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Recently, newly developed carbon-based nanomaterials known as carbon dots (CDs) have generated significant interest in nanomedicine.

Purpose Xijiao Dihuang decoction (XJDHT), a traditional Chinese medicine, is widely used to treat patients with sepsis. However, the mechanisms underlying the effects of XJDHT on cardiac dysfunctionhave yet to be fully elucidated. The present study evaluated the potential utility of XJDHT in protecting against sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction and myocardial injury. Methods Mice administered Lipopolysaccharide (LPS,10 mg/kg) or equivalent saline solution (control) were treated with XJDHT (10 g/kg/day) or saline by gavage for 72 hours. Results Treatment with XJDHT significantly enhanced myocardial function and attenuated pathological change, infiltration of inflammatory cells, levels of TNF-α,IL-1β and expression of TLR4 and NF-κB in mice with sepsis. RNA sequencing and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analyses identified 531 differentially expressed genes and multiple enriched signaling pathways including the PI3K/AKT pathway. Further, XJDHT attenuated cardiac apoptosis and decreased Bax protein expression while increasing protein levels of Bcl-2, PI3K, and p-AKT in cardiac tissues of mice with sepsis. Conclusion In summary, XJDHT improves cardiac function in a murine model of sepsis by attenuating cardiac inflammation and apoptosis via suppression the TLR4/NF-κB pathway and activating the PI3K/AKT pathway

Quercetin exerts antihypertensive effects, while its role on hypertensive renal injury remain unknown. Network pharmacology analysis identified multiple potential candidate targets (including TP53, Bcl-2 and BaX) and enriched signaling pathways (including apoptosis and p53 signaling pathway). Hematoxylin and eosin staining revealed that quercetin treatment reduced the pathological changes in renal tissues of Ang II infused mice. RNA sequencing identified quercetin treatment significantly reversed 464 DETs and enriched several signaling pathway (including apoptosis and p53 pathways). Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) dUTP nick-end labeling staining and Annexin V staining revealed that quercetin treatment reduced cell apoptosis in renal tissues of Ang II-infused mice and in NRK-52E cells stimulated with Ang II. Furthermore, immunohistochemistry and western-blotting indicated that quercetin treatment alleviated the upregulation of p53, BaX, cleaved-caspase-9, and cleaved-caspase-3 protein expression and the downregulation of Bcl-2 protein expression in both renal tissue of Ang II infused mice and NRK-52E cells stimulated with Ang II stimulation. Moreover, the molecular docking results indicated potential binding activity between quercetin-TP53. Quercetin treatment significantly attenuated hypertensive renal injury and cell apoptosis in renal tissues of Ang II-induced mice and Ang II stimulated NERK-52E cell, and by targeting p53 may be one of the underlying mechanisms.

Despite significant effort, a majority of heavy-atom-free photosensitizers have short excitation wavelengths, thereby hampering their biomedical applications. Here, we present a facile approach for developing efficient near-infrared (NIR) heavy-atom-free photosensitizers. Based on a series of thiopyrylium-based NIR-II (1000-1700 nm) dyads, we found that the star dyad HD with a sterically bulky and electron-rich moiety exhibited configuration torsion and significantly enhanced intersystem crossing (ISC) compared to the parent dyad. The electron excitation characteristics of HD changed from local excitation (LE) to charge transfer (CT)-domain, contributing to a ~ 6-fold reduction in energy gap (ΔEST), a ~ 10-fold accelerated ISC process, and a ~ 31.49-fold elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS) quantum yield. The optimized SP@HD-PEG2K lung-targeting dots enabled real-time NIR-II lung imaging, which precisely guided rapid pulmonary coronavirus inactivation.

Mechanical stimulation utilizing deep tissue-penetrating and focusable energy sources, such as ultrasound and magnetic fields, is regarded as an emerging patient-friendly and effective therapeutic strategy to overcome the limitations of conventional cancer therapies based on fundamental external stimuli such as light, heat, electricity, radiation, or microwaves. Recent efforts have suggested that mechanical stimuli-driven cancer therapy (henceforth referred to as "mechanical cancer therapy") could provide a direct therapeutic effect and intelligent control to augment other anti-cancer systems as a synergistic combinational cancer treatment. This review article highlights the latest advances in mechanical cancer therapy to present a novel perspective on the fundamental principles of ultrasound- and magnetic field-mediated mechanical forces, including compression, tension, shear force, and torque, that can be generated in a cellular microenvironment using mechanical stimuli-activated functional materials. Additionally, this article will shed light on mechanical cancer therapy and inspire future research to pursue the development of ultrasound- and magnetic-field-activated materials and their applications in this field.

Near-infrared fluorescence imaging in the 1500–1700 nm sub-window (NIR-IIb) has shown a deeper penetration depth, higher resolution and zero auto-fluorescence for biomedical imaging. Till now, very few small molecule NIR-IIb fluorophores have been reported due to the extremely rare organic NIR-IIb skeleton and a notorious aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) effect in aqueous solution. In this study, highly twisted NIR-II small molecule fluorophores such as HL3 (45.5° at the S0 state) with the emission wavelength extending into the NIR-IIb region were designed and synthesized using an aggregation-induced emission (AIE) strategy. HL3 dots showed a remarkable increase in fluorescence intensity with a QY of 11.7% in the NIR-II window (>1000 nm) and 0.05% in the NIR-IIb region (>1550 nm) in water. High-resolution in vivo imaging of the whole body, cerebral vasculature, and lymphatic drainage beyond 1550 nm was achieved using NIR-II AIE HL3 dots for the first time. These attractive results may promote the development of small-molecule NIR-IIb fluorophores with the maximum emission wavelength beyond 1500 nm with a deeper penetration depth and higher resolution.

