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Hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence and metastasis after microwave ablation (MWA) are challenges in the clinic. This study showed that mannose-derived carbon dots (Man-CDs) could effectively capture several "danger signals" (DS) after MWA treatment and then deliver DS specifically to dendritic cells (DCs). This improved delivery of DS to DCs enhanced the processing and presentation of tumor-associated antigens by DCs. The results demonstrated that intratumoral injection of Man-CDs after MWA therapy elicited a potent tumor-specific immune response and finally led to the effective suppression of both primary and distant tumors. MWA + Man-CD treatment could efficiently reject tumor cell rechallenge in vivo. This study demonstrated that Man-CD nanoparticles are effective adjuvants that can improve MWA therapy by eliciting a tumor-specific immune response.

Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) process is a promising additive manufacturing technique to manufacture multi-material integrated parts with complex structures. In this paper, the multi-material structure of Ti6Al4V/AlSi10Mg is fabricated by LPBF, the interfacial characterization, interfacial reaction mechanism and mechanical properties of Ti/Al structure are investigated. Results show that continuous and excellent metallurgical bonding between Ti6Al4V and AlSi10Mg is obtained, and the width of interface zone is about 100 μm. The equiaxed grains of aluminum alloy at the interface show random crystallographic orientation, which is attributed to the thermal dynamics in the melt pool, thermal cycles during LPBF process and lower thermal conductivity of titanium alloy. The interfacial reaction layers are orderly from titanium alloy to the aluminum alloy consisting of Ti3Al, TiAl with nanoparticles Ti5Si3 and rod-like TiAl3. The segregated Si atoms react with the dissolution of Ti atoms in-situ to form Ti5Si3, meanwhile, a mass of Al atoms also react with Ti atoms to form TiAl. Namely, the TiAl phase forms in thin layer shape embedded with nanoparticles Ti5Si3 through eutectic reaction near the fusion line at the interface. At the wall of eutectic production, the TiAl3 phase nucleation and grow opposite to the heat dissipation direction and vertical to the fusion line. Outside the fusion line, the supersaturated solid α-Ti transforms to Ti3Al through the diffusion of Al atoms in the part of titanium alloy. During the interfacial reaction, in-situ generated nanoparticles Ti5Si3 could improve the joint strength, and the tensile strength of Ti6Al4V/AlSi10Mg specimens reached 264.8 ± 22.4 MPa. The tensile specimens exhibit brittle fracture and two typical fracture morphologies appear on the fracture surface.

Aim: This study aimed to develop indocyanine green- and doxorubicin-loaded liposomes (DILPs) as theranostic nanoplatform for the detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and as an efficient chemotherapeutic to enhance microwave ablation. Materials & methods: DILPs were synthesized and thoroughly characterized. Biocompatibility, tumor uptake and accumulation, and synergistic ablation-chemotherapeutic efficiency were systematically explored in them. In addition, human HCC surgical samples were used to test the affinity of DILPs for HCC. Results: The combination of microwave ablation and DILPs enhanced the ablation efficiency of HCC with apparent tumor inhibition. DILPs exhibited excellent diagnostic ability and could detect 2.5-mm HCC lesions via optoacoustic tomography imaging. DILPs had better affinity for human HCC surgical samples compared with normal liver tissue. Conclusion: Theranostic DILPs could serve as promising nanoparticles for treatment and management of HCC in the clinic.

As reported in many research, LncRNA CTBP1 divergent transcript (CTBP1-AS2) remarkably affects the progression of several tumors. However, the precise role and function of CTBP1-AS2 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remained unknown. We found that CTBP1-AS2 expressions were increased in HCC samples and cells. After treatment with microwave ablation (MWA), CTBP1-AS2 was distinctly up-regulated in residual HCC tissues compared with HCC samples. CTBP1-AS2 was upregulated under the induction of the nuclear transcription factor SP1. As revealed by the clinical assays, high CTBP1-AS2 expression usually related to lymph node metastasis, clinical stage and weaker prognosis specific to HCC patients. Functionally, CTBP1-AS2 knockdown suppressed HCC cells in terms of the proliferation, migration, invasion, chemotherapy resistance as well as EMT progress, but promoted apoptosis. Mechanistically, CTBP1-AS2 was a sponge of miR-195-5p for elevating CEP55 expression, a target of miR-195-5p, and thereby exhibited its oncogenic roles in HCC progression. Overall, an emerging regulatory mechanism of SP1/CTBP1-AS2/miR-195-5p/CEP55 axis was reported in the paper, which possibly served as a new therapeutic HCC treatment target.

Background Developing new strategies to reduce the output power of microwave (MW) ablation while keeping anti-tumor effect are highly desirable for the simultaneous achievement of effective tumor killing and avoidance of complications. We find that mild MW irradiation can significantly increase intracellular Ca2+ concentration in the presence of doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) and thus induce massive tumor cell apoptosis. Herein, we designed a synergistic nanoplatform that not only amplifies the intracellular Ca2+ concentration and induce cell death under mild MW irradiation but also avoids the side effect of thermal ablation and chemotherapy. Results The as-made NaCl–DOX@PLGA nanoplatform selectively elevates the temperature of tumor tissue distributed with nanoparticles under low-output MW, which further prompts the release of DOX from the PLGA nanoparticles and tumor cellular uptake of DOX. More importantly, its synergistic effect not only combines thermal ablation and chemotherapy, but also obviously increases the intracellular Ca2+ concentration. Changes of Ca2+ broke the homeostasis of tumor cells, decreased the mitochondrial inner membrane potential and finally induced the cascade of apoptosis under nonlethal temperature. As such, the NaCl–DOX@PLGA efficiently suppressed the tumor cell progression in vivo and in vitro under mild MW irradiation for the triple synergic effect. Conclusions This work provides a biocompatible and biodegradable nanoplatform with triple functions to realize the effective tumor killing in unlethal temperature. Those findings provide reliable solution to solve the bottleneck problem bothering clinics about the balance of thermal efficiency and normal tissue protection.

Effects of static aeroelasticity and Reynolds number on transonic pressure distribution are described. An engineering correction method of static aeroelasticity and Reynolds number effect on wind tunnel pressure distribution is constructed based on high-fidelity Fluid-Structure Interaction Simulation Method. And the fidelity of our engineering correction method has been verified with CRM tunnel pressure distribution from ETW tunnel.