Despite the continuous improvement of various therapeutic techniques, the overall prognosis of tumors has been significantly improved, but malignant tumors in the middle and advanced stages still ...cannot be completely cured. It is now evident that cell adhesion-mediated resistance (CAM-DR) limits the success of cancer therapies and is a great obstacle to overcome in the clinic. The interactions between tumor cells and extracellular matrix (ECM) molecules or adjacent cells may play a significant role in initiating the intracellular signaling pathways that are associated with cell proliferation, survival upon binding to their ligands. Recent studies illustrate that these adhesion-related factors may contribute to the survival of cancer cells after chemotherapeutic therapy, advantageous to resistant cells to proliferate and develop multiple mechanisms of drug resistance. In this review, we focus on the molecular basis of these interactions and the main signal transduction pathways that are involved in the enhancement of the cancer cells’ survival. Furthermore, therapies targeting interactions between cancer cells and their environment to enhance drug response or prevent the emergence of drug resistance will also be discussed.
Molecular organizations and charge patterns inside biological nanopores are optimized by evolution to enhance ionic and molecular transport. Inspired by the nuclear pore complex that employs ...asymmetrically arranged disordered proteins for its gating, we here design an artificial nanopore coated by an asymmetric polyampholyte brush as a model system to study the asymmetric mass transport under nanoconfinement. A nonequilibrium steady-state molecular theory is developed to account for the intricate charge regulation effect of the weak polyampholyte and to address the coupling between the polymer conformation and the external electric field. On the basis of this state-of-the-art theoretical method, we present a comprehensive theoretical description of the stimuli-responsive structural behaviors and transport properties inside the nanopore with all molecular details considered. Our model demonstrates that by incorporating a gradient of pH sensitivity into the polymer coatings of the nanopore, a variety of asymmetric charge patterns and functional structures can be achieved, in a pH-responsive manner that allows for multiple functions to be implemented into the designed system. The asymmetric charge pattern inside the nanopore leads to an electrostatic trap for major current carriers, which turns the nanopore into an ionic rectifier with a rectification factor above 1000 at optimized pH and salt concentration. Our theory further predicts that the nanopore design behaves like a double-gated nanofluidic device with pH-triggered opening of the gates, which can serve as an ion pump and pH-responsive molecular filter. These results deepen our understanding of asymmetric transport in nanoconfined systems and provide guidelines for designing polymer-coated smart nanopores.
Stimuli-responsive nanoparticles at fluid interfaces offer great potential for realizing on-demand and controllable self-assembly that can benefit various applications. Here, we conducted ...electrostatic dissipative particle dynamics simulations to provide a fundamental understanding of the microstructure and interfacial dynamics of responsive nanoparticle monolayers at a water–oil interface. The model nanoparticle is functionalized with polyelectrolytes to render the pH sensitivity, which permits further manipulation of the monolayer properties. The monolayer structure was analyzed in great detail through the density and electric field distributions, structure factor, and Voronoi tessellation. Even at a low surface coverage, a continuous disorder-to-order phase transition was observed when the particle’s degree of ionization increases in response to pH changes. The six-neighbor particle fraction and bond orientation order parameter quantitatively characterize the structural transition induced by long-range electrostatic interactions. Adding salt can screen the electrostatic interactions and offer additional control on the monolayer structure. The detailed dynamics of the monolayer in different states was revealed by analyzing mean-squared displacements, in which different diffusion regimes were identified. The self-diffusion of individual particles and the collective dynamics of the whole monolayer were probed and correlated with the structural transition. Our results provide deeper insight into the dynamic behavior of responsive nanoparticle surfactants and lay the groundwork for bottom-up synthesis of novel nanomaterials, responsive emulsions, and microdroplet reactors.
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•Review the existing knowledge on the biochar properties and its future perspectives;•Biochar derived from physic-chemical and bio-engineering techniques from feedstock’s;•Different ...modification technologies were mentioned in this review;•Modified biochar had better function in application compared with original biochar;•Providing cumulative information for environmental application of biochar.
This review focuses on a holistic view of biochar, production from feedstock’s, engineering production strategies, its applications and future prospects. This article reveals a systematic emphasis on the continuation and development of biochar and its production methods such as Physical engineering, chemical and bio-engineering techniques. In addition, biochar alternatives such as nutrient formations and surface area made it a promising cheap source of carbon-based products such as anaerobic digestion, gasification, and pyrolysis, commercially available wastewater treatment, carbons, energy storage, microbial fuel cell electrodes, and super-capacitors repair have been reviewed. This paper also covers the knowledge blanks of strategies and ideas for the future in the field of engineering biochar production techniques and application as well as expand the technology used in the circular bio-economy.
