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Hybrid organic–inorganic formamidinium lead halide perovskite nanocrystals can be synthesized through a solid–liquid–solid cation exchange reaction.

Self-assembly of nanocrystals is a promising route for creating macroscale materials that derive function from the properties of their nanoscale building blocks. While much progress has been made assembling nanocrystals into different superlattices, controlling the relative orientations of nanocrystals in those lattices remains a challenge. Here, we combine experiments with computer simulations to study the self-assembly of patchy heterostructural nanocrystals (HNCs), consisting of near-spherical quantum dots decorated with regular arrangements of small gold satellites, into close-packed superlattices with pronounced orientational alignment of HNCs. Our simulations indicate that the orientational alignment is caused by van der Waals interactions between gold patches and is sensitive to the interparticle distance in the superlattice. We demonstrate experimentally that the degree and type of orientational alignment can be controlled by changing ligand populations on HNCs. This study provides guidance for the design and fabrication of nanocrystal superlattices with enhanced structural control.

The study aimed to estimate dietary flavonol and flavone intakes and investigate major dietary sources by FFQ in Harbin of China. A total of 5,046 volunteers completed a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). A random subsample of 167 healthy subjects completed the 7 consecutive 24-h dietary recalls and 2 FFQ for assessing the reproducibility and validity of FFQ. The correlation coefficients between 2 FFQ were 0.72 for flavonols and 0.65 for flavones; and between FFQ 2 and the 24-h dietary recall, they were 0.62 for flavonols and 0.58 for flavones. When flavonol and flavone intakes were categorized by quartile, complete and partial agreement ranged from 76% to 84%. The total intake of flavonols and flavones was 19.13 mg/day, and the mean flavonol and flavone intakes were 14.30 mg/day and 4.82 mg/day, respectively. Quercetin was the major contributor (31%) to total intake of flavonols and flavones, followed by kaempferol (22%). The main food sources of flavonols and flavones were apple (12%), potato (8%), celery (7%), eggplant (7%), and actinidia (5%). This work could facilitate the investigation on the proposed relation between these flavonoids and the prevention of chronic diseases.

More than three decades of intensive study to make high-quality nanocrystals have created a unique toolbox for building multi-component superstructures, which have been recognized as a new generation of metamaterials important to both fundamental sciences and applied technologies. This minireview summarizes recent advances in this exciting field. We will focus our discussion on the synthetic strategies and superstructures of this multi-component metamaterial, and highlight their novel properties and potential applications. Additionally, some perspectives on possible developments in this field are offered at the end of this review. We hope that this minireview will both inform and stimulate research interests for the design and fabrication of these nanocrystal-based multi-component metamaterials for diverse applications in the future.

In the connection between inflammation and cancer development, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) contributes to the tumorigenesis. However, the underlying mechanism remains poorly understood. In this study, we report that TNF-α enhances the growth of breast cancer through up-regulation of oncoprotein hepatitis B X-interacting protein (HBXIP). Our data showed that the levels of TNF-α were positively related to those of HBXIP in clinical breast cancer tissues. Moreover, TNF-α could up-regulate HBXIP in breast cancer cells. Interestingly, silencing of TNF-α receptor 1 (TNFR1) blocked the effect of TNF-α on HBXIP. Mechanistically, we revealed that TNF-α could increase the activities of HBXIP promoter through activating transcriptional factor signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3). In addition, nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) and/or p38 signaling increased the levels of p-STAT3 in the cells. Strikingly, HBXIP could also up-regulate TNFR1, forming a positive feedback loop of TNFR1/NF-κB (and/or p38)/p-STAT3/HBXIP/TNFR1. Notably, TNF-α was able to up-regulate TNFR1 through driving the loop. In function, we demonstrated that the knockdown of HBXIP remarkably abolished the growth of breast cancer mediated by TNF-α in vitro and in vivo. Thus, we conclude that TNF-α promotes the growth of breast cancer through the positive feedback loop of TNFR1/NF-κB (and/or p38)/p-STAT3/HBXIP/TNFR1.Our finding provides new insights into the mechanism by which TNF-α drives oncoprotein HBXIP in the development of breast cancer.

In recent years, with the development of nanomaterials, the research of drug delivery systems has become a new field of cancer therapy. Compared with conventional antitumor drugs, drug delivery systems such as drug nanoparticles (NPs) are expected to have more advantages in antineoplastic effects, including easy preparation, high efficiency, low toxicity, especially active tumor-targeting ability. Drug delivery systems are usually composed of delivery carriers, antitumor drugs, and even target molecules. At present, there are few comprehensive reports on a summary of drug delivery systems applied for tumor therapy. This review introduces the preparation, characteristics, and applications of several common delivery carriers and expounds the antitumor mechanism of different antitumor drugs in delivery carriers in detail which provides a more theoretical basis for clinical application of personalized cancer nanomedicine in the future.

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