Controlled fabrication of metallic nanostructures plays a central role in much of modern science and technology, because changing the dimensions of a nanocrystal enables tailoring of its mechanical, ...electronic, optical, catalytic and antibacterial properties. Here we show direct superplastic nanoimprinting (SPNI) of crystalline metals well below their melting temperatures, generating ordered nanowire arrays with aspect ratios up to ∼2,000 and imprinting features as small as 8 nm. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra reveal strongly enhanced electromagnetic signals from the prepared nanorod arrays with sizes up to ∼100 nm, which indicates that our technique can provide an ideal way to fabricate robust SERS substrates. SPNI, as a one-step, controlled and reproducible nanofabrication method, could facilitate the applications of metal nanostructures in bio-sensing, diagnostic imaging, catalysis, food industry and environmental conservation.
Introduction
Phenolic extract in highland barley grain has showed hypoglycemic effect, while little information is available about the active compounds and whether there exist additive or synergistic ...effect on modulating glucose metabolism.
Methods and Results
Procyanidin B1 (PB) and p‐coumaric acid (CA) are the active compounds in highland barley grain and show synergistic effect on improving glucose uptake and glycogen synthesis by upregulating glucose transporter (GLUT4) and downregulating glycogen synthase kinase‐3β (GSK‐3β) protein expression, respectively. The mechanism may be attributed to target insulin receptor (IRβ) and regulate insulin receptor substrate‐1 (IRS‐1)/phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase (PI3K)/ protein kinase B (Akt) pathway. Furthermore, PB + CA exhibits synergistic effect on restoring glucose intolerance and insulin resistance, and improving hepatic glycogen synthesis in impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) mice. The postprandial blood glucose (PBG), homeostasis model assessment (HOMA)‐IR values and serum insulin contents in PB + CA‐treated IGT mice with dosage of 300 mg kg‐1 BW are reversed to normal levels. Additionally, PC + CA shows additive effect on inhibiting gluconeogenesis in vitro and in vivo.
Conclusion
PB + CA in highland barley grain synergistically modulate glucose metabolism. These results may provide evidence of whole highland barley grain diet achieve superior effect on restoring IGT than isolated components.
Procyanidin B1 (PB) and p‐coumaric acid (CA) are found as the active compounds in highland barley grain that could improve glucose uptake and glycogen synthesis, and inhibit gluconeogenesis. Combination of PB and CA shows synergistic effect on modulating hepatic glucose metabolism via targeting on IRβ receptor and regulating IRS‐1/PI3K/Akt pathway.
Although early detection and systemic therapies have improved the diagnosis and clinical cure rate of breast cancer, breast cancer remains the most frequently occurring malignant cancer in women due ...to a lack of sufficiently effective treatments. Thus, to develop potential targeted therapies and thus benefit more patients, it is helpful to understand how cancer cells work. ZIC family members have been shown to play important roles in neural development and carcinogenesis. In our study, we found that ZIC2 is downregulated in breast cancer tissues at both the mRNA and protein levels. Low expression of ZIC2 was correlated with poor outcome in breast cancer patients and serves as an independent prognostic marker. Furthermore, overexpression of ZIC2 repressed, whereas knockdown of ZIC2 promoted, cell proliferation and colony formation ability in vitro and tumor growth in vivo. Using ChIP‐seq and RNA‐seq analysis, we screened and identified STAT3 as a potential target for ZIC2. ZIC2 bound to the STAT3 promoter and repressed the promoter activities of STAT3. ZIC2 knockdown induced the expression of STAT3, increasing the level of phosphorylated STAT3. These results suggest that ZIC2 regulates the transcription of STAT3 by directly binding to the STAT3 promoter. Additionally, interfering STAT3 with siRNAs or inhibitors abrogated the oncogenic effects induced by decreased ZIC2. Taken together, our results indicate that ZIC2 serves as a useful prognostic marker in breast cancer and acts as a tumor suppressor by regulating STAT3, implying that STAT3 inhibitors might provide an alternative treatment option for breast cancer patients with ZIC2 downregulation.
What's new?
ZIC family members regulate neural development but have also been implicated in the development of various tumors. Here the authors report downregulation of ZIC2 in breast cancer cells. Low expression of ZIC2 correlated with poor outcome in breast cancer patients and served as an independent prognostic marker. The transcription factor STAT3 was identified as a potential target for ZIC2, and inhibition of STAT3 abrogated the oncogenic effects induced by decreased ZIC2 expression. STAT3 inhibitors might provide an alternative option for women with breast cancer showing ZIC2 downregulation.
