Antibody-Targeted Immunocarriers for Cancer Treatment

Nanocarrier’s engineering based on fine chemical design and novel structural tailoring can provide practical solution to solve the problems in traditional cancer immunotherapy. Nanoimmunotherapy is thus defined as the application and further development of novel nanocarriers for enhancing immunotherapy. It has become one of the most intriguing fields due to its unique power in treatment and even cure of cancer since reported in last year. Herein, this chapter illustrates the state-of-the-art development in antibody engineering and cancer immunotherapy and gives an explanation why functional nanocarries including micelles and liposomes can be efficient for nanoimmunotherapy. We further illustrate how to promote the nanoimmunotherapy by the chemical design and carrier’s engineering for the first time

Tuning the synthesis of polymetallic-doped ZIF derived materials for efficient hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol

Cu, Co and Zn modified N-doped porous carbons (CuCo/Zn@NPC) are prepared using a polymetallic homogeneous doping and self-templating method as high performance non-noble metal catalysts for the hydrogenation of furfural (FF) to furfuryl alcohol (FAL). The CuCo/Zn@NPC-600 catalyst after treatment at 600 °C shows a superior catalytic activity with nearly 100% conversion of FF and an almost 100% selectivity of FAL using H2 at 140 °C. Meanwhile in the catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) using 2-propanol as a H-donor, the conversion of FF reaches 95.8% and the selectivity of FAL is 99.1%. The results show that the Zn dopant leads to 37.3 times higher yield on the CuCo/Zn@NPC-600 catalyst than that on CuCo@NPC-600, and 2.3 times higher than that on Co/Zn@NPC-600 with Cu dopants. The efficient activity of the CuCo/Zn@NPC-600 catalyst is mainly due to the highly dispersed metal nanoparticles, the advanced porous structure resulting from Zn escape from the precursor template, and the synergistic effect between Cu and Co. Furthermore, the CuCo/Zn@NPC-600 catalyst exhibits good recyclability in FF hydrogenation in four cycle tests. The advanced synthesis method using a homogeneous doping and self-templating strategy sheds light on preparing effective catalysts for hydrogenation of biomass-based compounds

Efficient single-atom Ni for catalytic transfer hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol

The employment of single-atom catalysts in the catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) of furfural (FF) to furfuryl alcohol (FAL) have never been effectively explored. Herein, Ni single-atoms supported on nitrogen doped carbon (Ni-SAs/NC) catalyst is synthesized and first ever utilized in CTH of FF to FAL. Atomically dispersed Ni-N4 sites change the electron density at the metal center and exhibit specific adsorption and desorption to FF and FAL, promoting an outstanding catalytic performance with turnover frequency (TOF) of 832 h-1 and selectivity as high as 97.1 at 130 oC for 2 h. Such performance is 9-fold higher than that of supported Ni nanocatalysts. The Ni-SAs/NC catalyst also exhibits superior stability for CTH of FF and excellent catalytic activity for other α,β-unsaturated aldehydes. This work provides a new strategy of producing green chemical compounds using catalytic biomass conversion and suggests the future application of long-lasting single-atom catalysts for emerging sustainable technologies

Overexpression of GhSWEET42, a SWEET-like gene from cotton, enhances the oil content and seed size

AbstractSWEET (‘sugars will eventually be exported transporters’) family genes reportedly play a critical role in sugar translocation and oil biosynthesis in various plant species. However, their functions in cotton are unknown. The present study demonstrated that while GhSWEET42 was widely expressed in different cotton tissues, it had the highest expression level in the developing ovules. Hence, it performs a vital role in seed development. We constructed GhSWEET42 transgenic Arabidopsis lines to verify the biological function of this gene and found that the oil content and weight of the seeds produced by the overexpression lines were 18–23% and 19–20% higher, respectively than those of the wild-type. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis revealed that it was mainly a relative increase in unsaturated fatty acids (FAs) that contributed to the relative increase in oil content in the transgenic seeds. Moreover, the latter exhibited comparative upregulation of certain genes associated with FA and triacylglycerol biosynthesis as well as cell expansion. GhSWEET42 might work synergistically with the aforementioned genes. This finding indicates that GhSWEET42 may be essential in oil biosynthesis and seed development in cotton. The results of the present work may facilitate further explorations into the molecular mechanism of cottonseed oil biosynthesis as well as the cultivation of novel oil-rich cotton varieties

