Biomineralized and metallized small extracellular vesicles encapsulated in hydrogels for mitochondrial-targeted synergistic tumor therapy.

Targeted organelle therapy is a promising therapeutic method for significantly regulating the tumor microenvironment, yet it often lacks effective strategies for leveraging synergistic enhancement effect. Engineered small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) are expected to address this challenge due to their notable advantages in drug delivery, extended circulation time, and intercellular information transmission. Herein, we prepare sEVs with pH and photothermal dual-responsiveness, which are encapsulated with hydrogels for a quadruple-efficient synergistic therapy.

Near-infrared-triggered release of self-accelerating cascade nanoreactor delivered by macrophages for synergistic tumor photothermal therapy/starvation therapy/chemodynamic therapy.

Macrophages have emerged as promising cellular vehicles for the delivery of therapeutic agents to tumor sites. However, the cytotoxicity of therapeutic agents toward the cellular carriers and the effective release of therapeutic agents at the tumor site remain the main challenges faced by macrophage-mediated drug delivery systems. Herein, a near-infrared (NIR)-triggered release of self-accelerating cascade nanoreactor (HCFG) delivered by macrophages (HCFG@R) was developed for synergistic tumor photothermal therapy (PTT)/starvation therapy (ST)/chemodynamic therapy (CDT).

Flexible Tail of Antimicrobial Peptide PGLa Facilitates Water Pore Formation in Membranes.

PGLa, an antimicrobial peptide (AMP), primarily exerts its antibacterial effects by disrupting bacterial cell membrane integrity. Previous theoretical studies mainly focused on the binding mechanism of PGLa with membranes, while the mechanism of water pore formation induced by PGLa peptides, especially the role of structural flexibility in the process, remains unclear. In this study, using all-atom simulations, we investigated the entire process of membrane deformation caused by the interaction of PGLa with an anionic cell membrane composed of dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) and dimyristoylphosphatidylglycerol (DMPG).

Exploration of biomass-derived carbon dots based on chestnut shell for the sensitive detection of phosphate and tetracycline hydrochloride.

Phosphate pollution leads to the deterioration of water quality, posing a serious threat to human health. Tetracycline hydrochloride (TC), a class of broad-spectrum bacteriostatic agents, has garnered attention due to its extensive use and potential toxicity. Therefore, developing a highly selective and sensitive fluorescent probe for the detection of phosphates and TC is of significant importance.

Lanthanide-Assisted Function Tailoring of the HOF-Based Logic Gate Sensor Array for Biothiol Detection and Disease Discrimination.

The advancement of lanthanide fingerprint sensors characterized by targeted emission responses and low self-fluorescence interference for the detection of biothiols is of considerable importance for the early diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Herein, the lanthanide "personality function tailoring" HOF composite sensor array is designed for the specific discrimination of biothiols (GSH, Cys, and Hcy) based on the activation of various luminescent molecules, such as r-AuNCs/luminol via HOF surface proximity. Lumi-HOF@Ce serves as a versatile platform for catalyzing the oxidation of -phenylenediamine (OPD) to generate yellow fluorescent oligomers, accompanied by the fluorescence attenuation of luminol.

Arginine Metabolism Reprogramming in Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA)-Induced Liver Injury.

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is a persistent pollutant that has gained worldwide attention, owing to its widespread presence in the environment. Previous studies have reported that PFOA upregulates lipid metabolism and is associated with liver injury in humans. However, when the fatty acid degradation pathway is activated, lipid accumulation still occurs, suggesting the presence of unknown pathways and mechanisms that remain to be elucidated.

Dual-stage excitation source improves the analytical sensitivity of miniaturized optical emission spectrometer.

Miniaturized optical emission spectrometric (OES) devices based on various microplasma excitation sources provide a reliable tool for in-situ elemental analysis. The key to improving analytical performance is enhancing the excitation capability of the microplasma source in these devices. Here, dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) and point discharge (PD) technologies are combined to construct an enhanced dual-stage excitation source (called DBD-PD), which improves the overall excitation efficiency and OES signal sensitivity.

Dual-template epitope imprinted nanoparticles for anti-glycolytic tumor-targeted treatment.

Glycolysis provides tumors with abundant nutrients through glucose (Glu) metabolism. As a therapeutic target, precise targeting and effective inhibition of the glycolysis process remains a major challenge in anti-metabolic therapy. In this study, a novel dual-template molecularly imprinted polymer (D-MIP), capable of specifically recognizing glucose transporter member 1 (GLUT1) and hexokinase-2 (HK2) was prepared for anti-glycolytic tumor therapy.

