LBP-4a exhibits protective effects on KBrO 3 -induced renal damage, and the mechanism correlates with the increase of oxidation resistance in renal cells.
Bone defects are complex in etiology, extensive in scope, and associated with local microenvironmental disruption, leading to issues such as donor site complications, poor biocompatibility, and inadequate functional recovery with traditional treatment methods (e.g., autologous bone transplantation, metal implants). Bone repair scaffolds have garnered widespread attention due to their excellent biomimetic properties and high repair efficiency. With the advantages of personalization, high-precision manufacturing and complex structure forming, 3D printing technology has shown great potential for application in the field of bone restoration. In contrast to conventional bone scaffolds, responsive scaffolds emulate the dynamic environment of the natural extracellular matrix, which can produce controlled effects in responding to stimuli, hence promoting cell multiplication and differentiation and bone regeneration. This review introduces the study of human bone structure and defects, summarizes the 3D printing technologies of preparing bone scaffolds, concludes the characteristics and applicability of different 3D printing technologies, then the applications of light, piezoelectric, temperature, immune, magnetic, and enzyme-responsive scaffolds in the field of bone repair are summarized according to the types of responses of bone scaffolds to various types of stimuli in the human body, and finally the problems faced by responsive scaffolds in the process of clinical translation are pointed out.
Quercetin is a well-known flavonoid for its potent antitumor and antiproliferative effects on a wide range of human cancer cell lines. However, the delivery of quercetin is challenging due to its extreme insolubility in water. The intention of this study was to evaluate the antitumor effect of quercetin-loaded PEGylated liposomes (PEG-Que-NLs) in vitro and in vivo. We first prepared PEG-Que-NLs by method of thin film hydration; further determined, the optimum ratios of quercetin to Soybean phosphatidylcholine (SPC), to cholesterol (CHL), and to PEG-4000 were 1 : 8, 1 : 2, and 1 : 2 ( ), respectively, and the optimal hydration temperature was 55°C when the mean vesicle diameter and apparent Zeta potential of PEG-Que-NLs were found to be nm and mV, respectively; the encapsulation efficiency and the drug loading of PEG-Que-NLs were and , respectively. Drug release study in vitro showed that PEG-Que-NLs exhibited a slow-release effect without significant burst effect. Furthermore, the inhibition effect of PEG-Que-NLs on HeLa cells was considerably higher than free quercetin (free-Que) and quercetin liposomes (Que-NLs). Intravenous injection of PEG-Que-NLs into U14 bearing mouse models inhibited the cervical carcinoma growth significantly, and the tumor inhibition rate was much higher than free-Que and Que-NLs. These results of this study indicated that PEG-Que-NLs exhibited potential application prospects in the treatment of malignant tumors because of its tumor targeting, slow-release properties, and the solubility improvement of quercetin.
Lung cancer is by far the leading cause of cancer death in the world. Despite the improvements in diagnostic methods, the status of early detection was not achieved. So, a new diagnostic method is needed. The aim of this study is to obtain the highly specific nucleic acid aptamers with strong affinity to tumor markers in the serum of the lung cancer patients for targeting the serum. Aptamers specifically binding to tumor markers in the serum of the lung cancer patients were screened from the random single-stranded DNA library with agarose beads as supports and the serum as a target by target-substituting subtractive SELEX technique and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction technique. Subsequently, the secondary single-stranded DNA library obtained by 10 rounds of screening was amplified to double-stranded DNA, followed by high-throughput genome sequence analysis to screen aptamers with specific affinity to tumor markers in the serum of the lung cancer patients. Finally, six aptamers obtained by 10 rounds of screening were identified with high specific affinity to tumor markers in the serum of the lung cancer patients. Compared with other five aptamers, the aptamer 43 was identified both with the highest specificity to bind target molecule and without any obvious affinity to non-specific proteins. The screened aptamers have relatively high specificity to combine tumor markers in the serum of the lung cancer patients, which provides breakthrough points for early diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer.
Colorectal cancer is one of the common causes of malignant tumors in recent years, thus the discovery of potential compounds that detect the occurrence of colorectal cancer by efficient approaches is necessary. In this study, the method of systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) was used for recognizing serum from colorectal cancer patients by a single-stranded DNA library of aptamers assisted by single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) to remove single-stranded DNA with low affinity. Ten rounds of selection were applied using colorectal cancer serum as a target with the serum of healthy individuals as a control. As the result, we have successfully identified four candidate aptamers after high-throughput genome sequencing analysis, comparison analysis and secondary structure prediction. Among them, aptamer Seq-2 exhibited the highest affinity and the strongest selectivity with an equilibrium dissociation constant (Kd) of 11.31 ± 3.25 nM and a Ct difference value of 4.25 ± 0.38 between the colorectal cancer group and the healthy group. Moreover, with fifty negative control serum samples, the positive detection rate of fifty positive serum samples tested by aptamer Seq-2 was over 90%. In particular, aptamer Seq-2 can strongly bind the colorectal cancer serum, less strongly bind the non-colon cancer serum and hardly bind the healthy serum. Therefore, aptamer Seq-2 presents enormous potential for exploring as a tumor diagnostic kit and detecting unknown tumor markers in serum to reflect colorectal cancer.