Physical symptoms and mental health status in deep underground miners: A cross-sectional study

Dynamic molecular choreography induced by acute heat exposure in human males: a longitudinal multi-omics profiling study

Introduction

Extreme heat events caused by occupational exposure and heat waves are becoming more common. However, the molecular changes underlying the response to heat exposure in humans remain to be elucidated.

Methods

This study used longitudinal multi-omics profiling to assess the impact of acute heat exposure (50°C for 30 min) in 24 subjects from a mine rescue team. Intravenous blood samples were collected before acute heat exposure (baseline) and at 5 min, 30 min, 1 h, and 24 h after acute heat exposure (recovery). In-depth multi-omics profiling was performed on each sample, including plasma proteomics (untargeted) and metabolomics (untargeted).

Results

After data curation and annotation, the final dataset contained 2,473 analytes, including 478 proteins and 1995 metabolites. Time-series analysis unveiled an orchestrated molecular choreography of changes involving the immune response, coagulation, acid-base balance, oxidative stress, cytoskeleton, and energy metabolism. Further analysis through protein-protein interactions and network analysis revealed potential regulators of acute heat exposure. Moreover, novel blood-based analytes that predicted change in cardiopulmonary function after acute heat exposure were identified.

Conclusion

This study provided a comprehensive investigation of the dynamic molecular changes that underlie the complex physiological processes that occur in human males who undergo heat exposure. Our findings will help health impact assessment of extreme high temperature and inspire future mechanistic and clinical studies.

Time-series transcriptome reveals inflammatory signature in monocytes and neutrophils following acute heat exposure in mine rescuers

Occupational exposure to extreme high temperatures and the increasing global temperatures necessitates a deeper understanding of the impact of heat exposure on human health. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the response of monocytes and neutrophils to heat exposure in occupational population remain to be fully elucidated. This study used longitudinal transcriptome to assess the impact of acute heat exposure (50°C for 30 min) in 10 subjects from a mine rescue team before acute heat exposure (baseline) and at 5 min, 30 min, 1 h, and 24 h after acute heat exposure (recovery). The time-series analysis revealed a coordinated molecular choreography of changes involving inflammation, coagulation, extracellular matrix, and energy metabolism. Importantly, the study characterized the inflammatory signature associated with heat exposure in monocytes and neutrophils, as evidenced by the rapid activation of the inflammation-related transcriptome following heat exposure. Additionally, we pinpointed potential regulators, such as NR4A1, FOSL1, EGR3, and ATF3. In summary, the study suggested that the initial response to heat stress in monocytes and neutrophils from mine rescue team member was primarily characterized by a pro-inflammatory stress response, which could potentially lead to the development of inflammation and ultimately result in a systemic inflammatory response in heatstroke.

Progress in biological and medical research in the deep underground: an update

As the growing population of individuals residing or working in deep underground spaces for prolonged periods, it has become imperative to understand the influence of factors in the deep underground environment (DUGE) on living systems. Heping Xie has conceptualized the concept of deep underground medicine to identify factors in the DUGE that can have either detrimental or beneficial effects on human health. Over the past few years, an increasing number of studies have explored the molecular mechanisms that underlie the biological impacts of factors in the DUGE on model organisms and humans. Here, we present a summary of the present landscape of biological and medical research conducted in deep underground laboratories and propose promising avenues for future investigations in this field. Most research demonstrates that low background radiation can trigger a stress response and affect the growth, organelles, oxidative stress, defense capacity, and metabolism of cells. Studies show that residing and/or working in the DUGE has detrimental effects on human health. Employees working in deep mines suffer from intense discomfort caused by high temperature and humidity, which increase with depth, and experience fatigue and sleep disturbance. The negative impacts of the DUGE on human health may be induced by changes in the metabolism of specific amino acids; however, the cellular pathways remain to be elucidated. Biological and medical research must continue in deep underground laboratories and mines to guarantee the safe probing of uncharted depths as humans utilize the deep underground space.

