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In this work, a near-infrared emissive dipyridyl ligand was synthesized and used to prepare three platinum(II) metallacycles with different shapes via metal-coordination-driven self-assembly with different platinum(II) precursors. These metallacycles were further used for both cell imaging and cancer therapy, offering a new type of theranostic agents towards cancer treatment.

Proper manipulation of tumorigenic microenvironments has been considered as one of the most effective approaches for tumor therapy, which is still a challenge to be well performed. Herein, a nano-modulator was fabricated to manipulate the hypoxia, glucose, radicals and local temperature in tumor tissue as needed, which consists of hemoglobin (Hb) and ferric ion (Fe3+) co-conjugated polydopamine (PDA) as core, glucose oxidase (GOD) as shell, and folic acid (FA) modified polyethylene glycol (PEG) as corona. The PEG-FA corona not only protected Hb and GOD against protease in blood circulation, but serve as tumor targeting agent for tumor specific accumulation of the nano-modulator. The Hb is in charge of oxygen supply to reverse the hypoxic environment of tumor tissue, which promotes the function of GOD to achieve rapid glucose consumption and hydrogen peroxide generation. The polydopamine was employed to raise local temperature under NIR irradiation, meanwhile to continuously reduce Fe3+ to produce ferrous ions (Fe2+), which further catalyze hydrogen peroxide to cytotoxic hydroxyl radicals via Fenton reaction. Both in vitro and in vivo results showed excellent tumor inhibition and high survival rate of tumor-bearing mice after treatment by our nano-modulator, indicating this synergistic therapy via on-demand manipulation of various tumorigenic microenvironments could be a green approach for tumor treatment with high efficiency and minimum side effects.

Background Recent studies revealed contrasting prognostic roles of body-mass index (BMI) and tumor location in colorectal cancer (CRC). Given that right-sided and left-sided CRC may exhibit inverse impact on outcome and body weight, the present study is to examine whether the prognostic value of BMI and tumor location could be stratified reciprocally. Methods This prospective, observational study recruited 4,086 patients with diagnosed stage III CRC from 5 independent clinical centers in China. verall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) was included as the clinical endpoints. The association of patients’ outcome with BMI and tumor location was evaluated hierarchically by Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional-hazards model. Results Although BMI was not associated with outcome within total patients, this association was significantly modified by tumor location. Among left-sided tumors, obesity and overweight was significantly associated with adverse OS and DSS. In contrast, among right-sided tumors, overweight was significantly associated with more favorable OS and DSS compared with normal-weight group. The association of survival with tumor location did not reach statistical significance either. However, hierarchical analysis by BMI revealed that left-sided tumors were associated with more favorable outcome in normal-weight group, while no statistically significant difference in overweight or obese group. Conclusions BMI and tumor location may have opposing prognostic impact on CRC, stratified by each other, after adjusting for known prognostic factors. These findings are the first to show the interactive prognostic impact of BMI and tumor location, which could be relevant to stratification of patients' management. Clinical trial identification NCT02215642. Legal entity responsible for the study The authors. Funding National Natural Science Foundation of China. Disclosure All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.

Members of the NDRG (N-Myc downstream-regulated) gene family have been shown to play a variety of roles in human malignancies. In the present study, we examined the expression of NDRG2 protein in glioma samples of WHO grades I-IV. We also investigated the association between NDRG2 expression and survival. Immunohistochemical analysis was used to measure NDRG2 protein expression in 316 specimens of human glioma and 41 normal control tissues. Survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox's proportional hazards model. We found that NDRG2 expression was reduced in glioma relative to normal tissue, and that NDRG2 expression decreased with increasing glioma grade. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that patients without NDRG2 expression had a lower survival rate than other patients. Multivariate analysis showed that NDRG2 expression was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival of patients with glioma. The present study provides the first evidence that NDRG2 expression is decreased in gliomas, indicating that NDRG2 may play an inhibitory role during the development of gliomas. NDRG2 expression may also be a significant and independent prognostic indicator for glioma.