Therapeutic Stomatocytes with Aggregation Induced Emission for Intracellular Delivery

Bowl-shaped biodegradable polymersomes, or stomatocytes, have much potential as drug delivery systems, due to their intriguing properties, such as controllable size, programmable morphology, and versatile cargo encapsulation capability. In this contribution, we developed well-defined therapeutically active stomatocytes with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) features by self-assembly of biodegradable amphiphilic block copolymers, comprising poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and AIEgenic poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC) moieties. The presence of the AIEgens endowed the as-prepared stomatocytes with intrinsic fluorescence, which was employed for imaging of cellular uptake of the particles. It simultaneously enabled the photo-mediated generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) for photodynamic therapy. The potential of the therapeutic stomatocytes as cargo carriers was demonstrated by loading enzymes (catalase and glucose oxidase) in the nanocavity, followed by a cross-linking reaction to achieve stable encapsulation. This provided the particles with a robust motile function, which further strengthened their therapeutic effect. With these unique features, enzyme-loaded AIEgenic stomatocytes are an attractive platform to be exploited in the field of nanomedicine.

First-Principles Investigation of structural, Optical, and Electrical properties of MgO Nanocrystals

Nanocrystal interfaces can strongly influence the optical and electrical properties and charging trapping phenomena observed on oxide nanocrystal ensembles. The well-defined shape and controllable size distributions of MgO nanocrystals are a convenient system for studying these effects. Therefore, in the present work focused on the effect of temperature on the optical and electrical properties of magnesium oxide (MgO) nanocrystals, together with the responsible atomic centers, the bulk MgO is a study based on the first principle functional density theory (DFT) using PBE-GGA approximations. The absorption coefficient shows that MgO shows good coverage in the ultraviolet range. The bulk MgO is a direct bandgap nanocrystal at G point in the Brillion Zone despite the temperature applied values. The temperature is applied to alter the bandgap pattern and closes the bandgap at a high temperature. The PDOS and imaginary part of the dielectric function further confirm the insulator properties of the observed bandgap. Our results show that the optical properties are affected by the inconsistent temperature manners despite the different temperatures given to the system. Our absorption curve confirms that the nanocrystal is a good candidate for ultraviolet device application with a significantly high reflectivity percentage.