Correlative Study on the Association Between Breast Cancer and Autoimmune Thyroid Disease.

Objective: This study aims to investigate the correlation between breast cancer and autoimmune thyroid diseases. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study enrolled 100 breast cancer patients at Zhongshan Hospital of Xiamen University from March 2020 to October 2021. Patients were categorized into benign and malignant groups based on tumor pathology. Additionally, 100 healthy female participants underwent physical examinations at the hospital's outpatient center during the same period as controls. The incidence of autoimmune thyroid diseases was assessed via B-type ultrasound, thyroxine level examination, and biopsy. Statistical analyses explored the relationship between autoimmune thyroid diseases and breast cancer. Results: The pathological type of the malignant group was more severe than that of the healthy group. Although the levels of triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), and free thyroxine (FT4) in the malignant group fell within the normal range, the concentrations of T3 and T4 in the malignant group were significantly lower than those in the benign and healthy groups. Additionally, the levels of FT4 and antibodies (anti-thyroid peroxidase [anti-TPO] and anti-thyroglobulin [anti-TG]) were significantly higher in the malignant group compared to the benign and healthy groups, demonstrating statistical significance (P < .05). Conversely, the concentrations of free triiodothyronine (FT3) and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) in the malignant group showed no statistical significance (P > .05). Furthermore, the levels of T3 and T4 did not correlate with the expression of estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) in the study group (P > .05). However, both hormone levels were lower in patients with negative HER-2 expression and those with lymph node metastasis (P > .05). Conclusion: Autoimmune thyroid disease correlates with breast cancer occurrence. Thyroid hormone and autoantibody levels aid clinical monitoring and prognosis. Positive anti-TG and anti-TPO expressions, along with T3, T4, and FT4 alterations, impact patients.

Virulence of entomopathogenic bacteria Serratia marcescens against the red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier).

Background: The red palm weevil (RPW), Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier), is an important quarantine pest, which has caused serious economic losses in various palm species, such as coconut, oil palm and date palm. Finding effective biocontrol resources is important for the control of this pest and the protection of palm crops. Methods: A pathogenic strain HJ-01 was isolated from infected and dead pupa of Tenebrio molitor using tissue separation method. The HJ-01 strain was streak cultured and purified, and its morphological, physiological, biochemical characteristics, and 16S rDNA homology were identified after conducting a pathogenicity test on RPW larvae. Results: Strain HJ-01 exhibited remarkable pathogenicity against RPW larvae. Under the concentration of HJ-01 suspension was 1.0 × 108 cfu/mL, the mortality rate of RPW reached 82.22%, and the half-lethal time (LT50) was 4.72 days. RPW larvae infected with strain HJ-01 showed reduced movement, decreased appetite, and eventual death. As the treatment progresses, the larvae's bodies turned red, became soft, and started to rot, resulting in the discharge of liquid. HJ-01 demonstrated the ability to produce scarlet pigment after 24 h of culture on a basic medium. Colonies of HJ-01 appeared convex, bright red, moist, and viscous, opaque in the center, irregular at the edges, and emitted an unpleasant odor. Under microscopic observation, the cells of HJ-01 appeared as short rod-shaped and flagellate, with a size ranging from (1.2-1.8) µm × (1.0-1.2) µm. Genomic DNA extraction was performed on the strain, and the 16S rDNA sequence was amplified, yielding a sequence length of 1445 bp. The sequence of strain HJ-01 displayed a 99.72% similarity to that of Serratia marcescens. Phylogenetic tree analysis further confirmed that strain HJ-01 belonged to S. marcescens. Therefore, the strain HJ-01 has a very good lethal effect on RPW larvae, and it may be used as an effective bacterium for the control of RPW.

Corrigendum: 6-Shogaol inhibits oxidative stress-induced rat vascular smooth muscle cell apoptosis by regulating OXR1-p53 axis.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fmolb.2022.808162.].

Corilagin alleviates intestinal ischemia/reperfusion injury by relieving oxidative stress and apoptosis via AMPK/Sirt1-autophagy pathway.

