No abstract

Peptide self-assembled nanostructures are very popular in many biomedical applications. Drug delivery is one of the most promising applications among them. The tremendous advantages for peptide self-assembled nanostructures include good biocompatibility, low cost, tunable bioactivity, high drug loading capacities, chemical diversity, specific targeting, and stimuli responsive drug delivery at disease sites. Peptide self-assembled nanostructures such as nanoparticles, nanotubes, nanofibers, and hydrogels have been investigated by many researchers for drug delivery applications. In this review, the underlying mechanisms for the self-assembled nanostructures based on peptides with different types and structures are introduced and discussed. Peptide self-assembled nanostructures associated promising drug delivery applications such as anticancer drug and gene drug delivery are highlighted. Furthermore, peptide self-assembled nanostructures for targeted and stimuli responsive drug delivery applications are also reviewed and discussed.

Recently, smart interfacial materials that can reversibly transit between the superhydrophobicity and superhydrophilicity have aroused much attention. However, all present performances happen in air, and to realize such a smart transition in complex environments, such as oil, is still a challenge. Herein, TiO nanotube arrays with switchable transition between the superhydrophobicity and superhydrophilicity in oil are reported. The switching can be observed by alternation of UV irradiation and heating process, and the smart controllability can be ascribed to the cooperative effect between the surface nanostructures and the chemical composition variation. By using the controllable wetting performances, some applications such as under-oil droplet-based microreaction and water-removal from oil were demonstrated on our surface. This paper reports a surface with smart water wettability in oil, which could start some fresh ideas for wetting control on interfacial materials.

BackgroundRecent studies showed that sore throat following endotracheal intubation was a common problem following surgery. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis of published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or cohort studies was to estimate whether the size of endotracheal tube (ETT) affects the incidence of postoperative sore throat (POST) after general anesthesia.MethodsThe following databases were searched electronically: PubMed (updated to Dec 2012), EMBASE (updated to 15 Dec 2012), Google scholar, World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (Jul 2011), Chinese BioMedical Literature Database (1978 to Jul 2011), and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (1994 to Jul 2011). Studies comparing the size of endotracheal tube for elective surgery were included.ResultsThree trials with a total of 509 female patients were included in the current analysis. The size of ETT used were 6.0 mm and 7.0 mm. Pooled studies from these trials showed that the smaller size of ETT (6.0 mm) significantly decreased the incidence of POST in post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) (RR = 0.56, 95% CI 0.42–0.75, P<0.01) and at 24 h after surgery (RR = 0.69, 95% CI 0.48–0.99, P<0.05). A smaller size of ETT (6.0 mm) was associated with a lower incidence of PH in PACU (RR = 0.69, 95% CI 0.55–0.87, P<0.01), but did not affect the incidence of PH at 24 h after surgery (RR = 0.73, 95% CI 0.46–1.15, P>0.05).ConclusionOur meta-analysis suggests that patients under general anesthesia with a smaller size of ETT (6.0 mm) were associated with a lower incidence of POST in female patients. More studies with adequate numbers of patients were warranted to evaluate other size of ETT on the incidence of PH and POST after general surgery among different populations.