The central nervous system is a critical reservoir for cancer metastasis, underscoring the urgent need for effective strategies for targeted drug delivery that minimize systemic side effects. Here, we present a zwitterionic polycarboxybetaine (PCB) designed to achieve selective accumulation within the tumor vasculature of brain metastases, thereby facilitating the rapid release of therapeutics without relying on external stimuli in preclinical models. PCB selectively targets the betaine-γ-aminobutyric acid transporter 1 (BGT1) at the blood-brain-tumor barrier (BBTB), enabling localized enrichment of nanoparticles within the tumor vasculature. The intrinsic mechanical flexibility of PCB activates the Piezo1 ion channel in endothelial cells, resulting in calcium ion influx and enhanced calpain activity, which together facilitate the degradation of VE-cadherin. The burst-release mechanism improves vascular permeability and compromises the integrity of the tumor vascular barrier, allowing

arXiv abstract link

A recent study in npj Clean Water by Yazan Abuhasheesh, Aya Aboukhater, Mahendra Kumar, Fawzi Banat, and Shadi W. Hasan details the development of a novel polyethersulfone and sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) composite membrane integrated with zwitterionic biochar nanofillers for advanced wastewater treatment.

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Reprints and permissions...

Read the full paper: Synthesis of Zwitterionic Tris(pyrazolyl) Ligands and Their Mn(II) Bis-Chelates Exhibiting Charge–Transfer-Induced Spin Crossover

Extended Data Fig. 1 Screening and optimization of zwitterionic polymer structure. a, Chemical structure of OP(DEA)Cy5. b, Flow cytometry analysis of the internalization of OP(DEA)Cy5 with different monomer number in MDA-MB-231 cells with or without wortmannin for 2 h (n = 3 biologically independent samples). c, Western blot analysis of PD-L1 degradation in MDA-MB-231 cells treated with McR-TACsPD-L1 (monomer number, n = 25) under indicated concentrations. d, Dose-response of PD-L1 degradation by McR-TACsPD-L1 (monomer number, n = 25) with indicated concentrations in MDA-MB-231 cells for 24 h (n = 3 biologically independent samples). e, Chemical structure of OP(DEA)APC (molar ratio of polymer to antibody = 3:1). f, Flow cytometry analysis of the internalization of OP(DEA)APC with different monomer number in MDA-MB-231 cells with or without wortmannin for 2 h (n = 3 biologically independent samples). g, Dose-response of PD-L1 degradation by AbnR-TACsPD-L1 (monomer number, n = 40) with indicated concentrations in MDA-MB-231 cells for 24 h (n = 3 biologically independent samples). h, Dose-response of PD-L1 degradation by AbnR-TACsPD-L1 (monomer number, n = 60) with indicated concentrations in MDA-MB-231 cells for 24 h (n = 3 biologically independent samples). i, Dose-response of PD-L1 degradation by AbnR-TACsPD-L1 (molar ratio of antibody...

AbstractEngineering the electrode–electrolyte interface has emerged as a critical strategy to overcome sluggish kinetics of alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). However, the dynamic and complex nature of the double electric layer makes mechanistic understanding at the molecular level and rational interfacial regulation highly challenging. Herein, we demonstrate that molecular modification of Ni-doped MoS2 catalyst with a zwitterionic molecule (z-Ni-MoS2) markedly enhances alkaline HER kinetics. In-situ Raman spectroscopy combined with ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations reveals that the quaternary ammonium cation reconstructs interfacial water into linear hydrogen-bond chains via electrostatic repulsion of potassium ions from the z-Ni-MoS2 surface. This distinctive interfacial microenvironment enables water molecules within hydrogen-bond chains to directly relay protons to sulfur sites via a Grotthuss-associated mechanism. In contrast to the conventional diffusion-dominated, non-Grotthuss-associated mechanism, this mechanism lowers the water-dissociation barrier and promotes interfacial proton transport, thereby accelerating alkaline HER kinetics. To evaluate device-level applicability, z-Ni-MoS2 was incorporated into an anion exchange membrane water electrolyzer (AEM-WE). The system delivers outstanding performance of 5.21 A cm–2 at 1.8 V and 9.57 A cm–2 at 2 V, 80 °C, surpassing the United States Department of Energy (DOE) 2026 target (3 A cm–2 at 1.8 V). This work provides molecular-level insight for interfacial water restructuring as a design principle for high-performance alkaline HER catalysts.