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Tailored to the special tumor microenvironment (TME), chemodynamic therapy (CDT) has been introduced to generate hydroxyl radicals (˙OH) primarily for the tumor

A tumor microenvironment-responsive nanoplatform Co/ZIF-8/ICG/Pt (CZIP) was successfully constructed for chemodynamic therapy (CDT) and enhanced photodynamic therapy (PDT).

In this study, an efficient Fenton reaction catalyst based on chelation was designed to achieve the combination of enhanced chemodynamic therapy and ion interference therapy.

The efficiency of reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated cancer therapy is restrained by intrinsic characteristics in the tumor microenvironment (TME), such as overexpressed glutathione (GSH), hypoxia and limited efficiency of H

The generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is often limited by the overexpression of glutathione (GSH) in the tumor microenvironment (TME) and the penetration depth of visible light. In view of this, we designed biodegradable Cu/ZIF-8 shell-coated lanthanide-doped nanoparticles and loaded with a photosensitizer (Rose Bengal), and fabricated a NIR-triggered nanocomposite NaYF4:20%Yb, 2%Er@Cu/ZIF-8/RB@F127 (UCZRF) for the synergistic treatment of CDT and PDT. Interestingly, the UCZRF nanostructures can specifically release RB and Cu2+ in the acidic tumor microenvironment (TME). Cu2+ depletes GSH to effectively change the amount of ROS produced by RB under 980 nm laser irradiation, and Cu+ from the reduction reaction of GSH reacts with excess hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in the TME to generate hydroxyl radicals (⋅OH) with high oxidation activity. In such a simple nanosystem, we enhance the anti-tumor effect of CDT and PDT by improving the efficiency of ROS generation.

Immunotherapy, a strategy that leverages the host immune function to fight against cancer, plays an increasingly important role in clinical tumor therapy. In spite of the great success achieved in not only clinical treatment but also basic research, cancer immunotherapy still faces many huge challenges. Manganese oxide nanomaterials (MONs), as ideal tumor microenvironment (TME)-responsive biomaterials, are able to dramatically elicit anti-tumor immune responses in multiple ways, indicating great prospects for immunotherapy. In this review, on the basis of different mechanisms to boost immunotherapy, major highlighted topics are presented, covering adjusting an immunosuppressive TME by generating O2 (like O2-sensitized photodynamic therapy (PDT), programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1) expression downregulation, reprogramming tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), and restraining tumor angiogenesis and lactic acid exhaustion), inducing immunogenic cell death (ICD), photothermal therapy (PTT) induction, activating the stimulator of interferon gene (STING) pathway and immunoadjuvants for nanovaccines. We hope that this review will provide holistic understanding about MONs and their application in cancer immunotherapy, and thus pave the way to the translation from bench to bedside in the future.

Pyroptosis provides a new direction and broad prospects for cancer immunotherapy. However, the development of a nanoplatform as a pyroptosis inducer is limited, and the discovery of a new type of nano-pyroptosis inducer for cancer immunotherapy is still imminent. Herein, biodegradable Ca

Inspired by the limitations of nanoparticles in cancer treatment caused by their low therapeutic effects and biotoxicity, biocompatible and photothermal enhanced copper oxide-decorated carbon nanospheres (CuO@CNSs) with doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) loading were constructed. CNSs as photothermal agents were synthesized by a hydrothermal reaction. CuO was adsorbed on the surface of CNSs, which improved the photothermal conversion efficiency due to the electron transitions between C-2p and Cu-3d. In addition, CuO would release Cu2+ ions in the tumor microenvironment, which could produce hydroxyl radical (·OH) to induce cancer cells apoptosis via Haber-Weiss and Fenton-like reactions. DOX as a chemotherapeutic agent was located on the surface of CuO@CNSs by electrostatic adsorption and released quickly in the tumor microenvironment to kill cancer cells. The CuO@CNSs-DOX nanoplatforms realized the combination therapy of photothermal therapy (PTT), chemodynamic therapy (CDT), and chemotherapy (CT), which have strong potential for cancer treatment.