Near-infrared fluorescence imaging in the 1000-1700 nm-wavelength window (NIR-II) has exhibited great potential for deep-tissue bioimaging due to its diminished auto-fluorescence, suppressed photo-scattering, deep penetration, and high spatial and temporal resolutions. Various kinds of inorganic nanomaterials have been extensively developed for NIR-IIa (1300-1400 nm) and NIR-IIb (1500-1700 nm) bioimaging. However, the development of small-molecule NIR-IIa and NIR-IIb fluorophores is still in its infancy. Herein, we designed and synthesized a novel NIR-II organic aggregation-induced emission (AIE) fluorophore (HQL2) with a fluorescence tail extending into the NIR-IIa and NIR-IIb region based on our previous reported skeleton Q4. The encapsulated NIR-II AIE nanoparticles (HQL2 dots) exhibited water solubility and biocompatibility, and high brightness for NIR-IIa and NIR-IIb vascular imaging in vivo, a first for NIR-II AIE dots.

The clinical success of cisplatin ushered in a new era of the application of metallodrugs. When it comes to practice, however, drug resistance, tumor recurrence, and drug systemic toxicity make it implausible to completely heal the patients. Herein, we successfully transform an electron acceptor [1, 2, 5]thiadiazolo[3,4

This study investigated methane hydrate inhibition by a new polyvinyl lactam-based kinetic hydrate inhibitor (KHI) by determining the maximum subcooling temperature, induction time, and growth rate...

Hydroxy-terminated poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) (PVCap-OH) with a narrow molecular weight distribution (PDI = 1.06) has been synthesized. PVCap-OH gave a cloud point of 51.7 °C, 10.6 °C higher than that of the synthesized PVCap (41.1 °C). Its KHI performance was tested using a high-pressure stainless-steel cell with methane gas. Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), Raman spectroscopy, and cryo-scanning electron microscopy (cryo-SEM) were used to characterize the micro-structure of the hydrate. It was found that PVCap-OH provided a better KHI performance than PVCap in the same conditions, which gave a higher maximum subcooling and longer induction time, as well as lowered the growth rate of hydrate. The addition of PVCap-OH did not alter the hydrate crystal structure, but reduced the stoichiometric ratio of the peak intensities of the large (51262) and small (512) hydrate cages (IL/IS) and made the hydrate particles more dispersed, which further ensured the gas transportation smoothly.

Background: Multiple myeloma is a hematological malignant disease in which clonal plasma cells proliferate abnormally. NIR-II fluorophores have great application prospects for cancer treatment. Methods: Multiple detection techniques were used to evaluate effect and mechanisms of the novel small-molecule NIR-II fluorophores probe on multiple myeloma cells in vitro experiment. In vivo MM.1S Luc+ B-NSG mouse model was built to assess the role of probe in multiple myeloma treatment. Results: The novel small-molecule NIR-II fluorophores probe shown high affinity with multiple myeloma cells and specific myeloma imaging in vivo. More importantly, the probe could effectively induce tumor death with 808 nm laser irradiation in a dose-dependent manner. Further, Confocal found that the probe was mainly distributed in mitochondria and significantly reduced the mitochondrial membrane potential with laser irradiation. Moreover, Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) level was notably increased and the up-regulation expression of cleaved poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) was detected after treated with the probe and laser irradiation. Consistent with the previous results, the disease was alleviated obviously in probe laser-treated group. Conclusions: Our work confirm for the first time that the specific imaging and remarkable photodynamic therapy (PDT) effect of a novel NIR-II fluorophores probe to multiple myeloma. It provides the foundation for application of NIR-II fluorophores from solid tumor to non-solid tumor. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Osteosarcoma is an aggressive tumor of mesenchymal origin that is more likely to spread to the lung than others, with a major impact on patients' prognosis. The optimal imaging method that can reliably detect or exclude pulmonary metastases from osteosarcoma is still scarce. Herein, two homologous types of fluorescent probes CH1055-PEG-PT and CH1055-PEG-Affibody, which show highly promising results for targeting imaging of osteosarcoma and its lung metastasis, respectively, are designed and synthesized. It is found that the NIR-II imaging quality of CH1055-PEG-PT is far superior to that of computed tomography for the early in vivo 143B tumor imaging, and this probe-guided surgery for accurate resection of 143B tumor is further performed. The high-resolution visualization of primary and micrometastatic lung lesions of osteosarcoma by using CH1055-PEG-Affibody is also demonstrated. Therefore, the attractive imaging properties of CH1055-PEG-PT and CH1055-PEG-Affibody, including high levels of uptakes, and high spatial and temporal resolution, open up opportunities for molecular imaging and clinical translation of osteosarcoma and its lung metastasis in the unique second near-infrared window.

In this paper, a novel block copolymer poly (N-vinyl caprolactam)-co-acrylamide) (PVCap-co-AM) was made from N-vinyl caprolactam (NVCap) with acrylamide (AM) by living radical copolymerization. The kinetic inhibitory performance of PVCap-co-AM on CH4 hydrate formation was firstly investigated and compared with PVP and PVCap. The results indicated that higher-cloud-point PVCap-co-AM behaved better than PVCap under the same conditions. Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy showed structure I hydrate was formed with and without KHIs. However, compared to pure water, the presence of KHIs reduced the ratio of large to small cage occupancy by CH4. The stronger inhibition activity, the value became lower. Cryo-SEM images illustrated the morphology of CH4 hydrate crystals formed significantly varied by KHIs, which could be helpful for pipeline fluids safe transportation.