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Hydrogels are promising candidates for the delivery of therapeutics in the treatment of human cancers. Regarding to the biocomaptiiblity, high drug and encapsulation efficacy and adjustable physico-chemical features, the hydrogels have been widely utilized for the delivery of chemotherapy drugs. Doxorubicin (DOX) is one of the most common chemotherapy drugs used in cancer therapy through impairing topoisomerase II function and increasing oxidative damage. However, the tumor cells have developed resistance into DOX-mediated cytotoxic impacts, requiring the delivery systems to increase internalization and anti-cancer activity of this drug. The hydrogels can deliver DOX in a sustained manner to maximize its anti-cancer activity, improving cancer elimination and reduction in side effects and drug resistance. The natural-based hydrogels such as chitosan, alginate and gelatin hydrogels have shown favourable biocompatibility and degradability in DOX delivery for tumor suppression. The hydrogels are able to co-deliver DOX with other drugs or genes to enhance drug sensitivity and mediate polychemotherapy, synergistically suppressing cancer progression. The incorporation of nanoparticles in the structure of hydrogels can improve the sustained release of DOX and enhancing intracellular internalization, accelerating DOX’s cytotoxicity. Furthermore, the stimuli-responsive hydrogels including pH-, redox- and thermo-sensitive platforms are able to improve the specific release of DOX at the tumor site. The DOX-loaded hydrogels can be further employed in the clinic for the treatment of cancer patients and improving efficacy of chemotherapy. Highlights Hydrogels are 3-dimensional polymeric networks for therapeutic delivery. Doxorubicin (DOX) efficacy has been challenged with drug resistance development. Hydrogels can deliver DOX in a sustained manner to enhance its anti-cancer function. Hydrogels co-deliver drugs and genes in increasing DOX sensitivity. Natural-based hydrogels, nanocomposite-incorporated hydrogels and stimuli-responsive types improve DOX cytotoxicity.

Cancer, the world’s second leading cause of death after cardiovascular diseases, is characterized by hallmarks such as uncontrolled cell growth, metastasis, angiogenesis, hypoxia, and resistance to therapy. Autophagy, a cellular process that can both support and inhibit cancer progression, plays a critical role in cancer development and progression. This process involves the formation of autophagosomes that ultimately fuse with lysosomes to degrade cellular components. A key regulator of this process is Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), which significantly influences autophagy. This review delves into the role of SIRT1 in modulating autophagy and its broader impacts on carcinogenesis. SIRT1 regulates crucial autophagy mediators, such as AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), effectively promoting or suppressing autophagy. Beyond its direct effects on autophagy, SIRT1’s regulatory actions extend to other cell death processes, including apoptosis and ferroptosis, thereby influencing tumor cell proliferation, metastasis, and chemotherapy responses. These insights underscore the complex interplay between SIRT1 and autophagy, with significant implications for cancer therapy. Targeting SIRT1 and its associated pathways presents a promising strategy to manipulate autophagy in cancer treatment. This review underscores the potential of SIRT1 as a therapeutic target, opening new avenues for enhancing cancer treatment efficacy.

Aberrant long-noncoding RNA (lncRNA) expression has been shown to be involved in the pathogenesis of endometrial cancer (EC). Herein, we report a novel tumor suppressor lncRNA SOCS2-AS1 in EC. Quantitative real-time PCR was performed to detect RNA expression. In situ hybridization and nuclear/cytoplasmic fractionation assays were used to detect the subcellular location. We found that SOCS2-AS1 was downregulated in EC tissues. Its reduced expression was correlated with advanced clinical stage and poor prognosis. Forced expression of SOCS2-AS1 suppressed EC cell proliferation and induced cell-cycle arrest and apoptosis. SOCS2-AS1-binding proteins were detected using RNA pull-down assay and mass spectrometry. Mechanistically, SOCS2-AS1 bound to Aurora kinase A (AURKA) and increased its degradation through the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. In conclusion, SOCS2-AS1 may thus serve as a prognostic predictor and a biomarker for AURKA-inhibitor treatment in EC patients.

Surgery of gynecologic malignancies often increases the incidence of Venous thromboembolism (VTE). TAT, TM, PIC, t-PAIC are considered to be potential monitoring significance for the change of coagulation and fibrinolytic balance with gynecological malignant tumors. We aimed to explore TAT, PIC, TM, t-PAIC as diagnostic and predictive new marker of postoperative VTE for patients undergoing surgery of gynecologic malignancies and evaluate its related high-risk factors. 103 cases of gynecological surgery were selected. The malignant tumor patients were divided into VTE and non-VTE group. All patients were detected by chemiluminescence immunoassay for TAT, TM, PIC and t-PAIC before and d1, d3 after operation. One month after surgery, the incidence rate of deep vein thrombosis(DVT) in malignant tumor group was 10.20%. Before operation, PIC, t-PAIC levels in malignant tumor group were significantly higher than those in benign tumor group (P = .025, P = .030). D3 after operation, TAT, TM, PIC and t-PAIC levels in malignant tumor group were significantly higher than those in benign tumor group (P < .0001, P = .036, P = .037, P < .0001). PIC level of the VTE group was significantly higher than that of the non-VTE group in malignant patients (P < .0001). Logistics regression analysis showed that pre-PIC and post-PIC were independent factors of VTE. The AUC of pre-PIC and post-PIC were 0.95, 0.941, with a sensitivity of 100%, 100% and a specificity of 86.4%, 88.6%. As a new predictive biomarker for VTE after the gynecologic malignant surgery, pre-PIC and post-PIC levels are the independent risk factors of DVT and has accurate diagnostic value.

