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Introduction: To explore a quick and non-invasive way to measure individual psychological states, this study developed interview-based scales, and multi-modal information was collected from 172 participants., Methods: We developed the Interview Psychological Symptom Inventory (IPSI) which eventually retained 53 items with nine main factors. All of them performed well in terms of reliability and validity. We used optimized convolutional neural networks and original detection algorithms for the recognition of individual facial expressions and physical activity based on Russell's circumplex model and the five factor model., Results: We found that there was a significant correlation between the developed scale and the participants' scores on each factor in the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90) and Big Five Inventory (BFI-2) [ r = (-0.257, 0.632), p < 0.01]. Among the multi-modal data, the arousal of facial expressions was significantly correlated with the interval of validity ( p < 0.01), valence was significantly correlated with IPSI and SCL-90, and physical activity was significantly correlated with gender, age, and factors of the scales., Discussion: Our research demonstrates that mental health can be monitored and assessed remotely by collecting and analyzing multimodal data from individuals captured by digital tools., Competing Interests: JS was employed by ZhongJuYuan Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Huang, Zhai, Song, Rao, Sun and Tang.)

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease of the brain associated with motor symptoms. With the maturation of machine learning (ML), especially deep learning, ML has been used to assist in the diagnosis of PD. In this paper, we explore graph neural networks (GNNs) to implement PD prediction using MRI data. However, most existing GNN models suffer from the efficiency of graph construction on MRI data and the problem of overfitting on small data. This paper proposes a novel multi-layer GNN model that incorporates a fast graph construction method and a sparsity-based pooling layer with an attention mechanism. In addition, graph structure sparsity is plugged into the graph pooling layer as prior knowledge to mitigate overfitting in model training. Experimental results on real-world datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model and its superiority over baseline methods.

Accumulating evidence suggested that both gut microbiome and sex play a critical role in the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade therapy. Considering the reciprocal relationship between sex hormones and gut microbiome, the sex hormone-gut microbiome axis may participate in the regulation of the response to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). In this review, it was attempted to summarize the current knowledge about the influences of both sex and gut microbiome on the antitumor efficacy of ICIs and describe the interaction between sex hormones and gut microbiome. Accordingly, this review discussed the potential of enhancing the antitumor efficacy of ICIs through regulating the levels of sex hormones through manipulation of gut microbiome. Collectively, this review provided reliable evidence concerning the role of the sex hormone-gut microbiome axis in tumor immunotherapy.

Macrophages are a class of innate immune cells with strong plasticity. They can polarize into different phenotypes, serving with various functions, such as phagocytosis and chemotaxis, which is involved in the development of diseases. RNA-binding protein quaking (QKI) regulates monocyte differentiation, macrophage polarization and various cellular functions through RNA splicing, translocation and expression. QKI regulates the differentiation of monocytes into macrophages, and QKI deficiency promotes the polarization of macrophages into M1 type, which exerts a pro-inflammatory phenotype. In contrast, QKI overexpression promotes macrophage polarization into M2 type. Additionally, QKI affects macrophage phagocytic receptor and chemokine expression. Due to the variations in tissue-resident macrophages' features, QKI modulates macrophages in the pathogenesis of diseases (atherosclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, etc.) through diverse mechanisms, which mainly involves cyclicAMP response element binding protein (CREB) transcription factor regulation, signal transducer and activator of transcription 1/nuclear factor κB (STAT1/NF-κB) inflammatory signaling pathway and pre-mRNA splicing of phagocytic receptor.

Exemplar-based colorization is a challenging task, which attempts to add colors to the target grayscale image with the aid of a reference color image, so as to keep the target semantic content while with the reference color style. In order to achieve visually plausible chromatic results, it is important to sufficiently exploit the global color style and the semantic color information of the reference color image. However, existing methods are either clumsy in exploiting the semantic color information, or lack of the dedicated fusion mechanism to decorate the target grayscale image with the reference semantic color information. Besides, these methods usually use a single-stage encoder-decoder architecture, which results in the loss of spatial details. To remedy these problems, we propose an effective exemplar colorization strategy based on pyramid dual non-local attention network to exploit the long-range dependency as well as multi-scale correlation. Specifically, two symmetrical branches of pyramid non-local attention block are tailored to achieve alignments from the target feature to the reference feature and from the reference feature to the target feature respectively. The bidirectional non-local fusion strategy is further applied to get a sufficient fusion feature that achieves full semantic consistency between multi-modal information. To train the network, we propose an unsupervised learning manner, which employs the hybrid supervision including the pseudo paired supervision from the reference color images and unpaired supervision from both the target grayscale and reference color images. Extensive experimental results are provided to demonstrate that our method achieves better photo-realistic colorization performance than the state-of-the-art methods.

Ilyocyprisleptolinea Wang & Zhai, sp. nov. is described from late Quaternary sediments in central-eastern Inner Mongolia, northern China. The new species, which has a carapace shape and pitted surface typical of the genus, is characterised by double rows of fine, densely arranged marginal ripplets, separated by an inner list, along both anterior and posterior calcified inner lamellae in the left valve. Outline analysis and Principal Component Analysis indicate that its morpho-space overlaps with I.bradyi Sars, 1890, I.japonica Okubo, 1990, and I.mongolica Martens, 1991, which have living or fossil representatives in Inner Mongolia, but it is clearly discriminated from I.innermongolica Zhai & Xiao, 2013. Judging from the relatively coarse lithology dominated by silt and sand, and the lack of accompanying brackish-water ostracods, I.leptolinea Wang & Zhai, sp. nov. may have lived in a relatively shallow freshwater lake. It perhaps can be added to the list of species that went extinct during the Quaternary, but the timing and process of extinction await further investigation., (Qianwei Wang, David J. Horne, Jiawei Fan, Ruilin Wen, Robin J. Smith, Min Wang, Dayou Zhai.)

