Quercetin-loaded PLGA nanoparticles coating with macrophage membranes for targeted delivery in acute liver injury.

Quercetin (QU), a natural flavonoid with potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, holds promise in treating acute liver injury (ALI). Nonetheless, its limited solubility hampers its efficacy, and its systemic distribution lacks targeting, leading to off-target effects. To address these challenges, we developed macrophage membrane-coated quercetin-loaded PLGA nanoparticles (MVs-QU-NPs) for active ALI targeting. The resulting MVs-QU-NPs exhibited a spherical morphology with a clear core-shell structure. The average size and zeta potential were assessed as 141.70 ± 0.89 nm and -31.83 ± 0.76 mV, respectively. Further studies revealed sustained drug release characteristics from MVs-QU-NPs over a continuous period of 24 h. Moreover, these MVs-QU-NPs demonstrated excellent biocompatibility when tested on normal liver cells. The results of biodistribution analysis in ALI mice displayed the remarkable ALI-targeting ability of MVs-DiD-NPs, with the highest fluorescence intensity observed in liver tissue. This biomimetic approach combining macrophage membranes with nanoparticle delivery, holds great potential for targeted ALI treatment.

Biothiol-Functionalized Cuprous Oxide Sensor for Dual-Mode Sensitive Hg2+ Detection.

Hg2+ ions are one of the highly poisonous heavy metal ions in the environment, so it is urgent to develop rapid and sensitive detection platforms for detecting Hg2+ ions. In this work, a novel electrochemical and photoelectrochemical dual-mode sensor (l-Cys-Cu2O) was successfully fabricated, and the sensor exhibits a satisfactory detection limit (0.2 and 0.01 nM) for the detection of Hg2+, which is far below the dangerous limit of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The linear ranges of dual-mode Hg2+ detections were 0.33-3.3 and 0.17-1.33 µM, respectively. Moreover, the sensor shows desirable stability, selectivity, and reproducibility for detecting Hg2+ ions. For river water samples, the recoveries of 96.6-101.4% (electrochemical data) and 93.0-105.6% (photoelectrochemical data) were obtained, indicating that the sensor could be successfully applied in the determination of Hg2+ ions in environmental water. Therefore, the designed sensor has a potential in the trace-level detection of Hg2+ ions.

Effect of the isoelectric point of pH-responsive lignin-based amphoteric surfactant on the enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulose.

The isoelectric point (pI) of lignin-based surfactant is an important factor in the enhancement on the enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulose. In this work, lignin carboxylate (LC) and quaternary ammonium lignin carboxylates (LCQ-x, x%: the mass ratio of quaternizing agent to enzymatic hydrolysis lignin) with different isoelectric points were synthesized. LC or LCQ-x with pI significantly lower or higher than 4.8 reduced the non-productive adsorption of cellulase on lignin, but for the significant inhibitory effect on cellulase activity, their enhancements on the enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulose were not remarkable. However, LCQ-x with pI around 4.8 preserved the cellulase activity, and significantly reduced the non-productive adsorption of cellulase, therefore remarkably enhanced the enzymatic hydrolysis. 2 g/L LC, LCQ-40 (pI = 5.0) and LCQ-100 (pI = 9.2) increased the enzymatic digestibility of pretreated eucalyptus from 35.2% to 53.4%, 95.3% and 60.4% respectively. In addition, for the excellent pH-response performance, LCQ could be efficiently recovered after enzymatic saccharification.