Manganese Dioxide Coated Piezoelectric Nanosonosensitizer for Cancer Therapy with Tumor Microenvironment Remodeling and Multienzyme-Like Catalysis.

Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) as an emerging method for cancer therapy has encountered difficulty in insufficient production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), especially in tumor microenvironment (TME) with elevated antioxidants and hypoxic conditions. In this work, the authors have fabricated heterostructured manganese dioxide (MnO)-coated BaTiO nanoparticles (BTO@M NPs) as a piezoelectric sonosensitizer, which exhibits the capacity of remodeling TME and multienzyme-like catalysis for boosting SDT. Benefitting from the piezotronic effect, the formation of a p-n junction between MnO and piezoelectric BTO with a built-in electric field and band bending efficiently promotes the separation of charge carriers, facilitating the generation of superoxide anion (•O ) and hydroxyl radical (•OH) under ultrasound (US) stimulation.

Chirality of Copper-Amino Acid Nanoparticles Determines Chemodynamic Cancer Therapeutic Outcome.

Chirality is a prevalent characteristic in nature, where biological systems exhibit a significant preference for specific enantiomers of biomolecules. However, there is a limited exploration into utilizing nanomaterials' chirality to modulate their interactions with intracellular substances. In this study, self-assembled copper-cysteine chiral nanoparticles and explore the influence of their charity on cancer chemodynamic therapy (CDT) are fabricated.

Room Temperature Anhydrous Suzuki-Miyaura Polymerization Enabled by C-S Bond Activation.

The Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling is one of the most important and powerful methods for constructing C-C bonds. However, the protodeboronation of arylboronic acids hinder the development of Suzuki-Miyaura coupling in the precise synthesis of conjugated polymers (CPs). Here, an anhydrous room temperature Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction between (hetero)aryl boronic esters and aryl sulfides was explored, of which universality was exemplified by thirty small molecules and twelve CPs.

The Aryl Sulfide Synthesis via Sulfide Transfer.

Aryl sulfides are in great demands in drugs and materials sciences. To avoid using nucleophilic and noxious thiols, many efforts have been focused on exploring novel sulfide resources. Herein, a reductive Pd-catalyzed, Ni-mediated method to synthesize aryl sulfides via a sulfide transfer reaction is developed.

Defect-Free Alternating Conjugated Polymers Enabled by Room- Temperature Stille Polymerization.

The Stille cross-coupling polymerization is one of the most efficient synthetic methods for donor-acceptor (D-A) type π-conjugated polymers (CPs). Nevertheless, thermal-activation Stille polymerization readily produced homocoupling defects, resulting in batch-to-batch variations in copolymers quality and deteriorating the device performance of electronics and optoelectronics. Here, a room-temperature Stille-type polymerization was developed, the utility and generality of which were demonstrated by synthesis of twelve D-A CPs with high molecular weights.

Achieving Efficient NIR-II Type-I Photosensitizers for Photodynamic/Photothermal Therapy upon Regulating Chalcogen Elements.

Second near-infrared (NIR-II) window type-I photosensitizers have intrinsic advantages in photodynamic/photothermal therapy (PDT/PTT) of some malignant tumors with deep infiltration, large size, complicated location, and low possibility of surgery/radiotherapy. Herein, three chalcogen-element-based donor-acceptor-type semiconducting polymers (poly[2,2″-((E)-4,4″-bis(2-octyldodecyl)-[6,6″-bithieno[3,2-b]pyrrolylidene]-5,5″(4H,4″H)-dione)-alt-2,5-(thiophene)] (PTS), poly[2,2″-((E)-4,4″-bis(2-octyldodecyl)-[6,6″-bithieno[3,2-b]pyrrolylidene]-5,5″(4H,4″H)-dione)-alt-2,5-(selenophene)] (PTSe), and poly[2,2″-((E)-4,4″-bis(2-octyldodecyl)-[6,6″-bithieno[3,2-b]pyrrolylidene]-5,5″(4H,4'H)-dione)-alt-2,5-(tellurophene)] (PTTe)) are synthesized and fully characterized, demonstrating strong absorption in the NIR-II region. Upon adjusting the chalcogen elements, the intramolecular charge-transfer characteristics and the heavy-atom effect are tuned to enhance the intersystem crossing rate, improving the photodynamic effect.

