Highly selective Cu2+ detection with a naphthalimide-functionalised pillar[5]arene fluorescent chemosensor.

Ligand 1, a rim-differentiated pillar[5]arene macrocycle modified with five naphthalimide groups through click chemistry, serves as an effective ratiometric fluorescent chemosensor for Cu2+. In contrast to the monomeric naphthalimide control compound 2, which shows only monomer emission, ligand 1 demonstrates dual emission characteristics encompassing both the monomer and excimer of the naphthalimide moieties. The binding properties of ligand 1 toward 15 different metal ions were systematically investigated in CH2Cl2/CH3CN (v/v, 1 : 1) by UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopy. Remarkably, ligand 1 exhibits exceptional selectivity for Cu2+ ions. Upon complexation with Cu2+, the excimer emission of ligand 1 diminishes, concomitant with an enhancement of its monomer emission. The binding ratio for 1·Cu2+ was determined to be 1 : 1, with an association constant of (3.39 ± 0.40) × 105 M-1 calculated using a nonlinear least-squares curve-fitting method. Furthermore, the limit of detection (LOD) was found to be 185 ± 7 nM. Our results from 1H NMR titration, high-resolution mass spectrometry analysis and density functional theory calculations of 1·Cu2+ suggest synergistic coordination between Cu2+ and the triazole groups on ligand 1.

Diatom-derived mesoporous silica nanoparticles loaded with fucoidan for enhanced chemo-photodynamic therapy.

Combination therapy merges chemical photodynamic therapy (CPDT) to improve cancer treatment. It synergizes chemotherapy with photodynamic therapy (PDT), using photosensitizers to produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) when exposed to light, effectively killing drug-resistant cancer cells. It is not affected by drug resistance, making it an attractive option for combination with chemotherapy. In this study, the focus was on the design of a combination therapy of chemotherapy and PDT. They synthesized diatomaceous earth mesoporous silica nanoparticles (dMSN) containing lanthanide metal ions in a PDT composition. These nanoparticles can generate ROS under near-infrared light irradiation and have MRI and fluorescence imaging capabilities, confirming their phototherapeutic effect on HCT116 cancer cells at a 200 µg/mL concentration. Fucoidan, derived from brown algae, was used as the chemotherapy component. The fucoidan extracted from Sargassum oligocystum in Pingtung Haikou showed the highest anticancer activity, with cell viability of 57.4 % at 200 µg/mL on HCT116 cancer cells. For combination therapy, fucoidan was loaded into nanoparticles (dMSN-EuGd@fucoidan). Cell viability experiments revealed that at 200 µg/mL, the cell survival rate of dMSN-EuGd@Fucoidan on HCT116 cancer cells was 47.7 %. Combination therapy demonstrated superior anticancer efficacy compared to PDT or chemotherapy alone, successfully synthesizing nanoparticles for combined chemotherapy and photodynamic therapy.

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles with dual-targeting agricultural sources for enhanced cancer treatment via tritherapy.

In this study, we introduced dual-targeting folic acid (FA) and hyaluronic acid (HA) modified on the surface of rice husk mesoporous silica nanoparticles (rMSNs). The rMSNs were employed as a drug delivery system loaded with camptothecin (CPT) as a model drug, Eu3+ ions as a photosensitizer for photodynamic therapy (PDT), bismuth (Bi) for photothermal therapy (PTT), and Gd3+ ions for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to develop novel nanoparticles, rMSN-EuGd-Bi@CPT-HA-FA, with dual-targeted function and triple therapy for cancer treatment. The results of the cell cytotoxicity experiment showed that the A549 cancer cells had a survival rate of approximately 35% when treated with 200 µg mL-1 of rMSN-EuGd-Bi@CPT-HA-FA under 808 nm irradiation for 15 min. The dual-targeted function and synergistic treatment of CPT, PTT, and PDT were also responsible for the 20% survival rate of the A549 cancer cells treated with 200 µg mL-1 of rMSN-EuGd-Bi@CPT-HA-FA under 808 nm irradiation for 30 min. The results showed that rMSN-EuGd-Bi@CPT-HA-FA can effectively combine chemotherapy (through CPT), PDT, and PTT for cancer treatment.

Bioactivity of crude fucoidan extracted from Sargassum ilicifolium (Turner) C. Agardh.

Fucoidan derived from brown algae has been shown to exhibit antitumor and antioxidant effects, so research on sulfated polysaccharides is increasing. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the characteristics and biological activity of fucoidan that was extracted at two temperatures (65 and 80 °C) from Sargassum ilicifolium (Turner) C. Agardh from five regions of Taiwan. The data show that there are significant differences in the yield, sulfate and total sugar content of Sargassum ilicifolium (Turner) C. Agardh grown in different locations in the same sea area. HPLC was used to determine the monosaccharide compositions of the fucoidan, which contains fucose, mannose, mannose, glucose and galactose and have a low molecular weight of less than 5 kDa, and then we will select the algae collected in Fugang, Taitung, for further biological activity research. The sampled Sargassum ilicifolium (Turner) C. Agardh at all five locations has a good polyphenol content, and it shows great DPPH radical scavenging activity, ABTS radical scavenging activity, Ferrous ion-chelating activity and Reducing power. The Sargassum ilicifolium (Turner) C. Agardh that was collected from Taitung Fugang is not toxic to L929 normal cells, but for A549 cancer cells and HCT116 cancer cells, it is known from the results that it has good cytotoxicity for A549 cancer cells. Thus, this study found that the Sargassum ilicifolium (Turner) C. Agardh that was collected from Taitung Fugang has significant antioxidant and anticancer properties.

