Prodrug-Loaded Zirconium Carbide Nanosheets as a Novel Biophotonic Nanoplatform for Effective Treatment of Cancer.

Conventional chemotherapy and photothermal therapy (PTT) face many major challenges, including systemic toxicity, low bioavailability, ineffective tissue penetration, chemotherapy/hyperthermia-induced inflammation, and tumor angiogenesis. A versatile nanomedicine offers an exciting opportunity to circumvent the abovementioned limitations for their successful translation into clinical practice. Here, a promising biophotonic nanoplatform is developed based on the zirconium carbide (ZrC) nanosheet as a deep PTT-photosensitizer and on-demand designed anticancer prodrug SN38-Nif, which is released and activated by photothermia and tumor-overexpressed esterase.

In Vivo Enrichment and Elimination of Circulating Tumor Cells by Using a Black Phosphorus and Antibody Functionalized Intravenous Catheter.

The circulating tumor cell (CTC) count is closely related to cancer recurrence and metastasis. The technology that can in vivo destroy CTCs may bring great benefits to patients, which is an urgent clinical demand. Here, a minimally invasive therapeutic intravenous catheter for in vivo enriching and photothermal killing of CTCs is developed.

Immunogenic exosome-encapsulated black phosphorus nanoparticles as an effective anticancer photo-nanovaccine.

Tumor vaccines are a promising form of cancer immunotherapy, but difficulties such as neo-antigen identification, activation of immune cells, and tumor infiltration prevent their clinical breakthrough. Interestingly, nanotechnology-based photothermal therapy (PTT) has great potential to overcome these barriers. Previous studies have shown that serum exosomes (hEX) from hyperthermia-treated tumor-bearing mice displayed an array of patient-specific tumor-associated antigens (TAAs), and strong immunoregulatory abilities in promoting dendritic cell (DC) differentiation and maturation.

Eradication of tumor growth by delivering novel photothermal selenium-coated tellurium nanoheterojunctions.

Two-dimensional nanomaterial-based photothermal therapy (PTT) is currently under intensive investigation as a promising approach toward curative cancer treatment. However, high toxicity, moderate efficacy, and low uniformity in shape remain critical unresolved issues that hamper their clinical application. Thus, there is an urgent need for developing versatile nanomaterials to meet clinical expectations.

β-catenin regulates IRF3-mediated innate immune signalling in colorectal cancer.

Objective: β-catenin is one of the most critical oncogenes associated with many kinds of human cancers, especially in the human CRC. Innate immunity recognizes tumour derived damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) and primes the anti-tumour adaptive responses. While the function of β-catenin in CRC tumourigenesis is well established, its impact on innate immune evasion is largely unknown.

Mcl-1 suppresses abasic site repair following bile acid-induced hepatic cellular DNA damage.

In cholestasis, increases in bile acid levels result in the generation of reactive oxygen species and the induction of DNA damage and mutation. It is believed that bile acid accumulation is associated with liver tumorigenesis. However, the mechanism that underpins this phenomenon remains to be elucidated.

Hyper activation of β-catenin signalling induced by IKKε inhibition thwarts colorectal cancer cell proliferation.

Objective: Aberrant activation of Wnt/β-catenin signalling contributes significantly to the development of human colorectal cancers and β-catenin is the key signalling molecule transducing canonical Wnt/β-catenin signalling. Therefore, β-catenin is a promising therapeutic target for cancer treatment. This study demonstrates that the oncogenic IKKε kinase phosphorylates β-catenin to restrain its hyper activation, therefore promoting colorectal cancer (CRC) cell proliferation.