Enhancing metformin-induced tumor metabolism destruction by glucose oxidase for triple-combination therapy

Despite decades of laboratory and clinical trials,breast cancer remains the main cause of cancer-related disease burden in women.Considering the metabolism destruction effect of metformin(Met)and cancer cell starvation induced by glucose oxidase(GOx),after their efficient delivery to tumor sites,GOx and Met may consume a large amount of glucose and produce sufficient hydrogen peroxide in situ.Herein,a pH-responsive epigallocatechin gallate(EGCG)-conjugated low-molecular-weight chitosan(LC-EGCG,LE)nanoparticle(Met–GOx/Fe@LE NPs)was constructed.The coordination between iron ions(Fe3+)and EGCG in this nanoplatform can enhance the efficacy of chemodynamic therapy via the Fenton reaction.Met–GOx/Fe@LE NPs allow GOx to retain its enzymatic activity while simultaneously improving its stability.Moreover,this pH-responsive nanoplatform presents controllable drug release behavior.An in vivo biodistribution study showed that the intracranial accumulation of GOx delivered by this nanoplatform was 3.6-fold higher than that of the free drug.The in vivo anticancer results indicated that this metabolism destruction/starvation/chemodynamic triple-combination therapy could induce increased apoptosis/death of tumor cells and reduce their proliferation.This triple-combination therapy approach is promising for efficient and targeted cancer treatment.

Renewable biomass reinvigorates sustainable water-energy nexus

The water-energy nexus has garnered worldwide interest.Current dual-functional research aimed at coproducing freshwater and electricity faces significant challenges,including sub-optimal capacities("1+1<2"),poor inter-functional coordination,high carbon footprints,and large costs.Mainstream water-toelectricity conversions are often compromised owing to functionality separation and erratic gradients.Herein,we present a sustainable strategy based on renewable biomass that addresses these issues by jointly achieving competitive solar-evaporative desalination and robust clean electricity generation.Using hydrothermally activated basswood,our solar desalination exceeded the 100% efficiency bottleneck even under reduced solar illumination.Through simple size-tuning,we achieved a high evaporation rate of 3.56 kg h^(-1)m^(-2)and an efficiency of 149.1%,representing 128%-251% of recent values without sophisticated surface engineering.By incorporating an electron-ion nexus with interfacial Faradaic electron circulation and co-ion-predominated micro-tunnel hydrodynamic flow,we leveraged free energy from evaporation to generate long-term electricity(0.38 W m^(-3)for over 14 d),approximately 322% of peer performance levels.This inter-functional nexus strengthened dual functionalities and validated general engineering practices.Our presented strategy holds significant promise for global human–society–environment sustainability.

One-step co-doping of ZnO and Zn^(2+)in osteoinductive calcium phosphate ceramics with synergistic antibacterial activity for regenerative repair of infected bone defect

How to endow bone grafts with long-term antibacterial activity and good bone regenerative ability to achieve the regenerative repair of infected bone defects has been the focus of the clinical treatment of osteomyelitis.The present study introduced a novel one-step route to realizing the co-doping of zinc oxide(ZnO)and zinc ion(Zn^(2+))in biphasic calcium phosphate(BCP)ceramics to utilize their synergistic antibacterial.Compared with the conventional BCP ceramics(BCP-Ca),the ZnO/Zn^(2+)co-doping ones(BCP-Zn)possessed strong antibacterial ability on E.coli and S.aureus as well as stimulated the osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells(BMSCs)effectively.The synergistic antibacterial mechanism of ZnO and Zn^(2+)was also investigated.BCP-Zn showed excellent osteoinductivity and angiogenesis at three months postoperatively in the canine intramuscular implantation model.Moreover,BCP-Zn exhibited excellent anti-infective ability and bone regenerative repair compared to BCP-Ca and control groups in the infected bone defect model of rat femur.Collectively,these findings suggest that the simultaneous introduction of ZnO/Zn^(2+)could have immense potential to expand the application of osteoinductive BCP ceramics in the regenerative repair of infected bone defects.

Hardware Design and Test of a Gear-Shifting Control System of a Multi-gear Transmission for Electric Vehicles

The performance of electric vehicles is affected by the shift quality of multi-gear transmission.The realization of dual-target tracking control requires the transmission control unit(TCU)to accurately measure and process the input signals of the gear-shifting control system and precisely control the drive motor torque and the position of shift motors.An electric-vehicle-dedicated TCU was designed to meet the above design requirements.Its function modules included a single-chip control circuit,shift position signal sampling circuit,signal conditioning circuit of the rotational speed and angle,controller area network communication circuit,and shift motor drive circuit.A hardware-in-the-loop simulation test system showed that the TCU design scheme met measurement accuracy requirements and coordinated the actions of the shift actuator and motor control unit to achieve fast and smooth shifting before the road test.The power interruption time of the shifting process was within 350 ms.The reliability of the TCU design was further verified in a 150,000-km vehicle road test.

