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Exploring MoS2-based sulfur hosts with high performance is an effective strategy for promoting the extensive application of Li–S batteries.

A copper foam supported N-doped carbon nanowire array confined CoP nanoparticle hybrid (CoP@NCNWAs/CF) as an efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting.

Background: Retroperitoneal approach and segmental renal artery clamping in partial nephrectomy are techniques that facilitate postoperative recovery and renal function preservation. This study aimed to compare the renal function preservation and perioperative outcomes of robot-assisted partial nephrectomy (RAPN) and laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN) with these techniques. Materials and Methods: Clinical parameters of 43 patients who had undergone retroperitoneal RAPN from March 2017 to December 2019 were retrospectively collected and compared with those of 52 patients who had undergone retroperitoneal LPN at the same period in our institution. Differences in operating time, warm ischemia time, estimated blood loss, complications, postoperative hospital stay, as well as renal function loss were compared between the two groups. Results: Background characteristics between RAPN and LPN groups such as age, gender, BMI, and tumor characteristics were comparable. All RAPNs and LPNs were successfully completed without conversion to open surgery or nephrectomy. No significant difference in operating time, estimated blood loss, complications, and postoperative hospital stay was observed between RAPN and LPN groups. The warm ischemia time in RAPN group was slightly shorter than that of LPN groups (P = .054). Compared with the LPN group, the RAPN group was significantly associated with less glomerular filtration rate reduction and renal volume loss rate (P = .042 and P = .013, respectively). Conclusions: The perioperative outcomes were comparable between the two groups. However, compared with LPN, RAPN had superiority in preserving renal function in our series.

Background: Pyroptosis may affect cancer progression by regulating the tumor microenvironment (TME) and biological function of cancer cells. The relationship between pyroptosis-related genes (PRGs) and prostate adenocarcinoma (PRAD) and its TME is unclear. Method: In our study, we carried out an overall bioinformatics analysis to build a prognostic PRGs model based on TME and molecular heterogeneity and external validation, then verified the relationship between PRGs and PRAD cells through cell experiments. The relationship between PRGs and tumor-immune cells, immune pathways, immune infiltration, cell-cell communication, genomic alteration tumor mutation burden, microsatellite-instability and drug sensitivity were analyzed. Results: A total of 36 PRGs were up- or down-regulated in PRAD. Functional enrichment analysis indicated that 33 PRGs were mostly involved in Salmonella infection, apoptosis and some signaling pathways (NOD-like receptor, C-type lectin receptor, AGE-RAGE, Cytosolic DNA-sensing, TNF and p53). We identified five prognostic genes (CHMP4C, PLGG1, TP53, GSDMB and PJVK) and constructed a PRGs model to predict progression free survival (PFS) in PRAD patients with high accuracy. And, it was verified with an external database. We found that there was a marked correlation between prognostic PRGs and immune cells, immune pathway, immune cell infiltration, tumor mutation burden and microsatellite instability. Finally, we increased the level of pyroptosis by LPS and established an RNA interference cell line. It was found that the protein expression of NT-GSDMD decreased. Meanwhile, knocking out the above genes affected their promotion of the proliferation of PRAD cells. The above experiments further showed that the five genes were indeed related to pyroptosis. Conclusion: We established PRGs signatures based on immune microenvironment and molecular heterogeneity through public data and verified them through external data and cell experiments. Our results might help to better understand the impact of proptosis on the progress of PRAD, and provided a new direction for the treatment of PRAD patients.

The exploration of efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) under alkaline conditions is an important way to promote the development of electrolytic water technology. Herein, the reduced graphene oxide-supported MoO42- modified amorphous cobalt metaphosphate cubes (a-Co(PO3)2/MoO4/rGO) as bifunctional OER/HER catalyst is prepared by anion exchange and phosphating, using the Prussian blue analogue (PBA) as a precursor. The resulting composite exhibits the low overpotentials (η) that of 290 and 50 mV for OER and HER in 1.0 M KOH solution at 10 mA cm-2, respectively. The electrochemical test and density functional theory (DFT) results reveal that the MoO42--modified optimizes the adsorption/desorption energy of H* of Co(PO3)2, thus enhance the HER activity. Benefiting from efficient HER and OER performances, an efficient and stable alkaline water electrolysis operation using a-Co(PO3)2/MoO4/rGO used as bifunctional catalyst can be carried out, which can deliver a current density (j) of 20 mA cm−2 at 1.65 V cell voltage and work continuously for 24 h.

