Highly Controllable Surface Plasmon Resonance Property by Heights of Ordered Nanoparticle Arrays Fabricated <i>via</i> a Nonlithographic Route

Perfectly ordered nanoparticle arrays are fabricated on large-area substrates (>cm²) <i>via</i> a cost-effective nonlithographic route. Different surface plasmon resonance (SPR) modes focus consequently on their own positions due to the identical shape and uniform size and distance of these plasmonic metallic nanoparticles (Ag and Au). On the basis of this and FDTD (finite-difference time-domain) simulation, this work reveals the variation of all SPR parameters (position, intensity, width, and mode) with nanoparticle heights, which demonstrates that the effect of heights are different in various stages. On increasing the heights, the major dipole SPR mode precisely blue-shifts from the near-infrared to the visible region with intensity strengthening, a peak narrowing effect, and multipole modes excitation in the UV–vis range. The intensity of multipole modes can be manipulated to be equal to or even greater than the major dipole SPR mode. After coating conformal TiO₂ shells on these nanoparticle arrays by atomic layer deposition, the strengthening of the SPR modes with increasing the heights results in the multiplying of the photocurrent (from ∼2.5 to a maximum 90 μA cm^–2) in this plasmonic-metal–semiconductor-incorporated system. This simple but effective adjustment for all SPR parameters provides guidance for the future design of plasmonic metallic nanostructures, which is significant for SPR applications

Fabrication of Flexible FCI/PDMS Electromagnetic Shielding Composites Based on Pulsed Magnetic Field-Induced Alignment

Conductive polymer composites have been utilized in the field of electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, albeit requiring a high concentration of conductive fillers to achieve desirable EMI performance. To address this issue and enable the creation of superior EMI shielding composites with reduced filler loadings, this study employed a pulsed magnetic field featuring an amplitude of 0.7 T, a pulse width of 10 μs, and a frequency of 100 Hz to align flaky carbonyl iron (FCI) in poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS). This method resulted in an improved EMI shielding performance of the composites. The outcomes revealed that the pulsed magnetic field effectively controlled the orientation of the FCI, forming a conductive network structure, with the average orientation angle of the FCI reaching 69.3°. The aligned composites exhibited a significant improvement in EMI shielding effectiveness, with the enhancement effect reaching 37.53% and the EMI shielding effectiveness reaching 24.87 dB. Moreover, the flexible tensile properties of the aligned composites were superior to those of the unaligned composites, particularly the elongation at break, which reached 197.46%. The concordance between the theoretical analysis and experimental results affirms the efficacy of the microsecond pulsed magnetic field in enhancing the EMI shielding performance of composite materials. Ultimately, the high-performance, flexible electromagnetic shielding composite materials prepared in this study demonstrate potential for use in advanced electronic equipment

Time evolution of the pore radius at three locations selected along the two-cell membrane was shown.

In (a). Blue represented the large cell pole, green represented the midpoint of the two-cell junction region, and red represented the small cell pole. (b) Results of the nanosecond pulses, (c) the microsecond pulses, and (d) the combined nanosecond/microsecond pulses.</p

Image_1_RETRACTED: Curcumin Improves Palmitate-Induced Insulin Resistance in Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells by Maintaining Proteostasis in Endoplasmic Reticulum.TIF

Dysfunction of proteasome and autophagy will result in disturbance of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) proteostasis, and thus lead to long-term and chronic ER stress and subsequent unfolded protein response (UPR), which is implicated in the occurrence and development of insulin resistance. Curcumin exerts beneficial metabolic effects in in vitro cells and in vivo animal models of diabetes and diabetic complications including cardiovascular diseases, due to its powerful anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties. However, its impacts on insulin resistance of endothelial cells and its underlying mechanism(s) remain ill-defined. Herein, we tested the hypothesis that curcumin action in ER protein quality control was related to improvement of insulin resistance in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) cultured with saturated fatty acid palmitate. We found that palmitate treatment induced insulin resistance of HUVECs and activated both the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) and autophagy. Palmitate-stimulated activation of the UPS and autophagy was attenuated by pharmacological inhibition of ER stress. In addition, curcumin supplementation mitigated palmitate-induced insulin resistance, inhibited the UPS, and activated autophagy. Furthermore, curcumin administration suppressed palmitate-induced protein aggregation and ER stress. Genetic inhibition of autophagy by silencing autophagy protein 5 (Atg5) completely restored total protein ubiquitination and protein aggregation in HUVECs treated with combined curcumin and palmitate. Atg5-knockdown also abolished the beneficial effects of curcumin on palmitate-induced ER stress, JNK/IRS-1 pathway as well as insulin signaling. Our results reveal that curcumin-activated autophagy could maintain proteostasis in ER leading to attenuation of ER stress and subsequent inhibition of JNK/IRS-1 pathway and improvement of insulin resistance.</p

Cell electrofusion based on nanosecond/microsecond pulsed electric fields - Fig 6

<p>Nanosecond pulse results were shown in (a), the microsecond pulse in (b), and the pulse combination in (c). The dashed purple line represented a pore density of 10¹³ m^-2.</p

Model parameters.

