Immune effect and prognosis of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization and tyrosine kinase inhibitors therapy in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: The combination of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) and tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) has shown broad prospects in prolonging the survival of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). TACE and TKIs can affect the immune microenvironment in patients with HCC. AIM: To determine the overall effects and differences between TACE and different TKIs combinations on the immune microenvironment. METHODS: Data and immune cell profile test results from 213 HCC patients treated with TACE combined with apatinib, lenvatinib, sorafenib, or donafenib before and after 3 wk of treatment were collected. Monocytes were co-cultured with LM3 liver cancer cells, and their ability to inhibit cancer cell growth was analyzed using the MTT method and a nude mouse subcutaneous tumorigenesis experiment. Simulated combined therapy was done using an in situ liver cancer C57BL/6 male mouse model, and the immune response of tumor tissues was analyzed using immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Compared to before combination therapy, the proportion of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)+ mononuclear cells and the number of CD4+ T cells decreased in the TACE + apatinib group, while the number of absolute count of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells increased in the TACE + lenvatinib group. Furthermore, the number of regulatory cells decreased in the TACE + donafenib group, whereas the number of CD8+ T and natural killer cells increased. Additionally, monocytes in the TACE combined with donafenib or lenvatinib groups had a stronger ability to inhibit cancer cell growth than those in the other groups. Combining TACE with donafenib or lenvatinib increased CD8+ T cell infiltration into the tumor tissue. In addition, the proportion of PD-1+ in CD8+ cells, absolute CD8+ T lymphocyte count, and regulatory T cells proportion were independent prognostic factors affecting the survival time of patients with HCC. CONCLUSION: TACE, in combination with different TKIs, produces different immune responses. Specifically, TACE combined with donafenib or lenvatinib may induce strong anti-tumor immune responses.

Manipulating heterointerface to boost formation and desorption of intermediates for highly efficient alkaline hydrogen evolution.

Promoting water dissociation and H intermediate desorption play a pivotal role in achieving highly efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline media but remain a great challenge. Herein, we rationally develop a unique W-doped NiSx/Ni heterointerface as a favorable HER electrocatalyst which was directly grown on the Cu nanowire foam substrate (W-NiSx/Ni@Cu) by the electrodeposition strategy. Benefiting from the rational design of the interfaces, the electronic coupling of the W-NiSx/Ni@Cu can be efficiently modulated to lower the HER kinetic barrier. The obtained W-NiSx/Ni@Cu exhibits an enhanced HER activity with a low overpotential of 38 mV at 10 mA cm-2 and a small Tafel value of 27.5 mV dec-1, and high stability during HER catalysis. In addition, in-situ Raman spectra reveal that the Ni2+ active sites preferentially adsorb OH intermediate. The theoretical calculation confirms that the water dissociation is accelerated by the construction of W-NiSx/Ni heterointerface and H intermediate desorption can be also promoted by H spillover from S active sites in W-NiSx to Ni active sites in metal Ni. This work offers a valuable reference for rational designing heterointerface of electrocatalysts and provides an available method to accelerate the HER kinetics for the ampere-level current density under low overpotential.

Recent advances in cryotolerance biomarkers for semen preservation in frozen form-A systematic review.

Spermatozoa cryopreservation has been practiced for decades and is a very useful technique for long-term preservation of sperm fertility. The capability for semen cryopreservation varies across species, seasons, latitudes, and even for different ejaculates from the same animal. This article summarizes research results on sperm cryotolerance biomarkers in several species, focusing on three areas: spermatozoa cryotolerance biomarkers, seminal plasma proteins cryotolerance biomarkers, and other cryotolerance biomarkers. We discovered that sperm cryoresistance biomarkers are primarily related to sperm plasma membrane stability, the presence of antioxidant substances in sperm or seminal plasma, sperm cell energy metabolism, water and small molecule transport channels in the sperm plasma membrane, and antistress substances in sperm or seminal plasma. The research conducted using diverse livestock models can be employed to enhance the basic and applied reproduction of other mammals through the study of sperm cryotolerance biomarkers, as well as the substantial similarities between livestock and other organisms, including endangered species.

