Bright and Stable Cyan Fluorescent RNA Enables Multicolor RNA Imaging in Live Escherichia coli.

Fluorescent RNAs (FRs), which are RNA aptamers that bind and activate their cognate small fluorogenic dyes, have provided a particularly useful approach for imaging RNAs in live cells. Although the color palette of FRs is greatly expanded, a bright and stable cyan FR with good biocompatibility and biorthogonality with currently available FRs remains desirable but is not yet developed. Herein, the development of Myosotis is described, an RNA aptamer that emits bright cyan fluorescence upon binding a novel GFP chromophore-like fluorophore called DBT.

Biohybrid Nanorobots Carrying Glycoengineered Extracellular Vesicles Promote Diabetic Wound Repair through Dual-Enhanced Cell and Tissue Penetration.

Considerable progress has been made in the development of drug delivery systems for diabetic wounds. However, underlying drawbacks, such as low delivery efficiency and poor tissue permeability, have rarely been addressed. In this study, a multifunctional biohybrid nanorobot platform comprising an artificial unit and several biological components is constructed.

3D Embedded Printing of Complex Biological Structures with Supporting Bath of Pluronic F-127.

Biofabrication is crucial in contemporary tissue engineering. The primary challenge in biofabrication lies in achieving simultaneous replication of both external organ geometries and internal structures. Particularly for organs with high oxygen demand, the incorporation of a vascular network, which is usually intricate, is crucial to enhance tissue viability, which is still a difficulty in current biofabrication technology.

Rapid fabrication of physically robust hydrogels.

Hydrogel materials show promise for diverse applications, particular as biocompatible materials due to their high water content. Despite advances in hydrogel technology in recent years, their application is often severely limited by inadequate mechanical properties and time-consuming fabrication processes. Here we report a rapid hydrogel preparation strategy that achieves the simultaneous photo-crosslinking and establishment of biomimetic soft-hard material interface microstructures.

One-Step Manufacturing of Supramolecular Liquid-Crystal Elastomers by Stress-Induced Alignment and Hydrogen Bond Exchange.

Liquid-crystal elastomers (LCEs) capable of performing large and reversible deformation in response to an external stimulus are an important class of soft actuators. However, their manufacturing process typically involves a multistep approach that requires harsh conditions. For the very first time, LCEs with customized geometries that can be manufactured by a rapid one-step approach at room temperature are developed.

Correction: Reinforced hydrogel network building by a rapid dual-photo-coupling reaction for 3D printing.

Correction for 'Reinforced hydrogel network building by a rapid dual-photo-coupling reaction for 3D printing' by Renjie Zhou , , 2023, , 1963-1966, https://doi.org/10.1039/D2CC05677A.

Imaging intracellular metabolite and protein changes in live mammalian cells with bright fluorescent RNA-based genetically encoded sensors.

Fluorescent RNA (FR)-based genetically encoded sensors have been engineered to detect various essential metabolites in living systems. However, the unfavorable characteristics of FR impede sensor applications. Here, we describe a strategy for converting Pepper fluorescent RNA into a series of fluorescent sensors to detect their cognate targets both in vitro and in live cells.

Visible-light activatable coumarin-based phototriggers for fluorescence imaging with ultra-high photolysis efficiency.

Photoactivated fluorophores (PAFs) are powerful imaging tools for observing subcellular structures and tracking dynamic biological processes. However, photoremovable protecting groups (PPGs) widely used to construct PAFs suffer from the drawbacks of short-wavelength excitation and/or low photolysis efficiency. Herein, a class of coumarin-based PPGs with electron-rich thiophene derived substitutions at the C3-position of a coumarin scaffold were prepared.

A rigid-axle-based molecular rotaxane channel facilitates K/Cl co-transport across a lipid membrane.

Inspired by the design criteria of heteroditopic receptors for ion-pair binding, we herein describe a new strategy to construct a rotaxane transporter (RR[2]) for K/Cl co-transport. The use of a rigid axle improves the transport activity with an EC value of 0.58 μM, presenting a significant step toward developing rotaxane artificial channels.

A Facile and Versatile Approach to Construct Photoactivated Peptide Hydrogels by Regulating Electrostatic Repulsion.

Short peptides that can respond to external stimuli have been considered as the preferred building blocks to construct hydrogels for biomedical applications. In particular, photoresponsive peptides that are capable of triggering the formation of hydrogels upon light irradiation allow the properties of hydrogels to be changed remotely by precise and localized actuation. Here, we used the photochemical reaction of the 2-nitrobenzyl ester group (NB) to develop a facile and versatile strategy for constructing photoactivated peptide hydrogels.

A light-activated polymer with excellent serum tolerance for intracellular protein delivery.

The design of efficient materials for intracellular protein delivery has attracted great interest in recent years; however, most current materials for this purpose are limited by poor serum stability due to the early release of cargoes triggered by abundant serum proteins. Here, we propose a light-activated crosslinking (LAC) strategy to prepare efficient polymers with excellent serum tolerance for intracellular protein delivery. A cationic dendrimer engineered with photoactivatable -nitrobenzene moieties co-assembles with cargo proteins ionic interactions, followed by light activation to yield aldehyde groups on the dendrimer and the formation of imine bonds with cargo proteins.

