Mated-Atom Nanozymes with Efficient Assisted NAD+ Replenishment for Skin Regeneration.

Excessive accumulation of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) within biological organisms is closely associated with many diseases. It remains a challenge to efficiently convert superfluous and detrimental NADH to NAD+. NADH oxidase (NOX) is a crucial oxidoreductase that catalyzes the oxidation of NADH to NAD+. Herein, M1M2 (Mi=V/Mn/Fe/Co/Cu/Mo/Rh/Ru/Pd, i = 1 or 2) mated-atom nanozymes (MANs) are designed by mimicking natural enzymes with polymetallic active centers. Excitingly, RhCo MAN possesses excellent and sustainable NOX-like activity, with Km-NADH (16.11 µM) being lower than that of NOX-mimics reported so far. Thus, RhCo MAN can significantly promote the regeneration of NAD+ and regulate macrophage polarization toward the M2 phenotype through down-regulation of TLR4 expression, which may help to recover skin regeneration. However, RhRu MAN with peroxidase-like activity and RhMn MAN with superoxide dismutase-like activity exhibit little modulating effects on eczema. This work provides a new strategy to inhibit skin inflammation and promote skin regeneration.

Application of gold nanoclusters in fluorescence sensing and biological detection.

Gold nanoclusters (Au NCs) exhibit broad fluorescent spectra from visible to near-infrared regions and good enzyme-mimicking catalytic activities. Combined with excellent stability and exceptional biocompatibility, the Au NCs have been widely exploited in biomedicine such as biocatalysis and bioimaging. Especially, the long fluorescence lifetime and large Stokes shift attribute Au NCs to good probes for fluorescence sensing and biological detection. In this review, we systematically summarized the molecular structure and fluorescence properties of Au NCs and highlighted the advances in fluorescence sensing and biological detection. The Au NCs display high sensitivity and specificity in detecting iodine ions, metal ions, and reactive oxygen species, as well as certain diseases based on the fluorescence activities of Au NCs. We also proposed several points to improve the practicability and accelerate the clinical translation of the Au NCs.

LUMO-Mediated Se and HOMO-Mediated Te Nanozymes for Selective Redox Biocatalysis.

Selenium (Se) and tellurium (Te) nanomaterials with novel chain-like structures have attracted widespread interest owing to their intriguing properties. Unfortunately, the still-unclear catalytic mechanisms have severely limited the development of biocatalytic performance. In this work, we developed chitosan-coated Se nanozymes with a 23-fold higher antioxidative activity than Trolox and bovine serum albumin coated Te nanozymes with stronger prooxidative biocatalytic effects. Based on density functional theory calculations, we first propose that the Se nanozyme with Se/Se2- active centers favored reactive oxygen species (ROS) clearance via a LUMO-mediated mechanism, while the Te nanozyme with Te/Te4+ active centers promoted ROS production through a HOMO-mediated mechanism. Furthermore, biological experiments confirmed that the survival rate of γ-irritated mice treated with the Se nanozyme was maintained at 100% for 30 days by inhibiting oxidation. However, the Te nanozyme had the opposite biological effect via promoting radiation oxidation. The present work provides a new strategy for improving the catalytic activities of Se and Te nanozymes.

Atomic Engineering of Clusterzyme for Relieving Acute Neuroinflammation through Lattice Expansion.

Natural enzymes are efficient and versatile biocatalysts but suffer in their environmental tolerance and catalytic stability. As artificial enzymes, nanozymes can improve the catalytic stability, but it is still a challenge to achieve high catalytic activity. Here, we employed atomic engineering to build the artificial enzyme named Au24Ag1 clusterzyme that hosts an ultrahigh catalytic activity as well as strong physiological stability via atom manipulation. The designed Au24Ag1 clusterzyme activates the Ag-S active site via lattice expansion in the oligomer atom layer, showing an antioxidant property 72 times higher than that of natural antioxidant Trolox. Enzyme-mimicked studies find that Au24Ag1 clusterzyme exhibits high catalase-like (CAT-like) and glutathione peroxidase-like (GPx-like) activity with a maximum reaction rate of 68.9 and 17.8 µM/min, respectively. Meanwhile, the unique catalytic landscape exhibits distinctive reactions against inflammation by inhibiting the cytokines at an early stage in the brain. Atomic engineering of clusterzymes provides a powerful and attractive platform with satisfactory atomic dispersion for tailoring biocatalysts freely at the atomic level.

The Near-Infrared-II Fluorophores and Advanced Microscopy Technologies Development and Application in Bioimaging.

The interaction between light and tissue such as absorption and scattering limits the penetration depth and spatiotemporal resolution of in vivo fluorescence bioimaging in a noninvasive manner. The near-infrared window (NIR) between 700 and 1700 nm, generally emphasized as the NIR-II (1000-1700 nm) window, has been developed into a promising bio-optical solution chosen as the lower interaction effect in this spectrum. Besides, the beam shaping techniques used in microscopy can also optimize the image quality making the combination change NIR imaging. In this Review, we summarize the recent progress developed on NIR fluorescence including inorganic molecules, small organic molecules, and fluorescence proteins. We also cover the recent advanced beam shaped microscopy techniques to provide options to combine with the emitters introduced previously. Combined with the developed advanced techniques, the improvement potential of current challenges is also discussed.

Carbogenic Nanozyme with Ultrahigh Reactive Nitrogen Species Selectivity for Traumatic Brain Injury.

Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS), especially reactive nitrogen species (RNS) are intermediate products during incidence of nervous system diseases, showing continuous damage for traumatic brain injury (TBI). Here, we developed a carbogenic nanozyme, which shows an antioxidant activity 12 times higher than ascorbic acid (AA) and behaves as multienzyme mimetics. Importantly, the nanozyme exhibits an ultrahigh scavenging efficiency (∼16 times higher than AA) toward highly active RNS, such as •NO and ONOO- as well as traditional reactive oxygen species (ROS) including O2•-, H2O2, and •OH. In vitro experiments show that neuron cells injured by H2O2 or lipopolysaccharide can be significantly recovered after carbogenic nanozyme treatment via scavenging all kinds of RONS. Moreover, the carbogenic nanozyme can serve as various enzyme mimetics and eliminate the harmful peroxide and glutathione disulfide from injured mice, demonstrating its potential as a therapeutic for acute TBI.

Simultaneous Monitoring of Mitochondrial Temperature and ATP Fluctuation Using Fluorescent Probes in Living Cells.

Real-time monitoring of the distribution of energy released during oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) in living cells would advance the understanding of metabolic pathways and cell biology. However, the relationship between intracellular temperature and ATP fluctuation during the OXPHOS process is rarely studied due to the limitation of the sensing approach. Novel fluorescent polymer probes were developed for accurate simultaneous measurements of intracellular temperature and ATP. Utilizing the fluorescence imaging techniques, it was demonstrated for the first time that the temperature in mitochondria increased 2.4 °C and the ATP fluctuation level simultaneously decreased 75% within 2 min during the OXPHOS process. Moreover, the resultant fluorescent polymer probes had good performance and properties for mitochondrial targeting, providing an effective way for investigating mechanisms by which energy is released during the OXPHOS process.

Hollow PtPdRh Nanocubes with Enhanced Catalytic Activities for In Vivo Clearance of Radiation-Induced ROS via Surface-Mediated Bond Breaking.

