Integrative single-cell RNA sequencing and metabolomics decipher the imbalanced lipid-metabolism in maladaptive immune responses during sepsis

BackgroundTo identify differentially expressed lipid metabolism-related genes (DE-LMRGs) responsible for immune dysfunction in sepsis.MethodsThe lipid metabolism-related hub genes were screened using machine learning algorithms, and the immune cell infiltration of these hub genes were assessed by CIBERSORT and Single-sample GSEA. Next, the immune function of these hub genes at the single-cell level were validated by comparing multiregional immune landscapes between septic patients (SP) and healthy control (HC). Then, the support vector machine-recursive feature elimination (SVM-RFE) algorithm was conducted to compare the significantly altered metabolites critical to hub genes between SP and HC. Furthermore, the role of the key hub gene was verified in sepsis rats and LPS-induced cardiomyocytes, respectively.ResultsA total of 508 DE-LMRGs were identified between SP and HC, and 5 hub genes relevant to lipid metabolism (MAPK14, EPHX2, BMX, FCER1A, and PAFAH2) were screened. Then, we found an immunosuppressive microenvironment in sepsis. The role of hub genes in immune cells was further confirmed by the single-cell RNA landscape. Moreover, significantly altered metabolites were mainly enriched in lipid metabolism-related signaling pathways and were associated with MAPK14. Finally, inhibiting MAPK14 decreased the levels of inflammatory cytokines and improved the survival and myocardial injury of sepsis.ConclusionThe lipid metabolism-related hub genes may have great potential in prognosis prediction and precise treatment for sepsis patients

Purification, Characterization, and Immobilization of a Novel Protease-Resistant α-Galactosidase from Oudemansiella radicata and Its Application in Degradation of Raffinose Family Oligosaccharides from Soymilk

α-galactosidase (EC 3.2.1.22) are glycosidases that catalyze the hydrolysis of α-1,6-linked D-galactosyl residues of different substrates, which has been widely applied in the food industry. Oudemansiella radicata is a kind of precious edible medicinal mushroom, which is a healthy, green, and safe food-derived enzyme source. In this study, a novel acidic α-galactosidase was purified from the dry fruiting bodies of O. radicata by ion-exchange chromatography and gel filtration, and designated as ORG (O. radicata α-galactosidase). ORG was further immobilized to obtain iORG by the sodium alginate–chitosan co-immobilization method. Then, the characterization of free and immobilized enzymes and their potential application in the removal of the RFOs from soymilk were investigated. The results showed that ORG might be a 74 kDa heterodimer, and it exhibited maximum activity at 50 °C and pH 3.0, whereas iORG showed maximum activity at 50 °C and pH 5.5. In addition, iORG exhibited higher thermal stability, pH stability, storage stability, and a better degradation effect on raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs) in soymilk than ORG, and iORG completely hydrolyzed RFOs in soymilk at 50 °C within 3 h. Therefore, iORG might be a promising candidate in the food industry due to its excellent stability, high removal efficiency of RFOs from soymilk, and great reusability

Google Earth as a Powerful Tool for Archaeological and Cultural Heritage Applications: A Review

Google Earth (GE), a large Earth-observation data-based geographical information computer application, is an intuitive three-dimensional virtual globe. It enables archaeologists around the world to communicate and share their multisource data and research findings. Different from traditional geographical information systems (GIS), GE is free and easy to use in data collection, exploration, and visualization. In the past decade, many peer-reviewed articles on the use of GE in the archaeological cultural heritage (ACH) research field have been published. Most of these concern specific ACH investigations with a wide spatial coverage. GE can often be used to survey and document ACH so that both skilled archaeologists and the public can more easily and intuitively understand the results. Based on geographical tools and multi-temporal very high-resolution (VHR) satellite imagery, GE has been shown to provide spatio-temporal change information that has a bearing on the physical, environmental, and geographical character of ACH. In this review, in order to discuss the huge potential of GE, a comprehensive review of GE and its applications to ACH in the published scientific literature is first presented; case studies in five main research fields demonstrating how GE can be deployed as a key tool for studying ACH are then described. The selected case studies illustrate how GE can be used effectively to investigate ACH at multiple scales, discover new archaeological sites in remote regions, monitor historical sites, and assess damage in areas of conflict, and promote virtual tourism. These examples form the basis for highlighting current trends in remote sensing archaeology based on the GE platform, which could provide access to a low-cost and easy-to-use tool for communicating and sharing ACH geospatial data more effectively to the general public in the era of Digital Earth. Finally, a discussion of the merits and limitations of GE is presented along with conclusions and remaining challenges