Target genes regulated by CLEC16A intronic region associated with common variable immunodeficiency.

BACKGROUND: CLEC16A intron 19 has been identified as a candidate locus for common variable immunodeficiency (CVID). OBJECTIVES: This study sought to elucidate the molecular mechanism by which variants at the CLEC16A intronic locus may contribute to the pathogenesis of CVID. METHODS: The investigators performed fine-mapping of the CLEC16A locus in a CVID cohort, then deleted the candidate functional SNP in T-cell lines by the CRISPR-Cas9 technique and conducted RNA-sequencing to identify target gene(s). The interactions between the CLEC16A locus and its target genes were identified using circular chromosome conformation capture. The transcription factor complexes mediating the chromatin interactions were determined by proteomic approach. The molecular pathways regulated by the CLEC16A locus were examined by RNA-sequencing and reverse phase protein array. RESULTS: This study showed that the CLEC16A locus is an enhancer regulating expression of multiple target genes including a distant gene ATF7IP2 through chromatin interactions. Distinct transcription factor complexes mediate the chromatin interactions in an allele-specific manner. Disruption of the CLEC16A locus affects the AKT signaling pathway, as well as the molecular response of CD4+ T cells to immune stimulation. CONCLUSIONS: Through multiomics and targeted experimental approaches, this study elucidated the underlying target genes and signaling pathways involved in the genetic association of CLEC16A with CVID, and highlighted plausible molecular targets for developing novel therapeutics.

Biomimetic Superwetting Fabric for Evaporation-Induced Body Sweat and Heat Management and Electricity Generation.

Solar optothermal evaporation of water possesses the potential for thermal regulation and electricity generation, which are desirable for regulating body perspiration and heat as well as improving electrical output and strain sensing. However, ordinary fabrics exhibit poor evaporation capacity and antifouling performance due to limited adsorption capacity and internal hydrophilicity. Moreover, conventional evaporation-driven generators show a low power supply without widely practical use due to limited and fluctuating evaporation rates. Herein, an antifouling cooling fabric with an evaporation-driven electricity performance is obtained by constructing Janus channels on the superomniphobic fabric. Sweat can be easily eliminated from inside to outside through Janus channels by efficient evaporation, and the green liquid metal ink (CGM/LMP-rGO@PPy) cotton fabric shows a thermal conductivity of 0.18 W m-1 K-1, suggesting a comfortable dry and cooling sense. Meanwhile, the fabric can stably output a potential of 302.20 mV when seawater flows through the ionic channels at an evaporation rate of 1.58 mL h-1 with one sun power density. In addition, the multifunctional fabric demonstrates strain sensing at high electrical conductivity for body motion monitoring. This work would offer a prospect for intelligent textile construction and energy harvesting by water evaporation.

Janus Fabric with Asymmetric Wettability for Switchable Emulsion Separation and Controllable Droplets with Low Friction.

Superwetting surfaces have recently attracted extensive attention in oil-water emulsion separation and droplet manipulations, which are widely used in various situations ranging from wastewater treatment, to flexible electronics, to biochemical diagnosis. However, it still remains challenging to obtain asymmetric materials with high efficiency during oil-water separation. Meanwhile, excellent robustness of the superhydrophobic surface is of significance but retards the mobility of droplets due to increased lateral adhesion of small spacing between solid protrusions. Herein, a facile approach is demonstrated to obtain the excellent robustness of Janus fabrics with asymmetric wettability. As for one side of water-in-oil emulsion separation, mimicking the soft earthworm with periodically wrinkled skin, an adaptive superhydrophobic fabric was fabricated by wrapping soft wrinkled poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) polymer with a cross-linking structure on woven fabric fibers induced by Ar plasma treatment. In addition, inspired by the desert beetle's structure but with reversed wettability, the other side of the Janus fabric was constructed for treating emulsion of oil-in-water. In addition, the underwater superoleophobic surface consisting of magnetically responsive PDMS microcilia with slippery heads, which shows robustness against pH, improved water drop mobility and lowered the resistance of fluid friction similar to the intrinsic hydrophobic Salvinia molesta with additional slippery performance. Hence, we propose a novel and easy approach that optimizes enhanced emulsion separation and reduced fluid drag properties simultaneously, which actively broadens their widespread applications.

