Solar steam generation is an emerging strategy for water desalination using renewable solar energy and seawater resources. In order to convert solar energy into heat for seawater evaporation, we ...developed a bi-layered structure composite for high-efficient solar evaporation based on photothermal-enhanced arginine-doped polydopamine (APDA) and raw wood, which are biodegradable and sustainable. Note that the APDA coating layer exhibited improved optical absorption and photothermal conversion ability compared with conventional polydopamine (PDA) coating on account of the construction of donor-acceptor pairs within the APDA microstructure system. Density functional theory (DTF) calculation further confirmed that the energy bandgap of APDA could be narrowed though donor-acceptor microstructures and then enhanced the absorption spectrum. The resulting APDA-wood composite performed a solar vapor generation efficiency of ~77% on the condition of 1 sun illumination. The water evaporation process was quite stable over 100 cycles and the metal ions in seawater were almost eliminated after desalination. This amino acid-initiated cost-effective and facile coating method provided new opportunities to fabricate photothermal-enhanced coating materials for solar evaporation applications.
Display omitted
•APDA is prepared with improved light absorption and total photothermal effect.•Donor-acceptor microstructures within the APDA system could decrease the bandgap.•APDA-wood composite is fabricated for efficient solar steam generation.
In the past decade, nanomedicine with its promise of improved therapy and diagnostics has revolutionized conventional health care and medical technology. Dendrimers and dendrimer-based therapeutics ...are outstanding candidates in this exciting field as more and more biological systems have benefited from these starburst molecules. Anticancer agents can be either encapsulated in or conjugated to dendrimer and be delivered to the tumour via enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect of the nanoparticle and/or with the help of a targeting moiety such as antibody, peptides, vitamins, and hormones. Imaging agents including MRI contrast agents, radionuclide probes, computed tomography contrast agents, and fluorescent dyes are combined with the multifunctional nanomedicine for targeted therapy with simultaneous cancer diagnosis. However, an important question reported with dendrimer-based therapeutics as well as other nanomedicines to date is the long-term viability and biocompatibility of the nanotherapeutics. This critical review focuses on the design of biocompatible dendrimers for cancer diagnosis and therapy. The biocompatibility aspects of dendrimers such as nanotoxicity, long-term circulation, and degradation are discussed. The construction of novel dendrimers with biocompatible components, and the surface modification of commercially available dendrimers by PEGylation, acetylation, glycosylation, and amino acid functionalization have been proposed as available strategies to solve the safety problem of dendrimer-based nanotherapeutics. Also, exciting opportunities and challenges on the development of dendrimer-based nanoplatforms for targeted cancer diagnosis and therapy are reviewed (404 references).
Powdery mildew is one of the most devastating diseases of wheat. To date, few powdery mildew resistance genes have been cloned from wheat due to the size and complexity of the wheat genome.
Triticum ...urartu is the progenitor of the A genome of wheat and is an important source for powdery mildew resistance genes. Using molecular markers designed from scaffolds of the sequenced T. urartu accession and standard map-based cloning, a powdery mildew resistance locus was mapped to a 356-kb region, which contains two nucleotide-binding and leucinerich repeat domain (NB-LRR) protein-encoding genes.
Virus-induced gene silencing, single-cell transient expression, and stable transformation assays demonstrated that one of these two genes, designated Pm60, confers resistance to powdery mildew. Overexpression of full-length Pm60 and two allelic variants in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves induced hypersensitive cell death response, but expression of the coiledcoil domain alone was insufficient to induce hypersensitive response.
Yeast two-hybrid, bimolecular fluorescence complementation and luciferase complementation imaging assays showed that Pm60 protein interacts with its neighboring NB-containing protein, suggesting that they might be functionally related. The identification and cloning of this novel wheat powdery mildew resistance gene will facilitate breeding for disease resistance in wheat.
It is confirmed that adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) transplantation effectively relieves kidney fibrosis and type 2 diabetes disease in mice. Currently, exosome from urine-derived stem cells ...(USCs) can protect type 1 diabetes-mediated kidney injury and attenuate podocyte damage in diabetic nephropathy (DN). Exosome derived from USCs has evolved into the strategy for DN treatment, but the role of ADSCs-derived exosome (ADSCs-Exo) in DN remains unclear. The present study is aimed to investigate the therapeutic action and molecular mechanism of ADSCs-derived exosome on DN.
ADSCs and exosome were authenticated by immunofluorescence and flow cytometry. Morphology and the number of exosome were evaluated by electron microscope and Nanosight Tracking Analysis (NTA), respectively. Cell apoptosis was assessed using flow cytometry. Podocyte autophagy and signaling transduction were measured by immunofluorescence and immunoblotting. Dual Luciferase Reporter assay was employed to detect the regulatory relationship between miR-486 and Smad1.
ADSCs-Exo attenuated spontaneous diabetes by reducing levels of urine protein, serum creatinine (Scr), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and podocyte apoptosis in mice. In in vitro experiment, ADSCs-Exo also reversed high glucose-induced decrease of cell viability and the increase of cell apoptosis in MPC5 cells. In terms of mechanism, ADSCs-Exo could enhance autophagy flux and reduce podocyte injury by inhibiting the activation of mTOR signaling in MPC5 and spontaneous diabetic mice. Eventually, we found that miR-486 was the key factors in ADSCs and in the process of ADSCs-Exo-mediated improvement of DN symptom in vivo and in vitro. miR-486 reduced Smad1 expression by target regulating Smad1 whose reduction could inhibit mTOR activation, leading to the increase of autophagy and the reduction of podocyte apoptosis.
