In this research, a new triterpenoid, tirucalla-8,24-diene-3β,11β-diol-7-one (
), and eupha-8,24-diene-3β,11β-diol-7-one (
), which was isolated from
for the first time, together with twelve other ...known compounds (
-
), were isolated from the ethyl acetate extract of
. Their structures were elucidated based on High resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HR-ESI-MS), Infrared Spectroscopy (IR), 1D and 2D Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) data. Both constituents
and
exhibited moderate cytotoxicity against colon cancer HCT-116, gastric cancer MKN-45 and breast cancer MCF-7.
Diabetes mellitus is a lifelong metabolic disease that requires frequent subcutaneous injections of insulin. However, this method of administration can be associated with patient discomfort and local ...tissue infection. Oral delivery of insulin has been pursued as a more convenient method for diabetes treatment, given its likely superior patient compliance and convenience as well as cost‐effectiveness. However, various biological barriers hinder the clinical translation of oral insulin. The rapid development of nanotechnology over the last decade offers great promise in improving the bioavailability of oral insulin. This Minireview provides an overview of biological barriers to oral insulin delivery, summarizes significant technological advances, and outlines future perspectives in oral insulin formulations as well as their hypoglycaemic effects.
Oral insulin delivery holds great promise as a convenient and economical means of diabetes treatment. This Minireview provides an overview of representative advances in facilitating oral insulin delivery by overcoming biological barriers, including strategies centered on moieties‐mediated transport, cell‐penetrating peptide assisted permeation, smart oral robotics transport, and microenvironment‐responsive release.
The development of new strategies to construct on-demand porous lattice frameworks from simple motifs is desirable. However, mitigating complexity while combing multiplicity and reversibility in the ...porous architectures is a challenging task. Herein, based on the synergy of dynamic intermolecular interactions and flexible molecular conformation of a simple cyano-modified tetraphenylethylene tecton, eleven kinetic-stable hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks (HOFs) with various shapes and two thermo-stable non-porous structures with rare perpendicular conformation are obtained. Multimode reversible structural transformations along with visible fluorescence output between porous and non-porous or between different porous forms is realized under different external stimuli. Furthermore, the collaborative of flexible framework and soft long-chain guests facilitate the relaxation from intrinsic blue emission to yellow emission in the excited state, which represents a strategy for generating white-light emission. The dynamic intermolecular interactions, facilitated by flexible molecular conformation and soft guests, diversifies the strategies of construction of versatile smart molecular frameworks.
Uranium extraction from natural seawater is one of the most promising routes to address the shortage of uranium resources. By combination of ligand complexation and photocatalytic reduction, porous ...framework‐based photocatalysts have been widely applied to uranium enrichment. However, their practical applicability is limited by poor photocatalytic activity and low adsorption capacity. Herein, atomically dispersed Cu implanted UiO‐66‐NH2 (Cu SA@UiO‐66‐NH2) photocatalysts are prepared via ligand‐assistant iced photocatalytic reduction route. N—Cu–N moiety acts as an effective electron acceptor to potentially facilitate charge transfer kinetics. By contrast, there exist Cu sub‐nanometer clusters by the typical liquid phase photoreduction, resulting in a relatively low photocatalytic activity. Cu SA@UiO‐66‐NH2 adsorbents exhibit superior antibacterial ability and improved photoreduction conversion of the adsorbed U(VI) to insoluble U(IV), leading to a high uranium sorption capacity of 9.16 mg‐U/g‐Ads from natural seawater. This study provides new insight for enhancing uranium uptake by designing SA‐mediated MOF photocatalysts.
Photoreduction conversion of soluble hexavalent uranium to insoluble quadrivalent uranium has been considered as a promising uranium enrichment strategy. Herein, single‐atoms (SAs) catalysis strategy is applied in uranium extraction from seawater. As an electron acceptor, the incorporation of Cu SAs facilitates separation and transfer of photogenerated charges, thereby enhancing photocatalytic activity and hence the uranium sorption capacity (9.16 mg‐U/g‐Ads).
Schematic illustration showed the applications of SDT against various diseases and synergistic effects of SDT in combination with other therapeutic modalities.
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•This review highlights ...the recent advances of nanomaterials based SDT against various diseases, and its possible mechanisms of action.•The synergistic effects of SDT in combination with other therapeutic modalities against different diseases are summarized.•The potential limitations and future prospects of SDT in nanoscience are also discussed.
As an effective treatment approach, photo-therapeutic has great potential in treating various diseases, but this light-activated strategy suffers from the major shortcoming of low tissue penetration depth. Low-intensity ultrasound features with non-invasive and high tissue-penetrating ability have been widely used in clinical diagnostic, which can effectively overcome the major limitation of light. Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) is a novel noninvasive therapeutic modality that involves a combination of low-intensity ultrasound and sonosensitizers. Combining nanotechnology with SDT can effectively augment the SDT efficiency and may essentially reverse the disadvantages of traditional SDT, paving an avenue for more efficient and safer therapeutic options. In this review, we highlight the recent advances of SDT in nanoscience in terms of its possible mechanisms of action, applications against various diseases and synergistic effects of SDT in combination with other therapeutic modalities. Moreover, potential limitations and future prospects are also discussed.
Pnictogens (the non-metal phosphorus, metalloids arsenic and antimony, and metal bismuth) possess diverse chemical characteristics that support the formation of extended molecular structures. As ...witnessed by the centuries-old (and ongoing) clinical utilities, pnictogen-based compounds have secured their places in history as "magic bullet" therapeutic drugs in medicinal contexts. Moreover, with the development of recent metalloproteomics and bio-coordination chemistry, the pnictogen-based drugs functionally binding to proteins/enzymes in biological systems have been underlaid for "drug repurposing" with promising opportunities. Furthermore, advances in the modern materials science and nonotechnology have stimulated a revolution in other newly discovered forms of pnictogens-phosphorene, arsenene, antimonene, and bismuthine (layered pnictogens). Based on their favorable optoelectronic properties, layered pnictogens have shown dramatic superiority as emerging photonic nanomedicines for the treatment of various diseases. This tutorial review outlines the history and mechanism of action of ancient pnictogen-based drugs (
e.g.
