Facile preparation of biocompatible TiO nanoparticles for second near-infrared window photothermal therapy.

Photothermal therapy (PTT) is emerging as a powerful tool for the treatment of cancer. However, typical photothermal agents are excited by conventional near-infrared light (NIR-I, 700-900 nm), which leads to low tissue penetration and significantly hinders their further application. Compared with NIR-I light, the second NIR optical window light (NIR-II, 1000-1700 nm) can remarkably increase the tissue penetration depth; however, photothermal agents in this optical window are extremely limited and need to be further explored.

Retinoic Acid-Induced Protein 14 (RAI14) Promotes mTOR-Mediated Inflammation Under Inflammatory Stress and Chemical Hypoxia in a U87 Glioblastoma Cell Line.

Retinoic acid-induced 14 is a developmentally regulated gene induced by retinoic acid and is closely associated with NIK/NF-κB signaling. In the present study, we examined the effect of RAI14 on mTOR-mediated glial inflammation in response to inflammatory factors and chemical ischemia. A U87 cell model of LPS- and TNF-α-induced inflammation was used to investigate the role of RAI14 in glial inflammation.

Semiconducting polymer-based nanoparticles for photothermal therapy at the second near-infrared window.

We designed novel diketopyrrolopyrrole polymer based nanoparticles (DPP-IID-FA), which exhibited strong light absorption and excellent photothermal conversion in the NIR optical window, and displayed high biocompatibility and photostability. Furthermore, our nanoparticles could be efficiently uptaken by cancer cells and exhibited outstanding anticancer ability both in vitro and in vivo under NIR-II laser irradiation.

Genotype-ocular biometry correlation analysis of eight primary angle closure glaucoma susceptibility loci in a cohort from Northern China.

Purpose: Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have verified eight genetic loci that were significantly associated with primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG). The present study investigated whether these variants are associated with the ocular biometric parameters of anterior chamber depth (ACD) and axial length (AL) in a northern Chinese population, as well as whether there were differences in the association of genetic markers in our cohort based on ethnicity.

Methods: A case-control association study of 500 patients and 720 controls was undertaken.

qPhos: a database of protein phosphorylation dynamics in humans.

Temporal and spatial protein phosphorylation dynamically orchestrates a broad spectrum of biological processes and plays various physiological and pathological roles in diseases and cancers. Recent advancements in high-throughput proteomics techniques greatly promoted the profiling and quantification of phosphoproteome. However, although several comprehensive databases have reserved the phosphorylated proteins and sites, a resource for phosphorylation quantification still remains to be constructed.

Myeloid cell-like transcript 2 is related to liver inflammation and the pathogenesis of hepatitis B via the involvement of CD8T cell activation.

This study analysed the biological significance of TLT-2 on CD8T cells in hepatitis B patients and provided a theoretical basis for the potential role of TLT-2 as an immune regulator. Flow cytometry sorting, isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation and short hairpin RNAs were used to analyse the function of TLT-2 on CD8T cells in hepatitis B patients. The TLT-2 expression levels in the acute hepatitis B and chronic hepatitis B groups were significantly higher than that in the healthy control group and were positively correlated with ALT and AST.

Fabrication of biocleavable shell cross-linked hybrid micelles for controlled drug release using a reducible silica monomer.

We report in this communication the first preparation of triblock copolymer-based biocleavable shell cross-linked (SCL) hybrid micelles using a reducible silica monomer that integrates a polymerizable methacrylate structure and in situ cross-linkers of silica precursors via a disulfide bond. The monomer developed herein offers a highly straightforward and robust strategy toward bioreducible silica-based hybrid nanoparticles for controlled drug release.

One-Pot Synthesis of Dual-Responsive Hyperbranched Polymeric Prodrugs Using an All-in-One Chain Transfer Monomer.

Over the past decades, tremendous progress has been advanced in the preparation of hyperbranched polymers (HPs), especially for the one-pot synthesis of segmented HPs by using self-condensing vinyl polymerization based on controlled living radical polymerization techniques. However, the fabrication of hyperbranched polymeric prodrugs (HPPs) still requires multistep postpolymerization conjugations, which generally suffer from low and uncontrolled conjugation efficacy of drug molecules due to the steric hindrance, low yields because of multistep synthesis, and scale-up difficulties attributed to batch-to-batch variations. To further address these issues and provide a highly straightforward and robust strategy toward HPPs, we reported in this study the one-pot preparation of dual-responsive hyperbranched polymeric prodrugs (DRHPPs) using an all-in-one chain transfer monomer that integrates a drug molecule with both acidic pH- and reduction-sensitive links.