It is important to protect the quality of the water in the Three Rivers Headwater Region (TRHR), known as the water tower of China, to guarantee the water security in downstream areas. However, because of a lack of long-term studies that span wide geographical areas, it is difficult to understand how the water resource in the TRHR should be protected. In this paper, we report the findings from our analysis of total nitrogen (TN) concentration data from 39 river monitoring stations for the period from 2012 to 2018. The water quality status was evaluated by comparing the concentrations with the national standards and calculating exceedance ratios for surface water. Trends were calculated with ordinary linear least-squares regression and a weighted least-squares (WLS) meta-analysis method. The results showed that the annual average TN concentrations in the TRHR rivers from 2012 to 2018 ranged from 0.68 to 1.06 mg/L, and were lower than those in the downstream reaches but higher than the global average in natural river waters. For the period from 2012 to 2018, the TN concentrations showed a highly significant increase (0.03 mg/L/year) across the entire TRHR and were increasing and decreasing at 71.8 % and 28.2 % of the stations, respectively. From the trend results, we divided the study area into two zones, one with increasing TN concentrations and one with decreasing TN concentrations. It is found that environmental factors had little influence on TN concentrations in the increasing and decreasing areas, but artificial factors such as population and restoration project areas contributed to the increases in TN concentrations in the increasing area. The TRHR remains a source of clean water in China; however, the water quality should be monitored closely, and measures should be implemented to protect the resource and mitigate the disturbances caused by human activities., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Aim: To assess central set point of thyroid homeostasis in drug-naïve patients affected by first episode schizophrenia., Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Xinxiang city, Henan, China. Patients were drug-naïve patients affected by first episode schizophrenia, aged 14-50 years old and admitted to the "Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University" from January 2018 to December 2018. Controls were healthy individuals who underwent annual health from Xinxiang city, a community population of the same age and time period. The parameters of "central set point of thyroid homeostasis" were measured by "thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) index" and "thyroid feedback quantile-based index". The parameters were compared between schizophrenia patients and controls. Linear regression models adjusted by age and sex were used to assess the association of schizophrenia with the parameters., Results: A total of 235 patients and 121 controls were included in this study. Patients affected by schizophrenia had significantly higher prevalence of hyperthyroxinemia and levels of free T4, "TSH index", and "thyroid feedback quantile-based index" than controls. After adjusting age and sex, schizophrenia was independently associated with the higher level of "TSH index" (adjusted β 0.33, 95 % confidence interval 0.17, 0.49) and "thyroid feedback quantile-based index" (adjusted β 0.21, 95 % confidence interval 0.12, 0.30). The results with age and sex matched patients and controls were similar to those observed in the overall study population., Conclusion: Higher central set point may be the underlying mechanism of thyroid allostatic load in drug-naïve patients affected first episode schizophrenia., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The electrochemical sensing of nitric oxide (NO) molecules by metal-organic framework (MOF) catalysts has been impeded, to a large extent, owing to their poor electrical conductivity and weak NO adsorption. In this work, incomplete in situ conversion of V 2 CT x (T = terminal atoms) MXene to MOF is adopted, forming MOF@MXene heterostructures, which outperform MXene and MOF monocomponents toward electrochemical NO sensing. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation results indicate metal-like electronic characters for the heterostructure benefiting from the dominating contribution of the V 3d orbitals of the metallic MXene. Moreover, plane-averaged charge density difference shows substantial charge redistribution occurs at the heterointerfaces, producing a built-in field, which facilitates charge transfer. Besides, molecular mechanics-based simulated annealing calculation reveals greatly enhanced adsorption energies of NO molecules on the heterointerfaces than that on separate MOFs and MXenes. Hence, the facilitated charge transfer and preferential NO adsorption are responsible for the dramatically promoted performance toward NO sensing. The prudent design of MOF@MXene heterostructure may spur advanced electrocatalysts for electrochemical sensing., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Flexible piezoelectric nanogenerators are playing an important role in delivering power to next-generation wearable electronic devices due to their high-power density and potential to create self-powered sensors for the Internet of Things. Among the range of available piezoelectric materials, poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) (PVDF-TrFE)-based piezoelectric composites exhibit significant potential for flexible piezoelectric nanogenerator applications. However, the high electric fields that are required for poling cannot be readily applied to polymer composites containing piezoelectric fillers due to the high permittivity contrast between the filler and matrix, which reduces the dielectric strength. In this paper, novel Ag-decorated BCZT heterostructures were synthesized via a photoreduction method, which were introduced at a low level (3 wt %) into the matrix of PVDF-TrFE to fabricate piezoelectric composite films. The effect of Ag nanoparticle loading content on the dielectric, ferroelectric, and piezoelectric properties was investigated in detail, where a maximum piezoelectric energy-harvesting figure of merit of 5.68 × 10 -12 m 2 /N was obtained in a 0.04Ag-BCZT NWs/PVDF-TrFE composite film, where 0.04 represents the concentration of the AgNO 3 solution. Modeling showed that an optimum performance was achieved by tailoring the fraction and distribution of the conductive silver nanoparticles to achieve a careful balance between generating electric field concentrations to increase the level of polarization, while not degrading the dielectric strength. This work therefore provides a strategy for the design and manufacture of highly polarized piezoelectric composite films for piezoelectric nanogenerator applications.

Kinesin superfamily motor protein 17 (KIF17) was previously identified downregulated in breast cancer and correlated with patient prognosis. However, its pathophysiological role in tumours remains unknown. Here, we confirmed that KIF17 was significantly under-expressed in breast cancer tissues and low KIF17 expression correlated with poor outcomes in patients with breast cancer. In vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrated that KIF17 overexpression in breast cancer cell lines significantly inhibited breast cancer invasion and metastasis. By establishing the lung metastatic MDA-MB-231 cell lines, we found a transient silence of KIF17 during the initiation of breast cancer metastasis. Further experiments revealed that KIF17 might suppress metastasis by regulating the level of acetylated tubulin to maintain cytoskeleton stability. Eventually, we found that the low expression of KIF17 in breast cancer is regulated by DNMT1-mediated 5-mC DNA methylation and epigenetic silencing. Decitabine can effectively improve the expression level of KIF17 in breast cancer cells. Our study demonstrates that KIF17 mediates microtubule acetylation to maintain the stability of microtubules, thereby inhibiting tumour invasion and metastasis., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declared no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

This meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was conducted to explore the effects of flavonoid intake on adiponectin and leptin levels. The PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases were searched on March 1, 2021. Random-effects, subgroup, sensitivity, and meta-regression analyses were conducted on 40 publications. Flavonoid intake significantly increased circulating adiponectin (0.54 μg/ml, 95% CI [0.20, 0.88], p = .002; I 2  = 86.4%) and significantly reduced leptin levels (weighted mean difference: -0.79 ng/ml, 95% CI [-1.33, -0.25], p = .004; I 2  = 87.7%). Subgroup analysis demonstrated that flavonoid intervention produced a significant elevation in adiponectin levels only in studies that lasted more than 12 weeks, conducted in Asian regions, were parallel-designed, involved obese or overweight participants and participants with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) or cardiovascular diseases, used tea catechins, and used a dietary supplement intervention. A significantly negative effect on leptin levels was observed in studies conducted in Asian countries, with healthy participants and participants with T2DM, used whole food interventions, and involved participants with lower baseline leptin levels. In conclusion, flavonoid intake significantly increased circulating adiponectin and decreased leptin levels; however, study heterogeneity was very high. Future well-designed trials are required to address heterogeneous study designs and clarify the efficacy of plants in regulating adiponectin and leptin levels., (© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Purpose: The majority of cancer-related deaths are attributed to metastasis rather than localized primary tumor progression. However, the factors that regulate the premetastatic niche (PMN) and metastasis have not yet been clearly elucidated. We investigated the antimetastatic effects of irradiated tumor cell-derived microparticles (RT-MPs) and highlighted the role of innate immune cells in PMN formation., Methods and Materials: Mice were treated 3 times with isolated RT-MPs, followed by tumor cell injection via the tail vein. The hematoxylin and eosin staining was performed to assess the number of tumor nodules in the lungs, and in vivo luciferase-based noninvasive bioluminescence imaging was conducted to detected tumor burden. The mechanisms of RT-MPs mediated PMN formation was evaluated using flow cytometry, transwell assay, and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction., Results: RT-MPs inhibited tumor cell colonization in the lungs. Neutrophils phagocytosed RT-MPs and secreted CCL3 and CCL4, which induced monocytes chemotaxis and maturation into macrophages. RT-MPs promoted the transition of neutrophils and macrophages into antitumor phenotypes, hence inhibiting cancer cell colonization and proliferation., Conclusions: RT-MPs inhibited PMN formation and lung metastasis in a neutrophil- and macrophage-dependent but T cell-independent manner., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)-caused infection is difficult to treat because of its resistance to commonly used antibiotic, and poses a significant threat to public health. To develop new anti-bacterial agents to combat MRSA-induced infections, we synthesized novel squaric amide derivatives and evaluated their anti-bacterial activity by determining the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). Additionally, inhibitory activity of squaric amide 2 (SA2) was measured using the growth curve assay, time-kill assay, and an MRSA-induced skin infection animal model. A scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope were utilized to observe the effect of SA2 on the morphologies of MRSA. Transcriptome analysis and real-time PCR were used to test the possible anti-bacterial mechanism of SA2. The results showed that SA2 exerted bactericidal activity against a number of MRSA strains with an MIC at 4-8 µg/mL. It also inhibited the bacterial growth curve of MRSA strains in a dose-dependent manner, and reduced the colony formation unit in 4× MIC within 4-8 h. The infective lesion size and the bacterial number in the MRSA-induced infection tissue of mice were reduced significantly within 7 days after SA2 treatment. Moreover, SA2 disrupted the bacterial membrane and alanine dehydrogenase-dependent NAD + /NADH homeostasis. Our data indicates that SA2 is a possible lead compound for the development of new anti-bacterial agents against MRSA infection.

Dendrobium is the second biggest genus in the Orchidaceae family, and many of them have been utilized as a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for thousands of years in China. In the last few decades, constituents with great chemical diversity were isolated from Dendrobium , and a wide range of biological activities were detected, either for crude extracts or for pure compounds. Stilbene compound is one of the primary active constituents in the genus Dendrobium . At present, 267 stilbene compounds with clarified molecular structures have been extracted and isolated from 52 species of Dendrobium , including 124 phenanthrenes and 143 bibenzyls. At the same time, activity studies have indicated that 157 compounds have pharmaceutical activity. Among them, most of the compounds showed antitumor activity, followed by antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-α-glucosidase inhibitory activities. Additionally, 54 compounds have multiple pharmacological activities, such as confusarin (14), 2,4,7-trihydroxy-9,10-dihydro-phenanthrene (43), moscatilin (148), gigantol (150) and batatasin III (151). This review summarizes current knowledge about the chemical composition of stilbene, bioactivities and pharmacologic effects in 52 species of Dendrobium . We also expect to provide a reference for further research, development and utilization of stilbene constituents in the Dendrobium genus.

We have previously shown that adenosine A1AR antagonists, adenosine A2aAR antagonists, and caffeine have significant inhibitory effects on the activation and proliferation of hepatic stellate cells in alcoholic liver fibrosis. Many recent studies have found that moderate coffee consumption is beneficial for various liver diseases. The main active ingredient of coffee is caffeine, which is a natural non-selective adenosine receptor antagonist. Moreover, numerous preclinical epidemiological studies and clinical trials have examined the association between frequent coffee consumption and the risk of developing different liver diseases. In this review, we summarize and analyze the prophylactic and therapeutic effects of caffeine on various liver diseases, with an emphasis on cellular assays, animal experiments, and clinical trials. To review the prevention and treatment effects of caffeine on different liver diseases, we searched all literature before 19 July 2022, using "caffeine" and "liver disease" as keywords from the PubMed and ScienceDirect databases. We found that moderate coffee consumption has beneficial effects on various liver diseases, possibly by inhibiting adenosine binding to its receptors. Caffeine is a potential drug for the prevention and treatment of various liver diseases., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Shan, Wang, Zhai, Meng, Liu and Lv.)

Hemispherical resonant gyroscopes (HRGs) are solid-state vibration gyroscopes with the highest precision and are widely used in the aerospace field. The core part of the gyroscope is the resonator, which is a thin-walled hemispherical shell. Surface error and thickness variation of a hemispherical shell causes frequency splitting, which degrades the performance of the HRG. In order to guide the mass leveling of hemispherical resonator, this paper presents a new method for scanning measurement of the surface error and thickness variation of hemispherical resonators. First, a multi-axis platform is designed for noncontact sensor scanning measurements along the meridian and latitudinal lines of the hemispherical resonator. Second, the error model of the measurement system is established. The surface error of the standard sphere is measured to calibrate and compensate for the assembly errors of the measuring device. In addition, the identification accuracy of assembly errors and the influence of assembly errors on thickness measurement are simulated by a computer. Finally, the surface error and thickness variation of the hemispherical resonators are measured. The method is experimentally demonstrated and validated with a wavefront interferometry test. The results show that the method can achieve high precision and high repeatability, which is instructive for assessment of the machining error and further evaluation of the hemispherical resonator.

Long intergenic nonprotein coding RNA 1194 (LINC01194) has been reported as an oncogene in several cancer types, but its expression and potential role in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) are still unclear. We found that LINC01194 was significantly highly expressed in TNBC based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Data from in vitro experiments and in vivo assays demonstrated that LINC01194 promoted TNBC progression. Through bioinformatics prediction, mass spectrometry, and mechanical experiments, we found that LINC01194 could recruit nuclear mitotic apparatus protein 1 (NUMA1) to bind to the untranslated region (3'UTR) of ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2 C (UBE2C) 3' and stabilize UBE2C mRNA. Moreover, we found that UBE2C acted as an ubiquitin ligase to promote the ubiquitination and degradation of ryanodine receptor type 2 (RYR2) that inhibited the progression of TNBC by inhibiting the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. In summary, LINC01194 activate the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway and accelerates the malignant progression of TNBC by recruiting NUMA1 to stabilize UBE2C mRNA and thus promotes RYR2 ubiquitination and degradation. These findings might provide a more effective therapeutic strategy for TNBC patients., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Regeneration of severe bone defects remains an enormous challenge in clinic. Developing regenerative scaffolds to directionally guide bone growth is a potential strategy to overcome this hurdle. Conch, an interesting creature widely spreading in ocean, has tough spiral shell that can continuously grow along the spiral direction. Herein, inspired by the physiological features of conches, a conch-like (CL) scaffold based on β-TCP bioceramic material was successfully prepared for guiding directional bone growth via digital light processing (DLP)-based 3D printing. Benefiting from the spiral structure, the CL scaffolds significantly improved cell adhesion, proliferation and osteogenic differentiation in vitro compared to the conventional 3D scaffolds. Particularly, the spiral structure in the scaffolds could efficiently induce cells to migrate from the bottom to the top of the scaffolds, which was like "cells climbing stairs". Furthermore, the capability of guiding directional bone growth for the CL scaffolds was demonstrated by a special half-embedded femoral defects model in rabbits. The new bone tissue could consecutively grow into the protruded part of the scaffolds along the spiral cavities. This work provides a promising strategy to construct biomimetic biomaterials for guiding directional bone tissue growth, which offers a new treatment concept for severe bone defects, and even limb regeneration., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2022 The Authors.)