Polymer-assisted fabrication of gold nanoring arrays

In this paper, we report a new strategy for the fabrication of gold nanoring arrays via colloidal lithography and polymer-assisted self-assembly of gold nanoparticles （Au NPs）. First, multi-segmented polymer nanorod arrays were fabricated via colloidal lithography. They were then used as templates for Au NP adsorption, which resulted in nanoparticles on the poly（4-vinyl pyridine） （P4VP） segments. Continuous gold nanorings were formed after electroless deposition of gold. The diameter, quantity, and spacing of the gold nanorings could be tuned. Three dimensional coaxial gold nanorings with varying diameters could be fabricated on a polymer nanorod by modifying the etch parameters. The nanorings exhibited optical plasmonic resonances at theoretically predicted wavelengths. In addition, the polymer-assisted gold nanorings were released from the substrate to generate a high yield of flee-standing nanorings. This simple, versatile method was also used to prepare nanorings from other metals such as palladium.

Au nanoring arrays with tunable morphological features and plasmonic resonances

Gold nanoring arrays are widely applied in various fields benefitting from their localized surface plasmon resonance(LSPR)properties.A key advantage of gold nanoring arrays is that the dipole resonance peak can be systematically tuned by changing the dimensions of gold nanoring arrays.However,most of the currently reported methods for preparing gold nanoring arrays cannot conveniently control the heights of the nanorings at a low cost.Here we introduce a facile method for preparing gold nanoring arrays with tunable plasmonic resonances using colloidal lithography.The dimensions of the nanorings including diameters,lattice constants,even the heights of the nanorings can be conveniently varied.Fourier transform near-infrared(FT-NIR)absorption spectroscopy was used to obtain the plasmonic resonance spectra of the nanoring arrays.All the prepared gold nanoring arrays exhibited a strong NIR or infrared(IR)plasmonic resonance which can be tuned by varying the nanoring dimensions.This versatile method can also be used to fabricate other types of plasmonic nanostructures,such as gold nanocone arrays.The obtained gold nanoring arrays as well as nanocone arrays may have potential applications in surface-enhanced spectroscopy or plasmonic sensing.

Bioinspired microcone-array-based living biointerfaces: enhancing the anti-inflammatory effect and neuronal network formation

Implantable neural interfaces and systems have attracted much attention due to their broad applications in treating diverse neuropsychiatric disorders.However,obtaining a long-term reliable implant-neural interface is extremely important but remains an urgent challenge due to the resulting acute inflammatory responses.Here,bioinspired microcone-array-based(MA)interfaces have been successfully designed,and their cytocompatibility with neurons and the inflammatory response have been explored.Compared with smooth control samples,MA structures cultured with neuronal cells result in much denser extending neurites,which behave similar to creepers,wrapping tightly around the microcones to form complex and interconnected neuronal networks.After further implantation in mouse brains for 6 weeks,the MA probes(MAPs)significantly reduced glial encapsulation and neuron loss around the implants,suggesting better neuron viability at the implant-neural interfaces than that of smooth probes.This bioinspired strategy for both enhanced glial resistance and neuron network formation via a specific structural design could be a platform technology that not only opens up avenues for next-generation artificial neural networks and brain-machine interfaces but also provides universal approaches to biomedical therapeutics.

Ag nanoparticle/polymer composite barcode nanorods

We demonstrate a facile method combining colloidal lithography, selective ion-exchange, and the in situ reduction of Ag ions （Ag＋） for the fabrication of multi-segmented barcode nanorods. First, polymer multilayer films were prepared by spin-coating alternating thin films of polystyrene and polyacrylic acid （PAA）, and then multi-segmented polymer nanorods were fabricated via reactive ion etching with colloidal masks. Second, Ag nanoparticles （Ag NPs） were incorporated into the PAA segments by an ion exchange and the in situ reduction of the Ag~. The selective incorporation of the Ag NPs permitted the modification of the specific bars of the nanorods. Lastly, the Ag NP/polymer composite nanorods were released from the substrate to form suspensions for further coding applications. By increasing the number of segments and changing the length of each segment in the nanorods, the coding capacity of nanorods was improved. More importantly, this method can easily realize the density tuning of Ag NPs in different segments of a single nanorod by varying the composition of the PAA segments. We believe that numerous other coded materials can also be obtained, which introduces new approaches for fabricating barcoded nanomaterials.