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•One-step pyrolysis of spermine and dopamine to prepare the antibacterial carbon quantum dots (CQDs).•The CQDs exhibit much strong antibacterial activity (>100-fold) relative to ...dopamine or spermine alone.•The CQDs possess superior adhesion to the contact lenses.•Contact lens coated with CQDs effectively alleviate S. aureus-induced bacterial keratitis.
We demonstrate the synthesis of antibacterial carbon quantum dots (CQDs) through a one-step pyrolysis of biogenic polyamine (PA) and dopamine (DA) mixture. SPM/DA-CQDs synthesized from DA combined with spermine (SPM) exhibit effective antibacterial activity and high adhesion properties on glass and surfaces of polymeric contact lens material. The antimicrobial activity of SPM/DA-CQDs is primarily due to their ability to disrupt the bacterial membrane, and they possess wide spectrum antimicrobial activity against Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus and its multidrug-resistant strain, methicillin-resistant S. aureus). The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of SPM/DA-CQDs against the tested bacteria was >17-fold and >7-fold lower than those of CQDs prepared solely from spermine and dopamine, respectively. The great biocompatibility of our SPM/DA-CQDs is revealed from the in vitro cytotoxicity and hemolysis assays and in vivo evaluation of morphological and physiological changes of rabbit corneas. We further prepared SPM/DA-CQDs-coated coverslips and contact lenses, which display excellent stability and antibiofilm properties. Moreover, in vivo tests show that SPM/DA-CQDs suppress bacterial keratitis (BK) formation in a corneal-injured rabbit model. Our results indicate that SPM/DA-CQDs have great potential as a coating material for inhibition of biofilm formation on contact lenses, and broadly to protect medical devices from contamination.
Nontoxic metal-halide perovskite materials have triggered a revolution of emitting devices as well as solar cells. In this work, we demonstrate a lead-free γ-CsSnI3 perovskite random lasing operated ...at room temperature in ambient air. The high-purity γ-CsSnI3 films with the orthorhombic structure were grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). From the absorption and photoluminescence (PL) spectra, the intense PL emission at 950 nm is consistent with the γ-CsSnI3 band-edge absorption. Moreover, the PL stability test shows the prolonged stability of CVD-grown films. With increasing excitation energy above 18 mJ/cm2, the random laser with a high Q-factor (∼3000) is achieved.
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Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a leading cause of keratitis worldwide and a significant threat to healthy vision. Pathological manifestations of bacterial keratitis (BK) caused ...by S. aureus involve stromal opacity, edema and neovascularization of an inflamed cornea, requiring immediate medical attention. Thus, S. aureus-induced keratitis is a devastating ocular infection that can lead to blindness if effective and timely treatment is not initiated. In this study, we demonstrate gelatin-capped silver nanoparticles (G-Ag NPs) as anti-infective therapeutics for the treatment of S. aureus-induced keratitis. G-Ag NPs were prepared by simple mixing of silver nitrate, maltose and gelatin. The gelatin molecules are capped in situ on the Ag NPs (∼14 nm). Compared to uncapped Ag NPs, the G-Ag NPs possess superior stability and antibacterial activity against S. aureus. We further demonstrate that G-Ag NPs possess effective inhibition of the proliferation, migration and tube formation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells, as well as strong disturbance of the angiogenesis in chick chorioallantoic membrane and rabbit corneal neovascularization. Furthermore, intrastromal administration of highly biocompatible G-Ag NPs alleviates S. aureus-induced bacterial keratitis in rabbit eyes and bacterial infection-induced corneal neovascularization. Our results demonstrate G-Ag NPs as a promising dual functional (antimicrobial and antiangiogenic) nanotherapeutic for preclinical treatment of eye-related microbial infections.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major health problem due to its high mortality rate. The incidence of CRC is increasing in young individuals. Oxaliplatin (OXA) is an approved third-generation drug and ...is used for first-line chemotherapy in CRC. Although current standard chemotherapy improves the overall survival of CRC patients, an increasing number of reports of OXA resistance in CRC therapy indicates that resistance has become an urgent problem in clinical applications. Dicer is a critical enzyme involved in miRNA maturation. The expression of Dicer has been reported to be involved in the resistance to various drugs in cancer. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the role of Dicer in OXA resistance in CRC. We found that OXA treatment inhibited Dicer expression through decreasing the protein stability. OXA-induced Dicer protein degradation occurred through both proteasomal and lysosomal proteolysis, while the CHIP E3 ligase was involved in OXA-mediated Dicer ubiquitination and degradation. We established stable OXA-resistant clones from CRC cells, and observed that the CHIP E3 ligase was decreased, along with the increased Dicer expression in OXA-resistant cells. Knockdown of Dicer resensitized CRC cells to OXA treatment. In this study, we have revealed the role of miRNA biogenesis factors in OXA resistance in CRC cells.
