Superlong Metal-organic Framework Nanowire Fabricated via Steam-assisted Conversion.

1D nanomaterials have attracted great attention due to their outstanding anisotropic and linear structures. A facile method is developed to fabricate 1D copper metal-organic framework nanowires (Cu-MOF-NW) through steam-assisted conversion from Cu-MOF precursors. During the steam-assisted conversion, Cu-MOF precursor gradually dissolves in methanol steam, and then recrystallized into Cu-MOF-NW, which shows high aspect ratio of about 600 and identical crystal structure of MOF-74. As-prepared Cu-MOF-NW with multiscale porous structure can effectively remove cationic dyes even in dye mixture. Moreover, Cu-MOF-NW, as an ideal template, is calcined to form Cu nanoparticle-doped carbon nanofiber with maintaining its 1D morphology, which shows excellent electrocatalytic activity for the non-enzymatic sensing of glucose.

Redox Concomitant Formation Method for Fabrication of Cu(I)-MOF/Polymer Composites with Antifouling Properties.

Marine biofouling, which is one of the technical challenges hindering the growth of the marine economy, has been controlled using cuprous oxide (Cu2O) nanoparticles due to the exceptional antifouling properties of Cu(I) ions. However, Cu2O nanoparticles have encountered bottlenecks due to explosive releases of Cu+ ions, high toxicity at elevated doses, and long-term instability. Here, we present a novel method called Redox Concomitant Formation (RCF) for fabricating a hierarchical Cu(I) metal-organic framework polypyrrole (Cu(I)-MOF/PPy) composite. This method enables in-situ phase transition via successive redox reactions that change the chemical valence state and coordination mode of Cu(II)-MOF, resulting in a new structure of Cu(I)-MOF while creating a PPy layer surrounded by the hierarchical structure. Owing to the steady release of Cu+ ions from the Cu(I) sites and photothermal properties of PPy, Cu(I)-MOF/PPy exhibits superior and broad-spectrum resistance to marine bacteria, algae, and surface-adhered biofilms in complex biological environments, as well as long-term stability, resulting in 100% eradication efficiency under solar-driven heating. Mechanistic insights into successive structural redox reactions and formation using the RCF method are provided in detail, enabling the fabrication of novel MOFs with the desired composition and structure for a wide range of potential applications.

Constructing Biomass-Based Ultrahigh-Rate Performance SnOy @C/SiOx Anode for LIBs via Disproportionation Effect.

To break the stereotype that silica can only be reduced via a magnesiothermic and aluminothermic method at low-temperature condition, the novel strategy for converting silica to SiOx using disproportionation effect of SnO generated via low-temperature pyrolysis coreduction reaction between SnO2 and rice husk is proposed, without any raw materials waste and environmental hazards. After the low-temperature pyrolysis reaction, SnOy @C/SiOx composites with unique structure (Sn/SnO2 dispersed on the surface and within pores of biochar as well as SiOx residing in the interior) are obtained due to the exclusive biological properties of rice husk. Such unique structural features render SnOy @C/SiOx composites with an excellent talent for repairing the damaged structure and the highly electrochemical storage ability (530.8 mAh g-1 at 10 A g-1 after 7500 cycles). Furthermore, assembled LiFePO4 ||SnOy -50@C/SiOx full cell displays a high discharge capacity of 463.7 mAh g-1 after 100 cycles at 0.2 A g-1 . The Li+ transport mechanism is revealed by density functional theory calculations. This work provides references and ideas for green, efficient, and high-value to reduce SiO2 , especially in biomass, which also avoids the waste of raw materials in the production process, and becomes an essential step in sustainable development.

Ultrafast and Scalable Fabrication of Coordination Polymer Films on Network Substrates via Thermal Current-Induced Dewetting.

