Modifying the adsorption structure of thiosulfate on the gold electrode surface offers a promising strategy to mitigate the passivation phenomenon and enhance gold dissolution efficiency. To investigate this, thiol functional groups—known for their strong affinity to gold surfaces—were employed. Following surface modification with varying concentrations of 3-mercaptopropionic acid (3-MPA), the scanning voltammetry curves of the gold electrode in thiosulfate solution exhibited notable changes. At an applied potential of 0.2V, electrolysis experiments demonstrated that the 3-MPA-modified electrode enabled a higher amount of gold dissolution. Raman spectroscopy further revealed that 3-MPA adsorption occurs concurrently with gold dissolution and effectively eliminates passivation products generated on the electrode surface at high potentials. Combined with XPS characterization and molecular simulation, the results confirm that gold dissolution proceeds via the formation of a gold–3-MPA intermediate, which significantly lowers the reaction energy barrier. Although 3-MPA alone cannot dissolve gold, its adsorption onto the gold surface effectively facilitates the dissolution process—an effect that is equally observable when 3-MPA is directly introduced into the solution. These findings demonstrate that functional groups with affinity for gold not only play a role in the recovery of Au(S2O3)3-2from solution, but also facilitate the gold dissolution process. Furthermore, the relevant results provide valuable insights for optimizing the efficiency of thiosulfate-based gold leaching.

The limited recovery efficiency of gold ions from leaching solutions remains a critical challenge hindering the widespread application of thiosulfate leaching processes. Although zinc powder cementation demonstrates operational simplicity and broad applicability as a mature recovery method, its practical implementation faces two persistent issues: excessive zinc consumption and undesirable copper coprecipitation, which compromise the recyclability of copper-ammonia thiosulfate solutions. Recent advancements employing electrogenerative devices have significantly reduced zinc consumption; however, copper co-deposition persists, particularly during multi-cycle operations. To address this issue, this study proposes the addition of ethylenediamine (en). Experimental results show that after adding 5 mmol/L en to a solution containing 5 mmol/L Cu2+, 0.5 mol/L NH3, 0.1 mol/L S2O2-3and 10 mg/L Au, the copper loss decreased from 32.2% to 6.3% after five cycles, while the gold recovery maintained greater than 99.2%. The Cu (II) complex ions recovery efficiency improved from 18.0% to 88.0% after gold deposition, which ensured that the leaching solution returns to the leaching stage for recycling. Density functional theory calculations and molecular dynamics simulations reveal that en preferentially coordinates with copper ions, forming more stable copper-ammonia-en complexes and thus effectively suppressing their tendency to deposit.

The activation of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) through various catalysts has emerged as a promising method for the degradation of organic pollutants. However, the search for effective catalysts that are both cost-efficient and easy to prepare continues to pose significant challenges. In this study, a simple approach was developed to synthesize highly active cupric oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) using deep eutectic solvent (DES) as the reaction medium. During the preparation, octylimidazole (OIM), a component of the DES, is adsorbed in-situ onto the surface of CuO NPs. The resulting OIM-functionalized CuO (OIM-CuO) NPs exhibited an enhanced charge transfer rate, improved separation efficiency of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and superior catalytic activity compared to pure CuO NPs. The OIM-CuO-1 NPs demonstrated a degradation efficiency exceeding 94 % for the typical dye, rhodamine B (RB) within a duration of 3.0 min under both acidic and neutral conditions. Furthermore, the catalytic performance of the synthesized OIM-CuO-1 NPs surpassed that of previously reported catalysts. Notably, the catalytic activity of the OIM-CuO-1 NPs remained stable after undergoing five consecutive degradation cycles. This research offers valuable insights into the development of highly effective complex catalysts and may facilitate the advancement of photocatalysts in the degradation of organic pollutants.

Recurrence and metastasis are the main causes of cancer-related death and significantly decrease the survival rate of tumor patients.Cancer metastasis can initiate in the very early stage of malignant progression.Unfortunately,cancer patients may not necessarily feel or be diagnosed until metastatic clinical symptoms appear several months or years later.1 Metastatic cancer patients have lower five-year survival rates and the tumor often relapses.2 Cancer recurrence remains a major troublesome clinical problem which usually leads to treatment failure.Many cancer pa-tients developed in situ recurrence or metastatic recur-rence within five years after tumor resection.3 Accurate prediction of cancer recurrence and metastasis facilitates identifying high-risk patients and guiding appropriate treatment,offering the opportunity to prolong patients' survival.

