Ultrabright Green-Emissive Nanodots for Precise Biological Visualization.

Developing general methods to fabricate water-dispersible and biocompatible fluorescent probes will promote different biological visualization applications. Herein, we report a metal-facilitated method to fabricate ultrabright green-emissive nanodots via the one-step solvothermal treatment of rose bengal, ethanol, and various metal ions. These metal-doped nanodots show good water dispersity, ultrahigh photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs) (e.g., the PLQY of Fe-doped nanodots (FeNDs) was ∼97%), and low phototoxicity. Owing to the coordination effect of metal ions, the FeNDs realize glutathione detection with outstanding properties. Benefiting from the high endoplasmic reticulum (ER) affinity of the chloride group, the FeNDs can act as an ER tracker with long ER imaging capacity (FeNDs: >24 h; commercial ER tracker: ∼1 h) and superb photostability and can achieve tissue visualization in living Caenorhabditis elegans. The metal-doped nanodots represent a general nanodot preparation method and may shed new light on diverse biological visualization uses.

Devastating the Supply Wagons: Multifaceted Liposomes Capable of Exhausting Tumor to Death via Triple Energy Depletion.

The anabolism of tumor cells can not only support their proliferation, but also endow them with a steady influx of exogenous nutrients. Therefore, consuming metabolic substrates or limiting access to energy supply can be an effective strategy to impede tumor growth. Herein, a novel treatment paradigm of starving-like therapy-triple energy-depleting therapy-is illustrated by glucose oxidase (GOx)/dc-IR825/sorafenib liposomes (termed GISLs), and such a triple energy-depleting therapy exhibits a more effective tumor-killing effect than conventional starvation therapy that only cuts off one of the energy supplies. Specifically, GOx can continuously consume glucose and generate toxic H2O2 in the tumor microenvironment (including tumor cells). After endocytosis, dc-IR825 (a near-infrared cyanine dye) can precisely target mitochondria and exert photodynamic and photothermal activities upon laser irradiation to destroy mitochondria. The anti-angiogenesis effect of sorafenib can further block energy and nutrition supply from blood. This work exemplifies a facile and safe method to exhaust the energy in a tumor from three aspects and starve the tumor to death and also highlights the importance of energy depletion in tumor treatment. It is hoped that this work will inspire the development of more advanced platforms that can combine multiple energy depletion therapies to realize more effective tumor treatment.

Fluorescent carbon dots for discriminating cell types: a review.

Carbon dots (CDs) are quasi-spherical carbon nanoparticles with excellent photoluminescence, good biocompatibility, favorable photostability, and easily modifiable surfaces. CDs, serving as fluorescent probes, have emerged as an ideal tool for cellular differentiation owing to their outstanding luminescence performance and tunable surface properties. In this review, we summarize the recent research progress with CDs in the differentiation of cancer/normal cells, Gram-positive/Gram-negative bacteria, and live/dead cells, as well as the cellular differences used for differentiation. Additionally, we summarize the preparation methods, raw materials, and properties of the CDs used for cell discrimination. The differentiation mechanisms and the advantages or limitations of the differentiation methods are also introduced. Finally, we propose several research challenges in this field and future research directions that require extensive investigation. It is hoped that this review will help researchers in the design of new CDs as ideal fluorescent probes for realizing diverse cell differentiation applications.

Apoptosis-Amplified Assembly of Porphyrin Nanofiber Enhances Photodynamic Therapy of Oral Tumor.

