Sonodynamic therapy combined with phototherapy: Novel synergistic strategy with superior efficacy for antitumor and antiinfection therapy.

Phototherapy (PT), including photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT), has recently achieved significant advances in antitumor and antiinfection therapy. Sonodynamic therapy (SDT), as a novel noninvasive therapy with a deeper penetration depth (>8 cm), fewer side effects and non-phototoxicity than PT, has drawn much attention in recent years. However, both PT and SDT have intrinsic limitations. By combining PT with SDT, the dualmodel therapy with advanced sensitizers overcome the intrinsic limitations and show higher efficacy than traditional monotherapy. Moreover, the photo-diagnosis modality could be easily integrated into synergistic therapy so that the sensitizer acts as a tracer for fluorescence/photoacoustic imaging, and the treatment process is visualized in a way that SDT combined with other therapies cannot achieve. This review summarizes the advanced sensitizers and the application of combination therapy, and explores the improvement strategies for promoting clinical transformation.

Performance of agarose and gigaporous chromatographic media as function of pore-to-adsorbate size ratio over wide span from ovalbumin to virus like particles.

Two commercially available agarose ion exchange media, DEAE-Capto and DEAE-Sepharose FF (DEAE-FF), and two gigaporous media DEAE -AP-120 nm and DEAE-AP-280 nm were evaluated for their applicability in adsorption of five proteins with large span of radius ranges from 2.9 nm to 14.1 nm, which include ovalbumin, bovine serum albumin (BSA), haptoglobin, thyroglobulin and hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) virus like particle. The average pore radius of the four media was determined to be 6.9 nm, 18.5 nm, 59.4 nm and 139.3 nm, respectively, which was obtained by log normal distribution for DEAE-Capto and DEAE-FF and by bimodal Gaussian distribution for the two DEAE-AP media. The performance of these four media including phase ratio, static and dynamic binding capacity, and transport properties for the adsorption of these five model proteins as function of pore-to-adsorbate size ratio were investigated and compared. The best ratio of pore-to-adsorbate size was found dependent on the protein size. For protein with radius from 2.9 nm (ovalbumin) to 5.4 nm (BSA), the agarose media was superior to gigaporous media. Both the static and dynamic adsorption capacities reduced with the increase of pore size, and the highest values were obtained at the smallest pore-to-adsorbate size of about 2 times in this study, although the highest accessible surface area was obtained at pore-to-adsorbate size ratio about 16 to 20. For proteins with radius of 5.4 nm or larger than that, their adsorption capacities decreased firstly and then increased with the increase of ratio of pore-to-adsorbate size, and the highest values were obtained on the gigaporous media DEAE-AP-280 nm, which could provide faster diffusivity and larger accessible surface area. However, protein with radius of 14.1 nm (HBsAg) had much lower capacities compared to other proteins at the same pore-to-adsorbate size ratio, implying large protein needs greater pore-to-adsorbate size ratio to achieve a satisfactory capacity. For all the five tested proteins, the DEAE-Capto media having the smallest pore radius and branched dextran chains, was found superior to DEAE-FF in terms of both higher adsorption capacities and uptake kinetics, which suggested that the "chain delivery effect" took place on proteins over large size span from ovalbumin to HBsAg, though the effect on the larger proteins was much less significant than that on the smaller ones. Results from the present work provided more information on how do the relationships of pore size of chromatography media and adsorbate size interactively affect the chromatography behaviors, thus will provide general guidance for selection of suitable adsorbent for biologics of a given size.

In-situ formation of carboxylate species on TiO2 nanosheets for enhanced visible-light photocatalytic performance.

It still remains challenge for expanding the photo-response range of TiO2 with dominant {0 0 1} facets due to the hardly achieving modification of the electronic structure without destroying the formation of TiO2 high energy facets. Herein, we report the construction of carboxylate species modified TiO2 nanosheets with dominant {0 0 1} facets by employing ethanol as a carbon source through a low-temperature (300 °C) carbonization method. The as-obtained samples were investigated in detail by using various characterization techniques. The results indicate that the carboxylate species derived from the oxidation and carbonization of ethanol are coordinated to the {0 0 1} facets in a bidentate bridging mode. The electron-withdrawing carboxylate species induce TiO2 to form a lower valence band edge and a narrower bandgap, which enhances the oxidation ability of photogenerated holes and expands the photo-response range. The partially carbonized carboxylate species can also act as a photosensitizer to induce visible-light photocatalytic activity of TiO2 nanosheets. In addition, the carboxylate species can further promote the separation of photogenerated charge carriers. The findings of this work may provide a new perspective for tuning the band structure of TiO2 with dominant {0 0 1} facets and improving its photocatalytic performance.

