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Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory response that increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases. An in-depth study of the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis is critical for the treatment of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The development of atherosclerosis involves many cells, such as endothelial cells, vascular smooth muscle cells, macrophages, and others. The considerable effects of macrophages in atherosclerosis are inextricably linked to macrophage polarization and the resulting phenotype. Moreover, the significant impact of macrophages on atherosclerosis depend not only on the function of the different macrophage phenotypes but also on the relative ratio of different phenotypes in the plaque. Research on atherosclerosis therapy indicates that the reduced plaque size and enhanced stability are partly due to modulating macrophage polarization. Therefore, regulating macrophage polarization and changing the proportion of macrophage phenotypes in plaques is a new therapeutic approach for atherosclerosis. This review provides a new perspective for atherosclerosis therapy by summarizing the relationship between macrophage polarization and atherosclerosis, as well as treatment targeting macrophage polarization.

Tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) reduces the development of atherosclerosis by regulating tissue factor (TF) mediated coagulation pathway. In this review, we focus on recent findings on the inhibitory effects of TFPI on endothelial cell activation, vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) proliferation and migration, inflammatory cell recruitment and extracellular matrix which are associated with the development of atherosclerosis. Meanwhile, we are also concerned about the impact of TFPI levels and genetic polymorphisms on clinical atherogenesis. This article aims to explain the mechanism in inhibiting the development of atherosclerosis and clinical effects of TFPI, and provide new ideas for the clinical researches and mechanism studies of atherothrombosis.

Endothelial cells are the main components of the heart, blood vessels, and lymphatic vessels, which play an important role in regulating the physiological functions of the cardiovascular system. Endothelial dysfunction is involved in a variety of acute and chronic cardiovascular diseases. As a special type of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), endothelium to mesenchymal transition (EndMT) regulates the transformation of endothelial cells into mesenchymal cells accompanied by changes in the expression of various transcription factors and cytokines, which is closely related to vascular endothelial injury, vascular remodeling, myocardial fibrosis and valvar disease. Endothelial cells undergoing EndMT lose their endothelial characteristics and undergo a transition toward a more mesenchymal-like phenotype. However, the molecular mechanism of EndMT remains unclear. EndMT, as a type of endothelial dysfunction, can cause vascular remodeling which is a major determinant of atherosclerotic luminal area. Therefore, exploring the important signaling pathways in the process of EndMT may provide novel therapeutic strategies for treating atherosclerotic diseases.

Enrofloxacin is a broad spectrum antibacterial agent with an excellent killing effect against bacteria, commonly infecting the respiratory and intestinal tracts of livestock and poultry. However, its bitter taste and significant irritation to the gastrointestinal tract often lead to a failure of the commonly used current drug delivery system to achieve the desired therapeutic effect due to inefficient release of drugs. In the present study, pH-responsive enrofloxacin nanoparticles (ENR-NPs) for treating bacterial infections were fabricated through a facile one-pot approach to achieve the amphiphilic functionalization of chitosan (CS) through acid-labile Schiff-base with cinnamaldehyde and drug encapsulation. The structure and morphology of ENR-NPs were characterized by FTIR, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The ENR-NPs were uniform in size and full in shape with an average particle size of 135 nm. The encapsulation rate (76.61%) and drug loading capacity (3.3%) were measured by ultraviolet spectrophotometry. The in vitro experiments elucidated that the release rate of enrofloxacin from ENR-NPs was significantly faster at pH 5.0 than at pH 7.4 due to the cleavage of the acid-sensitive Schiff-base bond. Further, the antimicrobial studies revealed that the inhibitory effects were improved with the increase of acidity of the culture medium. Therefore, ENR-NPs provide a potential application of enrofloxacin for bacterial-response drug delivery.

A novel fluorescent chemodosimeter for thiophenols has been readily developed from a red emitting Indole-BODIPY . The chemodosimeter displays a significant fluorescence turn-on response towards thiophenols based on nucleophilic substitution reaction. A linear relationship was obtained between the fluorescence intensity and the concentrations of thiophenols ranging from 0 to 1.8 μM. The chemodosimeter can determine thiophenols (4-fluorothiophenol, 4-methoxybenzenethiol, p -toluenethiol) with high selectivity, fast response (within 8 min) and extremely low limit of detection (9.8 nM). The chemodosimeter was successfully used to determine the level of thiophenol (PhSH) in industrial wastewater and Bohai Sea water with good recoveries. Furthermore, the chemodosimeter was employed to image thiophenols in cancer cells with good performance and low cytotoxicity. Therefore, this chemodosimeter has great potential application in environment.

Thiabendazole (TBZ), has been extensively employed as a pesticide and/or a fungicide in agriculture, while its residues would threaten to public health and safety. Simple, rapid and sensitive probes for detection of TBZ in real food samples is significantly desirable. In present work, a highly selective and sensitive luminescent sensor for monitoring TBZ in oranges has been constructed based on a Tb3+-functionalized Zr-MOF (Tb3+@1). Tb3+@1 exhibited many attractive sensing properties toward TBZ, including broad linear range (0–80 μM), high selectivity, low LOD (0.271 μM) and rapid response time (less than1 min). Moreover, the probe was employed to determine TBZ in real orange samples, in which good recoveries from 98.41 to 104.48% were obtained. It only takes 35 min for the whole process of detection TBZ in real orange samples combined with QuEChERS method. Therefore, this work provided a reliable and rapid method for monitoring the TBZ in real orange samples.

Biogenic primary diamines are a family of critical food spoilage biomarkers. To maintain food safety, it is necessary to implement highly efficient detection methods to monitor the levels of biogenic primary diamines in edible products. In this study, we report a 7-diethylaminocoumarin derivative, CMA-Cl, as a colorimetric and fluorescence lighting-up probe for detecting critical biogenic primary diamines including cadaverine and putrescine. The CMA-Cl probe underwent a nucleophilic substitution and condensation reaction with biogenic primary diamines, generating highly emissive compounds, which displayed strong emission at 475 nm with a fluorescence quantum yield of 36.4%. The CMA-Cl probe showed colorimetric and fluorescence dual-response towards biogenic primary amines with a significant linear relationship, good selectivity, and low limit of detection (209 nM). The probe demonstrated a good recovery (97–122%) for the determination of a typical biogenic primary diamine cadaverine during the spoilage of fish. Furthermore, CMA-Cl-loaded paper was fabricated for the real-time visual detection of a typical biogenic primary diamine cadaverine in fish samples based on distinct changes in color and fluorescence.

In this work, a metal−organic framework UiO-66-(COOH)2 has been synthesized and is further functionalized with Tb3+ through coordination interactions. The functionalized MOF, denoted as Tb3+@UiO-66-(COOH)2, is fully characterized and further developed as an excellent fluorescent probe to monitor Cu2+ ions in aqueous media by fluorescence quenching effect. Tb3+@UiO-66-(COOH)2 exhibits high selectivity and sensitivity, broad linear concentration range (0–200 μM), low detection limits (0.23 μM), fast response speed (within 1 min), as well as in situ naked eye observation under UV light for sensing Cu2+ ion. Furthermore, this probe was successfully employed to detect Cu2+ ion in real water with good recovery. Hence, this work developed a very excellent fluorescent sensor with high potential practical applications for detection of Cu2+ ion in environmental water samples.

The screening of highly toxic chemical vapor is critical for environmental monitoring and human health maintenance. Herein, we reported a chemosensor (AC-HPD) for rapid and specific detection of highly toxic oxalyl chloride vapor, which adopted anthracene carboxyimide as a fluorophore and 3-aminopropanol as the reaction site. Upon coupling of oxalyl chloride with NH and OH groups, AC-HPD exhibited remarkable colorimetric and ratiometric fluorescence dual-mode responses towards oxalyl chloride via the intramolecular charge transfer effect. AC-HPD could determine oxalyl chloride with features of rapid response, excellent specificity, low detection limit (95 nM), as well as obvious color and fluorescence change. Furthermore, AC-HPD-embedded test strip was successfully fabricated and used as a flexible sensing device for rapid, sensitive and visible monitoring oxalyl chloride vapor.

Organophosphorus compounds (OPs) as chemical warfare agents (CWAs) pose a great threat to human health. For the issue of global security, it is highly demanded to establish fast and efficient detection methods for monitoring CWAs. This work presented a benzothiazole-based fluorescent chemodosimeter (BT-OH) for the detection of diethylchlorophosphate (DCP) via “ESIPT-OFF” mechanism, in which the phenyl hydroxyl group could efficiently be phosphated by DCP and turn to phosphorester, thus bringing about obvious fluorescence lighting-up. BT-OH shows rapid response (within 6 s) towards DCP with good linearity and specificity, as well as low detection limit (0.186 μM). Furthermore, a polystyrene-based testing membrane immobilized with BT-OH was prepared for real-time detection of DCP vapor with good performance. Therefore, this work provides a new manner for the detection of DCP by using a fluorescent chemodosimeter with the advantages of high sensitivity and selectivity, ultra-fast detection, easy-to-manipulate, as well as in situ naked eye observation.

Mutagenic formaldehyde (FA) is usually abused to preserve seafood, thus it is very necessary to detect harmful formaldehyde in seafood with a simple and effective method. In this work, we facilely prepared a new fluorescent probe RBNA, which showed a remarkable fluorescence lighting-up response towards FA with high sensitivity and selectivity, fast response (within 5 min) and a low detection limit (0.21 μM). The fluorescence intensity is linearly related to the concentration of FA ranging from 0 to 120 μM (R2 = 0.9952), which enables it to quantitatively determine the concentration of FA. This probe was successfully used to detect FA in seafood samples with good recoveries (80–119%). Furthermore, the probe has been utilized to image FA in living cells and zebrafish with good performance. Therefore, this probe has a good capability for rapid and sensitive determination of FA in seafood.

The abuse of bisulfite and benzoyl peroxide (BPO) in food can cause serious damage to humans, hence, it is necessary to determine bisulfite and BPO in food. In this paper, we presented a fluorescence chemosensor (PTCA) for discriminative detection of bisulfite and BPO with differential fluorescence based on different chemical reactions. PTCA exhibited blue fluorescence turn-on response towards bisulfite with good selectivity, fast response (

Reaction of 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane (cyclen) and Cu(ClO4)2·6H2O with nucleobases (adenine, hypoxanthine, xanthine, theophylline, cytosine, or uracil) under alkaline conditions gave four ternary cyclen–metal–nucleobase complexes, [Cu(cyclen)(adeninato)]·ClO4·2H2O (1), [{Cu(cyclen)}2(hypoxanthinato)]·(ClO4)3 (2), [Cu(cyclen)(theophyllinato)]3·(ClO4)3·2H2O (3), and [Cu(cyclen)(xanthinato)]·(0.7ClO4)·(0.3ClO4)·3H2O·(0.5H2O)3 (4), whose crystal structures were determined by X-ray diffraction. In the adenine complex 1, a cyclen-capped square–pyramidal Cu2+ ion binds to an adeninato ligand through N(9) with the formation of an intramolecular interligand hydrogen bond between the secondary amino nitrogen of cyclen and N(3) of the base. In the hypoxanthine complex 2, two cyclen-capped Cu2+ ions bind to a hypoxanthinato ligand, one through N(7) with the formation of an intramolecular N(cyclen)–H···O(6) hydrogen bond and the other through N(9) to form an intramolecular N(cyclen)–H···N(3) hydrogen bond. Similarly, in both the theophylline complex 3 and the xanthine complex 4, each cyclen-capped Cu2+ ion binds to a theophyllinato or xanthinato ligand through N(7) with the formation of an intramolecular N(cyclen)–H···O(6) hydrogen bond. However, unlike in 2, steric constraints between amino group(s) of cyclen and the methyl group at N(3) of theophylline in 3 or the proton attached to N(9) of xanthine in 4 preclude the metal bonding to N(9) in 3 or N(3) in 4. The significance of intramolecular interligand interaction as a factor that affects metal-binding site(s) on nucleobases is emphasized.

