An Endoplasmic Reticulum Targeting Type I Photosensitizer for Effective Photodynamic Therapy against Hypoxic Tumor Cells

Organelle-targeted type I photodynamic therapy (PDT) shows great potential to overcome the hypoxic microenvironment in solid tumors. The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is an indispensable organelle in cells with important biological functions. When the ER is damaged due to the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), the accumulation of misfolded proteins will interfere with ER homeostasis, resulting in ER stress. Here, an ER-targeted benzophenothiazine-based photosensitizer NBS-ER was presented. ER targeting modification significantly reduced the dark toxicity and improved phototoxicity index (PI). NBS-ER could effectively produce O₂⁻⋅ with near-infrared irradiation, making its phototoxicity under hypoxia close to that under normoxia. Meanwhile, the photoinduced ROS triggered ER stress and induced apoptosis. In addition, NBS-ER possessed excellent photodynamic therapeutic effect in 4T1-tumor-bearing mice.     

Tissue distribution and excretion study of neopanaxadiol in rats by ultra‐performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry

Neopanaxadiol (NPD), a major ginsenoside in Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer (Araliaceae), was reported to have neuroprotective effect. In this study, a method of ultra‐performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (UPLC/QTOF‐MS) was developed and validated for quantitative analysis of NPD in tissues, urine and feces, using liquid–liquid extraction (LLE) to isolate NPD from different biological samples, and chromatographic separation was performed on an Agilent Zorbax Stable Bond C₁₈ (2.1 × 50 mm, 1.8 µm) column with 0.1% formic acid in water and acetonitrile. All standard calibration curves were linear (all r² > 0.995) within the test range. After oral administration, NPD was extensively distributed to most of the tissues without long‐term accumulation. The higher levels were observed in stomach and intestine, followed by kidney and liver. Approximately 64.56 ± 20.32% of administered dose in feces and 0.0233 ± 0.0356% in urine were found within 96 h, which indicated that the major elimination route was fecal excretion. This analytical method was applied to the study of NPD distribution and excretion in rats after oral intake for the first time. The results we found here are helpful for us to understand the pharmacological effects of NPD, as well as its toxicity. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Association,emulsifying, and solubilization properties of amphiphilic hyperbranched poly(acrylic acid) with short polystyrene stickers

Amphiphilic hyperbranched copolymer chains made of large hyperbranched poly(acrylic acid) cores grafted with short polystyrene stickers (HB‐PAA_n‐g‐PS_{n + 1}) with different n values (n = 1, 10, 47) were well prepared and confirmed by size exclusion chromatography, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance. The study on the interchain association behavior of these amphiphilic chains indicates that larger HB‐(PAA)_n‐g‐(PS)_{n + 1} copolymer chains have a less tendency to undergo interchain association. Moreover, the simple vial‐inversion and rheological experiments show that the apparent critical gel concentration (C_g) decreases with n, but no sol–gel transition was observed for triblock PS‐PAA‐PS even when the concentration is up to 200 g L^?1. Further transmission electron microscopy study of the latex particles prepared with HB‐(PAA)_n‐g‐(PS)_{n + 1} as surfactant reveals that the latex particles are spherical and narrowly dispersed; while the measured latex particle number (N_p) indicates the surfactant efficiency of HB‐(PAA)₄₇‐g‐(PS)₄₈ is poorer than that of triblock PS‐PAA‐PS (n = 1). Finally, pyrene solubilization measurement shows the solubilization efficiency of HB‐(PAA)_n‐g‐(PS)_{n + 1} copolymers decreases with n, consistent with the previous observed interchain association result. The present study demonstrates that both the chain topology and the styrene weight fraction dominates the final solution properties of amphiphilic HB‐(PAA)_n‐g‐(PS)_{n + 1} chains in aqueous solution. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2014 , 52, 128–138     

Chitosan/Ce(IV) redox polymerization‐based amplification for detection of DNA point mutation

