Transcriptomic analysis using dual RNA sequencing revealed a Pathogen-Host interaction after Edwardsiella anguillarum infection in European eel (Anguilla anguilla).

Many studies have explored differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between some pathogens and hosts, but no study has focused on the interaction of DEGs between Edwardsiella anguillarum (Ea) and Anguilla anguilla (Aa). In this study, we examined the interactions of DEGs during Ea infection and Aa anti-infection processes by dual RNA sequencing. Total RNA from in vitro and in vivo (Aa liver) Ea culture was extracted. Using high-throughput transcriptomics, significant DEGs that were expressed between Ea cultured in vitro versus in vivo and those in the liver of the infected group versus control group were identified. Protein-protein interactions between the pathogen and host were explored using Cytoscape according to the HPIDB 3.0 interaction transcription database. The results showed that the liver in the infection group presented with severe bleeding and a large number of thrombi in the hepatic vessels. We found 490 upregulated and 398 downregulated DEGs of Ea in vivo versus Ea cultured in vitro, and 2177 upregulated and 970 downregulated genes in the liver of the infected eels. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis of the pathogen DEGs revealed that the upregulated genes were mainly enriched in migration, colonization, biofilm formation, and significantly enriched in ABC transport and quorum sensing; the downregulated genes were mainly involved in metabolism, information transduction, organelle formation, enzyme catalysis, molecular transport, and binding. GO of the host DEGs showed that metabolic process, catalytic activity, single organism metabolic process, small molecule binding, nucleotide binding, nucleotide phosphate binding, and anion binding were markedly enriched. Finally, we found that 79 Ea and 148 Aa proteins encoded by these DEGs were involved in an interaction network, and some pathogen (DegP, gcvP, infC, carB, rpoC, trpD, sthA, and FhuB) and host proteins (MANBA, STAT1, ETS2, ZEP1, TKT1, NMI and RBPMS) appear to play crucial roles in infection. Thus, determining the interaction networks revealed crucial molecular mechanisms underlying the process of pathogenic infection and host anti-infection.

Transcriptome of Edwardsiella anguillarum in vivo and in vitro revealed two-component system, ABC transporter and flagellar assembly are three pathways pathogenic to European eel (Anguilla anguilla).

Edwardsiella anguillarum is one of the common bacterial pathogens for the cultivated eels in China. The aim of this study was to reveal the cause of E. anguillarum pathogenic to European eel (Anguilla anguilla) from the perspective of the transcriptome. In this study, we first prepared E. anguillarum cultured in vitro and analysed the whole transcriptome after extracting the total RNA. Then, eels were i.p injected with E. anguillarum, and total RNA were extracted from the liver of European eels 48 h after the infection. After sequencing the transcriptome, we obtained average 1.97 × 108 clean reads cultured in vitro and 1.36 × 105 clean reads located in vivo after annotating all reads into the genome of E. anguillarum. The whole transcriptome showed, compared to the E. anguillarum cultured in vitro, 503 significantly up and 657 significantly down-regulated different expressed genes (DEGs) were observed. KEGG analysis showed that 38 DEGs of Two-Component System, 41 DEGs of ABC transporter, and 10 DEGs flagellar assembly pathways were highly upregulated in E. anguillarum located in vivo. Then, we designed primers to analyse the up-regulated DEGs through qRT-PCR and confirmed some up-regulated DEGs. The results of this study provide important reference for the further study of pathogen-host interaction between E. anguillarum and European eel.

Simple Non-Fused Electron Acceptors Leading to Efficient Organic Photovoltaics.

Despite the remarkable progress achieved in recent years, organic photovoltaics (OPVs) still need work to approach the delicate balance between efficiency, stability, and cost. Herein, two fully non-fused electron acceptors, PTB4F and PTB4Cl, are developed via a two-step synthesis from single aromatic units. The introduction of a two-dimensional chain and halogenated terminals for these non-fused acceptors plays a synergistic role in optimizing their solid stacking and orientation, thus promoting an elongated exciton lifetime and fast charge-transfer rate in bulk heterojunction blends. As a result, PTB4Cl, upon blending with PBDB-TF polymer, has enabled single-junction OPVs with power conversion efficiencies of 12.76 %, representing the highest values among the reported fully unfused electron acceptors so far.