A hydrophobic interaction chromatography strategy for purification of inactivated foot-and-mouth disease virus.

A purification scheme based on hydrophobic interaction chromatography was developed to separate inactivated foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) from crude supernatant. About 92% recovery and 8.8-fold purification were achieved on Butyl Sepharose 4 FF. Further purification on Superdex 200 resulted in another 29-fold purification, with 92% recovery. The columns were coupled through an intermediate ultrafiltration unit to concentrate the virus. The entire process was completed in about 3.5h, with 75% final FMDV recovery, and 247-fold purification. The final product had purity above 98%, with over 99.5% of host cell DNA removed. High-performance size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC), Western blot, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) indicated that the purified virus contained the required antigen, and was structurally intact with a spherical shape and a particle size of 28 nm.

Aggregation and antigenicity of virus like particle in salt solution--A case study with hepatitis B surface antigen.

The phenomenon of aggregation of virus-like particles (VLPs) in salt solution and the corresponding effect upon antigenicity was reported. Asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation (AF4) combined with multi-angle laser light scattering (MALLS) was used to characterize the size and the aggregation behavior of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). The average diameter of HBsAg VLP was 22.8±0.4 nm and it tended to aggregate in salt solution to form large particles and the antigenicity changed accordingly. In 0-4 M NaCl solution, part of HBsAg molecules aggregated rapidly into oligomeric particles (OP), whose diameter distributed from 25 to 40 nm, and the antigenicity slightly decreased about 10%. The aggregation reaction is reversible. After removing NaCl, both size and antigenicity could recover to normal level (92-96%). By contrast, the aggregation process is more complicated in (NH4)2SO4 solution. Most of HBsAg particles aggregated into OP and further aggregated into polymeric particles (PP). The diameter of the PP could reach 40 to 140 nm. The concentration of (NH4)2SO4 had remarkable influence upon the rate of aggregation. When concentration of (NH4)2SO4 was below 1 M, most of HBsAg aggregated only into OP in 1 h. While with concentration of (NH4)2SO4 above 1 M, most of particles formed PP within 1 h. The aggregation process to PP was irreversible. After removing (NH4)2SO4, the large aggregates could not recover to normal particles and the remaining antigenicity was below 30%.

Microcalorimetric study of adsorption and disassembling of virus-like particles on anion exchange chromatography media.

Chromatographic purification of virus-like particles (VLPs) is important to the development of modern vaccines. However, disassembly of the VLPs on the solid-liquid interface during chromatography process could be a serious problem. In this study, isothermal titration calorimetric (ITC) measurements, together with chromatography experiments, were performed on the adsorption and disassembling of multi-subunits hepatitis B virus surface antigen virus-like particles (HB-VLPs). Two gigaporous ion-exchange chromatography (IEC) media, DEAE-AP-280 nm and DEAE-POROS, were used. The application of gigaporous media with high ligand density led to significantly increased irreversible disassembling of HB-VLPs and consequently low antigen activity recovery during IEC process. To elucidate the thermodynamic mechanism of the effect of ligand density on the adsorption and conformational change of VLPs, a thermodynamic model was proposed. With this model, one can obtain the intrinsic molar enthalpy changes related to the binding of VLPs and the accompanying conformational change on the liquid-solid interface during its adsorption. This model assumes that, when intact HB-VLPs interact with the IEC media, the total adsorbed proteins contain two states, the intact formation and the disassembled formation; accordingly, the apparent adsorption enthalpy, ΔappH, which can be directly measured from ITC experiments, presents the sum of three terms: (1) the intrinsic molar enthalpy change associated to the binding of intact HB-VLPs (ΔbindHintact), (2) the intrinsic molar enthalpy change associated to the binding of HB-VLPs disassembled formation (ΔbindHdis), and (3) the enthalpy change accompanying the disassembling of HB-VLPs (ΔconfHdis). The intrinsic binding of intact HB-VLPs and the disassembled HB-VLPs to both kinds of gigaporous media (each of which has three different ligand densities), were all observed to be entropically driven as indicated by positive values of ΔbindHintact and ΔbindHdis; while the nagative ΔconfHdis values suggested a spontenous enthalpy-driven process for the forming of HB-VLPs disassembled formation at all conditions studied. As ligand density increases, ΔconfHdis became more negative, which was in agreement with the findings from chromatography experiments, that higher ligand density leads to more serious disassembling of HB-VLPs. Results from thermodynamic studies provided us insight understanding on the mechanism of adsorption and conformational change of VLPs, as well as the effect of ligand densities on the structural stability of VLPs during IEC process.

