Absent in melanoma 2 enhances anti‐tumour effects of CAIX promotor controlled conditionally replicative adenovirus in renal cancer

Conditionally replicative adenoviruses (CRAds) were promising approach for solid tumour treatment, but its oncolytic efficiency and toxicity are still not satisfactory for further clinical application. Here, we developed the CAIX promotor (CAIX^promotor)‐controlled CRAd armed with a tumour suppressor absent in melanoma 2 (AIM2) to enhance its oncolytic potency. The CAIX^promotor‐AIM2 adenoviruses (Ad‐CAIX^promotor‐AIM2) could efficiently express E1A and AIM2 in renal cancer cells. Compared with Ad‐CAIX^promotor, Ad‐CAIX^promotor‐AIM2 significantly inhibited cell proliferation and enhanced cell apoptosis and cell killing, thus resulting in the oncolytic efficiency in 786‐O cells or OSRC‐2 cells. To explore the therapeutic effect, various Ads were intratumourally injected into OSRC‐2‐xenograft mice. The tumour growth was remarkably inhibited in Ad‐CAIX^promotor‐AIM2‐treated group as demonstrated by reduced tumour volume and weight with a low toxicity. The inflammasome inhibitor YVAD‐CMK resulted in the reduction of anti‐tumour activity by Ad‐CAIX^promotor‐AIM2 in vitro or in vivo, suggesting that inflammasome activation response was required for the enhanced therapeutic efficiency. Furthermore, lung metastasis of renal cancer mice was also suppressed by Ad‐CAIX^promotor‐AIM2 treatment accompanied by the decreased tumour fossil in lung tissues. These results indicated that the tumour‐specific Ad‐CAIX^promotor‐AIM2 could be applied for human renal cancer therapy. The therapeutic strategy of AIM2‐based CRAds could be a potential and promising approach for the therapy of primary solid or metastasis tumours.     

Investigation of the Effects of Squalene and Squalene Epoxides on the Homeostasis of Coenzyme Q10 in Rats by UPLC‐Orbitrap MS

Squalene has been used as a dietary supplement for a long history due to its potential cancer‐preventive function. However, the mechanism has not been investigated in detail yet. Therefore, the aim of this study is to see if the plasma coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) level will be altered by gavage of squalene and oxidosqualenes to rats. In the present work, a sensitive and simple high‐performance analytical method based on ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography coupled with an Orbitrap mass spectrometry (UPLC‐Orbitrap‐MS) was developed for the quantification of CoQ10 in rat plasma. Coenzyme Q9 (CoQ9) was employed as the internal standard. CoQ10 was determined after acetonitrile‐mediated plasma protein precipitation using UPLC‐Orbitrap‐MS in negative ion mode. Intragastric administration of squalene and the two squalene epoxides into rats once daily for several days elevated the level of CoQ10 in their plasma, but there was no significant difference between high‐dose (286 mg/kg) and low‐dose (143 mg/kg) groups. Intragastric administration of squalene once a day for 5 consecutive days and oxidosqualenes once a day for 3 consecutive days is necessary for reaching the steady‐state level of CoQ10. Our present findings indicate that squalene and oxidosqualenes may be useful for stimulating the synthesis of CoQ10 in rats.     

High‐Efficiency CsPbI2Br Perovskite Solar Cells with Dopant‐Free Poly(3‐hexylthiophene) Hole Transporting Layers

