Controlling the Emissive, Chiroptical, and Electrochemical Properties of Double [7] Helicenes through Embedded Aromatic Rings.

We present here the synthesis and in-depth physicochemical characterization of a double hetero[7]helicene fused with four triazole rings at both helical ends. The comparison of this triazole-fused double helicene with the previously reported all-carbon and thiadiazole-fused analogs revealed the huge impact of the embedded aromatic rings on the photophysical features. The small structural variation of the terminal rings from thiadiazole to triazole caused a dramatic change of the photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs) from <1 % to 96 %, while the replacement of the terminal benzene rings with triazole rings induced a tenfold enhancement of the circularly polarized luminescence dissymmetry factor.

X-shaped thiadiazole-containing double [7]heterohelicene with strong chiroptical response and π-stacked homochiral assembly.

An X-shaped double [7]heterohelicene 1 bearing four thiadiazole units is synthesized by regioselective cyclodehydrogenation. Enantiopure 1 exhibits excellent chiroptical properties with an impressive absorption dissymmetry factor of up to 0.027, as well as a compact π-stacked homochiral assembly which is unprecedented in the realm of double helicenes.

Effect of Fluorine Substitution on Photovoltaic Properties of Alkoxyphenyl Substituted Benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene-Based Small Molecules.

Two new small molecules, C3T-BDTP and C3T-BDTP-F with alkoxyphenyl-substituted benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene (BDT) and meta-fluorinated-alkoxyphenyl-substituted BDT as the central donor blocks, respectively, have been synthesized and used as donor materials in organic solar cells (OSCs). With the addition of 0.4% v/v 1,8-diiodooctane (DIO), the blend of C3T-BDTP-F/PC71BM showed a higher hole mobility of 8.

Metformin impairs the growth of liver kinase B1-intact cervical cancer cells.

Objective: Metformin is one of the most widely used drugs for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Recent investigations demonstrated that application of metformin reduces cancer risk. The present study aimed to determine the role of liver kinase B1 (LKB1) in the response of cervical cancer cells to metformin.

Novel amino-modified silica nanoparticles as efficient vector for hepatocellular carcinoma gene therapy.

Due to the ineffective conventional treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the nonviral gene delivery system has been proved to be an attractive alternative to HCC therapy. In this work, we have developed a kind of new self-assembled nanoparticles, which were named as amino-modified silica nanoparticles (AMSNs). Scanning electron microscopy and zeta potential results demonstrated that AMSNs had a diameter of 20-30 nm and positive surface charges of +11.

Differentiation of dried sea cucumber products from different geographical areas by surface desorption atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry.

Without any sample pretreatment, mass spectral fingerprints of 486 dried sea cucumber slices were rapidly recorded in the mass range of m/z 50-800 by using surface desorption atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry (DAPCI-MS). A set of 162 individual sea cucumbers (Apostichopus japonicus Selenka) grown up in 3 different geographical regions (Weihai: 59 individuals, 177 slices; Yantai: 53 individuals, 159 slices; Dalian: 50 individuals, 150 slices;) in north China sea were successfully differentiated according to their habitats both by Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Soft Independent Modeling of Class Analogy (SIMCA) of the mass spectral raw data, demonstrating that DAPCI-MS is a practically convenient tool for high-throughput differentiation of sea cucumber products. It has been found that the difference between the body wall tissue and the epidermal tissue is heavily dependent on the habitats.

Cell transformation and proteome alteration in QSG7701 cells transfected with hepatitis C virus non-structural protein 3.

Persistent hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection can cause liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Non-structural protein 3 (NS3), an important part of HCV, has been implicated in the life cycle of the virus and interacts with host cellular proteins. In this study, we investigated the effect of NS3 protein on cell tranformation and related protein alteration in human hepatocyte QSG7701 cells.

[Mechanism of hepatocyte transformation by HCV NS3 using two-dimensional electrophoresis and mass spectrometry].

Objective: To investigate the proteome of hepatocyte transformation by hepatitis C virus (HCV) nonstructural protein 3 (NS3).

Methods: Human hepatocyte line QSG7701 stably expressing HCV NS3 C-terminal deleted protein was constructed, which was named pRcHCNS3/QSG. Two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) was used to separate the total protein of pRcHCNS3/QSG and pRcCMV transfected cells (pRcCMV/QSG) respectively.

Possible magnetic multifunctional nanoplatforms in medicine.

Recently, magnetic nanoparticles have attracted attention because of their potential in biomedicine. They can be applied to special medical techniques, such as separation, immunoassay, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), drug delivery, and hyperthermia, and so on. But these nanoparticles only have one or two kinds of functions and cannot realize multipurpose.