Soot nanoparticles promote ferroptosis in dopaminergic neurons via alteration of m6A RNA methylation in Parkinson's disease.

Soot nanoparticles (SNPs) are black carbon prevalent in atmospheric environment with significant impacts on public health, leading to neurodegenerative diseases including development of Parkinson's disease (PD). This study investigated the effects of SNPs exposure on PD symptoms, employing both in vivo and in vitro PD models. In the in vivo experiments, animal behavior assessments showed that SNPs exposure exacerbated motor and cognitive impairments in PD mice. Molecular biology techniques further unveiled that SNPs aggravated degeneration of dopaminergic neurons. In vitro experiments revealed that SNPs exposure intensified ferroptosis of PD cells by increasing reactive oxygen species and iron ion levels, while reducing glutathione levels and mitochondrial membrane potential. Sequencing tests indicated elevated N6-methyladenosine (m6A) alteration of the ferroptosis-related protein, acyl-CoA synthetase long chain family member 4 (ACSL4). This study demonstrates that SNPs may exacerbate the onset and progression of PD by recruiting YTH domain-containing family protein 1 (YTHDF1) protein, enhancing m6A methylation in the ACSL4 5'UTR, amplifying ACSL4 protein expression, and accelerating the ferroptosis process in dopaminergic neurons. These molecular mechanisms underlying SNPs exacerbation of PD development may provide crucial insights for formulating environmental safety regulations and potential therapeutic strategies addressing PD in populations residing in regions with varied air quality.

Prostate cancer biomarker citrate detection using triaminoguanidinium carbon dots, its applications in live cells and human urine samples.

Citrate is a tricarboxylate, plays vital role in prostate cancer (PC) and the level of citrate is an indicator for PC identification. Herein, triaminoguanidine carbon dots (TAG-CDs) prepared by one step hydrothermal method and used as a citrate receptor. Notably the TAG-CDs without alkaline treatment were highly fluorescent at pH 7 with high quantum yield (11.3%). TAG-CDs were characterized through TEM, XRD, FT-IR, UV-vis and spectrofluorimetry. It is noted that the average size was of 2.8 nm, the presence of highly disordered carbon, retain the functionality of TAG. The absorbance maxima obtained at 294 nm and good emitting response observed at 396 nm. The Y-aromaticity of receptor guanidinium moiety acts as Lewis acid and have peculiar interaction with Lewis base citrate via electrostatic interaction and also protons in the TAG participate hydrogen bonds with citrate, which causes quenching of TAG-CDs. From the obtained linear quenching equation the LOD was found to be 4 nM. The probe expressed high selectivity, high interference tolerance (500 - fold), fast response in 15 mins and good biocompatible. Finally, TAG-CDs utilized for the intracellular imaging of citrate in live MCF-7 cells, it showed good cytotoxicity and delivered contrast images in presence, absence of citrate. TAG-CDs detected the citrate level in human urine samples, the obtained results are validated with HPLC method.

Synthesis, Characterization and Crystal Structures of Fluoro-Substituted Aroylhydrazones with Antimicrobial Activity.

A series of five new fluoro-substituted aroylhydrazones were prepared and structurally characterized by elemental analysis, IR, UV-Vis and 1H NMR spectroscopy, as well as single crystal X-ray diffraction. The compounds were evaluated for their antibacterial (Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas fluorescence) and antifungal (Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger) activities by MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide) method. The biological assay indicated that the presence of the electron-withdrawing groups in the aroylhydrazones improved their antimicrobial activities.

The camouflage of graphene oxide by red blood cell membrane with high dispersibility for cancer chemotherapy.

Cancer is a serious threat to human health. Graphene oxide (GO) is a good carrier for cancer treatment due to its large surface area and high drug loading, while it's unstable under physiological conditions with a high tendency to be uptaken by macrophages in the body. This paper constructs a red blood cell (RBC) membrane modified GO nanocarrier system for cancer chemotherapy. After the modification of RBC, the stability and hemolysis performance of GO were greatly improved, which is beneficial to the biological application. Moreover, DOX-loaded RBC-GO still able to maintain good stability with a pH-dependent DOX release profile. RBC-GO can be uptaken by MCF-7 cells and DOX-loaded RBC-GO nanocomposites have strong concentration-dependent cytotoxicity. More importantly, in vivo study showed that RBC-GO can accumulate at the tumor site in a large quantity, and among all the experimental groups, RBC-GO-DOX had the best anti-tumor effect after tail vein injection in mice and the lowest systemic toxicity. Experiments have proved that RBC-GO can be used as a drug carrier to achieve targeted drug delivery.

Modification of magnetic molybdenum disulfide by chitosan/carboxymethylcellulose with enhanced dispersibility for targeted photothermal-/chemotherapy of cancer.

