The therapeutic use of messenger RNA (mRNA) has fueled great hope to combat a wide range of incurable diseases. Recent rapid advances in biotechnology and molecular medicine have enabled the production of almost any functional protein/peptide in the human body by introducing mRNA as a vaccine or therapeutic agent. This represents a rising precision medicine field with great promise for preventing and treating many intractable or genetic diseases. In addition, in vitro transcribed mRNA has achieved programmed production, which is more effective, faster in design and production, as well as more flexible and cost-effective than conventional approaches that may offer. Based on these extraordinary advantages, mRNA vaccines have the characteristics of the swiftest response to large-scale outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as the currently devastating pandemic COVID-19. It has always been the scientists’ desire to improve the stability, immunogenicity, translation efficiency, and delivery system to achieve efficient and safe delivery of mRNA. Excitingly, these scientific dreams have gradually been realized with the rapid, amazing achievements of molecular biology, RNA technology, vaccinology, and nanotechnology. In this review, we comprehensively describe mRNA-based therapeutics, including their principles, manufacture, application, effects, and shortcomings. We also highlight the importance of mRNA optimization and delivery systems in successful mRNA therapeutics and discuss the key challenges and opportunities in developing these tools into powerful and versatile tools to combat many genetic, infectious, cancer, and other refractory diseases.

Binary transition metal oxides have been attracting extensive attention as promising anode materials for lithium-ion batteries, due to their high theoretical specific capacity, superior rate performance and good cycling stability. Here, loaf-like ZnMn2O4 nanorods with diameters of 80-150 nm and lengths of several micrometers are successfully synthesized by annealing MnOOH nanorods and Zn(OH)2 powders at 700 °C for 2 h. The electrochemical properties of the loaf-like ZnMn2O4 nanorods as an anode material are investigated in terms of their reversible capacity, and cycling performance for lithium ion batteries. The loaf-like ZnMn2O4 nanorods exhibit a reversible capacity of 517 mA h g(-1) at a current density of 500 mA g(-1) after 100 cycles. The reversible capacity of the nanorods still could be kept at 457 mA h g(-1) even at 1000 mA g(-1). The improved electrochemical performance can be ascribed to the one-dimensional shape and the porous structure of the loaf-like ZnMn2O4 nanorods, which offers the electrode convenient electron transport pathways and sufficient void spaces to tolerate the volume change during the Li(+) intercalation. These results suggest the promising potential of the loaf-like ZnMn2O4 nanorods in lithium-ion batteries.

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Branched MnOOH nanorods with diameters in the range of 50-150 nm and lengths of up to tens of micrometers were prepared by using potassium permanganate (KMnO(4)) and PEG 400 (PEG=polyethylene glycol) as starting materials through a simple hydrothermal process at 160 °C. After annealing at 300 °C under a N(2) atmosphere for 5 h, MnOOH nanorods became gradually dehydrated and transformed into mesoporous Mn(3)O(4) nanorods with a slight size-shrinking. The as-obtained mesoporous Mn(3)O(4) nanorods had an average surface area of 32.88 m(2) g(-1) and a mean pore size of 3.7 nm. Through tuning the experimental parameters, such as the annealing atmosphere and temperature, β-MnO(2), Mn(2)O(3), Mn(3)O(4), MnO, and Mn(5)O(8) were selectively produced. Among these structures, mesoporous Mn(3)O(4) nanorods were efficient for the catalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) in the presence of H(2)O(2) at 80 °C.

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Linear control of moisture permeability and anti-adhesion of bacteria in a broad temperature region are realized by cross-linking thermoresponsive microgels onto cotton fabrics. The microgels are copolymerized by monomers di(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (MEO 2 MA), (ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (OEGMA 300 ), and ethylene glycol methacrylate (EGMA) with a molar ratio of 10:10:1. Transition temperatures of PMEO 2 MA and POEGMA 300 are 25 and 60 °C, respectively. Due to the compression of already collapsed PMEO 2 MA to still swollen POEGMA 300 , the microgels present a linear shrinkage in a broad temperature region (20−70 °C). Additionally, the contact angle of the microgels stays below 60°even if the temperature is increased to 50 °C, illustrating the reserved surface hydrophilicity. The obtained microgels are cross-linked onto cotton fabrics by 1,2,3,4-butanetetracarboxylic (BTCA). The weight gain ratios (WGRs) are 15% and 30%. The moisture permeability shows an excellent linear increase between 20 and 50 °C when the WGR is 30%, which is attributed to the linear shrinkage of the crosslinked microgels upon heating. Because the moisture permeability is related to the fabric comfort, a linear control of comfort is obtained. In addition, the cross-linked cotton fabrics can realize 96.5% bacterial anti-adhesion at 30 °C as the surface remains hydrophilic. On the basis of these two unique properties, the realized cotton fabrics cross-linked with microgels are promising for application as smart textiles for wound addressing.