Redox and pH Dual Responsive Polymer Based Nanoparticles for In Vivo Drug Delivery

Responsive nanomaterials have emerged as promising candidates as drug delivery vehicles in order to address biomedical diseases such as cancer. In this work, polymer‐based responsive nanoparticles prepared by a supramolecular approach are loaded with doxorubicin (DOX) for the cancer therapy. The nanoparticles contain disulfide bonds within the polymer network, allowing the release of the DOX payload in a reducing environment within the endoplasm of cancer cells. In addition, the loaded drug can also be released under acidic environment. In vitro anticancer studies using redox and pH dual responsive nanoparticles show excellent performance in inducing cell death and apoptosis. Zebrafish larvae treated with DOX‐loaded nanoparticles exhibit an improved viability as compared with the cases treated with free DOX by the end of a 3 d treatment. Confocal imaging is utilized to provide the daily assessment of tumor size on zebrafish larva models treated with DOX‐loaded nanoparticles, presenting sustainable reduction of tumor. This work demonstrates the development of functional nanoparticles with dual responsive properties for both in vitro and in vivo drug delivery in the cancer therapy.     

A pH-switched mesoporous nanoreactor for synergetic therapy

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs),as a new type of pH-sensitive drug carrier,have received much attention.ZnO NPs are stable at physiological pH,but can dissolve quickly in the acidic tumor environment (pH ＜ 6) to generate cytotoxic zinc ions and reactive oxygen species (ROS).However,the protein corona usually causes the non-specific degradation of ZnO NPs,which has limited their application considerably.Herein,a new type of pH-sensitive nanoreactor (ZnO-DOX@F-mSiO2-FA),aimed at reducing the non-specific degradation of ZnO NPs,is presented.In the acidic tumor environment (pH ＜ 6),it can release cytotoxic zinc ions,ROS,and anticancer drugs to kill cancer cells effectively.In addition,the fluorescence emitted from fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-labeled mesoporous silica (F-mSiO2) and doxorubicin (DOX) can be used to monitor the release behavior of the anticancer drug.This report provides a new method to avoid the non-specific degradation of ZnO NPs,resulting in synergetic therapy by taking advantage of ZnO NPs-induced oxidative stress and targeted drug release.     

Bootstrapping Analysis of Lifetime Data with Subsampling

Because of cost and time limitations, reliability experiments frequently contain subsampling, which is a restriction on randomization. A two‐stage approach can analyze right censored Weibull distributed reliability data with subsampling. However, in implementing such a method, we found that it did not address the problems of how to perform confidence intervals of low percentiles and reduce the bias of estimates. In this paper, we present a two‐stage bootstrapping approach and an unbiasing factor approach to solve the aforementioned problems. An example is provided to illustrate the proposed method. In addition, the proposed method is compared with existing methods through simulation. The resulting simulations show that the proposed method performs well in low percentiles. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nucleation Crystallography of Ni Grains on CrFeNb Inoculants Investigated by Edge‐to‐Edge Matching Model in an IN718 Superalloy

In this work, the nucleation crystallography of CrFeNb intermetallic particles as a grain refiner for Ni‐based IN718 superalloys is studied using Edge‐to‐Edge Matching model. Three distinguishable orientation relationships between CrFeNb intermetallic particles and Ni grains are well predicted: , (111)_Ni 1.28° from (0004)_CrFeNb, , (111)_Ni 1.32° from _CrFeNb, and _Ni//[0001]_CrFeNb, (111)_Ni 0.72° from _CrFeNb. The results indicate that CrFeNb intermetallic particles have a strong nucleation potency as an effective grain refiner for Ni‐based superalloy and the existence of semi‐coherent interfaces between the CrFeNb intermetallic particles and Ni grains. Furthermore, the IN718 superalloy is used to experimentally validate the grain refinement effect of CrFeNb intermetallic particles, showing that its grain size is obviously refined from 8.60 to 1.23 mm. And, the corresponding heterogeneous nucleation mechanism of grain refinement at the atomic level is further identified.

     

Electric Power Generation through the Direct Interaction of Pristine Graphene‐Oxide with Water Molecules

Converting ubiquitous environmental energy into electric power holds tremendous social and financial interests. Traditional energy harvesters and converters are limited by the specific materials and complex configuration of devices. Herein, it is presented that electric power can be directly produced from pristine graphene oxide (GO) without any pretreatment or additives once encountering the water vapor, which will generate an open‐circuit‐voltage of up to 0.4–0.7 V and a short‐circuit‐current‐density of 2–25 µA cm^?2 on a single piece of GO film. This phenomenon results from the directional movement of charged hydrogen ions through the GO film. The present work demonstrates and provides an extremely simple method for electric energy generation, which offers more applications of graphene‐based materials in green energy converting field.     

Heterogeneous Fenton-like discoloration of methyl orange using Fe<Subscript>3</Subscript>O<Subscript>4</Subscript>/MWCNTs as catalyst: combination mechanism and affecting parameters

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) can act not only as a support for Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles (NPs) but also as a coworker with synergistic effect, accordingly improving the heterogeneous Fenton-like efficiency of Fe₃O₄ NPs. In this study, Fe₃O₄ NPs were in situ anchored onto MWCNTs by a moderate co-precipitation method and the as-prepared Fe₃O₄/MWCNTs nanocomposites were employed as the highly efficient Fenton-like catalysts. The analyses of XRD, FTIR, Raman, FESEM, TEM and HRTEM results indicated the formation of Fe₃O₄ crystals in Fe₃O₄/MWCNTs nanocomposites prepared at different conditions and the interaction between Fe₃O₄ NPs and MWCNTs. Over a wide pH range, the surface of modified MWCNTs possessed negative charges. Based on these results, the possible combination mechanism between Fe₃O₄ NPs and MWCNTs was discussed and proposed. Moreover, the effects of preparation and catalytic conditions on the Fenton-like catalytic efficiency were investigated in order to gain further insight into the heterogeneous Fenton-like reaction catalyzed by Fe₃O₄/MWCNTs nanocomposites.     

Aggregation-induced emission luminogen-assisted stimulated emission depletion nanoscopy for super-resolution mitochondrial visualization in live cells

Nano Research - Aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) are fluorescent agents that are ideal for bioimaging and have been widely used for organelle targeting, cellular mapping, and...     

Ultrasound-triggered release of sinoporphyrin sodium from liposome-microbubble complexes and its enhanced sonodynamic toxicity in breast cancer

Nano Research - Applying ultrasound (US) to drug delivery and disease therapy is important work. Sonodynamic therapy (SDT)—a comprehensive therapy using US and a sonosensitizer—exhibits...