Development of enzyme mimics for the scavenging of excessive mitochondrial superoxide (O2•−) can serve as an effective strategy in the treatment of many diseases. Here, protein reconstruction technology and nanotechnology is taken advantage of to biomimetically create an artificial hybrid nanozyme. These nanozymes consist of ferritin‐heavy‐chain‐based protein as the enzyme scaffold and a metal nanoparticle core as the enzyme active center. This artificial cascade nanozyme possesses superoxide dismutase‐ and catalase‐like activities and also targets mitochondria by overcoming multiple biological barriers. Using cardiac ischemia‐reperfusion animal models, the protective advantages of the hybrid nanozymes are demonstrated in vivo during mitochondrial oxidative injury and in the recovery of heart functionality following infarction via systemic delivery and localized release from adhesive hydrogels (i.e., cardiac patch), respectively. This study illustrates a de novo design strategy in the development of enzyme mimics and provides a promising therapeutic option for alleviating oxidative damage in regenerative medicine.

Group I Intron Sequence and Structure Database (GISSD) is a specialized and comprehensive database for group I introns, focusing on the integration of useful group I intron information from available databases and providing de novo data that is essential for understanding these introns at a systematic level. This database presents 1789 complete intron records, including the nucleotide sequence of each annotated intron plus 15 nt of the upstream and downstream exons, and the pseudoknots-containing secondary structures predicted by integrating comparative sequence analyses and minimal free energy algorithms. These introns represent all 14 subgroups, with their structure-based alignments being separately provided. Both structure predictions and alignments were done manually and iteratively adjusted, which yielded a reliable consensus structure for each subgroup. These consensus structures allowed us to judge the confidence of 20 085 group I introns previously found by the INFERNAL program and to classify them into subgroups automatically. The database provides intron-associated taxonomy information from GenBank, allowing one to view the detailed distribution of all group I introns. CDSs residing in introns and 3D structure information are also integrated if available. About 17 000 group I introns have been validated in this database; ∼95% of them belong to the IC3 subgroup and reside in the chloroplast tRNALeu gene. The GISSD database can be accessed at http://www.rna.whu.edu.cn/gissd/

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a noninvasive protocol for the treatment of various cancers and nonmalignant diseases. Light, oxygen, and photosensitizer (PS) are the essential three elements in a typical PDT process. Currently, there are two major barriers limiting the further development of PDT. One issue is limited tissue penetration, and the other is the lack of high-performance PSs. Therefore, the newly emerging two-photon excited PDT (2PE-PDT) has attracted considerable attention in recent years due to its advantages such as a higher spatial resolution and a greater penetration depth. In this review, focus is on (i) the principle of 2PE-PDT, (ii) the progression of PSs for 2PE-PDT, and (iii) the potential indications and future directions in this field.

Four new eudesmanes, namely, 4(15)-eudesmene-1beta,7alpha-diol (1), 4(15)-eudesmene-1beta,7beta-diol (2), 7-trinoreudesma-4(15),8-dien-1beta-ol-7-one (3), and eudesma-4(15),7-dien-1beta-ol (4), as well as three known compounds, 5-epi-eudesma-4(15)-ene-1beta,6beta-diol (5), 4(15)-eudesmene-1beta,6alpha-diol (6), and 4(15)-eudesmene-1beta,5alpha-diol (7), were isolated from the aerial part of Caragana intermedia. The structures were elucidated by spectroscopic and spectrometric analyses including 1D, 2D NMR, HRMS, and IR. The structures of compounds 1, 5, 6, and 7 were confirmed by X-ray crystallographic analysis. Compound 7 showed glucose consumption activity with an IC value of 10.7 microg/mL in a C2C12 muscle cell assay. The MIC value of this compound (100 mg/kg) in a db/db mice model is equivalent to that of metformin in vivo.

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