36 research outputs found

    Enhancing Antioxidant Performance of Lignin by Enzymatic Treatment with Laccase

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    The utilization of lignin is of high interest since it represents the most abundant polyphenol worldwide. For the application of lignin as a natural antioxidant more phenolic hydroxyl groups (Ph–OH) and lower molecular weight (<i>M</i><sub>w</sub>) are essential. Here, we proposed a green method based on enzymatic treatment of two lignins (alkaline lignin AL and hydrolysis lignin HL) with laccase, by which the structure, especially the Ph–OH contents and <i>M</i><sub>w</sub> of lignin, could effectively controlled. The antioxidant activity of the lignin was evaluated <i>in vitro</i> by DPPH<sup>•</sup> (1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl­hydrazyl) radical scavenging ability. The mechanism of antioxidant activity improvement was also elucidated. As expected, the enzymatic treated lignin (HL-L1.0) with the highest Ph–OH content and lower <i>M</i><sub>w</sub> exhibited the strongest antioxidant activity (IC<sub>50</sub> = 28.8 μg/mL), which was even stronger than the commercial antioxidants BHT (3,5-di-<i>tert</i>-butyl-4-hydroxy­toluene, IC<sub>50</sub> = 38.2 μg/mL) and BHA (3-<i>tert</i>-butyl-4-hydroxyanisole, IC<sub>50</sub> = 56.3 μg/mL). This study suggested that the enzymatic treatment was a green and effective way to obtain lignin derivatives that showed great potential for antioxidant applications

    Electric Field-Assisted Matrix Coating Method Enhances the Detection of Small Molecule Metabolites for Mass Spectrometry Imaging

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    Small molecule metabolites (SMMs, typically <500 Da) are important cellular constituents closely associated with tumor development and progression. However, <i>in situ</i> label-free detection of tissue SMMs has been limited due to interference from matrix and/or low sensitivity. Herein, we develop an electric field-assisted scanning-spraying (EFASS) matrix coating system to deposit matrix on tissue with crystal sizes of <10 μm, followed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI) in negative ion mode. A comparison with other matrix deposition methods (i.e., airbrush and sublimation) using common matrixes (i.e., <i>N</i>-(1-naphthyl) ethylenediamine dihydrochloride (NEDC), 9-aminoacridine (9-AA), 2,5-dihydroxybenoic acid (DHB)) indicated that the EFASS system could effectively enhance detection sensitivity and the number of tissue SMMs detected. MSI of five gastric cancer tissues coated with NEDC by the EFASS system demonstrated that significantly increased levels of fatty acids (i.e., palmitic acid and oleic acid) and nucleosides monophosphate (i.e., uridine monophosphate, adenosine monophosphate, and guanosine monophosphate) and significantly decreased levels of nucleosides (i.e., inosine, guanosine, and uridine) and <i>N</i>-acetylneuraminic acid were observed in cancerous areas

    Surface-Functionalized Porous Lignin for Fast and Efficient Lead Removal from Aqueous Solution

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    The development of ecofriendly sorbents for fast and efficient removal of heavy metals from aqueous media still remains a significant challenge. Here, we report that this task can be addressed by creating a porous naturally occurring polymer, as illustrated by functionalizing lignin with large numbers of mesopores and functional groups. We show that surface-functionalized porous lignin (SFPL), obtained by a two-step process, has a large surface area of 22.3 m<sup>2</sup>/g, 12 times that of lignin, and a high density of dithiocarbamate groups (2.8 mmol/g). SFPL was found to exhibit an excellent adsorption performance toward lead ions dissolved in water. For example, 99% of the lead ions from 50 mL of a solution containing 20 mg/L lead ions was removed in just 30 min by 0.01 g of SFPL. The saturated adsorption capacity of SFPL for lead ions was found to be 188 mg/g, which is 13 times that of the original lignin and 7 times that of activated carbon. The adsorption process is endothermic and involves intraparticle diffusion and chemical adsorption between lead ions and the functional groups of SFPL. The cost effectiveness and environmental friendliness of SFPL make it a promising material for removing lead and other heavy metals from wastewater

    DataSheet1_Spatial patterns and drivers of soil total nitrogen in anthropogenic shrub encroachment in desert steppe.CSV

