Gradient Redox-Responsive and Two-Stage Rocket-Mimetic Drug Delivery System for Improved Tumor Accumulation and Safe Chemotherapy.

Recent drug delivery nanosystems for cancer treatment still suffer from the poor tumor accumulation and low therapeutic efficacy due to the complex in vivo biological barriers. To resolve these problems, in this work, a novel gradient redox-responsive and two-stage rocket-mimetic drug nanocarrier is designed and constructed for improved tumor accumulation and safe chemotherapy. The nanocarrier is constructed on the basis of the disulfide-doped organosilica-micellar hybrid nanoparticles and the following dual-functional modification with disulfide-bonded polyethylene glycol (PEG) and amido-bonded polyethylenimine (PEI). First, prolonged circulation duration in the bloodstream is guaranteed due to the shielding of the outer PEG chains. Once the nanocarrier accumulates at the tumoral extracellular microenvironment with low glutathione (GSH) concentrations, the first-stage redox-responsive behavior with the separation of PEG and the exposure of PEI is triggered, leading to the improved tumor accumulation and cellular internalization. Furthermore, with their endocytosis by tumor cells, a high concentration of GSH induces the second-stage redox-responsiveness with the degradation of silsesquioxane framework and the release of the encapsulated drugs. As a result, the rocket-mimetic drug carrier displays longer circulation duration in the bloodstream, higher tumor accumulation capability, and improved antitumor efficacy (which is 2.5 times higher than that with inseparable PEG). It is envisioned that the rocket-mimetic strategy can provide new solutions for improving tumor accumulation and safety of nanocarriers in further cancer chemotherapy.

Tongnao Decoction (TND) Alleviated Atherosclerosis by Playing Lowering Lipid, Anti-Inflammatory, and Antioxidant Roles.

Background: Tongnao decoction (TND) has been extensively prescribed for the treatment of stroke. However, little is known about the role of TND in the progression of carotid atherosclerosis. Methods: A mouse carotid atherosclerosis model was established with a silastic collar placed around the right common carotid artery and fed on Western diet for 12 weeks. The treatment group was given a gavage of TND at a dose of 1 mg/kg/d. The atherosclerotic lesion size and the compositions were observed using Oil red O staining and immunofluorescent staining. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to evaluate the levels of lipid profiles, oxidative stress, and inflammatory factors. Human aortic endothelial cells (HAoECs) were treated with oxLDL with or without TND for in vitro experiments. Results: TND treatment significantly suppressed the progression of atherosclerosis, as characterized with a smaller lesion size, less percentage of vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation, endothelial cell apoptosis, and macrophage infiltration. In addition, TND decreased the levels of lipid profiles, oxidative stress, and inflammatory factors in atherosclerosis. In vitro results showed that TND inhibited the apoptosis of endothelial cells via activating ERK and AKT pathway. Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that TND significantly protected from atherosclerosis via promoting endothelial cell survival and alleviating oxidative stress and inflammatory response, which may have become a treatment in atherosclerotic diseases.

Boosting light harvesting and charge separation of WO3 via coupling with Cu2O/CuO towards highly efficient tandem photoanodes.

Photoanodes based on semiconductor WO3 have been attractive due to its good electron mobility, long hole-diffusion length, and suitable valence band potential for water oxidation. However, the semiconductor displays disadvantages including a relatively wide bandgap, poor charge separation and transfer, and quick electron-hole recombination at the interface with the electrolyte. Here we present a significantly improved photoanode with a tandem structure of ITO/WO3/Cu2O/CuO, which is prepared first by hydrothermally growing a layer of WO3 on the ITO surface, then by electrodepositing an additional layer of Cu2O, and finally by heat-treating in the air to form an exterior layer of CuO. Photocurrent measurements reveal that the prepared photoanode produces a maximum current density of 4.7 mA cm-2, which is, in comparison, about 1.4 and 5.5 times the measured values for ITO/WO3/Cu2O and ITO/WO3 ones, respectively. These enhancements are attributed to (1) harvested UV, visible, and NIR light of the solar spectrum, (2) accelerated charge separation at the heterojunction between WO3 and Cu2O/CuO, (3) better electrocatalytic activity of formed Cu x O than pure Cu2O, (4) formation of a protective layer of CuO. This study thus may lead to a promising way to make high-performance and low-cost photoanodes for solar energy harvesting.

Enhanced electrochromic switches and tunable green fluorescence based on terbium ion doped WO3 films.

Multifunctional WO3-based materials have been increasingly attracting attention due to their unique physical and electrochemical nature. In this work, the luminescent species, terbium (Tb) ions, were first successfully doped into WO3 films by a hydrothermal method to incorporate their electrochromic and photoluminescent functions. The amorphous state and porous net structure are introduced, which can be attributed to the inhibited orientation growth caused by the occupation of Tb ions in the WO3 lattice. Here, the optimal 13% Tb-WO3 film exhibits enhanced electrochromic properties: a high transmittance modulation of 66.71%; a fast response speed of less than 10 s; an improved CE value of 48.33 cm2 C-1 at 680 nm; and cycling stability over 600 cycles without obvious degradation, arising from its larger active surface area. Meanwhile, its green-colored emission could be realized under 260 nm UV light and is electro-switchable upon applying voltage.

