A bubble-enhanced lanthanide-doped up/down-conversion platform with tumor microenvironment response for dual-modal photoacoustic and near-infrared-II fluorescence imaging.

As an important tumor diagnosis strategy in precision medicine, multimodal imaging has been widely studied. However, the weak imaging signal with low spatial resolution and the constant signal of lack of specific activation severely limit its disease diagnosis. Herein, a bubble-enhanced lanthanide-based up/down-conversion platform with tumor microenvironment response for dual-mode imaging, LDNP@DMSN-Au@CaCO3 nanoparticles (named as LDAC NPs) were successfully developed. Combining the advantages of photoacoustic imaging (PAI) and the second near-infrared window (NIR-II) fluorescence imaging (FI), significantly improved the accuracy of diseases diagnosis. LDAC NPs with flower-like structure were synthesized through the encapsulation of uniform lanthanide-doped nanoparticles (NaYbF4:Ce,Er@NaYF4 named LDNPs) with dendritic mesoporous silica (DMSN). The gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) were then in situ grown on the surface of DMSN and the surface were finally coated with a layer of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Under the excitation of the 980 nm laser, LDNPs showed strong emission of NIR-II at 1550 nm due to the doping of Ce and Er ions, showcasing excellent spatial resolution and deep tissue penetration characteristics, while the resulting visible light emission (540 nm) enables Au NPs to generate PAI signals with the aid of LDNPs via the fluorescence resonance energy transfer effect. In acidic tumoral environment, CaCO3 layer could produce CO2 microbubbles, and the PAI signals of LDAC NPs could be further enhanced with the generation of CO2 bubbles due to the bubble cavitation effect. Simultaneously, the NIR-II FI of LDAC NPs was self-enhanced with the degradation of the CaCO3. This intelligent nanoparticle with stimulus-activated dual-mode imaging capability holds great promise in future precision diagnostics.

Attentional Engagement and Disengagement Differences for Circumscribed Interest Objects in Young Chinese Children with Autism.

The current study aimed to investigate attentional processing differences for circumscribed interest (CI) and non-CI objects in young Chinese children with autism spectrum condition (ASC) and typically developing (TD) controls. In Experiment 1, a visual preference task explored attentional allocation to cartoon CI and non-CI materials between the two groups. We found that ASC children (n = 22, 4.95 ± 0.59 years) exhibited a preference for CI-related objects compared to non-CI objects, and this effect was absent in the TD children (n = 22, 5.14 ± 0.44 years). Experiment 2 utilized the traditional gap-overlap paradigm (GOP) to investigate attentional disengagement from CI or non-CI items in both groups (ASC: n = 20, 5.92 ± 1.13 years; TD: n = 25, 5.77 ± 0.77 years). There were no group or stimulus interactions in this study. Experiment 3 adopted a modified GOP (MGOP) to further explore disengagement in the two groups (ASC: n = 20, 5.54 ± 0.95 years; TD: n = 24, 5.75 ± 0.52 years), and the results suggested that exogenous disengagement performance was preserved in the ASC group, but the children with ASC exhibited increased endogenous attentional disengagement compared to TD peers. Moreover, endogenous disengagement was influenced further in the presence of CI-related objects in the ASC children. The current results have implications for understanding how the nature of engagement and disengagement processes can contribute to differences in the development of core cognitive skills in young children with ASC.

Hypoglycemic efficacy of pulmonary delivered insulin dry powder aerosol in rats.

AIM: To observe the hypoglycemic efficacy of pulmonary delivery of insulin in dry powder aerosol form. METHODS: Insulin dry powder, made of insulin and other proper materials, was insufflated in rat lung from an incision in the throat. Meanwhile, insulin injection was administered to other rats. Glucose concentration in blood was determined in the following 7 h. The areas above the curve (AAC) of glucose concentration in blood were used to evaluate the efficacy. RESULTS: The percent minimum blood glucose levels, compared with the glucose levels before the administration, for pulmonary deliver ed insulin at the doses of 20, 10, 5, and 2.5 U/kg were 6.5 %, 16.6 %, 24.6 %, and 57.0 %, respectively. The AAC of insulin 5 U/kg by pulmonary delivery was very close to that of subcutaneous administration at the same dose. There was a linear relationship between AAC and the logarithmic dose of pulmonary delivered insulin. CONCLUSION: The pulmonary delivery of insulin acts effectively and rapidly.

[HPLC determination of insulin and its related substances in insulin powder for inhalation].

AIM: To determine insulin and its related substances in insulin powder for inhalation by reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography method. METHODS: The initial mobile phase was solution A (0.1% trifluoroacetic acid-acetonitril 70:30) and changed to solution B (0.1% trifluoroacetic acid-acetonitril 60:40) in 30 minutes. The flow rate was 2.0 mL.min-1, the column temperature was 30 degrees C, the wave length was 280 nm, the injected volume was 20 microL. RESULTS: Insulin was well separated from other peaks induced in different conditions. There was good linear relationship between the amount of insulin and its peak area, the RSD was 1.1%, the insulin solution for determination was stable in 12 hours, and the quantity detected was near the added. CONCLUSION: The method is simple and accurate to detect insulin and its related substances in insulin and its preparations.