Novel defect-related hydroxyapatite (DHAP), which combines the advantages of HAP and defect-related luminescence, has the potential application in tissue engineering and biomedical area, because of its excellent capability of monitoring the osteogenic differentiation and material biodegradation. Although the extracellular mechanism of DHAP minerals and PO4(3-) functioning in osteogenic differentiation has been widely studied, the intracellular molecular mechanism through which PO4(3-) mediates osteogenesis of bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) is not clear. We examined a previously unknown molecular mechanism through which PO4(3-) promoted osteogenesis of BMSCs with an emphasis on adenosine-triphosphate (ATP)-induced cAMP/PKA pathway. Our studies showed that DHAP could be uptaken into lysosome, in which PO4(3-) was released from DHAP, because of the acid environment of lysosome. The released PO4(3-) interacted with ADP to form ATP, and then degraded into adenosine, an ATP metabolite, which interacted with A2b adenosine receptor to activate the cAMP/PKA pathway, resulting in the high expression of osteogenesis-related genes, such as Runx2, BMP-2, and OCN. These findings first revealed the function of ATP-metabolism in bone physiological homeostasis, which may be developed to cure bone metabolic diseases.

A novel anticancer pro-prodrug (GMC-CAE-NO2) with diagnosis and therapy functions based on hypoxia and photo sequential control was designed. It provides a platform for constructing theranostic pro-prodrugs to release active drugs controlled by hypoxic status and UV illumination.

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A series of novel N-arylpyrazole derivatives (4a-4l) bearing the sulfonamide moiety were synthesized by the condensation reaction of 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds with 4-hydrazinylbenzenesulfonamide. The structures of the obtained compounds were established on the basis of elemental (C, H, and N) and spectral analysis ( 1 H NMR, 13 C NMR, ESIMS, and FT-IR). These compounds were tested for their in vitro cytotoxic activity against three human tumor cell lines: MCF-7, Hela, and A549. The results showed that most of the obtained compounds exhibited promising cytotoxicity against the tested cell lines with low IC 50 values. The pyrazole derivative 4k, bearing two methoxy groups on the 3-position and 4-position of the phenyl ring, was the most effective one. Its inhibition of cell growth of MCF-7 cells was better than that of celecoxib and cisplatin.