Artificial nanopores functionalized with weak polyelectrolytes are an interesting and important class of stimuli-responsive nanofluidic devices. So far, the effects of the dielectric properties of ...the supporting nanopore surface on the behavior of the nanopore are largely unexplored. Here, we theoretically investigate the influence that the dielectric mismatch between solvent and nanopore surface has on the charge regulation of weak polyelectrolyte brushes inside the nanopore. Our approach is based on a molecular theory that explicitly incorporates the coupling between molecular organization, physical interactions, and chemical equilibrium. It is further extended to consider both the dielectric properties of the supporting surface of the nanopore as well as those of the nanopore solvent and polymer layer. We find that the surface polarization plays a crucial role in modulating the charge and structure of the weak polyelectrolytes that are end-tethered to the inner wall of the nanopore. Likewise, the surface polarization influences the nanoscale transport through the nanopore. We demonstrate that different dielectric properties of the nanopore membrane can result in large changes in the local ion distribution and electrostatic potential around the ionizable groups of the weak polyelectrolytes, which simultaneously alter the charge and structure of the polyelectrolyte layer inside the nanopore. Our quantitative approach systematically reveals how various intrinsic and external factors such as bulk salt concentration, polymer grafting density, and polymer length influence the surface polarization and its effects on properties such as the charge of the polyelectrolyte layer. For specific conditions, we report a high sensitivity of translocating cargoes to the changes in the dielectric properties of the polyelectrolyte-coated nanopore surface.
Background
Circular RNA (circRNA), which has been demonstrated in studies to be abundantly prevalent in tumor cells and bodily fluids and to play a significant role in tumors, has the potential for ...biological markers to be used to assist tumor diagnosis. This study mainly discusses the potential of circBRIP1 as a biomarker for diagnosing non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Methods
First, high-throughput sequencing screened the differentially expressed circBRIP1, and real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) verified its expression in NSCLC. Next, sanger sequencing, agarose gel electrophoresis, RNase R assay, and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) were used to verify its molecular characteristics. The diagnostic value was analyzed by the subject operating characteristic curve (ROC), and the cardinality test was analyzed for correlation with clinicopathological parameters. Finally, we tentatively predicted the downstream miRNA- or RNA-binding protein that may bind to circBRIP1.
Results
CircBRIP1 is highly expressed in NSCLC tissues, cells and plasma with good specificity and stability. CircBRIP1 not only can well-distinguish NSCLC patients from benign pulmonary diseases (BPD) patients, healthy individuals and small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients, but it also has some potential for dynamic monitoring. Combined with the analysis of clinicopathological data, the high level of circRNA expression was related to the degree of tumor differentiation, TNM stage, T stage, lymph node metastasis and distal metastasis in NSCLC patients. In addition, circBRIP1 has a high diagnostic value.
Conclusions
Plasma circBRIP1 is significantly overexpressed in NSCLC patients. It can be used as a sensitive biomarker with unique value for early diagnosis, tumor development and prognosis detection.
Micro-and nano-plastics (MNPs) (size < 5 mm/<100 nm) epitomize one of the emergent environmental pollutants with its existence all around the globe. Their high persistence nature and release of ...chemicals/additives used in synthesis of plastics materials may pose cascading impacts on living organism across the globe. Natural connectivity of all the environmental compartments (terrestrial, aquatic, and atmospheric) leads to migration/dispersion of MNPs from one compartment to others. Nevertheless, the information on dispersion of MNPs across the environmental compartments and its possible impacts on living organisms are still missing. This review first acquaints with dispersion mechanisms of MNPs in the environment, its polymeric/oligomeric and chemical constituents and then emphasized its impacts on living organism. Based on the existing knowledge about the MNPs’ constituent and its potential impacts on the viability, development, lifecycle, movements, and fertility of living organism via several potential mechanisms, such as irritation, oxidative damage, digestion impairment, tissue deposition, change in gut microbial communities’ dynamics, impaired fatty acid metabolism, and molecular damage are emphasized. Finally, at the end, the review provided the challenges associated with remediation of plastics pollutions and desirable strategies, policies required along with substantial gaps in MNPs research were recommended for future studies.
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•This review first acquaints with dispersion mechanisms of micro-nano plastics in the environment.•Reviewed polymeric and chemicals constituents of micro-nano plastics and its impact on living organisms.•Plastics pollutions, its remediation strategies, challenges, and policies are discussed.•Substantial gaps in micro-nano plastics research were recommended for future studies.
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•Cornstalk (CS) amendment could improve the maturity by 5.94–8.68% during compost.•CS amendment could greatly promote the degradation of organic matter by 4.99–6.90%.•Using of CS ...could significantly mitigate N2O and NH3 emission and conserve nitrogen.•CS increased abundance of Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidota.
The aim of current work was to explore the impact of Cornstalk (CS) on greenhouse gaseous emission and maturation during further composting and analyzed its impact on bacterial diversity. Three kinds of immature fertilizers were collected from chicken, pig and dairy manure namely T1, T2 and T3 as control, T4, T5 and T6 were added CS into T1 to T3 and adjusted C/N to 25 namely treatment. The results illustrated that gases (N2O, CH4 and NH3) emission of CS added treatments decreased by 6.39%–24.68%, 10.60%–23.23% and 13.00%–19.58%, respectively. But the CS amendment increased CO2 emission by 15.53%–30.81%. The mineralization of carbon and nitrogen was mainly correlated to Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria and Bacteroidota, CS amendment increased abundance by 22.28%, 17.79%, 1.48% and 35.90%, respectively. The strategy of employing CS would be the most feasible approach for recycling of immature manure, considering its compost quality and environmental from farm.
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