Air pollution–associated cardiovascular morbidity is strongly linked to oxidative stress. We previously showed that diesel exhaust particles (DEPs) ex…

Chloroquine (CQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) inhibit autophagy and have shown promise as adjuvant anticancer agents, particularly for targeting therapy-resistant cancer stem cells (CSCs). However, their clinical utility is limited by systemic toxicity and poor tumor selectivity. Here, we report the design, synthesis, and photochemical evaluation of [7-(diethylamino)coumarin-4-yl]methyl (DEACM)-caged CQ and HCQ derivatives as visible-light-activated autophagy inhibitors. Selective caging of the aliphatic amine suppressed biological activity in the dark and enabled rapid release of the parent drugs upon illumination. The lead compound 1C displayed robust light-dependent cytotoxicity across multiple cancer cell lines and, upon photoactivation, recapitulated CQ’s effects on LC3-II accumulation. In CSC-enriched tumorspheres, 1C completely abolished sphere formation only if illuminated. Ex vivo and in vivo studies confirmed that visible light penetrates tumor tissue sufficiently to activate 1C and locally release CQ within the tumor. These findings establish the first proof of concept for light-controlled autophagy inhibition and provide a blueprint for spatiotemporally confined anticancer therapies based on photopharmacological modulation of CSCs.

Background Secondary cardiomyopathies are a major cause of heart failure (HF) with diverse etiologies and high mortality rates. For example, over 50% of patients with end-stage liver disease develop c...

Biological systems can convert ionic gold precursors into nanoparticles (NPs) via redox-driven mineralization, yet the pathways and outcomes remain poorly understood. To address this, we investigated ...

Microchimica Acta - Malaria remains to be one of the deadliest infectious illnesses and is especially common in underdeveloped and developing countries. Recent advances (2022–2025) in...

Natural biopolymer-based hydrogels represent a promising strategy for localized drug delivery in cancer therapy, helping to overcome the systemic toxi…

Many bioanalytical methods result in the generation of colorimetric readouts, with color intensity providing information of the concentration of the t…

Cavities at protein-protein interaction interfaces are considered “undruggable” because their shallow or large geometries hinder stable binding by small molecules. Overcoming this limitation is essential for developing new therapies. Cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeO2NPs) of a suitable size can occupy the 5 nm central cavity of the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) trimer, thereby inhibiting infection. Although size compatibility enables cavity access, other targeting parameters remain unclear. The S trimer features central and lateral cavities, both ∼5 nm in diameter, that can accommodate NPs. To explore factors governing cavity targeting, we compared size-matched CeO2NPs and gold NPs (AuNPs), evaluating their binding to S-trimer cavities and investigating mechanisms underlying their selective interactions. Despite comparable antiviral activity, the two NPs exhibited different binding profiles. Biolayer interferometry confirmed strong binding of both NPs to the S trimer, while only CeO2NPs selectively targeted the receptor-binding domain (RBD). CeO2NPs preferentially occupied the central cavity enriched with Asp residues. However, AuNPs bind to the lateral cavities, including the S1/S2 cleavage site, where they interact with Arg-rich motifs for furin-mediated activation of the S protein. Mechanistically, CeO2NPs achieved stable binding by coordinating with Asp carboxyl groups in the central cavity, while AuNPs bound lateral cavities primarily via electrostatic attraction with Arg residues. These findings suggest that residue-level recognition governs NP binding among sterically accessible protein cavities, with size compatibility enabling access and surface-residue matching defining binding selectivity. The insight provides a strategy for designing NPs to engage recessed features on protein surfaces previously inaccessible, enabling selective functional modulation and broader biomedical applications.

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Cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeO2 NPs), a few nanometers in diameter, exhibit strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity and are considered promising candidates for the treatment of ocular disea...

Controlling the nucleation and growth of magnetite nanoparticles (NPs) via aqueous coprecipitation at room temperature is inherently challenging due to kinetic and thermodynamic constraints. Rapid pH ...

Cancer cell survival and proliferation are correlated with increased metabolic activity and consequent oxidative stress, driving metabolic shifts that interfere with the immune response to malignant c...

Objectives To assess the usefulness of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in patients with early-stage oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Materials and Methods Seventy-five patients (mean age 62 ...

Scaffolds used in tissue engineering can be obtained from synthetic or natural materials, always focusing the effort on mimicking the extracellular matrix of human native tissue. In this study, a dece...

T cell lymphoma constitutes a complex group of diseases, characterized by heterogeneous molecular features and clinical symptoms, and a dismal outcome…

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a very challenging disease with a very poor prognosis. It is characterized by a dense desmoplastic stroma that hampers drug penetration and limits the effectiveness of conventional chemotherapy (CT). As an alternative, the combination of CT with hyperthermia (HT) has been proposed as an innovative treatment modality for PDAC. In previous works, we reported on the development of iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) that, when exposed to time-varying magnetic fields, exhibit strong HT responses that inhibited the growth of pancreatic cancers. We report here on advances toward the clinical use of these MNPs as an intratumorally administered sterile magnetic fluid (the “NoCanTher ThermoTherapy” or “NTT” Agent) alongside intravenous standard-of-care drugs (gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel) for the treatment of PDAC. In vitro cell viability assays show that the combination of low doses of CT and HT is highly synergistic, particularly in the BxPC-3 cell line. In vivo, biodistribution assays showed that the NTT Agent MNPs remained mainly within the tumor, concentrated around areas with a high stromal component. Moreover, the combined CT/HT treatment shows clear advantages over CT alone in terms of drug penetration and reduction of the tumor volume, suggesting a potential direct effect of HT in the disruption of the interstitial stroma to facilitate the access of the drugs to malignant cells. These studies have led to the approval and commencement of a clinical investigational study at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital (Barcelona, Spain) of the NTT Agent alongside CT in patients with locally advanced PDAC.

Prussian blue nanoparticles (PBNPs) have been identified as a promising candidate for biomimetic peroxidase (POD)-like activity, specifically due to the metal centres (Fe3+/Fe2+) of Prussian blue (PB)...

Background Hazard and risk assessment of nanomaterials (NMs) face challenges due to, among others, the numerous existing nanoforms, discordant data and conflicting results found in the literature, and...