Latest ArticlesInnovative anti-cancer therapies that activate the immune system show promise in combating cancers resistant to conventional treatments. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is one such treatment, which not only directly eliminates tumor cells but also functions as an in situ tumor vaccine by enhancing tumor immunogenicity and triggering anti-tumor immune responses through immunogenic cell death (ICD). However, the effectiveness of PDT in enhancing immune responses is influenced by factors, such as photosensitizers and the tumor microenvironment, particularly hypoxia. Current clinically used PDT heavily relies on oxygen (O2) availability and can be limited by tumor hypoxia. Additionally, the tumor immunosuppressive microenvironment induced by hypoxia affects the anti-tumor immunity of tumor-infiltrating effector T cells. Meanwhile, the immunosuppressive myeloid-lineage cells are recruited to the hypoxic tumor tissue and exhibit higher immunosuppressive capabilities under hypoxia conditions. Consequently, numerous strategies have been developed to modulate tumor hypoxia or to create hypoxia-compatible PDT, aiming to reduce the effects of tumor hypoxia on PDT-driven immunotherapy. This review investigates these strategies, including approaches to alleviate, exploit, and disregard tumor hypoxia within the context of PDT/immunotherapy. It also emphasizes the role of advanced nanomedicine and its benefits in these strategies, while outlining current challenges and future prospects in the field.
Defects at the grain boundaries (GBs) of perovskite film highly restrict both the efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Herein, organic small molecules of butanedioic acid (BA) and acetylenedicarboxylic acid (AA), containing two carbonyl (C=O) groups and different core-units, were incorporated into perovskite as additives for PSCs application. Thanks to the strong coordination interaction between CO group and under-coordinated Pb2+, the additives can effectively passivate film defects and regulate the perovskite crystallization, yielding high-quality perovskite films with lower defect densities. More importantly, the additives can efficiently regulate the charge transport behaviors in PSCs. Benefiting from the defects passivation and the regulation of charge carrier dynamics, the BA and AA-treaded PSCs show the power conversion efficiencies of 21.52% and 20.50%, which are higher than that of the control device (19.41%). Besides, the optimal devices exhibit a remarkable enhanced long-term stability and moisture tolerance compared to the pristine devices. Furthermore, the transient absorption spectrum reveals the mechanism of enhanced photovoltaic performances, attributing to the improvement of charge transport capability at the perovskite/Spiro-OMeTAD interfaces. This work affords a promising strategy to improve the efficiency and stability of PSCs through regulating the charge-carrier dynamic process in perovskite film.
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.
We propose and investigate a novel stable two-dimensional (2D) AlO2 with anomalous stoichiometric ratios based on first-principles calculation. 2D AlO2 has metallic properties. It possesses the rare in-plane and out-of-plane negative Poisson's ratio (NPR) phenomenon, originating from its special sawtooth-like structure. The absolute value of the NPR decreases as the number of layers increases. The adsorption of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including CH2O, C2H3Cl and C6H6 by AlO2 exhibit small adsorption distance, large adsorption energy, large charge transfer and significant density of states (DOS) changes, indicating the presence of strong interactions. The desorption time of each gas molecule on the AlO2 surface is also evaluated, and the results further suggest that the desorption of VOCs can be controlled by changing the temperature to achieve the recycling of AlO2. These interesting properties make 2D AlO2 a promising material for electronic, mechanical and sensing applications for VOCs.
Prostate cancer (PCa) is characterized by high incidence and propensity for easy metastasis, presenting significant challenges in clinical diagnosis and treatment. Tumor microenvironment (TME)-responsive nanomaterials provide a promising prospect for imaging-guided precision therapy. Considering that tumor-derived alkaline phosphatase (ALP) is over-expressed in metastatic PCa, it makes a great chance to develop a theranostics system with ALP responsive in the TME. Herein, an ALP-responsive aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) nanoprobe AMNF self-assembly was designed for enhancing the diagnosis and treatment of metastatic PCa. The nanoprobe exhibited self-aggregation in the presence of ALP resulted in aggregation-induced fluorescence, and enhanced accumulation and prolonged retention period at the tumor site. In terms of detection, the fluorescence (FL)/computed tomography (CT)/magnetic resonance (MR) multi-mode imaging effect of nanoprobe was significantly improved post-aggregation, enabling precise diagnosis through the amalgamation of multiple imaging modes. Enhanced CT/MR imaging can achieve assist preoperative tumor diagnosis, and enhanced FL imaging technology can achieve "intraoperative visual navigation", showing its potential application value in clinical tumor detection and surgical guidance. In terms of treatment, AMNF showed strong absorption in the near infrared region after aggregation, which improved the photothermal treatment effect. Overall, our work developed an effective aggregation-enhanced theranostic strategy for ALP-related cancers.