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    Nitrogen is the most important driving factor in primary production and decomposition in arid and semi-arid ecosystems. The effects of shrub encroachment on nitrogen cycling have been investigated at the site scale but seldomly conducted at the landscape scale. Here, we selected 43 shrubland sites distributing across 3000 km2 area in temperate desert grassland in eastern Yanchi County of Ningxia Hui Autonomous. We investigated the spatial heterogeneity and driving factors of soil total nitrogen (STN) at the landscape scale by using geostatistical analysis and the geographical detector method. Our results showed that the average soil total nitrogen decreased in the order of 0–5 cm (0.21 g kg−1) > 5–15 cm (0.19 g kg−1) > 15–40 cm (0.18 g kg−1). Geostatistical analysis showed that soil total nitrogen exhibited the strong spatial autocorrelation in the 0–5 and 5–15 cm soil layers and the moderate spatial autocorrelation in the 15–40 cm soil layer. Furthermore, the geographic detector method indicated that soil physicochemical properties exhibited the stronger effects than these of topographic and vegetation biomass in determining the spatial distribution of soil total nitrogen. Specifically, soil water content in the 0–20 cm soil layer explained 35% of variation in soil total nitrogen spatial pattern in the 0–5 cm soil layer, while soil organic carbon content in the 15–40 cm soil layer explained 64% and 45% of variation in soil total nitrogen spatial patterns in the 5–15 cm and 15–40 cm soil layers, respectively. It was concluded that soil water content and organic carbon content primarily drove the formation of soil total nitrogen spatial heterogeneity in shrubland at the landscape scale, indicating that anthropogenic shrub encroachment evidently affected soil water content and redistribution in dryland.</p

    Table1_Spatial patterns and drivers of soil total nitrogen in anthropogenic shrub encroachment in desert steppe.DOCX

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    Nitrogen is the most important driving factor in primary production and decomposition in arid and semi-arid ecosystems. The effects of shrub encroachment on nitrogen cycling have been investigated at the site scale but seldomly conducted at the landscape scale. Here, we selected 43 shrubland sites distributing across 3000 km2 area in temperate desert grassland in eastern Yanchi County of Ningxia Hui Autonomous. We investigated the spatial heterogeneity and driving factors of soil total nitrogen (STN) at the landscape scale by using geostatistical analysis and the geographical detector method. Our results showed that the average soil total nitrogen decreased in the order of 0–5 cm (0.21 g kg−1) > 5–15 cm (0.19 g kg−1) > 15–40 cm (0.18 g kg−1). Geostatistical analysis showed that soil total nitrogen exhibited the strong spatial autocorrelation in the 0–5 and 5–15 cm soil layers and the moderate spatial autocorrelation in the 15–40 cm soil layer. Furthermore, the geographic detector method indicated that soil physicochemical properties exhibited the stronger effects than these of topographic and vegetation biomass in determining the spatial distribution of soil total nitrogen. Specifically, soil water content in the 0–20 cm soil layer explained 35% of variation in soil total nitrogen spatial pattern in the 0–5 cm soil layer, while soil organic carbon content in the 15–40 cm soil layer explained 64% and 45% of variation in soil total nitrogen spatial patterns in the 5–15 cm and 15–40 cm soil layers, respectively. It was concluded that soil water content and organic carbon content primarily drove the formation of soil total nitrogen spatial heterogeneity in shrubland at the landscape scale, indicating that anthropogenic shrub encroachment evidently affected soil water content and redistribution in dryland.</p

    TaFeSb-Based Half-Heusler Thermoelectrics with High <i>zT</i> > 1 through the Alloying Effect

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    Ternary half-Heusler (HH) alloys have been extensively studied because of their various intriguing functionalities, such as thermoelectric (TE), magnetic, superconductive, and topological properties. Recently, TaFeSb-based HH alloys have been determined to be potential high-temperature TE materials with a dimensionless TE figure of merit zT > 1 for the application of power generation. Herein, we simultaneously optimize the electrical and thermal properties of TaFeSb-based materials through the alloying effect of elemental substitution, leading to a maximum zT of 1.20 at 1025 K. Furthermore, the co-alloying effect not only optimizes the electrical transport performances but also significantly diminishes the lattice thermal conductivity. In comparison with that of pristine TaFeSb, a remarkable reduction of 65% is achieved at room temperature for the (Ta0.8V0.2)0.84Ti0.16FeSb sample, which can be correlated to the mass and strain field fluctuations. Our work highlights the significance of the alloying effect as a design factor and demonstrates the advantages of p-type TaFeSb-based HHs due to their excellent TE performance

    Facile and Selective Enrichment of Intact Sialoglycopeptides Using Graphitic Carbon Nitride

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    Combining powerful selectivity, high stability, convenient operation, mild condition, and eco-friendliness, a novel graphitic carbon nitride (g-C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub>)-based enrichment method of intact sialoglycopeptides (SGs) was developed. The intact SGs could be simply enriched and separated from protein tryptic digests by hydrogen bonding without damage of glycan structures due to the specific structure of g-C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub>. By optimizing the enrichment and elution conditions, 45 and 38 SGs were detected from the tryptic digests of bovine fetuin and transferrin, respectively. Under the synergistic effect of hydrogen bonding and electrostatic adsorption, the SGs could be enriched simply in less than 2 h with a detection limit of 50 fmol. The method is repeatable due to the high stability of g-C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub> and the simple protocol of the method, indicating the potential application of g-C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub> in efficient and selective enrichment of intact SGs

