Broad luminescence tuning in Mn2+-doped Rb2Zn3(P2O7)2via doping level control based on multiple synergies

A series of novel Mn2+-doped Rb2Zn3(P2O7)2 phosphors for tunable emission from green to orange-red due to Mn2+ preferential occupation of different crystallographic sites with an increasing Mn2+ doping level.

Bioinspired Nanocatalysts as Hydrogen Peroxide Homeostasis Regulators for Tumor-Specific Synergistic Therapy

Tailored to special tumor microenvironment (TME), chemodynamic therapy (CDT) has been introduced to generate hydroxyl radicals (•OH) primarily for tumor via the Fenton and Fenton-like reactions. However, the deficient hydrogen...

High-Sensitivity Fluorescence Detection for lung cancer CYFRA21-1 DNA based on Accumulative Hybridization of Quantum Dots

Sensitive detection of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in vitro has attracted growing attention owing to its potential application in diagnostics of cancer. In this study, we synthesized hydrophilic AgInS2@ZnS core-shell...

Core-Shell Structured Upconversion/Lead-Free Perovskite Nanoparticles for Anticounterfeiting Applications

In view of their excellent luminescence properties, nanocrystalline metal halide perovskites have diverse optoelectronic applications, including those related to anticounterfeiting. However, high-quality optical anticounterfeiting typically requires multiple encryptions relying on several optical modes to ensure information security. Herein, an efficient anticounterfeiting strategy based on dual optical encryption is realized by combining up- and downconversion luminescence in a nanocomposite with NaYF₄  : Er³⁺ ,Yb³⁺ as core and a CsMnCl₃ as shell. The emission color of this nanocomposite depends on the penetration depth of incident radiation and can be changed by varying the excitation source (980 nm laser or UV light) to produce different luminescent patterns. This feature allows one to effectively improve the anticounterfeiting index and fabricate professional anticounterfeiting materials.

Biodegradable Upconversion Nanoparticles Induce Pyroptosis for Cancer Immunotherapy

Pyroptosis, which is a mode of programmed cell death, has proven effective for cancer therapy. However, efficient pyroptosis inducers for tumor treatment are limited. This study proposes biodegradable K₃ZrF₇:Yb/Er upconversion nanoparticles (ZrNPs) as pyroptosis inducers for cancer immunotherapy. ZrNPs, which are similar to ion reservoirs, can be dissolved inside cancer cells and release high amounts of K⁺ and [ZrF₇]^3- ions, resulting a surge in intracellular osmolarity and homeostasis imbalance. This further induces an increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS), caspase-1 protein activation, gasdermin D (GSDMD) cleavage, and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) maturity, and results in cytolysis. In vivo tests confirm that ZrNPs-induced pyroptosis exhibits superior antitumor immunity activity confirmed by enhanced dendritic cells (DCs) maturity and frequency of effector-memory T cells, as well as observably inhibiting tumor growth and pulmonary metastasis. This work is believed to extend the biomedical applications of upconversion nanomaterials and deepen the understanding of intrinsic immunomodulatory activity of nanomaterials.

Quality detection of tea oil by 19F NMR and 1H NMR

The nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique was applied to monitor the quality of tea oil herein. The adulteration of virgin tea oil was monitored by 19F NMR and 1H NMR. The 19F NMR technique was used as a new method to detect the changes in quality and hydroperoxide value of tea oil. The research demonstrates that 19F NMR and 1H NMR can quickly detect adulteration in tea oil. High temperature caused a decrease in the ratio D and increase in the total diglyceride content. Some new peaks belonging to the derivatives of hydroperoxides appeared at δ-108.21 and δ-109.05 ppm on the 19F NMR spectrum when the oil was autoxidized and became larger when the hydroperoxide value increased. These results have great significance in monitoring the moisture content, freshness and oxidation status of oils and in detecting adulteration in high priced edible oils by mixing with cheap oils.

