Construction of Uniform LiF Coating Layers for Stable High-Voltage LiCoO2 Cathodes in Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Stabilizing LiCoO2 (LCO) at 4.5 V rather than the common 4.2 V is important for the high specific capacity. In this study, we developed a simple and efficient way to improve the stability of LiCoO2 at high voltages. After a simple sol-gel method, we introduced trifluoroacetic acid (TA) to the surface of LCO via an afterwards calcination. Meanwhile, the TA reacted with residual lithium on the surface of LCO, further leading to the formation of uniform LiF nanoshells. The LiF nanoshells could effectively restrict the interfacial side reaction, hinder the transition metal dissolution and thus achieve a stable cathode-electrolyte interface at high working-voltages. As a result, the LCO@LiF demonstrated a much superior cycling stability with a capacity retention ratio of 83.54% after 100 cycles compared with the bare ones (43.3% for capacity retention), as well as high rate performances. Notably, LiF coating layers endow LCO with excellent high-temperature performances and outstanding full-cell performances. This work provides a simple and effective way to prepare stable LCO materials working at a high voltage.

LINC00963 promotes the malignancy and metastasis of lung adenocarcinoma by stabilizing Zeb1 and exosomes-induced M2 macrophage polarization.

BACKGROUND: Long intergenic non-coding RNA 00963 (LINC00963) is an oncogenic lncRNA in human cancers. However, little is known on how it impacts the pathogenesis of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). METHODS: Biological effects on proliferation, migration, invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) were examined by CCK-8, colony formation, EdU incorporation, transwell, and immunofluorescence assays, respectively. Macrophage polarization was evaluated by flow cytometry. Ubiquitination of Zeb1 was examined by co-immunoprecipitation. The location of LINC00963 in LUAD tissues and cell lines was tested by FISH assay. The LINC00963/HNRNPA2B1/Siah1 mRNA complex interaction was verified using RNA pull-down and immunoprecipitation assays. The exact roles of LINC00963 were further validated in metastasis and xenograft models. RESULTS: Higher LINC00963 expression in LUAD patients positively correlated with shorter overall survival, higher stages, and metastasis. LINC00963 mainly localized in the cytoplasm and aggravated malignant phenotypes of LUAD cells in vitro and metastasis in vivo. Mechanistically, LINC00963 directly interacted HNRNPA2B1 protein to trigger the degradation of Siah1 mRNA, which inhibited the ubiquitination and degradation of Zeb1. Moreover, exosomal LINC00963 derived from LUAD cells induced M2 macrophage polarization and promoted LUAD growth and metastasis. CONCLUSION: By stabilizing Zeb1 in cancer cells and delivering exosomes to induce M2 macrophage polarization, LINC00963 promoted the malignancy and metastasis of LUAD. Targeting LINC00963 may become a valuable therapeutic target for LUAD.

Observation of clinical efficacy of application of enhanced recovery after surgery in perioperative period on esophageal carcinoma patients.

PURPOSE: To observe the clinical efficacy of the application of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) in the perioperative period of esophageal carcinoma patients. METHODS: A total of 114 patients who were admitted to Affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical University for surgical treatment of esophageal carcinoma between June 2012 and June 2016 were enrolled and randomly divided into the intervention group and the regular group according to the difference of management procedures during the perioperative period. ERAS was carried out in 57 patients in the intervention group, while conventional management procedures were applied in 57 patients in the regular group. Thereafter, compared were the fluctuations in nutritional indicators and immunological indicators, postoperative complications, time to recovery of gastrointestinal function, length of stay (LOS) in hospital and cost of patients between the two groups. RESULTS: Seven days post-operation in the intervention group, the evaluation indexes of nutrition status, including total protein (TP), albumin (ALB), prealbumin (PA) and transferrin (TF), and of immunological functions, including immunoglobulin G (IgG), immunoglobulin A (IgA), immunoglobulin M (IgM) and total blood lymphocyte count (TLC), were significantly higher than those in the regular group. As for postoperative complications, the incidence rate of the intervention group was remarkably lower than that of the regular group; the recovery time of gastrointestinal function in the intervention group was shorter than that in the regular group; the LOS in the intervention group was also shorter than that in the regular group; the in-hospital cost in the intervention group was also lower than that in the regular group. All differences above were statistically significant (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: During the perioperative period of esophageal carcinoma patients, ERAS should be fully applied to sustain the good status, and promote the recovery of immunological functions and gastrointestinal functions; at the same time, ERAS also reduces the incidence rate of postoperative complications, LOS and in-hospital cost, and we maintain that ERAS should be performed in clinical practice.

