Advances in Doxorubicin-based nano-drug delivery system in triple negative breast cancer.

Triple positive breast cancer (TPBC) is one of the most aggressive breast cancer. Due to the unique cell phenotype, aggressiveness, metastatic potential and lack of receptors or targets, chemotherapy is the choice of treatment for TNBC. Doxorubicin (DOX), one of the representative agents of anthracycline chemotherapy, has better efficacy in patients with metastatic TNBC (mTNBC). DOX in anthracycline-based chemotherapy regimens have higher response rates. Nano-drug delivery systems possess unique targeting and ability of co-load, deliver and release chemotherapeutic drugs, active gene fragments and immune enhancing factors to effectively inhibit or kill tumor cells. Therefore, advances in nano-drug delivery systems for DOX therapy have attracted a considerable amount of attention from researchers. In this article, we have reviewed the progress of nano-drug delivery systems (e.g., Nanoparticles, Liposomes, Micelles, Nanogels, Dendrimers, Exosomes, etc.) applied to DOX in the treatment of TNBC. We also summarize the current progress of clinical trials of DOX combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIS) for the treatment of TNBC. The merits, demerits and future development of nanomedicine delivery systems in the treatment of TNBC are also envisioned, with the aim of providing a new class of safe and efficient thoughts for the treatment of TNBC.

Mercury telluride colloidal quantum-dot focal plane array with planar p-n junctions enabled by in situ electric field-activated doping.

Colloidal quantum dot (CQD)-based photodetectors are promising alternatives to bulk semiconductor-based detectors to be monolithically integrated with complementary metal-oxide semiconductor readout integrated circuits avoiding high-cost epitaxial growth methods and complicated flip-bonding processes. To date, photovoltaic (PV) single-pixel detectors have led to the best performance with background-limit infrared photodetection performance. However, the nonuniform and uncontrollable doping methods and complex device configuration restrict the focal plane array (FPA) imagers to operate in PV mode. Here, we propose a controllable in situ electric field-activated doping method to construct lateral p-n junctions in the short-wave infrared (SWIR) mercury telluride (HgTe) CQD-based photodetectors with a simple planar configuration. The planar p-n junction FPA imagers with 640 × 512 pixels (15-µm pixel pitch) are fabricated and exhibit substantially improved performance compared with photoconductor imagers before activation. High-resolution SWIR infrared imaging is demonstrated with great potential for various applications including semiconductor inspection, food safety, and chemical analysis.

Development of alginate-based hydrogels: Crosslinking strategies and biomedical applications.

Natural polysaccharide-based hydrogels have drawn much concern in the biomedical fields. Among them, alginate, a natural polyanionic polysaccharide, has become one of the research hotspots, because of its abundant source, biodegradability, biocompatibility, solubility, modification flexibility, and other characteristics or physiological functions. Recently, through adopting various physical or chemical crosslinking strategies, selecting suitable crosslinking or modification reagents, precisely controlling the reaction conditions, or introducing organic or inorganic functional materials, a variety of alginate-based hydrogels with excellent performance have been continuously developed, considerably expanding the breadth and depth of their applications. Here, various crosslinking strategies in the preparation of alginate-based hydrogels are comprehensively introduced. The representative application progress of alginate-based hydrogels in drug carrier, wound dressing and tissue engineering is also summarized. Meanwhile, the application prospects, challenges and development trends of alginate-based hydrogels are discussed. It is expected to provide guidance and reference for the further development of alginate-based hydrogels.

From crosslinking strategies to biomedical applications of hyaluronic acid-based hydrogels: A review.

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is not only a natural anionic polysaccharide with excellent biocompatibility, biodegradability, and moisturizing effect, but also an essential factor that can affect angiogenesis, inflammation, cell behavior, which has a wide range of applications in the biomedical field. Among them, HA-based hydrogels formed by various physical or chemical crosslinking strategies are particularly striking. They not only retain the physiological function of HA, but also have the skeleton function of hydrogel, which further expands the application of HA. However, HA-based natural hydrogels generally have problems such as insufficient mechanical strength and susceptibility to degradation by hyaluronidase, which limits their application to a certain extent. To solve such problems, researchers have prepared a variety of HA-based multifunctional hydrogels with remarkable properties in recent years by adopting various structural modification methods or novel crosslinking strategies, as well as introducing functionally reactive molecules or moieties, which have extended the application scope. This manuscript systematically introduced common crosslinking strategies of HA-based hydrogels and highlighted the development of novel HA-based hydrogels in anticancer drug delivery, cartilage repair, three-dimensional cell culture, skin dressing and other fields. We hope to provide some references for the subsequent development of HA-based hydrogels in the biomedical field.