Low-power triethylamine (TEA) detection at room temperature (RT) is becoming increasingly significant in practical scenarios. As a novel two-dimensional material, Ti3C2Tx 3 C 2 T x MXene has a high potential in the field of chemical sensing at RT. It is essential to acquire the composition of the surface functional groups for Ti3C2Tx 3 C 2 T x since the surface chemistry is crucial for a strong interplay between the target gas and Ti3C2Tx. 3 C 2 T x . In this work, the surface functional groups were quantitatively evaluated (approximately 40 %-O, 60 %-F) based on the combined usage of XPS analysis and DFT simulations. Ti 3 C 2 F 1.2 O 0.8 was determined to be metallic according to the calculated total density of states and band structure. A metal-semiconductor-type composite nanostructures based on the single/few-layer Ti3C2Tx 3 C 2 T x and Bi2WO6 2 WO 6 microcages were fabricated with different Ti3C2Tx 3 C 2 T x mass percentages. 0.1 wt% Ti3C2Tx/Bi2WO6 3 C 2 T x /Bi 2 WO 6 composite demonstrates a response enhancement by 52 % compared with the pristine Bi2WO6 2 WO 6 in the detection of 500 ppm TEA at RT. Besides, the sensitization mechanism is ascribed to the abundant surface functional groups and the catalytic effect of Ti3C2Tx. 3 C 2 T x .

Although great strides have been made in the management and treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), its prognosis is still poor yielding a high mortality. Immunotherapy is recommended for treating advanced HCC, but its efficiency is hampered because of hepatic immunosuppression. Stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathway, serving as a critical cytoplasmic DNA-sensing process, is reported to initiate the antitumor immune response, and link the innate immunity to the adaptive immune system. Radiotherapy has been well acknowledged to induce destruction and release of tumor-derived DNA into the cytoplasm, which then activates the cGAS-STING pathway. On this basis, radiotherapy can be used as a sensitizer for immunotherapy, and its combination with immunotherapy may bring in changes to the suboptimal efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitor monotherapy. In this review, we summarized the roles of cGAS-STING pathway in regulation of radiotherapy combined with immunotherapy for treating HCC.

This study aims to explore whether TIGIT is an effective target for the immunotherapy of renal cell cancer (RCC) with PD‐1 as a positive control. The expression of TIGIT and PD‐1 in RCC and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and the correlation between TIGIT and PD‐1 are evaluated. The expression of TIGIT and PD‐1 is inhibited, and then the proliferation, apoptosis, and migration are assessed. TIGIT expression is positively related to the expression of PDCD1, BTLA, ICOS, and FOXP3 ( p < 0.05). TIGIT expression in the PBMC, TIL, RCC, and adjacent normal tissues is higher than PD‐1 expression. Blocking the TIGIT and PD‐1 signaling pathways significantly inhibits the proliferation, migration, and invasion of RCC cells and promotes their apoptosis. These effects are more evident in TIGIT inhibitors than in PD‐1 inhibitors. TIGIT inhibitor mainly regulates the expression of differential genes to achieve the reconstruction of immune killing and restore the killing effect on the RCC, and its mechanism by which TIGIT functions overlap that of PD‐1 inhibitor. TIGIT may become a target for the immunotherapy of RCC, and there is a theoretical basis for the combination of TIGIT inhibitors and PD‐1 inhibitors for the treatment of RCC.

In the present work, a two-phase system composed of a hydrophobic ionic liquid (IL) containing copper ions (Cu(II)) and water containing organic linkers was constructed and the Cu-based metal-organic framework (Cu-MOF) formed at the IL-water interfaces at room temperature. The IL 1,3-bis(carboxymethyl)imidazolium chloride ([BCMIM]Cl) was also introduced in the MOF structures via using it as co-linker. The adsorption capacity of the synthesized Cu-MOF and [BCMIM]Cl modified Cu-MOFs was evaluated using the organic dye Congo red (CR) as target compound. Experimental results suggested that the incorporation of [BCMIM]Cl in the Cu-MOF remarkably improved the CR adsorption capacity due to the strong π-π and electrostatic interactions between the cation of [BCMIM]Cl and CR. The adsorption behavior of CR on [BCMIM]Cl modified Cu-MOF fitted well with pseudo-second-order kinetics and Freundlich isotherm model. Thermodynamic analysis suggested the adsorption of CR on [BCMIM]Cl modified Cu-MOF was a physical adsorption process. Finally, compared with reported adsorbents, the [BCMIM]Cl modified Cu-MOF exhibited higher CR adsorption capacity, indicating that it was a promising adsorbent for the removal of organic dyes from water.

