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Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most frequent bone tumor which mainly threatens children and adolescents. The current mainstream therapeutic strategies for OS are surgical resection, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. However, the critical bone defects after the surgical resection, chemotherapy resistance and adverse effects are still formidable obstacles in the OS treatment. Herein, a multifunctional and exquisite photosynthetic oxygen-self-generated therapeutic platform has been engineered by integrating the photosensitive and photosynthetic Ce6-contained cyanobacteria onto 3D-printing CaCO3-PCL scaffolds, which has achieved the enhanced photodynamic therapy (PDT) against OS by photosynthetic oxygenation-induced tumor-hypoxia alleviation and the subsequent prompted bone regeneration by local oxygenation. Especially, mRNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was employed to further decipher the underlying mechanisms, which indicated that cell proliferation was inhibited and cell death was induced responding to the reactive oxygen species (especially the singlet oxygen) related cytotoxicity. This study provides an insightful design and efficient paradigm for the bacteria-enhanced PDT against OS and the following augmented osseous tissue regeneration.

Nanosensitizer-enabled sonodynamic therapy (SDT) represents an appealing anti-tumor modality to induce apoptotic cancer-cell death by generating highly toxic reactive oxygen species (ROS). However, it suffers from discounted therapeutic efficacy due to the apoptosis-resistant mechanism of cancer cells. Inspired by the synergistic anti-tumor effect of ferroptosis and apoptosis, in this work, we have constructed a nanosonosensitizer (PpIX)-based liposomal nanosystem, which simultaneously encapsulated clinically approved iron supplement ferumoxytol, for inducing dual ferroptosis/apoptosis pathways by SDT-based oxidative ferrotherapy. The ferumoxytol as a ferroptosis initiator is utilized to deliver excessive iron into cancer cells, which achieves tumor metabolic rewiring and renders cancer cells extremely susceptible to SDT-induced cell apoptosis. Meanwhile, SDT enables the modulation of critical regulatory ferroptosis checkpoints through the process of ferritinophagy so as to improve ferroptosis sensitivity, thus achieving synergistic tumor suppression. The potential benefits of triggering ferroptosis-like cell death in the context of sonodynamic cancer treatment were substantially evidenced by augmented therapeutic efficacy both in vitro and in vivo, suggesting that such an efficient SDT-based ferroptosis-targeting strategy is highly promising to be an innovative tumor-treatment approach.

BackgroundThe clinical benefits of antiprogrammed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) therapy are compromised by resistance in immunologically cold tumors. Convergence of immunotherapy and bioengineering is potential to overcome the resistance. Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) are considered the most promising inorganic biological nanomaterials for clinical transformation, however, the fundamental influence of MSNs on immunotherapy is unclear. In this study, we aimed to investigate the role of MSNs in tumor resensitization and explore the feasibility of MSNs combined with anti-PD-1 in cancer therapy.MethodsIntrinsic and acquired resistant tumors, as well as spontaneous and secondary tumor recurrence models, were used to evaluate the influence of MSNs and the synergistical effect with anti-PD-1 therapy. The roles of CD8+ cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs) and macrophages were assessed in Rag-1-/- mice, ovalbumin/OT-1 TCR transgenic T-cell system, and other blocking mice models. Mechanistic studies were processed by transcriptomics analysis and conducted in primary cells, in vitro coculture systems, and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) knockout mice.ResultsBoth granular and rod-shaped MSNs efficiently overcame tumor resistance with dependence on diameter and aspect ratio. Only once injection of MSNs in prior to anti-PD-1 markedly improved the treatment efficacy, protective immunity, and prognosis. MSNs per se boosted infiltration of CTLs as the early event (days 2–3); and synergistically with anti-PD-1 therapy, MSNs rapidly established a T cell-inflamed microenvironment with abundant high-activated (interferon-γ/tumor necrosis factor-α/Perforin/GranzymeB) and low-exhausted (PD-1/lymphocyte-activation gene 3 (LAG-3)/T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin-domain containing-3 (TIM-3)) CTLs. Chemokines Ccl5/Cxcl9/Cxcl10, which were produced predominantly by macrophages, promoted MSNs-induced CTLs infiltration. MSNs led to high Ccl5/Cxcl9/Cxcl10 production in vitro and in mice through regulating TLR4-NFκB axis. Blocking TLR4-NFκB axis in macrophages or CTLs infiltration abrogated MSNs-induced resensitization to anti-PD-1 therapy.ConclusionsMSNs efficiently and rapidly inflame immunologically cold tumors and resensitize them to anti-PD-1 therapy through TLR4-NFκB-Ccl5/Cxcl9/Cxcl10 axis. MSNs-based theranostic agents can serve as sensitizers for patients with resistant tumors to improve immunotherapy.

