The development of energy‐storage devices has received increasing attention as a transformative technology to realize a low‐carbon economy and sustainable energy supply. Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) ...batteries are considered to be one of the most promising next‐generation energy‐storage devices due to their ultrahigh energy density. Despite the extraordinary progress in the last few years, the actual energy density of Li–S batteries is still far from satisfactory to meet the demand for practical applications. Considering the sulfur electrochemistry is highly dependent on solid‐liquid‐solid multi‐phase conversion, the electrolyte amount plays a primary role in the practical performances of Li–S cells. Therefore, a lean electrolyte volume with low electrolyte/sulfur ratio is essential for practical Li–S batteries, yet under these conditions it is highly challenging to achieve acceptable electrochemical performances regarding sulfur kinetics, discharge capacity, Coulombic efficiency, and cycling stability especially for high‐sulfur‐loading cathodes. In this Review, the impact of the electrolyte/sulfur ratio on the actual energy density and the economic cost of Li–S batteries is addressed. Challenges and recent progress are presented in terms of the sulfur electrochemical processes: the dissolution–precipitation conversion and the solid–solid multi‐phasic transition. Finally, prospects of future lean‐electrolyte Li–S battery design and engineering are discussed.
Lean on me: The challenges, recent progress, and perspectives for lean‐electrolyte Li–S batteries are discussed in terms of the two electrochemical processes for sulfur, that is, the dissolution–precipitation conversion and the solid–solid pathway.
Pollution by heavy metals limits the area of land available for cultivation of food crops. A potential solution to this problem might lie in the molecular breeding of food crops for phytoremediation ...that accumulate toxic metals in straw while producing safe and nutritious grains. Here, we identify a rice quantitative trait locus we name cadmium (Cd) accumulation in leaf 1 (CAL1), which encodes a defensin-like protein. CAL1 is expressed preferentially in root exodermis and xylem parenchyma cells. We provide evidence that CAL1 acts by chelating Cd in the cytosol and facilitating Cd secretion to extracellular spaces, hence lowering cytosolic Cd concentration while driving long-distance Cd transport via xylem vessels. CAL1 does not appear to affect Cd accumulation in rice grains or the accumulation of other essential metals, thus providing an efficient molecular tool to breed dual-function rice varieties that produce safe grains while remediating paddy soils.
Dilute alloying is an effective strategy to tune properties of solid catalysts but is rarely leveraged in complex reactions beyond small molecule conversion. In this work, dilute dopants are ...demonstrated to serve as activating centers to construct multiatom catalytic domains in metal nitride electrocatalysts for lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries, of which the sulfur cathode suffers from sluggish and complex conversion reactions. With titanium nitride (TiN) as a model system, the dilute cobalt alloying is shown to greatly improve the reaction kinetics while inducing negligible catalyst reconstruction. Compared to the pristine TiN, the dilute nitride alloy catalyst enables onefold increase in the high rate (2.0 C) capacities of Li–S batteries, as well as an impressively low cyclic decay rate of 0.17% at a sulfur loading of 4.0 mgS cm−2. This work opens up new opportunities toward the rational design of Li–S electrocatalysts by dilute alloying and also enlightens the understandings of complex domain‐catalyzed reactions in energy applications.
Dilute alloying implants “activating” centers in nitride alloy electrocatalysts to boost lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries. Dilute Co dopants activate the surrounding N and Ti atoms to construct multiatom active domains for efficient bidirectional catalysis of S redox reactions. The corresponding dilute nitride alloy improves the reaction kinetics and electrochemical performance of Li–S batteries.
Sulfiphilic surfaces: The design of novel host materials for sulfur cathodes in lithium–sulfur batteries has been achieved through modification of the surface chemistry, by employing sulfiphilic ...surfaces with high electrical conductivity to develop stable, high‐energy batteries. Compared to the physical‐confinement technique (see picture), systems prepared by this method exhibited remarkable enhancements of both capacity and cycling stability.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become the most common cause of chronic liver disease worldwide. Due to the growing economic burden of NAFLD on public health, it has become an emergent ...target for clinical intervention. DUSP12 is a member of the dual specificity phosphatase (DUSP) family, which plays important roles in brown adipocyte differentiation, microbial infection, and cardiac hypertrophy. However, the role of DUSP12 in NAFLD has yet to be clarified. Here, we reveal that DUSP12 protects against hepatic steatosis and inflammation in L02 cells after palmitic acid/oleic acid treatment. We demonstrate that hepatocyte specific DUSP12‐deficient mice exhibit high‐fat diet (HFD)–induced and high‐fat high‐cholesterol diet–induced hyperinsulinemia and liver steatosis and decreased insulin sensitivity. Consistently, DUSP12 overexpression in hepatocyte could reduce HFD‐induced hepatic steatosis, insulin resistance, and inflammation. At the molecular level, steatosis in the absence of DUSP12 was characterized by elevated apoptosis signal‐regulating kinase 1 (ASK1), which mediates the mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway and hepatic metabolism. DUSP12 physically binds to ASK1, promotes its dephosphorylation, and inhibits its action on ASK1‐related proteins, JUN N‐terminal kinase, and p38 MAPK in order to inhibit lipogenesis under high‐fat conditions. Conclusion: DUSP12 acts as a positive regulator in hepatic steatosis and offers potential therapeutic opportunities for NAFLD.
