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This study aimed to study miR-145’s correlation with Th1/Th2 in premature rupture of fetal membranes (pPROM) with nanogold-related PCR. Sixty pregnant women with pPROM between January 2019 to December 2019 were selected as the treatment group, and another sixty healthy pregnant women at the stage were chosen as the control group. Blood samples were collected for the quantification of miR-145 and the Th1/Th2 ratio. The result showed that nanoPCR could detect miR-145 with higher sensitivity and specificity. Then, nanoPCR detected a decreased miR-145 in pPROM pregnant women. Immunofluorescence staining and flow cytometry data presented a higher Th1/Th2 ratio in pPROM pregnant women. Western blotting showed the Th1/Th2 ratio increased significantly in pPROM pregnant women; also, the IFN-γ and IL-2 secreted by Th1 increased at the same time. On the other hand, the IL-4 and IL-6 secreted by Th2 were reduced, consistent with the change in Th2’s pattern in number reduction. A significant negative correlation was shown between Th1, Th1/Th2, and miR-145, and a positive correlation was shown between Th2 and miR-145. In conclusion, we propose thatin pPROM pregnant women, the decrease in miR-145 induces Th1 proliferation and Th2 reduction, causing relative cytokines to change and the immune system to lose imbalance. As more infections occur, and pPROM occurred as a result of fetal membrane fragility.

Background Paclitaxel is an effective chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of cancer patients. Accumulating evidence suggests that circular RNAs (circRNAs) play critical roles in the occurrence and development of human cancers. However, there are few studies on interactions between paclitaxel and circRNAs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Materials and methods Cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay and colony formation assay were conducted to determine cell proliferation. Cell apoptosis was assessed by flow cytometry. The expression levels of circRNA baculoviral IAP repeat-containing 6 (circ-BIRC6), microRNA-877-5p (miR-877-5p), and tyrosine 3-monooxygenase/tryptophan 5-monooxygenase activation protein, zeta (YWHAZ) were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The mice xenograft model was established to investigate the roles of circ-BIRC6 and paclitaxel in vivo. The interaction between miR-877-5p and circ-BIRC6 or YWHAZ was predicted by bioinformatics analysis and verified by dual-luciferase reporter assay. Western blot assay was applied for measuring the protein expression of YWHAZ. Results Paclitaxel suppressed HCC tumorigenesis through decreasing cell proliferation and accelerating apoptosis. Circ-BIRC6 and YWHAZ were upregulated, and miR-877-5p was downregulated in HCC tissues and cells. Paclitaxel treatment inhibited the expression of circ-BIRC6 and YWHAZ while promoted the expression of miR-877-5p. Circ-BIRC6 overexpression or miR-877-5p interference reversed the inhibitory effect of paclitaxel on HCC tumorigenesis. Moreover, miR-877-5p could specially bind to YWHAZ, and its knockdown abated the suppressive effect of circ-BIRC6 depletion on HCC tumorigenesis. Additionally, YWHAZ was identified as a direct target of miR-877-5p. Besides, circ-BIRC6 functioned as a molecular sponge of miR-877-5p to regulate YWHAZ expression. Conclusion Paclitaxel limited HCC tumorigenesis via modulating circ-BIRC6/miR-877-5p/YWHAZ axis, providing a novel therapeutic approach for the treatment of HCC.

Metallic oxides are promising electrochemically active materials which can supply large energy density and capacitance, while always suffer from weak electrical conductivity and structural stability. Herein, a green and low-tortuosity wood-derived anisotropic carbon is developed to stabilize CuO and improve its conductivity. The low tortuosity and large surface area of anisotropic carbon is capable to act as an electrolyte storage to supply fast transport channels for the ionic migration, which is verified by the kinetic analysis. As expected, the composite electrode has superior electrochemical performances with a large specific capacitance of 694.8 F g−1 at the current density of 0.5 A g−1 (131.5% and 344.2% higher than that of the individual CuO (300.1 F g−1) and the individual carbon (156.4 F g−1)) and high cycling stability. As the current density dramatically increases 100 times to 50 A g−1, the composite electrode still retains 46.7% of the original capacitance, reflecting its outstanding rate capability. More importantly, the composite acts as an advanced cathode material to assemble hybrid supercapacitors, possessing a high cell voltage of 1.5 V and good cycling stability (91.2% capacitance retention after 5000 cycles) and high energy density (13.6 W h kg−1 at 350.3 W kg−1).

