Tumor-targeted nanoflowers regulate glutamine metabolism and amplify oxidative stress for synergistic therapy.

We designed and synthesized tumor-targeted nanoflowers to inhibit glutamine metabolism and amplify oxidative stress, which could synergistically suppress tumor growth.

Endoplasmic Reticulum-Targeted Carbon Monoxide Photoreleaser for Drug-Induced Hepatotoxicity Remediation.

The alleviation of drug-induced liver injury has been a long-term public health concern. Growing evidence suggests that endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of drug-induced hepatotoxicity. Therefore, the inhibition of ER stress has gradually become one of the important pathways to alleviate drug-induced liver injury.

A gold nanoparticle engineered metal-organic framework nanoreactor for combined ferroptosis and mild photothermal therapy.

We demonstrate a gold nanoparticle engineered metal-organic framework nanoreactor with photothermal, glucose oxidase-like and GSH-consuming performance to achieve the accumulation of hydroxyl radicals and the enhancement of the thermal sensitivity for combined ferroptosis and mild photothermal therapy.

Pt nanozyme-bridged covalent organic framework-aptamer nanoplatform for tumor targeted self-strengthening photocatalytic therapy.

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have emerged as a promising platform for nanomedicine, while developing multifunctional COF nanoplatforms remains challenging due to the lack of efficient strategies for COF modification. Herein, we propose a nanozyme bridging (NZB) strategy for COF functionalization. Platinum nanoparticles (Pt NPs) as catalase mimics were in situ grown on the surface of COF NPs without reducing their drug loading capacity (CP), and thiol-terminated aptamer was further densely decorated onto CP NPs via a stable Pt-S bond (CPA).

Topotactic synthesis of high-entropy sulfide nanosheets as efficient pre-catalysts for water oxidation.

Herein, quinary CoFeNiCuCr sulfide nanosheets with a high-entropy feature and rough surface were fabricated a topotactic transformation pathway from high-entropy layered metal hydroxides, and display facile pre-oxidation and improved intrinsic activity towards the robust oxygen evolution reaction.

Lattice-disordered high-entropy metal hydroxide nanosheets as efficient precatalysts for bifunctional electro-oxidation.

Electro-oxidation reactions (EORs) are important half reactions in overall and assisted water electrolysis, which are crucial in achieving economic and sustainable hydrogen production and realizing simultaneous wastewater treatment. Current studies indicate that the high-valence metal ions that are locally enriched in the catalysts or generated in situ during the anodic preoxidation process are active species for EORs. Hence, designing (pre)catalysts with enriched local active sites and boosted preoxidation is of great importance.

Separation and single-cell analysis for free gastric cancer cells in ascites and peritoneal lavages based on microfluidic chips.

Backgrounds: Detecting free cancer cells from ascites and peritoneal lavages is crucial for diagnosing gastric cancer (GC). However, traditional methods are limited for early-stage diagnosis due to their low sensitivity.

Methods: A label-free, rapid, and high-throughput technique was developed for separating cancer cells from ascites and peritoneal lavages using an integrated microfluidic device, taking advantage of dean flow fractionation and deterministic lateral displacement.

A hypoxia-activated photothermal agent inhibits multiple heat shock proteins for low-temperature photothermal therapy.

A near-infrared (NIR) organic photothermal agent (PTA) to inhibit three types of heat shock proteins (HSPs) was synthesized, which could be activated under hypoxic conditions for low-temperature photothermal therapy (PTT) of cancer.

A CaCO-based synergistic immunotherapy strategy for treating primary and distal tumors.

Low response rate limits the widespread application of cancer immunotherapy. To improve the response rate of immunotherapy, a CaCO-based composite nanomaterial was developed to induce immunogenic cell death for enhancing immunotherapy against 4T1 primary and distal tumors.

Self-Assembly-Based Nanoprobes for the Simultaneous Detection and Downregulation of HSP90α mRNA to Enhance Photothermal Therapy.

Although photothermal therapy (PTT) has been widely applied for tumor treatment, tumor cells thermotolerance still limits PTT efficiency. Since the overexpressed HSP90α in tumor cells further enhances thermotolerance and protects them from PTT damage, a new nanoprobe that can specifically detect and downregulate HSP90α mRNA was developed to enhance the PTT effect. Based on the HSP90α mRNA sequence, the nanoprobe Au-DNA1/DNA2 can specifically bind to HSP90α mRNA for recovering its fluorescence and further inhibit the synthesis of HSP90α to reduce tumor heat tolerance.

Multi-stimuli-responsive molecular fluorescent probes for bioapplications.

Stimuli-responsive fluorescent probes have been widely utilized in detecting the physiological and pathological states of living systems. Numerous stimuli-responsive fluorescent probes have been developed due to their advantages of good sensitivity, high resolution, and high contrast fluorescent signals. In this feature article, the progress of multi-stimuli-responsive probes, including organic molecules and metal complexes, for the detection of various biomarkers for bio-applications is summarized.

One-Step Soaking Strategy toward Anti-Swelling Hydrogels with a Stiff "Armor".

Double-network (DN) hydrogels consisting of noncovalent interacting networks are highly desired due to their well-controlled compositions and environmental friendliness, but the low water resistance always impairs their mechanical strength. Here, an anti-swelling hydrogel possessing the core/shell architecture through rational regulation of multiple weak noncovalent interactions is prepared. A composite hydrogel consists of chitosan (CS) and poly(N-acryloyl 2-glycine) (PACG), readily forming the shell-structured DN hydrogel after soaking in a FeCl solution because of in situ formation of chain entanglements, hydrogen bonds, and ionic coordination.

