Stretchable self‐healing supercapacitors (SCs) can operate under extreme deformation and restore their initial properties after damage with considerably improved durability and reliability, expanding ...their opportunities in numerous applications, including smart wearable electronics, bioinspired devices, human–machine interactions, etc. It is challenging, however, to achieve mechanical stretchability and self‐healability in energy storage technologies, wherein the key issue lies in the exploitation of ideal electrode and electrolyte materials with exceptional mechanical stretchability and self‐healing ability besides conductivity. Conductive hydrogels (CHs) possess unique hierarchical porous structure, high electrical/ionic conductivity, broadly tunable physical and chemical properties through molecular design and structure regulation, holding tremendous promise for stretchable self‐healing SCs. Hence, this review is innovatively constructed with a focus on stretchable and self‐healing CH based electrodes and electrolytes for SCs. First, the common synthetic approaches of CHs are introduced; then the stretching and self‐healing strategies involved in CHs are systematically elaborated; followed by an explanation of the conductive mechanism of CHs; then focusing on CH‐based electrodes and electrolytes for stretchable self‐healing SCs; subsequently, application of stretchable and self‐healing SCs in wearable electronics are discussed; finally, a conclusion is drawn along with views on the challenges and future research directions regarding the field of CHs for SCs.
Conductive hydrogels (CHs) are a new class of soft functional materials that have recently found application in flexible energy storage devices such as batteries and supercapacitors (SCs). Herein, the promise of CHs in this emerging field is demonstrated through summarizing their roles as ideal electrode and electrolyte materials for stretchable and self‐healing SCs.
Developing Type‐I photosensitizers is considered as an efficient approach to overcome the deficiency of traditional photodynamic therapy (PDT) for hypoxic tumors. However, it remains a challenge to ...design photosensitizers for generating reactive oxygen species by the Type‐I process. Herein, we report a series of α,β‐linked BODIPY dimers and a trimer that exclusively generate superoxide radical (O2−.) by the Type‐I process upon light irradiation. The triplet formation originates from an effective excited‐state relaxation from the initially populated singlet (S1) to triplet (T1) states via an intermediate triplet (T2) state. The low reduction potential and ultralong lifetime of the T1 state facilitate the efficient generation of O2−. by inter‐molecular charge transfer to molecular oxygen. The energy gap of T1‐S0 is smaller than that between 3O2 and 1O2 thereby precluding the generation of singlet oxygen by the Type‐II process. The trimer exhibits superior PDT performance under the hypoxic environment.
Heavy‐atom‐free boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY)‐based photosensitizers generate ROS exclusively by the Type‐I process upon near‐infrared light illumination for tumor ablation.
Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. Although genomic mutations and single nucleotide polymorphisms have been extensively studied, the epigenomic status in colorectal ...cancer patient tissues remains elusive. Here, together with genomic and transcriptomic analysis, we use ChIP-Seq to profile active enhancers at the genome wide level in colorectal cancer paired patient tissues (tumor and adjacent tissues from the same patients). In total, we sequence 73 pairs of colorectal cancer tissues and generate 147 H3K27ac ChIP-Seq, 144 RNA-Seq, 147 whole genome sequencing and 86 H3K4me3 ChIP-Seq samples. Our analysis identifies 5590 gain and 1100 lost variant enhancer loci in colorectal cancer, and 334 gain and 121 lost variant super enhancer loci. Multiple key transcription factors in colorectal cancer are predicted with motif analysis and core regulatory circuitry analysis. Further experiments verify the function of the super enhancers governing PHF19 and TBC1D16 in regulating colorectal cancer tumorigenesis, and KLF3 is identified as an oncogenic transcription factor in colorectal cancer. Taken together, our work provides an important epigenomic resource and functional factors for epigenetic studies in colorectal cancer.
Since December 2019, novel coronavirus infected pneumonia emerged in Wuhan city and rapidly spread throughout China. In severe novel coronavirus pneumonia cases, the number of platelets, their ...dynamic changes during the treatment, platelet‐to‐lymphocyte ratio (PLR) were a concern. We sought to describe the platelet feature of these cases. Single‐center case series of the 30 hospitalized patients with confirmed coronavirus disease (COVID)‐19 in Huizhou municipal central hospital from January 2020 to February 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. Demographic, clinical, blood routine results, other laboratory results, and treatment data were collected and analyzed. Outcomes of severe patients and nonsevere patients were compared. Univariate analysis showed that: age, platelet peaks, and PLR at peak platelet were the influencing factors in severe patients, multivariate analysis showed that the PLR value at peak platelet during treatment was an independent influencing factor in severe patients. The average hospitalization day of patients with platelet peaks during treatment was longer than those without platelet peaks (P < .05). The average age of patients with platelet peaks during treatment was older than those without platelet peaks (P < .05). The patients with significantly elevated platelets during treatment had longer average hospitalization days. And the higher PLR of patients during treatment had longer average hospitalization days. Single‐center case series of the 30 hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID‐19 in Huizhou Municipal Central Hospital, presumed that the number of platelets and their dynamic changes during the treatment may have a suggestion on the severity and prognosis of the disease. The patient with markedly elevated platelets and longer average hospitalization days may be related to the cytokine storm. The PLR of patients means the degree of cytokine storm, which might provide a new indicator in the monitoring in patients with COVID‐19.
Simple thiol derivatives, such as cysteine (Cys), homocysteine (Hcy), and glutathione (GSH), play key roles in biological processes, and the fluorescent probes to detect such thiols
in vivo
...selectively with high sensitivity and fast response times are critical for understanding their numerous functions. However, the similar structures and reactivities of these thiols pose considerable challenges to the development of such probes. This review focuses on various strategies for the design of fluorescent probes for the selective detection of biothiols. We classify the fluorescent probes for discrimination among biothiols according to reaction types between the probes and thiols such as cyclization with aldehydes, conjugate addition-cyclization with acrylates, native chemical ligation, and aromatic substitution-rearrangement.
