The Role of Extracellular Vesicles in the Treatment of Prostate Cancer.

Prostate cancer (PCa) has become a public health concern in elderly men due to an ever-increasing number of estimated cases. Unfortunately, the available treatments are unsatisfactory because of a lack of a durable response, especially in advanced disease states. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are lipid-bilayer encircled nanoscale vesicles that carry numerous biomolecules (e.g., nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids), mediating the transfer of information. The past decade has witnessed a wide range of EV applications in both diagnostics and therapeutics. First, EV-based non-invasive liquid biopsies provide biomarkers in various clinical scenarios to guide treatment; EVs can facilitate the grading and staging of patients for appropriate treatment selection. Second, EVs play a pivotal role in pathophysiological processes via intercellular communication. Targeting key molecules involved in EV-mediated tumor progression (e.g., proliferation, angiogenesis, metastasis, immune escape, and drug resistance) is a potential approach for curbing PCa. Third, EVs are promising drug carriers. Naïve EVs from various sources and engineered EV-based drug delivery systems have paved the way for the development of new treatment modalities. This review discusses the recent advancements in the application of EV therapies and highlights EV-based functional materials as novel interventions for PCa.

Heat-Localized and Salt-Resistant 3D Hierarchical Porous Ceramic Platform for Efficient Solar-Driven Interfacial Evaporation.

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation (SDIE) is a highly promising approach to achieve sustainable desalination and tackle the global freshwater crisis. Despite advancements in this field, achieving balanced thermal localization and salt resistance remains a challenge. Herein, the study presents a 3D hierarchical porous ceramic platform for SDIE applications. The utilized alumina foam ceramics (AFCs) exhibit remarkable corrosion resistance and chemical stability, ensuring a prolonged operational lifespan in seawater or brines. The millimeter-scale air-filled pores in AFCs prevent thermal losses through conduction with bulk water, resulting in heat-localized interfaces. The hydrophilic nature of macroporous AFC skeletons facilitates rapid water replenishment on the evaporating surface for effective salt-resistant desalination. Benefiting from its self-radiation adsorption and side-assisted evaporation capabilities, the AFC-based evaporators exhibit high indoor evaporation rates of 2.99 and 3.54 kg m-2 h-1 under one-sided and three-sided illumination under 1.0 sun, respectively. The AFC-based evaporator maintains a high evaporation rate of ≈2.77 kg m-2 h-1 throughout the 21-day long-term test. Furthermore, it achieves a daily water productivity of ≈10.44 kg m-2 in outdoor operations. This work demonstrates the potential of 3D hierarchical porous ceramics in addressing the trade-off between heat localization and salt resistance, and contributes to the development of durable solar steam generators.

Surface-Like Diffusion of Fast Ions in Framework Energy Materials for Li- and Na-Ion Batteries.

The rate performance, power density, and energy efficiency of electrochemical devices are often limited by ionic conductivities in electrolyte and electrode materials. Framework Prussian blue analogs and dense niobium oxides have been identified as high-rate electrodes for sodium- and lithium-ion batteries, respectively, yet the origin of the extremely high solid-state Na+/Li+ transport is not fully understood. Of critical importance is the fact that their ultra-low activation energy and anomalous pre-exponent factor cannot be satisfactorily rationalized from conventional theory of solid-state diffusion in the crystal lattice. Here, assisted by density-functional-theory calculations, we argued that the true origin is a unique surface-like diffusion mechanism of the intercalation ions. In a surface-like migration event, a mobile ion moves along the channel wall via a low coordination number and low migration barrier experiencing minimal steric hindrance. It is similar to surface diffusion in the conventional picture and contrasts with lattice diffusion from one interstitial/vacancy site to another one with high coordination number, crowded saddle-point geometry and high migration barrier. We found that the shifting from solid-state lattice diffusion to surface-like diffusion is determined by the size difference between the mobile ion and the diffusion channel, and a lowest migration energy barrier can be reached by mediating the channel size. The analogy to gas diffusion in molecular sieves shall be discussed. Additionally, the effects of defects and crystal water in Prussian blue analogs were also discussed for better understanding their rate performances in experimental scenarios.

Perspectives Toward Damage-Tolerant Nanostructure Ceramics.

