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The inefficient and improper use of conventional pesticides has prompted the development of targeted and cost-effective pesticide delivery systems, which aim to optimize the efficient utilization of pesticides while minimizing environmental pollution in surrounding areas. In this paper, a dual-stimuli-responsive pesticide slow-release nanopesticide system (NES@DMONs@LGN) was designed in this study, utilizing mesoporous silica (DMONs) as a nanocarrier and lignin (LGN) as a capping agent to encapsulate the pesticide molecules within DMONs. This system enables intelligent release of pesticide molecules while preventing environmental pollution caused by leakage. Additionally, NES@DMONs@LGN exhibit excellent specific loading efficiency. The abundant hydrophilic functional groups in the lignin layer on the surface of NES@DMONs@LGN can establish hydrogen bonds with advanced fatty acids and fatty alcohols present in the waxy epidermis of plants, thereby significantly enhancing carrier wettability and adhesion. Typically, phytophagous lepidopteran pests have an alkaline midgut and possess lignin-degrading enzymes. The NES@DMONs@LGN developed in this study are capable of rapid release under high temperature and alkaline conditions. Therefore, the precise release of pesticide molecules in the target pests can be achieved, thus increasing the actual utilization rate of pesticides. The experimental results demonstrated that NES@DMONs@LGN effectively prevented photodegradation of the active ingredient after 48 h of UV irradiation, resulting in a 3.7-fold improvement in photostability and providing robust UV protection. By encapsulating pesticide molecules with nanocarriers, the release of pesticides in non-targeted environments can be prevented, thereby significantly reducing toxicity to zebrafish. Thus, this study provides a promising solution for sustainable greening of agriculture., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest There are no conflicts of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Traditional therapeutic regimens are currently far from satisfactory, and the integration of biocompatible carbohydrate polymers and nanotechnologies with conventional therapeutics has become a focus of research in cancer therapy. Herein, A novel biocompatible and pH-responsive nanohydrogel composed of two functional polymeric chains was developed from cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA), or dopamine (DPA). The biological molecules PDA and ALA were respectively conjugated to CNC through the coordination of iron ions to form two functional polymeric chains (PDA/Fe@CNC and ALA/Fe@CNC). The PDA/Fe@CNC chain increased the adhesion of the nanohydrogels to cells, while the ALA/Fe@CNC chain significantly increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Furthermore, PTX molecules loaded into the nanohydrogels combined with ROS to efficiently kill tumor cells. The nanohydrogels displayed excellent cell affinity, high ROS yield (8.0-fold greater than that in control), and strong cytotoxicity (2.7 % of cell viability). The present study highlights the great potential of biocompatible natural polysaccharide-based materials for biomedical applications, and provides a new strategy for reducing the toxicity and side effects associated with traditional chemotherapy, demonstrating a novel antitumor treatment paradigm with high-efficiency but with only minor side effects., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Reasonable management of the one-for-all nanoplatform can facilitate improved cancer therapy. Here, the metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) based on iron(iii) carboxylate material (MIL-101-NH 2 ) were in situ decorated on stabilized polydopamine nanoparticles (PDANPs), which subsequently loaded glucose oxidase (GOx) via hyaluronic acid (HA) coating to structure the one-for-all intelligent core-shell nanoparticles (HG-MIL@PDANPs). Because of the inner PDANPs, the HG-MIL@PDANPs could realize near-infrared (NIR)-controllable site-specific photothermal therapy (PTT). Additionally, the core-shell nanoparticles exhibited a pH-triggered and NIR-reinforced release of Fe 3+ and GOx owing to the controllable degradation of the outer shell. Hydroxyl radicals (˙OH) were produced for chemodynamic therapy (CDT) employing the Fe 2+ -driven Fenton reaction, which could be greatly promoted by Fe 3+ -involved glutathione (GSH) depletion and GOx-catalyzed acidity recovery and H 2 O 2 self-sufficiency. Moreover, the HA ligand could enhance the tumor accumulation of the HG-MIL@PDANPs through the long blood circulation time and CD44-targeted cell recognition. The ingenious integration of PTT and CDT in one fully equipped system presented excellent synergistic antitumor efficiency in vitro and in vivo with favorable biosafety. The one-for-all intelligent core-shell nanoparticles with CD44 targeting provide a new avenue for engineering on-demand tumor-specific therapy.

