Polydopamine nanomaterials and their potential applications in the treatment of autoimmune diseases.

The conventional treatment methods used for the management of autoimmune diseases (ADs) have limited efficacy and also exhibit significant side effects. Thus, identification of novel strategies to improve the efficacy and safety of ADs treatment is urgently required. Overactivated immune response and oxidative stress are common characteristics associated with ADs. Polydopamine (PDA), as a polymer material with good antioxidant and photothermal conversion properties, has displayed useful application potential against ADs. In addition, PDA possesses good biosafety, simple preparation, and easy functionalization, which is conducive for the pharmacological development of PDA nanomaterials with clinical transformation prospects. Here, we have first reviewed the preparation of PDA, the different functional integration strategies of PDA-based biomaterials, and their potential applications in ADs. Next, the mechanism of action of PDA in ADs has been elaborated in detail. Finally, the application opportunities and challenges linked with PDA nanomaterials for ADs treatment are discussed. This review is contributed to design reasonable and effective PDA nanomaterials for the diagnosis and treatment of ADs.

Bismuth-based two-dimensional nanomaterials for cancer diagnosis and treatment.

The intrinsic high X-ray attenuation and insignificant biological toxicity of Bi-based nanomaterials make them a category of advanced materials in oncology. Bi-based two-dimensional nanomaterials have gained rapid development in cancer diagnosis and treatment owing to their adjustable bandgap structure, high specific surface area and strong NIR absorption. In addition to the single functional cancer diagnosis and treatment modalities, Bi-based two-dimensional nanomaterials have been certified for accomplishing multi-imaging guided multifunctional synergistic cancer therapies. In this review, we summarize the recent progress including controllable synthesis, defect engineering and surface modifications of Bi-based two-dimensional nanomaterials for cancer diagnosis and treatment in the past ten years. Their medical applications in cancer imaging and therapies are also presented. Finally, we discuss the potential challenges and future research priorities of Bi-based two-dimensional nanomaterials.

Sequential targeting biomimetic nano platform for enhanced mild photothermal therapy and chemotherapy of tumor.

Tumor targeting drug delivery is of significant importance for the treatment of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) considering the presence of appreciable amount of tumor matrix and the absence of effective targets on the tumor cells. Hence in this study, a new therapeutic multifunctional nanoplatform with improved TNBC targeting ability and efficacy was constructed and used for therapy of TNBC. Specifically, curcumin loaded mesoporous polydopamine (mPDA/Cur) nanoparticles were synthesized. Thereafter, manganese dioxide (MnO2) and a hybrid of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) membranes as well as cancer cell membranes were sequentially coated on the surface of mPDA/Cur to obtain mPDA/Cur@M/CM. It was found that two distinct kinds of cell membranes were able to endow the nano platform with homologous targeting ability, thereby achieving accurate delivery of drugs. Nanoparticles gathered in the tumor matrix can loosen the tumor matrix via the photothermal effect mediated by mPDA to rupture the physical barrier of tumor, which is conducive to the penetration and targeting of drugs to tumor cells in the deep tissues. Moreover, the existence of curcumin, MnO2 and mPDA was able to promote the apoptosis of cancer cells by promoting increased cytotoxicity, enhanced Fenton-like reaction, and thermal damage, respectively. Overall, both in vitro and in vivo results showed that the designed biomimetic nanoplatform could significantly inhibit the tumor growth and thus provide an efficient novel therapeutic strategy for TNBC.

The strategy of precise targeting and in situ oxygenating for enhanced triple-negative breast cancer chemophototherapy.