Coordination polymers are among the most favored active materials by researchers due to their broad application prospects. However, most of them are usually difficult to directly process into applicable devices because of their unsatisfied processability. One process of great concern for researchers is the in situ preparation of the coordination polymer on the applicable substrate, especially for the favored network substrates with good mechanical properties and 3D porous structure, which could provide obvious convenience and facilitation in the application process. Herein, we present an ultrafast and scalable thermal current-induced dewetting strategy to obtain uniform coordination polymer film in situ on network substrates, which could enable unprecedented convenience to obtain directly usable coordination polymer composites such as practical catalytic electrodes with excellent electrocatalytic performance. The proposed thermal current-induced dewetting method provides a highly adaptable and efficient practical production approach to integrate coordination polymer materials with network substrates and also provides new inspiration for understanding and applying the dewetting process on complex 3D network substrates.

HDAC3 controls male fertility through enzyme-independent transcriptional regulation at the meiotic exit of spermatogenesis.

The transition from meiotic spermatocytes to postmeiotic haploid germ cells constitutes an essential step in spermatogenesis. The epigenomic regulatory mechanisms underlying this transition remain unclear. Here, we find a prominent transcriptomic switch from the late spermatocytes to the early round spermatids during the meiotic-to-postmeiotic transition, which is associated with robust histone acetylation changes across the genome. Among histone deacetylases (HDACs) and acetyltransferases, we find that HDAC3 is selectively expressed in the late meiotic and early haploid stages. Three independent mouse lines with the testis-specific knockout of HDAC3 show infertility and defects in meiotic exit with an arrest at the late stage of meiosis or early stage of round spermatids. Stage-specific RNA-seq and histone acetylation ChIP-seq analyses reveal that HDAC3 represses meiotic/spermatogonial genes and activates postmeiotic haploid gene programs during meiotic exit, with associated histone acetylation alterations. Unexpectedly, abolishing HDAC3 catalytic activity by missense mutations in the nuclear receptor corepressor (NCOR or SMRT) does not cause infertility, despite causing histone hyperacetylation as HDAC3 knockout, demonstrating that HDAC3 enzyme activity is not required for spermatogenesis. Motif analysis of the HDAC3 cistrome in the testes identified SOX30, which has a similar spatiotemporal expression pattern as HDAC3 during spermatogenesis. Depletion of SOX30 in the testes abolishes the genomic recruitment of the HDAC3 to the binding sites. Collectively, these results establish the SOX30/HDAC3 signaling as a key regulator of the transcriptional program in a deacetylase-independent manner during the meiotic-to-postmeiotic transition in spermatogenesis.

Calcitriol reverses age-related hypertension via downregulating renal AP1/AT1R pathway through regulating mitochondrial function.

BACKGROUND: The vitamin D level in the blood is associated with the incidence of hypertension. The present study investigated whether or not calcitriol, an active form of vitamin D, reverses age-related hypertension. METHODS: Young (3-month-old) and aged (12-month-old) C57BL/6 male mice were administered with or without calcitriol at 150 ng/kg per day by oral gavage for 8 weeks. Blood pressure was measured by tail-cuff plethysmography and telemetry, and superoxide production in renal tissue was assessed by fluorescence imaging, and the protein expression of AP1/AT1R signaling pathway was examined by Western blot. RESULTS: We showed that 24-hour renal sodium excretion was impaired and blood pressure was increased in aged mice, which was related to the enhancement of renal AT1R expression and function. In addition, the expression of transcription factor AP1 (a dimer of c-Fos and c-Jun) and the binding of AP1 to the AT1R promoter region was significantly enhanced, accompanied by decreased nuclear translocation of Nrf2, abnormal mitochondrial function including decreased ATP production, NAD+/NADH ratio and mtDNA copy numbers, and increased reactive oxygen species. Calcitriol increased 24-hour urinary sodium excretion and reduced blood pressure in aged mice. Mechanically, calcitriol increased the nuclear translocation of Nrf2, improved mitochondrial function, reduced AP1 binding ability to AT1R promoter, which reversed enhanced AT1R expression and function, and lowered blood pressure in aged mice. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicated that calcitriol reversed age-related hypertension via downregulating renal AP1/AT1R pathway through regulating mitochondrial function. Thus, calcitriol may be a valuable therapeutic strategy for age-related hypertension.

