Boosting Chemodynamic Therapy <i>via</i> a Synergy of Hypothermal Ablation and Oxidation Resistance Reduction

Chemodynamic therapy (CDT), deemed as a cutting-edge antineoplastic therapeutic tactics, efficaciously suppresses tumors via catalytically yielding hydroxyl radicals (•OH) in tumor regions. Nevertheless, its biomedical applications are often restricted by the limited hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) level and upregulated antioxidant defense. Herein, a versatile nanoreactor is elaborately designed via integrating Cu2–xS and MnO2 for T1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging-guided CDT, synergistically enhanced through hypothermal ablation and oxidation resistance reduction, thereby displaying splendid antitumor efficiency as well as suppression on pulmonary metastasis. The as-synthesized Cu2–xS@MnO2 nanoreactors afford acid-dependent Cu-based and glutathione (GSH)-activated Mn-based catalytic properties for bimodal CDT. Owing to excellent absorbance at the second near-infrared (NIR-II) window, the Cu2–xS furnishes hypo-photo-thermal therapy (PTT) against tumor growth and ameliorates the catalytic performance for thermal-enhanced CDT. Additionally, MnO2 significantly downregulates GSH and glutathione peroxidase 4, which synergistically boosts CDT via promoting oxidative stress, simultaneously generating Mn2+ for MR contrast improvement and activatable tumor imaging. Therefore, this study proffers a new attempt centered on the collaborative strategy integrating NIR-II hypothermal PTT and synergistically enhanced CDT for tumor eradication

Densities and Viscosities of the Ternary Mixtures of Decalin (1) + <i>n</i>‑Hexadecane (2) + 1‑Butanol (3) and Corresponding Binary Systems

Active cooling by endothermic hydrocarbon fuels (EHFs) is considered as a practical approach to deal with the thermal management problem of hypersonic aircrafts. As a typical component of EHFs, decalin is usually thermally stable while it is apt to coke and has poor combustion performance. n-Hexadecane, a normal alkane with a relatively high H/C ratio, can effectively improve the combustion performance of EHFs, and 1-butanol has remarkable anti-coking properties. As a fundamental work for fuel design, decalin, n-hexadecane, and 1-butanol were selected as model compounds to construct a surrogate fuel system, which was used to investigate the effects of composition and condition on its thermophysical properties. Densities (ρ) and viscosities (η) of the ternary system of decalin (1) + n-hexadecane (2) + 1-butanol (3) and corresponding binary systems were measured at temperatures T = (293.15 to 333.15) K and pressure p = 0.1 MPa. The excess molar volumes (VmE) and the viscosity deviations (Δη) of the mixtures were calculated and fitted to several semi-empirical equations. The tendencies of VmE and Δη with composition and temperature were discussed from intermolecular force and molecular size, respectively

Crystal–Amorphous Core–Shell Structure Synergistically Enabling TiO₂ Nanoparticles’ Remarkable SERS Sensitivity for Cancer Cell Imaging

Exploring novel surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) active materials with high detection sensitivity, excellent biocompatibility, low biotoxicity, and good spectral stability is urgently required for efficacious cancer cell diagnosis. Herein, black TiO2 nanoparticles (B-TiO2 NPs) with crystal–amorphous core–shell structure are successfully developed. Remarkable SERS activity is derived from the synergistic effect of the promising crystal–amorphous core–shell structure. Abundant excitons can be generated by high-efficiency exciton transitions in the crystal core, a feature that provides sufficient charge source. Significantly, the novel crystal–amorphous heterojunction enables the efficient exciton separation at the crystal–amorphous interface, which can effectively facilitate charge transfer from the crystal core to the amorphous shell and results in exciton enrichment at the amorphous shell. Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) confirms the Fermi level of the amorphous layer shifting to a relatively low position compared to that of the crystal core, allowing efficient photoinduced charge transfer (PICT) between the amorphous shell and probe molecules. The first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations further indicate that the amorphous shell structure possesses a narrow band gap and a relatively high electronic density of state (DOS), which can effectively promote vibration coupling with target molecules. Moreover, MCF-7 drug-resistant (MCF-7/ADR) breast cancer cells can be quickly and accurately diagnosed based on the high-sensitivity B-TiO2-based SERS bioprobe. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time the crystal–amorphous core–shell heterojunction enhancement of the TiO2-molecule PICT process, which widens the application of semiconductor-based SERS platforms in precision diagnosis and treatment of cancer, has been investigated

Data_Sheet_1_A Multimodal Fusion Analysis of Pretreatment Anatomical and Functional Cortical Abnormalities in Responsive and Non-responsive Schizophrenia.docx

Background: Antipsychotic medications provide limited long-term benefit to ~30% of schizophrenia patients. Multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data have been used to investigate brain features between responders and nonresponders to antipsychotic treatment; however, these analytical techniques are unable to weigh the interrelationships between modalities. Here, we used multiset canonical correlation and joint independent component analysis (mCCA + jICA) to fuse MRI data to examine the shared and specific multimodal features between the patients and healthy controls (HCs) and between the responders and non-responders.Method: Resting-state functional and structural MRI data were collected from 55 patients with drug-naïve first-episode schizophrenia (FES) and demographically matched HCs. Based on the decrease in Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale scores from baseline to the 1-year follow-up, FES patients were divided into a responder group (RG) and a non-responder group (NRG). Gray matter volume (GMV), fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF), and regional homogeneity (ReHo) maps were used as features in mCCA + jICA.Results: Between FES patients and HCs, there were three modality-specific discriminative independent components (ICs) showing the difference in mixing coefficients (GMV-IC7, GMV-IC8, and fALFF-IC5). The fusion analysis indicated one modality-shared IC (GMV-IC2 and ReHo-IC2) and three modality-specific ICs (GMV-IC1, GMV-IC3, and GMV-IC6) between the RG and NRG. The right postcentral gyrus showed a significant difference in GMV features between FES patients and HCs and modality-shared features (GMV and ReHo) between responders and nonresponders. The modality-shared component findings were highlighted by GMV, mainly in the bilateral temporal gyrus and the right cerebellum associated with ReHo in the right postcentral gyrus.Conclusions: This study suggests that joint anatomical and functional features of the cortices may reflect an early pathophysiological mechanism that is related to a 1-year treatment response.</p

Precisely Tuning the Contrast Properties of Zn<i>_x</i>Fe_3–<i>x</i>O₄ Nanoparticles in Magnetic Resonance Imaging by Controlling Their Doping Content and Size

Given that the contrast of Zn-doped Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) (ZnxFe3–xO4) in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) depends on their intrinsic chemical and physical properties such as doping content or size, the ability to finely control these characteristics is very important but at the same time very challenging. In this work, we introduce a novel doping mechanism and present how various desired MRI contrast levels can be precisely achieved by synthesizing ZnxFe3–xO4 nanoparticles in a controlled and reproducible manner, exhibiting different Zn doping concentrations (ZnxFe3–xO4, x = 0/0.1/0.2/0.3/0.4) and different dimensions (4/7/10 nm). The experimental results show that ZnxFe3–xO4 NPs of a specific dimension form a system whose saturation magnetization and crystal structures can be easily tuned by adjusting their Zn doping contents. The proposed model thus enables the exact tuning of MRI contrast by controlling NP doping content and size. The utility of our study is not restricted to the case of the considered material, as it can be easily extrapolated and applied in the case of other divalent transition metal ion-doped magnetic NPs, to optimize their MRI contrast and eventually other relevant properties for further biomedical applications