Electrospun multi-chamber core-shell nanofibers and their controlled release behaviors: A review.

Core-shell structure is a concentric circle structure found in nature. The rapid development of electrospinning technology provides more approaches for the production of core-shell nanofibers. The nanoscale effects and expansive specific surface area of core-shell nanofibers can facilitate the dissolution of drugs. By employing ingenious structural designs and judicious polymer selection, specialized nanofiber drug delivery systems can be prepared to achieve controlled drug release. The synergistic combination of core-shell structure and materials exhibits a strong strategy for enhancing the drug utilization efficiency and customizing the release profile of drugs. Consequently, multi-chamber core-shell nanofibers hold great promise for highly efficient disease treatment. However, little attention concentration is focused on the effect of multi-chamber core-shell nanofibers on controlled release of drugs. In this review, we introduced different fabrication techniques for multi-chamber core-shell nanostructures, including advanced electrospinning technologies and surface functionalization. Subsequently, we reviewed the different controlled drug release behaviors of multi-chamber core-shell nanofibers and their potential needs for disease treatment. The comprehensive elucidation of controlled release behaviors based on electrospun multi-chamber core-shell nanostructures could inspire the exploration of novel controlled delivery systems. Furthermore, once these fibers with customizable drug release profiles move toward industrial mass production, they will potentially promote the development of pharmacy and the treatment of various diseases. This article is categorized under: Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Emerging Technologies.

Clinical application of middle descending colon-double lumen ostomy with distal stoma narrowing in the treatment of anorectal malformation.

BACKGROUND: Anorectal malformations (ARMs) are the most common congenital anomaly of the digestive tract. And colostomy should be performed as the first-stage procedure in neonates diagnosed with intermediate- or high-type ARMs. However, the most classic Pe˜na's colostomy still has some disadvantages such as complicated operation procedure, susceptibility to infection, a greater possibility of postoperative incision dehiscence, difficulty of nursing and large surgical trauma and incision scarring when closing the stoma. We aimed to explore the effectiveness of middle descending colon-double lumen ostomy (MDCDLO) in the treatment of high and intermediate types of anorectal malformations. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the data of patients who underwent MDCDLO for high or intermediate types of ARMs between June 2016 and December 2021 in our hospital. The basic characteristics were recorded. All patients were followed up monthly to determine if any complication happen. RESULTS: There were 17 boys and 6 girls diagnosed with high or intermediate types of ARMs in our hospital between June 2016 and December 2021. All 23 patients were cured without complications such as abdominal incision infection, stoma stenosis, incisional hernia, and urinary tract infection in the postoperative follow-up time of 6 months to 6 years except one case of proximal intestinal prolapse was restored under anesthesia. CONCLUSION: MDCDLO offers the advantages of simplicity, efficiency, safety, mild trauma, and small scarring in the treatment of high and intermediate types of anorectal malformations.

Sustainable paper electronics and neuromorphic paper chip.

Paper electronics have received a lot of attention due to their special properties of mechanical flexibility/foldability, sustainability, biodegradability, light weight, and low cost. It provides a superb on-chip prototype with simple modular design and feasible energy-autonomous features, which can surpass the problems of inconvenience and possible pollution caused by conventional power sources by integrating different functional modules. Commonly, the sustainable operation of integrated paper electronics can be guaranteed by the basic components, including energy-harvesting devices, energy-storage devices, and low-power-consuming functional circuits/devices. Furthermore, sustainable paper electronics are possible to be further extended to develop energy-efficient neuromorphic paper chip by utilizing cutting-edge neuromorphic components based on traditional paper-based transistors, memories, and logic gates toward potential in-memory computing applications. The working process of the sustainable paper electronics implies an energy cycling of surrounding energy conversion, electrochemical energy storage, and energy utilization in functional circuits (in the form of photonic, thermal, electromagnetic, or mechanical energy). Sustainable paper electronics provide a promising path for achieving efficient, cost-effective, and customizable integrated electronics and self-powered systems with complementary features.

Mechanically Durable Superhydrophobic Strain Sensors with High Biocompatibility and Sensing Performance for Underwater Motion Monitoring.