Catalytic nanomaterials can be used extrinsically to combat diseases associated with a surplus of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Rational design of surface morphologies and appropriate doping can substantially improve the catalytic performances. In this work, a class of hollow polyvinyl pyrrolidone-protected PtPdRh nanocubes with enhanced catalytic activities for in vivo free radical scavenging is proposed. Compared with Pt and PtPd counterparts, ternary PtPdRh nanocubes show remarkable catalytic properties of decomposing H2 O2 via enhanced oxygen reduction reactions. Density functional theory calculation indicates that the bond of superoxide anions breaks for the energetically favorable status of oxygen atoms on the surface of PtPdRh. Viability of cells and survival rate of animal models under exposure of high-energy γ radiation are considerably enhanced by 94% and 50% respectively after treatment of PtPdRh nanocubes. The mechanistic investigations on superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, malondialdehyde amount, and DNA damage repair demonstrate that hollow PtPdRh nanocubes act as catalase, peroxidase, and SOD analogs to efficiently scavenge ROS.

Growth of rutile TiO2 nanorods in Ti and Cu ion sequentially implanted SiO2 and the involved mechanisms.

TiO2 in nanoscale exhibits unique physicochemical and optoelectronic properties and has attracted much more interest of the researchers. In this work, TiO2 nanostructures are synthesized in amorphous SiO2 slices by implanting Ti ions, or sequentially implanting Ti and Cu ions combined with annealing at high temperature. The morphology, structure, spatial distribution and optical properties of the formed nanostructures have been investigated in detail. Our results clearly show that the thermal growth of TiO2 nanostructures in SiO2 substrate is significantly enhanced by presence of post Cu ion implantation, which depends strongly on the applied Cu ion fluence, as well as the annealing atmosphere. Due to the formation of Cu2O in the substrate, rutile TiO2 nanorods of large size have been well fabricated in the Ti and Cu sequentially implanted SiO2 after annealing in N2 atmosphere, in which Cu2O plays a role as a catalyst. Moreover, the sample with well-fabricated TiO2 nanorods exhibits a narrowed band gap, an enhanced optical absorption in visible region, and catalase-/peroxidase-like catalytic characteristics. Our findings provide an effective route to fabricate functional TiO2 nanorods in SiO2 via ion implantation.

IGF-II-mediated downregulation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator-1α in myoblast cells involves PI3K/Akt/FoxO1 signaling pathway.

Insulin-like growth factor II (IGF-II) can stimulate myogenesis and is critically involved in skeletal muscle differentiation. The presence of negative regulators of this process, however, is not well explored. Here, we showed that in myoblast cells, IGF-II negatively regulated peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator-1α (PGC-1α) mRNA expression, while constitutive expression of PGC-1α induced myoblast differentiation. These results suggest that the negative regulation of PGC-1α by IGF-II may act as a negative feedback mechanism in IGF-II-induced myogenic differentiation. Reporter assays demonstrated that IGF-II suppresses the basal PGC-1α promoter activity. Blocking the IGF-II signaling pathway increased the endogenous PGC-1α levels. In addition, pharmacological inhibition of PI3 kinase activity prevented the downregulation of PGC-1α but the activation of mTOR was not required for this process. Importantly, further analysis showed that forkhead transcription factor FoxO1 contributes to mediating the effects of IGF-II on PGC-1 promoter activity. These findings indicate that IGF-II reduces PGC-1α expression in skeletal muscle cells through a mechanism involving PI3K-Akt-FoxO1 but not p38 MAPK or Erk1/2 MAPK pathways.

Ratiometric Fluorescent Polymeric Thermometer for Thermogenesis Investigation in Living Cells.

Intracellular temperature has a fundamental effect on cellular events. Herein, a novel fluorescent polymer ratiometric nanothermometer has been developed based on transferrin protein-stabilized gold nanoclusters as the targeting and fluorescent ratiometric unit and the thermosensitve polymer as the temperature sensing unit. The resultant nanothermometer could feature a high and spontaneous uptake into the HeLa cells and the ratiometric temperature sensing over the physiological temperature range. Moreover, the precise temperature sensing for intracellular heat generation in HeLa cells following calcium ions stress has been achieved. This practical intracellular thermometry could eliminate the interference of the intracellular surrounding environment in cancer cells without a microinjection procedure, which is user-friendly. The prepared new nanothermometer can provide tools for unveiling the intrinsic relationship between the intracellular temperature and ion channel function.

