An individual hexagonal ZnO microrod was employed as a whispering-gallery mode (WGM) microcavity to obtain ultraviolet lasing at room temperature. The WGM lasing shows a low threshold, a high quality factor, and distinct mode structure. A typical stimulated emission from the ZnO microrod with diagonal of 6.67 μm exhibits a low lasing threshold of 255 kW/cm2. The observed discrete lasing modes match with the simulated positions very well. The spatial distribution of the lasing intensity demonstrates the lasing output direction and provides the direct evidence of the WGM resonant mechanism. We systematically investigated the lasing performance for different sized microrods.

In this study, two phthalocyanine-erlotinib conjugates linked by an oligoethylene glycol chain have been synthesised and fully characterised. Having erlotinib as the targeting moiety, the two conjugates exhibited high specific affinity to HepG2 cancer cells and tumour tissues, therefore leading to high photodynamic activity.

Herein we report the design and synthesis of hypervalent trifluoromethylthio-iodine­(III) reagent 1 and the elucidation of its structure by NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography. The trifluoromethylthiolation reactions of 1 with various nucleophiles were explored, and this compound was found to be a versatile electrophilic reagent for the transfer of a trifluoromethylthio group (−SCF3). The hydrogen-bonding mode responsible for the activation of 1 by the solvent 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol was investigated both experimentally and computationally.

Malignant tumor (cancer) remains as one of the deadliest diseases throughout the world, despite its overall mortality drops. Nanomaterials (NMs) have been widely studied as diagnostic and/or therapeutic agents for tumors. A feature of NMs, compared to small molecules, is that NMs can be concentrated passively in tumors through enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect. In the meantime, NMs can be engineered to target toward tumor specific markers in an active manner, e.g., receptor-mediated targeting. The relative contribution of the EPR effect and the receptor-mediated targeting to NM accumulation in tumor tissues has not been clearly defined yet. Here, we tackle this fundamental issue by reviewing previous studies. First, we summarize the current knowledge on these two tumor targeting strategies of NMs, and on how NMs arrive to tumors from blood circulation. We then demonstrate that contribution of the active and passive effects to total accumulation of NMs in tumors varies with time. Over time, the receptor-mediated targeting contributes more than the EPR effect with a ratio of 3 in the case of urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR)-mediated targeting and human serum albumin (HSA)-mediated EPR effect. Therefore, this review highlights the dynamics of active and passive targeting of NMs on their accumulation at tumor sites, and is valuable for future design of NMs in cancer diagnosis and treatment.

The hexagonal ZnO microrods were employed as whispering gallery mode (WGM) microcavities to obtain ultraviolet laser at room temperature. For each individual ZnO microrod, the laser presented low threshold and high quality Q factor and clear WGM spectral structure. The lasing spectra from different microcavities were combined together by pumping two or more ZnO microrods simultaneously. The resonant process and lasing characteristics, such as lasing mode, threshold, and Q factor, were investigated in experiment and theory.

Human serum albumin (HSA), a naturally abundant protein in blood plasma and tissue fluids, has an extraordinary ligand-binding capacity and is advocated as a drug carrier to facilitate drug delivery. To render it tumor targeting specificity, we generated a recombinant HSA fused with the amino-terminal fragment (ATF) of urokinase, allowing the fusion protein to bind to urokinase receptor (uPAR), which is shown to have a high expression level in many tumors, but not in normal tissues. To test the efficacy of this bifunctional protein (ATF-HSA), a hydrophobic photosensitizer (mono-substituted β-carboxy phthalocyanine zinc, CPZ) was chosen as a cytotoxic agent. A dilution-incubation-purification (DIP) strategy was developed to load the ATF-HSA with this CPZ, forming a 1:1 molecular complex (ATF-HSA:CPZ). We demonstrated that CPZ was indeed embedded inside ATF-HSA at the fatty acid binding site 1 (FA1) of HSA, giving a hydrodynamic radius of 7.5 nm, close to HSA's (6.5 nm). ATF-HSA:CPZ showed high stability and remarkable optical and photophysical properties in aqueous solution. In addition, the molecular complex ATF-HSA:CPZ can bind to recombinant uPAR in vitro and uPAR on tumor cell surfaces, and was efficient in photodynamic killing of tumor cells. The tumor-killing potency of this molecular complex was further demonstrated in a tumor-bearing mouse model at a dose of 0.080 μmol / kg, or 0.050 mg CPZ / kg of mouse body weight. Using fluorescent molecular tomography (FMT), ATF-HSA:CPZ was shown to accumulate specifically in tumors, and importantly, such tumor retention was higher than that of HSA:CPZ. Together, these results indicate that ATF-HSA:CPZ is not only an efficient tumor-specific cytotoxic agent, but also an useful tumor-specific imaging probe. This bifunctional protein ATF-HSA can also be used as a drug carrier for other types of cytotoxic or imaging agents to render them specificity for uPAR-expressing tumors.

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The combination of photodynamic therapy and chemotherapy is a promising strategy to overcome growing problems in contemporary medicine, such as low therapeutic efficacy and drug resistance. Four zinc(II) phthalocyanine-coumarin conjugates were synthesized and characterized. In these complexes, zinc(II) phthalocyanine was used as the photosensitizing unit, and a coumarin derivative was selected as the cytostatic moiety; the two components were linked via a tri(ethylene glycol) chain. These conjugates exhibit high photocytotoxicity against HepG2 human hepatocarcinoma cells, with low IC50 values in the range of 0.014-0.044 μM. The high photodynamic activities of these conjugates are in accordance with their low aggregation tendency and high cellular uptake. One of these conjugates exhibits high photocytotoxicity and significantly higher chemocytotoxicity. The results clearly show that the two antitumor components in these conjugates work in a cooperative fashion. As shown by confocal microscopy, the conjugates can localize in the mitochondria and lysosomes, and one of the conjugates can also localize in the cell nuclei.