Sirtuin 3 (SIRT3) is a potential therapeutic target for cardiovascular, metabolic, and other aging-related diseases. In this study, we investigated the role of SIRT3 in diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM). ...Mice were injected with streptozotocin (STZ, 60 mg/kg, ip) to induce diabetes mellitus. Our proteomics analysis revealed that SIRT3 expression in the myocardium of diabetic mice was lower than that of control mice, as subsequently confirmed by real-time PCR and Western blotting. To explore the role of SIRT3 in DCM, SIRT3-knockout mice and 129S1/SvImJ wild-type mice were injected with STZ. We found that diabetic mice with SIRT3 deficiency exhibited aggravated cardiac dysfunction, increased lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level in the serum, decreased adenosine triphosphate (ATP) level in the myocardium, exacerbated myocardial injury, and promoted myocardial reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation. Neonatal rat cardiomyocytes were transfected with SIRT3 siRNA, then exposed to high glucose (HG, 25.5 mM). We found that downregulation of SIRT3 further increased LDH release, decreased ATP level, suppressed the mitochondrial membrane potential, and elevated oxidative stress in HG-treated cardiomyocytes. SIRT3 deficiency further raised expression of necroptosis-related proteins including receptor-interacting protein kinase 1 (RIPK1), RIPK3, and cleaved caspase 3, and upregulated the expression of inflammation-related proteins including NLR family pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3), caspase 1 p20, and interleukin-1β both in vitro and in vivo. Collectively, SIRT3 deficiency aggravated hyperglycemia-induced mitochondrial damage, increased ROS accumulation, promoted necroptosis, possibly activated the NLRP3 inflammasome, and ultimately exacerbated DCM in the mice. These results suggest that SIRT3 can be a molecular intervention target for the prevention and treatment of DCM.
The electrocatalytic conversion of CO2 into value‐added chemicals is a promising approach to realize a carbon‐energy balance. However, low current density still limits the application of the CO2 ...electroreduction reaction (CO2RR). Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are one class of promising alternatives for the CO2RR due to their periodically arranged isolated metal active sites. However, the poor conductivity of traditional MOFs usually results in a low current density in CO2RR. We have prepared conductive two‐dimensional (2D) phthalocyanine‐based MOF (NiPc‐NiO4) nanosheets linked by nickel‐catecholate, which can be employed as highly efficient electrocatalysts for the CO2RR to CO. The obtained NiPc‐NiO4 has a good conductivity and exhibited a very high selectivity of 98.4 % toward CO production and a large CO partial current density of 34.5 mA cm−2, outperforming the reported MOF catalysts. This work highlights the potential of conductive crystalline frameworks in electrocatalysis.
Nickel phthalocyanine molecules as active sites were installed into nickel‐catecholate‐linked 2D conductive metal–organic framework nanosheets for efficient CO2 electroreduction with nearly 100 % CO selectivity.
Dihydromyricetin (DMY), one of the flavonoids in vine tea, exerts several pharmacological actions. However, it is not clear whether DMY has a protective effect on pressure overload-induced myocardial ...hypertrophy. In the present study, male C57BL/6 mice aging 8⁻10 weeks were subjected to transverse aortic constriction (TAC) surgery after 2 weeks of DMY (250 mg/kg/day) intragastric administration. DMY was given for another 2 weeks after surgery. Blood pressure, myocardial structure, cardiomyocyte cross-sectional area, cardiac function, and cardiac index were observed. The level of oxidative stress in the myocardium was assessed with dihydroethidium staining. Our results showed that DMY had no significant effect on the blood pressure. DMY decreased inter ventricular septum and left ventricular posterior wall thickness, relative wall thickness, cardiomyocyte cross-sectional areas, as well as cardiac index after TAC. DMY pretreatment also significantly reduced arterial natriuretic peptide (ANP), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) mRNA and protein expressions, decreased reactive oxygen species production and malondialdehyde (MDA) level, while increased total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC), activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), expression of sirtuin 3 (SIRT3), forkhead-box-protein 3a (FOXO3a) and SOD2, and SIRT3 activity in the myocardium of mice after TAC. Taken together, DMY ameliorated TAC induced myocardial hypertrophy in mice related to oxidative stress inhibition and SIRT3 pathway enhancement.
Novel red‐emissive carbon‐dots (C‐dots) with broad absorption in the region from 400 to 750 nm are prepared from polythiophene phenylpropionic acid. Upon near infrared laser irradiation, the ...red‐emissive C‐dots show strong photoacoustic response and high photothermal conversion efficiency (η ≈ 38.5%). These unique properties enable the C‐dots to act as multifunctional fluorescent, photoacoustic, and thermal theranostics for simultaneous diagnosis and therapy of cancer.
The electrochemical properties of V2C and V2CT2 (T = O, S) MXenes with and without vacancy as anode materials for Na-ion and Li-ion batteries, have been studied using first-principles calculation. ...The present results indicate that the adsorption strength of Li-ion and Na-ion on V2CS2 are less than that of O-functionalized, together with a lower diffusion barrier. Simultaneously, V2CS2 monolayer exhibits lower open-circuit voltage (OCV) values of 0.72 and 0.49 V for Li- and Na-ion, respectively. Interestingly, the presence of atomic vanadium vacancy on V2CS2 monolayer exerts more prominent effects on enhancing adsorption strength than that of carbon vacancy for Li-ion and Na-ion, but with an exception for the diffusion of Li-ion and Na-ion on V2CS2 monolayer. The finding suggests that the V2CS2 monolayer is expected to be a potential candidate as anode material for Li-ion and Na-ion battery due to its lower open-circuit voltages and diffusion barriers.
