Notably, the literature revealed that sub-lethal exposure of engineered NPs may facilitate conjugative transfer of ARGs by increasing cell membrane permeability. The enhanced permeability is a result of direct damage via NP attachment and indirect damage by generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) and causing genetic changes relevant to conjugation. Finally, current knowledge gaps and future research directions (e.g., deciphering the fate of NPs in the environment and examining the long-term cytotoxicity of NPs) are identified for this emerging field.

Living in greener areas may reduce adiposity, but epidemiological evidence on this topic is still inconsistence and limited, especially in rural areas.

We performed a cross-sectional study among 4651 Uyghur adults in rural areas in Xinjiang province, northwestern China, from May to September 2016. We measured residential greenness levels using satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) in 100m, 300m, 500m, and 1000m buffers around each home address. Body height, weight, and waist circumference were assessed according to recommended guidelines. Data on baseline characteristics and confounders were collected using a questionnaire. We used generalized linear mixed models to estimate the associations of residential greenness with overweight/obesity prevalence and obesity-related anthropometric indices.

Higher residential greenness levels were associated with lower waist circumference and body mass index levels, as well as with a lower odds ratio of peripheral overweight/obesity prevalence. No significant association was found for greenness and central obesity prevalence. The associations persisted in magnitude and direction across several sensitivity analyses we performed. Stratified analysis suggested that the associations were generally stronger in older adults than those in younger adults. Additionally, neither air pollutants nor physical activity significantly mediated the associations between greenness and obesity.

Our results suggest that higher residential greenness were associated with lower odds of overweight/obesity and lower obesity-related anthropometric indices among rural Uyghur adults in China, especially for older adults.