Conformation-Tuning Effect of Asymmetric Small Molecule Acceptors on Molecular Packing, Interaction, and Photovoltaic Performance.

Understanding the conformation effect on molecular packing, miscibility, and photovoltaic performance is important to open a new avenue for small-molecule acceptor (SMA) design. Herein, two novel acceptor-(donor-acceptor1-donor)-acceptor (A-DA1D-A)-type asymmetric SMAs are developed, namely C-shaped BDTP-4F and S-shaped BTDTP-4F. The BDTP-4F-based polymer solar cells (PSCs) with PM6 as donor, yields a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 15.24%, significantly higher than that of the BTDTP-4F-based device (13.12%). The better PCE for BDTP-4F-based device is mainly attributed to more balanced charge transport, weaker bimolecular recombination, and more favorable morphology. Additionally, two traditional A-D-A-type SMAs (IDTP-4F and IDTTP-4F) are also synthesized to investigate the conformation effect on morphology and device performance. Different from the device result above, here, IDTP-4F with S-shape conformation outperforms than IDTTP-4F with C-shape conformation. Importantly, it is found that for these two different types of SMA, the better performing binary blend has similar morphological characteristics. Specifically, both PM6:BDTP-4F and PM6:IDTP-4F blend exhibit perfect nanofibril network structure with proper domain size, obvious face-on orientation and enhance donor-acceptor interactions, thereby better device performance. This work indicates tuning molecular conformation plays pivotal role in morphology and device effciciency, shining a light on the molecular design of the SMAs.

Immunization of a novel bivalent outer membrane protein simultaneously resisting Aeromonas hydrophila, Edwardsiella anguillarum and Vibrio vulnificus infection in European eels (Angullia angullia).

In cultivated European eels, Aeromonas hydrophila, Edwardsiella anguillarum and Vibrio vulnificus are three important bacterial pathogens. In this study, European eels (Anguilla anguilla) were immunized by the bivalent expression products of the outer membrane protein (Omp) gene from A. hydrophila (OmpⅡ) and E. anguillarum (OmpA), and the effects of the bivalent protein (rOmpⅡ-A) on the immune function of the European eel were detected. Three hundred eels were divided average into three groups of PBS, adjuvant and rOmp. Eels of three goups were injected intraperitoneal with 0.2 mL of PBS (0.01 mol/L, pH7.4), PBS + F (PBS mixed equal volume of freund's uncomplete adjuvant) or rOmpⅡ-A (1 mg mL-1 rOmpⅡ-A mixed equal volume of freund's uncomplete adjuvant). Four immune-related genes expression, proliferation of whole blood cells, serum and skin mucus antibody titer, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and the relative percent of survival (RPS) were studied at different days (or hours) post the immunization. The results showed that the igm, lysC, mhc2 and sod gene in the liver, spleen, kidney and intestine tract were significant increased in the Omp group; On the 28 day post the immunization (dpi), blood cell proliferation was increased in the Omp group, and on the 14, 21, 28 and 42 dpi, antibody titers in serum and mucus of the Omp group were significantly higher than that of the PBS and adjuvant group, regardless of coating with bacteria or Omp antigen. The SOD activity of Omp group increased significantly in liver, kidney, skin mucus and serum from 14 to 42 dpi, especially in serum. Eels chanllenged by A. hydrophila, E. anguillarum and V. vulnificus in the bivalent Omp group showed the RPS were 83.33%, 55.56% and 44.44%, respectively. The results of this study showed that immunization of the bivalent Omp could effectively improve the immune function of European eels, and produced effectively protection to A. hydrophila and E. anguillarum infection. Simultaneously, the bivalent Omp also produced distinct cross-protection to the eels challenged by V. vulnificus.

