Self-Assembled Lenalidomide/AIE Prodrug Nanobomb for Tumor Imaging and Cancer Therapy

To develop multifunctional small-molecule prodrugs is highly desirable for cancer treatment but remains challenging in intrinsic traceability. As an acid-cleavable linkage, a Schiff bases benefiting from its distinctive fluorescence quenching ability was selected to prepare a small-molecule prodrug with cancer-targeted and self-indicating. In this study, we designed and developed a multifunctional self-assembled nanobomb of amphiphilic TPE-Lenalidomide prodrug, which comprises a hydrophobic aggregation-induced emission (AIE) probe 4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)benzaldehyde (TPE-CHO) and a hydrophilic anticancer drug Lenalidomide via a Schiff base linkage. We investigated the synergistic effect of d-PET and C═N isomerization which would keep the fluorescence of TPE-Lenalidomide in the “always off” state by density functional theory (DFT) calculation. Once reaching the pathological site, such a vesicular nanobomb of TPE-Lenalidomide will be acidolyzed to release the AIE probe and Lenalidomide molecules simultaneously, consequently realizing high-efficiency effects of tumor imaging and cancer therapy (cell viability: normal cell L929, ∼79.49%; cancer cell 4T1, ∼27.08%; p = 0.000118). This work may pave an avenue to prepare small-molecule prodrugs for tumor-targeted diagnosis and cancer therapy.Bio-Electronic

Carbon-Iron Electron Transport Channels in Porphyrin–Graphene Complex for ppb-Level Room Temperature NO Gas Sensing

It is a great challenge to develop efficient room-temperature sensing materials and sensors for nitric oxide (NO) gas, which is a biomarker molecule used in the monitoring of inflammatory respiratory diseases. Herein, Hemin (Fe (III)-protoporphyrin IX) is introduced into the nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide (N-rGO) to obtain a novel sensing material HNG-ethanol. Detailed XPS spectra and DFT calculations confirm the formation of carbon–iron bonds in HNG-ethanol during synthesis process, which act as electron transport channels from graphene to Hemin. Owing to this unique chemical structure, HNG-ethanol exhibits superior gas sensing properties toward NO gas (Ra/Rg = 3.05, 20 ppm) with a practical limit of detection (LOD) of 500 ppb and reliable repeatability (over 5 cycles). The HNG-ethanol sensor also possesses high selectivity against other exhaled gases, high humidity resistance, and stability (less than 3% decrease over 30 days). In addition, a deep understanding of the gas sensing mechanisms is proposed for the first time in this work, which is instructive to the community for fabricating sensing materials based on graphene-iron derivatives in the future.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Bio-Electronic