Biomedical Technology最新文献

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second leading cause of cancer death from worldwide. Thus, it is imperative to clarify valuable diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for early-stage HCC. The expression of Keratin 17 (KRT17) has been reported to be associated with certain cancer types previously. However, its role in the development of HCC has not been fully clarified. Here, we assessed the expression of KRT17 in the cancer genome atlas liver hepatocellular carcinoma (TCGA LIHC) database and in 44 pairs of samples collected from patients with HCC. In addition, Kaplan-Meir curves were used to assess the prognostic relevance of KRT17. The essential cancer- and KRT17-related biological processes were defined through gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). Finally, the functional association between KRT17 expression and tumor cell proliferation/survival was evaluated and the signaling pathways associated with KRT17 expression in HCC were identified. Overall, we found that increased KRT17 levels were associated with lower survival, more aggressive disease, and altered immune cell infiltration in HCC patients. KRT17 may potentially act as a prognostic biomarker in HCC.

In the last years there has been a booming in the development of biological pharmaceuticals, and various nanoparticle delivery systems have been developed to overcome biological barriers to maximize the therapeutic potentials. Especially, when these drug-loaded nanoparticle systems arrive at the target cells, they must be successfully internalized into the cells, followed by the endosome escape, to release the payload in the cytoplasm. This is crucial so that the payloads are not degraded in the endosome (around pH 6.8–6.0) or lysosome (around pH 4.5). Considering the acid environment of the endosome, several studies have shown the design of different acid-labile nanoparticle delivery systems attempting to achieve endosome escape by, for example, endosomal rupture, membrane destabilization, and membrane fusion. In this mini-review, we summarize current designs in acid-labile chemical bonds for endosome escape of nanosystems. First, we briefly introduce the structural design of acid-labile nanoparticles and their endosomal escape mechanisms. Then, we review recent research work on the topic, highlighting how the nanoparticle designs can be used in endosome escape for different biomedical applications. Finally, we discuss the challenges and future perspectives in this field.

Complexities of the intestine have brought enormous controversy and discussions to the research on the digestive diseases. The neglected gas environment is crucial in shaping the dynamic intestinal microenvironment. Many gases are involved in the biological activities within the intestinal anaerobic environment, including oxygen, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, ammonia, methane, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen. These gases participate in the regulation of systemic inflammation and metabolism via different pathways, thereby alleviating or promoting the development of intestinal disease. Meanwhile, the constitution and changes of gases reflect the intestinal environment, which could be utilized to monitor the variation in local metabolism and imply the progress of digestive disorders. However, individual gas has intrinsic functions in maintaining a healthy intestinal microenvironment or causing digestive diseases, and the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. Therefore, exploring the profile of gases in the digestive tract and their extraordinary impact on the intestinal microenvironment will be of great value in understanding the interplay between intestinal health and diseases. By reviewing the research progress of gases in the digestive tract, we anticipate that a better understanding of the roles of gases would promote the research and application transformation in this field as well as the diagnostics and treatment of clinical diseases.

Nowadays, living therapeutics is a promising candidate among various therapies, and oral administration of living therapeutics characterized by universality and safety avail to make the transition from bench to bedside. However, precise delivery and continuous maintenance of cell viability and activity to acquire stable and ideal therapeutic efficacy remain challenging. Living material is the smart integration of the flexibly programmable functionality of biomaterial and the autonomous environmental responsiveness of living elements, heralding a new era of biotherapeutics in addressing human health concerns. Here, our review aims at presenting an overview of the status of the oral delivery of living material from a biological, technical, and practical perspective, describing the clinical significance and potential, the current technological development and dilemma, as well as the prospect.

Background

Tocilizumab is a well-practiced strategy to manage cytokine release syndrome (CRS) after chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapy. However, varied efficiency in CRS mitigation by tocilizumab has been reported to highlight affecting variables such as tumor types and timing of the administration.

Objective

The objective of this study is to identify different curative effect between diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) by early use of tocilizumab for prophylaxis and treatment of CRS.

Methods

By retrospectively summarizing our institution's experience with a CAR-T clinical trial targeting CD19, 11 cases were analyzed: 5 DLBCL, and 6 ALL. The two groups were compared with patient characteristics, CRS information and clinical outcomes. 3 patients were pretreated with tocilizumab for prophylaxis and the rest were treated with tocilizumab at CRS diagnosis.

Results

CRS occurred in 81.8% of patients (9/11), grade 3 or higher occurred in 55.6% of the CRS patients (5/9). The two group were similar in patient characteristics, CAR-T and CRS profile. However, tocilizumab produced much better efficacy against CRS in DLBCL group compared with ALL group (80% versus 16.7%, P ​= ​0.08).

