity and a long operating life over 6000 min, preceding current state-of-the-art active carbon-based desulfurization materials. Combined with the techno-economic and carbon footprint analysis from 36 areas in China, we demonstrated an economically viable and scalable solution for real-world SO 2 removal on the industrial scale.

A novel K-loaded biochar as controlled-release K fertilizer was prepared through K assisted pyrolysis of distillers' grains (DGs, typical solid-byproducts of Chinese Baijiu) under different atmospheres (N 2 and CO 2 ) and temperatures (400 and 800 °C). The fabricated DGs-based biochar exhibited high K loading (200.20-232.33 mg/g), and the release kinetics and column leaching experiments suggested that K-loaded biochar exhibited excellent controlled release performance in a long term. Compared with other biochar, the K-loaded biochar prepared at CO 2 and 400 °C has lower cumulative release ratio of 82.35 %, and could retain the durative K release at ~0.5 % for 25 d. The release kinetics suggested that the K release behavior was dominated by dissolution, electrostatic attraction, adsorption, confinement effect, and chemical interaction. Furthermore, pot experiments revealed that K-loaded biochar could promote the growth of Komatsuna, in which the fresh weight and chlorophyll relative content of Komatsuna cultivated with biochar prepared at CO 2 and 400 °C reached 0.146 g and 41.95 after 25 d growth, respectively. The above results suggested that the K-loaded biochar exhibited excellent utilization potential as a controlled-release K fertilizer, facilitating the sustainable development and resource valorization of Baijiu industry., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

N-doped biochar (AL-N/BC) prepared by pyrolyzing lignin in various temperatures manifested superefficient performance for uranium (U) recycling from nuclear wastewater. The optimist AL-N/BC-700 showed higher adsorption capacity of 25,000 mg/g and faster kinetics of 4100 g·min -1 ·mg -1 than the most of reported adsorbents, and excellent adsorption-desorption capability (adsorption rate > 90 % and desorption rate > 70 % after 12 cycles). Moreover, the high applicability of AL-N/BC-700 was verified by its superefficient U(VI) adsorption performance in a broad working pH range, various water matrices, and high irradiation stability. Furthermore, the adsorption mechanism discloses the significant role of graphitic N, rather than pyridinic N or pyrrolic N, for U(VI) adsorption. Overall, this work not only presents an applicable approach to alleviate the increasingly serious energy crisis via recycling U(VI) from nuclear wastewater, but also enriches the method of synthesizing N-doped materials for U(VI) adsorption., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Oil contamination has been an increasingly concerned environmental issue due to the large quantity of oily wastewater discharged by the industry. The extreme wettability-enabled single-channel separation strategy guarantees efficient separation of oil pollutant from wastewater. However, the ultra-high selective permeability forces the intercepted oil pollutant to form a blocking layer, which weakens the separation capability and slows the kinetics of permeable phase. As a consequence, the single-channel separation strategy fails to maintain a stable flux for a long-term separation process. Herein, we reported a brand-new water-oil dual-channels strategy for accomplishing an ultra-stable long-term separation of emulsified oil pollutant from oil-in-water nano-emulsion by engineering two drastically opposite extreme wettabilities (i.e. superhydrophilicity and superhydrophobicity) to build the water-oil dual-channels. The strategy established the superwetting transport channels to permit water and oil pollutant to permeate through their own channel. In this way, the generation of intercepted oil pollutant was prevented, which guaranteed an exceptional long-lasting (20 h) anti-fouling performance for successful achievement of an ultra-stable separation of oil contamination from oil-in-water nano-emulsion with high flux retention and high separation efficiency. Therefore, our investigations provided a new route for realizing ultra-stable long-term separation of emulsified oil pollutant from wastewater., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The efficient recycling of uranium (U) by adsorbents remains challenging due to the strong interference from coexisting impurities, insufficient desorption efficiency, and weak irradiation instability. In this work, a novel lignin-derived biochar (AL/BC) with high surface area and abundant functional groups was developed through a green and simple pyrolysis process, and an adsorbent for U(VI) capture was used. The optimist AL/BC-600 exhibited ultrahigh adsorption capacity for U(VI) of 4007 mg/g, possessing a wide pH range of 1-11, and powerful anti-interference ability when coexisting with various common cations and anions. In addition, AL/BC-600 showed high tolerance even under strong irradiation at a dose of 350 kGy. Most importantly, after the tenth round of the adsorption-desorption cyclic utilization, the adsorption efficiency and desorption rate of AL/BC-600 were actually over 95% and 80%, respectively. Hence, this study provides a green and simple process for synthesizing a novel adsorbent for highly efficient U(VI) capture, not only paving a path for alleviating the increasingly serious energy crisis, but also facilitating the low-carbon and circular development of lignin., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Collagen fibers (CFs) were previously used as packing materials for the separation of flavonoids based on hydrogen bond and hydrophobic interactions. However, as for flavonoid aglycones, CFs presented unsatisfactory adsorption capacity and separation efficiency due to the fact that they include limited hydroxyls and phenyls. In order to improve the adsorption capacity and separation efficiency, the hydrophobic modification strategy was employed in this research to enhance the hydrophobic interaction of CF with flavonoid aglycones by using silane coupling agents with different alkyl chains (isobutyl, octyl, and dodecyl). FT-IR analysis, DSC, TG, SEM, EDS mapping, water contact angle, and absorption time of solvent proved the successful grafting of alkyl chains on the CF without disturbing its special fiber structure, leading to the significantly enhanced hydrophobicity of the CF. The dynamic adsorption and elution behavior of kaempferol and quercetin (the typical flavonoid aglycones) on the hydrophobic CF showed that the adsorption rate and retention rate were largely increased in comparison with the CF without modification. Molecular dynamic simulations indicated that the CF grafted with isobutyls could interact with flavonoid aglycones through the highest synergetic effect of hydrophobic and hydrogen bond interactions, which exhibited the strongest retention to flavonoid aglycones. On further increasing the alkyl length (octyl and dodecyl), the hydrophobic interaction was further enhanced, but the hydrogen bonds were significantly weakened by steric hindrance, which showed that the retention to flavonoid aglycones was appropriately increased but without causing peak tailing. In the column separation of kaempferol and quercetin, the CF with hydrophobic modification presented a greater separation efficiency, with the purity of kaempferol increased from 71.99 to 86.57-97.50% and the purity of quercetin increased from 82.69 to 88.07-99.37%, which was much better than that of polyamide and close to that of sephadex LH 20. Therefore, the hydrophobicity of the CF could be controllably adjusted to enhance the adsorption rate and retention capacity, specifically improving the separation efficiency of flavonoid aglycones.

