Improved anti-tumor efficacy and pharmacokinetics of bufalin via PEGylated liposomes

OBJECTIVE To determine the characterization,anti-tumor efficacy and pharmacokinetics of bufalin-loaded PEGylated liposomes compared with bufalin entity.METHODS Bufalin-loaded PEGylated liposomes and bufalin-loaded liposomes were prepared reproducibly with homogeneous particle size by the combination of thin film evaporation method and high pressure homogenization method.The particle size and zeta potential of the liposomes were determined by dynamic light scattering technique.The direct imaging of morphology of liposomes was charactered by transmission electron microscope.The content of bufalin in liposomes was analysed by HPLC method.The entrapment efficiency and the particle size was applied to assess the stability profile,after storage at 4℃ on day 0,7,15,30 and 90.The in-vitro release behaviours of bufalin from liposomes were conducted using dialysis bag technique at 37℃.In-vitro cytotoxicity studies were carried out using MTT[3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide]assay on several kinds of tumor cel lines including SW620,PC-3,MDA-MB-231,A549,U251,U87 and HepG2.In-vivo pharmacokinetic study of bufalin liposomes was evaluated by HPLC method.RESULTS Their mean particle sizes were 127.6 nm and 155.0 nm,mean zeta potentials were 2.24 m V and-18.5 m V,entrapment efficiencies were 76.31%and 78.40%,respectively.In-vitro release profile revealed that the release of bufalin in bufalin-loaded PEGylated liposomes was slower than that of bufalin-loaded liposomes.The cytotoxicity of blank liposomes has been found within acceptable range,whereas bufalin-loaded PEGylated liposomes showed enhanced cytotoxicity to U251 cells compared with bufalin entity.In-vivo pharmacokinetics indicated that bufalinloaded PEGylated liposomes could extend eliminate half-life time of bufalin in plasma in rats.CONCLUSION The results suggested that bufalin-loaded PEGylated liposomes improved the solubility and increased the drug concentration in plasma.

Charge regulation by ferromagnetic metal/LiF spin-polarized interface for high-performance Li metal anodes

The interfacial characteristics of the Li metal anode(LMA)play a crucial role in its overall performance.Despite various materials being applied to modify the interface,a comprehensive understanding of their specific mechanisms remains to be investigated.Herein,we have prepared carbon cloth(CC)frameworks with their surfaces modified using ferromagnetic metal/LiF heterogeneous films(T^(M)-LiF-CC)as the substrate for LMA,which exhibit superior electrochemical performance.Utilizing ferromagnetic Co as a representative example,our study demonstrates that the enhanced performance of Co-LiF-CC,compared to bare CC,is attributed to the spinpolarized interface contributed by the Co/LiF heterostructure.Co and LiF play individual roles in redistributing electrons and Li^(+)to promote homogeneous Li deposition.Co nanoparticles play a crucial role in generating strong surface capacitance by storing electrons in spin-split bands,while LiF,with low surface diffusion barriers,ensures fast transportation of Li^(+).The Co-LiF-CC@Li electrodes deliver long lives of 7400 and 3600 h at 1 and 2 mA·cm^(-2)in symmetric cells,respectively;moreover,they enable full batteries with high and durable capacities,particularly when the N/P ratios are low(3.3 or even 1.7).

Design,Synthesis,and Optical/Electronic Properties of a Series of Sphere-Rod Shape Amphiphiles Based on the C60-oligofluorene Conjugates

A series of sphere-rod shape amphiphiles were designed and synthesized by connecting the rod-like oligofluorenes with different lengths （OF,） to the different positions of the spherical [60]fullerene （C60） through a rigid linkage. The conjugates were characterized by IH-NMR, 13C-NMR, FTIR, EA and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. The optical and electronic properties of the conjugates were studied by UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy, fluorescence spectrometry, and cyclic voltammetry. The results from UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry indicated that the energy profiles of C60 and OFn remained unchanged when different lengths of OFn were attached to C60. The electron affinities of the OFn-C60 conjugates were close to that of C60, while slight electronic interaction was found between the two individual chromophores （C60 and OFn） in their ground states. The fluorescence spectra exhibited a complete fluorescence quenching in the toluene solution, suggesting an effective energy transfer from OFn to C60. It presents a systematic study on the self- assembly, structure-property relationship, and potential technical applications of the conjugates.

Optimized valence state of Co and Ni in high-entropy alloy for high active-stable OER

High entropy alloy(HEA)exhibits potential water-splitting properties but are limited by the high energy consumption from preparation.Moreover,the complex atomic distribution endows the electronic structure regulation of HEA to remain challenging.Herein,the nanoporous NiCuMnCoFe(np-NCMCF)HEA was prepared by the high-energy ball milling coupled with de-alloying method.The introduced Fe markedly increases the proportion of Ni^(3+)and Co^(3+).

A Heuristic Sampling Method for Maintaining the Probability Distribution

Sampling is a fundamental method for generating data subsets.As many data analysis methods are developed based on probability distributions,maintaining distributions when sampling can help to ensure good data analysis performance.However,sampling a minimum subset while maintaining probability distributions is still a problem.In this paper,we decompose a joint probability distribution into a product of conditional probabilities based on Bayesian networks and use the chi-square test to formulate a sampling problem that requires that the sampled subset pass the distribution test to ensure the distribution.Furthermore,a heuristic sampling algorithm is proposed to generate the required subset by designing two scoring functions:one based on the chi-square test and the other based on likelihood functions.Experiments on four types of datasets with a size of 60000 show that when the significant difference level,a,is set to 0.05,the algorithm can exclude 99.9%,99.0%,93.1%and 96.7%of the samples based on their Bayesian networks-ASIA,ALARM,HEPAR2,and ANDES,respectively.When subsets of the same size are sampled,the subset generated by our algorithm passes all the distribution tests and the average distribution difference is approximately 0.03;by contrast,the subsets generated by random sampling pass only 83.8%of the tests,and the average distribution difference is approximately 0.24.