VEGF-loaded ROS-responsive nanodots improve the structure and function of sciatic nerve lesions in type II diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is a prevalent complication of diabetes mellitus (DM), significantly contributing to the risk of amputation and mortality. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) can induce both neurological and structural harm through direct impact and pyroptosis, underscoring the critical role of ROS regulation in mitigating DPN. In this research endeavor, we propose harnessing the inherent antioxidant properties of sulfhydryl groups by grafting them onto gold nanodots through an amidation reaction, resulting in the creation of ROS-responsive AuNDs.

Erbium-Doped LuO-MgO and ScO-MgO IR-Transparent Composite Ceramics.

Novel IR-transparent ceramics of erbium-doped LuO-MgO and ScO-MgO composites have been successfully obtained using a combination of glycine-nitrate self-propagating high-temperature synthesis and vacuum hot-pressing methods. Composites have densities greater than 99.5% of those calculated by X-ray diffraction and consist of uniformly distributed submicron grains of magnesium and rare earth oxides.

Pomegranate-inspired multifunctional nanocomposite wound dressing for intelligent self-monitoring and promoting diabetic wound healing.

Diabetic wounds are chronically hard-healing wounds. Bacterial infection, persistent inflammation and impaired angiogenesis are key factors affecting diabetic wound healing. Herein, inspired by pomegranate, Au/Ag nanodots (Au/AgNDs) with fluorescent and photothermal properties were adopted as the pomegranate-like core, and the polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel as the pomegranate-like shell to obtain the multifunctional nanocomposite wound dressing for promoting diabetic wounds healing and real-time self-monitoring the dressing state.

Multifunctional nano-system for multi-mode targeted imaging and enhanced photothermal therapy of metastatic prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer (PCa) routinely employs magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, while metastatic PCa needs more complicated detection methods for precise localization. The inconvenience of using different methods to detect PCa and its metastases in patients and the limitations of single-mode imaging have brought great challenges to clinicians. Meanwhile, clinical treatments for metastatic PCa are still limited.

Effect of Biocides on the Activity of Extracellular Enzymes Produced by Degrader Fungi from Technical Objects Used in Tropical Climates (Vietnam).

Activity of extracellular enzymes was assessed in 20 strains of microscopic fungi involved in biodegradation of technical objects exploited under tropical climate conditions (Vietnam). It was found that 19 strains possessed catalase activity, 18 strains had phenol oxidase activity, and eight strains had protease activity. The effect of industrial biocides on the activity of these enzymes was also assessed.

Multifunctional nanoprobe for multi-mode imaging and diagnosis of metastatic prostate cancer.

The high incidence and complex subtypes of prostate cancer put forward higher requirements for accurate diagnosis. Furthermore, advanced prostate cancer is prone to metastasis. Single biological imaging mode faces a challenge of sensitive and fast bioimaging of metastasic prostate cancer.

Novel strategies for tumor radiosensitization mediated by multifunctional gold-based nanomaterials.

Radiotherapy (RT) is one of the most effective and commonly used cancer treatments for malignant tumors. However, the existing radiosensitizers have a lot of side effects and poor efficacy, which limits the curative effect and further application of radiotherapy. In recent years, emerging nanomaterials have shown unique advantages in enhancing radiosensitization.

An Electroconductive Hydrogel Scaffold with Injectability and Biodegradability to Manipulate Neural Stem Cells for Enhancing Spinal Cord Injury Repair.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) generally leads to long-term functional deficits and is difficult to repair spontaneously. Many biological scaffold materials and stem cell treatment strategies have been explored, but very little research focused on the method of combining exogenous neural stem cells (NSCs) with a biodegradable conductive hydrogel scaffold. Here, a NSC loaded conductive hydrogel scaffold (named ICH/NSCs) was assembled by amino-modified gelatin (NH-Gelatin) and aniline tetramer grafted oxidized hyaluronic acid (AT-OHA).

Statistical precursors of a strong earthquake on April 6, 2009 on the Apennine Peninsula.