Ultra-stable tellurium-doped carbon quantum dots for cell protection and near-infrared photodynamic application.

It is important to regulate the concentration of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cells since they play important roles in metabolism. Thus, developing nanoreagents to control the ROS is critical. Herein, tellurium-doped carbon quantum dots (Te-CDs) were developed by a simple and efficient hydrothermal method, which can scavenge HO to protect cells under ambient condition, but generate ·OH under 808 nm irradiation as photodynamic application.

Precisely Tuning Photothermal and Photodynamic Effects of Polymeric Nanoparticles by Controlled Copolymerization.

Cancer possesses normoxic and hypoxia microenvironments with different levels of oxygen, needing different efficacies of photothermal and photodynamic therapies. It is important to precisely tune the photothermal and photodynamic effects of phototherapy nano-agents for efficient cancer treatment. Now, a series of copolymeric nanoparticles (PPy-Te NPs) were synthesized in situ by controlled oxidative copolymerization with different ratios of pyrrole to tellurophene by FeCl .

Achieving High-Performance Photothermal and Photodynamic Effects upon Combining D-A Structure and Nonplanar Conformation.

Various organic nanoagents have been developed for photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT) under near-infrared (NIR) irradiation. Among them, small molecule-based nanoagents are very attractive due to their advantages of well-defined chemical structures, high purity, good reproducibility, and easy processability. However, only a few small molecule-based nanoagents have been developed for PDT under NIR irradiation.

Triplet Tellurophene-Based Semiconducting Polymer Nanoparticles for Near-Infrared-Mediated Cancer Theranostics.

Semiconducting polymer (SP) nanoparticles (NPs) have recently emerged as one of the most promising agents for photoacoustic imaging (PAI)-guided photothermal/photodynamic therapy (PTT/PDT). Herein, a triplet tellurophene-based SP (PNDI-2T) was synthesized with efficient tin-free direct heteroarylation polycondensation. The PNDI-2T NPs display remarkable near-infrared absorption and low cytotoxicity.

Near-Infrared/pH Dual-Sensitive Nanocarriers for Enhanced Intracellular Delivery of Doxorubicin.

Herein, we designed near-infrared (NIR)/pH dual-sensitive nanocarriers and evaluated its application to intracellular drug delivery. The nanocarriers were prepared based on amphiphilic poly(β-amino ester) (PBAE) containing o-nitrobenzyl moieties in the backbones and upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs). UCNPs can convert NIR to UV that subsequently removes PEG segments from PBAE copolymers, which could enhance the protonation of PBAE in endo/lysosomes and facilitate the escape of the nanoparticles from lysosomes.

The Application of Stimuli-responsive Nanocarriers for Targeted Drug Delivery.

Nanocarriers are widely used for delivering drugs to tumors and are progressing in a stable trend, because malignant tumors remain a major health burden throughout the world and effective therapeutic strategies are urgently needed. Furthermore, as an integrated platform, nanocarriers have the potential to dramatically improve cancer diagnosis, imaging, and therapy, while reducing the toxicity associated with the current approaches. Significantly, intelligent nanocarriers are the new generation of the nanocarriers, exhibiting superior tumor targeting and improved therapeutic efficacy.

Near-Infrared Light-Triggered Switchable Nanoparticles for Targeted Chemo/Photothermal Cancer Therapy.

Accumulation of nanoparticles in solid tumors depends on their extravasation, but their efficacy is often compromised by intrinsic physiological heterogeneity in tumors. The conventional solutions to circumvent this problem are size control of nanoparticles or increasing the vascular permeability. The aim of this study is to investigate the combination effect of size variation of stimuli-responsive nanoparticles and improved vascular permeability triggered by near-infrared (NIR) light irradiation.

Efficient reduction and pH co-triggered DOX-loaded magnetic nanogel carrier using disulfide crosslinking.

To reduce leakage on the drug-delivery pathway to minimize side effect of reduction or pH sensitive drug delivery systems, we designed a glutathione (GSH)/pH co-triggered magnetic nanogel drug delivery system for doxorubicin (DOX) based on the GSH concentration and pH difference between intracellular and extracellular environments. The introduction of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) was intended for magnetic targeting. The magnetic DOX-loaded nanogel was then prepared by the oxidation of thiolated alginate with thiolated SPION in the presence of DOX.