Recently, magnetic nanomaterials have emerged as multifunctional materials for a wide range of biomedical applications. Functional magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (FMIONs) are typical magnetic nanomaterials with inherent advantages for disease diagnosis, prevention, and treatment: high specific surface area, excellent superparamagnetism, good colloidal stability, and remarkable biosafety. Therefore, FMION‐based biomedicine has advanced at an unprecedented rate in recent years. However, the performance of FMIONs cannot yet meet complicated physiological circumstances. To overcome these limitations, researchers have designed and manipulated the geometric shapes, sizes, compositions, and surfaces to endow these FMIONs with high performance. This review summarizes recent advances in the controlled synthesis of FMIONs, cover corresponding theories of nucleation and growth in solution, and the tuning of FMION properties for disease diagnosis and therapy. After discussing the biomedical applications in cancer theranostics—tumor hyperthermia, magnetic resonance imaging and drug delivery system—in detail, the review concludes with current challenges and outlooks for the development of FMIONs.

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a common oral cancer of the head and neck, which causes tremendous physical and mental pain to people. Traditional chemotherapy usually results in drug resistance and side effects, affecting the therapy process. In this study, a self-powered electrical impulse chemotherapy (EIC) method based on a portable triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) was established for OSCC therapy. A common chemotherapeutic drug, doxorubicin (DOX), was used in the experiment. The TENG designed with zigzag structure had a small size of 6 cm × 6 cm, which could controllably generate the fixed output of 200 V, 400 V and 600 V. The electrical impulses generated by the TENG increased the cell endocytosis of DOX remarkably. Besides, a simply and ingeniously designed microneedle electrode increased the intensity of electric field (EF) between two adjacent microneedle tips compared with the most used planar interdigital electrode at the same height, which was more suitable for three-dimensional (3D) cells or tissues. Based on the TENG, microneedle electrode and DOX, the self-powered EIC system demonstrated a maximal apoptotic cell ratio of 22.47% and a minimum relative 3D multicellular tumor sphere (MCTS) volume of 160% with the drug dosage of 1 μg mL⁻¹.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA), as a common pathogen of nosocomial infections, has been experiencing an increasing rate of drug resistance with the widespread use and abuse of antimicrobial drugs. High-drug-resistance and high-virulence phenotypes are two distinctive features of the strong pathogenicity of multi-drug-resistant PA. Exploring the characterization of virulence factor expression and its relationship with the multi-drug resistance phenotype is essential to reduce the further development of resistance as well as a high standard of infection prevention and control. A total of 50 PA isolated from clinical practice were collected. The Kirby-Bauer test was used for drug-sensitive screening, and the results showed that 16 strains were resistant and 16 strains were sensitive. The drug resistance rate of multi-drug-resistant PA against cefepime, cefazolin, ampicillin, and imipenem was up to 100%. The multi-drug-resistant groups were superior in producing pyocyanin and forming biofilm to the sensitive groups. The distribution of isolates with different swarming motility capacities and elastase levels did not show pronounced differences among the multi-drug-resistant and sensitive groups. In addition, biofilm formation was moderately associated with imipenem resistance. Among the strains with strong virulence factor expression, the gene bands showed little difference, suggesting that the gene is highly homologous. The virulence factor matrix analysis showed that there were different degrees of correlation among the 4 virulence factors. The correlation between multidrug-resistant PA and virulence factor expression is complex. PA, which were good at producing pyocyain and forming biofilm, were highly resistant to cephalosporins, beta-lactams and carbepenems; hence, such drugs are not proper for anti-infective treatment in clinics.

Sour soup is a traditional plant-based fermented food from Qiandongnan Prefecture, Guizhou Province, China. It is divided into two types: white sour soup and red sour soup. White sour soup is made by semi-anaerobic fermentation of oryza sativa var. glutinosa washing water in earthenware jars for 7-10 days. Red sour soup is prepared by crushing and mixing solanum lycopersicum, red capsicum annuum, and zingiber officinale with oryza sativa var. glutinosa washing water at a ratio of 3:1:0.5:5, followed by semi-anaerobic fermentation for 10-15 days. To date, no study has systematically compared the bacterial community and functional differences between the two types of sour soup. In this study, six samples of each type were analyzed by 16 S rRNA gene sequencing and PICRUSt2 functional prediction. The results showed that their community structures were significantly separated (p < 0.05). White sour soup was dominated by Proteobacteria (93.66%) and enriched with Lactobacillus (LDA = 3.63), Acetobacter (LDA = 5.67), and Clostridiales (LDA = 4.21). Red sour soup exhibited higher diversity, with Proteobacteria decreasing to 39.09% and co-existing with multiple other phyla including Chloroflexota (19.72%), and specifically enriched with Akkermansia (LDA = 4.26). Functionally, white sour soup showed higher predicted abundances in host circulatory system (FC = 3.26, p < 0.001) and host immune system (FC = 1.65, p < 0.01) pathways, whereas red sour soup showed higher abundance in the host digestive system pathway (FC = 0.46, p < 0.01). This study systematically reveals, for the first time, raw material-driven bacterial differentiation and provides a theoretical foundation for the functional development of traditional fermented foods.