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common oral cancer, having high recurrence and metastasis features. In addition to surgery, photodynamic therapy (PDT) is considered as another effective approach for OSCC treatment. The water solubility of currently available PDT photosensitizers (PSs) is poor, lowering their singlet oxygen (1O2) yield and consequent PDT efficiency. Strategies of PS assembly have been reported to increase 1O2 yield, but it is still possible to further enhance PDT efficiency. In this work, we utilized apoptosis to amplify the assembly of porphyrin nanofibers for enhanced PDT of OSCC. A water-soluble porphyrin derivative, Ac-Asp-Glu-Val-Asp-Asp-TPP (Ac-DEVDD-TPP), was designed for this purpose. Upon caspase-3 (Casp3, an activated enzyme during apoptosis) cleavage and laser irradiation, Ac-DEVDD-TPP was converted to D-TPP, which spontaneously self-assembled into porphyrin nanofibers, accompanied by 1.4-fold and 2.1-fold 1O2 generations in vitro and in cells, respectively. The as-formed porphyrin nanofiber induced efficient cell apoptosis and pyroptosis. In vivo experiments demonstrated that, compared with the scrambled control compound Ac-DEDVD-TPP, Ac-DEVDD-TPP led to 6.2-fold and 1.3-fold expressions of Casp3 in subcutaneous and orthotopic oral tumor models, respectively, and significantly suppressed the tumors. We envision that our strategy of apoptosis-amplified porphyrin assembly might be applied for OSCC treatment in the clinic in the near future.

See the Unseen: Red-Emissive Carbon Dots for Visualizing the Nucleolar Structures in Two Model Animals and In Vivo Drug Toxicity.

Nucleolus, which participates in many crucial cellular activities, is an ideal target for evaluating the state of a cell or an organism. Here, bright red-emissive carbon dots (termed CPCDs) with excitation-independent/polarity-dependent fluorescence emission are synthesized by a one-step hydrothermal reaction between congo red and p-phenylenediamine. The CPCDs can achieve wash-free, real-time, long-term, and high-quality nucleolus imaging in live cells, as well as in vivo imaging of two common model animals-zebrafish and Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans). Strikingly, CPCDs realize the nucleolus imaging of organs/flowing blood cells in zebrafish at a cellular level for the first time, and the superb nucleolus imaging of C. elegans suggests that the germ cells in the spermatheca probably have no intact nuclei. These previously unachieved imaging results of the cells/tissues/organs may guide the zebrafish-related studies and benefit the research of C. elegans development. More importantly, a novel strategy based on CPCDs for in vivo toxicity evaluation of materials/drugs (e.g., Ag+ ), which can visualize the otherwise unseen injuries in zebrafish, is developed. In conclusion, the CPCDs represent a robust tool for visualizing the structures and dynamic behaviors of live zebrafish and C. elegans, and may find important applications in cell biology and toxicology.

Structural Characterization, Functional Profiling, and Mechanism Study of Four Antimicrobial Peptides for Antibacterial and Anticancer Applications.

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are potent compounds for treating bacterial infection and cancer, drawing ever-increasing interest. However, the function and mechanism of most AMPs remain to be explored. In this research, we focused on investigating the antibacterial and anticancer activities of four AMPs (Dhvar4, Lasioglossin-III, Macropin 1, and Temporin La) and the possible corresponding mechanisms. All four AMPs are cationic α-helical with moderate hydrophobicity and high helicity. They have broad-spectrum antibacterial capacities, among which the antibacterial activities of Dhvar4 and Temporin La are not as effective as Lasioglossin-III and Macropin 1. Macropin 1 exhibited the highest antibacterial effect with a pretty low minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 2-8 µM. Meanwhile, Lasioglossin-III exhibited the strongest anticancer activities, displaying the IC50 of 26.36 µM for A549 and 7.75 µM for HepG2. Although Dhvar4 possessed the highest positive charge and entered the bacterial and animal cells in large amounts, it displayed the lowest bactericidal and anticancer activities which might be ascribed to its lowest hydrophobicity and thus the weakest cell membrane damage capability. It seems that the positive charge and cell internalization play a supporting rather than a determined role in antibacterial and anticancer activities of AMPs. All the four AMPs damaged the bacterial cell membrane with Macropin 1 damaging the cell membrane of Escherichia coli the most and Lasioglossin-III destroying the cell membrane of Staphylococcus aureus the worst. In addition, the animal cellular internalization of the four peptides was temperature-dependent and mainly mediated by caveolae-mediated endocytosis, and they were distributed in lysosomes once inside the cells. These findings expand our knowledge on the function and mechanism of AMPs, laying the fundamental theoretical basis for designing and engineering AMPs for infection and cancer treatment.