A novel prognostic classification integrating lipid metabolism and immune co-related genes in acute myeloid leukemia.

Background: As a severe hematological malignancy in adults, acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is characterized by high heterogeneity and complexity. Emerging evidence highlights the importance of the tumor immune microenvironment and lipid metabolism in cancer progression. In this study, we comprehensively evaluated the expression profiles of genes related to lipid metabolism and immune modifications to develop a prognostic risk signature for AML. Methods: First, we extracted the mRNA expression profiles of bone marrow samples from an AML cohort from The Cancer Genome Atlas database and employed Cox regression analysis to select prognostic hub genes associated with lipid metabolism and immunity. We then constructed a prognostic signature with hub genes significantly related to survival and validated the stability and robustness of the prognostic signature using three external datasets. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis was implemented to explore the underlying biological pathways related to the risk signature. Finally, the correlation between signature, immunity, and drug sensitivity was explored. Results: Eight genes were identified from the analysis and verified in the clinical samples, including APOBEC3C, MSMO1, ATP13A2, SMPDL3B, PLA2G4A, TNFSF15, IL2RA, and HGF, to develop a risk-scoring model that effectively stratified patients with AML into low- and high-risk groups, demonstrating significant differences in survival time. The risk signature was negatively related to immune cell infiltration. Samples with AML in the low-risk group, as defined by the risk signature, were more likely to be responsive to immunotherapy, whereas those at high risk responded better to specific targeted drugs. Conclusions: This study reveals the significant role of lipid metabolism- and immune-related genes in prognosis and demonstrated the utility of these signature genes as reliable bioinformatic indicators for predicting survival in patients with AML. The risk-scoring model based on these prognostic signature genes holds promise as a valuable tool for individualized treatment decision-making, providing valuable insights for improving patient prognosis and treatment outcomes in AML.

The impact of oxygen on Ga doped ZnO film.

The Ga doped ZnO (GZO) film is one of the promising alternative films to replace ITO film, but its properties suffer from degradation when it is deposited under oxygen-rich conditions. This degradation has been investigated by depositing the films under different oxygen partial pressures. XRD results showed that all GZO films had wurtzite structure and the lattice parameter-c contracted when oxygen was introduced into the argon deposition atmosphere, but the parameter-c nearly remained constant when oxygen partial pressures were further increased. The contraction of parameter-c was caused by the increasing concentrations of VZn (Zn vacancy). It was the first time to observe that the impurity phase of Ga2Zn6O9 appeared and disappeared in GZO films during the increase of oxygen partial pressures. Analogously, conductivity decayed and optical bandgap decreased abruptly as oxygen was introduced, which enhanced self-compensation of donors and acceptors. The energy band structures of GZO and ZnO films were determined by using UPS, and the results showed that oxygen had little effect on the electron affinity of the GZO film, but a significant difference in electron affinity between the ZnO and GZO films was observed. This result indicated that although the electron affinity of ZnO could be effectively tuned by doping with Ga, it remained quite stable for GZO under oxygen-rich conditions.

New TiO2 -Based Oxide for Catalyzing Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution Reaction with Noble Metal-Like Performance.

