Biological Photothermal Nanodots Based on Self-Assembly of Peptide–Porphyrin Conjugates for Antitumor Therapy

Photothermal agents can harvest light energy and convert it into heat, offering a targeted and remote-controlled way to destroy carcinomatous cells and tissues. Inspired by the biological organization of polypeptides and porphyrins in living systems, here we have developed a supramolecular strategy to fabricate photothermal nanodots through peptide-modulated self-assembly of photoactive porphyrins. The self-assembling nature of porphyrins induces the formation of J-aggregates as substructures of the nanodots, and thus enables the fabrication of nanodots with totally inhibited fluorescence emission and singlet oxygen production, leading to a high light-to-heat conversion efficiency of the nanodots. The peptide moieties not only provide aqueous stability for the nanodots through hydrophilic interactions, but also provide a spatial barrier between porphyrin groups to inhibit the further growth of nanodots through the strong π-stacking interactions. Thermographic imaging reveals that the conversion of light to heat based on the nanodots is efficient in vitro and in vivo, enabling the nanodots to be applied for photothermal acoustic imaging and antitumor therapy. Antitumor therapy results show that these nanodots are highly biocompatible photothermal agents for tumor ablation, demonstrating the feasibility of using bioinspired nanostructures of self-assembling biomaterials for biomedical photoactive applications

Targeted pH-Activated Peptide-Based Nanomaterials for Combined Photodynamic Therapy with Immunotherapy

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has demonstrated efficacy in eliminating local tumors, yet its effectiveness against metastasis is constrained. While immunotherapy has exhibited promise in a clinical context, its capacity to elicit significant systemic antitumor responses across diverse cancers is often limited by the insufficient activation of the host immune system. Consequently, the combination of PDT and immunotherapy has garnered considerable attention. In this study, we developed pH-responsive porphyrin-peptide nanosheets with tumor-targeting capabilities (PRGD) that were loaded with the IDO inhibitor NLG919 for a dual application involving PDT and immunotherapy (PRGD/NLG919). In vitro experiments revealed the heightened cellular uptake of PRGD/NLG919 nanosheets in tumor cells overexpressing αvβ3 integrins. The pH-responsive PRGD/NLG919 nanosheets demonstrated remarkable singlet oxygen generation and photocytotoxicity in HeLa cells in an acidic tumor microenvironment. When treating HeLa cells with PRGD/NLG919 nanosheets followed by laser irradiation, a more robust adaptive immune response occurred, leading to a substantial proliferation of CD3+CD8+ T cells and CD3+CD4+ T cells compared to control groups. Our pH-responsive targeted PRGD/NLG919 nanosheets therefore represent a promising nanosystem for combination therapy, offering effective PDT and an enhanced host immune response

Additional file 1: of Effectiveness of an app-based intervention for unintentional injury among caregivers of preschoolers: protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial

SPIRIT 2013 Checklist: Recommended Items to Address in a Clinical Trial Protocol and Related Documents. (DOC 88 kb

Additional file 2: of Effectiveness of an app-based intervention for unintentional injury among caregivers of preschoolers: protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial

Homepage of app intervention (English version). Note: This version is translated from the original Chinese version (Fig. 3). (PDF 2445 kb

Enhanced Performance of InGaN Light-Emitting Diodes via High-Quality GaN and Embedded Air Voids Grown on Hexagonal 3D Serpentine Mask Sapphire Substrates

This work demonstrates high-efficiency InGaN-based light-emitting diodes (HSM-LEDs) prepared on hexagonal 3D serpentine sapphire substrates. The 3D serpentine mask has a modulating effect on epitaxial lateral growth (ELOG), which can not only reduce the dislocation density (TDD) to 1.7 × 107 cm–2 without any high dislocation density (HDD) region but also induce the formation of a hexagonal pyramidal air-void array with an inclination angle of 65°. Compared to conventional LEDs, HSM-LEDs exhibit a 117% enhancement in EL output power at a current injection of 600 mA. This can be attributed to the improvement of crystal quality by modulated ELOG, the relief of in-plane stresses to mitigate the quantum-confined Stark effect (QCSE) through the weak connection of the epitaxial layer to the substrate, and the enhanced light extraction efficiency by an embedded air-void array. We confirmed the reduction of compressive stress from 0.94 GPa to 0.51 GPa in HSM-LEDs by Raman spectroscopy and investigated the effect of air voids on light extraction efficiency (LEE) experimentally and theoretically. Ray-tracing simulations show that the embedded pyramidal air voids can effectively re-extract the downward emitted light, and the pyramidal air voids with a 65° slant sidewall can improve the LEE by 71%