Macrophage Membrane-Coated Nanoparticles Sensitize Glioblastoma to Radiation by Suppressing Proneural–Mesenchymal Transformation in Glioma Stem Cells

Radiotherapy is identified as a crucial treatment for patients with glioblastoma, but recurrence is inevitable. The efficacy of radiotherapy is severely hampered partially due to the tumor evolution. Growing evidence suggests that proneural glioma stem cells can acquire mesenchymal features coupled with increased radioresistance. Thus, a better understanding of mechanisms underlying tumor subclonal evolution may develop new strategies. Herein, data highlighting a positive correlation between the accumulation of macrophage in the glioblastoma microenvironment after irradiation and mesenchymal transdifferentiation in glioblastoma are presented. Mechanistically, elevated production of inflammatory cytokines released by macrophages promotes mesenchymal transition in an NF-κB-dependent manner. Hence, rationally designed macrophage membrane-coated porous mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MMNs) in which therapeutic anti-NF-κB peptides are loaded for enhancing radiotherapy of glioblastoma are constructed. The combination of MMNs and fractionated irradiation results in the blockage of tumor evolution and therapy resistance in glioblastoma-bearing mice. Intriguingly, the macrophage invasion across the blood-brain barrier is inhibited competitively by MMNs, suggesting that these nanoparticles can fundamentally halt the evolution of radioresistant clones. Taken together, the biomimetic MMNs represent a promising strategy that prevents mesenchymal transition and improves therapeutic response to irradiation as well as overall survival in patients with glioblastoma.     

Cryptanalysis of Two Signature Schemes for IoT and Mobile Health Systems

Wireless Personal Communications - Recently, Lee et al. (Sensors 20(14): 3983, 2020) proposed a certificateless aggregate arbitrated signature scheme CLAAS for IoT environments. Addobea et...     

Finite-element analysis of planar dielectric waveguide discontinuities

The finite element method is combined with the mode-matching method and the multi-mode network method to analyze the scattering and radiation characteristics of a class of planar dielectric waveguide discontinuities. Unlike the conventional method to treat the radiation as a source-field problem, in the present approach, the dispersion characteristics of dielectric guided-wave structures are calculated first, and then the radiation problem is transferred to the propagation problem of a series of surface-waves and space waves from the viewpoint of scattering, thus the analysis is tremendously simplified.     

Aculeoside I, a novel 18,19-seco-ursane saponin isolated from Ilex aculeolata

A novel 18,19-seco-ursane saponin, aculeoside I (1), in addition to four known saponins were isolated from the leaves of Ilex aculeolata Nakai and identified by using spectroscopic and chemical methods. The structure of the new saponin was established as 3,19-dihydroxyl-16,21-epoxy-18,19-seco-13(18)-urs-ene-28-oic-acid-19-O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1 --> 2)-alpha-L-arabinopyranoside.