Gene Regulatory Relationship Mining Using Improved Three-Phase Dependency Analysis Approach.

How to mine the gene regulatory relationship and construct gene regulatory network (GRN) is of utmost interest within the whole biological community, however, which has been consistently a challenging problem since the tremendous complexity in cellular systems. In present work, we construct gene regulatory network using an improved three-phase dependency analysis algorithm (TPDA) Bayesian network learning method, which includes the steps of Drafting, Thickening, and Thinning. In order to solve the problem of learning result is not reliable due to the high order conditional independence test, we use the entropy estimation approach of Gaussian kernel probability density estimator to calculate the (conditional) mutual information between genes.

Transcriptomic but not genomic variability confers phenotype of breast cancer stem cells.

Background: Breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) are considered responsible for cancer relapse and drug resistance. Understanding the identity of BCSCs may open new avenues in breast cancer therapy. Although several discoveries have been made on BCSC characterization, the factors critical to the origination of BCSCs are largely unclear.

Hole gas accumulation in Si/Ge core-shell and Si/Ge/Si core-double shell nanowires.

Core-shell nanowires (NWs) composed of silicon and germanium can be used to realize high electron (hole) mobility transistors (HEMTs) by suppressing impurity scattering due to their band offset structure and selective doping. Boron doped p-type Si/intrinsic-Ge (i-Ge) core-shell NW structures are selected to study this phenomenon. To produce HEMT devices, hole gas accumulation must be controlled in the impurity undoped i-Ge shell layers.

Renal immature teratoma in a male adult: A case report and literature review.

Rationale: Teratomas commonly arise in the gonads, including ovary and testis. The kidney is one of the most rare regions of primary teratoma. To date, about 19 cases of renal teratoma have been reported, and only 3 articles have reported renal immature teratoma; however, all of them occur in infant or children.

Structure-Based Suggestive Exploration: A New Approach for Effective Exploration of Large Networks.

When analyzing a visualized network, users need to explore different sections of the network to gain insight. However, effective exploration of large networks is often a challenge. While various tools are available for users to explore the global and local features of a network, these tools usually require significant interaction activities, such as repetitive navigation actions to follow network nodes and edges.

Controllable Synthesis of Few-Layer Bismuth Subcarbonate by Electrochemical Exfoliation for Enhanced CO Reduction Performance.

Two-dimensional (2D) engineering of materials has been recently explored to enhance the performance of electrocatalysts by reducing their dimensionality and introducing more catalytically active ones. In this work, controllable synthesis of few-layer bismuth subcarbonate nanosheets has been achieved via an electrochemical exfoliation method. These nanosheets catalyse CO reduction to formate with high faradaic efficiency and high current density at a low overpotential owing to the 2D structure and co-existence of bismuth subcarbonate and bismuth metal under catalytic turnover conditions.

Fabrication of Acidic pH-Cleavable Polymer for Anticancer Drug Delivery Using a Dual Functional Monomer.

The preparation of tumor acidic pH-cleavable polymers generally requires tedious postpolymerization modifications, leading to batch-to-batch variation and scale-up complexity. To develop a facile and universal strategy, we reported in this study design and successful synthesis of a dual functional monomer, a-OEGMA that bridges a methacrylate structure and oligo(ethylene glycol) (OEG) units via an acidic pH-cleavable acetal link. Therefore, a-OEGMA integrates (i) the merits of commercially available oligo(ethylene glycol) monomethyl ether methacrylate (OEGMA) monomer, i.

Optimization of Amphiphilic Miktoarm Star Copolymers for Anticancer Drug Delivery.

The preparation of various types of miktoarm star polymers with precisely controlled structures (AB, ABC, ABC, etc.) has made significant progress due to the considerable advances in the synthetic strategies, including multistep protections/deprotections, orthogonality, and integration of different polymerization techniques. However, compared to the well-developed synthesis methodologies, the investigations on miktoarm star copolymers as drug delivery vehicles remain relatively unexplored, especially for the relationship of their branched structures and properties as drug delivery systems.

HCV Reporter System (Viral Infection-Activated Split-Intein-Mediated Reporter System) for Testing Virus Cell-to-cell Transmission .

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) spread involves two distinct entry pathways: cell-free transmission and cell-to-cell transmission. Cell-to-cell transmission is not only an efficient way for viruses to spread but also an effective method for escaping neutralizing antibodies. We adapted the viral infection-activated split-intein-mediated reporter system (VISI) and developed a straightforward model for Live-cell monitoring of HCV cell-to-cell transmission : co-culture of HCV infected donor cells (red signal) with uninfected recipient cells (green signal) and elimination of the cell-free transmission by adding potent neutralizing antibody AR3A in the supernatant.

