Dengue virus (DENV) is an arthropod-borne viral pathogen and a global health burden. Knowledge of the DENV-host interactions that mediate virus pathogenicity remains limited. Host lipid metabolism is hijacked by DENV for virus replication in which lipid droplets (LDs) play a key role during the virus lifecycle. In this study, we reveal a novel role for phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN) in LDs-mediated DENV infection. We demonstrate that PTEN expression is downregulated upon DENV infection through post-transcriptional regulation and, in turn, PTEN overexpression enhances DENV replication. PTEN lipid phosphatase activity was found to decrease cellular LDs area and number through Akt/FoxO1/Maf1 signaling, which, together with autophagy, enhanced DENV replication and virus production. We therefore provide mechanistic insight into the interaction between lipid metabolism and the DENV replication cycle.

Synergistic management of light, heat, water, and salt through a biomimetic gradient structure enables highly efficient and stable brine evaporation.

Interfacial solar-driven water evaporation offers a sustainable route to clean water production, but faces critical challenges of salt accumulation and organic contamination in complex industrial wastewater treatment. To address these challenges, we engineered a multifunctional 3D-printed hydrogel evaporator with vertically aligned grid architectures and hierarchical porosity. This unique structure promotes rapid water replenishment and Marangoni-driven salt back-diffusion through millimeter-scale channels, effectively preventing salt crystallization. By integrating carbon black and the metal–organic framework PCN-224 into the printing ink, we constructed a dual-functional photothermal–photocatalytic system. This synergistic combination not only enhances light absorption and photothermal conversion but also significantly reduces the water evaporation enthalpy. Coupled with heat-accelerated reaction kinetics, the system achieves efficient broad-spectrum photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants. The resultant composite evaporator attains a high water evaporation rate of 2.04 kg m⁻ ² h⁻ ¹ under one-sun illumination, maintaining stable performance across a wide salinity range. Simultaneously, it degraded 96.5% of rhodamine B within 60 min under 1.5 kW m⁻ ² irradiation. This work demonstrates a synergistic strategy for simultaneous solar water production and purification, providing an efficient and environmentally friendly solution for advanced wastewater treatment.

The dilemma of diminishing freshwater resources caused by water pollution has always impacted human life. Solar-driven interfacial evaporation technology has the potential for freshwater production via solar-driven distillation. However, in solar-driven interfacial evaporation technology, it is difficult to overcome the problem of wastewater containing various contaminants. In this work, we propose a bifunctional fabric created by depositing titanium dioxide@carbon black nanoparticles onto cotton fabric (TiO₂@CB/CF). The TiO₂@CB/CF has a coupling effect that includes the photothermal effect of CB and photocatalysis of TiO₂, and it can not only generate clean water but can also purify contaminated water. The resulting bifunctional fabric can achieve an outstanding water evaporation rate of 1.42 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ and a conversion efficiency of 90.4% in methylene blue (MB) solution under one-sun irradiation. Simultaneously, the TiO₂@CB/CF demonstrates a high photocatalytic degradation of 57% for MB solution after 2 h with light irradiation. It still shows a good photocatalysis effect, even when reused in an MB solution for eight cycles. Furthermore, the TiO₂@CB/CF delivers excellent performance for actual industrial textile dyeing wastewater. This bifunctional fabric has a good application prospect and will provide a novel way to resolve the issue of freshwater scarcity.