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Regulating chemical drug's responsiveness to gamma radiation is crucial for achieving better therapeutic effects in cancer treatment. Most research focused on thermodynamic chemical structure design, while little attention was paid to kinetic regulate strategy, which possesses greater universality and security. In this study, we achieved a kinetic‐based regulate strategy of gamma radiation reaction, through the construction of microphase environment during polymerization of polytelluoxane (PTeO). We designed hydrophobic segments forming large compound micelles (LCMs) assembly to create kinetically favorable higher concentration for radiation‐induced reaction. It exhibited a > ten times higher responsiveness and, as far as we know, merely required a minimum dosage of 5 Gy for polymerization to occur. What's more, by taking advantages of the assembly change with Te−O hydrophilic segments and gamma radiation, polymerization became milder with lower polydispersity than previous methods. Such kinetic‐based regulate strategy could offer a novel perspective on the design of radiation‐responsive chemoradiotherapy and other radiation‐induced chemical process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the extraordinary progress has been made in molecular biology, the prevention of cancer remains arduous. Most solid tumours exhibit both spatial and temporal heterogeneity, which is difficult to be mimicked in vitro. Additionally, the complex biochemical and immune features of tumour microenvironment significantly affect the tumour development. Molecular imaging aims at the exploitation of tumour‐associated molecules as specific targets of customized molecular probe, thereby generating image contrast of tumour markers, and offering opportunities to non‐invasively evaluate the pathological characteristics of tumours in vivo. Particularly, there are no "standard markers" as control in clinical imaging diagnosis of individuals, so the tumour pathological characteristics‐responsive nanoprobe‐based quantitative molecular imaging, which is able to visualize and determine the accurate content values of heterogeneous distribution of pathological molecules in solid tumours, can provide criteria for cancer diagnosis. In this context, a variety of "smart" quantitative molecular imaging nanoprobes have been designed, in order to provide feasible approaches to quantitatively visualize the tumour‐associated pathological molecules in vivo. This review summarizes the recent achievements in the designs of these nanoprobes, and highlights the state‐of‐the‐art technologies in quantitative imaging of tumour‐associated pathological molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To compare the clinical value and safety of electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy (ENB) combined with radial endobronchial ultrasound (R‐EBUS) or x‐ray in the diagnosis of small peripheral pulmonary nodules that cannot be diagnosed by conventional bronchoscopy. Methods: Fifty‐six patients with peripheral pulmonary nodules of <3 cm in diameter who underwent bronchoscopy at the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University and Dushu Lake Hospital of Soochow University from February 2019 to January 2022 were selected as the study subjects, including 24 patients who underwent ENB combined with x‐ray and 32 patients who underwent ENB combined with R‐EBUS. ENB was used as the guiding method in both groups, and x‐ray group and R‐EBUS group were combined with x‐ray and R‐EBUS, respectively, to determine whether the lesion was reached. In x‐ray group, biopsy and brushing were performed under fluoroscopic guidance. Using the results of surgery, puncture pathology, or clinical follow‐up 1 year as the gold standard, the diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value (NPV), diagnostic yield, negative likelihood ratio (LR‐), Youden index, missed diagnosis rate, success rate, and κ value were compared between the two groups, and the occurrence of postoperative complications was also compared between the two groups. Results: The negative predictive value of the R‐EBUS group was significantly better than that of the x‐ray group (p = 0.006). Conclusion: Even with smaller nodule diameters, the negative predictive value of ENB combined with R‐EBUS were still higher than that of the x‐ray group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The diagnosis and treatment of triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC) is still a grand challenge, because there is rare target to be manipulated. Here, an integrated functional nanoprobe is developed for precise diagnosis and treatment of TNBC, based on biominerals of Fe3+ and rutin hydrate (RH), a type of natural flavonoid. Owing to the adjacent phenol hydroxyl groups of RH, Fe3+ can biomineralize with RH to form nanoprobe colloidally stabilized by coating of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP). In the nanoprobe, the flavonol central scaffold as well as the glucoside and rhamnose groups can interact specifically with glucose transporters. Once taken by tumor cells, protonation of phenol hydroxyl groups in the weakly acidic lysosomes would lead to release of Fe3+, inducing tumor cell death through a ferroptosis/apoptosis hybrid pathway. Meanwhile, the remaining Fe(III)–RH complex can serve as a photothermal therapy (PTT) agent upon near infrared laser irradiation. Additionally, the Fe(III)–RH/PVP nanoprobe is expected to be eliminated through renal clearance if the nanoprobe formed in the presence of PVP have an appropriately small hydrated diameter. The present work provides a novel design integrated with magnetic resonance imaging capacity, therapeutic functions of Fe3+, and the PTT effect of nanoprobe for TNBC with anticipated biosafety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the nature of the chemical reactions taking place in a waterborne two‐component polyurethane formulation consisting of an acrylic polyol latex and a hydrophilically modified polyisocyanate (hmPIC) based on the trimer of hexamethylene diisocyanate. The hmPIC was diluted with 30 wt.