Sorafenib, a multiple-target tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is the standard of care for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but provides limited benefits. Emerging evidences suggest that prolonged sorafenib treatment induces an immunosuppressive HCC microenvironment, but the underling mechanism is undetermined. In the present study, the potential function of midkine, a heparin-binding growth factor/cytokine, was evaluated in sorafenib-treated HCC tumors. Infiltrating immune cells of orthotopic HCC tumors were measured by flow cytometry. Differentially expressed genes in sorafenib-treated HCC tumors were evaluated by transcriptome RNA sequencing. The potential function of midkine were evaluated by western blot, T cell suppression assay, immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining and tumor xenograft model. We found that sorafenib treatment increased intratumoral hypoxia and altered HCC microenvironment towards an immune-resistant state in orthotopic HCC tumors. Sorafenib treatment promoted midkine expression and secretion by HCC cells. Moreover, forced midkine expression stimulated immunosuppressive myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) accumulation in HCC microenvironment, while knockdown of midkine exhibited opposite effects. Furthermore, midkine overexpression promoted CD11b+CD33+HLA-DR- MDSCs expansion from human PBMCs, while midkine depletion suppressed this effect. PD-1 blockade showed no obvious inhibition on tumor growth of sorafenib-treated HCC tumors, but the inhibitory effect was greatly enhanced by midkine knockdown. Besides, midkine overexpression promoted multiple pathways activation and IL-10 production by MDSCs. Our data elucidated a novel role of midkine in the immunosuppressive microenvironment of sorafenib-treated HCC tumors. Mikdine might be a potential target for the combination of anti-PD-1 immunotherapy in HCC patients.

AbstractMutS protein homolog 2 (MSH2) is a key element involved in the DNA mismatch repair (MMR) system, which is responsible for recognizing and repairing mispaired bases. Simultaneously, MSH2 identifies DNA adducts induced by temozolomide (TMZ) and triggers apoptosis and autophagy in tumor cells. Previous work has revealed that reduced MSH2 expression is often observed in patients with glioblastoma (GBM) who relapse after chemotherapy. Elucidation of the mechanism behind TMZ-mediated reduction of MSH2 could help improve GBM treatment. Here, we report significant upregulation of Mex-3 RNA binding family member A (MEX3A) in GBM tissues and cell lines following TMZ treatment. MEX3A bound to the MEX3 recognition element (MRE) of MSH2 mRNA, which in turn recruited CCR4–NOT complexes to target MSH2 mRNA for deadenylation and degradation. In addition, ectopic expression of MEX3A significantly decreased cellular DNA MMR activities and reduced the chemosensitivity of GBM cells via downregulation of MSH2, while depletion of MEX3A sensitized GBM cells to TMZ. In MGMT-deficient patients with GBM, MEX3A expression correlated with MSH2 levels, and high MEX3A expression was associated with poor prognosis. Overall, these findings reveal a potential mechanism by which MSH2 expression is reduced in post-TMZ recurrent GBM.Significance:A MEX3A/CCR4–NOT/MSH2 axis plays a crucial role in promoting temozolomide resistance, providing new insights into the function of MEX3A and suggesting MEX3A as a potential therapeutic target in therapy-resistant glioblastoma.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer. Prognosis evaluation is of great significance in guiding individualized treatment and monitoring of GBM. By integrating different prognostic variables, nomograms simplify the statistical risk prediction model into numerical estimates for death or recurrence, and are hence widely applied in prognosis prediction. In the past two decades, the application of high-throughput profiling technology and the establishment of TCGA database and other public data deposits have provided opportunities to identify cancer-related molecules and prognostic biomarkers. As a result, both molecular features and clinical characteristics of cancer have been reported to be the key factors in nomogram model construction. This article comprehensively reviewed 35 studies of GBM nomograms, analyzed the present situation of GBM nomograms, and discussed the role and significance of nomograms in personalized risk assessment and clinical treatment decision-making. To facilitate the application of nomograms in the prognostic prediction of GBM patients, a website has been established for the online access of nomograms based on the studies of this review, which is called Consensus Nomogram Spectrum for Glioblastoma (CNSgbm) and is accessible through https://bioinfo.henu.edu.cn/nom/NomList.jsp.