A Nanozyme-Based Electrode for High-Performance Neural Recording.

Implanted neural electrodes have been widely used to treat brain diseases that require high sensitivity and biocompatibility at the tissue-electrode interface. However, currently used clinical electrodes cannot meet both these requirements simultaneously, which hinders the effective recording of electronic signals. Herein, nanozyme-based neural electrodes incorporating bioinspired atomically precise clusters are developed as a general strategy with a heterogeneous design for multiscale and ultrasensitive neural recording via quantum transport and biocatalytic processes. Owing to the dual high-speed electronic and ionic currents at the electrode-tissue interface, the impedance of nanozyme electrodes is 26 times lower than that of state-of-the-art metal electrodes, and the acquisition sensitivity for the local field potential is ≈10 times higher than that of clinical PtIr electrodes, enabling a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of up to 14.7 dB for single-neuron recordings in rats. The electrodes provide more than 100-fold higher antioxidant and multi-enzyme-like activities, which effectively decrease 67% of the neuronal injury area by inhibiting glial proliferation and allowing sensitive and stable neural recording. Moreover, nanozyme electrodes can considerably improve the SNR of seizures in acute epileptic rats and are expected to achieve precise localization of seizure foci in clinical settings.

Microchip CE-LIF method for the hydrolysis of L-glutamine by using L-asparaginase enzyme reactor based on gold nanoparticle.

L-Asparaginase (L-Asnase) can suppress the growth of malignant cells by rapid depletion of two essential amino acids, L-glutamine (L-Gln) and L-asparagine (L-Asn). To study the cytotoxic effect and the secondary complications of L-Asnase in the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the development of a novel enzyme reactor of L-Asnase for the hydrolysis of L-Gln, employing the enzyme-gold nanoparticle conjugates in capillary, was reported in this work. First, a microchip CE (MCE)-LIF was established for the separation of L-amino acids (L-Gln and L-glutamic acid) and studying the hydrolysis of L-Gln by using L-Asnase enzyme reactor. Then, using L-Gln as target analyte, the enzyme kinetics of L-Asnase in free solution, enzyme-gold nanoparticle conjugates (E-GNP), and the enzyme-gold nanoparticle conjugates immobilized in capillary (E-GNP-C) were investigated in detail with the proposed MCE-LIF method. Moreover, for optimizing the enzymatic reaction efficiency, three important parameters, including the length of capillary, the enzyme concentration reacted with gold nanoparticle and the amount of L-Asnase immobilized on the gold nanoparticle, have been studied. Owing to the high specific activity, the E-GNP-C enzyme reactor exhibited the best performance for the hydrolysis of L-Gln.

Influence of ionic liquids as electrolyte additives on chiral separation of dansylated amino acids by using Zn(II) complex mediated chiral ligand exchange CE.

In this work, investigation of the comparative influence of diverse ionic liquids (ILs) as electrolyte additives on the chiral separation of dansylated amino acids by using Zn(II)-L-arginine complex mediated chiral ligand exchange CE (CLE-CE) was conducted. It has been found that not only the varied substituted group number, but also the alkyl chain length of the substituted group on imidazole ring in the structure of ILs show different influence on chiral separation of the analytes in the CLE-CE system, which could be understood by their direct influence on EOF. Meanwhile, the variation of anion in the structure of ILs displayed remarkably changed performance and the ILs with Cl(-) showed the most obvious promoting effect on the chiral separation performance. Among the investigated seven ILs, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride was validated to be the proper electrolyte additive in the CLE-CE system. Moreover, it has been observed that 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride also has obvious promotive effect on the labeling performance. The results have demonstrated that the ILs with different structures have important relation to their performance in CLE-CE and to their labeling efficiency in dansylation of the analytes.