<p>Model parameters.</p

Image_2_RETRACTED: Curcumin Improves Palmitate-Induced Insulin Resistance in Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells by Maintaining Proteostasis in Endoplasmic Reticulum.TIF

Dysfunction of proteasome and autophagy will result in disturbance of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) proteostasis, and thus lead to long-term and chronic ER stress and subsequent unfolded protein response (UPR), which is implicated in the occurrence and development of insulin resistance. Curcumin exerts beneficial metabolic effects in in vitro cells and in vivo animal models of diabetes and diabetic complications including cardiovascular diseases, due to its powerful anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties. However, its impacts on insulin resistance of endothelial cells and its underlying mechanism(s) remain ill-defined. Herein, we tested the hypothesis that curcumin action in ER protein quality control was related to improvement of insulin resistance in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) cultured with saturated fatty acid palmitate. We found that palmitate treatment induced insulin resistance of HUVECs and activated both the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) and autophagy. Palmitate-stimulated activation of the UPS and autophagy was attenuated by pharmacological inhibition of ER stress. In addition, curcumin supplementation mitigated palmitate-induced insulin resistance, inhibited the UPS, and activated autophagy. Furthermore, curcumin administration suppressed palmitate-induced protein aggregation and ER stress. Genetic inhibition of autophagy by silencing autophagy protein 5 (Atg5) completely restored total protein ubiquitination and protein aggregation in HUVECs treated with combined curcumin and palmitate. Atg5-knockdown also abolished the beneficial effects of curcumin on palmitate-induced ER stress, JNK/IRS-1 pathway as well as insulin signaling. Our results reveal that curcumin-activated autophagy could maintain proteostasis in ER leading to attenuation of ER stress and subsequent inhibition of JNK/IRS-1 pathway and improvement of insulin resistance.</p

Schematic diagram of cell fusion using a sequential nanosecond/microsecond electric field pulse combination.

<p>100-ns-long strong field pulse induced many tiny pores in the cell membrane, particularly in the junction region. After a brief delay, fusion process was followed by a low-field 10-microsecond pulse, which enlarged the pores.</p

Additional file 1 of Nanocluster-mediated photothermia improves eradication efficiency and antibiotic sensitivity of Helicobacter pylori

Additional file 1: Fig. S1. The schematic illustration of synthesis of Zn0.3Fe2.7O4 NCs. Fig. S2. Effects of NCs on BGC-823 cells growth. NCs were added into the culture medium and cells were observed by inverted microscope (40×) after co-culturing for 48 h. (A) Control group; (B) NCs (300 μg/mL) group exhibited significant growth inhibition of BGC-823 cells. Fig. S3. Prussian blue staining of NPs and NCs. NPs and NCs were incubated with Prussian blue for 12h, then washed and observed. NPs/NCs in the control group (no incubation) showed brownish grey. After incubation with Prussian blue, both NPs and NCs were stained blue (400×). Fig. S4. Cellular uptake of NPs/NCs in co-cultured BGC-823 cells as quantitatively determined by ICP-MS.*** p < 0.001, vs. the control group, n = 3. When co-cultured with NCs, no significant difference was found compared to the control group in Fe content. However, when co-cultured with NPs, a significant increase in Fe content was measured for all exposure time. Fig. S5. Effect of Zn0.3Fe2.7O4 NCs (50 μg/mL) photothermia on H. pylori growth inhibition. Percentage of H. pylori growth inhibition (A) as a function of temperature, t = 20 min; (B) as a function of time, temperature = 41 °C. Fig. S6. Comparison of H. pylori NCTC 11637 growth inhibition between NPs and NCs heating. NCs (50 µg/mL) group showed higher growth inhibition rate (%) than NPs (50 µg/mL) group after heating induced by NIR laser to 41℃ for 20 min (n = 3). Fig. S7. Effects of NCs heating on H. pylori NCTC 11637 vacuolization and adhesion ability. Under the near-infrared (808nm) irradiation to 41℃ for 20 min, the NCs+heating group showed significant inhibition of vacuolization and adhesion ability, compared with control group (*** P<0.001). The near infrared group, NCs no heating group and water bath (41℃) group showed no difference (n = 5). Fig. S8. Changes of H. pylori NCTC 11637 antibiotic susceptibility to levofloxacin. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for levofloxacin was 1.4 µg/ml in control group (A), 0.3 µg/mL in the NPs heating group (B), and 0.8 µg/mL in the NCs heating group (C)