All-in-One Self-Powered Microneedle Device for Accelerating Infected Diabetic Wound Repair

Diabetic wound healing remains a significant clinical challenge due to the complex microenvironment and attenuated endogenous electric field. Herein, a novel all-in-one self-powered microneedle device (termed TZ@mMN-TENG) is developed by combining the multifunctional microneedle carried tannin@ZnO microparticles (TZ@mMN) with the self-powered triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG). In addition to the delivery of tannin and Zn2+ , TZ@mMN also effectively conducts electrical stimulation (ES) to infected diabetic wounds. As a self-powered device, the TENG can convert biomechanical motion into exogenous ES to accelerate the infected diabetic wound healing. In vitro experiment demonstrated that TZ@mMN shows excellent conductive, high antioxidant ability, and effective antibacterial properties against both Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli (>99% antibacterial rates). Besides, the TZ@mMN-TENG can effectively promote cell proliferation and migration. In the diabetic rat full-thickness skin wound model infected with Staphylococcus aureus, the TZ@mMN-TENG can eliminate bacteria, accelerate epidermal growth (regenerative epidermis: ≈303.3 ± 19.1 µm), enhance collagen deposition, inhibit inflammation (lower TNF-α and IL-6 expression), and promote angiogenesis (higher CD31 and VEGF expression) to accelerate infected wound repair. Overall, the TZ@mMN-TENG provides a promising strategy for clinical application in diabetic wound repair.

Characterization and Potential Action Mode Divergences of Homologous ACO1 Genes during the Organ Development and Ripening Process between Non-Climacteric Grape and Climacteric Peach

Ethylene is one crucial phytohormone modulating plants' organ development and ripening process, especially in fruits, but its action modes and discrepancies in non-climacteric grape and climacteric peach in these processes remain elusive. This work is focused on the action mode divergences of ethylene during the modulation of the organ development and ripening process in climacteric/non-climacteric plants. We characterized the key enzyme genes in the ethylene synthesis pathway, VvACO1 and PpACO1, and uncovered that their sequence structures are highly conserved, although their promoters exhibit important divergences in the numbers and types of the cis-elements responsive to hormones, implying various responses to hormone signals. Subsequently, we found the two have similar expression modes in vegetative organ development but inverse patterns in reproductive ones, especially in fruits. Then, VvACO1 and PpACO1 were further validated in promoting fruit ripening functions through their transient over-expression/RNAi-expression in tomatoes, of which the former possesses a weaker role than the latter in the fruit ripening process. Our findings illuminated the divergence in the action patterns and function traits of the key VvACO1/PpACO1 genes in the tissue development of climacteric/non-climacteric plants, and they have implications for further gaining insight into the interaction mechanism of ethylene signaling during the modulation of the organ development and ripening process in climacteric/non-climacteric plants.

Assembly of Metal-Phenolic Networks onto Microbubbles for One-Step Generation of Functional Microcapsules

The one-step assembly of metal-phenolic networks (MPNs) onto particle templates can enable the facile, rapid, and robust construction of hollow microcapsules. However, the required template removal step may affect the refilling of functional species in the hollow interior space or the in situ encapsulation of guest molecules during the formation of the shells. Herein, a simple strategy for the one-step generation of functional MPNs microcapsules is proposed. This method uses bovine serum albumin microbubbles (BSA MBs) as soft templates and carriers, enabling the efficient pre-encapsulation of guest species by leveraging the coordination assembly of tannic acid (TA) and FeIII ions. The addition of TA and FeIII induces a change in the protein conformation of BSA MBs and produces semipermeable capsule shells, which allow gas to escape from the MBs without template removal. The MBs-templated strategy can produce highly biocompatible capsules with controllable structure and size, and it is applicable to produce other MPNs systems like BSA-TA-CuII and BSA-TA-NiII . Finally, those MBs-templated MPNs capsules can be further functionalized or modified for the loading of magnetic nanoparticles and the pre-encapsulation of model molecules through covalence or physical adsorption, exhibiting great promise in biomedical applications.

Investigation of Self-Healing Performance of Asphalt Mastic-From the Perspective of Secondary Aging

Reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) has been widely utilized because it is an environmentally friendly and economical material. The performance of recycled asphalt mixtures will deteriorate gradually with the secondary aging process of asphalt, including the self-healing property. To further understand the self-healing characteristics of asphalt after secondary aging, taking 70# petroleum asphalt, SBS-modified asphalt, and extracted old asphalt mastics as objects, the fatigue self-healing test and fracture self-healing test were conducted to simulate the intermediate-and low-temperature healing behaviors of different asphalt mastics. The impact of healing time, healing temperature, and aging degree of mastics on the healing performance was systematically investigated. The results show that the original unaged asphalt mastics present excellent fatigue healing properties with an index of 0.796 and 0.888 for 70# petroleum and SBS-modified asphalt mastics, respectively. The secondary aging process causes significant impact on the healing properties, leading to a great drop in the corresponding index, which decreased to 47.5% and 72.5% of that of the unaged ones. The fracture healing ability of all mastics was much inferior to the fatigue healing. After secondary aging, the fracture healing index values of 70# petroleum asphalt, SBS-modified asphalt, and extracted old asphalt mastics were all as low as around 0.3, indicating similar performance can be found in the secondary aged SBS-modified asphalt mastics and 70# asphalt mastics. Overall, after secondary aging, the fatigue damage of SBS-modified asphalt mastics can be cured effectively by self-healing, but the fatigue and fracture self-healing properties of 70# asphalt mastics are difficult to recover. These results could provide an innovative view to understand the fatigue and fracture healing characteristics of recycled asphalt pavement after secondary aging.