The objective of this study is to systematically evaluate the diagnostic performance of the Vesical Imaging-Reporting and Data System for predicting muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Embase, PubMed and Web of Science were systematically searched from 1 September 2018 to 30 July 2021 to include proper studies. We included studies that included data on Vesical Imaging-Reporting and Data System and their associated pathological findings, and we assessed their quality using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 tool. The pooled sensitivity and specificity were calculated and plotted using hierarchical summary receiver operating characterisijutic modeling. Meta-regression analysis was carried out to detect heterogeneity. A total of 20 studies with 2725 patients were included. When the cut-off point was 3, the pooled sensitivity and specificity were 0.92 (0.89-0.94) and 0.85 (0.78-0.90), respectively, and 0.82 (0.75-0.88) and 0.95 (0.91-0.97), respectively, when the cut-off point was 4. The area under the curve was 0.95 and 0.95, respectively. Heterogeneity was substantially considerable in sensitivity and specificity. All subgroup variables, including patient number, study design, magnetic resonance imaging field strength, number of radiologists, surgery pattern, diffusion-weighted imaging, and dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, contributed to sensitivity heterogeneity when the cut-off point was 3 and specificity heterogeneity when the cut-off point was 4. Multiple image acquisition plane of diffusion-weighted imaging achieved a higher sensitivity than single image acquisition plane of diffusion-weighted imaging in both the Vesical Imaging-Reporting and Data System 3 and 4 groups, and higher specificity in the Vesical Imaging-Reporting and Data System 4 group. Another significant source of heterogeneity was the cut-off point. The diagnostic performance of the Vesical Imaging-Reporting and Data System for predicting muscle-invasive bladder cancer was excellent in both cut-off points of the Vesical Imaging-Reporting and Data System 3 and 4. Multiple image acquisition planes of diffusion-weighted imaging should be given more attention in the Vesical Imaging-Reporting and Data System.

Introduction: The treatment of renal artery aneurysms (RAAs) includes surgical repair and endovascular techniques. Surgical repair is divided into open surgery repair and laparoscopic surgery repair. Laparoscopic RAA has fewer postoperative complications than open surgery. Some experiences with robotic RAA repair via transperitoneal access have been recently reported. However, no report could be found on the treatment of retroperitoneal RAA with the da Vinci robot-assisted surgery thus far. Case Presentation: Here, the surgical management of an 8.6-mm right-sided RAA via robot-assisted laparoscopic retroperitoneal approach in a 58-year-old man who presented with flank discomfort is reported. The aneurysm was resected, and the renal artery was reconstructed. The total operative time was 2 h with a warm ischemia time of 25 min, and the estimated surgical blood loss was 50 mL. The patient resumed a regular diet on postoperative day 2, and the hospital stay lasted 5 days. No intraoperative nor postoperative morbidity was reported. Follow-up imaging and functional analysis demonstrated resolution of the aneurysm and preservation of renal function after 2.5 months. Conclusions: Robot-assisted laparoscopic retroperitoneal RAA repair is flexible and safe. The greatest advantage of retroperitoneal surgery is direct access to the renal artery. Furthermore, it could reduce the injury in the abdominal organs and avoid abdominal adhesion. This approach may also allow for improved postoperative recovery, reduce the morbidity correlated with transperitoneal RAA, and thus may be considered as an alternative to transperitoneal surgery for RAAs in the future.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been applied to predict the neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) response of bladder cancer at an early stage, but the performance remains poor. A tool for the selection of patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) with high probability of benefitting from NAC is not yet available. We designed a prospective study to assess a quantitative MRI for predicting the early response of MIBC to NAC.All individuals underwent a time-course MRI at pre-NAC, 24 h after initial cisplatin medication (24 h-NAC) and post-NAC.Chemosensitivity was evaluated according to pathological response.The transfer constant (KIn this pilot study, a total of 24 patients were enrolled into the study. Eight patients were pathologically confirmed to be NAC-responders. After a thorough evaluation of these parameters, different parameters showed good discrimination at different point in time. ROC curves showed quantitative MRI can predict the response to NAC, especially ADC_M (AUC = 0.859, P = 0.005) and ADC index (AUC = 0.844, P = 0.007) at pre-NAC timing and ADC_M (AUC = 0.816, P = 0.013) at 24 h-NAC timing. Then, a qRECIST model was established for predicting NAC sensitivity, with AUC of 0.91, TP rate of 0.8, and accuracy of 0.75.The diagnostic performance of mpMRI parameters for NAC response is excellent. The qRECIST derived between pre- and 24 h NAC MRI could predict the early response of MIBC to NAC and help for candidate selection.

