Chitosan modified graphene oxide with MnO2 deposition for high energy density flexible supercapacitors.

To obtain a flexible composite electrode material with excellent electrochemical performance, chitosan (CS)/graphene oxide (GO) composite pretreated from microwave hydrothermal is adopted as the carbon substrate, and MnO2 active material is uniformly deposited on their surface through anodic electrodeposition. In this composite system, CS penetrates into graphene sheets as small molecule units, forming NH-C=O groups with GO via dehydration condensation, which effectively inhibits the stacking of GO and improves the specific surface area, conductivity, as well as the wettability of the carbon support. MnO2 bonding with heteroatom N from CS enables high active material loadings and forms stable three-dimensional network structure, facilitating the enhanced electrochemical performance. Results indicate that increasing depositing MnO2 amount leads to more defective structures of the composite, which promotes their electrochemical performance when used as electrode material. The area specific capacitance of the optimal composite reaches 3553.74 mF/cm2 at 5 mA/cm2 in 1 M Na2SO4 electrolyte. Kinetic analysis shows the energy storage process is capacitance-dominated, with the redox reactions of MnO2 being the main contributor. The prepared asymmetric solid supercapacitor delivers an energy density high up to 0.585 mWh/cm2 at power density of 3000 mW/cm2, and their excellent flexibility makes them promising candidates as flexible sensor.

Recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator (rt-PA) effectively restores neurological function and improves prognosis in acute ischemic stroke.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical efficacy of intravenous thrombolysis with recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator (rt-PA) for acute ischemic stroke. METHODS: A total of 76 patients with acute ischemic stroke admitted to the Encephalopathy Dept. of Zhecheng Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine between February 2021 and June 2022 were recruited in this prospective trial (ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03884410) and patients were randomized 1:1 to receive either aspirin plus clopidogrel (control group) or aspirin plus clopidogrel and rt-PA intravenous thrombolytic therapy (experimental group), with 38 cases in each group. The treatment efficiency, National Institute of Health stroke scale (NIHSS) scores, daily living ability, coagulation function, serum Lipoprotein-associated phospholipaseA2 (Lp-PLA2), homocysteine (HCY), hypersensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP) levels, adverse events, and prognosis were evaluated and compared between the two groups. RESULTS: Intravenous thrombolysis with rt-PA resulted in a better treatment outcome of patients versus aspirin plus clopidogrel (P<0.05). Patients with rt-PA exhibited better improvement in neurological function than those with aspirin plus clopidogrel, as shown by the lower NIHSS scores (P<0.05). Intravenous thrombolysis with rt-PA resulted in a better quality of life of patients than aspirin plus clopidogrel, indicated by the higher Barthel Index (BI) levels (P<0.05). The lower von Willebrand factor (vWF) and Factor VIII (F) levels indicated better coagulation function of patients with rt-PA versus those with aspirin plus clopidogrel (P<0.05). The lower serum concentrations of Lp-PLA2, HCY, and hsCRP suggested patients with rt-PA had milder inflammatory responses versus those without rt-PA (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the incidence of adverse events in the two groups (P>0.05). Intravenous thrombolytic therapy with rt-PA better enhanced the prognosis of patients than with aspirin plus clopidogrel (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Compared with conventional pharmacological regimens, additional rt-PA intravenous thrombolytic therapy improves the clinical outcome of patients with acute ischemic stroke, promotes neurological recovery, and enhances patient prognosis without increasing the risk of patient-related adverse events.

Chitosan/graphene oxide hybrid hydrogel electrode with porous network boosting ultrahigh energy density flexible supercapacitor.

To overcome the low energy density and poor conductivity of conventional electrode materials for building supercapacitor, herein, a hybrid hydrogel prepared from compositing bio-based chitosan with holey graphene oxide by microwave-assisted hydrothermal is proposed. This binary hydrogel is endowed with heteroatomic functional groups and conductive porous network by chemical pretreatments, where amides and carboxyl groups are introduced during the acylation modification of chitosan to enable it soluble in water for sufficient reaction, while the oxidation etching for graphene oxide in the defect area by H2O2 facilitates in-plane nanopores network to provide abundant active surface and short ion diffusion pathway. Benefited from the high conductivity and flexibility, this hydrogel present promising performance when used as additive-free electrode in a three-electrode, with a high specific capacitance of 377 F/g at 5 A/g. The rich nitrogen and oxygen groups on surface of the hydrogel contribute to high capacitance directly, while the in-plane nanopores and hierarchically porous network benefit to promote their wettability, accelerate the charge transfer and enhance their charge storage ability. When the hydrogel composite is adopted into a flexible solid-state supercapacitor employing lignin hydrogel electrolyte, it unfolds a specific capacitance of 210 F/g at 0.5 A/g, with an ultrahigh energy density of 31 Wh/kg at the power density of 150 W/kg. The solid-state supercapacitor exhibits promising potential in applications such as signal sensor and portable energy storage.

Upregulation of long non-coding RNA NNT-AS1 promotes osteosarcoma progression by inhibiting the tumor suppressive miR-320a.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the role and mechanism of action of nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase antisense RNA 1 (NNT-AS1) in osteosarcoma (OS). METHODS: Bioinformatic analysis suggested miR-320a as potential target of NNT-AS1. Influence of NNT-AS1 overexpression or knockdown on OS cell proliferation, colony-formation, apoptosis, migration and invasion capacity was first investigated. Expression levels of NNT-AS1, miR-320a, beta-catenin, RUNX2, IGF-1R, c-Myc, Cyclin D1 and MMP13 were also evaluated by RT-qPCR and western blotting accordingly. Xenograft models using U2OS and OS-732 cells with different NNT-AS1 gene modifications were constructed for tumor formation assay as well as evaluation of miR-320a, beta-catenin and RUNX2 expression in primary lesion. NNT-AS1-overexpressing U2OS cells and NNT-AS1-knockdown OS-732 cells were subject to miR-320a mimic and inhibitor transfection, respectively, to investigate the miR-320a dependency of the osteosarcoma-promoting role of NNT-AS1. RESULTS: NNT-AS1 overexpression significantly increased proliferation, survival and mobility of U2OS cells in vitro as well as its tumor formation ability in vivo, while NNT-AS1 knockdown showed opposite effect on OS-732 cells. In both in vitro and in vivo model, NNT-AS1 expression level significantly correlated with that of beta-catenin, RUNX2, IGF-1R, c-Myc, Cyclin D1 and MMP13 as well as Akt phosphorylation level, and inversely correlated with miR-320a expression. Transfection of miR-320a mimic significantly inhibiter the promoting effect of NNT-AS1 on cell proliferation, survival and mobility of U2OS cells, while miR-320 inhibitor partially rescued that of OS-732 cells. CONCLUSION: NNT-As1 functions as a cancer-promoting lncRNA by downregulating miR-320a, thus increasing the protein expression level of beta-catenin, RUNX2 and IGF-1R as well as activation of Akt in osteosarcoma.