The interaction between nanoparticles (NPs) and pollutants affects their bioavailability and toxicity. However, the processes by which NPs and pollutants change in vivo have rarely been explored. Here, using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP–MS), we found that both nanoplastics and ZnO NPs caused more Cd to accumulate in zebrafish larvae, but with distinct pathways. Nanoplastics could adsorb Cd2+ and transfer it into the larvae through the "Trojan horse" effect. The coexposure of nanoplastics and Cd2+ caused Cd to accumulate in the abdomen where the nanoplastics were located without dissociation, showing a lower toxic effect than Cd2+ exposure alone. ZnO NPs weakly adsorbed Cd2+, but they increased the Zn and Cd contents in larvae by enhancing the expression of metal transporters. The coexposure of ZnO and Cd2+ evenly distributed Cd in the larvae, revealing a more severe toxic effect than Cd2+ exposure alone. Our results demonstrated the changing bioavailability and toxicity of Cd induced by different NPs. This also shows the vital role LA-ICP-MS plays in revealing the relationship between toxicity and bioavailability. In addition, the long-term effect of bioavailability on heavy metal toxicity and nanosafety deserves further investigation.
Planktonic 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.
Revealing the factors that affect the vibrational frequency of Stark probe at interface is a pre-requirement for evaluating the absolute interfacial electric field. Here using surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) spectroscopy, attenuated total reflection (ATR) spectroscopy and molecular dynamics (MD), we reveal the assembled CN at gold nanofilm exhibits a reduced Stark tuning rate (STR) referring to the vibrational frequency shift in response to electric field comparing with the bulk which was regulated by the electron transfer between S and Au. These findings lead to a deeper understanding of the vibrational Stark effect at the interface and provide guidance for improving the interface electric field theory.
Imaging detection of interlinked dual proteases is imperative for precise tumor imaging, which remains challenging due to limited modification position of specific substrate and possible steric hindrance. Herein, we have developed a unimolecular chemiluminescent probe (LGP-CL) tandemly activated by two proteases interlinked with liver cancer to achieve precise tumor imaging. Probe LGP-CL consists of a phenoxy-dioxetane scaffold caged by a tripeptide substrate (LGP, leucine-glycine-proline) as the sensing layer, which can be cleaved sequentially by aminopeptidase N (APN) and dipeptidyl peptidase Ⅳ (DPPIV) to turn on a strong chemiluminescent signal, and silenced by specific inhibitor of each enzyme, which accounts for an integrated logic gate (AND, OR and INHIBIT). The successful cleavage of dual proteases on the metabolic site depends on the proper structure of the tripeptide substrate, as confirmed by two probes design. Probe LGP-CL (LGP as the substrate) enables the excellent "dual-lock-dual-key" fit with a 382-fold enhancement of chemiluminescent emission while no obvious signal is observed by using GPL-CL (GPL as the substrate). By virtue of its rapid response (several minutes), high sensitivity and good cell viability, probe LGP-CL has been utilized to evaluate upregulated levels of proteases in vitro and in living systems, especially to distinguish liver tumor cells (HepG2) from others (LO2, MCF-7, MCF-10a and RAW264.7). Overall, the newly developed CL probe may facilitate rapid investigation into the role played by proteases in liver diseases, enabling timely selection appropriate treatment. Therefore, our work not only sheds light on the rational design of optical probes for dual protease imaging, but provides a promising tool for clinical diagnosis and even drug discovery.
In this work, we employed a ring-opening strategy to develop a series of novel N-benzyl arylamide derivatives as tubulin polymerization inhibitors. Notably, 13n (MY-1388) exhibited remarkable antiproliferative potency on fifteen human cancer cell lines, with half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values ranging from 8 nmol/L to 48 nmol/L. Furthermore, 13n effectively suppressed tubulin polymerization by targeting the colchicine-binding site (IC50 = 0.62 µmol/L). 13n also exhibited significant inhibition of cell colony formation, as well as displayed potent effects on inducing G2/M phase cell cycle arrest and promoting apoptosis. Importantly, 13n exhibited enhanced and adequate liver microsomal stability in human and rat liver microsomes, and also exhibited a moderate half-life (T1/2 = 0.938 h) in vivo. Meanwhile, 13n demonstrated effective antitumor effects in vivo in suppressing tumor growth in the MGC-803 xenograft model (tumor growth inhibition (TGI) value was 76.4% at the dosage of 30 mg kg−1 day−1) with a good safety profile. Collectively, these results revealed that 13n represents a promising tubulin polymerization inhibitor that deserves further investigation for its efficacy in treating gastric cancers.
No. 86 Xueyuan South Road, Haidian District, Beijing
010-62199257
qkjq@cast.org.cn
Copyright © 2025 China Association for Science and Technology. All rights reserved. For all open access content, the relevant licensing terms apply.
Sponsored by the Office of the Leading Group for Cybersecurity and Informatization of CAST, and supported by Science and Technology Review Publishing House
