The number of research involving human subjects on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is surging, bringing challenges to the ethical review committee (ERC) in terms of reviewing speed and special ethical considerations under the pandemic. However, the existing ethical review system and regulations have their limitations to meet the demand for a prompt and efficient epidemic control. Since the research under the public health emergency is different from that carried out in familiar situations to design and implementation, the strategy for a satisfactory ERC response should balance the duty of protecting individual participants as well as the special public needs derived from the disease control. It is suggested that the ethical review-related regulations need to be updated, and a unified supervision system to the overall ERC is required.ERC collaboration, capacity-improving and efficiency-improving measures need to be taken.With respect to the reviewing guidelines, it is suggested that the international norms should be explained with more consideration of the local condition and the exceptional circumstances in this public health emergency. A joint effort needs to be taken for better research conduction.

The combination of photothermal therapy (PTT) and chemotherapy is considered a promising tumor treatment modality, nevertheless, cellular resistance induced by heat shock proteins (HSPs) overexpressed in tumor cells will restrict the therapeutic effect. Herein, a multifunctional nanobeacon DOX/HCuS@PDA-MB (D/CP-MB) with a scout function for HSP90 mRNA fluorescence detection and near-infrared (NIR) triggered drug release for sensitizing chemo-photothermal therapy, is proposed. In the theranostic nanobeacons, HSP90MBs not only enable fluorescence detection of intracellular HSP90 mRNAs, but also downregulate the expression of HSP90 to reduce cell resistance. With the assistance of NIR and guidance of fluorescence imaging, spatiotemporal doxorubicin release can be achieved by the trigger of the photothermal effect, allowing for combined chemotherapy and photothermal treatment. Furthermore, the dual photothermal effect of hollow mesoporous CuS (HCuS) and polydopamine will lead to a better photothermal effect. Moreover, compared with other control groups, D/CP-MB nanobeacons exhibit effective boost therapeutic efficacy by inducing significant suppression of tumor proliferation and enhancement of apoptosis both in vitro and in vivo. In summary, this work provides novel theranostic nanobeacons that integrate imaging and therapy in a single nanoparticle, this strategy of imaging-guided therapy can enable precise tumor treatment and effectively improve tumor treatment efficacy.

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Aconitum flavum, a traditional Chinese medicine. The complete chloroplast genome sequence is 155,654 bp in length, with one large single copy region of 86,390 bp, one small single copy region of 16,968 bp, and two inverted repeat (IR) regions of 26,148 bp. It contains 129 genes, including 83 protein-coding genes, 8 ribosomal RNA, and 37 transfer RNA. Phylogenetic tree shows that this species is a sister to A. brachypodum.

Lung cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors worldwide, with high morbidity and mortality due to significant individual characteristics and genetic heterogeneity. Personalized treatment is necessary to improve the overall survival rate of the patients. In recent years, the development of patient-derived organoids (PDOs) enables lung cancer diseases to be simulated in the real world, and closely reflects the pathophysiological characteristics of natural tumor occurrence and metastasis, highlighting their great potential in biomedical applications, translational medicine, and personalized treatment. However, the inherent defects of traditional organoids, such as poor stability, the tumor microenvironment with simple components and low throughput, limit their further clinical transformation and applications. In this review, we summarized the developments and applications of lung cancer PDOs and discussed the limitations of traditional PDOs in clinical transformation. Herein, we looked into the future and proposed that organoids-on-a-chip based on microfluidic technology are advantageous for personalized drug screening. In addition, combined with recent advances in lung cancer research, we explored the translational value and future development direction of organoids-on-a-chip in the precision treatment of lung cancer.