Polymerization‐based signal amplification, a technique developed for use in rapid diagnostic tests, hinges on the ability to localize initiators as a function of interfacial binding events. We report here a new DNA detection method in which polymer growth in redox‐polymerization is used as a means to amplify detection signals. The introduction of biotin‐labeled chitosan (biotin‐CS) with highly dense amino groups into the polymerization amplification as macromolecular reducing agent, beneficially simplifies amplification operation, as well as, provides a large amount of initiation points to improve the sensitivity of detection. DNA hybridization, SA and biotin binding reactions led to the attachment of CS on a solid surface where specific DNA sequences were located. With the addition of the mixture containing monomer AM, crosslinker PEGDA and oxidant CAN onto the CS location, the growth of polymer films was triggered to render the corresponding spots readily distinguishable to the naked eye. Direct visualization of 0.21 fmol target DNA molecules of interest was demonstrated. Non‐small cell lung cancer p53 sequence was further selected as a proof‐of‐principle to detect DNA point mutation. The proposed method exhibited an efficient amplification performance for molecule detection, and paved a new way for visual diagnosis of biomolecules. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016 , 54, 1929–1937     

Properties of cat-eye modulating retro-reflector and its application with piezoelectric transducer

Piezoelectric cat-eye modulating retro-reflector (MRR) is the core component of an acousto-optic retro-identification system. The influence of the optical parameters (link distance l, lens focal length f and the detector diameter r) to the cat-eye effect was analyzed theoretically and experimentally. A piezoelectric cat-eye retro-identification (PCERI) system was built, and an information transmission ratio of 2 kHz was achieved which can satisfy an access control system.     

Modification of hydrophilic channels in Nafion membranes by DMBA: Mechanism and effects on proton conductivity

Modification of proton conductive channels (PCCs) in Nafion has been achieved with the assistance of 3, 4‐dimethylbenzaldehyde (DMBA). During annealing, ionic clusters develop from small isolated spheres (1.72 nm) to wide continuous channels (5.15 nm), and the crystallinity of Nafion/DMBA membranes is also improved from 17% to 32% as shown by X‐ray diffraction. Molecular dynamic simulation reveals that hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interaction between DMBA and Nafion work synergistically to achieve better phase separation. The morphology–property relationship shows that, versus various PCCs width, the corresponding proton conductivities vary greatly from 0.079 to 0.139 S/cm at 80 °C. By carefully tuning the width of PCCs, the proton conductivity shows an improvement of 22–34% as compared with pristine Nafion. A significant enhancement on the maximum power density is achieved for the membrane electrode assembly on Nafion/DMBA‐8h (as high as 1018 mW/cm^?2), yielding an enhancement of 39% on pristine Nafion‐8h (730 mW/cm^?2). © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2014 52, 1107–1117     

A new MnxOy/carbon nanorods derived from bimetallic Zn/Mn metal–organic framework as an efficient oxygen reduction reaction electrocatalyst for alkaline Zn-Air batteries

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - In this work, nanorods like bimetallic Zn/Mn metal–organic-frameworks (MOFs) are proposed as the precursor for preparing MnxOy/porous carbon...     

Electrochemical detection of nitrate,nitrite and ammonium for on-site water quality monitoring

This review examines the most recent electrochemical developments for nitrate, nitrite and ammonium detection for on-site water monitoring. There remains a high demand for effective field-based detection of the dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) analytes to aid in mitigating nitrogen loading. Electrochemical approaches show increasing potential to fill this role as advancements in nanotechnology continually improve analytical performance and on-site applicability. However, translating these improvements into the field still faces the resonating challenges of reaching analytical proficiency (selectivity, sensitivity, robustness, stability), practical end-user functionality, minimal matrix interferences and cost effectiveness. Herein, we elaborate on these challenges via a critical evaluation of current studies and examine how realistic the prospects of on-site nitrate, nitrite and ammonium are. We also present recommendations in addressing these gaps to conclude the review.     

Preliminary biological evaluation of rhenium-188-MAG3-PSMA

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is a biomarker for prostate cancer, which is commonly used in the development of diagnostic and...