The fast progress of stimuli-responsive theranostic nanomedicine can achieve the specific and high-performance diagnosis and therapy of various diseases. Especially, H2O2-responsive theranostic nanomedicine is recently emerging as a new stimuli-responsive modality showing the great potential for the theranostic of diseases with overexpressed H2O2 because H2O2 is associated with several kinds of human diseases as the most stable and abundant reactive oxygen species. This review summarizes and discusses the very-recent developments of H2O2-responsive theranostic nanoplatforms for versatile biomedical applications, including diagnostic imaging, attenuating tumor hypoxia, enhancing the therapeutic efficiency of photodynamic therapy/radiation therapy/chemotherapy and theranostic of inflammation/diabetic. The facing challenges and future developments of H2O2-responisve theranostics are also briefly discussed to further promote the clinical translation of this new responsive theranostic modality. It is highly believed that H2O2-responsive theranostic nanomedicine will be extensively developed a new specific and efficient theranostic modality to benefit the personalized biomedicine in the near future.

The N = 130 short-lived isotope 223 Np was produced as evaporation residue (ER) in the fusion reaction 40 Ar + 187 Re at the gas-filled recoil separator Spectrometer for Heavy Atom and Nuclear Structure (SHANS). It was identified through temporal and spatial correlations with α decays of 215 Ac and/or 211 Fr, the third and fourth members of the α -decay chain starting from 223 Np. The pileup signals of ER( 223 Np)– α ( 223 Np)– α ( 219 Pa) were resolved by using the digital pulse processing technique. An α decay with half-life of T 1 / 2 = 2.15 ( 52 100 ) μs and energy of E α = 9477 ( 44 ) keV was attributed to 223 Np. Spin and parity of 9 / 2 − were tentatively proposed for the ground state of 223 Np by combining the reduced α -decay width and large-scale shell-model calculations. This assignment together with the proton separation energy disprove the existence of a Z = 92 subshell closure.

Precise control over the morphology, nanostructure, composition, and particle size of molecularly organic–inorganic hybrid mesoporous organosilica nanoparticles (MONs) still remains a major challenge, which severely restricts their broad applications. In this work, an efficient bridged organic group-determined growth strategy has been proposed for the facile synthesis of highly dispersed and uniform MONs with multifarious Janus morphologies, nanostructures, organic–inorganic hybrid compositions, and particle sizes, which can be easily controlled simply by varying the bridged organic groups and the concentration of bis-silylated organosilica precursors used in the synthesis. In addition, the formation mechanism of Janus MONs determined by the bridged organic group has been discussed. Based on the specific structures, compositions, and asymmetric morphologies, all the synthesized Janus MONs with hollow structures (JHMONs) demonstrate excellent performances in nanomedicine as desirable drug carriers with high drug-loading efficiencies/capacities, pH-responsive drug releasing, and enhanced therapeutic efficiencies, as attractive contrast-enhanced contrast agents for ultrasound imaging, and as excellent bilirubin adsorbents with noticeably high adsorption capacities and high blood compatibilities. The developed versatile synthetic strategy and the obtained JHMONs are extremely important in the development and applications of MONs, particularly in the areas of nanoscience and nanotechnology.

Based on the intrinsic features of high stability and unique multifunctionality, inorganic nanoparticles have shown remarkable potentials in combating cancer, but their biodegradability and biocompatibility are still under debate. As a paradigm, this work successfully demonstrates that framework organic-inorganic hybridization can endow the inorganic mesoporous silica nanocarriers with unique tumor-sensitive biodegradability and high biocompatibility. Based on a “chemical homology” mechanism, molecularly organic-inorganic hybridized hollow mesoporous organosilica nanocapsules (HMONs) with high dispersity and sub-50 nm particle dimension were constructed in mass production. A physiologically active disulfide bond ( S S ) was directly incorporated into the silica framework, which could break up upon contacting the reducing microenvironment of tumor tissue and biodegrade accordingly. Such a tumor-specific biodegradability is also responsible for the tumor-responsive drug releasing by the fast biodegradation and disintegration of the framework. The ultrasmall particle size of HMONs guarantees their high accumulation into tumor tissue, thus causing the high chemotherapeutic outcome. This research provides a paradigm that framework organic-inorganic hybridization can endow the inorganic nanocarrier with unique biological effects suitable for biomedical application, benefiting the development of novel nanosystems with the unique bio-functionality and performance.

