2Lead-halide perovskites have been attracting attention for potential use in solid-state lighting.Following the footsteps of solar cells, the field of perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) has been growing rapidly. Their application prospects in lighting, however, remain still uncertain due to a variety of shortcomings in device performance including their limited levels of luminous efficiency achievable thus far. Here we show high-efficiency PeLEDs based on colloidal perovskite nanocrystals (PeNCs) synthesized at room temperature possessing dominant first-order excitonic radiation (enabling a photoluminescence quantum yield of 71% in solid film), unlike in the case of bulk perovskites with slow electron-hole bimolecular radiative recombination (a second-order process). In these PeLEDs, by reaching charge balance in the recombination zone, we find that the Auger nonradiative recombination, with its significant role in emission quenching, is effectively suppressed in low driving current density range. In consequence, these devices reach a record high maximum external quantum efficiency of 12.9% reported to date and an unprecedentedly high power efficiency of 30.3 lm W -1 at luminance levels above 1000 cd m -2 as required for various applications. These findings suggest that, with feasible levels of device performance, the PeNCs hold great promise for their use in LED lighting and displays.

PurposeDeregulation of immune checkpoint molecules by tumor cells is related to immune escape. This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between the appearance of B- and T-lymphocyte attenuator (BTLA) and its ligand herpesvirus entry mediator (HVEM) with the prognosis in gastric cancer patients.Patients and methodsA total of 136 patients with curative gastrectomy were included. The expression of BTLA and HVEM was detected by immunohistochemistry, and its correlation with the clinical significance of gastric cancer was further analyzed.ResultsThe positivity of BTLA and HVEM was detected in 74.3% (101/136) and 89.0% (121/136) of the gastric cancer specimens, respectively. A high expression of BTLA and HVEM was detected, respectively, in 28.7% (39/136) and 44.9% (61/136) of the specimens. Characteristics analysis showed that the high expression of BTLA was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis (P=0.030). Similarly, the high expression of HVEM was also significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis (P=0.007) and depth of invasion (P=0.011). In addition, there was a positive correlation between the expression of BTLA and HVEM in gastric cancer specimens (r=0.245, P=0.004). Univariate analysis revealed that the high expression of BTLA and HVEM was associated with overall survival of patients along with tumor size, Borrmann type, depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, and histological grade (P<0.05). Multivariate analysis established that the high expression of HVEM (P=0.010), depth of invasion (P=0.001), lymph node metastasis (P<0.001), and histological grade (P=0.027) were independent prognostic factors associated with overall survival in patients with gastric cancer.ConclusionThe increased BTLA and HVEM levels correlate with the development and poor prognosis of gastric cancer. HVEM is an important prognostic indicator, and BTLA/HVEM pathway is considered to be a promising candidate for immunotherapy of gastric cancer.

Epstein–Barr virus-positive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (EBV+DLBCL) is an aggressive malignancy that is largely resistant to current therapeutic regimens, and is an attractive target for immune-based therapies. Anti-programmed death-1 (PD-1) antibodies showed encouraging anti-tumor effects in both preclinical models and advanced solid and hematological malignancies, but its efficacy against EBV+DLBCL is unknown. Herein, we performed experiments using co-culture system with T cells and lymphoma cell lines including EBV+DLBCL and EBV-DLBCL [including germinal center B-cell like (GCB)-DLBCL and non-GCB-DLBCL] in vitro. We show that lymphoma cells augmented the expression of PD-1 on T cells, decreased the proliferation of T cells, and altered the secretion of multiple cytokines. However, through PD-1 blockade, these functions could be largely restored. Notbaly, the effect of PD-1 blockade on antitumor immunity was more effective in EBV+DLBCL than that in EBV-DLBCL in vitro. These results suggest that T-cell exhaustion and immune escape in microenvironment is one of the mechanisms underlying DLBCL; and PD-1 blockade could present as a efficacious immunotherapeutic treatment for EBV+DLBCL.

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Blocking the interaction of human programmed death 1 (hPD-1) and its ligand hPD-L1 has been a promising immunotherapy in cancer treatment. In this paper, using a computational de novo peptide design method, we designed several hPD-1 binding peptides. The most potent peptide Ar5Y_4 showed a KD value of 1.38 ± 0.39 μM, comparable to the binding affinity of the cognate hPD-L1. A Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) competitive binding assay result indicated that Ar5Y_4 could inhibit the interaction of hPD-1/hPD-L1. Moreover, Ar5Y_4 could restore the function of Jurkat T cells which had been suppressed by stimulated HCT116 cells. Peptides described in this paper provide promising biologic candidates for cancer immunotherapy or diagnostics.

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The aim of the present study was to analyze the selenoprotein expression levels in gastric cancer patients. We enrolled 40 patients (29 males, 11 females) who were recently diagnosed with gastric cancer and 50 healthy people (30 males, 20 females) as controls. The expression of 25 selenoprotein genes (Dio1, Dio2, Dio3, Gpx1, Gpx2, Gpx3, Gpx4, Gpx6, SelH, SelI, SelK, SelM, SelN, SelO, SelP, SelS, SelT, SelV, SelW, SelX, Sel15, Sps2, TR1, TR2, and TR3) in human gastric cancer tissues, para-carcinoma tissues, adjacent normal gastric tissues, erythrocytes, and lymphocytes in the gastric cancer group and healthy control group was analyzed by qRT-PCR. Here, we showed that among the 25 selenoproteins, 13 selenoproteins in erythrocytes (Gpx1, Gpx4, Sel15, TR1, TR2, SelH, SelK, SelM, SelO, SelS, SelV, SelW, and Sps2), 15 selenoproteins in lymphocytes (Gpx1, Gpx4, Sel15, TR1, TR2, SelH, SelK, SelN, SelO, SelS, SelT, SelV, SelX, SelW, and Sps2) and 13 selenoproteins in gastric cancer and para-carcinoma tissues (Dio1, Dio2, Dio3, Gpx1, Gpx4, Sel15, SelH, SelK, SelM, SelS, SelT, SelW, and Sps2) were significantly decreased (P < 0.05) in the gastric cancer group compared to the control group. In summary, the decreasing expression of selenoprotein genes in gastric cancer patients play an important role in the gastric cancer, although further studies are needed to better understand our findings.