Colloids Surf B Biointerfaces
January 2025
Fungal infections are becoming an increasingly serious challenge in clinic due to the increase in drug resistance and the lack of anti-fungal drugs. Vaccination is a useful approach to prevent fungal infections. However, the balance between effectiveness and side effects presents a challenge in vaccine development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOxidative stress caused by excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation significantly hinders wound healing in patients with diabetes. Scavenging ROS and reducing inflammation are crucial for rapid healing. In this work, a multi-responsive sodium hyaluronate (HA)/tannic acid (TA) hydrogel was developed based on boronate ester bonds.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) is a major pathogen that causes infectious diseases. It has high tendency to form biofilms, resulting in the failure of traditional antibiotic therapies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFShort-chain antifungal peptides (AFPs) inspired by histatin 5 have been designed to address the problem of antifungal drug resistance. These AFPs demonstrate remarkable antifungal activity, with a minimal inhibitory concentration as low as 2 µg mL. Notably, these AFPs display a strong preference for targeting fungi rather than bacteria and mammalian cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeveral vaccines targeting bacterial pathogens show reduced efficacy upon concurrent viral infection, indicating that a new vaccinology approach is required. To identify antigens for the human pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae that are effective following influenza infection, we performed CRISPRi-seq in a murine model of superinfection and identified the conserved lafB gene as crucial for virulence. We show that LafB is a membrane-associated, intracellular protein that catalyzes the formation of galactosyl-glucosyl-diacylglycerol, a glycolipid important for cell wall homeostasis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Colloid Interface Sci
July 2023
Surface-associated microbe contamination by Gram-negative bacteria poses a serious problem in medical care. Cationic peptides or polymers are the main materials used for antibacterial surface coating, but the positive charge may lead to blood coagulation. Therefore, exploiting surface coating which is free of positive charge and is effective for Gram-negative bacteria inactivation is in urgent need.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe phenotype of tumor-associated macrophages plays an important role in their function of regulating the tumor immune microenvironment. The M1-phenotype macrophages display tumor-killing and immune activating functions. Here we show that the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), a rod-like plant virus, can polarize macrophages to an M1 phenotype and shape a tumor-suppressive microenvironment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGram-negative bacteria, which possess an impermeable outer membrane, are responsible for many untreatable infections. The lack of development of new relevant antibiotics for over 50 years has increased threats. Peptides are regarded as the most promising alternatives to antibiotics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Appl Mater Interfaces
March 2020
() biofilms are associated with a wide range of infections, from chronic tissue diseases to implanted medical devices. In a biofilm, the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) causes an inhibited penetration of antibacterial agents, leading to a 100-1000 times tolerance of the bacteria. In view of the water-filled channels in biofilms and the highly negative charge of EPS, we design a chitosan-polyethylene glycol-peptide conjugate (CS-PEG-LK) in this study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA composite material, ZnO@MC, has been synthesized successfully by calcination using a one-dimensional zinc-based coordination polymer as the precursor. In ZnO@MC, ZnO particles with a size of about 5-8 nm are dispersed evenly in a mesoporous carbon matrix. Adsorption experiments at pH 6.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo enhance the photocatalytic properties of coordination complex modified polyoxometalates (CC/POMs) in the visible light region, its nanobelts (CC/POMNBs) were loaded on activated carbon fiber (ACF) through a simple colloidal blending process. The resulting coordination complex modified polyoxometalate nanobelts loaded activated carbon fiber composite materials (CC/POMNBs/ACF) exhibited dramatic photocatalytic activity for the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation. Optical and electrochemical methods illustrated the enhanced photocatalytic activity of CC/POMNBs/ACF, which originates from the high separation efficiency of the photogenerated electrons and holes on the interface of the CC/POMNBs and ACF, which results from the synergistic effects between them.
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