The convenience of injectable hydrogels that can provide high loading of diverse phototherapy agents and further long-time retention at the tumor site has attracted tremendous interest in simultaneous photothermal and photodynamic cancer therapies. However, to incorporate the phototherapy agents into hydrogels, complex modifications are generally unavoidable. Moreover, these phototherapy agents usually suffer from low efficiency and work at different irradiation wavelengths outside the near infrared windows. Hence, a method for the fabrication of an injectable hydrogel for simultaneous photothermal therapy and photodynamic therapy, through the Schiff-base reaction between amido modified carbon dots (NCDs) and aldehyde modified cellulose nanocrystals is proposed. The NCDs act as both phototherapy agents and crosslinkers to form hydrogels. Significantly, the NCDs demonstrate an extremely high photothermal conversion efficiency of 77.6% which is among the highest levels for photothermal agents and a high singlet quantum yield of 0.37 under a single 660 nm light-emitting diode irradiation. The hydrogels are examined through in vitro and in vivo animal experiments which show nontoxic and effectively tumor inhibition. Thus, the strategy of direct reaction of phototherapy agents and the matrix not only provides new strategies for injectable hydrogel fabrication but paves a new road for advanced tumor treatment.

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Receptor tyrosine kinase ROR1, an embryonic protein involved in organogenesis, is expressed in certain hematological malignancies and solid tumors, but is generally absent in adult tissues. This makes the protein an ideal drug target for cancer therapy. In order to assess the suitability of ROR1 as a cell surface antigen for targeted therapy of lung adenocarcinoma, we carried out a comprehensive analysis of ROR1 protein expression in human lung adenocarcinoma tissues and cell lines. Our data show that ROR1 protein is selectively expressed on lung adenocarcinoma cells, but do not support the hypothesis that expression levels of ROR1 are associated with aggressive disease. However silencing of ROR1 via siRNA treatment significantly down-regulates the activity of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. This is associated with significant apoptosis and anti-proliferation of tumor cells. We found ROR1 protein expressed in lung adenocarcinoma but almost absent in tumor-adjacent tissues of the patients. The finding of ROR1-mediated proliferation signals in both tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI)-sensitive and -resistant tumor cells provides encouragement to develop ROR1-directed targeted therapy in lung adenocarcinoma, especially those with TKI resistance.

Chiral photonic crystals derived from the self-assembly of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) have found important applications in optical devices due to the capacity to adjust the chiral nematic phase under external stimulus, in particular an applied magnetic field. To date, strong magnetic fields have been required to induce an optical response in CNC films. In this work, the self-assembly of films of CNCs can be tuned by applying an ultrasmall magnetic field. The CNCs, decorated with Fe3O4 nanoparticles (Fe3O4/CNCs), were dispersed in suspensions of neat CNCs so as to alter the magnetic response of the CNCs. A subsequent process of dispersion not only prevents the clumping of the magnetic nanoparticles but also enhances the sensitivity to an applied magnetic field. A small magnetic field of 7 mT can tune the self-assembly and the microstructure of the CNCs. The pitch of the chiral structure decreased with an increase in applied magnetic field, from 302 to 206 nm, for fields from 7 to 15 mT. This phenomenon is opposite that observed for neat CNCs, in which the pitch is observed to increase with an increase in the external magnetic strength. The optical response under application of an ultrasmall magnetic field could help with theoretical research and enable more applications, such as sensors or nanotemplating agents.

The exfoliation of layered montmorillonite (MMT) into mono-or few-layer sheets is of significance for both fundamental studies and potential applications. In this report, exfoliated MMT nanosheets with different aspect ratios have been prepared via a new freezing/thawing−ultrasonic exfoliation method. Freezing/thawing processing can exfoliate MMT tactoids with low efficiency while virtually retaining the original lateral size. The ultrasonic method has better exfoliation efficiency but tends to damage the nanosheets. By combining them and reasonably controlling the cycle index of freezing/thawing and ultrasonic power, the MMT nanosheets with different aspect ratios have been prepared efficiently. Such a unique exfoliation method has broad applicability for layered materials to produce monolayer nanosheets on a large scale.

The aim of the present study was to analyze and summarize the clinicopathological characteristics of large-cell lung carcinoma (LCLC) of the lung, in order to improve the definite diagnosis rate of LCLC. Clinicopathological data of 174 patients with LCLC, confirmed pathologically, were retrospectively reviewed. The 174 cases of LCLC accounted for 5.7% of the total lung cancer cases during the corresponding time period at the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Tianjin Medical University (Tianjin, China), among which there were 131 males and 43 females with an average age of 61.4 years. The postoperative pathological diagnosis of the 174 cases showed 80 cases of classic LCLC, 64 cases of large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC), six cases of combined LCNEC, 19 cases of basaloid carcinoma, three cases of clear cell carcinoma and two cases of lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma. Of the total 174 LCLC cases, 96 patients exhibited lymph node metastasis. LCLC is a highly aggressive malignancy with a high tendency of invasion and metastasis, although the incidence rate is low. A definite diagnosis of LCLC primarily relies on the pathological diagnosis. Each subtype of LCLC has its own pathomorphological and immunohistochemical characteristics.

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Sepsis is the leading cause of death in intensive care units worldwide. Autophagy has recently been shown to protect against sepsis-induced liver injury. Here, we investigated the roles of homeodomain-interacting protein kinase 2 (HIPK2) in the molecular mechanism of sepsis-induced liver injury. HIPK2 expression was reduced in sepsis-induced liver injury, and HIPK2 overexpression increased the survival rate and improved caecal ligation and puncture (CLP)-induced liver injury by reducing serum and liver aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) levels in mice with sepsis. HIPK2 overexpression significantly decreased CLP-induced release of inflammatory cytokines into the serum and attenuated oxidative stress-associated indicators in mice with CLP-induced liver injury, whereas HIPK2 knockdown produced the opposite results, suggesting that HIPK2 is a negative regulator of sepsis. Furthermore, HIPK2 overexpression inhibited lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced apoptosis of primary hepatocytes, increased the autophagic flux, and restored both autophagosome and autolysosome formation in the livers of CLP-induced mice by suppressing calpain signalling. Importantly, HIPK2 overexpression reduced the elevated cytosolic Ca2+ concentration in LPS-treated primary hepatocytes by interacting with calpain 1 and calmodulin. Finally, several anti-inflammatory drugs, including resveratrol, aspirin, vitamin E and ursolic acid, significantly increased the levels of the HIPK2 mRNA and protein by modulating promoter activity and the 3′-UTR stability of the HIPK2 gene. In conclusion, HIPK2 overexpression may improve sepsis-induced liver injury by restoring autophagy and thus might be a promising target for the clinical treatment of sepsis.