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Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) exhibit immense potential for phototherapy due to their exceptional light absorption, photostability, and biocompatibility. Nevertheless, tumor cells can develop resistance to phototherapy after an initial response, posing a significant challenge for complete eradication. In this study, a COF‐based photosensitizer, TCN‐PPDA‐COF, is designed with outstanding photothermal properties and delivered to tumors using microneedles (MN) to enhance cancer phototherapy. Single‐cell RNA‐sequencing (scRNA‐seq) technology is then utilized to explore the mechanisms underlying tumor cell adaptation to COF‐mediated phototherapy. The scRNA‐seq analysis revealed that phototherapy‐resistant tumor cells displayed elevated expression of HIF‐1α and VEGF signaling pathways, fostering intratumoral angiogenesis and facilitating their continued survival during phototherapy. In response to this phenomenon, a unique CA‐microneedle (MN) patch is developed, tailored for co‐delivering TCN‐PPDA‐COF and angiogenesis inhibitors AL3818 to the tumor site. The CA‐MN patches can effectively inhibit angiogenesis in tumors while mediating phototherapy, thereby obliterating the phototherapy‐resistant tumor cells. In 4T1 tumor‐bearing mouse model, the CA‐MN patches achieved nearly complete regression of tumor grafts and activated host anti‐tumor immunity, thereby enhancing the response rate of αPD‐1 and effectively restraining tumor metastasis and recurrence. This study underscored an ingenious approach to modify COF‐MN patches through scRNA‐seq technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple organic functionalities can now be apportioned into nanoscale domains within a metal-coordinated framework, posing the following question: how do we control the resulting combination of "heterogeneity and order"? Here, we report the creation of a metal-organic framework, MOF-2000, whose two component types are incorporated in a 2:1 ratio, even when the ratio of component types in the starting solution is varied by an order of magnitude. Statistical mechanical modeling suggests that this robust 2:1 ratio has a nonequilibrium origin, resulting from kinetic trapping of component types during framework growth. Our simulations show how other "magic number" ratios of components can be obtained by modulating the topology of a framework and the noncovalent interactions between component types, a finding that may aid the rational design of functional multicomponent materials.

New materials capable of binding carbon dioxide are essential for addressing climate change. Here, we demonstrate that amyloids, self-assembling protein fibers, are effective for selective carbon dioxide capture. Solid-state NMR proves that amyloid fibers containing alkylamine groups reversibly bind carbon dioxide via carbamate formation. Thermodynamic and kinetic capture-and-release tests show the carbamate formation rate is fast enough to capture carbon dioxide by dynamic separation, undiminished by the presence of water, in both a natural amyloid and designed amyloids having increased carbon dioxide capacity. Heating to 100 °C regenerates the material. These results demonstrate the potential of amyloid fibers for environmental carbon dioxide capture.

We determined the heterogeneous mesoscale spatial apportionment of functional groups in a series of multivariate metal-organic frameworks (MTV-MOF-5) containing BDC (1,4-benzenedicarboxylate) linkers with different functional groups--B (BDC-NH2), E (BDC-NO2), F [(BDC-(CH3)2], H [BDC-(OC3H5)2], and I [BDC-(OC7H7)2]--using solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance measurements combined with molecular simulations. Our analysis reveals that these methods discern between random (EF), alternating (EI and EHI), and various cluster (BF) forms of functional group apportionments. This combined synthetic, characterization, and computational approach predicts the adsorptive properties of crystalline MTV-MOF systems. This methodology, developed in the context of ordered frameworks, is a first step in resolving the more general problem of spatial disorder in other ordered materials, including mesoporous materials, functionalized polymers, and defect distributions within crystalline solids.

Cell-free RNA (cfRNA) allows assessment of health, status, and phenotype of a variety of human organs and is a potential biomarker to non-invasively diagnose numerous diseases. Nevertheless, there is a lack of highly efficient and bias-free cfRNA isolation technologies due to the low abundance and instability of cfRNA. Here, we developed a reproducible and high-efficiency isolation technology for different types of cell-free nucleic acids (containing cfRNA and viral RNA) in serum/plasma based on the inclusion of nucleic acids by metal-organic framework (MOF) materials, which greatly improved the isolation efficiency and was able to preserve RNA integrity compared with the most widely used research kit method. Importantly, the quality of cfRNA extracted by the MOF method is about 10-fold that of the kit method, and the MOF method isolates more than three times as many different RNA types as the kit method. The whole transcriptome mapping characteristics of cfRNA in serum from patients with liver cancer was described and a cfRNA signature with six cfRNAs was identified to diagnose liver cancer with high diagnostic efficiency (area under curve = 0.905 in the independent validation cohort) using this MOF method. Thus, this new MOF isolation technique will advance the field of liquid biopsy, with the potential to diagnose liver cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have a high internal surface area and widely tunable composition (1,2), which make them useful for applications involving adsorption, such as hydrogen, methane or carbon dioxide storage [...]