Hydrogeochemical Characteristics of High As and High F Groundwater in Hangjinhouqi, Hetao Plain, China

AbstractHangjinhouqi is one of the most serious endemic arsenic and fluorosis areas in Hetao Plain, China. Groundwater samples (n=97) and two sediment cores issued from boreholes were collected to characterize the hydrogeochemistry of groundwater and sediment lithology of aquifers. Results showed that arsenic and fluoride content in groundwater range from 1 to 1093μg/L and from 0.30 to 6.01mg/L, respectively. The highest concentrations are mainly found in the flat areas of the Yin Mountains. As and F are not correlated, suggesting that their origin and/or geochemical processes leading to their release to groundwater are different. Between 15 and 45m of depth, both arsenic and fluoride are more easily released into groundwater. The external environment of high As and high F groundwater formation consisted of a lake-based geographical environment in a long term and closed geological structure, arid and semi-arid climatic conditions, as well as hydrogeological characteristics

Proteomic analysis of PBMCs: characterization of potential HIV-associated proteins

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) pandemic has continued unabated for nearly 30 years. To better understand the influence of virus on host cells, we performed the differential proteome research of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from HIV-positive patients and healthy controls.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>26 protein spots with more than 1.5-fold difference were detected in two dimensional electrophoresis (2DE) gels. 12 unique up-regulated and one down-regulated proteins were identified in HIV-positive patients compared with healthy donors. The mRNA expression of 10 genes was analyzed by real time RT-PCR. It shows that the mRNA expression of talin-1, vinculin and coronin-1C were up-regulated in HIV positive patients and consistent with protein expression. Western blotting analysis confirmed the induction of fragments of vinculin, talin-1 and filamin-A in pooled and most part of individual HIV-positive clinical samples. Bioinformatic analysis showed that a wide host protein network was disrupted in HIV-positive patients.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Together, this work provided useful information to facilitate further investigation of the underlying mechanism of HIV and host cell protein interactions, and discovered novel potential biomarkers such as fragment of vinculin, filamin-A and talin-1 for anti-HIV research.</p

(Methanol-κO)(2-methyl-3-nitro­benzoato-κO)triphenyl­tin(IV)

The five-coordinate Sn atom in the title compound, [Sn(C6H5)3(C8H6NO4)(CH3OH)], exists in a trans-C3SnO2 trigonal-bipyramidal coordination polyhedron of which the O atoms of the methanol mol­ecule and carboxyl­ate group occupy the apical sites. In the crystal, adjacent mol­ecules are linked by inter­molecular O—H⋯O inter­actions, generating a helical hydrogen-bonded chain running along the b axis

Penaeid shrimp genome provides insights into benthic adaptation and frequent molting

Crustacea, the subphylum of Arthropoda which dominates the aquatic environment, is of major importance in ecology and fisheries. Here we report the genome sequence of the Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei, covering similar to 1.66 Gb (scaffold N50 605.56 Kb) with 25,596 protein-coding genes and a high proportion of simple sequence repeats (>23.93%). The expansion of genes related to vision and locomotion is probably central to its benthic adaptation. Frequent molting of the shrimp may be explained by an intensified ecdysone signal pathway through gene expansion and positive selection. As an important aquaculture organism, L. vannamei has been subjected to high selection pressure during the past 30 years of breeding, and this has had a considerable impact on its genome. Decoding the L. vannamei genome not only provides an insight into the genetic underpinnings of specific biological processes, but also provides valuable information for enhancing crustacean aquaculture

Accurate Inference of Local Phased Ancestry of Modern Admixed Populations

Population stratification is a growing concern in genetic-association studies. Averaged ancestry at the genome level (global ancestry) is insufficient for detecting the population substructures and correcting population stratifications in association studies. Local and phase stratification are needed for human genetic studies, but current technologies cannot be applied on the entire genome data due to various technical caveats. Here we developed a novel approach (aMAP, ancestry of Modern Admixed Populations) for inferring local phased ancestry. It took about 3 seconds on a desktop computer to finish a local ancestry analysis for each human genome with 1.4-million SNPs. This method also exhibits the scalability to larger datasets with respect to the number of SNPs, the number of samples, and the size of reference panels. It can detect the lack of the proxy of reference panels. The accuracy was 99.4%. The aMAP software has a capacity for analyzing 6-way admixed individuals. As the biomedical community continues to expand its efforts to increase the representation of diverse populations, and as the number of large whole-genome sequence datasets continues to grow rapidly, there is an increasing demand on rapid and accurate local ancestry analysis in genetics, pharmacogenomics, population genetics, and clinical diagnosis

Accuracy of triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 1 in diagnosis and prognosis of acute myocardial infarction: a prospective cohort study

Background Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is one of the fatal cardiac emergencies. The detection of triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 1 (TREM1), a cell surface immunoglobulin that amplifies pro-inflammatory responses, screened by bioinformatics was shown to be significant in diagnosing and predicting the prognosis of AMI. Methods GSE66360, GSE61144 and GSE60993 were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database to explore the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between AMI and control groups using R software. A total of 147 patients in total were prospectively enrolled from October 2018 to June 2019 and divided into two groups, the normal group (n = 35) and the AMI group (n = 112). Plasma was collected from each patient at admission and all patients received 6-month follow-up care. Results According to bioinformatic analysis, TREM1 was an important DEG in patients with AMI. Compared with the normal group, TREM1 expression was markedly increased in the AMI group (p < 0.001). TREM1 expression was positively correlated with fasting plasma glucose (FPG), glycosylated hemoglobin (HbAC), and the number of lesion vessels, although it had no correlation with Gensini score. TREM1 expression in the triple-vessels group was significantly higher than that of the single-vessel group (p < 0.05). Multiple linear regression showed that UA and HbAC were two factors influencing TREM1 expression. The ROC curve showed that TREM1 had a diagnostic significance in AMI (p < 0.001), especially in AMI patients without diabetes. Cox regression showed increased TREM1 expression was closely associated with 6-month major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) (p < 0.001). Conclusions TREM1 is a potentially significant biomarker for the diagnosis of AMI and may be closely associated with the severity of coronary lesions and diabetes. TREM1 may also be helpful in predicting the 6-month MACEs after AMI

Morphology-Specific Inhibition of β-Amyloid Aggregates by 17β-Hydroxysteroid Dehydrogenase Type 10

A major hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the formation of toxic aggregates of the β-amyloid peptide (Aβ). Given that Aβ peptides are known to localise within mitochondria and interact with 17β-HSD10, a mitochondrial protein expressed at high levels in AD brains, we investigated the inhibitory potential of 17β-HSD10 against Aβ aggregation under a range of physiological conditions. Fluorescence self-quenching (FSQ) of Aβ(1-42) labelled with HiLyte Fluor 555 was used to evaluate the inhibitory effect under conditions established to grow distinct Aβ morphologies. 17β-HSD10 preferentially inhibits the formation of globular and fibrillar-like structures but has no effect on the growth of amorphous plaque-like aggregates at endosomal pH 6. This work provides insights into the dependence of the Aβ-17β-HSD10 interaction with the morphology of Aβ aggregates and how this impacts enzymatic function. 17 β-HSD10 interaction with Aβ amyloid: what type of amyloid? 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 10 interacts with β-amyloid (Aβ) aggregates and suppresses Aβ-induced apoptosis in neurons, but the aggregate morphology inhibited by 17β-HSD10 remains unknown. Fluorescence self-quenching demonstrated that fibrils and globular aggregates, but not plaques, are targeted by 17β-HSD10