Keming Xu

Biofunctional magnetic nanoparticles for protein separation and pathogen detection

Recent successful syntheses of monodispersed magnetic nanoparticles have offered a unique opportunity to control and probe biological interactions using magnetic force. This paper highlights a general strategy to generate biofunctional magnetic nanoparticles, illustrates applications for these nanoparticles in protein separation and pathogen detection, and analyzes the high sensitivity and high selectivity achieved by this system.

Synthesis and cellular uptake of porphyrin decorated iron oxide nanoparticles—a potential candidate for bimodal anticancer therapy

This paper reports the synthesis, characterization, and cellular uptake of the conjugate of porphyrin and iron oxide nanoparticles, which may lead to a bimodal anticancer agent that can be used in the combinational treatment of photodynamic therapy (PDT) and hyperthermia therapy (HT).

Self-assembly of small molecules affords multifunctional supramolecular hydrogels for topically treating simulated uranium wounds

Two types of therapeutic agents, which have discrete yet complementary functions, self-assemble into nanofibers in water to formulate a new supramolecular hydrogel as a self-delivery biomaterial to reduce the toxicity of uranyl oxide at the wound sites.

Bisphosphonate-containing supramolecular hydrogels for topical decorporation of uranium-contaminated wounds in mice.

Purpose: Personnel experiencing accidents that involve radionuclides or victims of potential malicious radioactive attacks may suffer injuries with wounds contaminated by radionuclides. The current treatment for contamination from uranium in external injuries is the use of saline solution to wash the wounds, which has the drawback of further spreading of the contaminants due to the flow of water. To minimize the cost of storage of contaminated liquids and to improve the efficiency of treatment, we propose the use of hydrogels as a form of decorporation agent. Methods: Mice with uranium-contaminated wounds on their backs were treated with bisphosphonate or diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA) containing supramolecular hydrogels. Survival rates of the treated mice and changes in the body weight of the mice were observed and compared to those of mice without hydrogel treatment. Distribution of uranium in the mice was also explored as proof of the effectiveness of the hydrogel treatment. Results: The survival rate of the hydrogel-treated mice was significantly higher than that of the mice without treatment. The body weights of the hydrogel-treated mice showed significant recovery after 10 days while the body weight of mice without hydrogel treatment continuously decreased. The amount of uranyl ions in the organs (mainly concentrated in the kidney) of the hydrogel-treated mice was much smaller than that of the mice without hydrogel treatment. Conclusions: By incorporating uranium chelating agents, we developed new supramolecular hydrogels that could effectively and conveniently decorporate uranium ions from the contaminated wound sites of mice, with the highest efficacy achieved by our pamidronate-based molecular hydrogel.

Using Congo red to report intracellular hydrogelation resulted from self-assembly of small molecules

This communication reports the use of Congo red to stain the nanofibers of self-assembled small molecules for assaying intracellular supramolecular hydrogels, which provides a convenient method to explore molecular self-assembly inside cells.

Photosensitizer decorated iron oxide nanoparticles: bimodal agent for combined hyperthermia and photodynamic therapy

As the PDT effect may be enhanced by localized hyperthermia (HT), it would be logical to find a single agent that could bring about these two modalities at precisely the target site for synergism. Since highly localized HT can be induced by magnetic field excitation of superparamagnetic nanoparticles, we report here the design and synthesis of photosensitizer-decorated iron oxide nanoparticles and their tumoricidal effect. Thus, a porphyrin is covalently anchored on the iron oxide nanoparticle via dihydroxybenzene which binds tightly on the surface of the nanoparticle by M-O bond. The morphology of the resultant nanoparticle was studied to show that the crystallinality is not changed and the nanoparticle remains superparamagnetic at room temperature. The conjugate is also strongly fluorescent indicating that the iron oxide hardly affects the optical properties of the surface bound porphyrin moieties. The conjugate is readily taken by cancer cell (Hela cell line) and is able to trigger apoptosis after excitation by light.

Arbutin encapsulated micelles improved transdermal delivery and suppression of cellular melanin production.

BackgroundHyperpigmentation is a skin disorder characterized by elevated production of melanin. Current treatment approaches mainly rely on the application of skin lightening chemicals, most of which have safety issues. Efficacy of delivery of the active ingredients to the target organ has also been a challenge. Transdermal based drug delivery platform has been shown to improve drug bioavailability, avoiding the hepatic first pass metabolism, decrease gastrointestinal side effects, and eventually enhance patient compliance.ResultsThis article explores the utilization of micellar transdermal delivery technology to improve skin penetration and efficacy of arbutin, a hyperpigmentation agent. The suppression efficacy of cellular melanin production versus cell viability of four active ingredients commonly used in skin lightening products, namely allantoin, arbutin, glycolic acid, and hyaluronic acid were first compared. Arbutin was selected for the micellar delivery studies base on its comparatively low cytotoxicity and better performance in reducing melanin production. Micellar Arbutin cream was formulated using Urah® proprietary micellar technology and was assessed for its cellular melanin suppression efficacy and skin penetration capacity.ConclusionThe results show that micellar arbutin cream improved both the delivery and cellular melanin suppression, suggesting that micellar transdermal delivery may have potential application in addressing hyperpigmentation skin disorders.Graphical abstractTransdermal delivery of arbutin with micelles for melanin production suppression.

The Complexes of Bisphosphonate and Magnetite Nanoparticles to Remove Uranyl Ions from Aqueous Phase

Using tetraethyl‐3‐amino‐propane‐1,1‐bisphosphonate (BP) as the functional molecule, we functionalized Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles via dopamine (DA) linkage to create a system with an Fe3O4‐DA‐BP nanostructure, which possesses high specificity for removing uranyl ions from water or blood. This work demonstrates that magnetic nanoparticles, combined with specific receptor‐ligand interactions, promise a sensitive and rapid platform for the detection, recovery, and decorporation of radioactive metal toxins from biological environment.