Research Progress on the Effects of Support and Support Modification on the FTO Reaction Performance of Fe-Based Catalysts.

In recent years, the non-petroleum production of light olefins has been the research focus of Fischer-Tropsch olefin synthesis (FTO). Iron-based catalysts have attracted much attention because of their low price, high catalytic activity, and wide temperature range. In this paper, traditional modification, hydrophobic modification, and amphiphobic modification of the catalyst are summarized and analyzed. It was found that traditional modification (changing the pore size and surface pH of the catalyst) will reduce the dispersion of Fe, change the active center of the catalyst, and improve the selectivity of light olefins (for example, SiO2: 32%). However, compared with functional methods, these traditional methods lead to poor stability and high carbon dioxide selectivity (for example, SiO2: 34%). Hydrophobic modification can inhibit the adsorption and retention of water molecules on the catalyst and reduce the local water pressure near the iron species in the nuclear layer, thus inhibiting the further formation of CO2 (for example, SiO2: 5%) of the WGSR. Amphiphobic modification can not only inhibit the WGSR, but also reduce the steric hindrance of the catalyst, increase the diffusion rate of olefins, and inhibit the reabsorption of olefins. Follow-up research should focus on these issues.

Preferential Targeting Cerebral Ischemic Lesions with Cancer Cell-Inspired Nanovehicle for Ischemic Stroke Treatment.

The poor drug delivery to cerebral ischemic regions is a key challenge of ischemic stroke treatment. Inspired by the intriguing blood-brain barrier (BBB)-penetrating ability of 4T1 cancer cells upon their brain metastasis, we herein designed a promising biomimetic nanoplatform by camouflaging a succinobucol-loaded pH-sensitive polymeric nanovehicle with a 4T1 cell membrane (MPP/SCB), aiming to promote the preferential targeting of cerebral ischemic lesions to attenuate the ischemia/reperfusion injury. In transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) rat models, MPP/SCB could be preferentially delivered to the ischemic hemisphere with a 4.79-fold higher than that in the normal hemisphere. Moreover, MPP/SCB produced notable enhancement of microvascular reperfusion in the ischemic hemisphere, resulting in a 69.9% reduction of infarct volume and showing remarkable neuroprotective effects of tMCAO rats, which was superior to the counterpart uncamouflaged nanovehicles (PP/SCB). Therefore, this design provides a promising nanoplatform to target the cerebral ischemic lesions for ischemic stroke therapy.

Sox30 initiates transcription of haploid genes during late meiosis and spermiogenesis in mouse testes.

Transcription factors of the Sox protein family contain a DNA-binding HMG box and are key regulators of progenitor cell fate. Here, we report that expression of Sox30 is restricted to meiotic spermatocytes and postmeiotic haploids. Sox30 mutant males are sterile owing to spermiogenic arrest at the early round spermatid stage. Specifically, in the absence of Sox30, proacrosomic vesicles fail to form a single acrosomal organelle, and spermatids arrest at step 2-3. Although most Sox30 mutant spermatocytes progress through meiosis, accumulation of diplotene spermatocytes indicates a delayed or impaired transition from meiotic to postmeiotic stages. Transcriptome analysis of isolated stage-specific spermatogenic cells reveals that Sox30 controls a core postmeiotic gene expression program that initiates as early as the late meiotic cell stage. ChIP-seq analysis shows that Sox30 binds to specific DNA sequences in mouse testes, and its genomic occupancy correlates positively with expression of many postmeiotic genes including Tnp1, Hils1, Ccdc54 and Tsks These results define Sox30 as a crucial transcription factor that controls the transition from a late meiotic to a postmeiotic gene expression program and subsequent round spermatid development.

Synthesis of amorphous FeNiCo trimetallic hybrid electrode from ZIF precursors for efficient oxygen evolution reaction.

