Glassy and liquid state metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are emerging type of materials subjected to intense research for their rich physical and chemical properties. In this report, we obtained the ...first glassy MOF that involves metal‐carboxylate cluster building units via multi‐stage structural transformations. This MOF is composed of linear Mn3(COO)6 node and flexible pyridyl‐ethenylbenzoic linker. The crystalline MOF was first perturbed by vapor hydration and thermal dehydration to give an amorphous state, which can go through a glass transition at 505 K into a super‐cooled liquid. The super‐cooled liquid state is stable through a wide temperature range of 40 K and has the largest fragility index of 105, giving a broad processing window. Remarkably, the super‐cooled liquid can not only be quenched into glass, but also recrystallize into the initial MOF when heated to a higher temperature above 558 K. The mechanism of the multi‐stage structural transformations was studied by systematic characterizations of in situ X‐ray diffraction, calorimetry, rheological, spectroscopic and pair‐distribution function analysis. These multi‐stage transformations not only represent a rare example of high temperature coordinative recognition and self‐assembly, but also provide new MOF processing strategy through crystal‐amorphous‐liquid‐crystal transformations.
The first MOF glass composed of metal‐carboxylate cluster building units is vitrified by multi‐stage transformations: The crystalline MOF is amorphized by vapor hydration and thermal dehydration, goes through a glass transition to enter a super‐cooled liquid state, and recrystallizes into the initial structure. These multi‐stage transformations are a rare example of high‐temperature coordinative recognition and self‐assembly.
Hybrid WS2/GO two-dimensional membranes were developed to achieve finely molecular sieving. The size of nanochannels in WS2 membrane became smaller and more regular after the introduction of GO ...nanosheets into WS2 membrane according to XRD and separation results. The hydrated hybrid WS2/GO membrane with 15 wt% GO (GO15WS2) exhibited high rejection (>90%) for dyes and ions with a hydrated radius above 4.9 Å. A water permeance of 159.6 L/m2·h·bar and a Methylene Blue (MnB) rejection of 96.3% were achieved through hydrated hybrid GO15WS2 membrane, which was excellent compared with reported two-dimensional membranes based on TMDs. Moreover, the nanochannels in GO15WS2 membrane also presented strong rigidity under a pressure loading up to 0.5 MPa. In addition, the half-dried GO15WS2 membrane possessed high tolerance to shear stress, and the separation performance changed slightly during a 120 h-cross-flow filtration, which made the hybrid GO15WS2 membrane promising in water filtration.
•Hybrid 2D WS2/GO membranes with regular nanochannels were constructed.•Separation performances of WS2 membrane were improved after GO intercalation.•GO15WS2 membrane could separate molecules with hydrated radius above 4.9 Å.•Half-dried GO15WS2 membrane possessed excellent stability against shear force.
Textile-based electrode materials have attracted intensive attention for flexible supercapacitors. However, the low electrochemical capacitance hinders their further application. In this study, MnO2 ...with high theoretical capacitance was successfully deposited on the conductive graphene/polyester composite fabric using a hydrothermal method. The MnO2 morphology can be controlled by adjusting the reaction time. The effects of MnO2 morphology, electrode structure, mechanical bending and stretching on the electrochemical performance of MnO2/graphene/polyester composite electrode materials were studied in detail. When a MnO2 sheet layer deposited on the graphene/polyester composite fabric, the resulted composite electrode material exhibited a specific capacitance of 332Fg−1 at a scan rate of 2mVs−1 and excellent cycling stability. The electrochemical performances of MnO2/graphene/polyester composite electrode material and its corresponding solid-state supercapacitor device were stable under mechanical bending and stretching conditions.
A great effort has been made to develop efficacious antiviral drugs, but many viral infections are still lack of efficient antiviral therapies so far. The related exploration of natural products to ...fight viruses has been raised in recent years. Natural compounds with structural diversity and complexity offer a great chance to find new antiviral agents. Particularly, phenolic acids have attracted considerable attention owing to their potent antiviral abilities and unique mechanisms. The aim of this review is to report new discoveries and updates pertaining to antiviral phenolic acids.
The relevant references on natural phenolic acids were searched. The antiviral phenolic acids were classified according to their structural properties and antiviral types. Meanwhile, the antiviral characteristics and structure-activity relationships of phenolic acids and their derivatives were summarized.
