Peptide-based materials that have diverse structures and functionalities are an important type of biomaterials. In former times, peptide-based nanomaterials with excellent stability were constructed ...through self-assembly. Compared with individual peptides, peptide-based self-assembly nanomaterials that form well-ordered superstructures possess many advantages such as good thermo- and mechanical stability, semiconductivity, piezoelectricity and optical properties. Moreover, due to their excellent biocompatibility and biological activity, peptide-based self-assembly nanomaterials have been vastly used in different fields. In this review, we provide the advances of peptide-based self-assembly nanostructures, focusing on the driving forces that dominate peptide self-assembly and assembly mechanisms of peptides. After that, we outline the synthesis and properties of peptide-based nanomaterials, followed by the applications of functional peptide nanomaterials. Finally, we provide perspectives on the challenges and future of peptide-based nanomaterials.
Peptide-based self-assembly nanomaterials possess many advantages. Based on their ability to self-assemble, peptide nanomaterials provide huge potential applications in biomedical and material technologies. The widespread applications of peptide nanomaterials can significantly affect our daily life in the future. Display omitted
•This review summarizes the advances of peptide-based nanomaterials, focusing on the mechanisms, properties, and applications.•Outlining the synthesis and properties of peptide nanomaterials is helpful for the relevant research fields.•The peptide-based nanomaterials show potential applications in many fields.
Conductive, stretchable, environmentally‐friendly, and strain‐sensitive elastomers are attracting immense research interest because of their potential applications in various areas, such as ...human–machine interfaces, healthcare monitoring, and soft robots. Herein, a binary networked elastomer is reported based on a composite hydrogel of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyethyleneimine (PEI), which is demonstrated to be ultrastretchable, mechanically robust, biosafe, and antibacterial. The mechanical stretchability and toughness of the hydrogels are optimized by tuning the constituent ratio and water content. The optimal hydrogel (PVA2PEI1‐75) displays an impressive tensile strain as high as 500% with a corresponding tensile stress of 0.6 MPa. Furthermore, the hydrogel elastomer is utilized to fabricate piezoresistive sensors. The as‐made strain sensor displays seductive capability to monitor and distinguish multifarious human motions with high accuracy and sensitivity, like facial expressions and vocal signals. Therefore, the elastomer reported in this study holds great potential for sensing applications in the era of the Internet of Things (IoTs).
A binary networked elastomer based on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyethyleneimine (PEI) exhibits ultrastretchable, mechanically robust, biosafety, and antibacterial properties. Through optimizing the constituent ratio and water content, the composite hydrogel displays seductive elasticity and is further used to monitor and distinguish multifarious human motions with high accuracy and sensitivity, like facial expressions and vocal signals.
It remains unclear whether and how cardiomyocytes contribute to the inflammation in chronic heart failure (CHF). We recently reviewed the capacity of cardiomyocytes to initiate inflammation, by means ...of expressing certain immune receptors such as toll‐like receptors (TLRs) that respond to pathogen‐ and damage‐associated molecular patterns (PAMP and DAMP). Previous studies observed TLR4‐mediated inflammation within days of myocardial infarction (MI). This study examined TLR4 expression and function in cardiomyocytes of failing hearts after 4 weeks of MI in rats. The increases of TLR4 mRNA and proteins, as well as inflammatory cytokine production, were observed in both the infarct and remote myocardium. Enhanced immunostaining for TLR4 was observed in cardiomyocytes but not infiltrating leucocytes. The injection of lentivirus shRNA against TLR4 into the infarcted heart decreased inflammatory cytokine production and improved heart function in vivo. Accordingly, in cardiomyocytes isolated from CHF hearts, increases of TLR4 mRNA and proteins were detected. More robust binding of TLR4 with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a PAMP ligand for TLR4, and heat shock protein 60 (HSP60), a DAMP ligand for TLR4, was observed in CHF cardiomyocytes under a confocal microscope. The maximum binding capacity (Bmax) of TLR4 was increased for LPS and HSP60, whereas the binding affinity (Kd) was not significantly changed. Furthermore, both LPS and HSP60 induced more robust production of inflammatory cytokines in CHF cardiomyocytes, which was reduced by TLR4‐blocking antibodies. We conclude that the expression, ligand‐binding capacity and pro‐inflammatory function of cardiomyocyte TLR4 are up‐regulated after long‐term MI, which promote inflammation and exacerbate heart failure.