, arsenical compounds in traditional Chinese medicine) and their repurposing into modern therapeutics. Then, the revolutionary use of emerging layered pnictogens as photonic nanomedicines, alongside assessments of their
in vivo
biosafety, is discussed. Finally, the challenges to further development of pnictogens are set forth and insights for further exploration of their appealing properties are offered. This tutorial review may also provide some deep insights into the fields of integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicines from the perspective of materials science and nanotechnology.
This review highlights pnictogen-based therapeutic agents, from ancient clinical drugs to recently emerging layered photonic nanomedicines. In addition, an update on recent biosafety studies of layered pnictogen is also provided.
Abstract
Background
Biological ageing is tightly linked to cardiovascular disease (CVD). We aimed to investigate the relationship between Life’s Essential 8 (LE8), a currently updated measure of ...cardiovascular health (CVH), and biological ageing.
Methods
This cross-sectional study selected adults ≥ 20 years of age from the 2005–2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. LE8 scores (range 0–100) were obtained from measurements based on American Heart Association definitions, divided into health behavior and health factor scores. Biological ageing was assessed by different methods including phenotypic age, phenotypic age acceleration (PhenoAgeAccel), biological age and biological age acceleration (BioAgeAccel). Correlations were analyzed by weighted linear regression and restricted cubic spline models.
Results
Of the 11,729 participants included, the mean age was 47.41 ± 0.36 years and 5983 (51.01%) were female. The mean phenotypic and biological ages were 42.96 ± 0.41 and 46.75 ± 0.39 years, respectively, and the mean LE8 score was 67.71 ± 0.35. After adjusting for potential confounders, higher LE8 scores were associated with lower phenotypic age, biological age, PhenoAgeAccel, and BioAgeAccel, with nonlinear dose–response relationships. Negative associations were also found between health behavior and health factor scores and biological ageing, and were stronger for health factors. In health factor-specific analyses, the β negativity was greater for blood glucose and blood pressure. The inverse correlations of LE8 scores with phenotypic age and biological age in the stratified analyses remained solid across strata.
Conclusions
LE8 and its subscale scores were strongly negatively related to biological ageing. Encouraging optimal CVH levels may be advantageous in preventing and slowing down ageing.
The lack of clamping force detection function of the surgical robot's end effector poses a challenge to the operation of doctors, which requires sensing and rapid response to transient forces during ...surgery. Therefore, it is necessary to design a surgical robot with a clamping force detection function. In this paper, the piezoelectric sensor was prepared with tetrapod-like zinc oxide (T-ZnO) as the primary raw material. The performance of the sensors was enhanced by adjusting the preparation parameters, and the prepared sensors were characterized by high sensitivity (182.5 mV/N). This work is the first to apply the piezoelectric sensor made of T-ZnO to the end fixtures of surgical robots, and the results show that the sensor's output voltage in the end fixture of the surgical robot increases with the increase of pressure, and the sensor has different responses to the clamped object with different stiffness. The sensor can be applied to the end fixture of surgical robots.
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•The first to apply sensor made of T-ZnO to the end fixture of the surgical robot.•The prepared sensors exhibit high sensitivity of 182.5 mV/N.•We have identified the factors that affect the performance of the sensor.•The sensor can be applied in the end fixture of the surgical robot.
A copper-chitosan-black phosphorus nanocomposite (CuNPs-Chit-BP) was fabricated by electrochemically depositing copper nanoparticles onto a black phosphorus-modified glassy carbon electrode in ...chitosan solution. CuNPs demonstrated a uniform distribution on the Chit-BP modified GCE with an average size of 20 nm. Electrochemical methods were used to study the catalytic activity of the CuNPs-Chit-BP nanocomposite toward hydrogen peroxide. The results showed that the synthesized nanocomposite exhibited excellent electrical conductivity, good biocompatibility and highly efficient electrocatalytic activity toward hydrogen peroxide reduction in the range of 10 μM-10.3 mM with a detection limit of 0.390 μM. The present work proposed a new strategy to explore novel BP-based non-enzymatic biosensing platforms.
A copper-chitosan-black phosphorus nanocomposite was fabricated through a simple, electrochemical method. The synthesized non-enzymatic CuNPs-Chit-BP nanocomposite exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity toward hydrogen peroxide.
Antibodies against poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) have been found to be the culprit of side reactions and efficacy loss of a number of PEGylated drugs. Fundamental mechanisms of PEG immunogenicity and ...design principles for PEG alternatives still have not been fully explored. By using hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC) under varied salt conditions, we reveal the "hidden" hydrophobicity of those polymers which are generally considered as hydrophilic. A correlation between the hidden hydrophobicity of a polymer and its polymer immunogenicity is observed when this polymer is conjugated with an immunogenic protein. Such a correlation of hidden hydrophobicity
vs.
immunogenicity for a polymer also applies to corresponding polymer-protein conjugates. Atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulation results show a similar trend. Based on polyzwitterion modification and with this HIC technique, we are able to produce extremely low-immunogenic protein conjugates as their hydrophilicity is pushed to the limit and their hydrophobicity is eliminated, breaking the current barriers of eliminating anti-drug and anti-polymer antibodies.
The hidden hydrophobicity of conventional polymers widely considered as hydrophilic is closely related to their immunogenicity when they are conjugated to immunogenic proteins.
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