Robust Superamphiphobic Coating Applied to Grease-Proof Mining Transformer Components.

The iron core and heat sink in a mining transformer are susceptible to damage from oil spills or the harsh mine environment; the deterioration of oil products in the underground environment and transformers produce massive amounts of harmful liquid substances, which may lead to unnecessary economic losses in drilling engineering. To overcome this issue, a convenient and economical way to protect transformer components was developed. Herein, we proposed an air spray technology at room temperature for the preparation of antigreasy superamphiphobic coatings, which are suitable for bulk metallic glass transformer cores and ST13 heat sinks. The addition of polypyrrole powder effectively improves the thermal conductivity and specific heat of the coating in the range of 50-70 °C. More importantly, the fabricated coating has excellent repellency to liquids, such as water, ethylene glycerol, hexadecane, and rapeseed oil. Meanwhile, the coating has excellent physical and chemical resistance and outstanding antifouling features, which provide a feasible solution for combating grease pollution and corrosion in the mine environment. Taking multifaceted stability into consideration, this work contributes to enhancing the application of superamphiphobic coatings in the fields of protecting transformer components in the harsh environment or during transformer operation faults.

High-Performance Magnetic and Electric Control of Liquid Metal Droplets.

In the present study, we propose a magnetically controlled and electrically controlled magnetic liquid metal (MLM) method to achieve high-performance multiple manipulation of droplets. The prepared MLM has good active and passive deformability. Under the action of the magnetic field, controllable transport, splitting, merging, and rotation are realized. In addition, controllable electric field manipulation in alkaline and acidic electrolytes is realized. This simple preparation method can be applied to the precise and rapid control of the magnetic field and electric field at the same time. Compared with other droplet manipulation methods, we realized droplet manipulation independent of special surfaces. It has the advantages of easy implementation, low cost, and high controllability. It shows great application potential in the fields of biochemical analysis, microfluidics, drug transportation in complex limited space, and intelligent soft robots.

Robust Janus Superwetting Textile with Large Pore Sizes for Oil-in-Water Emulsion Separation.

Developing advanced oil-water separation technology is significant for environmental conservation. According to the synergetic effects of the size-sieving mechanism, superwetting materials with small pore sizes have been designed to realize high-efficiency separation for oil-water emulsions. However, the separation flux limited by the pore size and the weakness of the superwetting material impede its practical application severely. Herein, we construct a robust Janus superwetting textile with large pore sizes for oil-in-water emulsion separation. The pristine textile is coated by the as-prepared CuO nanoparticles as the bottom layer with superhydrophilicity and then grafted by 1-octadecanethiol as the top layer with superhydrophobicity to construct the Janus textile. When used as a filter, the superhydrophobic layer acts as the nucleation site to coalesce the small oil droplets facilely. Then, the coalesced oil fills the pores of the superhydrophobic layer and selectively permeates it but is blocked by the superhydrophilic layer with large pore sizes. Utilizing the unique separation mechanism, the Janus textile realizes efficient and rapid separation. Even after multicycle separation, hot liquid immersion for 24 h, tribological test for 60 min, and sandpaper abrasion for 500 cycles, the Janus textile still retains the superwettability and excellent separation performance, manifesting outstanding stability to resist severe damage. This separation strategy provides a novel guideline for high-efficiency and high-flux emulsion separation and practical application.

RGD peptide modified RBC membrane functionalized biomimetic nanoparticles for thrombolytic therapy.

