Latest ArticlesInflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a refractory chronic intestinal inflammatory disease caused by a malfunction of immune system. As the key immune cells in the intestine, macrophages play an important role in maintaining intestinal homeostasis and tissue repair of the IBD. Pharmacological modulation of macrophage function exhibits the promising therapeutic effect for IBD. In this study, mannose-modified liposomes (MAN-LPs) are prepared for macrophage targeting to improve therapeutic efficiency. Rosiglitazone (ROSI) as an agonist of peroxisome proliferators-activated receptor γ (PPAR-γ) is used as the model drug to fabricate different sized liposomes. The impacts of mannose modification and particle size for macrophage targeting are investigated in cells, zebrafish, and mouse models and the therapeutic effects of the MAN-LPs are evaluated on dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced IBD mouse. Compared to unmodified liposome, MAN-LPs display higher uptake by RAW 264.7 cells and better co-localization with macrophage in zebrafish model. Furthermore, MAN-LPs could effectively accumulate in the inflammatory intestinal sites in IBD mouse model. Most importantly, the targeting ability of MAN-LPs is obviously enhanced with the increasing of particle size, whereas the largest MAN-LPs particles achieve the best anti-inflammatory effect in cells, and a higher therapeutic efficiency in IBD mouse model. Therefore, mannose-modified liposome is a promising strategy for macrophage-targeting in IBD treatment. Particle size of MAN-LPs will affect macrophage targeting ability, as well as the therapeutic effect in-vivo.
The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in late 2019 has negatively affected people's lives and productivity. Because the mode of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is of great concern, this review discusses the sources of virus aerosols and possible transmission routes. First, we discuss virus aerosol collection methods, including natural sedimentation, solid impact, liquid impact, centrifugal, cyclone and electrostatic adsorption methods. Then, we review common virus aerosol detection methods, including virus culture, metabolic detection, nucleic acid-based detection and immunology-based detection methods. Finally, possible solutions for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 aerosols are introduced. Point-of-care testing has long been a focus of attention. In the near future, the development of an instrument that integrates sampling and output results will enable the real-time, automatic monitoring of patients.
As a new concept having emerged in last few years, the "deep eutectic solvents" (DESs) effect integrated into the imprinting technology inevitably exposes design limitations of stimuli-responsive molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), as well as inadequate analysis of the adsorption performance of MIPs. Herein, a simple yet defined N-isopropylacrylamide/(3-acrylamidopropyl) trimethylammonium chloride (NIPAM/APTMAC) binary DESs system was proposed to prepare intelligent MIPs with thermo-sensitivity. Accordingly, magnetic and thermo-responsive MIPs based on functional monomers-derived DESs (TM-DESs-MIPs1) were synthesized, revealing DESs effect-regulated affinity/kinetics for the enhanced adsorption capability, eco-friendly thermo-regulated elution for high release efficiency, and simple magnetic separation, along with superior selectivity to rhein (RH) and good regeneration ability. TM-DESs-MIPs1 were utilized to extract RH from Cassiae semen samples coupled with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), yielding satisfactory recoveries (79.47%−110.82%) and low limits of detection (LOD) (16.67 µg/L). Another two kinds of MIPs adopting the thermo-responsive moiety-derived DESs effect strategy further demonstrated great applicability of such intelligent MIPs for analyses of complicated samples.
Organic long-persistent luminescence (LPL) materials, featuring low preparation cost, eco-friendly synthesis, and easy modification of functional groups, have exhibited extensive applications in information encryption, anti-counterfeiting, and biological imaging. Several design strategies including crystallization-inducement, H-aggregation, and host–guest doping to enhance persistent-room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) effect by precisely controlling intersystem crossing (ISC) constant and suppressing nonradiative decay rates, those are important strategies to enable LPL performance. Among the strategies, researchers have made several efforts to enhance persistent-RTP effect by host–guest interaction, in which the host matrices provide a rigid environment for phosphor guest molecules. The interaction of the luminescent guest molecules with the host matrix can effectively reduce the vibration and rotation of the luminescent molecules, and suppress the non-radiative inactivation, thereby improving the phosphorescence quantum yield. This review aims to summarize several design strategies of pure organic LPL materials based on persistent-RTP effect through host–guest interaction, and describe some applications of pure organic LPL materials in different fields.
Folding of molecules is an essential process in nature, and various molecular machines achieve their chemical and mechanical function via controlled folding of molecular conformations. The electric field offers a unique strategy to drive the folding of molecular conformation and to control charge transport through single molecules but remains unexplored. The single-molecule break junction technique provides access to detect the conformational changes via the monitoring of single-molecule conductance, and the electric field between two metal electrodes with nanoscale spacing can provide an extremely strong to achieve in-situ control and detection of molecular folding at the single-molecule level. Here, we use the electric field to control the single-molecule folding using the scanning tunneling microscope break junction (STM-BJ) technique. The electric fields induced folding could lead to a ~1400% conductance change of the single-molecule junctions, and the folding/unfolding process can be in-situ switched at the scale of milliseconds. DFT calculations suggest the conformational control originates from the electric field-induced charge injection, and the formation of homoconjugated conformation with the overlapped orbitals. This work provides the first demonstration of electric field-driven molecular folding, which is essential for the understanding of molecular machines in nature and for the design of artificial molecular machines.