Immunization of a novel outer membrane protein from Aeromonas hydrophila simultaneously resisting A. hydrophila and Edwardsiella anguillarum infection in European eels (Angullia angullia).

In cultivated European eels, Aeromonas hydrophila, Edwardsiella anguillarum and Vibrio vulnificus are three important bacterial pathogens. In this study, an expressed recombinant Outer membrane proteinⅡ (rOmpⅡ) from A. hydrophila was intraperitoneally injected into European eels (Angullia angullia). All examined eels were equally divided into three groups. One group was injected with PBS only (PBS group), one group was injected with 1:1 mixture of PBS and Freund's incomplete adjuvant (PBS + F, adjuvant group), and the third group was injected with 1:1 mixture of 1 mg mL-1 rOmpⅡ and Freund's incomplete adjuvant (rOmpⅡ+F, OmpⅡ group). The immunogenicity of OmpⅡ was studied by detecting the expression of 4 immune-related genes, stimulation index (SI) of the whole blood cell, serum antibody titer, lysozyme and Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) activity, and relative percent of survival (RPS) rate. The results showed that gene expression of MHC-Ⅱ, LysC, SOD and IgM in the OmpⅡ group significantly increased in liver, spleen, kidney and intestine. At 28 days post the immunization (dpi), the SI of whole blood cells in the OmpⅡ group increased significantly; at 14, 21, 28 and 42 dpi, the serum antibody titers against A. hydrophila and E. anguillarum in the OmpⅡ group were significantly higher than that of the PBS and the adjuvant group; the SOD in the OmpⅡ group was found increased significantly in liver, kidney, mucus and serum. On the 28 dpi, eels were challenged by A. hydrophila, E. anguillarum and V. vulnificus for cross protection study. The results showed that the RPS of the OmpⅡ group were 83.33%, 55.56% and 33.33% respectively. These results showed that the expressed OmpⅡ from A. hydrophila significantly improve the immune function of Europena eels and their resistance to the infection of A. hydrophila and E. anguillarum simultaneously.

MiRGOFS: a GO-based functional similarity measurement for miRNAs, with applications to the prediction of miRNA subcellular localization and miRNA-disease association.

Motivation: Benefiting from high-throughput experimental technologies, whole-genome analysis of microRNAs (miRNAs) has been more and more common to uncover important regulatory roles of miRNAs and identify miRNA biomarkers for disease diagnosis. As a complementary information to the high-throughput experimental data, domain knowledge like the Gene Ontology and KEGG pathway is usually used to guide gene function analysis. However, functional annotation for miRNAs is scarce in the public databases. Till now, only a few methods have been proposed for measuring the functional similarity between miRNAs based on public annotation data, and these methods cover a very limited number of miRNAs, which are not applicable to large-scale miRNA analysis. Results: In this paper, we propose a new method to measure the functional similarity for miRNAs, called miRGOFS, which has two notable features: (i) it adopts a new GO semantic similarity metric which considers both common ancestors and descendants of GO terms; (i) it computes similarity between GO sets in an asymmetric manner, and weights each GO term by its statistical significance. The miRGOFS-based predictor achieves an F1 of 61.2% on a benchmark dataset of miRNA localization, and AUC values of 87.7 and 81.1% on two benchmark sets of miRNA-disease association, respectively. Compared with the existing functional similarity measurements of miRNAs, miRGOFS has the advantages of higher accuracy and larger coverage of human miRNAs (over 1000 miRNAs). Availability and implementation: http://www.csbio.sjtu.edu.cn/bioinf/MiRGOFS/. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Designing a Perylene Diimide/Fullerene Hybrid as Effective Electron Transporting Material in Inverted Perovskite Solar Cells with Enhanced Efficiency and Stability.

