Dual Regulatory Role of Penicillium oxalicum SL2 in Soil: Phosphorus Solubilization and Pb Stabilization.

The mechanisms of the P. oxalicum SL2-mediated microbial community on phosphorus solubilization and Pb stabilization were investigated through a 90-day soil experiment. In the treatments inoculated with P. oxalicum SL2, the amount of P. oxalicum SL2-GFP remained at 77.8%-138.6% of the initial inoculation amount after 90 days, and the available phosphorus (AP) content increased 21.7%-40.8% while EDTA-Pb decreased 29.9%-43.2% compared with CK treatment. SEM-EDS results showed that P. oxalicum SL2 changed the agglomeration degree of microaggregates and promoted the combination of Pb with C and O elements. These phenomena were enhanced when applied with Ca3(PO4)2. Microbial community analysis showed that P. oxalicum SL2 improved soil microbial activity, in which the fungi absolute abundance increased about 15 times within 90 days. Correlation analyses and a partial least-squares path model showed that the activation of Penicillium, Ascobolus, Humicola, and Spizellomyces in a fungal community increased the content of oxalate and AP, which directly decreased EDTA-Pb content, while the change of Bacillus, Ramlibacter, Gemmatimonas, and Candidatus Solibacter in the bacterial community regulated Fe/Mn/S/N cycle-related functions, thus promoting the conversion of Pb to oxidizable state. Our findings highlight that P. oxalicum SL2 enhanced the microbial-induced phosphate precipitation process by activating soil microbial communities and regulating their ecological functions.

Tailoring bismuth-based nanoparticles for enhanced radiosensitivity in cancer therapy.

Achieving a complete response to cancer treatment is a severe challenge, and has puzzled humans for a long time. Fortunately, radiotherapy (RT) gives rise to a common clinical treatment method, during which the usage of radiosensitizers is essential. Among preclinical radiosensitizers, bismuth-based nanoparticles (Bi-based NPs) are widely explored in cancer diagnosis and treatment, because they share favourable properties, such as low toxicity, strong X-ray absorption and facile preparation. However, pure Bi alone cannot achieve both efficient and safe RT outcomes, mainly due to poor targeting of tumor sites, long retention-induced systemic toxicity and immune resistance. This work provides an overview of recent advances and developments in Bi-based NPs that are tailored to enhance radiosensitivity. For the fabrication process, surface modification of Bi-based NPs is essential to achieve tumor-targeted delivery and penetration. Moreover, the incorporation of other elements, such as Fe ions, can increase diagnostic accuracy with optimal theranostic efficacy. Meanwhile, the structure-activity relationship can also be manipulated to maximize the chemotherapeutic drug loading capability of Bi-based NPs, to enhance X-ray attenuation by means of a large surface area or to achieve safer metabolic routes with rapid clearance from the human body. In addition, Bi-based NPs exhibit synergistic antitumor potential when combined with diverse therapies, such as photothermal therapy (PTT) and high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU). To summarize, the latest research on Bi-based NPs as radiosensitizers is described in the review, including both their advantages and disadvantages for improving treatment, thus providing a useful guide for future clinical application.

Tailoring Aggregation Extent of Photosensitizers to Boost Phototherapy Potency for Eliciting Systemic Antitumor Immunity.

Phototherapy is effective for triggering the immunogenic cell death (ICD) effect. However, its efficacy is limited by low 1 O2  generation and photothermal conversion efficacy due to two irreconcilable obstacles, namely the aggregation-caused-quenching (ACQ) effect and photobleaching. In this work, a discretely integrated nanofabrication (DIN) platform (Pt-ICG/PES) is developed by facile coordination coassembly of cisplatin (Pt), photosensitizer molecules (indocyanine green (ICG)), and polymeric spacer (p(MEO2 MA-co-OEGMA)-b-pSS (PES)). By controlling the ICG/PES feeding ratio, the aggregation of ICG can be easily tailored using PES as an isolator to balance the ACQ effect and photobleaching, thereby maximizing the phototherapy potency of Pt-ICG/PES. With the optimized ratio of each component, Pt-ICG/PES integrates the complementarity of photodynamic therapy, photothermal therapy, and chemotherapeutics to magnify the ICD effect, exerting a synergistic antitumor immunity-promoting effect. Additionally, temperature-sensitive PES enables photothermally guided drug delivery. In a tumor-bearing mouse model, Pt-ICG/PES elicits effective release of danger-associated molecular patterns, dendritic cell maturation, cytotoxic T lymphocytes activation, cytokine secretion, M2 macrophage repolarization, and distal tumor suppression, confirming the excellent in situ tumor ICD effect as well as robust systematic antitumor immunity. Ultimately, a versatile DIN strategy is developed to optimize the phototherapeutic efficacy for improving antitumor effects and strengthening systemic antitumor immunity.