Precise prostate cancer diagnosis using fluorescent nanoprobes for detecting PSA and PSMA in serum.

Novel Au-Se bond-based nanoprobes were designed for concurrent detection of PSA and PSMA in serum samples, aiming to enhance the early diagnosis of prostate cancer. These probes demonstrate robust stability, specificity and accuracy, underscoring their potential as non-invasive tools for diagnosis.

Advancing Nonsmall Cell Lung Cancer Diagnosis Accuracy via Dual Detection Fluorescent Nanoprobes.

Among the primary threats to human health worldwide, nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains a significant factor and is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Due to subtle early symptoms, NSCLC patients are diagnosed at advanced stages, resulting in low survival rates. Herein, novel Au-Se bond nanoprobes (NPs) designed for the specific detection of Calpain-2 (CAPN2) and Human Neutrophil Elastase (HNE), pivotal biomarkers in NSCLC, were developed. The NPs demonstrated exceptional specificity and sensitivity toward CAPN2 and HNE, enabling dual-color fluorescence imaging to distinguish between NSCLC cells and normal lung cells effectively. The NPs' performance was consistent across a wide pH range (6.2 to 8.0), and it exhibited remarkable resistance to biological thiol interference, indicating its robustness in complex physiological environments. These findings suggest the nanoprobe is a promising tool for early NSCLC diagnosis, offering a novel approach for enhancing the accuracy of cancer detection.

Dual-targets fluorescent nanoprobe for precise subtyping of lung cancer.

A Au-Se bond-based nanoprobe using 3',3-diselenopropionic acid to simultaneously link response chains for Pro-GRP protein and Cyfra21-1 was developed. Early diagnosis and subtyping of lung cancer can be achieved based on the nanoprobes' differential response of the probes to the two targets in lung cancer patients' serum.

Pt-Se-Bonded Nanoprobe for High-Fidelity Detection of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer and Enhancement of NIR II Photothermal Therapy.

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for a high proportion of lung cancer cases globally, but early detection remains challenging, and insufficient oxygen supply at tumor sites leads to suboptimal treatment outcomes. Therefore, the development of core-shell Au@Pt-Se nanoprobes (Au@Pt-Se NPs) with peptide chains linked through Pt-Se bonds was designed and synthesized for NSCLC biomarker protein calcium-activated neutral protease 2 (CAPN2) and photothermal therapy (PTT) enhancement. The NP can be specifically cleaved by CAPN2, resulting in fluorescence recovery to realize the detection. The Pt-Se bonds exhibit excellent resistance to biologically abundant thiols such as glutathione, thus avoiding "false-positive" results and enabling precise detection of NSCLC. Additionally, the platinum (Pt) shell possesses catalase-like properties that catalyze the generation of oxygen from endogenous hydrogen peroxide within the tumor, thereby reducing hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) levels and alleviating the hypoxic environment at the tumor site. The Au@Pt-Se NPs exhibit strong absorption bands, enabling the possibility of PTT in the near-infrared II region (NIR II). This study presents an effective approach for the early detection of NSCLC while also serving as an oxygen supplier to alleviate the hypoxic environment and enhance NIR II PTT.

Greatly Enhanced Accessibility and Reproducibility of Worm-like Micelles by In Situ Crosslinking Polymerization-Induced Self-Assembly.

Worm-like micelles have attracted great interest due to their anisotropic structures. However, the experimental conditions for obtaining worm-like micelles are very restricted, which usually causes seriously poor reproducibility. In this work, significantly enhanced accessibility of worm-like micelles is realized by in situ crosslinking polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA). The reproducibility of worm-like micelles is greatly improved due to the significantly enlarged experimental windows of worm-like micelles in the morphology diagram. Moreover, the reliability of the methodology to enhance the accessibility of worm-like micelles has been demonstrated in various in situ crosslinking PISA systems. The greatly enhanced accessibility and reproducibility of worm-like micelles is undoubtedly cost-effective especially in scale-up production, which paves the way for further application of worm-like micelles with various compositions and functionalities.