The absence of effective therapeutic targets and tumor hypoxia are the main causes of failure in the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Biomimetic nanotechnology and tumor microenvironment (TME) responsiveness bring hope and opportunity to address this problem. Here, we develop a core membrane nanoplatform (HM/D-I-BL) using hollow mesoporous manganese dioxide (HM) coated with a biomimetic cancer cell membrane for enhanced chemotherapy/phototherapy via the strategy of precise drug delivery and hypoxia amelioration. Cancer cell membrane modification endows HM/D-I-BL with excellent homologous targeting and immune escape performance. Cellular uptake and fluorescence imaging studies confirmed that HM/D-I-BL can be accurately delivered to tumor sites. HM/D-I-BL also features efficient in situ O2 generation in tumors upon laser irradiation, and subsequently enhanced chemotherapy/phototherapy, pointing to its usefulness as a TME-responsive nanozyme to alleviate tumor hypoxia in the presence of H2O2. In addition, HM/D-I-BL showed good fluorescence and magnetic resonance imaging performances, which offers a reliable multimodal image-guided combination tumor therapy for precision theranostics in the future. In general, this intelligent biomimetic nanoplatform with its homotypic tumor targeting, in situ alleviation of tumor hypoxia and synergetic chemophototherapy would open up a new dimension for the precision treatment of TNBC.

Local Tumor Ischemia-Reperfusion Mediated By Ultrasound-Targeted Microbubble Destruction Enhances The Anti-Tumor Efficacy Of Doxorubicin Chemotherapy.

BACKGROUND: Ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD) has been shown to be a promising noninvasive technique to change the tumor circulation, thus providing a potential method to increase reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in tumors by inducing tumor tissue ischemia-reperfusion (IR). In this study, we investigated the feasibility of local tumor IR through UTMD to enhance the anti-tumor efficacy of doxorubicin (DOX) chemotherapy. METHODS: UTMD was used to induce local tumor IR. After the major blood supply of the tumor was restored, DOX was intravenously injected into the tumor-bearing mice. The superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activity and ROS levels were examined, and the anti-tumor efficacy was evaluated. RESULTS: UTMD blocked the circulation to the tumor for 30 mins. Slow reperfusion began to occur after 30 mins, and major blood supply was restored after 1 hr. The blood perfusion of the tumor completely recovered at 2 hrs. The activity of SOD in the tumors was significantly decreased at 2 hrs and 1 day after IR treatment with or without DOX treatment. The CAT activity showed no obvious changes at 2 hrs after IR treatment, whereas a significant decrease was found after 1 day in both the IR and DOX/IR groups. Moreover, higher levels of ROS were produced in the IR group and IR/DOX group. In vivo anti-tumor study indicated that the local tumor IR strategy may significantly enhance the anti-tumor efficacy of DOX chemotherapy. CONCLUSION: UTMD provides a novel, simple and non-invasive technique for tumor IR. In combination with chemotherapy, UTMD may have high great potential to improve the anti-tumor efficacy of chemotherapeutic drugs.

Mechanisms of enhanced antiglioma efficacy of polysorbate 80-modified paclitaxel-loaded PLGA nanoparticles by focused ultrasound.

The presence of blood-brain barrier (BBB) greatly limits the availability of drugs and their efficacy against glioma. Focused ultrasound (FUS) can induce transient and local BBB opening for enhanced drug delivery. Here, we developed polysorbate 80-modified paclitaxel-loaded PLGA nanoparticles (PS-80-PTX-NPs, PPNP) and examined the enhanced local delivery into the brain for glioma treatment by combining with FUS. Our result showed PPNP had good stability, fast drug release rate and significant toxicity to glioma cells. Combined with FUS, PPNP showed a stronger BBB permeation efficiency both in the in vitro and in vivo BBB models. Mechanism studies revealed the disrupted tight junction, reduced P-glycoprotein expression and ApoE-dependent PS-80 permeation collectively contribute to the enhanced drug delivery, resulting in significantly stronger antitumour efficacy and longer survival time in the tumour-bearing mice. Our study provided a new strategy to efficiently and locally deliver drugs into the brain to treat glioma.

Localized delivery of curcumin into brain with polysorbate 80-modified cerasomes by ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction for improved Parkinson's disease therapy.

