From concept to action: a united, holistic and One Health approach to respond to the climate change crisis

It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the planet, which is seriously affecting the planetary health including human health. Adapting climate change should not only be a slogan, but requires a united, holistic action and a paradigm shift from crisis response to an ambitious and integrated approach immediately. Recognizing the urgent needs to tackle the risk connection between climate change and One Health, the four key messages and recommendations that with the intent to guide further research and to promote international cooperation to achieve a more climate-resilient world are provided

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Research Themes, Trends and Future Priorities in the Field of Climate Change and Health: A Review

Climate change is one of the biggest threats to human living and health in the 21st century. Whilst a large number of papers have been published addressing the health impact of climate change, there is a lack of comprehensive bibliometric analysis in the crosscutting field. This study evaluated the global scientific output of research in the field of climate change and health between 1990 and 2020, based on the Web of Science Core Collection database. Research themes were identified using a social network analysis technique based on author keywords. Research trends were assessed by the change in overall publication number and the percentage of publications in each research theme. Articles were further categorized by the availability of funding and author affiliation to compare the difference between developed and developing countries. Results showed that the research output in the field of climate change and health has increased dramatically in the past 30 years, mainly dominated by researchers in developed countries. The percentage of research receiving funding was found to be the lowest in those published by developing countries only and the highest in those published by the collaboration of developed and developing countries. A total of nine major research themes was identified. Research related to ‘risk assessment and adaptation’, ‘sustainable development’ and ‘infectious diseases’ were relatively underfunded. A significant research trend was observed between 2006 and 2020, with increased attention on research themes related to ‘risk assessment and adaptation’, ‘sustainable development’, ‘extreme events’ and ‘air pollution’, and reduced attention on research themes related to ‘ocean’, ‘infectious disease’ and ‘phenology’. The shift of the research trend was mainly driven by research in developed countries. Suggestions, recommendations and future priorities identified by experts in the field of atmospheric sciences, epidemiology, public health, climate change, environmental sciences, and policy development are also provided to guide future research. It is important to shift our focus from single health aspects to an integrated system (such as One Health framework, which considers environmental health, animal health and human health as a whole), with future research focusing more on the systemic impact of climate change in order to achieve better, more effective and efficient risk governance. More funding should be mobilized to support the research capacity building in developing countries and to support climate change adaptation strategies for sustainable development

H3K36 methyltransferase NSD1 regulates chondrocyte differentiation for skeletal development and fracture repair

Abstract Chondrocyte differentiation is a critical process for endochondral ossification, which is responsible for long bone development and fracture repair. Considerable progress has been made in understanding the transcriptional control of chondrocyte differentiation; however, epigenetic regulation of chondrocyte differentiation remains to be further studied. NSD1 is a H3K36 (histone H3 at lysine 36) methyltransferase. Here, we showed that mice with Nsd1 deficiency in Prx1+ mesenchymal progenitors but not in Col2+ chondrocytes showed impaired skeletal growth and fracture healing accompanied by decreased chondrogenic differentiation. Via combined RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) analysis, we identified sex determining region Y box 9 (Sox9), the key transcription factor of chondrogenic differentiation, as a functional target gene of NSD1. Mechanistically, NSD1 regulates Sox9 expression by modulating H3K36me1 and H3K36me2 levels in the Sox9 promoter region, constituting a novel epigenetic regulatory mechanism of chondrogenesis. Moreover, we found that NSD1 can directly activate the expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF1α), which plays a vital role in chondrogenic differentiation through its regulation of Sox9 expression. Collectively, the results of our study reveal crucial roles of NSD1 in regulating chondrogenic differentiation, skeletal growth, and fracture repair and expand our understanding of the function of epigenetic regulation in chondrogenesis and skeletal biology

H3K36 trimethylation mediated by SETD2 regulates the fate of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells.