Development of non-noble multi-metallic electrocatalyst with high oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity via a simple and low-cost method is of great importance for improving the efficiency of water electro-chemical splitting. Herein, a solution impregnation strategy was proposed to synthesize novel FeNi-doped Co-ZIF-L trimetallic hybrid electrocatalyst using Co-ZIF-L as sacrificial templates and Fe and Ni ions as etchants and dopants. This synthetic strategy could be realized via the etching-coprecipitation mechanism to obtain an amorphous hybrid containing multi-metal hydroxides. The as-prepared electrocatalyst loaded on Ni foam displays a low overpotential of 245 mV at 10 mA·cm-2, a small Tafel slope of 54.9 mV·dec-1, and excellent stability at least 12 h in the OER process. The facile and efficient synthetic strategy presents a new entry for the fabrication of ZIFs-derived multi-metallic electrocatalysts for OER electrocatalysis.

Direct immunofluorescence analysis of oral Tzanck smears for pemphigus vulgaris: A diagnostic test.

BACKGROUND: Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is a rare and potentially fatal autoimmune blistering disease. Direct immunofluorescence (DIF) and histopathological analysis are crucial methods for PV diagnosis, but oral tissue biopsy is difficult to perform because of the fragile characteristics of the oral mucosa. However, no well-designed diagnostic studies addressing the validity of DIF analysis of oral Tzanck smears for the diagnosis of PV exist. We aimed to design a diagnostic test based on DIF analysis combined with oral Tzanck smears and evaluate its diagnostic accuracy for PV. METHODS: We enrolled 81 patients with oral erosive lesions, of whom 41 patients had PV and 40 were non-PV controls. Oral Tzanck smears were obtained from oral mucosal lesions and observed under a fluorescence microscope after fixing and fluorescence staining. The diagnostic efficacy indexes including sensitivity, specificity, predictive value, Youden index, diagnostic odds ratio, and likelihood ratio were calculated. RESULTS: Of the 41 PV patients, 36 showed DIF-positive findings for oral Tzanck smears, and all 36 DIF-positive PV patients showed IgG and/or C3 deposition, with seven also showing IgA and/or IgM positivity. None of the non-PV controls showed DIF positivity. The sensitivity and specificity of DIF analysis with oral Tzanck smears were 87.80% and 100%, respectively. The area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC) was 0.939, with the test demonstrating significantly high diagnostic efficacy. CONCLUSION: DIF analysis of oral Tzanck smears is a minimally invasive and easy-to-operate technique that can assist the rapid and accurate diagnosis of PV in dental clinic.

Design and Characterization of HY-038 Solid Dispersions via Spray Drying Technology: In Vitro and In Vivo Evaluations.

The aim of this study was to prepare HY-038 solid dispersions (SDs) with single carrier at high drug loading and then forming a tablet to enhance solubility, dissolution, and bioavailability via spray drying technology. At the same time, we hope to develop a more convenient in vitro method to predict the absorption behavior of different formulations in vivo. Different solid dispersions, varying in drug/polymer ratios, were prepared. Infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, scanning electron microscope, and X-ray diffraction were used to perform solid-state characterizations of the pure drug and SDs. Contact angle of water, dissolution in pH = 6.8 phosphate buffer, and in vivo absorption in dogs were studied. As a result, solid-state characterization demonstrated the transformation of the crystalline HY-038 to an amorphous state in the solid dispersions, and the in vivo exposure followed with the trend of the dissolution curve combined with contact angle. Compared with the prototype formulation, the Cmax and AUC0-∞ of optimized formulation SD2 (HY-038-HPMCAS 3:1) increased by about 5 ~ 9 times at the same dose. More importantly, the SD2 formulation showed approximately linear increases in Cmax and AUC0-∞ as the dose increased from 50 to 100 mg, while the prototype formulation reached absorption saturation at 50 mg. SD2 (HY-038-HPMCAS 3:1) was selected as the best formulation for the downstream development.

Tunable Surface Selenization on MoO2 -Based Carbon Substrate for Notably Enhanced Sodium-Ion Storage Properties.

