A Versatile Cryomicroneedle Patch for Traceable Photodynamic Therapy.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) continues to encounter multifarious hurdles, stemming from the ineffectual preservation and delivery system of photosensitizers, the dearth of imaging navigation, and the antioxidant/hypoxic tumor microenvironment. Herein, a versatile cryomicroneedle patch (denoted as CMN-CCPH) is developed for traceable PDT. The therapeutic efficacy is further amplified by catalase (CAT)-induced oxygen (O) generation and Cu-mediated glutathione (GSH) depletion.

Self-Heating Multistage Microneedle Patch for Topical Therapy of Skin Cancer.

Topical therapy is a favored route for treating skin cancers, but remain many challenges, such as low delivery efficiency, limited tumor tissue penetration, and unsatisfactory blood circulation. Here, a self-heating microneedle (MN) patch with multilevel structures, including a dissolvable base for rapid drug release, a degradable tip for sustained drug release, and a self-heating substrate is described. The thermally enhanced drug release performance is validated through both in vitro and in vivo experiments.

Combination of a STING Agonist and Photothermal Therapy Using Chitosan Hydrogels for Cancer Immunotherapy.

Cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs) are a promising class of immune agonists that trigger the stimulator of interferon genes (STING) to activate both innate and acquired immunity. However, the efficacy of CDNs is limited by drug delivery barriers. Therefore, we developed a combined immunotherapy strategy based on injectable reactive oxygen species (ROS)-responsive hydrogels, which sustainably release 5,6-dimethylxanthenone-4-acetic acid (DMXAA) as known as a STING agonist and indocyanine green (ICG) by utilizing a high level of ROS in the tumor microenvironment (TME).

Comparing the Volatile and Soluble Profiles of Fermented and Integrated Chinese Bayberry Wine with HS-SPME GC-MS and UHPLC Q-TOF.

To evaluate the flavor characteristics of Chinese bayberry alcoholic beverages, fermented bayberry wine (FBW) and integrated bayberry wine (IBW) were investigated for their volatile and soluble profiles using HS-SPME GC-MS and UHPLC Q-TOF and were analyzed with multidimensional statistical analysis, including PCA and OPLS-DA. The volatile compounds 1-pentanol, β-caryophyllene and isopentanol were only detected in IBW. β-caryophyllene, the key flavor component of bayberry, was found to be the most abundant volatile compound in IBW (25.

Alanine synthesized by alanine dehydrogenase enables ammonium-tolerant nitrogen fixation in T27.

Most diazotrophs fix nitrogen only under nitrogen-limiting conditions, for example, in the presence of relatively low concentrations of NH (0 to 2 mM). However, T27 exhibits an unusual pattern of nitrogen regulation of nitrogen fixation, since although nitrogenase activities are high under nitrogen-limiting conditions (0 to 3 mM NH) and are repressed under conditions of nitrogen sufficiency (4 to 30 mM NH), nitrogenase activity is reestablished when very high levels of NH (30 to 300 mM) are present in the medium. To further understand this pattern of nitrogen fixation regulation, we carried out transcriptome analyses of T27 in response to increasing ammonium concentrations.

Synthetic biology-instructed transdermal microneedle patch for traceable photodynamic therapy.

5-Aminolevulinic acid-based photodynamic therapy heavily depends on the biological transformation efficiency of 5-aminolevulinic acid to protoporphyrin IX, while the lack of an effective delivery system and imaging navigation are major hurdles in improving the accumulation of protoporphyrin IX and optimizing therapeutic parameters. Herein, we leverage a synthetic biology approach to construct a transdermal theranostic microneedle patch integrated with 5-aminolevulinic acid and catalase co-loaded tumor acidity-responsive copper-doped calcium phosphate nanoparticles for efficient 5-aminolevulinic acid-based photodynamic therapy by maximizing the enrichment of intratumoral protoporphyrin IX. We show that continuous oxygen generation by catalase in vivo reverses tumor hypoxia, enhances protoporphyrin IX accumulation by blocking protoporphyrin IX efflux (downregulating hypoxia-inducible factor-1α and ferrochelatase) and upregulates protoporphyrin IX biosynthesis (providing exogenous 5-aminolevulinic acid and upregulating ALA-synthetase).

A Microneedle Patch with Self-Oxygenation and Glutathione Depletion for Repeatable Photodynamic Therapy.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has attained extensive attention as a noninvasive tumor treatment modality. However, the hypoxia in solid tumors, skin phototoxicity of "always on" photosensitizers (PSs), and abundant supply of glutathione (GSH) in cancer cells severely hampered the clinical applications of PDT. Herein, a self-oxygenation nanoplatform (denoted as CZCH) with GSH depletion ability was encapsulated into the hyaluronic acid microneedle patch (MN-CZCH) to simultaneously improve the biosafety and therapeutic efficacy of PDT.

Using a Service Ontology to Understand What Influences Older Adults' Outdoor Physical Activities in Nanjing.

Older adults are not actively participating in outdoor physical activities. An understanding of what factors influence older adults' outdoor physical activities is important for informing interventions. This study aims to examine the potential effect of service ontology on the intention of outdoor physical activities in older adults.

Paenibacillus sinensis sp. nov., a nitrogen-fixing species isolated from plant rhizospheres.

Two strains HN-1 and 39 were isolated from rhizospheres of different plants grown in different regions of PR China. The two strains exhibited high nitrogenase activities and possessed almost identical 16S rRNA gene sequences. The average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) values between the two strains were 99.

Gold-Nanobipyramid-Based Nanotheranostics for Dual-Modality Imaging-Guided Phototherapy.

Multimodality imaging-guided therapy can improve the diagnostics and therapeutics efficiency of cancer. Herein, we developed a light-responsive nanotheranostic agent based on the indocyanine green (ICG) conjugated mesoporous silica coated gold nanobipyramid (GNB@SiO) (denoted as GNB@SiO-ICG) for simultaneous fluorescence (FL)/photoacoustic (PA) imaging-guided photothermal therapy (PTT). The GNB@SiO with excellent photostability was used for PA imaging as well as PTT.