Search

Background: Ferroptosis is an important iron‐dependent form of cell death in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Sorafenib, a potent ferroptosis inducer, is used to treat advanced HCC but its efficacy is limited by the development of drug resistance. Methods: The effects of DUXAP8 expression on HCC progression were evaluated by TCGA database, Kaplan‐Meier analysis, and in situ hybridization analysis. Sorafenib resistant HCC cell lines were modeled in vitro to study the regulation of DUXAP8 on ferroptosis in HCC induced by sorafenib. We used RNA pull‐down, immunofluorescence assays, acyl‐biotinyl exchange assay and mass spectrometry analysis to assess the molecular mechanism of ferroptosis regulation by DUXAP8. Syngeneic subcutaneous and orthotopic CDX models were used to assess whether DUXAP8 inhibition improves HCC in vivo. Results: LncRNA DUXAP8, which is highly expressed in liver cancer and associated with poor prognosis, contributes to sorafenib resistance through suppression of ferroptosis. In vitro tests revealed that DUXAP8 reduced the sensitivity of HCC to sorafenib‐induced ferroptosis by acting on SLC7A11, a subunit of the amino acid antiporter system xc‐. DUXAP8 facilitates SLC7A11 palmitoylation and impedes its lysosomal degradation, thereby enhancing SLC7A11 action and suppressing ferroptosis. RNA pull‐down and immunofluorescence assays confirmed that DUXAP8 decreased membrane translocation and promoted sorting of de‐palmitoylated SLC7A11 to lysosomes by binding of DUXAP8 to SLC7A11. In addition, mass spectrometric analysis found that the Cys414 residue of SLC7A11 might be the predominant mutant site responsible for molecular masking of SLC7A11 lysosomal sorting. Further, the antitumor effect of DUXAP8 knockdown was verified in orthotopic and subcutaneous CDX models. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that a novel translational strategy combining sorafenib with DUXAP8 silencing to overcome drug resistance may improve treatment efficacy in patients with advanced HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we report a new strategy to tune both excitation and emission peaks of upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) into the first infrared biowindow (NIR‐I, 650–900 nm) with high NIR‐I‐to‐NIR‐I upconversion efficiency. By introducing the sensitizer Nd3+, activator Er3+, energy migrator Yb3+ and energy manipulator Mn2+ into specific region to construct proposed energy migration processes in the designed core–shell–shell nanoarchitecture, back energy transfer (BET) from activator to sensitizer or migrator can be greatly blocked and the NIR‐to‐red upconversion emission can be efficiently promoted. Consequently, BET‐induced photon quenching and the undesired green‐emitting radiative transition are entirely eliminated, leading to high‐efficiency single‐band red upconversion emission upon 808 nm NIR‐I laser excitation. Our findings provide insights into fundamental lanthanide interactions and advance the development of UCNPs for bioapplications with techniques that overturn traditional limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a malignant hepatic tumor with a poor prognosis, which needs early diagnosis urgently. The gut microbiota has been shown to play a crucial role in the progression of liver cancer. Here, we explored a gut microbiota model covering genera Burkholderia-Caballeronia-Paraburkholderia , Faecalibacterium , and Ruminococcus_1 (B-F-R) for CCA early diagnosis. A case-control study was conducted to enroll 53 CCA patients, 47 cholelithiasis patients, and 40 healthy controls. The feces samples and clinical information of participants were collected in the same period. The gut microbiota and its diversity of individuals were accessed with 16S rDNA sequencing, and the gut microbiota profile was evaluated according to microbiota diversity. Finally, four enriched genera in the CCA group (genera Bacteroides , Muribaculaceae_unclassified , Muribaculum , and Alistipes) and eight enriched genera in the cholelithiasis group (genera Bifidobacterium , Streptococcus , Agathobacter , Ruminococcus_gnavus_group , Faecalibacterium , Subdoligranulum , Collinsella , Escherichia-Shigella) constitute an overall different microbial community composition (P = 0.001). The B-F-R genera model with better diagnostic value than carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) was identified by random forest and Statistical Analysis of Metagenomic Profiles (STAMP) to distinguish CCA patients from healthy controls [area under the curve (AUC) = 0.973, 95% CI = 0.932–1.0]. Moreover, the correlative analysis found that genera Burkholderia-Caballeronia-Paraburkholderia were positively correlated with body mass index (BMI). The significantly different microbiomes between cholelithiasis and CCA were found via principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) and linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe), and Venn diagram and LEfSe were utilized to identify four genera by comparing microbial compositions among patients with malignant obstructive jaundice (MOJ-Y) or not (MOJ-N). In brief, our findings suggest that gut microbiota vary from benign and malignant hepatobiliary diseases to healthy people and provide evidence supporting gut microbiota to be a non-invasive biomarker for the early diagnosis of CCA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To explore the prognostic value of the fibrinogen–albumin ratio (FAR) combined with sarcopenia in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) patients after surgery and to develop a nomogram for predicting the survival of ICC patients. Materials and Methods: In this prospective cohort study, 116 ICC patients who underwent radical surgery were enrolled as the discovery cohort and another independent cohort of 68 ICC patients was used as the validation cohort. Kaplan–Meier method