Unlike thermotropic liquid-crystalline C(3)-symmetric molecules with flexible chains, the herein-designed fully rigid three-armed molecules (C(3)-symmetric and unsymmetric) create a fancy architecture for the formation of lyotropic liquid crystals in water. First, hollow columns with triple-stranded helices, analogous to helical rosette nanotubes, are spontaneously constructed by self-organization of the rigid three-armed molecules. Then, the helical nanotubes arrange into hexagonal liquid-crystalline phases, which show macroscopic chirality as a result of supramolecular chiral symmetry breaking. Interestingly, the helical nanotubes constructed by the fully rigid molecules are robust and stable over a wide concentration range in water. They are hardly affected by ionic defects at the molecular periphery, that is, further decoration of functional groups on the molecular arms can presumably be realized without changing the helical conformation. In addition, the formed columnar phases can be aligned macroscopically by simple shear and show anisotropic ionic conductivity, which suggests promising applications for low-dimensional ion-conductive materials.

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Non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) represents one of the most common and aggressive cancers worldwide, as it typically displays irreversible progression and poor prognosis. Interaction between programmed death 1 (PD‐1) and its ligand, PD‐L1, plays important roles in tumor immunology. Follicular helper T (Tfh) cells have characteristically high PD‐1 expression; thus, in the present study, we investigated the role of circulating Tfh cells and their correlation with disease‐free survival after tumor resection in NSCLC. We found significantly higher number of Tfh cells but lower serum interleukin (IL)‐21 levels in NSCLC patients, especially in those with advanced stage (III and IV), indicating that the function of Tfh cells to produce IL‐21 was impaired. Further analysis showed that the increase in Tfh cells was attributable to an expansion of the PD‐1+‐Tfh2 and PD‐1+‐Tfh17 subtypes. Functional analysis showed that Tfh cells from NSCLC patients induced the differentiation of regulatory B cells and CD14+ human leukocyte antigen (HLA)‐DR − cells. Interestingly, the number of Tfh1 subtypes in NSCLC patients was negatively correlated with disease‐free survival after tumor resection. In short, the high number and abnormal function of Tfh cells could cause further immunosuppression and lead to tumor development in NSCLC. Rescuing Tfh functions therefore represents a potential therapeutic strategy in NSCLC.

Two structurally similar trans-bis(pyridine) dichloropalladium(II)- and platinum(II)-type complexes were synthesized and characterized. They both self-assemble in n-hexane to form viscous fluids at lower concentrations, but form metallogels at sufficient concentrations. The viscous solutions were studied by capillary viscosity measurements and UV/Vis absorption spectra monitored during the disassembly process indicated that a metallophilic interaction was involved in the supramolecular polymerization process. For the two supramolecular assemblies, uncommon continuous porous networks were observed by using SEM and TEM revealed that they were built from nanofibers that fused and crosslinked with the increase of concentration. The xerogels of the palladium and platinum complexes were carefully studied by using synchrotron radiation WAXD and EXAFS. The WAXD data show close stacking distances driven by π-π and metal-metal interactions and an evident dimer structure for the platinum complex was found. The coordination bond lengths were extracted from fitting of the EXAFS data. Moreover, close Pt(II) -Pt(II) (Pd(II) -Pd(II) ) and PtCl (PdCl) interactions proposed from DFT calculations in the reported oligo(phenylene ethynylene) (OPE)-based palladium(II) pyridyl supramolecular polymers were also confirmed by using EXAFS. The Pt(II) -Pt(II) interaction is more feasible for supramolecular interaction than the Pd(II) -Pd(II) interaction in our simple case.