Does Education Influence Life-Course Depression in Middle-Aged and Elderly in China? Evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS)

Mental health problems have become a major public health problem worldwide and are more common among middle-aged and elderly people in China. Research on the effect of education on depression is limited, and whether the relationship between education and depression changes over the life course remains unclear. This study was based on the cross-sectional data of 15,767 middle-aged and elderly individuals in the 2018 tracking survey (Wave 4) of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) database. Multiple linear regression and bootstrap methods were developed to detect the mediating effect of education on depression. In all samples or different age groups, education was significantly positively associated with depression. Three mediators (economic level, health-related lifestyle, and cognitive level) were significantly positively associated with depression, and cognitive level had a greater effect on depression than economic level and health-related lifestyle. The total, direct, and indirect effects of the whole samples and elderly samples were significant; however, the direct effect of the middle-aged samples was insignificant, and the total and indirect effects of the three mediating pathways were all significant, that is, economic level, health-related lifestyle, and cognitive level should produce complete mediation. The multiple linear regression and bootstrap methods could successfully detect the mediating effect of education on depression. On the basis of the education, economic level, health-related lifestyle, cognitive level, and depression of middle-aged and elderly people, we established and compared the total, direct, and mediating effects of education on depression under the life course. The mediating variables should be further increased, and the measurement methods of depression should be developed to improve the credibility of the research results.

Urine metabolomics analysis of sleep quality in deep-underground miners: A pilot study

Background

In previous questionnaire surveys of miners, sleep disorders were found among underground workers. The influence of the special deep-underground environment and its potential mechanism are still unclear. Therefore, this study intends to utilize LC-MS metabolomics to study the potential differences between different environments and different sleep qualities.

Methods

Twenty-seven miners working at 645-1,500 m deep wells were investigated in this study, and 12 local ground volunteers were recruited as the control group. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used to examine and evaluate the sleep status of the subjects in the past month, and valuable basic information about the participants was collected. PSQI scores were obtained according to specific calculation rules, and the corresponding sleep grouping and subsequent analysis were carried out. Through liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) non-targeted metabolomics analysis, differences in metabolism were found by bioinformatics analysis in different environments.

Results

Between the deep-underground and ground (DUvsG) group, 316 differential metabolites were identified and 125 differential metabolites were identified in the good sleep quality vs. poor sleep quality (GSQvsPSQ) group. The metabolic pathways of Phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis (p = 0.0102) and D-Glutamine and D-glutamate metabolism (p = 0.0241) were significantly enriched in DUvsG. For GSQvsPSQ group, Butanoate metabolism was statistically significant (p = 0.0276). L-Phenylalanine, L-Tyrosine and L-Glutamine were highly expressed in the deep-underground group. Acetoacetic acid was poorly expressed, and 2-hydroxyglutaric acid was highly expressed in good sleep quality.

Conclusions

The influence of the underground environment on the human body is more likely to induce specific amino acid metabolism processes, and regulate the sleep-wake state by promoting the production of excitatory neurotransmitters. The difference in sleep quality may be related to the enhancement of glycolytic metabolism, the increase in excitatory neurotransmitters and the activation of proinflammation. L-phenylalanine, L-tyrosine and L-glutamine, Acetoacetic acid and 2-hydroxyglutaric acid may be potential biomarkers correspondingly.

A New Strategy for Identification of Coal Miners With Abnormal Physical Signs Based on EN-mRMR

Coal miners’ occupational health is a key part of production safety in the coal mine. Accurate identification of abnormal physical signs is the key to preventing occupational diseases and improving miners’ working environment. There are many problems when evaluating the physical health status of miners manually, such as too many sign parameters, low diagnostic efficiency, missed diagnosis, and misdiagnosis. To solve these problems, the machine learning algorithm is used to identify miners with abnormal signs. We proposed a feature screening strategy of integrating elastic net (EN) and Max-Relevance and Min-Redundancy (mRMR) to establish the model to identify abnormal signs and obtain the key physical signs. First, the raw 21 physical signs were expanded to 25 by feature construction technology. Then, the EN was used to delete redundant physical signs. Finally, the mRMR combined with the support vector classification of intelligent optimization algorithm by Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA-SVC) is applied to further simplify the rest of 12 relatively important physical signs and obtain the optimal model with data of six physical signs. At this time, the accuracy, precision, recall, specificity, G-mean, and MCC of the test set were 97.50%, 97.78%, 97.78%, 97.14%, 0.98, and 0.95. The experimental results show that the proposed strategy improves the model performance with the smallest features and realizes the accurate identification of abnormal coal miners. The conclusion could provide reference evidence for intelligent classification and assessment of occupational health in the early stage.

