Two-dimensional (2D) superlattices, formed by stacking sublattices of 2D materials, have emerged as a powerful platform for tailoring and enhancing material properties beyond their intrinsic ...characteristics. However, conventional synthesis methods are limited to pristine 2D material sublattices, posing a significant practical challenge when it comes to stacking chemically modified sublattices. Here we report a chemical synthesis method that overcomes this challenge by creating a unique 2D graphene superlattice, stacking graphene sublattices with monodisperse, nanometer-sized, square-shaped pores and strategically doped elements at the pore edges. The resulting graphene superlattice exhibits remarkable correlations between quantum phases at both the electron and phonon levels, leading to diverse functionalities, such as electromagnetic shielding, energy harvesting, optoelectronics, and thermoelectrics. Overall, our findings not only provide chemical design principles for synthesizing and understanding functional 2D superlattices but also expand their enhanced functionality and extensive application potential compared to their pristine counterparts.
Effective osteogenesis remains a challenge in the treatment of bone defects. The emergence of artificial bone scaffolds provides an attractive solution. In this work, a new biomineralization strategy ...is proposed to facilitate osteogenesis through sustaining supply of nutrients including phosphorus (P), calcium (Ca), and silicon (Si). We developed black phosphorus (BP)-based, three-dimensional nanocomposite fibrous scaffolds via microfluidic technology to provide a wealth of essential ions for bone defect treatment. The fibrous scaffolds were fabricated from 3D poly (l-lactic acid) (PLLA) nanofibers (3D NFs), BP nanosheets, and hydroxyapatite (HA)-porous SiO2 nanoparticles. The 3D BP@HA NFs possess three advantages: i) stably connected pores allow the easy entrance of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) into the interior of the 3D fibrous scaffolds for bone repair and osteogenesis; ii) plentiful nutrients in the NFs strongly improve osteogenic differentiation in the bone repair area; iii) the photothermal effect of fibrous scaffolds promotes the release of elements necessary for bone formation, thus achieving accelerated osteogenesis. Both in vitro and in vivo results demonstrated that the 3D BP@HA NFs, with the assistance of NIR laser, exhibited good performance in promoting bone regeneration. Furthermore, microfluidic technology makes it possible to obtain high-quality 3D BP@HA NFs with low costs, rapid processing, high throughput and mass production, greatly improving the prospects for clinical application. This is also the first BP-based bone scaffold platform that can self-supply Ca2+, which may be the blessedness for older patients with bone defects or patients with damaged bones as a result of calcium loss.
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•A new biomineralization strategy is proposed to facilitate osteogenesis.•A BP-based 3D nanocomposite fibrous scaffold was constructed via microfluidic technology.•The formed fibrous scaffold can sustain supply of nutrients including P, Ca, and Si.
Hyperuricemia (HUA), a severe metabolic disease derived from purine metabolism disorder, will lead to abnormally increased serum uric acid (SUA) levels in the body. Studies have shown that HUA is ...highly related to gout, hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, chronic kidney diseases, and so on. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) shows excellent results in treating HUA because of its unique advantages of multi-metabolites and multi-targets. This article reports on the use of TCM components for uric acid (UA)-lowering activity with excellent efficacy and low side effects based on established HUA models. This work summarizes the advantages and limitations of various HUA disease models for efficacy evaluation. Applications of TCM in HUA treatment have also been discussed in detail. This paper reveals recent research progress on HUA in constructing evaluation models and systematic TCM interventions. It will provide a scientific reference for establishing the HUA model and suggest future TCM-related HUA studies.
Fibrous scaffold could provide extracellular matrix (ECM) like structure and desired network for cell growth; however, the mechanical performance of this type uni-structured fibrous scaffold cannot ...meet the requirement of tissue formation. Therefore, new strategies are needed for form mechanical strength enhancement. In this study, we developed three dimensional double-network structured fibrous scaffold (3D DN-Fs) using self-assembly technology combined with electrospinning technology. Our 3D DN-Fs consists of two types of skeletons: the finer silk nanofibers which can mimic biocompatible ECM structure; and the larger skeletal fibrous layers can greatly improve the mechanical strength and cellular loading ability, and provide good nutrition and excreta delivery system for cell growth. Therefore, our 3D DN-Fs displayed excellent mechanical performance (more than 50% increment), biocompatibility, biodegradability, and a desirable microenvironment for cell growth. More importantly, cultured cells exhibited excellent viability and 3D growth. Our novel strategy greatly enhances the potential application of fibrous scaffold in the biomedical area, such as 3D cell culture and tissue engineering.