The review finds that natural phenolic acids and their derivatives possessed potent inhibitory effects on multiple virus in humans such as human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis C virus, hepatitis B virus, herpes simplex virus, influenza virus and respiratory syncytial virus. In particular, caffeic acid/gallic acid and their derivatives exhibited outstanding antiviral properties by a variety of modes of action.
Naturally derived phenolic acids especially caffeic acid/gallic acid and their derivatives may be regarded as novel promising antiviral leads or candidates. Additionally, scarcely any of these compounds has been used as antiviral treatment in clinical practice. Therefore, these phenolic acids with diverse skeletons and mechanisms provide us an excellent resource for finding novel antiviral drugs.
A chemical investigation of the endophyte Penicillium sp. Nb 19, isolated from leaves of the traditionally medical plant Baphicacanthus cusia (Nees) Bremek., yielded one new indole diterpenoid, ...7-methoxy-13-dehydroxypaxilline (1) together with seven known metabolites (2-8). The obtained structure of compound 1 was elucidated by its spectroscopic data. In addition, the absolute configuration of compound 6 was confirmed by ECD for the first time. Compounds 1-6 were evaluated for antitumor activity against MCF-7, HepG2, and HCCC-9810 cell lines.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) ranks the third leading cause of cancer death in the world and has a notably low survival rate. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are newly classed non-coding RNA (ncRNA) ...members that are capable of regulating gene expression at transcription or post-transcription levels. Recent studies demonstrate that some circRNAs are differentially expressed in HCC, and the deregulation of these circRNAs is associated with the clinical pathological and prognostic significance. They also play essential roles in HCC progression, and contribute to cell proliferation, migration, invasion and metastasis by targeting different microRNAs (miRNAs) and protein-coding genes. In this review, we concentrate on recent progress of some important circRNAs in HCC, with an emphasis on their deregulation, functions and regulatory mechanisms, and discuss their potential utility as diagnostic and/or prognostic biomarkers or therapeutic targets for HCC.
The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical characteristics and prognosis of patients hospitalized with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and low N-terminal pro-B-type ...natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels. Seven hundred ninety consecutive patients hospitalized with HFpEF from 2006 to 2017 were enrolled. Clinical characteristics and outcomes were compared between low NT-proBNP group (<300 ng/L) and elevated NT-proBNP group (≥300 ng/L). 108 HFpEF patients (13.7%) presented with low NT-proBNP levels. Age, body mass index, atrial fibrillation, New York Heart Association functional class, and albumin were independent predictors of low NT-proBNP levels in HFpEF patients. During the median follow-up duration of 1103 days, 11 patients (10.2%) in low NT-proBNP group suffered from primary endpoint event. Elevated NT-proBNP group had a higher risk of all-cause death or heart transplantation than low NT-proBNP group (adjusted HR 95%CI: 2.36 1.24,4.49, P = .009). Stratified analyses showed that the association between NT-proBNP (elevated NT-proBNP group vs low NT-proBNP group) and risk of all-cause death or heart transplantation was stronger in non-atrial fibrillation patients than in atrial fibrillation patients ( P value for interaction = .025). Furthermore, the associations between NT-proBNP and risk of all-cause death or heart transplantation were stronger in younger and male patients than in older and female patients. However, both subgroups only reached borderline significant ( P values for interaction = .062 and .084, respectively). Our findings suggest that low NT-proBNP levels were common in patients hospitalized with HFpEF. Patients with HFpEF and low NT-proBNP levels had a better prognosis than those with elevated NT-proBNP levels, particularly in younger, male, and non-atrial fibrillation patients.