During the aging process, bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) exhibit declined osteogenesis accompanied by excess adipogenesis, which will lead to osteoporosis. Here, we report that the H3 lysine 36 trimethylation (H3K36me3), catalyzed by histone methyltransferase SET-domain-containing 2 (SETD2), regulates lineage commitment of BMSCs. Deletion of Setd2 in mouse bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (mBMSCs), through conditional Cre expression driven by Prx1 promoter, resulted in bone loss and marrow adiposity. Loss of Setd2 in BMSCs in vitro facilitated differentiation propensity to adipocytes rather than to osteoblasts. Through conjoint analysis of RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) data, we identified a SETD2 functional target gene, Lbp, on which H3K36me3 was enriched, and its expression was affected by Setd2 deficiency. Furthermore, overexpression of lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP) could partially rescue the lack of osteogenesis and enhanced adipogenesis resulting from the absence of Setd2 in BMSCs. Further mechanistic studies demonstrated that the trimethylation level of H3K36 could regulate Lbp transcriptional initiation and elongation. These findings suggest that H3K36me3 mediated by SETD2 could regulate the cell fate of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in vitro and in vivo, indicating that the regulation of H3K36me3 level by targeting SETD2 and/or the administration of downstream LBP may represent a potential therapeutic way for new treatment in metabolic bone diseases, such as osteoporosis

A Peptide HEPFYGNEGALR from Apostichopus japonicus Alleviates Acute Alcoholic Liver Injury by Enhancing Antioxidant Response in Male C57BL/6J Mice

Liver-related disease caused by alcohol is a frequent disorder of the hepatic tract. Heavy consumption of alcohol in a short period causes oxidative damage to the liver. Sea cucumber is abundant in nutrients and its various extracts have been studied for antioxidant properties. One peptide was isolated and identified from Apostichopus japonicus in our recent study. We investigated the benefits of the peptide in a model of acute ethanol-induced male C57BL/6J mice. Dietary intake of the peptide could attenuate hepatomegaly, hepatitis and the accumulation of lipid droplets, and increase antioxidant enzyme activities in mice with acute alcoholic liver injury. The results indicated that a 20 mg/kg peptide supplement could activate the Nrf2/HO-1 pathway and block the nuclear translocation of NF-κB to alleviate oxidative stress and inflammation. In addition, the preventive effects of peptide supplementation may be related to autophagy. This study suggests that dietary supplementation with a sea cucumber-derived peptide is one of the potential candidates to alleviate acute alcoholic liver injury

Hydrochemical Characteristics of Earthquake-Related Thermal Springs along the Weixi–Qiaohou Fault, Southeast Tibet Plateau

The Weixi–Qiaohou Fault (WQF) is considered an important zone of the western boundary of the Sichuan–Yunnan block, and its seismicity has attracted much attention after a series of moderate–strong earthquakes, especially the Yangbi Ms6.4 earthquake that occurred on 21 May 2021. In the present research, we investigate major and trace elements, as well as hydrogen and oxygen isotopes, of 10 hot springs sites located along the WQF, which are recharged by infiltrated precipitation from 1.9 to 3.1 km. The hydrochemical types of most analyzed geothermal waters are HCO3SO4-Na, SO4Cl-NaCa, and SO4-Ca, proving that they are composed of immature water and thus are characterized by weak water–rock reactions. The heat storage temperature range was from 44.1 °C to 101.1 °C; the circulation depth was estimated to range between 1.4 and 4.3 km. The results of annual data analysis showed that Na+, Cl−, and SO42− in hot springs decreased by 11.20% to 23.80% north of the Yangbi Ms5.1 earthquake, which occurred on 27 March 2017, but increased by 5.0% to 28.45% to the south; this might be correlated with the difference in seismicity within the fault zone. The results of continuous measurements of NJ (H1) and EYXX (H2) showed irregular variation anomalies 20 days before the Yangbi Ms6.4 earthquake. In addition, Cl− concentration is more sensitive to near-field seismicity with respect to Na+ and SO42−. We finally obtained a conceptual model on the origin of groundwater and the hydrogeochemical cycling process in the WQF. The results suggest that anomalies in the water chemistry of hot spring water can be used as a valid indicator of earthquake precursors

Emerging applications of single-cell profiling in precision medicine of atherosclerosis

Abstract Atherosclerosis is a chronic, progressive, inflammatory disease that occurs in the arterial wall. Despite recent advancements in treatment aimed at improving efficacy and prolonging survival, atherosclerosis remains largely incurable. In this review, we discuss emerging single-cell sequencing techniques and their novel insights into atherosclerosis. We provide examples of single-cell profiling studies that reveal phenotypic characteristics of atherosclerosis plaques, blood, liver, and the intestinal tract. Additionally, we highlight the potential clinical applications of single-cell analysis and propose that combining this approach with other techniques can facilitate early diagnosis and treatment, leading to more accurate medical interventions