Sustainable wastewater treatment by deep eutectic solvents and natural silk for radioactive iodine capture.

The pollution from nuclear leaks and nuclear disasters (e.g. radioactive iodine) would cause serious harm to human beings and ecosystems for many years. Cocoon silk and deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are both green substances. DESs are easily synthesized, cheap, highly biocompatible and highly biodegradable. Here, we combine the removal of organic dyes and the capture of radioactive iodine by using green DES-pretreated cocoon silk. It is the first time organic dyes have been removed from wastewater by DES-disrupted silk for the purpose of favourably removing iodine. Organic dyes-captured DES-pretreated cocoon silk could be used to capture iodine efficiently. It opens a new route to dispose of one waste from nuclear energy with organic dyes from wastewater captured by green solvents-pretreated natural silk.

The Effect of Conductive Polyaniline on the Anti-Fouling and Electromagnetic Properties of Polydimethylsiloxane Coatings.

In this paper, four conductive polyaniline powders doped in hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid, and sulfonic acid were selected and blended with polydimethylsiloxane to prepare coatings with an electromagnetic absorption effect and fouling desorption effect, respectively. A UV spectrophotometer was used to evaluate the settling rate of the powders. Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, laser confocal microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy were used to observe the morphology and structure of the powder and the coating. The interface properties of the coatings were characterized using a contact angle measurement, the mechanical properties of the coatings using a tensile test, and the electromagnetic properties of the powders and microwave absorption properties of the coatings using vector network analyzers. Meanwhile, the antifouling performance of the coatings was evaluated via the marine bacteria adhesion test and benthic diatom adhesion test, and the effect of conductive polyaniline on the antifouling performance of the coating was analyzed. The results show that adding polyaniline reduced the surface energy of the coating and increased the roughness, mechanical properties and anti-fouling properties of the coating. Moreover, adding appropriate polyaniline powder can enhance the electromagnetic wave loss of the coating. The followings values were recorded for a hydrochloric-acid-doped polyaniline coating: lowest surface energy of 17.17 mJ/m2, maximum fracture strength of 0.95 MPa, maximum elongation of 155%, maximum bandwidth of 3.81 GHz, and peak of reflection loss of -23.15 dB. The bacterial detachment rate of the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) samples was only 30.37%. The bacterial adhesion rates of the composite coating containing hydrochloric-acid-doped polyaniline were 4.95% and 2.72% after rinsing and washing, respectively, and the desorption rate was 45.35%. The chlorophyll concentration values were 0.0057 mg/L and 0.0028 mg/L, respectively, and the desorption rate was 54.62%.

Anti-marine biofouling adhesion performance and mechanism of PDMS fouling-release coating containing PS-PEG hydrogel.

Polystyrene microspheres compounded with polyethylene glycol-based hydrogel (PS-PEG)/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) coatings were prepared using the physical blending method. The chemical structure, surface and interface properties, interlayer adhesion, and tensile properties were tested in this paper. Furthermore, the antifouling performance was evaluated through bovine serum albumin fluorescent protein adsorption testing, marine bacteria adhesion testing, and benthic diatom adhesion testing. The results showed that the coating performance was best when 20 wt% PS-PEG hydrogel was added. Its surface energy was only 19.21 mJ/m2, the maximum breaking strength was 1.24 MPa, the maximum elongation rate was 675 %, the elastic modulus was 2.53 MPa, and the anti-stripping rate was 100 %. In addition, the coating with added 20 wt% PS-PEG hydrogel bacterial adherence rate was 5.36 % and 2.45 % after rinsing and washing, respectively, and the removal rate was 54.29 %. In the benthic diatom adhesion test, the chlorophyll concentration a-value was only 0.0017 mg/L after washing with added 20 wt% hydrogel, and the protein desorption rate was 84.19 % higher than PDMS in the fluorescent protein adsorption test. This coating has the 'low adhesion' and 'desorption' characteristics in the three growth stages of biofouling. Meanwhile, the low surface energy of the silicone is stable, and the hydrogel also dynamically migrates to the surface to gradually form a hydration layer, both are synergistic. When 20 wt% PS-PEG hydrogel was added, the coating demonstrated excellent antifouling performance due to its high hydration layer, low surface energy, high elasticity, and high interlayer adhesion. This research is expected to contribute to the practical applications of hydrogel coatings in marine antifouling.

Identification of potential target genes of breast cancer in response to Chidamide treatment.

Chidamide, a new chemically structured HDACi-like drug, has been shown to inhibit breast cancer, but its specific mechanism has not been fully elucidated. In this paper, we selected ER-positive breast cancer MCF-7 cells and used RNA-seq technique to analyze the gene expression differences of Chidamide-treated breast cancer cells to identify the drug targets of Chidamide's anti-breast cancer effect and to lay the foundation for the development of new drugs for breast cancer treatment. The results showed that the MCF-7 CHID group expressed 320 up-regulated genes and 222 down-regulated genes compared to the control group; Gene Ontology functional enrichment analysis showed that most genes were enriched to biological processes. Subsequently, 10 hub genes for Chidamide treatment of breast cancer were identified based on high scores using CytoHubba, a plug-in for Cytoscape: TP53, JUN, CAD, ACLY, IL-6, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma, THBS1, CXCL8, IMPDH2, and YARS. Finally, a combination of the Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis database and Kaplan Meier mapper to compare the expression and survival analysis of these 10 hub genes, TP53, ACLY, PPARG, and JUN were found to be potential candidate genes significantly associated with Chidamide for breast cancer treatment. Among them, TP53 may be a potential target gene for Chidamide to overcome multi-drug resistance in breast cancer. Therefore, we identified four genes central to the treatment of breast cancer with Chidamide by bioinformatics analysis, and clarified that TP53 may be a potential target gene for Chidamide to overcome multi-drug resistance in breast cancer. This study lays a solid experimental and theoretical foundation for the treatment of breast cancer at the molecular level with Chidamide and for the combination of Chidamide.

LncRNA ENST869 Targeting Nestin Transcriptional Region to Affect the Pharmacological Effects of Chidamide in Breast Cancer Cells.

Breast cancer is one of the leading threats to the health of women. It has the highest incidence and mortality in women worldwide. Although progress has been made in the development and application of anti-breast cancer drugs such as Chidamide and others, the occurrence of drug resistance limits the effective application of chemotherapies. The purpose of this study is to explore the role of LncRNA in the pharmacological effect of Chidamide in breast cancer therapy. The human breast cancer MCF-7 or MDA-MB-231 cells were used as the research cell models. The RNA library screening and high-throughput sequencing comparative analysis was conducted. The binding of LncRNA and its downstream target genes in RNA and protein levels was tested. The results showed that the expression of LncRNA ENST869 in cells treated with Chidamide increased significantly, as demonstrated by real-time PCR and cell viability assay. RNAplex analysis showed that LncRNA ENST869 and Nestin mRNA may interact. RNA interference and Western blot analysis indicated that LncRNA ENST869 could target and regulate the expression of Nestin. Luciferase assay and RNA-protein pulldown showed that LncRNA ENST869 affected Nestin transcription. There might be a highly active binding region of LncRNA ENST869 in regulating Nestin transcriptional activity within the site of 250 bp upstream of the transcription starting point of Nestin. In addition, LncRNA ENST869 did not directly interact with Nestin protein to affect its activity. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that LncRNA ENST869 could affect the function of Nestin in breast cancer cells treated with Chidamide. Nestin is a key player in influencing the pharmacological activity of Chidamide and an essential factor in drug resistance of breast cancer cells.