Conclusions

Despite the statistical was non-significant, possibly due to small case pool and bias was unavoidable, our analysis suggested that early use of tocilizumab was more effective for DLBCL than ALL in the prophylaxis and treatment of CRS. A treatment algorithm for management of CRS with regard to DLBCL and ALL is proposed, which may extend to other local or systemic malignancies and warrant further investigation.

Improving the corrosion resistance, osteogenic activity, and antimicrobial capacity of the magnesium-based implant is considered the key to promoting their large-scale clinical application. In this study, we reported a novel calcium-phosphorus coating induced by gentamicin (G)-loaded polydopamine for the surface treatment of the magnesium alloy. According to material characterization, immersion tests, and electrochemical analysis, the composite coating has a dense structure and a high crystallinity for greater corrosion resistance. Meanwhile, drug release and antimicrobial experiments demonstrated that the magnesium matrix loaded with gentamicin showed strong inhibition of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, and the calcium-phosphorus coating further prolonged the release profile of G, which would contribute to the long-term bactericidal activity of the magnesium implants. In addition, the coating significantly promoted the adhesion, proliferation, and osteogenic differentiation ability of MC3T3-E1. The results of in vivo experiments confirmed that magnesium alloys with composite coatings significantly promoted bone regeneration under infected conditions. This study provides a promising strategy for the development of multifunctional magnesium-based implants with good corrosion resistance, and antibacterial and osteogenic capabilities.

According to the society of assisted reproductive technologies (SART), the top fertility clinics in North America have reported overall pregnancy rates of up to 50% in good prognosis patients. Although new techniques in advanced reproductive technologies have begun to emerge in the twenty-first century, including time-lapse monitoring of embryo development, analysis of metabolites in embryo culture media, and the use of artificial intelligence in morphometric embryo grading, currently chromosomal status obtained via pre-implantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) appears to be the most definitive in evaluating embryonic potential. Yet still, in most clinics, approximately 30% of euploid or chromosomally normal embryos fail to achieve a viable pregnancy resulting in stress and anxiety for patients, repeat cycles, and increased cost of treatment. Recent literature suggests that blastocysts with an increased mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) ratio have greatly reduced implantation potential, however, there exists controversial studies which do not report a relationship. This review summarizes the current literature on utilizing mitochondrial DNA as a possible biomarker for embryo implantation, highlights the reasons for inconsistencies in some studies and suggests possible improvements to the study design of future mtDNA ratio research.

As the most popular teeth problem, dental caries can result in pain, suffering, impaired function, and diminished quality of life among communities, which calls for new strategies to improve the therapeutic effects. With suitable biocompatibility properties, functional hydrogels had developed dramatically in dental caries treatments. In this review, the occurrence and development of dental caries were introduced. Then, the current hydrogels toward dental caries with antibacterial or (and) remineralization properties and hydrogel-related dental pulp tissue engineering were summarized. Finally, the limitation and outlook of the applications of hydrogels on dental caries treatment were prospected. Exploring innovative hydrogel delivery systems will build a solid basis for a brighter future of more friendly, effective and personalized treatment to deal with dental caries.

Owing to their superior capacity for building structures, polymeric fibers with diameters varying from a few nanometers to hundreds of microns have been explored in biomedical applications as drug carriers or tissue engineering scaffolds. Depending on the source materials, fabrication techniques, and post-treatments, both the fiber diameter and surface morphology, as well as mechanical features and the cell-fiber structure interactions can be thoroughly tuned. Although most techniques could produce fibers within a wide range of sizes, each type may have superior advantages in a certain range, which may highly relate to target biomedical fields. Therefore, to properly choose the optimal technique for specific fibers, a comprehensive review of the current fiber-producing techniques is indispensable. In the current review, several main fiber-producing techniques are summarized, compared, and discussed in detail regarding their dominant fiber size ranges, which were classified as nano (<1000 ​nm), micro (1 ​μm−100 μm) and macro (>100 ​μm). The principals, main parameters, and corresponding applications for each technique are reviewed, and the challenges and future perspectives are proposed. We believe this review is highly informative for novice researchers in this field.

Wettability, as a fundamental property of interface materials, is becoming increasingly prominent in frontier research areas, such as water harvesting, microfluidics, biomedicine, sensors, decontamination, wearables, and micro-electromechanical systems. Taking advantage of biological paradigm inspirations and manufacturing technology advancements, diverse wettability materials with precisely customized micro/nano-structures have been developed. As a result of these achievements, wettability materials have significant technical ramifications in sectors spanning from academics to industry, agriculture, and biomedical engineering. Practical applications of wettability-customized materials in medical device domains have drawn significant scientific interest in recent decades due to the increased emphasis on healthcare. In this review, recent advances of wettability-customized micro/nano-materials for biomedical devices are presented. After briefly introducing the natural wettable/non-wettable phenomena, the fabrication strategies and novel processing techniques are discussed. The study emphasizes the application progress of biomedical devices with customized wettability. The future challenges and opportunities of wettability-customized micro/nano-materials are also provided.