Background: Sepsis is a fatal condition commonly caused by Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) with a high death rate. Macrophages can protect the host from various microbial pathogens by recognizing and eliminating them. Earlier we found that Quaking (QKI), an RNA binding protein (RBP), was involved in differentiation and polarization of macrophages. However, the role of QKI in sepsis caused by pathogenic microbes, specifically MRSA, is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the role of QKI in regulation of host-pathogen interaction in MRSA-induced sepsis and explored the underlying mechanisms., Methods: Transmission electron microscope and immunofluorescence were used to observe the autophagy level in macrophages. Real-time PCR and western blot were used to analyzed the expression of mRNA and protein respectively. The potential protein interaction was analyzed by iTRAQ mass spectrometry and Immunoprecipitation. RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization, dual-luciferase reporter assay and RNA immunoprecipitation were used to explore the mechanism of QKI regulating mRNA of PI3K-p110β., Results: The mRNA level of QKI was aberrantly decreased in monocytes and PBMCs of septic patients with the increasing level of plasma procalcitonin (PCT). Then the mice with myeloid specific knockout of QKI was challenged with MRSA or Cecal Ligation and Puncture (CLP). Mice in these two models displayed higher survival rates and lower bacterial loads. Mechanistically, QKI deletion promoted phagocytosis and autophagic degradation of MRSA via activating p110β (a member of Class IA phosphoinositide 3-kinases) mediated autophagic response. QKI expression in macrophages led to the sequestration of p110β in mRNA processing (P) bodies and translational repression. Upon infection, the direct interaction of RNF6, a RING-type E3 ligase, mediated QKI ubiquitination degradation and facilitated PI3K-p110β related autophagic removal of pathogen. The administration of nanoparticles with QKI specific siRNA significantly protected mice from MRSA infection., Conclusions: This study disclosed the novel function of QKI in the P body mRNA regulation during infection. QKI degradation in macrophage by RNF6 protects mice from MRSA infection via enhancing PI3K-p110β dependent autophagy. It suggested that QKI may serve as a potential theranostic marker in MRSA-induced sepsis., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD) is one of the most common malignant tumors of the digestive tract, and its survival predictors are critical for precision medicine but have not been fully investigated. The complement system is a complex multistep cascade at the interface of innate and adaptive immunity, which augments the function of antibodies and phagocytes. This study aimed to construct and validate a CSRG signature based on TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) STAD dataset and revalidated it in an external GEO (Gene Expression Omnibus) STAD cohort. Subsequently, we assessed the association of risk levels with the stromal and immune cell infiltration level in STAD using the ESTIMATE, single-sample Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (ssGSEA), and Microenvironment Cell Populations-counter (MCP-counter) algorithm. It was found that the CSRG signature, based on three genes ( SERPINE1 , PROC , and CFHR3 ), was significantly and independently associated with the OS in TCGA STAD patients ( p < 0.001). Subsequently, we found that the high-risk STAD harbors more immune cell infiltration than the low-risk group, and the ESTIMATE results indicated that there exists a more stromal component in the tumor microenvironment of the high-risk groups. Compared to the low-risk group, the high-risk STAD patients had higher expressions of marker genes for immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and showed higher sensitivity to the chemotherapy agents (rapamycin, nilotinib, 5-fluorouracil, axitinib, DMOG, and JNK inhibitor VIII). The prognostic value of the CSRGs was further validated by nomogram plots, which revealed that it was superior to tumor TNM and pathologic stage. Finally, the three expression levels were evaluated in GES-1, HGC27, and AGS cells by qRT-PCR., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Tong, Yang, Tong, Zhai and Liu.)

Staphylococcus aureus poses a serious public health threat because of its multidrug resistance and biofilm formation ability. Hence, developing novel anti-biofilm agents and finding targets are needed to mitigate the proliferation of drug-resistant pathogens. In our previous study, we showed that the pyrancoumarin derivative 2-amino-4-(2,6-dichlorophenyl)-3-cyano-5-oxo-4H, 5H- pyrano [3,2c] chromene (LP4C) can destroy the biofilm of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) in vitro and in vivo . Here, we further explored the possible mechanism of LP4C as a potential anti-biofilm drug. We found that LP4C inhibits the expression of enzymes involved in the de novo pyrimidine pathway and attenuates the virulence of MRSA USA300 strain without affecting the agr or luxS quorum sensing system. The molecular docking results indicated that LP4C forms interactions with the key amino acid residues of pyrR protein, which functions as the important regulator of bacterial pyrimidine synthesis. These findings reveal that pyrancoumarin derivative LP4C inhibits MRSA biofilm formation and targeting pyrimidine de novo synthesis pathway., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Liu, Su, Yu, Zhai, Hou, Zhao, Ma, Jia, Xue and Li.)

Clinical significance and biological functions of the ferroptosis pathway were addressed in all aspect of cancer regarding multi-omics level; however, the overall status of ferroptosis pathway alteration was hard to evaluate. The aim of this study is to comprehensively analyze the putative biological, pathological, and clinical functions of the ferroptosis pathway in breast cancer on a pathway level. By adopting the bioinformatic algorithm "pathifier", we quantified five programmed cell death (PCD) pathways (KO04210 Apoptosis; KO04216 Ferroptosis; KO04217 Necroptosis; GO:0070269 Pyroptosis; GO:0048102 Autophagic cell death) in breast cancer patients, and we featured the clinical characteristics and prognostic value of each pathway in breast cancer and found significantly activated PCD in cancer patients, among which ferroptosis demonstrated a significant correlation with the prognosis of breast cancer. Correlation analysis between PCD pathways identified intra-tumor heterogeneity of breast cancer. Therefore, clustering of patients based on the status of PCD pathways was done. Comparisons between subgroups highlighted specifically activated ferroptosis in cluster 2 patients, which showed the distinct status of tumor immunity and microenvironment from other clusters, indicating putative correlations with ferroptosis. NDUFA13 was identified and selected as a putative biomarker for cluster 2 patients. Experimental validations were executed on cellular level and NDUFA13 showed an important role in regulating ferroptosis activation and can work as a biomarker for ferroptosis pathway status. In conclusion, the status of the ferroptosis pathway significantly correlated with the clinical outcomes and intra-tumor heterogeneity of breast cancer, and NDUFA13 expression was identified as a positive biomarker for ferroptosis pathway activation in breast cancer patients., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Li, Li, Zhai, Xie, Kuang, Lin and Shao.)

Nerve injury and nerve pain are common diseases caused by neuroinflammation. Numerous studies have shown that the activation of NLRP3 (nod-like receptor family, pyrin domain-containing 3) inflammasome is involved in a various inflammatory response, such as Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, nerve damage and other diseases. The NLRP3 inflammasome is a complex containing NLRP3 protein, ASC (apoptosis-associated speckle-like protein), and pro-caspase-1, which is highly expressed and activated to promote the secretion of IL-1β and IL-18 in response to the stimulation of danger-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) and pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) in immune cells such as macrophages and dendritic cells. The activation of NLRP3 inflammasome can cause cell death through caspase-1-mediated cell pyroptosis and plays an important role in the development of nervous system injury and inflammation-related diseases. This discussion aims to summarize the mechanisms of nerve damage and pain caused by excessive activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

The hydrogenation of CO 2 into valuable chemical fuels reduces the atmospheric CO 2 content and also has broad economic prospects. Support is essential for catalysts, but many of the reported support materials cannot meet the requirements of accessibility and durability. Herein, we theoretically designed a series of single-atom noble metals anchored on a SiO 2 surface for CO 2 hydrogenation using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Through theoretical evaluation of the formation energy, hydrogen dissociation capacity, and activity of CO 2 hydrogenation, we found that Ru@SiO 2 is a promising candidate for CO 2 hydrogenation to formic acid. The energy barrier of the rate-determining step of the entire conversion process is 23.9 kcal mol -1 ; thus, the reaction can occur under mild conditions. In addition, active and stable origins were revealed through electronic structure analysis. The charge of the metal atom is a good descriptor of the catalytic activity. The Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) between metal charge and its CO 2 hydrogenation barrier is 0.99. Two solvent models were also used to investigate hydrogen spillover processes and the reaction path was searched by the climbing image nudged-elastic-band (CI-NEB) method. The results indicated that the explicit solvent model could not be simplified into a few solvent molecules, leading to a large difference in the reaction paths. This work will serve as a reference for the future design of more efficient catalysts for CO 2 hydrogenation.

