Peking University International Hospital

<b><i>Background:</i></b> Primary liver cancer, around 90% are hepatocellular carcinoma in China, is the fourth most common malignancy and the second leading cause of tumor-related death, thereby posing a significant threat to the life and health of the Chinese people. <b><i>Summary:</i></b> Since the publication of <i>Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Primary Liver Cancer (2017 Edition)</i> in 2018, additional high-quality evidence has emerged with relevance to the diagnosis, staging, and treatment of liver cancer in and outside China that requires the guidelines to be updated. The new edition <i>(2019 Edition)</i> was written by more than 70 experts in the field of liver cancer in China. They reflect the real-world situation in China regarding diagnosing and treating liver cancer in recent years. <b><i>Key Messages:</i></b> Most importantly, the new guidelines were endorsed and promulgated by the Bureau of Medical Administration of the National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China in December 2019.

The interfaces of neat water and aqueous solutions play a prominent role in many technological processes and in the environment. Examples of aqueous interfaces are ultrathin water films that cover most hydrophilic surfaces under ambient relative humidities, the liquid/solid interface which drives many electrochemical reactions, and the liquid/vapor interface, which governs the uptake and release of trace gases by the oceans and cloud droplets. In this article we review some of the recent experimental and theoretical advances in our knowledge of the properties of aqueous interfaces and discuss open questions and gaps in our understanding.

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (about 85-90% of primary liver cancer) is particularly prevalent in China because of the high prevalence of chronic hepatitis B infection. HCC is the fourth most common malignancy and the third leading cause of tumor-related deaths in China. It poses a significant threat to the life and health of Chinese people. SUMMARY: This guideline presents official recommendations of the National Health and Family Planning Commission of the People's Republic of China on the surveillance, diagnosis, staging, and treatment of HCC occurring in China. The guideline was written by more than 50 experts in the field of HCC in China (including liver surgeons, medical oncologists, hepatologists, interventional radiologists, and diagnostic radiologists) on the basis of recent evidence and expert opinions, balance of benefits and harms, cost-benefit strategies, and other clinical considerations. KEY MESSAGES: The guideline presents the Chinese staging system, and recommendations regarding patients with HCC in China to ensure optimum patient outcomes.

This article reviews the correlation between angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and severe risk factors for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the possible mechanisms. ACE2 is a crucial component of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS). The classical RAS ACE-Ang II-AT1R regulatory axis and the ACE2-Ang 1-7-MasR counter-regulatory axis play an essential role in maintaining homeostasis in humans. ACE2 is widely distributed in the heart, kidneys, lungs, and testes. ACE2 antagonizes the activation of the classical RAS system and protects against organ damage, protecting against hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Similar to SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2 also uses the ACE2 receptor to invade human alveolar epithelial cells. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a clinical high-mortality disease, and ACE2 has a protective effect on this type of acute lung injury. Current research shows that the poor prognosis of patients with COVID-19 is related to factors such as sex (male), age (>60 years), underlying diseases (hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease), secondary ARDS, and other relevant factors. Because of these protective effects of ACE2 on chronic underlying diseases and ARDS, the development of spike protein-based vaccine and drugs enhancing ACE2 activity may become one of the most promising approaches for the treatment of COVID-19 in the future.

In the past few decades, coronaviruses have risen as a global threat to public health. Currently, the outbreak of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) from Wuhan caused a worldwide panic. There are no specific antiviral therapies for COVID-19. However, there are agents that were used during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) epidemics. We could learn from SARS and MERS. Lopinavir (LPV) is an effective agent that inhibits the protease activity of coronavirus. In this review, we discuss the literature on the efficacy of LPV in vitro and in vivo, especially in patients with SARS and MERS, so that we might clarify the potential for the use of LPV in patients with COVID-19.

Background: Primary liver cancer, of which around 75-85% is hepatocellular carcinoma in China, is the fourth most common malignancy and the second leading cause of tumor-related death, thereby posing a significant threat to the life and health of the Chinese people. Summary: Since the publication of Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Primary Liver Cancer in China in June 2017, which were updated by the National Health Commission in December 2019, additional high-quality evidence has emerged from researchers worldwide regarding the diagnosis, staging, and treatment of liver cancer, that requires the guidelines to be updated again. The new edition (2022 Edition) was written by more than 100 experts in the field of liver cancer in China, which not only reflects the real-world situation in China but also may reshape the nationwide diagnosis and treatment of liver cancer. Key Messages: The new guideline aims to encourage the implementation of evidence-based practice and improve the national average 5-year survival rate for patients with liver cancer, as proposed in the "Health China 2030 Blueprint."