While enol-keto tautomerism has attracted great interest in Schiff bases and related compounds in solution and crystal states, the self-assembly of energy-unfavored keto form were scarcely investigated. Here, we report a keto-form directed self-assembly of a naphthalene-attached enantiomeric N-salicylideneanil analog L/DGG-Nap accompanied with a significantly amplified circularly polarized luminescence (CPL). It was found that LGG-Nap exists as a mixture of enol and keto form in monomer at a diluted toluene solution. The increment of the concentrations leads to the formation of predominated keto form, which subsequently triggers the self-assembly. Cryo-transmission electron microscopy (Cryo-TEM) revealed that a hierarchical assembly process happened upon increasing the concentration of LGG-Nap in toluene. Individual nanofibers formed at 1 × 10−4 mol/L and transferred into helical nanofiber bundles in 5 × 10−3 mol/L. Interestingly, while these is nearly no circular dichroism (CD) or CPL in the monomeric solution, the assembly showed strong CD and CPL. Remarkably, the dissymmetry factor (glum) was significantly amplified from zero in solution through the 0.005 in individual nanofiber to 0.1 in nanofiber bundles. This work demonstrates that the enol-keto tautomerism can be broken and trigger the self-assembly upon increasing the concentration, which can subsequently direct the chiral self-assembly and significantly amplify the dissymmetry factor of assembled CPL materials.
Methane chemistry is one of the "Holy Grails of catalysis". It is highly desirable but challenge to transform methane into value-added chemicals, because of its high C-H bonding energy (435 kJ/mol), lack of π bonding or unpaired electrons. Currently, commercial methane conversion is usually carried out in harsh conditions with enormous energy input. Photocatalytic partial oxidation of methane to liquid oxygenates (PPOMO) is a future-oriented technology towards realizing high efficiency and high selectivity under mild conditions. The selection of oxidant is crucial to the PPOMO performance. Hence, attentions are paid to the research progress of PPOMO with various oxidants (O2, H2O, H2O2 and other oxidants). Moreover, the activation of the selected oxidants is also highly emphasized. Meanwhile, we summarized the methane activation mechanisms focusing on the C-H bond that was broken mainly by •OH radical, O− specie or photogenerated hole (h+). Finally, the challenges and prospects in this subject are briefly discussed.
Carbon dots (CDs) with superior fluorescence properties have attracted a growing number of research interests in anti-counterfeiting. However, the preparation of CDs with thermally turn-on fluorescence and full-color-emitting in visible spectrum is still a big challenge due to the complicated reaction mechanism in the formation of CDs. Here, a simple precursor-oriented strategy for the preparation of multicolor CDs with heat-stimuli turn-on fluorescence is reported. Comprehensive experimental characterizations and theoretical calculations revealed that the emission wavelength of CDs can be readily tuned from 460 nm to 654 nm with selected precursors, which was ascribed to the extent of conjugated sp2-domains (core states) and the amount of oxygen- and nitrogen-containing groups bound to sp2-domains (surface states). After simply mixing two or three kinds of CDs, a full-color range of fluorescence emission was realized, and the CDs-based fluorescence inks were successfully fabricated. Particularly, all the printed patterns from the inkjet exhibited a thermal-induced enhancement in fluorescence. On this basis, combining CDs with heating-induced "turn-off" fluorescence materials can lead to multidimensional and multistage encryption. These results demonstrate that the thermochromic and photochromic CDs with much more enhanced security exhibit promising application in data storage and encryption.
Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) have become a hotspot for electrochemical energy storage owing to the high safety, low cost, environmental friendliness, and favorable rate performance. However, the serious dissolution of cathode materials in aqueous electrolytes would lead to poor cyclability, which should be addressed before commercialization. Herein, we designed a Ti-doped V2O5 with yolk-shell microspherical structure for AZIBs. The Ti doping stabilizes the crystal structure and relieves the dissolution of V2O5 in aqueous ZnSO4 electrolyte. The optimized sample, Ti0.2V1.8O4.9, delivers a high capacity (355 mAh/g at 0.05 A/g) as well as good capacity retention (89% after 2500 cycles at 1.0 A/g). This work provides an effective strategy to mitigate the dissolution of cathode material in aqueous ZnSO4 electrolyte for cyclability enhancement.
Development of new metal-free heterogeneous catalysts has long been the focus of intense research interest. The integration of multifunctional monomers into the skeletons of porous organic polymers (POPs) provides an efficient pathway to achieve this goal. Herein, we rationally designed and successfully prepared a new Tröger's base (TB)-derived POPs by insertion of pillar[5]arene macrocycle as a positively auxiliary group. Combined the both merits of pillar[5]arene macrocycle and TB moiety, the as-prepared polymer was further explored as an effective metal-free heterogeneous catalyst and exhibited promoted catalytic performance in Knoevenagel condensation and CO2 conversion. This work provides a new strategy to fabricate metal-free heterogeneous catalysts based on macrocyclic POPs.
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