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Construction of micro tumor sensitive theranostic nanoagents that can increase the accuracy of imaging diagnosis and boost the therapeutic efficacy has been demonstrated for a promising approach for diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Herein, we reported a novel super-paramagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) based nanoplatform that possess significantly enhanced magnetic resonance property and photothermal effect for tumor theranostic purpose. This polyethylene glycol with four phenylboronic acid (PEG-B4)/CNTs@porphyrin (ph)/SPIO (BCPS) nanoplatform was simply prepared via integrated SPIO, ph, and a novel dendrimer with PEG liner and four PBA groups (PEG-B4) on the surface of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Subsequently, a significant T2 relaxation rate enhanced can be achieved by the reduced accessibility of water to SPIO clustering. Moreover, the synergetic enhanced photothermal from BCPS nanoplatform contributed to better photothermal effect for cancer therapy. Furthermore, the targeting ability to sialic acid overexpressed tumor was further introduced from phenylboronic acid from PEG-B4. We showed that BCPS nanoplatform could not only selectively identify solid tumors and detect micro-sized metastatic tumor (1 mm) in the liver, but also effectively ablate tumors in a xenograft model, thereby achieving a complete cure rate of 100% at low laser dose. Our results highlight the potential of BCPS nanoplatform for accurate micro-tumor diagnosis and effective tumor therapy.

Distance-dependent magnetic resonance tuning (MRET) technology enables the sensing and quantitative imaging of biological targets in vivo, with the advantage of deep tissue penetration and fewer interactions with the surroundings as compared with those of fluorescence-based Forster resonance energy transfer. However, applications of MRET technology in vivo are currently limited by the moderate contrast enhancement and stability of T1-based MRET probes. Here we report a new two-way magnetic resonance tuning (TMRET) nanoprobe with dually activatable T1 and T2 magnetic resonance signals that is coupled with dual-contrast enhanced subtraction imaging. This integrated platform achieves a substantially improved contrast enhancement with minimal background signal and can be used to quantitatively image molecular targets in tumours and to sensitively detect very small intracranial brain tumours in patient-derived xenograft models. The high tumour-to-normal tissue ratio offered by TMRET in combination with dual-contrast enhanced subtraction imaging provides new opportunities for molecular diagnostics and image-guided biomedical applications.

Nanotheranostics with integrated diagnostic and therapeutic functions show exciting potentials towards precision nanomedicine. However, targeted delivery of nanotheranostics is hindered by several biological barriers. Here, we report the development of a dual size/charge- transformable, Trojan-Horse nanoparticle (pPhD NP) for delivery of ultra-small, full active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) nanotheranostics with integrated dual-modal imaging and trimodal therapeutic functions. pPhD NPs exhibit ideal size and charge for drug transportation. In tumour microenvironment, pPhD NPs responsively transform to full API nanotheranostics with ultra-small size and higher surface charge, which dramatically facilitate the tumour penetration and cell internalisation. pPhD NPs enable visualisation of biodistribution by near-infrared fluorescence imaging, tumour accumulation and therapeutic effect by magnetic resonance imaging. Moreover, the synergistic photothermal-, photodynamic- and chemo-therapies achieve a 100% complete cure rate on both subcutaneous and orthotopic oral cancer models. This nanoplatform with powerful delivery efficiency and versatile theranostic functions shows enormous potentials to improve cancer treatment., Size and charge can significantly affect delivery of therapeutic agents to tumours. Here, the authors report on nanoparticles optimised for delivery to the tumour which release smaller particles and change charge in the tumour microenvironment to optimise tumour penetration and cellular uptake.

Thermal cameras can capture images invariant to illumination conditions. However, thermal facial images are difficult to be recognized by human examiners. In this letter, an end-to-end framework, which consists of a generative network and a detector network, is proposed to translate thermal facial images into visible ones. The generative network aims at generating visible images given the thermal ones. The detector can locate important facial landmarks on visible faces and help the generative network to generate more realistic images that are easier to be recognized. As demonstrated in the experiments, the faces generated by our method have good visual quality and maintain identity preserving features.

A promising but challenging problem for state-of-the-art solar cells is to persistently generate power in the daytime and dark. To address this profound issue, all-weather bifacial solar cells are built by combining long persistence phosphor (LPP) tailored fluorescent film with bifacial dye-sensitized solar cells. On behalf of the solar energy storage and fluorescent excitation behaviors of LPP phosphors, the so-called all-weather solar cells yield a maximized photoelectric conversion efficiency of 10.04% and a dark efficiency as high as 21%. Moreover, the newly launched all-weather solar cells with 32 modules can lighten a lamp, demonstrating a predictable application in future energy harvesting. The current work could also extend our knowledge to more advanced all-weather solar cells.