Intestinal ischemia/reperfusion (II/R) injury is a common pathological process with high clinical morbidity and mortality. Autophagy plays an important role in the pathological development of II/R. Corilagin (CA) is a natural ellagitannin with various pharmacological effects such as autophagy regulation, antioxidant, and antiapoptosis. However, whether CA alleviates II/R injury is still unclear. In this study, we had found that CA significantly attenuated II/R induced intestinal tissue pathological damage, oxidative stress, and cell apoptosis in rats. Further studies showed that CA significantly promoted AMPK phosphorylation and sirt1 expression, and thus activated autophagy by upregulating protein expression of autophagy-related proteins Beclin1 and LC3II and promoting SQSTM1/P62 degradation both in vivo and in vitro. Inhibition of AMPK phosphorylation by its inhibitor compound C(CC) significantly abolished CA-mediated autophagy activation and the relievable effects on oxidative stress and apoptosis in vitro, suggesting the excellent protective activity of CA against II/R injury via AMPK/Sirt1-autophagy pathway. These findings confirmed the potent effects of CA against II/R injury, and provided novel insights into the mechanisms of the compound as a potential candidate for the treatment of II/R.

Corilagin alleviates intestinal ischemia/reperfusion-induced intestinal and lung injury in mice via inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation and pyroptosis.

Intestinal ischemia reperfusion (II/R) is a clinical emergency that frequently occurs in a variety of clinical conditions. Severe intestinal injury results in the release of cytotoxic substances and inflammatory mediators which can activate local inflammatory response and bacterial translocation. This triggers multi-organ failure, including lung injury, which is a common complication of II/R injury and contributes to the high mortality rate. Corilagin (Cor) is a natural ellagitannin found in a variety of plants. It has many biological and pharmacological properties, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptosis activities. However, no studies have evaluated the effects and molecular mechanisms of Cor in alleviating II/R-induced intestinal and lung damage. In this study, Cor was found to significantly alleviate II/R-induced pathological damage, inflammatory response, oxidative stress, NLRP3 inflammasome activation, and pyroptosis in intestinal and lung tissues both in vivo and in vitro. Further, Cor inhibited the NLRP3 inflammasome activation and pyroptosis in RAW264.7 and MLE-12 cells induced by LPS/nigericin and that in IEC-6 cells induced by nigericin, indicating an amelioration of Cor in II/R-induced intestinal and lung injury via inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation and pyroptosis. Thus, Cor might be a potential therapeutic agent for II/R-induced inflammation and tissue injury.

Twisted graphene stabilized by organic linkers pillaring.

Twisted graphene, including magic angle graphene, has attracted extensive attentions for its novel properties recently. However, twisted graphene is intrinsically unstable and this will obstruct their application in practice, especially for twisted nano graphene. The twist angles between adjacent layers will change spontaneously. This relaxation process will be accelerated under heat and strain. To solve this problem, we propose a strategy of pillaring twisted graphene by organic linkers in theory. The necessity and feasibility of this strategy is proved by numerical calculation.

6-Shogaol Inhibits Oxidative Stress-Induced Rat Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Apoptosis by Regulating OXR1-p53 Axis.

Apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) is closely related to the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases, and oxidative stress is an important cause of VSMCs' death. Inhibiting VSMCs apoptosis is an effective preventive strategy in slowing down the development of cardiovascular disease, especially for atherosclerosis. In this study, we found that oxidation resistance protein 1 (OXR1), a crucial participator for responding to oxidative stress, could modulate the expression of p53, the key regulator of cell apoptosis. Our results revealed that oxidative stress promoted VSMCs apoptosis by overexpression of the OXR1-p53 axis, and 6-shogaol (6S), a major biologically active compound in ginger, could effectively attenuate cell death by preventing the upregulated expression of the OXR1-p53 axis. Quantitative proteomics analysis revealed that the degradation of p53 mediated by OXR1 might be related to the enhanced assembly of SCF ubiquitin ligase complexes, which is reported to closely relate to the modification of ubiquitination or neddylation and subsequent degradation of p53.

Procyanidin B2 improves endothelial progenitor cell function and promotes wound healing in diabetic mice via activating Nrf2.

One of the major reasons for the delayed wound healing in diabetes is the dysfunction of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) induced by hyperglycaemia. Improvement of EPC function may be a potential strategy for accelerating wound healing in diabetes. Procyanidin B2 (PCB2) is one of the major components of procyanidins, which exhibits a variety of potent pharmacological activities. However, the effects of PCB2 on EPC function and diabetic wound repair remain elusive. We evaluated the protective effects of PCB2 in EPCs with high glucose (HG) treatment and in a diabetic wound healing model. EPCs derived from human umbilical cord blood were treated with HG. The results showed that PCB2 significantly preserved the angiogenic function, survival and migration abilities of EPCs with HG treatment, and attenuated HG-induced oxidative stress of EPCs by scavenging excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS). A mechanistic study found the protective role of PCB2 is dependent on activating nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2). PCB2 increased the expression of Nrf2 and its downstream antioxidant genes to attenuate the oxidative stress induced by HG in EPCs, which were abolished by knockdown of Nrf2 expression. An in vivo study showed that intraperitoneal administration of PCB2 promoted wound healing and angiogenesis in diabetic mice, which was accompanied by a significant reduction in ROS level and an increase in circulating EPC number. Taken together, our results indicate that PCB2 treatment accelerates wound healing and increases angiogenesis in diabetic mice, which may be mediated by improving the mobilization and function of EPCs.

