pH-RESPONSIVE WOOD SLICES FOR THE CONTINUOUS SEPARATION OF LIGHT OIL/WATER/HEAVY OIL TRIPHASE MIXTURES

Light oil/water/heavy oil triphase mixtures are common in industrial wastewater, while nearly all separation materials with superwettability can only separate biphase mixtures of light oil/water or/and heavy oil/water. Here, a balsa wood slice with superhydrophilic/superoleophilic property in air was fabricated by a blade-cutting and ethanol-treating process. Therefore, the slice could be dually prewetted with both water and oil and thus showed underwater superoleophobic and underoil superhydrophobic properties without any further chemical modification. Such a slice showed underoil superhydrophobicity in nonbasic environment while transition into underoil superhydrophilicity under basic condition. Combining with the porous structure possessed by wood designed to transport liquids, this superwettability of the treated wood slice could be leveraged in the continuous separation of light oil/water/heavy oil triphase mixtures only driven by gravity with a high permeation flux and separation efficiency. After each separation, the slice was easily recovered by washing with acidic solution, and it could be recycled up to 15 times without any loss of pH responsibility. During repeated cycling separation, the slice exhibited excellent separation stability.

Hyaluronate-based Self-stabilized Nanoparticles for Reverting Immunosuppression and Immunochemotherapy in Osteosarcoma Treatment

Background: Chemotherapy and immunotherapy are the mainly non-surgical treatment for osteosarcoma in clinic presently. However, serious side effects, short blood circulation time, and immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment have extremely limited their application. To generate an onsite combined chemotherapy and immunotherapy regimen, we designed a self-stabilized hyaluronic acid (HA) nanoparticle for the tumor-targeting delivery of doxorubicin (DOX), cisplatin (DDP), and resiquimod (R848) in osteosarcoma treatment, referred to as DDPNPDOX&R848. Methods: Here, we tested the physicochemical properties of and the ability of DDPNPDOX&R848 to induce immunogenic cell death (ICD) and revert immunosuppressive cells were characterized in vitro. The therapeutic efficacy of DDPNPDOX&R848 in vivo was evaluated in an orthotopic osteosarcoma mouse model. Furthermore, we also verified the immune memory evoking effect of DDPNPDOX&R848 in an osteosarcoma rechanllenge mouse model.Results: DDPNPDOX&R848 possesses a uniform size (similar to 190 nm) and ideal pH responsibility, and its ability to induce ICD and modulate immune cells was also proven. In vivo, regardless of the mouse model used (i.e., orthotopic osteosarcoma or rechanllenge xenografted osteosarcoma), DDPNPDOX&R848 showed significantly enhanced tumor inhibition and prolonged survival. Evoked tumoricidal immune memory responses were also demonstrated in the rechanllenged osteosarcoma mouse model.Conclusion: In summary, this intelligent codelivery platform might be a competitive candidate for osteosarcoma immunochemotherapy.

Synthesis and Performance of pH-Sensitive Hydrogel Microspheres and In Vitro Evaluation as Potential Drug Carriers

To accelerate the response rate of smart hydrogels to the environmental conditions, a novel pH-sensitive hydrogel microsphere with the controlled shapes and sizes were developed. Such monodispersed microspheres were synthesizedviafree radical polymerization under the protection of a multilayer stability system. The pH-responsibility of hydrogel microspheres was tested with the hydrogel bulk as a control.In vitrorelease studies were conducted in the simulated gastric fluid and intestinal juice with bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a model drug. The large specific surface areas endowed hydrogel microspheres a faster pH-responsibility than that of bulk ones. Therefore, such microspheres showed potential applications as the oral protein drugs carrier.