Utilization of H-bond interaction of nucleobase Uralic with antitumor methotrexate to design drug carrier with ultrahigh loading efficiency and pH-responsive drug release

A novel Uralic(U)-rich linear-hyperbranched mono-methoxy poly(ethylene glycol)-hyperbranched polyglycerol-graft-Uralic(mPEG-HPG-g-U)nanoparticle(NP)was prepared as drug carrier for antitumor methotrexate(MTX).Due to the H-bond interaction of U with MTX and hydrophobic interaction,this NP exhibited high drug loading efficiency of up to 40%,which was significantly higher than that of traditional NPs based on U-absent copolymers(<15%).In addition,MTX-loaded mPEG-HPG-g-U NPs also demonstrated an acidity-accelerated drug release behavior.

A fast approach to optimize dye loading of photoanode via ultrasonic technique for highly efficient dye-sensitized solar cells

A distinctive method is proposed by simply utilizing ultrasonic technique in Ti02 electrode fabrication in order to improve the optoelectronic performance of dye-sensitized solar cells （DSSCs）. Dye molecules are at random and single molecular state in the ultrasonic field and the ultrasonic wave favors the diffusion and adsorption processes of dye molecules. As a result, the introduction of ultrasonic technique at room temperature leads to faster and more well-distributed dye adsorption on TiO2 as well as higher cell efficiency than regular deposition, thus the fabrication time is markedly reduced. It is found that the device based on 40 kHz ultrasonic （within 1 h） with N719 exhibits a Voc of 789 mV, Jsc of 14.94 mA]cm2 and fill factor （FF） of 69.3, yielding power conversion efficiency （PCE） of 8.16%, which is higher than device regularly dyed for 12 h （PCE = 8.06%）. In addition, the DSSC devices obtain the best efficiency （PCE = 8.68%） when the ultrasonic deposition time increases to 2.5 h. The DSSCs fabricated via ultrasonic technique presents more dye loading, larger photocurrent, less charge recombination and higher photovoltage. The charge extraction and electron impedance spectroscopy （EIS） were performed to understand the influence of ultrasonic technique on the electron recombination and performance of DSSCs.

Milk-derived exosomes as a promising vehicle for oral delivery of hydrophilic biomacromolecule drugs

Exosomes,as promising vehicles,have been widely used in the research of oral drug delivery,but the generally low drug loading efficiency of exosomes seriously limits its application and transformation.In this study,we systematically investigated the effects of drug loading methods and physicochemical properties(lipophilicity and molecular weight)on drug loading efficiency of milk-derived exosomes to explore the most appropriate loading conditions.Our finding revealed that the drug loading efficiency of exosomes was closely related to the drug loading method,drug lipophilicity,drug molecular weight and exosome/drug proportions.Of note,we demonstrated the universality that hydrophilic biomacromolecule drugs were the most appropriate loading drugs for milk-derived exosomes,which was attributed to the efficient loading capacity and sustained release behavior.Furthermore,milk-derived exosomes could significantly improve the transepithelial transport and oral bioavailability of model hydrophilic biomacromolecule drugs(octreotide,exendin-4 and salmon calcitonin).Collectively,our results suggested that the encapsulation of hydrophilic biomacromolecule drugs might be the most promising direction for milk exosomes as oral drug delivery vehicles.