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Although the risks of microplastics in environmental exposure and human health are being increasingly studied, little is known about the behavior of "eco-friendly" bioplastics in humans, especially their effects on our gastrointestinal tract. Here we demonstrate that enzymatic hydrolysis of bio-based polylactic acid (PLA) microplastics rapidly generates an excess of nanoplastic particles by competing for triglyceridedegrading lipase during gastrointestinal processes. These tiny nanoparticles are oligomers formed by hydrophobic-driven self-aggregation, and upon exposure the oligomers and their associated nanoparticles can bioaccumulate in in vitro and several in vivo organs, including the liver, intestine, and even in the brain. Severe intestinal damage and in ammation are also observed, the toxic effect of which is mostly pronounced from hydrolyzed oligomer products. Furthermore, the oligomers' potential protein target screening using large scale pharmacophore model reveals that oligomers can interact with matrix metallopeptidase 12 protein (MMP12), which is further validated using protein binding assay. A close mechanistic study reveals high binding a nity of oligomers to the catalytic zinc ion nger domain, leading to MMP12 inactivation and mediating the adverse bowel in ammatory effect following PLA oligomer exposure. Since biodegradable plastics are highly proposed as one solution for the global plastic problem, understanding the gastrointestinal fate and toxicity of bioplastics, will provide groundbreaking data on bioplastics as a substantial risk to human health.

SummaryCRISPR/Cas9 and TALEN are currently the two systems of choice for genome editing. We have studied the efficiency of the TALEN system in rice as well as the nature and inheritability of TALEN-induced mutations and found important features of this technology. The N287C230 TALEN backbone resulted in low mutation rates (0-6.6%), but truncations in its C-terminal domain dramatically increased efficiency to 25%. In most transgenic T0 plants, TALEN produced a single prevalent mutation accompanied by a variety of low-frequency mutations. For each independent T0 plant, the prevalent mutation was present in most tissues within a single tiller as well as in all tillers examined, suggesting that TALEN-induced mutations occurred very early in the development of the shoot apical meristem. Multigenerational analysis showed that TALENinduced mutations were stably transmitted to the T1 and T2 populations in a normal Mendelian fashion. In our study, the vast majority of TALEN-induced mutations (~81%) affected multiple bases and~70% of them were deletions. Our results contrast with published reports for the CRISPR/Cas9 system in rice, in which the predominant mutations affected single bases and deletions accounted for only 3.3% of the overall mutations.

BackgroundCarcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is a glycoprotein associated with colorectal cancer (CRC). While the functions of its gene and protein have been fully characterized, its post-translational modifications in the context of CRC development remain undefined.MethodsTo show the correlation between the different stages of CRC development and changes in the glycosylation patterns of CEA, we analyzed CEA in tumor tissues (CEA-T) and paired tumor-adjacent normal tissues (CEA-A) from 53 colorectal cancer patients using a high-density lectin microarray containing 56 plant lectins.ResultsWe detected higher expression levels of fucose, mannose and Thomsen–Friedenreich antigen, and lower expression levels of N-acetylgalactosamine, N-acetylglucosamine, galactose, branched and bisecting N-glycans on CEA in the tumor tissues relative to the tumor-adjacent normal tissues. Furthermore, a combinatorial assessment of 9 lectins is sufficient to distinguish CRC tumor tissues from tumor-adjacent normal tissues with 83% sensitivity and ~ 90% specificity. Moreover, the levels of N-acetylgalactosamine, mannose, galactose, N-acetylglucosamine on CEA showed a downward trend after first experiencing an increase at Stage II with the stages of CRC.ConclusionsOur insights into the changing CEA glycosylation patterns and their role in the development of CRC highlight the importance of glycan variants on CEA for early clinical detection and staging of CRC.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12014-018-9182-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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For the first time, the indole-based NLO chromophores were embedded into the polymer main chain, and different isolation groups were attached to their donor side with the efforts of adjusting the NLO properties of the resultant main-chain polyurethanes, according to the site isolation principle. Thanks to the main-chain structure and the advantages of the indole-based chromophores, all the polymers show excellent transparency, good processability, thermal stability, and relatively good NLO effects. The tested NLO properties of the polymers demonstrate that there is a suitable isolation group present for the sulfonyl-based chromophore to boost its microscopic beta value to a possibly higher macroscopic NLO property efficiently.

ABSTRACT:The influence of desulfurization systems in sintering plants on polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin and dibenzofuran (PCDD/F) concentrations, profiles, and emission factors was studied. Mono-to tri-CDD/Fs and tetra-to octa-CDD/F concentrations were 4.4 ± 2.3 and 10.5 ± 8.3 ng m −3, respectively, at the inlets and 0.87 ± 0.48 and 0.47 ± 0.22 ng m −3 , respectively, after desulfurization. The toxic equivalents (TEQs) were 0.95 ± 0.093 and 0.51 ± 0.040 ng of I-TEQ m −3 at the inlets and after desulfurization, respectively. The congener profiles and homologue distributions were dominated by 2-MoCDF and MoCDF, respectively. The PCDD/F removal efficiencies achieved by desulfurization increased as the chlorination level increased. The PCDD/Fs became adsorbed to gypsum. Annual mono-to tri-CDD/Fs PCDD/F and TEQ (tetra-to octa-CDD/F) emission factors for flue gas and gypsum between 2003 and 2012 were determined. The total amounts of mono-to tri-CDD/Fs emitted in flue gas and gypsum between 2003 and 2012 were 10.7 and 10.2 kg, respectively. The total TEQs emitted in flue gas and gypsum between 2003 and 2012 were estimated to be 15486 and 1878 g of I-TEQ, respectively. PCDD/Fs adsorbed to gypsum are not effectively eliminated. The PCDD/F concentrations increased as the fly ash surface area increased moving through the electrostatic precipitator stages.

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