Electron transport materials (ETM) play an important role in the improvement of efficiency and stability for inverted perovskite solar cells (PSCs). This work reports an efficient ETM, named PDI-C60 , by the combination of perylene diimide (PDI) and fullerene. Compared to the traditional PCBM, this strategy endows PDI-C60 with slightly shallower energy level and higher electron mobility. As a result, the device based on PDI-C60 as electron transport layer (ETL) achieves high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 18.6 %, which is significantly higher than those of the control devices of PCBM (16.6 %) and PDI (13.8 %). The high PCE of the PDI-C60 -based device can be attributed to the more matching energy level with the perovskite, more efficient charge extraction, transport, and reduced recombination rate. To the best of our knowledge, the PCE of 18.6 % is the highest value in the PSCs using PDI derivatives as ETLs. Moreover, the device with PDI-C60 as ETL exhibits better device stability due to the stronger hydrophobic properties of PDI-C60 . The strategy using the PDI/fullerene hybrid provides insights for future molecular design of the efficient ETM for the inverted PSCs.

Effect of Isomerization on High-Performance Nonfullerene Electron Acceptors.

We design and synthesize two isomeric fused-ring electron acceptors, FNIC1 and FNIC2, which have the same end-groups and side-chains, but isomeric fused-nine-ring cores. Subtle changes in the two isomers influence their electronic, optical, charge-transport, and morphological properties. As compared with FNIC1, FNIC2 film exhibits a red-shifted absorption peak at 794 nm (752 nm for FNIC1), larger electron affinity of 4.00 eV (3.92 eV for FNIC1), smaller ionization energy of 5.56 eV (5.61 eV for FNIC1), and higher electron mobility of 1.7 × 10-3 cm2 V-1 s-1 (1.2 × 10-3 cm2 V-1 s-1 for FNIC1). The as-cast organic solar cells based on PTB7-Th:FNIC2 blends exhibit a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 13.0%, which is significantly higher than that of PTB7-Th:FNIC1-based devices (10.3%). Semitransparent devices based on PTB7-Th:FNIC2 blends exhibit PCEs varying from 9.51% to 11.6% at different average visible transmittance (AVT, 20.3- 13.6%), significantly higher than those of PTB7-Th:FNIC1-based devices (7.58-9.14% with AVT of 20.2- 14.7%).

Emerging sensing and modeling technologies for wearable and cuffless blood pressure monitoring.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a leading cause of death worldwide. For early diagnosis, intervention and management of CVDs, it is highly desirable to frequently monitor blood pressure (BP), a vital sign closely related to CVDs, during people's daily life, including sleep time. Towards this end, wearable and cuffless BP extraction methods have been extensively researched in recent years as part of the mobile healthcare initiative. This review focuses on the enabling technologies for wearable and cuffless BP monitoring platforms, covering both the emerging flexible sensor designs and BP extraction algorithms. Based on the signal type, the sensing devices are classified into electrical, optical, and mechanical sensors, and the state-of-the-art material choices, fabrication methods, and performances of each type of sensor are briefly reviewed. In the model part of the review, contemporary algorithmic BP estimation methods for beat-to-beat BP measurements and continuous BP waveform extraction are introduced. Mainstream approaches, such as pulse transit time-based analytical models and machine learning methods, are compared in terms of their input modalities, features, implementation algorithms, and performances. The review sheds light on the interdisciplinary research opportunities to combine the latest innovations in the sensor and signal processing research fields to achieve a new generation of cuffless BP measurement devices with improved wearability, reliability, and accuracy.

Tailoring the Morphology's Microevolution for Binary All-Polymer Solar Cells Processed by Aromatic Hydrocarbon Solvent with 16.22% Efficiency.

Herein, we report a systematic solvent selection for eco-friendly processed binary all-polymer solar cells (APSCs) with decent power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). Three typical solvents, toluene, o-xylene, and 1,2,4-trimethylbezene, are chosen and compared. The device enabled by o-xylene exhibits the most outstanding PCE of 16.22%, thanks to its favorable morphology, which is to say a well-formed face-on orientation packing motif and a suitable crystallinity and size of phase segregation. Consequently, the solar cell affords sufficient charge generation, as well as efficient and balanced charge transport, which are all positive to pursuing high efficiency. This work offers an understanding of using complete solvent selection as the strategy to realize high-performance devices by sophisticatedly controlling the morphology.