Graphite is the most commonly used anode material for not only commercialized lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) but also the emerging potassium-ion batteries (PIBs). However, the graphite anode in PIBs using traditional dilute ester-based electrolyte systems shows obvious capacity fading, which is in contrast with the extraordinary cyclic stability in LIBs. More interestingly, the graphite in concentrated electrolytes for PIBs exhibits outstanding cyclic stability. Unfortunately, this significant difference in cycling performance has not raised concern up to now. In this work, by comparing the cyclic stability and graphitization degree of the graphite anode upon cycling, we reveal that the underlying mechanism of the capacity fading of the graphite anode in PIBs is not the larger volume expansion of graphite caused by the intercalation of potassium ions but the continual accumulation of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) on the surface of graphite. By X-ray photoelectron and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies combined with chemical synthesis, it is concluded that the accumulation of the SEI may mainly come from the continual deposition of a kind of oligomer component, which blocks intercalation and deintercalation of potassium ions in graphite anodes. The designed SEI-cleaning experiment further verifies the above conclusion. This finding clarifies the crucial factor determining the cyclic stability of graphite and provides scientific guidance for application of the graphite anode for PIBs.

For the research of biomaterials in bone tissue engineering, it is still a challenge to fabricate bioceramics that overcome brittleness while maintaining the great biological performance. Here, inspired by the toughness of natural materials with hierarchical laminated structure, we presented a directional assembly-sintering approach to fabricate laminated MXene/calcium silicate-based (L-M/CS) bioceramics. Benefiting from the orderly laminated structure, the L-M/CS bioceramics exhibited significantly enhanced toughness (2.23 MPa·m 1/2 ) and high flexural strength (145 MPa), which were close to the mechanical properties of cortical bone. Furthermore, the L-M/CS bioceramics possessed more suitable degradability than traditional CaSiO 3 bioceramics due to the newly formed CaTiSiO 5 after sintering. Moreover, the L-M/CS bioceramics showed good biocompatibility and could stimulate the expression of osteogenesis-related genes. The mechanism of promoting osteogenic differentiation had been shown to be related to the Wnt signaling pathway. This work not only fabricated calcium silicate-based bioceramics with excellent mechanical and biological properties for bone tissue engineering but also provided a strategy for the combination of bionics and bioceramics., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press.)

Fast-charging sodium ion batteries remain deeply challenged by the lack of suitable carbonaceous anodes that exhibit intercalation plateau with fast kinetics. Here we develop a few-layer graphitic carbon with nanoscale architecture, which enables shortened Na + ion diffusion path and fast formation of fully intercalated phase at the same time. Combined in situ Raman and electrochemical test reveal that this graphitic carbon with highly crystalline few layers follows surface-controlled intercalation rather than typical diffusion-controlled kinetics observed in natural graphite. As a result, a few-layer graphitic carbon anode maintains the reversible capacity of 106 mAh g -1 at 10 A g -1 and achieves 87% capacity retention even after 10 000 cycles at 1 A g -1 . This work provides new insight on the Na storage mechanism in fast-charging graphitic carbon as well as the design of carbon anodes for high-rate sodium ion batteries.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a novel coronavirus that has caused a global pandemic Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Currently, there are no effective treatments specifically for COVID-19 infection. The initial step in SARS-CoV-2 infection is attachment to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) on the cell surface. We have developed a protein peptide that effectively disrupts the binding between the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and ACE2. When delivered by nasal spray, our peptide prevents SARS-CoV-2 spike protein from entering lung and olfactory bulb cells of mice expressing human ACE2. Our peptide represents a potential novel treatment and prophylaxis against COVID-19., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a major reason to cause viral encephalitis, with 50% patients suffering from severe neuro-inflammation and permanent neural injury. Effective anti-viral treatment is urgently needed. Here, we found RNA binding protein quaking (QKI) was involved in the progression of JE by regulating migration and anti-viral response of macrophages. After JE virus (JEV) infection, QKI-deficient mice had lower viral loads in the brain and fewer neurological symptoms. In comparison with control mice, proinflammatory cytokines in the brain of QKI-deficient animals revealed distinct patterns, with lower levels of IL-6 (interleukin-6) and IFN-β (interferon-β) at the early stage but higher levels at the end of JE. Then we found infiltration of CCR2 positive ((C-C motif) receptor 2) peripheral macrophages and CCR2 expression on macrophages were inhibited in QKI-deficient mice, while the expression of CCR2 ligands was not changed. Bioinformatical analysis showed that a QRE (quaking response element) located on 3'UTR (untranslated region) of Ccr2. We further verified that QKI was able to interact with Ccr2 mRNA and regulate its degradation in vitro. Additionally, since the IFN-β production was increased in QKI-ablation mice after JEV infection, the anti-viral response was analyzed. Results in QKI-silenced N9 cells showed that the expression of RIG-I (retinoic acid-inducible gene-I) and TBK1 (TANK binding kinase 1) was increased, thus further inducing IRF3 (interferon regulatory factor 3) phosphorylation and interferon activation. Overall, these results revealed QKI mediated the anti-viral process via interfering migration of macrophages to CNS (central nervous system) and enhancing RIG-I/IRF3/IFN-β pathway to restrict virus dissemination., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Singlet exciton fission (SF) is believed to have the potential to break the Shockley-Queisser limit for third-generation solar cell devices, so it has attracted great attention. Conventional linear acene based SF materials generally suffer from low triplet energy and poor photostability. We report herein two flavanthrene derivatives, EH-Fla and TIPS-Fla, as new photostable singlet exciton fission materials. These N-doped two-dimensional angular fused acenes have three sets of aromatic Clar sextets, making them significantly more stable than linear acenes with only one sextet. Time-resolved spectroscopy characterization reveals that the SF process occurs in the polycrystalline films of EH-Fla and TIPS-Fla, with maximal triplet yields of 32% and 159%, respectively. The SF processes of these two molecules are mediated by excimer states. In EH-Fla, the low-lying excimer prevents the SF process from occurring effectively, resulting in a low triplet yield. In contrast, the excimer state in TIPS-Fla is mixed with strong CT coupling, which prompts efficient SF and results in a high triplet yield. Our results show that flavanthrene is a promising SF chromophore for photoenergy conversion applications, while a fine-tune of the intermolecular interaction is crucial for achieving high SF efficiency., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

Background: Gut microbiota is a complex ecosystem that is vital for the development and function of the immune system, is closely associated with host immunity, and affects human health and disease. Therefore, the current progress and trends in this field must be explored., Purpose: No bibliometric analysis has been conducted on gut microbiota and host immune response. This study aimed to analyze the current progress and developing trends in this field through bibliometric and visual analysis., Methods: Global publications on gut microbiota and host immune response from January 2011 to December 2021 were extracted from the Web of Science (WOS) collection database. GraphPad Prism, VOSviewer software, and CiteSpace were employed to perform a bibliometric and visual study., Results: The number of publications has rapidly increased in the last decade but has declined in the most recent year. The Cooperation network shows that the United States, Harvard Medical School, and Frontiers in Immunology were the most active country, institute, and journal in this field, respectively. Co-occurrence analysis divided all keywords into four clusters: people, animals, cells, and diseases. The latest keyword within all clusters was "COVID," and the most frequently occurring keyword was "SCFA.", Conclusion: Gut microbiota and host immune response remain a research hotspot, and their relation to cancer, CNS disorders, and autoimmune disease has been explored. However, additional studies on gut microbiota must be performed, particularly its association with bacterial strain screening and personalized therapy., (Copyright © 2022 Ni, Wang, Li, Zhou, Zhai, Xia and Yu.)

