Emergent biaxiality in chiral hybrid liquid crystals.

Biaxial nematic liquid crystals are fascinating systems sometimes referred to as the Higgs boson of soft matter because of experimental observation challenges. Here we describe unexpected states of matter that feature biaxial orientational order of colloidal supercritical fluids and gases formed by sparse rodlike particles. Colloidal rods with perpendicular surface boundary conditions exhibit a strong biaxial symmetry breaking when doped into conventional chiral nematic fluids.

Circ_0007432 promotes non-small cell lung cancer progression and macrophage M2 polarization through SRSF1/KLF12 axis.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) plays critical roles in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) development. Herein, we illustrated the effects of circ_0007432 on malignant features of NSCLC. We found that circ_0007432 played a promoting role in NSCLC progression, lying in accelerating cell viability, migration and invasion of NSCLC cells, promoting M2 macrophage polarization, suppressing cell apoptosis of NSCLC cells, and enhancing tumor growth .

Out-of-equilibrium interactions and collective locomotion of colloidal spheres with squirming of nematoelastic multipoles.

Many living and artificial systems show similar emergent behavior and collective motions on different scales, starting from swarms of bacteria to synthetic active particles, herds of mammals, and crowds of people. What all these systems often have in common is that new collective properties like flocking emerge from interactions between individual self-propelled or driven units. Such systems are naturally out-of-equilibrium and propel at the expense of consumed energy.

Field-controlled dynamics of skyrmions and monopoles.

Magnetic monopoles, despite their ongoing experimental search as elementary particles, have inspired the discovery of analogous excitations in condensed matter systems. In chiral condensed matter systems, emergent monopoles are responsible for the onset of transitions between topologically distinct states and phases, such as in the case of transitions from helical and conical phase to A-phase comprising periodic arrays of skyrmions. By combining numerical modeling and optical characterizations, we describe how different geometrical configurations of skyrmions terminating at monopoles can be realized in liquid crystals and liquid crystal ferromagnets.

Hypochlorite activatable ratiometric fluorescent probe based on endoplasmic reticulum stress for imaging of atherosclerosis.

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress can induce reactive oxygen (ROS) generation which is directly associated with the emergence of atherosclerosis. Foam cells could promote atherogenesis by inducing ER stress. To understand hypochlorite (ClO) levels in foam cells under ER stress, novel ER-targeted ClO activatable ratiometric fluorescence probes Rx-NE and Rx-NCE were designed using a classical rhodamine dye and coumarin dye bridge moiety as the fluorescent skeleton.

Construction of HPQ-based activatable fluorescent probe for peroxynitrite and its application in ferroptosis and mice model of LPS-induced inflammation.

As one of the important members of reactive oxygen species, ONOO plays a crucial role in signal transduction, immune response, and other physiological activities. Aberrant changes in ONOO levels in the living organism are usually associated with many diseases. Therefore, it is important to establish a highly selective and sensitive method for the determination of ONOO in vivo.

Repair of fingertip defect with reverse digital artery island flap and repair of donor site with digital dorsal advancement flap.

Objective: The reverse digital artery island flap (RDAF) is widely used in repairing fingertip skin defects based on its good appearance and practicability. However, the donor area of the flap needs skin grafting, which can lead to complications. This retrospective study explored the clinical application of digital dorsal advance flap (DDAF) in repairing the donor site of the reverse digital artery island flap.

Topological steering of light by nematic vortices and analogy to cosmic strings.

Liquid crystals are widely known for their technological uses in displays, electro-optics, photonics and nonlinear optics, but these applications typically rely on defining and switching non-topological spatial patterns of the optical axis. Here, we demonstrate how a liquid crystal's optical axis patterns with singular vortex lines can robustly steer beams of light. External stimuli, including an electric field and light itself, allow us to reconfigure these unusual light-matter interactions.

Development of an activatable red emissive fluorescent probe for imaging hydrogen disulfide upregulation in living cells and zebrafish.