In this work, magnetic molybdenum disulfide (mMoS2) was synthesized firstly. Then, layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly technology was used for the preparation of chitosan/carboxymethylcellulose functionalized mMoS2 nanocomposites. The nanocomposites with the diameter of 0.4 µm did not easily agglomerate in biological suspensions, thus had good dispersion and stability. Simultaneously, mMoS2-CS/CMC strongly inhibited the adsorption of non-specific proteins to mMoS2. In a drug loading experiment, in which doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) was used as a model drug, it was found that the drug loading capacity of mMoS2-CS/CMC was high and the drug loading rate could reach 86%. When the drug was released, mMoS2-CS/CMC-DOX showed an obvious pH-dependent release behavior. In cellular studies, the nanocomposites were easily taken up by tumor cells, and mainly located in the cytoplasm. The pure carrier materials had good biocompatibility with no obvious cytotoxicity, but they could cause dose-dependent cytotoxicity after DOX loading. Moreover, mMoS2-CS/CMC had an excellent photothermal effect, and an in vivo study showed that after it was injected into mice, more nanocomposites concentrated in the tumor site than mMoS2, indicating the tumor targeting properties. Therefore, the modification of mMoS2 with chitosan and sodium carboxymethylcellulose will promote the development of tumor therapy.

WS2 nanosheets functionalized by biomimetic lipids with enhanced dispersibility for photothermal and chemo combination therapy.

Multi-component combination therapy of cancer is currently a hot spot in the field of cancer treatment research. In this study, a WS2 nanosheet was selected as the substrate material and modified with a cell-like membrane biomimetic liposome (WS2-lipid). The lipid-modified WS2 nanomaterials were successfully prepared with good stability and biocompatibility. Its good photothermal characteristics and high drug loading amount were utilized to achieve a comprehensive chemo and photothermal therapeutic effect. The results showed that the lipid coating strongly enhanced the stability of the WS2 nanosheets before and after DOX loading and the WS2-lipid had a good photothermal performance and drug loading amount. According to the cellular results, WS2-lipid was able to be taken up by MCF-7 cells. Both photothermo-therapy and chemotherapy had a concentration dependent cytotoxicity on MCF-7 cells, and the combined application of both methods had an improved cytotoxicity. In addition, in vivo photothermal experiments indicated that lipid modification could promote intratumoral accumulation of the material. Thus, WS2-lipid can be used as a good nano-platform for phototherapy and chemotherapy combination therapy and has good application prospects in cancer therapy.

Synthesis, Characterization, Crystal Structures, and Urease Inhibition of Copper(II) and Zinc(II) Complexes Derived from Benzohydrazones.

A new copper(II) complex [Cu(L1)(NCS)(CH3OH)] (1) and a new zinc(II) complex [ZnCl2(HL2)]·CH3OH (2), derived from 4-bromo-N'-(pyridin-2-ylmethylene)benzohydrazide (HL1) and 4-methoxy-N'-(pyridin-2-ylmethylene)benzohydrazide (HL2), were prepared and characterized by elemental analysis, IR and UV-Vis spectroscopy and single crystal X-ray diffraction. The hydrazone HL1 coordinates to the Cu atom in enolate form, while the hydrazone HL2 coordinates to the Zn atom in carbonyl form. Single crystal structural analyses indicate that the hydrazones coordinate to the metal atoms through the pyridine N, imino N, and enolate/carbonyl O atoms. The Cu atom in complex 1 is in square pyramidal coordination, and the Zn atom in complex 2 is in trigonal-bipyramidal coordination. The inhibitory effects of the complexes on Jack bean urease were studied, which show that the copper complex has strong activity on urease.

Layered MoS2 nanosheets modified by biomimetic phospholipids: Enhanced stability and its synergistic treatment of cancer with chemo-photothermal therapy.

Cancer is a huge challenge humanity facing today, and single chemical treatments inevitably have shortcomings such as poor selectivity and large side effects. This paper constructed an egg yolk phospholipids modified molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanocarrier system for the treatment of tumors via the combination of chemotherapy and photothermal therapy. The lipid-modified layered MoS2 (MoS2-Lipid) nanocomposite was synthesized by simple physical adsorption. The lipid modification strongly enhanced the stability of MoS2 nanosheets and the nanocarrier has a large drug loading amount with pH dependent DOX release profile, an excellent photothermal property, and an ideal cellular uptake property. Therefore, we combined chemotherapy and photothermal therapy to treat tumors synergistically. Through in vitro cell experiments, pure nanocomposite had no obvious cytotoxicity to cells, and the synergistic treatment of tumors by chemotherapy and photothermal therapy was more effective than any single treatment. More importantly, in vivo experiments indicated that lipid modification enhanced the accumulation of the nanocarrier in mice tumors, thus a better photothermal performance could be seen compared with original MoS2 nanosheets. In summary, the MoS2-lipid nanocomposite is a promising nanocarrier for the treatment of tumors by chemo and photothermal therapy.