In this study, a versatile doxorubicin (DOX)-loaded yolk-shell nano-particles (HMCMD) assembled with manganese dioxide (MnO 2 ) as the core and copper sulfide (HMCuS) as the mesoporous (∼ 6.4 nm) shell, was designed and synthesized. The resulting HMCMD possess excellent photothermal conversion efficiency. The DOX release from the yolk-shell nanoparticles could be promoted by laser irradiation, which increased the chemotherapy of DOX. Meanwhile, Mn 2+ could be released from the HMCMD through a redox reaction between MnO 2 and abundant glutathione (GSH) in tumor cells. The released Mn 2+ could promote the decomposition of the intracellular hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) by Fenton-like reaction to generate the highly toxic hydroxyl radicals (·OH), thus exhibiting the effective chemodynamic therapy (CDT). Additionally, the efficiency of Mn 2+ -mediated CDT could be effectively enhanced by NIR irradiation. Further modification of polyethylene glycol (PEG) would improve the water solubility of the HMCMD to promote the uptake by MCF-7 cells. Hence, the HMCMD with synergistic effects of chemotherapy and chemodynamic/photothermal therapy would provide an alternative strategy in antitumor research., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) as a noninvasive therapy mode has attracted considerable attention in the field of oncotherapy. However, the PDT efficacy is restricted either by the tumor hypoxia environment or the inherent properties of photosensitizers (PSs) including bad water solution, photobleaching, and easy aggregation. Herein, we designed and synthesized a new two-dimensional (2D) metal-organic framework, Sm-tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin (TCPP) nanosheets, by assembling transition metal ions (Sm 3+ ) and PSs (TCPP), on which the catalase (CAT)-mimicking platinum nanozymes were then in situ grown for sufficient oxygen supply during PDT. The prepared Sm-TCPP with nanoplate morphology (∼100 nm in diameter) and ultrathin thickness (<10 nm) showed significantly enhanced 1 O 2 generation capacity due to the improved physicochemical properties and the enhanced intersystem crossing from heavy Sm nodes. More importantly, the CAT-mimicking Pt nanozyme on the Sm-TCPP nanosheets could effectively convert over-expressed H 2 O 2 in the tumor microenvironment into O 2 to relieve tumor hypoxia. Further, the triphenylphosphine (TPP) molecule was introduced to Sm-TCPP-Pt to develop a mitochondrion-targeting and O 2 self-supply PDT system. The in vitro and in vivo experimental results based on the MCF-7 breast cancer model revealed that Sm-TCPP-Pt/TPP could relieve tumor hypoxia and the generated reactive oxygen species nearby intracellular mitochondria significantly induced cell apoptosis. This study offers an engineering strategy to integrate 2D PS-based metal-organic frameworks and nanozymes into a nanoplatform to surmount the pitfalls of traditional PDT.

Hydrogel for various applications, such as cell encapsulation and controlled release of drugs, has attracted the field of biomaterials in the past decades. Specially, research on the surface-modified nanocellulose hydrogel has grown rapidly on account of the importance of target delivery in the anti-cancer therapy. In this work, surface-modified nanocellulose was mixed with hexadecyl amine as long chains to blend to build a network to produce hydrogel, which was successfully developed for controlled and targeted delivery of paclitaxel. The pH-stimuli surface-modified nanocellulose hydrogel was characterized and biological evaluated in vitro. The hydrogel was stable at pH 7.4 and paclitaxel was released by the shape change of hydrogel in an acidic environment (pH 5.5), and the sustained release of paclitaxel was observed at pH 5.5. The vitro cytotoxicity studies indicated that the drug accumulation and the inhibition of A549 and HepG2 cells was effectively increased by the surface-modified nanocellulose hydrogel as compared with free paclitaxel. The inhibitory effect of A549 cells was improved by nearly 30% as compared with free paclitaxel and the apoptosis rate was up to 90.5% after 12 h incubation. In addition, the inversion test and the results of a series of cell experiments in vitro demonstrated a good performance of the surface-modified nanocellulose hydrogel., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Breaking the threshold of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels can cause nonspecific oxidative damage to proteins and lead to the Fenton reaction-mediated exogenous ROS production to be a new promising anticancer strategy. However, the problems, including the inefficient transport of metal catalysts and insufficient endogenous hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) content in cells, still need to be improved. In this study, a functional nanosystem encapsulated with benzothiazole complexes (FeTB 2 ) and the photosensitizer indocyanine green (ICG) was designed for highly effective antitumor therapy. The surface of the nanocarriers was modified with dihydroartemisinin (DHA)-grafted polyglutamic acid. The induced hyperthermia enables the lipid-polymer shell to depolymerize, releasing FeTB 2 . The released FeTB 2 could kill tumor cells in two different ways by inhibiting DNA replication and catalyzing H 2 O 2 to produce active •OH. Moreover, the conjugated DHA could increase the amount of peroxides in tumor cells and significantly enhance the ROS yield. This work has provided solid evidence that the present nanosystem enables a significant effect on tumor killing through the combined inhibition of DNA replication and ROS-mediated oxidative damage by regulation of the tumor microenvironment, providing a ROS-mediated high-efficiency antitumor strategy.

Recently, the emergence of cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) like TAT has greatly improved the efficiency of cancer therapy by enhancing cellular uptake of nanomaterials. Here, we designed a near-infrared (NIR) triggered TAT-based targeted nanoplatform (cRGD@TAT-DINPs), which co-delivered anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX) and biocompatible dye indocyanine green (ICG) to realize combined chemo/photothermal/photodynamic therapy of cancer in vitro. The resulting nanoparticles showed favorable monodispersity and colloidal stability. Impressively, the DOX could be released in a promoted manner once the nanoparticles were exposed to NIR light. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and flow cytometry analysis demonstrated an immensely enhanced cellular accumulation of DOX after the simultaneous introduction of targeted ligand cRGD and CPP TAT. In addition, the obtained nanoparticles exhibited explosive temperature elevation and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation mediated by encapsulated ICG under NIR irradiation, and in vitro cytotoxicity assay confirmed the cRGD@TAT-DINPs had an increasing cytotoxicity and excellent synergistic inhibition capacity. Thus, TAT-based nanosystems provide a high-efficient drug delivery strategy for optimizing combined therapy efficiency of cancer., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Tumor cells experience higher chemotherapy stress under condition of elevated temperature. As a result, developing novel nanoagents that integrates chemotherapy and thermotherapy holds great promise in biomedicine. Herein, utilizing spatially confined galvanic replacement method, we fabricated a yolk-shell Au@mSiO 2 nanoframes with Au NPs and mesoporous silica as yolk and shell, respectively, to sever as an excellent drug nanocarrier with effective photothermal conversion efficiency. Taking full advantage of the high temperature response of the Au@mSiO 2 nanoframes, the phase change material 1-tetradecanol (TD) was creatively employed as gatekeepers, intelligently controlling the release of loaded agents. Then, the actively targeted Alanine-Alanine-Asparagine, legumain-recognizable oligopeptides was decorated on the surface of the prepared nanoframes. Upon exposure to near-infrared light, the GC-PtAu@mSiO 2 -TD nanoframes not only exhibited a high localized temperature response, but also triggered the quick release of loaded cargos, and thus improved the chemotherapeutic efficacy. The in vitro cytotoxicity studies indicated the remarkable synergistic effects. Meanwhile, the laser confocal studies and flow cytometry showed the oligopeptides facilitated the intracellular uptake of GC-PtAu@mSiO 2 -TD nanoframes in MGC-803 cells. Our study highlighted the great potential of the GC-PtAu@mSiO 2 -TD nanoframes in drug delivery and the combination of chemotherapy and photothermal therapy., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticle was suggested to be a new and promising drug delivery agent due to the suitable particle size and controllable release. However, the low drug loading capacity has been a critical problem in the improvement of the nano-carrier systems. At present work, we have designed and developed smart nanoparticles with cholesterol-cisplatin (IV) conjugate contained to enhance the drug loading capacity. The predesigned drug delivery system showed enhanced synergistic effect through co-delivery of cisplatin and Ce6 and the drug released in a controllable way due to the polyaniline mediated photothermal conversion. The prepared polyaniline nanoparticles showed a favorable particle size of 109.6 nm and spread harmoniously in aqueous solution. Moreover, the near infrared radiation (NIR) stimulus-responsive characteristic of the polyaniline nanoparticles prompts the release of cisplatin from the nanoparticles inside the cytoplasm and the αvβ3/αvβ5 integrins targeted ligands (cRGD) enhanced the cellular uptake of the polyaniline nanoparticles in receptor-overexpressing MCF-7 cells. Furthermore, the singlet oxygen generated by Ce6 further enhances the cytotoxicity and obtained the expected synergistic effect with cisplatin. Thus, the prepared cRGD-conjugated co-delivery of cisplatin and Ce6 polyaniline nanoparticles consider to be a promising nanoplatform in nano-biomedicine., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A combination of photothermal-chemotherapy has received widespread attention in drug delivery systems for