Latest ArticlesIn recent years, sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have become one of the hot discussions and have gradually moved toward industrialization. However, there are still some shortcomings in their performance that have not been well addressed, including phase transition, structural degradation, and voltage platform. High entropy materials have recently gained significant attention from researchers due to their effects on thermodynamics, dynamics, structure, and performance. Researchers have attempted to use these materials in sodium-ion batteries to overcome their problems, making it a modification method. This paper aims to discuss the research status of high-entropy cathode materials for sodium-ion batteries and summarize their effects on sodium-ion batteries from three perspectives: Layered oxide, polyanion, and Prussian blue. The influence on material structure, the inhibition of phase transition, and the improvement of ion diffusivity are described. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of high-entropy cathode materials for sodium-ion batteries are summarized, and their future development has prospected.
The design and synthesis of a novel π-conjugated fluorescent framework by external ligand-assisted C−H olefination of heterocycles with excellent regioselectivity and broad substrate scope are reported herein. These novel fluorescent materials could present full-color-tunable emissions with large Stokes shifts. Furthermore, the protocol provides an opportunity to rapidly screen novel organic single-molecule white-light materials with high fluorescence quantum yields. The robust organic and low-cost white light-emitting diodes could rapidly be fabricated using the white-light-emitting material. Experimental data and theoretical calculations indicate that in the white-light dual emission the relatively short wavelength from high-lying singlet state emission and the relatively long wavelength from low-lying singlet state emission. The anti-Kasha dual-emission systems will provide a foundation for the development and application of organic single-molecule white light materials, effectively promoting the development and innovation of luminescent materials. In addition, this method demonstrated its potential application in the synthesis of new near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence materials with large Stokes shifts based on the olefination of heterocycles.
Lead-free hybrid double perovskites (LFHDPs) have received a lot of attention due to their environmental friendliness and promising attributes. However, studying the effect of film thickness on LFHDPs optoelectronic properties has not yet been investigated. Herein, we synthesized two new Ruddlesden–Popper LFHDPs, namely (C5H12N)4AgBiI8 (CAB-1) and (C6H14N)4AgBiI8 (CAB-2) using cyclopentylamine and cyclohexylamine as monoamine ligands. Indeed, these two Ag(Ⅰ)-Bi(Ⅲ) LFHDPs form smooth and uniform films ranging in thickness from 250 nm to 1 µm, with preferred orientations. Notably, the studies on the optical properties showed that the direct band gap value decreased from 2.17 eV to 1.91 eV for CAB-1 and from 2.05 eV to 1.86 eV for CAB-2 with increasing thickness. Accordingly, photo-current response using a xenon lamp revealed a significant difference of over 1000 nA between light and dark conditions for 1 µm-thickness films, suggesting potential for light harvesting. Other than that, thicker films of CAB-1 and CAB-2 exhibit high stability for 90 days in a relatively humid environment (RH of 55%), paving the way for promising optoelectronic applications.
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a serious health problem in the world, and infections are common complications in diabetic patients, particularly methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, which substantially increases mortality in patients. In clinical practice, the treatment of diabetic complication-related infections involves multiple issues such as drug resistance when combining antidiabetic drugs with antibiotics. In this study, a series of derivatives were synthesized with alkyl radicals with different chain lengths substituted at the C8 and C12 positions of berberine, with compounds CY1 and CY3 with good antidiabetic and antibacterial activities screened out after identification. Then, oral liposomes (CY1-Lip and CY3-Lip) were prepared, and their particle sizes, stability, and pharmacokinetics were investigated. In acquired mouse models of diabetes, induced with an acute MRSA lung infection, we demonstrate that CY1-Lip and CY3-Lip can effectively reduce levels of fasting blood glucose (FBG), fasting insulin (FINS), and insulin resistance index among diabetic mice with pneumonia, thus exerting their multi-targets effects. Furthermore, both preparations significantly reduced lung MRSA loads and improved lung tissue lesions, reduced high infiltration of M1 macrophages in lung, and suppressed the expression levels of pro-inflammatory factors such as necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6). This provides new insights into the clinical treatment of diabetes complicated with pulmonary infections.
Recently, MP-10, a previous drug candidate with potent inhibition of phosphodiesterase 10A (PDE10A) in clinical phase II trials for schizophrenia or Alzheimer's disease, has shown significant potential in preventing and treating cardiovascular diseases. However, its poor metabolic stability and high permeability across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) make it unsuitable for preventing and treating peripheral cardiovascular diseases. Herein, the hit-to-lead optimization was performed to discover novel 3-trifluoromethyl-substituted pyrazole derivatives as potent and selective PDE10A inhibitors. The structure-activity relationships, biological characterization, molecular mechanism, and drug-like evaluation were discussed to identify compound C7 which showed potent inhibition against PDE10A (half maximal inhibitory concentration, IC50 = 11.9 nmol/L), more than 840-fold selectivity over other PDE subtypes, enhanced liver microsomes stability (T1/2 = 239 min) compared to MP-10 and low BBB permeability. Importantly, oral pretreatment with C7·3HCl at a dose of 5.0 mg/kg significantly attenuated the pathological and functional changes induced by isoprenaline (ISO)-induced pathological cardiac hypertrophy in mice, particularly suppressing increase of cardiac weight, atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and β-myosin heavy chain (β-MHC) hypertrophic markers along with cardiac fibrosis. These findings further support that targeting PDE10A provides an innovative therapeutic approach for preventing and treating cardiac diseases.