Single-atom catalysts (SACs) as the new frontier in heterogeneous catalysis have attracted increasing attention. However, the rational design of SACs with high catalytic activities for specified reactions still remains challenging. Herein, we report the rational design of a Pd 1 -Pd NPs synergistic structure on 2,6 -pyridinedicarbonitrile-derived covalent triazine framework ( CTF ) as an efficient active site for CO 2 hydrogenation to formate under ambient conditions. Compared with the catalysts mainly comprising Pd 1 and Pd NPs , this hybrid catalyst presented significantly improved catalytic activity. By regulating the ratio of Pd 1 to Pd NPs , we obtained the optimal catalytic activity with a formate formation rate of 3.66 mol HCOOM ·mol Pd -1 ·h -1 under ambient conditions (30°C, 0.1 MPa). Moreover, as a heterogeneous catalyst, this hybrid catalyst is easily recovered and exhibits about a 20% decrease in the catalytic activity after five cycles. These findings are significant in elucidating new rational design principles for CO 2 hydrogenation catalysts with superior activity and may open up the possibilities of converting CO 2 under ambient conditions., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Zhai, Zhang, Sun, Sun, Jiang, Yu, Zhai, Liu, Li and Ren.)

An anomalous magneto-optical spectrum is discovered for dipolar valley excitons in twisted double-layer transition metal dichalcogenides, where the in-plane magnetic field induces a sizable multiplet splitting of exciton states inside the light cone. Chiral dispersions of the split branches make possible an efficient optical injection of the unidirectional exciton current. We also find an analog effect with a modest heterostrain replacing the magnetic field for introducing large splitting and chiral dispersions in the light cone. Angular orientation of the photoinjected exciton flow can be controlled by strain, with left-right unidirectionality selected by circular polarization.

Hantaan virus (HTNV) is the main cause of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) around the world, which results in profound morbidity and mortality. However, there are currently no FDA-approved therapeutics or vaccines against HFRS. To find new anti-HTNV drugs, the inhibitory activity of 901 small molecule kinase inhibitors against HTNV is analyzed. Among these compounds, compound 8G1 inhibits HTNV with a relatively high inhibition rate and lower toxicity. The viral titer and nucleocapsid protein of HTNV are reduced after compound 8G1 treatment in a dose-dependent manner at concentrations ranging from 1 to 20 μM. In addition, the administration of compound 8G1 at the early stage of HTNV infection can inhibit the replication of HTNV. The molecular docking result reveals that compound 8G1 forms interactions with the key amino acid residues of serine/threonine-protein kinase B (Akt), which is responsible for the observed affinity. Then, the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) signaling pathways are inhibited. Our results may help to design novel targets for therapeutic intervention against HTNV infection and to understand the anti-HTNV mechanism of protein kinase inhibitors., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Li, Wang, Ying, Kong, Zhang, Dong, Liu, Zhai, Chen, Jia, Xue, Li and Wu.)

Background: Shenqi pill (SQP), a traditional Chinese prescription, has proven to be effective in treating nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, its bioactive ingredients and underlying mechanisms remain elusive., Aim: We aimed to predict the active compounds, potential targets, and molecular mechanisms of SQP anti-NAFLD by applying network pharmacology and molecular docking methods., Methods: Active ingredients and related targets of SQP were obtained from the TCMSP database. Potential targets of NAFLD were acquired from OMIM and GeneCards databases. The STRING database and Cytoscape software analyzed the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and core targets of overlapping genes between SQP and NAFLD. GO enrichment analysis and KEGG enrichment analysis were performed in the DAVID database. Finally, molecular docking was employed to find possible binding conformations of macromolecular targets., Results: 15 anti-NAFLD bioactive ingredients and 99 anti-NAFLD potential targets of SQP were determined using Network pharmacology. Quercetin, kaempferol, stigmasterol, diosgenin, and tetrahydroalstonine were the major active ingredients and AKT1, TNF, MAPK8, IL-6, and VEGFA were the key target proteins against NAFLD. The KEGG analysis suggested that the main pathways included PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, HIF-1 signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, and TNF signaling pathway. Molecular docking predicted that quercetin, kaempferol, stigmasterol, diosgenin, and tetrahydroalstonine could bind with AKT1, TNF, and MAPK8., Conclusion: This study successfully predicts the active compounds, potential targets, and signaling pathways of SQP against NAFLD. Moreover, this study contributed to the application and development of SQP., Competing Interests: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding this article., (Copyright © 2022 Xiaojuan Tong et al.)

Network function virtualization (NFV) decouples network functions from hardware devices. However, it introduces security challenges due to its reliance on software, which facilitates attacks. This security problem has a significant negative impact on the interests of users. Existing deployment methods are not suitable for SFC requests with a security demand, causing the use of substrate resources unreasonable and lower acceptance ratio. Moreover, a strict delay requirement is another challenge for NFV. To make the use of the substrate resources more reasonable and reduce the transmission delay, this paper proposes a security-constraint and function-mutex-constraint consolidation (SFMC) method for virtual network function (VNF) to reduce resource consumption and transmission delay. In addition, a security-aware service function chain (SASFC) deployment method for load balance and delay optimization is presented, which deploys service function chains according to the consolidated results of the SFMC method. The SASFC method first obtains a candidate server node set using resource, hosting capacity, security and node load constraints. It then obtains candidate paths according to the metric of the minimum transmission delay and link load constraint using the Viterbi algorithm. Finally, the path with the highest VNF security level match degree among the candidate paths is adopted to deploy virtual links, and the corresponding server nodes are employed to deploy VNFs. As a result, the SASFC method makes the use of substrate resources more reasonable. It improves the acceptance ratio and long-term average revenue to cost ratio, reduces transmission delay, and achieves load balancing. Experiment results show that when the number of VNFs is five, the acceptance ratio and long-term average revenue to cost ratio of the SASFC method are close to 0.75 and 0.88, which are higher than those of the compared methods. Its transmission delay and proportion of bottleneck nodes are 7.71 and 0.024, which are lower than those of the compared methods. The simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the SASFC method., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

The morbidity and mortality of hepatic fibrosis caused by various etiologies are high worldwide, and the trend is increasing annually. At present, there is no effective method to cure hepatic fibrosis except liver transplantation, and its serious complications threaten the health of patients and cause serious medical burdens. Additionally, there is no specific drug for the treatment of hepatic fibrosis, and many drugs with anti-hepatic fibrosis effects are in the research and development stage. Recently, remarkable progress has been made in the research and development of anti-hepatic fibrosis drugs targeting different targets. We searched websites such as PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Home-ClinicalTrials.gov and found approximately 120 drugs with anti-fibrosis properties, some of which are in phase Ⅱ or Ⅲ clinical trials. Additionally, although these drugs are effective against hepatic fibrosis in animal models, most clinical trials have shown poor results, mainly because animal models do not capture the complexity of human hepatic fibrosis. Besides, the effect of natural products on hepatic fibrosis has not been widely recognized at home and abroad. Furthermore, drugs targeting a single anti-hepatic fibrosis target are prone to adverse reactions. Therefore, currently, the treatment of hepatic fibrosis requires a combination of drugs that target multiple targets. Ten new drugs with potential for development against hepatic fibrosis were selected and highlighted in this mini-review, which provides a reference for clinical drug use., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Shan, Wang, Zhai, Meng, Liu and Lv.)