cancer treatment. However, the combination therapy operated in subcellular organelles, such as mitochondria, has been rarely reported. Herein, we designed a novel near-infrared (NIR) triggered dual-targeted nanoplatform (FA/TPP-DINPs) based on mitochondrial combined photothermal-chemotherapy by co-loading FDA-approved NIR dye indocyanine green (ICG) and anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX). The resulting nanoparticles showed a monodispersed sphere and excellent colloidal stability. Specially, the simultaneous introduction of targeted ligands folic acid (FA) and triphenylphosphine (TPP) to nanoparticles significantly promoted the cellular internalization and mitochondrial co-localization of nanoparticles. Moreover, the encapsulated dye could convert NIR light into heat with high efficiency, which makes the FA/TPP-DINPs an effective platform for mitochondrial combination therapy with chemotherapy drug DOX. Meanwhile, the thermal expansion in response to the change of temperature after sustained 808 nm laser irradiation could cause the disintegration of nanoparticles, which triggered the rapid release of DOX from nanoparticles. As expected, the prepared FA/TPP-DINPs exhibited evidently enhanced cytotoxicity and preeminent combination therapy efficiency on MCF-7 cells. Thus, the NIR triggered dual-targeted nanoplatform provides a new drug delivery strategy for mitochondrial combined photothermal-chemotherapy of cancer.

Functional drug delivery systems enabling various favorable characteristics including specific targets, efficient cellular uptake and controllable release. At present work, a folate and cRGD dual modified nanoparticles based on NIR light and glutathione dual stimuli-responsive release system was successfully prepared and which simultaneously deliver cisplatin and ICG to tumor sites to enhance controllability. The prepared nanoparticles showed a stable uniform spherical morphology of 77.59 nm particle size range in PBS (pH = 7.4, 25 °C) and the encapsulated cisplatin were rapidly released in acidic environment especially added glutathione (GSH) and NIR irradiation. Moreover, the prepared nanoparticles can be efficiently internalized by tumor cells through the enhanced dual targeted ligands (folate and cRGD) for ICG imaging. The cytotoxicity assays showed that the cells viability decreased to 1.95% (SGC-7901) when been exposed to NIR light, and which further decreased to 1.25% in MCF-7 cells. Thus, the prepared nanoparticles showed excellent performance for photothermal conversion therapy of tumor cells and especially on human breast tumor cells. Our research highlights the great potential of stimuli-responsive smart nanoparticles in biomaterial and nano-biomedicine., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The functionalized nanoparticles have been widely studied and reported as carriers of drug transport recently. Furthermore, many groups have focused more on developing novel and efficient treatment methods, such as photodynamic therapy and photothermal therapy, since both therapies have shown inspiring potential in the application of antitumor. The mentioned treatments exhibited the superiority of cooperative manner and showed the ability to compensate for the adverse effects caused by conventional monotherapy in proposed strategies. In view of the above descriptions, we formulated a thermosensitive drug delivery system, which achieved the enhanced delivery of cisplatin and two photosensitizers (ICG and Ce6) by dual-targeting traction. Drawing on the thin film hydration method, cisplatin and photosensitizers were encapsulated inside nanoparticles. Meanwhile, the targeting peptide cRGD and targeting molecule folate can be modified on the surface of nanoparticles to realize the active identification of tumor cells. The measurements of dynamic light scattering showed that the prepared nanoparticles had an ideal dispersibility and uniform particle size of 102.6 nm. On the basis of the results observed from confocal laser scanning microscope, the modified nanoparticles were more efficient endocytosed by MCF-7 cells as a contrast to SGC-7901 cells. Photothermal conversion-triggered drug release and photo-therapies produced a significant apoptosis rate of 85.9% on MCF-7 cells. The distinguished results made it believed that the formulated delivery system had conducted great efforts and innovations for the realization of concise collaboration and provided a promising strategy for the treatment of breast cancer.