Despite the widespread applications of manganese oxide nanomaterials (MONs) in biomedicine, the intrinsic immunogenicity of MONs is still unclear. MnOx nanospikes (NSs) as tumor microenvironment (TME)-responsive nanoadjuvants and immunogenic cell death (ICD) drugs are proposed for cancer nanovaccine-based immunotherapy. MnOx NSs with large mesoporous structures show ultrahigh loading efficiencies for ovalbumin and tumor cell fragment. The combination of ICD via chemodynamic therapy and ferroptosis inductions, as well as antigen stimulations, presents a better synergistic immunopotentiation action. Furthermore, the obtained nanovaccines achieve TME-responsive magnetic resonance/photoacoustic dual-mode imaging contrasts, while effectively inhibiting primary/distal tumor growth and tumor metastasis.

Linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS), which is widely used as detergent, is a common toxic pollutant in wastewater. Generally, biodegradation process is applied to remove LAS. However, the efficiency of traditional wastewater treatment cannot meet the growing demand. In this study, an improved biological turntable with a symbiotic system of bacteria and microalgae was primarily used to enhance the biodegradation efficiency of LAS from wastewater. The symbiotic system of bacteria and microalgae was mainly composed of Scenedesmus dimorphus and three LAS-degrading bacteria Plesiomonas sp. (L3, L7) and Pseudomonas sp. (H6). The average removal rate of LAS was up to 94.6%. The LAS concentration of the effluent of the system decreased by 81.7% after the bacterial-microalgae inoculation (the inoculation temperature was 25 oC; microalgae were inoculated at a concentration of 10% only at the start of the system; bacteria were continuously inoculated at 1‰ concentration). After bacterial-microalgae inoculation, the average effluent concentration of CODCr in the tertiary reaction tank was 24.3 mg/L, the average membrane effluent concentration was 15.8 mg/L, and the average removal rate was 90.5%. Compared with the control group without inoculation, the concentration of CODCr in the tertiary reaction tank and membrane effluent decreased by 55.7% and 46.4%. The denaturing gradient electrophoresis (DGGE) pattern analysis of the systemic flora showed that there were two dominant species of high LAS degrading bacteria. They were identified to belong to Plesiomonas sp. and Pseudomonas sp., respectively.

Nanomaterials with intrinsic peroxidase-like activities are able to catalyze the oxidation of the substrate with the peroxide, which have been widely considered as artificial enzymatic agents in cancer therapy. However, current peroxidase catalytic oxidation treatments generating reactive oxygen species rely highly on hydrogen peroxide and pH, which limit greatly their therapeutic efficiency in the tumor microenvironment. Here, we report a strategy to construct the complex virus-like Fe3O4@Bi2S3 nanocatalysts (F-BS NCs) by connecting typical peroxidase Fe3O4 (MNPs) with a narrow band gap semiconductor Bi2S3 (BS) to enhance the enzymatic activity resorting to the limited intratumoral peroxide and efficient external photothermal stimuli. In this formulation, the integrated F-BS NCs induce cancer-cell death through mild photothermal treatment and sequential photothermal-stimulative catalysis of H2O2 into highly toxic •OH under 808 nm laser, which successfully realize a remarkable synergistic anticancer achievement.

2D materials are now at the forefront of state-of-the-art nanotechnologies due to their fascinating properties and unique structures. As expected, low-cost, high-volume, and high-quality 2D materials play an important role in the applications of flexible devices. Although considerable progress has been achieved in the integration of a series of novel 2D materials beyond graphene into flexible devices, a lot remains to be known. At this stage of their development, the key issues concern how to make further improvements to high-performance and scalable-production. Herein, recent progress in the quest to improve the current state of the art for 2D materials beyond graphene is reviewed. Namely, the properties and synthesis techniques of 2D materials are first introduced. Then, both the advantages and challenges of these 2D materials for flexible devices are also highlighted. Finally, important directions for future advancements toward efficient, low-cost, and stable flexible devices are outlined.