In recent years, the fabrication of nano-drug delivery systems for targeted treatment of thrombus has become a research hotspot. In this study, we intend to construct a biomimetic nanomedicine for targeted thrombus treatment. The poly lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) was selected as the nanocarrier material. Then, urokinase and perfluoro-n-pentane (PFP) were co-loaded into PLGA by the double emulsification solvent evaporation method to prepare phase change nanoparticles PPUNPs. Subsequently, the RGD peptide-modified red blood cell membrane (RBCM) was coated on the surface of PPUNPs to prepare a biomimetic nano-drug carrier (RGD-RBCM@PPUNPs). The as-prepared RGD-RBCM@PPUNPs possessed a "core-shell" structure, have good dispersibility, and inherited the membrane protein composition of RBCs. Under ultrasound stimulation, the loaded urokinase could be rapidly released. In vitro cell experiments showed that RGD-RBCM@PPUNPs had good hemocompatibility and cytocompatibility. Due to the coated RGD-RBC membrane, RGD-RBCM@PPUNPs could effectively inhibit the uptake of macrophages. In addition, RGD-RBCM@PPUNPs showed better thrombolytic function in vitro. Overall, the results suggested that this biomimetic nanomedicine provided a promising therapeutic strategy for the targeted therapy of thrombosis.

Asymmetric Robust Superhydrophobic/Superhydrophilic Janus Membranes for the Moisture Proofing of Oil and Purification of Water.

The performance degradation of oil caused by moisture and water pollution induced by the infiltration of oil can result in huge losses for society. This is especially true of stable emulsified mixtures of oil and water, which are difficult to separate and urgently require a processing method. In this work, a robust Janus membrane prepared by combining simple electrodeposition and spraying processes was used to separate water-in-transformer oil/lubricating oil emulsions and various oil-in-water emulsions. The membrane with outstanding separation efficiency was also endowed high flux to emulsions, even after 10 separation cycles and 100 sand impact tests, indicating that separation ability was retained. Furthermore, the excellent resistance to acidic and alkaline liquids of the superhydrophobic side groups of the membrane increased the possibility of its service in harsh environments. This study's findings reveal great potential regarding the expansion and application of oil-water separation materials.

Durable 3D Porous Superhydrophobic Composites for Versatile Emulsion Separation in Multiple Environments.

Polydopamine as a multifunctional biomimetic polymer with nonselective strong adhesion properties has become a hot research topic in recent years. However, there are a few reports on the durable and effective emulsion separation of polydopamine composites from other materials. Therefore, it is necessary to construct durable polydopamine composites to achieve selective adsorption of materials. In this work, polypyrrole (PPy)-PDA was obtained on sponges by an in situ polymerization reaction, followed by the attachment of SiO2 nanoparticles to the surface by polydimethylsiloxane to achieve superhydrophobicity. As a result, previously unreported selective superhydrophobic adsorbents for PPy-PDA coatings were obtained. The prepared sponges have an excellent adsorption capacity for oils and organic solvents. Not only can the sponges absorb 19-39 g of organic solvents per gram but they can also absorb oil from oil-in-water emulsions. The chemical oxygen demand value of the emulsion can be reduced to 219 mg/L after separation. More importantly, the performance remains good in the cycle test, and due to the construction of a durable superhydrophobic sponge, it can still maintain its relatively good performance in artificial seawater, acid-base environments, and can achieve relatively stable emulsion separation. At the same time, the potential of the polymer material composited with PDA in lasting and stable emulsion separation was also verified.

Multifuctional Janus Materials for Rapid One-Way Water Transportation and Fog Collection.

A novel micronano wire channels Janus membrane (WCJM) was fabricated by a convenience spraying method. We prepared a series of samples with different (super)hydrophobic energy barriers and studied the effects of WCJMs on one-way transportation and fog collection. The droplets can be one-way transported from the (super)hydrophobic side to the superhydrophilic side, forming a transport channel when they contact the superhydrophilic micronano wire under hydrostatic pressure. In the experiment, when droplets touch the exposed micronano wires, they will be rapidly absorbed by the superhydrophilic side. However, when the superhydrophobic energy barrier is thick and the superhydrophobic layer completely covers the micronano wires on the substrate surface, the droplets cannot achieve one way transport behavior. Besides, we observed three different fog collection modes. They have a significant difference in fog collection efficiency. In WCJM-3, the superhydrophobic side collects fog in a dropwise condensation mode, and then transported to the superhydrophilic side through the micronano wire channels for storage, with the highest fog collection efficiency (1.1 g/cm2·h). The results show that the WCJM surface not only makes full use of the difference in wettability and micronano wire structure to promote the droplets one-way transportation, but also improves the fog collection performance by accelerating surface regeneration, which has potential application value in fog collection, droplet treatment and related engineering.