In conclusion, we illustrated that ADSCs-Exo vividly ameliorated DN symptom by enhancing the expression of miR-486 which led to the inhibition of Smad1/mTOR signaling pathway in podocyte. Possibly, ADSCs-Exo was used as a main therapeutic strategy for DN in future.
During the premodern era, folding fans were among the few handicrafts that China imported from Japan. The availability of Japanese folding fans in China changed along with Sino-Japanese relations. ...They were rare during the Northern Song due to the suspension of diplomatic relations, but after the Ming court reestablished a tributary relationship with the Ashikaga shogunate in the early fifteenth century, many more Japanese folding fans entered China via tribute trade. The scholar-officials, who generally admired the delicate Japanese-made folding fans, chose to emphasize different values of the fans in different contexts. The Japanese folding fans were “useless tribute” in the scholar-officials' public writings, but in reality the “Japan” brand actually increased the commercial value of the fans in the market. KCI Citation Count: 1
Intracellular delivery of proteins is receiving considerable attention in biotherapeutics for various diseases by replacing dysfunctional proteins. Successful intracellular protein delivery highly ...relies on the development of efficient and safe polymeric carriers, which remains a grand challenge due to the lack of strong binding sites on proteins and their distinct molecular sizes and polarities. In this work, a strategy is proposed for efficient intracellular protein delivery by using dynamic polymer supra‐amphiphiles, which are prepared by grafting boronated polylysine with a series of lipidated catechols via dynamic covalent catechol–boronate ester bonds. The prepared supra‐amphiphiles can coassemble with proteins to form stable nanoparticles in water and also enable the release of bound proteins in cells due to their dynamic features, thereby strongly promoting the intracellular delivery process. The lead supra‐amphiphiles screened in the library demonstrate high efficiency in the delivery of various proteins including bovine serum albumin, β‐galactosidase, α‐chymotrypsin, saporin, R‐phycoerythrin, ovalbumin, catalase, and superoxide dismutase, and show great potency in delivering superoxide dismutase to treat ulcerative colitis in vivo. This work provides new opportunities for rational design and facile construction of robust intracellular protein delivery materials by the integration of polymer chemistry and supramolecular engineering strategies.
The design of dynamic polymer supra‐amphiphiles for intracellular protein delivery is reported. The prepared supra‐amphiphiles can be coassembled with proteins to form stable nanoparticles, which can promote the effective intracellular delivery process of multiple proteins due to their dynamic features and show great potency in the delivery of superoxide dismutase to treat ulcerative colitis in vivo.
Recently, the development of polydopamine (PDA) has demonstrated numerous excellent performances in free radical scavenging, UV shielding, photothermal conversion, and biocompatibility. These unique ...properties enable PDA to be widely used as efficient antibacterial materials for various applications. Accordingly, PDA antibacterial materials mainly include free-standing PDA materials and PDA-based composite materials. In this review, an overview of PDA antibacterial materials is provided to summarize these two types of antibacterial materials in detail, including the fabrication strategies and antibacterial mechanisms. The future development and challenges of PDA in this field are also presented. It is hoped that this review will provide an insight into the future development of antibacterial functional materials based on PDA.
Sailors in premodern China performed various types of rituals to pray for safe voyages. This article investigates a unique seven-dot image discovered from shipwrecks dated to thirteenth- and ...fourteenth-century China. Comparing the seven-dot image with the Big-Dipper image in premodern navigation maps, this article demonstrates that the seven-dot image represents the Big Dipper. The Big Dipper in premodern China was both an essential, practical guidance in maritime voyages and a religious symbol that the faithful believed could prolong the human’s lifespan and command the element of water. The dual function of the Big Dipper endowed the Big-Dipper images in ships with a dual meaning and made it particularly auspicious. The Big Dipper’s practical function prompted the carvers to present the image accurately, making it distinctive from other Big-Dipper images in the religious context.
Perception of pathogenic effectors in plants often relies on nucleotide-binding domain (NBS) and leucine-rich-repeat-containing (NLR) proteins. Some NLRs contain additional domains that function as ...integrated decoys for pathogen effector targets and activation of immune signalling. Wheat stripe rust is one of the most devastating diseases of crop plants. Here, we report the cloning of YrU1, a stripe rust resistance gene from the diploid wheat Triticum urartu, the progenitor of the A genome of hexaploid wheat. YrU1 encodes a coiled-coil-NBS-leucine-rich repeat protein with N-terminal ankyrin-repeat and C-terminal WRKY domains, representing a unique NLR structure in plants. Database searches identify similar architecture only in wheat relatives. Transient expression of YrU1 in Nicotiana benthamiana does not induce cell death in the absence of pathogens. The ankyrin-repeat and coiled-coil domains of YrU1 self-associate, suggesting that homodimerisation is critical for YrU1 function. The identification and cloning of this disease resistance gene sheds light on NLR protein function and may facilitate breeding to control the devastating wheat stripe rust disease.
Polymeric scaffolds have attracted great interests in recent years, due to their fascination with a large variety of examples with promising utilization. Recently, extensive efforts have been devoted ...to the exploitation of robust and functional polymer-based biomaterial scaffolds with high efficiency. The recent entry of so-called “click” reactions that include kinds of selective and orthogonal reactions under mild conditions have generated real stimulus not only in preparing elegant bioactive materials of choice but also in making the leap to industrial scale build-up of multifunctional products. In this review paper, we account several kinds of polymeric scaffolds prepared/modified via “click” reactions, with emphasis on their synthetic/functionalized strategies, tunable properties, and biomedical applications.
Display omitted
PDF
