Ovarian cancer is a highly lethal disease among all gynecologic malignancies and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related death in women. Although the standard combination of surgery and chemotherapy was initially effective in patients with ovarian cancer, disease relapse commonly occurred due to the generation of chemoresistance. It has been reported that cancer stem cells (CSCs) are involved in drug resistance and cancer recurrence. Over the past decades, increasing studies have been done to identify CSCs from human ovarian cancer cells. The present paper will summarize different investigations on ovarian CSCs, including isolation, mechanisms of chemoresistance, and therapeutic approaches. Although there are still numerous challenges to translate basic research to clinical applications, understanding the molecular details of CSCs is essential for developing effective strategies to prevent ovarian cancer and its recurrence.

Metabolomics is developing as an important functional genomics tool for understanding plant systems' response to genetic and environmental changes. Here, we characterized the metabolic changes of cultivated soybean C08 (Glycine max L. Merr) and wild soybean W05 (Glycine soja Sieb.et Zucc.) under salt stress using MS-based metabolomics, in order to reveal the phenotypes of their eight hybrid offspring (9H0086, 9H0124, 9H0391, 9H0736, 9H0380, 9H0400, 9H0434, and 9H0590). Total small molecule extracts of soybean seedling leaves were profiled by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and liquid chromatography-Fourier transform mass spectrometry (LC-FT/MS). We found that wild soybean contained higher amounts of disaccharides, sugar alcohols, and acetylated amino acids than cultivated soybean, but with lower amounts of monosaccharides, carboxylic acids, and unsaturated fatty acids. Further investigations demonstrated that the ability of soybean to tolerate salt was mainly based on synthesis of compatible solutes, induction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavengers, cell membrane modifications, and induction of plant hormones. On the basis of metabolic phenotype, the salt-tolerance abilities of 9H0086, 9H0124, 9H0391, 9H0736, 9H0380, 9H0400, 9H0434, and 9H0590 were discriminated. Our results demonstrated that MS-based metabolomics provides a fast and powerful approach to discriminate the salt-tolerance characteristics of soybeans.

Through different synthetic strategies, two novel cadmium(II) complexes have been synthesized and characterized. The first mesocate complex Cd3L1 2 (1) with S 6 symmetry based on tris[(2-salicylaldeneimino)ethyl]-amine (H3L1 or H3trensal) is constructed from the self-assembly of Cd2+ ion and two chiral building block units, Δ- and Λ-[Cd(trensal)]−, in which the coordination numbers of six and seven for Cd(II) ions are rarely found in one discrete compound without any auxiliary ligand. However, under the same reaction conditions, CdL3(H2O)(NO3) (2) with N3O4 donors is obtained from CdII coordination induced partial hydrolysis of dipolar imine−phenol Schiff base ligand N,N′-bis(salicylidene)-3, 6-dioxa-1,8-diaminooctane (H2L2), which provides the first example of hydrated CdII salt promoting partial degradation of the imine−phenol ligand. The strong fluorescence emission of 1 makes it a potentially useful photoactive material for its high thermal and chemical stability.

Self-assembly of the symmetrical tetradentate N2O2 donor Schiff base ligand, that is, bis(salicylidene)trimethylenediamine (sy-H2L3), with different zinc salts has led to six anion-dependent complexes, namely, [Zn3(sy-L3)2(μ2-Cl)Cl(C2H5OH)]·C2H5OH (1), Zn[Zn(sy-L3)(μ2-NO2)(C2H5OH)]2·2H2O (2), Zn[Zn(sy-L3)(μ2-CH3COO)]2 (3), Zn(DMF)2[Zn(sy-L3)(H2O)(SCN)]2 (4), Zn[Zn(sy-L3)(μ2-HCOO)(DMF)]2·H2O (5) and Zn[Zn(sy-L3)(μ2-HCOO)]2 (6), respectively. Six compounds were characterized by elemental analyses, IR spectra, mass spectrometry and thermogravimetric analyses, of which five structures 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 were further determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses, and compound 3 was previously reported in the literature. It was observed that μ2-bridges in these trinuclear complexes were formed through the phenolic oxygens of the ligand or the anions in the medium. In the presence of nitrite (for 2), acetate (for 3), thiocyanate (for 4), or formate (for 5−6), μ2-bridges formed between a pair of adjacent zinc atoms resulting in linear trinuclear complexes with one symmetrical center. However, μ2-bridges involving chloride and the phenolic oxygens of ligand sy-H2L3 led to the formation of a V-shaped trinuclear complex 1. It is noteworthy that in the assembling process of complexes 4−6, when the appropriate amount of DMF was added to the reaction mixture, thiocyanate anion coordinated to the terminal Zn2+ ion in a η1-N coordination manner and gave compound 4 with a coordination of water molecules and DMF molecules to the terminal and the middle zinc ions in a range from room temperature to 70 °C. Above ∼70 °C, C−N bond cleavage of part of the solvent DMF molecules induced the formation of compound 5 with coordination of formate and DMF to Zn2+. Upon increasing the temperature higher than 110 °C, because of the decomposition of a large number of DMF molecules, the same reaction produced trinuclear complex 6, in which only formate coordinated to a pair of the adjacent zinc atoms in a μ2-bridging coordination fashion. In addition, photoluminescent properties and biological activities of ligand sy-H2L3 and six corresponding compounds were also studied.