Gelatinous underwater invertebrates such as jellyfish have organs that are transparent, luminescent and self-healing, which allow the creatures to navigate, camouflage themselves and, indeed, survive ...in aquatic environments. Artificial luminescent materials that can mimic such functionality can be used to develop aquatic wearable/stretchable displays and water-resistant devices. Here, a luminescent composite that is simultaneously transparent, tough and can autonomously self-heal in both dry and wet conditions is reported. A tough, self-healable fluorine elastomer with dipole-dipole interactions is synthesized as the polymer matrix. It exhibits excellent compatibility with metal halide perovskite quantum dots. The composite possesses a toughness of 19 MJ m
, maximum strain of 1300% and capability to autonomously self-heal underwater. Notably, the material can withstand extremely harsh aqueous conditions, such as highly salty, acidic (pH = 1) and basic (pH = 13) environment for more than several months with almost no decay in mechanical performance or optical properties.
Ionic conductors that combine transparency, elasticity, and underwater self-healing capability are highly desirable because of their applications in biosensors, touch panels, marine ships, and so ...forth. Polymer materials based on ion–dipole interactions can meet these requirements. However, a key trade-off is their relatively weak mechanical properties because of the plasticizing effect. Here, we designed and synthesized a new ionic liquid building block to enable a new design of multivalent ion–dipole interaction. The resultant ion–dipole polymer complex not only enhances the Young’s modulus by more than 3 times but also possesses much better elasticity, without any sacrifice on the ionic conductivity or self-healing capability.
Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) with large actuation strain and high energy density are highly desirable for actuating soft robots. However, DEAs usually require high driving electric fields ...(>100 MV m
) to achieve high performances due to the low dielectric constant and high stiffness of dielectric elastomers (DEs). Here, we introduce polar fluorinated groups and nanodomains aggregated by long alkyl side chains into DE design, simultaneously endowing DE with a high dielectric constant and desirable modulus. Our DE exhibits a maximum area strain of 253% at a low driving electric field of 46 MV m
. Notably, it achieves an ultrahigh specific energy of 225 J kg
at only 40 MV m
, around 6 times higher than natural muscle and twice higher than the state-of-the-art DE. Using our DE, soft robots reach an ultrafast running speed of 20.6 BL s
, 60 times higher than that of commercial VHB 4910, representing the fastest DEA-driven soft robots ever reported.
Cervical cancer is one of the most common gynecological tumors, and the majority of early-stage cervical cancer patients achieve good recovery through surgical treatment and concurrent ...chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). However, for patients with recurrent, persistent, metastatic cervical cancer, effective treatment is rare, except for bevacizumab combined with chemotherapy. Programmed cell death-1/programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) inhibitors might be a novel choice to improve the clinical outcomes of these patients. Thus far, some pivotal trials, including Keynote 028, Keynote 158 and Checkmate 358, have indicated established clinical benefit of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in cervical cancer. In light of these data, the FDA has approved pembrolizumab for patients with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer with disease progression during or after chemotherapy. There are also some ongoing studies that may provide more evidence for the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway as a therapeutic target in cervical cancer. In this review, we have summarized the status and application of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in clinical trials for the treatment of cervical cancer and suggested some future directions in this field.
The expanding CRISPR-Cas9 technology is an easily accessible, programmable, and precise gene-editing tool with numerous applications, most notably in biomedical research. Together with advancements ...in genome and transcriptome sequencing in the era of metadata, genomic engineering with CRISPR-Cas9 meets the developmental requirements of precision medicine, and clinical tests using CRISPR-Cas9 are now possible. This review summarizes developments and established preclinical applications of CRISPR-Cas9 technology, along with its current challenges, and highlights future applications in translational research.
This paper reports a flexible electronics-based epidermal biomicrofluidics technique for clinical continuous blood glucose monitoring, overcoming the drawback of the present wearables, unreliable ...measurements. A thermal activation method is proposed to improve the efficiency of transdermal interstitial fluid (ISF) extraction, enabling extraction with a low current density to notably reduce skin irritation. An Na
sensor and a correction model are proposed to eliminate the effect of individual differences, which leads to fluctuations in the amount of ISF extraction. An electrochemical sensor with a 3D nanostructured working electrode surface is designed to enable precise in situ glucose measurement. A differential structure is proposed to eliminate the effect of passive perspiration, which leads to inaccurate blood glucose prediction. Fabrications of the epidermal biomicrofluidic device including formation of flexible electrodes, nanomaterial modification, and enzyme immobilization are fully realized by inkjet printing to enable facile manufacturing with low cost, which benefits practical production.