Blood group antigen is a class of heritable antigenic substances present on the erythrocyte membrane. However, the role of blood group antigens in cancer prognosis is still largely unclear. In this study, we investigated the expression of 33 blood group antigen genes and their association with the prognosis of 30 types of cancers in 31,870 tumor tissue samples. Our results revealed that blood group antigens are abnormally expressed in a variety of cancers. The high expression of these antigen genes was mainly related to the activation of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) pathway. High expression of seven antigen genes, i.e., FUT7, AQP1, P1, C4A, AQP3, KEL and DARC, were significantly associated with good OS (Overall Survival) in six types of cancers, while ten genes, i.e., AQP1, P1, C4A, AQP3, BSG, CD44, CD151, LU, FUT2, and SEMA7A, were associated with poor OS in three types of cancers. Kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) is associated with the largest number (14 genes) of prognostic antigen genes, i.e., CD44, CD151, SEMA7A, FUT7, CR1, AQP1, GYPA, FUT3, FUT6, FUT1, SLC14A1, ERMAP, C4A, and B3GALT3. High expression of SEMA7A gene was significantly correlated with a poor prognosis of KIRC in this analysis but has not been reported previously. SEMA7A might be a putative biomarker for poor prognosis in KIRC. In conclusion, our analysis indicates that blood group antigens may play functional important roles in tumorigenesis, progression, and especially prognosis. These results provide data to support prognostic marker development and future clinical management.

Efficient and reversible absorption of SO2 by deep eutectic solvents (DESs) has drawn much attention in recent years. In this work, a new type of deep eutectic solvents (DESs) were synthesized via pyridine derivatives, nicotinamide, aminopyridines and hydroxypyridines, as the hydrogen bond donors (HBDs) with common quaternary ammonium salt ionic liquids (ILs) as hydrogen bond acceptors (HBAs). The studied DESs exhibited an attractive absorption behavior for SO2, especially for low concentration SO2. The 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (AmimCl)/2-aminopyridine (2-NH2Py) (2:1) and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (BmimCl)/3-aminopyridine (3-NH2Py) (2:1) could capture 0.273 and 0.223 g SO2/g DES at 293 K and 1.0 kPa, respectively, surpassing that of most DESs and ILs in the present literature. The influence of DES composition, temperature and pressure on SO2 absorption performance was systematically investigated. Moreover, the absorption mechanism studied by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopies indicated that the efficient absorption of SO2 was ascribed to the chemical interaction between the pyridine nitrogen atom and SO2. (C) 2021 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), as the most common type (>90%) of head and neck cancer, includes various epithelial malignancies that arise in the nasal cavity, oral cavity, pharynx, and larynx. In 2020, approximately 878 ‍ 000 new cases and 444 000 deaths linked to HNSCC occurred worldwide (Sung et al., 2021). Due to the associated frequent recurrence and metastasis, HNSCC patients have poor prognosis with a five-year survival rate of 40%-50% (Jou and Hess, 2017). Therefore, novel prognostic biomarkers need to be developed to identify high-risk HNSCC patients and improve their disease outcomes.

A series of tertiary sulphonamide derivatives were synthesised and evaluated for their antiproliferative activity against liver cancer cell lines (SNU-475, HepG-2, and Bel-7402). Among these tertiary sulphonamides, compound 17a displayed the best anti-liver cancer activity against Bel-7402 cells with an IC50 value of 0.32 μM. Compound 17a could effectively inhibit tubulin polymerisation with an IC50 value of 1.27 μM. Meanwhile, it selectively suppressed LSD1 with an IC50 value of 63 nM. It also concentration-dependently inhibited migration against Bel-7402 cells. Importantly, tertiary sulphonamide 17a exhibited the potent antitumor activity in vivo. All these findings revealed that compound 17a might be a tertiary sulphonamide-based dual inhibitor of tubulin polymerisation and LSD1 to treat liver cancer.