As a member of reactive sulfur molecules, hydrogen polysulfide (HS) plays a vital role in cell protection, anti-oxidative stress and regulation of redox signaling. The highly selective and sensitive detection of HS was still challenging due to its special nucleophilic and electrophilic reactivity. By incorporating phenyl 2-(benzoylthio) benzoate into semi-naphthofluorescein, we developed a novel red emissive fluorescent probe SNAFL-HS for the detection of a representative HS (e.

Evaluation of nitroreductase activity in nasopharyngeal carcinoma progression by an activatable two-photon fluorescent probe.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) originating from the epithelium cells is the most common malignant tumor of the head and neck. Small-molecule fluorescent probes for early diagnosis of NPC can effectively improve the 5-year survival rate of patients, which makes it become a research hotspot in recent years. Previous studies have suggested the expression levels of NTR in hypoxic tissues or cells and tumors increased relative to the normal state and were positively correlated with the degree of hypoxia.

Geometric transformation and three-dimensional hopping of Hopf solitons.

Arising in many branches of physics, Hopf solitons are three-dimensional particle-like field distortions with nontrivial topology described by the Hopf map. Despite their recent discovery in colloids and liquid crystals, the requirement of applied fields or confinement for stability impedes their utility in technological applications. Here we demonstrate stable Hopf solitons in a liquid crystal material without these requirements as a result of enhanced stability by tuning anisotropy of parameters that describe energetic costs of different gradient components in the molecular alignment field.

Construction of a Mitochondria-Endoplasmic Reticulum Dual-Targeted Red-Emitting Fluorescent Probe for Imaging Peroxynitrite in Living Cells and Zebrafish.

Peroxynitrite (ONOO ) is one of the important reactive oxygen species, which plays a vital role in the physiological process of intracellular redox balance. Revealing the biological functions of ONOO will contribute to further understanding of the oxidative process of organisms. In this work, we designed and synthesized a novel red-emitting fluorescent probe MCSA for the detection of ONOO , which could rapidly respond to ONOO within 250 s and exhibited high sensitivity to ONOO with a low detection limit of 78 nM.

Construction of a novel electrochemical sensing platform to investigate the effect of temperature on superoxide anions from cells and superoxide dismutase enzyme activity.

It is of great significance to realize the detection of trace amounts of superoxide anions (O•) in biological systems due to the connection between the concentration of O• and some diseases. Here, we present a novel method to fabricate a non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor for measuring O• from biological systems. The sensor was fabricated by nanocomposites (PAMAM-Au) synthesized by using (PAMAM-G4.

Metal-Organic Framework-Intercalated Graphene Oxide Membranes for Selective Separation of Uranium.

Design and construction of a membrane that can achieve selective separation of uranium from spent fuel or seawater is a big challenge in the field of separation science. In this work, 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid (BTC) and three different nitrates (Zn/Ni/Cu) were used to prepare metal-organic frameworks (BTC-MOFs) with different pore sizes, and then, BTC-MOFs were intercalated into the interlayers of graphene oxide (GO) for preparing the composite membranes which presented selective separation of uranium with strong acid resistance. Composite membranes prepared by Zn/Ni/Cu-BTC-MOFs and GO can achieve the separation between ions of different valence states, and their permeability and selectivity depend on the membrane thickness, the acidity of driving solution, and the pore sizes of MOFs.

UBE2S exerts oncogenic activities in urinary bladder cancer by ubiquitinating TSC1.

Ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2S (UBE2S), an important E2 enzyme in the process of ubiquitination, has exhibited oncogenic activities in various malignant tumors. However, it remains unknown whether UBE2S plays a role in urinary bladder cancer (UBC) development. In the current study, our data confirmed UBE2S upregulation in UBC.

Thermally reconfigurable monoclinic nematic colloidal fluids.