Transition metal chalcogenides with high theoretical capacity are promising conversion-type anode materials for sodium ion batteries (SIBs), but often suffer from unsatisfied cycling stability (hundreds of cycles) caused by structural collapse and agglomerate. Herein, a rational strategy of tunable surface selenization on highly crystalline MoO2 -based carbon substrate is designed, where the sheet-like MoSe2 can be coated on the surface of bundle-like N-doped carbon/granular MoO2 substrate, realizing partial transformation from MoO2 to MoSe2 , and creating b-NC/g-MoO2 @s-MoSe2 -10 with robust hierarchical MoO2 @MoSe2 heterostructures and strong chemical couplings (MoC and MoN). Such well-designed architecture can provide signally improved reaction kinetics and reinforced structural integrity for fast and stable sodium-ion storage, as confirmed by the ex situ results and kinetic analyses as well as the density functional theory calculations. As expected, the b-NC/g-MoO2 @s-MoSe2 -10 delivers splendid rate capability and ultralong cycling stability (254.2 mAh g-1 reversible capacity at 5.0 A g-1 after 6000 cycles with ≈89.0% capacity retention). Therefore, the tunable surface strategy can provide new insights for designing and constructing heterostructures of transition metal chalcogenides toward high-performance SIBs.

A Blockchain-Driven Supply Chain Finance Application for Auto Retail Industry.

In this paper, a Blockchain-driven platform for supply chain finance, BCautoSCF (Zhi-lian-che-rong in Chinese), is introduced. It is successfully established as a reliable and efficient financing platform for the auto retail industry. Due to the Blockchain built-in trust mechanism, participants in the supply chain (SC) networks work extensively and transparently to run a reliable, convenient, and traceable business. Likewise, the traditional supply chain finance (SCF), partial automation of SCF workflows with fewer human errors and disruptions was achieved through smart contract in BCautoSCF. Such open and secure features suggest the feasibility of BCautoSCF in SCF. As the first Blockchain-driven SCF application for the auto retail industry in China, our contribution lies in studying these pain points existing in traditional SCF and proposing a novel Blockchain-driven design to reshape the business logic of SCF to develop an efficient and reliable financing platform for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the auto retail industry to decrease the cost of financing and speed up the cash flows. Currently, there are over 600 active enterprise users that adopt BCautoSCF to run their financing business. Up to October 2019, the BCautoSCF provides services to 449 online/offline auto retailors, three B2B asset exchange platforms, nine fund providers, and 78 logistic services across 21 provinces in China. There are 3296 financing transactions successfully completed in BCautoSCF, and the amount of financing is ¥566,784,802.18. In the future, we will work towards supporting a full automation of SCF workflow by smart contracts, so that the efficiency of transaction will be further improved.

Evaluation of the content quality of websites for recurrent aphthous ulcers and oral lichen planus.

BACKGROUND: The Internet is one of the most popular resources for people to obtain medical information; however, only a limited number of studies have reported the quality of the available health information related to oral mucosal diseases. The present study aimed to evaluate the quality of information on websites for recurrent aphthous ulcers (RAU) and oral lichen planus (OLP), in both Chinese and English. METHODS: Common search engines, BaiDu, Google, and Yahoo in Chinese; and Bing, Google, and Yahoo in English were used to identify websites providing content related to the oral mucosal diseases. The first 100 links for keywords "recurrent aphthous ulcers" and "oral lichen planus" were visited and content was downloaded within 24 h. Two separate trained researchers use the validated DISCERN rating instrument and JAMA benchmarks to evaluate the content. The rating scores were analyzed and the quality was assessed according to the scores and content of websites. RESULTS: A total of 145 websites for RAU and 128 of OLP were analyzed. Based on the DISCERN instrument, the quality of the content in websites for both diseases, whether in English or Chinese, was not high, generally scoring 2 to 3 (max. 5). Only 13 of the RAU websites and 21 of the OLP websites fulfilled the four criteria of the JAMA benchmarks. Generally, the scores of the English websites were higher than those of the Chinese websites. During the twelve searches, only four (Yahoo of RAU in Chinese, Bing and Yahoo of RAU in English, and Google of OLP in Chinese) showed moderate correlation between the website's ranking and their rating scores. People cannot obtain high quality medical information if they only look at the top ranked sites on the viewing lists. Websites belonging to universities or medical centers had relatively higher scores compared with the others. CONCLUSIONS: The quality of the content on websites relating to RAU and OLP in Chinese and English was moderate. More good quality websites and information are needed in the future.

