Natural blood plasma-based hydrogels as tumor vaccines delivery systems to enhance biomimetic recruitment of antigen presenting cells for tumor immunotherapy.

Tumor vaccines can inhibit or eliminate tumors by vaccinating hosts with tumor antigens to activate antigen-specific immune responses and have gained wild attention. However, their clinical application efficacy is often comprised due to the low safety and poor efficiency of vaccine adjuvants/carriers. Specifically, the adjuvants/carriers usually could not efficiently recruit antigen presenting cells (APCs) to capture the vaccines or directly damage these cells. Therefore, ideal tumor vaccine adjuvants/carriers should effectively recruit APCs and be friendly to the cells for well keeping their bio-functions. In this work, injectable natural blood plasma hydrogel was used for the first time to encapsulate tumor antigens and adjuvant (Mn2+) for the construction of a personalized tumor vaccine. This kind of natural hydrogel with extremely high bio-safety has great potential to friendly recruit APCs in a biomimetic manner by simulating the natural degradation process of subcutaneous blood stasis. The obtained results show that the natural blood plasma hydrogel-based tumor vaccines could significantly promote the recruitment of APCs, well maintain the immuno-functions of the cells, and finally induce efficient anti-tumor immune responses. Compared with traditional tumor vaccines, this natural blood plasma-based hydrogel provides a new strategy for the development of safe and effective tumor vaccines.

[Cation exchanges during the process of Cd(2+) absorption by Alfalfa in aqueous solutions].

A hydroponic experiment was conducted to investigate the cation exchanges during the process of Cd2+ absorption by Alfalfa in aqueous solution. The absorption efficiency of Alfalfa plants with 0-10 mg x L(-1) Cd2+ treatments, changes of Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+ and NH4(+) concentration, and the variation of pH values at different absorption time (0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 24 and 72 h) were studied separately. The multiple linear regressions between Cd2+ absorption and cation variation were analyzed. The results indicated that when Cd2+ concentrations were 0.1, 1, 5, 10 mg x L(-1), the absorption efficiencies of Cd2+ by Alfalfa after 72 h were 85.86%, 52.14%, 15.97% and 7.81%. Cation exchange was involved in the removal of Cd2+ by Alfalfa in aqueous solution. Except for NH4(+), the concentrations of cationic metals Na+, K+, Mg2+ and Ca2+ in aqueous solution increased over time, which increased 11.30% - 61.72%, 21.44% - 98.73%, 24.09% - 8.90% and 37.04% - 191.96%, respectively. Kinetic studies illuminated that the release of Na+, K+, Mg2+ and Ca2+ by Alfalfa in Cd2+ solution with initial concentrations of 0, 0. 1, 1, 5, 10 mg x L(-1) best fitted pseudo-second-order equation,while the NH4(+) release fitted this model when Cd2+ concentrations were 1, 5, 10 mg x L(-1). The gradual decrease of pH during adsorption of Cd2+ by Alfalfa was observed. As the competition ion of Cd2+, H+ might affect the capacity of Alfalfa root system to absorb Cd2+. The ternary linear equation results demonstrated that the content of Cd2+ absorption by Alfalfa strongly related with the release of Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+. And this exchange mainly occurred among Cd2+ and divalent cations.

Role of pocket flexibility in the modulation of estrogen receptor alpha by key residue arginine 394.

Estradiol derivatives, with similar structures as estradiol (E2) or estradiol metabolites, have been recognized to have detrimental health effects on wildlife and humans. However, data at the molecular level about interactions of these compounds with biological targets are still lacking. Herein, a flexible docking approach was used to characterize the molecular interaction of nine estradiol derivatives with estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) in the ligand-binding domain. All ligands were docked in the buried hydrophobic cavity of the steroid hormone pocket. In addition, the plasticity of an active site was also identified by reversing amino acid arginine 394 for better ligand-receptor binding affinity. Finally, bioassays based on genetically modified yeast strains were used to validate the quality of molecular simulation because of their rapidity and high sensitivity. The experimental findings about logarithm values of the median effective concentration (EC50) value had a linear correlation with computational binding affinity from molecular docking, which described a pattern of interaction between estradiol derivatives and ER. The estrogenic activity of all compounds, although more or less lower than E2, was proved to possess high severe environmental risks. Considering the sidechain flexibility in the ligand binding pocket, 17α-ethylestradiol-3-cyclopentylether was reported to correlate highly significantly with known induced fit conformational changes based upon proof-of-principle calculations on human ERα with the preservation of a strong salt bridge between glutamic acid 353 and arginine 394.