Week-long normoglycaemia in diabetic mice and minipigs via a subcutaneous dose of a glucose-responsive insulin complex.

Glucose-responsive formulations of insulin can increase its therapeutic index and reduce the burden of its administration. However, it has been difficult to develop single-dosage formulations that can release insulin in both a sustained and glucose-responsive manner. Here we report the development of a subcutaneously injected glucose-responsive formulation that nearly does not trigger the formation of a fibrous capsule and that leads to week-long normoglycaemia and negligible hypoglycaemia in mice and minipigs with type 1 diabetes. The formulation consists of gluconic acid-modified recombinant human insulin binding tightly to poly-L-lysine modified by 4-carboxy-3-fluorophenylboronic acid via glucose-responsive phenylboronic acid-diol complexation and electrostatic attraction. When the insulin complex is exposed to high glucose concentrations, the phenylboronic acid moieties of the polymers bind rapidly to glucose, breaking the complexation and reducing the polymers' positive charge density, which promotes the release of insulin. The therapeutic performance of this long-acting single-dose formulation supports its further evaluation and clinical translational studies.

Numerical Studies on Cellulose Hydrolysis in Organic-Liquid-Solid Phase Systems with a Liquid Membrane Catalysis Model.

The catalytic hydrolysis of cellulose to produce 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is a powerful means of biomass resources. The current efficient hydrolysis of cellulose to obtain HMF is dominated by multiphase reaction systems. However, there is still a lack of studies on the synergistic mechanisms and component transport between the various processes of cellulose hydrolysis in a complex multiphase system. In this paper, a liquid membrane catalytic model was developed to simulate the hydrolysis of cellulose and its further reactions, including the adsorption of the liquid membrane on cellulose particles, the consumption of cellulose solid particles, the complex chemical reactions in the liquid membrane, and the transfer of HMF at the phase interface. The simulations show the synergistic effect between cellulose hydrolysis and multiphase mass transfer. We defined an indicator () to characterize the sensitivity of HMF yield to the initial liquid membrane thickness at different reaction stages. decreased gradually when the glucose conversion increased from 0 to 80%, and increased with the thickening of the initial liquid membrane thickness. It was shown that the thickening of the initial liquid membrane thickness promoted the HMF yield under the same glucose conversion. In summary, our results reveal the mechanism of the interaction between multiple physicochemical processes of the cellulose liquid membrane reaction system.

Tungsten oxide decorated silica-supported iridium catalysts combined with HZSM-5 toward the selective conversion of cellulose to C6 alkanes.

Herein, WOx-decorated Ir/SiO2 (W/Ir = 0.06) and HZSM-5 were coupled to selectively convert microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) into C6 alkanes. A 92.8% yield of liquid alkanes including an 85.3% yield of C6 alkanes was produced at 210 °C. Cellulose hydrolysis, glucose hydrogenation and sorbitol hydrodeoxygenation were integrated to produce alkanes via a sorbitol route. Ir-WOx/SiO2 showed high performance for hydrogenation and hydrodeoxygenation reactions after hydrolysis catalyzed by HZSM-5. The intimate contact between WOx and Ir enhanced the synergistic interaction through the electron transfer from Ir to WOx. The interaction strengthened the reduction capability of Ir for hydrogenations, as well as improved the adsorption and activation of C-O bonds on reduced WOx for deoxygenations. The monotungstate WOx species provided moderate Lewis acids to cooperate with Ir to accelerate hydrodeoxygenations with alleviated retro-aldol condensation to yield more C6 alkanes.

Liquid membrane catalytic model of hydrolyzing cellulose into 5-hydroxymethylfurfural based on the lattice Boltzmann method.

Conversion of cellulose to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is an important means of biomass utilization. However, simulation of hydrolysis of cellulose and species transport in multiphase systems is still missing. In this paper, a multiphase lattice Boltzmann method of the Shan-Chen model has been applied for simulating the complex chemical reactions and interphase mass transfer in a liquid membrane catalytic reactor. For the sake of simplification, a single particle liquid membrane catalytic model is developed to simulate the hydrolysis of cellulose into HMF and its side reactions, which include the adsorption of cellulose particles on the liquid membrane, the complex chemical reactions inside the liquid membrane and the interphase transfer of HMF. This simulation presents the results of hydrolysis of cellulose and the HMF transport process. Additionally, the results show that the thinner liquid membrane thickness is beneficial for increasing the yield of HMF.