Oxygen-supplied mesoporous carbon nanoparticles for enhanced photothermal/photodynamic synergetic therapy against antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections

Pandemic and epidemic spread of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections would result in a huge number of fatalities globally. To combat antibiotic-resistant pathogens, new antimicrobial strategies should be explored and developed to confront bacteria without acquiring or increasing drug-resistance. Here, oxygen saturated perfluorohexane (PFH)-loaded mesoporous carbon nanoparticles (CIL@ICG/PFH@O₂) with photothermal therapy (PTT) and enhanced photodynamic therapy (PDT) utility are developed for antibacterial applications. Ionic liquid groups are grafted onto the surface of mesoporous carbon nanoparticles, followed by anion-exchange with the anionic photosensitizer indocyanine green (ICG) and loading oxygen saturated PFH to prepare CIL@ICG/PFH@O₂. These CIL@ICG/PFH@O₂ nanoparticles exhibit effective PTT and enhanced PDT properties simultaneously upon 808 nm light irradiation. In vitro assays demonstrate that CIL@ICG/PFH@O₂ shows a synergistic antibacterial action against antibiotic-resistant pathogens (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and kanamycin-resistant Escherichia coli). Moreover, CIL@ICG/PFH@O₂ could effectively kill drug-resistant bacteria in vivo to relieve inflammation and eliminate methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus-wound infection under NIR irradiation, and the released oxygen can increase collagen deposition, epithelial tissue formation and blood vessel formation to promote wound healing while enhancing the PDT effect. This study proposes a platform with enhanced PTT/PDT effects for effective, controlled, and precise treatment of topical drug-resistant bacterial infections.

We report oxygen saturated perfluorohexane (PFH)-loaded mesoporous carbon nanoparticles (CIL@ICG/PFH@O₂) with photothermal therapy (PTT) and enhanced photodynamic therapy (PDT) utility for antibacterial applications.     

改进型单晶炉提拉系统偏心平衡研究

随着光伏行业的快速发展, 对硅单晶的品质和长晶装备的稳定性的要求也不断提高。直拉法是生产硅单晶的主要方法,通过提高单晶炉副室的高度以扩大单晶硅的生产规模。由于副室高度的大幅增加,且单晶炉提拉头质心相对于旋转轴心有一定距离,对单晶炉整体稳定性有较大影响,从而降低了单晶硅的生产质量。针对此问题,对单晶炉建立可靠的力学分析模型,采用数值仿真方法,对单晶炉整体进行动力学响应分析,计算得到副室高度增加后的单晶炉工作时中钨丝绳下端晶棒的运动规律以及最大摆动幅度,为改进设计提供依据。数值仿真分析表明提高单晶炉副室高度后,提拉头较大的质心偏心是单晶炉提拉系统发生摆动的主要原因。在此基础上提出在提拉头上添加质心调节装置,通过控制系统调节可保证提拉头质心位置在旋转轴线上以降低提拉系统的摆动。     

Structural Investigation of the Interaction Mechanism between Chlorogenic Acid and AMPA Receptor via In Silico Approaches

Chlorogenic acid (CGA), an important metabolite in natural plant medicines such as honeysuckle and eucommia, has been shown to have potent antinociceptive effects. Nevertheless, the mechanism by which CGA relieves chronic pain remains unclear. α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isooxazolpropionic acid receptor (AMPAR) is a major ionotropic glutamate receptor that mediates rapid excitatory synaptic transmission and its glutamate ionotropic receptor AMPA type subunit 1 (GluA1) plays a key role in nociceptive transmission. In this study, we used Western blot, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) assay, and the molecular simulation technologies to investigate the mechanism of interaction between CGA and AMPAR to relieve chronic pain. Our results indicate that the protein expression level of GluA1 showed a dependent decrease as the concentration of CGA increased (0, 50, 100, and 200 μM). The SPR assay demonstrates that CGA can directly bind to GluA1 (K_D = 496 μM). Furthermore, CGA forms a stable binding interaction with GluA1, which is validated by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The binding free energy between CGA and GluA1 is −39.803 ± 14.772 kJ/mol, where van der Waals interaction and electrostatic interaction are the major contributors to the GluA1–CGA binding, and the key residues are identified (Val-32, Glu-33, Ala-36, Glu-37, Leu-48), which play a crucial role in the binding interaction. This study first reveals the structural basis of the stable interaction between CGA and GluA1 to form a binding complex for the relief of chronic pain. The research provides the structural basis to understand the treatment of chronic pain and is valuable to the design of novel drug molecules in the future.     

