Role of lncRNA-MEG8/miR-296-3p axis in gestational diabetes mellitus.

AIM: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is the most common complication in pregnancy. This study aimed to investigate the potential mechanism and effects of long-noncoding RNA maternally expressed 8 (lncRNA-MEG8) in GDM. METHODS: Targeted interactions involving lncRNA-MEG8 and miR-296-3p were initially predicted using starBase software and then confirmed using dual-luciferase reporter gene analysis. The expression levels of lncRNA-MEG8 and miR-296-3p in peripheral blood samples from patients with GDM were measured using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to evaluate the overall levels of insulin and insulin secretion. Additionally, MTT and flow cytometric methods were used to detect cell viability and apoptosis. Cell apoptosis-associated proteins were determined by western blotting. RESULTS: Our results indicated that lncRNA-MEG8 is a potential target of miR-296-3p. lncRNA-MEG8 level was higher, whereas that of miR-296-3p was lower in patients with GDM than in healthy individuals. LncRNA-MEG8-siRNA promoted insulin content and secretion. Furthermore, MEG8-siRNA increased cell viability and decreased apoptosis. However, these changes were reversed by an miR-296-3p inhibitor. Moreover, a miR-296-3p mimic had the same effect on INS-1 cells as MEG8-siRNA, as evidenced by enhanced insulin secretion, cell viability, and reduced apoptosis. CONCLUSION: LncRNA-MEG8-siRNA promotes pancreatic ß-cell function by upregulating miR-296-3p.

N, S, O Self-Doped Porous Carbon Nanoarchitectonics Derived from Pinecone with Outstanding Supercapacitance Performances.

Biomass-derived porous carbons are considered as one of the most promising electrode materials for supercapacitors due to their low-cost and natural abundance. In this work, pinecone is used to fabricate biomass N, S, O-doped porous carbon via one-step carbonization process with KOH activation. By optimizing the additive amount of KOH and calcination temperature, the asprepared product shows a high specific surface area and pore volume up to 1593.8 m² g-1 and 0.8582 cm³ g-1, respectively. As an electric double-layer capacitor (EDLC) electrode, the N, S, O-doped porous carbon exhibits a high specific capacitance of 285 F g-1 at 0.5 A g-1 and good rate performance with a capacitance retention of 78.6% from 0.5 to 20 A g-1. Furthermore, the as-assembled symmetric supercapacitor with 6 mol L-1 KOH as electrolyte possesses a promising energy density of 6.34 Wh kg-1 and a power density of 250 W kg-1. Outstanding cycling stability was also demonstrated with 94.4% capacitance retention after 10,000 charge/discharge cycles at 1 A g-1.

Construction of photoelectrochemical thrombin aptasensor via assembling multilayer of graphene-CdS nanocomposites.

A photoelectrochemical (PEC) aptasensor for highly sensitive and specific detection of thrombin was developed by using graphene­CdS nanocomposites multilayer as photoactive species and electroactive mediator hexaammineruthenium(III) chloride (Ru(NH(3))(6)(3+)) as signal enhancer. Graphene­CdS nanocomposites (G­CdS) were synthesized by one-pot reduction of oxide graphene and CdCl2 with thioacetamide. The photoactive multilayer was prepared by alternative assembly of the negatively charged 3-mercaptopropionic acid modified graphene­CdS nanocomposites (MPA-G­CdS) and the positively charged polyethylenimine (PEI) on ITO electrode. This layer-by-layer assembly method enhanced the stability and homogeneity of the photocurrent readout of G­CdS. Thrombin aptamer was covalently bound to the multilayer by using glutaraldehyde as cross-linking. Electroactive mediator (Ru(NH(3))(6)(3+)) could interact with the DNA phosphate backbone and thus facilitated the electron transfer between G­CdS multilayer and electrode and enhanced the photocurrent. Hybridizing of a long complementary DNA with thrombin aptamer could increase the adsorption amount of (Ru(NH(3))(6)(3+)), which in turn boosted the signal readout. In the presence of target thrombin, the affinity interaction between thrombin and its aptamer resulted in the long complementary DNA releasing from the G­CdS multilayer and decreasing of photocurrent signal. On the basis of G­CdS multilayer as the photoactive species, (Ru (NH(3))(6)(3+)) as an electroactive mediator, and aptamer as a recognition module, a high sensitive PEC aptasensor for thrombin detection was proposed. The thrombin aptasensor displayed a linear range from 2.0 pM to 600.0 pM and a detection limit of 1.0 pM. The present strategy provided a promising ideology for the future development of PEC biosensor.