Hypoxia-Regulated miR-146a Targets Cell Adhesion Molecule 2 to Promote Proliferation, Migration, and Invasion of Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Background/Aims: miR-146a has recently been shown to promote cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in many cancers, but the role of miR-146a in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) remains unclear. Methods: Reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) was performed to investigate the mRNA expression of miR-146a and CADM2 in ccRCC tissues. The luciferase reporter assay, Western blotting, and ChIP assay were carried out to explore the promoter and the transcription factor of miR-146a. Moreover, the effect of miR-146a and CADM2 on ccRCC cells was explored using methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium, colony formation, and migration and invasion assays. The luciferase reporter assay, RT-qPCR, western blotting, and immunofluorescence assay were carried out to investigate whether CADM2 is directly regulated by miR-146a. A tumor xenograft model and immunohistochemical staining were used to examine the carcinogenic effect of miR-146a and CADM2 in vivo. Results: miR-146a has been shown to promote cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Here, we found that miR-146a is highly expressed in ccRCC tissues, whereas CADM2 is down-regulated. Hypoxia can induce the expression of miR-146a by stimulating its promoter. In addition, we demonstrated that miR-146a promoted and CADM2 inhibited proliferation, migration, and invasion of ccRCC cells. The 3’ untranslated region (UTR) luciferase reporter assay identified that miR-146a targeted the 3’ UTR of CADM2 and negatively regulated its expression. Ectopic expression of CADM2 counteracted the promoting effect of miR-146a on cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and the epithelial–mesenchymal transition process. Conclusion: Together, the finding of down-regulation of CADM2 by miR-146a can provide new insights into ccRCC pathogenesis and might contribute to the development of novel therapeutic strategies

Vertical Interface Induced Dielectric Relaxation in Nanocomposite (BaTiO3)1-x:(Sm2O3)x Thin Films

Vertical interfaces in vertically aligned nanocomposite thin films have been approved to be an effective method to manipulate functionalities. However, several challenges with regard to the understanding on the physical process underlying the manipulation still remain. In this work, because of the ordered interfaces and large interfacial area, heteroepitaxial (BaTiO(3))(1-x):(Sm(2)O(3))(x) thin films have been fabricated and used as a model system to investigate the relationship between vertical interfaces and dielectric properties. Due to a relatively large strain generated at the interfaces, vertical interfaces between BaTiO(3) and Sm(2)O(3) are revealed to become the sinks to attract oxygen vacancies. The movement of oxygen vacancies is confined at the interfaces and hampered by the misfit dislocations, which contributed to a relaxation behavior in (BaTiO(3))(1-x):(Sm(2)O(3))(x) thin films. This work represents an approach to further understand that how interfaces influence on dielectric properties in oxide thin films

Enhanced γ-Glutamyltranspeptidase Imaging That Unravels the Glioma Recurrence in Post-radio/Chemotherapy Mixtures for Precise Pathology via Enzyme-Triggered Fluorescent Probe

Accurate pathological diagnosis of gliomas recurrence is crucial for the optimal management and prognosis prediction. The study here unravels that our newly developed γ-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT) fluorescence probe (Figure 1A) imaging in twenty recurrent glioma tissues selectively recognizes the most malignant portion from treatment responsive tissues induced by radio/chemo-therapy (Figure 1B). The overexpression of GGT in recurrent gliomas and low level in radiation necrosis were validated by western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry. Furthermore, the ki-67 index evaluation demonstrated the significant increase of malignancy, aided by the GGT-responsive fluorescent probe to screen out the right specimen through fast enhanced imaging of enzyme activity. Importantly, our GGT-targeting probe can be used for accurate determination of pathologic evaluation of tumor malignancy, and eventually for guiding the following management in patients with recurrent gliomas

Oxygen-vacancy-mediated dielectric property in perovskite Eu0.5Ba0.5TiO3-δ epitaxial thin films

Dielectric relaxation in ABO3 perovskite oxides can result from many different charge carrier-related phenomena. Despite a strong understanding of dielectric relaxations, a detailed investigation of the relationship between the content of oxygen vacancies (VO) and dielectric relaxation has not been performed in perovskite oxide films. In this work, we report a systematic investigation of the influence of the VO concentration on the dielectric relaxation of Eu0.5Ba0.5TiO3-δ epitaxial thin films. Nuclear resonance backscattering spectrometry was used to directly measure the oxygen concentration in Eu0.5Ba0.5TiO3-δ films. We found that dipolar defects created by VO interact with the off-centered Ti ions, which results in the dielectric relaxation in Eu0.5Ba0.5TiO3-δ films. Activation energy gradually increases with the increasing content of VO. The present work significantly extends our understanding of relaxation properties in oxide films

Editorial for the Special Issue “Nanoscale Ferroic Materials—Ferroelectric, Piezoelectric, Magnetic, and Multiferroic Materials”

Ferroic materials, including ferroelectric, piezoelectric, magnetic, and multiferroic materials, are receiving great scientific attentions due to their rich physical properties [...

