Self-Delivery Nanomedicines Reverse Thermal Resistance to Enhance Tumor Mild-Temperature Photothermal Therapy.

Tumoral thermal defense mechanisms considerably attenuate the therapeutic outcomes of mild-temperature photothermal therapy (PTT). Thus, developing a simple, efficient, and universal therapeutic strategy to sensitize mild-temperature PTT is desirable. Herein, we report self-delivery nanomedicines ACy NPs comprising a near-infrared (NIR) photothermal agent (Cypate), mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation inhibitor (ATO), and distearoylphosphatidylethanolamine-polyethylene glycol 2000 (DSPE-PEG2000), which have a high drug-loading efficiency that can reverse tumoral thermal resistance, thereby increasing mild-temperature PTT efficacy. ACy NPs achieved targeted tumor accumulation and performed NIR fluorescence imaging capability in vivo to guide tumor PTT for optimized therapeutic outcomes. The released ATO reduced intracellular ATP levels to downregulate multiple heat shock proteins (including HSP70 and HSP90) before PTT, which reversed the thermal resistance of tumor cells, contributing to the excellent results of mild-temperature PTT in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, this study provides a simple, biosafe, advanced, and universal heat shock protein-blocking strategy for tumor PTT.

A self-delivery chimeric peptide for high efficient cell membrane-targeting low-temperature photothermal/photodynamic combinational therapy and metastasis suppression of tumor.

Cellular barriers such as the cell membranes, lysosomes or nuclear pores of tumor cells hinder the drugs delivery and weaken the efficiency of traditional tumor therapies. Targeted destructing tumor cell membranes can quickly destroy cell homeostasis and kill cells without facing intracellular delivery barriers. Herein, we designed a self-delivery phototherapeutic chimeric peptide (CCP) for high efficient cell membrane-targeting combinational low-temperature photothermal therapy (LTPTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT). The self-assembled CCP nanoparticles display remarkable tumor accumulation after systemic administration without additional carriers, avoiding the carriers related side toxicities. The CCPs are able to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) and mild heat (<45 °C) locally at cell membrane and quickly induce immunogenic cell death to achieve efficient combinational LTPTT/PDT. The damage-associated molecular patterns released after cell membrane rupture effectively elicit antitumor immunity to eradicate residual tumor cells. With a single dosage and short-term near-infrared (NIR) light irradiation, CCPs significantly inhibit growth and metastasis of tumor, and prolong survival time of tumor-bearing mice. This work presents a unique cell membrane-targeting phototherapy strategy to kill tumor and suppress metastasis in an effective, safe and minimally invasive manner.

Update on air pollution control strategies for coal-fired power plants.

Abstract: Coal is expected to remain a significant power supply source worldwide and shifting to carbon-neutral fuels will be challenging because of growing electricity demand and booming industrialization. At the same time, coal consumption results in severe air pollution and health concerns. Improvement in emission control technologies is a key to improving air quality in coal power plants. Many scientists reported removing air pollutants individually via conventional control methods. However, controlling multiple pollutants combinedly using the latest techniques is rarely examined. Therefore, this paper overviews the current and advanced physical technologies to control multi-air pollutants synergistically, including carbon control technologies. Also, the paper aims to examine how potential air pollutants (e.g., PM2.5, SO2, NOx, CO2), including mercury from the coal-fired power plants, cause environmental impacts. The data synthesis shows that coal quality is the most significant factor for increasing air emissions, regardless of power plant capacity. It is found that selecting techniques is critical for new and retrofitted plants depending on the aging of a power plant and other socio-economic factors. Considering the future perspective, this paper discusses possible pathways to transform from linear to a circular economy in a coal power plant sector, such as utilizing energy losses through energy-efficient processes and reuse of syngas. The article provides an in-depth analysis of advanced cost-effective techniques that would help to control the air pollution level. Additionally, a life cycle assessment-based decision-making framework is proposed that would assist the stakeholders in achieving net-zero emissions and offset the financial burden for air pollution control in coal-fired power plants. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10098-022-02328-8.

Four-in-One Stimulus-Responsive Long-Lived Luminescent Systems Based on Pyrene-Doped Amorphous Polymers.

Materials exhibiting ultralong luminescent lifetime show promising applications in the fields of information encryption, sensing, and bioimaging. Herein, we present a low-cost and general strategy to achieve stimulus-responsive ultralong organic phosphorescence (UOP) based on pyrene chromophores doped into polymer matrices. The UOP of the resulted systems presents radiation-, concentration-, time-, and excitation-dependent characteristics. The UOP color can be turned from blue to red by changing the excitation wavelength or the concentration of chromophores. Experimental results prove that these characteristics are attributed to the consumption of triplet oxygen and the different aggregation states of chromophores in the polymer matrices. Finally, we demonstrate that these systems could be applied for multilevel information encryption. This work would promote further development of multi-responsive long-lived luminescent materials.