Abstract
Background
The duration of humoral and T and B cell response after the infection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) remains unclear.
Methods
We performed a ...cross-sectional study to assess the virus-specific antibody and memory T and B cell responses in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients up to 343 days after infection. Neutralizing antibodies and antibodies against the receptor-binding domain, spike, and nucleoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 were measured. Virus-specific memory T and B cell responses were analyzed.
Results
We enrolled 59 patients with COVID-19, including 38 moderate, 16 mild, and 5 asymptomatic patients; 31 (52.5%) were men and 28 (47.5%) were women. The median age was 41 years (interquartile range, 30–55). The median day from symptom onset to enrollment was 317 days (range 257 to 343 days). We found that approximately 90% of patients still have detectable immunoglobulin (Ig)G antibodies against spike and nucleocapsid proteins and neutralizing antibodies against pseudovirus, whereas ~60% of patients had detectable IgG antibodies against receptor-binding domain and surrogate virus-neutralizing antibodies. The SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG+ memory B cell and interferon-γ-secreting T cell responses were detectable in more than 70% of patients.
Conclusions
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2-specific immune memory response persists in most patients approximately 1 year after infection, which provides a promising sign for prevention from reinfection and vaccination strategy.
SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody and memory T and B cell responses were detectable in most patients approximately 1 year after infection, indicating that durable immunity against secondary COVID-19 disease is possible in most individuals.
The lifespan of practical lithium (Li)‐metal batteries is severely hindered by the instability of Li‐metal anodes. Fluorinated solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) emerges as a promising strategy to ...improve the stability of Li‐metal anodes. The rational design of fluorinated molecules is pivotal to construct fluorinated SEI. Herein, design principles of fluorinated molecules are proposed. Fluoroalkyl (−CF2CF2−) is selected as an enriched F reservoir and the defluorination of the C−F bond is driven by leaving groups on β‐sites. An activated fluoroalkyl molecule (AFA), 2,2,3,3‐tetrafluorobutane‐1,4‐diol dinitrate is unprecedentedly proposed to render fast and complete defluorination and generate uniform fluorinated SEI on Li‐metal anodes. In Li–sulfur (Li−S) batteries under practical conditions, the fluorinated SEI constructed by AFA undergoes 183 cycles, which is three times the SEI formed by LiNO3. Furthermore, a Li−S pouch cell of 360 Wh kg−1 delivers 25 cycles with AFA. This work demonstrates rational molecular design principles of fluorinated molecules to construct fluorinated SEI for practical Li‐metal batteries.
Design principles of fluorinated molecules were proposed to construct a fluorinated solid electrolyte interphase for practical lithium‐metal batteries.
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a common complication of diabetes and leads to blindness. Anti‐VEGF is a primary treatment for DR. Its therapeutic effect is limited in non‐ or poor responders despite ...frequent injections. By performing a comprehensive analysis of the semaphorins family, we identified the increased expression of Sema4D during oxygen‐induced retinopathy (OIR) and streptozotocin (STZ)‐induced retinopathy. The levels of soluble Sema4D (sSema4D) were significantly increased in the aqueous fluid of DR patients and correlated negatively with the success of anti‐VEGF therapy during clinical follow‐up. We found that Sema4D/PlexinB1 induced endothelial cell dysfunction via mDIA1, which was mediated through Src‐dependent VE‐cadherin dysfunction. Furthermore, genetic disruption of Sema4D/PlexinB1 or intravitreal injection of anti‐Sema4D antibody reduced pericyte loss and vascular leakage in STZ model as well as alleviated neovascularization in OIR model. Moreover, anti‐Sema4D had a therapeutic advantage over anti‐VEGF on pericyte dysfunction. Anti‐Sema4D and anti‐VEGF also conferred a synergistic therapeutic effect in two DR models. Thus, this study indicates an alternative therapeutic strategy with anti‐Sema4D to complement or improve the current treatment of DR.
Synopsis
Retinal pericyte loss, vascular leakage and neovascularization are the main pathological changes during Diabetic Retinopathy (DR). Here we show that Sema4D/PlexinB1 signaling critically contributes to these processes, and is a therapeutic target in this context.
Sema4D was increased in aqueous fluid of DR patients and in retinas of several mouse DR models.
Sema4D/PlexinB1 signaling induced both endothelial cell and pericyte dysfunction.
Inhibition of Sema4D/PlexinB1 alleviated vascular dysfunction in DR models.
Anti‐Sema4D and anti‐VEGF exhibited a synergistic therapeutic effect.
Retinal pericyte loss, vascular leakage and neovascularization are the main pathological changes during Diabetic Retinopathy (DR). Here we show that Sema4D/PlexinB1 signaling critically contributes to these processes, and is a therapeutic target in this context.
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