Latest ArticlesPlanktonic bacteria adhere and subsequently form biofilms on implantable medical devices can cause severe infections that have become the major types of hospital-acquired infections. Traditional coatings for the implants are frequently lack of long-term antifouling and bactericidal activities. It is still a big challenge to simultaneously improve the antifouling and bactericidal activities of the coatings. Herein, we report that mixed-charge glycopolypeptide coatings are of long-term antibacterial activities to efficiently inhibit the biofilm growth. The glycosylation of mixed-charge polypeptides has led to a significant improvement of both antifouling and bactericidal activities. The cooperative effect of the saccharide residues and mixed-charge residues improved the resistance of the polypeptide coatings against protein adsorption. The saccharide and L-glutamic acid (E) residues collectively enhanced the bacterial membrane-disruption of cationic L-lysine (K) residues, leading to potent bactericidal activity. Meanwhile, the glycopolypeptide coatings showed superior biocompatibility, long-term antibiofilm and anti-infection properties in two types of mouse subcutaneous infection models and one type of mouse urinary tract infection model. This work provides a new strategy to achieve antibacterial coatings with long-term activities for preventing implantable medical device associated infections.
Various chemical irrigants and drugs have been employed for intra-canal disinfection in root canal therapy (RCT). However, due to the complexity of root canal anatomy, many drugs still exhibit poor penetrability and antibiotic resistance, leading to suboptimal treatment outcomes. Thus, it is challenging to remove the organic biofilms from root canals. In recent years, light-responsive therapy, with deeper tissue penetration than traditional treatments, has emerged as an effective RCT modality. Herein, this review summarizes the recent development of light-responsive nanomaterials for biofilm removal in RCT. The light-responsive nanomaterials and the corresponding therapeutic methods in RCT, including photodynamic therapy (PDT), photothermal therapy (PTT), and laser-activated therapy, are highlighted. Finally, the challenges that light-responsive nanomaterials and treatment modalities will encounter to conquer the biofilm in future RCT are discussed. This review is believed to significantly accelerate the future development of light-responsive nanomaterials for RCT from bench to bedside.
The complexity of living environment system demands higher requirements for the sensitivity and selectivity of the probe. Therefore, it is of great importance to develop a universal strategy for high-performance probe optimization. Herein, we propose a novel “Enrichment-enhanced Detection” strategy and use carbon dots-dopamine detection system as a representative model to evaluate its feasibility. The composite probe carbon dots (CDs)-encapsulated in glycol-chitosan (GC) (i.e., CDs@GC) was obtained by simply mixing GC and CDs through noncovalent interactions, including electrostatic interactions and hydrogen bonding. Dopamine (DA) could be detected through internal filter effect (IFE)-induced quenching of CDs. In the case of CDs@GC, noncovalent interactions (electrostatic interactions) between GC and the formed quinone (oxide of DA) could selectively extract and enrich the local concentration of DA, thus effectively improving the sensitivity and selectivity of the sensing system. The nanosensor had a low detection limit of 3.7 nmol/L, which was a 12-fold sensitivity improvement compared to the bare CDs probes with similar fluorescent profiles, proving the feasibility of the “Enrichment-enhanced Detection” strategy. Further, to examine this theory in real case, we designed a highly portable sensing platform to realize visual determination of DA. Overall, our work introduces a new strategy for accurately detecting DA and provides valuable insights for the universal design and optimization of superior nanoprobes.
Chiral coordination molecular cages/capsules with discrete nanoconfined chiral cavities demonstrate significant potential applications across various fields. In this study, we utilized Tröger's base as the building block to design and synthesize two pairs of enantiopure ligands. These ligands were then self-assembled with Pd(Ⅱ) ions through chiral self-sorting coordination, resulting in the formation of two pairs of homochiral M2L4-type coordination molecular capsules. Notably, due to differences in the substitution positions on the Tröger's base, these two pairs of enantiomeric coordination molecular capsules exhibited distinct levels of cavity closures, cavity sizes, and host-guest recognition properties. This research offers valuable insights into the construction of novel chiral molecular capsules and the regulation of confined cavities.
Skins expose to kinds of risk factors for damage, such as the hormone drugs, skin care products and ultraviolet radiation, which is accompanied by the production of excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) and eventually leads to hypertrichosis. This skin disease is not aesthetically pleasing and even causes psychological and spiritual problems such as inferiority, anxiety and irritability. Current therapies are limited and often unsatisfactory, such as pharmacological and physical therapies, which have adverse effects and cause the irreversible destruction of hair follicles. Gold nanoclusters have good biocompatibility and their biosynthesis in vivo is responsive to oxidative stress microenvironment (OSM), which could be a safe and effective drug for ROS-induced skin injury. In our study, we demonstrated that zero valence fluorescent gold nanoclusters (FGNCs) were in situ biosynthesized in the plucking-induced damaged skin but not in the normal skin after the administration of gold precursors (+3), while FGNCs inhibited hair follicle regeneration by negatively regulating nuclear transcription factor kappa B (NFκB)-mediated inflammatory response signaling pathway (NFκB/tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) axis). This OSM-responsive in situ biosynthesis method is facile and safe and holds great promise for curing hypertrichosis associated with skin dermatitis and injury.
