Tunable Structural Coloration in Eccentric Water-in-Oil-in-Water Droplets.

Structural colors show diverse advantages such as fade resistance, eco-friendliness, iridescence, and high saturation in comparison with chemical pigments. In this paper, we show tunable structural coloration in colorless water-in-oil-in-water double emulsion droplets via total internal reflection and interference at the microscale concave interfaces. Through experimental work and simulations, we demonstrate that the shell thickness and the eccentricity of the core-shell structures are key to the successful formation of iridescent structural colors. Only eccentric thin-shell water-in-oil-in-water droplets show structural colors. Importantly, structural colors based on water-oil interfaces are readily responsive to a variety of environmental stimuli, such as osmotic pressure, temperature, magnetic fields, and light composition. This work highlights an alternative structural coloration that expands the applications of droplet-based structural colors to aqueous systems.

HPV 16 E6/E7 Promote the Glucose Uptake of GLUT1 in Lung Cancer Through Downregulation of TXNIP Due to Inhibition of PTEN Phosphorylation.

High-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection play an important role in the development of lung cancer. Our previously study showed that E6 and E7 in HPV16 upregulated the expression of GLUT1 in lung cancer cells. However, whether they can promote the glucose uptake by GLUT1 and the underlying molecular mechanism has not been identified. It has been reported that thioredoxin interacting protein (TXNIP) regulates both the expression of GLUT1 and its glucose uptake. We speculate that high risk HPV16 infection may be closely related to TXNIP expression. Therefore, we associate HPV16 with TXNIP to explore the potential molecular mechanism of their regulation of GLUT1 expression and glucose uptake. Using double directional genetic manipulation in lung cancer cells, we showed that HPV16 E6/E7 proteins downregulated the expression of p-PTEN in lung cancer cells, the knockdown of PTEN further inhibited the expression of TXNIP, the inhibition of TXNIP further promoted the accumulation of HIF-1α by inhibiting the translocation of nuclear HIF-1α to the cytoplasm, and subsequently upregulated the expression of GLUT1 at the protein and mRNA levels. More interestingly, we found that the knockdown of TXNIP played a decisive role to promote the glucose uptake by GLUT1. Together, these findings suggested that the PTEN-TXNIP-HIF-1α axis might be related to the E6/E7-mediated expression of GLUT1 and its glucose uptake.

A pH/Ultrasound dual-response biomimetic nanoplatform for nitric oxide gas-sonodynamic combined therapy and repeated ultrasound for relieving hypoxia.

Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) has rapidly developed as a powerful alternative to traditional photodynamic therapy due to its intrinsically deeper tissue-penetration. However, single SDT dose is incapable of radical cure because the long-term hypoxia of tumor limits its therapeutic effect. Herein, we developed a biomimetic nanoplatform with dual pH/ultrasound response, homologous targeting and low phototoxicity for combined nitric oxide (NO) gas therapy with SDT to solve the problem. This nanoplatform is composed of zeolite imidazole framework-8 material embedded with nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) and chlorin e6 (Ce6) by one-step encapsulation, and then wrapped by homologous tumor cell membrane. In vitro and in vivo experiments indicate that the biomimetic nanoplatform has excellent biocompatibility and shows higher retention in tumor by homologous targeting. Importantly, it can sustainably release the encapsulated drug in acidic tumor microenvironment and accelerate degradation by ultrasound (US). Furthermore, NO released from GSNO and reactive oxygen species generated by Ce6, which are both triggered by US, react with each other to produce highly reactive peroxynitrite to inhibit the growth of tumor. Moreover, by repeated US irradiation, the tumor hypoxia can be relieved for a much-longer term, resulting in an effective gas-sonodynamic combined treatment. This study fully utilizes the advantages of US, providing a new strategy for high-performance cancer therapy.

Differentiation-inducing therapeutic effect of Notch inhibition in reversing malignant transformation of liver normal stem cells via MET.

