Enhancing the Solubility, Stability, and Bioavailability of Retinol Acetate through Mechanochemistry.

This study utilizes mechanochemistry to prepare retinol acetate (RA) solid dispersion (RA-sodium starch octenyl succinate (SSOS)), resulting in improved solubility, stability, and bioavailability compared with raw RA and commercial RA microcapsules. RA, poloxamer 188, SSOS, and milling beads (8 mm) were mixed in a ratio of 2:1:8:220 (w/w) and ball-milled at 100 rpm for 3 h. RA-SSOS exhibited a solubility of 1020.

Side-chain engineering of organic photothermal agents for boosting further red-shifted absorption and higher photothermal therapeutic effect.

Although organic photothermal agents (PTAs) have been extensively studied in preclinical cancer photothermal therapy (PTT), the internal mechanism, particularly the impact of side chains on photothermal performance, remains inadequately investigated. Herein, we conducted a systematic comparison of the photothermal properties between two organic molecules, namely O-IDTBR with four n-octyl chains and EH-IDTBR with four 2-ethylhexyl chains. With the same conjugated main structure, both O-IDTBR and EH-IDTBR exhibited nearly identical absorption properties (with a peak at 629 nm) in their molecular states.

An injectable and thermosensitive hydrogel with nano-aided NIR-II phototherapeutic and chemical effects for periodontal antibacteria and bone regeneration.

Periodontitis is a common public health problem worldwide and an inflammatory disease with irregular defect of alveolar bone caused by periodontal pathogens. Both antibacterial therapy and bone regeneration are of great importance in the treatment of periodontitis. In this study, injectable and thermosensitive hydrogels with 3D networks were used as carriers for controlled release of osteo-inductive agent (BMP-2) and Near Infrared Region-II (NIR-II) phototherapy agents (T8IC nano-particles).

Biofabrication methods for reconstructing extracellular matrix mimetics.

In the human body, almost all cells interact with extracellular matrices (ECMs), which have tissue and organ-specific compositions and architectures. These ECMs not only function as cellular scaffolds, providing structural support, but also play a crucial role in dynamically regulating various cellular functions. This comprehensive review delves into the examination of biofabrication strategies used to develop bioactive materials that accurately mimic one or more biophysical and biochemical properties of ECMs.

Cholesterol Metabolism Modulation Nanoplatform Improves Photo-Immunotherapeutic Effect in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Impressive results in cancer treatment have been obtained through immunotherapy. However, abnormally high cholesterol metabolism in the tumor microenvironment (TME) leads to poor immunogenicity or even immunosuppression, which dramatically reduces the clinical response of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) to immunotherapy. In this study, a cholesterol-modulating nanoplatform (PYT NP) is developed to restore the normal immune microenvironment, significantly inhibiting SQLE (an essential gene for cholesterol biosynthesis in tumor cells) by releasing terbinafine, thereby reducing cholesterol in the TME and suppressing tumor cell proliferation.

CASF-Net: Cross-attention and cross-scale fusion network for medical image segmentation.

Background: Automatic segmentation of medical images has progressed greatly owing to the development of convolutional neural networks (CNNs). However, there are two uncertainties with current approaches based on convolutional operations: (1) how to eliminate the general limitations that CNNs lack the ability of modeling long-range dependencies and global contextual interactions, and (2) how to efficiently discover and integrate global and local features that are implied in the image. Notably, these two problems are interconnected, yet previous approaches mainly focus on the first problem and ignore the importance of information integration.

Rhythm Mild-Temperature Photothermal Therapy Enhancing Immunogenic Cell Death Response in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

The low antitumor efficiency and unexpected thermo-tolerance activation of mild-temperature photothermal therapy (mPTT) severely impede the therapeutic efficacy, thereby the implementation of reasonable mPTT procedure to improve antitumor efficiency is of great significance for clinical transformation. Herein, a rhythm mPTT with organic photothermal nanoparticles (PBDB-T NPs) is demonstrated, synergistically increasing tumor elimination and intense immunogenic cancer cell death (ICD) to elicit tumor-specific immune responses for tumor treatment. Specifically, PBDB-T NPs are characterized by favorable biocompatibility, excellent and controllable photothermal properties, exhibit the properties of noninvasive diagnostic imaging, and effective mPTT against oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC).

Thrombus-targeted nano-agents for NIR-II diagnostic fluorescence imaging-guided flap thromboembolism multi-model therapy.

In oral and maxillofacial surgery, flap repair is essential to the quality of postoperative life. Still, thrombosis is fatal for the survival of the flaps. Besides, some postoperative thrombotic diseases, such as pulmonary embolism, also intimidate patients' life.

Multifunctional photodynamic/photothermal nano-agents for the treatment of oral leukoplakia.

Oral leukoplakia (OLK) has gained extensive attention because of the potential risk for malignant transformation. Photosensitizers (PSs) played an indispensable role in the photodynamic therapy (PDT) of OLK, but the poor light sensitivity greatly hampered its clinical application. Herein, a novel organic photosensitive ITIC-Th nanoparticles (ITIC-Th NPs) were developed for OLK photodynamic/photothermal therapy (PTT).

Fused-Ring Small-Molecule-Based Bathochromic Nano-agents for Tumor NIR-II Fluorescence Imaging-Guided Photothermal/Photodynamic Therapy.