Jiaojiao Hu,1,* Runkun Wang,2,* Yi Liu,3 Jianbo Zhou,4 Ka Shen,4 Yun Dai1 1Department of Oncology, Suizhou Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Suizhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Oncology, The First People’s Hospital of Guangshui, Guangshui, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Suizhou Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Suizhou, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of General Surgery, Suizhou Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Suizhou, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yun DaiDepartment of Oncology, Suizhou Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, No. 60 Longmen Street, Suizhou, 441300, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-13908666102Email gxzrxl@163.comBackground: Baicalein has a significant anti-cancerous function in the treatment of cervical cancer (CC). Its functional mechanism regarding circular RNA (circRNA) hippocampus abundant transcript 1 (circHIAT1) and microRNA-19a-3p (miR-19a-3p) was explored in this research.Methods: CC cell viability and colony formation were determined using Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) and colony formation assay. Cell cycle progression and apoptosis were analyzed via flow cytometry. Protein markers of cell cycle, apoptosis and protein kinase B/mammalian target of rapamycin (AKT/mTOR) pathway were detected by Western blot. CircHIAT1 and miR-19a-3p levels were assayed through the quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The interaction between circHIAT1 and miR-19a-3p was validated by dual-luciferase reporter and RNA pull-down assays. In vivo experiment was performed by xenograft model.Results: CC cell growth and cell cycle progression were repressed while apoptosis was enhanced by baicalein. MiR-19a-3p was downregulated in baicalein-treated CC cells and miR-19a-3p overexpression lightened the baicalein-induced CC progression inhibition. Moreover, circHIAT1 was found to be a sponge of miR-19a-3p in CC cells. Baicalein-induced cell growth inhibition, cell cycle arrest and apoptosis promotion were neutralized by knockdown of circHIAT1 via targeting miR-19a-3p. Baicalein acted on the circHIAT1/miR-19a-3p to inactivate AKT/mTOR pathway. Baicalein also reduced CC tumor growth in vivo via regulating the levels of circHIAT1 and miR-19a-3p.Conclusion: These findings demonstrated that the inhibitory function of baicalein in CC progression was dependent on the repression of AKT/mTOR pathway by upregulating circHIAT1 to sponge miR-19a-3p, showing a specific mechanism for baicalein in CC.Keywords: baicalein, cervical cancer, circHIAT1, miR-19a-3p, AKT/mTOR

Cantharidin (CTD) is the main bioactive component of Cantharides, which is called Banmao in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Norcantharidin (NCTD) is a structural modifier of CTD. To compare with CTD, NCTD has lighter side effects and stronger bioactivity in anti-cancer through inhibiting cell proliferation, causing apoptosis and autophagy, overwhelming migration and metastasis, affecting immunity as well as lymphangiogenesis. Examples of these effects include suppressing Protein Phosphatase 2A and modulating Wnt/beta catenin signal, with Caspase family proteins, AMPK pathway and c-Met/EGFR pathway involving respectively. Moreover, NCTD has the effects of immune enhancement, anti-platelet aggregation and inhibition of renal interstitial fibrosis with distinct signaling pathways. The immunological effects induced by NCTD are related to the regulation of macrophage polarization and LPS-mediated immune response. The antiplatelet activity that NCTD induced is relevant to the inhibition of platelet signaling and the downregulation of α2 integrin. Furthermore, some of novel derivatives designed and synthesized artificially show stronger biological activities (e.g., anticancer effect, enzyme inhibition effect, antioxidant effect) and lower toxicity than NCTD itself. Plenty of literatures have reported various pharmacological effects of NCTD, particularly the anticancer effect, which has been widely concerned in clinical application and laboratory research. In this review, the pharmaceutical activities and derivatives of NCTD are discussed, which can be reference for further study.