Fucoidan with three functions extracted from Sargassum aquifolium integrated rice-husk synthesis dual-imaging mesoporous silica nanoparticle.

In this study, we used the nanoparticle delivery system to reduce the side effect of conventional cancer treatment- radiation therapy and chemotherapy. We used rice husk silicon source mesoporous silica nanoparticle doped in Eu3+ and Gd3+ as the carrier in the delivery system and to enable fluorescence and MRI dual-imaging functions for follow-up therapy. In addition, we choose a popular seaweed extract-fucoidan was extracted from the same brown algae-Sargassum aquifolium collected from Taiwan-Pingtung-Kenting-Chuanfan Rock. In this research, we used acid hydrolysis to prepared two different molecular weight fucoidan, the small molecular fucoidan (Fus) as drug, and the molecular weight approximately 1 kDa fucoidan (Ful) as the nanoparticle gatekeeper, and as targeting molecule for overexpressed P-selectin on the surface of the metastatic tumors. The results of the cell cytotoxicity experiment showed that HCT116 cancer cells have a survival rate of approximately 58.12% when treated with 200 µg/mL fucoidan. Dual-imaging rice husk mesoporous silica nanoparticles (rMSN-EuGd) were modified with 1 kDa fucoidan (Ful) as the gatekeeper and target, and the small molecule fucoidan (Fus) was loaded into nanoparticles (Ful-Fus@rMSN-EuGd) at a concentration of 200 µg/mL. The HCT116 cancer cells had a survival rate of approximately 55.56%. The cell cytotoxicity experiment results show that Ful-Fus@rMSN-EuGd can improve the anticancer effect of fucoidan, and the nanoparticle drug delivery system using fucoidan as a drug, target, and gatekeeper was successfully synthesized.

Drug delivery system with dual imaging and dual response control drug release functions for chemo-photodynamic synergistic therapy.

Traditional treatment of cancers such as chemotherapy still causes many side effects after the treatment even nowadays, therefore combination therapies by using drug delivery systems are valued by more and more scientists. However, loading multiple drugs in the nanoparticles for drug delivery system may cause insufficient drugs or functional groups, which might let the nanomaterial have fewer functions. Therefore, making the mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) have photodynamic therapy function by "doping " lanthanide ions into the material structure, can evade this problem. Moreover, with the doping of lanthanide metals, the MSNs can have not only dual imaging functions of both magnetic resonance imaging and fluorescence, but also achieve photodynamic function. To feature the material with more function, chemotherapeutic drug-doxorubicin was loaded into the pores of MSNs and then bonded hyaluronic acid which is the active target and a gatekeeper, on the surface of MSNs. Finally, an all-in-one drug delivery system" Hyaluronidase and pH-responsive mesoporous silica nanoparticles with dual-imaging activity for chemo-photodynamic therapy" is synthesized. The first part in this experiment was to confirm the physical properties of the lanthanides dopped MSN and its photodynamic treatment effect. The second part was to confirm that each organic molecule had been successfully bonded to the surface of the MSN and achieve pH and Hyaluronidase response drug release effect, The last part was to prove that the drug delivery system had a significant anticancer effect through cell experiments.

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles with fluorescent and magnetic dual-imaging properties to deliver fucoidan.

Fucoidan is a sulfated polysaccharide that is mainly extracted from brown algae. In this study, a simple and efficient method of hot water extraction, which is commonly used in industry, was used to obtain crude polysaccharides. Furthermore, agricultural waste was our source of biogenic silica, and it was then synthesized into drug carrier-nanoparticles. In combination with a popular drug delivery system, the carrier was doped with a dual imaging lanthanide metal and loaded with the drug. Fucoidan has decent bioactivities, such as anticancer activity. The extracted fucoidan is expensive, but we can exploit the nanocarrier to reduce the necessary dose of fucoidan. The experimental section is divided into three parts. The first part analyzed the chemical properties and antioxidant activity of the extracted fucoidan. The second part endowed the material with fluorescent and magnetic dual-imaging properties by incorporating Eu3+ and Gd3+ during the synthesis of rice husk mesoporous silica nanoparticles (rMSNs). The third part tested the anti-cancer ability of rMSN-EuGd@Fucoidan. The drug delivery system rMSN-EuGd@Fucoidan, which was synthesized in this research, showed cytotoxicity against A549 cancer cells. The results of the cell viability tests for fucoidan and rMSN-EuGd@Fucoidan were 58% and 47%, respectively. After inverse calculation from the TGA data yielded a value of 54.5%, we determined that the amount of fucoidan loaded in rMSN-EuGd@Fucoidan was 109 µg. Our results showed that rMSN-EuGd@Fucoidan needs less fucoidan to be effective, and its toxicity against A549 cells is higher than that of fucoidan.