Tandem Guest-Host-Receptor Recognitions Precisely Guide Ciprofloxacin to Eliminate Intracellular Staphylococcus aureus.

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is able to hide within host cells to escape immune clearance and antibiotic action, causing life-threatening infections. To boost the therapeutic efficacy of antibiotics, new intracellular delivery approaches are urgently needed. Herein, by rational design of an adamantane (Ada)-containing antibiotic-peptide precursor Ada-Gly-Tyr-Val-Ala-Asp-Cys(StBu)-Lys(Ciprofloxacin)-CBT (Cip-CBT-Ada), we propose a strategy of tandem guest-host-receptor recognitions to precisely guide ciprofloxacin to eliminate intracellular S. aureus. Via guest-host recognition, Cip-CBT-Ada is decorated with a ß-cyclodextrin-heptamannoside (CD-M) derivative to yield Cip-CBT-Ada/CD-M, which is able to target mannose receptor-overexpressing macrophages via multivalent ligand-receptor recognition. After uptake, Cip-CBT-Ada/CD-M undergoes caspase-1 (an overexpressed enzyme during S. aureus infection)-initiated CBT-Cys click reaction to self-assemble into ciprofloxacin nanoparticle Nano-Cip. In vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrate that, compared with ciprofloxacin or Cip-CBT-Ada, Cip-CBT-Ada/CD-M shows superior intracellular bacteria elimination and inflammation alleviation efficiency in S. aureus-infected RAW264.7 cells and mouse infection models, respectively. This work provides a supramolecular platform of tandem guest-host-receptor recognitions to precisely guide antibiotics to eliminate intracellular S. aureus infection efficiently.

Rose Bengal-Derived Ultrabright Sulfur-Doped Carbon Dots for Fast Discrimination between Live and Dead Cells.

The discrimination between dead and live cells is crucial for cell viability evaluation. Carbon dots (CDs), with advantages like simple and cost-effective synthesis, excellent biocompatibility, and high photostability, have shown potential for realizing selective live/dead cell staining. However, most of the developed CDs with the live/dead cell discrimination capacity usually have low photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs) and excitation wavelength-dependent fluorescence emission (which can cause fluorescence overlap with other fluorescent probes and make dual-color live/dead staining impossible), and hence, developing ultrabright CDs with excitation wavelength-independent fluorescence emission property for live/dead cell discrimination becomes an important task. Here, using a one-pot hydrothermal method, we prepared ultrasmall (∼1.6 nm), ultrabright (PLQY: ∼78%), and excitation wavelength-independent sulfur-doped carbon dots (termed S-CDs) using rose bengal and 1,4-dimercaptobenzene as raw materials and demonstrated that the S-CDs could rapidly (∼5 min) and accurately distinguish dead cells from live ones for almost all the cell types including bacterial, fungal, and animal cells in a wash-free manner. We confirmed that the S-CDs could rapidly pass through the dead cell surfaces to enter the interior of the dead cells, thus visualizing these dead cells. In contrast, the S-CDs could not enter the interior of live cells and thus could not stain these live cells. We further verified that the S-CDs presented better biocompatibility and higher photostability than the commercial live/dead staining dye propidium iodide, ensuring its bright application prospect in cell imaging and cell viability assessment. Overall, this work develops a type of CDs capable of realizing the live/dead cell discrimination of almost all the cell types (bacterial, fungal, and animal cells), which has seldom been achieved by other fluorescent nanoprobes.

Chemodynamic Therapy via Fenton and Fenton-Like Nanomaterials: Strategies and Recent Advances.

