Lipid metabolism analysis in esophageal cancer and associated drug discovery

Esophageal cancer is an upper gastrointestinal malignancy with a bleak prognosis.It is still being explored in depth due to its complex molecular mechanisms of occurrence and development.Lipids play a crucial role in cells by participating in energy supply,biofilm formation,and signal transduction processes,and lipid metabolic reprogramming also constitutes a significant characteristic of malignant tumors.More and more studies have found esophageal cancer has obvious lipid metabolism abnormalities throughout its beginning,progress,and treatment resistance.The inhibition of tumor growth and the enhancement of antitumor therapy efficacy can be achieved through the regulation of lipid metabolism.Therefore,we reviewed and analyzed the research results and latest findings for lipid metabolism and associated analysis techniques in esophageal cancer,and comprehensively proved the value of lipid metabolic reprogramming in the evolution and treatment resistance of esophageal cancer,as well as its significance in exploring potential therapeutic targets and biomarkers.

Ultrahigh-transparency and pressure-sensitive iontronic device for tactile intelligence

Emerging tactile sensing devices mimic biological functions of human mechanoreception.By introducing the feature of optical transparency,it can lead to a combined capacities of tactile and visual intelligence into single system.Yet,it is difficult to realize ultrahigh level of optical transparency and device sensitivity in single structure,for the widely used methods for sensitivity improvement,such as elevating the interfacial roughness,may further reduce the transparency.By utilizing a transparent ionic material with tunable surface topologies,as well as introducing a strategy of refractive index matching,we have proposed a transparent iontronic sensing(TIS)device based on the iontronic sensing mechanism,simultaneously offering combined high device sensitivity(83.9 kPa−1),with ultrahigh optical transparency(96.9%),the highest reported value in literature.Benefiting from its comprehensive performance in sensing and optical characteristics,the TIS devices hold enormous potential for the humanmachine interfaces for industrial and medical applications.

Highly efficient labelling of extracellular vesicles for enhanced detection on a microfluidic platform

Developing precise extracellular vesicles(EVs)labelling techniques with minimal disturbance is of great importance to the follow-up EVs detection and analysis.However,currently available methods such as using probes to conjugate phospholipids or membrane proteins have certain limitations due to EV steric hindrance,dye aggregation,etc.Here,we present a microfluidic platform to enhance EVs’labelling efficiency and improve their detection.This platform provides excellent sample throughput and high-efficiency EV labelling at lower label concentrations with an optimized flowing rate.Flow cytometry analysis(FCM)and cellular uptake results show that EV labelling by utilizing this platform possesses the merits of a higher labelling efficiency with 64.1%relative improvement than conventional co-incubation method and a lower background noise.Moreover,this technique maintains EVs’size,morphology and biological activities.After the recipient cells uptake the EVs treated by the microfluidic platform,the spatial and temporal distribution of EVs in the cells are clearly observed.These results demonstrate that our method holds great potential in efficient labelling of EVs,which is essential to subsequent EV quantification and analysis.

RNA-sequencing-based Gene Expression Profile Revealing Breast Tumor Development Induced by Exposure of Bisphenol S

Aberrant biological information occurs naturally at exposure to bisphenol A or its alternatives,which was associated with the occurrence and development of breast cancer.However,the potential molecular variation in gene expression during the breast tumor development is still unclear.Herein,high throughput RNA sequencing(RNA-Seq)and bioinformatics analysis were used to investigate the variation of tumor-mRNA profile exposed with BPS5(5µg/kg bw/day)or BPS50(50µg/kg bw/day)in tumor development-associated MMTV-PyMT transgenic mouse model.Meanwhile,we analyzed the dose-effects of bisphenol S(BPS)and BPS-induced tumor development on the gene level exhaustively.In dose-effect aspects of BPS,the increased concentration of BPS significantly changed the numbers and enrichment pathway of differentially expressed genes(DEGs),especially the enrichment pathways involved in up-regulated genes including ribosome,peroxisome proliferators-activated receptor(PPAR)signaling pathway and progesterone-mediated oocyte maturation pathway.In effects of BPS exposure to tumor development,expression of IgκC,Zfp385b,Cldn10,Pgr and Snord14d has changed significantly throughout the tumor development.Gene ontology(GO)and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes(KEGG)results obtained from BPS-induced tumor development showed that the functional classifications were intensively altered with an extension of time in high-dose BPS groups.The acquired DEGs and pathway information could help with the accurate exploration of molecular mechanisms of tumor development,screening of molecular targets of breast cancer,and toxicological evaluation of environmental pollutants.

