Aqueous zinc (Zn) batteries have been considered as promising candidates for grid‐scale energy storage. However, their cycle stability is generally limited by the structure collapse of cathode materials and dendrite formation coupled with undesired hydrogen evolution on the Zn anode. Herein we propose a zinc–organic battery with a phenanthrenequinone macrocyclic trimer (PQ‐MCT) cathode, a zinc‐foil anode, and a non‐aqueous electrolyte of a N,N‐dimethylformamide (DMF) solution containing Zn2+. The non‐aqueous nature of the system and the formation of a Zn2+–DMF complex can efficiently eliminate undesired hydrogen evolution and dendrite growth on the Zn anode, respectively. Furthermore, the organic cathode can store Zn2+ ions through a reversible coordination reaction with fast kinetics. Therefore, this battery can be cycled 20 000 times with negligible capacity fading. Surprisingly, this battery can even be operated in a wide temperature range from −70 to 150 °C.

Although systemic or local inflammation, commonly featured by cytokine activation, is implicated in patients with bone loss, the underlying mechanisms are still elusive. As microRNAs (miR), a class of small non-coding RNAs involved in essential physiological processes, have been found in bone cells, we aimed to investigate the role of miR for modulating osteogenesis in inflammatory milieu using human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBM-MSCs). Induced by proinflammatory cytokine TNF-α, miR-150-3p was identified as a key player in suppressing osteogenic differentiation through downregulating β-catenin, a transcriptional co-activator promoting bone formation. TNF-α treatment increased the levels of miR-150-3p, which directly targeted the 3′-UTR of β-catenin mRNA and in turn repressed its expression. In addition, we observed that miR-150-3p expression was increased by TNF-α via IKK-dependent NF-κB signalling. There are three putative NF-κB binding sites in the promoter region of miR-150, and we identified −686 region as the major NF-κB binding site for stimulation of miR-150 expression by TNF-α. Finally, the osteogenic differentiation of hBM-MSCs was inhibited by either miR-150-3p overexpression or TNF-α treatment, which was prevented by anti-miR-150-3p oligonucleotides. Taken together, our data suggested that miR-150-3p integrated inflammation signalling and osteogenic differentiation and may contribute to the inhibition effects of inflammation on bone formation, thus expanding the pathophysiological functions of microRNAs in bone diseases.

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Functional analysis using the Gene Ontology (GO) is crucial for array analysis, but it is often difficult for researchers to assess the amount and quality of GO annotations associated with different sets of gene products. In many cases the source of the GO annotations and the date the GO annotations were last updated is not apparent, further complicating a researchers’ ability to assess the quality of the GO data provided. Moreover, GO biocurators need to ensure that the GO quality is maintained and optimal for the functional processes that are most relevant for their research community. We report the GO Annotation Quality (GAQ) score, a quantitative measure of GO quality that includes breadth of GO annotation, the level of detail of annotation and the type of evidence used to make the annotation. As a case study, we apply the GAQ scoring method to a set of diverse eukaryotes and demonstrate how the GAQ score can be used to track changes in GO annotations over time and to assess the quality of GO annotations available for specific biological processes. The GAQ score also allows researchers to quantitatively assess the functional data available for their experimental systems (arrays or databases).

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The electrolytes containing halide-free inorganic magnesium salt Mg(BH 4 ) 2 dissolved in ether solvents have shown reversible Mg deposition-dissolution performance. Herein, we improved the anodic stability of the electrolytes on non-inert stainless-steel electrode by mixing PP 14 TFSI ionic liquid with tetraglyme (TG) and dimethoxyethane (DME) ether solvents. The effect of mixing ratios and salt concentrations on the electrochemical behavior of the electrolyte were investigated. High anodic stability, good ionic conductivity, excellent cycling efficiency, feasibility of the preparation and good compatibility toward Mo 6 S 8 and TiO 2 insertion cathode make the electrolytes promising for the potential application in rechargeable magnesium batteries. 3-5 The development of magnesium electrolytes is considered as the most important challenge for the commercial application of rechargeable magnesium batteries because electrolyte properties govern battery performance and determine the class of cathodes to be utilized. 6 The significant progress is the reports of 0.25 mol L −1 Mg(AlCl 2 BuEt) 2 /THF (Bu=butyl, Et=ethyl) electrolyte 7,8 and 0.4 mol L −1 (PhMgCl) 2 -AlCl 3 /THF electrolyte, 9,10 which have high anodic stability (2.5 V and 3.3 V vs. Mg RE on inert Pt electrode, respectively) and reversibility of Mg deposition-dissolution. Recently, a family of novel boron based electrolytes with high ionic conductivity, excellent Mg deposition reversibility as well as high anodic potential were proposed.11,12 On the other hand, phenolate-based 13 and alkoxide-based 14 electrolytes exhibit air insensitive character and excellent magnesium depositiondissolution performance. Meanwhile, inorganic magnesium salt solutions synthesized by the acid-base reaction of MgCl 2 and Lewis acidic compounds such as AlCl 3 show high coulombic efficiency, low overpotential for magnesium deposition-dissolution and good anodic stability. [15][16][17][18] However, these electrolytes may corrode non-inert current collectors at lower anodic potentials duo to the presence of halides in the cation and anion components of the electrolytes, although some of these electrolytes have shown impressive stability against electrochemical oxidation.19 Hence, it is still necessary to find electrolytes with high stabilities on non-inert current collectors for a practical rechargeable Mg battery system. Nelson et al. showed that decreasing the chloride content in Mg electrolytes by switching the Lewis acid from AlCl 3 to Al(OPh) 3 greatly improves the anodic stability up to 5 V on both Pt and stainless steel electrodes.20 Ha et al. proposed a new class of electrolytes based on magnesium (II) bis(trifluoromethane sulfonyl)imide (Mg[N-(SO 2 CF 3 ) 2 ] 2 , Mg(TFSI) 2 ) dissolved in glymebased solvents with unique characteristics such as highly reduced corrosive nature toward the current collector, low volatility, high solvating power, and the ability to form an appropriate solvation sheath structure for Mg deposition-dissolution. 21 Recently, a whole new promisi...

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Iron accumulation in substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) has been proved to be a prominent pathophysiological feature of Parkinson's diseases (PD), which can induce the death of dopaminergic (DA) neurons, up-regulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and further loss of motor control. In recent years, iron chelation therapy has been demonstrated to be an effective treatment for PD, which has shown significant improvements in clinical trials. However, the current iron chelators are suboptimal due to their short circulation time, side effects, and lack of proper protection from chelation with ions in blood circulation. In this work, we designed and constructed iron chelation therapeutic nanoparticles protected by a zwitterionic poly(2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine) (PMPC) to delay the saturation of iron chelators in blood circulation and prolong the in vivo lifetime, with HIV-1 trans-activating transcriptor (TAT) served as a shuttle to enhance the blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability. We explored and investigated whether the Parkinsonian neurodegeneration and the corresponding symptoms in behaviors and physiologies could be prevented or reversed both in vitro and in vivo. The results demonstrated that iron chelator loaded therapeutic nanoparticles could reverse functional deficits in Parkinsonian mice not only physiologically but also behaviorally. On the contrary, both untreated PD mice and non-TAT anchored nanoparticle treated PD mice showed similar loss in DA neurons and difficulties in behaviors. Therefore, with protection of zwitterionic polymer and prolonged in vivo lifetime, iron chelator loaded nanoparticles with delayed saturation provide a PD phenotype reversion therapy and significantly improve the living quality of the Parkinsonian mice.