Despite its great promise in non-invasive treatment of cancers, magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound surgery (MRgFUS) is currently limited by the insensitivity of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for visualization of small tumors, low efficiency of invivo ultrasonic energy deposition, and damage to surrounding tissues. We hereby report the development of an active targeting nano-sized theranostic superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) platform for significantly increasing the imaging sensitivity and energy deposition efficiency using a clinical MRgFUS system. The surfaces of these PEGylated SPIO nanoparticles (NPs) were decorated with anti-EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) monoclonal antibodies (mAb) for targeted delivery to lung cancer with EGFR overexpression. The potential of these targeted nano-theranostic agents for MRI and MRgFUS ablation was evaluated invitro and invivo in a rat xenograft model of human lung cancer (H460). Compared with nontargeting PEGylated SPIO NPs, the anti-EGFR mAb targeted PEGylated SPIO NPs demonstrated better targeting capability to H460 tumor cells and greatly improved the MRI contrast at the tumor site. Meanwhile, this study showed that the targeting NPs, as synergistic agents, could significantly enhance the efficiency for invivo ultrasonic energy deposition in MRgFUS. Moreover, we demonstrated that a series of MR methods including T2-weighted image (T2WI), T1-weighted image (T1WI), diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and contrast-enhanced T1WI imaging, could be utilized to noninvasively and conveniently monitor the therapeutic efficacy in rat models by MRgFUS.

Superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) nanoparticles were extensively employed for theranostic applications, due to their good biocompatibility and excellent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) properties. However, these particles typically require surface modification due to their hydrophobic surfaces caused by the oil-phase surfactants used in the fabrication and the drug loading on their surface is usually limited. Here, we provided a novel and facile approach to conveniently perform surface modification of SPIO while simultaneously loading a large amount of drug. By synthesizing an amphiphilic irinotecan-based compound, which hydrophobic tail enabled to insert into the SPIOs assembly, an excellent SPIO-based theranostic nanomedicine (SPIO@IR) was formed. The SPIO@IR can not only extensively improve the drug efficacy, but also enable to visualize themselves by MRI in the biological system.

A novel capillary with high sensitivity and selectivity for mercury ion detection based on modified nanosize silica has been designed and synthesized. The obtained modified capillary was applied to separate and determine mercury ion by capillary electrophoresis with a laser-induced fluorescence detector. The optimal experimental conditions were determined by evaluating various controlling factors: running buffer hexamine-HCl 15 mmol L−1, pH=5.2, separation voltage 30 kV and temperature 25 °C. The modified capillary exhibited excellent sensitivity and selectivity for Hg2+ over other coexisting metal ions (K+, Ag+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Ba2+, Ni2+, Cd2+, Pb2+ and Zn2+ increased to 10000 times of Hg2+, Cu2+ increased to 5000 times) in aqueous solution, and was successfully applied to the determination of Hg2+ in natural water samples and displayed satisfactory results.

Theoretical understanding of the intrinsic mechanism for enhanced electrocatalytic activity and rational design for liquid-junction dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) are two persistent objectives in pursuing dual-functional counter electrode (CE) electrocatalysts with excellent electrochemical activity and stability. In the current work, we launch a strategy of synthesizing ternary platinum alloys (Pt-M-Ni, M = Co, Pd, Fe) CE and study on the synergistic effects of transition metals on catalytic activity. The preliminary results demonstrate that the ternary Pt-M-Ni alloy can markedly enhance the electrocatalytic behavior toward I3−, yielding maximum 8.71% efficiency in the optimized DSSC platforms in comparison with 7.10% for pure Pt based device.

The efficacy of therapeutics for brain tumors is seriously hampered by multiple barriers to drug delivery, including severe destabilizing effects in the blood circulation, the blood-brain barrier/blood-brain tumor barrier (BBB/BBTB), and limited tumor uptake. Here, a sequential targeting in crosslinking (STICK) nanodelivery strategy is presented to circumvent these important physiological barriers to improve drug delivery to brain tumors. STICK nanoparticles (STICK-NPs) can sequentially target BBB/BBTB and brain tumor cells with surface maltobionic acid (MA) and 4-carboxyphenylboronic acid (CBA), respectively, and simultaneously enhance nanoparticle stability with pH-responsive crosslinkages formed by MA and CBA in situ. STICK-NPs exhibit prolonged circulation time (17-fold higher area under curve) than the free agent, allowing increased opportunities to transpass the BBB/BBTB via glucose-transporter-mediated transcytosis by MA. The tumor acidic environment then triggers the transformation of the STICK-NPs into smaller nanoparticles and reveals a secondary CBA targeting moiety for deep tumor penetration and enhanced uptake in tumor cells. STICK-NPs significantly inhibit tumor growth and prolong the survival time with limited toxicity in mice with aggressive and chemoresistant diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma. This formulation tackles multiple physiological barriers on-demand with a simple and smart STICK design. Therefore, these features allow STICK-NPs to unleash the potential of brain tumor therapeutics to improve their treatment efficacy.