The residual of malignant tumor cells and lack of bone‐tissue integration are the two critical concerns of bone‐tumor recurrence and surgical failure. In this work, the rational integration of 2D Ti3C2 MXene is reported with 3D‐printing bioactive glass (BG) scaffolds for achieving concurrent bone‐tumor killing by photonic hyperthermia and bone‐tissue regeneration by bioactive scaffolds. The designed composite scaffolds take the unique feature of high photothermal conversion of integrated 2D Ti3C2 MXene for inducing bone‐tumor ablation by near infrared‐triggered photothermal hyperthermia, which has achieved the complete tumor eradication on in vivo bone‐tumor xenografts. Importantly, the rational integration of 2D Ti3C2 MXene is demonstrated to efficiently accelerate the in vivo growth of newborn bone tissue of the composite BG scaffolds. The dual functionality of bone‐tumor killing and bone‐tissue regeneration makes these Ti3C2 MXene‐integrated composite scaffolds highly promising for the treatment of bone tumors, which also substantially broadens the biomedical applications of 2D MXenes in tissue engineering, especially on the treatment of bone tumors., The rational design of 2D MXenes in tissue‐engineering biomedical field is reported, taking their unique characteristics of highly efficient near‐infrared‐triggered photothermal‐conversion performance and enhanced bone‐tissue regeneration capability, especially on combating bone tumors.

The antitumor activity of disulfiram (DSF), a traditional US Food and Drug Administration-approved drug for the treatment of "alcohol-dependence", is Cu

Silicon-based biomaterials play an indispensable role in biomedical engineering; however, due to the lack of intrinsic functionalities of silicon, the applications of silicon-based nanomaterials are largely limited to only serving as carriers for drug delivery systems. Meanwhile, the intrinsically poor biodegradation nature for silicon-based biomaterials as typical inorganic materials also impedes their further in vivo biomedical use and clinical translation. Herein, by the rational design and wet chemical exfoliation synthesis of the 2D silicene nanosheets, traditional 0D nanoparticulate nanosystems are transformed into 2D material systems, silicene nanosheets (SNSs), which feature an intriguing physiochemical nature for photo-triggered therapeutics and diagnostic imaging and greatly favorable biological effects of biocompatibility and biodegradation. In combination with DFT-based molecular dynamics (MD) calculations, the underlying mechanism of silicene interactions with bio-milieu and its degradation behavior are probed under specific simulated physiological conditions. This work introduces a new form of silicon-based biomaterials with 2D structure featuring biodegradability, biocompatibility, and multifunctionality for theranostic nanomedicine, which is expected to promise high clinical potentials.

Fine structure in the $\alpha$ decay of $^{223}$U was observed in the fusion-evaporation reaction $^{187}$Re($^{40}$Ar, p3n) by using fast digital pulse processing technique. Two $\alpha$-decay branches of $^{223}$U feeding the ground state and 244 keV excited state of $^{219}$Th were identified by establishing the decay chain $^{223}$U $\xrightarrow{\alpha_{1}}$ $^{219}$Th $\xrightarrow{\alpha_{2}}$ $^{215}$Ra $\xrightarrow{\alpha_{3}}$ $^{211}$Rn. The $\alpha$-particle energy for the ground-state to ground-state transition of $^{223}$U was determined to be 8993(17) keV, 213 keV higher than the previous value, the half-life was updated to be 62$^{+14}_{-10}$ $\mu$s. Evolution of nuclear structure for $N$ = 131 even-$Z$ isotones from Po to U was discussed in the frameworks of nuclear mass and reduced $\alpha$-decay width, a weakening octupole deformation in the ground state of $^{223}$U relative to its lighter isotones $^{219}$Ra and $^{221}$Th was suggested., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures

Traditional cancer-therapeutic modalities such as chemotherapy suffer from the low therapeutic efficiency and severe side effects. The emerging nanocatalytic therapy could in-situ catalyze the endogenous substances into highly toxic species and then efficiently kill the cancer cells, but the lack of high-performance nanocatalysts hinders their broad clinical translation. In this work, we have successfully developed, for the first time, nanosized zero-valence crystalized iron nanoparticles for in-situ triggering nanocatalytic Fenton reaction within tumor microenvironment to produce large amounts of hydroxyl radicals and subsequently kill the cancer cells, which could be further synergistically enhanced by either photonic hyperthermia or magnetic hyperthermia as assisted by these iron nanoparticles acting as photothermal-conversion or magnetothermal-conversion nanoagents, respectively. Especially, the excellent magnetic performance of these zero-valence crystallized iron nanoparticles has achieved both in vitro and in vivo contrast-enhance magnetic resonance imaging for potentially guiding the photonic/magnetic hyperthermia-synergistic nanocatalytic cancer therapy. This work not only provides the new type of iron-based nanoparticles for biomedical application, but also demonstrates the high efficiency of nanocatalytic cancer therapy as assisted by both photonic and magnetic hyperthermia.

The hypoxic tumor microenvironment severely lowers the therapeutic efficacy of oxygen-dependent anticancer modalities because tumor hypoxia hinders the generation of toxic reactive oxygen species. Here we report a thermodynamic cancer-therapeutic modality that employs oxygen-irrelevant free radicals generated from thermo-labile initiators for inducing cancer cell death. A free radical nanogenerator was engineered via direct growth of mesoporous silica layer onto the surface of two-dimensional Nb2C MXene nanosheets toward multifunctionality, where the mesopore provided the reservoirs for initiators and the MXene core acted as the photonic-thermal trigger at the near-infrared-II biowindow (NIR-II). Upon illumination by a 1064 nm NIR-II laser, the photothermal-conversion effect of Nb2C MXene induced the fast release and quick decomposition of the encapsulated initiators (AIPH) to produce free radicals, which promoted cancer cell apoptosis in both normoxic and hypoxic microenvironment. Systematic in vitro and...

Silicene as an emerging two-dimensional material (2DM) spurs the broad research interests due to its prominent electronic and physical properties, however, still lacking in exploitation for the biological and medical practices. Herein, we constructed a 2D silicene-based theranostic nanoplatform, MnOx@silicene-BSA (MS-BSA), with tumor microenvironment (TME)-responsive and synergistic hyperthermia-augmented catalytic activity when irradiated by near infrared-II (NIR-II) laser because of the high photothermal-conversion efficiency of 2D silicene matrix. Such MS-BSA nanosheets possess the capability to react with glutathione (GSH) to generate Mn2+ and glutathione disulfide (GSSG) under acidity/reducing TME condition. With the presence/assistance of HCO3-, the released Mn2+ exhibited sensitive catalytic activity towards endogenous H2O2via Fenton-like reaction, enabling the generation of highly toxic hydroxyl radicals (•OH), which finally led to the enhanced nanocatalytic therapeutic efficacy followed by exogenous NIR-II laser exposure, originating from hyperthermia-augmented catalytic activity. Especially, these MS-BSA nanosheets accumulated into the tumor region to enable superb contrast enhancement of TME-responsive T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and photoacoustic imaging (PAI), and high-efficient in vivo synergistic tumor eradication. Therefore, such an intelligent photothermal-enhanced catalytic theranostic nanoplatform could realize the exogenous/endogenous-responsive and cooperative hyperthermia-augmented tumor treatment and accurate tumor positioning/monitoring.

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignant disease affecting women's health worldwide. The benefits from conventional therapeutic modalities are severely limited. An increasing number of promising photothermal materials have been recently developed and introduced into the therapeutic regimens of BC, but the underlying biological mechanism remains unclear. Silicon-based materials have enjoyed many popularities in the biomedical field owing to their desirable biocompatibility, biodegradability and versatility. Herein, we introduced two dimensional (2D) silicene nanosheets (SNSs) into the BC treatment and achieved profound photothermal-ablation efficacy. Importantly, this work reveals the underlying biological mechanism and regulation factors of photonic hyperthermia in BC. The RNA sequencing and immunoblot demonstrated that photothermia enhanced apoptosis in BC by activating caspase 3 and caspase 7. Importantly, knockdown of lysine demethylase KDM3A sensitized BC to photothermia epigenetically. It has been revealed that KDM3A could erase p53K372me1 and suppress the anti-cancer functions of p53, leading to the downregulation of pro-apoptotic proteins-PUMA and NOXA verified by Co-IP and ChIP-qPCR assays. Therefore, our results not only import near infrared light (NIR) induced photothermal ablation generated by SNSs-BSA into the BC treatment, but also clarify the underlying mechanism and regulation factors for further photothermal performance optimization and clinical translation.

