Efficient delivery of therapeutic agents with nanocarriers into the nucleus to achieve high therapeutic efficiency is still a major challenge for cancer therapy due to mucosal barriers, nonspecific uptake, and intracellular drug resistance. In this study, we develop a dual-responsive polymer micelle system with sheddable polyethylenimine (PEI) shells for actively targeted drug delivery. This system exhibits an ultrasensitive negative-to-positive charge reversal in response to the extracellular pH value, resulting in greatly enhanced uptake by cancer cells via electrostatic interaction. Moreover, the active targeting ability can further promote the selective uptake of the nanocarriers in the cancer cell. Once the micelles escape from the lysosomes, the disulfide linkages can be cleaved by GSH in the cytoplasm, and in turn the hydrophilic PEI shell is deshielded, leading to the rapid release of the encapsulated agent into the nuclei. The antitumor activity in 4T1 tumor-bearing mice reveals that this novel system possesses a long blood circulation due to the originally negatively charged surface and can significantly promote the cell internalization and intracellular drug release, thus leading to a high therapeutic efficacy against resistant tumors and fewer side effects to normal tissues.

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A novel strategy to intensify the degradation and mineralization of the antibiotic drug metronidazole (MNZ) in water with simultaneous production of renewable electrical energy was achieved in photo-assisted microbial fuel cells (MFCs). In this system Mo and W catalytic species immobilized onto a graphite felt cathode intensified the cathodic reduction of MNZ under anaerobic conditions and the oxidation of MNZ under aerobic conditions. The aerobic oxidation process was further accelerated in the presence of Fe(III), realizing a combined photo-assisted MFCs and Fenton-MFCs process. The highest rates of MNZ degradation (94.5 ± 1.4%; 75.6 ± 1.1 mg/L/h) and mineralization (89.5 ± 1.1%; 71.6 ± 0.9 mg/L/h), and power production (251 mW/m 2 ; 0.015 kWh/m 3 ; 0.22 kWh/kg COD) were achieved at a Mo/W loading of 0.18 mg/cm 2 with a Mo/W ratio of 0.17 : 1.0, in the presence of 10 mg/L of Fe(III) and at an incident photon flux of 23.3 mW/cm 2. Photo-generated holes were directly involved into the oxidation of MNZ under anaerobic conditions. Conversely, under aerobic conditions, the photo-generated electrons favored the production of O 2 •over •OH, while in the presence of Fe(III), •OH was predominant over O 2 •-, explaining the intensification of the MNZ mineralization observed. This study demonstrates an alternative and environmentally benign approach for the intensification of the removal of the antibiotic MNZ in water and possibly other contaminants of emerging concern by combining photo-assisted MFCs and Fenton-MFCs in a single process with simultaneous production of renewable electrical energy.

To confirm how different anions influence sup-ramolecular self-assembly of lanthanide-organic frameworks (LnOFs) as well as their luminescent properties, a new flexible achiral tripodal ligand, 1,1,1-tris-{[(2'-benzylaminoformyl)phenoxyl]methyl}ethane (L) and the LnOFs {[EuL(NO(3))(3)]·1.5CHCl(3)}(n) and [EuL(pic)(3)](n) have been designed and assembled. In the two LnOFs, {[EuL(NO(3))(3)]·1.5CHCl(3)}(n) demonstrates an unprecedented chiral noninterpenetrated two-dimensional (2D) honeycomblike (6,3) (hcb, Schläfli symbol 6(3), vertex symbol 6·6·6) topological network, and [EuL(pic)(3)](n) confirms an unusual chiral LnOF with three-dimensional (3D) (10,3)-a (srs, SrSi(2), Schläfli symbol 10(3), vertex symbol 10(2)·10(4)·10(4)) topological framework. Also the anion-induced structures and energy transfer processes in the luminescence behavior of the two LnOFs were discussed in detail.

A near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probe with a large Stokes shift (143 nm) for the rapid identification of Cys over Hcy and GSH in aqueous solution was developed.