The impact of sMICA/sMICB on immunochemotherapy outcomes in newly diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

IntroductionSoluble MHC class I-related chain A (sMICA) and B (sMICB) play a critical role tumor evolution and poor prognosis through an immune evasion mechanism. Thus, this study determines the interaction between sMICA/sMICB and the tumor immune environment in newly diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (ND-DLBCL).MethodsWe analyzed sMICA/sMICB, cytokine in serum, and macrophage polarization analysis in tissue samples before the first chemotherapy administration. This research was performed to investigate the correlation between sMICA/sMICB expression and treatment outcomes as well as their influence on the immune system within ND-DLBCL.ResultsOf the 262 patients, 47.3% (n = 124) presented stage III or IV at diagnosis and 50.8% (n = 133) had a high International Prognostic Index (IPI ≥ 3). The patients with high (p = 0.034 and 0.004), elevated lactate dehydrogenase (p = 0.002 and 0.030), advanced stage (p = 0.003 and 0.012), and higher IPI risk (p = 0.009, and 0.032) correlated with the detection of sMICA or sMICB. The median progression-free survival (PFS) of patients with sMICA (p = 0.006) or sMICB (p =0.032) was inferior. Among the patients with advanced-stage or high IPI, those with sMICA or sMICB presented an inferior PFS and OS compared to those without. TNF-a, a pro-inflammatory cytokine, showed statistical significance with detected sMICA (p = 0.035) or sMICB (p = 0.044). Among anti-inflammatory cytokines, IL-1RA (P-value = 0.013) and IL-10 (p = 0.005) were associated with detecting sMICB, but not sMICA. In tissue samples, sMICA or sMICB detection did not correlate with the CD68/CD163 ratio.DiscussionConclusively, the identification of sMICA/sMICB presented unfavorable immunochemotherapy outcomes, and it was assumed that sMICA or sMICB and various cytokines interact, but the relationship with macrophage differentiation is unclear. Therefore, further research is needed to determine the relationship between sMICA/sMICB and tumor microenvironment in DLBCL

Roles of Exosome-Like Vesicles Released from Inflammatory C2C12 Myotubes: Regulation of Myocyte Differentiation and Myokine Expression

Background/Aims: The complicated differentiation processes of cells in skeletal muscle against inflammation that induce muscle atrophy are not fully elucidated. Given that skeletal muscle is a secretory organ, we evaluated the effects of inflammation on myogenic signals and myokine expression, and the roles of inflammatory exosomes released by myotubes in myogenic differentiation. Methods: Inflammation was induced by treatment of fully differentiated C2C12 myotubes with a cytokine mixture of TNF-α and INF-γ. Exosome-like vesicles (ELVs) were isolated from conditioned media of control or inflamed myotubes and incubated with myoblasts. The expression of molecular switches that contribute to myogenic differentiation, including several kinases, their downstream targets, and myokines, were evaluated using immunoblot analysis in inflamed myotubes and in myoblasts treated with ELVs. Results: Inflammation activated molecular mechanisms contributing to muscle atrophy, including AMPK, p-38 MAPK and JNK, while inhibiting Akt-mediated myogenic signals. In addition, inflammation induced myostatin expression with suppression of a myostatin-counteracting myokine, decorin. Well-characterized ELVs released from inflamed myotubes induced myoblast inflammation and inhibited myogenic mechanisms while stimulating atrophic signals. Conclusion: Inflammation of skeletal muscle induces muscle atrophy via multiple mechanisms, including the regulation of myokines and kinases. Inflammatory ELVs are likely to contribute to inflammation-induced muscle atrophy

Gleditsia sinensis Thorn Attenuates the Collagen-Based Migration of PC3 Prostate Cancer Cells through the Suppression of α2β1 Integrin Expression

Gleditsia sinensis thorns (GST) have been used as a traditional medicine for carbuncles and skin diseases. The purpose of this study was to decide whether non-toxicological levels of water extract of GST (WEGST) are effective in inhibiting the progress of prostate cancer formation and to identify the target molecule involved in the WEGST-mediated inhibitory process of prostate cancer cell migration and in vivo tumor formation. Through the Boyden chamber migration assay, we found that non-toxic levels of WEGST could not attenuate the PC3 migration to the bottom area coated with serum but significantly inhibited PC3 cell migration to the collagen-coated bottom area. We also found that non-toxic levels of WEGST significantly attenuated collagen against adhesion. Interestingly, ectopic administration of WEGST could not affect the expression of α2β1 integrin, which is known as a receptor of collagen. However, when the PC3 cells adhered to a collagen-coated plate, the expression of α2 integrin but not that of β1 integrin was significantly inhibited by the administration of non-toxic levels of WEGST, leading to the inhibition of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) phosphorylation. Furthermore, oral administration of WEGST (25 mg/kg/day) significantly inhibited the size of a PC3 cell-xenografted tumor. Taken together, these results suggest a novel molecular mechanism for WEGST to inhibit prostate cancer progression at particular stages, such as collagen-mediated adhesion and migration, and it might provide further development for the therapeutic use of WEGST in the treatment of prostate cancer progression