As an essential trace element in the human body, transitional metal copper (Cu) ions are the bioactive components within the body featuring dedicated biological effects such as promoting angiogenesis and influencing lipid/glucose metabolism. The recent substantial advances of nanotechnology and nanomedicine promote the emerging of distinctive Cu‐involved biomaterial nanoplatforms with intriguing theranostic performances in biomedicine, which are originated from the biological effects of Cu species and the physiochemical attributes of Cu‐composed nanoparticles. Based on the very‐recent significant progresses of Cu‐involved nanotheranostics, this work highlights and discusses the principles, progresses, and prospects on the elaborate design and rational construction of Cu‐composed functional nanoplatforms for a diverse array of biomedical applications, including photonic nanomedicine, catalytic nanotherapeutics, antibacteria, accelerated tissue regeneration, and bioimaging. The engineering of Cu‐based nanocomposites for synergistic nanotherapeutics is also exemplified, followed by revealing their intrinsic biological effects and biosafety for revolutionizing their clinical translation. Finally, the underlying critical concerns, unresolved hurdles, and future prospects on their clinical uses are analyzed and an outlook is provided. By entering the “Copper Age,” these Cu‐involved nanotherapeutic modalities are expected to find more broad biomedical applications in preclinical and clinical phases, despite the current research and developments still being in infancy., This work highlights the principles, progress, and prospects of the elaborate design and rational construction of Cu‐involved functional nanoplatforms for biomedical applications, including photonic nanomedicine, catalytic nanotherapeutics, antibacteria, accelerated tissue regeneration, and bioimaging. The engineering of Cu‐based nanocomposites for synergistic nanotherapeutics is also exemplified, followed by revealing their intrinsic biological effects and biosafety for revolutionizing their clinical translation.

Surgical resection of the epileptogenic region is typically regarded to be practical and efficient for complete elimination of intractable seizures, which cannot be simply controlled by anti-epileptic drugs alone. To achieve a precision removal of the epileptogenic region and even a surgical cure, molecular imaging of epilepsy markers is highly essential for non-invasive accurate detection of the epileptogenic region. In this work, a peptide-targeted nanoprobe, based on ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (USPIONs), PA-USPIONs, was elaborately constructed to enable highly selective delivery and sensitive T1-weighted positive magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the epileptogenic region. Especially, Pepstatin A (PA), a small peptide which can specifically target to P-glycoprotein (P-gp) overexpressed at the epileptogenic region in a kainic acid (KA)-induced mice model of seizures, was conjugated onto the surface of PEGylated USPIONs. It has been demonstrated that the as-constructed PA-USPIONs nanoprobes have favorable T1 contrast enhancement and high r1 relaxivity compared with the clinically used T1-MR contrast agent (Gd-DTPA) by systematic in vitro and vivo assessments. Importantly, the toxicity evaluation, especially to brains, was assessed by the histological as well as hematological examinations, demonstrating that the fabricated PA-USPIONs nanoprobes are featured with excellent biocompatibility, guaranteeing the further potential clinical application. This first report on the development of USPIONs as T1-weighted MR contrast agents for active targeting of the epileptogenic region holds the high potential for precise resection of the according lesion in order to achieve therapeutic, often curative purposes.