CsPbI₂Br is emerging as a promising all‐inorganic material for perovskite solar cells (PSCs) due to its more stable lattice structure and moisture resistance compared to CsPbI₃, although its device performance is still much behind this counterpart. Herein, a preannealing process is developed and systematically investigated to achieve high‐quality CsPbI₂Br films by regulating the nucleation and crystallization of perovskite. The preannealing temperature and time are specifically optimized for a dopant‐free poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT)‐based device to target dopant‐induced drastic performance degradation for spiro‐OMeTAD‐based devices. The resulting P3HT‐based device exhibits comparable power conversion efficiency (PCE) to spiro‐OMeTAD‐based devices but much enhanced ambient stability with over 95% PCE after 1300 h. A diphenylamine derivative is introduced as a buffer layer to improve the energy‐level mismatch between CsPbI₂Br and P3HT. A record‐high PCE of 15.50% for dopant‐free P3HT‐based CsPbI₂Br PSCs is achieved by alleviating the open‐circuit voltage loss with the buffer layer. These results demonstrate that the preannealing processing together with a suitable buffer layer are applicable strategies for developing dopant‐free P3HT PSCs with high efficiency and stability.     

Membrane‐Free Zn/MnO2 Flow Battery for Large‐Scale Energy Storage

The traditional Zn/MnO₂ battery has attracted great interest due to its low cost, high safety, high output voltage, and environmental friendliness. However, it remains a big challenge to achieve long‐term stability, mainly owing to the poor reversibility of the cathode reaction. Different from previous studies where the cathode redox reaction of MnO₂/MnOOH is in solid state with limited reversibility, here a new aqueous rechargeable Zn/MnO₂ flow battery is constructed with dissolution–precipitation reactions in both cathodes (Mn²⁺/MnO₂) and anodes (Zn²⁺/Zn), which allow mixing of anolyte and catholyte into only one electrolyte and remove the requirement for an ion selective membrane for cost reduction. Impressively, this new battery exhibits a high discharge voltage of ≈1.78 V, good rate capability (10C discharge), and excellent cycling stability (1000 cycles without decay) at the areal capacity ranging from 0.5 to 2 mAh cm^‐2. More importantly, this battery can be readily enlarged to a bench scale flow cell of 1.2 Ah with good capacity retention of 89.7% at the 500th cycle, displaying great potential for large‐scale energy storage.     

Charge Transfer Modulated Activity of Carbon‐Based Electrocatalysts

Electrocatalysis is the most important electrode reactions for many energy storage and conversion devices, which are considered a key part of the resolution of the energy crisis. Toward this end, design of efficient electrocatalysts is of critical significance. While extensive research has been extended to develop excellent electrocatalysts, the fundamental understanding of the relationship between the electronic and structural properties of electrocatalysts and the catalytic activity must remain a priority. In this review, the activity modulation of electrocatalysts by charge transfer effects, including intramolecular and intermolecular charge transfer, is systematically introduced. With suitable charge transfer modification, such as heteroatom doping, defect engineering, molecule functionalization, and heterojunctions, the electrocatalytic activity of carbon‐based electrocatalysts can be significantly boosted. The manipulation of the electronic structure of carbon‐based materials by charge transfer may serve as a fundamental mechanism for performance enhancement. After establishing an understanding of the relationship between catalytic activity and charge transfer, the opportunities and challenges for the design of electrocatalyst with charge transfer effects are discussed.     

Nature of FeSe2/N‐C Anode for High Performance Potassium Ion Hybrid Capacitor

Potassium ion hybrid capacitors have great potential for large‐scale energy devices, because of the high power density and low cost. However, their practical applications are hindered by their low energy density, as well as electrolyte decomposition and collector corrosion at high potential in potassium bis(fluoro‐sulfonyl)imide‐based electrolyte. Therefore, anode materials with high capacity, a suitable voltage platform, and stability become a key factor. Here, N‐doping carbon‐coated FeSe₂ clusters are demonstrated as the anode material for a hybrid capacitor, delivering a reversible capacity of 295 mAh g^?1 at 100 mA g^?1 over 100 cycles and a high rate capability of 158 mAh g^?1 at 2000 mA g^?1 over 2000 cycles. Meanwhile, through density functional theory calculations, in situ X‐ray diffraction, and ex situ transmission electron microscopy, the evolution of FeSe₂ to Fe₃Se₄ for the electrochemical reaction mechanism is successfully revealed. The battery‐supercapacitor hybrid using commercial activated carbon as the cathode and FeSe₂/N‐C as the anode is obtained. It delivers a high energy density of 230 Wh kg^?1 and a power density of 920 W kg^?1 (the energy density and power density are calculated based on the total mass of active materials in the anode and cathode).     