Abstract Recently, monolayer molybdenum disulphide (MoS 2 ) has emerged as a promising and non–precious electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction. However, its performance is largely limited by the low density and poor reactivity of active sites within its basal plane. Here, we report that domain boundaries in the basal plane of monolayer MoS 2 can greatly enhance its hydrogen evolution reaction performance by serving as active sites. Two types of effective domain boundaries, the 2H-2H domain boundaries and the 2H-1T phase boundaries, were investigated. Superior hydrogen evolution reaction catalytic activity, long-term stability and universality in both acidic and alkaline conditions were achieved based on a multi-hierarchy design of these two types of domain boundaries. We further demonstrate that such superior catalysts are feasible at a large scale by applying this multi-hierarchy design of domain boundaries to wafer-scale monolayer MoS 2 films.

Natural variations in gene expression provide a mechanism for multiple phenotypes to arise in an isogenic bacterial population. In particular, a sub-group termed persisters show high tolerance to antibiotics. Previously, their formation has been attributed to cell dormancy. Here we demonstrate that bacterial persisters, under β-lactam antibiotic treatment, show less cytoplasmic drug accumulation as a result of enhanced efflux activity. Consistently, a number of multi-drug efflux genes, particularly the central component TolC, show higher expression in persisters. Time-lapse imaging and mutagenesis studies further establish a positive correlation between tolC expression and bacterial persistence. The key role of efflux systems, among multiple biological pathways involved in persister formation, indicates that persisters implement a positive defense against antibiotics prior to a passive defense via dormancy. Finally, efflux inhibitors and antibiotics together effectively attenuate persister formation, suggesting a combination strategy to target drug tolerance.

The 2023 update of the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO) Clinical Guidelines for Gastric Cancer focuses on standardizing cancer diagnosis and treatment in China, reflecting the latest advancements in evidence-based medicine, healthcare resource availability, and precision medicine. These updates address the differences in epidemiological characteristics, clinicopathological features, tumor biology, treatment patterns, and drug selections between Eastern and Western gastric cancer patients. Key revisions include a structured template for imaging diagnosis reports, updated standards for molecular marker testing in pathological diagnosis, and an elevated recommendation for neoadjuvant chemotherapy in stage III gastric cancer. For advanced metastatic gastric cancer, the guidelines introduce new recommendations for immunotherapy, anti-angiogenic therapy and targeted drugs, along with updated management strategies for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive and deficient DNA mismatch repair (dMMR)/microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) patients. Additionally, the guidelines offer detailed screening recommendations for hereditary gastric cancer and an appendix listing drug treatment regimens for various stages of gastric cancer. The 2023 CSCO Clinical Guidelines for Gastric Cancer updates are based on both Chinese and international clinical research and expert consensus to enhance their applicability and relevance in clinical practice, particularly in the heterogeneous healthcare landscape of China, while maintaining a commitment to scientific rigor, impartiality, and timely revisions.

Allostery is well documented for proteins but less recognized for DNA-protein interactions. Here, we report that specific binding of a protein on DNA is substantially stabilized or destabilized by another protein bound nearby. The ternary complex's free energy oscillates as a function of the separation between the two proteins with a periodicity of ~10 base pairs, the helical pitch of B-form DNA, and a decay length of ~15 base pairs. The binding affinity of a protein near a DNA hairpin is similarly dependent on their separation, which-together with molecular dynamics simulations-suggests that deformation of the double-helical structure is the origin of DNA allostery. The physiological relevance of this phenomenon is illustrated by its effect on gene expression in live bacteria and on a transcription factor's affinity near nucleosomes.

The recent severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, previously known as 2019-nCoV) outbreak has engulfed an unprepared world amidst a festive season. The zoonotic SARS-CoV-2, believed to have originated from infected bats, is the seventh member of enveloped RNA coronavirus. Specifically, the overall genome sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 is 96.2% identical to that of bat coronavirus termed BatCoV RaTG13. Although the current mortality rate of 2% is significantly lower than that of SARS (9.6%) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) (35%), SARS-CoV-2 is highly contagious and transmissible from human to human with an incubation period of up to 24 days. Some statistical studies have shown that, on average, one infected patient may lead to a subsequent 5.7 confirmed cases. Since the first reported case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the SARS-CoV-2 on December 1, 2019, in Wuhan, China, there has been a total of 60,412 confirmed cases with 1370 fatalities reported in 25 different countries as of February 13, 2020. The outbreak has led to severe impacts on social health and the economy at various levels. This paper is a review of the significant, continuous global effort that was made to respond to the outbreak in the first 75 days. Although no vaccines have been discovered yet, a series of containment measures have been implemented by various governments, especially in China, in the effort to prevent further outbreak, whilst various medical treatment approaches have been used to successfully treat infected patients. On the basis of current studies, it would appear that the combined antiviral treatment has shown the highest success rate. This review aims to critically summarize the most recent advances in understanding the coronavirus, as well as the strategies in prevention and treatment.