BACKGROUND: Liver cancer stem cells (LCSCs) are the key factors for cancer metastasis, recurrent, and drug resistance. LCSCs are originated from either hepatocytes dedifferentiation or differentiation arresting of liver normal stem cells (LNSCs). Differentiation-inducing therapy is a novel strategy in solid tumors. Furthermore, Notch signaling pathway has been proved to play important role in the process of hepatocytes differentiation. In previous study, a malignant transformation cellular model of LNSCs has been built up, and in this study we are trying to illustrate whether inhibition of Notch can reverse this malignant tendency and drive these malignant cells back to differentiate into mature hepatocytes. RESULTS: Inhibition of Notch signaling pathway can down-regulate the stemness-related cancer markers, lower the proliferative status, alleviate the invasive characteristic, or attenuate the metastasis tendency. What is more, it can help the malignantly transformed cells to regain the mature hepatic function of glucagon synthesis, urea metabolism, albumin production, and indocyanine-green (ICG) clearance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: HOX transcript antisense RNA (HOTAIR) expression was enhanced in LNSCs via lentivirus transduction to set up the malignant transformation cellular model. Then, a Notch inhibitor was applied to induce malignantly transformed cells differentiate into mature hepatocytes, and malignant abilities of proliferation, invasiveness, tumorigenesis as well as mature hepatocyte function were observed and compared. CONCLUSIONS: The data demonstrate that the anti-tumor effects of Notch inhibition may lie not only on killing the cancer cells or LCSCs directly, it can also induce the LCSCs differentiation into mature hepatocytes via mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) progress or downgrade the malignancy.

[Aging Process of Puer Black Tea Studied by FTIR Spectroscopy Combined with Curve-Fitting Analysis].

For better determination of the chemical components in the Puer black tea, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was used for obtaining vibrational spectra of Puer black tea at different aging time. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra indicated that the chemical components had change in Puer black tea at different aging time. The leaf of Puer black tea was a complex system, its Fourier transform infrared spectrum showed a total overlap of each absorption spectrum of various components. Each band represented an overall overlap of some characteristic absorption peaks of functional groups in the Puer black tea. In order to explore the change of characteristic absorption peaks of functional groups with aging time, the prediction positions and the number of second peaks in the range of 1900-900 cm(-1) were determined by Fourier self-deconvolution at first, and later the curve fitting analysis was performed in this overlap band. At different aging time of Puer black tea, the wave number of second peaks of amide II, tea polyphenol, pectin and polysaccharides at overlap band were assigned by curve fitting analysis. The second peak at 1520 cm(-1) was characteristic absorption band of amide II, the second peaks of tea polyphenol and pectin appeared at 1278 and 1103 cm(-1) respectively. Two second peaks at 1063 and 1037 cm(-1), corresponds mainly to glucomannan and arabinan. The relative area of these second peaks could be indicated the content of protein, tea polyphenol, pectin and polysaccharides in the Puer black tea. The results of curve fitting analysis showed that the relative area of amide II was increasing first and then decreasing, it indicated the change of protein in Puer black tea. At the same time, the content of tea polyphenol and pectin were decreased with the increase of aging time, but the glucomannan and arabinan were increased in reverse. It explained that the bitter taste was become weak and a sweet taste appeared in the tea with the increase of aging time. The present study suggested that Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy combined with curve-fitting analysis could reveal the biochemical changed of Puer black tea with the increase of aging time, and it was evidence for evaluation the quality of Puer black tea.

Routine lymph node dissection may be not suitable for all intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma patients: results of a monocentric series.

AIM: To investigate the indications for lymph node dissection (LND) in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma patients. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 124 intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) patients who had undergone surgical resection of ICC from January 2006 to December 2007. Curative resection was attempted for all patients unless there were metastases to lymph nodes (LNs) beyond the hepatoduodenal ligament. Prophylactic LND was performed in patients in whom any enlarged LNs had been suspicious for metastases. The patients were classified according to the LND and LN metastases. Clinicopathologic, operative, and long-term survival data were collected retrospectively. The impact on survival of LND during primary resection was analyzed. RESULTS: Of 53 patients who had undergone hepatic resection with curative intent combined with regional LND, 11 had lymph nodes metastases. Whether or not patients without lymph node involvement had undergone LND made no significant difference to their survival (P = 0.822). Five patients with multiple tumors and involvement of lymph nodes underwent hepatic resection with LND; their survival curve did not differ significantly from that of the palliative resection group (P = 0.744). However, there were significant differences in survival between patients with lymph node involvement and a solitary tumor who underwent hepatic resection with LND and the palliative resection group (median survival time 12 mo vs 6.0 mo, P = 0.013). CONCLUSION: ICC patients without lymph node involvement and patients with multiple tumors and lymph node metastases may not benefit from aggressive lymphadenectomy. Routine LND should be considered with discretion.