The highly crystallized molecular structure of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) makes the polymer with poor performance in mechanical strength and water resistance. To modify the molecular structure of PVA and to diminish the complicated procedures and environmental impacts, ferric ions (in ion composite form) have been used to set the interactions with the molecule chains of PVA. The crystallinity, chemical groups change, and mechanical performance of the polymer has been confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscope (FTIR), and the bonding/membrane tensile strength test. The crystallinity of PVA is reduced from 41.6% to 7.7% with the addition of 2.0% of ferric ions. The tensile strength of the modified PVA membrane is increased by 240%. Moreover, with tougher structure and improved fluidity, the strength of ferric ions modified PVA bonded wood samples is increased by 157%. The modification of PVA with ion composite may have vast applications in many fields, such as paper industry, wood adhesives, functional materials, and polymer structure design.

Biocompatible polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-styrylpyridinium (SbQ)/β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) composite nanofibers were obtained by electrospinning in this study. PVA-SbQ was used as the foundation polymer as well as crosslinking agent, β-CD was incorporated to achieve expected properties such as improved mechanical properties and thermal stability. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra confirmed the existence of β-CD, and the morphologies and average fiber diameters of the electrospun composite nanofibers were also analyzed by SEM. X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD) of PVA-SbQ/β-CD composite nanofibers revealed that the inclusion of β-CD in the nanofibers affected the ordered phase of PVA. Besides, the thermal analyses revealed the improvement in the thermal properties for PVA-SbQ/β-CD composite nanofibers. It was found that the crosslinked composite nanofibers showed a clear higher tensile strength (TS) as well as a greater elongation at break (EB). Eventually, antifungal drug griseofulvin (GSV) has been loaded into the composite nanofibers by formation of its inclusion complex with β-CD in aqueous solution, ultraviolet light (UV-Vis) spectral analysis showed that the drug-loading nanofibers had certain sustained release effect.

Porous carbon nanofibers (PCNFs)@Tin oxide (SnOx) nanocomposites are synthesized by co-electrospinning using renewable alkali lignin-polyaniline (PAN) solution as the core and Sn precursors-polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) solution as the shell, followed by heat treatment. By changing the preheating temperature during heat treatment, PCNFs@SnOx nanocomposites with different nanostructures are obtained. The nanocomposites as electrodes of supercapacitors exhibit remarkable performance. The relationship between the microstructures and electrochemical properties of nanocomposites is explored. The experimental results show that increasing the preheating temperature to 300 °C, micropores and mesopores coexist in this nanocomposite. The prepared nanocomposite as the electrode possesses a high specific capacitance of 229 F g−1 at 0.2 A g−1. The superior electrochemical performance is presumably attributed to the large specific surface areas of PCNFs and pseudocapacitance of SnOx modifications. These encouraging results show great potential in synthesizing renewable biomass-based PCNFs@ SnOx nanocomposites with different structures.

In this work, we developed an optical colorimetric sensor array for the discrimination of Chinese teas. The sensor array was carefully designed based on tea polyphenol induced indicators displacement assay (IDA), using phenylboronic acids with different substituents as the receptors to polyphenols. The accurate identification for polyphenols with different species or concentrations proved the potential of the sensor array. The sensor array successfully distinguished tea samples within different categories, grades and origins, coupling with PLS-DA. This work offered an efficient and rapid method to distinguish teas and tea-related products. Besides, the assay is supposed to be suitable for the identification of other polyphenol-related natural products.

In this work, the chloride binding capacity and chloride penetration resistance of alkali-activated fly ash and metakaolin geopolymers synthesized with various alkali cation types (i.e., sodium or potassium) and aluminosilicate composition (i.e., combination of metakaolin and low-calcium pulverized fly ash) are studied. The chloride binding isotherms are measured using a modified equilibrium method and the effect of chloride exposure on the mineralogical alteration of geopolymers is studied by means of X-ray diffraction. The results show that the type of alkali cation considerably affects the chloride binding behaviors of metakaolin-fly ash geopolymers, regardless of aluminosilicate composition. In comparison to the potassium-based activator, sodium activator results in higher strength development, stronger chloride binding capacity, and better resistance to chloride penetration. The metakaolin-fly ash geopolymers immobilize chloride ions through both chemisorptions via the formation of chloride-bearing zeolites (e.g., Cl-chabazite) as well as physical adsorption. The dominant role of physical adsorption in binding mechanism suggests that a high proportion of hydroxyl group in the structure of sodium (or potassium)-aluminosilicate-hydrate (i.e., (N, K)-A-S-H) is exchangeable with chloride ions.