Chemodynamic therapy (CDT), a novel cancer therapeutic strategy defined as the treatment using Fenton or Fenton-like reaction to produce •OH in the tumor region, was first proposed by Bu, Shi, and co-workers in 2016. Recently, with the rapid development of Fenton and Fenton-like nanomaterials, CDT has attracted tremendous attention because of its unique advantages: 1) It is tumor-selective with low side effects; 2) the CDT process does not depend on external field stimulation; 3) it can modulate the hypoxic and immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment; 4) the treatment cost of CDT is low. In addition to the Fe-involved CDT strategies, the Fenton-like reaction-mediated CDT strategies have also been proposed, which are based on many other metal elements including copper, manganese, cobalt, titanium, vanadium, palladium, silver, molybdenum, ruthenium, tungsten, cerium, and zinc. Moreover, CDT has been combined with other therapies like chemotherapy, radiotherapy, phototherapy, sonodynamic therapy, and immunotherapy for achieving enhanced anticancer effects. Besides, there have also been studies that extend the application of CDT to the antibacterial field. This review introduces the latest advancements in the nanomaterials-involved CDT from 2018 to the present and proposes the current limitations as well as future research directions in the related field.

Platinum-Coordinated Dual-Responsive Nanogels for Universal Drug Delivery and Combination Cancer Therapy.

Developing a universal nanoplatform for efficient delivery of various drugs to target sites is urgent for overcoming various biological barriers and realizing combinational cancer treatment. Nanogels, with the advantages of both hydrogels and nanoparticles, may hold potential for addressing the above issue. Here, a dual-responsive nanogel platform (HPC nanogel) is constructed using ß-cyclodextrin-conjugated hyaluronic acid (HA-ßCD), polyethyleneimine (PEI), and cisplatin. HA-ßCD and PEI compose the skeleton of the nanogel, and cisplatin molecules provide the junctions inside the skeleton, thus affording a multiple interactions-based nanogel. Besides, HA endows the nanogel with hyaluronidase (HAase)-responsiveness, and cisplatin guarantees the glutathione (GSH)-responsive ability, which make the nanogel a dual-responsive platform that can degrade and release the loaded drugs when encountering HAase or GSH. Additionally, the HPC nanogel possesses excellent small-molecule drug and protein loading and intracellular delivery capabilities. Especially, for proteins, their intracellular delivery via nanogels is not hindered by serum proteins, and the enzymes delivered into cells still maintain their catalytic activities. Furthermore, the nanogel can codeliver different cargoes to achieve "cocktail" chemotherapeutic efficacy and realize combination cancer therapy. Overall, the HPC nanogel can serve as a multifunctional platform capable of delivering desired drugs to treat cancer or other diseases.

Long-Chain Poly-d-Lysines Interact with the Plasma Membrane and Induce Protective Autophagy and Intense Cell Necrosis.

Polylysines have been frequently used in drug delivery and antimicrobial and cell adhesion studies. Because of steric hindrance, chirality plays a major role in the functional difference between poly-l-lysine (PLL) and poly-d-lysine (PDL), especially when they interact with the plasma membranes of mammalian cells. Therefore, it is speculated that the interaction between chiral polylysines and the plasma membrane may cause different cellular behaviors. Here, we carefully investigated the interaction pattern of PLL and PDL with plasma membranes. We found that PDL could be anchored onto the plasma membrane and interact with the membrane lipids, leading to the rapid morphological change and death of A549 cells (a human lung cancer cell line) and HPAEpiCs (a human pulmonary alveolar epithelial cell line). In contrast, PLL exhibited good cytocompatibility and was not anchored onto the plasma membranes of these cells. Unlike PLL, PDL could trigger protective autophagy to prevent cells in a certain degree, and the PDL-caused cell death occurred via intense necrosis (featured by increased intracellular Ca2+ content and plasma membrane disruption). In addition, it was found that the short-chain PDL with a repeat unit number of 9 (termed DL9) could locate in lysosomes and induce autophagy at high concentrations, but it could not elicit drastic cell death, which proved that the repeat unit number of polylysine could affect its cellular action. This research confirms that the interaction between chiral polylysines and the plasma membrane can induce autophagy and intense necrosis, which provides guidance for the future studies of chiral molecules/drugs.

Endoplasmic reticulum stress promotes the release of exosomal PD-L1 from head and neck cancer cells and facilitates M2 macrophage polarization.