The development of cost-effective electrocatalysts with high activity and sufficient stability for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is crucial for the widespread application of water electrolysis for sustainable H2 production. Transition metal oxides are desirable alternatives to replace benchmark Pt-based HER electrocatalysts because of their cost effectiveness, facile synthesis, versatile compositions, and easy electronic structure tuning. However, most available transition metal oxides show poor performance for HER catalysis. Here, it is reported that the anatase TiO2 can be efficiently developed into a superior HER electrocatalyst with comparable activity to Pt-based electrocatalysts in alkaline solution through simultaneous morphology control, proper lattice doping, and surface active sites engineering. Specifically, the obtained cobalt-doped TiO2 nanorod arrays (Co-TiO2 @Ti(H2 )) show a low overpotential of only 78 mV at 10 mA cm-2 , a small Tafel plot of 67.8 mV dec-1 , and excellent stability even at an ultralarge current density of ≈480 mA cm-2 in 1.0 m KOH solution. Theoretical calculations demonstrate that the introduction of Co with rich oxygen vacancies can efficiently lower the energy barrier for water adsorption/dissociation and H intermediate desorption. This work uncovers the potential of the low-cost transition metal oxides as alternative HER electrocatalysts in alkaline water electrolysis.

In situ surface reconstruction synthesis of a nickel oxide/nickel heterostructural film for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction.

A simple method is provided to achieve in situ surface reconstruction synthesis of a heterostructural NiO/Ni film on carbon cloth (NiO/Ni@CC) for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). This ultrafast reconstruction process brings a hydrophilic surface and abundant heterostructures with rich oxygen vacancies exhibiting a low HER overpotential and remarkable stability.

Insights into Correlation among Surface-Structure-Activity of Cobalt-Derived Pre-Catalyst for Oxygen Evolution Reaction.

Rational design of unique pre-catalysts for highly active catalysts toward catalyzing the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a great challenge. Herein, a Co-derived pre-catalyst that allows gradual exposure of CoOOH that acts as the active center for OER catalysis is obtained by both phosphate ion surface functionalization and Mo inner doping. The obtained catalyst reveals an excellent OER activity with a low overpotential of 265 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm-2 and good durability in alkaline electrolyte, which is comparable to the majority of Co-based OER catalysts. Specifically, the surface functionalization produces lots of Co-PO4 species with oxygen vacancies which can trigger the surface self-reconstruction of pre-catalyst for a favorable OER reaction. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the Mo doping optimizes adsorption-free energy of *OOH formation and thus accelerates intrinsic electrocatalytic activity. Expanding on these explorations, a series of transition metal oxide pre-catalysts are obtained using this general design strategy. The work offers a fundamental understanding toward the correlation among surface-structure-activity for the pre-catalyst design.

Highly Active Core-Shell Carbon/NiCo2 O4 Double Microtubes for Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction: Ultralow Overpotential and Superior Cycling Stability.

Developing highly efficient electrocatalysts with earth abundant elements for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a promising way to store light or electrical energy in the form of chemical energy. Here, a new type of electrocatalyst with core-shell carbon/NiCo2 O4 double microtubes architecture is successfully synthesized through a hydrothermal method combined with the calcination process with wet tissues as the template and carbon resource. The outer NiCo2 O4 nanosheet arrays contain abundant defects, which come from reduction of the carbon in wet tissues. This indicates that carbon is a very excellent defect inducer. The inner carbon microtubes can act as the robust structure skeleton and these core-shell double microtubes provide abundant diffusion channels for oxygen and electrolyte, both of which contribute to improving the stability by avoiding damage to the electrode from produced O2 bubbles and the collapse of the outer NiCo2 O4 microtubes. Electrochemical results show that the electrode, core-shell carbon/NiCo2 O4 double microtubes loaded on carbon cloth, exhibits prominent electrocatalytic activity with an overpotential of only 168 mV at 10 mA cm-2 and a Tafel slope as low as 57.6 mV dec-1 in 1.0 mol L-1 KOH. This new type of electrocatalyst possesses great potential in water electrolyzers and rechargeable metal-air batteries.

High-Performance Flexible Asymmetric Supercapacitor Based on CoAl-LDH and rGO Electrodes.