The Catellani reaction is a powerful strategy that allows the expeditious synthesis of highly substituted arenes, which are not easily accessible through traditional transition‐metal‐catalyzed ...cross‐coupling reactions. This reaction utilizes the synergistic interplay of palladium and norbornene catalysis to facilitate sequential ortho‐C−H functionalization and ipso termination of aryl iodides in a single operation. Since pioneering work by the group of Catellani in 1997, and later by the group of Lautens, this chemistry has attracted considerable attention from the synthetic chemistry community. Dramatic progress has been made by a number of groups in the past two decades. In this Minireview, the alkylating reagents employed in this intriguing reaction and the corresponding applications in organic synthesis are summarized; thus complementing existing reviews to inspire future developments.
Changing conventions: The Catellani reaction, such as depicted, is a powerful strategy that allows the expeditious synthesis of highly substituted arenes, which are not easily accessible through traditional transition‐metal‐catalyzed cross‐coupling reactions (NBE=norbornene). This review highlights the alkylating reagents employed in these reactions and related applications in organic synthesis.
The catalytic C–F bond carboxylation of organofluorines with CO2 gas remains a challenging problem in synthetic chemistry. Here, we describe a selective defluorinative carboxylation of ...gem-difluoroalkenes through photoredox/palladium dual catalysis. The C–F bond activation is enabled by single electron reduction through photoredox catalysis to generate a fluorovinyl radical, which subsequently participates in an unprecedented palladium-catalyzed carboxylation. This novel C–F functionalization proved applicable to a wide range of substituted gem-difluoroalkenes, providing a rapid access to valuable α-fluoroacrylic acids.
17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2) is a synthetic estrogen with very strong estrogenic potency. Due to its wide usage in human and livestock as well as its high recalcitration to biodegradation, it was ...ubiquitous in different environment. This review summarized EE2 concentration levels in surface waters among 32 countries across seven continents. EE2 concentrations varied greatly in different surface waters, which ranged from not detected to 17,112 ng/L. The top 10 countries ranked in the order of high to low average EE2 concentration in surface water, were Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Laos, Brazil, Argentina, Kuwait, Thailand, Indonesia and Portugal, with the respective mean concentrations of 27.7, 22.1, 21.5, 21.1, 13.6, 9.6, 9.5, 8.8, 7.6 and 6.6 ng/L. Generally speaking, the EE2 concentration levels in surface waters in developing countries were much higher than those in developed countries. EE2 in effluent of municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) was the dominant source to most countries, which suggested that improving the EE2 removal performance of municipal WWTP is the key to mitigate EE2 contamination to surface water body. Livestock, hospital, pharmacy factory and aquaculture wastewaters were also the important sources, but further work should be performed to elucidate their contribution. Evaluation based on estrogenic effects, the EE2-derived estrogen equivalence in surface waters ranged from 0 to 33 ng E2/L, among which about 65% of surface waters among 32 countries were at risk or high risk, indicating global serious EE2 contamination.
EE2 concentration in surface waters across 32 countries were summarized, along which its potential estrogenic effects were evaluated.
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•EE2 was found in surface waters across 32 countries as well as Antarctic.•EE2 concentration in surface water was correlated to that in WWTP effluent.•About 65% of surface waters across 32 countries pose risk for estrogenic effect.
Cement-based solidification/stabilization (S/S) is a widely approach applied for municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) fly ash. Although Portland cement on MSWI fly ash S/S has been widely ...developed, the economical and environment-friendly binders should be explored to reduce the energy and improve MSWI fly ash S/S performances. A comparative study about MSWI fly ash S/S treatment with coal fly ash-based geopolymer and Portland cement was carried out in this work. Specifically, physical and chemical characteristics of MSWI fly ash, compressive strength, leachability and chemical speciation transformation of heavy metals, microstructures and morphology of S/S samples were investigated. Results showed that leaching concentration of Pb, Cd and Zn in MSWI fly ash was 5.36 mg/L, 40.3 mg/L and 129.0 mg/L respectively. It was 34.7, 160.2 and 0.29 times higher than Standard GB16889, far exceeding the requirements for municipal solid waste landfill. Leaching tests indicated that immobilization rates of Pb, Zn and Cd with geopolymer S/S treatment were exceeding 99%. Compressive strength of geopolymer and Portland cement S/S samples curing for 28 days varied from 14.3 to 22.4 MPa and 2.5–10.8 MPa, respectively. In summary, geopolymer exhibited better immobilization performances on MSWI fly ash than Portland cement. In geopolymer S/S samples, active aluminosilicate in MSWI fly ash participated the geopolymerization reaction and generated new phases such as Friedel’ salts (3CaO•Al2O3•CaCl2•10H2O) and hydrocalumite (Ca2Al(OH)6Cl2H2O). It not only promoted the bulk resource utilization and disposal of fly ash, but also realized the effective encapsulation of heavy metals and chloride ions. Therefore, geopolymer is a more promising candidate for MSWI fly ash S/S treatment.