Synergy strategy of photocatalysts and polymer resins are promising technology for marine antifouling. However, it is still a main challenge to obtain a green, safe, and efficient antifouling coatings. Herein, carbon (graphene or CNT) modified TiO2 photocatalyst was synthesized via hydrothermal and annealing process and has successfully applied in acrylate fluoroboron polymer (ABFP) composite coating. Morphology and chemical composition were detailed characterized. The graphene or CNT acted as a bridge with supplemental spatial structures (petal gaps, entanglement) and new functional groups (CO, CTiO, etc.) on TiO2 particle. Carbon nanotube (CNT) modified TiO2-ABFP coatings (BTCP) achieved excellent antibacterial and anti-diatom adhesion rate of 89.3%–96.70% and 99.00%–99.50%, which was 1.84–4.94-fold more than that of the single ABFP. CNT or graphene served as electronic bridges was considered as the crucial mechanism, which significantly improved the light absorption range and capacity, conductivity, and photoelectric response of TiO2, and further accelerated the generation and transfer of free radicals to the surface of BTCP or FTGP. Moreover, the improvement of catalyst activity synergizes with the smooth surface, hydrophilicity, and slow hydrolysis of composite coatings, achieved long-term and efficient antifouling performance. This work provides a new insight into the modification of TiO2 and antifouling mechanism of polymer coating.
The three-way catalyst (TWC), as a promising approach to control automobile exhaust emission, has been widely studied and applied. However, it still suffers from the high light-off temperature and poor stability. Herein, we synthesized a multicomponent catalyst Rh/Cu-CeSn by using Cu metal doping to modify the Ce-based solid solution, which exhibited good TWC catalytic performance: the light-off temperatures for CO, NO, and C3H6 conversion are 172 ℃, 266 ℃, and 193 ℃, respectively. Moreover, the catalyst still maintained good activity after 12 h of the continuous reaction under high-temperature conditions. The experiments and mechanism studies reveal that due to the redox pair Cu+/Cu2+, the Cu incorporation can effectively inhibit the Rh transition to the oxidation state and greatly enhance the catalytic activity and stability. This work provides a viable strategy for precise characteristic modulation of composite oxide supports during the fabrication of noble metal-based catalysts, which significantly reduces environmental pollution from energy applications.
A phenylphenothiazine anchored Tb(Ⅲ)-cyclen complex PTP-Cy-Tb for hypochlorite ion (ClO−) detection has been designed and prepared. PTP-Cy-Tb shows a weak Tb-based emission with AIE-characteristics in aqueous solutions. After addition of ClO−, the fluorescence of PTP-Cy-Tb gives a large enhancement for oxidization the thioether to sulfoxide group. The detection limit of PTP-Cy-Tb toward ClO− is as low as 8.85 nmol/L. The sensing mechanism was detailedly investigated by time of flight mass spectrometer (TOF-MS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and density functional theory (DFT) calculation. In addition, PTP-Cy-Tb has been successfully used for on-site and real-time detection of ClO− in real water samples by using the smartphone-based visualization method and test strips.
Atomically dispersed Cu-based single-metal-site catalysts (Cu-N-C) have emerged as a frontier for electrocatalytic oxygen reduction reactions (ORR) because they can effectively optimize the d-band center of the Cu active site and provide appropriate adsorption/desorption energy for oxygen-containing intermediates. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) show excellent prospects in many fields because of their structural regularity and designability, but their direct use for electrocatalysis has been rarely reported due to the low intrinsic conductivity. Here, a MOF material (Cu-TCNQ) with highly regular single-atom copper active centers was successfully prepared using a solution chemical reaction method. Subsequently, Cu-TCNQ and graphene oxide (GO) were directly self-assembled to form a Cu-TCNQ/GO composite, which improved the conductivity of the catalyst while maintained the atomically precise controllability. The resistivity of the Cu-TCNQ/GO decreased by three orders of magnitude (1663.6–2.7 W/cm) compared with pure Cu-TCNQ. The half-wave potential was as high as 0.92 V in 0.1 mol/L KOH, even better than that of commercial 20% Pt/C. In alkaline polymer electrolyte fuel cells (APEFCs), the open-circuit voltage and power density of Cu-TCNQ/GO electrode reached 0.95 V and 320 mW/cm2, respectively, which suggests that Cu-TCNQ/GO has a good potential for application as a cathode ORR catalyst.
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