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Exosomes are a subpopulation of the tumour microenvironment (TME) that transmit various biological molecules to promote intercellular communication. Exosomes are derived from nearly all types of cells and exist in all body fluids. Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) are among the most abundant contents in exosomes, and some ncRNAs with biological functions are specifically packaged into exosomes. Recent studies have revealed that exosome-derived ncRNAs play crucial roles in the tumorigenesis, progression and drug resistance of gastric cancer (GC). In addition, regulating the expression levels of exosomal ncRNAs can promote or suppress GC progression. Moreover, the membrane structures of exosomes protect ncRNAs from degradation by enzymes and other chemical substances, significantly increasing the stability of exosomal ncRNAs. Specific hallmarks within exosomes that can be used for exosome identification, and specific contents can be used to determine their origin. Therefore, exosomal ncRNAs are suitable for use as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers or therapeutic targets. Regulating the biogenesis of exosomes and the expression levels of exosomal ncRNAs may represent a new way to block or eradicate GC. In this review, we summarized the origins and characteristics of exosomes and analysed the association between exosomal ncRNAs and GC development.

The transdermal route of administration provides numerous advantages over conventional routes i.e., oral or injectable for the treatment of different diseases and cosmetics applications. The skin also works as a reservoir, thus deliver the penetrated drug for more extended periods in a sustained manner. It reduces toxicity and local irritation due to multiple sites for absorption and owes the option of avoiding systemic side effects. However, the transdermal route of delivery for many drugs is limited since very few drugs can be delivered at a viable rate using this route. The stratum corneum of skin works as an effective barrier, limiting most drugs’ penetration posing difficulty to cross through the skin. Fortunately, some non-invasive methods can significantly enhance the penetration of drugs through this barrier. The use of nanocarriers for increasing the range of available drugs for the transdermal delivery has emerged as a valuable and exciting alternative. Both the lipophilic and hydrophilic drugs can be delivered via a range of nanocarriers through the stratum corneum with the possibility of having local or systemic effects to treat various diseases. In this review, the skin structure and major obstacle for transdermal drug delivery, different nanocarriers used for transdermal delivery, i.e., nanoparticles, ethosomes, dendrimers, liposomes, etc., have been discussed. Some recent examples of the combination of nanocarrier and physical methods, including iontophoresis, ultrasound, laser, and microneedles, have also been discussed for improving the therapeutic efficacy of transdermal drugs. Limitations and future perspectives of nanocarriers for transdermal drug delivery have been summarized at the end of this manuscript.

Exosomes are cell-derived vesicles of 30 to 150 nm that contain diverse proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids. These vesicles facilitate effective intercellular communication and trigger profound environmental changes. In recent years, many studies have identified diverse roles for exosomes in tumor metastasis, a major cause of cancer-related deaths; furthermore, circulating tumor-derived exosomes can drive the initiation and progression of metastasis and determine the specific target organs affected. Fortunately, our growing understanding of exosomes and relevant modification technology have provided new ideas for potential treatment of tumor metastases. Here we review recent advances concerning the role of exosomes in metastasis, focusing on their regulatory mechanisms and therapeutic targeting in advanced cancer.

Cancer immunotherapy, with an aim to enhance host immune responses, has been recognized as a promising therapeutic treatment for cancer. A diversity of immunomodulatory agents, including tumor-associated antigens, adjuvants, cytokines and immunomodulators, has been explored for their ability to induce a cascading adaptive immune response. Nanoscale metal-organic frameworks (nMOFs), a class of crystalline-shaped nanomaterials formed by the self-assembly of organic ligands and metal nodes, are attractive for cancer immunotherapy because they feature tunable pore size, high surface area and loading capacity, and intrinsic biodegradability. In this review we summarize recent progress in the development of nMOFs for cancer immunotherapy, including cancer vaccine delivery and combination of in situ vaccination with immunomodulators to reverse immune suppression. Current challenges and future perspectives for rational design of nMOF-based cancer immunotherapy are also discussed.

The flexibility in structural design of organic semiconductors endows organic solar cells (OSCs) not only great function-tunabilities, but also high potential toward practical application. In this work, simple non-fused-ring electron acceptors are developed through two-step synthesis from single aromatic units for constructing efficient OSCs. With the assistance of non-covalent interactions, these rotatable non-fused acceptors (in solution) allow transiting into planar and stackable conformation in condensed solid, promoting acceptors not only feasible solution-processability, but also excellent film characteristics. As results, decent power conversion efficiencies of 10.27% and 13.97% can be achieved in single and tandem OSCs consisting of simple solution-cast blends, in which the fully unfused acceptors exhibit exceptionally low synthetic complexity index. In addition, the unfused acceptor and its based OSCs exhibit promising stabilities under continuous illumination. Overall, this work reveals valuable insights on the structural design of simple and effective electron acceptors with great practical perspectives. Non-fullerene electron acceptors have pushed the efficiency of organic solar cells up to 15% but they all contain fused rings and are inconvenient to synthetic access. Here Yu et al. develop fully unfused acceptors featuring non-covalent intramolecular interactions, high efficiencies and high stability.

