No abstract

We present stable solid-state perovskite based luminophores with different emission colors via surface protection of CsPbX3 (X = Br or I) with a polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane.

Tumor cells with stemness (stem-cell) features contribute to initiation and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but involvement of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) remains largely unclear. Genome-wide analyses were applied to identify tumor-associated lncRNA-DANCR. DANCR expression level and prognostic values of DANCR were assayed in two HCC cohorts (China and Korea, n 5 135 and 223). Artificial modulation of DANCR (down-and overexpression) was done to explore the role of DANCR in tumorigenesis and colonization, and tumor-bearing mice were used to determine therapeutic effects. We found that lncRNA-DANCR is overexpressed in stem-like HCC cells, and this can serve as a prognostic biomarker for HCC patients. Experiments showed that DANCR markedly increased stemness features of HCC cells to promote tumorigenesis and intra-/ extrahepatic tumor colonization. Conversely, DANCR knockdown attenuated the stem-cell properties and in vivo interference with DANCR action led to decreased tumor cell vitality, tumor shrinkage, and improved mouse survival. Additionally, we found that the role of DANCR relied largely on an association with, and regulation of, CTNNB1. Association of DANCR with CTNNB1 blocked the repressing effect of microRNA (miR)2214, miR320a, and miR-199a on CTNNB1. This observation was confirmed in vivo, suggesting a novel mechanism of tumorigenesis involving lncRNAs, messenger RNAs, and microRNAs. Conclusions: These studies reveal a significance and mechanism of DANCR action in increasing stemness features and offer a potential prognostic marker and a therapeutic target for HCC. (HEPATOLOGY 2016;63:499-511)

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-engineered T cells (CAR-T cells) have yielded unprecedented efficacy in B cell malignancies, most remarkably in anti-CD19 CAR-T cells for B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) with up to a 90% complete remission rate. However, tumor antigen escape has emerged as a main challenge for the long-term disease control of this promising immunotherapy in B cell malignancies. In addition, this success has encountered significant hurdles in translation to solid tumors, and the safety of the on-target/off-tumor recognition of normal tissues is one of the main reasons. In this mini-review, we characterize some of the mechanisms for antigen loss relapse and new strategies to address this issue. In addition, we discuss some novel CAR designs that are being considered to enhance the safety of CAR-T cell therapy in solid tumors.

An H 2 O 2 -assisted top-down approach is used to synthesize brightly luminescent, color-tunable sulfur quantum dots (SQDs), with aphotoluminescence quantum yield of up to 23 %. The formation of SQDs involves dissolution of bulk sulfur powder into small particles in an alkaline environment in the presence of polyethylene glycol, followed by H 2 O 2assisted etching of polysulfide species,which has the advantage of the passivation of surface states.T his synthetic strategy allows us to simultaneously control the final sizeo fS QDs,t o tune their emission color,a nd to improve their emission quantum yield by eliminating surface traps.Down-conversion white light emitting diodes were also fabricated using blue emissive SQDs and orange emissive copper nanoclusters,with CIE color coordinates of (0.33, 0.32) and ah igh color rendering index of 91. The water-soluble,h ighly luminescent SQDs are promising luminescent materials that can be produced from abundant precursor materials.Supportinginformation and the ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under: https://doi.

Severe cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and neurotoxicity following chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapy can be life-threatening in some cases, and management of those toxicities is still a great challenge for physicians. Researchers hope to understand the pathophysiology of CRS and neurotoxicity, and identify predictive biomarkers that can forecast those toxicities in advance. Some risk factors for severe CRS and/or neurotoxicity including patient and treatment characteristics have been identified in multiple clinical trials of CAR-T cell therapy. Moreover, several groups have identified some predictive biomarkers that are able to determine beforehand which patients may suffer severe CRS and/or neurotoxicity during CAR-T cell therapy, facilitating testing of early intervention strategies for those toxicities. However, further studies are needed to better understand the biology and related risk factors for CRS and/or neurotoxicity, and determine if those identified predictors can be extrapolated to other series. Herein, we review the pathophysiology of CRS and neurotoxicity, and summarize the progress of predictive biomarkers to improve CAR-T cell therapy in cancer.

In patients with hepatitis B-related HCC, adefovir antiviral therapy reduced late HCC recurrence and significantly improved overall survival after R0 hepatic resection.

An ultrasonication-promoted strategy was proposed to synthesize luminescent sulfur nanodots, reducing the synthesis time from 5 days to several hours.