An ascorbic acid-decorated nanostructured surface on titanium inhibits breast cancer development and promotes osteogenesis.

The chest wall is the most frequent metastatic site of breast cancer (BC) and the metastasis usually occurs in a solitary setting. Chest wall resection is a way to treat solitary BC metastasis, but intraoperative bone defects and local tumor recurrence still affect the life quality of patients. Titanium-based prostheses are widely used for chest wall repair and reconstruction, but their inherent bio-inertness makes their clinical performance unfavorable. Nanostructured surfaces can give titanium substrates the ability to excellently modulate a variety of cellular functions. Ascorbic acid is a potential stimulator of tumor suppression and osteogenic differentiation. An ascorbic acid-decorated nanostructured titanium surface was prepared through alkali treatment and spin-coating technique and its effects on the biological responses of BC cells and osteoblasts were assessed. The results exhibited that the nanorod structure and ascorbic acid synergistically inhibited the proliferation, spreading, and migration of BC cells. Additionally, the ascorbic acid-decorated nanostructured surface significantly promoted the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of osteoblasts. This work may provide valuable references for the clinical application of titanium materials in chest wall reconstruction after the resection of metastatic BC.

Multifunctional mesoporous silica nanoparticles for pH-response and photothermy enhanced osteosarcoma therapy.

The recurrence and bone defect of malignant osteosarcoma postsurgical treatment have gained remarkable attention. Therefore, the development of multifunctional treatment platform is urgently desirable to achieve efficient tumor treatment and bone regeneration. In this paper, a multifunctional nanomaterial using mesoporous silica (MSN) as platform modified with quercetin (Qr), collagen (Col) and dopamine (PDA) was developed. Our findings demonstrated that the nanoparticles designed in this work had excellent photothermal properties and pH responsiveness. In addition, the nanoparticles had outstanding anti-tumor ability and could killed Saos-2 cells within 10 min under 808 nm laser irradiation owing to the synergistic effect of hyperthermia and Qr. Besides, the modification of PDA and Col endows the nanoparticles with excellent osteogenic activity.

Therapeutic Targeting of Cancer: Epigenetic Homeostasis.

A large number of studies have revealed that epigenetics plays an important role in cancer development. However, the currently-developed epigenetic drugs cannot achieve a stable curative effect. Thus, it may be necessary to redefine the role of epigenetics in cancer development. It has been shown that embryonic development and tumor development share significant similarities in terms of biological behavior and molecular expression patterns, and epigenetics may be the link between them. Cell differentiation is likely a manifestation of epigenetic homeostasis at the cellular level. In this article, we introduced the importance of epigenetic homeostasis in cancer development and analyzed the shortcomings of current epigenetic treatment regimens. Understanding the dynamic process of epigenetic homeostasis in organ development can help us characterize cancer according to its differentiation stages, explore new targets for cancer treatment, and improve the clinical prognosis of patients with cancer.

3D Printing Polymer-based Bolus Used for Radiotherapy.

Bolus is a kind of auxiliary device used in radiotherapy for the treatment of superficial lesions such as skin cancer. It is commonly used to increase skin dose and overcome the skin-sparing effect. Despite the availability of various commercial boluses, there is currently no bolus that can form full contact with irregular surface of patients' skin, and incomplete contact would result in air gaps. The resulting air gaps can reduce the surface radiation dose, leading to a discrepancy between the delivered dose and planned dose. To avoid this limitation, the customized bolus processed by three-dimensional (3D) printing holds tremendous potential for making radiotherapy more efficient than ever before. This review mainly summarized the recent development of polymers used for processing bolus, 3D printing technologies suitable for polymers, and customization of 3D printing bolus. An ideal material for customizing bolus should not only have the feature of 3D printability for customization, but also possess radiotherapy adjuvant performance as well as other multiple compound properties, including tissue equivalence, biocompatibility, antibacterial activity, and antiphlogosis.

Knockdown of circ_0006528 Suppresses Cell Proliferation, Migration, Invasion, and Adriamycin Chemoresistance via Regulating the miR-1236-3p/CHD4 Axis in Breast Cancer.

BACKGROUND: Adriamycin (ADM) is one of the postoperative chemotherapy drugs for breast cancer (BCa) patients. Circular RNAs have been shown to modulate ADM resistance in many cancers. However, it is unclear whether circ_0006528 can modulate the ADM chemoresistance in BCa. METHODS: Levels of circ_0006528, microRNA-1236-3p (miR-1236-3p), and chromodomain helicase DNA-binding protein 4 (CHD4) were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction or western blot. Cell proliferation, the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) value of ADM, and cell migration and invasion were evaluated by cell counting kit-8 and transwell assays, respectively. The interaction among circ_0006528, miR-1236-3p, and CHD4 was confirmed using dual-luciferase reporter assays. Tumor formation in nude mice was performed to explore the effect of circ_0006528 in vivo. RESULTS: Higher levels of circ_0006528 and CHD4 and lower level of miR-1236-3p were found in ADM-resistant BCa tissues and cells, and patients with high circ_0006528 had a shorter overall survival. Circ_0006528 could directly bind to miR-1236-3p, and circ_0006528 knockdown or miR-1236-3p overexpression could suppress cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and ADM resistance in ADM-resistant BCa cells. Moreover, circ_0006528-regulated CHD4 expression by sponging miR-1236-3p, and CHD4 elevation reversed the inhibitory effect of circ_0006528 knockdown on ADM-resistant BCa cells. Consistently, circ_0006528 inhibition retarded ADM-resistant BCa tumor growth in vivo by decreasing CHD4 and increasing miR-1236-3p. CONCLUSIONS: Downregulation of circ_0006528 restrained cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and drug resistance of ADM-resistant BCa cells through inhibiting CHD4 and inducing miR-1236-3p.

Three-Dimensional Printing Chitosan-Based Bolus Used for Radiotherapy.

A bolus is a kind of tissue equivalent material used in radiotherapy for treating superficial lesions. Despite the availability of various commercial boluses, it is hard for them to form full contact with the irregular surface of patients' skin, such as the scalp, nose, and ear, resulting in air gaps and leading to a discrepancy between the delivered dose and planned dose. To solve this problem, we provided a photocurable bioink created from chitosan (CHI) for digital light processing (DLP) three-dimensional (3D) printing the bolus in radiotherapy application. The chitosan-based bioink (CHI-MA) was obtained by a methacrylation process using methacrylic anhydride (MA). Photosensitive crosslinkers with different molecular weights were introduced into the bioink. The photocuring efficiency and mechanical properties of CHI-MA hydrogels can be well modulated by varying the crosslinkers. This CHI-MA bioink allowed us to create complex structures with reliable biocompatibility, good flexibility, and excellent structural stability. Furthermore, the nose bolus processed by 3D printing this bioink proved to be a good fit for the nose model and showed a desirable radiotherapy effect. This suggests that DLP 3D printing of the CHI-MA bioink would be a promising approach to obtain the customized bolus in the application of radiotherapy.