Engineered soluble ACE2 receptor: Responding to change with change

SARS coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) invades the human body by binding to major receptors such as ACE2 via its S-spike protein, so the interaction of receptor-binding sites has been a hot topic in the development of coronavirus drugs. At present, the clinical progress in monoclonal antibody therapy that occurred early in the pandemic is gradually showing signs of slowing. While recombinant soluble ACE2, as an alternative therapy, has been modified by many engineering methods, both the safety and functional aspects are approaching maturity, and this therapy shows great potential for broadly neutralizing coronaviruses, but its progress in clinical development remains stalled. Therefore, there are still several key problems to be considered and solved for recombinant soluble ACE2 to be approved as a clinical treatment as soon as possible

Conformal screen printed graphene 4 × 4 wideband MIMO antenna on flexible substrate for 5G communication and IoT applications

From IOP Publishing via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2021-04-06, revised 2021-07-15, oa-requested 2021-07-29, accepted 2021-07-30, open-access 2021-08-20, epub 2021-08-20, ppub 2021-10Publication status: PublishedAbstract: Screen-printed graphene is integrated with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology to conquer the most concerned surge in electronic waste caused by the mass deployment of Internet of things (IoT) applications. A flexible MIMO antenna is implemented with simple fabrication process suitable for large-scale production by screen printing graphene highly conductive ink on paper substrate, ensuring high-speed 5G mass data wireless transmission without damaging the ecological environment. This environmental-friendly, low-cost, flexible and conformal MIMO antenna with orthogonal polarization diversity employs co-planar waveguide feed and planar pattern for achieving high space utilization and better integration in most scenarios, for instance, body centric networks and monitoring systems. Excellent performance has been achieved due to the high conductivity of the graphene: the fabricated antenna exhibits an average sheet resistance of 1.9Ωsq−1 . The bandwidth of the antenna ranges from 2.22 GHz to 3.85 GHz (53.71% fractional bandwidth), covering 4G long term evolution, sub-6 GHz 5G mobile communication networks, 2.5 and 3.5 GHz WiMAX, and 2.4 and 3.6 GHz WLAN. Within this range, the antenna exhibits effective radiation, also its envelope correlation coefficient remains below 0.2×10−6 , manifesting outstanding signal transmission quality in a variety of wireless networks. This work illustrates a novel aggregation of MIMO technology and graphene printing electronics, enabling cheap accessible and green MIMO antennas to be massively integrated in IoT applications

Suppression of KRas-mutant cancer through the combined inhibition of KRAS with PLK1 and ROCK

No effective targeted therapies exist for cancers with somatic KRAS mutations. Here we develop a synthetic lethal chemical screen in isogenic KRAS-mutant and wild-type cells to identify clinical drug pairs. Our results show that dual inhibition of polo-like kinase 1 and RhoA/Rho kinase (ROCK) leads to the synergistic effects in KRAS-mutant cancers. Microarray analysis reveals that this combinatory inhibition significantly increases transcription and activity of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21(WAF1/CIP1), leading to specific G2/M phase blockade in KRAS-mutant cells. Overexpression of p21(WAF1/CIP1), either by cDNA transfection or clinical drugs, preferentially impairs the growth of KRAS-mutant cells, suggesting a druggable synthetic lethal interaction between KRAS and p21(WAF1/CIP1). Co-administration of BI-2536 and fasudil either in the LSL-KRAS(G12D) mouse model or in a patient tumour explant mouse model of KRAS-mutant lung cancer suppresses tumour growth and significantly prolongs mouse survival, suggesting a strong synergy in vivo and a potential avenue for therapeutic treatment of KRAS-mutant cancers

CRISPR/Cas9‐mediated somatic correction of a novel coagulator factor IX gene mutation ameliorates hemophilia in mouse

The X‐linked genetic bleeding disorder caused by deficiency of coagulator factor IX, hemophilia B, is a disease ideally suited for gene therapy with genome editing technology. Here, we identify a family with hemophilia B carrying a novel mutation, Y371D, in the human F9 gene. The CRISPR/Cas9 system was used to generate distinct genetically modified mouse models and confirmed that the novel Y371D mutation resulted in a more severe hemophilia B phenotype than the previously identified Y371S mutation. To develop therapeutic strategies targeting this mutation, we subsequently compared naked DNA constructs versus adenoviral vectors to deliver Cas9 components targeting the F9 Y371D mutation in adult mice. After treatment, hemophilia B mice receiving naked DNA constructs exhibited correction of over 0.56% of F9 alleles in hepatocytes, which was sufficient to restore hemostasis. In contrast, the adenoviral delivery system resulted in a higher corrective efficiency but no therapeutic effects due to severe hepatic toxicity. Our studies suggest that CRISPR/Cas‐mediated in situ genome editing could be a feasible therapeutic strategy for human hereditary diseases, although an efficient and clinically relevant delivery system is required for further clinical studies

Experimental Demonstration of Printed Graphene Nanoflakes Enabled Flexible and Conformable Wideband Radar Absorbers

In this work, we have designed, fabricated and experimentally characterized a printed graphene nano-flakes enabled flexible and conformable wideband radar absorber. The absorber covers both X (8–12 GHz) and Ku (12–18 GHz) bands and is printed on flexible substrate using graphene nano-flakes conductive ink through stencil printing method. The measured results show that an effective absorption (above 90%) bandwidth spans from 10.4 GHz to 19.7 GHz, namely a 62% fraction bandwidth, with only 2 mm thickness. The flexibility of the printed graphene nano-flakes enables the absorber conformably bending and attaching to a metal cylinder. The radar cross section (RCS) of the cylinder with and without absorber attachment has been compared and excellent absorption has been obtained. Only 3.6% bandwidth reduction has been observed comparing to that of un-bended absorber. This work has demonstrated unambiguously that printed graphene can provide flexible and conformable wideband radar absorption, which extends the graphene’s application to practical RCS reductions