Synthesis of hybrid architectures for sulfur host materials has been certificated as an efficient way to enhance the performances of lithium-sulfur (Li–S) batteries owing to the generated synergetic effects from each component. However, it remains challenging to construct hybrid nanostructures with reasonable structure and rational composition to achieve high-performance of Li–S batteries. Here, a coordinated nanostructure constituted of the Mo2C nanoparticles embedded in the micro-flowered high content N-doped (11.73 at.%) carbon substrate (Mo2C@NC) is synthesized via using protonated g-C3N4 as the template, which is used as the sulfur host for Li–S batteries. Owing to the physical entrapment from the porous carbon substrate with special micro-flower morphology, and the synergistic chemisorption from pyridine N sites and polar Mo2C nanoparticles, the as-prepared Mo2C@NC can afford a high content of sulfur loading and enables fast/reliable sulfur electrochemistry. Given these, the Mo2C@NC based cathode with a high sulfur content of 76% delivers a high initial discharge capacity of 1403.7 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C. Even at a high rate of 2.0 C, it still shows desirable electrochemical performances with an initial capacity of 910.6 mAh g−1 and superb cycling stability with an average capacity decay rate of only 0.001% per cycle over 500 cycles. Moreover, upon a high sulfur loading of 5.5 mg cm −2, the Mo2C@NC/S cathode can still maintain decent sulfur related electrochemistry and achieves a high areal capacity of 5.56 mAh cm−2 with excellent stability. It is expected this work provides a new perspective to the rational design of conductive and polar material that suitable for high-efficiency and long-lasting Li–S batteries.

Accelerating phase transposition efficiency of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) to L

OBJECTIVE Patients with obesity are at increased risk of exacerbations from viral respiratory infections. However, the association of obesity with the severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is unclear. We examined this association using data from the only referral hospital in Shenzhen, China. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 383 consecutively hospitalized patients with COVID-19 admitted from 11 January 2020 to 16 February 2020 and followed until 26 March 2020 at the Third People’s Hospital of Shenzhen were included. Underweight was defined as a BMI RESULTS Of the 383 patients, 53.1% were normal weight, 4.2% were underweight, 32.0% were overweight, and 10.7% were obese at admission. Obese patients tended to have symptoms of cough (P = 0.03) and fever (P = 0.06) compared with patients who were not obese. Compared with normal weight patients, those who were overweight had 1.84-fold odds of developing severe COVID-19 (odds ratio [OR] 1.84, 95% CI 0.99–3.43, P = 0.05), while those who were obese were at 3.40-fold odds of developing severe disease (OR 3.40, 95% CI 1.40–2.86, P = 0.007), after adjusting for age, sex, epidemiological characteristics, days from disease onset to hospitalization, presence of hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, liver disease, and cancer, and drug used for treatment. Additionally, after similar adjustment, men who were obese versus those who were normal weight were at increased odds of developing severe COVID-19 (OR 5.66, 95% CI 1.80–17.75, P = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS In this study, obese patients had increased odds of progressing to severe COVID-19. As the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 may continue to spread worldwide, clinicians should pay close attention to obese patients, who should be carefully managed with prompt and aggressive treatment.

