A nano-delivery system expands the insecticidal target of thiamethoxam to include a devastating pest, the fall armyworm

Nano-delivery systems have been applied to deliver various synthetic/botanical pesticides to increase the efficiency of pesticide use and reduce the volumes of pesticides applied. Previous studies have supported the hypothesis that the nanocarriers can help expand the insecticidal target of pesticides to include non-target pests. However, the potential mechanism underlying this interesting phenomenon remains unclear. Herein, a widely applied star polycation (SPc) nanocarrier was synthesized to construct a thiamethoxam (TMX) nano-delivery system. The SPc-based delivery system could promote the translocation of exogenous substances across the membrane of Sf9 cells, increase the cytotoxicity of TMX against Sf9 cells by nearly 20%, and expand the insecticidal target of TMX to include Spodoptera frugiperda (the fall armyworm), with a 27.5% mortality increase at a concentration of 0.25 mg/mL. Moreover, the RNA-seq analysis demonstrated that the SPc could upregulate various transport-related genes, such as Rab, SORT1, CYTH, and PIKfyve, for the enhanced cellular uptake of TMX. Furthermore, enhanced cell death in larvae treated with the TMX-SPc complex was observed through changes in the expression levels of death-related genes, such as Casp7, BIRC5, MSK1, and PGAM5. The SPc-based nano-delivery system improved the cellular uptake of TMX and expanded its insecticidal target by adjusting the expression levels of death-related genes. The current study mainly identified the transport and cell death genes related to nanocarrier-based insecticidal target expansion, which is beneficial for understanding the bioactivity enhancement of the nano-delivery system.

Efficient polymer-mediated delivery system for thiocyclam: Nanometerization remarkably improves the bioactivity toward green peach aphids

The unscientific application of synthetic pesticides has brought various negative effects on the environment, hindering the sustainable development of agriculture. Nanoparticles can be applied as carriers to improve pesticide delivery, showing great potential in the development of pesticide formulation in recent years. Herein, a star polymer (SPc) was constructed as an efficient pesticide nanocarrier/adjuvant that could spontaneously assemble with thiocyclam or monosultap into a complex, through hydrophobic association and hydrogen bonding, respectively, with the pesticide-loading contents of 42.54% and 19.3%. This complexation reduced the particle sizes of thiocyclam from 543.54 to 52.74 nm for pure thiocyclam, and 3 814.16 to 1 185.89 nm for commercial preparation (cp) of thiocyclam. Interestingly, the introduction of SPc decreased the contact angles of both pure and cp thiocyclam on plant leaves, and increased the plant uptake of cp thiocyclam to 2.4-1.9 times of that without SPc. Meanwhile, the SPc could promote the bioactivity of pure/cp thiocyclam against green peach aphids through leaf dipping method and root application. For leaf dipping method, the 50% lethal concentration decreased from 0.532 to 0.221 g/L after the complexation of pure thiocyclam with SPc, and that decreased from 0.390 to 0.251 g/L for cp thiocyclam. SPc seems a promising adjuvant for nanometerization of both pure and cp insecticides, which is beneficial for improving the delivery efficiency and utilization rate of pesticides.

Acceptability and practicability of self-management for patients with Parkinson's disease based on smartphone applications in China

BACKGROUND

China has had about 1.2 billion mobile-phone users, and this number continues to grow. However, mobile-health services (mHealth) are currently in the initial stage, and have not yet prevailed in China. Additionally, the prevalence of Parkinson's disease (PD) in China is 1700/100,000 (≥65 years). Indeed, these PD patients would benefit from mHealth to manage their disease. Therefore, we designed a study to determine attitudes toward smartphone applications (apps) for chronic condition self-management, and to discover the practicality of these apps among PD patients in China.

METHODS

We selected 204 participants with PD between 52 and 87 years old and surveyed their attitudes concerning the use of smartphone apps for chronic condition management via questionnaires.

RESULTS

Among the participants, 65.19% had smartphones. Among these smartphone users, 82.84% expressed a preference for using apps for PD management. This group tended to be younger and more frequent web users with higher education and better medication compliance, and they tended to have a longer PD course and worse conditions (P < 0.001, P = 0.001, P < 0.001, P = 0.041, P < 0.001, P = 0.013). Additionally, the willingness to apply apps for PD self-management was positively related to education (P < 0.001) and negatively related to age and PD course (P = 0.017, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

In China, patients with PD have a generally positive attitude towards self-management through smartphone apps. Consequently, improving the coverage of smartphones with practical and handy apps is a promising strategy for PD self-management.