•Oxaliplatin treatment decreases Dicer protein stability.•Oxaliplatin induces Dicer ubiquitination for protein degradation.•Upregulation of Dicer enhances oxaliplatin resistance in colon cancer cells.•Inhibition of Dicer restores the sensitivity of colon cancer cells to oxaliplatin.
In this work, we systematically investigated the effect of oxygen treatment on the material and electrical properties of Indium-Tungsten-Oxide thin film transistors (IWO-TFTs) by O 2 plasma and rapid ...thermal oxidation (RTO). With RTO treatment, the electrical characteristics of the IWO-TFTs remarkably depicted a subthreshold swing ( S.S. ) of 122.5 mV/decade, an I on / I off of around 4.7×10 8 , and more superior immunity stress-induced degradation. According to the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results under the RTO treatment condition, the lowest vacancy content and the highest Tungsten-Oxide (W-O) bond content were observed. It indicated that the RTO treatment was more effective in reducing the number of oxygen vacancies and stabilizing the bonding structure of IWO films. As a result, the IWO TFTs subjected to RTO treatment exhibited improved performance and enhanced reliability.
Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) Q1, an RNA-binding protein, has been implicated in many post-transcriptional processes, including RNA metabolism and mRNA splicing and translation. ...However, the role of hnRNP Q1 in tumorigenesis remains unclear. We previously performed RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP)-seq analysis to identify hnRNP Q1-interacting mRNAs and found that hnRNP Q1 targets a group of genes that are involved in mitotic regulation, including Aurora-A. Here, we demonstrate that altering the hnRNP Q1 level influences the expression of the Aurora-A protein, but not its mRNA. Stimulation with epidermal growth factor (EGF) enhances both binding between hnRNP Q1 and Aurora-A mRNA as well as the efficacy of the hnRNP Q1-induced translation of Aurora-A mRNA. The EGF/hnRNP Q1-induced translation of Aurora-A mRNA is mediated by the mTOR and ERK pathways. In addition, we show that hnRNP Q1 up-regulates the translation of a group of spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) genes. hnRNP Q1 overexpression is positively correlated with the levels of Aurora-A and the SAC genes in human colorectal cancer tissues. In summary, our data suggest that hnRNP Q1 plays an important role in regulating the expression of a group of cell cycle-related genes. Therefore, it may contribute to tumorigenesis by up-regulating the translation of these genes in colorectal cancer.
The CsPbBr
3
microwires with unique isosceles right triangle cross-sections are commonly observed via chemical vapor deposition method. In this work, we study the correlations between measured ...multi-mode lasing behaviors and the simulation of the mode patterns inside the triangular-rod microcavity. We confirm that lasing action with higher-order transverse modes can well sustain, even when these modes experience large optical loss due to the isosceles triangle cross-section. By comparing the experimental and simulation results, the higher-order transverse modes tend to show up prior to the fundamental transverse modes for wider microwires. We attribute this behavior to the nonuniform field distribution caused by the high absorption efficiency of CsPbBr
3
. We also elaborate on the difficulties to sustain the whispering gallery mode in the CsPbBr
3
triangular-rod microcavity, which implies that the lateral dimension and geometry of the cavity should be considered carefully for the future design of low threshold wire-based laser devices.