BACKGROUND: Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress has been found to foster the escape of cancer cells from immune surveillance and upregulate PD-L1 expression. However, the underlying mechanisms are unknown. METHODS: While analyzing the protein levels using immunofluorescence and Western blotting, the RNA levels were measured using qRT-PCR. Ten injection of exosomes into six-week-old nude mice was made through the tail vein once every other day in total. RESULTS: The expression of certain ER stress markers such as PERK (PKR-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase), ATF6 (activating transcription factor 6), and GRP78 (glucose-regulated protein 78), was found to be upregulated in the oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) tissues and related to poor overall survival. There is a positive relationship between the extent of ER stress-related proteins and a cluster of PD-L1 expression and macrophage infiltration among the OSCC tissues. Further, incubation with exosomes derived from ER-stressed HN4 cells (Exo-ER) was found to upregulate PD-L1 extents in macrophages in vitro and in vivo, and macrophage polarization toward the M2 subtype was promoted by upregulating PD-L1. CONCLUSIONS: ER stress causes OSCC cells to secrete exosomal PD-L1 and upregulates PD-L1 expression in macrophages to drive M2 macrophage polarization. The delineation of a new exosome-modulated mechanism was made for OSCC-macrophage crosstalk driving tumor development and to be examined for its therapeutic use. Exosomal PD-L1 secreted by ER-stressed OSCC cells promoted M2 macrophage polarization. Video Abstract.

Transmembrane transport process and endoplasmic reticulum function facilitate the role of gene cel1b in cellulase production of Trichoderma reesei.

BACKGROUND: A total of 11 ß-glucosidases are predicted in the genome of Trichoderma reesei, which are of great importance for regulating cellulase biosynthesis. Nevertheless, the relevant function and regulation mechanism of each ß-glucosidase remained unknown. RESULTS: We evidenced that overexpression of cel1b dramatically decreased cellulase synthesis in T. reesei RUT-C30 both at the protein level and the mRNA level. In contrast, the deletion of cel1b did not noticeably affect cellulase production. Protein CEL1B was identified to be intracellular, being located in vacuole and cell membrane. The overexpression of cel1b reduced the intracellular pNPGase activity and intracellular/extracellular glucose concentration without inducing carbon catabolite repression. On the other hand, RNA-sequencing analysis showed the transmembrane transport process and endoplasmic reticulum function were affected noticeably by overexpressing cel1b. In particular, some important sugar transporters were notably downregulated, leading to a compromised cellular uptake of sugars including glucose and cellobiose. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggests that the cellulase inhibition by cel1b overexpression was not due to the ß-glucosidase activity, but probably the dysfunction of the cellular transport process (particularly sugar transport) and endoplasmic reticulum (ER). These findings advance the knowledge of regulation mechanism of cellulase synthesis in filamentous fungi, which is the basis for rationally engineering T. reesei strains to improve cellulase production in industry.

Carbon dots for multicolor cell imaging and ultra-sensitive detection of multiple ions in living cells: One Stone for multiple Birds.

Given the significant impact of ions on environment pollution and human health, it is urgently needed to establish effective and convenient ion detection approaches, particularly in living cells. In this paper, we constructed multicolor N-doped-carbon dots (mPD-CDs) by facile one-step hydrothermal carbonization of m-phenylenediamine (mPD). mPD-CDs were successfully deployed for multicolor cellular imaging for animal cells, fungi, and bacteria in a wash-free way with high photostability and satisfactory biocompability. Moreover, mPD-CDs can be used as a fluorescent sensing probe for ultrasensitive detection of both iodide ion (I-) and typical heavy metals such as cadmium (Cd2+), copper (Cu2+), mercury (Hg2+), gadolinium (Gd3+), ferrous ion (Fe2+), Zinc (Zn2+), and ferric ion (Fe3+). This is the first report using CDs as optical sensing probe for the detection of Gd3+, and for detection of Fe3+ with fluorescence "turn on". More significantly, with these versatile and fascinating properties, we applied mPD-CDs for intracellular ion detection in living cells like Hep G2 and S. cerevisiae, and zebra fish. Altogether, mPD-CDs displayed great potential for multicolor cell imaging and the multiple ion detection in vitro and in vivo, presenting a promising strategy for in-situ ultrasensitive sensing of multiple metal ions in the environment and the biological systems.

