• Carroll Foss posted an update 7 hours, 13 minutes ago

    Designing a multifunctional theranostic nanoplatform with optional therapeutic strategies is highly desirable to select the most suitable therapeutic manners for the patient’s cancer treatment. Among all shapes of silver materials, a silver nanoprism was reported to have great potential in photothermal therapy (PTT) owing to its strong surface plasmon resonance band in the near-infrared region. However, its instability in physicochemical environments and its severe toxicity confined its further application. To overcome this, herein, we demonstrated a silver prism-polydopamine (PDA) hybrid nanoplatform for tumor treatment with three therapeutic strategies. Specifically, the PDA coating endows the silver prism with excellent stability, high photothermal conversion, long-term in vivo biocompatibility, ease of decorating targeting ligands, and drug delivery. Upon near-infrared laser irradiation (808 nm, 1 W/cm2), tumors can be eradicated by the as-prepared nanoparticle through monomodal PTT. Besides, when combined with a chemical drug, this nanoparticle is able to inhibit tumor growth via combined photochemotherapy under a lower laser treatment (0.7 W/cm2). Furthermore, by supplementing with an immune checkpoint blockade, the realized synergistic photochemoimmunotherapy exhibits high efficacy to inhibit tumor relapse and metastasis. Moreover, owing to the high photothermal conversion efficiency and great X-ray attenuation ability of the silver nanoprism, our designed nanoplatform can be used in photoacoustic, computed tomography, and infrared thermal multimodal imaging. Our study provides a multifunctional nanoparticle for tumor theranostics, and this therapeutic strategy-optional nanoplatform shows promise in future biomedicine.This study develops a method to measure the covalent bonds formed between the side chains and terminal amino acids of β-lactoglobulin (BLG) and selected flavor molecules (benzaldehyde, citral, or allyl isothiocyanate) using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI/MS) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). This technique made it possible to measure increases in molecular weight of BLG as the reaction takes place (BLG + flavor compound). The observed mass shifts on the reaction corresponded to either Schiff base or Michael addition reactions between the chosen flavor compounds and BLG. In the case of citral, sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis revealed that these reactions lead to protein cross-linking. A proteomic approach using MS/MS to identify the sites of post-translational modification between benzaldehyde and BLG revealed that the lysine groups were the reaction sites. Interestingly, benzaldehyde was found to react with several different lysine groups but never more than one of them per BLG molecule (BLG contains 15 lysine groups/molecule). Furthermore, adducts with benzaldehyde were not observed at two lysine groups. Allyl isothiocyanate was found to react with several sites on each BLG molecule. The ESI/MS methodology in tandem with proteomics yields a detailed view of flavor/BLG interactions that may offer insights on minimizing these undesirable reactions in the future.There has been increasing demand for transparent and mechanically durable electrical conductors for their uses in wearable electronic devices. It is common to layer metallic nanowires on transparent but stiff poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) or stretchable but opaque Ecoflex-based substrates. Here, we hypothesized that layering metallic nanowires on a stretchable and hygroscopic gel would allow us to assemble a transparent, stretchable, and durable conductor. The hygroscopic property of the gel was attained by partially replacing water in the preformed polyacrylamide hydrogel with glycerol. The resulting gel, denoted as a glycerogel, could remain hydrated for over 6 months in air by taking up water molecules from the air. The glycerogel was tailored to be stretchable up to 8 times its original length by tuning the amount of the cross-linker and acrylamide. The resulting glycerogel allowed for deposition of wavy silver nanowires using the prestrain method up to 400% prestrain, without causing kinks and interfacial cracks often found with nanowires layered onto PDMS. With a prestrain of 100%, the resulting nanowire-gel conductor exhibited optical transparency (85%) and electrical conductivity (17.1 ohm/sq) even after 5000 cycles of deformation. The results of this study would broadly be useful to improve the performance of the next generation of flexible electronic devices.Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) receive extensive interest, owing to their structure predictability, recognition specificity, and application universality as well as robustness, simplicity, and inexpensiveness. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is regarded as an ideal optical detection candidate for its unique features of fingerprint recognition, nondestructive property, high sensitivity, and rapidity. Accordingly, MIP based SERS (MIP-SERS) sensors have attracted significant research interest for versatile applications especially in the field of chemo- and bioanalysis, showing excellent identification and detection performances. Herein, we comprehensively review the recent advances in MIP-SERS sensors construction and applications, including sensing principles and signal enhancement mechanisms, focusing on novel construction strategies and representative applications. First, the basic structure of the MIP-SERS sensors is briefly outlined. Second, novel imprinting strategies are highlighted, mainly including multifunctional monomer imprinting, dummy template imprinting, living/controlled radical polymerization, and stimuli-responsive imprinting. Third, typical application of MIP-SERS sensors in chemo/bioanalysis is summarized from both small and macromolecular aspects. Lastly, the challenges and perspectives of the MIP-SERS sensors are proposed, orienting sensitivity improvement and application expanding.Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) and Ag-doped COFs (AgCOFs) are prepared by the polycondensation procedure and characterized by electron microscopy and molecular spectral techniques. Their catalysis of the Cu2O particle reaction of glucose (GL)-Cu(II) was examined by resonance Rayleigh scattering (RRS), and AgCOFs were found to exhibit the strongest catalysis. Protosappanin B chemical structure The melamine (ML) aptamers (AptML) can attach to the surface of AgCOF and inhibit its catalytic activity. When melamine (ML) is added to this reacting solution, AptML-ML complexes are formed and the Apts are desorbed from the surface of AgCOF. As the concentration of ML increased, the catalytic activity of AgCOF increased and the RRS signal enhanced due to the increase in Cu2O particles. When the ML concentration was in the range of 0.79-13.2 nmol/L, the RRS intensity increased linearly, with a detection limit of 0.72 nmol/L. When the Apts of urea and bisphenol A (BPA) were replaced by the AptML, 66.7-1333 nmol/L urea and 0.33-2.7 nmol/L BPA, respectively, could also be determined, with detection limits of 30.