Research progress of CTC, ctDNA, and EVs in cancer liquid biopsy

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), and extracellular vehicles (EVs) have received significant attention in recent times as emerging biomarkers and subjects of transformational studies. The three main branches of liquid biopsy have evolved from the three primary tumor liquid biopsy detection targets—CTC, ctDNA, and EVs—each with distinct benefits. CTCs are derived from circulating cancer cells from the original tumor or metastases and may display global features of the tumor. ctDNA has been extensively analyzed and has been used to aid in the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of neoplastic diseases. EVs contain tumor-derived material such as DNA, RNA, proteins, lipids, sugar structures, and metabolites. The three provide different detection contents but have strong complementarity to a certain extent. Even though they have already been employed in several clinical trials, the clinical utility of three biomarkers is still being studied, with promising initial findings. This review thoroughly overviews established and emerging technologies for the isolation, characterization, and content detection of CTC, ctDNA, and EVs. Also discussed were the most recent developments in the study of potential liquid biopsy biomarkers for cancer diagnosis, therapeutic monitoring, and prognosis prediction. These included CTC, ctDNA, and EVs. Finally, the potential and challenges of employing liquid biopsy based on CTC, ctDNA, and EVs for precision medicine were evaluated

PbS1−xSex-Quantum-Dot@MWCNT/P3HT Nanocomposites with Tunable Photoelectric Conversion Performance

The photoelectric performance of quantum dots (QDs)-based nanocomposites is closely related to the optical properties of QDs, which play a critical role in the optical absorption and separation/transfer of charge carriers. Herein, we report a nanocomposite composed of light absorber PbS1−xSex quantum dots (QDs), electron-conducting multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and hole-conducting poly-3-hexylthiophene (P3HT) with tunable photoelectric conversion performance. In addition to using the quantization effect, we proposed solid-solution PbS1−xSex QDs (x = 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1) for band gap engineering. In particular, we successfully synthesized relatively small (~5.3 nm) and uniform QDs via the hot-injection method by using PbCl2, S/Se powder and environmentally friendly oleylamine (OLA) as the precursors and/or solvent. By increasing the content of Se, the band gap of PbS1−xSex QDs decreased along with the decrease in the conduction band and valence band edges. The suitable energy level alignment enabled the efficient transfer of photoinduced charge carriers, and hence a much higher photoelectric conversion performance of the PbS1−xSex-QD@MWCNT/P3HT nanocomposites than the individual QDs, P3HT, and binary PbS1−xSex-QD@MWCNT, as well as the best performance, was achieved over PbS0.75Se0.25-QD@MWCNT/P3HT

Negative Roles of a Novel Nitrogen Metabolite Repression-Related Gene, TAR1, in Laccase Production and Nitrate Utilization by the Basidiomycete Cryptococcus neoformans▿

The multicopper oxidase laccase is widespread in fungi and has great industrial importance. One puzzle regarding laccase production in the basidiomycetous yeast Cryptococcus neoformans is that it is inhibited by high temperature (e.g., 37°C). In this paper, we report identification of a nitrogen metabolite repression-related gene, TAR1, which is responsible for laccase repression. Disruption of TAR1 results in a significant increase in the level of LAC1 mRNA at 37°C. The putative protein Tar1 shares a moderate level of similarity with the nitrogen metabolite repressors Nmr1 and NmrA from Neurospora crassa and Aspergillus nidulans, respectively. Likewise, Tar1 has a negative role in the utilization of nitrate. Furthermore, the structure of Tar1 is unique. Tar1 lacks the long C-terminal region of Nmr1 and NmrA. It contains the canonical Rossmann fold motif, GlyXXGlyXXGly, whereas Nmr1 and NmrA have variable residues at the Gly positions. Interestingly, the promoter region of TAR1 contains three TTC/GAA repeats which are likely the heat shock factor (Hsf) binding sites, implying that Hsf has a role in laccase inhibition. TAR1 mediation of temperature-associated repression of LAC1 suggests a novel mechanism of laccase regulation and a new function for Nmr proteins. Our work may be helpful for industry in terms of promotion of laccase activity

Promoting photoreduction properties via synergetic utilization between plasmonic effect and highly active facet of BiOCl

Exploring highly efficient photocatalysts is an urgent task for achieving efficient solar-to-chemical conversion. Plasmonic effect is widely used in improving the photocatalytic properties via reducing the activation barrier for chemical reactions, enhancing the absorption of the photocatalysts or injecting the hot carriers into the photocatalysts from the plasmon metals. In this work, we design BiOCl-Ag-E with Ag loaded on the edge side of BiOCl. This hybrid structure takes the advantages of highly photocatalytic active (001) facet of BiOCl and the plasmonic effect. The plasmon metal is proposed to provide the (001) facets with more photogenerated charge carriers driving by the internal electric field, which is convinced by the photocurrent response and the detection of active species. Due to the accumulation of more negative charge carriers on (001) facet, BiOCl-Ag-E presents outstanding waste-water cleaning and CO2 photoreduction properties. The methodology of material design in this work paves the way for future design of efficient photocatalysts