Adaptation to Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Enhances Resistance of Oral Cancer Cells to Cisplatin by Up-Regulating Polymerase η and Increasing DNA Repair Efficiency

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response is an adaptive program to cope with cellular stress that disturbs the function and homeostasis of ER, which commonly occurs during cancer progression to late stage. Late-stage cancers, mostly requiring chemotherapy, often develop treatment resistance. Chemoresistance has been linked to ER stress response; however, most of the evidence has come from studies that correlate the expression of stress markers with poor prognosis or demonstrate proapoptosis by the knockdown of stress-responsive genes. Since ER stress in cancers usually persists and is essentially not induced by genetic manipulations, we used low doses of ER stress inducers at levels that allowed cell adaptation to occur in order to investigate the effect of stress response on chemoresistance. We found that prolonged tolerable ER stress promotes mesenchymal–epithelial transition, slows cell-cycle progression, and delays the S-phase exit. Consequently, cisplatin-induced apoptosis was significantly decreased in stress-adapted cells, implying their acquisition of cisplatin resistance. Molecularly, we found that proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) ubiquitination and the expression of polymerase η, the main polymerase responsible for translesion synthesis across cisplatin-DNA damage, were up-regulated in ER stress-adaptive cells, and their enhanced cisplatin resistance was abrogated by the knockout of polymerase η. We also found that a fraction of p53 in stress-adapted cells was translocated to the nucleus, and that these cells exhibited a significant decline in the level of cisplatin-DNA damage. Consistently, we showed that the nuclear p53 coincided with strong positivity of glucose-related protein 78 (GRP78) on immunostaining of clinical biopsies, and the cisplatin-based chemotherapy was less effective for patients with high levels of ER stress. Taken together, this study uncovers that adaptation to ER stress enhances DNA repair and damage tolerance, with which stressed cells gain resistance to chemotherapeutics.     

Nanocrystallization and optical properties of CsPbBr3−xIx perovskites in chalcogenide glasses

The confinement of CsPbX₃ (X = Cl, Br, and I) perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) in a stabilized inorganic glass matrix is a new strategy for improving their long-term stability and promoting their applications in the optoelectronic field. Here, in situ nanocrystallization strategy is developed to precipitate CsPbBr_3?xI_x NCs with arbitrary I/Br ratio among an elaborately designed GeS₂–Sb₂S₃-based chalcogenide glass matrix. Spherical CsPbBr_3?xI_x NCs are homogeneously distributed in the glass matrix after thermal treatment. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra show that the emission peaks of CsPbBr_3?xI_x NCs can be tuned from 570 nm to 722 nm with the replacement of Br by I. The fs transient absorption (TA) spectra reveal that there exists some structural defects in the NCs, leading to short PL decay life. This work would shed light on confining CsPbX₃ NCs into glassy matrices, facilitating their future applications in photoelectronic fields.     

4-Methyl-2,4-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)pent-1-ene,a Major Active Metabolite of Bisphenol A,Triggers Pancreatic β-Cell Death via a JNK/AMPKα Activation-Regulated Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress-Mediated Apoptotic Pathway

4-methyl-2,4-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)pent-1-ene (MBP), a major active metabolite of bisphenol A (BPA), is generated in the mammalian liver. Some studies have suggested that MBP exerts greater toxicity than BPA. However, the mechanism underlying MBP-induced pancreatic β-cell cytotoxicity remains largely unclear. This study demonstrated the cytotoxicity of MBP in pancreatic β-cells and elucidated the cellular mechanism involved in MBP-induced β-cell death. Our results showed that MBP exposure significantly reduced cell viability, caused insulin secretion dysfunction, and induced apoptotic events including increased caspase-3 activity and the expression of active forms of caspase-3/-7/-9 and PARP protein. In addition, MBP triggered endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, as indicated by the upregulation of GRP 78, CHOP, and cleaved caspase-12 proteins. Pretreatment with 4-phenylbutyric acid (4-PBA; a pharmacological inhibitor of ER stress) markedly reversed MBP-induced ER stress and apoptosis-related signals. Furthermore, exposure to MBP significantly induced the protein phosphorylation of JNK and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)α. Pretreatment of β-cells with pharmacological inhibitors for JNK (SP600125) and AMPK (compound C), respectively, effectively abrogated the MBP-induced apoptosis-related signals. Both JNK and AMPK inhibitors also suppressed the MBP-induced activation of JNK and AMPKα and of each other. In conclusion, these findings suggest that MBP exposure exerts cytotoxicity on β-cells via the interdependent activation of JNK and AMPKα, which regulates the downstream apoptotic signaling pathway.     

