| 1. |
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- 2019
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)
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| 2. |
- Klionsky, Daniel J., et al.
(författare)
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Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy
- 2012
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Ingår i: Autophagy. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1554-8635 .- 1554-8627. ; 8:4, s. 445-544
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. A key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process vs. those that measure flux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process); thus, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation needs to be differentiated from stimuli that result in increased autophagic activity, defined as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (in most higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the field understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field.
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| 3. |
- Kaptoge, S., et al.
(författare)
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World Health Organization cardiovascular disease risk charts: revised models to estimate risk in 21 global regions
- 2019
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Ingår i: Lancet Global Health. - : Elsevier BV. - 2214-109X. ; 7:10, s. E1332-E1345
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background To help adapt cardiovascular disease risk prediction approaches to low-income and middle-income countries, WHO has convened an effort to develop, evaluate, and illustrate revised risk models. Here, we report the derivation, validation, and illustration of the revised WHO cardiovascular disease risk prediction charts that have been adapted to the circumstances of 21 global regions. Methods In this model revision initiative, we derived 10-year risk prediction models for fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular disease (ie, myocardial infarction and stroke) using individual participant data from the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration. Models included information on age, smoking status, systolic blood pressure, history of diabetes, and total cholesterol. For derivation, we included participants aged 40-80 years without a known baseline history of cardiovascular disease, who were followed up until the first myocardial infarction, fatal coronary heart disease, or stroke event. We recalibrated models using age-specific and sex-specific incidences and risk factor values available from 21 global regions. For external validation, we analysed individual participant data from studies distinct from those used in model derivation. We illustrated models by analysing data on a further 123 743 individuals from surveys in 79 countries collected with the WHO STEPwise Approach to Surveillance. Findings Our risk model derivation involved 376 177 individuals from 85 cohorts, and 19 333 incident cardiovascular events recorded during 10 years of follow-up. The derived risk prediction models discriminated well in external validation cohorts (19 cohorts, 1 096 061 individuals, 25 950 cardiovascular disease events), with Harrell's C indices ranging from 0.685 (95% CI 0 . 629-0 741) to 0.833 (0 . 783-0- 882). For a given risk factor profile, we found substantial variation across global regions in the estimated 10-year predicted risk. For example, estimated cardiovascular disease risk for a 60-year-old male smoker without diabetes and with systolic blood pressure of 140 mm Hg and total cholesterol of 5 mmol/L ranged from 11% in Andean Latin America to 30% in central Asia. When applied to data from 79 countries (mostly low-income and middle-income countries), the proportion of individuals aged 40-64 years estimated to be at greater than 20% risk ranged from less than 1% in Uganda to more than 16% in Egypt. Interpretation We have derived, calibrated, and validated new WHO risk prediction models to estimate cardiovascular disease risk in 21 Global Burden of Disease regions. The widespread use of these models could enhance the accuracy, practicability, and sustainability of efforts to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease worldwide. Copyright (C) 2019 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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| 4. |
- Yan, Jinci, et al.
(författare)
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Identification of FtfL as a novel target of berberine in intestinal bacteria
- 2023
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Ingår i: BMC Biology. - 1741-7007. ; 21:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Berberine (BBR) is a commonly used anti-intestinal inflammation drug, and its anti-cancer activity has been found recently. BBR can intervene and control malignant colorectal cancer (CRC) through intestinal microbes, but the direct molecular target and related mechanism are unclear. This study aimed to identify the target of BBR and dissect related mechanisms against the occurrence and development of CRC from the perspective of intestinal microorganisms. Results: Here, we found that BBR inhibits the growth of several CRC-driving bacteria, especially Peptostreptococcus anaerobius. By using a biotin-conjugated BBR derivative, we identified the protein FtfL (formate tetrahydrofolate ligase), a key enzyme in C1 metabolism, is the molecular target of BBR in P. anaerobius. BBR exhibits strong binding affinity and potent inhibition on FtfL. Based on this, we determined the crystal structure of PaFtfL (P. anaerobius FtfL)-BBR complex and found that BBR can not only interfere with the conformational flexibility of PaFtfL tetramer by wedging the tetramer interface but also compete with its substrate ATP for binding within the active center. In addition, the enzymatic activities of FtfL homologous proteins in human tumor cells can also be inhibited by BBR. Conclusions: In summary, our study has identified FtfL as a direct target of BBR and uncovered molecular mechanisms involved in the anti-CRC of BBR. BBR interferes with intestinal pathogenic bacteria by targeting FtfLs, suggesting a new means for controlling the occurrence and development of CRC.
