(Press-News.org)
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are typical organic compounds found in cigarette smoke and vehicle exhaust. In addition, PAHs are produced from incomplete combustion of organic material and cooking. The highest concentrations of PM-bound PAHs ranged from 550 ng/m3 to 39000 ng/m3, were observed in Chinese kitchens, fire stations, and ships. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons may combine with ultrafine particles (UFPs) in the air to form particle-bound PAHs. PM0.1 may adsorb large amounts of toxic organic compounds, and long-term exposure to indoor UFPs from cooking resulted in nervous responses by the human brain. PAHs were detected in the venous blood of people exposed to combustion by-products in rural areas of China at concentrations up to 762 ng/mL.
Aβ peptide contains various isoforms, with 42 aminoacids in its structure, is more abundant in human cerebrospinal fluid. It had been shown that chronic exposure of fish to benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) resulted in increased concentrations of Aβ42 peptide in the brain, leading to a decrease in their cognitive behavior, memory locomotor and motor activity. Aβ oligomers may contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) by damaging neurons and disrupting electrochemical signals. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons including phenanthrene, pyrene and B[a]P increased the aggregation kinetics of Aβ-peptide. Although the aggregation of Aβ peptides and the formation of oligomers are enhanced in the presence of PAHs, what are the molecular interactions between Aβ polypeptides and PAHs?
To answer this question, researchers from Nazarbayev University, Tokyo University of Science and their teams collaborated to explore and reveal the effect of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as the major compounds of cooking particles on the structure of Aβ42 peptide. Their study reveals that Aβ polypeptides interact strongly with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons of different properties, and that these organic pollutants alter the structure of Aβ42 and promote the progression of Alzheimer's Disease. This study entitled “Effect of ambient polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and nicotine on the structure of Aβ42 protein” is published online in Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering in 2023.
In this study, the research team found that the structure of Aβ42 peptide monomer was affected by benzo[a]pyrene, nicotine and phenanthrene molecules, depending on their hydrophobicity, size, and H-bonding capacity. The secondary structure of Aβ42 peptide was changed by organic pollutants, with almost 50 % decrease in the α-helix and 2 %–10 % increase in the β-sheets of the peptide. Their results also suggested that benzo[a]pyrene, nicotine, and phenanthrene might have effect on the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease.
This study successfully conducted atomic and molecular dynamics studies using GROMACS to study the structure of Aβ42 peptide monomer in the presence of benzo [a] pyrene, nicotine and phenanthrene. This work not only analyzed the effects of organic pollutants on the results of Aβ peptide monomer at the molecular level, but also provided guidance for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, and increased attention to the neurodegenerative disorders caused by air pollution.
###
About Higher Education Press
Founded in May 1954, Higher Education Press Limited Company (HEP), affiliated with the Ministry of Education, is one of the earliest institutions committed to educational publishing after the establishment of P. R. China in 1949. After striving for six decades, HEP has developed into a major comprehensive publisher, with products in various forms and at different levels. Both for import and export, HEP has been striving to fill in the gap of domestic and foreign markets and meet the demand of global customers by collaborating with more than 200 partners throughout the world and selling products and services in 32 languages globally. Now, HEP ranks among China's top publishers in terms of copyright export volume and the world's top 50 largest publishing enterprises in terms of comprehensive strength.
The Frontiers Journals series published by HEP includes 28 English academic journals, covering the largest academic fields in China at present. Among the series, 12 have been indexed by SCI, 6 by EI, 2 by MEDLINE, 1 by A&HCI. HEP's academic monographs have won about 300 different kinds of publishing funds and awards both at home and abroad.
About Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering
Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering (FESE) is the leading edge forum for peer-reviewed original submissions in English on all main branches of environmental disciplines. FESE welcomes original research papers, review articles, short communications, and views & comments. All the papers will be published within 6 months since they are submitted. The Editors-in-Chief are Prof. Jiuhui Qu from Tsinghua University, and Prof. John C. Crittenden from Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. The journal has been indexed by almost all the authoritative databases such as SCI, Ei, INSPEC, SCOPUS, CSCD, etc.
END
Medication delivered by a novel gel cured 100% of mice with an aggressive brain cancer, a striking result that offers new hope for patients diagnosed with glioblastoma, one of the deadliest and most common brain tumors in humans.