Optical imaging in the second near-infrared (NIR-II) windows reduces much more autofluorescence and photon scattering from biological tissues and allows further tissue penetration depth and superior spatial resolution in living bodies. Herein, a fused-ring 2,2'-((2Z,2'Z)-((12,13-(2-ethylhexyl)-3,9-diundecyl-12,13-dihydro-[1,2,5]thiadiazolo[3,4-e]thieno[2,″3″:4',5']thieno[2',3':4,5]pyrrolo[3,2-g]thieno[2',3':4,5]thieno[3,2-]indole-2,10-diyl)bis(methanylylidene))(5,6-difluoro-3-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1-indene-2,1-diylidene))dimalononitrile (TPBT) molecule was explored as a multifunctional tumor theranostic reagent for photothermal/photodynamic therapy guided by NIR-II imaging. The TPBT molecule has an electron-deficient core with a ladder-type multi-fused ring and shows a narrow band gap that can enhance the near-infrared absorption.

China experts' consensus on preventive and interceptive orthodontic treatments of malocclusions of children.

Malocclusion is one of the three most common oral diseases reported by World Health Organization(WHO). In China, its incidence rate is rising. Malocclusion seriously affects the dental and maxillofacial function, facial appearance and growth development of nearly 260 million children in China, and what is more, it affects their physical and mental health development.

Novel semiconducting nano-agents incorporating tirapazamine for imaging guided synergistic cancer hypoxia activated photo-chemotherapy.

For cancer treatment, the traditional monotherapy has the problems of low drug utilization rate, poor efficacy and easy recurrence of the cancer. Herein, nanoparticles (NPs) based on a novel semiconducting molecule (ITTC) are developed with excellent photostability, high photothermal conversion efficiency and good 1O2 generation ability. The chemotherapy of the hypoxia-activated prodrug tirapazamine (TPZ) was improved accordingly after oxygen consumption by the photodynamic therapy of ITTC NPs.

Peroxidase-mimicking evodiamine/indocyanine green nanoliposomes for multimodal imaging-guided theranostics for oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Here, evodiamine (EVO) and the photosensitizer indocyanine green (ICG) were integrated into a liposomal nanoplatform for noninvasive diagnostic imaging and combinatorial therapy against oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). EVO, as an active component extracted from traditional Chinese medicine, not only functioned as an antitumor chemotherapeutic agent but was also capable of Ga-chelation, thus working as a contrast agent for positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging. Moreover, EVO could exhibit peroxidase-like catalytic activity, converting endogenous tumor HO into cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS), enabling Chemo catalytic therapy beyond the well-known chemotherapy effect of EVO.

Organic Near-Infrared-II Nanophotosensitizer for Safe Cancer Phototheranostics and Improving Immune Microenvironment against Metastatic Tumor.

Current tumor immunotherapy has excellent application prospects compared with traditional radiotherapy and chemotherapy, but there are still limitations, such as considerable side effects. This problem can be partially solved by treating the local tumor to induce antitumor immunity. In our study, a novel organic photosensitizer Y8 was used to synthesize nanoparticles (Y8 NPs) via a simple nanoprecipitation method.

Multi-scale nacre-inspired lamella-structured Ti-Ta composites with high strength and low modulus for load-bearing orthopedic and dental applications.

Mimicking the hierarchical structure of nacre in artificial materials is a promising approach to obtain high mechanical performance. In this work, nacre-inspired lamella-structured Ti-Ta composites were fabricated by successive spark plasma sintering, mechanical processing and annealing. The specimen sintered at 1200 °C and then hot rolled with 60% height reduction exhibited multi-scale lamellar microstructure.

Knockdown of TGF-β1 expression in human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells reverts their exosome-mediated EMT promoting effect on lung cancer cells.

The effect of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on lung cancer cells is controversial, and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear, which harms the utilization of MSCs in tumor therapy. In this study, we found that human umbilical cord MSC-conditioned medium (MSC-CM) promotes EMT, invasion, and migration, yet inhibits proliferation and promotes apoptosis of lung cancer cells. The EMT-promoting effect of MSCs was mediated by exosomes derived from MSCs (MSC-exo) and eliminated by inhibiting exosome release.

[Comparison of the clinical effects of selective laser melting deposition basal crowns and cobalt chromium alloy base crowns].

Purpose: To evaluate the clinical effects of selective laser melting (SLM) deposition basal crowns and cobalt chromium alloy casting base crowns.

Methods: One hundred and sixty eight patients treated with either SLM deposition basal crowns (110 teeth) or cobalt chromium alloy casting basal crowns (110 teeth) were followed-up for 1 month, 6 months, 12 months and 24 months. The revised standard of American Public Health Association was used to evaluate the clinical effect of restoration, including the color of porcelain crowns, gingival inflammation, gingival margin discoloration, and crack or fracture.

[Cone-beam CT analysis of human maxillary sinus: anatomical considerations for sinus augmentation and implant insertion].

Purpose: To investigate the anatomy of human maxillary sinus for providing some basic anatomical parameters related to sinus floor elevation and implant insertion.

Methods: A total of 40 cone-beam CT (CBCT) adults were selected and analyzed. The length (internal wall) and width of the maxillary sinus were measured, and the incidence and distribution of septa were investigated by use of three-dimensional reconstruction technique of CBCT.