SBA-15 mesoporous silicate was synthesized and functionalized with 3-aminopropyl organic groups through a post-synthesis method. The materials were characterized consecutively by powder X-ray ...diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption/desorption analysis and solid-state magic-angle spinning 29Si nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS NMR). Human c-myc anti-sense oligodeoxyneucleotide (AS-ODN) was selected as a model molecule to be loaded onto the surface of bare and functionalized SBA-15 via different loading conditions. It has been found that the amount of AS-ODN incorporated into the porous matrix is strongly dependent on the surface properties, pH of the loading solvent and AS-ODN concentration. The release behaviour of AS-ODN from modified SBA-15 materials was also investigated and depended on conditions chosen. Cellular uptake of the eluted AS-ODN into Hela cells was observed by fluorescent microscopy. The materials showed excellent cytocompatibility. The AS-ODN keeps full transfection and expression activities indicating its structural integrity. The functionalized SBA-15 is an excellent prospect as a biomedical material candidate for the future.
Silica is one of the most abundant resources on the earth, attracting widespread attention in the new energy field. Due to the high theoretical specific capacity and stable physicochemical ...properties, silica is considered as potential anode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, the main drawbacks for silica materials are the poor electronic conductivity and large volume expansion effect in the lithium insertion and deinsertion process, which cause material pulverization and the decline in capacity. In this work, a new type of nitrogen-doped carbon nanosheets/silica composites (NCSCs) is successfully fabricated via a facile synthesis strategy, whose advantage of this method is the simultaneous completion of nitrogen doping and carbon nanosheets coating in one step. Besides, silica nanospheres with controllable and uniform particle size are utilized to explore lithium storage performance of the silica-based composites by comparing the difference in lithium storage performance of silica nanospheres with different particle sizes. Specifically, the large specific capacity of silica combines with the excellent conductivity of carbon nanosheets, providing the superior electrochemical performance for the NCSCs. Consequently, the NCSCs 1 exhibits a reversible specific capacity of 254.6 mAh g
−1
after the 500th cycle at 2 A g
−1
. The above results fully indicate that the NCSCs are a potential anode material for LIBs.
In this study, we optimized the preparation of 100–160 nm monodispersed SiO2 nanoparticles and, through doping, investigated their effects on the physical properties of a water-based acrylic-amino ...varnish. First, using a non-fixed point feeding technique based on the half-batch sol-gel method, we enhanced the yield of small-sized monodispersed SiO2 nanoparticles. To reduce the cost of production and organic-matter pollution, we assessed certain solution parameters including tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), ethanol (ETOH) and ammonia in a single-reaction system. We found that the gloss, clarity, hardness, adhesion, and other physical properties of the acrylic-amino varnish were successfully enhanced through an addition of 1.2 % SiO2 nanoparticles.
Nitrogen-doped graphene (NG) materials were successfully synthesized in one step by the restricted template method. Specifically, the use of different nitrogen sources and carbon sources makes the ...content of various nitrogen doping structures in NGs different and yields a higher nitrogen doping amount. In the lithium insertion process, nitrogen doping provides more active sites, which effectively improve the specific capacity. As anodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), NGs exhibit excellent electrochemical performance with high reversible specific capacity, good cycle stability, and excellent rate performance.
ATG7, one of the core proteins of autophagy, plays an important role in various biological processes, including the regulation of autophagy. While clear that autophagy drives angiogenesis, the role ...of ATG7 in angiogenesis remains less defined. Several studies have linked ATG7 with angiogenesis, which has long been underappreciated. The knockdown of ATG7 gene in cerebrovascular development leads to angiogenesis defects. In addition, specific knockout of ATG7 in endothelial cells results in abnormal development of neovascularization. Notably, the autophagy pathway is not necessary for ATG7 regulation of angiogenesis, while the ATG7-dependent non-autophagic pathway plays a critical role in the regulation of neovascularization. In order to gain a better understanding of the non-autophagic pathway-mediated biological functions of the autophagy-associated protein ATG7 and to bring attention to this expanding but understudied research area, this article reviews recent developments in the ATG7-dependent non-autophagic pathways regulating angiogenesis.
Purpose Depression and anxiety are prevalent mental health challenges among college students. Music therapy has shown effectiveness in addressing depressive symptoms and enhancing psychosomatic ...functioning. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a 4-step structured music therapy program in improving mood and reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety among medical school students. Materials and methods The self-controlled study involved 45 medical school students (21 men and 24 women) aged 18–24 years to examine the prevalence of depression and anxiety, common mental health issues among medical school students. Participants underwent psychological assessment using the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90), Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS). An 8-week music therapy intervention, comprising four steps—sociality, interaction, music lessons, and creative expression—was administered. Results Before-intervention, 55.6% and 15.6% students were identified as suffering from depression and anxiety respectively. Post-intervention, significant reductions in psychological distress, particularly in the Global Severity Index (GSI) and Positive Symptom Total (PST) on the SCL-90 scale, were observed ( P < 0.05). Male students exhibited notable improvements in various psychological symptoms compared to females. Junior grade students demonstrated greater improvements, and clinical medicine students exhibited significant enhancements in specific areas post-intervention. Conclusion The structured music therapy program showed promising results in improving mood and regulating emotions among medical school students. Music therapy holds potential as a holistic approach to address mental health challenges in this demographic.
Breast cancer is a common malignancy with the highest mortality rate among women worldwide. Its incidence is on the rise year after year, accounting for more than one-tenth of new cancers worldwide. ...Increasing evidence suggests that forkhead box (FOX) transcription factors play an important role in the occurrence and development of breast cancer. However, little is known about the relationship between the expression, prognostic value, function, and immune infiltration of FOX transcription factors in tumor microenvironment. We used bioinformatics to investigate expression and function of FOX factor in breast cancer. Our results revealed the expression levels of FOXA1 and FOXM1 were significantly higher in breast cancer tissues than in normal tissues. The high expression of mRNA in FOXA1 (P < .05), FOXM1 (P < .01), and FOXP1 (P < .05) groups was related to tumor stage. Survival analysis results showed that increased FOXP1 mRNA levels were significantly associated with overall survival (OS), recurrence-free survival (RFS), and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) in all patients with breast cancer (P < .05). Patients with the FOXA1 high-expression group had better RFS and DMFS than the low-expression group (P < .05), while patients with FOXM1 high-expression group had worse RFS, OS, and DMFS than the low-expression group (P < .05). Meanwhile, mutation analysis showed that genetic alterations in FOX transcription factors were significantly associated with shorter OS and progression-free survival (P < .05), but not with disease-free survival (P = .710) in patients with breast cancer. FOXP1, FOXA1, and FOXM1 may be used as potential biomarkers to predict the prognosis of patients with breast cancer. Functional enrichment indicated that FOX was mainly involved in cell division, cell senescence, cell cycle, and prolactin signaling pathway. In patients with breast cancer, FOXC2 expression was negatively correlated with the infiltration of B cells and positively correlated with the infiltration of neutrophils and dendritic cells. However, FOXM1 was negatively correlated with the infiltration of CD8 + T cells and macrophages and positively correlated with the infiltration of neutrophils and dendritic cells. These findings provided novel insights into the screening of prognostic biomarkers of the FOX family in breast cancer and laid a foundation for further research on the immune infiltration of the FOX transcription factor family members in tumors.
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