A CVD-Assisted Modification Approach for Preparing a Dual Superlyophobic Fabric with In-Air Superhydrophobicity and Underwater Superoleophobicity.

Superhydrophobicity and underwater superoleophobicity demonstrate mutual advantages in various water-related interfacial applications. However, achieving such two opposite superwetting states on a single one-fabric surface without introducing any continuous external stimulus remains a great challenge. In this work, a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) modification methodology for achieving superhydrophobicity and underwater superoleophobicity on a single one-fabric surface is presented. The CVD methodology plays a crucial role in realizing such unusual superwetting properties that can be achieved through a moderate synergetic effect from hydrophobic and hydrophilic components in surface chemistry. Driven only by gravity, the as-prepared fabric with reasonable resistance to repeatable laundering cycles and long-time corrosive liquid submersion can be further applied in high-efficiency on-demand oil-water separation.

Improved Fog Collection on a Hybrid Surface with Acylated Cellulose Coating.

Fog collection serves as an efficient method to alleviate water scarcity in foggy, water-stressed regions. Recent research has focused on constructing a hybrid surface to enhance fog collection efficiency, with one approach being the prevention of liquid film formation at hydrophilic sites. Inspired by the desert beetle, a coating (10-MCC) made by partially acylating microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) exhibits hydrophilic sites alongside a hydrophobic skeleton enabling rapid droplet capture despite its overall hydrophobicity. The captured droplets quickly coalesce into a large droplet driven by the wetting gradient created by the hydrophobic backbone and hydrophilic sites. To achieve greater fog collection efficiency, a hydrophobic-superhydrophobic hybrid surface is formed by combining a coating of 10-MCC with a superhydrophobic surface. The construction of superhydrophobic surfaces typically involves creating a rough surface with a distinctive structure produced by the anodization technique and modifying it with stearic acid. The superhydrophobic surface exhibits excellent corrosion resistance and mechanical stability. Moreover, the hybrid surface shows high efficiency in fog collection, with a tested maximum efficiency of approximately 1.5092 g/cm2/h, 1.77 times that of the original Al sheets. The results demonstrate a remarkable enhancement in fog collection capacity. Furthermore, this work serves as an inspiration for the low-cost and innovative design of engineered surfaces for efficient fog collection.

Soil Nitrogen and Flooding Intensity Determine the Trade-Off between Leaf and Root Traits of Riparian Plant Species.

The investigation into trade-offs among plant functional traits sheds light on how plants strategically balance growth and survival when facing environmental stress. This study sought to evaluate whether trade-offs observed at both community and individual species levels could indicate adaptive fitness across an intensity of flooding intensity. The study was conducted at 25 sampling sites spanning approximately 600 km along the riparian zone in the Three Gorges Reservoir area, China. The findings revealed that, along the flooding gradient, the overall riparian community did not exhibit significant trade-offs between leaf and root traits. Examining three broadly distributed dominant species (Cynodon dactylon, Xanthium strumarium, and Abutilon theophrasti), perennial plants showed pronounced trade-offs under low flooding intensity, while annuals exhibited trade-offs under moderate and low flooding intensity. The trade-offs were evident in traits related to nitrogen-carbon resources, such as specific leaf area, root tissue density, and photosynthetic rate. However, under strong flooding intensity, the relationship between leaf and root traits of the species studied was decoupled. Furthermore, the study identified a significant correlation between soil nitrogen and the trade-off traits under moderate and low flooding intensity. Integrating results from the CSR (Competitors, Stress-tolerators, Ruderals) strategy model, species niche breath analysis, and nitrogen-regulated trade-off, the study revealed that, in the face of high flooding intensity, perennial species (C. dactylon) adopts an S-strategy, demonstrating tolerance through a conservative resource allocation that decouples leaf-root coordination. Annual species (X. strumarium and A. theophrasti), on the other hand, exhibit niche specialization along the flooding gradient, employing distinct strategies (R- and C-strategy). As flooding stress diminishes and soil nitrogen level decreases, plant strategies tend to shift towards an R-strategy with a competition for reduced N resources. In conclusion, the study highlighted the pivotal roles of soil nitrogen and flooding intensity acting as the dual determinants of species growth and tolerance. These dynamics of growth-tolerance balance were evident in the diverse trade-offs between leaf and root traits of individual plant species with different life histories, underscoring the array of adaptive strategies employed by riparian plants across the flooding intensity gradient.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors and reproductive failures.