Selenium accumulation, speciation, and its effect on nutritive value of Flammulina velutipes (Golden needle mushroom).

Flammulina velutipes is one of the most popular edible mushrooms worldwide. A selenium-biofortification method for its fruiting body was developed using selenite. This study investigated the selenium content, distribution, speciation and the effect of selenium on mushroom growth, nutritive value, and mineral accumulation. Results showed that F. velutipes accumulated nearly 108 µg/g of organic selenium under treatment with 20 µg/g selenite, which accounts for over 97% of total selenium. Most (60-74%) of selenium combined with the protein fraction, whereas 15-21% combined with the polysaccharide fraction. Selenomethionine (56.8%), selenocysteine (22.8%), and methylselenocysteine (17.3%) were the main organic selenium compounds in the fruiting body. Selenium biofortification increased the biomass yield of fruiting body and elevated the content of polysaccharides, proteins, total amino acids, essential amino acids, and several minerals, including iron, calcium, and copper. F. velutipes might become a suitable selenium supplement.

Pattern-Potential-Guided Growth of Textured Macromolecular Films on Graphene/High-Index Copper.

Macromolecular films are crucial functional materials widely used in the fields of mechanics, electronics, optoelectronics, and biology, due to their superior properties of chemical stability, small density, high flexibility, and solution-processing ability. Their electronic and mechanical properties, however, are typically much lower than those of crystalline materials, as the macromolecular films have no long-range structural ordering. The state-of-the-art for producing highly ordered macromolecular films is still facing a great challenge due to the complex interactions between adjacent macromolecules. Here, the growth of textured macromolecular films on a designed graphene/high-index copper (Cu) surface is demonstrated. This successful growth is driven by a patterned potential that originates from the different amounts of charge transfer between the graphene and Cu surfaces with, alternately, terraces and step edges. The textured films exhibit a remarkable improvement in remnant ferroelectric polarization and fracture strength. It is also demonstrated that this growth mechanism is universal for different macromolecules. As meter-scale graphene/high-index Cu substrates have recently become available, the results open a new regime for the production and applications of highly ordered macromolecular films with obvious merits of high production and low cost.

Uncovering the out-of-plane nanomorphology of organic photovoltaic bulk heterojunction by GTSAXS.

The bulk morphology of the active layer of organic solar cells (OSCs) is known to be crucial to the device performance. The thin film device structure breaks the symmetry into the in-plane direction and out-of-plane direction with respect to the substrate, leading to an intrinsic anisotropy in the bulk morphology. However, the characterization of out-of-plane nanomorphology within the active layer remains a grand challenge. Here, we utilized an X-ray scattering technique, Grazing-incident Transmission Small-angle X-ray Scattering (GTSAXS), to uncover this new morphology dimension. This technique was implemented on the model systems based on fullerene derivative (P3HT:PC71BM) and non-fullerene systems (PBDBT:ITIC, PM6:Y6), which demonstrated the successful extraction of the quantitative out-of-plane acceptor domain size of OSC systems. The detected in-plane and out-of-plane domain sizes show strong correlations with the device performance, particularly in terms of exciton dissociation and charge transfer. With the help of GTSAXS, one could obtain a more fundamental perception about the three-dimensional nanomorphology and new angles for morphology control strategies towards highly efficient photovoltaic devices.

Cigarette smoke impairs clearance of apoptotic cells through oxidant-dependent activation of RhoA.