The activity of ABC294640, a small-molecular sphingosine kinase 2 (SphK2) inhibitor, in human skin squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) cells was tested in this study. SphK2 mRNA and protein are expressed in established (A431 cheilocarcinoma cell line) and primary human skin SCC cells. ABC294640 dose-dependently inhibited survival, cell cycle progression and proliferation of skin SCC cells. Furthermore, ABC294640 induced caspase-3/-9 and apoptosis activation in skin SCC cells. The SphK2 inhibitor was however non-cytotoxic to SphK2-null skin melanocytes, keratinocytes and fibroblasts. ABC294640 induced ceramide accumulation, sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) reduction, Akt-S6K1 inhibition and JNK activation in skin SCC cells. Conversely, its cytotoxicity against SCC cells was largely attenuated by co-treatment of S1P, the Akt activator SC79, and the JNK inhibitor SP600125. In vivo, ABC294640 oral administration inhibited A431 xenograft tumor growth in nude mice. Akt-S6K1 inhibition and JNK activation were observed in ABC294640-treated tumors. Collectively, ABC294640 efficiently inhibits human skin SCC cell growth in vitro and in vivo.

ZnO loaded carbon nanofibers (ZnO/CNFs) were successfully fabricated by a combination of electrospinning, carbonization and a hydrothermal process. A novel biosensor was fabricated based on a composite of ZnO/CNFs, laccase (Lac), and Nafion. The addition of ZnO/CNFs apparently facilitated the direct electron transfer (DET) between the active center of Lac and the surface of the glassy carbon electrode (GCE). A pair of stable and well-defined redox peaks was observed on the Nafion–Lac–ZnO/CNF modified GCE. Meanwhile, square wave voltammetry (SWV) was employed to investigate the biosensor, and the sensor showed highly efficient electrocatalysis toward hydroquinone with a sensitivity of 28.50 μA μM−1, a detection limit of 9.50 nM (S/N = 3), a linear range from 5.00 × 10−7 to 2.06 × 10−6 M, as well as good selectivity and stability. Furthermore, this novel biosensor was successfully used in detecting hydroquinone in real water samples.

With the development of the power system, composite insulators are widely used in China. However, the contamination flashover caused by the loss of the hydrophobicity of silicone rubber remains a threat to the insulation, especially in EHV and UHV transmission lines. The statue variations of the composite insulator surface were studied in this paper. Based on the cluster analysis method, the leakage current was also investigated. And 16 parameters were extracted to characterize the surface state. It was showed that these parameters could be used to recognize the degree of hydrophobicity loss over the composite insulator surface. The discharge model spectrum diagram of composite insulator surface was also established, which could be used for the diagnosis of the degree of hydrophobicity loss and salt deposit density over the insulator surface. This work can enrich the recognition methods of surface statue of composite insulators and may provide useful reference for performance evaluation of composite insulators in service.

A layered MnO2 nanosheet was established as a label-free fluorescent sensing platform for a rapid, sensitive and low-cost detection of mercury(II) ion in aqueous solution based on the target-induced conformational change of mercury-specific oligonucleotide (MSO) and the interactions between the fluorogenic MSO probe and MnO2 nanosheet.

It has been postulated that, in theory, stentless bioprosthetic heart valves provide improved hemodynamics and durability over their stented counterparts. A number of glutaraldehyde modified porcine stentless valves are currently either on the market or in clinical trials. Polyepoxy compound as an alternative cross-linking reagent to glutaraldehyde for bioprostheses has been reported to mitigate calcification. The present study was to investigate the effect of the fixation methods on porcine aortic wall flexibility. Ring specimens were selected from three groups of porcine roots: fresh, low pressure glutaraldehyde fixed, and low pressure Denacol (polyepoxy compound) fixed. Pulled between two rods on a tensile tester, a ring specimen's load-deformation relationship was recorded and analyzed to numerically compute the tissue modulus at low strains. The results showed that the Young's moduli were 0.113 +/- 0.036, 0.494 +/- 0.113, and 1.320 +/- 0.292 MPa (mean +/- SD, n = 10) for the fresh, Denacol fixed, and glutaraldehyde fixed aortic walls, respectively. The Denacol fixed aortic wall was more flexible than the glutaraldehyde fixed one. It was also found that the Denacol fixed aortic wall maintained most of the natural residual strains, while the glutaraldehyde fixed aortic wall did not.