Ovarian cancer (OC) is a highly malignant gynecologic tumor with few treatments available and poor prognosis with the currently available diagnostic markers and interventions. More effective methods for diagnosis and treatment are urgently needed. Although the current evidence implicates ferroptosis in the development and therapeutic responses of various types of tumors, it is unclear to what extent ferroptosis affects OC. To explore the potential of ferroptosis-related genes as biomarkers and molecular targets for OC diagnosis and intervention, this study collected several datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas-OC (TCGA-OC), analyzed and identified the coexpression profiles of 60 ferroptosis-related genes and two subtypes of OC with respect to ferroptosis and further examined and analyzed the differentially expressed genes between the two subtypes. The results indicated that the expression levels of ferroptosis genes were significantly correlated with prognosis in patients with OC. Single-factor Cox and LASSO analysis identified eight lncRNAs from the screened ferroptosis-related genes, including lncRNAs RP11-443B7.3, RP5-1028K7.2, TRAM2-AS1, AC073283.4, RP11-486G15.2, RP11-95H3.1, RP11-958F21.1, and AC006129.1. A risk scoring model was constructed from the ferroptosis-related lncRNAs and showed good performance in the evaluation of OC patient prognosis. The high- and low-risk groups based on tumor scores presented obvious differences in clinical characteristics, tumor mutation burden, and tumor immune cell infiltration, indicating that the risk score has a good ability to predict the benefit of immunotherapy and may provide data to support the implementation of precise immunotherapy for OC. Although in vivo tests and research are needed in the future, our bioinformatics analysis powerfully supported the effectiveness of the risk signature of ferroptosis-related lncRNAs for prognosis prediction in OC. The findings suggest that these eight identified lncRNAs have great potential for development as diagnostic markers and intervention targets for OC and that patients with high ferroptosis-related lncRNA expression will receive greater benefits from conventional chemotherapy or treatment with ferroptosis inducers., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Wang, Mei, Cai, Zhai, Zhang, Yu, Ni and Yu.)

Liver cancer is one of the most lethal malignant tumors in the world, and surgical resection is the main treatment for liver cancer. Liver failure due to insufficient residual liver volume is a fatal complication after hepatectomy. How to effectively increase the residual liver volume after hepatectomy and improve the safety of hepatectomy has always been a problem to be solved in liver surgery. Associating liver partition and portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy (ALPPS) effectively reduces the occurrence of liver failure due to insufficient residual liver volume after hepatectomy, thereby increasing the probability of radical resection by inducing rapid proliferation of residual liver tissue. However, the molecular mechanism of residual liver tissue regeneration after primary ALPPS (combined liver partition and portal vein ligation) remains unclear. Here, we found that lots of circular RNAs (circRNAs) are upregulated after ALPPS in pig liver cells; then, we identified the orthologous circRNA in humans and pigs to detect their function in liver regeneration. The results showed that loss of circ-0067724 and circ-0016213 could suppress liver cell proliferation. Together, these findings suggest that circ-0067724 and circ-0016213 play an important role in liver cell proliferation, and this may help us to find new strategies to promote liver regeneration., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Xiao, Peng, Xu, Huang, Yang, Liu, Ouyang, Li, Wang, Sheng, Zhai, Lin, Liu, Liu and Gong.)

In modern electronic and power systems, it is essential to develop advanced dielectric materials with high energy density. One-dimensional ferroelectric ceramic nanofibers were proved to be a feasible strategy for improving the permittivity and energy density of nanocomposites. In this paper, to overcome the high loss issue of Na 0.5 Bi 0.5 TiO 3 (NBT), a kind of novel nanofibers 0.93Na 0.5 Bi 0.5 TiO 3 -0.07BaTiO 3 (NBT-BT) with large aspect ratio are synthesized by the electrospinning method and used as the dielectric fillers in trilayer structured poly(vinylidene difluoride) (PVDF) nanocomposites for energy storage applications. The finite element analysis is performed to evaluate the electric field distribution in the nanocomposites. The results showed that the trilayer structured nanocomposite loaded with 6 wt % NBT-BT nanofibers in the middle layer achieved the highest discharge energy density of 19.21 J cm -3 at 527 kV mm -1 , which is 87.2% higher than that of pure PVDF (10.26 J cm -3 at 420 kV mm -1 ). Owing to the contribution of the barrier effect and interface polarization between adjacent layers, the energy density of the trilayer structured nanocomposites is significantly higher than that of the single-layer nanocomposites. This work provides a kind of novel one-dimensional ceramic fillers for obviously improving the energy density of polymer-based dielectrics.

Helicobacter pylori ( H. pylori ) has infected more than half of the world's population and is still a threat to human health. The urea breath test, despite being widely used in clinical diagnosis, still faces huge challenges in the immediate detection of H. pylori . Thus, a rapid, sensitive, and highly specific point of care diagnosis is particularly important for preventing the further transmission of H. pylori and for real-time monitoring of the disease in a given population. Recently, the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-based diagnostics have been applied to various types of nucleic acid testing; however, there are often shortcomings of complex operation and high signal transmission background. In this study, we proposed a new platform for the assay of H. pylori using one-tube-based CRISPR/Cas12a diagnostic methods and designed a detector for this platform, which is a portable array detector for visible analysis of thermostatic nucleic acid amplification (Pad-VATA). By incorporating isothermal recombinase polymerase amplification, our platform could detect the conserved gene fragments of H. pylori with a constant low as 2 copies/μl. The assay process can be performed at a single temperature in about 30 min and integrated into the reactor in the palm-sized Pad-VATA to facilitate rapid diagnosis of H. pylori . We also verified the accuracy of our platform using 10 clinical samples and found that the platform can quickly detect H. pylori infection in a given population. We believe that this fast, convenient, efficient, and inexpensive screening and diagnostic platform can be widely used in various settings, including homes and clinics., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Dai, Xiang, Qu, Chen, Wang, Wang, Zhai, Wang and Lu.)

Aims: Hypothyroxinaemia might be easily ignored, because attention is typically paid to individuals with elevated thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH). In this study, we aimed to evaluate the association of oxcarbazepine use as adjuvant for treatment of schizophrenia with hypothyroxinaemia and central set point of thyroid homeostasis., Methods: This retrospective cohort study was conducted in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University. Inpatients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia admitted between January 2016 and October 2019 with normal thyroid function at admission were included. Oxcarbazepine use was the exposure measure. Newly developed hypothyroxinaemia was the primary outcome measure and parameters of thyroid homeostasis central set point as measured by TSH index and thyroid feedback quantile-based index (TFQI) were the secondary outcome measures., Results: In total, 1207 eligible patients were included. The occurrence of hypothyroxinaemia in patients who received oxcarbazepine was higher (35/107, 32.7%) than in those patients who did not (152/1099, 13.8%), with adjusted relative risk of 2.24 and 95% confidence interval of 1.57 and 3.17. Oxcarbazepine use was associated with greater reduction in TSH index (adjusted β -0.33 and 95% confidence interval -0.48, -0.19) and TFQI (adjusted β -0.24 and 95% confidence interval -0.31, -0.16)., Conclusion: Oxcarbazepine use was independently associated with increased risk of developing hypothyroxinaemia, and greater reduction in TSH index and TFQI, suggesting that impaired central set point of thyroid homeostasis might be involved in the mechanism of oxcarbazepine-induced hypothyroxinaemia., (© 2021 British Pharmacological Society.)

