Pore-forming toxins
(PFTs) are the most common bacterial virulence
proteins and play a significant role in the pathogenesis of bacterial
infections; thus, PFTs are an attractive therapeutic target in bacterial
infections. Inspired by the pore-forming process and mechanism of
PFTs, we designed an integrated hybrid nanovesiclethe erythroliposome
(called the RM-PL)for PFT detoxification by fusing natural
red blood cell (RBC) membranes with artificial lipid membranes. The
lipid and RBC membranes were mutually beneficial when integrated into
a hybrid nanovesicle structure. The RBC membrane endowed RM-PLs with
the capacity for detoxification, while the PEGylated lipid membrane
stabilized the RM-PLs and greatly improved the detoxification capacity
of the RBC membrane. With α-hemolysin (Hlα) as a model
PFT, we demonstrated that RM-PLs could not only significantly reduce
the toxicity of Hlα to erythrocytes in vitro but also effectively sponge Hlα in vivo and
rescue mice from Hlα-induced damage. Moreover, the high detoxification
capacity of RM-PLs was shown to be partly related to the expression
of the Hlα receptor protein, a disintegrin and metalloproteinase
domain-containing protein 10 on the RBC membrane. Consequently, as
a component integrating natural and artificial materials, the erythroliposome
nanoplatform inspires potential strategies for antivirulence therapy.
We applied structural equation modeling to examine how the Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) model predicts information-seeking intentions in the United States and China. The context for this comparison was climate change. Results indicate that in the Chinese sample, seeking intentions were less influenced by environmental attitudes, risk perceptions, negative affect, information insufficiency, and behavioral beliefs. Across the two samples, subjective norms had similar impacts on seeking intentions. Overall, the model has cross-cultural validity and applicability in accounting for risk communication behaviors in these two nations. Based on prior support for this model outside of the context of climate change, the model is well poised to serve as a framework for a variety of cross-cultural risk information-seeking contexts.Keywords information seeking, climate change, comparative analysis, risk, environment As one of the most central research areas in the communication discipline, information seeking has enticed communication scholars to develop generalizable models that can hold up across contexts and sources to predict information-seeking intentions and
Recently, biomimetic nanoparticles, especially cell membrane-cloaked nanoparticles, have attracted increasing attention in biomedical applications, including antitumor therapy, detoxification, and immune modulation, by imitating the structure and the function of biological systems such as long circulation life in the blood. However, the circulation time of cell membrane-cloaked nanoparticles is far less than that of the original cells, greatly limiting their biomedical applications, while the underlying reasons are seldom demonstrated. In this study, the influence of particle size on the circulation and the biodistribution of red blood cell membrane-coated nanoparticles (RBC-NPs) as model biomimetic nanoparticles were investigated. Differently sized RBC-NPs (80, 120, 160, and 200 nm) were prepared by fusing RBC membranes on poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles. It was shown that the particle size did not change the cellular uptake of these biomimetic nanoparticles by macrophage cells in vitro and their immunogenic responses in vivo. However, their circulation life in vivo decreased with the particle size, while their accumulation in the liver increased with the particle size, which might be related to their size-dependent filtration through hepatic sinusoids. These findings will provide experimental evidence for the design and the optimization of biomimetic nanoparticles.
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