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ABSTRACTAberrant expression of circular RNA (circRNA) is involved in the occurrence of various diseases and tumor development, in which plays a vital role, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Nevertheless, the regulation mechanism and biological function of circITCH in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain unclear. The expression level of circular RNA itchy E3 ubiquitin protein ligase (circ-ITCH) was identified and validated by real-time polymerase-chain reaction (RT-qPCR) in HCC cell lines. The stability of circITCH was confirmed by Ribonuclease R (RNase R) assay. Subsequently, through silencing and overexpression of circITCH to investigate the functional roles of circITCH in HCC proliferation, invasion, and apoptosis. We also carried out bioinformatics analysis, luciferase reporter assays to define the relationship between microRNA (miR)-184 and circITCH. Moreover, xenograft mouse models and immunohistochemistry were employed to assess the function of circITCH in HCC. CircITCH (hsa_circ_0001141) was a stable circRNA and downregulated in HCC cells. Overexpression of circITCH inhibited cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and promoted apoptosis in vitro and in vivo, whereas knockdown of circITCH had the opposite effects. Mechanistically, miR-184 could be sponged by circITCH, and its overexpression could mitigate the suppressive effects of circITCH overexpression on HCC progression. Through biological website to predict the target genes of miR-184 may be combined. Gene ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis were performed to investigate mRNAs with significant functional enrichment and pathways, also which its relationship with HCC-related pathway and immune cells. Our findings reveal that circITCH served as a repressor to restrain HCC malignancy via miR-184. Therefore, circITCH may serve as a potential prognostic marker and therapeutic target for HCC.Abbreviations:HCC: hepatocellular carcinoma; CircRNA: Circular RNA; miRNA: MicroRNA; Circ-ITCH: circular RNA itchy E3 ubiquitin protein ligase; RT-qPCR: real-time polymerase-chain reaction; RNase R: Ribonuclease R; CeRNA: competing endogenous RNAs; SiRNA: small interfering RNA

Doping chemistry has become one of the most effective means of tuning materials’ properties for diverse applications. In particular for scheelite-type CaWO4, high-oxidation-state doping is extremely important, since one may expand the scheelite family and further create prospective candidates for novel applications and/or useful spectral signatures for nuclear forensics. However, the chemistry associated with high-valence doping in scheelite-type CaWO4is far from understanding. In this work, a series of scheelite-based materials (Ca1–x–y–zEuxKy□z)WO4(□ represents the cation vacancy of the Ca2+site) were synthesized by hydrothermal conditions and solid-state methods and comparatively studied. For the bulk prepared by the solid-state method, occupation of high-oxidation-state Eu3+at the Ca2+sites of CaWO4is followed by doping of the low-oxidation-state K+at a nearly equivalent molar amount. The Eu3+local symmetry is thus varied from the original S4point group symmetry to C2vpoint group symmetry. Surprisingly different from the cases in bulk, for the nanoscale counterparts prepared by hydrothermal conditions, the high-oxidation-state Eu3+was incorporated in CaWO4at two distinct sites, and its amount is higher than that of the low-oxidation-state K+even though KOH was used as a mineralizer, creating a certain amount of cation vacancies. Consequently, an apparent split emission of 5D0→ 7F0was first demonstrated for (Ca1–x–y–zEuxKy□z)WO4. The doping chemistry of high oxidation states uncovered in this work not only provides an explanation for the commonly observed spectral changes in rare-earth-ion-modified scheelite structures, but also points out an advanced direction that can guide the design and synthesis of novel functional oxides by solution chemistry routes.