Polarized Raman Spectra and Complex Raman Tensors of Antiferromagnetic Semiconductor CrPS4

Chromium thiophosphate (CrPS4), a monoclinic crystal of C-2(3) space group, is a ternary-layered semiconductor with an optical band gap of 1.4 eV and exhibits antiferromagnetism below 36 K. Despite its potential in optoelectronic and magnetic applications, the symmetry of its lattice vibrations has not been systematically studied. In this work, we performed polarized Raman spectroscopy of bulk CrPS4 using three different excitation wavelengths of 457, 514, and 633 nm. High-quality crystals grown by the chemical vapor transport method were mechanically exfoliated or polished to expose three orthogonal crystallographic facets. Polarized Raman spectra were obtained in parallel and cross configurations by rotating samples about the surface normal to each of the facets. Among 33 Raman active modes (16 A and 17 B) at the Brillouin zone center, 19 (8) peaks observed in the parallel (cross) configuration were assigned as A (B) modes. Complex-valued Raman tensors were determined for 7 major A modes using the angle-dependent Raman spectra of the three facets. The results can also be used in determining the crystallographic orientations of CrPS4 unequivocally.11Nsciescopu

Gleditsia sinensis Thorn Attenuates the Collagen-Based Migration of PC3 Prostate Cancer Cells through the Suppression of α2β1 Integrin Expression

Gleditsia sinensis thorns (GST) have been used as a traditional medicine for carbuncles and skin diseases. The purpose of this study was to decide whether non-toxicological levels of water extract of GST (WEGST) are effective in inhibiting the progress of prostate cancer formation and to identify the target molecule involved in the WEGST-mediated inhibitory process of prostate cancer cell migration and in vivo tumor formation. Through the Boyden chamber migration assay, we found that non-toxic levels of WEGST could not attenuate the PC3 migration to the bottom area coated with serum but significantly inhibited PC3 cell migration to the collagen-coated bottom area. We also found that non-toxic levels of WEGST significantly attenuated collagen against adhesion. Interestingly, ectopic administration of WEGST could not affect the expression of α2β1 integrin, which is known as a receptor of collagen. However, when the PC3 cells adhered to a collagen-coated plate, the expression of α2 integrin but not that of β1 integrin was significantly inhibited by the administration of non-toxic levels of WEGST, leading to the inhibition of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) phosphorylation. Furthermore, oral administration of WEGST (25 mg/kg/day) significantly inhibited the size of a PC3 cell-xenografted tumor. Taken together, these results suggest a novel molecular mechanism for WEGST to inhibit prostate cancer progression at particular stages, such as collagen-mediated adhesion and migration, and it might provide further development for the therapeutic use of WEGST in the treatment of prostate cancer progression

Novel High-Q Inductor using Active Inductor Structure and Feedback Parallel Resonance Circuit

This paper presents a novel high-Q inductor using conventional grounded active inductor and feedback parallel resonance circuit. The proposed high-Q inductor (HI) consists of the conventional active grounded inductor and feedback parallel resonance circuit which is composed of low-Q spiral inductor and capacitor. The novelty of the proposed structure is based on the increase of g-factor by feeding parallel resonance circuit into gyrator structure. The high-Q inductor is fabricated by 0.18 mum Hynix CMOS technology. The fabricated inductor shows inductance of above 45 nH and Q-factor of over 250 around 5 GHz

Cross Linkable Polymeric Binders for Si anodes in Li Batteries for high performance and practical applications

The electro chemical performance of Li ion battery (LIB) can be highly tuned by various factors which include morphology of anode material, nature of electrolyte and binding material, percentage of conducting materials etc. Among them, binding material have been attracted by researchers over decades, which results in the introduction of different polymeric binder, originated from nature, such as poly acrylic acid, carboxy methyl cellulose, alginic acid etc. for Si anode of LIBs. Recently several synthetic and structural modifications of these conventional polymeric binders, for example, random co polymer of polyacrylic acid with vinyl alcohol, porous scaffold of CMC, etc. has been developed by many researchers. However, the challenges of further development of Li ion rechargeable batteries still exists because of some unique property possessed by Li batteries, such as high energy density, high specific capacity and light weight to carry. Inspired from these advantages of LIBs, here in, we introduce a novel polymeric binder for Si anodes in LIB as an effort to improve the columbic efficiency and cycle durability of LIBs. We report, novel random copolymers, poly(tert-butyl acrylate-co-triethoxyvinylsilane) and Poly(acrylic acid-co-vinyl alcohol) as an efficient binders with ICE of more than 80% for LIBs. The binders form cross linking under thermal treatment, demonstrated by FT-IR, helps to minimize the pulverization of Si nano particle in the anode. In this present work we find out the optimum percentage of each monomer composition in the random co polymer by analyzing the electro-chemical-mechanical properties of series of synthesized random copolymers