Background: Tamoxifen is a first-line endocrine agent and is often used to treat estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer. Unfortunately, approximately 30-40% of patients who received tamoxifen therapy experience recurrence or progression to a fatal advanced stage due to tamoxifen resistance. However, the mechanisms of tamoxifen resistance remain unclear., Methods: The expression of lncRNA DLGAP1 antisense RNA 2 (DLGAP1-AS2) was detected by qPCR. The effect of DLGAP1-AS2 on tamoxifen resistance was evaluated by MTT, colony formation, TUNEL and flow cytometric assays. The mechanisms by which DLGAP1-AS2 regulates tamoxifen resistance were investigated through qPCR, RNA pull-down assays and RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assays., Results: Our results showed that DLGAP1-AS2 is significantly upregulated in breast cancer and that tamoxifen can induce DLGAP1-AS2 expression. Further investigation suggested that upregulation of DLGAP1-AS2 can increase cell viability and inhibit apoptosis, while downregulation of DLGAP1-AS2 results in the opposite effects. Mechanistically, DLGAP1-AS2 can bind to the AFF3 protein to inhibit its degradation, which further promotes ER signalling., Conclusions: Our research clarified that DLGAP1-AS2 promotes ER signalling to induce tamoxifen resistance and that targeting DLGAP1-AS2 might be a promising strategy to overcome tamoxifen resistance in breast cancer., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.)

A three-step quasi-absolute testing method for optical cylinders is proposed in this Letter. Three measurements are taken at the so-called cat's eye position and confocal null testing positions with a computer-generated hologram (CGH) rotated around the axis parallel to that of the cylinder. The quasi-absolute surface error of the cylinder is obtained by simple operations including addition/subtraction and flip of the datasets. The uncertainty is traceable to an optical flat. Two different CGHs are used for a convex cylinder and give consistent quasi-absolute testing results of the surface error, which experimentally validates the method.

The introduction of immunotherapy into cancer treatment has radically changed clinical management of tumors. However, only a minority of patients (approximately 10 to 30%) exhibit long-term response to monotherapy with immunotherapy. Moreover, there are still many cancer types, including pancreatic cancer and glioma, which are resistant to immunotherapy. Due to the immunomodulatory effects of radiotherapy, the combination of radiotherapy and immunotherapy has achieved better therapeutic effects in a number of clinical trials. However, radiotherapy is a double-edged sword in the sense that it also attenuates the immune system under certain doses and fractionation schedules, not all clinical trials show improved survival in the combination of radiotherapy and immunotherapy. Therefore, elucidation of the interactions between radiotherapy and the immune system is warranted to optimize the synergistic effects of radiotherapy and immunotherapy. In this review, we highlight the dark side as well as bright side of radiotherapy on tumor immune microenvironment and immune system. We also elucidate current status of radioimmunotherapy, both in preclinical and clinical studies, and highlight that combination of radiotherapy and immunotherapy attenuates combinatorial effects in some circumstances. Moreover, we provide insights for better combination of radiotherapy and immunotherapy., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Three new species, Pseudocandonacheni sp. nov. , Cyclocyprispangi sp. nov. , and Tonnacyprisrectangularis sp. nov. , collected from northern China, are described in this study. Pseudocandonacheni , of the compressa group, is difficult to be distinguished from other members of the same group by carapace morphology alone, but can be readily recognised by the structure of the hemipenis comprised of a long lobe a , distally inflated lobe h , and exteriorly pointed lobe b , as well as thick trunks of the male fifth limb endopodites. Cyclocyprispangi , despite its similarity in carapace morphology to its congeners, can be identified based on the morphology of the hemipenis, which bears a slender, slightly curved lobe h , and an S-shaped process accompanying lobe b , in addition to the rectangular trunk of the male fifth limb endopodite. On the other hand, Tonnacyprisrectangularis , described on the basis of females only, can be distinguished from other Tonnacypris Diebel & Pietrzeniuk, 1975 representatives by its distinct sub-rectangular carapace alone. Other differences include the length of the swimming setae, the length of the distal claws on the second antennae, and the morphology of the pincer organ on the seventh limb. This study contributes to the poorly known extant non-marine ostracod fauna of Inner Mongolia and Beijing, and generally to the central-eastern Palaearctic region. In addition, the known distribution range of Tonnacypris is extended eastwardly by T.rectangularis . The valve-morphology data are useful for identifying fossil/sub-fossil representatives., (Na Yu, Shunxin Ma, Qianwei Wang, Dayou Zhai.)

Bioceramics are widely used in bone tissue repair and regeneration due to their desirable biocompatibility and bioactivity. However, the brittleness of bioceramics results in difficulty of surgical operation, which greatly limits their clinical applications. The spicules of the marine sponge Euplectella aspergillum ( Ea ) possess high flexibility and fracture toughness resulting from concentric layered silica glued by a thin organic layer. Inspired by the unique properties of sponge spicules, flexible bioceramic-based scaffolds with spicule-like concentric layered biomimetic microstructures were constructed by combining two-dimensional (2D) bioceramics and 3D printing. 2D bioceramics could be assembled and aligned by modulating the shear force field in the direct ink writing (DIW) of 3D printing. The prepared spicules-inspired flexible bioceramic-based (SFB) scaffolds differentiated themselves from traditional 3D-printed irregular particles-based bioceramic-based scaffolds as they could be adaptably compressed, cut, folded, rolled and twisted without the occurrence of fracture, significantly breaking through the bottleneck of inherent brittleness of traditional bioceramic scaffolds. In addition, SFB scaffolds showed significantly enhanced in vitro and in vivo bone-forming bioactivity as compared to conventional β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) scaffolds, suggesting that SFB scaffolds combined both of excellent mechanical and bioactive characteristics, which is believed to greatly promote the bioceramic science and their clinical applications., (© 2022 IOP Publishing Ltd.)

Ovarian cancer (OC) is ranked as the leading cause of death among cancers of the female reproductive tract. First-line platinum treatment faces the severe challenges associated with the patient relapse and poor prognosis. Thus, it is imperative to develop natural antitumor drugs for OC with high efficacy. Natural polysaccharides have significant biological activities and antitumor effects. Our work has demonstrated that polysaccharides play key roles by inhibiting the cell proliferation and growth, regulating the tumor cell cycle, inducing apoptosis, suppressing the tumor cell migration and invasion, improving the immunomodulatory activities, and enhancing the efficacy of chemotherapy (cisplatin) in OC, which provide powerful evidence for the application of polysaccharides as novel anticancer agents, supplementary remedies, and adjunct therapeutic agents alone or in combination with cisplatin for preventing and treating the OC., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Wang, Cai, Sun, Cheng, Zhai, Ni and Yu.)