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Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common types of malignant tumors with poor sensitivity to chemotherapy drugs and poor prognosis among patients. In the present study, we downloaded the original data from the Gene Expression Omnibus and compared gene expression profiles of liver cancer cells in patients with HCC with those of colon epithelial cells of healthy controls to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs). After filtering target microRNAs (miRNA) from core DEGs, we cultured HepG2 cells in vitro, knocked down the miRNA and core mRNAs, and analyzed the effects. We found 228 differentially expressed genes between liver cancer tissue and healthy control tissue. We also integrated the protein-proteininteraction network and module analysis to screen 13 core genes, consisting of 12 up-regulated genes and 1 down-regulated gene. Five core genes were regulated hsa-miR-3613-3p, therefor we hypothesized that hsa-miR-3613-3p was a critical miRNA. After the transfection procedure, we found that changes in hsa-miR-3613-3p were the most obvious. Therefore, we speculated that hsa-miR-3613-3p was a main target miRNA. In addition, we transfected with si (BIRC5, CDK1, NUF2, ZWINT and SPC24), to target genes that can be targeted by miR-3613-3p. Our data shows that BIRC5, NUF2, and SPC24 may be promising liver cancer biomarkers that may not only predict disease occurrence but also potential personalized treatment options.

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Visible-light active Fe 2 O 3 -GQDs/NF-TiO 2 composite films were fabricated via 12 sequential electro-deposition and electro-oxidation processes. The prepared photocatalytic 13 films were extensively characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), 14 high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), 15 Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results revealed that 16 graphene quantum dots (GQDs) and -Fe 2 O 3 particles were simultaneously deposited onto 17 the surface of N and F co-doped TiO 2 (NF-TiO 2 ) simply using a graphite sheet instead of a Pt 18 sheet as anode in the electro-deposition process. The NF-TiO 2 substrate obtained by calcining 19 TiO 2 nanotubes (TiO 2 -NTs) in the presence of NH 4 F displayed pyramid shapes with dominant 20 (101) facets. Linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy 21 (EIS) and Mott-Schottky (M-S) plots indicated that the generation, separation and transfer of 22 photogenerated charges were greatly enhanced on the novel composite. The photocurrent 23 density of Fe 2 O 3 -GQDs/NF-TiO 2 was 4.2 times that on Fe 2 O 3 /TiO 2 -NTs at 0.5 V vs. Ag/AgCl 24 under visible light irradiation. For the photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) reduction of Cr(VI) using 25 Fe 2 O 3 -GQDs/NF-TiO 2 as photoanode with a Ti sheet as cathode, substantially enhanced 1 activity was achieved due to the combined effect of visible-light-active components (-Fe 2 O 3 2 and NF-TiO 2 ) and excellent electron mediator (GQDs). The calculated reduction rate constant 3 was 7 times that obtained on Fe 2 O 3 /TiO 2 -NTs film. Furthermore, both the long-time 4 photocurrent and cyclic PEC reduction of Cr(VI) indicated good stability of the composite 5 film. 6

AgI sensitized TiO2 nanotube arrays (AgI/TiO2-NTs) with adjustable β/γ ratio of AgI were prepared by a simple dissolution–precipitation–calcination process. The samples were characterized by various techniques, including X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, ultraviolet–visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, linear sweep voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and Mott–Schottky plots. We found that calcination temperature (100–500 °C) had significant effect on regulating the phase of AgI. After calcination at 350 °C, the highest β/γ ratio of AgI was achieved. Moreover, greatly enhanced photocurrent response and reduced charge transfer resistance were also observed, which together led to easier generation and separation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs. Thus, for the reduction of Cr­(VI) under visible light, significantly enhanced photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) performance was observed using AgI/TiO2-NTs calcined at 350 °C (denoted as AgI/TiO2-NTs350) as photoanode and Ti foil as cathode, respectively. At very low content of AgI (1.25%), the estimated k Cr(VI) (0.0155 min–1) was nearly 5 times that of pure TiO2-NTs350.