An injectable metal nanoparticle containing cellulose derivative-based hydrogels: Evaluation of antibacterial and in vitro-vivo wound healing activity in children with burn injuries.

The preparation of hydrogels for wound healing properties with high antibacterial activities and good biosafety concurrently can be relatively challenging. For addressing these issues, we report on the synthesis and characterisation of a nanocomposite hydrogel dressing by introducing the silver nanoparticles in hydroxypropyl methylcellulose-hydroxyapatite scaffold hydrogel (HMC-HA/AgNPs). The different concentrations of AgNPs in HMC-HA/AgNPs hydrogels were confirmed by swelling ratio, degradation, and gelatin time. The synthesised HMC-HA/AgNPs hydrogels were further characterised using the UV-visible, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectrum, and X-ray diffraction. The results showed that the novel HMC-HA/AgNPs hydrogel exhibited a porous 3D network and high mechanical properties because of the inter-molecular and intra-molecular interactions. The AgNPs give the HMC-HA hydrogels excellent antibacterial activities against both Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, without any chemical reductant and cross-linking agent required endows the hydrogel high biocompatibility. More importantly, HMC-HA/AgNPs effectively repaired wound defects in mice models, and wound healing reached 94.5 ± 1.4% within 16 days. The HMC-HA hydrogel with AgNPs showed excellent antimicrobial activity and burn wound healing. Therefore, these HMC-HA/AgNPs hydrogels have great potential as an injectable hydrogel for wound healing activity in children with burn injuries.

Circ_0000105 promotes liver cancer by regulating miR-498/PIK3R1.

BACKGROUND: A growing number of studies demonstrate that circular RNA (circRNA) has a prominent role in the regulation of numerous biological behaviors of tumor cells. The present study aimed to investigate the expression, function and molecular mechanisms of circ_0000105 in liver cancer. METHODS: A quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was utilized to obtain the expressions of circ_0000105 and miR-498 in liver cancer tissues and cells. The association between the expression level of circ_0000105 and the clinicopathological characteristics of liver cancer patients was analyzed. qRT-PCR and western blotting were utilized to investigate the expression of phosphoinositide-3-kinase regulatory subunit 1 (PIK3R1) in cells. Cell counting kit-8, bromodeoxyuridine and flow cytometry assays were utilized to determine liver cancer cell proliferation and apoptosis, respectively. Bioinformatics, a luciferase reporter gene experiment and a RNA immunoprecipitation experiment were conducted to predict and confirm the targeting correlation of circ_0000105 and miR-498, as well as miR-498 and PIK3R1. RESULTS: Circ_0000105 was highly expressed in liver cancer tissues and cell lines. Moreover, its high expression was associated with an increase in the T stage of liver cancer patients and a low degree of tumor differentiation. Circ_0000105 overexpression promoted liver cancer cell proliferation and inhibited apoptosis, whereas knocking down circ_0000105 triggered the opposite effect. miR-498 was a downstream target of circ_0000105, inhibiting liver cancer cell proliferation and promoting apoptosis. Mechanistically, circ_0000105 indirectly up-regulated the expression of PIK3R1 by adsorbing miR-498. CONCLUSIONS: Circ_0000105 plays a cancer-promoting role in liver cancer by regulating the miR-498/PIK3R1 axis.