Objective To study the clinical significance of the changes of brain natriuretic peptide(BNP) in children with incomplete Kawasaki disease (IKD). Methods Of 25 cases of acute IKD ,20 cases were at the re-covery stage after 2 weeks treatment. 30 cases of upper respiratory tract infection at the same period were taken as controls. The plasma level of BNP,peripheral blood WBC count and C-reaction protein (CRP) levels were detected. Results BNP, WBC and CRP levels in acute IKD children were higher than that of control group (P < 0.01) , which were higher in 20 cases of acute phase than in recovery phase (P < 0.01). Conclusion BNP contributes to the early diagnosis of IKD in children.

Objective To prepare polypeptide nerve growth factor (NGF) thermosentitive gel and observe drug release in vitro,in order to provide scientific information for biopharmaceuticals delivery system design aiming to treat the inner disease.Methods The thermosensitive in situ gel was prepared with NGF as main component and Pluronic F127 as the gel matrixes.The effect of concentration of gel matrix PF127 on lower critical solution temperature(LCST) were investigated.In vitro release kinetic studies were performed using membraneless dissolution method and reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was adopted to determine NGF content in the dissolution medium.Results The average LCST of NGF-loaded gel prepared by different concentration of PF127 was 28.48-36.26℃ and the gels had good stability.The in vitro release kinetics was well characterized by sustained release and can be fitted by zero order kinetics.The in vitro accumulated release ratio of NGF in the thermosensitive gel reached to above 95％.hβ-NGF loaded in higher PF127 gel resulted in a more sustained release of hβ-NGF from the thermosensitive gel.Conclusion Well-prepared NGF thermosensitive gel is a promising inner ear-oriented drug delivery system for treating deafness and deserves to further development.

To study the infection rate of leaf spot disease, the drying rate of root and volatile oil content of Asarum heterotropoides var. mandshuricum at the unwrapping stage, blooming stage, the initial fruit stage, fructescence and wither stage during the growth period under the different sunlight intensity of 100% (I), 50% (II), 28% (III), 12% (IV). The volatile oil content was measured according to the method of Chinese Pharmacopoeia and the oil composition was determined by GC-MS. The unwrapping stage, blooming stage and the early fruit stage postponed about 2 days with decrease of the sunlight intensity. The infection rate of leaf was 88.46%, 70.00%, 0.23%, 0.07% under light intensity of I, II, III and IV, respectively, the drying rate was 25.14%, 28.27%, 30.23%, 31.57% under light intensity of I, II, III and IV, respectively, and the volatile oil content was 18.1, 17.6, 16.3, 15.3 mL x kg(-1) under light intensity of I, II, III and IV, respectively. The composition of the oil determined by GC-MS was different between the groups, but the content did not changed significantly with the decrease of the light intensity.
Asarum ; growth & development ; radiation effects ; Light ; Regression Analysis

OBJECTIVE To generate hemophilia A (HA) patient-specific inducible pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and induce endothelial differentiation. METHODS Tubular epithelial cells were isolated and cultured from the urine of HA patients. The iPSCs were generated by forced expression of Yamanaka factors (Oct4, Sox2, c-Myc and Klf4) using retroviruses and characterized by cell morphology, pluripotent marker staining and in vivo differentiation through teratoma formation. Induced endothelial differentiation of the iPSCs was achieved with the OP9 cell co-culture method. RESULTS Patient-specific iPSCs were generated from urine cells of the HA patients, which could be identified by cell morphology, pluripotent stem cell surface marker staining and in vivo differentiation of three germ layers. The teratoma experiment has confirmed that such cells could differentiate into endothelial cells expressing the endothelial-specific markers CD144, CD31 and vWF. CONCLUSION HA patient-specific iPSCs could be generated from urine cells and can differentiate into endothelial cells. This has provided a new HA disease modeling approach and may serve as an applicable autologous cell source for gene correction and cell therapy studies for HA.
Cell Differentiation ; Hemophilia A ; pathology ; therapy ; urine ; Humans ; Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells ; cytology ; transplantation ; Urine ; cytology

There have been many recent exciting developments in biomimetic nanoparticles for biomedical applications. Inflammation, a protective response involving immune cells, blood vessels, and molecular mediators directed against harmful stimuli, is closely associated with many human diseases. As a result, biomimetic nanoparticles mimicking immune cells can help achieve molecular imaging and precise drug delivery to these inflammatory sites. This review is focused on inflammation-targeting biomimetic nanoparticles and will provide an in-depth look at the design of these nanoparticles to maximize their benefits for disease diagnosis and treatment.

