A General Hypoxia-Responsive Molecular Container for Tumor-Targeted Therapy.

Enhanced drug delivery can improve the therapeutic efficacy of drugs and help overcome side effects. However, many reported drug-delivery systems are too complex and irreproducible for practical use. In this work, the design of a hypoxia-responsive molecular container based on calixarene, called CAC4A, which presents a significant advance in practical, hypoxia-targeted drug-delivery, is reported. CAC4A enables a wide variety of clinical drugs to be quantitatively loaded to improve their solubility and stability, as well as enable the administration of reduced doses. Furthermore, as a result of its azo functional groups, which are sensitive to reduction within a hypoxic environment, it is possible to achieve tumor-targeted drug-release with reduced side effects. CAC4A fulfils all essential requirements for a drug-delivery system in addition to multiple advantages, including facile preparation, well-defined molecular weight, and structure, and universal applicability. Such features collectively enable supramolecular prodrugs to be formulated simply and reproducibly, with potential for bench-to-bedside translation. Moreover, CAC4A is amenable to other therapy modalities and can be facilely decorated with functional groups and hybridized with nanomaterials, providing ample possibilities for its role in future drug-delivery systems.

[A prospective study of late preterm infants' physical growth].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate birth weights (BW) in late preterm infants (LPI) with different gestational ages (GA) and their physical growths at correct ages (CA) 1, 3 and 6 months. METHODS: A total of 287 LPIs were recruited for a cohort study between May 2010 and September 2011. Birth weights (BW) in infants with different gestational ages and their physical growths at CA 1, 3 and 6 months were evaluated. RESULTS: Of the 287 LPIs, mean BW in LPIs with gestational ages of 34-34(+6) and 35-35(+6) weeks was significantly lower than the reference value from a physical growth investigation on newborns of 15 cities of China in 1986 (P<0.05). However, mean BW in singleton LPIs (n=128) with gestational ages of 36-36(+6) weeks was significantly higher than the reference value (P<0.05). At CA 1, 3 and 6 months, more than 90% LPIs reached P(3) level in weights for age, length for age and head circumference for age. At CA 1 and 3 months, weight for age and head circumference for age in the LPIs were statistically higher than the reference values of physical growth in children under 7 years from nine cities of china in 2005 (P<0.05). Mean length for age at CA 1, 3 and 6 months was not significantly different from the reference value. CONCLUSIONS: There are obvious differences in BW in the LPIs compared with the reference value from a physical growth investigation on newborns of 15 cities of China in 1986, suggesting that the reference value of BW at different gestational ages needs to be updated in a certain interval. Before CA 6 months, there is a risk of overweight in LPIs and long-term monitoring is necessary. Growth of length should be followed-up for a long time.