Role of intermediate water in alleviating postsurgical intrapericardial adhesion.

Purpose: Various polymers have been used as postsurgical antiadhesive materials; however, the mechanisms underlying their efficacy remain unclear. Intermediate water has been found to prevent the adhesion between polymer molecules and proteins or cells. The present study investigated the role of intermediate water retained in the polymer in alleviating postsurgical pericardial adhesion.

Regulating tumor innervation by nanodrugs potentiates cancer immunochemotherapy and relieve chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain.

Sympathetic nerves play a pivotal role in promoting tumor growth through crosstalk with tumor and stromal cells. Chemotherapy exacerbates the infiltration of sympathetic nerves into tumors, thereby providing a rationale for inhibiting sympathetic innervation to enhance chemotherapy. Here, we discovered that doxorubicin increases the density and activity of sympathetic nerves in breast cancer mainly by upregulating the expression of nerve growth factors (NGFs) in cancer cells.

Stealth and pseudo-stealth nanocarriers.

The stealth effect plays a central role on capacitating nanomaterials for drug delivery applications through improving the pharmacokinetics such as blood circulation, biodistribution, and tissue targeting. Here based on a practical analysis of stealth efficiency and a theoretical discussion of relevant factors, we provide an integrated material and biological perspective in terms of engineering stealth nanomaterials. The analysis surprisingly shows that more than 85% of the reported stealth nanomaterials encounter a rapid drop of blood concentration to half of the administered dose within 1 h post administration although a relatively long β-phase is observed.

Targeted nanomedicine in cisplatin-based cancer therapeutics.

Since its license in 1978, cisplatin has proved to be one of the most successful chemotherapeutic agents in the world. However, two acute challenges facing cisplatin, resistance and toxicity, have resulted in a bottleneck of clinical application. Targeted nanomedicine shows great promise in delivering cisplatin for maximizing efficacy while minimizing off-target toxicity.

Enzymatically Transformable Polymersome-Based Nanotherapeutics to Eliminate Minimal Relapsable Cancer.

Prevention of metastatic and local-regional recurrence of cancer after surgery remains difficult. Targeting postsurgical premetastatic niche and microresiduals presents an excellent prospective opportunity but is often challenged by poor therapeutic delivery into minimal residual tumors. Here, an enzymatically transformable polymer-based nanotherapeutic approach is presented that exploits matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) overactivation in tumor-associated tissues to guide the codelivery of colchicine (microtubule-disrupting and anti-inflammatory agent) and marimastat (MMP inhibitor).

Therapeutic Polymersome Nanoreactors with Tumor-Specific Activable Cascade Reactions for Cooperative Cancer Therapy.

Therapeutic nanoreactors are of increasing interest in precise cancer therapy, which have been explored to in situ produce therapeutic compounds from inert prodrugs or intrinsic molecules at the target sites. However, engineering a nanoreactor with tumor activable cascade reactions for efficient cooperative cancer therapy remains a great challenge. Herein, we demonstrate a polymersome nanoreactor with tumor acidity-responsive membrane permeability to activate cascade reactions for orchestrated cooperative cancer treatment.

Influence of g-C3N4 nanosheets on thermal stability and mechanical properties of biopolymer electrolyte nanocomposite films: a novel investigation.

A series of sodium alginate (SA) nanocomposite films with different loading levels of graphitic-like carbon nitride (g-C3N4) were fabricated via the casting technique. The structure and morphology of nanocomposite films were investigated by X-ray powder diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Thermogravimetric analysis results suggested that thermal stability of all the nanocomposite films was enhanced significantly, including initial thermal degradation temperature increased by 29.