Disulfide-Linked Amphiphilic Polymer-Docetaxel Conjugates Assembled Redox-Sensitive Micelles for Efficient Antitumor Drug Delivery.

Here, we prepared novel redox-sensitive drug delivery system based on copolymer-drug conjugates methoxy poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(γ-benzyl l-glutamate)-disulfide-docetaxel (mPEG-PBLG-SS-DTX) to realize the desirable cancer therapy. First, copolymers of methoxy poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(γ-benzyl l-glutamate) (mPEG-PBLGs) with different molecular weight (mPEG2000-PBLG1750 and mPEG5000-PBLG1750) were synthesized via the ring open polymerization (ROP) of 5-benzyl-l-glutamate-N-carboxyanhydride (γ-Bzl-l-Glu-NCA) initiated by monoamino-terminated mPEG (mPEG-NH2). Then, the docetaxel (DTX) was conjugated to the block polymers through a linkage containing disulfide bond to obtain mPEG-PBLG-SS-DTXs, including mPEG2000-PBLG1750-SS-DTX and mPEG5000-PBLG1750-SS-DTX. The obtained copolymer-drug conjugates mPEG2000-PBLG1750-SS-DTX and mPEG5000-PBLG1750-SS-DTX could self-assemble into nanosized micelles in aqueous environment via dialysis method with a low critical micelle concentration (CMC, 3.98 and 6.94 µg/mL, respectively). The size of the micelles was approximately 101.3 and 148.9 nm, respectively, with a narrow size distribution. They released approximately 40% DTX in a sustained way in the presence of 50 mM DTT after 120 h in comparison with only approximately 10% DTX released from micelles in the absence of DTT. The high cytotoxicity was identified for mPEG-PBLG-SS-DTXs micelles against MCF-7/ADR and A549 cells, and the IC50 of mPEG-PBLG-SS-DTXs micelles against MCF-7/ADR for 24 h was roughly a 15th of the value of free DTX. Moreover, the mPEG-PBLG-SS-DTXs micelles could be efficiently uptaken by MCF-7/ADR and A549 cells. Thus, the present constructed mPEG-PBLG-SS-DTXs micelles were very promising for effective cancer therapy.

High mobility group box 1 protein polymorphism affects susceptibility to recurrent pregnancy loss by up-regulating gene expression in chorionic villi.

PURPOSE: Inflammation in chorionic villi is involved in the development of recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL). High mobility group box 1 protein (HMGB1) plays critical roles in inflammation and expression of the protein can be found in chorionic villi. The purpose of the study was to investigate the association between HMGB1 genetic polymorphisms and susceptibility to RPL and to examine the mechanism underlying this correlation. METHODS: Two HMGB1 polymorphisms, rs2249825C/G and rs1412125T/C, were examined in 112 RPL patients and 118 healthy controls by the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism assay. RESULTS: Percentage of rs2249825GG was significantly increased in patients than in controls (Odd ratio [OR] =2.33, 95 % confidence interval [CI]: 1.18-4.58, P = 0.013). Also, prevalence of rs2249825G allele was significantly higher in RPL cases (OR = 1.77, 95 % CI: 1.20-2.62, P = 0.004). Function analysis of rs2249825C/G revealed that the polymorphism did not affect serum level of HMGB1. Interestingly, we found significantly increased level of HMGB1 in chorionic villi from RPL patients. Moreover, patients with rs2249825GG genotype presented significantly elevated level of HMGB1 in chorionic villi compared to those with CG or CC genotypes. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that HMGB1 rs2249825C/G polymorphism is associated with increased risk of RPL and can elevate gene expression in chorionic villi.