Enhanced electromagnetic microwave absorption of Fe/C/SiCN composite ceramics targeting in integrated structure and function

The Fe/C/SiCN composite ceramics were synthesized by polymer-derived method to obtain the integration of structure and functions. The electromagnetic waves (EMW) absorption properties at X and Ku bands were investigated. The addition of nano-sized Fe particles improved the magnetic loss and impedance matching, and the carbon nanotubes generated by the iron in-situ catalysis increased the internal relaxation polarization and interfacial polarization, which together improved the EMW absorption properties significantly. In particular, the Fe/C/SiCN-9 showed the optimum reflection loss (RL) of ?31.06 dB at 10.03 GHz with an effective absorption bandwidth (EAB, RL < ?10 dB) of 3.03 GHz at 2.51 mm, indicating the excellent EMW absorption properties of Fe/C/SiCN composite ceramics.     

变压器内部故障在线检测方法仿真及误差分析

为研究变压器内部故障在线检测方法的有效性及抗干扰性,搭建实际变压器的非线性三维有限元模型.对变压器常见几种类型的内部故障进行详细的结构仿真,通过"场-路耦合法"构建各类型故障的ΔV-I1轨迹.同时,通过对正常绕组的测量信号设置一定的误差,构建了考虑测量误差时的误差轨迹.在此基础上,将正常时的标准轨迹、误差轨迹和各种类型的故障轨迹进行对比分析,通过对ΔV-I1轨迹特征差异的定性分析与定量计算,验证该方法在实际应用中的有效性,总结判断各类型故障的规则,同时针对测量误差所造成的干扰提出了建议.     

油藏中后期减氧空气驱提高采收率机理研究

尕斯库勒油田E¹₃油藏已经进入高含水时期，储采失衡加剧，综合含水率达到了80%以上，原油产量下降，经济效益变差。为了提高油藏原油采出程度、改善油藏开发效果，调研了国内外减氧空气驱的机理研究以及现场试验的资料，建立了以油藏真实孔渗饱数据为基础的一维条形地层机理模型，并选取该油藏Y12-27井组进行了减氧空气驱可行性验证。研究表明:纵向顶部减氧空气驱驱油效果优于水驱和氮气驱；驱替压力对原油采出程度影响不大；注水转注气可以提高原油采出程度；对于减氧空气驱，由于低温氧化反应的作用，氧气浓度对原油采出程度有一定影响，但比较微弱，其中，氧气浓度为10%时，驱替结束采出程度最高；尕斯库勒油田E¹₃油藏属于注水开发“双高”油藏，适用于减氧空气驱；对于该油藏Y12-27井组，顶部减氧空气驱驱油效果好于水驱和氮气驱，建议氧气浓度超过10%时采取关井等措施。     

自愈合橡胶材料研究进展

具有自感知、自诊断、自愈合功能的智能聚合物材料是高分子科学领域的前沿材料之一。介绍了自愈合橡胶材料的自愈合机理,综述了自愈合橡胶材料的分类、特性和发展概况,展望了其应用及发展前景。     

Structural modification of aminoclay for catalytic applications

Abstract

An eco-friendly catalyst system was synthesized using three step reaction. The Cu nanoparticles bridged aminoclay catalyst was analyzed using various analytical techniques. The structure of the catalyst was confirmed by FTIR and XRD. The synthesized catalyst system was used for the reduction of p-nitrophenol (NP), Cr(VI), and fluorescein (Flur) dye individually, as well as in their mixture forms. The k_app value was computed to access the efficiency of the catalyst. The results indicated that the k_app value of the individual system is higher than that of the mixture systems due to the absence of the complex formation reaction. The catalytic performance of the catalyst was also tested for the Schiff base (SB) formation between poly(ethyleneglycol) (PEG) and aniline (ANI) in an oxygen atmosphere. The ¹H-NMR spectroscopy result indicates that the present catalyst system produced 86% yield.