Oligoadenine Strand Functionalized Polyacrylamide Hydrogel Film Exhibiting pH-Triggered High-Degree Inverse Shape Deformations.

Smart shape-memory DNA hydrogels, which can respond to various types of external stimuli and undergo macroscopic shape deformations, have shown great potential in various applications. By constructing free-standing films, the deformation and response properties of these hydrogels can be further enhanced, and visualized deformation can be achieved. However, DNA hydrogels that can exhibit rapid and high-degree shape deformations, such as the inverse shape deformations, are still lacking.

Understanding the protein conformation transition within polymer hydrogels using a near-infrared water spectroscopy probe.

For understanding the behavior of the active substance in vivo, the near-infrared (NIR) spectral variations of ovalbumin (OVA) loaded in poly(N, N-dimethyl acrylamide) (PDMAA) hydrogel with temperature were investigated. Analyzing the spectra with improved resolution by continuous wavelet transform (CWT), the absorption variation of the peak at 4851 cm arising from the α-helix of OVA with temperature was studied. The results show that a sharp decrease occurs at a lower temperature in PDMAA hydrogel, indicating that the unfolding of OVA in PDMAA hydrogel is facilitated.

Rapid Deployment of Antiviral Drugs Using Single-Virus Tracking and Machine Learning.

The outbreak of emerging acute viral diseases urgently requires the acceleration of specialized antiviral drug development, thus widely adopting phenotypic screening as a strategy for drug repurposing in antiviral research. However, traditional phenotypic screening methods typically require several days of experimental cycles and lack visual confirmation of a drug's ability to inhibit viral infection. Here, we report a robust method that utilizes quantum-dot-based single-virus tracking and machine learning to generate unique single-virus infection fingerprint data from viral trajectories and detect the dynamic changes in viral movement following drug administration.

Unmixing Autoencoder for Image Reconstruction from Hyperspectral Data.

Due to the complexity of samples and the limitations in spatial resolution, the spectra in hyperspectral imaging (HSI) are generally contributed to by multiple components, making univariate analysis ineffective. Although feature extraction methods have been applied, the chemical meaning of the compressed variables is difficult to interpret, limiting their further applications. An unmixing autoencoder (UAE) was developed in this work for the separation of the mixed spectra in HSI.

Electrothermal desolvation-enhanced microplasma optical emission spectrometry for sensitive determination of Cd, Zn Pb and Mn in environmental water samples.

Herein, a novel electrothermal desolvation (ED) introduction approach is developed to enhance the analytical sensitivity of the point discharge (PD)-based microplasma-optical emission spectrometric (PD-MIP-OES) system for detecting trace Cd, Zn, Pb and Mn in environmental water samples. Liquid samples are converted into aerosols through a miniature ultrasonic nebulizer, and subsequently desolvated by electric heating at 350 °C. The analytes obtained after condensation (referring to the smaller apertures aerosols and volatile analytes after ED and condensation) are excited and detected by PD-MIP-OES.

A microfluidic chip incorporating magnetic sorting and invasive separation for isolation, culture and telomerase analysis of circulating tumor cells.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are a crucial indicator of cancer metastasis, and are vital for early diagnosis, disease monitoring, and treatment response evaluation. However, their extremely low concentration and the complexities of isolation techniques pose a significant challenge in capturing and analyzing CTCs. In this study, we developed a novel microfluidic system that integrates magnetic capture and invasive screening onto a single microfluidic chip.

Sensitive and rapid fluorescent detection of metronidazole based on stable light-emitting vinylene-linked covalent organic framework.

Development of ultra-sensitive and rapid fluorescent nanoprobe for quantitative and targeted monitoring of metronidazole is of crucial practical significance, but is of great challenge. Herein, a vinyl-linked covalent organic frameworks (sp-BNTP-COF) was fabricated via integrating the 1,3,5-tris-(4-formylphenyl) triazine with 5,5'-bis(cyanomethyl)-2,2'-bipyridine into the skeleton. As-obtained sp-BNTP-COF exhibited excellent luminescence characteristics with an absolute fluorescence quantum yield of 8 %.

Frost-resistant hydrogel colorimetric sensing array for accurate detection of foodborne pathogens in cold chain systems.