Resource utilization of distiller's grains (DGs) is crucial for realizing sustainable development of Baijiu industry. In the prevent investigation, a low-cost activated biochar (DGABC) suitable for removing turbidity from low-alcohol Baijiu was prepared by the controlled pyrolysis of DGs, followed by steam activation. The as-prepared biochar featured a large specific surface area (320-480 m 2 /g) and pore volume (0.45-0.47 cm 3 /g). Importantly, the DGABC possessed remarkable exterior hydrophily and interior lipophilicity, which guaranteed its good dispersion in alcohol-water system as well as an efficient adsorption to the components with long lipophilic chain. As a result, the DGABC could efficiently remove the turbidity in low-alcohol Baijiu, which was mainly derived from the long lipophilic chain components, such as ethyl palmitate. Meanwhile, most of the flavor esters that had a shorter lipophilic chain and lower hydrophobicity were well kept in the low-alcohol Baijiu. Therefore, this work provided a promising strategy for DGs recycling in Baijiu industry., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Efficient degradation of organic contaminants by oxidative radicals remains a challenge due to invalid consumption of radicals and easy generation of secondary halogenated pollutants. In this work, an efficient and recyclable bimetallic biochar (Cr-Ti/BC) was developed through peroxydisulfate (PDS) activation via nonradical pathway for sulfamethoxazole (SMX) degradation. The Cr-Ti/BC exhibited excellent catalytic activity for 99.9 % of SMX removal with a high k obs of 0.13 min -1 , and negligible inhibitory effects were observed under various pH condition. The activation mechanisms were (i) metastable reactive intermediates (Cr-Ti/BC-PDS) formation via an interaction between Cr-Ti/BC and PDS on the active defective sites (e.g., OH/COC, COOH, CO, nitric oxides, graphitic N, and pyridinic N), and (ii) 1 O 2 generation through electron transfer between Cr-Ti/BC-PDS intermediates and dissolved oxygen. The high reusability and strong stability of Cr-Ti/BC also verified the outstanding advantage of the Cr-Ti/BC during practical application. This study not only is the first study the catalytic performance of Cr and Ti co-doped biochar for PDS activation, but also successfully provides a promising strategy to induce a nonradical pathway for PDS activation, which is of great significance for the subsequent method design, and thus paving the path for exploiting advanced oxidation systems in practical application for organic contaminant removal toward polluted site remediation., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The simultaneous removal and selective separation of U(VI) and Th(IV) via adsorption remain challenging due to their strong mobility, reactivity, and similar chemical properties. Thus, a surface-functioned lignin nanoparticle (AL-PEI) was synthesized to adsorb U(VI)/Th(IV) in a unitary system via a pH-dependent process. In alkaline solution, AL-PEI exhibited excellent adsorption performance, and the maximum adsorption capacities for U(VI) and Th(IV) reached 392 and 396 mg/g, respectively. Discrepantly in acidic solution, the adsorption performance of AL-PEI for U(VI) could still reach a high capacity (332 mg/g), whereas highly limited adsorption capacity (less than 40 mg/g) for Th(IV) was obtained, and the separation factor of U(VI) from U(VI)-Th(IV) matrix significantly reached 6662 in 3 M of the HNO 3 medium. The simultaneously efficient adsorption in alkaline solution and highly selective separation performance in acidic solution of AL-PEI also showed excellent anti-ions interference capacities, high reusability, and strong stability. This study is the first to apply lignin fabricating radiation-resistant adsorbent material, and the adsorbent displays good performance for U(VI)/Th(IV) removal and selective separation via a novel pH-dependent process, which is important to the green and sustainable development of nuclear energy and environmental protection., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Some early reports in the medical literature have raised concern about a possible increased risk of pancreatic cancer associated with the use of two broad classes of incretin-based therapies, dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors, and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists. This possibility has been somewhat mitigated by the null findings meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials, but the usefulness of their findings was hampered by serious shortcomings of lack of power and representativeness. These shortcomings can typically be addressed by observational studies, but observational studies on the topic have yielded conflicting findings. A systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies was performed to qualitatively and quantitatively appraise the totality of evidence on the association between the use of incretin-based therapies and the risk of pancreatic cancer in routine clinical practice., Methods: The PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Google Scholar databases were searched. The study quality was appraised using the ROBINS-I tool and based on the presence of pharmacoepidemiology biases. A random-effects model was used to estimate the summary relative risks with corresponding CIs., Results: A total of 14 studies were included. The qualitative assessment revealed that all studies had inadequate follow-up (≤5 years), 12 studies were suspected to suffer from time-lag bias (due to inappropriate choice of comparator group) to varying extent, five studies included prevalent users, five studies did not implement exposure lag period, five studies had a serious risk of bias due to confounding, and one study had a time-window bias. The quantitative assessment showed no indication of an increased risk when all studies were pooled together (RR 1.04, 95% CI 0.87, 1.24) and when the analysis was restricted to the studies with the least bias (RR 0.77, 95% CI 0.51, 1.17). However, the pooled RRs were more frequently higher in the studies with less rigorous design and analysis. Specifically, a tendency toward an increased risk was observed in the studies with (RR 1.34, 95% CI 1.04, 1.72) or possibly with (RR 1.10, 95% CI 0.89, 1.36) time-lag bias, in the studies that did not apply (RR 1.23, 95% CI 0.93, 1.63) or with potentially inadequate exposure lag period of 6 months (RR 1.13, 95% CI 0.66, 1.94), in the studies that inappropriate comparator group of a combination of unspecified (RR 1.49, 95% CI 1.25, 1.78) or non-insulin (RR 1.15, 95% CI 0.93, 1.42) antidiabetic drugs, and in the studies with serious risk of bias due to confounding (RR 1.18, 95% CI 0.56, 2.49)., Conclusions: In summary, the totality of evidence from observational studies does not support the claim that the use of incretin-based therapies is associated with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer in routine clinical practice. The increased risk of pancreatic cancer observed in observational studies reflects bias resulting from suboptimal methodological approaches, which need to be avoided by future studies., (© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Separation plays a critical role in a broad range of industrial applications. Developing advanced separation materials is of great significance for the future development of separation technology. Collagen fibers (CFs), the typical structural proteins, exhibit unique structural hierarchy, amphiphilic wettability, and versatile chemical reactivity. These distinctive properties provide infinite possibilities for the rational design of advanced separation materials. During the past 2 decades, many progressive achievements in the development of CFs-derived advanced separation materials have been witnessed already. Herein, the CFs-based separation materials are focused on and the recent progresses in this topic are reviewed. CFs widely existing in animal skins display unique hierarchically fibrous structure, amphiphilicity-enabled surface wetting behaviors, multi-functionality guaranteed covalent/non-covalent reaction versatility. These outstanding merits of CFs bring great opportunities for realizing rational design of a variety of advanced separation materials that were capable of achieving high-performance separations to diverse specific targets, including oily pollutants, natural products, metal ions, anionic contaminants and proteins, etc. Besides, the important issues for the further development of CFs-based advanced separation materials are also discussed., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