A novel core-shell type nanoparticle (CSNP) was designed here to target co-delivery of doxorubicin (DOX) and photosensitizer indocyanine green (ICG) to tumor sites by the aid of NIR induced photothermal conversion effect for the purpose of synergistic chemo-photothermal cancer therapy. The electrostatically self-assembled CSNPs were prepared by amino-functionalized mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN-NH 2 ) as the positive inner core and DSPE-PEG 2000 -COOH and DSPE-PEG 2000 -FA modified lecithin as the negative outer shell. The obtained CSNPs were nanospheres with a uniform size of 47 nm, which were kept stable at 4 °C in PBS (pH = 7). Research on the release of NIR stimulus (808 nm, 1.54 W cm -2 , 6 min) manifested that the release property of the CSNPs was controllable under low pH conditions. In addition, specific concentration (40 μg ml -1 ) ICG-loaded CSNPs, achieving an appropriate temperature up to 45 °C, indicated a desired photothermal conversion efficiency. For targeting the folate receptor, the folate modified CSNPs enabled us to reach a higher cellular uptake by the mean fluorescence intensity. In vitro cell assay, the prepared CSNPs showed outstanding inhibitory efficiency (2.07% cell viability and 91.8% cell apoptosis) on MCF-7 cells for 24 h when irradiated by an 808 nm laser with a power of 1.54 W cm -2 for 6 min. Our research highlights that the prepared nanoparticles hold potential promise for cancer treatment based on photothermal conversion performance and FA-targeted delivery.

A combination of chemotherapy and photothermal therapy as a promising strategy has exhibited noticeable therapeutic effect on cancer therapy. To ensure the exertion of synergistic effect on a tumor region, a multifunctional vehicle for selectively delivering therapeutic agent into tumor cells is highly desirable. Thus, folate-poly (ethylene glycol)-distearoylphosphatidylcholine (FA-PEG-DSPE), cRGD [cyclic (Arg-Gly-Asp-D-Phe-Lys)]-PEG-DSPE and lecithin were employed to develop dual modified nanoparticles (FA/cRGD-PNPs) encapsulating polyaniline and cisplatin by a film-ultrasonic dispersion method. The FA/cRGD-PNPs showed a uniform size of 102.7 nm, remarkable stability and monodispersity, and highly localized temperature respond. Compared to chemo or photothermal treatment alone, the combined treatment on cells in vitro significantly suppressed the survival rate of MDA-MB-231 cells (1.87%) and MGC-803 cells (2.37%) treated for 48 h. The results further indicated the induced cell apoptosis rate of MDA-MB-231 cells reached to 92.6% with treatment for 24 h. Hence, our research highlights the great potential in drug delivery and the combination of chemotherapy and photothermal therapy.

Polymeric biomaterials that can be smartly disassembled through the cleavage of the covalent bonds in a controllable way upon an environmental stimulus such as pH change, redox, special enzymes, temperature, or ultrasound, as well as light irradiation, but are otherwise stable under normal physiological conditions have attracted great attention in recent decades. The 2-(4-aminophenyl) benzothiazole molecule (CJM-126), as one of the benzothiazole derivatives, has exhibited a synergistic effect with cisplatin (CDDP) and restrains the bioactivities of a series of human breast cancer cell lines. In our study, novel NIR-responsive targeted binary-drug-loaded nanoparticles encapsulating indocyanine green (ICG) dye were prepared as a new co-delivery and combined therapeutic vehicle. The prepared drug-loaded polymeric nanoparticles (TNPs/CDDP-ICG) are stable under normal physiological conditions, while burst drugs release upon NIR laser irradiation in a mild acidic environment. The results further confirmed that the designed co-delivery platform showed higher cytotoxicity than the single free CDDP due to the synergistic treatment of CJM-126 and CDDP in vitro. Taken together, the work might provide a promising approach for effective site-specific antitumor therapy.