The rapid and precise identification of foodborne pathogens in low-temperature environments is critically important yet challenging, particularly within the cold chain system. This study introduces a frost-resistant colorimetric sensing array (FR-CSA), based on polyvinyl alcohol/polyacrylamide/lithium chloride (PVA/PAM/LiCl) double network (DN) hydrogels, designed for the detecting and classifying foodborne pathogens at 4 °C and -20 °C. The integration of LiCl into the PVA/PAM DN hydrogels results in a dense 3D nano-network that significantly lowers the freezing point, enhancing the sensing functionality at subzero temperatures, addressing a critical gap where conventional CSAs fail to perform.

Proton-Mediated Dynamic Nestling of DNA Payloads Within Size-Matched MOFs Nanochannels for Smart Intracellular Delivery.

With sequence-programmable biological functions and excellent biocompatibility, synthetic functional DNA holds great promise for various biological applications. However, it remains a challenge to simultaneously retain their biological functions while protecting these fragile oligonucleotides from the degradation by nucleases abundant in biological circumstances. Herein, a smart delivery system for functional DNA payloads is developed based on proton-mediated dynamic nestling of cytosine-rich DNA moieties within the precisely size-matched nanochannels of highly crystalline metal-organic frameworks (MOFs): At neutral pH, cytosine-rich DNA strands exhibit a flexible single-stranded state and can be accommodated by MOFs nanochannels with a size of ca.

Crown-like Biodegradable Lipids Enable Lung-Selective mRNA Delivery and Dual-Modal Tumor Imaging In Vivo.

Systemic mRNA delivery to specific cell types remains a great challenge. We herein report a new class of crown-like biodegradable ionizable lipids (CBILs) for predictable lung-selective mRNA delivery by leveraging the metal coordination chemistry. Each CBIL contains an impressive crown-like amino core that coordinates with various metal ions such as Zn and further regulates the in vivo organ-targeting behavior of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs).

AND-Gate Logic Förster Resonance Energy Transfer/Magnetic Resonance Tuning Nanoprobe for Programmable Antitumor Immunity Imaging.

Simultaneous detection of different biomarkers related to the spatiotemporally dynamic immune events is of particular importance for the accurate evaluation of antitumor immune effects. Here, we have developed an AND-gate logic dual resonance energy transfer nanoprobe (named DRET) for dynamic monitoring of programmed CD8 T cell activation and tumor cell apoptosis. Immunotherapy-induced granzyme B secretion from CD8 T cells and the subsequent caspase-3 release from apoptotic tumor cells individually activate one of the tiers of the "AND-gate" logic DRET.

Inertial and Deterministic Lateral Displacement Integrated Microfluidic Chips for Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition Analysis.

With the aim of efficiently sorting rare circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from blood and minimizing damage to CTCs during isolation, we constructed an inertia-assisted single-cell focusing generator (I-SCF) and a water droplet deterministic lateral displacement cell sorting (D-DLD) microfluidic system (IDIC) based on different sizes, the device is initially sorted by a continuous fluid swing and Dean flow-assisted helical micromixers, then flows through a droplet shaped DLD region, enabling single-cell focused sequencing and precise separation, improving cell separation efficiency (>95%) and purity, while ensuring a high single cells survival rate of more than 98.6%. Subsequently, breast cancer cell lines were run through our chip, and then the downstream epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process induced by TGF-β was detected, and the levels of three proteins, EpCAM, PD-L1, and N-cadherin, were analyzed to establish the relationship between PD-L1 and the EMT process.

Real-time monitoring of single dendritic cell maturation using deep learning-assisted surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.

Dynamic real-time detection of dendritic cell (DC) maturation is pivotal for accurately predicting immune system activation, assessing vaccine efficacy, and determining the effectiveness of immunotherapy. The heterogeneity of cells underscores the significance of assessing the maturation status of each individual cell, while achieving real-time monitoring of DC maturation at the single-cell level poses significant challenges. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) holds great potential for providing specific fingerprinting information of DCs to detect biochemical alterations and evaluate their maturation status.

Macrophage membrane‒biomimetic nanoparticles target inflammatory microenvironment for epilepsy treatment.

The clinical treatment of epilepsy is faced with challenges. On the one hand, the effectiveness of existing antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) is limited by the blood‒brain barrier (BBB); on the other hand, changes in the inflammatory microenvironment during epileptogenesis are often neglected. The death-associated protein kinase 1 inhibitor TC-DAPK6 and the fluorescent probe rhodamine B were encapsulated in hollow mesoporous silica nanocarriers (HMSNs), which were then coated with a macrophage membrane to prepare macrophage membrane-biomimetic nanoparticles, namely, MA@RT-HMSNs.