The potential uses of Ligustrum robustum (Rxob.) Blume extract as a natural antioxidant to protect the quality of different oils during storage and frying process were studied. The results showed that L. robustum extract has been shown to retard the decline in the quality of both oils based on the tests of acid value, peroxide value, p-anisidine value, color, volatile flavor, and fatty acid compositions, and the protective effect of L. robustum extract on the quality of peanut oil was better than that of palm oil. By the component analysis, L. robustum extract was found to have a total phenols content of 140.75 ± 1.52 mg/g, and ligurobustoside C was identified as the main phenolic compound. The thermogravimetric and differential scanning calorimetry results showed that L. robustum extract enhanced the oxidative stability of peanut and palm oils. In addition, Fourier transform infrared results indicated that L. robustum extract had protective effects on the C=C bond and ester bond of oil molecule. Moreover, by using electron spin resonance technique, L. robustum extract showed the ability to inhibit and scavenge alkyl-free radicals in both oils. The present results suggested that L. robustum extract may protect the quality of oils during the storage and frying process by inhibiting the oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids and might be a potential natural antioxidant in the food industry. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: The excellent antioxidant ability of Ligustrum robustum (Rxob.) Blume extract on the oxidation of different oils and its low price indicated that it could be used as a new low-cost natural antioxidant in oil processing., (© 2022 Institute of Food Technologists®.)

Developing chrome-free and sustainable tanning agents is extremely important to the sustainability of the leather industry. Herein, we have synthesized an Al-Zr-oligosaccharides tanning agent via a simultaneous degradation and oxidation of cellulose in waste paper. The influence of the temperature and the concentrations of AlCl 3 and H 2 O 2 during the synthesis were thoroughly investigated on the properties of the tanning agent and the leather produced. The synthesis temperature and the concentration of AlCl 3 were the factors primarily affecting the effective depolymerization of cellulose. They controlled the conversion of waste paper into oligosaccharides with an appropriate molecular weight to efficiently penetrate the leather matrix. In parallel, the H 2 O 2 concentration substantially influenced the tanning performance of the Al-Zr-oligosaccharides, diminishing the chromaticity of the tanning liquid via oxidation and promoting the conversion of C2/C3/C6-OH moieties into -CHO/-COOH. These functional groups increased the surface charge of the oligosaccharides allowing more effective coordination with Al/Zr, which facilitated the penetration of Al/Zr species into the leather matrix. Once inside the leather matrix, Al and Zr were released and reacted with the collagen fibers in leather, which resulted in effective leather tanning. The process optimization revealed that up to 57% of waste paper could be converted into a low-chromaticity (4350 AU) liquid hydrolysate with the synthesis conducted at 177 °C in a system comprising 47 mM AlCl 3 and 5 vol% H 2 O 2 . The application of this liquid for tanning provided leather with a shrinkage temperature (86.5 °C) sufficiently high for commercial applications. These excellent results, combined with the intrinsic green nature of our approach, exemplify a step forward to simultaneously reduce pollution and hazards in leather industries giving a second life to waste paper., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Radionuclides of 60 Co often encountered in the fields of radiation therapy, medical preparation, and equipment sterilization, which have been considered fatal. Therefore, developing efficient and irradiation-stable adsorbents for the removal of 60 Co in wastewater is urgently needed. An irradiation-stable fibrous adsorbent was fabricated through the surface functionalization of collagen fibers (CFs) by polyethyleneimine (PEI) and hydrated titanium oxide (TiO) (PEI-TiO-CFs). PEI-TiO-CFs, including their adsorption performance and irradiation stability, were systematically investigated. Results showed that PEI-TiO-CFs exhibit a maximum adsorption capacity of 0.5575 mmol g -1 . In addition, the adsorption capacity of PEI-TiO-CFs only demonstrated a slight decrease in the selectivity investigation of Co 2+ mixed with another coexisting ion, such as Na + , K + , and NO 3- , Cl - . Furthermore, breakthrough point of PEI-TiO-CFs in column is high at 80 BV (bed volume) and the PEI-TiO-CF column can be mostly regenerated using 12 BV of Na 2 EDTA solution. Excellent irradiation stability of PEI-TiO-CFs was confirmed by the maintained morphology and adsorption capacity after irradiation at 350 kGy of 60 Co γ-ray. Results indicated that PEI-TiO-CFs are an effective adsorbent for radioactive cobalt removal from aqueous solutions., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