RATIONALE: Cigarette smoke (CS) is the primary cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an effect that is, in part, due to intense oxidant stress. Clearance of apoptotic cells (efferocytosis) is a critical regulator of lung homeostasis, which is defective in smokers and in patients with COPD, suggesting a role in disease pathogenesis. OBJECTIVES: We hypothesized that CS would impair efferocytosis through oxidant-dependent activation of RhoA, a known inhibitor of this process. METHODS: We investigated the effect of CS on efferocytosis in vivo and ex vivo, using acute, subacute, and long-term mouse exposure models. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Acute and subacute CS exposure suppressed efferocytosis by alveolar macrophages in a dose-dependent, reversible, and cell type-independent manner, whereas more intense CS exposure had an irreversible effect. In contrast, CS did not alter ingestion through the Fc gamma receptor. The inhibitory effect of CS on apoptotic cell clearance depended on oxidants, because the effect was blunted in oxidant-resistant ICR mice, and was prevented by either genetic or pharmacologic antioxidant strategies in vivo and ex vivo. CS inhibited efferocytosis through oxidant-dependent activation of the RhoA-Rho kinase pathway because (1) CS activated RhoA, (2) antioxidants prevented RhoA activation by CS, and (3) inhibitors of the RhoA-Rho kinase pathway reversed the suppressive effect of CS on apoptotic cell clearance in vivo and ex vivo. CONCLUSIONS: These findings advance the hypothesis that impaired efferocytosis may contribute to the pathogenesis of COPD and suggest the therapeutic potential of drugs targeting the RhoA-Rho kinase pathway.

Simple Near-Infrared Electron Acceptors for Efficient Photovoltaics and Sensitive Photodetectors.

Although promising progress has been made in near-infrared (NIR) electron acceptors for broadening photoresponse of optoelectronics, there are still strong needs for efficient NIR materials with low synthetic complexities. In this work, three simple NIR acceptors are developed with absorption up to 1000 nm and possessing the same dithiophene cores with varied heteroatom linkages to carbon (C) atom for W1, to silicon (Si) for W2, and to nitrogen (N) for W3. It is found that the tuning of only one atom for simple acceptors can surprisingly lead to a large difference in photoelectric properties and solid stacking, as well as the performance in optoelectronics. Although quite simple, these electron acceptors, especially W1 (C), can also perform quite efficiently as organic photovoltaics (OPVs) as well as sensitive organic photodetectors (OPDs) when blended with PTB7-Th polymer. It is worthy to note that, among the representative NIR acceptors with over 950 nm absorption, W1 possesses one of the best figure-of-merit when considering the photoelectric performance versus synthetic complexity of materials. As a result, the PTB7-Th:W1-based OPDs reach a fast temporal response, ultralow-light intensity detection of 1.70 × 10-11 W·cm-2, and a high specific detectivity of 4.28 × 1012 cm·Hz1/2·W-1 at 830 nm, representing a highly sensitive self-powered OPD approach the commercial broadband silicon detectors. These simple structure materials provide a potential example for further application of NIR electron acceptor.

High-Efficiency Perovskite Quantum Dot Hybrid Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells with Near-Zero Driving Force.

To take advantages of the intense absorption and fluorescence, high charge mobility, and high dielectric constant of CsPbI3 perovskite quantum dots (PQDs), PQD hybrid nonfullerene organic solar cells (OSCs) are fabricated. Addition of PQDs leads to simultaneous enhancement of open-circuit voltage (VOC ), short-circuit current density (JSC ), and fill factor (FF); power conversion efficiencies are boosted from 11.6% to 13.2% for PTB7-Th:FOIC blend and from 15.4% to 16.6% for PM6:Y6 blend. Incorporation of PQDs dramatically increases the energy of the charge transfer state, resulting in near-zero driving force and improved VOC . Interestingly, at near-zero driving force, the PQD hybrid OSCs show more efficient charge generation than the control device without PQDs, contributing to enhanced JSC , due to the formation of cascade band structure and increased molecular ordering. The strong fluorescence of the PQDs enhances the external quantum efficiency of the electroluminescence of the active layer, which can reduce nonradiative recombination voltage loss. The high dielectric constant of the PQDs screens the Coulombic interactions and reduces charge recombination, which is beneficial for increased FF. This work may open up wide applicability of perovskite quantum dots and an avenue toward high-performance nonfullerene solar cells.

Dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]pyrrol-Fused Asymmetrical Electron Acceptors: A Study into the Effects of Nitrogen-Functionalization on Reducing Nonradiative Recombination Loss and Dipole Moment on Morphology.