Advanced ceramic materials and devices call for better reliability and damage tolerance. In addition to their strong bonding nature, there are examples demonstrating superior mechanical properties of nanostructure ceramics, such as damage-tolerant ceramic aerogels that can withstand high deformation without cracking and local plasticity in dense nanocrystalline ceramics. The recent progresses shall be reviewed in this perspective article. Three topics including highly elastic nano-fibrous ceramic aerogels, load-bearing nanoceramics with improved mechanical properties, and implementing machine learning-assisted simulations toolbox in understanding the relationship among structure, deformation mechanisms, and microstructure-properties shall be discussed. It is hoped that the perspectives present here can help the discovery, synthesis, and processing of future structural ceramic materials that are insensitive to processing flaws and local damages in service.

Carbonated Beverage Chemistry for High-Voltage Battery Cathodes.

Advanced lithium-ion batteries utilize high upper cut-off voltages up to 4.8 V versus lithium metal to reach extraordinary energy densities. Such a harsh environment challenges the cathode stability and requires the construction of robust cathode electrolyte interphases at their electrochemical interface. Inspired by carbonated beverages with supersaturated CO2, here, a surface modification strategy that produces effective passivation layer of low modulus from the weakest link, is proposed CO2 bubbles preferentially nucleate and grow at rough surfaces, which in oxide cathodes, are also the local regions offering fast degradation pathway. Metal ion exchange on carbonated layer assists the construction of highly elastic interface under the guidance of packing factor. This method enables surface reconstruction at both primary and secondary particle levels for various cathodes exemplified by high-voltage LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 (NCM811) and LiCoO2 (LCO). Remarkably, with ultra-high upper cut-off voltage of 4.8 V versus Li+/Li, over 235 mAh g-1 discharge capacity, and over 900 W h kg-1 discharge energy at cathode level, ≈90% capacity retention can be obtained for LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 over 100 cycles at 0.5 C with commercial carbonate electrolytes. This carbonated beverage chemistry is promising for constructing high-quality surface passivation in many extreme-condition applications beyond battery cathodes.

Rapid and inexpensive synthesis of liter-scale SiC aerogels.

Ceramic aerogels are promising materials for thermal insulation and protection under harsh environments. Yet current synthesis methods fail to provide an energy-, time-, and cost-effective route for high-throughput production and large-scale applications, especially for non-oxide ceramic aerogels. Here we reported a way to synthesize SiC aerogels within seconds and over liter scale, with a demonstrated throughput of ~16 L min-1 in a typical lab experiment. The key lies in renovated combustion synthesis and a fast expansion from powder reactants to aerogel products over 1000% in volume. The synthesis process is self-sustainable and requires minimal energy input. The product is very cheap, with an estimated price of ~$0.7 L-1 (~$7 kg-1). The obtained SiC aerogels have excellent thermo-mechanical properties, including low thermal conductivity, high elasticity, and damage tolerance. Our invention not only offers a practical pathway for large-scale applications of ceramic aerogels, but also calls for rethinking of combustion synthesis in one-step conversion from raw chemicals to bulk products ready for practical applications.

Polarizable Additive with Intermediate Chelation Strength for Stable Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries.

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries are promising due to inherent safety, low cost, low toxicity, and high volumetric capacity. However, issues of dendrites and side reactions between zinc metal anode and the electrolyte need to be solved for extended storage and cycle life. Here, we proposed that an electrolyte additive with an intermediate chelation strength of zinc ion-strong enough to exclude water molecules from the zinc metal-electrolyte interface and not too strong to cause a significant energy barrier for zinc ion dissociation-can benefit the electrochemical stability by suppressing hydrogen evolution reaction, overpotential growth, and dendrite formation. Penta-sodium diethylene-triaminepentaacetic acid salt was selected for such a purpose. It has a suitable chelating ability in aqueous solutions to adjust solvation sheath and can be readily polarized under electrical loading conditions to further improve the passivation. Zn||Zn symmetric cells can be stably operated over 3500 h at 1 mA cm-2. Zn||NH4V4O10 full cells with the additive show great cycling stability with 84.6% capacity retention after 500 cycles at 1 A g-1. Since the additive not only reduces H2 evolution and corrosion but also modifies Zn2+ diffusion and deposition, highlyreversible Zn electrodes can be achieved as verified by the experimental results. Our work offers a practical approach to the logical design of reliable electrolytes for high-performance aqueous batteries.