Background Whole exome sequencing (WES) has been widely used in human genetics research. BGISEQ-500 is a recently established next-generation sequencing platform. However, the performance of BGISEQ-500 on WES is not well studied. In this study, we evaluated the performance of BGISEQ-500 on WES by side-to-side comparison with Hiseq4000, on well-characterized human sample NA12878. Results BGISEQ demonstrated similarly high reproducibility as Hiseq for variation detection. Also, the SNVs from BGISEQ data is highly consistent with Hiseq results (concordance 96.5%~ 97%). Variation detection accuracy was subsequently evaluated with data from the genome in a bottle project as the benchmark. Both platforms showed similar sensitivity and precision in SNV detection. While in indel detection, BGISEQ showed slightly higher sensitivity and lower precision. The impact of sequence depth and read length on variation detection accuracy was further analyzed, and showed that variation detection sensitivity still increasing when the sequence depth is larger than 100x, and the impact of read length is minor when using 100x data. Conclusions This study suggested that BGISEQ-500 is a qualified sequencing platform for WES.

Calcium- and magnesium-containing salts are important components for mineral dust and sea salt aerosols, but their physicochemical properties are not well understood yet. In this study, hygroscopic properties of eight Ca- and Mg-containing salts, including Ca(NO3)2⚫4H2O, Mg(NO3)2⚫6H2O, MgCl2⚫6H2O, CaCl2⚫6H2O, Ca(HCOO)2, Mg(HCOO)2⚫2H2O, Ca(CH3COO)2⚫H2O and Mg(CH3COO)2⚫4H2O, were investigated using two complementary techniques. A vapor sorption analyzer was used to measure the change of sample mass with relative humidity (RH) under isotherm conditions, and the deliquescence relative humidities (DRHs) for temperature in the range of 5–30 ∘C as well as water-to-solute ratios as a function of RH at 5 and 25 ∘C were reported for these eight compounds. DRH values showed large variation for these compounds; for example, at 25 ∘C DRHs were measured to be ∼ 28.5 % for CaCl2⚫6H2O and >95 % for Ca(HCOO)2 and Mg(HCOO)2⚫2H2O. We further found that the dependence of DRH on temperature can be approximated by the Clausius–Clapeyron equation. In addition, a humidity tandem differential mobility analyzer was used to measure the change in mobility diameter with RH (up to 90 %) at room temperature, in order to determine hygroscopic growth factors of aerosol particles generated by atomizing water solutions of these eight compounds. All the aerosol particles studied in this work, very likely to be amorphous under dry conditions, started to grow at very low RH (as low as 10 %) and showed continuous growth with RH. Hygroscopic growth factors at 90 % RH were found to range from 1.26 ± 0.04 for Ca(HCOO)2 to 1.79 ± 0.03 for Ca(NO3)2, and the single hygroscopicity parameter ranged from 0.09–0.13 for Ca(CH3COO)2 to 0.49–0.56 for Ca(NO3)2. Overall, our work provides a comprehensive investigation of hygroscopic properties of these Ca- and Mg-containing salts, largely improving our knowledge of the physicochemical properties of mineral dust and sea salt aerosols.

Super-enhancers (SEs) typically govern the expression of critical genes in the maintenance of cell identity. Recent advances suggest mitochondrial dysfunction contributes to pulmonary artery smooth muscle cell (PASMC) proliferation and inflammation in pulmonary hypertension (PH). However, the landscape of SEs in hypoxic PASMCs as well as hypoxia-induced target genes associated with SEs controlling the mitochondrial dysfunction remain to be fully characterized. In this study, we depicted the landscape of SE in hypoxic PASMCs by ChIP-seq, Hi-ChIP, and ChIP-qPCR assays and reveal a regulatory SE driven LncRNA, LINC01013. The effect of LINC01013 on proliferation and inflammation of PASMCs was evaluated through EdU incorporation, Western blotting and immunofluorescence. The molecular mechanism of LINC01013 was investigated by the study of RNA pull down and mass spectrometry. We profiled chromosome interactions in epigenetic regulation and identified SE-associated LINC01013 as a key mitochondrial dysfunction mediator in hypoxic PASMCs. The transcription factor CCAAT enhancer binding protein beta (CEBPB) was found to enrichment in LINC01013 SE and promoter, promoting LINC01013 transcription and overexpression in PASMCs under hypoxic conditions. Inhibition of LINC01013 reversed hypoxia-induced glycolysis and oxidative stress injury of PASMCs. Further investigation unveiled that LINC01013, which is partially located in mitochondria and interacted with heat shock protein family A member 9 (HSPA9) to mediate oligomerization of voltage dependent anion channel 1 (VDAC1), thereby leading to increased mitochondrial permeability and dysfunction. These findings demonstrate that SE-associated LINC01013 regulates the proliferation and inflammation of hypoxic PASMCs by orchestrating mitochondrial function, might be a potential therapeutic target for PH.

