Interaction of High Temperature Stress and <i>Wolbachia</i> Infection on the Biological Characteristic of <i>Drosophila melanogaster</i>

It was reported that temperature affects the distribution of Wolbachia in the host, but only a few papers reported the effect of the interaction between high temperature and Wolbachia on the biological characteristic of the host. Here, we set four treatment Drosophila melanogaster groups: Wolbachia-infected flies in 25 °C (W+M), Wolbachia-infected flies in 31 °C (W+H), Wolbachia-uninfected flies in 25 °C (W-M), Wolbachia-uninfected flies in 31 °C (W-H), and detected the interaction effect of temperature and Wolbachia infection on the biological characteristic of D. melanogaster in F1, F2 and F3 generations. We found that both temperature and Wolbachia infection had significant effects on the development and survival rate of D. melanogaster. High temperature and Wolbachia infection had interaction effect on hatching rate, developmental durations, emergence rate, body weight and body length of F1, F2 and F3 flies, and the interaction effect also existed on oviposition amount of F3 flies, and on pupation rate of F2 and F3 flies. High temperature stress reduced the Wolbachia vertical transmission efficiency between generations. These results indicated that high temperature stress and Wolbachia infection had negative effects on the morphological development of D. melanogaster

Carbon Dots/Prussian Blue Satellite/Core Nanocomposites for Optical Imaging and Photothermal Therapy

Integration of optical imaging modality with photothermal therapy (PTT) for simultaneously providing oncotherapy and bioimaging enables an optimized therapeutic efficacy and higher treatment accuracy and therefore has emerged as a prospective cancer treatment. However, it remains challenging to develop biocompatible PTT nanoagents capable of imaging, monitoring, and diagnosis. Carbon dots (CDs) possess unique photoluminescent (PL) properties and intrinsic biocompatibility; while Prussian blue nanoparticles (PBNPs) are nontoxic with efficient photothermal conversion capacity for PTT. Herein, a simple, cost-effective, and environmentally benign method was developed to strategically fabricate CD-decorated PBNP (CDs/PBNP) nanocomposites with satellite/core structure. The CDs/PBNPs possess distinct green PL emission and near-infrared photoabsorption with high efficiency and photothermal stability. In vitro and in vivo toxicity tests prove the biocompatibility of the CDs/PBNPs. Moreover, the applicability of CDs/PBNPs as nanotheranostic agents was tested, which suggests that CDs/PBNPs possess promising imaging and effective tumor ablation properties