Polymer Nanoparticle-Based Chemotherapy for Spinal Malignancies

Malignant spinal tumors, categorized into primary and metastatic ones, are one of the most serious diseases due to their high morbidity and mortality rates. Common primary spinal tumors include chordoma, chondrosarcoma, osteosarcoma, Ewing’s sarcoma, and multiple myeloma. Spinal malignancies are not only locally invasive and destructive to adjacent structures, such as bone, neural, and vascular structures, but also disruptive to distant organs (e.g., lung). Current treatments for spinal malignancies, including wide resection, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, have made significant progress like improving patients’ quality of life. Among them, chemotherapy plays an important role, but its potential for clinical application is limited by severe side effects and drug resistance. To ameliorate the current situation, various polymer nanoparticles have been developed as promising excipients to facilitate the effective treatment of spinal malignancies by utilizing their potent advantages, for example, targeting, stimuli response, and synergetic effect. This review overviews the development of polymer nanoparticles for antineoplastic delivery in the treatment of spinal malignancies and discusses future prospects of polymer nanoparticle-based treatment methods

Distributions of dissolved oxygen and apparent oxygen utilization in the Cosmonaut Sea and Amundsen Sea in austral summer 2022

Dissolved oxygen (DO) and apparent oxygen utilization (AOU) are essential parameters for evaluating the impact of climate change on marine ecosystems. In this study, we utilized data on DO and AOU collected from the Amundsen Sea (western Antarctic) and the Cosmonaut Sea (eastern Antarctic) during the 38th Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition, along with chlorophyll a (Chl a) data, to analyze the impact of primary production and the spatial distribution and structural features of water masses in these regions. The findings show that the standard deviation range of parallel DO samples is between 0.1 and 3.9 μmol·L−1, meeting the precision criteria of the survey method. AOU values lower than 0.0 μmol·L−1 were commonly observed in the surface waters of both regions, with the highest incidence in the polynya of Amundsen Sea, indicating a strong influence of high primary production. The Cosmonaut Sea exhibited the highest AOU values (higher than 160.0 μmol·L−1) in the 75–500 m layer, while AOU value in the Amundsen Sea did not exceed 160.0 μmol·L−1, suggesting potential upwelling of Circumpolar Deep Water to 100 m in the Cosmonaut Sea with minimal changes in its properties, whereas significant changes were noted in the properties of upwelling modified Circumpolar Deep Water in the Amundsen Sea. AOU values lower than 125.0 μmol·L−1 were detected in the near-bottom waters of the Cosmonaut Sea, indicating the presence of Antarctic Bottom Water

International Consensus Guidelines for the Definition, Detection, and Interpretation of Autophagy-Dependent Ferroptosis

Macroautophagy/autophagy is a complex degradation process with a dual role in cell death that is influenced by the cell types that are involved and the stressors they are exposed to. Ferroptosis is an iron-dependent oxidative form of cell death characterized by unrestricted lipid peroxidation in the context of heterogeneous and plastic mechanisms. Recent studies have shed light on the involvement of specific types of autophagy (e.g. ferritinophagy, lipophagy, and clockophagy) in initiating or executing ferroptotic cell death through the selective degradation of anti-injury proteins or organelles. Conversely, other forms of selective autophagy (e.g. reticulophagy and lysophagy) enhance the cellular defense against ferroptotic damage. Dysregulated autophagy-dependent ferroptosis has implications for a diverse range of pathological conditions. This review aims to present an updated definition of autophagy-dependent ferroptosis, discuss influential substrates and receptors, outline experimental methods, and propose guidelines for interpreting the results

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Numerical Investigation on Flow Characteristics in a Mildly Meandering Channel with a Series of Groynes

In single-bend channels or meandering channels, groynes are widely used as a river-training structure. Geometric factor is an important principle of groyne design. In this paper, the numerical method based on the Renormalization Group (RNG) k-ε turbulence model is used to study the effects of groynes with different lengths and orientations on the mean flow pattern and turbulence characteristics in a mildly meandering channel. The analysis shows that compared with equal-length groynes, the groynes arranged in descending order perform well in improving the flow velocity of the main channel, and the maximum longitudinal velocity at the channel center can be increased by 1.57 times the average velocity. However, at the same time, they bring higher Normalized Turbulent Kinetic Energy (NTKE) and Normalized Bed Shear Stress (NBSS) values. The attracting groynes arranged in descending order help to reduce scouring. The groynes arranged in ascending order reduce the velocity of the riverbank in some downstream areas and are suitable for bank protection. It effectively decreases the NTKE and NBSS around the groyne fields and can reduce the inner bank scouring of the mildly meandering channel. The findings are helpful for the management of meandering rivers

Osteoimmunity-regulating biomaterials promote bone regeneration

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Characterization and modeling of exogenous selenite aging in soils using machine learning and traditional data analysis

Understanding and predicting the aging process of exogenous selenium (Se) in soil is crucial for Se biofortification. However, the long-term aging of selenite in various soils has rarely been reported, and the key factors influencing this aging process remain unclear. Our study involved nineteen typical Chinese soils with varying physiochemical properties, all spiked with potassium selenite (1.0 mg kg−1 Se) and incubated for 180 days. Soil available Se extracted using a 0.1 M K2HPO4-KH2PO4 solution was measured through the whole aging process. The average available Se% (the percentage of available Se in aged soils to total added Se) of all soils decreased from 55.4 % on the day 1 to 32.6 % on day 60, remaining stable thereafter. Pseudo-second-order equation provided the optimal fit (R2 > 0.989, P < 0.01) for characterizing the dynamic process of selenite aging in soil, indicating that chemisorption, rather than internal diffusion, controlled the main rate-limiting step in the selenite aging process. Both machine learning and traditional correlation analysis indicated aging time was the most critical feature and the key soil property that contributed to available Se was pH. Empirical models incorporating soil properties and aging time were developed to predict changes of available Se in soil during aging under aerobic conditions. The reliability of the prediction model was further validated using data collected from previous studies. The developed aging model could potentially be used to scale biofortification data of Se generated from different soils under different aging times