Energy loss (E loss) consisting of radiative recombination loss (ΔE 1 and ΔE 2) and nonradiative recombination loss (ΔE 3) is considered as an important factor for organic solar cells (OSCs). Herein, two N-functionalized asymmetrical small molecule acceptors (SMAs), namely N7IT and N8IT are designed and synthesized, to explore the effect of N on reducing E loss with sulfur (S) as a comparison. N7IT-based OSCs achieve not only a higher PCE (13.8%), but also a much lower E loss (0.57 eV) than those of the analogue (a-IT)-based OSCs (PCE of 11.5% and E loss of 0.72 eV), which are mainly attributed to N7IT's significantly enhanced charge carrier density (promoting J SC) and largely suppressed nonradiative E loss by over 0.1 eV (enhancing V OC). In comparison, N8IT, with an extended π-conjugated length, shows relatively lower photovoltaic performance than N7IT (but higher than a-IT) due to the less favorable morphology caused by the excessively large dipole moment of the asymmetrical molecule. Finally, this work sheds light on the structure-property relationship of the N-functionalization, particularly on its effects on reducing the E loss, which could inspire the community to design and synthesize more N-functionalized SMAs.

Precisely Controlling the Position of Bromine on the End Group Enables Well-Regular Polymer Acceptors for All-Polymer Solar Cells with Efficiencies over 15.

Recent advances in the development of polymerized A-D-A-type small-molecule acceptors (SMAs) have promoted the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs) over 13%. However, the monomer of an SMA typically consists of a mixture of three isomers due to the regio-isomeric brominated end groups (IC-Br(in) and IC-Br(out)). In this work, the two isomeric end groups are successfully separated, the regioisomeric issue is solved, and three polymer acceptors, named PY-IT, PY-OT, and PY-IOT, are developed, where PY-IOT is a random terpolymer with the same ratio of the two acceptors. Interestingly, from PY-OT, PY-IOT to PY-IT, the absorption edge gradually redshifts and electron mobility progressively increases. Theory calculation indicates that the LUMOs are distributed on the entire molecular backbone of PY-IT, contributing to the enhanced electron transport. Consequently, the PM6:PY-IT system achieves an excellent PCE of 15.05%, significantly higher than those for PY-OT (10.04%) and PY-IOT (12.12%). Morphological and device characterization reveals that the highest PCE for the PY-IT-based device is the fruit of enhanced absorption, more balanced charge transport, and favorable morphology. This work demonstrates that the site of polymerization on SMAs strongly affects device performance, offering insights into the development of efficient polymer acceptors for all-PSCs.

Dysfunctional cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator inhibits phagocytosis of apoptotic cells with proinflammatory consequences.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is caused by mutated CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) and is characterized by robust airway inflammation and accumulation of apoptotic cells. Phagocytosis of apoptotic cells (efferocytosis) is a pivotal regulator of inflammation, because it prevents postapoptotic necrosis and actively suppresses release of a variety of proinflammatory mediators, including IL-8. Because CF is associated with accumulation of apoptotic cells, inappropriate levels of IL-8, and robust inflammation, we sought to determine whether CFTR deficiency specifically impairs efferocytosis and its regulation of inflammatory mediator release. Here we show that CFTR deficiency directly interferes with efferocytosis by airway epithelium, an effect that is not due to altered binding of apoptotic cells to epithelial cells or altered expression of efferocytosis receptors. In contrast, expression of RhoA, a known negative regulator of efferocytosis, is substantially increased in CFTR-deficient cells, and inhibitors of RhoA or its downstream effector Rho kinase normalize efferocytosis in these cells. Impaired efferocytosis appears to be mediated through an amiloride-sensitive ion channel, because amiloride restores phagocytic competency in CFTR-deficient cells. Finally, ineffective efferocytosis in CFTR-deficient cells appears to have proinflammatory consequences, because apoptotic cells enhance IL-8 release by these cells, but not by wild-type controls. Therefore, in CF, dysregulated efferocytosis may lead to accumulation of apoptotic cells and impaired regulation of the inflammatory response and, ultimately, may suggest a new therapeutic target.