The exploration of efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) under alkaline conditions is an importantway to promote the development of electrolytic water technology. Herein, the reduced graphene oxide-supported MoO

The shuttle effect caused by soluble lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) and intrinsic slow electrochemical transformation from LiPSs to Li

Prostate adenocarcinoma (PRAD) is the highest incidence rate of male urogenital morbidity worldwide. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), as a significant class of gene expression regulators, play a critical role in immune regulation. The purpose of this study is to explore a new immune related lncRNA signature to exactly predict the prognosis of PRAD patients. In this study, we conducted a genome-wide comparative analysis of lncRNA expression profiles in 532 patients with PRAD from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The immune-related lncRNAs were identified by Cox regression model, and then a new five immune-related lncRNAs signature (FRMD6-AS2, AC008770.3, AC109460.3, AC011899.2, and AC008063.1) were constructed, which could predict the prognosis of PRAD patients. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that the signature could be an independent prognostic indicator of overall survival (OS). Through further study of different clinic-pathological parameters, we found that PRAD samples can be divided into high-risk groups with shorter OS and low-risk groups with longer OS by the signature. Principal component analysis showed that five immune-related lncRNA signature could distinguish the high-risk group from low-risk group in view of the immune-related lncRNAs. The difference of immune status between the two groups was observed by gene set enrichment analysis and the ESTIMATE algorithm. Except FRMD6-AS2, the expression of the other 4 lncRNAs were remarkably up-regulated in tumor tissues. In conclusion, the identified five immune-related lncRNAs signature had important clinical significance in prognosis prediction, and can be used as potential immunotherapy targets for PRAD patients.

The commercial viability of Li-S batteries was obstructed by short cycle life and poor capability owing to slow redox kinetics and polysulfide shuttle effect. To tackle these challenges, the amorphous CoP anchored on N-doped carbon nanospheres with hollow porous structures (CoP/HCS) has been synthesized as a superior sulfur host via a facial pyrolysis approach. The debilitating effect would be hampered during the cycling processing resulting from two reasons:(1) the powerful chemical anchoring between unsaturated Co and Li-polysulfides, (2) the remarkable adaption of volume variation originating from the hollow porous architectures. The amorphous CoP nanoparticles not only catalyze the transformation of lithium polysulfides as electrocatalyst, but also acquired a high sulfur loading as sulfur host materials. More importantly, the synergistic incorporation of CoP and HCS improved the inherit low conductivity by anchoring on the N-doped carbon hollow, thus leading to excellent performance for Li-S batteries. Benefiting from these advantages, the amorphous CoP/HCS-based sulfur electrodes exhibited outstanding rate performance (685.6 mAh g−1 at 3C), excellent long-cycling stability with a low capacity decay of only 0.03% per cycle over 1000 cycles at 2C, and a high areal capacity of 5.16 mAh cm−2 under high sulfur loading.

The treatment of renal artery aneurysms (RAAs) includes surgical repair and endovascular techniques. Surgical repair is divided into open surgery repair and laparoscopic surgery repair. Laparoscopic RAA has fewer postoperative complications than open surgery. Some experiences with robotic RAA repair via transperitoneal access have been recently reported. However, no report could be found on the treatment of retroperitoneal RAA with the da Vinci robot-assisted surgery thus far.Here, the surgical management of an 8.6-mm right-sided RAA via robot-assisted laparoscopic retroperitoneal approach in a 58-year-old man who presented with flank discomfort is reported. The aneurysm was resected, and the renal artery was reconstructed. The total operative time was 2 h with a warm ischemia time of 25 min, and the estimated surgical blood loss was 50 mL. The patient resumed a regular diet on postoperative day 2, and the hospital stay lasted 5 days. No intraoperative nor postoperative morbidity was reported. Follow-up imaging and functional analysis demonstrated resolution of the aneurysm and preservation of renal function after 2.5 months.Robot-assisted laparoscopic retroperitoneal RAA repair is flexible and safe. The greatest advantage of retroperitoneal surgery is direct access to the renal artery. Furthermore, it could reduce the injury in the abdominal organs and avoid abdominal adhesion. This approach may also allow for improved postoperative recovery, reduce the morbidity correlated with transperitoneal RAA, and thus may be considered as an alternative to transperitoneal surgery for RAAs in the future.

Background: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are noncoding RNAs that have the structure of a covalently closed loop. Increasing data has proved that circRNA can influence the development and progression of tumors. CircFAM114A2 is generated from several exons of FAM114A2. However, the function and mechanisms of circFAM114A2 in bladder cancer (BCa) remain unclear. This research aimed to reveal that circFAM114A2 inhibits bladder cancer progression and improves sensitivity of cisplatin chemotherapy by inducing G1/S cell cycle arrest via novel miR-222-3p/P27 and miR-146a-5p/P21 cascades.Methods: Here, to elucidate the potential roles of circFAM114A2 in BCa, we conducted RNA-sequencing on 5 pairs of BCa samples and screened for circRNAs. CircRNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs) and mRNAs, as well as levels of P27 and P21, in human cells and tissues were detected by qRT-PCR and western blot, respectively. CircRNA-miRNA interactions and miRNA-downstream mRNAs interactions were investigated by RNA pull-down assay and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) or luciferase reporter assays, respectively. Then, the function of circFAM114A2 in BCa was explored using cell proliferation, cell cycle and tumorigenesis assays in nude mice. Finally, the function of circFAM114A2 in cisplatin chemo-sensitivity in BCa was detected by IC50 and tumor formation of xenograft in cisplatin-treated nude mice. Results: We discovered that circFAM114A2 levels were decreased in BCa cell lines and tissues. According to follow-up data, BCa patients with higher circFAM114A2 expression had better survival. Importantly, the levels of circFAM114A2 were associated with the histological grade of BCa. Overexpression of circFAM114A2 inhibited cell proliferation and increased sensitivity to cisplatin chemotherapy. Mechanistically, circFAM114A2 directly sponged miR-222-3p/miR-146a-5p and subsequently influenced the expression of the downstream target genes P27/P21, which, in turn, inhibited progression of BCa.Conclusions: CircFAM114A2 acted as a tumor suppressor through a novel circFAM114A2/miR-222-3p/P27 and circFAM114A2/miR-146a-5p/P21 pathway. CircFAM1142 has therefore great potential as a prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for BCa.

Development of cost-efficeint and high activity muli-functional catalysts for gas-involved reactions such as Oxygen reduction evolution (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution recation reaction (HER) is desirable but challenging. Herein, low-loading of Iridium (Ir) (≈2.3 wt%) decorated cobalt nanoparticles embedded in nitrogen-doped carbon nanotube/porous carbon sheets (IrCo@NCNT/PC) is prepared to serve as the OER/HER/ORR trifunctional electrocatalyst. The resulting composites demonstrate excellent OER and HER activity in both acidic and alkaline electrolytes, including low overpotentials at 10 mA cm−2 (η10) for OER (about 291 and 240 mV) and HER (about 26.8 and 37 mV), respectively, which are superior to the benchmarking Pt/C and IrO2 catalysts. Hence, low cell voltages of 1.51 and 1.45 V are required at j = 10 mA cm−2 (j10) for overall water splitting (OWS) in the acidic and alkaline electrolytes, respectively. In addition, the as-prepared IrCo@NCNT/PC also shows efficient ORR performance with a high half-wave potential (E1/2) of 0.83 V vs. RHE. It is then used as the air cathode for rechargeable Zn-air battery (r-ZAB), and exhibits an outstanding specific capacity (810 mAh g−1), low charge-discharge polarization (ΔE = 0.896 V at j = 50 mA cm−2) and long cycling performance (increased only 0.15 V after 195 cycles).

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is widely accepted and prescribed in China alongside Nucleoside analogs (NAs). In this double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, multi-center trial, we evaluated whether entecavir (ETV) plus TCM formulas Tiao-Gan-Yi-Pi granule (TGYP) and Tiao-Gan-Jian-Pi-Jie-Du granule (TGJPJD) increase the rate of hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) loss in Chinese patients. 596 eligible participants were randomly assigned, in a 1:1 ratio, to two study groups in this 108-week trial: The experiment group was assigned ETV plus the TCM formula. The control group was assigned ETV plus a TCM placebo. We compared the rate of HBeAg loss by the end of week 108 between the two arms as the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes included hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) level, proportion of undetectable HBV-DNA, and liver enzymes (ALT, AST, GGT) at week 108. The combination therapy achieved superior HBeAg loss at 108 weeks, without additional adverse events. The rate of HBeAg loss at week 108 was 37.54% (95% CI 31.9–43.2%) in the experiment group and 27.21% (95% CI 22.0–32.4%) in the control group. There was a statistically significant difference between the two arms of 10.33% (95% CI 8.4–12.3%, p = 0.008). The DNA loss rate, serum HBsAg level, and liver enzymes were similar between the groups by the end of 108th week. Combining the Chinese herbal formula with ETV therapy demonstrated superior HBeAg clearance compared with ETV monotherapy. This finding indicates that this combined therapy could produce an improved therapeutic effect and safety profile. ChiCTR-TRC-12002784 (Chinese Clinical Trial Registry).

Since the breakthrough discoveries of DNA and histone modifications, the field of RNA modifications has gained increasing interest in the scientific community. The discovery of N6-methyladenosine (m6A), a predominantly internal epigenetic modification in eukaryotes mRNA, heralded the creation of the field of epi-transcriptomics. This post-transcriptional RNA modification is dynamic and reversible, and is regulated by methylases, demethylases and proteins that preferentially recognize m6A modifications. Altered m6A levels affect RNA processing, degradation and translation, thereby disrupting gene expression and key cellular processes, ultimately resulting in tumor initiation and progression. Furthermore, inhibitors and regulators of m6A-related factors have been explored as therapeutic approaches for treating cancer. In the present review, the mechanisms of m6A RNA modification, the clinicopathological relevance of m6A alterations, the type and frequency of alterations and the multiple functions it regulates in different types of cancer are discussed.

BackgroundNucleos(t)ide analogues (NAs) are the first-line option against chronic hepatitis B (CHB). NAs produce potent suppression of viral replication with a small chance of HBsAg seroclearance and a high risk of virological relapse after discontinuation. The combined therapy of NAs plus traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is widely accepted and has been recognized as a prospective alternative approach in China. Based on preliminary works, this study was designed to observe the therapeutic effect of TCM plus entecavir (ETV) against HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B with respect to reducing the recurrence risk after NA withdrawal.Methods/designThe study is a nationwide, multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial with a duration of 120 weeks. A total of 18 hospitals and 490 eligible Chinese HBeAg-positive CHB patients will be enrolled and randomly allocated into the experimental group and control group in a 1:1 ratio. Patients in the experimental group will be prescribed TCM formulae (Tiaogan-BuXu-Jiedu granules) plus ETV 0.5 mg per day for consolidation therapy for 96 weeks. Patients in the control group will be prescribed TCM granule placebo plus ETV 0.5 mg per day for the same course. After consolidation therapy, all patients will discontinue their trial drugs and be closely monitored over the next 24 weeks. Once clinical recurrence (CR) occurs, ETV treatment will be restarted. The primary outcome is the cumulative rate of CR at the end of this trial.ConclusionThis study is the first of its kind to observe therapeutic effects with respect to reducing recurrence after NA withdrawals after unified integrative consolidation therapy in the CHB population.Trial registrationChinese Clinical Trial Registry No.ChiCTR1900021232. Registered on February 2, 2019