Systematic identification and characterization of the soybean (Glycine max) B-box transcription factor family

AbstractIn plants, the B-box (BBX) transcription factors (TFs) are a subfamily of zinc-finger TFs that act to regulate diverse plant growth and development processes. The BBX TFs have been the subject of considerable attention, and are well characterized in diverse plant species, including in rice (Oryza sativa) and Arabidopsis thaliana, but less so in the economically important soybean (Glycine max). In this work, we systematically identified and characterized 57 soybean BBX genes (GmBBX1 to GmBBX57). These genes were mapped to all 20 soybean chromosomes and were divided into five clades with high intra-clade intron–exon similarity. The majority of GmBBX gene promoter cis-acting elements were responsive to light, abscisic acid, salicylic acid and methyl jasmonate, as well as a diverse array of other stimuli. Quantitative RT-PCR indicated that several GmBBX genes exhibited tissue-specific and phytohormone- and abiotic stress-responsiveness. The results of this study will be useful in the continued characterization of soybean BBX gene functions and provide new ideas for soybean breeding

PbS Quantum-Dot Depleted Heterojunction Solar Cells Employing CdS Nanorod Arrays as the Electron Acceptor with Enhanced Efficiency

Depleted heterojunction (DH) solar cells have shown great potential in power conversion. A 3-D DH structure was first designed and fabricated through a layer-by-layer spin-coating technique to increase the interfacial contact of p-type PbS quantum dots (QDs) and n-type CdS nanorod arrays. As a result, a decent power conversion efficiency of 4.78% in this structure was achieved, which is five times the efficiency of a planar heterojunction structure of a similar thickness. In the 3-D DH structure, n-type CdS nanorod arrays (NRs) were grown vertically as electron acceptors, on which p-type PbS quantum dots were deposited as absorbing materials in a layer-by-layer spin-coating fashion. The results are discussed in view of effective transportation of electrons through CdS NRs than the hopping transportation in large nanoparticle-based CdS film, the enlarged interfacial area, and shortened carrier diffusion distance

Mastocarcinoma therapy synergistically promoted by lysosome dependent apoptosis specifically evoked by 5-Fu@nanogel system with passive targeting and pH activatable dual function

This manuscript describes a synergistic therapy for mastocarcinoma by pH and temperature dual-sensitive nanogel, and effects of microstructure, composition and properties of nanogel on the cellular response mechanism. The extracellular internalization of nanogels was obviously enhanced, due to the passive targeting function at T > VPTT. Interestingly, the increased cytotoxicity was further synergistically enhanced by an unexpected apoptosis as evoked by the 5-fluorouracil loaded nanogel (FLNG). The systemically evaluation of the effectors generated from different sub-cellular organelles including endosome, lysosome, autophagosome confirmed that it was a lysomal dependent apoptosis. Such specific apoptosis was mainly attributed to its activatable protonated PEI at low pH, which caused lysosomal membrane destruction and lysosomal enzyme cathepsin B (Cat B) leakage. This Cat B was then translocated to the mitochondria resulting in mitochondrial membrane permeability increase and mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) decrease, followed by cytochrome c (Cyt C) release. Cyt C was the main molecule that evoked apoptosis as reflected by overexpression of caspase 9. Additionally, such lysosome dependent, apoptosis was further enhanced by the passive cellular targeting at T > VPTT. Thus, the tumor growth inhibition was synergistically enhanced by the extracellular temperature dependent passive targeting and intracellular pH activatable lysosomal dependent apoptosis.This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China including the project (31470964, 81171450, 81302363). This work was financially supported by Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2012CB934002,2012AA02A304). Prof. Teruo Okano should be appreciated to his professional advice on the thermosensitive materialsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio