GNB1 promotes hepatocellular carcinoma progression by targeting BAG2 to activate P38/MAPK signaling.

G-proteins are intracellular partners of G-protein-coupled receptors. As a member of the G-protein family, GNB1 has been shown to play a pro-cancer role in lung cancer and breast cancer. However, the biological function and detailed mechanisms of GNB1 in hepatocellular carcinoma progression are unclear. In this study, we investigated the effects of GNB1 and its possible mechanism of action in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The clinical significance of GNB1 was evaluated in a large cohort of HCC patients, showing that GNB1 was overexpressed in HCC compared to adjacent normal liver tissues, and increased GNB1 expression was associated with poor prognosis. We also demonstrated that GNB1 enhances cell proliferation, colony formation, and cell migration and invasion in vitro and promotes the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition process in HCC cells. Tumor xenograft model assay confirmed the oncogenic role of GNB1 in tumorigenicity in nude mice. Activation of P38 signaling was found in the GNB1 overexpressed HCC cells. Further intervention of P38 confirmed it as an important signaling pathway for the oncogenic role of GNB1 in HCC. Moreover, co-immunoprecipitation followed by liquid chromatograph-mass spectrometry identified that GNB1 exerted oncogenic functions via the interaction of BAG2 and activated P38 signaling pathway. Together, our results reveal that GNB1 plays a pivotal oncogenic role in HCC by promoting the P38 pathway via cooperating with BAG2. GNB1 may serve as a prognostic biomarker for patients with HCC.

Photoelectrochemical Polymerization for Solid-State Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells.

Dye-sensitized solar cells represent promising alternative photovoltaic (PV) technologies with the advantages of low material cost, ease of production, and high performance for indoor applications. Solid-state DSCs (ssDSCs) have been developed to greatly diminish the problems of electrolyte leakage and electrode corrosion. However, the power conversion efficiency of ssDSCs generally is much lower than traditional liquid DSCs, resulting in low conductivity and poor pore infiltration of solid HTMs in mesoporous structures. To overcome these problems, in situ photoelectrochemical polymerization (PEP) approach is developed to synthesize polymer HTMs in the porous electrodes, enabling enhancement of pore infiltration fraction and conductivity. The PEP method offers great opportunities for engineering the HTM interfaces, tuning the charge dynamics, and improving the PV performance of ssDSCs. Here the authors aim to present a coherent review of the recent development of material engineering and interfacial optimization for ssDSCs. The recent advances in the PEP are also summarized, with special emphasis on how the influencing factors control the PEP kinetics, the polymer properties as well as the device performance. This review provides a deep understanding of the mechanism of photopolymerization across different conditions, which serves as a guidebook for further optimization of the PEP process for ssDSCs.

Impact of climate change on SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in China.

The outbreak and prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 have severely affected social security. Physical isolation is an effective control that affects the short-term human-to-human transmission of the epidemic, although weather presents a long-term effect. Understanding the effect of weather on the outbreak allow it to be contained at the earliest possible. China is selected as the study area, and six weather factors that receive the most attention from January 20, 2020 to April 30, 2020 are selected to investigate the correlation between weather and SARS-CoV-2 to provide a theoretical basis for long-term epidemic prevention and control. The results show that (1) the average growth rate (GR) of SARS-CoV-2 in each province is logarithmically distributed with a mean value of 5.15%. The GR of the southeastern region is higher than that of the northwestern region, which is consistent with the Hu Line. (2) The specific humidity, 2-m temperature (T), ultraviolet (UV) radiation, and wind speed (WS) adversely affect the GR. By contrast, the total precipitation (TP) and surface pressure (SP) promote the GR. (3) For every 1 unit increase in UV radiation, the GR decreases by 0.30% in 11 days, and the UV radiation in China is higher than that worldwide (0.92% higher per day). Higher population aggregation and urbanization directly affect the epidemic, and weather is an indirect factor.