Local anesthetics have been extensively employed to treat postoperative pain, but they generally suffer from short acting duration and potential neurotoxicity under high local concentrations, which require the controlled and sustained releasing patterns of treatment drugs. In this work, it is reported, for the first time, the construction of hollow mesoporous organosilica nanoparticles (HMONs)-based nanoplatforms for localized delivery and controlled/sustained release of loaded ropivacaine for local anesthetics, which can be repeatedly triggered by either external ultrasound irradiation or acidity triggering to release the payload, causing on-demand and long-lasting analgesia. Based on the in vivo mouse model of incision pain, the controlled and sustained release of ropivacaine achieves more than six hours of continuous analgesia, which is almost three times longer as compared to single free ropivacaine injection. The low neurotoxicity and high biocompatibility of HMONs for nanoparticle-enabled analgesia are also demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo. This designed/constructed HMONs-based nanoplatform provides a potential methodology for clinical pain management via on-demand and long-lasting pain relief.

The fast advances of theranostic nanomedicine enable the rational design and construction of diverse functional nanoplatforms for versatile biomedical applications, among which gas-generating nanoplatforms (GGNs) have emerged very recently as unique theranostic nanoplatforms for broad gas therapies. Here, the recent developments of the rational design and chemical construction of versatile GGNs for efficient gas therapies by either exogenous physical triggers or endogenous disease-environment responsiveness are reviewed. These gases involve some therapeutic gases that can directly change disease status, such as oxygen (O2 ), nitric oxide (NO), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2 ), hydrogen sulfide (H2 S) and sulfur dioxide (SO2 ), and other gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2 ), dl-menthol (DLM), and gaseous perfluorocarbon (PFC) for supplementary assistance of the theranostic process. Abundant nanocarriers have been adopted for gas delivery into lesions, including poly(d,l-lactic-co-glycolic acid), micelles, silica/mesoporous silica, organosilica, MnO2 , graphene, Bi2 Se3 , upconversion nanoparticles, CaCO3 , etc. Especially, these GGNs have been successfully developed for versatile biomedical applications, including diagnostic imaging and therapeutic use. The biosafety issue, challenges faced, and future developments on the rational construction of GGNs are also discussed for further promotion of their clinical translation to benefit patients.

Inorganic nanocarriers have shown their high performance in disease theranostics in preclinical animal models and further great prospects for clinical translation. However, their dissatisfactory biodegradability and pre-drug leakage with nonspecificity to lesion sites significantly hinders the possible clinical translation. To solve these two critical issues, a framework-engineering strategy is introduced to simultaneously achieve enhanced biodegradability and controllable drug releasing, based on the mostly explored mesoporous silica-based nanosystems. The framework of mesoporous silica is engineered by direct Mg doping via a generic dissolution and regrowth approach, and it can transform into the easy biodegradation of magnesium silicate nanocarriers with simultaneous on-demand drug release. Such magnesium silicate nanocarriers can respond to the mild acidic environment of tumor tissue, causing the fast breaking up and biodegradation of the silica framework. More interesting, the released Mg2+ can further activate Mg2+ -dependent DNAzyme on the surface of hollow mesoporous magnesium silicate nanoparticles (HMMSNs) to cleave the RNA-based gatekeeper, which further accelerates the release of loaded anticancer drugs. Therefore, enhanced anticancer efficiency of chemotherapeutic drugs assisted by the biodegradable intelligent HMMSNs is achieved. The high biocompatibility of nanocarriers and biodegradation products is demonstrated and can be easily excreted via feces and urine guaranteeing their further clinical translation.

In deeply inelastic heavy-ion collisions, the quadrupole deformations of both fragments are taken as stochastic independent dynamical variables governed by the Fokker-Planck equation (FPE) under the corresponding driving potential. The mean values, variances and covariance of the fragments are analytically expressed by solving the FPE in head on collisions. The characteristics and mechanism of the deformation are discussed. It is found that both the internal structures and interactions of the colliding partners are critical for the deformation relaxation in deeply inelastic collisions. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Traditional photodynamic therapy (PDT) suffers from the critical issues of low tissue-penetrating depth of light and potential phototoxicity, which are expected to be solved by developing new dynamic therapy-based therapeutic modalities such as sonodynamic therapy (SDT). In this work, we report on the design/fabrication of a high-performance multifunctional nanoparticulate sonosensitizer for efficient in vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided SDT against cancer. The developed approach takes the structural and compositional features of mesoporous organosilica-based nanosystems for the fabrication of sonosensitizers with intriguing theranostic performance. The well-defined mesoporosity facilitates the high loading of organic sonosensitizers (protoporphyrin, PpIX) and further chelating of paramagnetic transitional metal Mn ions based on metalloporphyrin chemistry (MnPpIX). The mesoporous structure of large surface area also maximizes the accessibility of water molecules to the encapsulated paramagnetic Mn ions, endowing the composite sonosensitizers with markedly high MRI performance (r

