Accumulating evidence suggests that microRNA (miR)-146a functions as an oncogene or tumor suppressor in various cancers. However, the role of miR-146a in gastric cancer (GC) remains to be elucidated. The present study investigated the function of miR-146a in GC cells. The results of the present study revealed that miR-146a modulates GC cell apoptosis. Overexpression of miR-146a significantly increased apoptosis of SGC-7901 cells, whereas inhibition of miR-146a protected cells from apoptosis. miR-146a expression in GC cells was inversely correlated with transforming growth factor β-activated kinase 1 (TAK1) expression, at the mRNA and protein levels. Furthermore, small interfering RNA-mediated silencing of TAK1 enhanced GC cell apoptosis, whereas overexpression of TAK1 promoted survival of GC cells. Overexpression of miR-146a or knockdown of TAK1 led to a marked increase in inhibitor of κBα (IκBα) and a decrease in B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) expression levels in SGC-7901 cells. By contrast, silencing of miR-146a or TAK1 overexpression downregulated IκBα and upregulated Bcl-2 expression levels. Therefore, the results of the present study demonstrated a novel negative feedback mechanism to promote GC cell apoptosis involving the miR-146a/TAK1/nuclear factor-κB axis.

Among all energy storage systems, lithium metal batteries (LMBs) show great advantages in terms of energy density. Nevertheless, the challenges of lithium metal anodes, namely, dendrite formation and low Coulombic efficiency, hinder the practical application of LMBs. In this work, we used the ZnO/carbon shell/carbon cloth as a host for the lithium metal anode. The introduction of ZnO sites reduces the nucleation barrier of lithium deposition, and the existence of a 3D current collector alleviates the volume change during lithium plating/stripping. In addition, the combination of ZnO/C and 3D carbon cloth decreases the local current density and contributes to uniform lithium plating/stripping. The half cells assembled with modified carbon cloth electrodes cycle for more than 125 cycles with a high Coulombic efficiency of 99.34%, even under a high areal capacity of 6 mA h cm–2. By and large, our work provides a simple and effective strategy to modify the current collector for high Li-content anodes.

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