In this work, a low-cost carbon-based catalyst (TSBC) was prepared by the facile one-pot pyrolysis of tannery sludge (TS) and used to activate persulfate (PS) for tetracycline (TC) removal. The results showed that TSBC-500 exhibited optimal physicochemical properties and the best performance for PS activation to remove TC from drinking water. Approximately 99.1% of TC was removed in the TSBC-500/PS system, which was considerably higher than those in the TSBC-500 adsorption and pure PS systems. Radical quenching experiments indicated that •OH and SO 4 • - played major roles in the TC removal in the TSBC-500/PS system. In addition, transition metals, functional groups, and the high degree of carbon structural defects were beneficial for PS activation to degrade TC. This study not only newly contributes to high-value utilization of TS as a PS activator but also offers an efficient method for the removal of organic pollutants., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Trivalent chromium [Cr(III)] and tannins serve as necessary substances in leather processing and coexist in tannery site, which lead to the chromium contamination in site soil when disposed improperly. However, coexisting tannins are very likely to complex with Cr(III) and affect its properties, ultimately changing the mobility of chromium in soil. In this study, tannic acid (TA) was selected to investigate the complexation with Cr(III) and the influence on the solubility and sorption of Cr(III) in soils. Then, the transport behavior and mechanism of Cr(III)-TA complexes in soil was clarified. Dialysis results showed that the increase of TA concentration and solution pH promoted the formation of complexed Cr(III). The results of UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations indicated that the adjacent ionized phenolic hydroxyls in TA functioned as the binding sites with Cr(III) to form the Cr-O bonds and the degree of complexation increased with pH. The Cr(III)-TA complexes had higher solubility than free Cr(III) at pH ≥ 6.0. Batch sorption experiments demonstrated that the sorption capacity of Cr(III)-TA to soils with different pH was always lower than that of free Cr(III). These reasons led to the stronger mobility of Cr(III)-TA in soil columns than Cr(III). Our research reveals that the enhanced mobility of Cr(III) in soils coexisting with TA., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Membrane separation is a promising approach for the remediation of oil contamination in water. High-flux separation of membrane relies on the rational design of ultrathin active layer to significantly reduce mass transfer distance for achieving high separation flux, while the ultrathin active layer is usually fragile with poor mechanical strength, which has to be supported on a support. Herein, we employed collagen fiber membrane (CFM) as multi-functional support for the in-situ growth of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) layer by electrospinning to prepare the high-performance PAN/CFM composite membrane. Due to the amphiphilic nature and strong capillary effect, CFM played the role as multi-functional support to provide separation effectiveness and boosted separation flux. The PAN/CFM composite membrane enabled ultrahigh separation flux (e.g., 51751.59 L m -2 h -1 bar -1 ) to a variety of oil-in-water emulsion, which was one order of magnitude higher than that of commercial polyethersulfone membrane and 1.86-fold to that of cellulose acetate membrane. Furthermore, the PAN/CFM composite membrane retained high separation flux (e.g., 11046.97 L m -2 h -1 bar -1 ) during the 5th separation cycle, providing appreciable anti-fouling capability. Therefore, our findings provided a promising way to effectively resolve the problem of oil contamination in water., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: To study the effect of sex on the clinical outcome of extremely preterm infants (EPIs)/extremely low birth weight infants (ELBWIs) by propensity score matching., Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed for the medical data of 731 EPIs or ELBWIs who were admitted from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2020. These infants were divided into two groups: male and female. A propensity score matching analysis was performed at a ratio of 1:1. The matching variables included gestational age, birth weight, percentage of withdrawal from active treatment, percentage of small-for-gestational-age infant, percentage of use of pulmonary surfactant, percentage of 1-minute Apgar score ≤3, percentage of mechanical ventilation, duration of mechanical ventilation, percentage of antenatal use of inadequate glucocorticoids, and percentage of hypertensive disorders in pregnancy. The two groups were compared in the incidence rate of main complications during hospitalization and the rate of survival at discharge., Results: Before matching, compared with the female group, the male group had significantly higher incidence rates of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome, bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), severe intraventricular hemorrhage, periventricular leukomalacia, necrotizing enterocolitis, and patent ductus arteriosus ( P <0.05), while after matching, the male group only had a significantly higher incidence rate of BPD than the female group ( P <0.05). There was no significant difference in the rate of survival at discharge between the two groups before and after matching ( P >0.05)., Conclusions: Male EPIs/ELBWIs have a higher risk of BPD than female EPIs/ELBWIs, but male and female EPIs/ELBWIs tend to have similar outcomes.

In the current work, a novel thermophilic serine protease gene (P3862) from Ornithinibacillus caprae L9 T was functionally expressed in Bacillus subtilis SCK6. The monomeric enzyme of about 29 kDa was purified to homogeneity with 43.91% of recovery and 2.81-folds of purification. Characterization of the purified protease revealed the optimum activity at pH 7 and 65 °C. The protease exhibited excellent activity and stability in the presence of Na + , Mg 2+ , Ca 2+ , ethanediol, n-hexane, Tween-20, Tween-80 and Triton X-100. P3862 displayed favorable caseinolytic activity, moderate keratinolytic activity but no collagenolytic activity. Besides, the homology model of P3862 possessed a globular configuration and characteristic of α/β hydrolase fold, and displayed stable interactions with casein, glycoprotein and keratin rather than collagen. Moreover, the crude enzyme could completely dehair goatskin within 6 h, resulting in decrease in BOD 5 , COD and TSS loads by 72.86, 74.07, and 73.79%, respectively, as compared with Na 2 S treatment. Biocatalytic applications revealed that it could effectively remove egg-stains from fabrics at 37 °C for 30 min with low supplementation (300 U/mL), and was able to degrade the feathers of duck and chicken. Overall, these outstanding properties make P3862 valuable in the development of environmentally friendly biotechnologies ., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Designing a hemoperfusion adsorbent for the excretion therapy of toxic heavy metals still remains a great challenge due to the biosafety risks of non-biological materials and the desired highly efficient removal capacity. Herein, inspired from the homeostasis mechanism of plants, natural polyphenols are integrated with collagen matrix to construct a polyphenol-functionalized collagen-based artificial liver (PAL) for heavy metals excretion and free radicals scavenging therapy. PAL presents high adsorption capacities for Cu 2+ , Pb 2+ , and UO 2 2+ ions, up to 76.98 μmol g -1 , 106.70 μmol g -1 , and 252.48 μmol g -1 , respectively. Remarkably, PAL possesses a high binding affinity for UO 2 2+ , Pb 2+ , and Cu 2+ ions even in the complex serum environment with the presence of biologically-relevant ions (e.g., Mg 2+ , Ca 2+ ions). Low hemolysis ratio (1.77%), high cell viability (> 85%), high plasma recalcification time (17.4 min), and low protein adsorption (1.02 μmol g -1 ) indicate outstanding biocompatibility of this material. This natural polyphenol/collagen-based fully bio-derived hemoperfusion adsorbent provides a novel and potentially applicable strategy for constructing a hemoperfusion adsorbent for heavy metal ions excretion therapy with efficiency and biosafety., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Porous structures are essential for some collagen-based biomaterials and can be regulated by crosslinkers. Herein, dialdehyde carboxymethyl cellulose (DCMC) crosslinkers with similar size but different aldehyde group contents were prepared through periodate oxidation of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose with varying degrees of substitution (DS). They can penetrate into the hierarchy of fibril and form inter-molecular and intra-fibril cross-linking within the collagen matrix due to their nanoscale sizes and reactive aldehyde groups. The collagen matrices possessed higher porosity, significantly greater proportion of large pores (Φ > 10 μm), and shorter D -periodicity after cross-linking, showing greater potential for biomedical applications. In addition, the crosslinked collagen matrices showed satisfactory biocompatibility and biodegradation. The decreased DS of carboxymethyl cellulose, which led to the increased aldehyde content of corresponding DCMC, brought about an enhanced cross-linking degree, porosity, and proportion of large pores of the crosslinked collagen matrix. DCMC dosage of 6% was sufficient for cross-linking and pore formation. Excess DCMC would physically deposit in the matrix and decrease the porosity instead. Therefore, the desired pore properties of the collagen matrix could be obtained by regulating the structure of DCMC and thereby achieving the required functions of the biomaterial.

