This work reports a facile strategy for the preparation of Nitrogen-doped porous carbons via carbonization of a mixture containing ferric citrate (FC) and ammonium chloride (NH 4 Cl). FC provides carbon and iron element sources, while ammonium chloride acts as both the porogen and nitrogen dopant during the carbonization process. The formed hierarchical porous structures facilitate the ion diffusion/transport, and nitrogen-doping provides more active sites, which contribute to both oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and supercapacitor applications. Compared with KOH and NaCl, the utilization of NH 4 Cl as porogen shows the best ORR performance in this work might due to the dual functions of NH 4 Cl. Ferric citrate-NH 4 Cl carbonized at 700 o C exhibits good capacity of 242 F g-1 and stability in 6 M KOH at a current density of 1 A g-1. Since both FC and NH 4 Cl are cheap and easily available, this work provides a facile and effective method to obtain carbons with superb electrochemical performances.

In this study, we report a gold nanoparticle (AuNP)-amplified surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor for exosome detection with high sensitivity. The SAW chip was self-assembled with mercapto acetic acid to generate carboxylic groups via the Au–S bond. Anti-CD63 was then anchored onto the chip by pretreatment with 1-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-3-ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) and N-hydroxysuccinimide,1-hydroxypyrrolidine-2,5-dione (NHS). Due to the existence of a membrane protein, CD63, on the exosome surface, exosomes could be bound onto the antibody-immobilized SAW chip. To amplify the detection signal, both the biotin-conjugated epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) antibody as a secondary antibody and AuNP-labeled streptavidin were applied onto the exosome-bound SAW chip, resulting in AuNP assembly on the chip through biotin–avidin recognition. The sensor was capable of detecting 1.1 × 103 particles/mL exosomes, which was about 2 orders of magnitude higher than those detected by the strategy without using signal amplification. The sensor also achieved a satisfactory specificity and could detect the low-abundance exosomes directly in blood samples from cancer patients with minimal disturbance. This makes the SAW sensor useful for early diagnosis of cancer.

Decreased expression of E-cadherin correlates with poor prognosis in colorectal cancer. Certain E-cadherin signaling cascades are triggered by intercellular force or binding to cadherins on adjacent cells. Three-dimensional (3D) cell cultures represent a better approximation of cell-cell adhesion in vivo than two-dimensional (2D) cultures. Here, we explored the role of E-cadherin in colorectal cancer chemosensitivity in 3D cultures. Cell-cell junctions, including tight junctions, gap junctions, intermediate junctions and desmosomes, were commonly found in 3D cultures. Knockdown of E-cadherin by lentiviral delivery of shRNA significantly reduced chemosensitivity to 5-fluorouracil and irinotecan, increased β-catenin protein level in HCT116 3D cultures. However, these effects were not observed in 2D cultures. Knockdown of β-catenin significantly increased chemosensitivity to 5-fluorouracil and irinotecan in HCT116 3D cultures and LoVo 3D cultures. 5-Fluorouracil activated p38, ERK1/2 and JNK1/2 in a time-dependent manner in HCT116 3D cultures. E-cadherin knockdown enhanced p-p38 and p-ERK1/2, except p-JNK1/2 in HCT116 3D cultures. Knockdown of β-catenin attenuated p-p38 and p-ERK1/2 in HCT116 3D cultures and LoVo 3D cultures. Inhibition of p-p38 or p-ERK1/2 in HCT116 3D cultures significantly increased chemosensitivity. Our results indicate E-cadherin knockdown increases β-catenin resulting in reduction of chemosensitivity only in 3D cultures, and β-catenin increasing the p-p38/p-ERK1/2 is involved in this mechanism.

Porous carbon nanofibers assembled with a nickel nanoparticle (Ni/PCNFO) cathode exhibited outstanding electrochemical performance in Li–S batteries.

Background: In recent years, the phenomenon of coexisting systemic autoimmune diseases (ADs) in patients with autoimmune encephalitis (AE) has been increasingly found, while its clinical significance remains unexplored. This study aimed to investigate the types and potential clinical associations of autoimmune comorbidities in patients with antibody-positive AE.Methods: A retrospective cohort study of patients with antibody-positive AE was conducted from 2011 to 2018. The demographics, clinical characteristics, and follow-up data were reviewed.Results: We enrolled 517 patients, among whom 45 were affected by one or more types of ADs, including Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) (n = 28), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) (n = 3), anaphylactoid purpura (n = 3), vitiligo (n = 3), Sjögren's syndrome (SS) (n = 2), chronic urticaria (n = 2), bullous pemphigoid (n = 1), uveitis (n = 1), myasthenia gravis (MG) (n = 1), and the coexistence of SLE and anaphylactoid purpura (n = 1). The proportion of patients with coexisting ADs was higher in those with anti–leucine-rich glioma-inactivated 1 (LGI1) encephalitis than in those with anti–N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis (13/111 vs. 16/307) (P = 0.021). In anti-NMDAR and anti-LGI1 encephalitis patients, there were no significant differences in the age at onset, sex ratio, proportion of patients with tumors, disease severity, or recurrence between the groups with and without ADs.Conclusions: One or more types of ADs developed in AE patients, and patients with anti-LGI1 encephalitis had a higher frequency of autoimmune comorbidities than those with anti-NMDAR encephalitis. And we found that autoimmune comorbidities did not affect the clinical course of AE.