Kastrupstevens1882
The physiological function of amyloid β precursor protein (APP) in platelets has remained elusive. Upon platelet activation, APP localizes to the platelet surface and is proteolytically processed by proteases to release various metabolites, including amyloid β (Aβ) and soluble APP. Synthetic Aβ is a substrate of activated coagulation factor XIII (FXIII-A*), a transglutaminase that is active both inside and on the surface of platelets. Here we tested if platelet APP and its fragments are covalently modified by FXIII-A*. Platelet-derived FXIII-A* and fibrin(ogen) bound to APP, and their bound fractions increased 7- and 11-fold upon platelet activation, respectively. The processing of platelet APP was enhanced when FXIII-A* was inhibited. Soluble APPβ was covalently cross-linked by FXIII-A*. This mechanism regulating APP processing is significant, because controlling the processing of APP, such as by inhibiting specific secretases that cleave APP, is a therapeutic target for Alzheimer's disease.Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), the most successful commercial energy storage devices, are now widespread in our daily life. However, the lack of appropriate electrode materials with long lifespan and superior rate capability is the urgent bottleneck for the development of high-performance LIBs. Herein, a hierarchical Bi@C bulk is developed via a scalable pyrolysis method. Due to the ultrafine size of Bi nanoparticles and in situ generated porous carbon framework, this Bi@C anode evidently facilitates the diffusion of Li+/electron, availably inhibits the agglomeration of active nano-Bi, and effectively mitigates the volume fluctuation. This hierarchical Bi@C bulk exhibits stable cycling performance for both LIBs (256 mAh g-1 at 1.0 A g-1 over 1400 cycles) and potassium-ion batteries (271 mAh g-1 at 0.1 A g-1 for 200 cycles). Daporinad More importantly, when coupled with a commercial LiCoO2 cathode, the assembled LiCoO2//Bi@C cells provide an output voltage of 2.9 V and retain a capacity of 202 mAh g-1 at 0.15 A g-1. Moreover, kinetic analysis and in situ X-ray diffraction characterization reveal that the Bi@C anode displays a dominated pseudocapacitance behavior and a typical alloying storage mechanism during the cycling process.Therapeutic manipulation of the immune system against cancer has revolutionized the treatment of several advanced-stage tumors. While many have benefited from these treatments, the proportion of patients responding to immunotherapies is still low. Nanomedicines have promise to revolutionize tumor treatments through spatiotemporal control of drug activity. Such control of drug function could allow enhanced therapeutic actions of immunotherapies and reduced side effects. However, only a handful of formulations have been able to reach human clinical studies so far, and even fewer systems are being used in the clinic. Among translatable formulations, self-assembled nanomedicines have shown unique and versatile features for dealing with the heterogeneity and malignancy of tumors in the clinic. Such nanomedicines can be designed to promote antitumor immune responses through a series of immunopotentiating functions after being directly injected into tumors, or achieving selective tumor accumulation upon intravenous oxicities and the exacerbation of adverse immune responses. Moreover, the compartmentalized structure of self-assembled nanomedicines offers the possibility to coload a variety of drugs for controlled pharmacokinetics, enhanced tumor delivery, and synergistic therapeutic output. Also, by integrating imaging functionalities into nanomedicines, it is possible to develop theranostic platforms reporting the immune settings of tumors as well as the effects of nanomedicines on the tumor immune microenvironment. Herein, we critically reviewed significant strategies for developing nanomedicines capable of potentiating antitumor immune responses by surmounting biological barriers and modulating antitumor immune signals. Moreover, the potential of these nanomedicines for developing innovative anticancer treatments by targeting particular cells is discussed. Finally, we present our perspectives on the awaiting challenges and future directions of nanomedicines in the age of immunotherapy.Steam generation and photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants based on solar light are regarded as two important strategies for addressing the water scarcity issues. The water evaporation efficiency was greatly inhibited by the high cost, low stability, and low efficiencies of solar light absorption and photothermal conversion of photothermal materials. Moreover, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are easily volatilized and enriched in as-distilled water during the photothermal process. Inspired by the structure of biomass materials in nature, a bifunctional solar light-driven steam generation and VOC removal microreactor was explored by coating commercial TiO2 (P25) powders on a carbonized biomass waste Flammulina. With the 3D aligned porous carbon architectures, this microreactor exhibited both a high water evaporation rate (37.0 kg m-2 h-1) and a high energy conversion efficiency (91.2%) under simulated sunlight irradiation (light intensity = 25.5 kW m-2). A high VOC removal rate (80.9% in 40 min) was also achieved during the steam generation process via choosing phenol as the probe pollutant molecules. The nature-inspired designing concept and bifunctional microreactor in this study may open up a new strategy for producing clean distilled water from seawater with an efficient removal of VOCs.The separation of CO2/CH4 gas mixtures is a key challenge for the energy sector and is essential for the efficient upgrading of natural gas and biogas. A new emerging field, that of metal-organic framework nanosheets (MONs), has shown the potential to outperform conventional separation methods and bulk metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). In this work, we model the CO2/CH4 separation in both defect-free and defective 2D CuBDC nanosheets and compare their performance with the bulk CuBDC MOF and experimental data. We report the results of external force nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (EF-NEMD) for pure components and binary mixtures. The EF-NEMD simulations reveal a pore blocking separation mechanism, in which the CO2 molecules occupy adsorption sites and significantly restrict the diffusion of CH4. The MON structure achieves a better selectivity of CO2 over CH4 compared to the bulk CuBDC MOF which is due to the mass transfer resistance of the methane molecules on the surface of the nanosheet. Our results show that it is essential to consider the real mixture in these systems rather than relying solely on pure component data and ideal selectivity.