Pulmonary Capacity, Blood Composition and Metabolism among Coal Mine Workers in High- and Low-Altitude Aboveground and Underground Workplaces

(1) Background: While previous studies revealed how underground mining might adversely affect the cardiopulmonary functions of workers, this study further investigated the differences between under- and aboveground mining at both high and low altitudes, which has received little attention in the literature. (2) Methods: Seventy-one healthy male coal mine workers were recruited, who had worked at least 5 years at the mining sites located above the ground at high (>3900 m; n = 19) and low (<120 m; n = 16) altitudes as well as under the ground at high (n = 20) and low (n = 16) altitudes. Participants’ heart rates, pulmonary functions, total energy expenditure and metabolism were measured over a 5-consecutive-day session at health clinics. (3) Results: Combining the results for both above- and underground locations, workers at high-altitude mining sites had significantly higher peak heart rate (HR), minimum average HR and training impulse as well as energy expenditure due to all substances and due to fat than those at low-altitude sites. They also had significantly higher uric acid, total cholesterol, creatine kinase and N-osteocalcin in their blood samples than the workers at low-altitude mining sites. At underground worksites, the participants working at high-altitude had a significantly higher average respiratory rate than those at low-altitude regions. (4) Conclusion: In addition to underground mining, attention should be paid to high-altitude mining as working under a hypoxia condition at such altitude likely presents physiological challenges.

The Impacts of Workplace Environment on Coal Miners’ Emotion and Cognition Depicted in a Mouse Model

Most coal mine accidents are caused by the unsafe behavior of employees. Previous studies have shown that there is a significant connection among the working environment, the psychological state of employees, and unsafe behaviors. However, the internal biological mechanism has not been revealed. To explore the physiological and psychological alterations of coal mine workers and the underlying mechanisms that cause unsafe behaviors, the current study established a novel coal mine environment biological simulation (CEBS) model in mice. This model recreated the underground workplace environment facts in coal mines such as temperature, humidity, and noise, and mice were employed to receive these conditioning stresses according to the 8-h work. Animal behavior tests were performed to evaluate the evolution of the mental state including anxiety and depression, as well as the abilities of learning and memory during the 4-week environmental simulation. CEBS mice showed the adaptation process of anxiety from occurrence to stability in the process of environmental simulation, and also suffered from severe depression compared to the control mice. In addition, impaired spatial memory was also implicated in mice after 4-week CEBS. The behavior results of CEBS mice were consistent with the previous psychological investigation of coal workers. In summary, a novel mouse model was established in this study to depict the occurrence of negative emotions and impaired cognition in coal miners by simulating the underground workplace environment, which provided a basis for further exploring the biological mechanism of miners’ unsafe behavior.

Psychological symptoms in anophthalmic patients wearing ocular prosthesis and related factors

Anophthalmic patients not only cause obvious functional deficits and facial deformities, but lead to poor psychological outcomes, although prosthesis wearing can offer improvements in psychological well-being to some extent. The study aimed to comprehensively evaluate the psychological symptoms and analyze related factors in anophthalmic patients wearing ocular prosthesis.Total of 150 anophthalmic patients and 120 control subjects were included in this cross-sectional study. Baseline characteristics survey and the symptom checklist-90 scale were completed by all participants to assess the psychological symptoms and analyze their related factors by multivariate analysis.The anophthalmic patients exhibited the increased levels of somatization, depression, anxiety, and hostility compared with control subjects. The most prominent symptom was hostility with the median score of 1.20. Female patients presented with higher somatization, depression, anxiety, and hostility. Marital status single was positively associated with depression, anxiety, and hostility symptoms. Lower education and cause of enucleation were related to higher levels of hostility.Anophthalmic patients wearing ocular prosthesis presented with more prominent hostility and somatization besides its higher depression and anxiety symptoms. The findings suggest that for female single anophthalmic patients with low education, especially caused by trauma, timely psychological assessment and intervention should be provided to avoid undesirable consequences.