% of an organic solvent to reduce its viscosity and formed small (~20 nm) droplets when dispersed in water. In mixtures of the polyol and hmPIC, we monitored the rate of NCO group disappearance in the dispersed state by FTIR and showed that it varied with the choice of organic solvent. We developed a method based upon 19F NMR to distinguish the reaction of the NCO groups with OH groups from the polyol from its reaction with water. FTIR measurements on films formed from these dispersions showed how the disappearance of NCO groups depended on relative humidity. In a more semi‐quantitative way, these measurements indicated the relative extent of urethane versus urea formation in these model coatings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND RESULTS CONCLUSION Pediococcus acidilactici is an effective adsorbent for removing of pyrethroid insecticides. This study investigated the biosorption characteristics and mechanisms of P. acidilactici D15 using adsorption measurement, scanning electron microscopy, and Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy. Isotherm and kinetic models were used to analyze the biosorption process.The Langmuir isotherm model best described the cypermethrin biosorption process, with the maximum adsorption capacity of P. acidilactici D15 being 21.404 mg/g. The biosorption appeared to involve monolayer coverage with uniform forces. The pseudo‐second‐order model also fits well. The rate‐controlling steps involved intraparticle diffusion, film diffusion and chemosorption. The main cellular components involved in cypermethrin biosorption were exopolysaccharides, spheroplast, and cell wall, especially peptidoglycan. The functional groups (–OH, –NH, –CH3, –CH2, –CH, –CONH–, –CO, and –C–O–C–) from proteins, polysaccharides, and peptidoglycan on the cell surface likely played a role in binding cypermethrin. Additionally, P. acidilactici D15 effectively reduced cypermethrin in pickle wastewater.These findings suggest that P. acidilactici D15 could be a potential agent for reducing pesticide residues, laying the groundwork for treating pickle wastewater containing such pesticide residues. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "smart" nanoprobe‐based quantitative molecular imaging can mathematically visualize the tumour‐associated pathological biomarkers, such as proteins, nucleic acids, or metabolites, enabling it possible to quantitative monitor the spatiotemporal evolution of the pathological characteristics inside the tumors accurately, and contributing to improving prognosis and therapeutic intervention by enabling precise and individualized theranostic strategies..By Peisen Zhang; Wenyue Li; Chuang Liu; Feng Qin; Yijie Lu; Meng Qin and Yi HouReported by Author; Author; Author; Author; Author; Author; Author [Extracted from the article]

Aberrant Wnt/β‐catenin signaling is a characteristic feature of colorectal cancer (CRC), therefore, understanding the underlying mechanisms of aberrant Wnt/β‐catenin signaling will improve the treatment outcome of CRC. Expression of MNX1 in paired fresh CRC tissues and corresponding adjacent normal tissues were examined by qPCR and Western blotting. The levels of MNX1 in paraffin‐embedded CRC specimens were detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC). The role of MNX1 in growth and proliferation of CRC cells was evaluated by MTT and colony formation assay. Luciferase reporter analysis and western blotting were carried out to explore the influence of MNX1 on Wnt/β‐catenin signaling. The results showed that expression of MNX1 is markedly upregulated in CRC tissues and positively correlated with level of Ki67, and overexpression of MNX1 significantly promotes the proliferation of CRC cells. Further study showed that ectopic expression of MNX1 activates the Wnt/β‐catenin signaling and upregulates the expression of c‐Myc and CCND1, the downstream genes of Wnt/β‐catenin signaling. Therefore, MNX1 plays an indispensable role in promoting of human CRC progression and may represent a novel therapeutic target for CRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Branched and barbed structures are common in nature but rare in nanoscale or mesoscale objects formed by bottom‐up self‐assembly. Key characteristics of the morphology of natural objects, such as various types of insects and conifer branches, is that despite their similarities no two individual objects are exactly the same. Here we report the self‐assembly conditions for a series of poly(ferrocenyldimethylsilane)‐block‐polyisoprene (PFS‐b‐PI) diblock copolymers that generate structures with biomorphic shapes. All of these polymers yield long uniform fiber‐like micelles with a crystalline PFS core in decane. Injection of a concentrated THF solution of these polymers into THF/decane mixtures, however, leads to barbed and branched mesostructures, with shapes that depend upon the final THF content of the mixed solvent. Interestingly, evaporation of the THF from suspensions of the colloidal biomorphic structures led to elongated fiber‐like structures. PFS‐b‐PI (poly(ferrocenyldimethylsilane)‐block‐polyisoprene) diblock copolymers self‐assemble into biomorphic structures with shapes that depend on the assembly conditions. Long fiber‐like micelles of uniform width are formed with a crystalline PFS core in decane. Injection of a THF polymer solution into THF/decane leads to micrometer‐scale barbed and branched structures with shapes that depend upon the final THF content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]