Ceramic biomaterials have been investigated for several decades, but their potential biomedical applications in cancer therapy have been paid much less attentions, mainly due to their lack of related material functionality for combating the cancer. In this work, we report, for the first time, that MAX ceramic biomaterials exhibit the unique functionality for the photothermal ablation of cancer upon being exfoliated into ultrathin nanosheets within atomic thickness (MXene). As a paradigm, biocompatible Ti3C2 nanosheets (MXenes) were successfully synthesized based on a two-step exfoliation strategy of MAX phase Ti3AlC2 by the combined HF etching and TPAOH intercalation. Especially, the high photothermal-conversion efficiency and in vitro/in vivo photothermal ablation of tumor of Ti3C2 nanosheets (MXenes) were revealed and demonstrated, not only in the intravenous administration of soybean phospholipid modified Ti3C2 nanosheets but also in the localized intratumoral implantation of a phase-changeable PLGA/Ti...

Chemistry has long been playing its specific role in ultrasound-responsive theranostic biomedicine in the form of microbubbles, which clinically provide the dynamic detection of macro and microvasculature by continuous expanding and contracting under the alternating ultrasound pressure. However, microbubbles’ large particle size severely hinders their efficiency in ultrasound-triggered diseases theranostics as they only transport within the blood vessels. Fortunately, the scientific community recently seeks solving strategies from the advances of chemistry and nanomedicine by rationally designing and fabricating versatile intelligent and multifunctional ultrasound-responsive nanosystems/nanoplatforms to solve the critical issues of traditional microbubbles and routine nanosystems, which is herein classified as “ultrasound-responsive nanomedicine”. This review discusses and clarifies the intrinsic chemistry (e.g., material chemistry, surface chemistry, physiochemistry and biochemistry) and design principle of versatile nanosystems/nanoplatforms with unique ultrasound response not only for diagnostic bioimaging (single and/or multi-modality ultrasound imaging), but also for multiple ultrasound-triggered therapeutic applications. Based on the unique ultrasound features of high tissue-penetrating capability, non-invasiveness, easy accessibility and relatively mature apparatus, this review finally elucidates the unresolved critical issues/challenges and future clinical-translation potentials of this intriguing “ultrasound-responsive nanomedicine”.

Biodegradability of inorganic nanoparticles is one of the most critical issues in their further clinical translations. In this work, a novel "metal ion-doping" approach has been developed to endow inorganic mesoporous silica-based nanoparticles with tumor-sensitive biodegradation and theranostic functions, simply by topological transformation of mesoporous silica to metal-doped composite nanoformulations. "Manganese extraction" sensitive to tumor microenvironment was enabled in manganese-doped hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles (designated as Mn-HMSNs) to fast promote the disintegration and biodegradation of Mn-HMSNs, further accelerating the breakage of Si-O-Si bonds within the framework. The fast biodegradation of Mn-HMSNs sensitive to mild acidic and reducing microenvironment of tumor resulted in much accelerated anticancer drug releasing and enhanced T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging of tumor. A high tumor-inhibition effect was simultaneously achieved by anticancer drug delivery mediated by PEGylated Mn-HMSNs, and the high biocompatibility of composite nanosystems was systematically demonstrated in vivo. This is the first demonstration of biodegradable inorganic mesoporous nanosystems with specific biodegradation behavior sensitive to tumor microenvironment, which also provides a feasible approach to realize the on-demand biodegradation of inorganic nanomaterials simply by "metal ion-doping" strategy, paving the way to solve the critical low-biodegradation issue of inorganic drug carriers.

A novel multitherapeutic modality based on biodegradable hollow mesoporous organosilica nanoparticles endowed with sonodynamic therapy (SDT) and tumor‐targeting capability is constructed, aiming to enhance the chemotherapeutic efficiency for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This multitherapeutic modality leads to significantly enhanced efficiency of chemotherapy for HCC mediated by ultrasound and causes considerable sonotoxicity, which has been demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo.