The article discusses the possibility of formulating a conclusion about the transition in early April 2009 to an exceptional state of the geophysical system in an area with a radius of about several hundred kilometers from Rome. This fact preceded the tragic earthquake on April 6, 2009, which led to large casualties in the Italian city of L'Aquila. This conclusion was obtained based on an analysis of the statistics of the critical frequency of the ionosphere.

A smart hydrogel patch with high transparency, adhesiveness and hemostasis for all-round treatment and glucose monitoring of diabetic foot ulcers.

The treatment and management of diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) is a pretty intractable problem for clinical nursing. Urgently, the "Black Box" status of the healing process prevents surgeons from providing timely analysis for more effective diagnosis and therapy of the wound. Herein, we designed a transparent monitoring system to treat and manage the DFUs with blood oozing and hard-healing, which resolved the problem of blind management for the other conductive patches.

AuNCs-LHRHa nano-system for FL/CT dual-mode imaging and photothermal therapy of targeted prostate cancer.

As the most common cancer in men worldwide, prostate cancer has a serious impact on people's health. Until now, the development of a platform for integrating tumor targeting, imaging and an effective treatment for prostate cancer has remained challenging. Herein, a nano-system is designed to improve both diagnosis and treatment for prostate cancer.

Construction of Intelligent Responsive Drug Delivery System and Multi-Mode Imaging Based on Gold Nanodots.

Cancer remains a formidable global problem with a high mortality rate. There are many effective anti-cancer drugs in clinical use, among which paclitaxel (PTX) has good effects on non-small cell lung cancer, ovarian cancer, and breast cancer. However, when applied to the clinic, PTX still has many limitations, such as poor water solubility, drug resistance, and side effects on healthy tissues.

Gold nanodots with stable red fluorescence for rapid dual-mode imaging of spinal cord and injury monitoring.

Spinal cord injury is one of the most devastating complications of spinal surgery, often resulting in numbness, pain or paralysis. Minor injuries in the spinal cord are hard to be identified and existing imaging modalities are unable to provide intraoperative monitoring. Monitoring pathological change at the site of injury is a key factor in staging and treatment decision making as well as prognosis of spinal cord injury.

Novel Diabetic Foot Wound Dressing Based on Multifunctional Hydrogels with Extensive Temperature-Tolerant, Durable, Adhesive, and Intrinsic Antibacterial Properties.

Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are hard-healing chronic wounds and susceptible to bacterial infection. Conventional hydrogel dressings easily lose water at high temperature or freeze at low temperature, making them unsuitable for long-term use or in extreme environments. Herein, a temperature-tolerant (-20 to 60 °C) antibacterial hydrogel dressing is fabricated by the assembly of polyacrylamide, gelatin, and ε-polylysine.

Annulation of a 1,3-dithiole ring to a sterically hindered -quinone core. Novel ditopic redox-active ligands.

The fused 1,3-dithiole spacer seems to be very suitable for the functionalization of sterically hindered -quinones with additional groups capable of coordination of metal ions and/or possessing a redox activity. An effective method for the synthesis of sterically hindered -quinones containing 1,3-diketonate, dinitrile and -quinone-methide functional groups at the periphery of the ligand has been developed. The novel compounds have rigid and conjugated structures and exhibit properties typical of -quinones.

Diffuse optical spectroscopy assessment of rodent tumor model oxygen state after single-dose irradiation.

Modern radiation therapy of malignant tumors requires careful selection of conditions that can improve the effectiveness of the treatment. The study of the dynamics and mechanisms of tumor reoxygenation after radiation therapy makes it possible to select the regimens for optimizing the ongoing treatment. Diffuse optical spectroscopy (DOS) is among the methods used for non-invasive assessment of tissue oxygenation.

Early Effects of Ionizing Radiation on the Collagen Hierarchical Structure of Bladder and Rectum Visualized by Atomic Force Microscopy.

