Phase-Engineered VO₂ Metal Nanofiber Enables a Metal–Insulator Transition for Bidirectional Thermal Reallocation

Phase change materials (PCMs) are appealing for their fascinating capability of thermal reallocation, assisting widely in many areas of human productivity and life. However, it has remained a significant challenge to attain shape stability, temperature resistance, and microscale continuity in PCMs while maintaining sufficient phase change performance. Here we report a sol epitaxial fabrication strategy to create metal–insulator transition nanofibers (MIT-NFs) composed of monoclinic vanadium dioxide. The MIT-NFs are further assembled into self-standing two-dimensional membranes and three-dimensional aerogels with structural robustness. The resulting series of metal–insulator transition materials exhibits the integrated features of solid–solid phase change properties, shape stability, and thermal reallocation properties. The integral ceramic characteristic also provides the MIT-NFs with surface stiffness (54 GPa), temperature resistance (−196° to 330 °C), and thermal insulator properties. The successful fabrication of these captivating MIT materials may provide new perspectives for next-generation, shape-stable, and self-standing PCMs

Hyaluronic Acid and Polyethylene Glycol Hybrid Hydrogel Encapsulating Nanogel with Hemostasis and Sustainable Antibacterial Property for Wound Healing

Immediate hemorrhage control and anti-infection play important roles in the wound management. Besides, a moist environment is also beneficial for wound healing. Hydrogels are promising materials in urgent hemostasis and drug release. However, hydrogels have the disadvantage of rapid release profiles, leading to the exposure to high drug concentrations. In this study, we constructed hybrid hydrogels with rapid hemostasis and sustainable antibacterial property combining aminoethyl methacrylate hyaluronic acid (HA-AEMA) and methacrylated methoxy polyethylene glycol (mPEG-MA) hybrid hydrogels and chlorhexidine diacetate (CHX)-loaded nanogels. The CHX-loaded nanogels (CLNs) were prepared by the enzyme degradation of CHX-loaded lysine-based hydrogels. The HA-AEMA and mPEG-MA hybrid hydrogel loaded with CLNs (labeled as Gel@CLN) displayed a three-dimensional microporous structure and exhibited excellent swelling, mechanical property, and low cytotoxicity. The Gel@CLN hydrogel showed a prolonged release period of CHX over 240 h and the antibacterial property over 10 days. The hemostasis and wound-healing properties were evaluated in vivo using a mouse model. The results showed that hydrogel had the rapid hemostasis capacity and accelerated wound healing. In summary, CLN-loaded hydrogels may be excellent candidates as hemostasis and anti-infection materials for the wound dressing application

Ecdysone suppresses AMP gene expression.

(A-C) Volcano plots of differentially expressed IMRGs in iEGFP and iEcR mosquito fat bodies after E. cloacae infection. Each gene is marked as a dot; the broken lines indicate the marginal lines separating differentially expressed IMRGs from non-differentially expressed IMRGs, with the horizontal broken lines denoting the p value threshold (p 2(fold change) > 1 or log2(fold change) E. cloacae or PBS and then analyzed using qRT-PCR for ATT, Dpt, CecB, DefC and GAM transcriptions. Data are shown as mean ± SEM. ****p (TIF)</p

Pirk-like acts as an essential negative regulator of the IMD pathway.

(A) Immunostaining of WT and Pirk-like-/- mosquito fat bodies that were stimulated with PBS or E. cloacae at 12 h PBM and then dissected to measure PGRP-LC and Rel2 expressions at 24 h post infection. Scale bar: 20 μm. (B and C) Quantification of relative fluorescence intensity of cells shown in (A). Quantification showing mean ± SEM from three independent experiments. (D) Heatmap of the 28 shared IMRGs. They show the highest abundance among bacteria-infected Pirk-like-/- mosquitoes (Pirk-like-/-_Ec) and the lowest among bacteria-infected WT mosquitoes (WT_Ec), with an intermediate level of abundance in non-infected Pirk-like-/- mosquitoes (Pirk-like-/-_PBS). Non-infected WT mosquitoes (WT_PBS) were used as control. (E) Survival rate of Pirk-like-/-, Pirk-like+/- and WT female mosquitoes after E. cloacae infection. n = 3 cohorts (total 90 mosquitoes). (F) Survival rate of Pirk-like-/- and WT female mosquitoes after infection. Mosquitoes were fed with 1 mM ThT during the PBM phase. n = 3 cohorts (total 90 mosquitoes).</p

Conserved cRHIM motifs in the <i>Ae</i>. <i>aegypti</i> IMD pathway.

