Specific Tumor Cell Detection by a Metabolically Targeted Aggregation-Induced Emission-Based Gold Nanoprobe.

Detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) could be widely used for early diagnosis and real-time monitoring of tumor progression in liquid biopsy samples. Compared with normal cells, tumor cells exhibit relatively strong negative surface charges due to the high rate of glycolysis. In this study, a cationic fluorescence "turn-on" aggregation-induced emission (AIE) nanoprobe based on gold nanorods (GNRs) was designed and tested to detect tumor cells specifically.

Rapid simultaneous determination of gut microbial phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan metabolites in rat serum, urine, and faeces using LC-MS/MS and its application to a type 2 diabetes mellitus study.

Gut microbial phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan metabolites are closely linked to various diseases. Monitoring the alterations of the related metabolites is vital to facilitate the understanding of pathophysiology of diseases. Herein, a rapid and sensitive assay based on LC-tandem mass spectrometry has been developed to analyze 20 gut microbial metabolites derived from phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan in rat serum, urine, and faeces.

Ligand-Modified Erythrocyte Membrane-Cloaked Metal-Organic Framework Nanoparticles for Targeted Antitumor Therapy.

Systemic chemotherapy for treating tumors often leads to serious systemic side effects and affects patient compliance. Although the emerging technology of drug delivery systems (DDSs) can deliver the required cargo to tumor sites, DDSs are limited due to insufficient targeting ability or deficient pharmacokinetics. Herein, we assembled a novel targeting DDS for precision tumor therapy by applying a tumor-targeting polypeptide cyclic RGD (cRGD)-modified erythrocyte membrane (eM-cRGD) cloaked on zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) nanoparticles (NPs) with encapsulated doxorubicin (DOX).

Untargeted metabolomics analysis on Cicer arietinium L.-Induced Amelioration in T2D rats by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Cicer arietinium L., which belongs to Cicer genus, was not only a kind of traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) recorded in Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China (version 2015), but also a kind of Uighur antidiabetic medicines. It has been used as an adjuvant drug or functional food for thousand years in Xinjiang province, China.

Near-infrared light-triggered degradable hyaluronic acid hydrogel for on-demand drug release and combined chemo-photodynamic therapy.

In this study, an injectable and near-infrared (NIR) light-triggered ROS-degradable hyaluronic acid hydrogel platform was developed as localized delivery vehicle for photosensitizer protophorphyrin IX (PpIX) and anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX), to achieve superior combined chemo-photodynamic therapy with light-tunable on-demand drug release. The in situ-forming hydrogel fabricated readily via the formation of dynamic covalent acylhydrazone bonds could efficiently prevent severe self-quenching effect of water-insoluble PpIX due to the covalent binding, leading to localized enhanced photodynamic therapy (PDT). Moreover, the extensive ROS generated by the hydrogel under NIR light irradiation could not only realize efficient PDT effect, but also cleave the ROS-cleavable small molecule crosslinker, inducing the desirable degradation of hydrogel and subsequent on-demand DOX release for cascaded chemotherapy.