Multi-Classifier Fusion Based on MI–SFFS for Cross-Subject Emotion Recognition

With the widespread use of emotion recognition, cross-subject emotion recognition based on EEG signals has become a hot topic in affective computing. Electroencephalography (EEG) can be used to detect the brain’s electrical activity associated with different emotions. The aim of this research is to improve the accuracy by enhancing the generalization of features. A Multi-Classifier Fusion method based on mutual information with sequential forward floating selection (MI_SFFS) is proposed. The dataset used in this paper is DEAP, which is a multi-modal open dataset containing 32 EEG channels and multiple other physiological signals. First, high-dimensional features are extracted from 15 EEG channels of DEAP after using a 10 s time window for data slicing. Second, MI and SFFS are integrated as a novel feature-selection method. Then, support vector machine (SVM), k-nearest neighbor (KNN) and random forest (RF) are employed to classify positive and negative emotions to obtain the output probabilities of classifiers as weighted features for further classification. To evaluate the model performance, leave-one-out cross-validation is adopted. Finally, cross-subject classification accuracies of 0.7089, 0.7106 and 0.7361 are achieved by the SVM, KNN and RF classifiers, respectively. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the model by splicing different classifiers’ output probabilities as a portion of the weighted features.     

Alkene insertion reactivity of a o-carboranyl-substituted 9-borafluorene

The synthesis of 9-borafluorene with an electron-withdrawing o-carboranyl substituent and its reactions with a series of alkenes are described. The o-carboranyl substituent is bonded via one of the cluster carbon atoms to the boron atom of the 9-borafluorene moiety. In all cases, the reactions afford partly saturated analogs of borepins (i.e. 6,7-dihydroborepins) by unprecedented alkene insertion into the endocyclic B–C bond of the borole ring. Comparative studies with 9-bromo-9-borafluorene illustrate the superior insertion reactivity of the carboranyl-substituted derivative. A suite of experimental and computational techniques disclose the unique properties of the 9-borafluorene and provide insight into how the 9-carboranyl substituent affects its chemical reactivity.

A 9-carboranyl-substituted 9-borafluorene is reported, which is capable of undergoing efficient ring expansion to 6,7-dihydroborepins by a previously unknown alkene insertion.     

透明陶瓷的研究进展

透明陶瓷性能优异,应用广泛,是一类备受关注的新型材料.目前已经成功开发的透明陶瓷有氧化铝透明陶瓷、氧化钇透明陶瓷、氮化铝透明陶瓷以及PLZT电光透明陶瓷和激光透明陶瓷等.本文介绍了几种透明陶瓷的研究进展以及性能和应用,并且对透明陶瓷的研究趋势提出展望.     

An unexpected all-metal aromatic tetranuclear silver cluster in human copper chaperone Atox1

Metal clusters, such as iron–sulfur clusters, play key roles in sustaining life and are intimately involved in the functions of metalloproteins. Herein we report the formation and crystal structure of a planar square tetranuclear silver cluster when silver ions were mixed with human copper chaperone Atox1. Quantum chemical studies reveal that two Ag 5s¹ electrons in the tetranuclear silver cluster fully occupy the one bonding molecular orbital, with the assumption that this Ag₄ cluster is Ag₄²⁺, leading to extensive electron delocalization over the planar square and significant stabilization. This bonding pattern of the tetranuclear silver cluster represents an aromatic all-metal structure that follows a 4n + 2 electron counting rule (n = 0). This is the first time an all-metal aromatic silver cluster was observed in a protein.

Metal clusters, such as iron–sulfur clusters, play key roles in sustaining life and are intimately involved in the functions of metalloproteins.     