Rationale: Treatment for Parkinson's disease (PD) is challenged by the presence of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) that significantly limits the effective drug concentration in a patient's brain for therapeutic response throughout various stages of PD. Curcumin holds the potential for α-synuclein clearance to treat PD; however, its applications are still limited due to its low bioavailability and poor permeability through the BBB in a free form. Methods: Herein, this paper fabricated curcumin-loaded polysorbate 80-modified cerasome (CPC) nanoparticles (NPs) with a mean diameter of ~110 nm for enhancing the localized curcumin delivery into the targeted brain nuclei via effective BBB opening in combination with ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD). Results: The liposomal nanohybrid cerasome exhibited superior stability towards PS 80 surfactant solubilization and longer circulation lifetime (t1/2 = 6.22 h), much longer than free curcumin (t1/2 = 0.76 h). The permeation was found to be 1.7-fold higher than that of CPC treatment only at 6 h after the systemic administration of CPC NPs. Notably, motor behaviors, dopamine (DA) level and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) expression all returned to normal, thanks to α-synuclein (AS) removal mediated by efficient curcumin delivery to the striatum. Most importantly, the animal experiment demonstrated that the 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced PD mice had notably improved behavior disorder and dopamine depletion during two-week post-observation after treatment with CPC NPs (15 mg curcumin/kg) coupled with UTMD. Conclusion: This novel CPC-UTMD formulation approach could be an effective, safe and amenable choice with higher therapeutic relevance and fewer unwanted complications than conventional chemotherapeutics delivery systems for PD treatment in the near future.

Indocyanine green-loaded gold nanostars for sensitive SERS imaging and subcellular monitoring of photothermal therapy.

We have demonstrated that a typical nanothermometer was incorporated in a bovine serum albumin stabilized gold nanostar-indocyanine green (denoted as GNS-ICG-BSA) nanoprobe to realize surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) imaging-based real-time sensitive monitoring of intracellular temperature in photothermal therapy (PTT), which significantly improved the spatial resolution compared to infrared thermal imaging. Herein, an exogenous thermosensitive molecule, ICG, acting as a tri-functional agent, was selected as the Raman reporter instead of direct cellular biochemical changes. The triggering of the obtained probe was unaffected by the cellular microenvironment, so it can act as a monitor of PTT in various cell types. High-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) was used to investigate the thermosensitive mechanism of ICG. The actively targeted GNS-ICG-BSA nanotags were used to induce SERS mapping-guided in vitro PTT of U87 glioma cells. Meanwhile, small temperature variations within a cell during PTT can be precisely monitored through the SERS fingerprint information, with a spatial resolution at the subcellular level and a sensitivity of 0.37 °C. Thus, the integrated GNS-ICG-BSA nanotags can be treated as a theranostic probe, a SERS imaging probe and an intracellular thermometer. Moreover, the good biocompatibility and the low cytotoxicity of GNS-ICG-BSA nanotags, together with their superior photothermal ablation effect on U87 glioma cells have been confirmed. This suggested that the implanted nanothermometry approach would be promising for a better understanding of the biological processes at subcellular level and provide new insights into the fabrication of a multifunctional nanoplatform. Furthermore, this study revealed that the SERS-based monitoring technique can offer great potential for theranostics as an emerging strategy.

The role of acupuncture in in vitro fertilization: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: In recent years, acupuncture has become more and more popular in the management of subfertility. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of acupuncture during in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment on the outcomes of clinical pregnancy in published randomized studies. METHODS: This is a systematic review and meta-analysis. Data sources used were MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Knowledge and the Chinese Biomedical Database. RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference between the acupuncture group and no acupuncture (intervention) controls around the time of embryo transfer (ET; risk ratio, RR, 1.24, 95% confidence interval, CI, 1.02-1.50) or in unblinded trials, trials blinded to physicians and double-blind trials (95% CI 1.26-1.88, 0.82-1.33 and 0.89-1.25, respectively). This was also the case when comparing acupuncture with sham acupuncture controls around the time of ET (RR, 1.03, 95% CI 0.87-1.22) or when restricting to unblinded trials, trials blinded to physicians and double-blind trials (95% CI 0.80-2.02, 0.82-1.18 and 0.77-1.17, respectively). There was a statistically significant difference when performed at 30 min after ET and implantation phase (RR 1.76, 95% CI 1.22-2.55). There was also a statistically significant difference when performed at follicle phase and 25 min before and after ET (RR 1.56, 95% CI 1.04-2.33). CONCLUSION: Our study showed that acupuncture did not significantly improve the IVF clinical pregnancy rate when performed only at the time of ET, while we found pooled benefit of acupuncture for IVF when performed at follicle phase and 25 min before and after ET, as well as 30 min after ET and implantation phase.

Serum sclerostin levels associated with lumbar spine bone mineral density and bone turnover markers in patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis.

BACKGROUND: Sclerostin, expressed exclusively by osteocytes, is a negative regulator of bone formation. To gain insights into the action of sclerostin in postmenopausal osteoporosis, we evaluated serum sclerostin levels in postmenopausal women and investigated its possible associations with bone turnover markers in patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis. METHODS: We detected serum sclerostin, and measured lumbar spine bone mineral density in 650 Chinese postmenopausal women. We also assessed serum levels of ß-isomerized C-terminal crosslinking of type I collagen, intact N-terminal propeptide of type I collagen, N-mid fragment of osteocalcin, 25-hydroxyvitamin D, and estradiol. RESULTS: Serum sclerostin levels were lower in postmenopausal osteoporotic women compared with non-osteoporotic postmenopausal women ((38.79 ± 7.43) vs. (52.86 ± 6.69) pmol/L, P < 0.001). Serum sclerostin was positively correlated with lumbar spine bone mineral density (r = 0.391, P < 0.001) and weakly negatively correlated with ß-isomerized C-terminal crosslinking of type I collagen, intact N-terminal propeptide of type I collagen, N-mid fragment of osteocalcin (r = -0.225, P < 0.001; r = -0.091, P = 0.046; r = -0.108, P = 0.018; respectively) in postmenopausal osteoporosis. There was no significant association of serum sclerostin with age, body mass index, 25-hydroxyvitamin D, and estradiol (r = -0.004, P = 0.926; r = 0.067, P = 0.143; r = 0.063, P = 0.165; r = -0.045, P = 0.324; respectively). CONCLUSION: Sclerostin may be involved in the pathogenesis of postmenopausal osteoporosis and may play a role in bone turnover.

Serum ß -Catenin Levels Associated with the Ratio of RANKL/OPG in Patients with Postmenopausal Osteoporosis.

Objective. To demonstrate the role of Wnt/ ß -catenin canonical pathway in postmenopausal osteoporosis by evaluating serum ß -catenin levels in patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis and analyzing their possible relationship with serum OPG, RANKL, the ratio of RANKL/OPG, sclerostin, and bone turnover markers. Methods. 480 patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis and 170 healthy postmenopausal women were enrolled in the study. Serum ß -catenin, OPG, RANKL, and sclerostin levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Bone status was assessed by measuring bone mineral density and bone turnover markers. Estradiol levels were also detected. Results. Serum ß -catenin levels were lower in postmenopausal osteoporotic women compared to nonosteoporotic postmenopausal women (26.26 ± 14.81 versus 39.33 ± 5.47 pg/mL, P < 0.001). Serum ß -catenin was positively correlated with osteoprotegerin (r = 0.232, P < 0.001) and negatively correlated with the ratio of RANKL/OPG, body mass index, and sclerostin (r = -0.128, P = 0.005; r = -0.117, P = 0.010; r = -0.400, P < 0.001, resp.) in patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis. Conclusion. The results indicate that lower serum ß -catenin and concomitantly higher ratio of RANKL/OPG may be involved in the pathogenesis of postmenopausal osteoporosis. Functional communication between RANKL/RANK/OPG system and Wnt pathways plays an important role in postmenopausal osteoporosis.