Modulation of the biocatalytic activity and selectivity of CeO2 nanozymes via atomic doping engineering.

Artificial enzymes show prospects in biomedical applications due to their stable enzymatic catalytic activity and ease of preparation. CeO2 nanozymes represent a versatile platform showing multiple enzyme-mimicking activities, although their biocatalytic activities and selectivity are relatively poor for biomedical use. Herein, we developed Mn- and Co-doped CeO2 nanozymes (M/CeO2, M = Mn or Co) via atomic engineering to achieve a significant increase in enzyme-like activity. The M/CeO2 nanozymes exhibited outstanding peroxidase-like activity with a reaction rate about 8-10 times higher than that of CeO2. Importantly, the Co/CeO2 nanozyme preferred for catalase-like activity with a 4-6-fold higher catalytic rate than CeO2, while the Mn/CeO2 nanozyme had a predilection for improving the superoxide dismutase-like capacity. This indicated the selective modulation of enzyme-mimicking activities via atomic doping engineering. Cellular level experiments revealed the in vitro therapeutic effects of the nanozymes. Mn/CeO2 and Co/CeO2 selectively modulated the intracellular redox imbalance in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)- or H2O2-stimulated nerve cells and improved cell survival. This work provides a feasible strategy for the design of catalytically selective artificial enzymes and facilitates the widespread application of CeO2 nanozymes in redox-related diseases.

Exposure to phthalates and their alternatives in relation to biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress in adults: evidence from NHANES 2017-2018.

Phthalates and their alternatives are considered significant environmental risk factors that potentially influence inflammation and oxidative stress. However, their impact on biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress was inconsistent. This study aimed to explore the associations between phthalates and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), and white blood cell (WBC) counts, employing both univariate exposure and multivariate co-exposure models. For this analysis, a total of 1619 individuals aged 18 years and above, sourced from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) conducted between 2017 and 2018, were selected as subjects. We explored the associations between hsCRP, GGT, and WBC counts and eighteen different phthalate metabolites. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed significant associations between both MCNP and MEHP and hsCRP. We observed negative correlations of MCOP, MCPP, MHBP, and MONP with GGT. Conversely, MEHHP and MEHHTP exhibited positive correlations with GGT. Furthermore, MECPTP and MEHHTP showed positive correlations with WBC. Notably, we identified a non-linear relationship between phthalates and inflammation and oxidative stress markers. The Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) analysis demonstrated a negative joint effect of the phthalates mixture on GGT, particularly at lower concentrations. The BKMR model also found that MEOHP and MHiBP were negatively associated with GGT. In contrast, MEHHP showed a significant positive association with GGT. Moderating effect analysis suggested that dietary inflammatory index (DII), income-to-poverty ratio (PIR), age, BMI, and physical activity influenced the association between phthalates and inflammation and oxidative stress. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the relationships between phthalates and inflammation and oxidative stress.

White hyacinth bean polysaccharide ameliorates diabetes via microbiota-gut-brain axis in type 2 diabetes mellitus rats.

Gut played a potent role in onset and progression of metabolic disorders, presenting an exciting direction for diabetes prevention. Here, the anti-diabetic effects of White hyacinth bean polysaccharides (WHBP) were observed, including the reduction of blood glucose levels and improvement of intestinal impairment in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) rats. Further data concerning intestinal protection suggested that WHBP restored intestinal barrier, as evidenced by inhibition of intestinal pathological damage, up-regulation of Zonula occluden-1 expression and manipulation of the redox system in T2DM rats. Moreover, WHBP-mediated anti-diabetic effects were in parallel with the adjustment of changes in gut microbiota composition of T2DM rats. Meanwhile, hypersecretion of corticotropin-releasing hormone, adrenocorticotropic hormone, and corticosterone levels, which were critical coordinators of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, were suppressed in T2DM rats exposed to WHBP, indicating that WHBP-mediated health benefits were referring to regulate brain feedback in reduction of HPA axis. Concomitantly, further suggested and expanded on gut-brain communication by data of microbial metabolites short-chain fatty acids, mediators of gut-brain interactions, were remarkably raised in cecum contents of T2DM rats subjected to WHBP. Collectively, WHBP performed anti-diabetic effects were associated with control of microbiota-gut-brain axis implicated in intestinal barrier, HPA axis, gut microbiota and their metabolites.