It has been proved that nucleos(t) ide analogues (NAs) therapy could improve underlying liver disease and reduce the incidence of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). ...However, the difference of effectiveness in reducing HCC occurrence between tenofovir (TDF) and enticavir (ETV), two first-line NAs drugs, is still little known. This meta analysis aims to assess the efficacy in reducing incidence of HCC comparing tenofovir monotherapy with entecavir monotherapy among chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients by analyzing their long-term clinical outcomes.
Databases including PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trial, and ISI Web of Science were fully investigated according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. For the included articles, two of the authors independently extracted and confirmed relevant data. Review Manager software (RevMan 5.3) was using for meta analysis.
Seven articles with 3698 patients were finally included in this research, 1574 in tenofovir group and 2124 in entecavir group. For meta analysis, the incidence of HCC was significantly lower among the tenofovir group than entecavir group rate ratio (95% CI) of 0.66 (0.49, 0.89), P = 0.008, while there was no statistical significance in incidence of death or transplantation rate ratio (95% CI) of 0.78 (0.55, 1.13), P = 0.19, encephalopathy risk ratio (95% CI) of 0.72 (0.45, 1.13), P = 0.15 or variceal bleeding risk ratio (95% CI) of 0.71 (0.34, 1.50), P = 0.37 between the two groups.
There is a better effect of tenofovir in reducing HCC incidence than entecavir, which indicates tenofovir should be used more widely while treating chronic hepatitis B patients. However before applying, randomized controlled trial and large prospective cohort study should be performed in the future.
Abstract
The use of photothermal agents (PTAs) in cancer photothermal therapy (PTT) has shown promising results in clinical studies. The rapid degradation of PTAs may address safety concerns but ...usually limits the photothermal stability required for efficacious treatment. Conversely, PTAs with high photothermal stability usually degrade slowly. The solutions that address the balance between the high photothermal stability and rapid degradation of PTAs are rare. Here, we report that the inherent Cu
2+
-capturing ability of black phosphorus (BP) can accelerate the degradation of BP, while also enhancing photothermal stability. The incorporation of Cu
2+
into BP@Cu nanostructures further enables chemodynamic therapy (CDT)-enhanced PTT. Moreover, by employing
64
Cu
2+
, positron emission tomography (PET) imaging can be achieved for in vivo real-time and quantitative tracking. Therefore, our study not only introduces an “ideal” PTA that bypasses the limitations of PTAs, but also provides the proof-of-concept application of BP-based materials in PET-guided, CDT-enhanced combination cancer therapy.
We report a new core-shell structure of peptide-Co9S8 nanobricks for supercapacitor electrode. The nanostructured peptide is intrinsically flexible and biocompatible, which is highly suited for ...wearable supercapacitor electrodes. However, the application of the nanostructured peptide is often limited by its generally low power density and energy density, and its long-term stability is also a concern. Herein, the core-shell structure of peptide-Co9S8 nanobricks is synthesized by conformally coating a thin shell layer of Co9S8 via atomic layer deposition (ALD) onto self-assembled peptide nanobricks. The shell layer can not only protect the peptide material from being attacked by the electrolyte but also contribute extra capacitance to the supercapacitor. The supercapacitors made of the peptide-Co9S8 nanobricks exhibit a high capacitance of 1.3 F/cm2 at 0.7 mA/cm2 and a much improved cycling stability of 96% capacitance retention after 5000 charge-discharge cycling. High-performance flexible solid-state asymmetric supercapacitor (SC) can be also made from the core-shell peptide-Co9S8 nanobricks with activated carbon. The flexible asymmetric supercapacitor can also be coupled with a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) to afford a flexible self-powered TENG/SC system. The TENG/SC system with 2.7-h continuously charging by TENG can power a red LED for 21 min, which demonstrates its excellent performance of self-charging and energy-supplying, and therefore it is of great promise for future wearable electronics applications.
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•A core-shell structure of peptide-Co9S8 nanobricks electrode is synthesized and exhibits high supercapacitor performance.•The ALD Co9S8 can protect the peptide material from being attacked by the electrolyte and also contribute extra capacitance.•A self-powered TENG/supercapacitor system is assembled by using peptide-Co9S8 nanobricks as supercapacitor electrode.
The hunt for the molecular markers with specificity and sensitivity has been a hot area for the tumor treatment. Due to the poor diagnosis and prognosis of pancreatic cancer (PC), the excision rate ...is often low, which makes it more urgent to find the ideal tumor markers.
