Bioinspired in Vitro Lung Airway Model for Inflammatory Analysis via Hydrophobic Nanochannel Membrane with Joint Three-Phase Interface.

Because of the extremely low solubility of gas pollution, elucidating the pathogenetic mechanism between air pollution and the lung inflammatory response has remained a significant challenge. Here, we develop a bioinspired nanoporous membrane (BNM) with a three-phase interface as a gas exposure model that mimicks the airway mechanism, gas molecules contacting with alveolar cells directly, enabling high cell viability and sensitive inflammatory response analysis. Specifically, the top side of the porous anodic alumina (PAA) membrane was in contact with the medium for cell culture, and the bottom side contacted the gas phase directly for gas exposure. Compared with the two-phase interface, the viability of cells on the BNM was enhanced up to 3-fold. Additionally, results demonstrated that the inflammatory responses of cells stimulated by gas pollution (formaldehyde and benzene as models) from the gas phase were more obvious than those induced by gas pollution from solution, especially the increment of interleukin-2 (IL-2), IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), which was almost 2 times greater than that induced by gas pollution from solution. Furthermore, an enzyme inhibitor was introduced to evaluate potential applications of the BNM.

Porous Prussian Blue Nanocubes as Photothermal Ablation Agents for Efficient Cancer Therapy.

Nanomaterial-based photothermal agents have attracted great attention as near-infrared laser driven ablation agents for tumor therapy. In this work, Prussian blue nanocubes with porous interior were synthesized via controlled chemical etching method and successfully applied for efficient photothermal ablation of tumor cells in vitro. Monodispersed porous Prussian blue nanocubes (115.4±4.7 nm) were produced through a controlled self-etching reaction in the presence of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). Owing to the strong absorbance in near infrared (NIR) region, the resulted porous Prussian blue nanocubes could lead to more than 80% death of Hela cells after being treated with nanocubes of concentration as low as 100 µg mL−1. Compared to the traditional solid Prussian blue nanoparticles, these porous nanocubes can provide extra space for encapsulating anti-cancer drugs in their porous interior. It is anticipated that these porous Prussian blue nanocubes can be applied as an enabling platform to develop the next generation of multifunctional drug carrier for cancer treatments.

Single-layer MoS2 nanosheet grafted upconversion nanoparticles for near-infrared fluorescence imaging-guided deep tissue cancer phototherapy.

A multifunctional nanostructure is prepared by covalently grafting upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) with chitosan functionalized MoS2 (MoS2-CS) and folic acid (FA) and then loading phthalocyanine (ZnPc) on the surface of MoS2, which integrates photodynamic therapy (PDT) with photothermal therapy (PTT) and upconversion luminescence imaging into one system for enhanced antitumor efficiency.

Giganteaside D induces ROS-mediated apoptosis in human hepatocellular carcinoma cells through the MAPK pathway.

PURPOSE: Every year, almost one million individuals are diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) worldwide and more than 690,000 patients die of it. At present, most therapeutic anti-HCC agents are not effective, which is due to the appearance of chemo-resistance and/or toxic side effects. Therefore, it is imperative to find novel more effective anti-HCC agents. Here, we evaluated the effect of giganteaside D (GD), an oleanolic acid saponin from P. scabiosaefolia, on the growth and apoptosis of HCC cells. METHODS AND RESULTS: Using MTT and clonogenic assays, we found that GD exhibited a significant growth inhibitory effect on the HCC-derived cell lines HepG2 and Bel-7402. In addition, we found that GD induced mitochondria-mediated apoptosis in these HCC-derived cells, as indicated by a decreased mitochondrial potential, activation of Caspase-9 and Caspase-3, cleavage of PARP and release of Cytochrome C from the mitochondria. Besides, we found that GD stimulated the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and that blockage of ROS attenuated the GD-induced mitochondria-mediated apoptosis. Additionally, we found that GD treatment led to a decrease in phosphorylated Erk (p-Erk) and triggered the generation of p-JNK, both components of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway. Inhibition of Erk or JNK by specific inhibitors or siRNAs augmented or attenuated the cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of GD. CONCLUSIONS: From our results we conclude that GD can induce ROS-mediated apoptosis in HCC-derived cells through the MAPK pathway. This observation may open up avenues to explore the future use of GD as a HCC chemotherapeutic agent.

An in-vitro study of enzyme-responsive Prussian blue nanoparticles for combined tumor chemotherapy and photothermal therapy.

In the development of advanced photothermal therapy (PTT), there is an unmet demand for constructing novel multifunctional agent for efficient cancer therapy in a synergic manner. In this study, a system based on gelatin-stabilized Prussian blue nanoparticles with conjugated doxorubicin (PB@Gel-DOX NPs) is proposed for combined photothermal therapy and enzyme-responsive drug release for tumor destruction. Monodispersed PB@Gel-DOX NPs (55.7±4.8 nm) are synthesized using citric acid and gelatin-DOX as surface capping agent and protective colloid, respectively, which can be used as a promising NIR-light absorber with high photothermal conversion efficiency for PTT. Furthermore, the drug-loaded carriers are stable in physiological environment and drug release can be successfully triggered in the presence of gelatinase. The efficacy of combining photothermal therapy and chemotherapy is evaluated by cell viability assay in vitro. This proof-of-concept study shows that such versatile drug delivery system has a good potential for the next generation of multifunctional platforms for cancer therapy.