Cervical cancer (CC) is one of the three majors gynecological malignancies, which seriously threatens women's health and life. Radiotherapy (RT) is one of the most common treatments for cervical ...cancer, which can reduce local recurrence and prolong survival in patients with cervical cancer. However, the resistance of cancer cells to Radiotherapy are the main cause of treatment failure in patients with cervical cancer. Long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) are a group of non-protein-coding RNAs with a length of more than 200 nucleotides, which play an important role in regulating the biological behavior of cervical cancer. Recent studies have shown that LncRNAs play a key role in regulating the sensitivity of radiotherapy for cervical cancer. In this review, we summarize the structure and function of LncRNAs and the molecular mechanism of radiosensitivity in cervical cancer, list the LncRNAs associated with radiosensitivity in cervical cancer, analyze their potential mechanisms, and discuss the potential clinical application of these LncRNAs in regulating radiosensitivity in cervical cancer.
Cervical cancer (CC) is the third most common cancer worldwide, with high mortality rates. The programmed cell death 1 (PD-1)/(PD-1 ligand) PD-L1 has been reported to be an effective indicator in ...cancer development. In this study, we aim to explore the role of PD-1/PD-L1 in the evaluation of concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) efficacy and prognosis in CC patients.
We included 55 CC patients in this study. Immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry were employed to detect the expression of PD-1, T
cells, CD8, and CD68 in tumor tissues, and the contents of PD-1
CD8
T cells, PD-1
CD4
T cells, and PD-1
T
cells in the peripheral blood. The relationships of these indexes with CCRT efficacy were measured by Spearman correlation analysis, overall survival (OS), and disease-free survival (DFS) of patients were analyzed by Kaplan-Meier estimator, and the diagnostic values of these indexes in CC were assessed by a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.
The clinical effectivity rate of CCRT was 89.10%. The positive expressions of PD-L1, T
cells, PD-1
CD8
T cells, PD-1
CD4
T cells, and PD-1
T
cells were reduced after CCRT, while the CD8 and CD68 increased. All 7 indexes had diagnostic values in evaluating CCRT efficacy and were considered the influencing factors of OS, DFS, and the prognosis of CC patients.
These findings indicate that PD-1/PD-L1 may be a potential indicator for the efficacy evaluation of CCRT and the prognosis of CC. This study may offer potential targets for CC treatment.
We aimed to explore the expression and carcinogenic effect of KRT17 in human tumors and provide useful information for the study of KRT17.
We used databases including the Cancer Genome Atlas, Gene ...Expression Omnibus, GTEx, and GEPIA2 to analyze the expression, mutation, and prognosis of KRT17 in human tumors. Through webservers, including UALCAN, TIMER2.0, and STRING, we learned about the genetic variation, immune cell penetration, and enrichment analysis of KRT17-related genes.
KRT17 was highly expressed in most tumors (such as esophageal cancer, lung cancer, cervical cancer, etc.), and the high expression level correlated with tumor stage and prognosis. In addition, amplification was the main type of KRT17 tumor variation, with an amplification rate of about 9%, followed by mutation, with a mutation rate of 4%. Moreover, KRT17 was strongly associated with tumor-infiltrating immune cells (such as macrophages, CD8+T, Tregs, and cancer-associated fibroblasts). KEGG analysis suggested that KRT17 may play a role in tumor pathogenesis following human papillomavirus infection, and the gene ontology enrichment analysis indicated that the carcinogenicity of KRT17 can be attributed to cadherin binding, intermediate fibrocytoskeleton and epidermal development.
KRT17 may play an important role in the occurrence, development, and prognosis of malignant tumors. We provided a relatively comprehensive description of the carcinogenic role of KRT17 in different tumors for the first time.
Objective
The treatment of residual/recurrent cervical cancer within a previously irradiated area is challenging and generally associated with a poor outcome. Local treatments such as salvage surgery ...and re-irradiation are usually traumatic and have limited efficacy. High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment can directly ablate solid tumors without damaging neighboring healthy tissue. However, the HIFU studies for these patients are limited. Experience gained over the course of 10 years with the use of HIFU for the management of residual/recurrent cervical cancer after chemoradiotherapy is reported herein.
Methods
153 patients with residual/recurrent cervical cancer in a previously irradiated field who received HIFU treatment between 2010 and 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. Adverse effects, survival benefit and factors affecting prognosis were given particular attention.
Results
A total of 36 patients (23.5%) achieved a partial response following HIFU treatment and 107 patients (69.9%) had stable disease. The objective response and disease control rates were 23.5% and 93.5%, respectively. The median progression-free survival (mPFS) and median overall survival (mOS) were 17.0 months and 24.5 months, respectively. Moreover, patients with lesions ≥1.40 cm before HIFU treatment and a shrinkage rate ≥ 30% after treatment had a higher mPFS and mOS, and patients with lesions ≤1.00 cm after HIFU treatment had a higher mPFS (P=<0.05). All the treatment-related adverse events were limited to minor complications, which included skin burns, abdominal pain and vaginal discharge.
Conclusions
HIFU treatment is likely a preferred option for cervical cancer patients with residual disease or recurrence following CRT that can safely improve the local control rate and extend survival.
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