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•The S-group decreased the adsorption ability of Li- and Na-ion on V2C than O-group.•The vacancy has no effects to Li- and Na-ion diffusion property on V2CS2 monolayer.•The S-group significantly reduces the high diffusion barrier of Na-ion.•The storage capacity of Li- and Na-ion reaches to 301.12 mAh/g for V2CS2 monolayer.
Extracellular vesicles (EVs), including exosomes and microvesicles, are present in a variety of bodily fluids, and the concentration of these sub-cellular vesicles and their associated biomarkers ...(proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids) can be used to aid clinical diagnosis. Although ultracentrifugation is commonly used for isolation of EVs, it is highly time-consuming, labor-intensive and instrument-dependent for both research laboratories and clinical settings. Here, we developed an integrated double-filtration microfluidic device that isolated and enriched EVs with a size range of 30-200 nm from urine, and subsequently quantified the EVs via a microchip ELISA. Our results showed that the concentration of urinary EVs was significantly elevated in bladder cancer patients (n = 16) compared to healthy controls (n = 8). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis demonstrated that this integrated EV double-filtration device had a sensitivity of 81.3% at a specificity of 90% (16 bladder cancer patients and 8 healthy controls). Thus, this integrated device has great potential to be used in conjunction with urine cytology and cystoscopy to improve clinical diagnosis of bladder cancer in clinics and at point-of-care (POC) settings.
Motivated by great progresses in experiments in searching for the heavy baryons, we systematically analyze the mass spectra and root mean square radius of single heavy baryons ΛQ, ΣQ and ΩQ. The ...calculations of the mass spectra are carried out in the frame work of relativized quark model, where the baryon is regarded as a three-body system of quarks. Our results show that the mass of single heavy baryon with λ-mode is lower than those of the ρ-mode and λ-ρ mixing mode, which indicates that the lowest state is dominated by the λ-mode. Basing on this research, we systematically calculate the mass spectra and the root mean square radius of the baryons with λ excited mode. With these predicated mass spectra, the Regge trajectories in the (J, M2) plane are constructed, and the slopes, intercepts of the Regge trajectories are obtained by linear fitting. It is found that all available experimental data are well reproduced by model predictions and fit nicely to the constructed Regge trajectories.
Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is a heterogeneous disease with features that vary by ethnicity. A systematic characterization of the genomic landscape of Chinese ccRCC is lacking, and ...features of ccRCC associated with tumor thrombus (ccRCC-TT) remain poorly understood. Here, we applied whole-exome sequencing on 110 normal-tumor pairs and 42 normal-tumor-thrombus triples, and transcriptome sequencing on 61 tumor-normal pairs and 30 primary-thrombus pairs from 152 Chinese patients with ccRCC. Our analysis reveals that a mutational signature associated with aristolochic acid (AA) exposure is widespread in Chinese ccRCC. Tumors from patients with ccRCC-TT show a higher mutational burden and genomic instability; in addition, mutations in BAP1 and SETD2 are highly enriched in patients with ccRCC-TT. Moreover, patients with/without TT show distinct molecular characteristics. We reported the integrative genomic sequencing of Chinese ccRCC and identified the features associated with tumor thrombus, which may facilitate ccRCC diagnosis, prognosis and treatment.
Developing novel pharmacological targets beyond monoaminergic systems is now a popular strategy for finding new ways to treat depression. Salt-inducible kinase (SIK) is a kinase that regulates the ...nuclear translocation of cyclic adenosine monophosphate response element binding protein (CREB)-regulated transcription coactivator (CRTC) by phosphorylation. Here, we hypothesize that dysfunction of the central SIK-CRTC system may contribute to the pathogenesis of depression.
Chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) and chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) models of depression, various behavioral tests, viral-mediated gene transfer, Western blotting, coimmunoprecipitation, quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, and immunohistochemistry were used in this study (for in vivo studies, n = 10; for in vitro studies, n = 5).
Both CSDS and CUMS markedly increased the expression of hippocampal SIK2, which reduced CRTC1 nuclear translocation and binding of CRTC1 and CREB in the hippocampus. Genetic overexpression of hippocampal SIK2 in naïve mice simulated chronic stress, inducing depressive-like behaviors in the forced swim test, tail suspension test, sucrose preference test, and social interaction test, as well as decreasing the brain-derived neurotrophic factor signaling cascade and neurogenesis in the hippocampus. In contrast, genetic knockdown and knockout of hippocampal SIK2 protected against CSDS and CUMS, exerting significant antidepressant-like effects that were mediated via the downstream CRTC1-CREB–brain-derived neurotrophic factor pathway. Moreover, fluoxetine, venlafaxine, and mirtazapine all significantly restored the effects of CSDS and CUMS on the hippocampal SIK2-CRTC1 pathway, which was necessary for their antidepressant actions.
The hippocampal SIK2-CRTC1 pathway is involved in the pathogenesis of depression, and hippocampal SIK2 could be a novel target for the development of antidepressants.
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