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Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a global public health challenge that affects millions of people. Current medical treatments for IBD are not fully effective and may cause undesirable side effects on patients. Thus, there is an urgent need for safe, simple, and efficacious strategies to treat IBD in clinical settings. Here, we develop an oral polyphenol nanoparticle (PDT) by assembling dexamethasone sodium phosphate (DSP)-loaded poly-β-cyclodextrin with tannic acid via host-guest interactions for treating IBD. This one-step assembly process is rapid (within 10 s), reproducible, and free of harmful chemical agents, which can facilitate its clinical translation. PDT is negatively charged due to the three components, which enable it to specifically target the positively charged inflamed colonic mucosa through electrostatic attraction, thus localizing the drug at the inflamed site to reduce systemic exposure and side effects. Furthermore, PDT exhibits a strong reactive oxygen species (ROS)-scavenging ability derived from the tannic acid component, which can alleviate ROS-mediated inflammatory responses and ameliorate IBD symptoms. Compared with free DSP, PDT demonstrates sustained DSP release behavior in vitro and in vivo , as well as enhanced therapeutic efficacy in a colitis mouse model. These results suggest that PDT might be a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of IBD. Moreover, this facile polyphenol host-guest assembly strategy may provide a promising drug-delivery platform for treating various diseases To develop safe and effective treatments for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), we have designed an oral polyphenol nanoparticle (PDT) using the host-guest assembly of dexamethasone sodium phosphate (DSP)-loaded poly-β-cyclodextrin with tannic acid. Through in vitro and in vivo experiments, PDT has demonstrated remarkable inflammation-targeting, ROS-scavenging, and anti-inflammatory properties, along with sustained release of DSP. Moreover, in an IBD mouse model, PDT has shown significantly improved therapeutic efficacy compared to free DSP. The host-guest assembly strategy employed for PDT is noteworthy for its rapidity, reproducibility, and safety due to the absence of harmful chemicals, holding great promise for designing a diverse range of nanomedicines customized for treating various diseases. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate analysis of living circulating tumor cells (CTCs) plays a crucial role in cancer diagnosis and prognosis evaluation. However, it is still challenging to develop a facile method for accurate, sensitive, and broad-spectrum isolation of living CTCs. Herein, inspired by the filopodia-extending behavior and clustered surface-biomarker of living CTCs, we present a unique bait-trap chip to achieve accurate and ultrasensitive capture of living CTCs from peripheral blood. The bait-trap chip is designed with the integration of nanocage (NCage) structure and branched aptamers. The NCage structure could "trap" the extended filopodia of living CTCs and resist the adhesion of filopodia-inhibited apoptotic cells, thus realizing the accurate capture (∼95% accuracy) of living CTCs independent of complex instruments. Using an in-situ rolling circle amplification (RCA) method, branched aptamers were easily modified onto the NCage structure, and served as "baits" to enhance the multi-interactions between CTC biomarker and chips, leading to ultrasensitive (99%) and reversible cell capture performance. The bait-trap chip successfully detects living CTCs in broad-spectrum cancer patients and achieves high diagnostic sensitivity (100%) and specificity (86%) of early prostate cancer. Therefore, our bait-trap chip provides a facile, accurate, and ultrasensitive strategy for living CTC isolation in clinical. A unique bait-trap chip integrated with precise nanocage structure and branched aptamers was developed for the accurate and ultrasensitive capture of living CTCs. Compared with the current CTC isolation methods that are unable to distinguish CTC viability, the nanocage structure could not only "trap" the extended-filopodia of living CTCs, but also resist the adhesion of filopodia-inhibited apoptotic cells, thus realizing the accurate capture of living CTCs. Additionally, benefiting from the "bait-trap" synergistic effects generated by aptamer modification and nanocage structure, our chip achieved ultrasensitive, reversible capture of living CTCs. Moreover, this work provided a facile strategy for living CTC isolation from the blood of patients with early-stage and advanced cancer, exhibiting high consistency with the pathological diagnosis. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Complex nonlinear interaction between pumps and signals of distributed optical Raman amplifiers employing wavelength-division-multiplexed pumps makes the readjustment of the pump powers difficult. In this paper, a novel method of fast pump power adjustment is proposed. Theoretical analysis and related expressions are presented. Simulation results show that satisfying gain profile can be obtained within a few seconds on a commercial personal computer (Intel Pentium 4 or compatible). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]