No abstract

PET/CT has been proven to be valuable in detecting lymph-node metastases. Compared with MRI, PET/CT has higher sensitivity, PPV, NPV, and accuracy in patients with early-stage cervical cancer for detecting lymphatic metastases.

Electrochemical reduction of CO2 to chemical feedstocks offers a sustainable way to reduce carbon emissions by shifting the industry away from fossil fuel dependence. However, the lack of understanding of economic feasibility is hindering this technology from large-scale application. We proposed a systematic methodology to evaluate and design the novel route of CO2-to-CO conversion taking ionic liquid as the electrolyte. Not only a comprehensively economic model was developed to offer targets for achieving economically competitive industrialization, but also the Route Selection Index was established to quickly identify the minimum feed concentration for making use of diluted CO2 feed more profitable than using pure CO2 streams. We found that although this route is currently expensive owing to high electrolyzer capitals, it can be economically acceptable if advanced electrocatalytic performance and electrolyzer system could be obtained. The results showed that current densities need to reach at least 200 mA cm–2 at 99% faradaic efficiency to make this route become competitive with fossil fuel-derived feedstocks. Furthermore, a minimum concentration of 28 mol % is required to make the route of using diluted CO2 feed more economically attractive, providing insights into the feasibility of directly utilizing CO2 from different industry sources.

Overexpression of glutathione S-transferase (GST), particularly the GST-pi isozyme, has been proposed to be one of the biochemical mechanisms responsible for drug resistance in cancer chemotherapy, and inhibition of overexpressed GST has been suggested as an approach to combat GST-induced drug resistance. 3-Cinnamyl-5(E)-bromomethylidenetetrahydro-2-furanone (1a), a lead compound of site-directed GST-pi inactivator, has been shown to potentiate the cytotoxic effect of cisplatin on tumor cells. As an initial step to develop more potent and more selective haloenol lactone inactivators of GST-pi, we examined the relationship between the chemical structures of haloenol lactone derivatives and their GST inhibitory activity. A total of 16 haloenol lactone derivatives were synthesized to probe the effects of (1) halogen electronegativity, (2) electron density of aromatic rings, (3) molecular size and rigidity, (4) lipophilicity, and (5) aromaticity on the potency of GST-pi inactivation. The inhibitory potency of each compound was determined by time-dependent inhibition tests, and recombinant human GST-pi was used to determine their inhibitory activity. Our structure-activity relationship studies demonstrated that (1) reactivity of the halide leaving group plays a weak role in GST inactivation by the haloenol lactones, (2) aromatic electron density may have some influence on the potency of GST inactivation, (3) high rigidity likely disfavors enzyme inhibition, (4) lipophilicity is inversely proportional to enzyme inactivation, and (5) an unsaturated system may be important for enzyme inhibition. This work facilitated understanding of the interaction of GST-pi with haloenol lactone derivatives as site-directed and isozyme-selective inactivators, possibly potentiating cancer chemotherapy.