Potential of Phytoremediation to clean up uranium-contaminated soil with Acacia species

Pollution by depleted uranium (DU) is considered one of the major problems faced by many countries, where this by-product is considered as a major  source of radiotoxic and chemotoxic heavy metal soil pollution. An experiment was designed for uranium uptake from sandy soil treated with different concentration of uranium  by using two species of Acacia  (Acacia albida and A. nelotica ). Results showed there is a difference in the ability of the Acacia seedlings tested to absorb different concentrations of uranium through their roots. Acacia nilotica registered the highest levels of absorption and accumulation of uranium in dry weight of roots in different concentrations (202, 339, 1175, and 1477 µg.g-1 ) respectively of  the concentrations (50, 100, 200, and 500 mgkg-1). Compared to the root of Acacia albida, the absorption of uranium was (60, 54, 133, and 526 µg.g-1) in the concentrations of the same samples. The ability of A. nilotica is better than that of A. albida to uptake uranium from the soil, where 80-90% of the uranium is absorbed by the seedlings, compared to 44-85% in  A. albida. In the case of low concentrations  of uranium (50 and 100 mgkg-1)  A. nilotica seedlings absorbed  about 80-90%  of the original concentration, whereast A. albida absorbed only 44-70% of the same treatment.  In high concentrations (500mgkg-1), we found  that the A. nilotica uptake of 90% of uranium was higher compared to that of  A. albida whose average uptake was about  77%. Also, we found a difference between species and treatment in the remainder of the uranium in the soil. The uranium remaining in the soil at the end of the period of uranium application showed a difference between species and treatments. The uptake of uranium by A. albida was 14-41% while in A. nilotica it it was 58-67%, based upon the concentration in soil solution. In low concentrations (100mg.kg-1) A. albida absorbed only 16%, while A. nilotica absorbed about 67% from the uranium in soil solution. In high concentrations (2000mg.kg-1) of uranium, 23%  was found in A. albida and 66% in A. nilotica. This shows that A. nilotica can uptake uranium from soil solution three times more than A. albida. The  biomass results, the shoot height of  A.nilotica plants decreased with the progression of time during the treatment with high concentrations of uranium, but in low and moderate concentrations (50,100, and 200mg.kg-1) it was less affected than high concentrations (500mg.kg-1). A. albida height was reduced  when treated with (200mg.kg-1)   in all the growth periods, whereas the growth of seedlings gave values less than when treated with the height concentration of uranium (500mg.kg-1) for the two species. Keywords: Phytoremediation,  Depleted Uranium, Acacia albida,  A. Nilotica

Interprofessional, student-led intervention to improve insulin prescribing to patients in an Acute Surgical Receiving Unit

Our aim was to test the feasibility of interprofessional, workplace-based learning about improvement through a 4-week placement for one medical and two pharmacy final year students in an Acute Surgical Receiving Unit (ASRU). The target was insulin because this is a common, high-risk medicine in this ASRU and the intervention was medicines reconciliation. Baseline data were collected from 10 patients and used to construct a cause and effect diagram and a process map through feedback and discussions with staff. Hypoglycaemia occurred in four patients but hyperglycaemia occurred in eight patients, of whom six were placed on intravenous insulin infusion (IVII). We estimated that £2454 could be saved by preventing one patient from going on IVII. The students designed and tested a sticker to improve medicines reconciliation for insulin patients. An online form was created to capture clinician feedback on the layout and usability of the sticker. The intervention was associated with improvements in the reliability of medicines reconciliation. The students’ work contributed to a larger project to reduce the risk of hypoglycaemia in the ASRU. This proved beneficial in enabling the students to engage with the clinical team. Nonetheless, it was challenging for students from two Universities to get a shared understanding of improvement methods and work effectively with the clinical team. The students said that they learnt more about quality improvement in a working healthcare environment than they would ever learn in a classroom and they valued the opportunity to work with students from other healthcare backgrounds in practice. Despite the additional staff time required to support students from two Universities, both have supported continuation of this work

Members of the chloride intracellular ion channel protein family demonstrate glutaredoxin-like enzymatic activity

© 2015 Al Khamici et al. The Chloride Intracellular Ion Channel (CLIC) family consists of six evolutionarily conserved proteins in humans. Members of this family are unusual, existing as both monomeric soluble proteins and as integral membrane proteins where they function as chloride selective ion channels, however no function has previously been assigned to their soluble form. Structural studies have shown that in the soluble form, CLIC proteins adopt a glutathione S-transferase (GST) fold, however, they have an active site with a conserved glutaredoxin monothiol motif, similar to the omega class GSTs. We demonstrate that CLIC proteins have glutaredoxin-like glutathione-dependent oxidoreductase enzymatic activity. CLICs 1, 2 and 4 demonstrate typical glutaredoxin-like activity using 2-hydroxyethyl disulfide as a substrate. Mutagenesis experiments identify cysteine 24 as the catalytic cysteine residue in CLIC1, which is consistent with its structure. CLIC1 was shown to reduce sodium selenite and dehydroascorbate in a glutathione-dependent manner. Previous electrophysiological studies have shown that the drugs IAA-94 and A9C specifically block CLIC channel activity. These same compounds inhibit CLIC1 oxidoreductase activity. This work for the first time assigns a functional activity to the soluble form of the CLIC proteins. Our results demonstrate that the soluble form of the CLIC proteins has an enzymatic activity that is distinct from the channel activity of their integral membrane form. This CLIC enzymatic activity may be important for protecting the intracellular environment against oxidation. It is also likely that this enzymatic activity regulates the CLIC ion channel function

Associations of vitamin D pathway genes with circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin-D, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin-D, and prostate cancer:a nested case-control study

Vitamin D pathway single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are potentially useful proxies for investigating whether circulating vitamin D metabolites [total 25-hydroxyvitamin-D, 25(OH)D; 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin, 1,25(OH)2D] are causally related to prostate cancer. We investigated associations of sixteen SNPs across seven genes with prostate-specific antigen-detected prostate cancer

Assessing the role of insulin-like growth factors and binding proteins in prostate cancer using Mendelian randomization:genetic variants as instruments for circulating levels

Circulating insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) and their binding proteins (IGFBPs) are associated with prostate cancer. Using genetic variants as instruments for IGF peptides, we investigated whether these associations are likely to be causal. We identified from the literature 56 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the IGF axis previously associated with biomarker levels (8 from a genome-wide association study [GWAS] and 48 in reported candidate genes). In ∼700 men without prostate cancer and two replication cohorts (N∼900 and ∼9,000), we examined the properties of these SNPS as instrumental variables (IVs) for IGF-I, IGF-II, IGFBP-2 and IGFBP-3. Those confirmed as strong IVs were tested for association with prostate cancer risk, low (< 7) vs high (≥ 7) Gleason grade, localised vs advanced stage, and mortality, in 22,936 controls and 22,992 cases. IV analysis was used in an attempt to estimate the causal effect of circulating IGF peptides on prostate cancer. Published SNPs in the IGFBP1/IGFBP3 gene region, particularly rs11977526, were strong instruments for IGF-II and IGFBP-3, less so for IGF-I. Rs11977526 was associated with high (vs low) Gleason grade (OR per IGF-II/IGFBP-3 level-raising allele 1.05; 95% CI 1.00, 1.10). Using rs11977526 as an IV we estimated the causal effect of a one SD increase in IGF-II (∼265 ng/ml) on risk of high vs low grade disease as 1.14 (95% CI 1.00, 1.31). Because of the potential for pleiotropy of the genetic instruments, these findings can only causally implicate the IGF pathway in general, not any one specific biomarker. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved