Effective protection of biological tissues from severe blunt force injury by engineered nanoscale liquid flow.

Blunt force trauma (BFT), the injury of the body by forceful impacts such as falls, motor vehicle crashes and collisions, causes damage to bio-organs that can lead to life-threatening situations. To address the unmet need of bioprotection materials for BFT, we developed a novel, liquid nanofoam (LN)-based system. The LN system employs a unique mechanism of energy absorption, i.

Fast one-step acrylate functionalization of hyaluronic acid Williamson ether synthesis.

The synthetic route presented for acrylate-modified hyaluronic acid (HA-A-BEA) offers a simple and efficient process, reducing reaction time and purification steps while retaining biocompatibility. This study demonstrates the ability of HA-A-BEA to form tunable hydrogels versatile techniques suitable for biomedical applications.

Co-delivering irinotecan and imiquimod by pH-responsive micelle amplifies anti-tumor immunity against colorectal cancer.

Irinotecan (IRT), a classic clinical chemotherapeutic agent for treating colorectal cancer, has been found to induce immunogenic cell death (ICD) while exerting cytotoxicity in tumor cells. This effect is likely to be amplified in combination with immune modulators. Unfortunately, free drugs without targeting capacity would receive poor outcomes and strong side effects.

Breaking Tumor Immunosuppressive Network by Regulating Multiple Nodes with Triadic Drug Delivery Nanoparticles.

Inside the tumor microenvironment, a complicated immunosuppressive network is constituted by tumor cells and suppressive immune cells as its nodes, including myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), and regulatory T cells, which have mutual promotion on each other and superimposed inhibition on natural killer (NK) cells and cytotoxic T cells. Breaking the whole balance of this web is critical to tumor immunotherapy since modulation on a single node may be diluted by other factors in the network. To achieve multifaceted regulation on antitumor immunity against triple-negative breast cancer, in this work, a micelle, termed BEM, co-delivering the MDSC inhibitor, entinostat (ENT), and the immune checkpoint inhibitor, BMS-1, was constructed with pH-sensitive amphiphilic poly(β-amino ester) derivatives.

Combining gut microbiota modulation and chemotherapy by capecitabine-loaded prebiotic nanoparticle improves colorectal cancer therapy.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) therapy efficiency can be influenced by the microbiota in the gastrointestinal tract. Compared with traditional intervention, prebiotics delivery into the gut is a more controllable method for gut microbiota modulatory therapy. Capecitabine (Cap), the first-line chemotherapeutic agent for CRC, lacks a carrier that can prolong its half-life.

Out of East Asia: Early Warning of the Possible Invasion of the Important Bean Pest Stalk-Eyed Seed Bug (Heteroptera: Malcidae: Chauliopinae).

The short stay at the beginning of the invasion process is a critical time for invasive species identification and preventing invasive species from developing a wider distribution and significant economic impact. The stalk-eyed seed bug is an important agricultural pest of soybean and was first reported to occur outside East Asia. Here, we reported the native evolutionary history, recent invasion history, and potential invasion threats of for the first time based on population genetic methods and ecological niche modelling.

Benzo[a]pyrene Exposure Reduces Cell-Type Diversity and Stimulates Sex-Biased Damage Pathways in End Organs of Lupus-Prone Mice.

Studies indicate that genetic factors only account for approximately thirty percent of all autoimmune diseases, while the rest of autoimmune pathogenesis is attributed to environmental factors including toxic chemicals. To understand if and how environmental pollutants trigger autoimmunity, we investigated the effect of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) exposure on the development of autoimmune phenotypes in the lupus-prone MRL strain. The exposure of MRL mice to BaP over the course of 8 weeks before lupus onset resulted in total body weight loss in males, while marginal changes in anti-dsDNA levels occurred.

Sex hormone influence on female-biased autoimmune diseases hints at puberty as an important factor in pathogenesis.

The majority of autoimmune diseases affect more women than men, suggesting an important role for sex hormones in regulating immune response. Current research supports this idea, highlighting the importance of sex hormones in both immune and metabolic regulation. Puberty is characterized by drastic changes in sex hormone levels and metabolism.

Mitogenomics of Chinch Bugs from China and Implications for Its Coevolutionary Relationship with Grasses.

Blissidae (the Chinch bug) is a group with high species richness in Lygaeoidea, but there are only a few descriptions of mitochondrial genomes available. We obtained mitogenomes from 10 species of eight genera from Blissidae through second-generation sequencing technology. The length of the mitochondrial genome (excluding the control region) is between 14643 and 14385 bp; the content of AT is between 74.

Nano drug delivery systems improve metastatic breast cancer therapy.

Despite continual progress in the technologies and regimens for cancer therapy, the treatment outcome of fatal metastatic breast cancer is far from satisfactory. Encouragingly, nanotechnology has emerged as a valuable tool to optimize drug delivery process in cancer therapy via preventing the cargos from degradation, improving the tumor-targeting efficiency, enhancing therapeutic agents' retention in specific sites, and controlling drug release. In the last decade, several mechanisms of suppressing tumor metastasis by functional nano drug delivery systems (NDDSs) have been revealed and a guidance for the rational design of anti-metastasis NDDSs is summarized, which consist of three aspects: optimization of physiochemical properties, tumor microenvironment remodeling, and biomimetic strategies.

Gut Microbiota: Influence on Carcinogenesis and Modulation Strategies by Drug Delivery Systems to Improve Cancer Therapy.

Gut microbiota have close interactions with the host. It can affect cancer progression and the outcomes of cancer therapy, including chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and radiotherapy. Therefore, approaches toward the modulation of gut microbiota will enhance cancer prevention and treatment.

Analysis of the Endophytic Bacteria Community Structure and Function of Panax notoginseng Based on High-Throughput Sequencing.

Panax notoginseng has long been used as a Chinese herb with high medicinal value. The endophytic bacteria in this medicinal plant have multiple biological functions. High-throughput sequencing is a rapidly evolving technique that helps profile the endophytic bacterial community structure of medicinal plants.

Emeridones A-F, a Series of 3,5-Demethylorsellinic Acid-Based Meroterpenoids with Rearranged Skeletons from an Endophytic Fungus Emericella sp. TJ29.

Six new 3,5-demethylorsellinic acid-based meroterpenoids, emeridones A-F (1-6), and eight known analogues (7-14) were isolated from Emericella sp. TJ29. Their structures and absolute configurations were elucidated by comprehensive spectroscopic analyses, single-crystal X-ray diffraction experiments, and electronic circular dichroism calculations.