The intrinsic advantages of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), including extraordinarily high porosities, tailorable architectures, and diverse functional sites, make the MOFs platforms for multifunctional materials. In this study, we synthesized two kinds of isostructural NbO-type Zn2+-based MOFs, where two structurally similar tetracarboxylate ligands, 5,5′-(pyrazine-2,5-diyl)diisophthalic acid (H4PZDDI) and 5,5′-(pyridine-2,5-diyl)diisophthalic acid (H4PDDI), with pyridine or pyrazine moieties, were employed as the organic linkers. By embedding the red-emitting cationic units of pyridinium hemicyanine dye 4-[p-(dimethylamino)styryl]-1-methylpyridinium (DSM) and trivalent europium ion (Eu3+), two types of composites, DSM@ZnPZDDI and DSM@ZJU-56 and Eu3+@ZnPZDDI and Eu3+@ZJU-56, were harvested and evaluated for use as potential ratiometric temperature probes. The temperature-responsive luminescence of these dual-emitting composites was investigated, and their representative features of relative sensitivity, temperature resolution, spectral repeatability, and luminescence color change were discussed. Importantly, compared with the DSM-incorporated composites, Eu3+@ZnPZDDI and Eu3+@ZJU-56 show a much wider sensing temperature range and higher relative sensitivities, suggesting the performance of the composites can be engineered by elaborately combining the host and guest units. Given the rich choices of porous MOFs and emitting units, such a strategy can be useful in the design and preparation of multifunctional dual-emitting sensory materials.

Herein, a one-pot protocol for constructing the disubstituted isoquinolinone derivatives via the three-component reactions of 3-haloisoquinolines, alkyl halides, and indoles under transition-metal-free conditions is described. The reaction realized the trifunctionalization of isoquinoline via a dearomatization strategy, which displayed high chemical selectivity, excellent functional group tolerance, and a wide range of substrates, and is environmentally friendly. The three-component coupling involves the construction of new C–N, C═O, and C–C bonds in one step.

Detection of H2S in the biological system has attracted enormous attention in recent years. In this work, a new vinyl-functionalized metal–organic framework (MOF), [(Me2NH2)2] [Eu6(μ3-OH)8(BDC–CH═CH2)6(H2O)6] (Eu-BDC–CH═CH2, BDC–CH═CH2= 2-vinylterephthalic acid), was synthesized under solvothermal conditions. The vinyl groups in the ligands can not only modulate the “antenna effect” of the ligand on Eu3+ions but also serve as an exposed reactive site to allow for the quantitative detection of H2S by Eu-BDC–CH═CH2. The ratiometric fluorescent probe has the advantages of water stability, acid-base stability (pH = 2–11), fast response (<2 min), high selectivity, and sensitivity (LOD = 38.4 μM). We also used Eu-BDC–CH═CH2to detect and analyze H2S in tap and lake waters, demonstrating the potential of the probe for biological and environmental applications. In addition, the MOF-based agarose hydrogel film allows for the visual detection of H2S via a smartphone by identifying the RGB values. The vinyl-functionalized MOF can thus be a powerful sensing platform for H2S.

In this study, two substituent-group-modifying tetracarboxylate ligands, 2′,5′-dimethoxy-[1,1′:4′,1″-terphenyl]-3,3″,5,5″-tetracarboxylic acid (H4TPTC-2OMe) and 2′,5′-dimethyl-[1,1′:4′,1″-terphenyl]-3,3″,5,5″-tetracarboxylic acid (H4TPTC-2Me), with similar geometries were used as the organic linkers to construct isostructural lanthanide metal–organic frameworks (LnMOFs). The as-prepared LnTPTC-2OMe and LnTPTC-2Me were structurally elucidated by means of single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction in addition to thermogravimetric analysis and were assessed as luminescence ratiometric thermometers by obtaining the temperature dependence of the luminescence behaviors. We found that both the single lanthanide EuTPTC-2OMe and the dual lanthanide Eu0.05Tb0.95TPTC-2Me exhibited a distinct S-type luminescence response to temperatures in the range from 313 to 473 K, and their ratiometric parameters can be understood on the basis of the classic Mott–Seitz model. Energy transfers from the ligand to Tb3+(or Eu3+) and from Tb3+to Eu3+in these two systems were investigated theoretically as well as with low-temperature (77 K) time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy, quantum yield, and lifetime analysis. Therefore, these two materials possess a good relative sensitivity, a small temperature uncertainty, and a favorable spectral repeatability in addition to a remarkable emission color change, enhancing their potential use for temperature measurement and in situ monitoring in microelectronics.