The human conceptus is a semi-allograft, which is antigenically foreign to the mother. Hence, the implantation process needs mechanisms to prevent allograft rejection during successful pregnancy. Immune checkpoints are a group of inhibitory pathways expressed on the surface of various immune cells in the form of ligand receptors. Immune cells possess these pathways to regulate the magnitude of immune responses and induce maternal-fetal tolerance. Briefly, 1) CTLA-4 can weaken T cell receptor (TCR) signals and inhibit T cell response; 2) The PD-1/PD-L1 pathway can reduce T cell proliferation, enhance T cell anergy and fatigue, reduce cytokine production, and increase T regulatory cell activity to complete the immunosuppression; 3) TIM3 interacts with T cells by binding Gal-9, weakening Th1 cell-mediated immunity and T cell apoptosis; 4) The LAG-3 binding to MHC II can inhibit T cell activation by interfering with the binding of CD4 to MHC II, and; 5) TIGIT can release inhibitory signals to NK and T cells through the ITIM structure of its cytoplasmic tail. Therefore, dysregulated immune checkpoints or the application of immune checkpoint inhibitors may impair human reproduction. This review intends to deliver a comprehensive overview of immune checkpoints in pregnancy, including CTLA-4, PD-1/PD-L1, TIM-3, LAG-3, TIGIT, and their inhibitors, reviewing their roles in normal and pathological human pregnancies.

Strategically Constructing a Hydrophilic Interface toward Ultrastable Zinc Metal Anodes.

Aqueous zinc-ion storage devices have received increasing attention due to their inherent safety, high capacity, and cost-effectiveness. However, problems such as uneven Zn deposition, limited diffusion kinetics, and corrosion greatly reduce the cycling performance of zinc anodes. Here, a sulfonate-functionalized boron nitride/graphene oxide (F-BG) buffer layer is designed and utilized to modulate the plating/stripping behavior and mitigate the side reactions with the electrolyte. Benefiting from the synergistic effect of high electronegativity and abundant surface functional groups, the F-BG protective layer accelerates the ordered migration of Zn2+, homogenizes the Zn2+ flux, and effectively improves the reversibility of plating and nucleation with strong zincphilicity and dendrite-inhibiting capabilities. Further, electrochemical measurements and cryo-EM observations reveal the mechanism by which the interfacial wettability of the zinc negative electrode acts on capacity and cycling stability. Our work provides deeper insight into the influence of wettability on the energy storage properties and brings forward a facile and instructive way to construct stable zinc anodes for zinc-ion hybrid capacitors.

Droplet manipulation on superhydrophobic surfaces based on external stimulation: A review.