In this review we will overview novel nanotechnological nanocarrier systems for cancer therapy focusing on recent development in polyelectrolyte capsules for targeted delivery of antineoplastic drugs ...against cancer cells. Biodegradable polyelectrolyte microcapsules (PMCs) are supramolecular assemblies of particular interest for therapeutic purposes, as they can be enzymatically degraded into viable cells, under physiological conditions. Incorporation of small bioactive molecules into nano-to-microscale delivery systems may increase drug's bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy at single cell level giving desirable targeted therapy. Layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembled PMCs are efficient microcarriers that maximize drug's exposure enhancing antitumor activity of neoplastic drug in cancer cells. They can be envisaged as novel multifunctional carriers for resistant or relapsed patients or for reducing dose escalation in clinical settings.
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Highlights
An all-organic hybrid nanobullets labeled as ZPA@HA-ACVA-AZ NBs was developed for the “precise strike”of hypoxic tumors through an oxygen-independently synergistic PTT/TDT, possessing ...therapeutic advantages over traditional ROS-mediated cancer treatment.
By feat of dual-targeting effect from surface-modified HA (targeting CD44 receptors) and AZ (targeting CA IX), the nanobullets accumulated at hypoxic tumors efficiently.
The synergism of intelligent nanobullets could suppress the primary breast tumor growth and lung metastasis via CA IX inhibition by AZ and synergistic PTT/TDT.
Hypoxia is a feature of solid tumors and it hinders the therapeutic efficacy of oxygen-dependent cancer treatment. Herein, we have developed all-organic oxygen-independent hybrid nanobullets ZPA@HA-ACVA-AZ for the “precise strike” of hypoxic tumors through the dual-targeting effects from surface-modified hyaluronic acid (HA) and hypoxia-dependent factor carbonic anhydrase IX (CA IX)-inhibitor acetazolamide (AZ). The core of nanobullets is the special zinc (II) phthalocyanine aggregates (ZPA) which could heat the tumor tissues upon 808-nm laser irradiation for photothermal therapy (PTT), along with the alkyl chain-functionalized thermally decomposable radical initiator ACVA-HDA on the side chain of HA for providing oxygen-independent alkyl radicals for ablating hypoxic cancer cells by thermodynamic therapy (TDT). The results provide important evidence that the combination of reverse hypoxia hallmarks CA IX as targets for inhibition by AZ and synergistic PTT/TDT possess incomparable therapeutic advantages over traditional (reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated) cancer treatment for suppressing the growth of both hypoxic tumors and their metastasis.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder without effective therapy and lack diagnosis strategy for preclinical AD patients. There is an urgent need for development of ...both early diagnosis and therapeutic intervention of AD. Herein, we developed a nanotheranostics platform consisting of Curcumin (Cur), an anti-inflammatory molecule, and superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) nanoparticles encapsulated by diblock 1,2-dio-leoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-n-poly(ethylene glycol) (DSPE-PEG) that are modified with CRT and QSH peptides on its surface. Furthermore, we demonstrated that this multifunctional nanomaterial efficiently reduced beta-amyloid plaque burden specifically in APP/PS1 transgenic mice, with the process noninvasively detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the two-dimensional MRI images were computed into three-dimension (3D) plot. Our data demonstrated highly sensitive in vivo detection of beta-amyloid plaques which more closely revealed real deposition of Abeta than previously reported and we quantified the volumes of plaques for the first time based on 3D plot. In addition, memory deficits of the mice were significantly rescued, probably related to inhibition of NLR Family Pyrin Domain Containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasomes. Gathered data demonstrated that this theranostic platform may have both early diagnostic and therapeutic potential in AD.
It was unclear whether breast cancer subtypes are associated with the risk of site-specific metastases. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between molecular subtypes and distant metastatic ...sites and their prognostic significance.
We identified 295,213 patients with invasive breast cancer from 2010 to 2014 using the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results database. Subtypes were classified into four categories: hormone receptor (HR
)/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2
), HR
/HER2
, HR
/HER2
, and triple-negative (HR
/HER2
). Logistic regression was used to assess the association between metastasis location and subtypes. Multivariate Cox models were used to estimate the overall survival (OS) of related factors.