Radiation therapy, widely used in the treatment of a variety of malignancies in the pelvic area, is associated with inevitable damage to the surrounding healthy tissues. We have applied atomic force microscopy (AFM) to track the early damaging effects of ionizing radiation on the collagen structures in the experimental animals' bladder and rectum. The first signs of the low-dose radiation (2 Gy) effect were detected by AFM as early as 1 week postirradiation.

Using of Quantum Dots in Biology and Medicine.

Quantum dots are nanoparticles, which due to their unique physical and chemical (first of all optical) properties, are promising in biology and medicine. There are many ways for quantum dots synthesis, both in the form of nanoislands self-forming on the surfaces, which can be used as single-photon emitters in electronics for storing information, and in the form of colloidal quantum dots for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes in living systems. The paper describes the main methods of quantum dots synthesis and summarizes medical and biological ways of their use.

Development of Bright and Biocompatible Nanoruby and Its Application to Background-Free Time-Gated Imaging of G-Protein-Coupled Receptors.

At the forefront of developing fluorescent probes for biological imaging applications are enhancements aimed at increasing their brightness, contrast, and photostability, especially toward demanding applications of single-molecule detection. In comparison with existing probes, nanorubies exhibit unlimited photostability and a long emission lifetime (∼4 ms), which enable continuous imaging at single-particle sensitivity in highly scattering and fluorescent biological specimens. However, their wide application as fluorescence probes has so far been hindered by the absence of facile methods for scaled-up high-volume production and molecularly specific targeting.

Flavoprotein miniSOG BRET-induced cytotoxicity depends on its intracellular localization.

It is proposed to use the bioluminescent resonance energy transfer to solve the problem of creating the internal light sources in photodynamic therapy of cancer. Energy donor in the developed system is the oxidized form of the luciferase NanoLuc substrate furimamide, and acceptor is the phototoxic fluorescent protein miniSOG. It is shown that, in the proposed system, the photoinduced cytotoxicity of flavoprotein miniSOG in vitro depends on the intracellular localization, and the cytotoxic effect is 48% for the cytoplasmic localization of the fusion protein, 65% for the mitochondrial localization, and 69% for the membrane localization.

Protonated paramagnetic redox forms of di--quinone bridged with -phenylene-extended TTF: A EPR spectroscopy study.

The chemical oxidation and reduction processes of deprotonated, direduced -quinone-exTTF--quinone in protic solvents were studied by EPR spectroscopy. The formation of relatively stable paramagnetic protonated redox forms of the parent triad was very surprising. The character of spin-density distribution in the semiquinone-quinone and semiquinone-catechol redox forms indicates that the -phenylene-extended tetrathiafulvalene connector provides a quite effective electronic communication channel between dioxolene coordination sites.

[The evaluation of adaptive possibilities of organism under therapy of diabetes mellitus type I and II.].

The article presents results of the study of electrophoretic agility of erythrocytes, their pro-oxidant characteristics and intra-cellular concentration of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and 2,3-diphosphoglycerate (2,3-DPG) in patients with diabetes mellitus type I and II under implementation of therapy. The sampling included 46 patients with diabetes mellitus type I and II. The control group consisted of 22 healthy volunteers.

Formation of Neural Networks in 3D Scaffolds Fabricated by Means of Laser Microstereolithography.

We developed and tested new 3D scaffolds for neurotransplantation. Scaffolds of predetermined architectonic were prepared using microstereolithography technique. Scaffolds were highly biocompatible with the nervous tissue cells.

Wide-field time-gated photoluminescence microscopy for fast ultrahigh-sensitivity imaging of photoluminescent probes.

Fluorescence microscopy is a fundamental technique for the life sciences, where biocompatible and photostable photoluminescence probes in combination with fast and sensitive imaging systems are continually transforming this field. A wide-field time-gated photoluminescence microscopy system customised for ultrasensitive imaging of unique nanoruby probes with long photoluminescence lifetime is described. The detection sensitivity derived from the long photoluminescence lifetime of the nanoruby makes it possible to discriminate signals from unwanted autofluorescence background and laser backscatter by employing a time-gated image acquisition mode.