Bifocal 532/1064 nm alternately illuminated photoacoustic microscopy for capturing deep vascular morphology in human skin

BACKGROUND

As a promising technology, photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) plays a critical role in diagnosis and assessment of dermatological conditions by providing subtle vascular networks non-invasively. However, the established PAMs are insufficient for clinical dermatology when faced with complex structures of human skin instead of animal models owing to high melanin content and superimposed vasculature for Asians, which cannot balance the spatial resolution and the imaging depth.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the ability of bifocal 532/1064-nm alternately illuminated photoacoustic microscopy (BF-PAM) to non-invasively reveal the morphological structure of human skin for improving the diagnosis and therapeutic efficacy of skin diseases.

METHODS

A BF-PAM was developed to capture biopsy-like information of human skin from epidermis to hypodermis. The optical foci of the two excitation beams are staggered in the axial direction to form an extended depth-of-field, which can maintain the lateral resolution and the contrast of PA image.

RESULTS

The imaging capability of the BF-PAM was demonstrated by depicting the vascular morphology of multilayered skin with imaging depth of ˜3 mm. Furtherly, vascular malformations in port-wine stains skin were quantitatively assessed without the need for any contrast agent, and the distribution, depth and diameter of the ectatic vessels can determine an optimal treatment protocol for port-wine stains lesions.

CONCLUSIONS

The quantitative vascular morphology in the dermis can be used to accurately assess vascular characteristics, in which case it enables clinicians to determine optimum treatment parameters in individual patients. As a non-invasive imaging technique, BF-PAM holds great potential to provide objective assessment to enhance the therapeutic efficacy.

ETHICAL STATEMENT

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in 2013). The study was approved by the Chinese Ethics Committee of Registering Clinical Trials (ChiECRCT20200184) and registered with Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR2000034400). Before skin imaging, written informed consent was taken from all individual participants.

Multifunctional carbon monoxide nanogenerator as immunogenic cell death drugs with enhanced antitumor immunity and antimetastatic effect

The limited effect of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) immunotherapy is subjected to the immuno-suppressive tumor microenvironment (TME). It is still a challenge to reverse the immune-suppressive state in clinical cancer therapy. Immunogenic cell death (ICD) is a way for inducing the therapeutical tumor immune system. In this work, carbon monoxide (CO) gas therapy is used to boost antitumor immunity for tumor control, metastasis and recurrence prevention. Briefly, CO₂-g-C₃N₄-Au@ZIF-8@F127 (CCAZF) is proposed to integrate gas therapy and immunotherapy into a photocatalytic nanogenerator for overcoming the limitations of monotherapy. CCAZF exhibits a highly effective light-controllable release behavior of CO, which gradually aggravates the oxidative stress in tumor cells to induce ICD. With the induction of ICD, CO therapy enhances immune responses and enables efficient immune cells activated. When combined with ICB, CCAZF displays an enhanced immune effect, which mediates the regression of primary and distal tumors. This strategy of in-situ photocatalytic CO therapy furthest avoids the toxicity from CO leakage and provides a new method to design novel ICD inducers.

Effect of low temperature and high humidity stress on physiology of cucumber at different leaf stages

Low temperature (LT) and high humidity (HH) are important environmental factors in greenhouses and plastic tunnels during the cold season, as they hamper plant growth and development. Here, we studied the effect of LT (day/night: 9/5 °C, 25/18 °C as control) and HH (95%, 80% as control) on young cucumber plants at the 2, 4 or 6 leaf stages. LT+HH stress resulted in a decline in shoot, root and total fresh and dry weights, and decreased P_n , g_s , T_r , F_v /F_m , qP, ETR and chlorophyll, and increased MDA, H₂ O₂ , O₂ ^- , NPQ and C_i as compared to the control at the 2 leaf stage. SOD, POD, CAT, APX and GR were upregulated under LT+HH stress as compared to the control at the 6 leaf stage. ABA and JA increased under LT+HH stress as compared to the control at the 6 leaf stage, while IAA and GA decreased under LT+HH stress as compared to the control at the 2 leaf stage. Our results show that LT+HH stress affects young cucumber plant photosynthetic efficiency, PSII activity, antioxidant defence system, ROS and hormone profile. Plants at the 6 leaf stage were more tolerant than at the 2 and 4 leaf stages under stress conditions.