Real-world efficacy and safety of TACE plus camrelizumab and apatinib in patients with HCC (CHANCE2211): a propensity score matching study

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) plus camrelizumab, a monoclonal antibody targeting programmed death-1, and apatinib for patients with intermediate and advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in a real-world setting.

METHODS

A total of 586 HCC patients treated with either TACE plus camrelizumab and apatinib (combination group, n = 107) or TACE monotherapy (monotherapy group, n = 479) were included retrospectively. Propensity score matching analysis was used to match patients. The overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), objective response rate (ORR), and safety in the combination group were described in comparison to monotherapy.

RESULTS

After propensity score matching (1:2), 84 patients in the combination group were matched to 147 patients in the monotherapy group. The median age was 57 years and 71/84 (84.5%) patients were male in the combination group, while the median age was 57 years with 127/147 (86.4%) male in the monotherapy group. The median OS, PFS, and ORR in the combination group were significantly higher than those in the monotherapy group (median OS, 24.1 vs. 15.7 months, p = 0.008; median PFS, 13.5 vs. 7.7 months, p = 0.003; ORR, 59.5% [50/84] vs. 37.4% [55/147], p = 0.002). On multivariable Cox regression, combination therapy was associated with significantly better OS (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.41; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.26-0.64; p < 0.001) and PFS (adjusted HR, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.37-0.74; p < 0.001). Grade 3 or 4 adverse events occurred in 14/84 (16.7%) and 12/147 (8.2%) in the combination and monotherapy groups, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

TACE plus camrelizumab and apatinib showed significantly better OS, PFS, and ORR versus TACE monotherapy for predominantly advanced HCC.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE STATEMENT

Compared with TACE monotherapy, TACE plus immunotherapy and molecular targeted therapy showed better clinical efficacy for predominantly advanced HCC patients, with a higher incidence of adverse events.

KEY POINTS

• This propensity score-matched study demonstrates that TACE plus immunotherapy and molecular targeted therapy have a longer OS, PFS, and ORR compared with TACE monotherapy in HCC. • Grade 3 or 4 adverse events occurred in 14/84 (16.7%) patients treated with TACE plus immunotherapy and molecular targeted therapy compared with 12/147 (8.2%) patients in the monotherapy group, while no grade 5 adverse events were observed in all cohorts.

Helicobacter hepaticus promotes liver fibrosis through oxidative stress induced by hydrogenase in BALB/c mice

BACKGROUND

It has been documented that Helicobacter hepaticus produces a nickel-containing hydrogen-oxidizing hydrogenase enzyme, which is necessary for hydrogen-supported amino acid uptake. Although H. hepaticus infection has been shown to promote liver inflammation and fibrosis in BALB/c mice, the impact of hydrogenase on the progression of liver fibrosis induced by H. hepaticus has not been explored.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

BALB/c mice were inoculated with hydrogenase mutant (ΔHyaB) or wild type (WT) H. hepaticus 3B1 for 12 and 24 weeks. H. hepaticus colonization, hepatic histopathology, serum biochemistry, expression of inflammatory cytokines, and oxidative stress signaling pathways were detected.

RESULTS

We found that ΔHyaB had no influence on the colonization of H. hepaticus in the liver of mice at 12 and 24 weeks post infection (WPI). However, mice infected by ΔHyaB strains developed significantly alleviated liver inflammation and fibrosis compared with WT infection. Moreover, ΔHyaB infection remarkably increased the expression of hepatic GSH, SOD, and GSH-Px, and decreased the liver levels of MDA, ALT, and AST compared to WT H. hepaticus infected group from 12 to 24 WPI. Furthermore, mRNA levels of Il-6, Tnf-α, iNos, Hmox-1, and α-SMA were significantly decreased with an increase of Nfe2l2 in the liver of mice infected by ΔHyaB strains. In addition, ΔHyaB H. hepaticus restored the activation of the Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway, which is inhibited by H. hepaticus infection.

CONCLUSIONS

These data demonstrated that H. hepaticus hydrogenase promoted liver inflammation and fibrosis development mediated by oxidative stress in male BALB/c mice.

Research Progress on New Environmentally Friendly Antifouling Coatings in Marine Settings: A Review

Any equipment submerged in the ocean will have its surface attacked by fouling organisms, which can cause serious damage. Traditional antifouling coatings contain heavy metal ions, which also have a detrimental effect on the marine ecological environment and cannot fulfill the needs of practical applications. As the awareness of environmental protection is increasing, new environmentally friendly and broad-spectrum antifouling coatings have become the current research hotspot in the field of marine antifouling. This review briefly outlines the formation process of biofouling and the fouling mechanism. Then, it describes the research progress of new environmentally friendly antifouling coatings in recent years, including fouling release antifouling coatings, photocatalytic antifouling coatings and natural antifouling agents derived from biomimetic strategies, micro/nanostructured antifouling materials and hydrogel antifouling coatings. Highlights include the mechanism of action of antimicrobial peptides and the means of preparation of modified surfaces. This category of antifouling materials has broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity and environmental friendliness and is expected to be a new type of marine antifouling coating with desirable antifouling functions. Finally, the future research directions of antifouling coatings are prospected, which are intended to provide a reference for the development of efficient, broad-spectrum and green marine antifouling coatings.