Jingxin Meng

Dual-Responsive Surfaces Modified with Phenylboronic Acid-Containing Polymer Brush To Reversibly Capture and Release Cancer Cells

Artificial stimuli-responsive surfaces that can mimic the dynamic function of living systems have attracted much attention. However, there exist few artificial systems capable of responding to dual- or multistimulation as the natural system does. Herein, we synthesize a pH and glucose dual-responsive surface by grafting poly(acrylamidophenylboronic acid) (polyAAPBA) brush from aligned silicon nanowire (SiNW) array. The as-prepared surface can reversibly capture and release targeted cancer cells by precisely controlling pH and glucose concentration, exhibiting dual-responsive AND logic. In the presence of 70 mM glucose, the surface is pH responsive, which can vary from a cell-adhesive state to a cell-repulsive state by changing the pH from 6.8 to 7.8. While keeping the pH at 7.8, the surface becomes glucose responsive--capturing cells in the absence of glucose and releasing cells by adding 70 mM glucose. Through simultaneously changing the pH and glucose concentration from pH 6.8/0 mM glucose to pH 7.8/70 mM glucose, the surface is dual responsive with the capability to switch between cell capture and release for at least 5 cycles. The cell capture and release process on this dual-responsive surface is noninvasive with cell viability higher than 95%. Moreover, topographical interaction between the aligned SiNW array and cell protrusions greatly amplifies the responsiveness and accelerates the response rate of the dual-responsive surface between cell capture and release. The responsive mechanism of the dual-responsive surface is systematically studied using a quartz crystal microbalance, which shows that the competitive binding between polyAAPBA/sialic acid and polyAAPBA/glucose contributes to the dual response. Such dual-responsive surface can significantly impact biomedical and biological applications including cell-based diagnostics, in vivo drug delivery, etc.

Hydrophobic Interaction‐Mediated Capture and Release of Cancer Cells on Thermoresponsive Nanostructured Surfaces

Hydrophobic interaction, one of the universal weak interactions in nature, plays a prominent role in biological processes such as lipid bilayer formation, [ 1 ] protein folding [ 2 ] and protein–protein recognition. [ 3 ] For example, hydrophobic interaction is one of the most important driving forces for the reversible folding of linear polypeptide chains into functional structures. [ 2a ] In contrast to natural live systems which achieve reversible processes through hydrophobic interactions, artifi cial smart systems [ 4 ]

Clam's shell inspired high-energy inorganic coatings with underwater low adhesive superoleophobicity.

Unique underwater low adhesive superoleophobicity is discovered on the pallium-covered region of a short clams shell. This property originates from the shells inorganic composition of CaCO(3) and surface micro/nano-hierarchical structures. The oil-repellent shell provides an innovative strategy to develop novel underwater superoleophobic coatings using inorganic oxides such as copper oxide. This kind of coating is anticipated to be applied on engineering metals to protect aquatic equipment from oil contamination.

Programmable fractal nanostructured interfaces for specific recognition and electrochemical release of cancer cells.

Topographic recognition of cancer cells is triggered by fractal gold nanostructures (FAuNSs), leading to dramatically enhanced recognition capability and efficient release of cancer cells with little damage. The unique characteristic of FAuNSs is the similar fractal dimension of their surface and that of a cancer cell. The design of fractal nanostructures will open up opportunities for functional design of bio-interfaces for highly efficient recognition and release of disease-related rare cells, which will improve detection in a clinical environment.

Hierarchical Nanowire Arrays as Three-Dimensional Fractal Nanobiointerfaces for High Efficient Capture of Cancer Cells

A hierarchical assembled ITO nanowire array with both horizontal and vertical nanowire branches was fabricated as a new three-dimensional fractal nanobiointerface for efficient cancer cell capture. Comparing with ITO nanowire array without branches, this fractal nanobiointerface exhibited much higher efficiency (89% vs 67%) and specificity in capturing cancer cells and took shorter time (35 vs 45 min) to reach the maximal capture efficiency. As indicated by the immunofluorescent and ESEM images, this enhancement can be attributed to the improvement of topographical interaction between cells and the substrate. The introduction of horizontal and vertical nanowire branches makes the substrate topographically match better with cell filopodia and provides more binding sites for cell capture. The live/dead cell staining and proliferation experiments confirm that this fractal nanobiointerface displays excellent cyto-compatibility with an over 96% cell viability after capture. These results provide new insights and may open up opportunities in designing and engineering new cell-material interfaces for advanced biomedical applications.