The aging procedure/storage is essential to enhance the organoleptic quality of strong flavor baijiu (SFB). How the storage affects flavor changes in SFB, that is, the aging mechanisms remains unclear. Herein, the physical and chemical effects on the main flavor compounds of SFB during storage were investigated using the density functional theory (DFT) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. DFT calculation results showed that the activation energy of ester alkyl-oxygen protonation was lower than that of acid hydroxyl-oxygen protonation, which explained the reason why the concentrations of acids increased and those of esters decreased during SFB storage. MD simulation results showed that electrostatic interaction was a major contributor to SFB and that the ethanol-water system containing acids had a stronger electrostatic energy and more hydrogen bonds than the ethanol-water system containing esters. These findings revealed that acids are prone to generating and strengthening associative structures in SFB during storage., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Depression is a common mental disorder and is one of the main causes of disability. Berberine (BBR), the major constituent alkaloid originally from the famous Chinese herb Huanglian (Coptis chinensis), has been shown to exert antidepressant-like effects. This study was to investigate the hypothesis that BBR treats depressive-like behavior by shifting the balance of the kynurenine (KYN)/serotonin (5-HT) pathway toward the 5-HT pathway through downregulated indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1), monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) and upregulated dopamine decarboxylase (DDC) in hippocampus., Method: A chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) mice model of depression was established via 21 days unpredictable stimulation. Then the mice were randomly assigned into six groups, namely control, model, fluoxetine [FLU, (10 mg/kg)], BBRL (25 mg/kg), BBRM (50 mg/kg), and BBRH (100 mg/kg) groups. Behavioral assessments were conducted to evaluate the antidepressant effects of BBR. The levels of 5-HT, KYN, tryptophan (TRP), and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) in hippocampus were estimated using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The mRNA and protein levels of DDC, MAOA and IDO1 in hippocampus were detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and western blot (WB), respectively., Result: The results showed that a successful CUMS mice model was established through 21 days of continuous unpredictable stimulation, as indicated by the significant decrease in locomotor activity and increase in immobility time, reduction in body weight and sucrose preference rate etc. Compared with the normal group, the concentrations of KYN/TRP had significantly increased (p ## <0.01) and 5-HT/5-HIAA had decreased (p # <0.05) at day 21 in the control group, but then improved after drug treatment with FLU and BBR. Compared with the normal group, the mRNA of IDO1 and MAOA were significantly upregulated (p # <0.05) in the control group, MAOA and IDO1 gene were downregulated by FLU and BBR treatment. Protein expressions of IDO1 and MAOA was significantly increased (p # <0.05) and DDC downregulated (p ## <0.01). BBR treatment downregulated IDO1 and MAOA, upregulated DDC., Conclusions: BBR reversed the abnormalities of the KYN/5-HT pathway in depressed mice and achieved an excellent antidepressant effect. Its direct impact may be observed as changes in biological indicators in mice hippocampus tissue., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

The development of therapies to eliminate the latent HIV-1 reservoir is hampered by our incomplete understanding of the biomolecular mechanism governing HIV-1 latency. To further complicate matters, recent single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) studies reported extensive heterogeneity between latently HIV-1-infected primary T cells, implying that latent HIV-1 infection can persist in greatly differing host cell environments. We show here that transcriptomic heterogeneity is also found between latently infected T cell lines, which allowed us to study the underlying mechanisms of intercell heterogeneity at high signal resolution. Latently infected T cells exhibited a dedifferentiated phenotype, characterized by the loss of T cell-specific markers and gene regulation profiles reminiscent of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC). These changes had functional consequences. As reported for stem cells, latently HIV-1-infected T cells efficiently forced lentiviral superinfections into a latent state and favored glycolysis. As a result, metabolic reprogramming or cell redifferentiation destabilized latent infection. Guided by these findings, data mining of single-cell RNA-seq data of latently HIV-1-infected primary T cells from patients revealed the presence of similar dedifferentiation motifs. More than 20% of the highly detectable genes that were differentially regulated in latently infected cells were associated with hematopoietic lineage development (e.g., HUWE1, IRF4, PRDM1, BATF3, TOX, ID2, IKZF3, and CDK6) or were hematopoietic markers (SRGN; hematopoietic proteoglycan core protein). The data add to evidence that the biomolecular phenotype of latently HIV-1-infected cells differs from that of normal T cells and strategies to address their differential phenotype need to be considered in the design of therapeutic cure interventions. IMPORTANCE HIV-1 persists in a latent reservoir in memory CD4 T cells for the lifetime of a patient. Understanding the biomolecular mechanisms used by the host cells to suppress viral expression will provide essential insights required to develop curative therapeutic interventions. Unfortunately, our current understanding of these control mechanisms is still limited. By studying gene expression profiles, we demonstrated that latently HIV-1-infected T cells have a dedifferentiated T cell phenotype. Software-based data integration allowed the identification of drug targets that would redifferentiate viral host cells and, by extension, destabilize latent HIV-1 infection events. The importance of the presented data lies within the clear demonstration that HIV-1 latency is a host cell phenomenon. As such, therapeutic strategies must first restore proper host cell functionality to accomplish efficient HIV-1 reactivation.

