Controllable ingestion and release of guest components driven by interfacial molecular orientation of host liquid crystal droplets

Controllable construction and manipulation of artificial multi-compartmental structures are crucial in understanding and imitating smart molecular elements such as biological cells and on-demand delivery systems. Here, we report a liquid crystal droplet (LCD) based three-dimensional system for controllable and reversible ingestion and release of guest aqueous droplets (GADs). Induced by interfacial thermodynamic fluctuation and internal topological defect, microscale LCDs with perpendicular anchoring condition at the interface would spontaneously ingest external components from the surroundings and transform them as radially assembled tiny GADs inside LCDs. Landau–de Gennes free-energy model is applied to describe and explain the assembly dynamics and morphologies of these tiny GADs, which presents a good agreement with experimental observations. Furthermore, the release of these ingested GADs can be actively triggered by changing the anchoring conditions at the interface of LCDs. Since those ingestion and release processes are controllable and happen very gently at room temperature and neutral pH environment without extra energy input, these microscale LCDs are very prospective to provide a unique and viable route for constructing hierarchical 3D structures with tunable components and compartments

The interfacial engineering of metal electrodes for high-specific-energy and long-lifespan batteries

High-specific-energy batteries with long-lifespan are the development aspiration for energy storage applications. Metal electrodes with high specific capacity and low reduction potential are potential candidates for next-generation high-specific-energy batteries. Nevertheless, the stability of the metal electrode batteries is constantly suffered from the unstable interface issue during the plating/stripping process, such as dendrite formation, dynamic evolution of solid electrolyte interphase, and other accompanied side reactions. To solve these challenges, numerous researches have been intensively studied based on the interfacial engineering of metal electrodes, including electrode configuration optimization, interfacial chemistry regulation and solid–solid interface construction, and the recent progress is elaborately introduced in this paper. Nevertheless, the dendrite issues cannot be entirely prohibited in solid metal electrodes, which motivate the search for potential alternatives. Liquid-metal electrodes with completely reversible structural changes and high mass transfer rate are rendered as an effective approach to solve the dendrite problem. Therefore, the development of liquid metal electrode batteries is reviewed in this paper, in which the interfacial issues are explicated and some commendable achievements are summarized. In the end, the implementation of interfacial engineering and the development roadmap of the metal electrode batteries are prospected

Effects of BIS-MEP on Reversing Amyloid Plaque Deposition and Spatial Learning and Memory Impairments in a Mouse Model of β-Amyloid Peptide- and Ibotenic Acid-Induced Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the main type of dementia and is characterized by progressive memory loss and a notable decrease in cholinergic neuron activity. As classic drugs currently used in the clinic, acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) restore acetylcholine levels and relieve the symptoms of AD, but are insufficient at delaying the onset of AD. Based on the multi-target-directed ligand (MTDL) strategy, bis-(-)-nor-meptazinol (BIS-MEP) was developed as a multi-target AChEI that mainly targets AChE catalysis and the β-amyloid (Aβ) aggregation process. In this study, we bilaterally injected Aβ oligomers and ibotenic acid (IBO) into the hippocampus of ICR mice and then subcutaneously injected mice with BIS-MEP to investigate its therapeutic effects and underlying mechanisms. According to the results from the Morris water maze test, BIS-MEP significantly improved the spatial learning and memory impairments in AD model mice. Compared with the vehicle control, the BIS-MEP treatment obviously inhibited the AChE activity in the mouse brain, consistent with the findings from the behavioral tests. The BIS-MEP treatment also significantly reduced the Aβ plaque area in both the hippocampus and cortex, suggesting that BIS-MEP represents a direct intervention for AD pathology. Additionally, the immunohistochemistry and ELISA results revealed that microglia (ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule 1, IBA1) and astrocyte (Glial fibrillary acidic protein, GFAP) activation and the secretion of relevant inflammatory factors (TNFα and IL-6) induced by Aβ were decreased by the BIS-MEP treatment. Furthermore, BIS-MEP showed more advantages than donepezil (an approved AChEI) as an Aβ intervention. Based on our findings, BIS-MEP improved spatial learning and memory deficits in AD mice by regulating acetylcholinesterase activity, Aβ deposition and the inflammatory response in the brain

Sonocatalytic Optimization of Titanium‐Based Therapeutic Nanomedicine

Abstract Recent considerable technological advances in ultrasound‐based treatment modality provides a magnificent prospect for scientific communities to conquer the related diseases, which is featured with remarkable tissue penetration, non‐invasive and non‐thermal characteristics. As one of the critical elements that influences treatment outcomes, titanium (Ti)‐based sonosensitizers with distinct physicochemical properties and exceptional sonodynamic efficiency have been applied extensively in the field of nanomedical applications. To date, a myriad of methodologies has been designed to manipulate the sonodynamic performance of titanium‐involved nanomedicine and further enhance the productivity of reactive oxygen species for disease treatments. In this comprehensive review, the sonocatalytic optimization of diversified Ti‐based nanoplatforms, including defect engineering, plasmon resonance modulation, heterojunction, modulating tumor microenvironment, as well as the development of synergistic therapeutic modalities is mainly focused. The state‐of‐the‐art Ti‐based nanoplatforms ranging from preparation process to the extensive medical applications are summarized and highlighted, with the goal of elaborating on future research prospects and providing a perspective on the bench‐to‐beside translation of these sonocatalytic optimization tactics. Furthermore, to spur further technological advancements in nanomedicine, the difficulties currently faced and the direction of sonocatalytic optimization of Ti‐based therapeutic nanomedicine are proposed and outlooked

Arbitrary Reduction of MRI Inter-slice Spacing Using Hierarchical Feature Conditional Diffusion

Magnetic resonance (MR) images collected in 2D scanning protocols typically have large inter-slice spacing, resulting in high in-plane resolution but reduced through-plane resolution. Super-resolution techniques can reduce the inter-slice spacing of 2D scanned MR images, facilitating the downstream visual experience and computer-aided diagnosis. However, most existing super-resolution methods are trained at a fixed scaling ratio, which is inconvenient in clinical settings where MR scanning may have varying inter-slice spacings. To solve this issue, we propose Hierarchical Feature Conditional Diffusion (HiFi-Diff)} for arbitrary reduction of MR inter-slice spacing. Given two adjacent MR slices and the relative positional offset, HiFi-Diff can iteratively convert a Gaussian noise map into any desired in-between MR slice. Furthermore, to enable fine-grained conditioning, the Hierarchical Feature Extraction (HiFE) module is proposed to hierarchically extract conditional features and conduct element-wise modulation. Our experimental results on the publicly available HCP-1200 dataset demonstrate the high-fidelity super-resolution capability of HiFi-Diff and its efficacy in enhancing downstream segmentation performance.Comment: not the tim