Fish Scale for Wearable, Self-Powered TENG

Flexible and wearable devices are attracting more and more attention. Herein, we propose a self-powered triboelectric nanogenerator based on the triboelectric effect of fish scales. As the pressure on the nanogenerator increases, the output voltage of the triboelectric nanogenerator increases. The nanogenerator can output a voltage of 7.4 V and a short-circuit current of 0.18 μA under a pressure of 50 N. The triboelectric effect of fish scales was argued to be related to the lamellar structure composed of collagen fiber bundles. The nanogenerator prepared by fish scales can sensitively perceive human activities such as walking, finger tapping, and elbow bending. Moreover, fish scales are a biomass material with good biocompatibility with the body. The fish-scale nanogenerator is a kind of flexible, wearable, and self-powered triboelectric nanogenerator showing great prospects in healthcare and body information monitoring

Boosting the Humidity Performances of Na0.5BixTiO3 by Tuning Bi Content

In the field of humidity sensors, a major challenge is how to improve the sensing performance of existing materials. Based on our previous work on Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3, a facile strategy of tuning the Bi content in the material was proposed to improve its sensing performance. Na0.5BixTiO3 (x = 0.3, 0.35, 0.4, 0.45) nanocomposites were synthesized by a hydrothermal method. Humidity sensing properties of these nanocomposites were investigated in the relative humidity range of 11% to 95%. Our results show that, compared to the sensor based on nominally pure sample (Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3), the sensor based on Na0.5Bi0.35TiO3 exhibits boosted sensing performance of excellent linear humidity response in the humidity range of 11–75% relative humidity, lower hysteresis value, and faster response/recovery time. The improvement of the sensing performance was argued to be the reason that the proper reduction in Bi content leads to a minimum value of oxygen-vacancy concentrations, thereby weakening the chemical adsorption but enhancing the physical adsorption. These results indicate that the proper underdose of the Bi content in Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 can greatly boost the sensing performance

High energy storage properties in CaLaTiO3-modified NaNbO3-based lead-free antiferroelectric ceramics

In this work, (1 [Formula: see text])(0.92NaNbO3–0.08BaTiO3)–[Formula: see text]Ca[Formula: see text]La[Formula: see text]TiO3 (NNBT – [Formula: see text]CLT) ceramics were successfully designed and prepared by the solid-state reaction method. Investigations on the structure, dielectric, and energy storage properties were performed. The NNBT – 0.25CLT ceramic with orthorhombic phase at room temperature was found to exhibit extremely small grain size and compacted microstructure. A large [Formula: see text] of 3.1 J/cm3 and a high [Formula: see text] of 91.5% under the electric field of 360 kV/cm were achieved simultaneously in the sample. In addition, the energy storage performance of the sample exhibits thermal stability over the temperature range of 25–140[Formula: see text]C and the frequency range of 5–500 Hz. The charge and discharge tests reveal that the ceramic shows a large current density [Formula: see text] of 965 A/cm2 and power density [Formula: see text] of 154 MW/cm3. This work demonstrates that the NNBT–0.25CLT ceramic is a prospective energy storage material for potential application in the field of pulsed power devices

Pseudo-relaxor behavior in 0.35La(2)O(3)-0.65Nb(2)O(5) glass prepared by aerodynamic levitation method

0.35La(2)O(3)-0.65Nb(2)O(5) glasses were prepared by aerodynamic levitation method. The dielectric properties of the sample were investigated as a function of temperature (30-700 degrees C) in the frequency range from 100 Hz to 1 MHz. The glasses show a temperature and frequency-independent dielectric constant of 40 below 200 degrees C. A relaxor-like behavior was observed above 200 degrees C, which was found to be composed of two relaxations with the activation energy of 1.32 eV and 1.3 eV for the low- and high temperature relaxations, respectively. Impedance analysis reveals that the low-temperature relaxation is a conduction relaxation associated with hopping motion of oxygen ions and the high-temperature one is a Maxwell-Wagner relaxation associated with phase boundary. The relaxor-like behavior is attributed to the combining effect of both relaxations. (C) d2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

A Flexible, Wearable, Humidity‐Resistant and Self‐Powered Sensor Fabricated by Chitosan‐Critic Acid Film and its Applications in Human Motion Monitoring and Energy Harvesting

Abstract Being a resource‐abundant natural material, chitosan shows good frictional electrical properties and has become one of the most used materials for triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs). To improve water resistance and mechanical properties, herein, a strategy is proposed to modify the chitosan film by citric acid. The results show that both humidity‐resistant and mechanical properties of the modified films can be notably enhanced due to the formation of a network structure between chitosan molecular chains. Excellent output performance of 77.5 V and 2.66 µA is achieved in the TENG based on the modified film with a mass ratio of chitosan/citric acid = 3:1. Under a relative humidity (RH) of 80%RH, it can output 70.16% of the voltage compared to that under 20%RH. Self‐powered tactile sensor based on the TENG exhibits a sensitive response to pressure and bending and humidity resistance, giving the sensor tremendous promise for a wider range of human motion monitoring and energy harvesting