High-operating-temperature mid-infrared photodetectors via quantum dot gradient homojunction.

Due to thermal carriers generated by a narrow mid-infrared energy gap, cooling is always necessary to achieve ideal photodetection. In quantum dot (QD), the electron thermal generation should be reduced with quantum confinement in all three dimensions. As a result, there would be a great potential to realize high-operating-temperature (HOT) QD mid-IR photodetectors, though not yet achieved. Taking the advantages of colloidal nanocrystals' solution processability and precise doping control by surface dipoles, this work demonstrates a HOT mid-infrared photodetector with a QD gradient homojunction. The detector achieves background-limited performance with D* = 2.7 × 1011 Jones on 4.2 µm at 80 K, above 1011 Jones until 200 K, above 1010 Jones until 280 K, and 7.6 × 109 Jones on 3.5 µm at 300 K. The external quantum efficiency also achieves more than 77% with responsivity 2.7 A/W at zero bias. The applications such as spectrometers, chemical sensors, and thermal cameras, are also approved, which motivate interest in low-cost, solution-processed and high-performance mid-infrared photodetection beyond epitaxial growth bulk photodetectors.

Direct Optical Lithography Enabled Multispectral Colloidal Quantum-Dot Imagers from Ultraviolet to Short-Wave Infrared.

Complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) silicon sensors play a central role in optoelectronics with widespread applications from small cell phone cameras to large-format imagers for remote sensing. Despite numerous advantages, their sensing ranges are limited within the visible (0.4-0.7 µm) and near-infrared (0.8-1.1 µm) range , defined by their energy gaps (1.1 eV). However, below or above that spectral range, ultraviolet (UV) and short-wave infrared (SWIR) have been demonstrated in numerous applications such as fingerprint identification, night vision, and composition analysis. In this work, we demonstrate the implementation of multispectral broad-band CMOS-compatible imagers with UV-enhanced visible pixels and SWIR pixels by layer-by-layer direct optical lithography of colloidal quantum dots (CQDs). High-resolution single-color images and merged multispectral images were obtained by using one imager. The photoresponse nonuniformity (PRNU) is below 5% with a 0% dead pixel rate and room-temperature responsivities of 0.25 A/W at 300 nm, 0.4 A/W at 750 nm, and 0.25 A/W at 2.0 µm.

Mid-Infrared Intraband Photodetector via High Carrier Mobility HgSe Colloidal Quantum Dots.

In this work, a room-temperature mixed-phase ligand exchange method is developed to obtain a relatively high carrier mobility (∼1 cm2/(V s)) on HgSe intraband colloidal quantum dot solids without any observable trap state. What is more, the doping from 1Se to 1Pe state in the conduction band could be precisely controlled by additional salts during this method, proved by optical and transport experiments. The high mobility and controllable doping benefit the mid-infrared photodetector utilizing the 1Se to 1Pe transition, with a 1000-fold improvement in response speed, which is several µs, a 55-fold increase in responsivity, which is 77 mA/W, and a 10-fold increase in specific detectivity, which is above 1.7 × 109 Jones at 80 K. The high-performance photodetector could serve as an intraband infrared camera for thermal imaging, as well as a CO2 gas sensor with a range from 0.25 to 2000 ppm.

The Preparation of Novel P(OEGMA-co-MEO2MA) Microgels-Based Thermosensitive Hydrogel and Its Application in Three-Dimensional Cell Scaffold.

Thermosensitive hydrogel scaffolds have attracted particular attention in three-dimensional (3D) cell culture. It is very necessary to develop a type of thermosensitive hydrogel material with low shrinkage, and excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability. Here, five types of thermosensitive microgels with different volume phase transition temperature (VPTT) or particle sizes were first synthesized using 2-methyl-2-propenoic acid-2-(2-methoxyethoxy) ethyl ester (MEO2MA) and oligoethylene glycol methyl ether methacrylate (OEGMA) as thermosensitive monomers by free radical polymerization. Their VPTT and particle sizes were investigated by a nanometer particle size meter and an ultraviolet spectrophotometer. The feasibility of using these P(OEGMA-co-MEO2MA) microgels to construct thermosensitive hydrogel by means of the thermal induction method is discussed for the first time. The prepared thermosensitive hydrogel with the optimum performance was screened for in situ embedding and three-dimensional (3D) culture of MCF-7 breast cancer cells. The experimental results of AO/EB and MTT methods indicate that the pioneering scaffold material has prominent biocompatibility, and cells grow rapidly in the 3D scaffold and maintain high proliferative capacity. At the same time, there is also a tendency to aggregate to form multicellular spheres. Therefore, this original P(OEGMA-co-MEO2MA) thermosensitive hydrogel can serve as a highly biocompatible and easily functionalized 3D cell culture platform with great potential in the biomedical area.

Two-dimensional colloidal crystal of soft microgel spheres: Development, preparation and applications.

Two-dimensional (2D) colloidal crystals are ordered monolayer arrays of colloidal sphere particles assembled on the substrates or at phase interfaces. Owing to their unique periodic structure and fascinating properties, 2D colloidal crystals have aroused considerable interest because of their potential applications. Among them, 2D colloidal crystals self-assembled from soft microgel spheres stand out particularly. The 2D colloidal crystals of soft microgel spheres combine the advantages of monolayer colloidal crystals and sensitive microgels, which have a good application prospect in biomedical area. In this article, we provide a systematic overview of 2D colloidal crystals of soft microgel spheres related to their development, preparation and applications. First, various preparation methods of 2D colloidal crystal of microgels are introduced, including dip-coating, drop-coating, spin-coating, interface assembly, surface reaction-assisted assembly, and so forth. Second, representative biomedical applications consisting of optical sensor, drug delivery, antibacterial coating, cell culture, and colloidal template are also exemplified to show the high performance of 2D colloidal crystals of soft microgel spheres. In addition, we also present prospects of future developments of 2D microgel colloidal crystals.

Development of Natural-Drugs-Based Low-Molecular-Weight Supramolecular Gels.

Natural small molecular drugs with excellent biocompatibility, diverse pharmacological activities, and wide sources play an increasingly important role in the development of new drug and disease treatment. In recent years, the utilization of paclitaxel, camptothecin, rhein, curcumin, and other natural small molecular drugs with unique rigid backbone structures and modifiable multiple sites as building blocks to form gels by self-assembly has attracted widespread attention. The obtained low-molecular-weight supramolecular gel not only retains the general characteristics of the gel but also overcomes the shortcomings of natural drugs, such as poor water solubility and low bioavailability. It has the advantages of high drug loading, low toxicity, and outstanding stimulus responsiveness, which is widely used in biomedical fields. Here, we provided a comprehensive review of natural-drugs-based low-molecular-weight supramolecular gels reported in recent years and summarized their assembly mechanism, gel structure, gel properties, and potential applications. It is expected to provide a reference for further research of natural-drugs-based supramolecular gels.

Development, Preparation, and Biomedical Applications of DNA-Based Hydrogels.

Hydrogels have outstanding research and application prospects in the biomedical field. Among them, the design and preparation of biomedical hydrogels with deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) as building blocks have attracted increasing research interest. DNA-based hydrogel not only has the skeleton function of hydrogel, but also retains its biological functions, including its excellent selection specificity, structural designability, precise molecular recognition ability, outstanding biocompatibility, and so on. It has shown important application prospects in the biomedical field, such as drug delivery, biosensing, and tissue engineering. In recent years, researchers have made full use of the characteristics of DNA molecules and constructed various pure DNA-based hydrogels with excellent properties through various crosslinking methods. Moreover, via introducing functional molecules or elements, or combining with other functional materials, a variety of multifunctional DNA-based hybrid hydrogels have also been constructed, which expand the breadth and depth of their applications. Here, we described the recent development trend in the area of DNA-based hydrogels and highlighted various preparation methods of DNA-based hydrogels. Representative biomedical applications are also exemplified to show the high performance of DNA-based hydrogels. Meanwhile, the existing problems and prospects are also summarized. This review provided references for the further development of DNA-based hydrogels.

[Surgical correction of congenital alveolar cleft: report of 10 cases].

The paper reports our experience in surgical correction of unilateral maxillary alveolar cleft complicated with oronasal fistula by iliac spongy bone marrow autografts in cases. Primary healing of the surgical wounds occurred in all the 10 cases and obvious improvement in external appearance was achieved 3 to 6 months after the surgery. Clear evidence of osteogenesis was found by X-ray examination, and the density of the newly generated bone was comparable to that of normal bones, without visible bounds between the autografts and the normal bones.