Robust Rank Aggreg (RRA) methods was firstly applied to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between PC tissues and normal tissues from GSE28735, GSE15471, GSE16515, and GSE101448. Among these DEGs, the highly correlated genes were clustered using WGCNA analysis. The co-expression networks and molecular complex detection (MCODE) Cytoscape app were then performed to find the sub-clusters and confirm 35 candidate genes. For these genes, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (lasso) regression model was applied and validated to build a diagnostic risk score model. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was used and validated to build a prognostic model.
Based on integrated transcriptomic analysis, we identified a 19 gene module (SYCN, PNLIPRP1, CAP2, GNMT, MAT1A, ABAT, GPT2, ADHFE1, PHGDH, PSAT1, ERP27, PDIA2, MT1H, COMP, COL5A2, FN1, COL1A2, FAP and POSTN) as a specific predictive signature for the diagnosis of PC. Based on the two consideration, accuracy and feasibility, we simplified the diagnostic risk model as a four-gene model: 0.3034*log
(MAT1A)-0.1526*log
(MT1H) + 0.4645*log
(FN1) -0.2244*log
(FAP), log
(gene count). Besides, a four-hub gene module was also identified as prognostic model = - 1.400*log
(CEL) + 1.321*log
(CPA1) + 0.454*log
(POSTN) + 1.011*log
(PM20D1), log
(gene count).
Integrated transcriptomic analysis identifies two four-hub gene modules as specific predictive signatures for the diagnosis and prognosis of PC, which may bring new sight for the clinical practice of PC.
The 18 kDa translocator protein (TSPO), previously known as the peripheral benzodiazepine receptor, is predominately localized to the outer mitochondrial membrane in steroidogenic cells. Brain TSPO ...expression is relatively low under physiological conditions, but is upregulated in response to glial cell activation. As the primary index of neuroinflammation, TSPO is implicated in the pathogenesis and progression of numerous neuropsychiatric disorders and neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's disease (PD), multiple sclerosis (MS), major depressive disorder (MDD) and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). In this context, numerous TSPO-targeted positron emission tomography (PET) tracers have been developed. Among them, several radioligands have advanced to clinical research studies. In this review, we will overview the recent development of TSPO PET tracers, focusing on the radioligand design, radioisotope labeling, pharmacokinetics, and PET imaging evaluation. Additionally, we will consider current limitations, as well as translational potential for future application of TSPO radiopharmaceuticals. This review aims to not only present the challenges in current TSPO PET imaging, but to also provide a new perspective on TSPO targeted PET tracer discovery efforts. Addressing these challenges will facilitate the translation of TSPO in clinical studies of neuroinflammation associated with central nervous system diseases.
The 18 kDa translocator protein (TSPO) expression in the central nervous system is upregulated in response to glial cell activation. There is a great potential for the future application of TSPO radioligands as diagnostic and prognostic tools, as well as for assessing therapeutic interventions for neurologic diseases. Display omitted
Highlights
A triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) and a glucose fuel cell (GFC) were separately designed to harvest biomechanical energy from body motion and biochemical energy from glucose molecules.
...A hybrid energy-harvesting system (HEHS) which consisted of TENG and GFC was developed successfully, and it can simultaneously harvest biomechanical energy and biochemical energy.
Various types of energy exist everywhere around us, and these energies can be harvested from multiple sources to power micro-/nanoelectronic system and even personal electronic products. In this work, we proposed a hybrid energy-harvesting system (HEHS) for potential in vivo applications. The HEHS consisted of a triboelectric nanogenerator and a glucose fuel cell for simultaneously harvesting biomechanical energy and biochemical energy in simulated body fluid. These two energy-harvesting units can work individually as a single power source or work simultaneously as an integrated system. This design strengthened the flexibility of harvesting multiple energies and enhanced corresponding electric output. Compared with any individual device, the integrated HEHS outputs a superimposed current and has a faster charging rate. Using the harvested energy, HEHS can power a calculator or a green light-emitting diode pattern. Considering the widely existed biomechanical energy and glucose molecules in the body, the developed HEHS can be a promising candidate for building in vivo self-powered healthcare monitoring system.
The evolution of the facet-facet groove at grain boundaries in multi-crystalline Si during solidification was investigated by in situ observation of the melt/crystal interface. The grain boundaries ...changed their propagation direction without any new grain formation or grain boundaries interaction during crystal growth. We monitored the melt/crystal interface over time and carefully estimated the growth velocities on two facets. We found that the facet velocities are different in some of our experimental observations and the development of random grain boundary is strongly dependent on the facet velocities. On the basis of our experimental observations, we discussed the direction of random grain boundary during solidification by considering the growth velocities on two facets.
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