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•Comparative study of geopolymer and Portland cement on MSWI fly ash was conducted.•Geopolymer indicated a higher immobilization ratio on Zn, Pb, and Cd, up to 99%.•Main heavy metals transformed into the stable forms difficult to leach out.•Geopolymer is superior to Portland cement on MSWI fly ash immobilization.
•EDCs conjugates in wastewater result in underestimated removal performance of WWTP;.•Cleavage rates of EDCs conjugates are lower than degradation rates of their EDCs;.•Enhancing the cleavage rates ...of conjugated EDCs is the key.
Endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) are well known emerging contaminants, which have the capacity to elicit negative effects on endocrine systems of both humans and wildlife. As the conventional wastewater treatment plants cannot stably remove these EDCs, post-treatment with advanced chemical oxidation methods such as ozonation are proven effective to further remove EDCs, but this additional treatment increase the wastewater treatment cost, which is impractical for worldwide application. To find potential alternative effective method, this work presents the importance of EDCs conjugates. Specifically, two important facts are described: 1) concentrations of EDCs conjugates in raw municipal wastewater vary with temperature, and their existence results in underestimated removal performance of WWTPs; 2) Strategies to enhance the cleavage rates of EDCs conjugates are most effective to improve the observed removal performance of conventional WWTPs on EDCs. Further work should be performed to check whether effective solutions can be found to increase their cleavage rates.
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As a synthetic estrogen, 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2) has been known to show the strong estrogenic potency. This work critically reviewed the occurrence and removal of EE2 in municipal wastewater ...treatment plants (WWTPs). Based on the on-site investigations from 282 municipal WWTPs across 29 countries, the concentrations of EE2 in influent and effluent ranged from n.d-7890 and n.d-549 ng/L, with respective average concentrations of 78.4 and 12.3 ng/L. The average effluent concentration of EE2 was more than 61 times higher than the reported lowest-observed-effect concentration, indicating an urgent need for removing EE2 in WWTPs. The calculated removal efficiencies of EE2 in different wastewater treatment processes varied from −100%-100%. Averagely, 47.5% of EE2 was removed in the primary treatment process, 55.3% by biological filter treatment, 59.4% by lagoon and 71.5% by activated sludge process. The observed removal of EE2 in municipal WWTP could be mainly attributed to adsorption and biodegradation, which could be predicted according to its solid-water distribution coefficients and biodegradation rate constants. However, it should be noted that the predicted removal of EE2 was found to deviate from the in-plant observation, likely attributing to the existence of EE2 conjugates in raw municipal wastewater. Therefore, the effect of EE2 conjugates on the EE2 removal in WWTPs should be taken into account in future.
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Tumor cells often reprogram their metabolism for rapid proliferation. The roles of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in metabolism remodeling and the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. Through ...screening, we found that the lncRNA Actin Gamma 1 Pseudogene (AGPG) is required for increased glycolysis activity and cell proliferation in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Mechanistically, AGPG binds to and stabilizes 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-biphosphatase 3 (PFKFB3). By preventing APC/C-mediated ubiquitination, AGPG protects PFKFB3 from proteasomal degradation, leading to the accumulation of PFKFB3 in cancer cells, which subsequently activates glycolytic flux and promotes cell cycle progression. AGPG is also a transcriptional target of p53; loss or mutation of TP53 triggers the marked upregulation of AGPG. Notably, inhibiting AGPG dramatically impaired tumor growth in patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models. Clinically, AGPG is highly expressed in many cancers, and high AGPG expression levels are correlated with poor prognosis, suggesting that AGPG is a potential biomarker and cancer therapeutic target.
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