Advances in nanoplatform-based multimodal combination therapy activating STING pathway for enhanced anti-tumor immunotherapy.

Activation of the cyclic GMP-AMP synthase(cGAS)-stimulator of interferon genes (STING) has great potential to promote antitumor immunity. As a major effector of the cell to sense and respond to the aberrant presence of cytoplasmic double-stranded DNA (dsDNA), inducing the expression and secretion of type I interferons (IFN) and STING, cGAS-STING signaling pathway establishes an effective natural immune response, which is one of the fundamental mechanisms of host defense in organisms. In addition to the release of heterologous DNA due to pathogen invasion and replication, mitochondrial damage and massive cell death can also cause abnormal leakage of the body's own dsDNA, which is then recognized by the DNA receptor cGAS and activates the cGAS-STING signaling pathway.

Graphene Intermediate Layer for Robust and Spectrum-Extended Cu Photocathode Activated with Cs and O.

Developing an effective method to stably enhance the quantum efficiency (QE) and extend the photoemission threshold of Cu photocathodes beyond the ultraviolet region could benefit the photoinjector for ultrafast electron source applications. The implementation of a 2D material protective layer is considered a promising approach to extending the operating lifetime of photocathodes. We propose that graphene can serve as an intermediate layer at the interface between photocathode material and low-work-function coating.

[Anti-tumor mechanism of total saponins of Paridis Rhizoma on inducing ferroptosis of breast cancer MCF-7 cells].

This study aims to investigate the mechanism of total saponins of Paridis Rhizoma in inducing the ferroptosis of MCF-7 cells and provide a theoretical basis for the clinical treatment of breast cancer with total saponins of Paridis Rhizoma. The methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium(MTT) assay was employed to examine the effects of different concentrations of total saponins of Paridis Rhizoma on the proliferation of MCF-7 cells. A phase contrast inverted microscope was used to observe the morphological changes of MCF-7 cells.

Mixture-of-experts and semantic-guided network for brain tumor segmentation with missing MRI modalities.

Accurate brain tumor segmentation with multi-modal MRI images is crucial, but missing modalities in clinical practice often reduce accuracy. The aim of this study is to propose a mixture-of-experts and semantic-guided network to tackle the issue of missing modalities in brain tumor segmentation. We introduce a transformer-based encoder with novel mixture-of-experts blocks.

A comprehensive survey on deep active learning in medical image analysis.

Deep learning has achieved widespread success in medical image analysis, leading to an increasing demand for large-scale expert-annotated medical image datasets. Yet, the high cost of annotating medical images severely hampers the development of deep learning in this field. To reduce annotation costs, active learning aims to select the most informative samples for annotation and train high-performance models with as few labeled samples as possible.

Multi-organ segmentation: a progressive exploration of learning paradigms under scarce annotation.

Precise delineation of multiple organs or abnormal regions in the human body from medical images plays an essential role in computer-aided diagnosis, surgical simulation, image-guided interventions, and especially in radiotherapy treatment planning. Thus, it is of great significance to explore automatic segmentation approaches, among which deep learning-based approaches have evolved rapidly and witnessed remarkable progress in multi-organ segmentation. However, obtaining an appropriately sized and fine-grained annotated dataset of multiple organs is extremely hard and expensive.

Terrestrial inputs and physical processes control the distributions of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in the seawater of the large-range Beibu Gulf, the northern South China Sea.

The potentially toxic elements (PTEs), Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, Cr, Hg and As in the water from the Beibu Gulf, were investigated to reveal the contaminant characteristics and assess the risks to human health. The results showed that the concentration of PTEs in the Beibu Gulf varies significantly both seasonally and spatially, with higher concentrations in summer and in the northern and southern gulf. Terrestrial inputs and local anthropogenic discharge are responsible for the higher level in the northern gulf, and the transportation of water masses is also an important factor for the higher concentrations in the southern gulf.

Enhanced blue-green response of nanoarray AlGaAs photocathodes for underwater low-light detection.

