Absorbers with lightweight, low filler loading and broad absorption band are highly desirable for electromagnetic wave absorption field. Here, hollow Co1–xS microspheres constructed by nanosheets are ...fabricated via a facile synthetic method based on hydrothermal route. As an efficient wave absorber, the Co1–xS hollow spheres demonstrate excellent microwave absorption performance. With a weight content of only 3 wt%, the maximum reflection loss (RL) can reach as strong as −46.1 dB at 13.92 GHz and its qualified frequency bandwidth (with RL value over −10 dB) remarkably achieves 5.6 GHz, covering 35% of the entire measured bandwidth. In addition, compared with other cobalt sulfides (such as CoS2 and Co9S8), the Co1–xS microspheres with hollow structure exhibit more superior absorption intensity and broader qualified bandwidth. Therefore, this work provides a promising approach for the design and synthesis of hollow Co1–xS microspheres with lightweight and high‐performance microwave absorption.
The hollow Co1–xS microspheres with understanding microwave absorption performance are successfully fabricated through a facile hydrothermal route. The RLmax can reach to −46.1 dB at 13.92 GHz with an ultralow filler loading (3 wt%) and the effective frequency bandwidth is up to 5.6 GHz. Moreover, the possible wave absorption mechanism is also depicted comprehensively in this article.
The Wnt/β-catenin pathway comprises a family of proteins that play critical roles in embryonic development and adult tissue homeostasis. The deregulation of Wnt/β-catenin signalling often leads to ...various serious diseases, including cancer and non-cancer diseases. Although many articles have reviewed Wnt/β-catenin from various aspects, a systematic review encompassing the origin, composition, function, and clinical trials of the Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway in tumour and diseases is lacking. In this article, we comprehensively review the Wnt/β-catenin pathway from the above five aspects in combination with the latest research. Finally, we propose challenges and opportunities for the development of small-molecular compounds targeting the Wnt signalling pathway in disease treatment.
During the progression of osteoarthritis, dysregulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) anabolism, abnormal generation of reactive oxygen species, and proteolytic enzymes have been shown to accelerate ...the degradation process of cartilage. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the functional role of bromodomain‐containing protein 4 (BRD4) in hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)–stimulated chondrocyte injury and delineate the underlying molecular mechanisms. We observed that the expression BRD4 was markedly elevated in rat chondrocytes after H2O2 stimulation. Additionally, inhibition of BRD4 using small interfering RNA or JQ1 (a selective potent chemical inhibitor) led to repression of H2O2‐induced oxidative stress, as revealed by a decrease in the reactive oxygen species production accompanied by a decreased malondialdehyde content, along with increased activities of antioxidant markers superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase on exposure of chondrocytes to H2O2. Meanwhile, depletion of BRD4 led to repress the oxidative stress–induced apoptosis of chondrocytes triggered by H2O2 accompanied by an increase in the expression of anti‐apoptotic Bcl‐2 and a decrease in the expression of pro‐apoptotic Bax and caspase 3 as well as attenuated caspase 3 activity. Moreover, knockdown of BRD4 or treatment with JQ1 markedly attenuated ECM deposition, reflected in a marked upregulation of proteoglycans collagen type II and aggrecan as well as downregulation of ECM–degrading enzymes matrix metalloproteinase 13 and A disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs 5 (ADAMTS‐5). More importantly, inhibition of BRD4‐activated NF‐E2–related factor 2 (Nrf2)–heme oxygenase‐1 signaling. Mechanistically, the protective effect of BRD4 inhibition on H2O2‐stimulated apoptosis and cartilage matrix degeneration was markedly abrogated by Nrf2 depletion. Altogether, we concluded that the protective effect of BRD4 inhibition against oxidative stress–mediated apoptosis and cartilage matrix degeneration occurred through Nrf2–heme oxygenase‐1 signaling, implying that BRD4 inhibition may be a more effective therapeutic strategy against osteoarthritis.
The protective effect of bromodomain‐containing protein 4 inhibition against oxidative stress–mediated apoptosis and cartilage degeneration occurred through NF‐E2–related factor 2‐heme oxygenase‐1 signaling, implying that bromodomain‐containing protein 4 inhibition may be a more effective therapeutic strategy against osteoarthritis.