First Organic–Inorganic Hybrid Compounds Formed by Ge-V-O Clusters and Transition Metal Complexes of Aromatic Organic Ligands

Three compounds based on Ge-V-O clusters were hydrothermally synthesized and characterized by IR, UV-Vis, XRD, ESR, elemental analysis and X-ray crystal structural analysis. Both [Cd(phen)(en)]₂[Cd₂(phen)₂V₁₂O₄₀Ge₈(OH)₈(H₂O)]∙12.5H₂O (1) and [Cd(DETA)]₂[Cd(DETA)₂]_0.5[Cd₂(phen)₂V₁₂O₄₁Ge₈(OH)₇(0.5H₂O)]∙7.5H₂O (2) (1,10-phen = 1,10-phenanthroline, en = ethylenediamine, DETA = diethylenetriamine) are the first Ge-V-O cluster compounds containing aromatic organic ligands. Compound 1 is the first dimer of Ge-V-O clusters, which is linked by a double bridge of two [Cd(phen)(en)]²⁺. Compound 2 exhibits an unprecedented 1-D chain structure formed by Ge-V-O clusters and [Cd₂(DETA)₂]⁴⁺ transition metal complexes (TMCs). [Cd(en)₃]{[Cd(η₂-en)₂]₃[Cd(η₂-en)(η₂-μ₂-en)(η₂-en)Cd][Ge₆V₁₅O₄₈(H₂O)]}∙5.5H₂O (3) is a novel 3-D structure which is constructed from [Ge₆V₁₅O₄₈(H₂O)]¹²⁻ and four different types of TMCs. We also synthesized [Zn₂(enMe)₃][Zn(enMe)]₂[Zn(enMe)₂(H₂O)]₂[Ge₆V₁₅O₄₈(H₂O)]∙3H₂O (4) and [Cd(en)₂]₂{H₈[Cd(en)]₂Ge₈V₁₂O₄₈(H₂O)}∙6H₂O (5) (enMe = 1,2-propanediamine), which have been reported previously. In addition, the catalytic properties of these five compounds for styrene epoxidation have been assessed.     

Sargassum fusiforme Polysaccharide-Based Hydrogel Microspheres Enhance Crystal Violet Dye Adsorption Properties

In this study, a polysaccharide-based hydrogel microsphere (SFP/SA) was prepared using S. fusiforme polysaccharide (SFP) and sodium alginate (SA). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) demonstrated that SFP was effectively loaded onto the hydrogel microsphere. Texture profile analysis (TPA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) showed that, with the increase of SFP concentration, the hardness of SFP/SA decreased, while the springiness and cohesiveness of SFP/SA increased, and the thermal stability of SFP/SA improved. The equilibrium adsorption capacity of SFP/SA increased from 8.20 mg/g (without SFP) to 67.95 mg/g (SFP accounted 80%) without swelling, and from 35.05 mg/g (without SFP) to 81.98 mg/g (SFP accounted 80%) after 24 h swelling. The adsorption of crystal violet (CV) dye by SFP/SA followed pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order kinetics (both with R² > 0.99). The diffusion of intraparticle in CV dye was not the only influencing factor. Moreover, the adsorption of CV dye for SFP/SA (SFP accounted 60%) fit the Langmuir and Temkin isotherm models. SFP/SA exhibited good regenerative adsorption capacity. Its adsorption rate remained at > 97% at the 10th consecutive cycle while SFP accounted for 80%. The results showed that the addition of Sargassum fusiforme polysaccharide could increase the springiness, cohesiveness and thermal stability of the hydrogel microsphere, as well as improve the adsorption capacity of crystal violet dye.     

Na2S-Mediated One-Pot Selective Deoxygenation of α-Hydroxyl Carbonyl Compounds including Natural Products

A practical method for the deoxygenation of α-hydroxyl carbonyl compounds under mild reaction conditions is reported here. The use of cheap and easy-to-handle Na₂S·9H₂O as the reductant in the presence of PPh₃ and N-chlorosuccinimide (NCS) enables the selective dehydroxylation of α-hydroxyl carbonyl compounds, including ketones, esters, amides, imides and nitrile groups. The synthetic utility is demonstrated by the late-stage deoxygenation of bioactive molecule and complex natural products.