Engineered Stealth Porous Silicon Nanoparticles via Surface Encapsulation of Bovine Serum Albumin for Prolonging Blood Circulation in Vivo

Luminescent porous silicon nanoparticles (PSiNPs) have been widely used as drug delivery. However, fast biodegradation and short blood circulation have been major challenges for their biomedical applications. Herein, bovine serum albumin was readily encapsulated onto alkyl-terminated PSiNPs surfaces via hydrophobic interaction, which could significantly improve their water-dispersibility and long-term stability under physiological conditions. Furthermore, compared with PSiNPs alone, PSiNPs coated with bovine serum albumin remarkably reduced nonspecific cellular uptake in vitro and prolonged blood circulation in vivo

Multifunctional Chitosan/Porous Silicon@Au Nanocomposite Hydrogels for Long-Term and Repeatedly Localized Combinatorial Therapy of Cancer via a Single Injection

Considering the future clinical applications of localized cancer therapy, it is of great importance to construct injectable biodegradable nanocomposite hydrogels with combinatorial therapeutic efficacy. Here, porous silicon nanoparticles (PSiNPs) as host matrix were chosen to fabricate PSiNPs@Au nanocomposites via in situ reductive synthesis of gold nanoparticles. Then PSiNPs@Au nanocomposites were further incorporated into thermosensitive chitosan (CS) hydrogels to construct CS/PSiNPs@Au nanocomposite hydrogels, which showed in situ gelation at physiological temperature, excellent biodegradability, and biocompatibility. Especially with the encapsulation of CS hydrogels, PSiNPs@Au nanocomposites had a long-term stable photothermal effect with higher local temperature under near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation, whether in vitro or in vivo. Besides, assisted by NIR laser irradiation, CS/PSiNPs@Au nanocomposite hydrogels exhibited a long-term sustained release of anticancer drugs (doxorubicin hydrochloride, DOX) in acidic tumor environments. Finally, DOX/CS/PSiNPs@Au precursors were administrated into tumor-bearing mice via a single intratumoral injection, which presented a significant synergistic chemo-photothermal therapeutic efficacy under repeated NIR laser irradiation during long-term cancer treatments. Accordingly, we developed a novel strategy to prepare multifunctional CS/PSiNPs@Au nanocomposite hydrogels and also demonstrated their potential applications in localized cancer therapy in future clinics

Additional file 1 of Phytosulfokine contributes to suspension culture of Cunninghamia lanceolata through its impact on redox homeostasis

Additional file 1. Table S1. Data statistics of RNA-seq data. Table S2. Length distribution of assembled transcripts and unigenes. Table S3. BUSCO assessment for transcript assembly completeness

UPGMA dendrogram based on <i>D</i>_S values of eight <i>L</i>.<i>regale</i> populations.

<p>UPGMA dendrogram based on <i>D</i>_S values of eight <i>L</i>.<i>regale</i> populations.</p

The relationship between Δ<i>K</i> and <i>K</i>as revealed by Structure Harvester.

<p>The highest peak was at <i>K</i> = 3.</p

Bayesian model-based clustering (STRUCTURE)[60] of <i>L</i>. <i>regale</i> individuals (optimal value of <i>K</i> = 3).

<p>. YMF,2.FHB,3.SDG,4.SEG,5.XV,6.TF,7.WZT,8.SP. Blue: Group-I; red: Group-II; green: Group-III.</p

Assigned distribution of unigenes.

<p>E value (A, B), similarity (C, D), and species (E) distributions using results from the Nr (A, C, E) and Swiss-Prot (B, D, E) databases. All unigenes were blasted with a cut-off E value of 1E⁻⁵.</p

Number of identical miRNA members in each family in hybrid yellow poplar.

<p>Number of identical miRNA members in each family in hybrid yellow poplar.</p

Deep Sequencing and Microarray Hybridization Identify Conserved and Species-Specific MicroRNAs during Somatic Embryogenesis in Hybrid Yellow Poplar

<div><h3>Background</h3><p>To date, several studies have indicated a major role for microRNAs (miRNAs) in regulating plant development, but miRNA-mediated regulation of the developing somatic embryo is poorly understood, especially during early stages of somatic embryogenesis in hardwood plants. In this study, Solexa sequencing and miRNA microfluidic chips were used to discover conserved and species-specific miRNAs during somatic embryogenesis of hybrid yellow poplar (<em>Liriodendron tulipifera</em>×<em>L. chinense</em>).</p> <h3>Methodology/Principal Findings</h3><p>A total of 17,214,153 reads representing 7,421,623 distinct sequences were obtained from a short RNA library generated from small RNAs extracted from all stages of somatic embryos. Through a combination of deep sequencing and bioinformatic analyses, we discovered 83 sequences with perfect matches to known miRNAs from 33 conserved miRNA families and 273 species-specific candidate miRNAs. MicroRNA microarray results demonstrated that many conserved and species-specific miRNAs were expressed in hybrid yellow poplar embryos. In addition, the microarray also detected another 149 potential miRNAs, belonging to 29 conserved families, which were not discovered by deep sequencing analysis. The biological processes and molecular functions of the targets of these miRNAs were predicted by carrying out BLAST search against <em>Arabidopsis thaliana</em> GenBank sequences and then analyzing the results with Gene Ontology.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3><p>Solexa sequencing and microarray hybridization were used to discover 232 candidate conserved miRNAs from 61 miRNA families and 273 candidate species-specific miRNAs in hybrid yellow poplar. In these predicted miRNAs, 64 conserved miRNAs and 177 species-specific miRNAs were detected by both sequencing and microarray hybridization. Our results suggest that miRNAs have wide-ranging characteristics and important roles during all stages of somatic embryogenesis in this economically important species.</p> </div

Locations and sample sizes of 8 populations of <i>L</i>. <i>regale</i> used in the present study.

<p>Locations and sample sizes of 8 populations of <i>L</i>. <i>regale</i> used in the present study.</p