Shaoting Zheng

BACKGROUND: Phellinus linteus (PL), which is a typical medicinal fungus, has been shown to have antitumor and anti-inflammatory activities. However, studies on the effect of anti-photoaging are limited. Studies have shown that exosome-like nanovesicles are functional components of many medicinal plants, and miRNAs in exosome-like nanovesicles play a cross-kingdom regulatory role. At present, research on fungi exosome-like nanovesicles (FELNVs) is few. RESULTS: We systematically evaluated the anti-aging effects of PL. FELNVs of PL were isolated, and the functional molecular mechanisms were evaluated. The results of volunteer testing showed that PL had anti-aging activity. The results of component analysis showed that FELNVs were the important components of PL function. FELNVs are nanoparticles (100-260 nm) with a double shell structure. Molecular mechanism research results showed that miR-CM1 in FELNVs could inhibit Mical2 expression in HaCaT cells through cross-kingdom regulation, thereby promoting COL1A2 expression; inhibiting MMP1 expression in skin cells; decreasing the levels of ROS, MDA, and SA-β-Gal; and increasing SOD activity induced by ultraviolet (UV) rays. The above results indicated that miR-CM1 derived from PL inhibited the expression of Mical2 through cross-kingdom regulation and inhibited UV-induced skin aging. CONCLUSION: miR-CM1 plays an anti-aging role by inhibiting the expression of Mical2 in human skin cells through cross-species regulation.

BACKGROUND: The immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody can inhibit the progress of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Epithelial-mesenchymal transformation (EMT) can promote tumor migration and the formation of immune-suppression microenvironment, which affects the therapeutic effect of ICI. Yin-yang-1 (YY1) is an important transcription factor regulating proliferation, migration and EMT of tumor cells. This work proposed a drug-development strategy that combined the regulation of YY1-mediated tumor progression with ICIs for the treatment of HCC. METHODS: We first studied the proteins that regulated YY1 expression by using pull-down, co-immunoprecipitation, and duo-link assay. The active compound regulating YY1 content was screened by virtual screening and cell-function assay. Isorhamnetin (ISO) and anti-PD-L1 antibody dual-functional mesoporous silica nanoparticles (HMSN-ISO@ProA-PD-L1 Ab) were prepared as an antitumor drug to play a synergistic anti-tumor role. RESULTS: YY1 can specifically bind with the deubiquitination enzyme USP7. USP7 can prevent YY1 from ubiquitin-dependent degradation and stabilize YY1 expression, which can promote the proliferation, migration and EMT of HCC cells. Isorhamnetin (ISO) were screened out, which can target USP7 and promote YY1 ubiquitin-dependent degradation. The cell experiments revealed that the HMSN-ISO@ProA-PD-L1 Ab nanoparticles can specifically target tumor cells and play a role in the controlled release of ISO. HMSN-ISO@ProA-PD-L1 Ab nanoparticles inhibited the growth of Hepa1-6 transplanted tumors and the effect was better than that of PD-L1 Ab treatment group and ISO treatment group. HMSN-ISO@ProA-PD-L1 Ab nanoparticles also exerted a promising effect on reducing MDSC content in the tumor microenvironment and promoting T-cell infiltration in tumors. CONCLUSIONS: The isorhamnetin and anti-PD-L1 antibody dual-functional nanoparticles can improve tumor immune microenvironment and inhibit YY1-mediated tumor progression. This study demonstrated the possibility of HCC treatment strategies based on inhibiting USP7-mediated YY1 deubiquitination combined with anti-PD-L1 monoclonal Ab.

Misalignment between primary and secondary coils in inductive power transfer systems decreases power capacity and efficiency. In this article, a secondary coil positioning method integrated with an orthogonal decoupled transformer is proposed. This nested rectangular and solenoidal structure consists of a pair of double-D coils and a pair of solenoidal coils. The coils are integrated spatially and decoupled magnetically. Based on their directional selectivity characteristics, a coil positioning method is proposed prior to the power path activation. Coordinates can be obtained with polynomial fit calculations. The positioning method is compatible with power transfer and has merits of less auxiliary equipment, higher compatibility, and higher positioning precision considering both horizontal and vertical misalignment cases. The transformer performance is simulated with a three-dimensional finite element modeling tool and verified experimentally on a 3.2-kW prototype. In the preactivation sensing process, points distributed throughout a ±180 mm × 180 mm positioning range were tested. Experimental results show that 92% of tested points are accurate to within 10 mm given a 210 mm vertical distance. When air gap variations are taken into consideration, 90% of tested points are accurate to within 12 mm over the tested range. In the power transfer stage, the maximum full-power dc–dc system efficiency is 94.6%.

Glycation is a nonenzymatically catalyzed spontaneous reaction that eventually leads to the formation of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs), which can bind to the receptor for AGEs (RAGE). The consequences are oxidative damage, an inflammatory response, and aging. In this work, we synthesized echinacoside-zinc coordination polymers (ECH-Zn) by using the coordination interaction between the catechol group of ECH and zinc ions. ECH-Zn was further wrapped with hyaluronic acid/poly (ethylenimine) (HA-PEI) to obtain spherical nanoparticle polymers of HA-PEI-coated ECH-Zn (PPZn). PPZn can enhance the uptake and utilization of ECH-Zn and also have a better antiglycation effect in the skin under the effect of promoting transdermal absorption of HA-PEI. Mechanistic studies at the cellular level showed that MDM2 can interact with STAT2 to form a transcriptional complex and thus promote RAGE transcriptional activation. In vitro and in vivo studies revealed that PPZn can decrease the expression and inhibit the interaction of the MDM2/STAT2 complex. It inhibited the function of the MDM2/STAT2 complex and suppressed the transcriptional activation of RAGE, thereby exerting antiglycation effects. In conclusion, this work provides a nanomaterial and elucidated a mechanism of anti-skin glycation.

A charging strategy that transitions from constant current (CC) mode to constant voltage (CV) mode is typical for lithium batteries. This presents design challenges for inductive power transfer (IPT) chargers to achieve high efficiency. In this article, a multiband frequency tracking control is proposed to match CC and CV modes and to mitigate misalignment. As in prior work, two load-independent frequencies <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">f</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">CC</sub> and <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">f</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">CV</sub> are used for respective CC and CV outputs. Unity power factor can be achieved when fully aligned. For misalignment cases, two narrow frequency bands around <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">f</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">CC</sub> are selected for control to deliver target output currents and limit reactive power. The duty ratio of the inverter is controlled to set target output voltages. A single-stage IPT system with a series <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">LCC</i> topology is analyzed. The proposed control has advantages of narrow operating frequency ranges, high misalignment tolerance, direct design procedures, and high efficiency in both CC and CV modes. The method is verified on a 4.4 kW prototype with a 150 mm air gap. Experimental results show that the target CC and CV charging profile can be achieved with up to 120 mm of lateral misalignment. When fully aligned, the maximum system conversion efficiency reaches 97.5%. It stays above 95.5% and 93.3% over the entire CC and CV mode ranges.