A Robust Narrow Bandgap Vanadium Tetrasulfide Sonosensitizer Optimized by Charge Separation Engineering for Enhanced Sonodynamic Cancer Therapy

The development and optimization of sonosensitizers for elevating intratumoral reactive oxygen species (ROS) are definitely appealing in current sonodynamic therapy (SDT). Given this, branched vanadium tetrasulfide (VS₄ ) nanodendrites with a narrower bandgap (compared with the most extensively explored sonosensitizers) are presented as a new source of sonosensitizer, which allows a more effortless separation of sono-triggered electron-hole pairs for ROS generation. Specifically, platinum (Pt) nanoparticles and endogenous high levels of glutathione (GSH) are rationally engineered to further optimize its sono-sensitized performance. As cocatalyst, Pt is conducive to trapping electrons, whereas GSH, as a natural hole-scavenger, tends to capture holes. Compared with the pristine VS₄ sonosensitizer, the GSH-Pt-VS₄ nanocomposite can greatly prolong the lifetime of the charge and confer a highly efficacious ROS production activity. Furthermore, such nanoplatforms are capable of reshaping tumor microenvironments to realize ROS overproduction, contributed by overcoming tumor hypoxia to improve SDT-triggered singlet oxygen production, catalyzing endogenic hydrogen peroxide into destructive hydroxyl radicals for chemodynamic therapy, and depleting GSH to amplify intratumoral oxidative stress. All these combined effects result in a significantly efficient tumor suppression outcome. This study enriches sonosensitizer research and proves that sonosensitizers can be rationally optimized by charge separation engineering strategy.

A Robust Oxygen-Carrying Hemoglobin-Based Natural Sonosensitizer for Sonodynamic Cancer Therapy

The development of novel sonosensitizers with outstanding reactive oxygen (ROS) generation capacity and great biocompatibility poses a significant challenge for the clinical practice of sonodynamic therapy (SDT). In this work, hemoglobin (Hb) with natural metalloporphyrin was first shown to possess great potential as a sonosensitizer. Compared with traditional organic sonosensitizers, Hb had satisfactory sono-sensitizing efficiency because four the porphyrin molecules were separated by four polypeptide chains. This effectively avoided the problem of low ROS quantum yield caused by the stacking of hydrophobic porphyrins. Meanwhile, Hb is an efficient and safe oxygen carrier that may release O₂ at hypoxic tumors site, which improved tumor oxygenation and subsequently enhanced SDT efficacy. Therefore, Hb was integrated with zeolitic imidazolate framework 8 (ZIF-8) to form a nanoplatform that demonstrated a potent suppression effect on deep-seated tumors under ultrasound irradiation.

A Tumor-Microenvironment-Responsive Nanocomposite for Hydrogen Sulfide Gas and Trimodal-Enhanced Enzyme Dynamic Therapy

Recently, enzyme dynamic therapy (EDT) has drawn much attention as a new type of dynamic therapy. However, the selection of suitable nanocarriers to deliver chloroperoxidase (CPO) and enhancement of the level of hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2 ) in the tumor microenvironment (TME) are critical factors for improving the efficiency of EDT. In this study, a rapidly decomposing nanocomposite is designed using tetra-sulfide-bond-incorporating dendritic mesoporous organosilica (DMOS) as a nanocarrier, followed by loading CPO and sodium-hyaluronate-modified calcium peroxide nanoparticles (CaO2 -HA NPs). The nanocomposite can effectively generate singlet oxygen (1 O2 ) for tumor therapy without any exogenous stimulus via trimodal-enhanced EDT, including DMOS-induced depletion of glutathione (GSH), H2 O2 compensation from CaO2 -HA NPs in mildly acidic TME, and oxidative stress caused by overloading of Ca2+ . As tetra-sulfide bonds are sensitive to GSH, DMOS can generate hydrogen sulfide (H2 S) gas as a new kind of H2 S gas nanoreactor. Additionally, the overloading of Ca2+ can cause tumor calcification to accelerate in vivo tumor necrosis and promote computed tomography imaging efficacy. Therefore, a novel H2 S gas, EDT, and Ca2+ -interference combined therapy strategy is developed.