Objectives: To investigate the incidence of extrauterine growth retardation (EUGR) and its risk factors in very preterm infants (VPIs) during hospitalization in China., Methods: A prospective multicenter study was performed on the medical data of 2 514 VPIs who were hospitalized in the department of neonatology in 28 hospitals from 7 areas of China between September 2019 and December 2020. According to the presence or absence of EUGR based on the evaluation of body weight at the corrected gestational age of 36 weeks or at discharge, the VPIs were classified to two groups: EUGR group ( n =1 189) and non-EUGR ( n =1 325). The clinical features were compared between the two groups, and the incidence of EUGR and risk factors for EUGR were examined., Results: The incidence of EUGR was 47.30% (1 189/2 514) evaluated by weight. The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that higher weight growth velocity after regaining birth weight and higher cumulative calorie intake during the first week of hospitalization were protective factors against EUGR ( P <0.05), while small-for-gestational-age birth, prolonged time to the initiation of total enteral feeding, prolonged cumulative fasting time, lower breast milk intake before starting human milk fortifiers, prolonged time to the initiation of full fortified feeding, and moderate-to-severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia were risk factors for EUGR ( P <0.05)., Conclusions: It is crucial to reduce the incidence of EUGR by achieving total enteral feeding as early as possible, strengthening breastfeeding, increasing calorie intake in the first week after birth, improving the velocity of weight gain, and preventing moderate-severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia in VPIs.

Ligustrum robustum (Rxob.) Blume is traditionally served as a functional tea in China. In this work, the antioxidant activities of L. robustum (Rxob.) Blume extract (LRE) were evaluated and its inhibitory effect and mechanism on pancreatic lipase were further investigated. With the high contents of phenols (139.70 ± 1.41 mg gallic acid equivalent/g extract) and flavonoids (326.46 ± 7.36 mg rutin equivalent/g extract), LRE showed significant antioxidant activities (p < 0.05) for scavenging free radicals and hydrogen peroxide, inhibiting lipid peroxidation and providing strong reducing power. Meanwhile, LRE displayed remarkable inhibitory activity on pancreatic lipase with a low half-effective inhibitory concentration (IC 50 ) of 2.469 ± 0.005 mg/ml which was further determined as non-competitive inhibition. The spectroscopic results showed that LRE inhibited the activity of pancreatic lipase by modifying the tertiary and secondary structures of lipase. Moreover, four phenolic compounds (acteoside, lipedoside A, oleuropein and ligurobustoside C) were identified from LRE by the high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole- time of flight-mass spectrometry. In addition, according to molecular docking analysis, the four phenols could interact with pancreatic lipase by hydrogen bonds, so as to change the spatial structure of pancreatic lipase and inhibit its catalytic activity. The present results suggest that LRE not only exhibits strong antioxidant capacity but possesses effectively inhibitory activity on pancreatic lipase, which might have the potential to be developed as functional food and nutraceuticals for the prevention of metabolic diseases. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Ligustrum robustum (Rxob.) Blume extract has been confirmed to possess antioxidant activity and lipase inhibitory activity, which indicates that the L. robustum extract has the potential to prevent oxidative stress and regulate fat metabolism. This work suggests that L. robustum extract can be served as a novel resource to prepare nutraceuticals and functional food in food industries., (© 2022 Institute of Food Technologists®.)

This study is the first report on production and characterization of the enzyme from an Ornithinibacillus species. A 4.2-fold increase in the extracellular protease (called L9 T ) production from Ornithinibacillus caprae L9 T was achieved through the one-factor-at-a-time approach and response surface methodological optimization. L9 T protease exhibited a unique protein band with a mass of 25.9 kDa upon sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. This novel protease was active over a range of pH (4-13), temperatures (30-80°C) and salt concentrations (0-220 g/l), with the maximal activity observed at pH 7, 70°C and 20 g/l NaCl. Proteolytic activity was upgraded in the presence of Ag + , Ca 2+ and Sr 2+ , but was totally suppressed by 5 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, which suggests that this enzyme belongs to the serine protease family. L9 T protease was resistant to certain common organic solvents and surfactants; particularly, 5 mM Tween 20 and Tween 80 improved the activity by 63 and 15%, respectively. More importantly, L9 T protease was found to be effective in dehairing of goatskins, cowhides and rabbit-skins without damaging the collagen fibers. These properties confirm the feasibility of L9 T protease in industrial applications, especially in leather processing.

Objectives: To investigate the clinical treatment outcomes and the changes of the outcomes over time in extremely preterm twins in Guangdong Province, China., Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed for 269 pairs of extremely preterm twins with a gestational age of <28 weeks who were admitted to the department of neonatology in 26 grade A tertiary hospitals in Guangdong Province from January 2008 to December 2017. According to the admission time, they were divided into two groups: 2008-2012 and 2013-2017. Besides, each pair of twins was divided into the heavier infant and the lighter infant subgroups according to birth weight. The perinatal data of mothers and hospitalization data of neonates were collected. The survival rate of twins and the incidence rate of complications were compared between the 2008-2012 and 2013-2017 groups., Results: Compared with the 2008-2012 group, the 2013-2017 group (both the heavier infant and lighter infant subgroups) had lower incidence rates of severe asphyxia and smaller head circumference at birth ( P <0.05). The mortality rates of both of the twins, the heavier infant of the twins, and the lighter infant of the twins were lower in the 2013-2017 group compared with the 2008-2012 group ( P <0.05). Compared with the 2008-2012 group, the 2013-2017 group (both the heavier infant and lighter infant subgroups) had lower incidence rates of pulmonary hemorrhage, patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), periventricular-intraventricular hemorrhage (P-IVH), and neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (NRDS) and a higher incidence rate of bronchopulmonary dysplasia ( P <0.05)., Conclusions: There is a significant increase in the survival rate over time in extremely preterm twins with a gestational age of <28 weeks in the 26 grade A tertiary hospitals in Guangdong Province. The incidences of severe asphyxia, pulmonary hemorrhage, PDA, P-IVH, and NRDS decrease in both the heavier and lighter infants of the twins, but the incidence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia increases. With the improvement of diagnosis and treatment, the multidisciplinary collaboration between different fields of fetal medicine including prenatal diagnosis, obstetrics, and neonatology is needed in the future to jointly develop management strategies for twin pregnancy.