was used to analyze prognosis. The independent predictor of overall survival (OS) and recurrence‐free survival (RFS) was evaluated by univariable and multivariable Cox regression analyses, then developing nomograms. The performance of nomograms was evaluated by concordance index (C‐index), calibration curve, receiver operating characteristic curve analysis (ROC), and decision curve analysis (DCA). Results: Patients with high FAR had lower OS and RFS. FAR and sarcopenia were effective predictors of OS and RFS. Patients with high FAR and sarcopenia had a poorer prognosis than other patients. OS nomogram was constructed based on age, FAR, and sarcopenia. RFS nomogram was constructed based on FAR and sarcopenia. C‐index for the nomograms of OS and RFS was 0.713 and 0.686. Calibration curves revealed great consistency between actual survival and nomogram prediction. The area under ROC curve (AUC) for the nomograms of OS and RFS was 0.796 and 0.791 in the discovery cohort, 0.823 and 0.726 in the validation cohort. The clinical value of nomograms was confirmed by the DCA. Conclusions: ICC patients with high FAR and sarcopenia had a poor prognosis, the nomograms developed based on these two factors were accurate and clinically useful in ICC patients who underwent radical resection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CO2 photoreduction into valuable chemicals is a sustainable and prospective technology to alleviate greenhouse effects and the energy crisis. However, the photocatalytic efficiency is impeded by undesirable recombination of photogenerated carriers and poor CO2 activation performance. Herein, oxygen vacancies (OVs) are introduced into BiOBr atomic layers by ultraviolet light assisting to increase the efficiency of carrier separation and CO2 adsorption–activation performance, enhancing the CO2 reduction activity. The introduction of OVs can effectively enhance the visible light absorption, boost the photogenerated carrier separation migration, and tune the adsorption/desorption process for CO2 and products on the surface of photocatalysts. The optimized OVs engineering–mediated photocatalyst achieves a high CO generation rate of 10.15 μmol g−1 under visible light irradiation for 5 h in pure water, which is 1.99 times compared with that of pristine BiOBr atomic layers. The possible photocatalytic mechanism is investigated by in situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (in situ FT‐IR) spectrometry. Also, an opportunity to design OVs‐rich ultrathin semiconductors for high‐performance CO2 reduction is offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar‐powered water evaporation provides a promising strategy for eco‐friendly and cost‐effective freshwater production. The exploration of high‐performance photothermal materials and the rational design of evaporation architectures are crucial in promoting solar steam generation efficiency. Herein, multidimensional MXene‐based composites with well‐organized heterojunction nanostructures are proposed as bifunctional photothermal materials. The solar thermal conversion, chemical stability, and photocatalysis degradation properties are enhanced by anchoring Co3O4 nanoparticles on delaminated ultrathin MXene nanosheets, compared with that of Ti3C2 MXene. Based on these advantages, an integrated 3D spherical evaporator is constructed using the Co3O4/Ti3C2 MXene‐based fabric. The evaporator shows its distinct advantages in maximizing the harvest of the hybrid energy from sunlight and the ambient environment, making it ideal for solar steam generation and synergetic water purification. An extremely high evaporation rate of 1.89 kg m−2 h−1 with a corresponding light‐to‐vapor energy conversion efficiency beyond the theoretical limit (130.4%) is achieved. More importantly, while the evaporation rate of the 2D evaporator significantly recedes upon the oblique sunlight irradiation, the evaporation rate of the 3D spherical evaporator is constantly high at different incident angles of sunlight, which satisfies the requirement of practical applications under moving sun. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultrasmall and homogeneous bimetallic PdxBi nanoalloys are well distributed on a Vulcan carbon support by a facile, low-cost synthetic strategy. The electrochemical activity of the as-prepared homogeneous PdxBi nanoalloy/carbon black nanocomposites is closely related to the content of Bi, revealing their excellent electrocatalytic performance for selective oxidation of monohydric alcohols and vicinal diols in alkali medium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2 D transition metal dichalcogenide materials with layered nanostructures and specific phases usually exhibit excellent catalytic activities for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). A facile solvothermal process was used to prepare ultrathin noble‐metal‐free 2 D biphasic MoSe2 nanosheets composed of a metastable metallic 1T phase and a semiconducting 2H phase. High metallic 1T phase content and few‐layer‐thick MoSe2 nanosheets were obtained by tuning the amount of NaBH4 used in the reaction. The optimal integration of a metallic 1T phase and an environmentally stable 2H phase in MoSe2 electrocatalysts provides abundant active sites and good conductivity beneficial for the HER. The combination of experimental results and DFT calculations implies that the electrocatalytic activity for the HER on the MoSe2 surface goes through a collaborative Heyrovsky and Volmer reaction process. The theoretical studies suggest that the presence of 1T‐MoSe2 could reduce the band energy relative to 2H‐MoSe2 and, consequently, accelerate the sluggish HER kinetics of 2H‐MoSe2. This work provides valuable and novel insights into the understanding of the structure–activity relationships in 2 D transition metal dichalcogenide electrocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]