Modulation for efficiency and spectra of non-doped white organic light emitting diodes by combining an exciplex with an ultrathin phosphorescent emitter.

Herein, structured non-doped white organic light-emitting diodes (WOLEDs) were designed by combining the emission of a blue exciplex and orange-red phosphorescent ultrathin layer. The device efficiency and spectra were modulated successfully by adjusting the thickness of the exciplex layer and ultrathin layer, respectively. Meanwhile, high efficiency with external quantum efficiency (EQE) ranging from 15% to 22%, power efficiency from 33 lm W-1 to 47 lm W-1 and warm white emission with correlated color temperature (CCT) from 1600 K to 2600 K were realized. The energy transfer process and emission mechanism is also discussed, and the results reveal that the efficient charge trapping and recombination contribute to the improvement of device efficiency and reduce the roll-off efficiency.

A universal strategy to continuously tune the properties of materials through internal strain.

We proposed a universal strategy to continuously and precisely tune the properties of materials. Atoms or molecules would be inserted into a nano tuner, which is a nano container with inwalls linked by molecular springs. Interactions between core materials and nanocontainers can be precisely and continuously tuned by changing the types and amount of molecular springs. The fact is that most properties of atoms or molecules depend on their environments. This strategy can be applied universally to numerous materials. It could raise the performances of many materials significantly, even up to their theoretical limits.

miR-7 Reverses Breast Cancer Resistance To Chemotherapy By Targeting MRP1 And BCL2.

BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs that have been linked with breast cancer chemoresistance, which is a major clinical problem causing disease relapse and poor prognosis. miR-7 exerts several tumor suppressive activities. PURPOSE: This study was designed to clarify whether and how miR-7 regulates breast cancer chemoresistance. METHODS: miR-7 level in breast cancer was determined by qRT-PCR analysis. Cell viability was assessed by MTS assay to quantify the IC50 value of paclitaxel and carboplatin. The targets of miR-7 were confirmed by luciferase reporter assay. RESULTS: Higher miR-7 expression predicts better pathological complete response (pCR) of breast cancer patients receiving paclitaxel/carboplatin chemotherapy. In vitro, miR-7 sensitizes breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231) to paclitaxel and carboplatin, alone and in combination. In addition, we reveal that both the multidrug resistance-associated protein 1 (MRP1) and anti-apoptotic B cell lymphoma 2 (BCL2) are targets of miR-7 in breast cancer cells. Furthermore, miR-7-induced sensitization of breast cancer to paclitaxel/carboplatin is markedly reversed by restoration of MRP1 and BCL2. CONCLUSION: These findings show that miR-7 reverses breast cancer chemoresistance through suppressing MRP1 and BCL2, and also suggest that miR-7 may possess a predictive value and represent a therapeutic target in breast cancer chemotherapy.

Organic Upconversion Display with an over 100% Photon-to-photon Upconversion Efficiency and a Simple Pixelless Device Structure.

Compared to traditional near-infrared (NIR) imaging devices, NIR-to-visible upconversion displays, which integrated a NIR photodetector with a visible light-emitting diode, have merits of simple device structure, low cost, high resolution, and a simple pixelless structure. However, photon-to-photon upconversion efficiencies of these devices are typically much lower than unity. Here we report an all-organic NIR-to-visible upconversion display with a photon-to-photon upconversion efficiency higher than 100% by integrating a photomultiplying organic NIR photodetector with a high-efficiency thermally activated delayed fluorescent organic light-emitting diode. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report showing a photon-to-photon upconversion efficiency over 100% without using a built-in transistor for current amplification.

Mangrovicella endophytica gen. nov., sp. nov., a new member of the family Aurantimonadaceae isolated from Aegiceras corniculatum.

