Cancer is a life-threatening disease killing millions of people globally. Among various medical treatments, nano-medicines are gaining importance continuously. Many nanocarriers have been developed for treatment, but polymerically-based ones are acquiring importance due to their targeting capabilities, biodegradability, biocompatibility, capacity for drug loading and long blood circulation time. The present article describes progress in polymeric nano-medicines for theranostic cancer treatment, which includes cancer diagnosis and treatment in a single dosage form. The article covers the applications of natural and synthetic polymers in cancer diagnosis and treatment. Efforts were also made to discuss the merits and demerits of such polymers; the status of approved nano-medicines; and future perspectives.

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The culture environment plays an important role for stem cells’ cultivation. Static or dynamic culture preserve differential potentials to affect human mesenchymal stem cells’ (hMSCs) proliferation and differentiation. In this study, hMSCs were seeded on fiber disks and cultured in a bidirectional-flow bioreactor or spinner-flask bioreactor with a supplement of osteogenic medium. The hMSCs’ proliferation, osteogenic differentiation, and extracellular matrix deposition of mineralization were demonstrated. The results showed that the spinner flask improved cell viability at the first two weeks while the bidirectional-flow reactor increased the cell proliferation of hMSCs through the four-week culture period. Despite the flow reactor having a higher cell number, a lower lactose/glucose ratio was noted, revealing that the bidirectional-flow bioreactor provides better oxygen accessibility to the cultured cells/disk construct. The changes of calcium ions in the medium, the depositions of Ca2+ in the cells/disk constructs, and alkaline phosphate/osteocalcin activities showed the static culture of hMSCs caused cells to mineralize faster than the other two bioreactors but without cell proliferation. Otherwise, cells were distributed uniformly with abundant extracellular matrix productions using the flow reactor. This reveals that the static and dynamic cultivations regulated the osteogenic process differently in hMSCs. The bidirectional-flow bioreactor can be used in the mass production and cultivation of hMSCs for applications in bone regenerative medicine.

Gram-negative bacteria (GNBs) are common pathogens causing severe sepsis. Rapid evaluation of drug susceptibility would guide effective antibiotic treatment and promote life-saving. A total of 78 clinical isolates of 13 Gram-negative species collected between April 2013 and November 2013 from two medical centers in Tainan were tested. Bacterial morphology changes in different concentrations of antibiotics were observed under the electric field of a quadruple electrode array using light microscopy. The minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of four antimicrobial agents, namely, cefazolin, ceftazidime, cefepime, and doripenem, were determined by the dielectrophoretic antimicrobial susceptibility testing (dAST) and by the conventional broth dilution testing (BDT). The antibiotics at the concentration of 1× MIC induced obvious morphological changes in susceptible GNBs, including cell elongation, cell swelling, or lysis, at 90 min. In contrast, resistant strains remained unchanged. The MIC results measured by dAST were in good agreement with those of BDT (essential agreement 95.6%). The category agreement rate was 89.2%, and the very major errors rate for dAST was 2.9%. In conclusion, dAST could accurately determine drug susceptibility within 90 min. Comprehensive tests by dAST for more drugs against more GNB species are possible in the future.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers and causes of death by cancer.Concanavalin A (ConA) lectin can specifically bind to the glycoprotein receptors of HCC, which are produced by the aberrant overexpression of liver cancer cells. ConA was used in the current study to conjugate on silica-carbon hollow spheres (SCHSs) and applied in the thermal ablation therapy of liver cancer cell lines under near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation. We found that the amount of ConA-SCHS complex binding to hepatoma cells was significantly higher than that seen with normal hepatocytes, based on flow cytometric analysis and confocal imaging. Hepatoma cells incubated with ConA-SCHSs were thus more easily killed by the subsequent irradiation with a NIR laser. The results show that the ConA-SCHS complex may enhance the interaction with highly expressed ConA receptors on hepatoma cells, and thus serve as an effective photothermal therapy agent for liver cancer treatment.