Cytosolic delivery of the immunological adjuvant Poly I:C and cytotoxic drug crystals

Co-delivery of chemotherapeutics and immunostimulant or chemoimmunotherapy is an emerging strategy in cancer therapy. The precise control of the targeting and release of agents is critical in this methodology. This article proposes the asynchronous release of the chemotherapeutic agents and immunostimulants to realize the synergistic effect between chemotherapy and immunotherapy. To obtain a proof-of-concept, a co-delivery system was prepared

Excitability of cortical neurons and their neural network / 中国药理学与毒理学杂志

The cerebral cortex contains a large variety of neuronal cells, which connect with each other via synapses to form different neural networks and fundamental elements for brain functions such as sense, movement, learning, language and decision making. Information processing in the cerebral cortex requires the activation of individual neurons and their recurrent networks,that is,the generation of action potential (AP) (excitability of single neurons) and network activity (excitability of neural networks).Initiation of AP occurs at the axon and is determined by axonal ion channels as well as intrinsic biophysical properties.The excitability of recurrent networks is not only determined by the excitability of different types of neurons, but also regulated by the unique properties of neurotransmitter release in distinct synapses including excitatory and inhibitory ones.Traditionally,it is believed that the all-or-none AP is the only mode of information transmission-digital mode.Recent studies have shown that the subthreshold membrane potential fluctuations regulate AP-induced the synaptic transmission-analog mode. At the network level, the network activity is relatively stable, resulting from a dynamic balance of excitation and inhibition. The microcircuits of recurrent inhibition mediated by distinct inhibitory interneuron types and the modes of synaptic transmission,such as the analog mode of signal communication and asyn-chronous neurotransmitter release,play critical roles in maintaining the excitation and inhibition balance. Together,we present here some new insights into the mechanisms underlying the excitability of distinct types of cortical neurons and their interconnected networks.