[PLK1 Expression in Mantle Cell Lymphoma and Its Clinical Significance].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the expression level of PLK1 in mantle cell lymphoma(MCL), and the effect of silencing PLK1 gene by RNA interference on the cell proliferation, apoptosis, and cell cycle. METHODS: S-P immunohistochemistry technique was used to detect the expression of PLK1 in tissues of 42 patients with MCL and 30 patients with reactive proliferative lymphodenitis(RPL), their expression levels were compared and analyzed. The Jeko-1 cells were transfected with lentivirus contaiming PLK-1 shRNA, then the mRNA and protein expression of PLK-1 was detected by real-time guantitative PCR and Western blot nespectively, and the silencing efficacy of PLK-1 shRNA was identificd. The cell proliferation was detected by CCK method, the cell apoptosis was detected by Annexin V/PI double staining, the cell cycle was detected by PI single staining, the changes of apoptosis-related proteins BAX, BCL-2 and Caspase 3 were detected by Western blot. RESULTS: The positive expression rate of PLK-1 in tissue of MCL patients was 66.67%(28/42), which was significanfly higher than 20%(6/30) in tissue of RPL patients (P＜0.05). The PLK-1 positive expression correlated with B symptom, IPI score, Ann-Arbor stage(P＜0.05). After infection of Jeko-1 cells with lentivirus containing PLK-1 shRNA for 72 hours, the mRNA and protein expressions of PLK-1 were significantly down-regulated(P＜0.05), the proliferation rate of cells in group of PLK-1 shRNA was significanly lower than that in control and Neg shRNA groups(P＜0.05); the apoptosis rate of cells in PLK-1 shRNA group was (27.42±3.44)%, which was significantly higher than that in control group (1.23±0.42)% and Neg shRNA group (2.07±0.58) % (P＜0.05). The cell cycle analysis showed that the cell ratio in G2/M phase of PLK-1 shRNA group was (27.21±3.59) %, which was higher than that in control group (13.28±2.63)% and Neg shRNA group (14.34±2.37) %. The detection of apoptosis-related proteins showed that the expression of BAX was up-regulated, the expression of BCL-2 was down-regnlated and the expression of caspase 3 was up-regulated. CONCLUSION: The PLK-l overexpression appears in tissue of MCL patients. The silencing PLK-1 gene can inhibit the proliferation of Jeko-1 cells, induce the apopotosis of Jeko-1 cells and arrestes cell cycle in G2/M phase.

[Determination of five aminoglycoside residues in honey using mixed-mode ion exchange liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry].

A method using mixed-mode ion exchange liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was developed for the determination of streptomycin, dihydrostreptomycin, spectinomycin, kanamycin and amikacin in honey. The honey samples were extracted with phosphate followed by clean-up with SupelMIP Aminoglycosides SPE cartridges. The separation was performed on an SIELC Obelisc R column (100 mm×2.1 mm, 5 µm) by the gradient elution program using 0.1%(v/v) formic acid aqueous solution and acetonitrile as the mobile phases, at a flow rate of 0.4 mL/min. Five aminoglycosides (AGs) were identified by the tandem mass spectrometer with an electrospray ionization source under the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The quantification analysis was performed by the external standard method. The calibration curves showed good linearity in the range of 5-100 µg/L for streptomycin and dihydrostreptomycin, and 20-500 µg/L for spectinomycin, kanamycin and amikacin. The limits of quantification (LOQs) of the five drugs in honey were 5-20 µg/kg. The average recoveries of the five drugs from feeds spiked at LOQ, 2-fold LOQ and 5-fold LOQ levels were 75.1%-92.3%, and the relative standard deviations (RSDs) were 4.5%-10.7%. The method is simple, rapid, and sensitive, and is suitable for the simultaneous determination of the five aminoglycoside residues in honey.

Facile synthesis of organosilica-capped mesoporous silica nanocarriers with selective redox-triggered drug release properties for safe tumor chemotherapy.

As drug-delivery carriers for cancer chemotherapy, gatekeeper-capped mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) have been widely studied due to their high drug-loading capability, controlled drug release property and good biocompatibility. However, the currently reported gatekeeper-capped MSNs suffer from complex synthetic procedures, potential toxicity of gatekeepers, unsatisfactory control on drug stimuli-release, etc. In this work, we develop a simple but efficient approach to fabricate PEGylated organosilica-capped mesoporous silica nanoparticles (POMSNs) by employing a disulfide-doped organosilica coating as the gatekeeper formed by the hydrolysis and condensation of a silane coupling agent 3-(mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane (MPTMS) to block the mesopores of MSNs. Owing to the glutathione (GSH)-responsive biodegradation behavior of the disulfide-doped organosilica gatekeeper, the DOX-loaded POMSNs exhibit only 20% cell viability towards SMMC-7721 tumor cells, and almost no toxicity towards L-02 cells at a DOX concentration of 50 µg mL-1 was measured, demonstrating their selective cytotoxicity in vitro. More importantly, it is demonstrated that the DOX-loaded POMSNs exhibit a tumor inhibition rate of 71.3% and negligible systematic toxicity. Consequently, the resultant POMSNs show great potential as drug nanocarriers for redox-responsive drug release and passive-targeting tumor chemotherapy.