Recent development of nano-technology provides highly efficient and versatile treatment methods to achieve better therapeutic efficacy and lower side effects of malignant cancer. The exploration of drug delivery systems (DDSs) based on nano-material shows great promise in translating nano-technology to clinical use to benefit patients. As an emerging inorganic nanomaterial, mesoporous carbon nanomaterials (MCNs) possess both the mesoporous structure and the carbonaceous composition, endowing them with superior nature compared with mesoporous silica nanomaterials and other carbon-based materials, such as carbon nanotube, graphene and fullerene. In this review, we highlighted the cutting-edge progress of carbon nanomaterials as drug delivery systems (DDSs), including immediate/sustained drug delivery systems and controlled/targeted drug delivery systems. In addition, several representative biomedical applications of mesoporous carbon such as (1) photo-chemo synergistic therapy; (2) delivery of therapeutic biomolecule and (3) in vivo bioimaging are discussed and integrated. Finally, potential challenges and outlook for future development of mesoporous carbon in biomedical fields have been discussed in detail.

We developed a novel method to control carryover contamination in loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) by primer engineering to carry recognition sites for a restriction endonuclease, providing a robust ability to eliminate carryover contaminants.

Carbonic anhydrases (CAs) have been demonstrated to play an important role in acid-base regulation in vertebrates. However, the classification and modulatory function of CAs in marine invertebrates, especially their responses to ocean acidification remain largely unknown. Here, a cytosolic α-CA (designated as CgCAII-1) was characterized from Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas and its molecular activities against CO exposure were investigated. CgCAII-1 possessed a conserved CA catalytic domain, with high similarity to invertebrate cytoplasmic or mitochondrial α-CAs. Recombinant CgCAII-1 could convert CO to HCO with calculated activity as 0.54 × 10 U/mg, which could be inhibited by acetazolamide (AZ). The mRNA transcripts of CgCAII-1 in muscle, mantle, hepatopancreas, gill, and hemocytes increased significantly after exposure to elevated CO. CgCAII-1 could interact with the hemocyte membrane proteins and the distribution of CgCAII-1 protein became more concentrated and dense in gill and mantle under CO exposure. The intracellular pH (pHi) of hemocytes under CO exposure increased significantly (p < 0.05) and CA inhibition reduced the pHi value. Besides, there was no increase in CA activity in gill and mantle after CO exposure. The impact of CO exposure on CA activity coupled with the mRNA expression level and protein translocation of CgCAII-1 provided evidences that CgCAII-1 could respond to ocean acidification and participate in acid-base regulation. Such cytoplasmic CA-based physiological regulation mechanism might explain other physiological responses of marine organisms to OA.

Thermochemotherapy exhibits a synergistic therapeutic efficiency for cancer, and the sensitivity of cancer cells to chemical drugs could be increased to a large extent at elevated temperature. In this work, a biocompatible nanocomposite thermosensitive mesoporous carbon nanoparticles (TSMCN) was prepared by covering a liposome on mesoporous carbon nanoparticles (MCN). The TSMCN had good photothermal efficiency and photostability. The doxorubicin (DOX)-loaded TSMCN (DOX/TSMCN) showed a slower release than the DOX-loaded MCN-COOH (DOX/MCN-COOH) both in simulated tumor environment and physiological environment. And release curves of DOX/TSMCN exposed to NIR laser exhibited the fast release property. The confocal laser scanning microscopy results illustrated that cellular uptake of DOX for DOX/TSMCN can be enhanced by NIR laser. The temperature of the tumor site reached up to 51.9 °C within 3 min after exposure to laser at 1.25 W/cm power density, which is above the phase transition temperature ( T) of liposome (40.7 °C). The biodistribution of DOX in vivo indicated that NIR laser can prolong the retardation time of DOX in the tumor site. The results of both 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide and antitumor efficiency elucidated that the DOX/TSMCN under NIR irradiation had a synergistic therapeutic effect for cancer. Thus, the TSMCN could be explored as a powerful nanoplatform that shows great prospect in thermochemotherapy of tumor therapy.

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