Cisplatin is a potent antitumor drug, which is widely applied in clinical cancer treatment. However, cisplatin can hardly distinguish between healthy tissue and tumor tissue, resulting in serious toxic side effects. Indocyanine green (ICG) is a FDA-approved near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence dye which has been used in photothermal therapy and optically mediated diagnostic, but the application of ICG is limited by its concentration-dependent aggregation, poor aqueous stability in vitro, lack of target specificity and rapid elimination from the body. Herein, to overcome these limitations of cisplatin and ICG, we fabricated folate-modified, cisplatin, ICG-loaded lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles (FCINPs) using a single-step sonication method. The FCINPs exhibited well-defined monodispersity, significant stability and excellent NIR penetration ability. The intracellular uptake experiment showed that the targeting efficacy of the FCINPs was more effective in folate receptors (FRs) over-expressing MCF-7 cells than FRs negative A549 cells. In addition, compared with chemo or photothermal treatment alone, the treatment of FCINPs in combination with 808 nm NIR laser irradiation can significantly induce the apoptosis and necrosis of MCF-7 cells. These findings indicated that the FCINPs would be a promising nanosized drug formulation for tumor-targeted therapy in the future.

The near-infrared (NIR)-mediated novel strategy to control the drug release from nanocarriers has developed rapidly in recent decades. Polyaniline as a non-cytotoxic and electroactive material for studying cellular proliferation has attracted great attention in recent years. In the present work, polyaniline-mediated polymeric nanoparticles were developed to target the delivery of cisplatin and release it in a controllable way. The prepared polyaniline nanoparticles displayed a size of 90 ± 1.0 nm, a favorable morphology in water, and could be targeted to tumors through the high affinity between trastuzumab and the overexpressed Her2 in tumor cells. In addition, the developed nanoparticles demonstrated exciting photothermal conversion efficiency induced by NIR light and achieved significant cell inhibition efficiency (93.97%) in vitro when exposed to an 808 nm NIR laser with the power of 1.54 W for 5 min. Therefore, the developed external control release delivery system with excellent specificity and high cytotoxicity exhibited great potential in cell research and our research demonstrated that the polyaniline also has potential in the application of photothermal conversion in biomedicine.

Biodegradable polymeric nanoparticles have received growing interest as one of the most promising agents for drug delivery. In the present work, functional and core-crosslinked poly(ethylene glycol) with poly(ϵ-caprolactone) (PEG 5k -PCL 10k ) block copolymer and lecithin as biodegradable polymer doped with polyaniline was used to assemble nanoparticles which were prepared for targeted delivery and controlled release of cisplatin. The morphology of the polyaniline nanoparticles was determined by dynamic light scattering and the prepared nanoparticles showed a size of 83(±1) nm and a uniform spherical shape. For targeting to HER2 receptors, Herceptin was applied to guide the nanoparticles to breast cancer cells. Studies on cellular uptake and drug release of the nanocarriers showed that the prepared nanoparticles were efficiently taken up by breast cancer cells and the drug was released efficiently under acidic conditions when exposed to a near-infrared laser (808 nm, 1.54 W) for 5 min. Our research highlights the great potential of near-infrared light and pH dual-responsive release by core-crosslinked nanoparticles in nanobiomedicine., (© 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

Antibiotic resistance is increasing to dangerous levels across the globe. A growing list of bacterial infections that lead to blood poisoning or foodborne diseases are becoming challenging to treat due to the loss of antibiotic efficacy. Studies on the antibacterial performance of Ag nanoparticles and other transitional metal oxides have gained increasing attention as an alternative therapeutic strategy. In this study, NiCo2O4 and Ag/NiCo2O4 composites with different contents of Ag were synthesized through a simple co-precipitation method. The composites were assessed via transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results demonstrated that the morphology of NiCo2O4 was unaffected by the addition of Ag. The NiCo2O4 and Ag/NiCo2O4 composites with different contents of Ag showed a suitable size of approximately 10 nm. The NiCo2O4 and Ag/NiCo2O4 composites displayed potent activity against a range of disease-causing bacteria. The Ag/NiCo2O4 composites