Pyroptosis, which is a mode of programmed cell death, has proven effective for cancer therapy. However, efficient pyroptosis inducers for tumor treatment are limited. This study proposes biodegradable K3ZrF7:Yb/Er upconversion nanoparticles (ZrNPs) as pyroptosis inducers for cancer immunotherapy. ZrNPs, which are similar to ion reservoirs, can be dissolved inside cancer cells and release high amounts of K+ and [ZrF7]3- ions, resulting a surge in intracellular osmolarity and homeostasis imbalance. This further induces an increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS), caspase-1 protein activation, gasdermin D (GSDMD) cleavage, and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) maturity, and results in cytolysis. In vivo tests confirm that ZrNPs-induced pyroptosis exhibits superior antitumor immunity activity confirmed by enhanced dendritic cells (DCs) maturity and frequency of effector-memory T cells, as well as observably inhibiting tumor growth and pulmonary metastasis. This work is believed to extend the biomedical applications of upconversion nanomaterials and deepen the understanding of intrinsic immunomodulatory activity of nanomaterials.

To date, the limited light conversion ability and the oxygen-dependent therapeutic process of most photosensitizers make it difficult to achieve satisfactory therapeutic effects in the complex tumor microenvironment, especially the anoxic environment. Herein, the black mesoporous titania (BMT) with large pore size (∼8 nm) is synthesized as a new-style carrier for radical generator drug (AIBI) loading. The BMT as a light transducer can convert near-infrared (NIR) light energy into thermal energy and chemical energy (•OH), contributing to photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT), respectively. More importantly, AIBI would be thermally decomposed into alkyl radicals (•R) for thermodynamic therapy (TDT). The high concentration of free radicals produced by BMT@AIBI NCs resulted in double-strand breaks (DSBs) of DNA and finally induced cancer cell apoptosis. Since the generation of radicals is unrelated to oxygen, the BMT@AIBI NCs with NIR irradiation presented excellent in vitro and in vivo anticancer results under hypoxic conditions. The reported NIR-induced platform based on BMT@AIBI NCs, which could perform triple energy-conversion processes including light energy to thermal energy, to chemical energy, and to thermal energy then to chemical energy, realizes synergetic photo-thermal-dynamic therapy (PTT, PDT, and TDT) to overcome the problem of tumor hypoxia for enhanced anticancer effects.

Although neodymium vanadate (NdVO4) has been investigated and applied in some fields owing to its intensive ultraviolet (UV) light absorption, weak absorption in visible (Vis) and near infrared (NIR) regions constrains its environmental remediation and biomedical applications. Herein, plasmonic precious metal Au as light trapping agent is deposited onto NdVO4 to form metal/semiconductor hybrid nanostructure for improving the Vis/NIR light absorption. NdVO4/Au heterojunction nanocrystals (NCs) were synthesized by NdVO4 nanorods (NRs) and plasmonic Au nanoparticles (NPs), followed by introducing polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) to enhance stability and biocompatibility, which exhibit elevated photocatalytic performance for organic dye degradation, photothermal conversion effect as high as 32.15% and cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) production ability. NdVO4/Au can be internalized efficiently via endocytosis and cause apparent phototoxicity on HeLa cells. In vivo experiments further show that NdVO4/Au can act as a high-efficiency NIR light-triggered anticancer agent with excellent tumor inhibition effect. In addition, based on outstanding light-to-heat conversion performance and thermal expansion effect under NIR irradiation, NdVO4/Au provides photothermal (PT) and photoacoustic (PA) dual-modal imaging platform for precise cancer diagnosis and treatment. STATEMENTS OF SIGNIFICANCE: It's the first report on integrating precious metal Au and rare earth orthovanadates semiconductor into NdVO4/Au heterojunction NCs. The as-prepared NdVO4/Au heterojunction NCs exhibits improved absorption in Vis/NIR region and increased generation efficiency of photo-induced electron/hole pairs due to the LSPR effect, which results in enhanced photothermal conversion efficiency and the production ability of cytotoxic O2- and OH in comparison with pristine NdVO4. For further clinical application, NdVO4/Au heterojunction NCs could be served as anticancer therapeutic agent for PA/PT dual-modal imaging guided and NIR-triggered photothermal/photodynamic synergistic anticancer treatment.

