Trace Y Doping Regulated Bulk/Interfacial Reactions of P2-Layered Oxides for Ultrahigh-Rate Sodium-Ion Batteries

P2-phase layered cathodes play a pivotal role in sodium-ion batteries due to their efficient Na+ intercalation chemistry. However, limited by crystal disintegration and interfacial instability, bulk and interfacial failure plague their electrochemical performance. To address these challenges, a structural enhancement combined with surface modification is achieved through trace Y doping. Based on a synergistic combination of experimental results and density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the introduction of partial Y ions at the Na site (2d) acts as a stabilizing pillar, mitigating the electrostatic repulsions between adjacent TMO2 slabs and thereby relieving internal structural stress. Furthermore, the presence of Y effectively optimizes the Ni 3d-O 2p hybridization, resulting in enhanced electronic conductivity and a notable rapid charging ability, with a capacity of 77.3 mA h g-1 at 40 C. Concurrently, the introduction of Y also induces the formation of perovskite nano-islands, which serve to minimize side reactions and modulate interfacial diffusion. As a result, the refined P2-Na0.65 Y0.025 [Ni0.33 Mn0.67 ]O2 cathode material exhibits an exceptionally low volume variation (≈1.99%), an impressive capacity retention of 83.3% even at -40 °C after1500 cycles at 1 C.

TCL1A acts as a tumour suppressor by modulating gastric cancer autophagy via miR-181a-5p-TCL1A-Akt/mTOR-c-MYC loop

Gastric cancer is the third most commonly cause of tumour-related death worldwide and one of the most prevalent malignancies in China. TCL1A, TCL1 family Akt coactivator A, can active Akt/mTOR pathway and regulate the autophagy. However, the action of TCL1A in gastric cancer is not well understood. The present study is investigating the mechanism of action of TCL1A in gastric cancer. TCL1A was lowly expressed in gastric cancer tissues. Subsequent experiments demonstrated that miR-181a-5p can regulate c-MYC through the TCL1A-Akt/mTOR pathway and c-MYC can in turn affect the expression of miR-181a-5p, thus confirming the existence of the miR-181a-5p-TCL1A-Akt/mTOR-c-MYC loop. Flow cytometric apoptosis assay and mRFP-eGFP-LC3 autophagy assay demonstrated that both miR-181a-5p and TCL1A can affect autophagy and apoptosis of gastric cancer cells through the loop. In vivo experiments confirmed that TCL1A can affect the proliferation of gastric cancer. These results illustrate that TCL1A can exert tumour suppressive effects and affect gastric cancer autophagy and progression via the miR-181a-5p-TCL1A-Akt/mTOR-c-MYC loop, which could be a potential therapeutic target for gastric cancer.

Zinc Single-Atom-Regulated Hard Carbons for High-Rate and Low-Temperature Sodium-Ion Batteries

Hard carbons, as one of the most commercializable anode materials for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), have to deal with the trade-off between the rate capability and specific capacity or initial Columbic efficiency (ICE), and the fast performance decline at low temperature (LT) remains poorly understood. Here, a comprehensive regulation on the interfacial/bulk electrochemistry of hard carbons through atomic Zn doping is reported, which demonstrates a record-high reversible capacity (546 mAh g^-1 ), decent ICE (84%), remarkable rate capability (140 mAh g^-1 @ 50 A g^-1 ), and excellent LT capacity (443 mAh g^-1 @ -40 °C), outperforming the state-of-the-art literature. This work reveals that the Zn doping can generally induce a local electric field to enable fast bulk Na⁺ transportation, and meanwhile catalyze the decomposition of NaPF₆ to form a robust inorganic-rich solid-electrolyte interphase, which elaborates the underlying origin of the boosted electrochemical performance. Importantly, distinguished from room temperature, the intrinsic Na⁺ migration/desolvation ability of the electrolyte is disclosed to be the crucial rate-determining factors for the SIB performance at LT. This work provides a fundamental understanding on the charge-storage kinetics at varied temperatures.

Hemoglobin A1c and Angiographic Severity with Coronary Artery Disease: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background

Many studies have shown that glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) is associated with coronary artery disease (CAD). HbA1c was independently related to angiographic severity in Chinese patients with CAD after adjusting for other covariates. Some traditional cardiovascular drugs may have an impact on this relationship.

Methods

This retrospective study enrolled a total of 572 CAD patients who underwent their coronary angiography and had their HbA1c levels measured at the Chinese Hospital. The complexity of the coronary artery lesions was evaluated using the Syntax score, and the subjects were divided into 4 inter quartiles according to HbA1c levels. Covariates included history of traditional cardiovascular drugs.

Results

The average age of selected participants was 61.00 ± 9.15 years old, and about 54.72% of them were male. Result of fully adjusted linear regression showed that HbA1c was positively associated with Syntax score after adjusting confounders (β = 1.09, 95% CI: 0.27, 1.91, P = 0.0096). By interaction and stratified analyses, the interactions were observed based on our specification including with the medication history of statins and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) (P values for interaction <0.05).

Conclusion

In this study, we found a positive correlation between the HbA1c levels and the SYNTAX score among CAD individuals, and oral statins and ARBs medication could affect the correlation. Thus, HbA1c measurement could be used for the evaluation of the severity and complexity of coronary lesions among CAD patients.

Nanomaterials as Promising Theranostic Tools in Nanomedicine and Their Applications in Clinical Disease Diagnosis and Treatment

In recent decades, with the rapid development of nanotechnology, nanomaterials have been widely used in the medical field, showing great potential due to their unique physical and chemical properties including minimal size and functionalized surface characteristics. Nanomaterials such as metal nanoparticles and polymeric nanoparticles have been extensively studied in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases that seriously threaten human life and health, and are regarded to significantly improve the disadvantages of traditional diagnosis and treatment platforms, such as poor effectiveness, low sensitivity, weak security and low economy. In this review, we report and discuss the development and application of nanomaterials in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases based mainly on published research in the last five years. We first briefly introduce the improvement of several nanomaterials in imaging diagnosis and genomic sequencing. We then focus on the application of nanomaterials in the treatment of diseases, and select three diseases that people are most concerned about and that do the most harm: tumor, COVID-19 and cardiovascular diseases. First, we introduce the characteristics of nanoparticles according to the excellent effect of nanoparticles as delivery carriers of anti-tumor drugs. We then review the application of various nanoparticles in tumor therapy according to the classification of nanoparticles, and emphasize the importance of functionalization of nanomaterials. Second, COVID-19 has been the hottest issue in the health field in the past two years, and nanomaterials have also appeared in the relevant treatment. We enumerate the application of nanomaterials in various stages of viral pathogenesis according to the molecular mechanism of the complete pathway of viral infection, pathogenesis and transmission, and predict the application prospect of nanomaterials in the treatment of COVID-19. Third, aiming at the most important causes of human death, we focus on atherosclerosis, aneurysms and myocardial infarction, three of the most common and most harmful cardiovascular diseases, and prove that nanomaterials could be involved in a variety of therapeutic approaches and significantly improve the therapeutic effect in cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, we believe nanotechnology will become more widely involved in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases in the future, potentially helping to overcome bottlenecks under existing medical methods.