Cell surface-localized imaging and sensing.

Systematically dissecting the molecular basis of the cell surface as well as its related biological activities is considered as one of the most cutting-edge fields in fundamental sciences. The advent of various advanced cell imaging techniques allows us to gain a glimpse of how the cell surface is structured and coordinated with other cellular components to respond to intracellular signals and environmental stimuli. Nowadays, cell surface-related studies have entered a new era featured by a redirected aim of not just understanding but artificially manipulating/remodeling the cell surface properties. To meet this goal, biologists and chemists are intensely engaged in developing more maneuverable cell surface labeling strategies by exploiting the cell's intrinsic biosynthetic machinery or direct chemical/physical binding methods for imaging, sensing, and biomedical applications. In this review, we summarize the recent advances that focus on the visualization of various cell surface structures/dynamics and accurate monitoring of the microenvironment of the cell surface. Future challenges and opportunities in these fields are discussed, and the importance of cell surface-based studies is highlighted.

Intracellular Enzyme-Instructed Self-Assembly of Peptides (IEISAP) for Biomedical Applications.

Despite the remarkable significance and encouraging breakthroughs of intracellular enzyme-instructed self-assembly of peptides (IEISAP) in disease diagnosis and treatment, a comprehensive review that focuses on this topic is still desirable. In this article, we carefully review the advances in the applications of IEISAP, including the development of various bioimaging techniques, such as fluorescence imaging, photoacoustic imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, positron-emission tomography imaging, radiation imaging, and multimodal imaging, which are successfully leveraged in visualizing cancer tissues and cells, bacteria, and enzyme activity. We also summarize the utilization of IEISAP in disease treatments, including anticancer, antibacterial, and antiinflammation applications, among others. We present the design, action modes, structures, properties, functions, and performance of IEISAP materials, such as nanofibers, nanoparticles, nanoaggregates, and hydrogels. Finally, we conclude with an outlook towards future developments of IEISAP materials for biomedical applications. It is believed that this review may foster the future development of IEISAP with better performance in the biomedical field.

Repurposing Erythrocytes as a "Photoactivatable Bomb": A General Strategy for Site-Specific Drug Release in Blood Vessels.

Tumor vasculature has long been considered as an extremely valuable therapeutic target for cancer therapy, but how to realize controlled and site-specific drug release in tumor blood vessels remains a huge challenge. Despite the widespread use of nanomaterials in constructing drug delivery systems, they are suboptimal in principle for meeting this demand due to their easy blood cell adsorption/internalization and short lifetime in the systemic circulation. Here, natural red blood cells (RBCs) are repurposed as a remote-controllable drug vehicle, which retains RBC's morphology and vessel-specific biodistribution pattern, by installing photoactivatable molecular triggers on the RBC membrane via covalent conjugation with a finely tuned modification density. The molecular triggers can burst the RBC vehicle under short and mild laser irradiation, leading to a complete and site-specific release of its payloads. This cell-based vehicle is generalized by loading different therapeutic agents including macromolecular thrombin, a blood clotting-inducing enzyme, and a small-molecule hypoxia-activatable chemodrug, tirapazamine. In vivo results demonstrate that the repurposed "anticancer RBCs" exhibit long-term stability in systemic circulation but, when tumors receive laser irradiation, precisely releases their cargoes in tumor vessels for thrombosis-induced starvation therapy and local deoxygenation-enhanced chemotherapy. This study proposes a general strategy for blood vessel-specific drug delivery.

Dual Gate-Controlled Therapeutics for Overcoming Bacterium-Induced Drug Resistance and Potentiating Cancer Immunotherapy.

