For wide gamut backlight display application, main problems of CsPbX3 (X = Br/I, I) quantum dots (QDs) glasses as red emission materials are too long emission wavelengths, low luminescence intensity ...and worse uniformity. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) and decay time should also be considered. Here, Ni2+ doped CsPbX3 (X = Br/I, I) QDs in borogermanate glasses have been successfully fabricated by melt quenching and heat treatment. Transmittance, absorbance, photoluminescence (PL), PL excitation (PLE), PL decay and PL temperature characteristics are measured. By Ni2+ doping in the CsPbX3 (X = Br/I, I) QDs glasses (QDGs), PL intensity is significantly improved to higher level of 106–107 counts (enhanced by 1.6–1.7 times). The peak wavelength is adjusted to suitable range of 630–650 nm by double anion CsPb(Br/I)3 QDs. The uniformity is greatly improved by using suitable composition and concentration of CsPbX3 (X = Br/I, I) QDs. In addition, the FWHM of 32–46 nm is sufficiently narrow. The PL decay shows sufficiently short lifetime of less than 100 ns. The PL temperature dependence fitting shows large exciton binding energy 376–400 meV. For wide color gamut display application, we have used three primary colors with the standard blue, green and red lights in NTSC standard, and the red light has been replaced by using perovskite CsPbX3 (X = Br/I, I) QDGs. For the perovskite CsPbX3 (X = Br/I, I) QDGs emitted at 667 nm and 644 nm, the color gamut area has been increased by 11% and 9%, respectively. The results indicate that the red light QDG materials can be applied to wide color gamut display.
The MDMX oncoprotein is an important regulator of tumor suppressor p53 activity during embryonic development. Despite sequence homology to the ubiquitin E3 ligase MDM2, MDMX depletion activates p53 ...without significant increase in p53 level, implicating a degradation-independent mechanism. We present evidence that MDMX inhibits the sequence-specific DNA binding activity of p53. This function requires the cooperation between MDMX and CK1α, and phosphorylation of S289 on MDMX. Depletion of MDMX or CK1α increases p53 DNA binding without stabilization of p53. A proteolytic fragment release assay revealed that in the MDMX–p53 complex, the MDMX acidic domain and RING domain interact stably with the p53 DNA binding domain. These interactions are referred to as secondary interactions because they only occur after the canonical-specific binding between the MDMX and p53 N termini, but exhibit significant binding stability in the mature complex. CK1α cooperates with MDMX to inhibit p53 DNA binding by further stabilizing the MDMX acidic domain and p53 core domain interaction. These results suggest that secondary intermolecular interaction is important in p53 regulation by MDMX, which may represent a common phenomenon in complexes containing multidomain proteins.
Perovskite materials are promising candidates for the next generation of wearable optoelectronics. However, due to uncontrolled crystallization and the natural brittle property of crystals, it ...remains a great challenge to fabricate large-scale compact and tough perovskite film. Here we report a facile method to print large-scale perovskite films with high quality for flexible photodetectors. By introducing a soluble polyethylene oxide (PEO) layer during the inkjet printing process, the nucleation and crystal growth of perovskite is well controlled. Perovskite films can be easily printed in large scale and patterned in high resolution. Moreover, this method can be extended to various kinds of perovskite materials, such as MAPbI
3
(MA = methylammonium), MA
3
Sb
2
I
9
, and (BA)
2
PbBr
4
(BA = benzylammonium). The printed perovskite films show high quality and excellent mechanical performance. The photodetectors based on the MAPbBr
3
perovskite films show a responsivity up to ∼ 1,036 mA/W and maintain over 96.8% of the initial photocurrent after 15,000 consecutive bending cycles. This strategy provides a facile approach to prepare large-scale flexible perovskite films. It opens up new opportunities for the fabrication of diverse wearable optoelectronic devices.