Innate Voids of Halloysite Enabling High-Volumetric Density Anodes for Silicon/Graphite Composites

Silicon (Si) has been considered as a prospective anode material in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to its exceptional high capacity and energy density than the commercialized carbon-based materials. However, volume expansion (~380%) caused by alloying chemistry of silicon affects the deterioration of electrodes and battery performance. To minimize these drawbacks, the fabrication of Si/graphite composite electrodes has emerged as a promising anode since graphite anodes possess less volume expansion (~10%) with a porous structure that contributes to the accommodation of the electrode level for Si expansion. It is well known that the specific capacity and cyclability would conflict in the composite anode as increasing silicon contents. With this interpretation, previous studies reported that the theoretical limit of Si contents in the composites was approximately calculated as 15% with a numerical optimization considering electrode porosity, expansion of active materials, and so on. Considering aforementioned issues, we propose a novel method to enhance the energy density of the composite electrode by increasing the portion of Si by use of halloysite containing native voids in the structure, resulting in less volume expansion. As the production cost should be considered for practical application, we selected silicon nanotubes (SiNT) that derived from natural halloysite clay which is widely distributed in the earth crust. With facile and cost-effective synthesis process, the synthesized SiNT has less volume expansion (~200%). From the careful investigation via in-situ transmission electron microscopy, we found the optimal composition of SiNT in the silicon/graphite composites to overcome the limited volumetric density of the anodes. The physical and chemical properties, and battery performances will be discussed in detail in this presentation

Branched Sulfonimide-Based Proton Exchange Polymer Membranes from Poly(Phenylenebenzopheneone)s for Fuel Cell Applications

Improved proton conductivity and high durability are now a high concern for proton exchange membranes (PEMs). Therefore, highly proton conductive PEMs have been synthesized from branched sulfonimide-based poly(phenylenebenzophenone) (SI-branched PPBP) with excellent thermal and chemical stability. The branched polyphenylene-based carbon-carbon backbones of the SI-branched PPBP membranes were attained from the 1,4-dichloro-2,5-diphenylenebenzophenone (PBP) monomer using 1,3,5-trichlorobenzene as a branching agent (0.1%) via the Ni-Zn catalyzed C-C coupling reaction. The as-synthesized SI-branched PPBP membranes showed 1.00~1.86 meq./g ion exchange capacity (IEC) with unique dimensional stability. The sulfonimide groups of the SI-branched PPBP membranes had improved proton conductivity (75.9–121.88 mS/cm) compared to Nafion 117 (84.74 mS/cm). Oxidation stability by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Fenton’s test study confirmed the significant properties of the SI-branched PPBP membranes. Additionally, a very distinct microphase separation between the hydrophobic and hydrophilic moieties was observed using atomic force microscopic (AFM) analysis. The properties of the synthesized SI-branched PPBP membranes demonstrate their viability as an alternative PEM material

Sulfonyl Imide Acid-Functionalized Membranes via Ni (0) Catalyzed Carbon-Carbon Coupling Polymerization for Fuel Cells

Polymer membranes, having improved conductivity with enhanced thermal and chemical stability, are desirable for proton exchange membranes fuel cell application. Hence, poly(benzophenone)s membranes (SI-PBP) containing super gas-phase acidic sulfonyl imide groups have been prepared from 2,5-dichlorobenzophenone (DCBP) monomer by C-C coupling polymerization using Ni (0) catalyst. The entirely aromatic C-C coupled polymer backbones of the SI-PBP membranes provide exceptional dimensional stability with rational ion exchange capacity (IEC) from 1.85 to 2.30 mS/cm. The as-synthesized SI-PBP membranes provide enhanced proton conductivity (107.07 mS/cm) compared to Nafion 211® (104.5 mS/cm). The notable thermal and chemical stability of the SI-PBP membranes have been assessed by the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Fenton’s test, respectively. The well distinct surface morphology of the SI-PBP membranes has been confirmed by the atomic force microscopy (AFM). These results of SI-PBP membranes comply with all the requirements for fuel cell applications