Superhydrophobic surfaces are smart surfaces with high water contact angles and low surface energy. When water droplets rest on superhydrophobic surfaces, they often stay at high contact angles, and the lower contact angle hysteresis of the surface makes the water droplets roll extremely easily. In recent years, materials based on response to external stimuli have received extensive attention and research, which has brought a positive impact on the research of superhydrophobic surfaces in droplet manipulation. With more and more attention, the research on droplet manipulation on superhydrophobic surfaces in response to external stimuli has achieved many promising results, which will have great application potential in the fields of liquid transport, biochemical separation, in situ detection, and microfluidics. In this paper, we mainly review the droplet manipulation on superhydrophobic surfaces in response to electrical, magnetic, photothermal, acoustic and other external stimuli in recent years. First, the basic concept of superhydrophobic surface is introduced, three wettability theories are discussed, and the connection between superhydrophobic surface and droplet manipulation is discussed, comparing the advantages and disadvantages of droplet manipulation on superhydrophobic surfaces and other surfaces. In addition, some special designs of superhydrophobic surfaces are also introduced. Secondly, the research results and progress of droplet manipulation on superhydrophobic surfaces induced by electrical, magnetic, optical, acoustic, mechanical stress and other external fields in recent years are mainly introduced and discussed. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of droplet manipulation research are summarized, and the possible future development directions are prospected in order to promote the development of this field.

Icephobic/anti-icing properties of superhydrophobic surfaces.

In the winter, icing on solid surfaces is a typical occurrence that may create a slew of hassles and even tragedies. Anti-icing surfaces are one of the effective solutions for this kind of problem. The roughness of a superhydrophobic surface traps air and weakens the contact between the solid surface and liquid water, allowing water droplets to be removed before freezing. At present, the conventional anti-icing methods including mechanical or thermal technology are not only surface structure unfriendly but also have the obsessions of low efficiency, high energy consumption and high manufacturing costs. Hence, developing a way to remove ice by just modifying the surface shape or chemical composition with a low surface energy is extremely desirable. Numerous attempts have been made to investigate the evolution of ice nucleation and icing on superhydrophobic surfaces under the direction of the ice nucleation hypothesis. In this paper, the research progress of ice nucleation in recent years is reviewed from theoretical and application. The icephobic surfaces are described using the wettability and classical nucleation theories. The benefits and drawbacks of anti-icing superhydrophobic surface are summarized, as well as deicing methods. Finally, several applications of ice phobic materials are illustrated, and some problems and challenges in the research field are discussed. We believed that this review will be useful in guiding future water freezing initiatives.

An integrated mesh with an anisotropic surface for unidirectional liquid manipulation.

Here, we adopted a simple method to prepare an integrated mesh with an anisotropic surface (IMAS). The motion mode of the droplet can be switched by changing the tilt angle of the IMAS. This low-cost and convenient operation method has great application potential in biomimetic functional surface preparation, microfluidics, etc.

A magnetic responsive composite surface for high-performance droplet and bubble manipulation.

Here, a magnetic responsive composite surface (MRCS) was prepared by injecting a magnetic elastomer into ZnO nanoarrays for intelligent control of droplet/bubble transport. This non-pollution, non-contact operation method has shown great potential in micro-fluids, micro-chemical reactors, chip laboratory environments and other related applications.

Overview of the development of slippery surfaces: Lubricants from presence to absence.

The superhydrophobic surfaces inspired by the lotus have excellent performances and are known for their low contact angle hysteresis and smooth surfaces. However, there are still some problems, such as the unstable structure, poor durability, high product cost and so on that need to be improved. Those issues can be avoided via liquid-infused surfaces(LIS), which are inspired by Nepenthes and consist of a mico-nano structured substrate and a smooth continuous atomic-grade lubricant. Compared with superhydrophobic surfaces, LIS not only achieves the same hydrophobic properties but also has smaller contact angle hysteresis, smoother surface, more stable structure and lower preparation cost. Although the existence of a lubricant layer improves the performance of the material, it also leaves a hidden danger, which is easy to lose and leads to the deterioration of the durability of the material. Therefore, the lubricant-free slipper materials have attracted more and more attention in recent years due to their low volatility, good durability and excellent lubrication performance. In this review, the types of LIS lubricants and their physicochemical properties were summarized at the beginning and then the applications of LIS in various fields were introduced. At the end of this paper, some solid lubricants and their applications were described, and the future development prospects of LIS lubricants also were expected.