NIR-Triggered Multi-Mode Antitumor Therapy Based on Bi2 Se3 /Au Heterostructure with Enhanced Efficacy

Of all the reaction oxygen species (ROS) therapeutic strategies, NIR light-induced photocatalytic therapy (PCT) based on semiconductor nanomaterials has attracted increasing attention. However, the photocatalysts suffer from rapid recombination of electron-hole pairs due to the narrow band gaps, which are greatly restricted in PCT application. Herein, Bi₂ Se₃ /Au heterostructured photocatalysts are fabricated to solve the problems by introducing Au nanoparticles (NPs) in situ on the surface of the hollow mesoporous structured Bi₂ Se₃ . Owing to the lower work function of Au NPs, the photo-induced electrons are easier to transfer and assemble on their surfaces, resulting in the increased separation of the electron-hole pairs with efficient ROS generation. Besides, Bi₂ Se₃ /Au heterostructures also enhance the photothermal efficiency due to the effective orbital overlaps with accelerated electron migrations according to density functional theory calculations. Moreover, the PLGA-PEG and the doxorubicin (DOX) are introduced for photothermal-triggered drug release in the system. The Bi₂ Se₃ /Au heterostructures also displays excellent infrared thermal (IRT) and computed tomography (CT) dual-modal imaging property for promising cancer diagnosis. Collectively, Bi₂ Se₃ /Au@PLGA-PEG-DOX exhibits prominent tumor inhibition effect based on synchronous PTT, PCT and chemotherapy triggered by NIR light for efficient antitumor treatment.

Effect of diet and nonesterified fatty acid levels on global transcriptomic profiles in circulating peripheral blood mononuclear cells in early lactation dairy cows

After calving, lipid mobilization caused by increased nutrient demands for lactation leads to elevated circulating concentrations of nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA). Excessive NEFA levels have previously been identified as a major risk factor for postpartum immunosuppression. The aim of this study was to investigate changes in global transcriptomic gene expression of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in dairy cows offered different early lactation diets (high concentrate, n = 7; medium, n = 8; or low, n = 9) and with differing circulating levels of NEFA. Cows were classified as having NEFA concentrations of either <500 µM (low, n = 6), 500 to 750 µM (medium, n = 8) or >750 µM (high, n = 10) at 14 d in milk. Plasma urea concentrations were greater for cows on the high concentrate diet but β-hydroxybutyrate and glucose concentrations did not differ significantly between either dietary treatments or NEFA groups. Cows with high NEFA weighed more at drying off and suffered greater body condition score loss after calving. The PBMC were isolated at 14 d in milk, and RNA was extracted for RNA sequencing. Differential gene expression was analyzed with DESeq2 with q-value for false discovery rate control followed by Gene Ontology Enrichment. Although there were no differentially expressed genes associated with lactation diet, 304 differentially expressed genes were identified between cows with high and low circulating NEFA, with 118 upregulated and 186 downregulated. Gene Ontology enrichment analysis demonstrated that biological adhesion and immune system process were foremost among various PBMC functions which were altered relating to body defenses and immunity. High NEFA concentrations were associated with inhibited cellular adhesion function by downregulating 20 out of 26 genes (by up to 17-fold) related to this process. Medium NEFA concentrations altered a similar set of functions as high NEFA, but with smaller enrichment scores. Localization and immune system process were most significant, with biological adhesion ranking only eleventh. Our results demonstrated that increased circulating NEFA concentrations, but not diet, were associated with immune system processes in PBMC in early lactation cows. Leukocyte cell-to-cell adhesion was inhibited when the NEFA concentration exceeded 750 µM, which would reduce the efficiency of diapedesis and so contribute to decreased body defense mechanisms and predispose animals to infection.