Dual-AND Logic Gate-Based Strip Assay for Amplified Detection of Four miRNAs and Diagnosis of Lung Cancer.

The detection of circulating tumor microRNAs (miRNAs) holds great promise for the noninvasive and early-stage diagnosis of cancer. However, the low abundance of lung cancer-related miRNAs and the false-positive results of single miRNA detection limited the development of strip-based point-of-care testing methods in clinic. We developed a duplex-specific nuclease (DSN)-mediated and dual-AND logic gate-based triple-line lateral flow strip detection system for the rapid and simultaneous detection of four miRNAs of lung cancer in a single strip test.

A heat shock protein-inhibiting molecular photothermal agent for mild-temperature photothermal therapy.

A heat shock protein-inhibiting photothermal agent (PTA) with endoplasmic reticulum targeting was synthesized to reduce the thermal resistance and enhance the effect of mild-temperature photothermal therapy (PTT).

Imaging strategies for monitoring the immune response.

Real-time monitoring of the immune response can be used to evaluate the immune status of the body and to distinguish immune responders and non-responders, so as to better guide immunotherapy. Through direct labelling of immune cells and imaging specific biomarkers of different cells, the activation status of immune cells and immunosuppressive status of tumor cells can be visualized. The immunotherapeutic regimen can then be adjusted accordingly in a timely manner to improve the efficacy of immunotherapy.

AND Logic-Gate-Based CRISPR/Cas12a Biosensing Platform for the Sensitive Colorimetric Detection of Dual miRNAs.

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas (CRISPR-associated) system has been widely explored for the detection of disease-related nucleic acids. Nevertheless, the simultaneous detection of multiple nucleic acids within one assay using the CRISPR-Cas system is still challenging. In this study, we develop an AND logic-gate-based CRISPR-Cas12a biosensing platform to achieve the sensitive colorimetric detection of dual miRNAs.

Dual-oxidation-induced lattice disordering in a Prussian blue analog for ultrastable oxygen evolution reaction performance.

Enriching the active sites and enhancing the intrinsic activity of a single site are two basic strategies for improving the activity toward the electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and designing an advanced microstructure with a boosted pre-oxidation process can further guarantee durability toward long-term catalysis. Herein, we propose a dual oxidation strategy of a Co Prussian blue analog (Co PBA), which simultaneously achieves Co active site enrichment, in situ CeO decoration and lattice disordering with abundant undercoordinated sites, realizing highly efficient and ultrastable OER performance. The dual oxidation process can induce the enrichment of high-valence Co ions by combined chemical oxidation and d-f electron coupling compared to the singly oxidized catalysts, thereby providing more active sites with enhanced intrinsic activity for the early triggered OER process.

High-entropy amorphous oxycyanide as an efficient pre-catalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction.

Herein, a high-entropy amorphous oxycyanide porous nanocube pre-catalyst was developed for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Benefitting from the facile pre-oxidation and enhanced intrinsic activity of the high-entropy catalyst, a highly efficient and ultrastable OER performance was achieved.

Imaging strategies for receptor tyrosine kinase dimers in living cells.

Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) are the essential regulators of cell signal transduction pathways and play important roles in biological processes. RTK dimerization is generally considered the first step in receptor activation and cell communication. And the abnormal expression of RTK dimers is closely related to the occurrence and development of many diseases.

A protein-conjugated photosensitizer with mitochondrial targeting for enhanced photodynamic therapy.

A protein-conjugated photosensitizer with mitochondrial targeting ability was synthesized to enhance the therapeutic effects of PDT. The ROS produced by the photosensitizer under laser irradiation could effectively destroy key intracellular proteins and disrupt mitochondrial redox homeostasis, thereby causing mitochondrial dysfunction and irreversible cell death.

GSH-Triggered NO releasing nanoplatform based on a covalent organic framework for "1 + 1 > 2" synergistic cancer therapy.

A porphyrin containing covalent organic framework (COF) was developed as the glutathione responsive nitric oxide (NO) donor delivery nanoplatform for "1 + 1 > 2" synergistic cancer therapy of NO mediated therapy and photodynamic therapy.

Electric yo-yo centrifugation combining with paper-based microfluidic immunoassay chip for inflammatory biomarkers detection in whole blood.

At present, most countries or regions use commercial centrifuges for centrifugation, but this is out of reaching for limited-resource areas. To overcome this problem, a portable electric yo-yo as centrifuge was firstly proposed to obtain serum, and this device can be combined with paper-based analytical devices for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) analysis from human whole blood. In this study, inflammatory biomarkers C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum amyloid A (SAA) were used as target biomarker to verify the performance of the proposed method.

COF-DNA Bicolor Nanoprobes for Imaging Tumor-Associated mRNAs in Living Cells.

Developing probes for the simultaneous detection of multiple tumor-associated mRNAs is beneficial for the precise diagnosis and early therapy of cancer. In this work, we prepared two COF-DNA bicolor probes at room temperature and freezing conditions and evaluated their performances in simultaneous imaging of intracellular tumor-associated mRNAs. By loading dye-labeled survivin- and TK1-mRNA recognition sequences on porphyrin COF NPs, nucleic acid-specific "off-on" nanoprobes were obtained.

An endoperoxide-containing covalent organic framework as a singlet oxygen reservoir for cancer therapy.

A porphyrin-based COF containing a dialkylnaphthalene derivative was constructed to deliver extracellular singlet oxygen (O) into cancer cells through the Diels-Alder/retro-Diels-Alder reaction between dialkylnaphthalene and O to realize light- and oxygen-independent oxidative damage for cancer therapy.