Humans are unique among all species in their ability to develop and enforce social norms, but there is wide variation in the strength of social norms across human societies. Despite this fundamental aspect of human nature, there has been surprisingly little research on how social norm violations are detected at the neurobiological level. Building on the emerging field of cultural neuroscience, we combine noninvasive electroencephalography (EEG) with a new social norm violation paradigm to examine the neural mechanisms underlying the detection of norm violations and how they vary across cultures. EEG recordings from Chinese and US participants (n = 50) showed consistent negative deflection of event-related potential around 400 ms (N400) over the central and parietal regions that served as a culture-general neural marker of detecting norm violations. The N400 at the frontal and temporal regions, however, was only observed among Chinese but not US participants, illustrating culture-specific neural substrates of the detection of norm violations. Further, the frontal N400 predicted a variety of behavioral and attitudinal measurements related to the strength of social norms that have been found at the national and state levels, including higher culture superiority and self-control but lower creativity. There were no cultural differences in the N400 induced by semantic violation, suggesting a unique cultural influence on social norm violation detection. In all, these findings provided the first evidence, to our knowledge, for the neurobiological foundations of social norm violation detection and its variation across cultures.

Abstract Organic–inorganic hybrid perovskites are promising candidates for the next-generation solar cells. Many efforts have been made to study their structures in the search for a better mechanistic understanding to guide the materials optimization. Here, we investigate the structure instability of the single-crystalline CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 (MAPbI 3 ) film by using transmission electron microscopy. We find that MAPbI 3 is very sensitive to the electron beam illumination and rapidly decomposes into the hexagonal PbI 2 . We propose a decomposition pathway, initiated with the loss of iodine ions, resulting in eventual collapse of perovskite structure and its decomposition into PbI 2 . These findings impose important question on the interpretation of experimental data based on electron diffraction and highlight the need to circumvent material decomposition in future electron microscopy studies. The structural evolution during decomposition process also sheds light on the structure instability of organic–inorganic hybrid perovskites in solar cell applications.

We have proposed a novel, accurate low-cost method to estimate the incubation-period distribution of COVID-19 by conducting a cross-sectional and forward follow-up study. We identified those presymptomatic individuals at their time of departure from Wuhan and followed them until the development of symptoms. The renewal process was adopted by considering the incubation period as a renewal and the duration between departure and symptoms onset as a forward time. Such a method enhances the accuracy of estimation by reducing recall bias and using the readily available data. The estimated median incubation period was 7.76 days [95% confidence interval (CI): 7.02 to 8.53], and the 90th percentile was 14.28 days (95% CI: 13.64 to 14.90). By including the possibility that a small portion of patients may contract the disease on their way out of Wuhan, the estimated probability that the incubation period is longer than 14 days was between 5 and 10%.

Abstract Spintronics aims to utilize the spin degree of freedom for information storage and computing applications. One major issue is the generation and detection of spins via spin and charge conversion. Quantum materials have recently exhibited many unique spin-dependent properties, which can be used as promising material candidates for efficient spin and charge conversion. Here, we review recent findings concerning spin and charge conversion in quantum materials, including Rashba interfaces, topological insulators, two-dimensional materials, superconductors, and non-collinear antiferromagnets. Important progress in using quantum materials for spin and charge conversion could pave the way for developing future spintronics devices.

Abstract Li‐dendrite growth and unsatisfactory sulfur cathode performance are two core problems that restrict the practical applications of lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs). Here, an all‐in‐one design concept for a Janus separator, enabled by the interfacial engineering strategy, is proposed to improve the performance of LSBs. At the interface of the anode/separator, the thin functionalized composite layer contains high‐elastic‐modulus and high‐thermal‐conductivity boron nitride nanosheets and oxygen‐group‐grafted cellulose nanofibers (BNNs@CNFs), by which the formation of “hot spots” can be effectively avoid, the Li‐ion flux homogenized, and dendrite growth suppressed. Meanwhile, at the interface between the separator and the cathode, the homogenously exposed single‐atom Ru on the surface of reduced graphene oxide (rGO@Ru SAs) can “trap” polysulfides and reduce the activation energy to boost their conversion kinetics. Consequently, the LSBs show a high capacity of 460 mAh g –1 at 5C and ultrastable cycling performance with an ultralow capacity decay rate of 0.046% per cycle over 800 cycles. To further demonstrate the practical prospect of the Janus separator, a lithium–sulfur pouch cell using the Janus separator delivers a cell‐level energy density of 310.2 Wh kg –1 . This study provides a promising strategy to simultaneously tackle the challenges facing the Li anode and the sulfur cathode in LSBs.

RNA binding proteins (RBPs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) are two of the most important post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression, and their aberrant expression contributes to the development of human malignancies. Let-7, one of the most well-known tumor suppressors, is frequently down-regulated in a variety of human cancers. The RBP LIN28A/LIN28B, a direct target of the let-7 family of miRNAs, is an inhibitor of let-7 biogenesis and is frequently up-regulated in cancers. Aberrant regulation of the LIN28A/LIN28B and let-7 loop in human malignant tumors is reportedly involved in cancer development, contributing to cellular proliferation, cell death resistance, angiogenesis, metastasis, metabolism reprogramming, tumor-associated inflammation, genome instability, acquiring immortality and evading immune destruction. In this review, we summarized the mechanisms of LIN28A/LIN28B and let-7 loop aberrant regulation in human cancer and discussed the roles and potential mechanisms of the LIN28A/LIN28B and let-7 loop in regulating the hallmarks of cancer. The crosstalk between LIN28A/LIN28B and let-7 loop and certain oncogenes (such as MYC, RAS, PI3K/AKT, NF-κB and β-catenin) in regulating hallmarks of cancer has also been discussed.

Abstract Metal corrosion is a long‐lasting problem in history and ultrahigh anticorrosion is one ultimate pursuit in the metal‐related industry. Graphene, in principle, can be a revolutionary material for anticorrosion due to its excellent impermeability to any molecule or ion (except for protons). However, in real applications, it is found that the metallic graphene forms an electrochemical circuit with the protected metals to accelerate the corrosion once the corrosive fluids leaks into the interface. Therefore, whether graphene can be used as an excellent anticorrosion material is under intense debate now. Here, graphene‐coated Cu is employed to investigate the facet‐dependent anticorrosion of metals. It is demonstrated that as‐grown graphene can protect Cu(111) surface from oxidation in humid air lasting for more than 2.5 years, in sharp contrast with the accelerated oxidation of graphene‐coated Cu(100) surface. Further atomic‐scale characterization and ab initio calculations reveal that the strong interfacial coupling of the commensurate graphene/Cu(111) prevents H 2 O diffusion into the graphene/Cu(111) interface, but the one‐dimensional wrinkles formed in the incommensurate graphene on Cu(100) can facilitate the H 2 O diffusion at the interface. This study resolves the contradiction on the anticorrosion capacity of graphene and opens a new opportunity for ultrahigh metal anticorrosion through commensurate graphene coating.

Abstract Manifold optimization is ubiquitous in computational and applied mathematics, statistics, engineering, machine learning, physics, chemistry, etc. One of the main challenges usually is the non-convexity of the manifold constraints. By utilizing the geometry of manifold, a large class of constrained optimization problems can be viewed as unconstrained optimization problems on manifold. From this perspective, intrinsic structures, optimality conditions and numerical algorithms for manifold optimization are investigated. Some recent progress on the theoretical results of manifold optimization is also presented.

Abstract 1 T -TaS 2 undergoes successive phase transitions upon cooling and eventually enters an insulating state of mysterious origin. Some consider this state to be a band insulator with interlayer stacking order, yet others attribute it to Mott physics that support a quantum spin liquid state. Here, we determine the electronic and structural properties of 1 T -TaS 2 using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and X-Ray diffraction. At low temperatures, the 2π/2c-periodic band dispersion, along with half-integer-indexed diffraction peaks along the c axis, unambiguously indicates that the ground state of 1 T -TaS 2 is a band insulator with interlayer dimerization. Upon heating, however, the system undergoes a transition into a Mott insulating state, which only exists in a narrow temperature window. Our results refute the idea of searching for quantum magnetism in 1 T -TaS 2 only at low temperatures, and highlight the competition between on-site Coulomb repulsion and interlayer hopping as a crucial aspect for understanding the material’s electronic properties.