Our results suggest that higher residential greenness were associated with lower odds of overweight/obesity and lower obesity-related anthropometric indices among rural Uyghur adults in China, especially for older adults.Human exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) is a health concern due to their wide use and interference with the human endocrine system. Parabens, bisphenols, benzophenones, triclosan (TCC), triclocarban (TCS), and tetrabromobisphenol-A (TBBPA) and its derivatives tetrachlorobisphenol-A (TCBPA) and tetrabromobisphenol-S (TBBPS), are typical EDCs that are frequently detected in environmental and human samples. However, only a few studies have assessed the co-exposure of these chemicals in humans. In this study, urine samples were collected from the general population in the city of Wuxi (n = 121) and a county, Taishun (n = 120), eastern China, and analyzed for these EDCs. Parabens, bisphenols, TCS, and benzophenones were frequently detected in urine, whereas TBBPA and its derivatives were not detected. The geometric mean concentrations of parabens, bisphenols, and benzophenones in urine from the Wuxi population were 25.7, 2.45, and 2.34 ng/mL, respectively, which were substantially higher than those from the Taishun population (17.2, 1.70, and 2.65 ng/mL). These results suggest an urban-rural difference in urinary EDCs. The exposure risks to these EDCs were estimated based on the measured urinary concentrations and acceptable daily intakes (ADIs). Hazard quotient values for EDCs in humans from both locations were generally less than 1, indicating a low exposure risk of EDCs in these regions. Nonetheless, the health risks caused by co-exposure to such EDCs cannot be ignored.This study aims to investigate the antidiabetic, antimicrobial, DNA damage, and lipid peroxidation prevention activity of ZnO NPs/Rr formed as a result of the interaction of Rheum ribes (R.ribes) plant with ZnO. The ZnO NPs/Rr obtained as a result of the reaction were confirmed using high-reliability characterization methods. According to the data obtained as a result of the study, it is seen that the activity of ZnO NPs/Rr to prevent lipid peroxidation is quite strong. Lipid peroxidation inhibition activity of ZnO NPs/Rr at the highest concentration of 250 μg/ml was calculated as % 89.1028. It was observed that ZnO NPs/Rr prevented DNA damage by % 92.1240 at the highest concentration of 100 μg/ml. It was determined that the antidiabetic effect of ZnO NPs/Rr formed by ZnO of R. ribes plant, which is used as a medicinal plant as an antidiabetic, was significant. It appears to have a strong antidiabetic property compared to the positive control acarbose. In our current study, it was observed that ZnO NPs/Rr formed zones ranging from 8 ± 3.0 to 21 ± 4.5 against Gram-positive and Gram-negative microorganisms. It has been determined that ZnO nanoparticles have an antibacterial effect.Studies have established associations between environmental and occupational manganese (Mn) exposure and executive and motor function deficits in children, adolescents, and adults. These health risks from elevated Mn exposure underscore the need for effective exposure biomarkers to improve exposure classification and help detect/diagnose Mn-related impairments. Here, neonate rats were orally exposed to 0, 25, or 50 mg Mn/kg/day during early life (PND 1-21) or lifelong through ∼ PND 500 to determine the relationship between oral Mn exposure and blood, brain, and bone Mn levels over the lifespan, whether Mn accumulates in bone, and whether elevated bone Mn altered the local atomic and mineral structure of bone, or its biomechanical properties. Additionally, we assessed levels of bone Mn compared to bone lead (Pb) in aged humans (age 41-91) living in regions impacted by historic industrial ferromanganese activity. The animal studies show that blood, brain, and bone Mn levels naturally decrease across the lifespan without elevated Mn exposure. With elevated exposure, bone Mn levels were strongly associated with blood Mn levels, bone Mn was more sensitive to elevated exposures than blood or brain Mn, and Mn did not accumulate with lifelong elevated exposure. Elevated early life Mn exposure caused some changes in bone mineral properties, including altered local atomic structure of hydroxyapatite, along with some biomechanical changes in bone stiffness in weanlings or young adult animals. In aged humans, blood Mn ranged from 5.4 to 23.5 ng/mL; bone Mn was universally low, and decreased with age, but did not vary based on sex or female parity history. Unlike Pb, bone Mn showed no evidence of accumulation over the lifespan, and may not be a biomarker of cumulative long-term exposure. Thus, bone may be a useful biomarker of recent ongoing Mn exposure in humans, and may be a relatively minor target of elevated exposure.At chemical synapses, synaptic vesicles release their acidic contents into the cleft, leading to the expectation that the cleft should acidify. However, fluorescent pH probes targeted to the cleft of conventional glutamatergic synapses in both fruit flies and mice reveal cleft alkalinization rather than acidification. Here, using a reaction-diffusion scheme, we modeled pH dynamics at the Drosophila neuromuscular junction as glutamate, ATP, and protons (H+) were released into the cleft. The model incorporates bicarbonate and phosphate buffering systems as well as plasma membrane calcium-ATPase activity and predicts substantial cleft acidification but only for fractions of a millisecond after neurotransmitter release. Thereafter, the cleft rapidly alkalinizes and remains alkaline for over 100 ms because the plasma membrane calcium-ATPase removes H+ from the cleft in exchange for calcium ions from adjacent pre- and postsynaptic compartments, thus recapitulating the empirical data. The extent of synaptic vesicle loading and time course of exocytosis have little influence on the magnitude of acidification. Phosphate but not bicarbonate buffering is effective at suppressing the magnitude and time course of the acid spike, whereas both buffering systems are effective at suppressing cleft alkalinization. The small volume of the cleft levies a powerful influence on the magnitude of alkalinization and its time course. Structural features that open the cleft to adjacent spaces appear to be essential for alleviating the extent of pH transients accompanying neurotransmission.Biomolecular clocks are key drivers of oscillatory dynamics in diverse biological processes including cell-cycle regulation, circadian rhythms, and pattern formation during development. A minimal clock implementation is based on the classical Goodwin oscillator, in which a repressor protein inhibits its own synthesis via time-delayed negative feedback. Clock motifs, however, do not exist in isolation; its components are open to interacting with the complex environment inside cells. For example, there are ubiquitous high-affinity binding sites along the genome, known as decoys, where transcription factors such as repressor proteins can potentially interact. This binding affects the availability of transcription factors and has often been ignored in theoretical studies. How does such genomic decoy binding impact the clock’s robustness and precision? To address this question, we systematically analyze deterministic and stochastic models of the Goodwin oscillator in the presence of reversible binding of the repressor to a finite number of decoy sites. Our analysis reveals that the relative stability of decoy-bound repressors compared to the free repressor plays distinct roles on the emergence and precision of oscillations. Interestingly, active degradation of the bound repressor can induce sustained oscillations that are otherwise absent without decoys. In contrast, decoy abundances can kill oscillation dynamics if the bound repressor is protected from degradation. Taking into account low copy-number fluctuations in clock components, we show that the degradation of the bound repressors enhances precision by attenuating noise in both the amplitude and period of oscillations. Overall, these results highlight the versatile role of otherwise hidden decoys in shaping the stochastic dynamics of biological clocks and emphasize the importance of synthetic decoys in designing robust clocks.Voltage-gated sodium channels play a vital role in nerve and muscle cells, enabling them to encode and transmit electrical signals. check details Currently, there exist several classes of drugs that aim to inhibit these channels for therapeutic purposes, including local anesthetics, antiepileptics and antiarrhythmics. However, sodium-channel-inhibiting drugs lack subtype specificity; instead, they inhibit all sodium channels in the human body. Improving understanding of the mechanisms of binding of existing nonselective drugs is important in providing insight into how subtype-selective drugs could be developed. This study used molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the binding of the antiepileptics carbamazepine and lamotrigine and the local anesthetic lidocaine in neutral and charged states to the recently resolved human Nav1.4 channel. Replica exchange solute tempering was used to enable greater sampling of each compound within the pore. It was found that all four compounds show similarities in their binding sites within the pore.