Lung cancer-derived exosomes are a kind of valuable and clinically-predictable biomarkers for lung cancer, but they have the limitations in individual differences when being applied in liquid biopsy. To improve their application value and accuracy in clinical diagnosis, a dual-labelled electrochemical method is herein reported for precise assessment of lung cancer-derived exosomes. To do so, two probes are prepared for the dual labeling of exosome membrane to run DNA assembly reactions: One is modified with cholesterol and can insert into exosome membrane through hydrophobic interaction; another one is linked with programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) antibody and can bind to exosome surface-expressing PD-L1 via specific immunoreaction. Quantum dots-tagged signal strands are used to collect respective DNA products, and produce stripping signals corresponding to the amounts of total exosome and surface-expressing PD-L1, respectively. A wide linear relationship is established for the quantitative determination of lung cancer-derived exosomes in the range from 103 to 1010 particles/mL, whereas the ratiometric value of the two stripping signals is proven to have a better diagnostic use in screening and staging of lung cancer when being applied to clinical samples. Therefore, our method might provide a new insight into precise diagnosis of lung cancer, and offer sufficient information to reflect the biomarker level and guide the personalized treatment level even at an early stage in clinic.
Plant bacterial diseases have inflicted substantial economic losses in global crop, fruit, and vegetable production. The conventional methods for managing these diseases typically rely on the application of antibiotics. However, these antibiotics often target the growth factors of the pathogenic bacteria, leading to the accumulation and emergence of drug-resistant strains, which exacerbates antibiotic resistance. Innovative methods are urgently needed to treat and prevent the toxicity caused by these pathogenic bacteria. Targeting virulence mechanisms in pathogens is a globally recognized and effective strategy for mitigating bacterial resistance. Type III secretion system (T3SS) serves as a crucial virulence determinant in Gram-negative pathogens, and its non-essentials for pathogen growth renders it an ideal target. Targeting the T3SS holds significant potential to alleviate selective pressure for resistance mutations in pathogens. Therefore, targeting T3SS in pathogenic bacteria, while preserving their growth, has emerged as a novel avenue for the development of antimicrobial drugs. In recent years, a multitude of small molecular inhibitors targeting T3SS have been identified. This article offers a comprehensive review of T3SS inhibitors in plant pathogens, while also presenting the latest research advancements in this research direction.
Redox dyshomeostasis is a critical factor in the initiation of numerous diseases, making the accurate evaluation of the redox status of the cellular environment an important aspect of physiological research. However, maintaining redox homeostasis relies on a complex and dynamic physiological system involving multiple substrate-enzyme interactions, so its accurately detection remains a challenge. With this research, we developed an activable fluorescence switching platform by incorporating different conjugate acceptors to a fluorophore using ester bonds and resulting in fluorescence quenching due to donor-excited photo-induced electron transfer (d-PeT), which was confirmed through density functional theory calculations. The reaction-based probe was deployed for recognizing all major intracellular reducing sulfur species (RSS), including H2S, cysteine (Cys), homocysteine (Hcy), glutathione (GSH), and protein free thiols. The quenched fluorescence was significantly recovered by RSS, through releasing the fluorophore and diminishing the d-PeT effect. Furthermore, the fluorescent probe was used for the sensing and imaging RSS in living cells, demonstrating good cell-permeability, low cytotoxicity, and negative correlation with reactive oxygen species content, enabling the evaluating of global thiols redox state in HepG2 cellular lines during ferroptosis processes.
Metal-organic framework (MOF) has been widely applied in photocatalysis, which is significant for addressing energy crises and environmental issues. Based on density functional theory calculations, the performances of Cu-BTC, a copper-based MOF, and its derivatives CuTM-BTC via the substitution of transition metal (TM) elements at the Cu site for photocatalytic overall water splitting (POWS) have been studied. POWS of Cu-BTC suffers from the sluggish hydrogen evolution reaction due to the large overpotential of 2.02 V and limited solar utilization due to a wide HOMO-LUMO gap of 4.11 eV. Via TM substitution, the HOMO-LUMO gap narrows but still satisfies the redox potentials when taken 3d-TM of Cr, Fe, Co or Ni, 4d-TM of Rh or Pd, or 5d-TM of Re or Pt into consideration, benefiting for the light absorption. Furthermore, Cr and Re could serve as active sites for hydrogen evolution with remarkably lowered overpotentials of 0.79 V and 0.28 V, respectively; similarly, oxygen evolution activities could be enhanced by Fe, Co and Rh because of their reduced overpotentials which are less than 0.5 V. Therefore, our findings pave guidance for designing Cu-BTC derivatives in overall water splitting.
Gel-based sensors have provided unprecedented opportunities for bioelectric monitoring. Until now, sensors for underwater applicants have remained a notable challenge, as most sensors work effectively in air but swell underwater leading to functional failure. Herein, we introduce an innovative amphibian-inspired high-performance ionogel, where multiple supramolecular interactions in the ionogel's network confer good stretchability, elasticity, conductivity, and the hydrophobic C-F bonds play a key role in diminishing water molecule hydration and provide outstanding environmental stability. These unique properties of ionogels make them suitable as wearable amphibious flexible sensors, and the sensors are capable of highly sensitive and stable human motion monitoring in air and underwater. Integration of the designed sensor into an artificial intelligence drowning alarm system, which recognizes the swimmer's movement status by monitoring the amplitude and frequency, especially in the drowning status for real-time alarms. This work provides novel strategies for motion recognition and hazard monitoring in amphibious environments, meeting the new generation of wearable sensors.
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