Much progress has been made toward the development of wearable flexible strain sensors with high sensing performance to monitor human motion, but continuous function in harsh aqueous environments remains a significant challenge. A promising strategy has been the design of sensors with highly durable superhydrophobicity and maintenance of unique sensing properties. Herein, an extremely durable superhydrophobic strain sensor with an ultrawide sensing range was simply fabricated by directly brushing conductive carbon black nanoparticles (CBNPs) onto an elastic silicone rubber sheet (SS) with poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) coatings (i.e., SS/PDMS-CBNPs sensors). First, this method avoided the use of toxic solvents and a conventional prestretching treatment. Second, considering the easily destroyed rough structures and surface chemistry for conventional superhydrophobic sensors during practical applications, the prepared SS/PDMS-CBNP sensors showed excellent mechanical durability of both superhydrophobicity and sensing as examined by harsh abrasion (300 cycles), stretching (up to 200%), and ultrasonication (40 min) treatments. Third, the prepared superhydrophobic strain sensor exhibited high sensitivity (gauge factor of 101.75), high stretchability (0.015-460%), low hysteresis (83 ms), and long-term stability (10000 cycles). Fourth, the high biocompatibility of the SS/PDMS-CBNP sensor was demonstrated by rabbit skin irritation tests. Finally, the remarkable water-repellent and sensing properties of the SS/PDMS-CBNP sensor allowed its application to monitor a swimmer's real-time situation and send distress signals when needed.

Washable and Flexible Screen-Printed Ag/AgCl Electrode on Textiles for ECG Monitoring.

Electrocardiogram (ECG) electrodes are important sensors for detecting heart disease whose performance determines the validity and accuracy of the collected original ECG signals. Due to the large drawbacks (e.g., allergy, shelf life) of traditional commercial gel electrodes, textile electrodes receive widespread attention for their excellent comfortability and breathability. This work demonstrated a dry electrode for ECG monitoring fabricated by screen printing silver/silver chloride (Ag/AgCl) conductive ink on ordinary polyester fabric. The results show that the screen-printed textile electrodes have good and stable electrical and electrochemical properties and excellent ECG signal acquisition performance. Furthermore, the resistance of the screen-printed textile electrode is maintained within 0.5 Ω/cm after 5000 bending cycles or 20 washing and drying cycles, exhibiting excellent flexibility and durability. This research provides favorable support for the design and preparation of flexible and wearable electrophysiological sensing platforms.

Effect of surface ligand modification on the properties of anti-tumor nanocarrier.

With the continuous increasing number of cancer patients worldwide, there has been great interest in developing the targeted delivery anti-cancer drugs. The drug concentration reaching the tumor site is not enough to achieve a good therapeutic effect if it relies only on passive targeted drug delivery. In a long-lasting effort to improve the anti-cancer effect of drugs, surface ligand modification to nanocarriers has been actively explored to greatly improve the targeting ability, induce apoptosis in tumor cells, and prolong the drug circulation time in blood. This present review provides an overview of the effects of surface ligand modifications on the properties of anti-tumor nanocarriers. The first part presents the targeting mechanisms of nanocarriers. The second part focuses on recent progress in types of surface modification ligands exploited for anti-tumor nanocarriers. And the third part encompasses the effect of surface modifications on the properties of nanocarriers. In addition, the perspective in this field is also discussed.

Long non-coding RNA BANCR regulates cancer stem cell markers in papillary thyroid cancer via the RAF/MEK/ERK signaling pathway.

Thyroid cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors of the endocrine system. Among all thyroid cancers, papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common type. The BRAF-activated non-coding RNA (BANCR) is a 693-bp nucleotide transcript which was first identified in melanoma. However, the role of BANCR in the development of thyroid cancer remains unclear. Therefore, the present study investigated the potential involvement of BANCR in the development of thyroid cancer in vitro using patient tissue samples and a panel of thyroid cancer cell lines, and in vivo using a xenograft mouse model. We observed that BANCR was expressed at a higher level in human thyroid tumor tissues than that noted in the adjacent normal tissues. The expression level of BANCR differed between cultured thyroid cancer cell lines; BANCR expression was lower in the BCPAP cell line than that observed in the CAL-62, WRO and FTC-133 cell lines. Western blot analysis and flow cytometry revealed that overexpression of BANCR in the BCPAP cell line resulted in increased expression of the cancer stem cell markers, LGR5 and EpCAM. Single-clone formation experiments showed that upregulated expression of BANCR in the BCPAP cell line promoted an increase in the number of clones formed. Similarly, in microsphere formation experiments, overexpression of BANCR resulted in increased number and size of microspheres compared with the control cell line. Western blotting experiments showed that BANCR overexpression in BCPAP upregulated the expression of phosphorylated c-Raf, MEK1/2 and ERK1/2. Inhibition of c-Raf via U0126 decreased the expression of LGR5 and EpCAM, as well as phosphorylated levels of c-Raf, MEK1/2 and ERK1/2 in the BCPAP cells, compared to levels in the DMSO controls. In the xenograft mouse model, BANCR overexpression in the thyroid cancer cells significantly increased tumor growth. Taken together, these results suggest that BANCR plays a role in PTC development by regulating the expression of cancer stem cell markers LGR5 and EpCAM via the c-Raf/MEK/ERK signaling pathway. Therefore, BANCR may be used as a novel prognostic marker for PTC.

lncRNA BANCR promotes EMT in PTC via the Raf/MEK/ERK signaling pathway.

Thyroid cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in the endocrine system. Among all types of thyroid cancer, papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common type of thyroid cancer. Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) BRAF-activated non-protein-coding RNA (BANCR) is a 688-bp-long nucleotide transcript, which was first identified in melanoma. The function of BANCR in thyroid cancer remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether BANCR is involved in the development of thyroid cancer. The results indicated that BANCR expression was increased in thyroid tumors compared with in adjacent normal tissues. Among cancer cell lines, the expression level of BANCR differed: BANCR expression in BCPAP cell lines was lower compared with that in CAL-62, WRO and FTC-133 cell lines. Overexpression of BANCR promoted the migration and invasion of BCPAP cells. Additionally, BANCR mediated epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) by regulating the expression of epithelial (E)-cadherin, vimentin and neuronal (N)-cadherin. Overexpression of BANCR in BCPAP cells decreased the expression of E-cadherin and increased the expression of vimentin, N-cadherin, phospho (p)-c-Raf, p-extracellular-signal-regulated kinase (ERK)/mitogen activated protein kinase (MEK)1/2 and p-ERK1/2. Administration of U0126 inhibitor inhibited the regulation of phosphorylation levels by MEK1/2 and ERK1/2. Additionally, U0126 upregulated the expression of E-cadherin and downregulated the expression of vimentin. Taken together, the results of the present study suggest that BANCR induces EMT in PTC through the Raf/MEK/ERK signaling pathway.

Transparent superwetting nanofilms with enhanced durability at model physiological condition.

There have been many studies on superwetting surfaces owing to the variety of their potential applications. There are some drawbacks to developing these films for biomedical applications, such as the fragility of the microscopic roughness feature that is vital to ensure superwettability. But, there are still only a few studies that have shown an enhanced durability of nanoscale superwetting films at certain extreme environment. In this study, we fabricated intrinsically stable superwetting films using the organosilicate based layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly method in order to control nano-sized roughness of the multilayer structures. In order to develop mechanically and chemically robust surfaces, we successfully introduced polymeric silsesquioxane as a building block for LbL assembly with desired fashion. Even in the case that the superhydrophobic outer layers were damaged, the films maintained their superhydrophobicity because of the hydrophobic nature of their inner layers. As a result, we successfully fabricated superwetting nano-films and evaluated their robustness and stability.

Insulin particles as building blocks for controlled insulin release multilayer nano-films.

Insulin nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by pH-shift precipitation and a newly developed disassembly method at room temperature. Then, an electrostatic interaction-based, layer-by-layer (LbL) multilayer film incorporating insulin NPs was fabricated with poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH), which is described herein as Si/(PAH/PAA)5(PAH/PAA-insulin NPs)n. The positively charged insulin NPs were introduced into the LbL film in the form of biocompatible PAA-insulin NP aggregates at a pH of 4.5 and were released in phosphate-buffered saline (pH7.4), triggered by changes in the charges of the insulin molecules. In addition, the insulin-incorporated multilayer was swollen because of the different ionic environment, leading also to insulin release. Eighty percent of the insulin was released from the LBL film in the first stage of 3h, and sustained release could be maintained in the second stage for up to 7 days in vitro, which is very critical for specific diabetic patients. These striking findings could offer novel directions to researchers in establishing insulin delivery systems for diabetic therapy and fabricating other protein nanoparticles applied to various biomedical platforms.