The presence of bacteria in the tumor can cause cancer resistance to chemotherapeutics. To fight against bacterium-induced drug resistance, herein we design self-traceable nanoreservoirs that are simultaneously loaded with gemcitabine (an anticancer drug) and ciprofloxacin (an antibiotic) and are decorated with hyaluronic acid for active tumor targeting. The nanoreservoirs have a pH-sensitive gate and an enzyme-responsive gate that can be opened in the acidic and hyaluronidase-abundant tumor microenvironment to control drug release rates. Moreover, the nanoreservoirs can specifically target the tumor regions without eliciting evident toxicity to normal tissues, kill the intratumoral bacteria, and inhibit the tumor growth even in the presence of the bacteria. Unexpectedly, the nanoreservoirs can activate T cell-mediated immune responses through promoting antigen-presenting dendritic cell maturation and depleting immunosuppressive myeloid-derived suppressor cells in bacterium-infected tumors.

A Glucose/Oxygen-Exhausting Nanoreactor for Starvation- and Hypoxia-Activated Sustainable and Cascade Chemo-Chemodynamic Therapy.

Fenton reaction-mediated chemodynamic therapy (CDT) can kill cancer cells via the conversion of H2 O2 to highly toxic HO•. However, problems such as insufficient H2 O2 levels in the tumor tissue and low Fenton reaction efficiency severely limit the performance of CDT. Here, the prodrug tirapazamine (TPZ)-loaded human serum albumin (HSA)-glucose oxidase (GOx) mixture is prepared and modified with a metal-polyphenol network composed of ferric ions (Fe3+ ) and tannic acid (TA), to obtain a self-amplified nanoreactor termed HSA-GOx-TPZ-Fe3+ -TA (HGTFT) for sustainable and cascade cancer therapy with exogenous H2 O2 production and TA-accelerated Fe3+ /Fe2+ conversion. The HGTFT nanoreactor can efficiently convert oxygen into HO• for CDT, consume glucose for starvation therapy, and provide a hypoxic environment for TPZ radical-mediated chemotherapy. Besides, it is revealed that the nanoreactor can significantly elevate the intracellular reactive oxygen species content and hypoxia level, decrease the intracellular glutathione content, and release metal ions in the tumors for metal ion interference therapy (also termed "ion-interference therapy" or "metal ion therapy"). Further, the nanoreactor can also increase the tumor's hypoxia level and efficiently inhibit tumor growth. It is believed that this tumor microenvironment-regulable nanoreactor with sustainable and cascade anticancer performance and excellent biosafety represents an advance in nanomedicine.

Novel Type of Water-Soluble Photosensitizer from Trichoderma reesei for Photodynamic Inactivation of Gram-Positive Bacteria.

Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (APDT) is a promising alternative to traditional antibiotics for the treatment of bacterial infections, which inactivates a broad spectrum of bacteria. However, many traditional photosensitizers (PSs) are hydrophobic with poor water solubility and easy aggregation. On the other hand, some light sources such as ultraviolet (UV) have poor penetration and high cytotoxicity. Both issues lead to undesired photodynamic therapy efficacy. To overcome these issues, we develop a novel water-soluble natural PS (sorbicillinoids) obtained by microbial fermentation using recombinant filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei. Sorbicillinoids could effectively generate singlet oxygen (1O2) under UV light irradiation and ultimately display photoinactivation activity on Gram-positive bacteria including Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, and Micrococcus luteus but not Gram-negative ones such as Escherichia coli and Proteus vulgaris. Sorbicillinoids were found to enter S. aureus but not E. coli. S. aureus treated with sorbicillinoids and UV light displayed high levels of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), notable DNA photocleavage, and compromised cell semipermeability without overt cell membrane disruption, none of which was found in the treated E. coli. All these contribute to the sorbicillinoid-based photoinactivation of Gram-positive bacteria. Moreover, the dark toxicity and phototoxicity on mammalian cells or hemolysis activity of sorbicillinoids is negligible, showing its excellent biocompatibility. This study expands the utilization of UV light for surface sterilization to disinfection in solution. Therefore, sorbicillinoids, a type of secondary metabolite from fungus, have a promising future as a new PS for APDT using a nontoxic dose of UV irradiation.