This review focuses on various strategies for the design of fluorescent probes for selective detection of biothiols, which are classified according to the unique reaction types between probes and thiols, such as cyclization with aldehydes, conjugate addition-cyclization with acrylates, native chemical ligation, and aromatic substitution-rearrangement.
The authors provide at a look at the biological applications of supramolecular assemblies that have been designed for excitation energy transfer. The topics discussed include biosensors and ...bioimaging.
A facile approach for the preparation of supramolecular polymer‐based fluorescent nanoparticles (FNPs) is reported. FNPs with homogeneous shape and size distribution are fabricated from ...low‐molecular‐weight molecules, and thus, different compositional constituents can be efficiently incorporated via copolymerization. The emission color of the FNPs covers a wide region from blue to near infrared and can be easily tuned using efficient excitation energy transfer. The photoswitchable fluorescent nanoparticles with high on–off fluorescence contrast are also simply prepared by copolymerization of monomers containing a fluorophore and a photochromic unit. Our FNPs are successfully applied in living cell imaging and as fluorescent inks.
A new set of fluorescent nanoparticles (FNPs) are fabricated from hydrogen‐bonded supramolecular polymers. Their preparation is straightforward, and nanoparticles with homogeneous shape and size are obtained. The emission color of the FNPs covers a wide region from blue to near infrared and is easily tunable by excitation energy transfer. These FNPs are successfully used in bioimaging and as fluorescent inks.
We report a ratiometric fluorescent sensor based on monochlorinated BODIPY for highly selective detection of glutathione (GSH) over cysteine (Cys)/homocysteine (Hcy). The chlorine of the ...monochlorinated BODIPY can be rapidly replaced by thiolates of biothiols through thiol–halogen nucleophilic substitution. The amino groups of Cys/Hcy but not GSH further replace the thiolate to form amino-substituted BODIPY. The significantly different photophysical properties of sulfur- and amino-substituted BODIPY enable the discrimination of GSH over Cys and Hcy. The sensor was applied for detection of GSH in living cells.
Natural selection endows animals with the abilities to store lipid when food is abundant and to synthesize lipid when it is limited. However, the relevant adaptive strategy of lipid metabolism has ...not been clearly elucidated in fish. This study examined the systemic metabolic strategies of Nile tilapia to maintain lipid homeostasis when fed with low‐ or high‐fat diets. Three diets with different lipid contents (1%, 7%, and 13%) were formulated and fed to tilapias for 10 weeks. At the end of the feeding trial, the growth rate, hepatic somatic index, and the triglyceride (TG) contents of serum, liver, muscle, and adipose tissue were comparable among three groups, whereas the total body lipid contents and the mass of adipose tissue increased with the increased dietary lipid levels. Overall quantitative PCR, western blotting and transcriptomic assays indicated that the liver was the primary responding organ to low‐fat (LF) diet feeding, and the elevated glycolysis and accelerated biosynthesis of fatty acids (FA) in the liver is likely to be the main strategies of tilapia toward LF intake. In contrast, excess ingested lipid was preferentially stored in adipose tissue through increasing the capability of FA uptake and TG synthesis. Increasing numbers, but not enlarging size, of adipocytes may be the main strategy of Nile tilapia responding to continuous high‐fat (HF) diet feeding. This is the first study illuminating the systemic adaptation of lipid metabolism responding to LF or HF diet in fish, and our results shed new light on fish physiology.
We illustrated the adaptive strategy of lipid metabolism responding to low or high fat diets in Nile tilapia. Briefly, the elevated glycolysis and accelerated biosynthesis of fatty acids in the liver were the main strategies of tilapia towards low fat intake. Increasing numbers, but not enlarging size, of adipocytes was the main strategy of Nile tilapia responding to continuous high‐fat diet feeding.
Cancer‐associated mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) play a pivotal role in modulating tumor progression. However, the interactions between liver cancer‐associated MSCs (LC‐MSCs) and hepatocellular ...carcinoma (HCC) remain unreported. Here, we identified the presence of MSCs in HCC tissues. We also showed that LC‐MSCs significantly enhanced tumor growth in vivo and promoted tumor sphere formation in vitro. LC‐MSCs also promoted HCC metastasis in an orthotopic liver transplantation model. Complementary DNA (cDNA) microarray analysis showed that S100A4 expression was significantly higher in LC‐MSCs compared with liver normal MSCs (LN‐MSCs) from adjacent cancer‐free tissues. Importantly, the inhibition of S100A4 led to a reduction of proliferation and invasion of HCC cells, while exogenous S100A4 expression in HCC cells resulted in heavier tumors and more metastasis sites. Our results indicate that S100A4 secreted from LC‐MSCs can promote HCC cell proliferation and invasion. We then found the expression of oncogenic microRNA (miR)‐155 in HCC cells was significantly up‐regulated by coculture with LC‐MSCs and by S100A4 ectopic overexpression. The invasion‐promoting effects of S100A4 were significantly attenuated by a miR‐155 inhibitor. These results suggest that S100A4 exerts its effects through the regulation of miR‐155 expression in HCC cells. We demonstrate that S100A4 secreted from LC‐MSCs promotes the expression of miR‐155, which mediates the down‐regulation of suppressor of cytokine signaling 1, leading to the subsequent activation of STAT3 signaling. This promotes the expression of matrix metalloproteinases 9, which results in increased tumor invasiveness. Conclusion: S100A4 secreted from LC‐MSCs is involved in the modulation of HCC progression, and may be a potential therapeutic target. (HEPATOLOGY 2013)
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