Zhengnan Zhou

Concentration ranges of antibacterial cations for showing the highest antibacterial efficacy but the least cytotoxicity against mammalian cells: implications for a new antibacterial mechanism.

Antibacterial metal ions, such as Ag(+), Zn(2+) and Cu(2+), have been extensively used in medical implants and devices due to their strong broad spectrum of antibacterial activity. However, it is still a controversial issue as to whether they can show the desired antibacterial activity while being toxic to mammalian cells. It is very important to balance their antibacterial effectiveness with minimal damage to mammalian cells. Toward this end, this study is to identify the suitable concentrations of these three ions at which they can effectively kill two types of clinically relevant bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli)) but show no obvious cytotoxicity on fibroblasts. Such concentration ranges are found to be 2.5 × 10(-7) M-10(-6) M, 10(-5) M-10(-4) M, and 10(-5) M-10(-4) M for Ag(+), Zn(2+), and Cu(2+), respectively. Investigation of their antibacterial mechanism shows that these three metal ions all show antibacterial property through a mechanism of damaging bacterial cell membranes by the generation of reactive oxygen species but surprisingly preserving the integrity of bacterial genomic DNA. The encouraging results indicate that antibacterial metal ions with controlled concentrations can bring considerable benefits to biomedical applications.

Reversibly Controlling Preferential Protein Adsorption on Bone Implants by Using an Applied Weak Potential as a Switch

A facile method is needed to control the protein adsorption onto biomaterials, such as, bone implants. Herein we doped taurocholic acid (TCA), an amphiphilic biomolecule, into an array of 1D nano-architectured polypyrrole (NAPPy) on the implants. Doping TCA enabled the implant surface to show reversible wettability between 152° (superhydrophobic, switch-on state) and 55° (hydrophilic, switch-off state) in response to periodically switching two weak electrical potentials (+0.50 and -0.80 V as a switch-on and switch-off potential, respectively). The potential-switchable reversible wettability, arising from the potential-tunable orientation of the hydrophobic and hydrophilic face of TCA, led to potential-switchable preferential adsorption of proteins as well as cell adhesion and spreading. This potential-switchable strategy may open up a new avenue to control the biological activities on the implant surface.

Nanostructured Conducting Polymers as Intelligent Implant Surface: Fabricated on Biomedical Titanium with a Potential-Induced Reversible Switch in Wettability

Conducting polypyrrole (PPy) nanotube arrays, nanotube networks and irregular films are deposited on biomedical titanium. By in situ application of weak periodic potentials, the nanostructured conducting polymers undergo a reversible switch in wettability, which is a redox process of dopant molecules (as hydrophilic groups) immobilized and de-immobilized on the surface of the conducting polymers.

Taurine-induced fabrication of nano-architectured conducting polypyrrole on biomedical titanium.

In this article, taurine, one of the small biomolecules associated with bone metabolism, is firstly utilized to induce the fabrication of nano-architectured conducting polypyrrole (NCPPy) on biomedical titanium in diverse pH values of phosphate buffer solution (PBS). Accordingly, the possible mechanism for the fabrication of NCPPy is proposed, which is dependent on the states of polytaurine from the polymerization of taurine, i.e., the inability of forming polytaurine and unordered restricted space results in taurine-incorporated and polytaurine-incorporated tightly packed nanoparticles (pH 6.2 and 8.0), respectively, and however, ordered restricted space constructed by polytaurine chains induces the fabrication of polytaurine-incorporated nanopillars (pH 6.8) and polytaurine-incorporated nanowire networks (pH 7.4).

Polarization of an electroactive functional film on titanium for inducing osteogenic differentiation

To enhance the surface bioactivity of titanium (Ti) prostheses, an electroactive polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) film was prepared on a Ti substrate to provide a mimetic of the electrical microenvironment, which facilitated the performance of cell functions. The results of cell proliferation and differentiation assays indicated that polarization of the PVDF-Ti (PTi) altered its surface charge, thus inducing adhesion, proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of cells. The polarized PVDF-Ti (PPTi) may therefore find applications in bone regeneration.

