Nano-enabled coordination platform of bismuth nitrate and cisplatin prodrug potentiates cancer chemoradiotherapy DNA damage enhancement.

The combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy (chemoradiotherapy) is a promising strategy, extensively studied and applied clinically. Meanwhile, radiosensitizers play an important role in improving clinical radiotherapy therapeutic efficacy. There are still some disadvantages in practical applications, because radiosensitizers and drugs are difficult to deliver spatio-temporally to tumor sites and work simultaneously with low efficiency for DNA damage and repair inhibition, leading to an inferior synergistic effect.

Significant Enhancement in the Thermoelectric Performance of Aluminum-Doped ZnO Tuned by Pore Structure.

In this paper, 2 atom % Al-doped ZnO (AZO) was prepared by the co-precipitation method together with sparking plasma sintering (SPS) treatment. The as-synthesized AZO powders show the morphology of hollow hexagonal towers, which result in a high porosity of 50.6% in the bulk sample consolidated by SPS sintering at 400 °C, and the porosity decreases gradually with increasing sintering temperature up to 1000 °C.

Synergistic Effect of Retinoic Acid Polymeric Micelles and Prodrug for the Pharmacodynamic Evaluation of Tumor Suppression.

All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) is an effective agent that induces differentiation, inhibits cell proliferation, and acts as an anticancer agent. ATRA was successfully conjugated with Pluronic F127 via esterification to enhance its anticancer effects. Pluronic-ATRA showed high cytotoxicity and inhibitory concentrations (IC) 50% lower than those of ATRA in various breast cancer cell lines (4T1:31.

Au nanoparticles with enzyme-mimicking activity-ornamented ZIF-8 for highly efficient photodynamic therapy.

The tumor hypoxic microenvironment (THME) has a profound impact on tumor progression, and modulation of the THME has become an essential strategy to promote photodynamic therapy (PDT). Here, an oxygen self-supplied nanodelivery system that is based on nanometal-organic frameworks (nMOFs) with embedded AuNPs (Au@ZIF-8) on the nMOF surface as a catalase (CAT)-like nanozyme and encapsulating Ce6 inside as a photosensitizer was found to mitigate tumor hypoxia and reinforce PDT. As soon as Au@ZIF-8 reaches the tumor site, the AuNP nanozyme can catalyze excessive H2O2 to produce O2 to alleviate tumor hypoxia, promoting the production of 1O2 with strong toxicity toward tumor cells under irradiation.

PVP intercalated metallic WSe as NIR photothermal agents for efficient tumor ablation.

Transition metal dichalogenides (TMDCs) with unique layered structures hold promising potential as transducers for photothermal therapy. However, the low photothermal conversion efficiency and poor stability in some cases limit their practical applications. Herein, we demonstrate the fabrication of ultrathin homogeneous hybridized TMDC nanosheets and their use for highly efficient photothermal tumor ablation.