Fabry-Perot Interferometer Based on a Fiber-Tip Fixed-Supported Bridge for Fast Glucose Concentration Measurement

Blood glucose concentration is important for metabolic homeostasis in humans and animals. Many diabetic patients need to detect blood glucose daily which burdens community hospitals and family healthcare. Optical fiber sensors are widely used in biomedical detection because of their compact structure, fast response, high sensitivity, low cost, and ease of operation. In this work, we constructed a Fabry-Perot (FP) cavity biosensor for the fast detection of glucose concentration in serum. The femtosecond laser micromachining was applied to fabricate the FP cavity by printing the fiber-tip fixed-supported bridge at the end face of the optical fiber. An additional hemisphere was printed at the center of the outer surface of the bridge to avoid multi-beam interference. The results demonstrated that the proposed biosensor had high refractive index (RI) detection sensitivity, roughly 1039 nm/RIU at a wavelength of 1590 nm, and the detection sensitivity for glucose was around 0.185 nm/ (mg/mL) at a wavelength of 1590 nm. Due to its high sensitivity, compact structure, and fast response, the FP cavity biosensor has great potential to be applied in family healthcare for glucose concentration detection of diabetic patients.

Synthetic Conjugated Oligoelectrolytes Are Effective siRNA Transfection Carriers: Relevance to Pancreatic Cancer Gene Therapy

Deep-Brain Three-Photon Imaging Enabled by Aggregation-Induced Emission Luminogens with Near-Infrared-III Excitation

A biocompatible ratiometric fluorescent nanoprobe for intracellular hydrogen sulfide accurate detection based on rare earth nanoparticle

A mitochondrion-targeting two-photon photosensitizer with aggregation-induced emission characteristics for hypoxia-tolerant photodynamic therapy

A biocompatible photosensitizer with a high intersystem crossing efficiency for precise two-photon photodynamic therapy

A biocompatible organic room-temperature phosphorescence photosensitizer that can be excited using two-photon near-infrared light is developed for photodynamic therapy to achieve improved oxygen species generation and tissue penetration.

CuS@BSA-NB2 Nanoparticles for HER2-Targeted Photothermal Therapy

Breast cancer is characterized by the uncontrolled proliferation of breast epithelial cells under the action of a variety of carcinogens. Although HER2-inhibitors were currently applied for HER2-positive breast cancer patients, they didn’t work for patients with resistance to HER2-targeted anti-cancer drugs. In this work, we prepared novel CuS@BSA-NB2 nanoparticles (NPs) for breast cancer photothermal therapy (PTT). The NPs had good biocompatibility due to the Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) encapsulating and excellent targeting to HER2 because of nanobody 2 (NB2). Under 808 nm laser irradiation, CuS@BSA-NB2 NPs had high photothermal conversion efficiency and photothermal stability. Meanwhile, we constructed a stable cell line of MDA-MB-231/HER2 with a high expression of HER2 protein. Immunofluorescence and ICP-MS assays showed that CuS@BSA-NB2 NPs can be specifically enriched and be ingested in MDA-MB-231/HER2 cells. Furthermore, CuS@BSA-NB2 NPs had shown a more significant photothermal treatment effect than CuS@BSA under certain treatment conditions for MDA-MB-231/HER2. In addition, the cytotoxicity assay demonstrated that CuS@BSA-NB2 NPs had a low toxicity for MDA-MB-231/HER2 cells. The above results suggested that CuS@BSA-NB2 NPs were great photothermal therapeutic agents to reduce the malignant proliferation of breast epithelial cells and have potential for breast cancer therapy.

Recent advances of luminogens with aggregation-induced emission in multi-photon theranostics

NIR-II-activated biocompatible hollow nanocarbons for cancer photothermal therapy

AbstractPhotothermal therapy has attracted extensive attentions in cancer treatment due to its precise spatial-temporal controllability, minimal invasiveness, and negligible side effects. However, two major deficiencies, unsatisfactory heat conversion efficiency and limited tissue penetration depth, hugely impeded its clinical application. In this work, hollow carbon nanosphere modified with polyethylene glycol-graft-polyethylenimine (HPP) was elaborately synthesized. The synthesized HPP owns outstanding physical properties as a photothermal agent, such as uniform core-shell structure, good biocompatibility and excellent heat conversion efficiency. Upon NIR-II laser irradiation, the intracellular HPP shows excellent photothermal activity towards cancer cell killing. In addition, depending on the large internal cavity of HPP, the extended biomedical application as drug carrier was also demonstrated. In general, the synthesized HPP holds a great potential in NIR-II laser-activated cancer photothermal therapy.

Carbon Dioxide-Derived Biodegradable and Cationic Polycarbonates as a New siRNA Carrier for Gene Therapy in Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive malignancy associated with poor prognosis and a high tendency in developing infiltration and metastasis. K-ras mutation is a major genetic disorder in pancreatic cancer patient. RNAi-based therapies can be employed for combating pancreatic cancer by silencing K-ras gene expression. However, the clinical application of RNAi technology is appreciably limited by the lack of a proper siRNA delivery system. To tackle this hurdle, cationic poly (cyclohexene carbonate) s (CPCHCs) using widely sourced CO2 as the monomer are subtly synthesized via ring-opening copolymerization (ROCOP) and thiol-ene functionalization. The developed CPCHCs could effectively encapsulate therapeutic siRNA to form CPCHC/siRNA nanoplexes (NPs). Serving as a siRNA carrier, CPCHC possesses biodegradability, negligible cytotoxicity, and high transfection efficiency. In vitro study shows that CPCHCs are capable of effectively protecting siRNA from being degraded by RNase and promoting a sustained endosomal escape of siRNA. After treatment with CPCHC/siRNA NPs, the K-ras gene expression in both pancreatic cancer cell line (PANC-1 and MiaPaCa-2) are significantly down-regulated. Subsequently, the cell growth and migration are considerably inhibited, and the treated cells are induced into cell apoptotic program. These results demonstrate the promising potential of CPCHC-mediated siRNA therapies in pancreatic cancer treatment.

Recent advances in solar-driven evaporation systems

Solar-driven evaporation as a promising and sustainable approach to convert solar energy into freshwater resource is attracting huge interest in the research community. This review aims to summarize the recent advances in system designs of solar-driven evaporation devices.