Spatial Vulnerabilities of the Genome to Spontaneous Mutations Revealed with Improved Duplex Sequencing.

Investigation of spontaneous mutations by next-generation sequencing technology has attracted extensive attention lately due to the fundamental roles of spontaneous mutations in evolution and pathological processes. However, these studies only focused on the mutations accumulated through many generations during long-term (possibly be years of) culturing, but not the freshly generated mutations that occur at very low frequencies. In this study, we established a molecularly barcoded deep sequencing strategy to detect low abundant spontaneous mutations in genomes of bacteria cell cultures.

Numerical simulation of patient-specific endovascular stenting and coiling for intracranial aneurysm surgical planning.

Background: In this study, we develop reliable and practical virtual coiling and stenting methods for intracranial aneurysm surgical planning. Since the purpose of deploying coils and stents is to provide device geometries for subsequent accurate post-treatment computational fluid dynamics analysis, we do not need to accurately capture all the details such as the stress and force distribution for the devices and vessel walls. Our philosophy for developing these methods is to balance accuracy and practicality.

OX40 Costimulation Inhibits Foxp3 Expression and Treg Induction via BATF3-Dependent and Independent Mechanisms.

Naive CD4 T cells can be converted to Foxp3 T regulatory cells (Tregs) in the periphery (iTregs), where induction of Foxp3 gene expression is central to Treg differentiation. OX40 signaling is known to inhibit Foxp3 expression and Treg induction, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly defined. Here, we found that OX40 costimulation activates two distinct molecular pathways to suppress Foxp3 expression in freshly activated naive CD4 T cells.

Prediction of Hot Regions in PPIs Based on Improved Local Community Structure Detecting.

The hot regions in PPIs are some assembly regions which are composed of the tightly packed HotSpots. The discovery of hot regions helps to understand life activities and has very important value for biological applications. The identification of hot regions is the basis for protein design and cancer prevention.

Botulinum toxin therapy of hemifacial spasm: bilateral injections can reduce facial asymmetry.

Botulinum toxin (BT) is the treatment of choice for hemifacial spasm (HFS). When BT is injected into the affected side, patients may experience increased facial asymmetry. We wanted to evaluate in a prospective, randomised, placebo-controlled study whether bilateral BT injections may reduce this facial asymmetry.

Novel 2D-DNA-Nanoprobe-Mediated Enzyme-Free-Target-Recycling Amplification for the Ultrasensitive Electrochemical Detection of MicroRNA.

In this work, on the basis of a new 2D DNA nanoprobe (DNP) and an enzyme-free-target-recycling amplification, an electrochemical biosensor is developed for the ultrasensitive detection of microRNA-21 (miRNA-21). Herein, two ferrocene-labeled bipedal DNPs, which show small steric hindrance and strong stability, are prepared on the basis of the mechanism of the proximity-ligation assay (PLA), improving the space utilization. In the presence of the target, miRNA-21, and a hairpin DNA strand, the DNP will collapse, and then two ferrocene-labeled DNA strands and the miRNA-21 will be simultaneously released from the electrode surface through toehold-mediated strand-displacement reactions (TSDRs), leading to a decrease in the electrochemical signal and realization of enzyme-free target recycling.

Self-Quenched Metal-Organic Particles as Dual-Mode Therapeutic Agents for Photoacoustic Imaging-Guided Second Near-Infrared Window Photochemotherapy.

The nanosized metal-organic particles (NMOPs) recently have attracted tremendous attentions in biomedical applications. However, few studies have developed metal-organic nanoparticles (NMOPs) as near-infrared (NIR) II phototherapeutic agents and as Fenton-like agents for cancer theranostics. Herein, directly using organic dye and Cu(II)-ion complexes to construct NMOPs, as dual-mode therapeutic agent for PA imaging-guided photochemotherapy in NIR II window, is reported.

Controlling the 3D Electromagnetic Coupling in Co-Sputtered Ag⁻SiO₂ Nanomace Arrays by Lateral Sizes.

Ag⁻SiO₂ nanomace arrays were prepared on a two-dimensional ordered colloidal (2D) polystyrene sphere template by co-sputtering Ag and SiO₂ in a magnetron sputtering system. The lateral size of the nanomaces and the distance between the neighbor nanomaces were controlled by adjusting the etching time of the 2D template. The nanomaces were composed of SiO₂-isolated Ag nanoparticles, which produced surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) enhancement, and 3D hot spots were created between the neighbor nanomaces.