A flexible asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) based on a CoAl-layered double hydroxide (CoAl-LDH) electrode and a reduced graphene oxide (rGO) electrode was successfully fabricated. The CoAl-LDH electrode as a positive electrode was synthesized by directly growing CoAl-LDH nanosheet arrays on a carbon cloth (CC) through a facile hydrothermal method, and it delivered a specific capacitance of 616.9 F g-1 at a current density of 1 A g-1. The rGO electrode as a negative electrode was synthesized by coating rGO on the CC via a simple dip-coating method and revealed a specific capacitance of 110.0 F g-1 at a current density of 2 A g-1. Ultimately, the advanced ASC offered a broad voltage window (1.7 V) and exhibited a high superficial capacitance of 1.77 F cm-2 at 2 mA cm-2 and a high energy density of 0.71 mWh cm-2 at a power density of 17.05 mW cm-2, along with an excellent cycle stability (92.9% capacitance retention over 8000 charge-discharge cycles).

A Wire-Shaped Supercapacitor in Micrometer Size Based on Fe3O4 Nanosheet Arrays on Fe Wire.

One-dimensional (1D, wire- and fiber-shaped) supercapacitors have recently attracted interest due to their roll-up, micrometer size and potential applications in portable or wearable electronics. Herein, a 1D wire-shaped electrode was developed based on Fe3O4 nanosheet arrays connected on the Fe wire, which was prepared via oxidation of Fe wire in 0.1 M KCl solution (pH 3) with O2-rich environment under 70 °C. The obtained Fe3O4 nanosheet arrays displayed a high specific capacitance (20.8 mF cm-1 at 10 mV s-1) and long cycling lifespan (91.7% retention after 2500 cycles). The excellent performance may attribute to the connected nanosheet structure with abundant open spaces and the intimate contact between the Fe3O4 and iron substrate. In addition, a wire-shaped asymmetric supercapacitor was fabricated and had excellent capacitive properties with a high energy density (9 µWh cm-2) at power density of 532.7 µW cm-2 and remarkable long-term cycling performance (99% capacitance retention after 2000 cycles). Considering low cost and earth-abundant electrode material, as well as outstanding electrochemical properties, the assembled supercapacitor will possess enormous potential for practical applications in portable electronic device.

Metal-free N-doped carbon nanofibers as an efficient catalyst for oxygen reduction reactions in alkaline and acid media.

The development of metal-free catalysts to replace the use of Pt has played an important role in relation to its application to fuel cells. We report N-doped carbon nanofibers as the catalyst of an oxygen reduction reaction, which were synthesized via carbonizing bacterial cellulose-polypyrrole composites. The as-prepared material exhibited remarkable catalytic activity toward the oxygen reduction reaction with comparable onset potential and the ability to limit the current density of commercial Pt/C catalysts in both alkaline and acid media due to the unique porous three-dimensional network structure and the doped nitrogen atoms. The effect of N functionalities on catalytic behavior was systematically investigated. The results demonstrated that pyridinic-N was the dominating factor for catalytic performance toward the oxygen reduction reaction. Additionally, N-doped carbon nanofibers also demonstrated excellent cycling stability (93.2% and 89.4% retention of current density after chronoamperometry 20 000 s in alkaline and media, respectively), obviously superior to Pt/C.

Large Scale Synthesis of NiCo Layered Double Hydroxides for Superior Asymmetric Electrochemical Capacitor.

We report a new environmentally-friendly synthetic strategy for large-scale preparation of 16 nm-ultrathin NiCo based layered double hydroxides (LDH). The Ni50Co50-LDH electrode exhibited excellent specific capacitance of 1537 F g(-1) at 0.5 A g(-1) and 1181 F g(-1) even at current density as high as 10 A g(-1), which 50% cobalt doped enhances the electrical conductivity and porous and ultrathin structure is helpful with electrolyte diffusion to improve the material utilization. An asymmetric ultracapacitor was assembled with the N-doped graphitic ordered mesoporous carbon as negative electrode and the NiCo LDH as positive electrode. The device achieves a high energy density of 33.7 Wh kg(-1) (at power density of 551 W kg(-1)) with a 1.5 V operating voltage.