AIE-based gold nanostar-berberine dimer nanocomposites for PDT and PTT combination therapy toward breast cancer.

We designed and synthesized three new berberine-based compounds, namely, pyridine-2,6-dimethyl-/2,2'-bipyridine-3,3'-dimethyl-tethered berberine dimers BD1 and BD2, and a tetrakis(4-benzyl)ethylene linked berberine tetramer BD4. We identified that the dimer BD2 and tetramer BD4, as well as 1,10-phenanthroline-2,9-dimethyl-linked berberine dimer BD3 previously reported by us, showed remarkable aggregation-induced emission (AIE) properties which endowed them with higher singlet oxygen (1O2) production ability than berberine. Of the four compounds, BD3 exhibits the lowest ΔEST energy with the highest 1O2 generation ability and thus was selected for further construction of AuNSs-BD3@HA (denoted as ABH, AuNSs = gold nanostars; HA = hyaluronic acid). The nanosystem of ABH shows a remarkable therapeutic effect toward breast cancer by combining photodynamic therapy (PDT) from BD3, photothermal therapy (PTT) from AuNSs, and the CD44-targeting capability of HA. The synergistically enhanced PDT and PTT induce superior cancer cell apoptosis/necrosis in vitro and anti-breast cancer activity in vivo. This study provides a new concept for PDT using natural product derivatives and their combination with PTT for efficient treatment of tumors.

Construction of hybrid DNAs@CP for the rapid synchronous sensing of multiplex microRNAs based on experimental studies and molecular simulation.

A water stable one-dimensional (1D) ladder-shaped coordination polymer (CP) has been synthesized and exhibits a strong affinity to two fluorescein-tagged single-stranded probe DNAs (P-DNAs), giving a sensing platform of P-DNAs@1. Such a hybrid sensing platform is capable of simultaneous detection of breast cancer related microRNA-221 (miRNA-221) and miRNA-222 in a specific and synchronous manner, without observable cross-reactions, as supported by experimental evidences. The interaction mode and the electronic energy between CP 1 with nucleic acid were confirmed by molecular simulation and the universal force field (UFF).

Experimental and computational investigation of a DNA-shielded 3D metal-organic framework for the prompt dual sensing of Ag+ and S2.

We herein report an efficient Ag+ and S2- dual sensing scenario by a three-dimensional (3D) Cu-based metal-organic framework [Cu(Cdcbp)(bpea)] n (MOF 1, H3CdcbpBr = 3-carboxyl-(3,5-dicarboxybenzyl)-pyridinium bromide, bpea = 1,2-di(4-pyridinyl)ethane) shielded with a 5-carboxytetramethylrhodamine (TAMRA)-labeled C-rich single-stranded DNA (ss-probe DNA, P-DNA) as a fluorescent probe. The formed MOF-DNA probe, denoted as P-DNA@1, is able to sequentially detect Ag+ and S2- in one pot, with detection limits of 3.8 nM (for Ag+) and 5.5 nM (for S2-), which are much more lower than the allowable Ag+ (0.5 µM) and S2- (0.6 µM) concentration in drinking water as regulated by World Health Organization (WHO). The detection method has been successfully applied to sense Ag+ and S2- in domestic, lake, and mineral water with satisfactory recoveries ranging from 98.2 to 107.3%. The detection mechanism was further confirmed by molecular simulation studies.