Experimental demonstration and investigation of vortex circular Pearcey beams in a dynamically shaped fashion.

Optical vortex, typically characterized by a helical phase front, results in a possession of orbital angular momentum. In recent years, teleportation of the vortex mode using novel beams with peculiar features has gained great interest. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the propagation dynamics for a new class of the auto-focusing vortex circular Pearcey beam (VCPB), which is theoretically described by delivering the coaxial or off-axial spiral phases into the circular Pearcey beam (CPB), forming the crescent or bottle-like focal structure with self-rotation. Notably, such a hybrid beam with various types is experimentally obtained through a digital micromirror device (DMD) with the binary amplitude holography, and this DMD-based modulation scheme combined with controllable vortex modes enables dynamic switching among the VCPBs. We also measure the topological phase by interferometry and we explain the beam property on the basis of Poynting vector, showing a good agreement with the simulations. Further, the number, location and mode of embedded vortices could offer multiple dimensions of flexibility for target beam modulation, thus the experimentally controllable VCPBs will bring potential to high-speed optical communications and particle manipulations that require dynamic shaping.

Enhancing tumor chemotherapy and overcoming drug resistance through autophagy-mediated intracellular dissolution of zinc oxide nanoparticles.

Autophagy may represent a common cellular response to nanomaterials. In the present study, it was demonstrated that zinc oxide nanoparticle (ZON)-elicited autophagy contributes to tumor cell killing by accelerating the intracellular dissolution of ZONs and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. In particular, ZONs could promote Atg5-regulated autophagy flux without the impairment of autophagosome-lysosome fusion, which is responsible for ZON-elicited cell death in cancer cells. On the other hand, a further study revealed that a significant free zinc ion release in lysosomal acid compartments and sequential ROS generation in cells treated with ZONs were also associated with tumor cytotoxicity. Intriguingly, the colocalization between FITC-labeled ZONs and autophagic vacuoles indicates that the intracellular fate of ZONs is associated with autophagy. Moreover, the chemical or genetic inhibition of autophagy significantly reduced the level of intracellular zinc ion release and ROS generation separately, demonstrating that ZON-induced autophagy contributed toward cancer cell death by accelerating zinc ion release and sequentially increasing intracellular ROS generation. The modulation of autophagy holds great promise for improving the efficacy of tumor chemotherapy. Herein, ZONs were verified to enhance chemotherapy in both normal and drug-resistant cancer cells via synergistic autophagy elicitation. Further, this elicitation resulted in tremendous zinc ion release and ROS generation, which accounted for enhancing the tumor chemotherapy and overcoming drug resistance. No obvious changes in the expression level of P-gp proteins or the amount of doxorubicin uptake induced by ZONs in MCF-7/ADR cells also indicated that the increased zinc ion release and ROS generation via synergistic autophagy induction were responsible for overcoming the drug resistance. Finally, in vivo experiments involving animal models of 4T1 tumor cells revealed that the antitumor therapeutic effect of a combinatory administration obviously outperformed those of ZONs or free doxorubicin treatment alone at the same dose, which could be attenuated by the autophagy inhibitor wortmannin or ion-chelating agent EDTA. Taken together, our results reveal the mechanism wherein the autophagy induction by ZONs potentiates cancer cell death and a novel biological application for ZONs in adjunct chemotherapy in which autophagy reinforces zinc ion release and ROS generation.

Transdermal delivery of human epidermal growth factor facilitated by a peptide chaperon.

Peptide chaperon TD1 was discovered to facilitate several proteins' transdermal delivery via topical co-administration. To design a practical, safe system for advanced transdermal peptide, a novel method was carried out. Human epidermal growth factor (hEGF) was selected as the model biological agent and a fusion protein: TD1-hEGF was designed. Study showed that TD1-hEGF not only had the similar bioactivity with native hEGF, but also possessed considerable higher transdermal ability than hEGF and a co-administration of TD1 and hEGF. These results provided convincing evidence for the advantages of TD1-hEGF in cosmetic and medical applications. Moreover, the fusion pattern between the cargoes and TD1 offered a new approach to facilitate other hydrophilic drugs' transdermal delivery for therapeutic application.