RasGRP3, a Ras guanyl releasing protein 3 that contributes to malignant proliferation and aggressiveness in human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide; however, clinical and pathological parameters have limited ability in discriminating between clinically significant and indolent ESCC. Since RasGRP3 transcript levels have prognostic value in discriminating ESCC with different clinical aggressiveness, we decided to investigate its putative oncogenic role in ESCC. We found that RasGRP3 was highly expressed in ESCC cells. Suppression of endogenous RasGRP3 expression in esophageal cell lines reduced Ras-GTP formation as well as AKT phosphorylation. RasGRP3 suppression also inhibited cell invasion and migration and reduced proliferation, demonstrating the importance of RasGRP3 for the transformed phenotype of melanoma cells. Suppression of RasGRP3 expression in these cells inhibited downstream RasGRP3 responses and suppressed cell growth and migration, confirming the functional role of RasGRP3 in the altered behaviour of these cells. This suggests that RasGRP3 may function as a Ras activator in the phosphoinositide signalling pathway and may potentially serve as a new therapeutic target.

A comparative study on the efficacy of fast-track surgery in the treatment of esophageal cancer patients combined with metabolic syndrome.

The purpose of our study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy of fast-track surgery (FTS) in the treatment of esophageal cancer patients combined with metabolic syndrome. Ninety-four esophageal cancer patients with metabolic syndrome were selected in Affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical University from March, 2016 to February, 2017. Patients were randomly divided into control group and observation group with 47 cases in each group. Patients in observation group were treated with FTS, while patients in control group were treated with traditional method. Intraoperative blood loss, the number of dissected lymph nodes, operation time, postoperative hospital stay, the cost of hospitalization, postoperative readmission rate, and incidence of postoperative complications were compared between the groups. Levels of serum inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α and hs-CRP), fat cell factor chemerin and leptin (LP) were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) at 1 month after surgery. Levels of serum total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) at 1 month after surgery were compared between groups. Levels of hemoglobin (Hb), albumin (Alb), prealbumin (PAB) and transferrin (TRF) at 1 month after surgery were also compared between the two groups. Treatment of cancer quality-of-life questionnaire-esophageal cancer (OES-18) module was used to evaluate the symptoms of patients at one month after surgery. It turned out that no significant differences in intraoperative blood loss, operation time and the number of dissected lymph nodes were found between groups (p>0.05). Postoperative hospital stay, the cost of hospitalization, postoperative readmission rate and the incidence of postoperative complications were significantly lower in observation group than in control group (p<0.05). Levels of TNF-α, hs-CRP, chemerin and LP in observation group were significantly lower than those in control group at one month after surgery (p<0.05). Levels of TC, TG and LDL-C were significantly lower and HDL-C level was significantly higher in observation group than in control group at one month after surgery (p<0.05). Levels of Hb and Alb were significantly lower and levels of PAB and TRF were significantly higher in observation group than in control group at one month after surgery (p<0.05). OES-18 score of observation group was significantly better than that of control group at one month after surgery (p<0.05). As a conclusion, FTS can promote postoperative rehabilitation, shorten hospital stay, reduce economic burden and reduce the rehospitalization rate of esophageal cancer patients. At the same time, FTS can also improve the lipid metabolism, nutritional status and regulate the differentiation of adipocytes, alleviate the low inflammatory response state, which in turn promotes metabolic syndrome.

Icariin exerts inhibitory effects on the growth and metastasis of KYSE70 human esophageal carcinoma cells via PI3K/AKT and STAT3 pathways.

Esophageal cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer related mortality across the globe. The current treatment options are insufficient and are associated with number of side effects. Therefore there is a pressing need to develop effective and more efficient strategies for the treatment of esophageal cancer. Consistently, natural products are considered potential candidates for develop of cancer chemotherapy. Icariin is a naturally occurring flavonol glucoside and has been reported to possess tremendous pharmacological potential ranging from neuroprotection to anticancer activity. However, the pharmacological role of icariin in esophageal cancer is still largely unclear. Here in the present study, icariin was evaluated for its anticancer activity against KYSE70 esophageal cancer cells and the possible underlying mechanism was determined. Icariin induced cytotoxicity with an IC50 of 40µM in esophageal cancer cells. These inhibitory effects were due to apoptosis through reactive oxygen species (ROS) mediated alterations in mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP). The results indicated that icariin enhanced the accretion of ROS upto 260% and reduced the MMP upto 48% at 100µM. Icariin also induced G2/M cell cycle arrest as evident from the significant increase in the G2 cell populations of KYSE70 esophageal cancer cells. Additionally, icariin inhibited esophageal cancer cell migration, invasion and metastasis by regulating the expression of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers. Results also indicated that icariin reduced cell viability and migration in part through suppression of the PI3K/AKT and STAT3 pathways. Taken together, our results indicate that icariin may prove a potential natural anticancer molecule against esophageal cancer.

Suppression of the obliteration process by ventilation in a mouse orthotopic tracheal transplantation model.

BACKGROUND: Obliterative airway disease (OAD) has been a major obstacle to long-term survival after lung or tracheal transplantations, but the role of airflow has not been examined in the orthotopic or the heterotopic tracheal transplantation models. METHODS: Sixty mice were assigned to two experimental groups. Two C57BL/6 tracheal segments were surgically prepared and then orthotopically transplanted into allogeneic BALB/c recipients. In group A mice, both segments were left patent, whereas in group B mice, one of the donor tracheas was occluded with a silk knot to obstruct airflow. Histology, quantitative OAD measurements, electron microscopy, immunohistochemical staining, and apoptosis measurement of the epithelium were performed. RESULTS: Gross examination at harvest showed patent lumens of all tracheal segments. Group A allografts (ventilating tracheas) showed a markedly higher proportion of ciliated epitheliums and less lymphocyte infiltration in the lamina propria, whereas the epithelium appeared metaplastic in group B, with a higher proportion of flattened attenuated epithelium and loss of the normal ciliate architecture. Quantitative morphometric measurements suggested more prominent OAD manifestations in the nonventilating allografts of group B than were present in group A, although recipient-derived epithelium was observed in all allografts under immunohistochemical staining. The apoptotic indexes of the epithelium were 12.1% in allografts with adequate ventilation (group A) and 66.2% in ventilation-occluded allotracheas (group B). CONCLUSIONS: OAD severity and the epithelial repopulation process are closely related to the physiologic environment of airflow. Further research is warranted to explore the underlying mechanisms of this phenomenon.

[Result of surgical treatment and prognostic factors in giant mass lung cancer].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the role of surgery in the treatment of giant mass lung cancer and to analyze prognostic factors affecting surgical result. METHODS: From August 1992 to August 2005, the clinical data of 137 patients with giant mass lung cancer ( > or =8 cm in diameter) were retrospectively reviewed. 122 cases had radical resection with 63 lobectomies, 48 pneumonectomy and 11 other resection modes, the remaining 15 patients underwent palliative resection. The prognostic factors including sex, tumor size, p-TNM stage, T stage, N stage, histological types and operation extent were analyzed with SPSS 13.0 software. The survival rate was calculated by Kaplan-Meier method and logrank was used for comparing survival difference. Univariate and multivariate prognostic factors for survival were analyzed by Cox proportional hazard regression model. RESULTS: The overall 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rate was 76.0%, 49.2% and 40.1%, respectively. Sex (P = 0.001), p-TNM stage (P = 0.001), N stage (P = 0.042), surgical approach (P = 0.026) and T stage (P = 0.006) were found to be prognostic factors in Cox univariate analysis. p-TNM stage (P = 0.001) were identified as an independent prognostic factor in Cox multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: p-TNM stage is the crucial prognostic factor in surgical treatment for giant mass lung cancer. Strict selection of candidate for resection and complete resection may be helpful in improving survival in patient with giant mass lung cancer.