As the most extensively used gas‐sensing devices, inorganic semiconductor chemiresistors are facing great challenges in realizing mechanical flexibility and room‐temperature gas detection for developing next‐generation wearable sensing devices. Herein, for the first time, flexible all‐inorganic yttria‐stabilized zirconia (YSZ)/In2O3/graphitic carbon nitride (g‐C3N4) (ZIC) gas sensor is designed by employing YSZ nanofibers as substrate, and ultrathin In2O3/g‐C3N4 heterostructures as active sensing layer. The YSZ substrate possesses small nanofiber diameter (310 nm), ultrafine grain size (23.9 nm), and abundant dangling bonds, endowing it with striking mechanical flexibility and strong adhesion with In2O3/g‐C3N4 sensing layer. Meanwhile, the ultrathin thickness (≈7 nm) of In2O3/g‐C3N4 ensures that the inorganic sensing layer has tiny linear strain along with the deformation of flexible YSZ substrate, thereby enabling unusual bending capacity. To address the operating temperature issue, the gas sensor is operated by using a visible‐light‐powered strategy. Under visible‐light illumination, the flexible ZIC sensor exhibits a perfectly reversible response/recovery dynamic process and ultralow detection limit of 50 ppb to toxic nitrogen dioxide at room temperature. This work not only provides an insight into the mechanical flexibility of inorganic materials, but also offers a valuable reference for developing other flexible inorganic‐semiconductor‐based room‐temperature gas sensors. A unique flexible all‐inorganic yttria‐stabilized zirconia (YSZ)/In2O3/graphitic carbon nitride (g‐C3N4) gas sensor is developed by employing YSZ nanofibers as substrate, and ultrathin In2O3/g‐C3N4 heterostructures as active sensing layer. Under visible‐light illumination, the flexible sensor exhibits perfectly reversible response/recovery dynamic process to toxic NO2 under extreme bending state at room temperature.

In this paper, a molecular dynamics simulation method was used to study the thermo-mechanical properties of cross-linked epoxy resins doped with nano silica particles that were grafted with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane, N-(2-aminoethyl)-3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane, and 3-[2-(2-aminoethylamino)ethylamino]-propyl-trimethoxysilane with different chain lengths. Firstly, a set of pure epoxy resin models, and four sets of SiO2/EP composite models were established. Then, a reasonable structure was obtained through a series of optimizations using molecular dynamics calculations. Next, the mechanical properties, hydrogen bond statistics, glass transition temperature, free volume fraction, and chain spacing of the five models were studied comparatively. The results show that doped nano silica particles of surfaces grafted with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane, N-(2-aminoethyl)-3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane, and 3-[2-(2-aminoethylamino)ethylamino]-propyl-trimethoxysilane with different chain lengths enhanced mechanical properties such as elastic modulus, shear modulus, and volume modulus obviously. The glass transition temperature increased by 15–16 K, 40–41 K, and 24–27 K, respectively. Finally, the data show that the cross-linked epoxy resin modified by nanoparticles grafted with N-(2-aminoethyl)-3-aminopropyl trimethoxysilane had better effects for improving thermo-mechanical properties by the comparatively studying the five groups of parameter models under the same conditions.

The effect of annealing on the microstructure and tensile properties of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) non-woven fabric produced by melt electrospinning was systematically investigated using DSC, SAXS, SEM, etc. The results showed that, above an annealing temperature of 80 °C, both the main melting point and crystallinity of LDPE decreased compared to the original sample, as did the tensile strength of the non-woven fabric. Additionally, the lamellar distribution became broader at annealing temperatures above 80 °C. The recrystallization mechanism of molten lamellae (disordered chains) in LDPE was elucidated by fitting the data using a Gaussian function. It was found that secondary crystallization, forming thicker lamellae, and spontaneous crystallization, forming thinner lamellae, occurred simultaneously at rates dependent on the annealing temperature. Secondary crystallization dominated at temperatures ≤80 °C, whereas spontaneous crystallization prevailed at temperatures above 80 °C. These findings explain the observed changes in the microstructure and tensile properties of the LDPE non-woven fabric. Furthermore, a physical model describing the microstructural evolution of the LDPE non-woven fabric during annealing was proposed based on the experimental evidence.