Akebia saponin D (ASD) is a bioactive triterpenoid saponin extracted from
Dipsacus asper
Wall. ex DC.. This study aimed to investigate the effects of ASD on allergic airway inflammation. Human lung ...epithelial BEAS-2B cells and bone marrow-derived mast cells (BMMCs) were pretreated with ASD (50, 100 and 200 μΜ) and AMPK activator 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide-1-β-D-ribofuranoside (AICAR) (1 mM), and then stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or IL-33. Pretreatment with ASD and AICAR significantly inhibited TNF-α and IL-6 production from BEAS-2B cells, and IL-13 production from BMMCs. Moreover, pretreatment with ASD and AICAR significantly increased p-AMPK expression in BEAS-2B cells. Inhibition of AMPK by siRNA and compound C partly abrogated the suppression effect of ASD on TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-13 production. Asthma murine model was induced by ovalbumin (OVA) challenge and treated with ASD (150 and 300 mg/kg) or AICAR (100 mg/kg). Infiltration of eosinophils, neutrophils, monocytes, and lymphocytes, and production of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-4, and IL-13 were attenuated in ASD and AICAR treated mice. Lung histopathological changes were also ameliorated after ASD and AICAR treatment. Additionally, it showed that treatment with ASD and AICAR increased p-AMPK expression in the lung tissues. In conclusion, ASD exhibited protective effects on allergic airway inflammation through the induction of AMPK activation.
Noninvasive photoacoustic sentinel lymph node (SLN) mapping with high spatial resolution has the potential to improve the false negative rate and eliminate the use of radioactive tracers in SLN ...identification. In addition, the demonstrated high spatial resolution may enable physicians to replace SLN biopsy with fine needle aspiration biopsy, and thus reduce the risk of associated morbidity. The primary goal of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility of high-speed 3D photoacoustic imaging of the uptake and clearance dynamics of Evans blue dye in SLNs. The photoacoustic imaging system was developed with a
30
MHz
ultrasound array and a kHz repetition rate laser system. It acquires one 3D photoacoustic image of 166 B-scan frames in
1
s
, with axial, lateral, and elevational resolutions of 25, 70, and
200
μ
m
, respectively. With optic-fiber based light delivery, the entire system is compact and is convenient to use. Upon injection of Evans blue, a blue dye currently used in clinical SLN biopsy, SLNs in mice and rats were accurately and noninvasively mapped in vivo using our imaging system. In our experiments, the SLNs were found to be located at
∼
0.65
mm
below the skin surface in mice and
∼
1.2
mm
in rats. In some cases, lymph vessels and lymphatic valves were also imaged. The dye dynamics—accumulation and clearance—in SLNs were quantitatively monitored by sequential 3D imaging with temporal resolution of as high as
∼
6
s
. The demonstrated capability suggests that high-speed 3D photoacoustic imaging should facilitate the understanding of the dynamics of various dyes in SLNs and potentially help identify SLNs with high accuracy.
The nature of the culture dish surface and the technique used to detach adherent cells could very likely influence the cell viability and cell membrane protein integrity of harvested macrophages. ...Several previous studies assessed the detachment efficacies of enzymatic and non-enzymatic methods for harvesting the single cell suspensions of macrophages, but a comprehensive study assessing different dissociation methods and culture conditions for detaching functionally different macrophage populations has not yet been reported. In this study,
via
the well-established GM-CSF and M-CSF differentiated bone marrow derived macrophage models (GM-BMDMs and M-BMDMs), we compared four commonly used enzymatic (trypsin and accutase) and non-enzymatic (PBS and EDTA) dissociation methods along with necessary mechanical detaching steps (scraping and pipetting) to evaluate the viable cell recovery and cell surface marker integrality of GM-BMDMs and M-BMDMs cultured on standard cell culture dish (TC dish), or on culture dish (noTC dish) that was not conditioned to enhance adherence. The data showed that accutase yielded a better recovery of viable cells comparing with PBS and EDTA, especially for tightly adherent GM-BMDMs on TC dishes, with a relatively higher level of detected cell membrane marker F4/80 than trypsin. An additional gradient centrifugation-based dead cell removal approach could increase the proportion of viable cells for TC cultured GM-BMDMs after accutase dissociation. Furthermore, transcriptome analysis was performed to evaluate the putative influence of culture dishes. At steady state, BMDMs cultured on noTC dishes exhibited more proinflammatory gene expression signatures (e.g. IL6, CXCL2 and ILlβ) and functions (e.g. TNF and IL17 signaling pathways). Similar inflammatory responses were observed upon LPS challenge regardless of culture conditions and differentiation factors. However, in LPS treated samples, the difference of gene expression patterns, signaling pathways and molecular functions between TC and noTC cultured BMDMs were largely dependent on the types of growth factors (M-CSF and GM-CSF). This observation might provide valuable information for
in vitro
macrophage studies.
