Synthesis of gold Nanoshells through Improved Seed-Mediated Growth Approach: Brust-like, <i>in Situ</i> Seed Formation

Gold nanoshells have shown great potentials in various fields. However, the widely used seed-mediated growth method based on a silica template for gold nanoshells is a complex and time-consuming procedure. In this work, mercaptosilica was first used as a template to synthesize gold nanoshells through improved seed-mediated growth method. It is verified that gold seeds were formed and attached onto the mercaptosilica nanospheres through Brust-like, <i>in situ</i> process, which makes this method extremely time-saving and easy to manipulate. Importantly, the key factors affecting the <i>in situ</i> process were demonstrated, allowing fine control on the synthesis in a highly reproducible manner. The as-synthesized nanoshells are monodisperse with well-defined morphology and tunable near-IR plasmon resonance. Furthermore, other metal nanoparticles such as Pt and Pd could be grafted onto the surface of mercaptosilica nanospheres through the same Brust-like, <i>in situ</i> process. These provide new insights into seed attachment, and the improved seed-mediated growth approach based on Brust-like, <i>in situ</i> seed formation will take an important step forward toward the widespread application of gold nanoshells

Knowledge mapping of therapeutic cancer vaccine from 2013 to 2022: A bibliometric and visual analysis

The investigation of therapeutic cancer vaccines has been ongoing for the past century. Herein, we used VOSviewer and CiteSpace to perform the first global bibliometric analysis of the literature on therapeutic cancer vaccines from 2013 to 2022 aiming to explore the current status and potential research trends. The findings revealed a consistent upward trend in both publication counts and citations. The United States emerged as the leading contributor with the highest number of published papers. Additionally, the analysis of references and keywords indicated that therapeutic cancer vaccines have long been popular topics, whereas neoantigen vaccines, mRNA vaccines, combination strategies, and vaccine delivery systems are emerging research hotspots. This bibliometric study provides a comprehensive and important overview of the current knowledge and potential developments in therapeutic cancer vaccines from 2013 to 2022, which may serve as a valuable reference for scholars interested in further exploring this promising field.</p

Real-Time Monitoring of Dissolved Oxygen with Inherent Oxygen-Sensitive Centers in Metal–Organic Frameworks

Despite that they are regarded as the ideal sensory platform, there are still no reports on luminescent metal–organic frameworks (LMOFs) for dissolved oxygen (DO) measurement. Here, we reported the rational construction of a platinum­(II) porphyrinic LMOF, PCN-224­(Pt), as an novel porous matrix for the phosphorescent DO sensing with commercially available Pt­(II) meso-tetra­(4-carboxy­phenyl)­porphyrin as the bridging struts, oxygen-sensitive centers, and luminescent reporters. The newly developed probe featured excellent tolerance to harsh chemical environments, excellent photostability as well as pH-independent luminescence, rationalizing its suitability for DO sensing. Thanks to the homogeneous and well-isolated arrangement of the oxygen-accessible sites in the porous network, PCN-224­(Pt) exhibited reversible phosphorescent response and excellent linear Stern–Volmer quenching behavior toward DO. A real-time analysis of DO during the process of enzyme-catalytic reaction exemplified its potentials in industrial and biological applications with oxygen involved

Classification of the clusters of orthologous groups function classification of distinct proteins that were detected in <i>Paulownia fortunei</i> leaves.

<p>Classification of the clusters of orthologous groups function classification of distinct proteins that were detected in <i>Paulownia fortunei</i> leaves.</p

Increased AQP3 expression suppresses the expression of differentiation markers and induces the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines.

<p>(A) HKCs were infected with retroviruses expressing AQP3 or GFP followed, 72 hours later (differentiating condition), by qRT-PCR and immunoblot analysis of the indicated genes and proteins. The analysis was done as in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0080179#pone-0080179-g001" target="_blank">Figure 1</a>. * p< 0.0001, n=3. (B) HKCs were either reverse transfected with siRNAs against AQP3 or scrambled control and analyzed 96h later (differentiating condition) or infected with retroviruses expressing AQP3 or GFP and analyzed 72 hours later (differentiating condition) by qRT-PCR analysis of the indicated genes. In parallel, differentiating HKCs were treated with DAPT (10μM) or DMSO control for 72 hours followed by qRT-PCR analysis of the indicated genes. The analysis was done as in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0080179#pone-0080179-g001" target="_blank">Figure 1</a>. ** p< 0.01, *** p < 0.001, **** p<0.0001, n=3. </p

One-Pot Synthesis of Mesoporous Silica Nanocarriers with Tunable Particle Sizes and Pendent Carboxylic Groups for Cisplatin Delivery

Mesoporous silica nanocarriers with tunable particle sizes and different loadings of pendent carboxylic groups were successfully prepared by a straightforward and reproducible strategy, in which carboxyethylsilanetriol sodium salt was co-condensed with tetraethoxyorthosilicate to introduce the carboxylic groups. The key in this strategy was to separate the synthesis process into two steps of the nuclei formation and particle growth. The uniform particle size and ordered structure of the synthesized nanocarriers were manifested by several techniques such as XRD, TEM, SEM, and BET. DLS measurement illustrated that nanocarriers could be well suspended in aqueous solution. The integration and content tunability of the carboxylic groups within mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) were verified by FT-IR and ²⁹Si NMR. The inherent carboxylic units on the obtained carboxylic group modified MSNs (MSNs-C) effectively enhanced the capture and tailored the release properties of the anticancer drug of cisplatin. The accumulation of drug in the HeLa cells was greatly enhanced due to the highly efficient platinum uptake efficiency transported by the synthesized nanocarriers. The drug encapsulated in the MSNs-C exhibited a higher antitumor activity than free cisplatin against both MCF-7 and HeLa cells

Primers of quantitative RT-PCR analysis of candidate DAP genes.

<p>Primers of quantitative RT-PCR analysis of candidate DAP genes.</p

Statistics of the functional categories of the DAPs that were detected in <i>P</i>. <i>fortunei</i> leaves.

<p>Statistics of the functional categories of the DAPs that were detected in <i>P</i>. <i>fortunei</i> leaves.</p

Summary of the iTRAQ-based <i>Paulownia fortunei</i> proteome.

<p>(a) Spectra, peptides and proteins that were identified by searching against the <i>Paulownia fortunei</i> transcriptome database; (b) Number of peptides that match proteins using MASCOT; (c) Distribution of the proteins that were identified among different molecular weights; (d) Coverage of the proteins by the identified peptides.</p

Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of <i>Paulownia fortunei</i> candidate proteins.

<p>The 18S rRNA of Paulownia was chosen as an internal reference gene for normalization. CL2476.Contig2: strand cell wall invertase; CL1435.Contig2: chaperonin-60 alpha subunit; Unigene38438: UDP-glucuronate decarboxylase 1; Unigene35182: RSI3; CL6922.Contig2: peroxidase; Unigene14040: stromal 70 kDa; Unigene31115: Photosystem I reaction center subunit II; CL10694.Contig2: 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase.</p