A Gram-negative, aerobic, motile and short-rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain 5T4P-12-1T, was isolated from a piece of surface-sterilized bark of Aegiceras corniculatum collected from Cotai Ecological Zones in Macao, China and tested by a polyphasic approach to clarify its taxonomic position. Strain 5T4P-12-1T grew optimally with 0-1 % (w/v) NaCl at 30 °C and at pH 7.0-8.0. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain 5T4P-12-1T had the highest similarity (96.7 %) to Aureimonas altamirensis DSM 21988T. Phylogenic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences and coding sequences of 98 protein clusters showed that the strain represented a novel genus of the family Aurantimonadaceae. The predominant quinone system of strain 5T4P-12-1T was ubiquinone 10. The polar lipid profile contained diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylmethylethanolamine, an unidentified aminophospholipid, three unidentified aminolipids, three unidentified phospholipids and three unidentified lipids. The major fatty acids (>10 % of total fatty acids) were C18 : 1ω7c (55.4 %) and C18 : 1 2-OH (15.6 %). The DNA G+C content of strain 5T4P-12-1T was 66.5 mol%. Based on the phylogenic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic features, strain 5T4P-12-1T is considered to represent a novel species of a new genus in the family Aurantimonadaceae, for which the name Mangrovicella endophytica gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 5T4P-12-1T (=KCTC 62053T=CGMCC 1.16279 T).

Amnibacterium endophyticum sp. nov., an endophytic actinobacterium isolated from Aegiceras corniculatum.

A Gram-stain-positive, aerobic, non-motile, non-spore-forming and short-rod-shaped actinobacterium, designated strain 1T4Z-3T, was isolated from a piece of surface-sterilized branch of Aegiceras corniculatum collected from the Cotai Ecological Zones in Macao, China. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain 1T4Z-3T was clearly affiliated to the genus Amnibacterium and exhibited 97.9 % gene sequence similarity to Amnibacterium kyonggiense JCM 16463T, 97.3 % gene sequence similarity to Amnibacterium soli JCM 19015T and less than 96.4 % gene sequence similarities to other genera of the family Microbacteriaceae. Strain 1T4Z-3T had L-2,4-diaminobutyric acid as the diagnostic cell-wall diamino acid. The major fatty acids (>10 % of total fatty acids) were iso-C16 : 0 (46.6 %) and anteiso-C15 : 0 (27.3 %). The predominant menaquinones of strain 1T4Z-3T were MK-11 (81.4 %) and MK-12 (14.1 %). The polar lipids comprised diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, six unidentified glycolipids, four unidentified phospholipids and two unidentified lipids. The DNA G+C content of strain 1T4Z-3T was 71.4 mol%. Based on the phylogenetic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic features, strain 1T4Z-3T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Amnibacterium, for which the name Amnibacterium endophyticum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Amnibacterium endophyticum is 1T4Z-3T (=KCTC 39983T=CGMCC 1.16066T).

Electronic Level Alignment at an Indium Tin Oxide/PbI2 Interface and Its Applications for Organic Electronic Devices.

The electronic level alignment at the indium tin oxide (ITO)/PbI2 interface is investigated by an ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy. An n-type conductivity property is found for PbI2 as well as a downward shift energy level at the ITO/PbI2 interface. These indicate that PbI2 can be used as an anode buffer layer for organic electronic devices. The power conversion efficiency of the organic solar cell based on tetraphenyldibenzoperiflanthene/C70 planar heterojunction is dramatically increased from 1.05 to 3.82%. Meanwhile, the thermally activated delayed fluorescence organic light-emitting diode based on 4,4',4″-tri( N-carbazolyl)triphenylamine-((1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triyl)tris(benzene-3,1-diyl))tris(diphenylphosphine oxide) shows a significantly reduced turn-on voltage and enhanced power efficiency from 6.26 to 18.60 lm/W. The improved performance is attributed to the high hole injection/extraction efficiency at the ITO/PbI2 interface. Besides, the near-infrared (NIR) absorption of lead phthalocyanine (PbPc)-based NIR organic photodetector (NIR-OPD) is dramatically increased, indicating that the PbI2 layer can also be used as a template layer for the growth of the triclinic phase of PbPc. As a result, the optimized device shows an external quantum efficiency of 26.7% and a detectivity of 9.96 × 1011 jones at 900 nm, which are among the highest ones reported for organic NIR-OPDs.

Low efficiency roll-off and high color stability pure fluorescent white organic light-emitting diode based exciplex host.