Interface Engineering of Hierarchical Branched Mo‐Doped Ni3S2/NixPy Hollow Heterostructure Nanorods for Efficient Overall Water Splitting

Rational design and construction of bifunctional electrocatalysts with excellent activity and durability is imperative for water splitting. Herein, a novel top‐down strategy to realize a hierarchical branched Mo‐doped sulfide/phosphide heterostructure (Mo‐Ni₃S₂/Ni_xP_y hollow nanorods), by partially phosphating Mo‐Ni₃S₂/NF flower clusters, is proposed. Benefitting from the optimized electronic structure configuration, hierarchical branched hollow nanorod structure, and abundant heterogeneous interfaces, the as‐obtained multisite Mo‐Ni₃S₂/Ni_xP_y/NF electrode has remarkable stability and bifunctional electrocatalytic activity in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER)/oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in 1 m KOH solutions. It possesses an extremely low overpotential of 238 mV at the current density of 50 mA cm^?2 for OER. Importantly, when assembled as anode and cathode simultaneously, it merely requires an ultralow cell voltage of 1.46 V to achieve the current density of 10 mA cm^?2, with excellent durability for over 72 h, outperforming most of the reported Ni‐based bifunctional materials. Density functional theory results further confirm that the doped heterostructure can synergistically optimize Gibbs free energies of H and O‐containing intermediates (OH*, O*, and OOH*) during HER and OER processes, thus accelerating the catalytic kinetics of electrochemical water splitting. This work demonstrates the importance of the rational combination of metal doping and interface engineering for advanced catalytic materials.     

Osteoclastogenesis Modulatory Steroids from the South China Sea Gorgonian Coral Iciligorgia sp.

A new 9,11‐secosteroid, (22R)‐22‐acetoxy‐3β,6α,11‐trihydroxy‐9,11‐seco‐5α‐cholest‐7‐en‐9‐one, along with twelve known analogues were isolated from the South China Sea gorgonian coral Iciligorgia sp. Their structures were determined by the spectroscopic analysis and comparison with reported data. In an in vitro test of osteoclastic differentiation, three compounds exhibited significant down‐regulating effect whereas two compounds showed significant up‐regulating effect at 0.5 and 1.0 μm . This is the first report of the chemical investigation of the gorgonian Iciligorgia sp. The acetoxy substitution at C‐22 seems to play an important role in the regulating activity.     

Design,Synthesis, Molecular Docking,and Biological Evaluation of New Emodin Anthraquinone Derivatives as Potential Antitumor Substances

The emodin anthraquinone derivatives are generally used in traditional Chinese medicine due to their various pharmacological activities. In the present study, a series of emodin anthraquinone derivatives have been designed and synthesized, among which 1,3‐dihydroxy‐6,8‐dimethoxyanthracene‐9,10‐dione is a natural compound that has been synthesized for the very first time, and 1,3‐dimethoxy‐5,8‐dimethylanthracene‐9,10‐dione is a compound that has never been reported earlier. Interestingly, while total seven of these compounds showed neuraminidase inhibitory activity in influenza virus with inhibition rate more than 50 %, specific four compounds exhibited significant inhibition of tumor cell proliferation. The further results demonstrate that 1,3‐dimethoxy‐5,8‐dimethylanthracene‐9,10‐dione showed the best anticancer activity among all the synthesized compounds by inducing highest apoptosis rate to HCT116 cancer cells and arresting their G0/G1 cell cycle phase, through elevation of intracellular level of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Moreover, the binding of 1,3‐dimethoxy‐5,8‐dimethylanthracene‐9,10‐dione with BSA protein has thoroughly been investigated. Altogether, this study suggests the neuraminidase inhibitory activity and antitumor potential of the new emodin anthraquinone derivatives.