A seven-long noncoding RNA signature predicts relapse in patients with early-stage lung adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) has been increasingly reported to play crucial roles in cancer development. In this study, we aim to develop a lncRNA-based signature to predict the relapse of early-stage (stage I-II) lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). METHODS: With a lncRNA-mining strategy, lncRNA expression profiles of three LUAD cohorts were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. A risk score model was established based on the lncRNAs expression from training set (GSE31210, n = 204) and further validated in two independent testing sets (GSE50081, n = 124; and GSE30219, n = 84). The potential signaling pathways modulated by the prognostic lncRNAs were explored using bioinformatics analysis. RESULTS: In the training set, seven lncRNAs were identified to be significantly correlated with the relapse-free survival (RFS) of early-stage LUAD, and were then aggregated to form a seven-lncRNA prognostic signature to classify patients into high-risk and low-risk groups. Individuals of training set in the high-risk group exhibited a poorer RFS than those in the low-risk group (HR: 7.574, 95% CI: 4.165-13.775; P < 0.001). The similar prognostic powers of the seven-lncRNA signature were also achieved in the two independent testing sets and in stratified analysis. Multivariate Cox regression indicated that the prognostic value of seven-lncRNA signature was independent of other clinical features. Functional enrichment analysis found that the seven-lncRNA signature may be involved in biological pathways such as cell cycle, DNA replication, and p53 signaling pathway. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that the seven-lncRNA signature may be an innovative biomarker to predict the relapse of early-stage LUAD.

Prognostic value of pretreatment systemic immune-inflammation index in Chinese esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients receiving radical radiotherapy: A meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The association between pretreatment systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) and long-term survival among Chinese esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients who received radical radiotherapy remains unclear. The aim of this study was to identify the prognostic role of pretreatment SII in Chinese ESCC patients receiving radical radiotherapy based on current evidence. METHODS: The PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science and CNKI databases were searched up to March 18, 2023. Primary and secondary outcomes were overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS), respectively. The hazard ratios (HRs) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were combined to assess the predictive role of pretreatment SII for long-term survival of Chinese ESCC patients receiving radiotherapy. All statistical analyses were conducted by STATA 15.0 software. RESULTS: A total of 8 eligibility studies involving 2101 cases were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled results demonstrated that elevated pretreatment SII was significantly related to worse OS (HR = 1.59, 95% CI: 1.24-2.02, P < .001) and PFS (HR = 1.33, 95% CI: 1.13-1.57, P < .001). Besides, subgroup based on TNM stage showed similar results. CONCLUSION: Pretreatment SII could serve as a novel prognostic factor in Chinese ESCC patients receiving definitive radiotherapy and patients with an elevated SII may experience poorer survival.

A facile non-solvent induced phase separation process for preparation of highly porous polybenzimidazole separator for lithium metal battery application.

The drawbacks of low porosity, inferior electrolyte wettability, low thermal dimensional stability and permissive lithium dendrite growth of the conventional microporous polyolefin-based separators hinder their widely application in the high power density and safe Lithium ion batteries. Herein, highly porous polybenzimidazole-based separator is prepared by a facile non-solvent induced phase separation process (NIPS) using water, ethanol, chloroform and ethyl acetate as the coagulation bath solvent, respectively. It was found that the ethanol is suitable to fabricate uniform morphology macroporous separator with the porosity of 92%, electrolyte uptake of 594 wt.%, and strong mechanical strength of 15.9 MPa. In addition, the experimental tests (electrochemical analysis and XPS test) and density functional theory calculation suggest that the electron-rich imidazole ring of polybenzimidazle can enhance Li+ mobility electrostatic attraction interaction while the block the PF6- mobility via electrostatic repulsion interaction. Therefore, high Li+ transference number of 0.76 was obtained for the neat polybenzimidazole-based polymer electrolyte. As a proof of concept, the Li/LiFePO4 cell with the polybenzimidazole-based polymer electrolyte/1.0 M LiPF6- ethylene carbonate/dimethyl carbonate (v:v = 1:1) electrolyte exhibits excellent rate capability of >100 mAh g-1 at 6 C (1 C = 170 mA g-1) and superior cycle stability of 1000 cycles.

New optoelectronic materials based on bitriazines: synthesis and properties.

A series of bitriazine derivatives were synthesized for the first time by the self-coupling reactions of the monocholoro-triazines in the presence of nickel catalyst. Such bitriazines show excellent optoelectronic properties.

A gel single ion conducting polymer electrolyte enables durable and safe lithium ion batteries via graft polymerization.

Concentration polarization issues and lithium dendrite formation, which associate inherently with the commercial dual-ion electrolytes, restrict the performance of lithium ion batteries. Single ion conducting polymer electrolytes (SIPEs) with high lithium ion transference numbers (t + ≈ 1) are being intensively studied to circumvent these issues. Herein, poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol) (EVOH) is chosen as the backbone and then grafted with lithium 3-chloropropanesulfonyl(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiCPSI) via Williamson's reaction, resulting in a side-chain-grafted single ion polymer conductor (EVOH-graft-LiCPSI). The ionomer is further blended with poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) by solution casting for practical use. The SIPE membrane with ethylene carbonate and dimethyl carbonate (EC/DMC = 1 : 1, v/v) as plasticizer (i.e., gel SIPE) exhibits an ionic conductivity of 5.7 × 10-5 S cm-1, a lithium ion transference number of 0.88, a wide electrochemical window of 4.8 V (vs. Li/Li+) and adequate mechanical strength. Finally, the gel SIPE is applied in a lithium ion battery as the electrolyte as well as the separator, delivering an initial discharge capacity of 100 mA h g-1 at 1C which remains at 95 mA h g-1 after 500 cycles.

High rate lithium-sulfur battery enabled by sandwiched single ion conducting polymer electrolyte.

Lithium-sulfur batteries are highly promising for electric energy storage with high energy density, abundant resources and low cost. However, the battery technologies have often suffered from a short cycle life and poor rate stability arising from the well-known "polysulfide shuttle" effect. Here, we report a novel cell design by sandwiching a sp(3) boron based single ion conducting polymer electrolyte film between two carbon films to fabricate a composite separator for lithium-sulfur batteries. The dense negative charges uniformly distributed in the electrolyte membrane inherently prohibit transport of polysulfide anions formed in the cathode inside the polymer matrix and effectively blocks polysulfide shuttling. A battery assembled with the composite separator exhibits a remarkably long cycle life at high charge/discharge rates.

A hyperbranched conjugated Schiff base polymer network: a potential negative electrode for flexible thin film batteries.

A hyperbranched conjugated Schiff base polymer network was synthesized by condensation between 4,4',4''-nitrilotribenzaldehyde and p-phenylenediamine. The material exhibits excellent rate capability and long cycle life for lithium storage. Coupled with lower electrode potential (0.7 V vs. Li(+)/Li), it may be well suited for fully flexible thin film polymeric batteries as the negative electrode.

Star-shaped donor-pi-acceptor conjugated oligomers with 1,3,5-triazine cores: convergent synthesis and multifunctional properties.

Monodispersed oligomers have been widely developed and used in different optoelectronic areas due to their well-defined molecular structures, high purity, and solution processability. Star-shaped oligomers are especially interesting for OLED application because of their antiaggregation abilities and stable electroluminescence. In addition, star-shaped donor-pi-acceptor conjugated molecules are known to afford good nonlinear optical and two-photon absorption properties due to the intramolecular charge transfer and cooperative enhancement effects. In this context, three generations of highly soluble 1,3,5-triazine based donor-pi-acceptor compounds, TFT1, TFT2, and TFT3, were prepared through a convergent synthetic strategy and their optoelectronic properties were fully studied, which showed distinct correlations with the structures. Closed-aperture and open-aperture Z-scan methods were employed to measure the nonlinear refractive index and two-photon absorption properties of the oligomers, respectively. TFT1 showed a high nonlinear refractive index of 4.14 x 10(-12) esu in THF solution with an excitation wavelength of 800 nm. Also, TFT1 exhibited a large two-photon absorption cross section of 234 GM and a frequency up-converted two-photon excited fluorescence with a lambda(TPEF)(max) value of 527 nm under 800 nm laser irradiation with a pulse duration of 140 fs. OLED devices using the spin-coated films of these oligomers as an active layer showed intensive blue electroluminescence with a maximum luminance of 3093 cd/m(2) at a current efficiency of 1.47 cd/A from TFT1.