The structure property is the fundamental factor in determining the stability, adsorption, catalytic performance, and selectivity of microporous materials. Seven density functional approximations (DFAs) are used to simulate the crystal structure of microporous material for examining the efficiency and accuracy. In comparison with the existing zeolites, microporous materials with CHA framework are selected as the testing model. The calculation results indicate that the least lattice volume deviation is 5.18/2.72 Å3 from PBE_mGGA, and the second least is −5.55/−10.36 Å3 from LDA_PP. Contrary to USPP_LDA, PBE_GW, PAW_PBE, and PAW_GGA overestimate the lattice volume by ~15.00–20.00 Å3. For each method, RMS deviations are less than 0.016 Å for bond length and less than 2.813° for bond angle. To complete the crystal structure calculation, the CPU time reduces in order of USPP_GGA > PBE_GW > PAW_GGA, PBE_mGGA > PAW_PBE > LDA_PP > USPP_LDA. For two testing models, when the calculation time is not important, PBE_mGGA is the best choice, and when the tradeoff between accuracy and efficiency is considered, LDA_PP is preferred. It seems feasible and efficient to simulate the zeolite structure through E-V curve fitting, full optimization, and phonon analysis bythe periodic density functional theory.

National-based prospective surveillance of all-age patients with acute diarrhea was conducted in China between 2009‒2018. Here we report the etiological, epidemiological, and clinical features of the 152,792 eligible patients enrolled in this analysis. Rotavirus A and norovirus are the two leading viral pathogens detected in the patients, followed by adenovirus and astrovirus. Diarrheagenic Escherichia coli and nontyphoidal Salmonella are the two leading bacterial pathogens, followed by Shigella and Vibrio parahaemolyticus . Patients aged <5 years had higher overall positive rate of viral pathogens, while bacterial pathogens were more common in patients aged 18‒45 years. A joinpoint analysis revealed the age-specific positivity rate and how this varied for individual pathogens. Our findings fill crucial gaps of how the distributions of enteropathogens change across China in patients with diarrhea. This allows enhanced identification of the predominant diarrheal pathogen candidates for diagnosis in clinical practice and more targeted application of prevention and control measures. Diarrhoea is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in China. Here, the authors present results from a large sentinel surveillance scheme from 217 hospitals in all 31 provinces in mainland China, including ~150,000 patients with acute diarrhoea and covering years 2009-2018.

Photocontrollable luminescent molecular switches capable of changing emitting color have been regarded as the ideal integration between intelligent and luminescent materials. A remaining challenge is to combine good luminescence properties with wide range of wavelength transformation, especially when confined in a single molecular system that forms well-defined nanostructures. Here, we report a π-expanded photochromic molecular photoswitch, which allows for the comprehensive achievements including wide emission wavelength variation (240 nm wide, 400–640 nm), high photoisomerization extent (95%), and pure emission color (<100 nm of full width at half maximum). We take the advantageous mechanism of modulating self-assembly and intramolecular charge transfer in the synthesis and construction, and further realize the full color emission by simple photocontrol. Based on this, both photoactivated anti-counterfeiting function and self-erasing photowriting films are achieved of fluorescence. This work will provide insight into the design of intelligent optical materials. Photocontrollable luminescent molecular switches which combine good luminescence properties with a tunable range of wavelength transformation are rare. Here, the authors report a π-expanded photochromic molecular photoswitch which displays wide emission wavelength variation, high photoisomerization extent, and pure emission color.

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) constitute a large population of glioblastoma and facilitate tumor growth and invasion of tumor cells, but the underlying mechanism remains undefined. In this study, we demonstrate that chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 8 (CCL8) is highly expressed by TAMs and contributes to pseudopodia formation by GBM cells. The presence of CCL8 in the glioma microenvironment promotes progression of tumor cells. Moreover, CCL8 induces invasion and stem-like traits of GBM cells, and CCR1 and CCR5 are the main receptors that mediate CCL8-induced biological behavior. Finally, CCL8 dramatically activates ERK1/2 phosphorylation in GBM cells, and blocking TAM-secreted CCL8 by neutralized antibody significantly decreases invasion of glioma cells. Taken together, our data reveal that CCL8 is a TAM-associated factor to mediate invasion and stemness of GBM, and targeting CCL8 may provide an insight strategy for GBM treatment.

At present, there is no validated marker to identify the subpopulation of patients with advanced gastric cancer (AGC) who might benefit from neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT). In view of this clinical challenge, the identification of non-invasive biomarkers for efficacy prediction of NACT in patients with AGC is imperative. Herein, we aimed to develop a non-invasive, liquid-biopsy-based assay by using an exosome-derived RNAs model based on multi-omics characteristics of RNAs. We firstly used a multi-omics strategy to characterize the mRNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) profiles of circulating exosome enriched fractions in responders to NACT paired with non-responders, using RNA sequencing. Finally, numerous miRNAs, mRNAs and lncRNAs were identified to be associated with the response to NACT in patients with AGC, and it was validated in an independent cohort with promising AUC values. Furthermore, we established a 6-exosome-RNA panel that could robustly identified responders from non-responders treated with fluorouracil-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy.