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PSMA3, a member of the proteasome subunit, has been shown to play a major player in protein degradation. Reportedly, PSMA3 functions as a negative regulator in various cancers including colon, pancreatic and gastric cancers. However, the contributions of PSMA3 to the progression of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and the underlying mechanism remain unclear. Therefore, in this study, we investigated whether PSMA3 is involved in ESCC progression and the potential underlying mechanism. The results revealed that PSMA3 was highly expressed in the ESCC tumor tissues and functioned as a negative indicator according to the data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)/Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets and clinical patients' samples. Pathway enrichment analysis showed that PSMA3 was closely correlated with ESCC cancer stemness and the inflammatory response; however, this correlation was absent after knockdown of PSMA3 in vitro. We further demonstrated that PSMA3 suppressed CD8+ T‐cells infiltration depending on the C‐C motif chemokine ligand 3 (CCL3)/C‐C motif chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) axis. Collectively, these results demonstrate the role of PSMA3 in ESCC cancer stemness and the negative regulation of CD8 T‐cells infiltration mediated by PSMA3. The results of this study may provide a potential target for the immuno‐oncology effect of PSMA3 in ESCC therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodegradable hydrogel electrolytes are particularly attractive in the fabrication of all‐solid‐state supercapacitors due to environmental benignity and avoiding of leakage. The introduction of "water‐in‐salt" (WIS) electrolytes into hydrogels will further broaden the electrochemical stability window of aqueous supercapacitors significantly. Meanwhile, the addition of an organic co‐solvent can effectively overcome the inevitable salt precipitation and extend the temperature adaptability. Herein, an in situ cross‐linking approach was demonstrated without any extra binder to obtain a "dimethyl sulfoxide/water‐in‐salt"‐based (DWIS) chitosan hydrogel electrolyte. Interestingly, the addition of 4–7 mol L−1 of lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI) salts not only conforms to the criterion of WIS, but also promoted the successful gelation through the supramolecular complexation between Li+‐solvated complexes and chitosan chains. A hydrogel‐based all‐solid‐state supercapacitor was fabricated using the DWIS chitosan hydrogel as the electrolyte and separator while nitrogen‐doped graphene hydrogel (NG) was used as the electrode. The optimized supercapacitor with a wide operating voltage of 2.1 V showed a high specific capacitance of 107.6 F g−1 at 1 A g−1, remarkable capacitance retention of 80.1 % after 5000 cycles, a superior energy density of 62.9 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 1025.5 W kg−1, and excellent temperature stability in the range of −20 to 70 °C. These findings suggest that the as‐prepared hydrogel electrolyte holds great potential in the practical application of high‐performance solid‐state energy storage devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A deep eutectic solvent (DES) ionic gel is fabricated rapidly under mild conditions. The acrylic acid monomer is polymerized based on a dual self‐catalytic system between Vitamin C (VC) and metal ions, such as Fe3+ in the presence of ammonium persulfate in the DES of betaine and ethylene glycol. The as‐obtained PAA/DES ionic gel possesses excellent conductivity between 0.1 and 1.3 S m−1 in a wide range of temperatures from 0 to 90 °C. Moreover, it also shows an ultra‐stretchable performance with stretch more than 200 times its original length even under a stretching rate of 100 mm min−1. Besides, it can operate in harsh conditions because of its anti‐freezing and anti‐drying properties. The ionic gel is self‐healing, and the stretching and conductive performance can be recovered after it is broken. These superior properties of the DES ionic gel provide new insights into the design of novel gels in various applications, such as tissue engineering, sensing, and wearable electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]