Coteheide8579

Finally, we highlight the versatility of the present approach to engineer multifaceted interfaces for catalysis and sensing applications.Different from previous modeling of self-propelled particles, we develop a method to propel particles with a constant average velocity instead of a constant force. This constant propulsion velocity (CPV) approach is validated by its agreement with the conventional constant propulsion force (CPF) approach in the flowing regime. However, the CPV approach shows its advantage of accessing quasistatic flows of yield stress fluids with a vanishing propulsion velocity, while the CPF approach is usually unable to because of finite system size. Taking this advantage, we realize cyclic self-propulsion and study the evolution of the propulsion force with the propelled particle displacement, both in the quasistatic flow regime. By mapping the shear stress and shear rate to the propulsion force and propulsion velocity, we find similar rheological behaviors of self-propelled systems to sheared systems, including the yield force gap between the CPF and CPV approaches, propulsion force overshoot, reversible-irreversible transition under cyclic propulsion, and propulsion bands in plastic flows. These similarities suggest underlying connections between self-propulsion and shear, although they act on systems in different ways.Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has received increasing attention in disease treatment due to its minimally-invasive, selective destruction with a combination of a photosensitizer (PS), light, and oxygen. However, the limited cytotoxic singlet oxygen (1O2) generation and thin tissue penetrability have been two major barriers in conventional PDT, hindering its further development and clinical use. Recently, fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based drug delivery systems (FRET-DDSs), indirectly activating PS drugs by a donor fluorophore, have been successfully applied to alleviate these issues. TASIN-30 purchase The transfer of excitation energy from donors to PS drugs can significantly boost its light harvesting and extend the field of the light source, which dramatically improves its production efficiency of 1O2, thus leading to highly efficient and deep-tissue-penetrable PDT for the treatment of bacteria, cancer and other diseases. In this Review, we give the first-known overview of recent advances in FRET-DDSs for enhanced PDT. In particular, dependent on the excitation energy mechanism in the FRET process, six major types of FRET-DDSs, including one-photon, two-photon, upconversion, auto-fluorescence, X-ray, and Cerenkov excited FRET-DDSs, in PDT applications are summarized in detail. Furthermore, future research directions and perspectives in this emerging field are also discussed.The scheduled delivery of synergistic drug combinations is increasingly recognized as highly effective against advanced solid tumors. Of particular interest are composite systems that release a sequence of drugs with defined kinetics and molar ratios to enhance therapeutic effect, while minimizing the dose to patients. In this work, we developed a homogeneous composite comprising modified graphene oxide (GO) nanoparticles embedded in a Max8 peptide hydrogel, which provides controlled kinetics and molar ratios of release of doxorubicin (DOX) and gemcitabine (GEM). First, modified GO nanoparticles (tGO) were designed to afford high DOX loading and sustained release (18.9% over 72 h and 31.4% over 4 weeks). Molecular dynamics simulations were utilized to model the mechanism of DOX loading as a function of surface modification. In parallel, a Max8 hydrogel was developed to release GEM with faster kinetics and achieve a 10-fold molar ratio to DOX. The selected DOX/tGO nanoparticles were suspended in a GEM/Max8 hydrogel matrix, and the resulting composite was tested against a triple negative breast cancer cell line, MDA-MB-231. Notably, the composite formulation afforded a combination index of 0.093 ± 0.001, indicating a much stronger synergism compared to the DOX-GEM combination co-administered in solution (CI = 0.396 ± 0.034).Correction for 'Multi-scale microporous silica microcapsules from gas-in water-in oil emulsions' by Zenon Toprakcioglu et al., Soft Matter, 2020, DOI 10.1039/c9sm02274k.The synthesis of the invariant natural killer (iNK) T cell agonist β-mannosylceramide along with a series of fatty amide analogues is reported. Of the six β-glycosylation protocols investigated, the sulfoxide methodology developed by Crich and co-workers proved to be the most effective where the reaction of a mannosyl sulfoxide and phytosphingosine derivative gave a key glycolipid intermediate as a 95  5 mixture of β- to α-anomers in high yield. A series of mannosyl ceramides were evaluated for their ability to activate D32.D3 NKT cells and induce antitumour activity.A synthetic biology approach based on genome mining and heterologous biosynthesis is a powerful tool for discovering novel natural products from a tremendous gene resource. We carried out fungal genome mining guided by a polyketide synthase gene using a public database and found a putative macrolide biosynthetic gene cluster with a highly reducing polyketide synthase gene and a thioesterase gene in Macrophomina phaseolina. Reconstitution of the cluster in Aspergillus oryzae, a model heterologous host for fungal natural product biosynthesis, produced a new 12-membered macrolide, phaseolide A. The absolute stereochemistry was elucidated by vibrational circular dichroism spectroscopy and the crystalline sponge method.It is important to maintain the balance between therapeutic efficiency and cytotoxicity when using nanomaterials for biomedical applications. Here, we propose a new method (i.e., non-covalent coating of protected copolymers onto the nanoparticle surface) to enhance the active targeting of nanoparticles to the cancer cells by combining the dissipative particle dynamics simulation and in vitro experiments. When coating the protected copolymer onto the nanoparticle surface, the uptake efficiency could be greatly altered due to the competition between the copolymer-ligand interaction and the receptor-ligand interaction-the non-covalent coating is more efficient than the covalent coating. Furthermore, the effect of the physicochemical properties of the protected copolymer on the targeting ability of nanoparticles was also investigated. This study offers useful insight into the optimal design of nanocarriers in biomedicine.