Identification of hepatosensitive region and their neural connections in the hippocampus of rats

BACKGROUND

Visceral function localization of the brain is very complex. For many years, people have been actively exploring the neural mechanism regulating visceral and substance metabolism, clarifying the complex relationship between the brain and peripheral nervous system related to the regulation of visceral activity, and analyzing its complex neural pathways. The brain is the advanced center of visceral function regulation. As an advanced center for substance metabolism and visceral regulation, the hippocampus is crucial for regulating visceral function. The liver is the core organ of material metabolism, and its afferent signals are mainly projected to the Nucleus of the solitary tract(NTS) through vagus nerve, and then they are projected to the hypothalamus and limbic system.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We placed a stereotaxic instrument on the head of each rat and performed craniotomy to open a window above the left hippocampus. We used gold-plated tungsten electrodes to monitor hippocampal neuronal discharges. Grounding was achieved using screws and silver wire. We electrically stimulated the liver branch of the vagus nerve and observed changes in hippocampal neuron discharges using a biological method; in this way, we identified hepatosensitive hippocampal region. We injected FluoroGold into this region and related brain areas. After 3 days, the rats were sacrificed and perfused; the hippocampi were fixed, dehydated, frozen, sectioned, and subjected to fluorescence microscopy.

RESULTS

Nerve discharge frequency and amplitude significantly increased in the hippocampal CA3 region (AP: -4.9, ML: -5.1, DV: -5.0 mm). After FluoroGold was injected into the left hepatosensitive region in the hippocampus, labeled cells were found in the contralateral hippocampus, ipsilateral piriform cortex (PC), locus coeruleus (LC) and bilateral lateral hypothalamus (LHA); fluorescence in the ipsilateral hypothalamus was stronger than that of the contralateral hypothalamus. FluoroGold was injected into the LHA, PC, and LC; no labeled cells were found in the hippocampal CA3 region or in the control group.

CONCLUSIONS

The hippocampal CA3 area of rats may contain a hepatosensitive region that plays important roles in the regulation of liver and other organ function. These region may receive input from the LHA, PC, and LC.

Conferring Ti-Based MOFs with Defects for Enhanced Sonodynamic Cancer Therapy

The development of highly efficient, multifunctional, and biocompatible sonosensitizer is still a priority for current sonodynamic therapy (SDT). Herein, a defect-rich Ti-based metal-organic framework (MOF) (D-MOF(Ti)) with greatly improved sonosensitizing effect is simply constructed and used for enhanced SDT. Compared with the commonly used sonosensitizer TiO₂ , D-MOF(Ti) results in a superior reactive oxygen species (ROS) yield under ultrasound (US) irradiation due to its narrow bandgap, which principally improves the US-triggered electron-hole separation. Meanwhile, due to the existence of Ti³⁺ ions, D-MOF(Ti) also exhibits a high level of Fenton-like activity to enable chemodynamic therapy. Particularly, US as the excitation source of SDT can simultaneously enhance the Fenton-like reaction to achieve remarkably synergistic outcomes for oncotherapy. More importantly, D-MOF(Ti) can be degraded and metabolized out of the body after completion of its therapeutic functions without off-target toxicity. Overall, this work identifies a novel Ti-familial sonosensitizer harboring great potential for synergistic sonodynamic and chemodynamic cancer therapy.

Retraction: Nanozyme-Initiated In Situ Cascade Reactions for Self-Amplified Biocatalytic Immunotherapy

Adv. Mater. 2021, 33, 2006363 DOI: 10.1002/adma.202006363 The above article, published online on December 6, 2020, in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), has been retracted by agreement between the authors, the journal Editor in Chief Jos Lenders, and Wiley-VCH GmbH. The authors asked to retract this article as subsequent experiments revealed that the conclusions of this manuscript are invalid. The generation of hydroxyl radicals by the artificial cascade enzyme-drug conjugate could not be confirmed.