2D-nanomaterials for AKI treatment

Acute kidney injury has always been considered a sword of Damocles over hospitalized patients and has received increasing attention due to its high morbidity, elevated mortality, and poor prognosis. Hence, AKI has a serious detrimental impact not only on the patients, but also on the whole society and the associated health insurance systems. Redox imbalance caused by bursts of reactive oxygen species at the renal tubules is the key cause of the structural and functional impairment of the kidney during AKI. Unfortunately, the failure of conventional antioxidant drugs complicates the clinical management of AKI, which is limited to mild supportive therapies. Nanotechnology-mediated antioxidant therapies represent a promising strategy for AKI management. In recent years, two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials, a new subtype of nanomaterials with ultrathin layer structure, have shown significant advantages in AKI therapy owing to their ultrathin structure, large specific surface area, and unique kidney targeting. Herein, we review recent progress in the development of various 2D nanomaterials for AKI therapy, including DNA origami, germanene, and MXene; moreover, we discuss current opportunities and future challenges in the field, aiming to provide new insights and theoretical support for the development of novel 2D nanomaterials for AKI treatment

Potential of Core-Collapse Supernova Neutrino Detection at JUNO

JUNO is an underground neutrino observatory under construction in Jiangmen, China. It uses 20kton liquid scintillator as target, which enables it to detect supernova burst neutrinos of a large statistics for the next galactic core-collapse supernova (CCSN) and also pre-supernova neutrinos from the nearby CCSN progenitors. All flavors of supernova burst neutrinos can be detected by JUNO via several interaction channels, including inverse beta decay, elastic scattering on electron and proton, interactions on C12 nuclei, etc. This retains the possibility for JUNO to reconstruct the energy spectra of supernova burst neutrinos of all flavors. The real time monitoring systems based on FPGA and DAQ are under development in JUNO, which allow prompt alert and trigger-less data acquisition of CCSN events. The alert performances of both monitoring systems have been thoroughly studied using simulations. Moreover, once a CCSN is tagged, the system can give fast characterizations, such as directionality and light curve

Detection of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background with JUNO

As an underground multi-purpose neutrino detector with 20 kton liquid scintillator, Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is competitive with and complementary to the water-Cherenkov detectors on the search for the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB). Typical supernova models predict 2-4 events per year within the optimal observation window in the JUNO detector. The dominant background is from the neutral-current (NC) interaction of atmospheric neutrinos with 12C nuclei, which surpasses the DSNB by more than one order of magnitude. We evaluated the systematic uncertainty of NC background from the spread of a variety of data-driven models and further developed a method to determine NC background within 15\% with {\it{in}} {\it{situ}} measurements after ten years of running. Besides, the NC-like backgrounds can be effectively suppressed by the intrinsic pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) capabilities of liquid scintillators. In this talk, I will present in detail the improvements on NC background uncertainty evaluation, PSD discriminator development, and finally, the potential of DSNB sensitivity in JUNO

Real-time Monitoring for the Next Core-Collapse Supernova in JUNO

Core-collapse supernova (CCSN) is one of the most energetic astrophysical events in the Universe. The early and prompt detection of neutrinos before (pre-SN) and during the SN burst is a unique opportunity to realize the multi-messenger observation of the CCSN events. In this work, we describe the monitoring concept and present the sensitivity of the system to the pre-SN and SN neutrinos at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), which is a 20 kton liquid scintillator detector under construction in South China. The real-time monitoring system is designed with both the prompt monitors on the electronic board and online monitors at the data acquisition stage, in order to ensure both the alert speed and alert coverage of progenitor stars. By assuming a false alert rate of 1 per year, this monitoring system can be sensitive to the pre-SN neutrinos up to the distance of about 1.6 (0.9) kpc and SN neutrinos up to about 370 (360) kpc for a progenitor mass of 30$M_{\odot}$ for the case of normal (inverted) mass ordering. The pointing ability of the CCSN is evaluated by using the accumulated event anisotropy of the inverse beta decay interactions from pre-SN or SN neutrinos, which, along with the early alert, can play important roles for the followup multi-messenger observations of the next Galactic or nearby extragalactic CCSN.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

MoS2-based nanocomposites for cancer diagnosis and therapy

Molybdenum is a trace dietary element necessary for the survival of humans. Some molybdenum-bearing enzymes are involved in key metabolic activities in the human body (such as xanthine oxidase, aldehyde oxidase and sulfite oxidase). Many molybdenum-based compounds have been widely used in biomedical research. Especially, MoS2-nanomaterials have attracted more attention in cancer diagnosis and treatment recently because of their unique physical and chemical properties. MoS2 can adsorb various biomolecules and drug molecules via covalent or non-covalent interactions because it is easy to modify and possess a high specific surface area, improving its tumor targeting and colloidal stability, as well as accuracy and sensitivity for detecting specific biomarkers. At the same time, in the near-infrared (NIR) window, MoS2 has excellent optical absorption and prominent photothermal conversion efficiency, which can achieve NIR-based phototherapy and NIR-responsive controlled drug-release. Significantly, the modified MoS2-nanocomposite can specifically respond to the tumor microenvironment, leading to drug accumulation in the tumor site increased, reducing its side effects on non-cancerous tissues, and improved therapeutic effect. In this review, we introduced the latest developments of MoS2-nanocomposites in cancer diagnosis and therapy, mainly focusing on biosensors, bioimaging, chemotherapy, phototherapy, microwave hyperthermia, and combination therapy. Furthermore, we also discuss the current challenges and prospects of MoS2-nanocomposites in cancer treatment

Nanodrugs alleviate acute kidney injury: Manipulate RONS at kidney

Currently, there are no clinical drugs available to treat acute kidney injury (AKI). Given the high prevalence and high mortality rate of AKI, the development of drugs to effectively treat AKI is a huge unmet medical need and a research hotspot. Although existing evidence fully demonstrates that reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) burst at the AKI site is a major contributor to AKI progression, the heterogeneity, complexity, and unique physiological structure of the kidney make most antioxidant and anti-inflammatory small molecule drugs ineffective because of the lack of kidney targeting and side effects. Recently, nanodrugs with intrinsic kidney targeting through the control of size, shape, and surface properties have opened exciting prospects for the treatment of AKI. Many antioxidant nanodrugs have emerged to address the limitations of current AKI treatments. In this review, we systematically summarized for the first time about the emerging nanodrugs that exploit the pathological and physiological features of the kidney to overcome the limitations of traditional small-molecule drugs to achieve high AKI efficacy. First, we analyzed the pathological structural characteristics of AKI and the main pathological mechanism of AKI: hypoxia, harmful substance accumulation-induced RONS burst at the renal site despite the multifactorial initiation and heterogeneity of AKI. Subsequently, we introduced the strategies used to improve renal targeting and reviewed advances of nanodrugs for AKI: nano-RONS-sacrificial agents, antioxidant nanozymes, and nanocarriers for antioxidants and anti-inflammatory drugs. These nanodrugs have demonstrated excellent therapeutic effects, such as greatly reducing oxidative stress damage, restoring renal function, and low side effects. Finally, we discussed the challenges and future directions for translating nanodrugs into clinical AKI treatment

Image2_Epigallocatechin-3-gallate Mo nanoparticles (EGM NPs) efficiently treat liver injury by strongly reducing oxidative stress, inflammation and endoplasmic reticulum stress.jpg

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a serious clinical disease associated with reactive oxygen species (ROS) burst and subsequent inflammatory responses. However, traditional treatments were limited by low efficacy and serious side effects due to the special liver structure. Here, we developed a molybdenum (Mo)-based nanoparticles, EGM NPs, after overall consideration of the pathophysiology of DILI and the advantages of nanodrugs. It demonstrated that EGM NPs treated acetaminophen (APAP)-induced DILI by scavenging ROS and inhibiting inflammation. EGM NPs effectively scavenged various ROS and reduced cell apoptosis at the cellular level. More importantly, EGM NPs can treat APAP-induced DILI in vivo, reducing the levels of liver function indicators in mice with liver injury, scaling down the area of hepatocyte necrosis and successfully inhibiting endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in the liver. EGM NPs also showed a certain anti-inflammatory effect by reducing infiltration of macrophages, decreasing pro-inflammatory factors and inhibiting the expression levels of inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS2) and myeloperoxidase (MPO). Collectively, our findings suggest that EGM NPs-based nanotherapeutic is a novel strategy for the treatment of DILI.</p

Boosting CO₂ Conversion by Synergy of Lead-Free Perovskite Cs₂SnCl₆ and Plasma with H₂O

Although dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma is a promising technique for CO2 conversion, realizing CO2-to-alcohol is still challenging via the use of H2O. Herein, for the first time, efficient CO2 conversion was achieved via the synergism between the Cs2SnCl6 photocatalyst and DBD plasma assisted by H2O. The CO2 conversion ratio of plasma photocatalysis was 6.5% higher than that of only the plasma and photocatalysis, implying that the synergism of plasma catalysis and photocatalysis was achieved. Furthermore, the DBD plasma assisted by the Cs2SnCl6 photocatalyst could convert CO2 and H2O to CO and a small amount of methanol and ethanol. The CO2 conversion ratio was enhanced by 50.6% in the presence of H2O, which was attributed to the improvement of charge transfer due to the increased electrical conductivity of the photocatalyst surface during plasma discharge. This work provides a new idea for developing an efficient system for CO2 utilization