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| 5. |
- Blunden, Jessica, et al.
(författare)
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State of the Climate in 2012
- 2013
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Ingår i: Bulletin of The American Meteorological Society - (BAMS). - 0003-0007 .- 1520-0477. ; 94:8, s. S1-S258
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- For the first time in serveral years, the El Nino-Southern Oscillation did not dominate regional climate conditions around the globe. A weak La Ni a dissipated to ENSOneutral conditions by spring, and while El Nino appeared to be emerging during summer, this phase never fully developed as sea surface temperatures in the eastern conditions. Nevertheless, other large-scale climate patterns and extreme weather events impacted various regions during the year. A negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation from mid-January to early February contributed to frigid conditions in parts of northern Africa, eastern Europe, and western Asia. A lack of rain during the 2012 wet season led to the worst drought in at least the past three decades for northeastern Brazil. Central North America also experienced one of its most severe droughts on record. The Caribbean observed a very wet dry season and it was the Sahel's wettest rainy season in 50 years. Overall, the 2012 average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces ranked among the 10 warmest years on record. The global land surface temperature alone was also among the 10 warmest on record. In the upper atmosphere, the average stratospheric temperature was record or near-record cold, depending on the dataset. After a 30-year warming trend from 1970 to 1999 for global sea surface temperatures, the period 2000-12 had little further trend. This may be linked to the prevalence of La Ni a-like conditions during the 21st century. Heat content in the upper 700 m of the ocean remained near record high levels in 2012. Net increases from 2011 to 2012 were observed at 700-m to 2000-m depth and even in the abyssal ocean below. Following sharp decreases in to the effects of La Ni a, sea levels rebounded to reach records highs in 2012. The increased hydrological cycle seen in recent years continued, with more evaporation in drier locations and more precipitation in rainy areas. In a pattern that has held since 2004, salty areas of the ocean surfaces and subsurfaces were anomalously salty on average, while fresher areas were anomalously fresh. Global tropical cyclone activity during 2012 was near average, with a total of 84 storms compared with the 1981-2010 average of 89. Similar to 2010 and 2011, the North Atlantic was the only hurricane basin that experienced above-normal activity. In this basin, Sandy brought devastation to Cuba and parts of the eastern North American seaboard. All other basins experienced either near-or below-normal tropical cyclone activity. Only three tropical cyclones reached Category 5 intensity-all in Bopha became the only storm in the historical record to produce winds greater than 130 kt south of 7 N. It was also the costliest storm to affect the Philippines and killed more than 1000 residents. Minimum Arctic sea ice extent in September and Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent in June both reached new record lows. June snow cover extent is now declining at a faster rate (-17.6% per decade) than September sea ice extent (-13.0% per decade). Permafrost temperatures reached record high values in northernmost Alaska. A new melt extent record occurred on 11-12 July on the Greenland ice sheet; 97% of the ice sheet showed some form of melt, four times greater than the average melt for this time of year. The climate in Antarctica was relatively stable overall. The largest maximum sea ice extent since records begain in 1978 was observed in September 2012. In the stratosphere, warm air led to the second smallest ozone hole in the past two decades. Even so, the springtime ozone layer above Antarctica likely will not return to its early 1980s state until about 2060. Following a slight decline associated with the global 2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement production reached a record 9.5 +/- 0.5 Pg C in 2011 and a new record of 9.7 +/- 0.5 Pg C is estimated for 2012. Atmospheric CO2 concentrations increased by 2.1 ppm in 2012, to 392.6 ppm. In spring 2012, 2 concentration exceeded 400 ppm at 7 of the 13 Arctic observation sites. Globally, other greenhouse gases including methane and nitrous oxide also continued to rise in concentration and the combined effect now represents a 32% increase in radiative forcing over a 1990 baseline. Concentrations of most ozone depleting substances continued to fall.
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| 6. |
- Kanoni, Stavroula, et al.
(författare)
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Implicating genes, pleiotropy, and sexual dimorphism at blood lipid loci through multi-ancestry meta-analysis.
- 2022
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Ingår i: Genome biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1474-760X .- 1465-6906 .- 1474-7596. ; 23:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Genetic variants within nearly 1000 loci are known to contribute to modulation of blood lipid levels. However, the biological pathways underlying these associations are frequently unknown, limiting understanding of these findings and hindering downstream translational efforts such as drug target discovery.To expand our understanding of the underlying biological pathways and mechanisms controlling blood lipid levels, we leverage a large multi-ancestry meta-analysis (N = 1,654,960) of blood lipids to prioritize putative causal genes for 2286 lipid associations using six gene prediction approaches. Using phenome-wide association (PheWAS) scans, we identify relationships of genetically predicted lipid levels to other diseases and conditions. We confirm known pleiotropic associations with cardiovascular phenotypes and determine novel associations, notably with cholelithiasis risk. We perform sex-stratified GWAS meta-analysis of lipid levels and show that 3-5% of autosomal lipid-associated loci demonstrate sex-biased effects. Finally, we report 21 novel lipid loci identified on the X chromosome. Many of the sex-biased autosomal and X chromosome lipid loci show pleiotropic associations with sex hormones, emphasizing the role of hormone regulation in lipid metabolism.Taken together, our findings provide insights into the biological mechanisms through which associated variants lead to altered lipid levels and potentially cardiovascular disease risk.
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| 7. |
- Tang, Q. H., et al.
(författare)
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Streamflow change on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and its impacts
- 2019
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Ingår i: Chinese Science Bulletin-Chinese. - : Science China Press., Co. Ltd.. - 0023-074X. ; 64:27, s. 2807-2821
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), also often called the Third Pole, is considered the Asian Water Tower because it is the source of many major Asian rivers. The environmental change on the QTP can affect the climate system over the surrounding area, and the changes in glacier and river streamflow on the QTP will lead to cascading impacts in downstream area where billions of people live. This paper reviews the hydrological observations and streamflow changes of the major Asian rivers originating from the QTP. From the 1950s to the beginning of the 21st century, streamflow on the QTP overall shows large interannual variations but no significant trends. The monthly mean streamflows during the flooding seasons are the largest in the 1960s for the outlet stations on the QTP. Annual streamflow in the source region of the Yellow River decreased while that in the source region of the Yangtze River increased slightly. No significant trends of annual streamflow have been reported for the other river source regions. The mean streamflows during peak season are relatively large in the 2000s at the river source region (upper reaches) of most rivers on the QTP. An increasing trend of streamflow in spring has been found in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, the Lancang River, the Tuotuo River (of the Yangtze River), and the Lhasa River (of the Yarlung Zangbo River). The largest month of streamflow often appears in July for most stations, but in August at the Lhasa and Nuxia stations which are located in the Yarlung Zangbo River. Streamflow changes on the QTP could be mainly attributed to changes in snow and ice, as little influence from direct human activities were found. However, the examination of the streamflow changes largely relies on the hydrological observations. So far, due to data unavailability, we are still unclear about the long-term change in the streamflow on the QTP, especially the changes in recent years. The changes in ice and snow pack on the QTP could have significant impact on the downstream water resources and ecosystem. As more water resources have been generated from ice/snow melting, from a long-term perspective, water resources would be reduced along with shrinking and disappearing glaciers. Hydrological projections under future climate change suggest that streamflow in most river source regions would increase along with precipitation and increases in ice/snow melting, and hydrological extremes such as flooding would occur more frequently. Large uncertainties across Generic Circulation Models (GCMs) and hydrological models have been found in future projections of streamflow on the QTP. Reduction of ice/snow melting would aggravate the water stress conditions for both the ecosystem and human society on the QTP and its downstream areas. Sparse hydrometeorological observations in the past, particularly in the remote region of the QTP, are a major limiting factor to studies on streamflow change and its impacts. Further efforts are urgently needed to combine the advanced observation and modeling technologies to improve the observation and simulation capabilities of the water cycle over the QTP, and to provide scientific and technological support for coping with the accelerated ice/snow melting, increasing hydrological extremes and their impacts over the QTP.