Monitoring of in vivo drug release from nan by non-invasive approaches Remains very challenging. Herein we report on novel redox-responsive polymeric magnetosomes (PolyMags) with tunable magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) properties for in vivo drug release monitoring and effective dual-modal cancer therapy. The encapsulation of doxorubicin (DOX) significantly decreased PolyMags’ T(2) contrast enhancement and transverse relaxation rate R(2), depending on the drug loading level. The T(2) enhancement and R(2) could be recovered once the drug was released upon PolyMags’ disassembly. T(2) & T(2)* MRI and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) were utilized to quantitatively study the correlation between MRI signal changes and drug release, and discover the MR tuning mechanisms. We visualized the in vivo drug release pattern based on such tunable MRI capability via monitoring the changes in T(2)-weighted images, T(2) & T(2)* maps and R(2) & R(2)* values. Interestingly, the PolyMags possessed excellent photothermal effect, which could be further enhanced upon DOX loading. The PolyMags were highly efficacious to treat breast tumors on xenograft model with tumor-targeted photothermal-and chemo-therapy, achieving a complete cure rate of 66.7%. The concept reported here is generally applicable to other micellar and liposomal systems for image-guided drug delivery & release applications toward precision cancer therapy.

Conventional drug delivery systems contain substantial amounts of excipients such as polymers and lipids, typically with low drug loading capacity and lack of intrinsic traceability and multifunctionality . Here, we report fully active pharmaceutical ingredient nanoparticles (FAPIN) which were self-assembled by minimal materials, but seamlessly orchestrated versatile theranostic functionalities including: i) self-delivery: no additional carriers were required, all components in the formulation are active pharmaceutical ingredients; ii) self-indicating: no additional imaging tags were needed. The nanoparticle itself was composed of 100% imaging agents , so that the stability, drug release, subcellular dispositions, biodistribution and therapeutic efficacy of FAPINs can be readily visualized by ample imaging capacities, including energy transfer relay dominated, dual-color fluorogenic property, near-infrared fluorescence imaging and magnetic resonance imaging; and iii) highly effective trimodality cancer therapy, encompassing photodynamic-, photothermal- and chemo-therapies . FAPINs were fabricated with very simple material (a photosensitizer-drug conjugate), unusually achieved ∼10 times better in vitro antitumor activity than their free counterparts, and were remarkably efficacious in patient-derived xenograft (PDX) glioblastoma multiforme animal models. Only two doses of FAPINs enabled complete ablation of highly-malignant PDX tumors in 50% of the mice.

A novel capillary for the high efficiency splitting of citalopram based on modified nanosize silica was designed and synthesized. The enantiomers of citalopram were separated within 10 min with a resolution (Rs) of 4.25.

An all-weather quasi-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cell is built using a long persistence phosphor tailored mesoscopic TiO2 photoanode and a three-dimensional conducting polymer gel electrolyte. The so-called all-weather solar cell yields a maximum efficiency of 28.7% in the dark, making a promising photovoltaic revolutionary for state-of-the-art photovoltaics.

The purpose of this study was to develop folic acid (FA)-modified iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles (NPs) for targeted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of H460 lung carcinoma cells. Water-dispersible Fe3O4 NPs synthesized via a mild reduction method were conjugated with FA to generate FA-targeted Fe3O4 NPs. The specificity of FA-targeted Fe3O4 NPs to bind FA receptor was investigated in vitro by cellular uptake and cell MRI and in vivo by MRI of H460 tumors. The formed NPs displayed good biocompatibility and ultrahigh r 2 relaxivity (440.01/mM/s). The targeting effect of the NPs to H460 cells was confirmed by in vitro cellular uptake and cell MRI. H460 tumors showed a significant reduction in T2 signal intensity at 0.85 h, which then recovered and returned to control at 2.35 h. The results indicate that the prepared FA-targeted Fe3O4 NPs have potential to be used as T2 negative contrast agents in targeted MRI.