Adhesive hydrogels hold great promise in multiple biomedical applications. However, there still exist practical challenges in underwater specific adhesion of hydrogels to biotic surfaces. Inspired by ctenophores, we develop an...

Highly stretchable and highly resilient polymer-clay nanocomposite hydrogels were synthesized by in situ polymerization of acrylamide in the presence of pristine montmorillonite (MMT) or chitosan-treated MMT nanoplatelets at an elevated temperature. Both nanocomposite hydrogels can be stretched to a strain of no less than 1290%. The treatment of clay with chitosan improves the tensile strength, elongation at break, and energy at break of the nanocomposite hydrogel by 237%, 102%, and 389%, respectively, due to the strong chitosan-MMT electrostatic interaction and the grafting of polyacrylamide onto chitosan chains. Both hydrogels display excellent resilience with low hysteresis; with a maximum tensile strain of 50%, ultralow hysteresis is found, while, with a maximum strain of 500%, both hydrogels fully recover their original state in just 1 min. The superb resilience of the nanocomposite hydrogels is attributed to the strong interactions within the hydrogels brought by chain branching, multiple hydrogen bonding, covalent bonding, and/or electrostatic force. The hydrogels can be fabricated into different shapes and forms, including microfibers spun using pressurized gyration, which may find a variety of potential applications in particular in healthcare.

In patients with NPC, rAd-p53 was safe and biologically active. Our results indicated that rAd-p53 improves radiotherapeutic tumor control and survival rate in patients with NPC.

Antifreezing gels are promising in diverse engineering applications such as structural soft matters, sensors, and wearable devices. However, the capability of fast self-healing and reversible adhesiveness still remain a huge challenge for gels at extreme temperatures. Here, we proposed a solvent-involved cross-linking system composed of polyacrylic acid, polyvinyl alcohol, borax, ethylene glycol, and water, capable of antifreezing below −90 °C. It was not only antifreezing, anticrystalline, and abundant in dynamic bonds but also highly transparent, stretchable (over 800%), and conductive over the scope of temperature from −60 to 60 °C. Moreover, this gel could self-heal within 1 min and repeatedly adhere to multiple substrates including glass, metal, and rubber with an adhesive strength greater than 18 kPa. These key functions of the gel could be mostly preserved after 5 days of storage at 70% relative humidity. It is anticipated that our research opens a new scope for high-performance extreme environment-tolerant adhesives or wearable devices.

Curcumin is a promising anti-cancer drug, but its applications in cancer therapy are limited, due to its poor solubility, short half-life and low bioavailability. In this study, curcumin loaded magnetic alginate/chitosan nanoparticles were fabricated to improve the bioavailability, uptake efficiency and cytotoxicity of curcumin to Human Caucasian Breast Adenocarcinoma cells (MDA-MB-231). Alginate and chitosan were deposited on Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles based on their electrostatic properties. The nanoparticle size ranged from 120–200 nm, within the optimum range for drug delivery. Controllable and sustained release of curcumin was obtained by altering the number of chitosan and alginate layers on the nanoparticles. Confocal fluorescence microscopy results showed that targeted delivery of curcumin with the aid of a magnetic field was achieved. The fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) assay indicated that MDA-MB-231 cells treated with curcumin loaded nanoparticles had a 3–6 fold uptake efficiency to those treated with free curcumin. The 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide (MTT) assay indicated that the curcumin loaded nanoparticles exhibited significantly higher cytotoxicity towards MDA-MB-231 cells than HDF cells. The sustained release profiles, enhanced uptake efficiency and cytotoxicity to cancer cells, as well as directed targeting make MACPs promising candidates for cancer therapy.

It is challenging for injectable hydrogels to achieve high underwater adhesiveness. Based on this concern, we report a fully physically crosslinked injectable hydrogel composed of gelatin, tea polyphenols and urea,...

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Although the host restriction factor APOBEC3G (A3G) has broad spectrum antiviral activity, whether A3G inhibits enterovirus 71 (EV71) has been unclear until now. In this study, we demonstrated for the first time that A3G could inhibit EV71 virus replication. Silencing A3G in H9 cells enhanced EV71 replication, and EV71 replication was lower in H9 cells expressing A3G than in Jurkat cells without A3G expression, indicating that the EV71 inhibition was A3G-specific. Further investigation revealed that A3G inhibited the 5′UTR activity of EV71 by competitively binding to the 5′UTR through its nucleic acid binding activity. This binding impaired the interaction between the 5′UTR and the host protein poly(C)-binding protein 1 (PCBP1), which is required for the synthesis of EV71 viral proteins and RNA. On the other hand, we found that EV71 overcame A3G suppression through its non-structural protein 2C, which induced A3G degradation through the autophagy–lysosome pathway. Our research provides new insights into the interplay mechanisms of A3G and single-stranded positive RNA viruses.