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The considerable efficacy of B-cell maturation antigen-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T-cell therapy has been extensively demonstrated in the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. Nevertheless, in clinical practice, prolonged hematologic toxicity (PHT) extends hospital stay and impairs long-term survival.This retrospective study reviewed 99 patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma who underwent B-cell maturation antigen CAR-T-cell therapy at our institution between April 2018 and September 2021 (ChiCTR1800017404).Among 93 evaluable patients, the incidence of prolonged hematologic toxicities was high after CAR-T-cell infusion, including 38.71% (36/93) of patients with prolonged neutropenia, 22.58% (21/93) with prolonged anemia and 59.14% (55/93) with prolonged thrombocytopenia. In addition, 9.68% (9/93) of patients experienced prolonged pancytopenia. Our multivariate analyses identified that cytokine profiles were independent risk factors for PHTs, whereas a sufficient baseline hematopoietic function and high CD4/CD8 ratio of CAR-T cells were protective factors for PHTs after CAR-T-cell infusion. Subgroup analyses found that the kinetics of post-CAR-T hematologic parameters were primarily determined by the collective effects of cytokine release syndrome and baseline hematopoietic functions, and showed influential weights for the three lineages.Our findings improve the understanding of the impact of cytokines on hematopoietic functions, which could contribute to the mechanism investigation and exploration of potential intervention strategies.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies have achieved remarkable success in the treatment of haematological malignancies. Over the past 9 years, the use of CAR T-cell therapies has expanded throughout China, from the first clinical trials of CAR T cells conducted in 2013, to the world's largest number of CAR T-cell-related clinical trials in 2017, to a cumulative US$2·37 billion in funding for cell therapy companies in 2021, and a significant growth in the number of CAR T-cell-related clinical trials and basic research. This strong increase in activity is the result of a culmination of factors in China: strong government support, capital inflow, large patient demand, a unique health-care system, and the efforts of Chinese physicians and scientists. This Series paper provides an overview of the scope of CAR T-cell clinical trials in China (especially in the field of haematological malignancies), analyses the relevant policies, summarises the characteristics of corporate and capital support, and explores the achievements and challenges of CAR T-cell therapy in China to provide a better understanding for further promoting the development of cellular therapy and its clinical application.

Hole-transporting material (HTM) plays a paramount role in enhancing the photovltaic performance of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Currently, the vast majority of these HTMs employed in PSCs are organic small molecules and polymers, yet the use of organic metal complexes in PSCs applications remains less explored. To date, most of reported HTMs require additional chemical additives (e.g. Li-TFSI, t-TBP) towards high performance, however, the introduction of additives decrease the PSCs device stability. Herein, an organic metal complex (Ni-TPA) is first developed as a dopant-free HTM applied in PSCs for its facile synthesis and efficient hole extract/transfer ability. Consequently, the dopant-free Ni-TPA-based device achieves a champion efficiency of 17.89%, which is superior to that of pristine Spiro-OMeTAD (14.25%). Furthermore, we introduce a double HTM layer with a graded energy bandgap containing a Ni-TPA layer and a CuSCN layer into PSCs, the non-encapsulated PSCs based on the Ni-TPA/CuSCN layers affords impressive efficiency up to 20.39% and maintains 96% of the initial PCE after 1000 h at a relative humidity around 40%. The results have demonstrated that metal organic complexes represent a great promise for designing new dopant-free HTMs towards highly stable PSCs.

A new crosslinked polymer, called P65, with appropriate photo-electrochemical, opto-electronic, and thermal properties, has been designed and synthesized as an efficient, dopant-free, hole-transpor ...

Understanding the seven coordination and O−O coupling pathway of the distinguished Ru-bda catalysts is essential for the development of next generation efficient water-oxidation catalysts based on earth-abundant metals. This work reports the synthesis, characterization and catalytic properties of a monomeric ruthenium catalyst Ru-bnda (H2bnda = 2,2'-bi(nicotinic acid)-6,6'-dicarboxylic acid) featuring steric hindrance and enhanced hydrophilicity on the backbone. Combining experimental evidence with systematic density functional theory calculations on the Ru-bnda and related catalysts Ru-bda (H2bda = 2,2ʹ-bipyridine-6,6ʹ-dicarboxylic acid), Ru-pda ((H2pda = 1,10-phenanthroline-2,9-dicarboxylic acid)), and Ru-biqa (H2biqa = (1,1ʹ-biisoquinoline)-3,3ʹ-dicarboxylic acid), we emphasized that seven coordination clearly determines presence of RuV=O with high spin density on the ORuV=O atom, i.e. oxo with radical properties, which is one of the necessary conditions for reacting through the O−O coupling pathway. However, an additional factor to make the condition sufficient is the favorable intermolecular face-to-face interaction for the generation of the pre-reactive [RuV=O···O=RuV], which may be significantly influenced by the secondary coordination environments. This work provides a new understanding of the structure-activity relationship of water-oxidation catalysts and their potential to adopt I2M pathway for O−O bond formation.

Perovskite photovoltaics have recently attracted extensive attention due to their unprecedented high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) in combination with primitive manufacturing conditions. How ...

Summary Electron transport layer (ETL)/perovskite interface passivation is particularly challenging because of the use of polar solvents (e.g., DMF) for perovskite solution deposition, which usually destroy the bottom as-formed defect passivation layers. Herein, a novel multifunctional composite ETL, NH2-ZnO@SnO2, is prepared by mixing amino-capped ZnO (NH2-ZnO) nanocrystals (NCs) with SnO2 nanoparticles. The best-performing PSCs on the basis of NH2-ZnO@SnO2 achieve efficiency of 22.52%, which is significantly higher than that of the pristine SnO2 counterpart (18.45%). The enhanced performance of the NH2-ZnO@SnO2 ETL can be attributed to higher electron extraction capacity, better energy-level alignment with perovskite material, and more efficient carrier transport in device. Most important, the NH2 groups on the surface of ZnO NCs can effectively passivate the under-coordinated Pb2+ ions from perovskite films, thus reducing charge recombination at ETL/perovskite interface. The results suggest that NH2-ZnO NCs@SnO2 composite is a promising ETL for improving the performance of PSCs.

The power-conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have increased rapidly from about 4% to 22% during the past few years. One of the major challenges for further improvement ...