Fundamental relationships are believed to exist between the symmetries of building blocks and the condensed matter phases that they form. For example, constituent molecular and colloidal rods and disks impart their uniaxial symmetry onto nematic liquid crystals, such as those used in displays. Low-symmetry organizations could form in mixtures of rods and disks, but entropy tends to phase-separate them at the molecular and colloidal scales, whereas strong elasticity-mediated interactions drive the formation of chains and crystals in nematic colloids.

Circular RNA hsa_circ_0004277 Stimulates Malignant Phenotype of Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition of Peripheral Cells.

Accumulating evidence shows that exosomal circRNAs reflect the physiological status of donor cells, and various cell reactions are induced after exosomal circRNAs are captured by recipient cells. In this study, qRT-PCR was performed to detect circ-0004277 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell lines, tissues, and plasma exosomes. The effects of circ-0004277 on the proliferation and migration of HCC cells were assessed by cell counting, 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine assays, Transwell migration assays, and tumor formation in nude mice.

Nitrogen-doped nanoporous graphene induced by a multiple confinement strategy for membrane separation of rare earth.

Rare earth separation is still a major challenge in membrane science. Nitrogen-doped nanoporous graphene (NDNG) is a promising material for membrane separation, but it has not yet been tested for rare earth separation, and it is limited by multi-complex synthesis. Herein, we developed a one-step, facile, and scalable approach to synthesize NDNG with tunable pore size and controlled nitrogen content using confinement combustion.

Highly Selective Separation of Rare Earth Elements by Zn-BTC Metal-Organic Framework/Nanoporous Graphene Green Synthesis.

Rare earth elements (REEs) are used widely in devices of many fields, but it is still a troublesome task to achieve their selective separation and purification. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as an emerging porous crystalline material have been used for selective separation of REEs using the size-selective crystallization properties. However, so far, almost all MOFs cannot be used directly for selective separation of REEs in strong acid solid-state adsorption.

TM4SF1, a binding protein of DVL2 in hepatocellular carcinoma, positively regulates beta-catenin/TCF signalling.

The interaction between Axin and DVL2 is critical for the breaking down of the beta-catenin destruction complex and the activation of the Wnt/beta-catenin cascade. However, this biological process remains poorly understood. In the present study, TM4SF1 was identified as the interacting partner of DVL2 and positively regulated as Wnt/beta-catenin signalling by strengthening the DVL2-Axin interaction.

MiR-613 functions as tumor suppressor in hepatocellular carcinoma by targeting YWHAZ.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play crucial regulators of affecting hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development and progression. However, the biological role and underlying molecular mechanism of miR-613 in HCC still remain well unknown. In the study, our results demonstrated that expression of miR-613 was significantly lower in HCC tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues by quantitative Real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) assay.

NUP37, a positive regulator of YAP/TEAD signaling, promotes the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Activation of YAP/TEAD signaling is very common in the progression of HCC (Hepatocellular carcinoma). Nuclear pore complex (NPC) regulates the shuttling of proteins between cytoplasm and nucleus. Nuclear accumulation of YAP protein has been observed in the majority of HCC tissues.

PKMYT1 promoted the growth and motility of hepatocellular carcinoma cells by activating beta-catenin/TCF signaling.

Over-activation of beta-catenin/TCF signaling has been frequently observed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Better understanding the molecular mechanism for the aberrant activation of beta-catenin/TCF signaling would provide novel insights into the treatment of this malignancy. In this study, we have shown that the expression of PKMYT1 was up-regulated in HCC.

Effect of saracatinib on pulmonary metastases from hepatocellular carcinoma.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Src is involved in multiple processes of cancer metastasis; however, its significance in HCC is not well defined. In the present study, overexpression of Src phosphorylation (Y416) was observed in the highly metastatic MHCC97H cell line; additionally, through inhibition of Src kinase activation, HCC cell proliferation, migration, invasion and colony formation were significantly reduced in vitro.