    Additional file 1 of Development and validation of a model and nomogram for breast cancer diagnosis based on quantitative analysis of serum disease-specific haptoglobin N-glycosylation

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    Additional file 1: Figure S1. Aggregation plots of missing values of clinical variables. The first plot shows the proportion of missing values in each variable. The second plot shows patterns of missing values. The frequencies of the corresponding combinations are demonstrated to the right. The blue bars represent missing values, while the orange bars represent observed values. Figure S2. Strip plots of observed and imputed data of clinicopathological variables. The strip plots display the distribution of imputed values (orange points) over observed values (blue points) in a combined way. In total, 5 multiple imputed data sets were created. Column 1 represents the original data set, while column 2-6 represent the 5 imputed data sets. The second imputed data set (column 3) was used. Most of its imputations were in a plausible range, and properly accounted for the distribution of the missing data. Figure S3. Histogram plots displaying propensity score distributions for the malignant and benign groups before and after propensity score matching (caliper = 0.333). Figure S4. Heatmap of the correlations of DSHp-β N-glycopeptides and tumor markers. The numbers in grid show the Spearman correlation coefficients. Blank indicates a Bonferroni correction p-value of ≥ 0.05. Table S1. Identified N-glycopeptides of DSHp-β, their potential structures, and intensities between benign breast diseases and breast cancer

    DataSheet1_Profiling of amines in biological samples using polythioester-functionalized magnetic nanoprobe.docx

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    Introduction: The metabolic balance of amines is closely related to human health. It remains a great challenge to analyze amines with high-throughput and high-coverage.Methods: Polythioester-functionalized magnetic nanoprobes (PMPs) have been prepared under mild conditions and applied in chemoselective capture of amides. With the introduction of polythioester, PMPs demonstrate remarkably increased capture efficiency, leading to the dramatically improved sensitivity of mass spectrometry detection.Results: The analysis method with PMPs treatment has been applied in rapid detection of more than 100 amines in lung adenocarcinoma cell lines, mouse organ tissues, and 103 human serum samples with high-throughput and high-coverage. Statistical analysis shows that arginine biosynthesis differed between lung adenocarcinoma cell lines.Discussion: Phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis differed between tissues. The combination indicators demonstrate a great diagnostic accuracy for distinguishing between health and lung disease subjects as well as differentiating the patients with benign lung disease and lung cancer. With powerful capture ability, low-cost preparation, and convenient separation, the PMPs demonstrate promising application in the intensive study of metabolic pathways and early diagnosis of disease.high-throughput and high-coverage. Here, polythioester-functionalized magnetic nanoprobes (PMPs) have been prepared under mild conditions and applied in chemoselective capture of amides. With the introduction of polythioester, PMPs demonstrate remarkably increased capture efficiency, leading to the dramatically improved sensitivity of mass spectrometry detection. The analysis method with PMPs treatment has been applied in rapid detection of more than 100 amines in lung adenocarcinoma cell lines, mouse organ tissues, and 103 human serum samples with high-throughput and high-coverage. Statistical analysis shows that arginine biosynthesis differed between lung adenocarcinoma cell lines. Phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis differed between tissues. The combination indicators demonstrate a great diagnostic accuracy for distinguishing between health and lung disease subjects as well as differentiating the patients with benign lung disease and lung cancer. With powerful capture ability, low-cost preparation, and convenient separation, the PMPs demonstrate promising application in the intensive study of metabolic pathways and early diagnosis of disease.</p

    Cellular microRNA miR-181b Inhibits Replication of Mink Enteritis Virus by Repression of Non-Structural Protein 1 Translation

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    <div><p>Mink enteritis virus (MEV) is one of the most important viral pathogens in the mink industry. Recent studies have showed that microRNAs (miRNAs), small noncoding RNAs of length ranging from 18–23 nucleotides (nt) participate in host-pathogen interaction networks; however, whether or not miRNAs are involved in MEV infection has not been reported. Our study revealed that miRNA miR-181b inhibited replication of MEV in the feline kidney (F81) cell line by targeting the MEV non-structural protein 1 (NS1) messenger RNA (mRNA) coding region, resulting in NS1 translational repression, while MEV infection reduced miR-181b expression. This is the first description of cellular miRNAs modulating MEV infection in F81 cells, providing further insight into the mechanisms of viral infection, and may be useful in development of naturally-occurring miRNAs antiviral strategies.</p></div
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