No abstract

No abstract

Herein, an antibacterial system combining the "safe" carbon nanomaterials, graphene quantum dots (GQDs), with a low level of H2O2 has been put forward. It has been found that the peroxidase-like activity of GQDs originates from their ability to catalyze the decomposition of H2O2, generating ·OH. Since the ·OH has a higher antibacterial activity, the conversion of H2O2 into ·OH improves the antibacterial performance of H2O2, which makes it possible to avoid the toxicity of H2O2 at high levels in wound disinfection. All the experiments in vitro display that this intrinsic activity exerts a high enhancement of antibacterial activity of H2O2, and the designed system possessed broad spectrum of antibacterial activity against both Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) and Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) bacteria. More importantly, to assess the antibacterial efficacy of the designed system in actual wound disinfection, the GQD-Band-Aids are prepared and show excellent antibacterial property with the assistance of H2O2 at low dose in vivo.

Enhanced near-field at noble metal nanoparticle surfaces due to localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) has been researched in fields ranging from biomedical to photoelectrical applications. However, it is rarely explored on nonmetallic nanomaterials discovered in recent years, which can also support LSPR by doping-induced free charge carriers, let alone the investigation of an intricate system involving both. Here we construct a dual plasmonic hybrid nanosystem Au-Cu9S5 with well controlled interfaces to study the coupling effect of LSPR originating from the collective electron and hole oscillations. Cu9S5 LSPR is enhanced by 50% in the presence of Au, and the simulation results confirm the coupling effect and the enhanced local field as well as the optical power absorption on Cu9S5 surface. This enhanced optical absorption cross section, high photothermal transduction efficiency (37%), large light penetration depth at 1064 nm, excellent X-ray attenuation ability, and low cytotoxicity enable Au-Cu9S5 hybrids for robust photothermal therapy in the second near-infrared (NIR) window with low nanomaterial dose and laser flux, making them potential theranostic nanomaterials with X-ray CT imaging capability. This study will benefit future design and optimization of photoabsorbers and photothermal nanoheaters utilizing surface plasmon resonance enhancement phenomena for a broad range of applications.

It has been known for more than 200 years that the maximum static friction force between two solid surfaces is usually greater than the kinetic friction force. In contrast to solid-solid friction, there is a lack of understanding of liquid-solid friction, i.e. the forces that impede the lateral motion of a drop of liquid on a solid surface. Here, we report that the lateral adhesion force between a liquid drop and a solid can be divided into a static and a kinetic regime. This striking analogy with solid-solid friction is a generic phenomenon that holds for liquids of different polarities and surface tensions on smooth, rough and structured surfaces.When two solid objects are brought into contact, a threshold force FTHRD must be overcome in order for one of the objects to slide 1-3 . This phenomenon can be visualised in a typical classroom experiment where a solid block attached to a spring is pulled over a solid surface (Fig. 1a). The static force FS is applied to the stationary block and then increased until it exceeds FTHRD, upon which the block begins to slide. After that, a lower kinetic force FKIN is required to maintain the block's motion 3 . However, it is not clear whether these forces develop in a comparable manner when a drop of liquid resting on a solid surface starts to slide. This gap in our understanding is astonishing, given the fact that liquid drops are omnipresent in our lives and their motion is relevant for numerous applications, including microfluidics 4 , printing 5 , condensation 6,7 , and water collection 8,9 . Hence insight on the behaviour of drops that start sliding over solid surfaces is needed.A sessile drop of liquid is usually in molecular contact with the supporting solid surface. In contrast, two solid bodies are in direct contact only at asperities owing to surface roughness 10,11 . Thus, the real contact area of a solid-solid contact is much smaller than the apparent contact area. Consequently the sliding of drops might be fundamentally different.However, by simply observing a drop of water on a pivot window pane, we know that also sessile drops start sliding when a critical tilt angle is reached, i.e. when the gravitational force acting on the drop overcomes the lateral adhesion force. The question may therefore be raised whether a static and a kinetic regime are also present for sessile drops. The general questions is: How do drops start sliding over solid surfaces and how do the forces develop while the drops slide?

Systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), on the basis of lymphocyte, neutrophil and platelet counts had been published to be a good prognostic factor in multiple cancers. Nevertheless, the prognostic value of SII in cancer patients remains inconsistent. Therefore, we carried out a meta-analysis to evaluate the prognostic value of SII in these patients with cancer. A total of 22 articles with 7657 patients enrolled in this meta-analysis. The combined result revealed that a high SII was evidently correlated with poor overall survival (OS) (HR=1.69, 95%CI=1.42-2.01, p<0.001), poor time to recurrent (TTR) (HR=1.87, p<0.001) , poor progress-free survival (PFS) (HR=1.61, p=0.012) ,poor cancer-specific survival (CSS) (HR=1.44, p=0.027) , poor relapse-free survival (RFS) (HR=1.66, p=0.025) and poor disease-free survival (DFS) (HR=2.70, p<0.001) in patients with cancers. Subgroup analysis indicated that SII over the cutoff value could predict worse overall survival in Hepatocellular carcinoma (p<0.001), Gastric cancer (p=0.005), Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma (p=0.013), Urinary system cancer (p<0.001), Small cell lung cancer (p<0.001), Non-Small cell lung cancer (p<0.001) and Acral Melanoma (p<0.001). The largest effect size was observed in the Hepatocellular carcinoma (HR=2.11). In addition, these associations did not vary significantly by the cutoff value, sample size and ethnicity. Therefore, high SII may be a potential prognostic marker in patients with various cancers and associated with the poor overall outcomes.

The design and construction of efficient artificial enzymes is highly desirable. Recent studies have demonstrated that a series of carbon nanomaterials possess intrinsic peroxidase activity. Among them, graphene quantum dots (GQDs) have a high enzymatic activity. However, the catalytic mechanism remains unclear. Therefore, in this report, we chose to decipher their peroxidase activity. By selectively deactivating the ketonic carbonyl, carboxylic, or hydroxy groups and investigating the catalytic activities of these GQD derivatives, we obtained evidence that the -C=O groups were the catalytically active sites, whereas the O=C-O- groups acted as substrate-binding sites, and -C-OH groups can inhibit the activity. These results were corroborated by theoretical studies. This work should not only enhance our understanding of nanocarbon-based artificial enzymes, but also facilitate the design and construction of other types of target-specific artificial enzymes.

Nanozymes have emerged as a new generation of antibiotics with exciting broad‐spectrum antimicrobial properties and negligible biotoxicities. However, their antibacterial efficacies are unsatisfactory due to their inability to trap bacteria and their low catalytic activity. Herein, we report nanozymes with rough surfaces and defect‐rich active edges. The rough surface increases bacterial adhesion and the defect‐rich edges exhibit higher intrinsic peroxidase‐like activity compared to pristine nanozymes due to their lower adsorption energies of H2O2 and desorption energy of OH*, as well as the larger exothermic process for the whole reaction. This was demonstrated using drug‐resistant Gram‐negative Escherichia coli and Gram‐positive Staphylococcus aureus in vitro and in vivo. This strategy can be used to engineer nanozymes with enhanced antibacterial function and will pave a new way for the development of alternative antibiotics.