Autophagy-inhibiting biomimetic nanodrugs enhance photothermal therapy and boost antitumor immunity.

The instinctive protective stress responses of tumor cells hamper low-temperature photothermal therapy (LTPTT), resulting in tumor recurrence and metastasis. The rapid blood clearance and low-efficiency tumor enrichment of nanomedicines also decrease the efficacy of LTPTT. In this study, we fabricated coassembled photothermal agents (indocyanine green, ICG) and autophagy inhibitors (chloroquine, CQ) and red blood cell and cancer cell hybrid membrane (RCm)-camouflaged ICGCQ@RCm nanoparticles (ICGCQ@RCm NPs) to enhance tumor LTPTT. The ICGCQ@RCm NPs exhibited prolonged blood drug circulation and markedly enhanced drug accumulation in tumor tissues. The ICGCQ@RCm NPs reduced the thermal tolerance of tumor cells to sensitize ICG-mediated LTPTT by inhibiting protective autophagy. The ICGCQ@RCm NPs exerted strong immunogenic cell death (ICD) after efficient LTPTT to activate antitumor immunity. In addition, ICGCQ@RCms optimized the therapeutic efficacy by imaging-guided LTPTT, taking advantage of the near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence of ICG. Consequently, the ICGCQ@RCm NPs effectively inhibited tumors under mild LTPTT, significantly suppressed tumor metastasis and prolonged the survival time of tumor-bearing mice. Furthermore, the ICGCQ@RCm NPs showed high biosafety in vitro and in vivo. The ICGCQ@RCm NPs demonstrated tumor-targeting and imaging-guided autophagy inhibition-sensitized LTPTT using two Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs, which have great potential for clinical application.

Function and regulation annotation of up-regulated long non-coding RNA LINC01234 in gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND: Accumulated evidences indicate that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) participate in many biological mechanisms. Moreover, it acts as an essential regulator in various human diseases such as gastric cancer (GC). Nevertheless, the comprehensive regulatory roles and clinical significance of most lncRNAs in GC are not fully understood. METHODS: In this research, our aim was to investigate the underlying mechanism of lncRNA LINC01234 in GC. Firstly, the usage of qRT-PCR helped to establish expression pattern of LINC01234 in GC tissues. Following this, appropriate statistical tests were applied to analyze the relation between expression level and clinicopathological factors. Ultimately, potential functions and regulatory network of LINC01234 were concluded via GSEA and a series of bioinformatics tools or databases, respectively. RESULTS: Consequently, at the end of research we found LINC01234 is up-regulated in GC tissues in comparison with adjacent normal tissues. Furthermore, its expression level is correlated with differentiation of patients with GC. It is also important to highlight bioinformatics analysis revealed that LINC01234 is involved in cancer-associated pathways such as cell cycle and mismatch repair. Also, regulatory network of LINC01234 presented a probability in the involvement of tumorigenesis through regulating cancer-associated genes. CONCLUSION: Overall, our results suggested that LINC01234 may play a crucial role in GC.

Regulatory network analysis of high expressed long non-coding RNA LINC00941 in gastric cancer.

Accumulating evidence suggests that the aberrant expression of long non-coding RNAs is closely related to the carcinogenesis and progression of gastric cancer (GC), which is a type of prevalent tumor with a high incidence and mortality rate. However, it is still a challenge to find reliable biomarkers and to understand their molecular mechanisms in GC. In this study, we first confirmed that LINC00941was up-regulated in GC tumor tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues by RT-PCR, and found that the expression level of LINC00941 was correlated with invasion depth, lymphatic metastasis, and the TNM stage of patients with GC. Furthermore, by performing enrichment analysis based on the co-expression network and regulatory network, we found that LINC00941 was associated with cancer related biological processes such as cell cycle, cell communication, cell migration, cell division, as well as processes associated with the immune system. Our results suggested that LINC00941 may be a potential novel biomarker for therapeutic or diagnostic of GC.

Vacuum frying of peas: effect of coating and pre-drying.

The objective of the research was to compare the effect of coating with sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, hot-air and vacuum microwave pre-drying on the physicochemical properties and sensory scores of vacuum-fried peas. The three pre-treatments prior to frying were shown to obviously reduce oil absorption in vacuum-fried peas. Among the three pre-treatments, coating with sodium carboxymethyl cellulose for peas produced the lowest oil content products (24.53 %), and the chlorophyll retention was 77.08 %. Vitamin C and breaking force for fried products with vacuum microwave pre-drying were 46.56 µg/100 g (db) and 8.64 N, which were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) better than those of other treatments. However, fried peas treated by hot air pre-drying showed the highest breaking force and lowest chlorophyll retention. All the fried peas had water activity (Aw) values of less than 0.35, indicating that the products have a long shelf life. Sensory scores showed vacuum-fried peas treated by vacuum microwave pre-drying had the highest acceptability.