The primary objective of this study investigated the role of microRNA-320 (miR-320) on left ventricular remodeling in the rat model of myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury, and we intended to ...explore the myocardial mechanism of miR-320-mediated myocardium protection. We collected 120 male Wistar rats (240-280 g) in this study and then randomly divided them into three groups: (1) sham surgery group (sham group: n=40); (2) ischemia-reperfusion model group (I/R group: n=40); and (3) I/R model with antagomir-320 group (I/R+antagomir-320 group: n=40). Value changes of heart function in transesophageal echocardiography were recorded at various time points (day 1, day 3, day 7, day 15 and day 30) after surgery in each group. Myocardial sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and examined with optical microscope. The degree of myocardial fibrosis was assessed by Sirius Red staining. Terminal dUTP nick end-labeling (TUNEL) and qRT-PCR methods were used to measure the apoptosis rate and to determine the miR-320 expression levels in myocardial tissues. Transesophageal echocardiography showed that the values of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), left ventricular fractional shortening (LVFS), left ventricular systolic pressure (LVSP) and ±dp/dtmax in the I/R group were obviously lower than those in the sham group, while the left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) value was higher than that in the sham group. The values of LVEF, LVFS, LVSP and ±dp/dtmax showed a gradual decrease in the I/R group, while the LVEDP value showed an up tendency along with the extension of reperfusion time. The H&E staining revealed that rat myocardial tissue in the I/R group presented extensive myocardial damage; for the I/R+antagomir-320 group, however, the degree of damage in myocardial cells was obviously better than that of the I/R group. The Sirius Red staining results showed that the degree of myocardial fibrosis in the I/R group was more severe along with the extension of the time of reperfusion. For the I/R+antagomir-320 group, the degree of myocardial fibrosis was less severe than that in the I/R group. Tissues samples in both the sham and I/R+antagomir-320 groups showed a lower apoptosis rate compared to I/R group. The qRT-PCR results indicated that miR-320 expression in the I/R group was significantly higher than that in both the sham and I/R+antagomir-320 groups. The expression level of miR-320 is significantly up-regulated in the rat model of myocardial I/R injury, and it may be implicated in the prevention of myocardial I/R injury-triggered left ventricular remodeling.
Colon cancer is one of the most frequent malignancies and causes high mortality worldwide. Exploring the tumor-immune interactions in the tumor microenvironment and identifying new prognostic and ...therapeutic biomarkers will assist in decoding the novel mechanism of tumor immunotherapy. BGN is a typical extracellular matrix protein that was previously validated as a signaling molecule regulating multiple processes of tumorigenesis. However, its role in tumor immunity requires further investigation.
The differentially expressed genes in three GEO datasets were analyzed, and BGN was identified as the target gene by intersection analysis of PPIs. The relevance between clinical outcomes and BGN expression levels was evaluated using data from the GEO database, TCGA and tissue microarray of colon cancer samples. Univariable and multivariable Cox regression models were conducted for identifying the risk factors correlated with clinical prognosis of colon cancer patients. Next, the association between BGN expression levels and the infiltration of immune cells as well as the process of the immune response was analyzed. Finally, we predicted the immunotherapeutic response rates in the subgroups of low and high BGN expression by TIS score, ImmuCellAI and TIDE algorithms.
BGN expression demonstrated a statistically significant upregulation in colon cancer tissues than in normal tissues. Elevated BGN was associated with shorter overall survival as well as unfavorable clinicopathological features, including tumor size, serosa invasion and length of hospitalization. Mechanistically, pathway enrichment and functional analysis demonstrated that BGN was positively correlated with immune and stromal scores in the TME and primarily involved in the regulation of immune response. Further investigation revealed that BGN was strongly expressed in the immunosuppressive phenotype and tightly associated with the infiltration of multiple immune cells in colon cancer, especially M2 macrophages and induced Tregs. Finally, we demonstrated that high BGN expression presented a better immunotherapeutic response in colon cancer patients.
BGN is an encouraging predictor of diagnosis, prognosis and immunotherapeutic response in patients with colon cancer. Assessment of BGN expression represents a novel approach with great promise for identifying patients who may potentially benefit from immunotherapy.
Ecosystem services can be enhanced through ecological restoration, industrial structure adjustment, land-use optimization, and agricultural and forestry ecosystem transformation. The ecosystem ...services in hilly and mountainous areas of southern China are crucially needed to be enhanced since these regions are important ecological functional zones in China. However, due to its large area, it is not possible to simultaneously upgrade the ecosystem services for all areas, and therefore, priority areas need to be selected to individually upgrade the ecosystem service function. In this study, via an approach of combining remote sensing, geographic information system, and spatial statistics, we identify the priority areas that need to be upgraded based on the analysis of ecological sensitivity, importance of ecosystem service function, and decreased degree in ecosystem services. For five counties in hilly and mountainous areas of southern China, only less than 2% of the total area was identified as the first priority area; its land-use compositions were analyzed and recommendations on how to enhance ecosystem service were suggested. This approach overcomes the conflict and contradiction issues associated with identifying priority areas in previous studies and solves the problems of high cost or difficult implementation of priority areas.
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