“Three-in-one” strategy of trifluoromethyl regulated blood-brain barrier permeable fluorescent probe for peroxynitrite and antiepileptic evaluation of edaravone

Epilepsy,as a chronic neurological disease of the brain,is closely related to oxidative stress,and the peroxynitrite(ONOO-)significantly rise up in this event.Therefore,ONOO-is considered as a potential biomarker for early prediction of epilepsy.However,some potential diagnostic reagents for epilepsy are hindered by the blood-brain barrier(BBB).Meanwhile,“drug repurposing”is attracting a growing interest.Edaravone(EDA),as a first-line drug in the clinical treatment of cerebral ischemia,plays antioxidant roles in scavenging free radicals,promising potential antiepileptic activity.Thus,it is imperative to develop fluorescent probes for monitoring ONOO-fluctuations in the epileptic brain.Hence,we proposed a novel fluorescent probe with the thiocarbonate as the promising recognition unit for ONOO-and dicyanoisophorone derivative as the fluorophore.Moreover,by the“three-in-one”strategy,the introduction of trifluoromethyl into DCI-ONOO-3 can extend the emission wavelength of the fluorophore,shorten the response and increase lipophilicity.Consequently,DCI-ONOO-3 was used for monitoring ONOO-fluxes in brain of epileptic mice and evaluating the antiepileptic efficacy of EDA.It opens up a new way for the design of BBB permeable fluorescent probes,and provides a convincing new method for the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy.

The p38/MAPK pathway as a therapeutic target to prevent therapeutic escape of breast cancer stem cells

Cancer stem cells(CSCs)play an important role in metastasis development,tumor recurrence,and treatment resistance,and are essential for the eradication of cancer.Currently,therapies fail to eradicate CSCs due to their therapeutic stress-induced cellular escape,which leads to enhanced aggressive behaviors compared with CSCs that have never been treated.However,the underlying mechanisms regulating the therapeutic escape remain unknown.To this end,we established a model to isolate the therapeutic escaped CSCs(TSCSCs)from breast CSCs and performed the transcription profile to reveal the mechanism.Mechanistically,we demonstrated that the behavior of therapeutic escape was regulated through the p38/MAPK signaling pathway,resulting in TSCSCs exhibiting enhanced motility and metastasis.Notably,blocking the p38/MAPK signaling pathway effectively reduced motility and metastasis ability both in vitro and in vivo,which were further supported by downregulated motility-related genes and epithelial-mesenchymal transition(EMT)-related proteins vimentin and N-cadherin.The obtained findings reveal the p38/MAPK pathway as a potential therapeutic target for TSCSCs and would provide profound implications for cancer therapy.

Z-scheme Bi_(4)O_(5)Br_(2)/NH_(2)-MIL-125(Ti)heterojunctions enable exceptional visible photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutant

One key strategy to enhance photocatalytic performance is to improve the transfer and separation efficiency of photogenerated carriers by building optimized heterojunctions.Herein,novel Bi_(4)O_5Br_(2)/NH_(2)-MIL-125(Ti)Z-scheme heterojunctions are fabricated and used as photocatalysts for organic pollutant photodegradation.The NH_(2)-MIL-125(Ti)nanosheets are exfoliated via a self-developed alkali solution stripping approach and then uniformly decorated on Bi_(4)O_(5)Br_(2).The as-prepared Bi_(4)O_(5)Br_(2)/NH_(2)-MIL-125(Ti)presents more than 90%degradation of various pollutants,outperforming the counterpart individual ones.The various characterization results suggest that the enhanced degradation rate is due to the more intimate face-to-face interfacial contact of the lamellar Z-scheme heterojunction materials,in which the migration path of carriers from the material's interior to the surface can be reduced,in turn enhancing migration efficiency and separation capability significantly.A possible photocatalytic reaction mechanism is proposed based on the photoelectric behaviors,radical trapping experiments and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry analysis.This work promotes the development of new photocatalytic materials for heterojunctions with face-to-face interfacial contacts,as well as the effective purification of wastewater in environmental remediation.

Heterogeneous Catalysis with Metal-Containing Crystalline Porous Materials:Element-and Site-Specific Insights

Metal-containing crystalline porous materials(CPMs)are gaining popularity in heterogeneous catalysis because of their highly crystalline and porous systems,and their excellent chemical tunability.Modification of the metal species and framework structure permits them to have greater activity,selectivity,and stability over other materials.An in-depth understanding of the complex nature of metal active sites in CPMs is essential for revealing the structure-performance relationships and directing the rational design of such catalysts.Compared to conventional characterization techniques,the rapid development of X-ray absorption spectroscopy(XAS)has provided element-and site-specific deep insights into the electronic and structural information of metal species in CPMs.As such,this review begins by summarizing novel XAS techniques and analysis methods in accurately obtaining such data.Next,the combination of XAS with other high-level characterization methods into disclosing the configuration of active sites in metalcontaining CPMs is presented.Then,the utilization of theory-assisted XAS data analysis in examining complex metal-containing CPM catalysts is discussed.Afterwards,advanced in-situ/operando XAS studies into revealing the working sites in metal-containing CPMs under catalytic conditions are highlighted.We conclude by outlining the future challenges and prospects of XAS measurements,data analyses,and in-situ/operando setups in advancing the study of metal-in-CPM catalysts.

ZnGa_(2)S_(4):an infrared nonlinear optical material with large second-harmonic generation response and wide band gap

High-performance nonlinear optical(NLO)crystals are crucial devices to convert wavelength of solid-state lasers.Chalcogenides play an indispensable role in the research of infrared NLO materials.In this work,ternary chalcogenide ZnGa_(2)S_(4) with defect diamond-like structure was screened out and synthesized by chemical vapor transport method.

Mesoporous polydopamine delivery system for intelligent drug release and photothermal-enhanced chemodynamic therapy using MnO_(2) as gatekeeper

The non-specific leakage of drugs from nanocarriers seriously weakened the safety and efficacy of chemotherapy,and it was very critical of constructing tumor microenvironment(TME)-responsive delivery nanocarriers,achieving the modulation release of drugs.Herein,using manganese dioxide(MnO_(2))as gatekeeper,an intelligent nanoplatform based on mesoporous polydopamine(MPDA)was developed to deliver doxorubicin(DOX),by which the DOX release was precisely controlled,and simultaneously the photothermal therapy(PTT)and chemodynamic therapy(CDT)were realized.In normal physiological environment,the stable MnO_(2)shell effectively avoided the leakage of DOX.However,in TME,the overexpressed glutathione(GSH)degraded MnO_(2)shell,which caused the DOX release.Moreover,the photothermal effect of MPDA and the Fenton-like reaction of the generated Mn^(2+)further accelerated the cell death.Thus,the developed MPDA-DOX@MnO_(2)nanoplatform can intelligently modulate the release of DOX,and the combined CDT/PTT/chemotherapy possessed high-safety and high-efficacy against tumors.