Optofluidics in bio-imaging applications

Bio-imaging generally indicates imaging techniques that acquire biological information from living forms.Recently, the ability to detect, diagnose, and monitor pathological, physiological, and molecular dynamics is in great demand, while scaling down the observing angle, achieving precise alignment, fast actuation, and a miniaturized platform become key elements in next-generation optical imaging systems. Optofluidics, nominally merging optic and microfluidic technologies, is a relatively new research field, and it has drawn great attention since the last decade. Given its abilities to manipulate both optic and fluidic functions/elements in the micro-/nanometer regime, optofluidics shows great potential in bio-imaging to elevate our cognition in the subcellular and/or molecular level. In this paper, we emphasize the development of optofluidics in bio-imaging, from individual components to representative applications in a more modularized, systematic sense. Further, we expound our expectations for the near future of the optofluidic imaging discipline.

Inflection point: a perspective on photonic nanojets

When light propagates through the edge or middle part of a microparticle’s incoming interface,there is a basic rule that light converges and diverges rapidly or slowly at the output port. These two parts are referred to as the region of rapid change (RRC) and region of slow change (RSC),respectively. Finding the boundary point between RRC and RSC is the key to reveal and expound upon this rule scientifically. Based on the correlation between light convergence–divergence and the slope of emergent light,combined with the relationship between a natural logarithm and growth in physical reality and the second derivative of a function in practical significance,we determine the boundary point between RRC and RSC,namely,the inflection point. From such a perspective,a photonic nanojet (PNJ) and near-field focusing by light irradiation on RSC and RRC,as well as the position of the inflection point under different refractive index contrasts and the field distribution of light focusing,are studied with finite-element-method-based numerical simulation and ray-optics-based theoretical analysis. By illuminating light of different field intensity ratios to the regions divided by the inflection point,we demonstrate the generation of a photonic hook (PH) and the modulation of PNJ/PH in a new manner.

Mass spectrometry imaging-based multi-modal technique:Next-generation of biochemical analysis strategy

Using advanced molecular imaging techniques,we can acquire the primary disturbance of spatial and temporal information based on histological variations,which has the potential to differentiate the intra-/extraheterogeneity and to predict disease progression or metastasis status in biological systems.

Layer-by-layer stacked graphene nanocoatings by Marangoni self-assembly for corrosion protection of stainless steel

Graphene nanosheets are widely used in anti-corrosion polymeric coating as filler,owing to the excellent electrochemical inertness and barrier property.However,as the arrangement of graphene nanosheets is difficult to form a perfect layered structure,polymeric coating with graphene nanosheets usually needs micron-scale thickness to ensure the enhancement of corrosion protection.In this work,layer-by-layer stacked graphene nanocoatings were fabricated on stainless steel by self-assembly based on Marangoni effect.The anti-corrosion property of graphene coatings were studied through Tafel polarization curves,electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and accelerated corrosion test with extra applied voltage.The self corrosion current density of optimized three-layered graphene coated sample was one quarter of that of bare stainless steel.And the self corrosion potential of optimized sample is increased to-0.045 V.According to the results,graphene nanocoatings composed of layered nanosheets exhibits good anticorrosion property.Besides,the self-assembly method provide a promising approach to make layeredstructure coating for other researches about 2 D material nanosheets.