Pure fluorescent WOLEDs with low efficiency roll-off and high color stability were realized by employing an exciplex host. Due to incomplete energy transfer from the blue exciplex host of mCP : PO-T2T to the orange fluorescent dopant of rubrene, the WOLEDs showed a maximum current efficiency, power efficiency and EQE of 14.2 cd A-1, 12.8 lm W-1 and 4.90%, respectively. To our surprise, a rather small roll-off ratio of 8.2% from the maximum EQE to the EQE at 1000 cd m-2 and stable white light-emitting spectra with CIE coordinates of (0.384 ± 0.001, 0.439 ± 0.002) from 4 V to 8 V were obtained simultaneously. The bipolarity and triplet exciton up-conversion of the exciplex host played key roles in delivering excellent performance. More detailed discussions are also provided.

QSAR Study for Carcinogenic Potency of Aromatic Amines Based on GEP and MLPs.

A new analysis strategy was used to classify the carcinogenicity of aromatic amines. The physical-chemical parameters are closely related to the carcinogenicity of compounds. Quantitative structure activity relationship (QSAR) is a method of predicting the carcinogenicity of aromatic amine, which can reveal the relationship between carcinogenicity and physical-chemical parameters. This study accessed gene expression programming by APS software, the multilayer perceptrons by Weka software to predict the carcinogenicity of aromatic amines, respectively. All these methods relied on molecular descriptors calculated by CODESSA software and eight molecular descriptors were selected to build function equations. As a remarkable result, the accuracy of gene expression programming in training and test sets are 0.92 and 0.82, the accuracy of multilayer perceptrons in training and test sets are 0.84 and 0.74 respectively. The precision of the gene expression programming is obviously superior to multilayer perceptrons both in training set and test set. The QSAR application in the identification of carcinogenic compounds is a high efficiency method.

Interface Engineering of Organic Schottky Barrier Solar Cells and Its Application in Enhancing Performances of Planar Heterojunction Solar Cells.

In this work, we describe the performance of organic Schottky barrier solar cells with the structure of ITO/molybdenum oxide (MoOx)/boron subphthalocyanine chloride (SubPc)/bathophenanthroline (BPhen)/Al. The SubPc-based Schottky barrier solar cells exhibited a short-circuit current density (Jsc) of 2.59 mA/cm(2), an open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 1.06 V, and a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 0.82% under simulated AM1.5 G solar illumination at 100 mW/cm(2). Device performance was substantially enhanced by simply inserting thin organic hole transport material into the interface of MoOx and SubPc. The optimized devices realized a 180% increase in PCE of 2.30% and a peak Voc as high as 1.45 V was observed. We found that the improvement is due to the exciton and electron blocking effect of the interlayer and its thickness plays a vital role in balancing charge separation and suppressing quenching effect. Moreover, applying such interface engineering into MoOx/SubPc/C60 based planar heterojunction cells substantially enhanced the PCE of the device by 44%, from 3.48% to 5.03%. Finally, we also investigated the requirements of the interface material for Schottky barrier modification.

Highly efficient organic tandem solar cell with a SubPc interlayer based on TAPC:C70 bulk heterojunction.

We report a small molecule tandem organic photovoltaic (OPV) cell with a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 7.27%. This cell contains two subcells with an identical mixed active layer of C70:5 wt%TAPC (1,1-bis-(4-bis(4-methyl-phenyl)-amino-phenyl)-cyclohexane). The performance was dramatically improved by simply inserting a thin boron subphthalocyanine chloride (SubPc) interlayer, which results in an increase of the short-circuit current and open-circuit voltage as well as a decrease of the series resistance of the tandem cell. The response of the cell only contributed from the absorption of C70. The high PCE was attributed to the high absorption efficiency of C70 and improved holes extraction efficiency at the anode due to the band bending occurs at both MoO3/SubPc and SubPc/C70:5 wt%TAPC interfaces.

Highly efficient red OLEDs using DCJTB as the dopant and delayed fluorescent exciplex as the host.

In this manuscript, we demonstrated a highly efficient DCJTB emission with delayed fluorescent exciplex TCTA:3P-T2T as the host. For the 1.0% DCJTB doped concentration, a maximum luminance, current efficiency, power efficiency and EQE of 22,767 cd m(-2), 22.7 cd A(-1), 21.5 lm W(-1) and 10.15% were achieved, respectively. The device performance is the best compared to either red OLEDs with traditional fluorescent emitter or traditional red phosphor of Ir(piq)3 doped into CBP host. The extraction of so high efficiency can be explained as the efficient triplet excitons up-conversion of TCTA:3P-T2T and the energy transfer from exciplex host singlet state to DCJTB singlet state.