(A) Multiple sequence alignment of cRHIMs from D. melanogaster, Ae. aegypti and human RHIM. The four core amino acids are boxed with red. The highly conserved amino acids are shown in different colors. (B-D) Yeast two-hybrid assays, pGADT7-PGRP-LC, pGADT7-PGRP-LE, and pGADT7-IMD were used as baits and pGBKT7-Pirk-like was used as prey. Yeast was grown on DDO and QDO media at 30°C for 3–5 days. pGADT7-T and pGBKT7-53 or pGBKT7-Lam co-transform strain were used as negative and positive controls, respectively (B); auto-activation and interaction analysis of Pirk-like (C); PGRP-LC and IMD were auto-activated (D). (E) Effect of EcR silencing on amyloid formation in mosquito fat body infected as indicated after blood meal. Scale bar: 10 μm. (TIF)</p

Effects of 20E on IMD pathway genes, related to Fig 3.

(A) Pairwise sequence alignment of Ae. aegypti Pirk-like and D. melanogaster Pirk. (B) Phylogenetic tree analysis of the protein sequence of Ae. aegypti Pirk-like with Pirk from other insects. The maximum likelihood method was used for comparison, and the scale bar represents genetic distance. (TIF)</p

Pirk-like expression is regulated by 20E signaling.

(A) Heat map of transcriptional patterns of the IMD pathway component genes during PBM phases. Gene expression at each time point was normalized to PE 72 h. (B) Protein levels of PGRP-LC and Rel2 determined using western blots. For each time point, both cytoplasmic and nuclear protein extracts were prepared from ten female mosquito fat bodies. GAPDH and Histone H3 were used as controls. (C) Putative EcRE of the IMD pathway inhibitors aligned with reported Aedes EcRE sequences. The three core amino acids are highlighted with yellow. (D) Heatmap showing the expression pattern of 25 IMD inhibitor genes in iEcR mosquitoes compared with iEGFP mosquitoes upon E. cloacae infection. (E) mRNA abundance of Pirk-like in iEcR mosquitoes infected by E. cloacae. Bar plots are shown as mean ± SEM. ****p Pirk-like in Aag2 cells co-transfected EcR and USP. (G) Expression of Pirk-like and EcR in the PE and PBM phases. Dot plots represent mean ± SEM. Data are from three biological replicates.</p

20E-EcR-USP directly binds to the EcRE motif of Pirk-like.

(A) Schematic showing Pirk-like promoter and putative 20E-EcR-USP binding motifs. EcRE1 and EcRE2 represent regional target sites tested in ChIP-qPCR analysis. (B) ChIP-qPCR analysis with EcR and USP co-expressed Aag2 cells using V5 antibody. pAc5.1b lysates incubated with mouse IgG antibody (N-pAc5.1b) or anti-V5 (IP-pAc5.1b) and EcR-USP lysates incubated with mouse IgG antibody (N-EcR-USP) were included as controls. n = 3 biological replicates. (C) EMSA results showing the binding of EcR to a biotin-labeled EcRE2 probe. Nuclear protein extracts from EcR- and USP-overexpressed Aag2 cells. Competitor (unlabeled 26-bp probe), mutant competitor and anti-EcR antibody were added as indicated. (D) Dual-luciferase reporter assay revealed the transcriptional activation of Pirk-like promoter in EcR- and USP-overexpressed S2 cells with 20E treatment. S2 cells were co-transfected with the reporter vector pGL4.10-Pirk (100 ng), the overexpression vectors (pAc5.1b-EcR/V5 and pAc5.1b-USP/HA, 100 ng), and the pGL4.73 plasmid (15 ng). The relative luciferase activity was detected at 48 h after transfection. Western blots were used to analyze the protein level of EcR and USP using V5 and HA antibodies. GAPDH was used as the control.</p

Differentially expressed IMRGs in Pirk-like^-/- and WT mosquito fat bodies with <i>E</i>. <i>cloacae</i> infection.

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Used antibodies and oligonucleotides.

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