Reaction between nucleobases (adenine, hypoxanthine, cytosine, and uracil), tris(2-aminoethyl)amine (tren) and M(ClO4)2 (M2+ = Zn2+, Cd2+, Ni2+ or Cu2+) under pH 8–9 gave eight ternary tren-metal ion-nucleobase complexes, among which seven crystal structures, [Zn(tren)(adeninato)] · ClO4 (1), [Cd(tren)(adeninato)] · ClO4 (2), [Ni(tren)(adeninato)(ClO4)] (3), [Zn(tren)(hypoxanthinato)] · ClO4 · H2O (4), [{Cd(tren)}2(hypoxanthinato)] · (ClO4)3 · 0.5 H2O (5), [Ni(tren)(uracilato)(H2O)] · ClO4 · (0.5H2O)2 (7), and [Cu(tren)(uracilato)] · ClO4 · 0.5H2O (8) were determined by X-ray diffraction. In each of the adenine complexes with Zn2+ (1), Cd2+ (2), and Ni2+ (3), among which 1 and 2 are isostructural to each other, a tren-capped metal ion binds to an adeninato ligand through N(9) with the formation of an intramolecular interligand hydrogen bond between the amino nitrogen of tren and N(3) of the base. In the hypoxanthine complexes 4 and 5, a tren-capped Zn2+ ion in 4 binds to a hypoxanthinato ligand through N(9) with the formation of an intramolecular N(tren)–H⋯N(3) hydrogen bond, while in 5 two tren-capped Cd2+ ions bind to a hypoxanthinato ligand, one through N(7) with the formation of an intramolecular N(tren)–H⋯O(6) hydrogen bond and the other through N(9) to form an intramolecular N(tren)–H⋯N(3) hydrogen bond. In each of the uracil complexes with Ni2+ (7) and Cu2+ (8), a tren-capped metal ion binds to an uracilato ligand through N(1) with the formation of an intracomplex O(aqua)–H⋯O(2) hydrogen bond in 7 or an intramolecular N(tren)–H⋯O(2) hydrogen bond in 8. Tren-capped metal ion-bonded nucleobases act as building blocks for the assembly of supramolecular structures, by versatile hydrogen bonding and/or stacking abilities of nucleobases. The significance of intramolecular interligand interaction as a factor that affects metal-binding site(s) on nucleobases is emphasized.

Reaction between xanthine, tris(2-aminoethyl)amine (tren) and M(ClO 4 ) 2 (M = Zn 2+ , Cd 2+ , Ni 2+ or Cu 2+ ) under alkaline conditions gave five ternary tren–metal ion–xanthine complexes, among which crystal structures of [Zn(tren)(H 2 xan)] · ClO 4 · H 2 O ( 1 ), [Cd(tren)(H 2 xan)] · ClO 4 · H 2 O ( 2 ), [Ni(tren)(H 2 xan)(H 2 O)] · ClO 4 · H 2 O ( 3 ), and [Cu 2 {(μ-Hxan)Cu(tren)} 2 (μ-Hxan) 2 (H 2 O) 2 ] · 10H 2 O ( 4 ) (H 3 xan = neutral xanthine) were determined by X-ray diffraction. In the Zn 2+ ( 1 ) and Cd 2+ ( 2 ) complexes, which are isostructural to each other, the tren-capped metal ion binds to xanthine through N(7) with the formation of an intramolecular interligand hydrogen bond between the amino nitrogen of tren and O(6) of the base. The Ni 2+ complex ( 3 ) involves the metal bonding to N(7) of the base with the formation of two intramolecular hydrogen bonds between O(6) of the base and the amino group of tren and the aqua ligand. The tetranuclear Cu 2+ complex ( 4 ) forms a paddle-wheel type of centrosymmetrical dicopper tetraxanthinate structure, where the two copper ions are bridged by four xanthine ligands through N(3)/N(9) chelation and, in addition, two among the four xanthine ligands are metalated each by the tren-capped copper ion through N(7) with the formation of an intramolecular hydrogen bond between the amino group of tren and O(6) of the base. The significance of intramolecular interligand interaction as a factor that affects site-specific metal bonding is emphasized. A review of metal bonding properties of so far reported xanthine–metal complexes is given.

Two new oxovanadium (IV) complexes VO(HB(pz)3)(H2B(pz)2) (1) and VO(B(pz)4)2 (2) have been obtained by the reaction of oxovanadium sulfate with the corresponding ligands KHB(pz)3, KH2B(pz)2 and KB(pz)4, respectively. The two complexes were characterized by elemental analyses, IR, UV–Vis and X-ray diffraction. Complex 1 crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group, Pca21. Complex 2 crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group, Pna21. In both complexes, five nitrogen atoms and one oxygen atom coordinate to the vanadium atom, forming a distorted octahedral geometry (VON5). In addition, related spectra characterization, hydrogen-binding properties, structural configuration and quantum chemistry calculations are also discussed.