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| 8. |
- Xiao, L., et al.
(författare)
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A catalog of the mouse gut metagenome
- 2015
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Ingår i: Nature Biotechnology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1087-0156 .- 1546-1696. ; 33:10, s. 1103-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We established a catalog of the mouse gut metagenome comprising similar to 2.6 million nonredundant genes by sequencing DNA from fecal samples of 184 mice. To secure high microbiome diversity, we used mouse strains of diverse genetic backgrounds, from different providers, kept in different housing laboratories and fed either a low-fat or high-fat diet. Similar to the human gut microbiome, >99% of the cataloged genes are bacterial. We identified 541 metagenomic species and defined a core set of 26 metagenomic species found in 95% of the mice. The mouse gut microbiome is functionally similar to its human counterpart, with 95.2% of its Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) orthologous groups in common. However, only 4.0% of the mouse gut microbial genes were shared (95% identity, 90% coverage) with those of the human gut microbiome. This catalog provides a useful reference for future studies.
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| 9. |
- Yang, Pengjie, et al.
(författare)
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A toolbox for genetic manipulation in intestinal Clostridium symbiosum
- 2024
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Ingår i: Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology. - 2405-805X. ; 9:1, s. 43-54
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Gut microbes are closely related with human health, but remain much to learn. Clostridium symbiosum is a conditionally pathogenic human gut bacterium and regarded as a potential biomarker for early diagnosis of intestinal tumors. However, the absence of an efficient toolbox that allows diverse genetic manipulations of this bacterium limits its in-depth studies. Here, we obtained the complete genome sequence of C. symbiosum ATCC 14940, a representative strain of C. symbiosum. On this basis, we further developed a series of genetic manipulation methods for this bacterium. Firstly, following the identification of a functional replicon pBP1 in C. symbiosum ATCC 14940, a highly efficient conjugative DNA transfer method was established, enabling the rapid introduction of exogenous plasmids into cells. Next, we constructed a dual-plasmid CRISPR/Cas12a system for genome editing in this bacterium, reaching over 60 % repression for most of the chosen genes as well as efficient deletion (>90 %) of three target genes. Finally, this toolbox was used for the identification of crucial functional genes, involving growth, synthesis of important metabolites, and virulence of C. symbiosum ATCC 14940. Our work has effectively established and optimized genome editing methods in intestinal C. symbiosum, thereby providing strong support for further basic and application research in this bacterium.
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| 10. |
- Zhang, Y., et al.
(författare)
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Reconstruction of soil erosion rates from exposed roots in southeast China
- 2017
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Ingår i: Asian Geographer. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1022-5706 .- 2158-1762. ; 34:2, s. 91-105
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Southeast China, characterized by a humid subtropical climate, is dominated by dense evergreen broad-leaved forests with the exception for the Changting area, which is one of the most eroded areas in southern China. Various methods have been employed to investigate regional soil erosion dynamics, yet these studies are limited to short periods and few sites. Dendrogeomorphological methods can alleviate this problem due to the long duration of tree rings and easy implementation for many sites. We present the first tree-ring-based soil erosion study in southeastern China, based on 123 exposed roots from 85 Pinus massoniana trees at six sites in Changting. The distinct reduction of cell lumen area of earlywood tracheids of exposed roots is a good bio-indicator for the first year of exposure due to soil erosion for this hot and humid area. The reconstructed soil erosion rates ranged from 4.26 to 43.50 mm/year with an average of 14.14 +/- 8.05 mm/year. Soil erosion rate is the highest at the slopes of 10 degrees-30 degrees. This is in line with previous findings using other methods over the study area. In addition, soil erosion in this area is found to be closely related to vegetation types and summer precipitation.
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