Chondroitin sulphate-guided construction of polypyrrole nanoarchitectures.

Nanospheres, nanocones, and nanowires are three typical polypyrrole (PPy) nanoarchitectures and electrochemically polymerized with the dope of chondroitin sulphate (CS) in this study. CS, a functional biomacromolecule, guides the formation of PPy nanoarchitectures as the dopant and morphology-directing agent. Combined with our previous reported other PPy nanoarchitectures (such as nanotube arrays and nanowires), this work further proposed the novel mechanism of the construction of PPy/CS nanoarchitectures with the synergistic effect of CS molecular chains structure and the steric hindrance. Compared to the undoped PPy, MC3T3-E1 cells with PPy/CS nanoarchitectures possessed stronger proliferation and osteogenic differentiation capability. This suggests that PPy/CS nanoarchitectures have appropriate biocompatibility. Altogether, the nanoarchitectured PPy/CS may find application in the regeneration of bone defect.

Electroactive polymers for tissue regeneration: Developments and perspectives

Human body motion can generate a biological electric field and a current, creating a voltage gradient of -10 to -90 mV across cell membranes. In turn, this gradient triggers cells to transmit signals that alter cell proliferation and differentiation. Several cell types, counting osteoblasts, neurons and cardiomyocytes, are relatively sensitive to electrical signal stimulation. Employment of electrical signals in modulating cell proliferation and differentiation inspires us to use the electroactive polymers to achieve electrical stimulation for repairing impaired tissues. Electroactive polymers have found numerous applications in biomedicine due to their capability in effectively delivering electrical signals to the seeded cells, such as biosensing, tissue regeneration, drug delivery, and biomedical implants. Here we will summarize the electrical characteristics of electroactive polymers, which enables them to electrically influence cellular function and behavior, including conducting polymers, piezoelectric polymers, and polyelectrolyte gels. We will also discuss the biological response to these electroactive polymers under electrical stimulation. In particular, we focus this review on their applications in regenerating different tissues, including bone, nerve, heart muscle, cartilage and skin. Additionally, we discuss the challenges in tissue regeneration applications of electroactive polymers. We conclude that electroactive polymers have a great potential as regenerative biomaterials, due to their ability to stimulate desirable outcomes in various electrically responsive cells.

Nanomaterials as photothermal therapeutic agents

Curing cancer has been one of the greatest conundrums in the modern medical field. To reduce side-effects associated with the traditional cancer therapy such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy, photothermal therapy (PTT) has been recognized as one of the most promising treatments for cancer over recent years. PTT relies on ablation agents such as nanomaterials with a photothermal effect, for converting light into heat. In this way, elevated temperature could kill cancer cells while avoiding significant side effects on normal cells. This theory works because normal cells have a higher heat tolerance than cancer cells. Thus, nanomaterials with photothermal effects have attracted enormous attention due to their selectivity and non-invasive attributes. This review article summarizes the current status of employing nanomaterials with photothermal effects for anti-cancer treatment. Mechanisms of the photothermal effect and various factors affecting photothermal performance will be discussed. Efficient and selective PTT is believed to play an increasingly prominent role in cancer treatment. Moreover, merging PTT with other methods of cancer therapies is also discussed as a future trend.

Template-free electrochemical controllable fabrication and characterization of conducting polypyrrole nanowires

In this article, PPy nanowires were fabricated by template-free electrochemical polymerization. FE-SEM and Raman spectra were employed to characterized the morphology and molecular structure of the obtained product, respectively. The results illustrated that PPy nanowires with hollow structure were fabricated on titanium. Moreover, the temperature, concentration of the dopant (β-NSA) and the Py monomer greatly affected the morphology of PPy nanowires. The degree of orientation of nanowires was dependent on the concentration of β-NSA. Conical nanowires were fabricated upon the concentration of Py approaching 0.4 mol/L. High temperature exerted negative effects on the forming of long PPy nanowires. The resulting differences of the morphology should be attributed to the change of the solubility of Py and the number of Py-NSA micelles, both of which were affected by the parameters discussed above.