Targeting Mitochondria-Located circRNA SCAR Alleviates NASH via Reducing mROS Output

Mitochondria,which play central roles in immunometabolic diseases,have their own genome.However,the functions of mitochondria-located noncoding RNAs are largely unknown due to the absence of a specific delivery system.By circular RNA(circRNA)expression profile analysis of liver fibroblasts from patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis(NASH),we observe that mitochondrial circRNAs account for a considerable fraction of downregulated circRNAs in NASH fibroblasts.

Lack of evolutionary convergence in multiple primary lung cancer suggests insufficient specificity of personalized therapy

Multiple primary lung cancer(MPLC)is an increasingly prevalent subtype of lung cancer.According to recent genomic studies,the different lesions of a single MPLC patient exhibit functional similarities that may reflect evolutionary convergence.We perform whole-exome sequencing for a unique cohort of MPLC patients with multiple samples from each lesion found.Using our own and other relevant public data,evolutionary tree reconstruction reveals that cancer driver gene mutations occurred at the early trunk,indicating evolutionary contingency rather than adaptive convergence.Additionally,tumors from the same MPLC patient are as genetically diverse as those from different patients,while within-tumor genetic heterogeneity is significantly lower.Furthermore,the aberrant molecular functions enriched in mutated genes for a sample show a strong overlap with other samples from the same tumor,but not with samples from other tumors or other patients.Overall,there is no evidence of adaptive convergence during the evolution of MPLC.Most importantly,the similar between-tumor diversity and between-patient diversity suggest that personalized therapies may not adequately account for the genetic diversity among different tumors in an MPLC patient.To fully exploit the strategic value of precision medicine,targeted therapies should be designed and delivered on a per-lesion basis.

Saturable and reverse saturable absorption in molybdenum disulfide dispersion and film by defect engineering

Understanding and controlling defect in two-dimensional materials is important for both linear and nonlinear optoelectronic devices,especially in terms of tuning nonlinear optical absorption.Taking advantage of an atomic defect formed easily by smaller size,molybdenum disulfide nanosheet is prepared successfully with a different size by gradient centrifugation.Interestingly,size-dependent sulfur vacancies are observed by high-resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy,atomic force microscopy,and transmission electron microscopy.The defect effect on nonlinear absorption is investigated by Z-scan measurement at the wavelength of 800 nm.The results suggest the transition from saturable absorption to reverse saturable absorption can be observed in both dispersions and films.First principle calculations suggest that sulfur vacancies act as the trap state to capture the excited electrons.Moreover,an energy-level model with the trap state is put forward to explain the role of the sulfur vacancy defect in nonlinear optical absorption.The results suggest that saturable absorption and reverse saturable absorption originate from the competition between the excited,defect state and ground state absorption.Our finding provides a way to tune the nonlinear optical performance of optoelectronic devices by defect engineering.

Functional cure of chronic hepatitis B: Efforts and prospects

Worldwide,more than 240 million people are chronically infected with hepatitis B virus(HBV),1 and more than 887,000 deaths in 2015 are due to HBV-related end-stage liver disease or hepatocellular carcinoma.China has the largest burden of HBV in the world,with approximately 70 million HBV carriers,of which 20e30 million are chronic hepatitis B(CHB)patients.2,3 As the development of medicine,the treatment goal of CHB is getting higher and higher.