SUMMARY
Understanding the genetic basis of population divergence and adaptation is an important goal in population genetics and evolutionary biology. However, the relative roles of demographic ...history, gene flow, and/or selective regime in driving genomic divergence, climatic adaptation, and speciation in non‐model tree species are not yet fully understood. To address this issue, we generated whole‐genome resequencing data of Liquidambar formosana and L. acalycina, which are broadly sympatric but altitudinally segregated in the Tertiary relict forests of subtropical China. We integrated genomic and environmental data to investigate the demographic history, genomic divergence, and climatic adaptation of these two sister species. We inferred a scenario of allopatric species divergence during the late Miocene, followed by secondary contact during the Holocene. We identified multiple genomic islands of elevated divergence that mainly evolved through divergence hitchhiking and recombination rate variation, likely fostered by long‐term refugial isolation and recent differential introgression in low‐recombination genomic regions. We also found some candidate genes with divergent selection signatures potentially involved in climatic adaptation and reproductive isolation. Our results contribute to a better understanding of how late Tertiary/Quaternary climatic change influenced speciation, genomic divergence, climatic adaptation, and introgressive hybridization in East Asia's Tertiary relict flora. In addition, they should facilitate future evolutionary, conservation genomics, and molecular breeding studies in Liquidambar, a genus of important medicinal and ornamental values.
Significance Statement
We assembled a chromosome‐scale genome of Liquidambar formosana and resequenced 160 individuals of L. formosana and its high‐altitude sister species L. acalycina. Benefiting from advanced analytical methods and robust evidence, we found that multiple “genomic islands” mainly evolved as a result of divergence hitchhiking and recombination rate variation, as likely fostered by long‐term refugial isolation and recent differential introgression in low‐recombination genomic regions; and identified some candidate genes associated with climatic adaptation and reproductive isolation.
Large bone defects caused by tumors and traumas are difficult clinical problems. For its treatment, autogenous bone transplantation is the “gold standard”. However, there are some shortcomings of ...this treatment, such as limited supply and extra trauma from bone removal. In recent years, orthopedic implants and bone tissue engineering materials have developed rapidly, adding impetus to the solution of this problem. At present, the main orthopedic implants include medical metal materials, medical polymer materials, bone cement, ceramic materials, artificial bone materials, etc. Among which medical polymer materials have become the research hotspot and achieved outstanding results in recent years, especially the in-depth study of polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK) materials has great promising to solve this medical problem. PEEK materials have the advantages of non-toxicity, high-temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, abrasion resistance, high strength, high toughness, X-ray radiolucency, and excellent sterilization performance. PEEK materials have been successfully applied in clinical practice and have achieved excellent clinical efficacy and wide recognition. This review overviews the research progress of the performance requirements, material development, and material surface modification of PEEK as an orthopedic implant, and discusses prospects for the advance of medical PEEK materials.
In wheat breeding, improved quality traits, including grain quality and dough rheological properties, have long been a critical goal. To understand the genetic basis of key quality traits of wheat, ...two single-locus and five multi-locus GWAS models were performed for six grain quality traits and three dough rheological properties based on 19, 254 SNPs in 267 bread wheat accessions. As a result, 299 quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) within 105 regions were identified to be associated with these quality traits in four environments. Of which, 40 core QTN regions were stably detected in at least three environments, 19 of which were novel. Compared with the previous studies, these novel QTN regions explained smaller phenotypic variation, which verified the advantages of the multi-locus GWAS models in detecting important small effect QTNs associated with complex traits. After characterization of the function and expression in-depth, 67 core candidate genes involved in protein/sugar synthesis, histone modification and the regulation of transcription factor were observed to be associated with the formation of grain quality, which showed that multi-level regulations influenced wheat grain quality. Finally, a preliminary network of gene regulation that may affect wheat quality formation was inferred. This study verified the power and reliability of multi-locus GWAS methods in wheat quality trait research, and increased the understanding of wheat quality formation mechanisms. The detected QTN regions and candidate genes in this study could be further used for gene cloning and marker-assisted selection in high-quality breeding of bread wheat.