Cancer immunotherapy has veered the paradigm of cancer treatment. Despite recent advances in immunotherapy for improved antitumor efficacy, the complicated tumor microenvironment (TME) is highly immunosuppressive, yielding both astounding and unsatisfactory clinical successes. In this regard, clinical outcomes of currently available immunotherapy are confined to the varied immune systems owing in large part to the lack of understanding of the complexity and diversity of the immune context of the TME. Various advanced designs of nanomedicines could still not fully surmount the delivery barriers of the TME. The immunosuppressive TME may even dampen the efficacy of antitumor immunity. Recently, some nanotechnology-related strategies have been inaugurated to modulate the immunosuppressive cells within the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) for robust immunotherapeutic responses. In this review, we will highlight the current understanding of the immunosuppressive TIME and identify disparate subclasses of TIME that possess an impact on immunotherapy, especially those unique classes associated with the immunosuppressive effect. The immunoregulatory cell types inside the immunosuppressive TIME will be delineated along with the existing and potential approaches for immunosuppressive cell modulation. After introducing the various strategies, we will ultimately outline both the novel therapeutic targets and the potential issues that affect the efficacy of TIME-based nanomedicines.

Tumor-targeted immunotherapy is a remarkable breakthrough, offering the inimitable advantage of specific tumoricidal effects with reduced immune-associated cytotoxicity. However, existing platforms suffer from low efficacy, inability to induce strong immunogenic cell death (ICD), and restrained capacity of transforming immune-deserted tumors into immune-cultivated ones. Here, an innovative platform, perfluorooctyl bromide (PFOB) nanoemulsions holding MnO₂ nanoparticles (MBP), was developed to orchestrate cancer immunotherapy, serving as a theranostic nanoagent for MRI/CT dual-modality imaging and advanced ICD. By simultaneously depleting the GSH and eliciting the ICD effect via high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) therapy, the MBP nanomedicine can regulate the tumor immune microenvironment by inducing maturation of dendritic cells (DCs) and facilitating the activation of CD8⁺ and CD4⁺ T cells. The synergistic GSH depletion and HIFU ablation also amplify the inhibition of tumor growth and lung metastasis. Together, these findings inaugurate a new strategy of tumor-targeted immunotherapy, realizing a novel therapeutics paradigm with great clinical significance.

Platelets buoy up cancer metastasis via arresting cancer cells, enhancing their adhesion, and facilitating their extravasation through the vasculature. When deprived of intracellular and granular contents, platelet decoys could prevent metastatic tumor formation. Inspired by these, we developed nanoplatesomes by fusing platelet membranes with lipid membranes (P-Lipo) to restrain metastatic tumor formation more efficiently. It was shown nanoplateletsomes bound with circulating tumor cells (CTC) efficiently, interfered with CTC arrest by vessel endothelial cells, CTC extravasation through endothelial layers, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of tumor cells as nanodecoys. More importantly, in the mouse breast tumor metastasis model, nanoplateletsomes could decrease CTC survival in the blood and counteract metastatic tumor growth efficiently by inhibiting the inflammation and suppressing CTC escape. Therefore, nanoplatelesomes might usher in a new avenue to suppress lung metastasis.

Anti-virulence strategy has been considered as one of the most promising approaches to combat drug-resistant bacterial infections. Pore-forming toxins (PFTs) are the largest class of bacterial toxins, inflicting their virulence effect through creating pores on the cell membrane. However, current solutions for eliminating PFTs are mostly designed based on their molecular structure, requiring customized design for different interactions. In the present study, we employed erythroliposome (denoted as RM-PL), a biomimetic platform constructed by artificial lipid membranes and natural erythrocyte membranes, to neutralize different hemolytic PFTs regardless of their molecular structure. When tested with model PFTs, including α-hemolysin, listeriolysin O, and streptolysin O, RM-PL could completely inhibit toxin-induced hemolysis in a concentration-dependent manner. In vivo studies further confirmed that RM-PL could efficiently neutralize various toxins and save animals' lives without causing damage to organs or tissues. In addition, we explored the underlying mechanisms of this efficient detoxification ability and found that it was mainly macrophages in the spleen and the liver that took up RM-PL-absorbed toxins through a variety of endocytosis pathways and digested them in lysosomes. In summary, the biomimetic RM-PL presented a promising system for broad-spectrum and powerful toxin neutralization with a mechanism of lysosome-mediated toxin degradation.