The thermal deposition of lead iodide (PbI2) results in the changes in the contact surface of a poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) poly (styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) layer of solar cells (SCs). The ...changed contact surface of PEDOT:PSS layer after the thermal deposition of PbI2 remains stable after PbI2 is converted into perovskite and leaves the degraded perovskite/PEDOT:PSS interface. The degraded perovskite/pristine PEDOT:PSS interface leads to a low power conversion efficiency (η%) of SCs at 3.84%. The properties of the contact surface of the PEDOT:PSS layer during the thermal deposition of PbI2 can be retained by treating PEDOT:PSS with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and maintain the perovskite/PEDOT:PSS interface in good condition after PbI2 is converted. Perovskite SCs with DMSO-treated PEDOT:PSS substantially improves η% from 3.84% to 9.58%.
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•Lead (Pb) penetrated into pristine PEDOT:PSS during thermal deposition of PbI2.•The Pb in pristine PEDOT:PSS degrade performance of perovskite solar cells converted from thermally deposited PbI2.•Dimethyl sulfoxide treatment modified the micro-structure of pristine PEDOT:PSS to suppress Pb diffusion.•Reduction of Pb in PEDOT:PSS improves the performances of perovskite solar cells converted from thermally deposited PbI2.
Wdhd1 is essential for early mouse embryogenesis Fan, Hsiang-Hsuan; Lee, Kuo-Hong; Chen, You-Tzung ...
Biochimica et biophysica acta. Molecular cell research,
20/May , Volume:
1868, Issue:
6
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
WD repeat and HMG-box DNA binding protein 1 (Wdhd1) is the mouse ortholog of budding yeast Chromosome Transmission Fidelity 4 (CTF4), the protein product of which integrates the MCM2–7 helicase and ...DNA polymerase α/primase complex to initiate DNA replication. Previous work in fruit flies, Xenopus egg extracts, and human cell lines suggest that Wdhd1 is required for efficient DNA synthesis. However, rigorous in vivo functional studies on Wdhd1 in mammals are unavailable. In the present study, we have successfully generated a Wdhd1 null allele in mice through CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing to investigate the role of Wdhd1 in embryogenesis in vivo. We characterized Wdhd1 expression using quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction, and assessed embryonic cell proliferation by histology in both pre- and peri-implantation embryos. While Wdhd1 heterozygous mutant mice were grossly normal and fertile, we observed a reduction in cell proliferation by the gastrulation stage in Wdhd1 homozygous null mutant embryos which severely hampered their growth and viability. These results indicate that Wdhd1 plays a major role in cell proliferation during embryogenesis in mice.
The effect of ultrasound exposure on human lens epithelial cells (HLE-B3) was investigated in vitro, specifically on the generation of oxidative stress upon ultrasound application using various ...clinically-relevant settings. In addition to ultrasound-induced heat effects, oxidative stress has been recently proposed as one of the main mechanisms for ultrasound-induced effects on human cells. In this work, the levels of biocompatibility and generation of oxidative stress by exposure of ultrasound to HLE-B3 were evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively by the MTT assay, Live/Dead assay, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and intracellular calcium level. Oxidative stress induction is traditionally achieved through administrations of H2O2 and thus the administration of H2O2 was used as the positive control group for comparison herein. Concerning the administrations of H2O2 are considered invasive and may potentially have side effects, ultrasound as physical stimulation could be a safer and non-invasive method to induce similar oxidative stress environments. The effect of ultrasound on cell viability and induction of oxidative stress increases with ultrasound intensity. The result reveals that the continuous ultrasound has a positive impact on the oxidative stress levels but does negatively on the cell viability, as compared to the pulsed ultrasound. Furthermore, our work demonstrates that the exposure of 58 kPa continuous ultrasound without microbubbles can maintain acceptable cell viability and produce oxidative stress effects similar to the traditional administrations of H2O2. In summary, exposure of ultrasound can generate oxidative stress comparable to traditional administrations of H2O2. The effect of generating oxidative stress is adjustable through ultrasound parameters, including the pulsed or continuous wave, the intensity of ultrasound and addition of microbubbles.
•An oxidative stress model of human lens epithelial cells was induced by ultrasound.•Addition of microbubbles enhanced ultrasound cavitation and shear stress effect.•Ultrasound-mediated microbubble technique was found to induce ROS in HLE-B3 cells.•Generating oxidative stress could be controlled by ultrasound exposure conditions.
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