Two-step pyrolytic preparation of biochar for the adsorption study of tetracycline in water.

In this study, cow dung biomass was converted into biochar (BC). BC900 was obtained through one-step pyrolysis at 900 °C, while BC700-900 and BC900-700 were obtained via two-step pyrolysis at temperature ranges of 700-900 °C and 900-700 °C, respectively. The primary objective was to investigate the adsorption performance and application value of BCs for tetracycline (TC) in water. The samples underwent characterization using scanning electron microscopy and mapping analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and thermogravimetric analysis. Subsequently, the effects of reaction time, adsorbent dosage, temperature, pH, and ionic strength were analyzed. Based on the fitting results of adsorption kinetics, the pyrolytic BCs exhibited a better fit with the pseudo-secondary kinetic model. The adsorption isotherm indicated monolayer adsorption on the surface of the adsorbents, with maximum adsorption capacities of 158.93 mg/g for BC900-700, 150.15 mg/g for BC700-900, and 142.56 mg/g for BC900, respectively. Furthermore, results from simulated wastewater and regeneration experiments demonstrated that BC900-700 exhibited not only excellent adsorption performance in wastewater but also remarkable regeneration capabilities. The two-step pyrolysis BCs in this study displayed a higher adsorption capacity compared to the one-step pyrolysis BCs in practical applications. These findings provide insights for further exploring the adsorption mechanism and optimizing the process.

Accuracy of minimal residual disease detection by circulating tumor DNA profiling in lung cancer: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The sensitivity and specificity of minimal residual disease detected by circulating tumor DNA profiling (ctDNA MRD) in lung cancer, with particular attention to the distinction between landmark strategy and surveillance strategy, for predicting relapse in lung cancer patients after definitive therapy has yet to be determined. METHODS: The prognostic value of ctDNA MRD by landmark strategy and surveillance strategy was evaluated in a large cohort of patients with lung cancer who received definitive therapy using a systemic literature review and meta-analysis. Recurrence status stratified by ctDNA MRD result (positive or negative) was extracted as the clinical endpoint. We calculated the area under the summary receiver operating characteristic curves, and pooled sensitivities and specificities. Subgroup analyses were conducted based on histological type and stage of lung cancer, types of definitive therapy, and ctDNA MRD detection methods (detection technology and strategy such as tumor-informed or tumor-agnostic). RESULTS: This systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 unique studies includes 1251 patients with lung cancer treated with definitive therapy. The specificity of ctDNA MRD in predicting recurrence is high (0.86-0.95) with moderate sensitivity (0.41-0.76), whether shortly after treatment or during the surveillance. The landmark strategy appears to be more specific but less sensitive than the surveillance strategy. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that ctDNA MRD is a relatively promising biomarker for relapse prediction among lung cancer patients after definitive therapy, with a high specificity but suboptimal sensitivity, whether in landmark strategy or surveillance strategy. Although surveillance ctDNA MRD analysis decreases specificity compared with the landmark strategy, the decrease is minimal compared to the increase in sensitivity for relapse prediction of lung cancer.

Antitumor Therapy Targeting the Tumor Microenvironment.

The development and progression of tumors in human tissues extensively rely on its surrounding environment, that is, tumor microenvironment which includes a variety of cells, molecules, and blood vessels. These components are modified, organized, and integrated to support and facilitate the growth, invasion, and metabolism of tumor cells, suggesting them as potential therapeutic targets in anticancer treatment. An increasing number of pharmacological agents have been developed and clinically applied to target the oncogenic components in the tumor microenvironment, and in this review, we will summarize these pharmacological agents that directly or indirectly target the cellular or molecular components in the tumor microenvironment. However, difficulties and challenges still exist in this field, which will also be reported in this literature.

High-Gain MoS2/Ta2NiSe5 Heterojunction Photodetectors with Charge Transfer and Suppressing Dark Current.

Emerging two-dimensional narrow band gap materials with tunable band gaps and unique electrical and optical properties have shown tremendous potential in broadband photodetection. Nevertheless, large dark currents severely hinder the performance of photodetectors. Here, a MoS2/Ta2NiSe5 van der Waals heterostructure device was successfully fabricated with a high rectification ratio of ∼104 and an ultralow reverse bias current of the pA level. Excitingly, the charge transfer and the generation of the built-in electric field of heterostructures have been proved by theory and experiment, which effectively suppress dark currents. The dark current of the heterostructure reduces by nearly 104 compared with the pure Ta2NiSe5 photodetector at Vds = 1 V. The MoS2/Ta2NiSe5 device exhibits excellent photoelectric performance with the maximum responsivity of 515.6 A W-1 and 0.7 A W-1 at the wavelengths of 532 and 1064 nm under forward bias, respectively. In addition, the specific detectivity is up to 3.1 × 1013 Jones (532 nm) and 2.4 × 109 Jones (1064 nm). Significantly, the device presents an ultra-high gain of 6 × 107 and an exceptional external quantum efficiency of 1.2 × 105% under 532 nm laser irradiation. The results reveal that the MoS2/Ta2NiSe5 heterostructure provides an essential platform for the development and application of high-performance broadband optoelectronic devices.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by radical vulvectomy for adenoid cystic carcinoma of Bartholin's gland: a case report.

Background: Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) of the Bartholin's gland is a rare cancer of the female genital tract for which there is no consensus on treatment. As there are no current reports on neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgery for this disease, our case explores the effectiveness of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Case Description: We report a case of ACC of Bartholin's gland. The patient is a 69-year-old woman with a left vulvar mass. Pelvic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed a left perineal occupying lesion with indistinct boundaries to the surrounding tissues. The patient received two cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy with a regimen of paclitaxel combined with cisplatin and the mass was significantly reduced. Subsequently, she received a radical vulvectomy and left inguinal lymph node dissection. The operation was successful, and the patient was treated with simultaneous radiotherapy and chemotherapy after the surgery. The patient is currently 14 months postoperative and reports no significant pain with normal urination and defecation. The pelvic MRI was reviewed regularly, and there was no sign of recurrence. Conclusions: After neoadjuvant chemotherapy, the extent of the lesion was significantly reduced, which reduced the difficulty of surgery, thus reducing surgical complications and enabling complete resection of the tumor tissue. Based on the treatment of this patient, we speculate that preoperative neoadjuvant chemotherapy may be a better choice for patients with extensive and fixed lesions.

Upregulated circRNA_102231 promotes gastric cancer progression and its clinical significance.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a type of endogenous non-coding RNAs implicated in cancer progression. This study explored the expression levels, clinical implication and possible molecular mechanism of circRNA_102231 in gastric cancer (GC). Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) was used to analyze differentially expressed circRNAs. CircRNA_102231 expression was verified by qRT-PCR in GC tissues and plasma. The effects of circRNA_102231 was tested by CCK-8, colony formation, EdU and Transwell assays and xenograft tumor model. RNA pull-down and immunoprecipitation (RIP) assays were used to analyze the interaction between circRNA_102231 and IRTKS. CircRNA_102231 expression was significantly upregulated in GC tissue and plasma samples, which can be used as a biomarker for GC diagnosis and prognosis. The function assays showed that circRNA_102231 knockdown inhibited GC cell proliferation and invasion both in vitro and in vivo. CircRNA_102231 was able to bind to IRTKS, increasing IRTKS protein stability, leading to GC progression. Overexpression of IRTKS effectively rescued the reduced cell viability and invasion caused by silencing of circRNA_102231. In sum, our data demonstrate that circRNA_102231 is a novel oncogene in GC and acts as a potential biomarker and therapeutic target for GC patients.AbbreviationscircRNAs: circular RNAs; GC: gastric cancer; GEO: Gene Expression Omnibus; RIP: RNA immunoprecipitation; DEGs: differentially expressed genes.

Combinational dual drug delivery system to enhance the care and treatment of gastric cancer patients.

Gastric cancer is a frequently occurring cancer with high mortality each year worldwide. Finding new and effective therapeutic strategy against human gastric cancer is still urgently required. Hence, we have established a new method to achieve treatment-actuated modifications in a tumor microenvironment by utilizing synergistic activity between two potential anticancer drugs. Dual drug delivery of gemcitabine (GEM) and Camptothecin-11 (CPT-11) exhibits a great anti-cancer potential, as GEM enhances the effect of CPT-11 treatment of human gastric cells by providing microenvironment stability. However, encapsulation of GEM and CPT-11 obsessed by poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA)-based nanoparticles (NPs) is incompetent owing to unsuitability between the binary free GEM and CPT-11 moieties and the polymeric system. Now, we display that CPT-11 can be prepared by hydrophobic covering of the drug centers with dioleoylphosphatidic acid (DOPA). The DOPA-covered CPT-11 can be co-encapsulated in PLGA NPs alongside GEM to stimulate excellent anticancer property. The occurrence of the CPT-11 suggestively enhanced the encapsulations of GEM into PLGA NPs (GEM-CPT-11 NPs). Formation of the nanocomposite (GEM-CPT-11 NPs) was confirmed by FTIR and X-ray spectroscopic techniques. Further, the morphology of GEM NPs, CPT-11 NPs, and GEM-CPT-11 NPs and NP size was examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), respectively. Furthermore, GEM-CPT-11 NPs induced significant apoptosis in human gastric NCI-N87 and SGC-791 cancer cells in vitro. The morphological observation and apoptosis were confirmed by the various biochemical assays (AO-EB, nuclear staining, and annexin V-FITC). In addition, evaluation of the hemolysis assay with erythrocytes of human shows excellent biocompatibility of free GEM, free CPT-11, GEM NPs, CPT-11 NPs, and GEM-CPT-11 NPs. The results suggest that GEM-CPT-11 NPs are one of the promising nursing cares for human gastric cancer therapeutic candidates worthy of further investigations.

Utilizations of agricultural waste as adsorbent for the removal of contaminants: A review.

In recent years, various industrial activities have caused serious pollution to the environment. Due to the low operating costs and high flexibility, adsorption is considered as one of the most effective technologies for pollutant management. Agricultural waste has loose and porous structures, and contains functional groups such as the carboxyl group and hydroxyl group, so it can be invoked as biological adsorption material. Agricultural waste gets the advantages of a wide range of sources, low cost, and renewable. It has a good prospect for the comprehensive utilization of resources when used for environmental pollution control. This article summarized the current research status of agricultural waste in adsorbing pollutants, which pointed out the influencing factors of adsorption, expounded the adsorption mechanism of biological adsorption and introduced the related parameters of adsorption, proposed the application of adsorbents in engineering including adsorption in liquid and gas phases, at the same time it gave the future development prospect of agricultural waste as adsorbent.

MicroRNA-155 increases colon cancer chemoresistance to cisplatin by targeting forkhead box O3.

To investigate the effect of microRNA (miR)-155 on colon cancer chemoresistance to cisplatine and its mechanism. Reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction was used to measure the levels of miR-155 and forkhead box O3 (FOXO3) in colon cancer specimens and cell lines. Overexpression of miR-155 and miR-155 inhibitor were transfected into colon cancer cell lines to investigate its role of chemoresistance to cisplatin in colon cancer. MTS assays were used to analyse cell viability in vitro. In vivo tumor formation assays were performed in C57BL/6 wild type and miR-155 knockout mice (miR-155-/-). A luciferase reporter assay was used to measure the translation of FOXO3. Additionally, the expression of FOXO3 was detected by western blot analysis. It was identified that miR-155 was markedly upregulated in colon cancer tissue and cell lines. Overexpression of miR-155 enhanced colon cancer cell chemoresistance to cisplatin in vitro and tumorigenesis in vivo. In addition, overexpression of miR-155 was associated with decreased levels of FOXO3, primarily through inhibiting the expression of FOXO3 to increase colon cancer resistanec to cisplatin. The present study demonstrated that miR-155 increased colon cancer drug resistance and decreased FOXO3 expression in vivo and in vitro. This may provide a novel method for the treatment of drug-resistant colon cancer.

Genetic Basis of Gastric Cancer.

Gastric cancer is the result of multiple risk factors, including environmental factors, genetic factors and the interaction between them. The environmental factors mainly include dietary, Helicobacter pylori infection and family history of gastric cancer. Genetic factors mainly refer to the susceptible genes that cause epigenetic alterations in oncogenes, tumor suppress genes, cell cycle regulators, DNA repair genes and signaling molecules. This paper summarizes the susceptible genes of gastric cancer and explores the genetic basis of it.