In this work, a two-phase system composed of hydrophobic ionic liquid (IL) and water phases was introduced to prepare copper sulfide (CuS) nanoparticles. It was found that CuS particles generated from the interfaces of carboxyl-functionalized IL and sodium sulfide (Na2S) aqueous solution were prone to aggregate into nanoplates and those produced from the interfaces of carboxyl-functionalized IL and thioacetamide (TAA) aqueous solution tended to aggregate into nanospheres. Both the CuS nanoplates and nanospheres exhibited a good absorption ability for ultraviolet and visible light. Furthermore, the CuS nanoplates and nanospheres showed highly efficient photocatalytic activity in degrading rhodamine B (RhB). Compared with the reported CuS nanostructures, the CuS nanoparticles prepared in this work could degrade RhB under natural sunlight irradiation. Finally, the production of CuS from the interfaces of hydrophobic IL and water phases had the advantages of mild reaction conditions and ease of operation.

Aims: To develop a free accessible online tool to identify the prognostic markers for Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) and to estimate the significance of interested gene in a cohort of clinical patients. Settings and Design: R package is used to calculate and plot the Kaplan–Meier survival curve. Subjects and Methods: An online search engine was developed by combining MCC datasets with available anatomoclinical data in Gene Expression Omnibus. In current study, genomic expression profile of thirty patients comprising 42985 probes and 21651 genes was evaluated. Patients were divided into first quartile, second quartile, and third quartile. Information about different cancer patients of varying stages (Stage I–IV) was stored using median survival scale of 14.5 months. Data were stored in SQL Server database and hosted on Windows Server 2008 using Apache Tomcat application server. Statistical Analysis Used: Log-rank test was applied and P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: An Online Survival analysis tool for MCC abbreviating as OSMCC was developed, which can assess the expression level relevance of various genes on the clinical outcome in MCC patients. By OSMCC, the survival curve could be displayed, and the hazard ratio with 95% confidence intervals and log-rank P value can also be calculated. Conclusions: The study demonstrated the ability of OSMCC to identify and analyze transcriptome and clinical datasets for MCC through prognosis significance analysis. So far, OSMCC is the first advanced and specific tool for the prognostic measurement of MCC. Furthermore, OSMCC can prove to be a highly valuable database for the preliminary assessment and identification of potential MCC prognostic biomarkers. OSMCC is accessible at http://bioinfo.henu.edu.cn/MCC/MCCList.jsp.

Extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (EHCC) is a rare malignant tumor, and current treatment methods are also relatively limited.Radical surgery is the only potentially curative method for the long survival time.However, despite undergoing radical resection, prognosis remained poor due to the high recurrence rate and distant metastasis.Therefore, adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy should be offered to patients who have undergone surgery.Unfortunately, the low incidence of this disease has resulted in a lack of high-level evidence to confirm the importance of adjuvant chemotherapy or radiotherapy.At present, it is still controversial whether adjuvant therapy can prolong the survival of patients after operation, especially patients with negative margins or lymph nodes.Furthermore, standard regimens of adjuvant have not been identified.This review summarizes the currently available evidence of the effect of adjuvant therapy in the management of EHCC.Ultimately, we concluded that adjuvant therapy may improve survival in high-risk (positive margin or lymph node or advanced stage) patients and adjuvant concurrent chemoradiotherapy followed by chemotherapy may be the optimum selection for them.This needs to be verified by randomized prospective clinical trials.

Despite the extraction desulfurization of fuel oils using ionic liquids (ILs) as promising alternatives to traditional extractants has attracted worldwide attention, the drawbacks of ILs, such as poor extraction efficiency, high cost and complex preparation, have limited their further application in industrial scale. In this study, a series of trialkylamine-based protic ionic liquids (PILs) were synthesized and characterized, and their extraction desulfurization for thiophene (TH), benzothiophene (BT), and dibenzothiophene (DBT) in model oil was carried out. Effects of PIL species, extraction time, temperature, PIL dosage, and initial sulfuric concentration on desulfurization efficiency were investigated. Experimental results showed that the PILs exhibited higher extraction ability for TH, BT, and DBT as compared to the reported ILs. Under optimal conditions, the removal efficiency of TH, BT, and DBT using tris(3,6-dioxaheptyl) ammonium salicylate ([TDA][SA]) as extractant was 72.68%, 76.31%, and 83.94%, respectively. Finally, the suggested PIL can be easily regenerated and reused via a back extraction process. After 5 extraction cycles, the removal efficiency has no noticeable decrease. With advantages such as higher desulfurization efficiencies, cheap and easily obtained raw materials and simple synthetic process, this study will provide new green solvents for extraction desulfurization process of fuels.