According to our study, 3.28%, 1.52%, 1.20%, and 0.35% of newly diagnosed breast cancers presented bone, lung, liver, and brain metastases at diagnosis, respectively. Both metastatic sites and subtypes significantly affected the OS after metastasis. In multivariate analysis, HR
/HER2
subtype (OR as compared with HR
/HER2
subtype, 1.30 95% CI, 1.22-1.39) significantly correlated with elevated bone metastasis risk, whereas HR
/HER2
did not. Both HER2
subtypes (HR
/HER2
and HR
/HER2
) were significantly associated with higher rates of liver, brain, and lung metastases, while the highest OR was observed in liver metastases. Triple-negative tumors had a higher rate of brain (OR, 1.95 95% CI, 1.61-2.35), liver (OR, 1.35 95% CI, 1.20-1.51), and lung metastases (OR, 1.34 95% CI, 1.21-1.47), but a significantly lower rate of bone metastases (OR, 0.64 95% CI, 0.59-0.69) than HR
/HER2-tumors.
Breast cancer subtypes are associated with different metastatic patterns and confer different prognostic impacts. Molecular subtypes can identify patients at increased risk of site-specific metastases.
Antibacterial protein hydrogels are receiving increasing attention in the aspect of bacteria-infected-wound healing. However, bacterial drug resistance and biofilm infections lead to hard healing of ...wounds, thus the construction of biological agents that can overcome these issues is essential. Here, a simple and universal method to construct antibiotic-free protein hydrogel with excellent biocompatibility and superior antibacterial activity against drug-resistant bacteria and biofilms was developed. The green industrial microbicide tetrakis (hydroxymethyl) phosphonium sulfate (THPS) as cross-linking agent can be quickly cross-linked with model protein bovine serum albumin (BSA) to form antibacterial hydrogel through simple mixing without any other initiators, subsequently promoting drug-resistance bacteria-infected wound healing. This simple gelatinization strategy allows at least ten different proteins to form hydrogels (e.g. BSA, human serum albumin (HSA), egg albumin, chymotrypsin, trypsin, lysozyme, transferrin, myohemoglobin, hemoglobin, and phycocyanin) under the same conditions, showing prominent universality. Furthermore, drug-resistance bacteria and biofilm could be efficiently destroyed by the representative BSA hydrogel (B-Hydrogel) with antibacterial activity, overcoming biofilm-induced bacterial resistance. The in vivo study demonstrated that the B-Hydrogel as wound dressing can promote reepithelization to accelerate the healing of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)-infected skin wounds without inducing significant side-effect. This readily accessible antibiotic-free protein-based hydrogel not only opens an avenue to provide a facile, feasible and general gelation strategy, but also exhibits promising application in hospital and community MRSA disinfection and treatment.
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•A simple and universal method to build antibiotic-free protein hydrogel was explored.•The obtained B-Hydrogel can eradicate drug-resistant bacteria and biofilms.•The B-Hydrogel can promote the healing of MRSA-infected skin wounds.
The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of
leaf extract (GBLE), shenmai (S), and matrine (M) on human embryonic lung fibroblasts (HELFs). HELFs were allocated into the following ...groups: Group A (control group), group B transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) model group, groups C1-3 (TGF-β1 + low-, moderate- and high-dose GBLE), groups D1-3 (TGF-β1 + low-, moderate- and high-dose S) and groups E1-3 (TGF-β1 + low-, moderate- and high-dose oM). Cell proliferation was assessed with an MTT assay and apoptosis was measured by annexin V/propidium iodide double staining and flow cytometry analysis. Collagen type I (COL-I), collagen type III (COL-III), α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and extracellular superoxide dismutase (ECSOD) mRNA expression levels were measured using semi-quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and protein content was measured using ELISA. The cell growth inhibition rates of the S groups were significantly higher than those of the other treatment groups (P<0.05). The rate of apoptosis was significantly increased in the treatment groups compared with the model group (P<0.05), and S induced a significant increase in HELF apoptosis compared with the other treatment groups (P<0.05). The mRNA and protein expressions of COL-III, COL-I and α-SMA in the GBLE, S and M groups were significantly decreased, while the expression of ECSOD was significantly increased when compared with the model group (P<0.05). In conclusion, GBLE, S and M inhibited the pro-fibrotic role of TGF-β1 by targeting different steps in TGF-β1-mediated fibrosis.
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