Cancer vaccines based on resected tumors from patients have gained great interest as an individualized cancer treatment strategy. However, eliciting a robust therapeutic effect with personalized vaccines remains a challenge because of the weak immunogenicity of autologous tumor antigens. Utilizing exogenous prokaryotic constituents that act as adjuvants to enhance immunogenicity is a promising strategy to overcome this limitation. However, nonspecific stimulation of the immune system may elicit an undesirable immunopathological state. To specifically trigger sufficient antitumor reactivity without notable adverse effects, we developed an antigen and adjuvant codelivery nanoparticle vaccine based on Escherichia coli cytoplasmic membranes (EMs) and tumor cell membranes (TMs) from resected autologous tumor tissue. Introduction of the EM into the hybrid membrane nanoparticle vaccines (HM-NPs) induced dendritic cell maturation, thus activating splenic T cells. HM-NPs showed efficacy in immunogenic CT26 colon and 4T1 breast tumor mouse models and also efficiently induced tumor regression in B16-F10 melanoma and EMT6 breast tumor mouse models. Furthermore, HM-NPs provoked a strong tumor-specific immune response, which not only extended postoperative animal survival but also conferred long-term protection (up to 3 months) against tumor rechallenge in a CT26 colon tumor mouse model. Specific depletion of different immune cell populations revealed that CD8⁺ T and NK cells were crucial to the vaccine-elicited tumor regression. Individualized autologous tumor antigen vaccines based on effective activation of the innate immune system by bacterial cytoplasmic membranes hold great potential for personalized treatment of postoperative patients with cancer.

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are widespread inflammatory diseases that cause debilitating health problems including cancer. In this study, we show that ZnO nanoparticle (ZnONP) treatment has markedly dose-dependent effects on the remission of dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced ulcerative colitis in mice. We demonstrate the mechanism involves the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory abilities of ZnONPs to suppress ROS and malondialdehyde (MDA) production; increase GSH level; suppress proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β and TNF-α and myeloperoxidase (MPO). The ZnONP treatment is able to activate the Nrf2 pathway in the cellular antioxidant defense system. The novel finding is that ZnONP combined with mesalazine (5-ASA) can enhance the therapeutic efficacy of 5-ASA in the treatment of DSS-induced colitis. Lastly, we found that ZnONP treatment can restore the changes in special colonic bacteria of DSS-mice while the drug 5-ASA cannot. These results indicate that ZnONPs can act as a medical additive for the therapy of IBD.

Novel single cell techniques are attracting growing interest for clinical applications, because they can elucidate the cellular diversity and heterogeneity instead of the average masked by bulk measurements. Herein, time-resolved ICP-MS for the determination of essential mineral elements in single cells has been developed and is used to analyze the contents and distribution patterns of Fe, Cu, Zn, Mn, P and S in two types of cancer cells (HeLa and A549) and one type of normal cells (16HBE). The results show that there are obvious differences in contents and distribution patterns of the elements among the three types of cells. The mass of Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn, P, and S in individual HeLa cells is significantly higher and span a broader range of values than in the single 16HBE and A549 cells. The contents of Fe, Zn, and Cu follow log-normal distributions, and Mn, P, and S follow Poisson distributions with high λ values in single HeLa cells, indicating a large cell-to-cell variance. Comparatively, the contents of Cu, Zn, P, and S in 16HBE cells show the narrowest distribution range among the three tested cells, demonstrating the homogenous distribution of the elements in the cells. The method of single cell ICP-MS (SC-ICP-MS) provides potential applications for the monitoring of the variation of mineral elements at a single cell level.

The first poly(β-amino) esters (PβAEs) were synthesized more than 40 years ago. Since 2000, PβAEs have been found to have excellent biocompatibility and the capability of ferrying gene molecules. Moreover, the synthesis process of PβAEs is simple, the monomers are readily available, and the polymer structure can be tailored to meet different gene delivery needs by adjusting the monomer type, monomer ratio, reaction time, etc. Therefore, PβAEs are a promising class of non-viral gene vector materials. This review paper presents a comprehensive overview of the synthesis and correlated properties of PβAEs and summarizes the progress of each type of PβAE for gene delivery. The review focuses in particular on the rational design of PβAE structures, thoroughly discusses the correlations between intrinsic structure and effect, and then finishes with the applications and perspectives of PβAEs.