Reinforced hydrogel network building by a rapid dual-photo-coupling reaction for 3D printing.

A facile hydrogel fabrication strategy based on a simultaneous dual-photo-coupling reaction (, photoinduced -nitrosylation and Schiff base reaction) was reported. This strategy allowed a strengthened three-arm crosslinking network to form in one step and the hydrogels obtained displayed rapid gelation, excellent mechanical strength and biocompatibility for cell encapsulated-3D printing in real time. Our hydrogel fabrication strategy will likely foster advances in biomaterials and the extreme speed and reinforced mechanical strength should significantly benefit 3D printing and related applications.

Continuous Glucose Monitoring Enabled by Fluorescent Nanodiamond Boronic Hydrogel.

Continuous monitoring of glucose allows diabetic patients to better maintain blood glucose level by altering insulin dosage or diet according to prevailing glucose values and thus to prevent potential hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia. However, current continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) relies mostly on enzyme electrodes or micro-dialysis probes, which suffer from insufficient stability, susceptibility to corrosion of electrodes, weak or inconsistent correlation, and inevitable interference. A fluorescence-based glucose sensor in the skin will likely be more stable, have improved sensitivity, and can resolve the issues of electrochemical interference from the tissue.

Microfluidic-templated cell-laden microgels fabricated using phototriggered imine-crosslinking as injectable and adaptable granular gels for bone regeneration.

Injectable granular gels consisting of densely packed microgels serving as scaffolding biomaterial have recently shown great potential for applications in tissue regeneration, which allow administration via minimally invasive surgery, on-target cargo delivery, and high efficiency in nutrient/waste exchange. However, limitations such as insufficient mechanical strength, structural integrity, and uncontrollable differentiation of the encapsulated cells in the scaffolds hamper their further applications in the biomedical field. Herein, we developed a new class of granular gels via bottom-up assembly of cell-laden microgels via photo-triggered imine-crosslinking (PIC) chemistry based on the microfluidic technique.

Ultrasensitive sensors reveal the spatiotemporal landscape of lactate metabolism in physiology and disease.

Despite its central importance in cellular metabolism, many details remain to be determined regarding subcellular lactate metabolism and its regulation in physiology and disease, as there is sensitive spatiotemporal resolution of lactate distribution, and dynamics remains a technical challenge. Here, we develop and characterize an ultrasensitive, highly responsive, ratiometric lactate sensor, named FiLa, enabling the monitoring of subtle lactate fluctuations in living cells and animals. Utilizing FiLa, we demonstrate that lactate is highly enriched in mammalian mitochondria and compile an atlas of subcellular lactate metabolism that reveals lactate as a key hub sensing various metabolic activities.

Cartilage Regeneration Regulated by a Hydrostatic Pressure Bioreactor Based on Hybrid Photocrosslinkable Hydrogels.

Because of the superior characteristics of photocrosslinkable hydrogels suitable for 3D cell-laden bioprinting, tissue regeneration based on photocrosslinkable hydrogels has become an important research topic. However, due to nutrient permeation obstacles caused by the dense networks and static culture conditions, there have been no successful reports on cartilage regeneration with certain thicknesses based on photocrosslinkable hydrogels. To solve this problem, hydrostatic pressure (HP) provided by the bioreactor was used to regulate the cartilage regeneration based on hybrid photocrosslinkable (HPC) hydrogel.

A Light-Driven Molecular Machine Controls K Channel Transport and Induces Cancer Cell Apoptosis.

The design of artificial ion channels with high activity, selectivity and gating function is challenging. Herein, we designed the light-driven motor molecule MC2, which provides new design criteria to overcome these challenges. MC2 forms a selective K channel through a single molecular transmembrane mechanism, and the light-driven rotary motion significantly accelerates ion transport, which endows the irradiated motor molecule with excellent cytotoxicity and cancer cell selectivity.

A system for artificial light signal transduction molecular translocation in a lipid membrane.

Light signal transduction pathways are the central components of mechanisms that regulate plant development, in which photoreceptors receive light and participate in light signal transduction. Chemical systems can be designed to mimic these biological processes that have potential applications in smart sensing, drug delivery and synthetic biology. Here, we synthesized a series of simple photoresponsive molecules for use as photoreceptors in artificial light signal transduction.

Optogenetic control of RNA function and metabolism using engineered light-switchable RNA-binding proteins.

RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) play an essential role in regulating the function of RNAs in a cellular context, but our ability to control RBP activity in time and space is limited. Here, we describe the engineering of LicV, a photoswitchable RBP that binds to a specific RNA sequence in response to blue light irradiation. When fused to various RNA effectors, LicV allows for optogenetic control of RNA localization, splicing, translation and stability in cell culture.