A novel biobased polyurethane with robust mechanical properties, repairability, reprocessability, and shape memory enabled by dynamic pyrazole-urea bonds is reported.
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•Novel biobased ...dynamic covalent polyurethanes bearing pyrazole-urea bonds were synthesized.•The material demonstrated extremely high tensile strength of 30.6 MPa and toughness of 34.9 MJ·m−3.•The material exhibited excellent self-healing, shape memory, and recyclable properties.•Can be repeated at least 30 times when be used as recoverable adhesives.
Development of biobased polymers with self-healing, shape memory, and reprocessable features is of great significance for sustainable development, environmental protection, and high-end applications. Herein, we report robust, repairable, shape memory, and reprocessable poly (urethane-urea) (PPU) polymers derived from renewable castor oil enabled by dynamic pyrazole-urea bonds and hydrogen bonds. The optimal PPU material (PPU3) demonstrated tensile strength and toughness up to 30.6 MPa and 34.9 MJ·m−3, respectively, which were superior to most of the reported oil-based dynamic covalent materials. Furthermore, the pyrazole-urea bonds and intramolecular hydrogen bonds enabled the PPU materials with excellent repairability, recyclability, malleability, and shape memory. For instance, the PPU3 polymer could be recycled rapidly at relatively mild conditions (10 min at 140 °C, 10 MPa), and no obvious decrease in tensile strength and strain at break was observed after being recycled for at least 4 times. Finally, the application of PPU3 as recoverable adhesive was also studied. The PPU3 polymer could be quickly re-bonded by a heating and cooling treatment for at least 30 times without significant deterioration in adhesion strength.
Staphylococcus aureus has become one of the most common pathogens in clinical tissue infection, and it is easy to form biofilm. Incomplete removal of biofilms often leads to recurrent infections, and ...more serious is the possibility of bacteria developing drug resistance. Therefore, the effective eradication of refractory biofilms is essential. Herein, a temperature-sensitive hydrogel was prepared by doping the photothermal carbon dots (PTCDs) chelated by Ag+, and the AIPH which could produce alkyl radicals in response to heat into the thermodissolved gelatin. Under the irradiation of 660 nm laser, the PTCDs generated heat to dissolve the hydrogel, and promoted chelation of silver ions in PTCDs for chemical sterilization. Meanwhile, the heat generated by the PTCDs induced the 2,2′-azobis2-(2-imidazolin-2-yl) propane dihydrochloride (AIPH) to produce alkyl free radical sterilization, achieving the purpose of photothermal/thermodynamic/chemical synergistic to kill Staphylococci aureus and destroy its biofilm. Therefore, the biocompatible PTCDs@Ag-AIPH hydrogel proposed in this study was a promising composite that could eliminate biofilms and promoted wound healing, showing good potential in future biomedical applications.
The nervous system possesses the remarkable ability to undergo changes in order to store information; however, it is also susceptible to damage caused by invading pathogens or neurodegenerative ...processes. As a member of nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor (NLR) family, the NLRP6 inflammasome serves as a cytoplasmic innate immune sensor responsible for detecting microbe-associated molecular patterns. Upon activation, NLRP6 can recruit the adapter protein apoptosis-associated speck-like protein (ASC) and the inflammatory factors caspase-1 or caspase-11. Consequently, inflammasomes are formed, facilitating the maturation and secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as inflammatory factors-18 (IL-18) and inflammatory factors-1β (IL-1β). Precise regulation of NLRP6 is crucial for maintaining tissue homeostasis, as dysregulated inflammasome activation can contribute to the development of various diseases. Furthermore, NLRP6 may also play a role in the regulation of extraintestinal diseases. In cells of the brain, such as astrocytes and neurons, NLRP6 inflammasome are also present. Here, the assembly and subsequent activation of caspase-1 mediated by NLRP6 contribute to disease progression. This review aims to discuss the structure and function of NLRP6, explain clearly the mechanisms that induce and activate NLRP6, and explore its role within the central and peripheral nervous system.
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