Size-exclusion HPLC provides a simple, rapid, and versatile alternative method for quality control of vaccines by characterizing the assembly of antigens.

The assembly of antigen structure is often crucial to the potency of vaccines. Currently adopted methods like animal testing and ultracentrifugation take long time and are difficult to automate for multiple samples. Here we develop a size-exclusion high-performance liquid chromatography (SE-HPLC) method to characterize the assembly of antigen structure during both manufacturing process and storage. Three important vaccine antigens including inactivated foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV), which is a virus vaccine; and two virus-like particles (VLPs) vaccines involving hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg) VLPs, and hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) VLPs, were successfully analyzed using commercially available TSK gel columns with pore size above 45nm. Combined with other analytical methods including SDS-PAGE, dynamic light scattering, wavelength scan, and multi-angle laser light scattering, the SE-HPLC method was proven to be a simple, rapid, and reliable tool for antigen particles assembly analysis. Specifically, for FMDV whole virus particle, SE-HPLC was used to analyze 146S content in vaccine preparations and the thermal dissociation of the 146S. For HBcAg-VLPs that are expressed in recombinant Escherichia coli, its expression level during cell culture process was quantitatively monitored by SE-HPLC. The SE-HPLC also showed applicability for quality check of HBsAg vaccine preparations by monitoring the product consistency of different lot number and the product stability during storage. Results shown in this work clearly demonstrated that SE-HPLC method has potential as a versatile alternative technology for control of the final product by both manufacturers and the regulatory agencies.

Improving stability of virus-like particles by ion-exchange chromatographic supports with large pore size: advantages of gigaporous media beyond enhanced binding capacity.

Limited binding capacity and low recovery of large size multi-subunits virus-like particles (VLPs) in conventional agarose-gel based chromatographic supports with small pores have long been a bottleneck limiting the large scale purification and application of VLPs. In this study, four anion exchange media including DEAE-Sepharose FF (DEAE-FF), DEAE-Capto, gigaporous DEAE-AP-120nm and DEAE-AP-280nm with average pore diameters of 32nm, 20nm, 120nm and 280nm, respectively, were applied for purification of hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) VLPs. Pore size effects of media on the VLPs adsorption equilibrium, adsorption kinetics, dynamic binding capacity (DBC), and recovery were investigated in detail. According to the confocal laser scanning microscopy observation, adsorption of the VLPs in DEAE-FF and DEAE-Capto was mostly confined to a thin shell on the outer surface of the beads, leaving the underlying pore space and the binding sites inaccessibly, while the large pores in gigaporous media enabled the VLPs to access to the interior pore spaces by diffusion transport efficiently. Compared to the most widely used DEAE-FF, gigaporous media DEAE-AP-280nm gained about 12.9 times increase in static adsorption capacity, 8.0 times increase in DBC, and 11.4 times increase in effective pore diffusivity. Beyond increasing the binding capacity and enhancing the mass transfer, the gigaporous structure also significantly improved the stability of the VLPs during intensive adsorption-desorption process by lowing the multi-point interaction between the VLPs and binding sites in the pores. At 2.0mg/mL-media loading quantity, about 85.5% VLPs were correctly self-assembled after the chromatography with DEAE-AP-280nm media; oppositely about 85.2% VLPs lost their normal assembly with DEAE-FF due to irreversible disassembly. Comparative investigation was made to study the purifying performance of these four chromatographic media for actual VLPs purification from recombinant Hansenula polymorpha. DEAE-AP-280nm media were demonstrated the best results showing the highest recovery of 68.33% and purification fold of 3.47, at 2.98mg protein/mL-media loading quantity and a flow rate of 240cm/h.