Hypoxia and overexpression of glutathione (GSH) are typical characteristics of the tumor microenvironment, which severely hinders cancer treatments. Here, we design a novel biodegradable therapeutic system, O2-Cu/ZIF-8@Ce6/ZIF-8@F127 (OCZCF), to simultaneously achieve GSH depletion and O2-enhanced combination therapy. Notably, the doped Cu2+ doubles the O2 storage capacity of the ZIF-8 matrix, which makes OCZCF an excellent pH-sensitive O2 reservoir for conquering tumor hypoxia, enhancing the photodynamic therapy (PDT) efficiency of chlorin e6 (Ce6) under 650 nm laser irradiation. Moreover, the released Cu2+ can act as a smart reactive oxygen species protector by consuming intracellular GSH. The byproduct Cu+ will undergo highly efficient Fenton-like reaction to achieve chemodynamic therapy (CDT) in the presence of abundant H2O2. The accompanying O2 will further alleviate hypoxia. The in vitro and in vivo experimental data indicate that OCZCF could cause remarkable tumor inhibition through enhanced synergetic PDT and CDT, which may open up a new path for cancer therapy.

Upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) and MnO2 hybrid theranostic nanoplatform (UCMn) is highly desired; however, the rational design of such UCMn hybrid nanomaterials is still a great challenge. Here...

Attributed to the large pore size and excellent stability, the metal–organic framework (MOF), NU-1000, which is formed by the coordination of Zr cluster and 1,3,6,8-tetrakis(p-benzoic acid)pyrene (H4TBAPy) ligand, has been widely studied in the catalysis research field; however, only a few reports about the biomedical application of NU-1000 could be found in the open literature. In this study, a functional ligand, tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin (TCPP), was introduced into NU-1000 via a postsynthetic ligand exchange method and the resulting mixed ligand MOF has an excellent photodynamic effect. Finally, in vitro and in vivo assessment about the antitumor efficacy was investigated for the first time. It demonstrates the feasibility of TCPP-substituted NU-1000 to be used for photodynamic therapy and also provides an alternative approach to enrich the function of MOF for various applications via a postsynthetic method.

The limited light penetration depth and tumor hypoxia are two natural shortcomings of photodynamic therapy (PDT). Overcoming these two issues within a single system is still a great challenge. Herein, photosensitizer (PS)-loaded and PEG-modified MnFe2O4-decorated large-pore mesoporous silica-coated β-NaYF4:20%Yb,2%Er@β-NaYF4 upconversion nanoparticles (UCMnFe-PS-PEG) as excellent PDT agents are successfully prepared for NIR light-mediated and O2 self-sufficient PDT. The large mesoporous structure observably increases PS loading efficiency (11.33 wt%) and the green luminescence from upconversion nanoparticles activated by NIR is able to activate PSs to generate ROS effectively. In addition, sub-10 nm MnFe2O4 nanoparticles work as a Fenton catalyst to generate O2in situ. In vivo experiments further prove that UCMnFe-PS-PEG not only provides magnetic guidance to the tumor, but also overcomes tumor hypoxia and dramatically enhances PDT efficiency. Furthermore, in vivo MR and UCL imaging are performed for accurate cancer therapy. We believe that the successful construction of the multifunctional UCMnFe-PS-PEG provides more revelations for developing advanced nano-drug systems for cancer therapy.