A nanodrug provokes antitumor immune responses via synchronous multicellular regulation for enhanced cancer immunotherapy.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) exhibits a low response to immunotherapy due to the dense extracellular matrix (ECM) filled with immunosuppressive cells including dendritic cells (DCs) of blocked maturation. Herein, we develop a nanoprodrug self-assembled from polyethylene glycol-poly-4-borono-l-phenylalanine (mPEG-PBPA) conjugating with quercetin (QUE) via boronic ester bonds. In addition, an immune adjuvant of imiquimod (R837) is incorporated. The nanodrug (denoted as Q&R@NPs) is prepared from a simple mixing means with a high loading content of QUE reaching more than 30%. Owing to the acid and reactive oxygen species (ROS) sensitivities of boronic ester bonds, Q&R@NPs can respond to the tumor microenvironment (TME) and release QUE and R837 to synchronously exert multicellular regulation functions. Specifically, QUE inhibits the activation state of hepatic stellate cells and reduces highly expressed programmed death receptor ligand 1 (PD-L1) on tumor cells, meanwhile R837 exposes calreticulin on tumor cell surface as an "eat me" signal and leads to a large number of DCs maturing for enhanced antigen presentation. Consequently, the cooperative immune regulation results in a remodeled TME with high infiltration of cytotoxic T lymphocytes for enhanced HCC immunotherapy, which demonstrates an effective immunotherapy paradigm for dense ECM characterized solid tumors with high PD-L1 expression.

Risk prediction model for postoperative pneumonia in esophageal cancer patients: A systematic review.

Background: Numerous studies have developed or validated prediction models to estimate the likelihood of postoperative pneumonia (POP) in esophageal cancer (EC) patients. The quality of these models and the evaluation of their applicability to clinical practice and future research remains unknown. This study systematically evaluated the risk of bias and applicability of risk prediction models for developing POP in patients undergoing esophageal cancer surgery. Methods: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP), WanFang Database and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database were searched from inception to March 12, 2024. Two investigators independently screened the literature and extracted data. The Prediction Model Risk of Bias Assessment Tool (PROBAST) checklist was employed to evaluate both the risk of bias and applicability. Result: A total of 14 studies involving 23 models were included. These studies were mainly published between 2014 and 2023. The applicability of all studies was good. However, all studies exhibited a high risk of bias, primarily attributed to inappropriate data sources, insufficient sample size, irrational treatment of variables and missing data, and lack of model validation. The incidence of POP in patients undergoing esophageal cancer surgery ranged from 14.60% to 39.26%. The most frequently used predictors were smoking, age, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD), diabetes mellitus, and methods of thoracotomy. Inter-model discrimination ranged from 0.627 to 0.850, sensitivity ranged between 60.7% and 84.0%, and specificity ranged from 59.1% to 83.9%. Conclusion: In all included studies, good discrimination was reported for risk prediction models for POP in patients undergoing esophageal cancer surgery, indicating stable model performance. However, according to the PROBAST checklist, all studies had a high risk of bias. Future studies should use the predictive model assessment tool to improve study design and develop new models with larger samples and multicenter external validation. Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero, identifier CRD42024527085.

Reduction-sensitive polymeric carrier for the targeted delivery of a quinazoline derivative for enhanced generation of reactive oxygen species against cancer.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the deadliest malignant tumors and the development of effective therapeutics against HCC is urgently needed. A novel quinazoline derivative 04NB-03 (Qd04) has been proved to be highly effective against HCC without obvious toxic side-effects. However, the poor water solubility and low bioavailability in vivo severely limit its clinical application. In addition, Qd04 kills tumor cells by inducing an accumulation of endogenous reactive oxygen species (ROS), which is highly impeded by the overexpression of glutathione (GSH) in tumor cells. Herein, we designed a disulfide cross-linked polyamino acid micelle to deliver Qd04 for HCC therapy. The disulfide linkage not only endowed a tumor-targeted delivery of Qd04 by responding to tumor cell GSH but also depleted GSH to achieve increased levels of ROS generation, which improved the therapeutic efficiency of Qd04. Both in vitro and in vivo results demonstrated that the synthesized nanodrug exerted good anti-hepatoma effects, which provided a potential application for HCC therapy in clinics.

Thermogravimetric and Kinetic Analysis of Co-Combustion of Waste Tires and Coal Blends.

The waste tire is a fuel with the potential to partially replace coal due to the high heat value. In the present study, the combustion characteristics of the tire powders, bituminous coal, and their blends were examined using the thermogravimetric analyzer. The influence of heating rate on tire powders combustion and the burnout characteristics of their blends were studied. The increase of the heating rate caused the combustion temperature of the tire powders to become high but reduced the maximum weight loss rate. The combustion characteristics of the blends of coal and tire powders approached the combination of those of the individual sample, suggesting that the interaction effects between coal and tire powders were slight. Furthermore, the influence of different ratios on ignition characteristics, burnout temperature, and combustion effect of the blends was studied at the optimal combustion rate. The addition of tire powders improved the ignition characteristics, reduced the burnout temperature and increased the burnout rate of coal to a certain extent. An increase in the proportion of tire powders led to a decrease in the activation energy in the temperature range of 349-465 °C, whereas it caused an increase from 465 °C to burnout, which could be attributed to the fact that the volatile matter was more combustible than fixed carbon within 349-465 °C, and the combustion effect of fixed carbon in the tire powders gradually manifested in the combustion from 465 °C to burnout when the tire powders content increased.

Implicit and explicit anti-fat bias among Asian females.

Obesity is not only associated with an increased risk of numerous health problems, but also with high rates of stigmatization and weight-related bias. Anti-fat attitudes have been shown to be prevalent in Western samples; however, there is a lack of studies investigating both implicit and explicit anti-fat bias in Asian populations. There is also limited research investigating the relationship between anti-fat attitudes and weight-related behavioral intentions. Thus, this study aimed to examine anti-fat bias and its effect on behavioral intentions using three types of measures-implicit, explicit, and a revised behavioral intention measure-in a sample of 104 Asian females in Singapore. Significant differences were found between implicit and explicit bias: on average, participants exhibited strong implicit but no explicit anti-fat bias (p < 0.001). Furthermore, only implicit anti-fat bias was found to be a significant predictor of behavioral intentions (p < 0.05), after accounting for body mass index, and sociodemographic variables. In conclusion, the present study revealed that implicit anti-fat bias is present among Asian females and is a valid predictor of weight-related behavioral intentions. However, anti-fat bias is often not expressed explicitly, possibly influenced by collectivistic beliefs. More studies are needed to better understand similarities and differences between Asian and Western populations regarding attitudes toward overweight and obese individuals.

Room-temperature fast construction of outperformed ZnO nanoarchitectures on nanowire-array templates for dye-sensitized solar cells.

A ZnO nanoarchitecture composed of nanocactus (NCs) and nanosheets (NSs) is constructed on the ZnO-nanowire (NW)-array template within 4 min by a facile room-temperature (RT) chemical bath deposition (CBD) for use in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Compared to the ZnO NW array, the spines and shells of NCs provide larger and more fitting surface for dye adsorption. The NSs developed on the top and side walls of the NWs afford the additional surface for dye adsorption as well as for light scattering. Moreover, the RT-grown ZnO nanostructures possess an upward-shifted conduction band edge and a fast electron transport rate compared to the primary ZnO NW array. With an anode thickness of 9 µm, an efficiency of 5.14% is therefore simply attained in the D149-sensitized ZnO NC-NS DSSC.