Semaglutide ameliorates pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy by improving cardiac mitophagy to suppress the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome.

Pathological cardiac hypertrophy is an important cause of heart failure(HF). Recent studies reveal that glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP1R) agonists can improve mortality and left ventricular ejection fraction in the patients with type 2 diabetes and HF. The present study aims to investigate whether semaglutide, a long-acting GLP1R agonist, can ameliorate cardiac hypertrophy induced by pressure overload, and explore the potential mechanism. The rats were performed transverse aortic constriction (TAC) to mimic pressure overload model. The rats were divided into four groups including Sham, TAC, TAC + semaglutide, and TAC + semaglutide + HCQ (hydroxychloroquine, an inhibitor of mitophagy). The rats in each experimental group received their respective interventions for 4 weeks. The parameters of left ventricular hypertrophy(LVH) were measured by echocardiography, Hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining, western-blot and immunohistochemistry (IHC), respectively. The changes of mitophagy were reflected by detecting cytochrome c oxidase subunit II (COXII), LC3II/LC3I, mitochondria, and autophagosomes. Meanwhile, NLRP3, Caspase-1, and interleukin-18 were detected to evaluate the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome in each group. The results suggest that LVH, impaired mitophagy, and activation of NLRP3 inflammasome were present in TAC rats. Semaglutide significantly reduced LVH, improve mitophagy, and down-regulated NLRP3 inflammatory signal pathway in TAC rats. However, the reversed effect of semaglutide on cardiac hypertrophy was abolished by HCQ, which restored the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome suppressed by improved mitophagy. In conclusion, semaglutide ameliorates the cardiac hypertrophy by improving cardiac mitophagy to suppress the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome. Semaglutide may be a novel potential option for intervention of cardiac hypertrophy induced by pressure overload.

Efficacy of catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation in heart failure: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

The study aims to evaluate whether rhythm control by catheter ablation is superior to medical therapy for the patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and heart failure (HF). The literatures were searched by using PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, and Web of Science databases up to 12 October 2023. The randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing rhythm control using catheter ablation vs. medical therapy in AF patients with HF were pooled. The primary outcomes included all-cause mortality, HF re-hospitalization, and stroke, and the secondary outcomes included left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), atrial tachyarrythmia recurrence, quality of life (Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire score, MLHFQ score), 6 min walking distance (6MWD), the level of N-terminal B-type natriuretic peptide precursor (NT-proBNP), and adverse events. Nine RCTs involving in 2293 patients met the inclusion criteria. Compared with medical therapy, catheter ablation reduced all-cause mortality [10.07% (121/1201) vs. 15.26% (175/1147), risk ratio (RR):0.60, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.48-0.74, P < 0.00001, I2 = 0%] and the rate of HF re-hospitalization (RR: 0.65, P = 0.02, 95% CI: 0.45 to 0.94, I2 = 74%), but had no obvious difference in incidence of stroke (RR: 0.67, P = 0.27, 95% CI: 0.32 to 1.38, I2 = 0%). Catheter ablation enhanced LVEF [mean difference (MD), 6.26%, P < 0.00001, I2 = 89%], reduced AT recurrence (RR: 0.37, P < 0.00001, 95% CI: 0.26 to 0.52, I2 = 89%), improved the quality of life (MLHFQ score) (MD: -6.83, P = 0.003, I2 = 67%), elevated 6MWD (MD: 15.92, P = 0.006, I2 = 76%), and diminished the level NT-proBNP (MD: -44.19, P < 0.00001, I2 = 75%), but had no significant difference in adverse events [25.81% (310/1201) vs. 30.25% (347/1147), RR: 0.81, 95% CI: 0.65-1.01, P = 0.06, I2 = 55%]. Catheter ablation as rhythm control strategy substantially enhances the survival rate, reduces HF re-hospitalization, increases the rate of sinus rhythm maintenance, improves the left ventricular function and the quality of life for AF patients with HF, and has similar safety, compared with medical therapy. The rhythm control by catheter ablation may be a better strategy for the AF patients with HF.