A theoretical investigation for the conductivity of single walled nanotube films is carried out with an effective medium model in the Terahertz region. The results are compared with the recent experiment and a decrease of the real conductivity with increasing frequency is predicted. Meanwhile, the off-diagonal components of the dielectric function of single-walled carbon nanotube films based on the magnetooptical effects are also shown. (C) 2003 MAIK "Nauka / Interperiodica".

The latest discovery of possible high temperature superconductivity in the single-layer FeSe film grown on a SrTiO3 substrate, together with the observation of its unique electronic structure and nodeless superconducting gap, has generated much attention. Initial work also found that, while the single-layer FeSe/SrTiO3 film exhibits a clear signature of superconductivity, the double-layer FeSe/SrTiO3 film shows an insulating behavior. Such a dramatic difference between the single-layer and double-layer FeSe/SrTiO3 films is surprising and the underlying origin remains unclear. Here we report our comparative study between the single-layer and double-layer FeSe/SrTiO3 films by performing a systematic angle-resolved photoemission study on the samples annealed in vacuum. We find that, like the single-layer FeSe/SrTiO3 film, the as-prepared double-layer FeSe/SrTiO3 film is insulating and possibly magnetic, thus establishing a universal existence of the magnetic phase in the FeSe/SrTiO3 films. In particular, the double-layer FeSe/SrTiO3 film shows a quite different doping behavior from the single-layer film in that it is hard to get doped and remains in the insulating state under an extensive annealing condition. The difference originates from the much reduced doping efficiency in the bottom FeSe layer of the double-layer FeSe/SrTiO3 film from the FeSe-SrTiO3 interface. These observations provide key insights in understanding the origin of superconductivity and the doping mechanism in the FeSe/SrTiO3 films. The property disparity between the single-layer and double-layer FeSe/SrTiO3 films may facilitate to fabricate electronic devices by making superconducting and insulating components on the same substrate under the same condition., 19 pages, 4 figures

Conductive polyaniline was found to have special marine antifouling property. The coating from conducting polyaniline and epoxy resin(or polyurethane) can last 6-9 months in Southern China sea, i.e., less than 10% of the coating surface was fouled during this period. The conducting polyaniline has special synergetic antifouling effect on other antifouling agents like cuprous oxide or 4, 4'-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane. The conductivity of the polyaniline was found to be extremely important for its antifouling effect. Moreover, employing aliphatic polyamine as solvent of emeraldine base and curing agent of epoxy resin, a new technique to process corrosion prevention coating containing emeraldine base was developed, therefrom the emeraldine base and epoxy resin was in molecular level blending. This technique was solvent free and extremely effective, i.e., only 1wt% of emeraldine base in the coating can have good corrosion prevention property.

Topological insulators represent a new quantum state of matter that are insulating in the bulk but metallic on the edge or surface. In the Dirac surface state, it is well-established that the electron spin is locked with the crystal momentum. Here we report a new phenomenon of the spin texture locking with the orbital texture in a topological insulator Bi2Se3. We observe light-polarization-dependent spin texture of both the upper and lower Dirac cones that constitutes strong evidence of the orbital-dependent spin texture in Bi2Se3. The different spin texture detected in variable polarization geometry is the manifestation of the spin-orbital texture in the initial state combined with the photoemission matrix element effects. Our observations provide a new orbital degree of freedom and a new way of light manipulation in controlling the spin structure of the topological insulators that are important for their future applications in spin-related technologies., Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures

A compact high-accuracy rail-to-rail CMOS operational amplifier (Op-Amp) is presented using strong inversion techniques to achieve power consumption of 90µW under 1.8V supply voltage. Two complementary differential pair techniques and one-versus-three current mirror compensation techniques are adopted to realize wide input dynamic range, while the output stage provides rail-to-rail output drive through the use of resistor-compensation circuits (RCC) and self-regular circuits (SRC). Simulation results demonstrated that the active area is only 0.001mm2 and the transconductance variation can be restricted to ±±5% hence the accurate of common-mode rang (99.9%) was improved as well as the total harmonic distortion.

A convenient way to make water-soluble or water-dispersible conducting polyaniline was given by employing protonic acid dopants containing hydrophilic ethyleneoxide oligomer as counter-anion. The conducting polyaniline possessed electrical conductivity in the range of 10 −3 to 10 −2 S/cm, depending on the dopant, and it displayed excellent electrochemical redox reversibility in non-aqueous system.