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most commonly occurring internal RNA modification to be found in eukaryotic mRNA and serves an important role in various physiological events. AlkB homolog 5 RNA demethylase (ALKBH5), an m6A demethylase, belongs to the AlkB family of dioxygenases and has been shown to specifically demethylate m6A in RNA, which is associated with a variety of tumors. However, its function in bladder cancer remains largely unclear. In the present study, we found that the expression of ALKBH5 was downregulated in bladder cancer tissues and cell lines. Low expression of ALKBH5 was correlated with the worse prognosis of bladder cancer patients. Furthermore, functional assays revealed that knockdown of ALKBH5 promoted bladder cancer cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and decreased cisplatin chemosensitivity in the 5637 and T24 bladder cancer cell lines in vivo and in vitro, whereas ALKBH5 overexpression led to the opposite results. Finally, ALKBH5 inhibited the progression and sensitized bladder cancer cells to cisplatin through a casein kinase 2 (CK2)α-mediated glycolysis pathway in an m6A-dependent manner. Taken together, these findings might provide fresh insights into bladder cancer therapy., Graphical Abstract, Yu et al. show that m6A demethylase ALKBH5 was correlated with the prognosis of bladder cancer patients, inhibited bladder cancer cell proliferation, and sensitized bladder cancer cells to cisplatin in vitro and in vivo by CK2α-mediated glycolysis in an m6A-dependent manner, which might provide fresh insights into bladder cancer therapy.

Additional file 1: Table S1. The alterations frequency of m6A regulators across 15 cancer types.

Background: Nucleos(t)ide analogs (NAs) are the first-line options against chronic hepatitis B (CHB). NAs produce a potent suppression of viral replication but are associated with tiny opportunity of HBsAg seroclearance and high risks of virological relapse after discontinuation. The combined therapy of NAs plus traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is widely accepted and has been recognized as a prospective alternative approach in China. Based on preliminary works, this study is designed to observe the therapeutic effect of TCM plus entecavir (ETV) against HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B with respect to reducing the recurrence risk after NAs withdrawal.Methods/design: The study is a nationwide, multi-center, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial with a designed duration of 120 weeks. A total of 18 hospitals and 490 eligible Chinese HBeAg-positive CHB patients will be enrolled and randomly allocated into the Experimental group and Control group in a 1:1 ratio. Patients in the experimental group will be prescribed with TCM formulae (Tiao-Gan-Jian-Pi-Jie-Du granule) plus ETV 0.5mg per day for consolidation therapy of 96 weeks. Patients in the control group will be prescribed with TCM granule placebo plus ETV 0.5mg per day for the same course. After the consolidation therapy, all patients will discontinue their trial drugs and closely monitored in the next 24 weeks. Once clinical recurrence (CR) occurs, ETV treatment will be restarted. The primary outcome is the accumulative rate of CR at the end of this trial.Conclusion: This study is the first of its kind to observe therapeutic effects in respect of reducing recurrence after drug withdrawals after a unified integrative consolidation therapy in CHB population.

The shuttle effect caused by soluble lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) and intrinsic slow electrochemical transformation from LiPSs to Li2 S/Li2 S2 will induce undesirable cycling performance, which is the primary obstruct limiting the practical applications of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. Here a convenient method is designed to fabricate the 2D louts-like N-Co2 VO4 -Co heterostructures with well-abundant interfaces and oxygen vacancies (Vo ), endowing the materials with both "sulfiphilic" and "lithiophilic" features. When employed as the modification layer coated on commercial Celgard 2400 separator, the as-prepared N-Co2 VO4 -Co/PP with synergistic adsorption-electrocatalysis effects achieves desirable sulfur electrochemistry, thus showing a high initial discharge capacity of 1466.4 mAh g-1 at 0.1 C and stable cycle life with a fade rate of 0.03% per cycle over 1000 cycle at 3.0 C. Moreover, a superior areal capacity of 12.84 mAh cm-2 is preserved under high sulfur loading of 14.3 mg cm-2 .

The effective inhibition of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) and promotion of their conversion in the redox processes is indispensable to achieve the long cycle stability and excellent rate performance of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. Especially, the generally slow electrocatalytic sulfur redox kinetics and large interfacial Li2S nucleation energy barriers have hindered the widespread application of Li-S batteries. Herein, a robust three-dimensional sulfur carrier (denoted as Co-NCNT) is well-constructed using the potassium citrate derived porous carbon sheets as substrate and the catalytic growth nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanotubes as vertical scaffolds. Such a rationally designed structure guarantees efficient electron transfer pathways and ions diffusion channels. More importantly, it is conducive to the adsorption/catalytic conversion of intermediate lithium polysulfides and the nucleation of Li2S. Due to these merits, the S@Co-NCNT cathode achieves an initial discharge capacity up to 1072.7 mAh g−1 at 1.0 C, and it can retain a high capacity of 482.9 mAh g−1 with a capacity attenuation rate of only 0.045% per cycle after 1000 cycles. Upon a high sulfur loading of 5.87 mg cm−2, the S@Co-NCNT electrode can still reach an initial capacity of 739.5 mAh g−1 at 0.3 C. Particular emphasis is that our work broadens the way to prepare well-designed carbonaceous materials sulfur host for long-life Li-S batteries.

Directly pyrolyzing organometal complex represents a judicious strategy to fabricate efficient multifunctional carbon-based electrocatalysts, but the structure/composition of the catalysts is commonly complicated and the corresponding electrocatalytic activities are usually compromised. In this study, we report a selective leaching route to prepare small Co9S8 nanoparticles supported on nitrogen, sulfur codoped porous carbon nanosheets (Co9S8@PNSC) by pyrolyzing sheet-like Co(II)-coordinated thiourea-ethylenediamine-formaldehyde resin (Co-TEFR)/polydopamine (PDA) hybrids that are covered by silica shell layer, followed by removal of the silica and Co nanoparticles with NH4HF2 through a wet etching method. Consequently, the resultant Co9S8@PNSC exhibits high specific surface area, hierarchical porosity and tiny Co9S8 nanoparticles, which are conducive to the maximal utilization of active sites, endowing remarkable oxygen electrocatalysis with a half-wave potential of +0.845 V for oxygen reduction reaction and a low overpotential of 314 mV at current density of 10 mA cm−2 for oxygen evolution reaction. Besides, such composite also shows a considerable electrocatalytic performance for hydrogen generation. When applied in an assembled zinc-air battery, Co9S8@PNSC displays a high power-density (203 mW cm−2) and favorable cycling lifespan. The results from the present strategy may provide an exemplification in rational design and fabrication of carbon-based nanocomposite for high-performance multifunctional electrocatalysis.

We employ numerical simulations to study active transistor-like switches made from two-dimensional (2D) granular crystals containing two types of grains with the same size but different masses. We tune the mass contrast and arrangement of the grains to maximize the width of the frequency band gap in the device. The input signal is applied to a single grain on one side of the device, and the output signal is measured from another grain on the other side of the device. Changing the size of one or many grains tunes the pressure, which controls the vibrational response of the device. Switching between the on and off states is achieved using two mechanisms: (1) pressure-induced switching where the interparticle contact network is the same in the on and off states and (2) switching through contact breaking. In general, the performance of the acoustic switch, as captured by the gain ratio and switching time between the on and off states, is better for pressure-induced switching. We show that in these acoustic switches the gain ratio between the on and off states can be larger than 10^{4} and the switching time (multiplied by the driving frequency) is comparable to that obtained recently for sonic crystals and less than that for photonic transistor-like switches. Since the self-assembly of grains with different masses into 2D granular crystals is challenging, we describe simulations of circular grains with small circular knobs placed symmetrically around the perimeter mixed with circular grains without knobs. Using umbrella sampling techniques, we show that grains with six knobs most efficiently form the hexagonal crystals that yield the largest frequency band gap. Using the simulation results, we estimate the time required for vibration experiments to generate granular crystals of millimeter-sized steel beads with maximal band gaps.