Highly-oxidized starch (HOS) is an excellent ligand for zirconium tanning in leather making. However, oxidation reaction can only be undertaken in diluted solution due to the high viscosity of starch, which leads to high oxidant consumption and low solid content of HOS, and therefore greatly limits its industrial application. Starch was predegraded by using HCl followed by H 2 O 2 oxidation for preparing a practical oxidized starch (OST) ligand with high solid content. HCl (5%) remarkably reduced the viscosity of starch and simplified the subsequent oxidation, resulting in a decrease in H 2 O 2 dosage from 60% to 40% and an increase in solid content from 10% to 38%. HCl broke the α-(1-4) glycosidic bond between glucose units, and H 2 O 2 oxidation led to the generation of abundant carboxyl groups in OST. The OST with moderate molecular weight (Mw 5609 g/mol) and carboxyl content (6.48 mmol/g) made the tanning performance of OST-Zr comparable to those of HOS-Zr and chrome tanning agents. Therefore, this work gives new insights into the crop-polysaccharides based ligands application and exhibits huge potential for promoting industrial applications of zirconium tanning., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Alterations of epigenetic modulators are extensively associated with cancer, but their key molecular activities in cancer regulation are often unclear. We discovered that lysine demethylase 6A (KDM6A, also known as UTX) suppresses cancer by forming liquid-like condensates with lysine methyltransferase 2D (KMT2D, also known as MLL4) and regulating chromatin activity at multiple levels., Competing Interests: No potential conflict of interest were disclosed., (© 2021 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.)

Background: Clinical importance of commercially available quantitative HBV markers has not been fully investigated., Objective: To choice and to evaluate clinically valuable HBV markers for predicting phases of natural history with chronic HBV infection., Methods: 472 naïve patients with chronic HBV infection were enrolled, in which 21 and 220 were confirmed as HBeAg-positive inactive and active hepatitis (EPIH and EPAH), respectively, and 106 and 125 were confirmed as HBeAg-negative inactive and active hepatitis (ENIH and ENAH), respectively. HBsAg, HBcrAg and anti- HBc were measured using chemiluminescent immunoassay, and HBV DNA was measured using PCR-fluorescence probing assay., Results: There were all statistical differences in medians of HBsAg, anti-HBc, HBcrAg and HBV DNA between EPIH and EPAH and between ENIH and ENAH (all P < 0.01). According to binary logistic stepwise regressions, HBsAg and anti-HBc were preferred variables for predicting EPAH, and HBcrAg and HBV DNA were preferred variables for predicting ENAH. Based on normalization for coefficients of preferred variables entering regression equations, a handy model of MEPAH for predicting EPAH and of MENAH for predicting ENAH was constructed, respectively. Area under receiver operating characteristic curves of MEPAH and MENAH for predicting EPAH and ENAH were 0.882 and 0.931, respectively. With standard of MEPAH ≤ 5.997 and MENAH > 10.535, sensitivity or specificity of which for predicting EPAH and ENAH were about 81.0 % and 87.0 %, respectively., Conclusion: HBsAg and anti-HBc for predicting EPAH and HBcrAg and HBV DNA for predicting ENAH are dependable markers; MEPAH for predicting EPAH and MENAH for predicting ENAH have very good performance., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease has become the most common chronic liver disease worldwide, which originates from the accumulation of triglyceride (TG) in the liver. Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are considered to have a predisposition to hepatic steatosis. However, the influencing factors for hepatic fat accumulation in T2DM patients remain unclear., Aim: To investigate the influencing factors for hepatic fat accumulation in T2DM patients., Methods: We enrolled 329 T2DM patients admitted to the Endocrinology Department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, who underwent MR mDIXON-Quant examination to quantify the hepatic fat fraction (HFF). According to body mass index (BMI), the patients were divided into normal weight, overweight, and obese groups. The differences in general statistics, biochemical parameters, islet function, and HFF were compared among the three groups. The associations between HFF and other parameters and the influences of various parameters on the severity of hepatic fat accumulation were analyzed., Results: The HFF of T2DM patients gradually increased in the normal weight, overweight, and obese groups ( P < 0.05). Spearman correlation analysis showed that in T2DM patients, HFF was negatively correlated with age and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ( P < 0.05), whereas it was positively correlated with BMI, waist-hip ratio, fasting plasma glucose, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase, bilirubin, glutamyl transpeptidase, lactate dehydrogenase, albumin (ALB), uric acid (UA), total cholesterol, TG, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), C-reactive protein, free triiodothyronine, fasting insulin, fasting C-peptide, and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance ( P < 0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis showed significant positive influences of BMI, ALT, LDL-C, UA, and ALB on HFF in T2DM patients ( P < 0.05). Binary logistic regression analysis showed that BMI, ALT, ALB, and LDL-C were independent risk factors for moderate to severe fatty liver in T2DM patients, and obesity increased the risk of being complicated with moderate to severe fatty liver by 4.03 times ( P < 0.05)., Conclusion: The HFF of T2DM patients increases with BMI. Higher BMI, ALT, ALB, and LDL-C are independent risk factors for moderate to severe fatty liver in T2DM patients., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have nothing to disclose., (©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.)