Poor chemotherapy response is the main obstacle of ovarian cancer (OC) treatment. Platinum‐refractory and ‐resistant patients are associated with a worse outcome than platinum‐sensitive and partially ...sensitive patients, but the comprehensive similarities and differences among them are not yet clear. In this study, we analyzed the data of patients with different chemotherapy response in The Cancer Genome Atlas. We found a minority of altered genes were overlapped in refractory and resistant groups, as did the enriched pathways and Gene Ontology terms. We noticed that the neural signaling and drug metabolism enzymes were more significantly enriched and the protein–protein interaction supported these results. The transcription analysis highlighted PDX1 as the common and central transcription factor in both refractory and resistant groups. The competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network shared no common ceRNA pairs, indicating a major difference in noncoding RNA post‐transcriptional regulation. In the end, we validated the expression, regulation, binding, and effect on chemotherapy response for selected MNX1‐AS1/hsa‐miR‐4697‐3p/HOXB13 in OC cell lines. Our study offered a novel and comprehensive insight into chemotherapy response, and potential targets for improving chemotherapy response in OC.
Our work revealed the chemotherapy response related dysregulated function, transcriptional regulation, and lncRNA based ceRNA regulation landscape in OC, thus offered a novel and comprehensive insight into chemotherapy response. Also, we validated the MNX1‐AS1/ has‐miR‐4697‐3p/ HOXB13 axis could affect carboplatin sensitive for the first time, which could be potential targets for improving chemotherapy response in OC.
Graphene-on-silicon (Gr/Si) Schottky junction solar cells have recently attracted considerable interest as promising candidates for low-cost photovoltaic applications. However, the efficiency of ...Gr/Si cells is still much lower than that of crystalline Si solar cells, which is mainly attributed to the interface recombination of carriers due to the low Gr/Si Schottky barrier. Herein, a few-layer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is introduced to engineer the Gr/Si interface for improving device performance. The h-BN can act as an effective electron-blocking/hole-transporting layer due to its unique properties and appropriate band alignment with Si, and thus the interface recombination was suppressed and the open circuit voltage was remarkably increased. On the other hand, the series resistance of solar cells decreases due to an improving conductivity of graphene on h-BN, leading to an increased short circuit current density. Furthermore, the interface defects and contamination arising from the layer-by-layer transfer process can be eliminated by using a directly grown Gr/h-BN heterostructure. As a result, a maximum efficiency of 10.93% was achieved by combining h-BN interlayer and co-doping of graphene with Au nanoparticles and HNO3, which shows the great potential of the novel Gr/h-BN/Si solar cells.
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•Few-layer h-BN is introduced to engineer the Gr/Si interface for improving device performance.•The h-BN acts as an effective electron-blocking layer due to its unique properties and appropriate band alignment with Si.•The interface defects and contamination is eliminated by using a directly grown Gr/h-BN heterostructure.•A maximum efficiency of 10.93% is achieved by combining h-BN interlayer and co-doping of graphene.
Traumatic brain injury induces potent inflammatory responses that can exacerbate secondary blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption, neuronal injury, and neurological dysfunction. Dexmedetomidine is a ...novel α2-adrenergic receptor agonist that exert protective effects in various central nervous system diseases. The present study was designed to investigate the neuroprotective action of dexmedetomidine in a mouse traumatic brain injury model, and to explore the possible mechanisms. Adult male C57BL/6J mice were subjected to controlled cortical impact. After injury, animals received 3 days of consecutive dexmedetomidine therapy (25 µg/kg per day). The modified neurological severity score was used to assess neurological deficits. The rotarod test was used to evaluate accurate motor coordination and balance. Immunofluorescence was used to determine expression of ionized calcium binding adapter molecule-1, myeloperoxidase, and zonula occluden-1 at the injury site. An enzyme linked immunosorbent assay was used to measure the concentration of interleukin-1β (IL-1β), tumor necrosis factor α, and IL-6. The dry-wet weight method was used to measure brain water content. The Evans blue dye extravasation assay was used to measure BBB disruption. Western blot assay was used to measure protein expression of nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3), caspase-1 p20, IL-1β, nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) p65, occluding, and zonula occluden-1. Flow cytometry was used to measure cellular apoptosis. Results showed that dexmedetomidine treatment attenuated early neurological dysfunction and brain edema. Further, dexmedetomidine attenuated post-traumatic inflammation, up-regulated tight junction protein expression, and reduced secondary BBB damage and apoptosis. These protective effects were accompanied by down-regulation of the NF-κB and NLRP3 inflammasome pathways. These findings suggest that dexmedetomidine exhibits neuroprotective effects against acute (3 days) post-traumatic inflammatory responses, potentially via suppression of NF-κB and NLRP3 inflammasome activation.
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