Photodynamic therapy (PDT), combining the laser and photosensitizers to kill tumor cells, has the potential to address many current medical requirements. In this study, magnetic FeO nanoparticles were first employed as cores and modified with oleic acid (OA) and 3-triethoxysilyl-1-propanamine. Then, the photosensitizers phycocyanin (PC) and hematoporphyrin monomethyl ether (HMME), which might be able to stimulate the cell release of reactive oxygen species after the irradiation of a near-infrared (NIR) laser, were grafted on the surface of such nanoparticles. Our results revealed the high-efficiency inhibition of breast cancer MCF-7 cells growing upon near-infrared irradiation both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, it was the synergy between the natural photosensitizers PC and the synthetic photosensitizers HMME that deeply influenced such inhibition compared to the groups that used either of these medicines alone. To utilize the combination of different photosensitive agents, our study thus provides a new strategy for breast cancer treatment.
Cell culturing on different synthetic biomaterials would reprogram cell metabolism for adaption to their living conditions because such alterations in cell metabolism were necessary for cellular functions on them. Here we used metabolomics to uncover metabolic changes when liver cells were cultured on insulin‐like growth factor (IGF)/tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α) and chargeable polymers co‐modified biomaterials with the aim to explain their modulating effects on cell metabolism. The results showed that cell metabolism on IGF‐1/TNF‐α co‐immobilized conjugates was significantly regulated according to their scatterings on the score plot of principal component analysis. Specifically, cell metabolisms were reprogrammed to the higher level of pyrimidine metabolism, β‐alanine metabolism, and pantothenate and CoA biosynthesis, and the lower level of methionine salvage pathway in order to promote cell growth on IGF/TNF‐α co‐modified surface. Furthermore, cell senescence on PSt‐PAAm‐IGF/TNF‐α surface was delayed through the regulation of branch amino acid metabolism and AMPK signal pathway. The research showed that metabolomics had great potential to uncover the molecular interaction between biomaterials and seeded cells, and provide the insights about cell metabolic reprogramming on IGF/TNF‐α co‐modified conjugates for cell growth.
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