UTX (also known as KDM6A) encodes a histone H3K27 demethylase and is an important tumour suppressor that is frequently mutated in human cancers 1 . However, as the demethylase activity of UTX is often dispensable for mediating tumour suppression and developmental regulation 2-8 , the underlying molecular activity of UTX remains unknown. Here we show that phase separation of UTX underlies its chromatin-regulatory activity in tumour suppression. A core intrinsically disordered region (cIDR) of UTX forms phase-separated liquid condensates, and cIDR loss caused by the most frequent cancer mutation of UTX is mainly responsible for abolishing tumour suppression. Deletion, mutagenesis and replacement assays of the intrinsically disordered region demonstrate a critical role of UTX condensation in tumour suppression and embryonic stem cell differentiation. As shown by reconstitution in vitro and engineered systems in cells, UTX recruits the histone methyltransferase MLL4 (also known as KMT2D) to the same condensates and enriches the H3K4 methylation activity of MLL4. Moreover, UTX regulates genome-wide histone modifications and high-order chromatin interactions in a condensation-dependent manner. We also found that UTY, the Y chromosome homologue of UTX with weaker tumour-suppressive activity, forms condensates with reduced molecular dynamics. These studies demonstrate a crucial biological function of liquid condensates with proper material states in enabling the tumour-suppressive activity of a chromatin regulator., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

Chrome-free metal tanning agent has been considered as eco-friendly in the leather industry. However, extensive crosslinking reactions of metal species on the leather surface restrain their uniform penetration into the hierarchical nanoscale leather matrix. Thus, masking agents with appropriate coordination ability are needed. Herein, the selective degradation of hemicellulose in corncob was achieved with 92.5% of conversion in an AlCl 3 -H 2 O system, obtaining oligosaccharides masking agent with high purity and leaving cellulose and lignin in the solid residue for other valuable use. Subsequently, H 2 O 2 oxidation was performed to introduce -CHO/-COOH into oligosaccharides and reduce their molecular weights, thereby enhancing coordination ability and reducing ligand dimension. The post-oxidized reaction fluids together with additional Zr species were subjected to leather tanning, in which the oligosaccharides could coordinate with Al/Zr species and promote the penetration of metal species into the leather matrix. By controlling the hemicellulose degradation and oligosaccharide oxidation, an appropriate concentration of oligosaccharides with proper -CHO/-COOH contents allowed the efficient masking effect of the oligosaccharides. As a result, a uniform distribution of Al/Zr species was observed on the cross section, and 83.5 °C of shrinkage temperature was obtained for the chrome-free tanned leather., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Industrial manufacture generates a huge quantity of emulsion wastewater, which causes serious threats to the aquatic ecosystems. Water-in-oil (W/O) and oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions are two major types of emulsions discharged by industries. However, dual separation of W/O and O/W emulsions remains a challenging issue due to the contradictory permselectivity for separating the two emulsions. In the present investigation, the amphiphilicity-derived regional wetting mechanism of water and oil on the amphiphilic collagen fibers was revealed based on the combination of numerous experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Electrostatic interactions and van der Waals force were manifested to be the driving forces of regional wetting in the hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions, respectively. The regional wetting endowed amphiphilic collagen fibers with underwater oleophobicity and underoil hydrophilicity, which enabled dual separation of emulsions by selectively retaining the dispersed water phase of W/O emulsions in the hydrophilic regions while the dispersed oil phase of O/W emulsions in the hydrophobic regions. The achieved separation efficiency was higher than 99.98%, and the flux reached 3337.6 L m -2 h -1 . Initial wetting status significantly affects the regional wetting-enabled dual separation. Based on the MD simulations, amphiphilic intramolecular conformations of tropocollagen were suggested to be the origins of regional wetting on collagen fibers. Our findings may pave the way for developing high-performance dual separation materials that are promising to be utilized for the practical treatment of emulsion wastewater.

Developing efficient adsorbents with radiation stability for uranium removal from nuclear wastewater is greatly important for resource sustainability and environmental safety in manufacturing nuclear fuel. A novel adsorbent of hydrous titanium oxide-immobilized collagen fibers (HTO/CFs) with good radiation stability for UO 2 2+ removal was developed. Results showed that the adsorption capacity of HTO/CFs for UO 2 2+ was 1.379 mmol g -1  at 303 K and pH 5.0 when the initial concentration of UO 2 2+ was 2.5 mmol L -1 . Moreover, HTO/CFs showed high selectivity for U(VI) in bilateral mixed solution including UO 2 2+ with another coexisting ion, such as Cl - , NO 3 - , Zn 2+ , and Mg 2+ . The adsorption behavior of UO 2 2+ from radioactive wastewater on HTO/CF column was also investigated, and the breakthrough point was approximately 250 BV (bed volume). Notably, the HTO/CFs column can be rapidly regenerated by using only 4.0 BV of 0.1 mol L -1 HNO 3 solution. The regenerated HTO/CFs column exhibited slight change in the breakthrough curve, suggesting its excellent reapplication ability. Furthermore, after irradiation under 60 Co γ-ray at total doses of 10-350 kGy, HTO/CFs still preserved fibrous morphology and adsorption capacity, indicating significant radiation stability. These results demonstrate that HTO/CFs are industrial scalable adsorbents for the adsorptive recovery of uranium., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) Cancer Susceptibility 2 (CASC2) has been proved to contribute to the development of cancers. However, the mechanism behind the action of CASC2 in thyroid cancer is not quite clear. We demonstrated that CASC2 was downregulated in thyroid cancer. We noted that CASC2 overexpression restrained the growth, migration, and invasion of thyroid cancer cells, whereas CASC2 depletion caused opposite trends. Bioinformatics analysis predicted that hypoxia inducible factor 1 subunit alpha inhibitor (FIH-1) was potentially targeted by miR-18a-5p, which was confirmed by luciferase reporter assay. Upregulation of FIH-1 abrogated the promotive effect of miR-18a-5p on the growth and invasion of thyroid cancer cells. In addition, CASC2 serves as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) and a ''sponge'' for miR-18a-5p, thereby regulating the expression of FIH-1. These data elucidated the CASC2/miR-18a-5p ceRNA network in thyroid cancer pathogenesis., (© 2020 The Authors. The Kaohsiung Journal of Medical Sciences published by John Wiley & Sons Australia on behalf of Kaohsiung Medical University.)