“Despite recent technological advancements, there is a dire need for new treatment strategies,” said Honggang Cui, a Johns Hopkins University chemical and biomolecular engineer who led the research. “We think this hydrogel will be the future and will supplement current treatments for brain cancer.”
Cui’s team combined an anticancer drug and ...
An interdisciplinary team of researchers has developed a suite of tools to estimate the total economic value of improving water quality in urban streams. The work can assist federal and state agencies charged with developing environmental regulations affecting urban ecosystems across the Piedmont Region of the United States, which stretches from Maryland to Alabama.
“Urban streams are ubiquitous and face a number of stressors from rapid economic development,” says Roger von Haefen, professor of agricultural and resource economics at North Carolina State University and corresponding ...
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An unusual blinking fish, the mudskipper, spends much of the day out of the water and is providing clues as to how and why blinking might have evolved during the transition to life on land in our own ancestors. New research shows that these amphibious fish have evolved a blinking behavior that serves many of the same purposes of our blinking. The results suggest that blinking may be among the suite of traits that evolved to allow the transition to life on land in tetrapods — the group of animals that includes mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians — some 375 million years ago.
The study appears the week ...
A new machine-learning method could help us gauge the time of our internal body clock, helping us all make better health decisions, including when and how long to sleep.
The research, which has been conducted by the University of Surrey and the University of Groningen, used a machine learning programme to analyse metabolites in blood to predict the time of our internal circadian timing system.
To date the standard method to determine the timing of the circadian system is to measure the timing of our ...
ANN ARBOR—Health surveys and clinical studies have a data collection problem: Because of the way they record sex or gender, they often exclude transgender and gender-diverse people, according to University of Michigan research.
Most studies and surveys either ask participants for their sex, a biological construct, or their gender, a social construct. In this way, they only consider either sex or gender independently or use the two concepts interchangeably, says Kate Duchowny, a research assistant professor in the Survey Research Center at the U-M Institute for Social Research.
Participants either respond with their sex assigned at birth or the ...
Scientists observed seismic waves traveling through Mars’ core for the first time and confirmed model predictions of the core’s composition.
An international research team—which included University of Maryland seismologists—used seismic data acquired by the NASA InSight lander to directly measure properties of Mars’s core, finding a completely liquid iron-alloy core with high percentages of sulfur and oxygen. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on April 24, 2023, these findings reveal new insights into how Mars formed and geological differences ...
A new study has uncovered intriguing insights into the liquid core at the centre of Mars, furthering understanding of the planet’s formation and evolution.
The research, led by the University of Bristol and published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the US, reveals the first-ever detections of sound waves travelling into the Martian core. Measurements from this acoustic energy, called seismic waves, indicate its liquid core is slightly denser and smaller than previously thought, and comprises a mixture of iron and numerous other elements.
The ...
“We have developed a technique in our laboratories that allows us to obtain an antibiogram within 2-4 hours – instead of the current 24 hours for the most common germs and one month for tuberculosis,” says Dr Sandor Kasas at EPFL. Professor Ronnie Willaert at Vrije Universiteit Brussel adds: “Our technique is not only faster but also simpler and much cheaper than all those existing now.”
Antibiotic resistance happens when bacteria develop the ability to defeat the drugs designed to kill them. It ...
Targeting part of an antiviral pathway triggered by the accumulation of a key pathogen shared in Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia may one day offer a new therapeutic approach to deterring or delaying cognitive decline, according to preclinical research led by Weill Cornell Medicine scientists.
The study, published April 24 in Nature Neuroscience, demonstrates that inhibiting an innate immune system enzyme called cyclic GMP–AMP synthase (cGAS) helps neurons become resilient to the build-up of the protein tau into bundles known as fibrils, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s and some forms of frontotemporal dementia, the two most ...
Organic solar cells have a photoactive layer that is made from polymers and small molecules. The cells are very thin, can be flexible, and are easy to make. However, the efficiency of these cells is still much below that of conventional silicon-based ones. Applied physicists from the University of Groningen have now fabricated an organic solar cell with an efficiency of over 17 percent, which is in the top range for this type of material. It has the advantage of using an unusual device structure that is produced using a scalable technique. The design involves a conductive layer of tin oxide that is grown ...