Study on alanine aminotransferase kinetics by microchip electrophoresis.

Alanine aminotransferase (ALT), which catalyzes the reversible conversion between L-glutamic acid (L-Glu) and L-alanine (L-Ala), is one of the most active aminotransferases in the clinical diagnosis of liver diseases. This work displays a microanalytical method for evaluating ALT enzyme kinetics using a microchip electrophoresis laser-induced fluorescence system. Four groups of amino acid (AA) mixtures, including the substrates of ALT (L-Glu and L-Ala), were effectively separated. Under the optimized conditions, the quantitative analysis of L-Glu and L-Ala was conducted and limits of detection (signal/noise=3) for L-Glu and L-Ala were 4.0 × 10⁻7 and 2.0 × 10⁻7 M, respectively. In the reaction catalyzed by ALT, enzyme kinetic constants were determined for both the forward and reverse reactions by monitoring the concentration decrease of substrate AAs (L-Ala and L-Glu), and the K(m) and V(max) values were 10.12 mM and 0.48 mM/min for forward reaction and 3.22 mM and 0.22 mM/min for reverse reaction, respectively. Furthermore, the applicability of this assay was assessed by analysis of real serum samples. The results demonstrated that the proposed method could be used for kinetic study of ALT and shows great potential in the real application.

A novel chiral ligand exchange capillary electrophoresis system with amino acid ionic liquid as ligand and its application in screening D-amino-acid oxidase inhibitors.

A novel amino acid ionic liquid (AAIL) with L-ornithine (L-Orn) as anion was successfully synthesized, and subsequently applied as an available chiral ligand coordinated with Zn(II) in a chiral ligand exchange capillary electrophoresis (CLE-CE) system for the enantioseparation of dansyl amino acids (Dns-D,L-AAs). The influence of key parameters, such as buffer pH, concentration ratio of Zn(II) to ligand and complex concentration, was investigated in detail. Eleven pairs of Dns-D,L-AAs enantiomers were baseline separated and three pairs were partly separated under the optimum conditions. For exploring its potential application, the quantitative features of this proposed method were studied. Good linearity (r(2) = 0.999) and favorable repeatability (RSD ≤ 3.4%) were obtained by using Dns-D,L-Met as the test analyte. Finally, this method was employed to investigate the inhibition efficiency of d-amino acid oxidase (DAAO) inhibitors, which may pave a new way for the high-throughput screening of enzyme inhibitors and relevant drug discovery.

Development of 101 gene-based single nucleotide polymorphism markers in sea cucumber, Apostichopus japonicus.

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are currently the marker of choice in a variety of genetic studies. Using the high resolution melting (HRM) genotyping approach, 101 gene-based SNP markers were developed for Apostichopus japonicus, a sea cucumber species with economic significance for the aquaculture industry in East Asian countries. HRM analysis revealed that all the loci showed polymorphisms when evaluated using 40 A. japonicus individuals collected from a natural population. The minor allele frequency ranged from 0.035 to 0.489. The observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.050 to 0.833 and 0.073 to 0.907, respectively. Thirteen loci were found to depart significantly from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) after Bonferroni corrections. Significant linkage disequilibrium (LD) was detected in one pair of markers. These SNP markers are expected to be useful for future quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis, and to facilitate marker-assisted selection (MAS) in A. japonicus.