Solvent-regulated self-assembled carbon nitride for photocatalytic reduction of U(VI) in water.

Manufacturing high-performance and reusable materials from radioactive uranium-containing wastewater remains a significant challenge. Herein, a supramolecular self-assembly strategy was proposed, using melamine and cyanuric acid as precursors and using intermolecular hydrogen bond force to form carbon nitride (CN-D) in different solvents through a single thermal polymerization strategy. Supramolecular self-assembly method is a promising strategy to synthesize a novel carbon nitride with molecular regulatory properties. In addition, 98% of U(VI) in wastewater can be removed by using CN-D for 60 min under visible light. After five cycles of recycling, more than 95% of U(VI) can still be reduced, indicating that it has good recyclability and reusability. This study not only provides an efficient photocatalytic method of uranium reduction, but also provides a new method for self-assembly synthesis.

Diterpenoid tanshinones inhibit gastric cancer angiogenesis through the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge is a kind of Chinese herbal medicine known for activating blood circulation and removing blood stasis, with the effect of cooling blood and eliminating carbuncles, and has been proven to have the effect of treating tumors. However, the inhibitory effect of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge extracts (Diterpenoid tanshinones) on tumors by inhibiting angiogenesis has not been studied in detail. AIM OF THE STUDY: This study aimed to investigate the anti-gastric cancer effect of diterpenoid tanshinones (DT) on angiogenesis, including the therapeutic effects and pathways. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This experiment utilized network pharmacology was used to identify relevant targets and pathways of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge-related components in the treatment of gastric cancer. The effects of DT on the proliferation and migration of human gastric cancer cell line SGC-7901 and human umbilical vein endothelial cell line HUVECs were evaluated, and changes in the expression of angiogenesis-related factors were measured. In vivo, experiments were conducted on nude mice to determine tumor activity, size, immunohistochemistry, and related proteins. RESULTS: The findings showed that DT could inhibit the development of gastric cancer by suppressing the proliferation of gastric cancer cells, inducing apoptosis, and inhibiting invasion and metastasis. In addition, the content of angiogenesis-related factors and proteins was significantly altered in DT-affected cells and animals. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that DT has potential as a therapeutic agent for the treatment of gastric cancer, as it can inhibit tumor growth and angiogenesis. It was also found that DT may affect the expression of the angiogenic factor VEGF through the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway, leading to the regulation of tumor angiogenesis. This study provides a new approach to the development of anti-tumor agents and has significant theoretical and clinical implications for the treatment of gastric cancer.

Improvement of phenolic acid autotoxicity in tea plantations by Pseudomonas fluorescens ZL22.

Accumulation of phenolic acids, such as p-hydroxybenzoic acid (PHBA), 3,4 dihydroxybenzoic acid (PA), and cinnamic acid (CA) causes a decline in tea plantation soil quality. Bacterial strains that can balance phenolic acid autotoxicity (PAA) in tea tree rhizosphere soil are used to improve tea plantation soil. In this study, the effects of Pseudomonas fluorescens ZL22 on soil restoration and PAA regulation in tea plantations were investigated. ZL22 carries a complete pathway for degrading PHBA and PA to acetyl coenzyme A. ZL22 can colonise and reduce PHBA by 96% and PA by 98% in tea rhizosphere soil within 30 days. The cooccurrence of ZL22 and low CA levels further promotes lettuce seed growth and substantially increases tea production. ZL22 effectively regulates PAA to a safe level in rhizospheric soil, alleviating the inhibition of microbiota by PAA, increases the abundance of genera associated with soil N, C, and S cycling, and creates optimum pH (approximately 4.2) and organic carbon (approximately 25 g/kg), and available N (approximately 62 mg/kg) contents for secondary metabolite accumulation in tea leaves. The application of P. fluorescens ZL22 controls PAA, which synergistically improves plant growth and soil nutrition, thereby promoting tea production and quality.

Establishment and validation of a prognostic pomogram in unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma treated with intensity modulated radiotherapy: a real world study.

BACKGROUND: To establish a prognostic model to predict the overall survival (OS) in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treated with intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). METHODS: The unresectable HCC patients treated with IMRT were retrospectively analyzed and randomized into development cohort (n = 237) and validation cohort (n = 103) in a 7:3 ratio. We developed a prognosis model with the multivariate Cox regression analysis in the development cohort to derive the predictive nomogram, which was then validated in the validation cohort. Model performance was evaluated by the c-index, the area under curve(AUC) and the calibration plot. RESULTS: A total of 340 patients were enrolled. Tumor numbers > 3 (HR = 1.69, 95% CI = 1.21-2.37), AFP ≥ 400 ng/ml (HR = 1.52, 95% CI = 1.10-2.10), PLT < 100 × 10^9(HR = 1.7495% CI = 1.11-2.73), ALP > 150U/L (HR = 1.65, 95% CI = 1.15-2.37) and prior surgery (HR = 0.63, 95% CI = 0.43-0.93) were independent prognostic factors. The nomogram based on independent factors was constructed. The c-index for OS prediction was 0.658 (95% CI, 0.647-0.804) and 0.683 (95% CI, 0.580-0.785) in the development and validation cohort, respectively. The nomogram demonstrated good discriminative ability with AUC rates of 0.726, 0.739 and 0.753 at 1-year, 2-year and 3-year models in the development cohort, and 0.715, 0.756 and 0.780 in the validation cohort, respectively. Additionally, good prognostic discrimination of the nomogram is also reflected in stratifying patients into two subgroups with distinct prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: We constructed a prognostic nomogram for predicting the survival of patients with unresectable HCC treated with IMRT.

A novel signature constructed by super-enhancer-related genes for the prediction of prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma and associated with immune infiltration.

Background: Super-enhancer (SE) refers to a regulatory element with super transcriptional activity, which can enrich transcription factors and drive gene expression. SE-related genes play an important role in the pathogenesis of malignant tumors, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: The SE-related genes were obtained from the human super-enhancer database (SEdb). Data from the transcriptome analysis and related clinical information with HCC were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) database. The upregulated SE-related genes from TCGA-LIHC were identified by the DESeq2R package. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to construct a four-gene prognostic signature. According to the median risk score, HCC patients were divided into high-risk and low-risk group patients. Results: The Kaplan-Meier (KM) curve showed that a significantly worse prognosis was found for the high-risk group (P<0.001). In the TCGA-LIHC dataset, the area under the curve (AUC) values were 0.737, 0.662, and 0.667 for the model predicting overall survival (OS) over 1-, 3-, and 5- years, respectively, indicating the good prediction ability of our prediction model. This model's prognostic value was further validated in the LIRI-JP dataset and HCC samples (n=65). Furthermore, we found that higher infiltration level of M0 macrophages and upregulated of CTLA4 and PD1 in the high-risk group, implying that immunotherapy could be effective for those patients. Conclusion: These results provide further evidence that the unique SE-related gene model could accurately predict the prognosis of HCC.