Electrochemical Knocking-Down of Zn Metal Clusters into Single Atoms.

Single Atoms Catalysts (SACs) have emerged as a class of highly promising heterogeneous catalysts, where the traditional bottom-up synthesis approaches often encounter considerable challenges in relation to aggregation issues and poor stability. Consequently, achieving densely dispersed atomic species in a reliable and efficient manner remains a key focus in the field. Herein, we report a new facile electrochemical knock-down strategy for the formation of SACs, whereby the metal Zn clusters are transformed into single atoms. While a defect-rich substrate plays a pivotal role in capturing and stabilizing isolated Zn atoms, the feasibility of this novel strategy is demonstrated through a comprehensive investigation, combining experimental and theoretical studies. Furthermore, when studied in exploring for potential applications, the material prepared shows a remarkable improvement of 58.21% for the Li+ storage and delivers a capacity over 300 Wh kg-1 after 500 cycles upon the transformation of Zn clusters into single atoms.

Association of cardiometabolic multimorbidity with all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality among Chinese hypertensive patients.

BACKGROUND: Hypertension usually clusters with multiple comorbidities. However, the association between cardiometabolic multimorbidity (CMM) and mortality in hypertensive patients is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the association between CMM and all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in Chinese patients with hypertension. METHODS: The data used in this study were from the China National Survey for Determinants of Detection and Treatment Status of Hypertensive Patients with Multiple Risk Factors (CONSIDER), which comprised 5006 participants aged 19-91 years. CMM was defined as the presence of one or more of the following morbidities: diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, chronic kidney disease, coronary heart disease, and stroke. Cox proportional hazard models were used to calculate the hazard ratios (HR) with 95% CI to determine the association between the number of CMMs and both all-cause and CVD mortality. RESULTS: Among 5006 participants [mean age: 58.6 ± 10.4 years, 50% women (2509 participants)], 76.4% of participants had at least one comorbidity. The mortality rate was 4.57, 4.76, 8.48, and 16.04 deaths per 1000 person-years in hypertensive patients without any comorbidity and with one, two, and three or more morbidities, respectively. In the fully adjusted model, hypertensive participants with two cardiometabolic diseases (HR = 1.52, 95% CI: 1.09-2.13) and those with three or more cardiometabolic diseases (HR = 2.44, 95% CI: 1.71-3.48) had a significantly elevated risk of all-cause mortality. The findings were similar for CVD mortality but with a greater increase in risk magnitude. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, three-fourths of hypertensive patients had CMM. Clustering with two or more comorbidities was associated with a significant increase in the risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality among hypertensive patients, suggesting more intensive treatment and control in this high-risk patient group.

Directed Evolution of Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 to Utilize Allulose as Sole Carbon Source.

Sugar substitutes are popular due to their akin taste and low calories. However, excessive use of aspartame and erythritol can have varying effects. While D-allulose is presently deemed a secure alternative to sugar, its excessive consumption is not devoid of cellular stress implications. In this study, the evolution of Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) is directed to utilize allulose as sole carbon source through a combination of adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) and fluorescence-activated droplet sorting (FADS) techniques. Employing whole genome sequencing (WGS) and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats interference (CRISPRi) in conjunction with compensatory expression displayed those genetic mutations in sugar and amino acid metabolic pathways, including glnP, glpF, gmpA, nagE, pgmB, ybaN, etc., increased allulose assimilation. Enzyme-substrate dynamics simulations and deep learning predict enhanced substrate specificity and catalytic efficiency in nagE A247E and pgmB G12R mutants. The findings evince that these mutations hold considerable promise in enhancing allulose uptake and facilitating its conversion into glycolysis, thus signifying the emergence of a novel metabolic pathway for allulose utilization. These revelations bear immense potential for the sustainable utilization of D-allulose in promoting health and well-being.

Interfacial Synergy in Mo2C/MoC Heterostructure Promoting Sequential Polysulfide Conversion in High-Performance Lithium-Sulfur Battery.

A rational design of sulfur host is the key to conquering the"polysulfide shuttle effects" by accelerating the polysulfide conversion. Since the process involves solid-liquid-solid multistep phase transitions, purposely-engineered heterostructure catalysts with various active regions for catalyzing conversion steps correspondingly are beneficial to promote the overall conversion process. However, the functionalities of the materials surface and interface in heterostructure catalysts remain unclear. In this work, an Mo2C/MoC catalyst with abundant Mo2C surface-interface-MoC surface tri-active-region is developed by in situ converting the MoZn-metal organic framework. The experimental and simulation studies demonstrate the interface can catch long-chain polysulfides and promote their conversion. Instead, the Mo2C and MoC tend to accommodate the short-chain polysulfide and accelerate their conversion and the Li2S dissociation. Benefitting from the high catalytic ability, the Li-S battery assembled with the Mo2C/MoC-S cathode shows more discrete redox reactions and delivers a high initial capacity of 1603.6 mAh g-1 at 1 C charging-discharging rate, which is over twofolds of the one assembled using individual hosts, and 80.4% capacity can be maintained after 1000 cycles at 3 C rate. This work has demonstrated a novel synergy between the interface and material surface, which will help the future design of high-performance Li-S batteries.

Accelerating Sulfur Redox Kinetics by Electronic Modulation and Drifting Effects of Pre-Lithiation Electrocatalysts.

Efficient catalyst design is crucial for addressing the sluggish multi-step sulfur redox reaction (SRR) in lithium-sulfur batteries (LiSBs), which are among the promising candidates for the next-generation high-energy-density storage systems. However, the limited understanding of the underlying catalytic kinetic mechanisms and the lack of precise control over catalyst structures pose challenges in designing highly efficient catalysts, which hinder the LiSBs' practical application. Here, drawing inspiration from the theoretical calculations, the concept of precisely controlled pre-lithiation SRR electrocatalysts is proposed. The dual roles of channel and surface lithium in pre-lithiated 1T'-MoS2 are revealed, referred to as the "electronic modulation effect" and "drifting effect", respectively, both of which contribute to accelerating the SRR kinetics. As a result, the thus-designed 1T'-Lix MoS2 /CS cathode obtained by epitaxial growth of pre-lithiated 1T'-MoS2 on cubic Co9 S8 exhibits impressive performance with a high initial specific capacity of 1049.8 mAh g-1 , excellent rate-capability, and remarkable long-term cycling stability with a decay rate of only 0.019% per cycle over 1000 cycles at 3 C. This work highlights the importance of precise control in pre-lithiation parameters and the synergistic effects of channel and surface lithium, providing new valuable insights into the design and optimization of SRR electrocatalysts for high-performance LiSBs.

Quasi-Copper-Mers Enable High-Performance Catalysis for CO2 Reduction.

As the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2 ) level keeps hitting the new record, humanity is facing an ever-daunting challenge to efficiently mitigate CO2 from the atmosphere. Though electrochemical CO2 reduction presents a promising pathway to convert CO2 to valuable fuels and chemicals, the general lack of suitable electrocatalysts with high activity and selectivity severely constrains this approach. Herein, a novel class of electrocatalysts is investigated, the quasi-copper-mers, in which the CuN4 rather than Cu atom itself serve as the basic building block. The respective quasi-copper-monomers, -dimers, and -trimers hosted in a graphene-like substrate are first synthesized and then performed both experimental characterization and density functional theory (DFT) calculations to examine their atomic structures, evaluate their electrocatalytical performance and understand their underlying mechanisms. The experimental results show that the quasi-copper-trimers not only outperform the quasi-copper-dimer and quasi-copper-monomer when catalyzing CO2 to CO, it also shows a superior selectivity against the competing hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The DFT calculations not only support the experimental observations, but also reveal the volcano curve and the physical origin for the qausi-copper-trimer superiority. The present work thus presents a new strategy in the design of high-performance electrocatalysts with high activity and selectivity.

Postnatal growth restriction impairs rat lung structure and function.

The negative impact of nutritional deficits in the development of bronchopulmonary dysplasia is well recognized, yet mechanisms by which nutrition alters lung outcomes and nutritional strategies that optimize development and protect the lung remain elusive. Here, we use a rat model to assess the isolated effects of postnatal nutrition on lung structural development without concomitant lung injury. We hypothesize that postnatal growth restriction (PGR) impairs lung structure and function, critical mediators of lung development, and fatty acid profiles at postnatal day 21 in the rat. Rat pups were cross-fostered at birth to rat dams with litter sizes of 8 (control) or 16 (PGR). Lung structure and function, as well as serum and lung tissue fatty acids, and lung molecular mediators of development, were measured. Male and female PGR rat pups had thicker airspace walls, decreased lung compliance, and increased tissue damping. Male rats also had increased lung elastance, increased lung elastin protein abundance, and lysol oxidase expression, and increased elastic fiber deposition. Female rat lungs had increased conducting airway resistance and reduced levels of docosahexaenoic acid in lung tissue. We conclude that PGR impairs lung structure and function in both male and female rats, with sex-divergent changes in lung molecular mediators of development.

Characterization of chemical transport in human skin and building material.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) are ubiquitous in indoor environment. They can emit from source into air, and subsequently penetrate human skin into blood through dermal uptake, causing adverse health effects. This study develops a two-layer analytical model to characterize the VOC/SVOC dermal uptake process, which is then extended to predict VOC emissions from two-layer building materials or furniture. Based on the model, the key transport parameters of chemicals in every skin or material layer are determined via a hybrid optimization method using data from experiments and literature. The measured key parameters of SVOCs for dermal uptake are more accurate than those from previous studies using empirical correlations. Moreover, the association between the absorption amount of studied chemicals into blood and age is preliminarily investigated. Further exposure analysis reveals that the contribution of dermal uptake to the total exposure can be comparable with that of inhalation for the examined SVOCs. This study makes the first attempt to accurately determine the key parameters of chemicals in skin, which is demonstrated to be critical for health risk assessment.

Lipoprotein(a) Is Associated With the Progression and Vulnerability of New-Onset Carotid Atherosclerotic Plaque.

BACKGROUND: Although important progress has been made in understanding Lp(a) (lipoprotein[a])-mediated stroke risk, the contribution of Lp(a) to the progression of vulnerable plaque features associated with stroke risk remains unclear. This study aims to evaluate whether Lp(a) is associated with carotid plaque progression, new-onset plaque features, and plaque vulnerability in a prospective community-based cohort study. METHODS: Baseline Lp(a) levels were measured using latex-enhanced turbidimetric immunoassay among 804 participants aged 45 to 74 years and free of cardiovascular disease in the Chinese Multi-provincial Cohort Study-Beijing project. Carotid atherosclerosis was measured twice by B-mode ultrasonography over a 10-year interval during the 2002 and 2012 surveys to assess the progression of total, vulnerable and stable plaques, and plaque vulnerability. The total plaque area and plaque vulnerability score were calculated. RESULTS: The median baseline Lp(a) level was 10.20 mg/dL (interquartile range, 6.20 to 17.18 mg/dL). Modified Poisson regression analysis showed that Lp(a) ≥50 mg/dL was significantly associated with 10-year progression of total carotid plaque (relative risk [RR], 1.41 [95% CI, 1.21-1.64]; E-value=2.17), vulnerable plaque (RR, 1.93 [95% CI, 1.54-2.41]), and stable plaque (RR, 1.51 [95% CI, 1.11-2.07]) compared with Lp(a) <50 mg/dL. Moreover, among participants without plaque at baseline, Lp(a) ≥50 mg/dL was related to an increased total plaque area (ß=0.36 [95% CI, 0.06-0.65]; P=0.018) and increased plaque vulnerability score (ß=0.30 [95% CI, 0.01-0.60]; P=0.045) in multivariable linear regression. CONCLUSIONS: Elevated Lp(a) levels were associated with 10-year carotid plaque progression and plaque vulnerability, providing a basis for Lp(a) as a treatment target for stroke prevention.

Lithium Sulfide Batteries: Addressing the Kinetic Barriers and High First Charge Overpotential.

Ever-rising global energy demands and the desperate need for green energy inevitably require next-generation energy storage systems. Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries are a promising candidate as their conversion redox reaction offers superior high energy capacity and lower costs as compared to current intercalation type lithium-ion technology. Li2S with a prelithiated cathode can, in principle, capture the high capacity while reducing some of the issues in conventional Li-S cells utilizing metallic lithium anodes and elemental sulfur cathodes. However, it also faces its own set of technical issues, including the insulating nature and the notorious shuttling effect that plagues the Li-S system. In addition, the high activation potential also hinders its electrochemical performance. To lower the high conversion barrier, key parameters of charge/ion transfer kinetics have to be considered in improving the reaction kinetics. This Review of lithium sulfide batteries examines the recent progress in this rapidly growing field, beginning with the revisiting of the fundamentals, working principles, and challenges of the Li-S system as well as the Li2S cathode. The strategies adopted and methods that have been devised to overcome these issues are discussed in detail, by focusing on the synthesis of the nanoparticles, the structuring of the functional matrixes, and the promoting of the reaction kinetics through additives, aiming at providing a broad view of paths that can lead to a market viable Li2S cathode in the near future.

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Associations between Immigration Status and Stroke Incidence and Mortality.

Methods: We thoroughly searched PubMed, Embase, and MEDLINE databases for the literature on stroke risk for immigrants and host populations by January 2022. Fourteen relevant cohort studies from eight countries met the inclusion criteria, and their data were included in this meta-analysis. Heterogeneity and publication bias were assessed. Results: The results showed that the immigrant groups suffered from a lower incidence rate of stroke compared with the host populations (HR = 0.81, 95% CI 0.71-0.91, P = 0.001), but there was nonsignificant higher mortality of stroke in immigrants (HR = 1.07; 95% CI 0.84-1.36). However, the pooled adjusted incidence HR reduced to 0.67 (95% CI 0.60-0.75) after adjustment for publication bias. Immigrants had a lower stroke incidence compared to long-term residents, but the association varied with the country of origin, socioeconomic status, residence (urban vs. rural), and comorbid conditions. Discussion. The present systematic review and meta-analysis implicated that stroke risks are different for immigrants and the host populations; therefore, this knowledge may be useful for developing targeted stroke prevention strategies.

Prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control rates of hypertension in patients hospitalized with atrial fibrillation in China: Findings from the CCC-AF project.

Background: The status of hypertension in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) remains unknown in China. Methods: This study used data from patients hospitalized with AF recruited by the Improving Care for Cardiovascular Disease in China-AF (CCC-AF) project from 236 hospitals enrolled by geographic-economic level in China from 2015 to 2019. The prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control rates of hypertension in patients hospitalized with AF were estimated. Multivariable logistic regression was used to analyze the factors associated with uncontrolled hypertension. Results: Among 60,390 patients hospitalized with AF, the prevalence of hypertension according to the 2018 Chinese hypertension guidelines was 66.1%. The awareness, treatment, and control rates of hypertension were 80.3, 55.8, and 39.9%, respectively. Among patients treated for hypertension, the treatment control rate was 46.2%. These rates varied according to patient clinical characteristics and geographic regions. The young (18-44 and 45-54 years old), rural insurance, alcohol drinking, history of heart failure, valvular AF, first diagnosed AF, and permanent AF, were associated with uncontrolled hypertension. Under the 2017 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) hypertension guidelines, the prevalence of hypertension was 79.3%, and the control and treatment control rates dropped to 16.7 and 21.2%, respectively. Conclusion: Hypertension is common in patients hospitalized with AF in China. Although most patients were aware of their hypertensive status, the treatment and control rates of hypertension were still low. The management of hypertension in patients with AF needs to be further improved.

Measurement methods and impact factors for the key parameters of VOC/SVOC emissions from materials in indoor and vehicular environments: A review.

The emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) from indoor building and vehicle cabin materials can adversely affect human health. Many mechanistic models to predict the VOC/SVOC emission characteristics have been proposed. Nowadays, the main obstacle to accurate model prediction is the availability and reliability of the physical parameters used in the model, such as the initial emittable concentration, the diffusion coefficient, the partition coefficient, and the gas-phase SVOC concentration adjacent to the material surface. The purpose of this work is to review the existing methods for measuring the key parameters of VOCs/SVOCs from materials in both indoor and vehicular environments. The pros and cons of these methods are analyzed, and the available datasets found in the literature are summarized. Some methods can determine one single key parameter, while other methods can determine two or three key parameters simultaneously. The impacts of multiple factors (temperature, relative humidity, loading ratio, and air change rate) on VOC/SVOC emission behaviors are discussed. The existing measurement methods span very large spatial and time scales: the spatial scale varies from micro to macro dimensions; and the time scale in chamber tests varies from several hours to one month for VOCs, and may even span years for SVOCs. Based on the key parameters, a pre-assessment approach for indoor and vehicular air quality is introduced in this review. The approach uses the key parameters for different material combinations to pre-assess the VOC/SVOC concentrations or human exposure levels during the design stage of buildings or vehicles, which can assist designers to select appropriate materials and achieve effective source control.

Investigation on the Direct Transfer of SVOCs from Source to Settled Dust: Analytical Model and Key Parameter Determination.

Settled dust is an important medium for semivolatile organic compound (SVOC) transport indoors. Understanding the mechanism of interaction between SVOCs and settled dust can greatly improve the exposure assessment. This study develops an analytical model to elucidate the mechanism of direct contact between SVOC sources and settled dust. The model incorporates the adsorption of SVOCs onto indoor surfaces, which was ignored in previous numerical models. Based on this model, a hybrid optimization method is applied to determine the key parameters of SVOC transport, i.e., the diffusion coefficient in the dust, the dust-air partition coefficient, and the chamber surface-air partition coefficient. Experiments of direct contact between SVOC source materials containing organophosphorus flame retardants (OPFRs) and settled dust were conducted in chambers. The key parameters were determined by performing curve fitting using data collected from the OPFR chamber tests and from the literature on phthalates. The reliability and robustness of the model and measurement method are demonstrated by the high fitting accuracy and sensitivity analysis. The obtained key parameters are more accurate than those from correlations in prior studies. Further analysis indicates that dust-air partition coefficient plays an important role and the adsorption effect on surfaces cannot be neglected for SVOC transport.

Large-Scale Synthesis of Spinel Nix Mn3-x O4 Solid Solution Immobilized with Iridium Single Atoms for Efficient Alkaline Seawater Electrolysis.

Seawater electrolysis not only affords a promising approach to produce clean hydrogen fuel but also alleviates the bottleneck of freshwater feeds. Here, a novel strategy for large-scale preparing spinel Nix Mn3-x O4 solid solution immobilized with iridium single-atoms (Ir-SAs) is developed by the sol-gel method. Benefitting from the surface-exposed Ir-SAs, Ir1 /Ni1.6 Mn1.4 O4 reveals boosted oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance, achieving overpotentials of 330 and 350 mV at current densities of 100 and 200 mA cm-2 in alkaline seawater. Moreover, only a cell voltage of 1.50 V is required to reach 500 mA cm-2 with assembled Ir1 /Ni1.6 Mn1.4 O4 ‖Pt/C electrode pair under the industrial operating condition. The experimental characterizations and theoretical calculations highlight the effect of Ir-SAs on improving the intrinsic OER activity and facilitating surface charge transfer kinetics, and evidence the energetically stabilized *OOH and the destabilized chloride ion adsorption in Ir1 /Ni1.6 Mn1.4 O4 . This work demonstrates an effective method to produce efficient alkaline seawater electrocatalyst massively.

A rapid and robust method to determine the key parameters of formaldehyde emissions from building and vehicle cabin materials: Principle, multi-source application and exposure assessment.

The ubiquity of formaldehyde emitted in indoor and in-cabin environments can adversely affect health. This study proposes a novel full-range C-history method to rapidly, accurately and simultaneously determine the three key parameters (initial emittable concentration, partition coefficient, diffusion coefficient) that characterize the emission behaviors of formaldehyde from indoor building and vehicle cabin materials, by means of hybrid optimization. The key parameters of formaldehyde emissions from six building materials and five vehicle cabin materials at various temperatures, were determined. Independent experiments and sensitivity analysis verify the effectiveness and robustness of the method. We also demonstrate that the determined key parameters can be used for predicting multi-source emissions from different material combinations that are widely encountered in realistic indoor and in-cabin environments. Furthermore, based on a constructed vehicle cabin and the determined key parameters, we make a first attempt to estimate the human carcinogenic potential (HCP) of formaldehyde for taxi drivers and passengers at two temperatures (25 °C, 34 °C). The HCP for taxi drivers at both temperatures exceeds 10-6 cases, indicating relatively high potential risk. This study should be helpful for pre-evaluation of indoor and in-cabin air quality, and can assist designers in selecting appropriate materials to achieve effective source control.

Predicting the emissions of VOCs/SVOCs in source and sink materials: Development of analytical model and determination of the key parameters.

The emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) from indoor materials pose an adverse effect on people's health. In this study, a new analytical model was developed to simulate the emission behaviors for both VOCs and SVOCs under ventilated conditions. Based on this model, we further introduced a hybrid optimization method to accurately determine the key parameters in the model: the initial emittable concentration, the diffusion coefficient, the material/air partition coefficient, and the chamber surface/air partition coefficient (for SVOCs). Experiments for VOC emissions from solid wood furniture were performed to determine the key parameters. We also evaluated the hybrid optimization method with the data of flame retardant emissions from polyisocyanurate rigid foam and VOC emissions from a panel furniture in the literature. The correlation coefficients are high during the fitting process (R2 = 0.92-0.99), demonstrating effectiveness of this method. In addition, we observed that chemical properties could transfer from SVOC-type to VOC-type with the increase of temperature. The transition temperatures from SVOC-type to VOC-type for the emissions of tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP) and tris(1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TCIPP) were determined to be about 45 ℃ and 35 ℃, respectively. The present study provides a unified modelling and methodology analysis for both VOCs and SVOCs, which should be very useful for source/sink characterization and control.

Extracting BOLD signals based on time-constrained multiset canonical correlation analysis for brain functional network estimation and classification.

Brain functional network (BFN), usually estimated from blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), has been proven to be a powerful tool to study the organization of the brain and discover biomarkers for diagnosis of brain disorders. Prior to BFN estimation and classification, extracting representative BOLD signals from brain regions of interest (ROIs) is a critical step. Traditional extraction methods include averaging, peaking operation and dimensionality reduction, often leading to signal cancellation and information loss. In this paper, we propose a novel method, namely time-constrained multiset canonical correlation analysis (TMCCA), to extract representative BOLD signals for subsequent BFN estimation and classification. Different from traditional methods that equally treat all BOLD signals in a ROI, the proposed method assigns weights to different BOLD signals, and learns the optimal weights to make the extracted representative signals jointly maximize the multiple correlations between ROIs. Importantly, time-constraint is incorporated into our proposed method, which can effectively encode nonlinear relationship among BOLD signals. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method, the extracted BOLD signals is used to estimate BFN and, in turn, identify brain disorders, including mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed TMCCA can lead to better performance than traditional methods.

Escin Sodium Improves the Prognosis of Acute Pancreatitis via Promoting Cell Apoptosis by Suppression of the ERK/STAT3 Signaling Pathway.

Acute pancreatitis (AP), an inflammatory disorder of the pancreas, can cause systemic inflammatory responses. Escin Sodium (ES), a natural mixture of triterpene saponins extracted from the dry ripe fruit of Fructus Aesculi or horse chestnut crude, has been demonstrated to have antiedematous, anti-inflammatory, and antiexudative effects. We here aim to investigate the effects of ES pretreatment on AP in vivo and in vitro and explore its potential molecular mechanism. In the present study, we demonstrated that ES pretreatment could apparently decrease amylase and lipase, downregulate inflammatory cytokines, and attenuate pancreatic damage. Additionally, the increased expression of apoptotic-related proteins and the results of flow cytometry demonstrated the effects of ES on promoting apoptosis in acinar cells. Moreover, ES could enhance mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP, ΔΨm) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) level and reduce intracellular calcium concentration, which are closely related to mitochondrial-mediated death. The effect of ES pretreatment on acinar cell apoptosis was furtherly confirmed by the regulatory pathway of the ERK/STAT3 axis. These results suggest that ES attenuates the severity of AP by enhancing cell apoptosis via suppressing the ERK/STAT3 signaling pathway. These findings provide evidence for ES which is treated as a novel and potent therapeutic for the treatment of AP.

Circular RNA ITCH Is a Tumor Suppressor in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma Metastasis through miR-106b-5p/PDCD4 Axis.

High metastasis of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) significantly influenced survival rate of ccRCC patients. Here, we intended to investigate the impacts of circular RNA ITCH (circ-ITCH) on the metastasis of ccRCC. The expression of circ-ITCH in ccRCC tissues and cells was evaluated utilizing qRT-PCR. Transwell assay and wound healing were applied to investigate migration and invasion of ccRCC cells. Target gene prediction and screening and luciferase reporter gene assays were utilized to assess downstream target genes of circ-ITCH. Western blot was utilized to detect metastasis-related protein expression. A xenograft tumor model was established to evaluate the role of circ-ITCH in vivo. Results showed that circ-ITCH was low expressed in ccRCC tissues and cells. Downregulation circ-ITCH promoted cell migration, but overexpressing circ-ITCH inhibited cell migration and invasion in OSRC-2 and SW839 cells. Mechanism investigations claimed that circ-ITCH exerted its metastasis-inhibitory activity via sponging miR-106b-5p and regulating the expression of PDCD4. Conclusively, circ-ITCH suppresses ccRCC metastasis by enforcing PDCD4 expression through binding miR-106b-5p. circ-ITCH may function as a novel diagnostic target to suppress ccRCC metastasis.