Underwater optical communication and low-light detection are usually realized via blue-green laser sources and blue-green light-sensitive detectors. Negative-electron-affinity AlGaAs photocathode is an ideal photosensitive material for ocean exploration due to its adjustable spectrum range, long working lifetime, and easy epitaxy of materials. However, compared with other photocathodes, the main problem of AlGaAs photocathode is its low quantum efficiency.

Segmentation of Portal Vein in Multiphase CTA Image Based on Unsupervised Domain Transfer and Pseudo Label.

Background: Clinically, physicians diagnose portal vein diseases on abdominal CT angiography (CTA) images scanned in the hepatic arterial phase (H-phase), portal vein phase (P-phase) and equilibrium phase (E-phase) simultaneously. However, existing studies typically segment the portal vein on P-phase images without considering other phase images.

Method: We propose a method for segmenting portal veins on multiphase images based on unsupervised domain transfer and pseudo labels by using annotated P-phase images.

Multilevel spatial confinement of transition metal selenides porous microcubes for efficient and stable potassium storage.

Recently, potassium-ion batteries (PIBs) have been considered as one of the most promising energy storage systems; however, the slow kinetics and large volume variation induced by the large radius of potassium ions (K) during chemical reactions lead to inferior structural stability and weak electrochemical activity for most potassium storage anodes. Herein, a multilevel space confinement strategy is proposed for developing zinc-cobalt bimetallic selenide (ZnSe/CoSe@NC@C@rGO) as high-efficient anodes for PIBs by in-situ carbonizing and subsequently selenizing the resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF)-coated zeolitic imidazolate framework-8/zeolitic imidazolate framework-67 (ZIF-8/ZIF-67) encapsulated into 2D graphene. The highly porous carbon microcubes derived from ZIF-8/ZIF-67 and carbon shell arising from RF provide rich channels for ion/electron transfer, present a rigid skeleton to ensure the structural stability, offer space for accommodating the volume change, and minimize the agglomeration of active material during the insertion/extraction of large-radius K.

Nanoparticles for cancer therapy: a review of influencing factors and evaluation methods for biosafety.

Nanoparticles are widely used in the biomedical field for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes due to their small size, high carrier capacity, and ease of modification, which enable selective targeting and as contrast agents. Over the past decades, more and more nanoparticles have received regulatory approval to enter the clinic, more nanoparticles have shown potential for clinical translation, and humans have increasing access to them. However, nanoparticles have a high potential to cause unpredictable adverse effects on human organs, tissues, and cells due to their unique physicochemical properties and interactions with DNA, lipids, cells, tissues, proteins, and biological fluids.

Determining effect of seagrass-mediated CO flux on the atmospheric cooling potential of a subtropical intertidal seagrass meadow.

Atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from seagrass meadows that determine the ecosystem atmospheric cooling effect have rarely been quantified. This study measured the simultaneous fluxes direct to the atmosphere of three GHGs (CO, CH and NO) within a Halophila beccarii seagrass meadow and an adjacent unvegetated bare intertidal flat, and their relationships to seagrass abundance and relevant soil parameters. The results showed that seasonal variation in seagrass abundance was strongly linked with the CO exchange rate.

Proteomics and molecular network analyses reveal that the interaction between the TAT-DCF1 peptide and TAF6 induces an antitumor effect in glioma cells.

Glioblastoma is the most lethal brain cancer in adults. Despite advances in surgical techniques, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, their therapeutic effect is far from significant, since the detailed underlying pathological mechanism of this cancer is unclear. The establishment of molecular interaction networks has laid the foundation for the exploration of these mechanisms with a view to improving therapy for glioblastoma.

The antitumor effect of TAT-DCF1 peptide in glioma cells.

Background: Glioblastoma is one of the most malignant brain cancer, thus, establishing an effective therapy is paramount. Our previous results indicate that dendritic cell-derived factor (DCF1) is an attractive candidate for therapy against Glioblastoma, since its overexpression in Glioblastoma U251 cells leads to apoptosis. However, the delivery approach limits its clinical application, in this paper, we expressed TAT-DCF1 fusion protein in E.