Grooved Organogel Surfaces towards Anisotropic Sliding of Water Droplets

Periodic micro-grooved organogel surfaces can easily realize the anisotropic sliding of water droplets attributing to the formed slippery water/oil/solid interface. Different from the existing anisotropic surfaces, this novel surface provides a versatile candidate for the anisotropic sliding of water droplets and might present a promising way for the easy manipulation of liquid droplets for water collection, liquid-directional transportation, and microfluidics.

Trap Effect of Three‐Dimensional Fibers Network for High Efficient Cancer‐Cell Capture

Cells are trapped: The 3D fibrous interfaces, including microfibers, nanofibers, and nanofibers/microbeads composite interfaces, are fabricated by electrospinning. After coated with anti-EpCAM, these 3D fibrous interfaces allow cancer cells to be firmly trapped into the networks that show the outstanding capability for cancer cell capture from real blood.

Hierarchical Biointerfaces Assembled by Leukocyte‐Inspired Particles for Specifically Recognizing Cancer Cells

By mimicking certain biochemical and physical attributes of biological cells, bio-inspired particles have attracted great attention for potential biomedical applications based on cell-like biological functions. Inspired by leukocytes, hierarchical biointerfaces are designed and prepared based on specific molecules-modified leukocyte-inspired particles. These biointerfaces can efficiently recognize cancer cells from whole blood samples through the synergistic effect of molecular recognition and topographical interaction. Compared to flat, mono-micro or nano-biointerfaces, these micro/nano hierarchical biointerfaces are better able to promote specific recognition interactions, resulting in an enhanced cell-capture efficiency. It is anticipated that this study may provide promising guidance to develop new bio-inspired hierarchical biointerfaces for biomedical applications.

Platelet‐Inspired Multiscaled Cytophilic Interfaces with High Specificity and Efficiency toward Point‐of‐Care Cancer Diagnosis

Cell recognition plays an essential role in various biological processes, [ 1 ] such as the differentiation and development of embryo, the circuit formation of nervous system, [ 2 ] and the function conducting of immune system. [ 3 ] Designing cytophilic interfaces [ 4 ] to mimic and study the recognition between cells benefi ts not only the mechanismunderstanding of cell communications but also the technology-developing of disease treatment. During the last decades, the recognition and interaction between platelets and tumor cells in blood has aroused great attention because of its crucial contribution to cancer metastasis. [ 5 ] Plateletbased method is thus regarded as a new approach for antimetastasis therapy. [ 6 ] The interactions between platelets and tumor cells include molecule-scaled recognition and structure-scaled topographical interactions. [ 6,7 ] Molecules on tumor-cell surfaces recognize and activate platelets through complex pathways. [ 6 , 7a ] Activated platelets with surface structures aggregate around tumor cells, helping them survive in blood and extravasate to new tissues. [ 7b-c ] Furthermore, platelets can also help identify tumor cells which have the metastasis potentiality. [ 7b ] Therefore, it is important and meaningful to design biointerfaces to study the recognition between platelets and tumor cells for advanced anti-metastasis treatment and cancer diagnosis.

Recent progress in biointerfaces with controlled bacterial adhesion by using chemical and physical methods.

Biointerfaces with the controlled adhesion of bacteria are highly important, owing to their wide applications, which range from decreasing the probability of infection to promoting higher efficiency and sensitivity in biocatalysts and biosensors. In this Focus Review, we summarize the recent progress in chemically and physically designed biointerfaces with controlled bacterial adhesion. On one hand, several smart-responsive biointerfaces that can be switched between bacteria-adhesive states and bacteria-resistant states by applying an external stimulus have been rationally designed and developed for adhering and detaching bacteria, whilst, on the other hand, the adhesive behavior of bacteria can be controlled by regulating the topography of the biointerface. In addition, new technologies (i.e., biosensors) and materials (i.e., graphene) provide promising approaches for efficiently controlling the adhesion of bacteria for practical applications.