with low Ag content displayed weak antibacterial activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The complexes of the type [PtCl(L2)(ACRAMTU)](NO 3) 2 (ACRAMTU = 1-[2-(acridin-9-ylamino)ethyl]-1,3-dimethylthiourea) were synthesized: PT-ACRAMTU (1), L2 = ethane-1,2-diamine (en); PT(dach)-ACRAMTU (2), L2 = (1 R ,2 R)-1,2-diaminocyclohexane (dach); PT(pda-OH)-ACRAMTU (3), L2 = 2-hydroxy-1,3-propanediamine (pda-OH). The complexes containing diverse diamines exhibit different DNA binding capacity and cytotoxicity. Complex 3 shows excellent capability not only on the strongest non-cisplatin-type DNA damage, but also superior anticancer activity in NCI-H460 cells (IC 50 = 0.23 ± 0.05 μM). For overcoming water insolubly and side effects, we encapsulated complex 3 into liposomes. PT@NPs were characterized in terms of particle size, morphology, drug loading capacity (DLC), encapsulation efficiency (EE) and stability. In vitro triggered release showed that the release of the platinum drug was steerable and the release rate was fast under low pH (<7.0) and high temperature (> T m = 41 °C). PT@NPs showed significant inhibitory effect in NCI-H460 cells. Flow cytometry analysis indicates G0/G1 phase arrest of cells treated with complex 3 , whereas cells treated with cisplatin progress to G2/M of the cell cycle. The mechanistic differences validate that complex 3 is a potent anticancer agent superior than current clinical platinum-based therapies. PT@NPs have the potential in drug delivery systems (DDS) for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The functionalized nanoparticles have been widely studied and reported as carriers of drug transport recently. Furthermore, many groups have focused more on developing novel and efficient treatment methods, such as photodynamic therapy and photothermal therapy, since both therapies have shown inspiring potential in the application of antitumor. The mentioned treatments exhibited the superiority of cooperative manner and showed the ability to compensate for the adverse effects caused by conventional monotherapy in proposed strategies. In view of the above descriptions, we formulated a thermosensitive drug delivery system, which achieved the enhanced delivery of cisplatin and two photosensitizers (ICG and Ce6) by dual-targeting traction. Drawing on the thin film hydration method, cisplatin and photosensitizers were encapsulated inside nanoparticles. Meanwhile, the targeting peptide cRGD and targeting molecule folate can be modified on the surface of nanoparticles to realize the active identification of tumor cells. The measurements of dynamic light scattering showed that the prepared nanoparticles had an ideal dispersibility and uniform particle size of 102.6 nm. On the basis of the results observed from confocal laser scanning microscope, the modified nanoparticles were more efficient endocytosed by MCF-7 cells as a contrast to SGC-7901 cells. Photothermal conversion-triggered drug release and photo-therapies produced a significant apoptosis rate of 85.9% on MCF-7 cells. The distinguished results made it believed that the formulated delivery system had conducted great efforts and innovations for the realization of concise collaboration and provided a promising strategy for the treatment of breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cisplatin is a potent antitumor drug, which is widely applied in clinical cancer treatment. However, cisplatin can hardly distinguish between healthy tissue and tumor tissue, resulting in serious toxic side effects. Indocyanine green (ICG) is a FDA-approved near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence dye which has been used in photothermal therapy and optically mediated diagnostic, but the application of ICG is limited by its concentration-dependent aggregation, poor aqueous stabilityin vitro, lack of target specificity and rapid elimination from the body. Herein, to overcome these limitations of cisplatin and ICG, we fabricated folate-modified, cisplatin, ICG-loaded lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles (FCINPs) using a single-step sonication method. The FCINPs exhibited well-defined monodispersity, significant stability and excellent NIR penetration ability. The intracellular uptake experiment showed that the targeting efficacy of the FCINPs was more effective in folate receptors (FRs) over-expressing MCF-7 cells than FRs negative A549 cells. In addition, compared with chemo or photothermal treatment alone, the treatment of FCINPs in combination with 808 nm NIR laser irradiation can significantly induce the apoptosis and necrosis of MCF-7 cells. These findings indicated that the FCINPs would be a promising nanosized drug formulation for tumor-targeted therapy in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]