Zhigang Xie

Chiral Carbon Dots-Enzyme Nanoreactors with Enhanced Catalytic Activity for Cancer Therapy

As a class of functional proteins, enzymes possess inherent insignificant features, for instance, mediocre stability and membrane impermeability and reduced enzymatic activity after modification, which partly limit their biomedical applications. Thus, it is indispensable to exploit robust nanoreactors with high enzymatic activity and good stability and cell permeability. Here, the chiral carbon dots (CDs)-glucose oxidase (GOx) nanoreactors named LGOx and DGOx were constructed by the coassembly of GOx with L/D-CDs, respectively. L/DGOx can significantly enhance the activity of GOx and improve the efficient delivery of GOx to cancer cells. Moreover, these nanoreactors can generate hydrogen peroxide to efficaciously kill cancer cells and restrain tumor growth, and DGOx exhibits higher enzymatic activity than LGOx. According to our understanding, this is the first report about utilizing chiral CDs as vectors to construct effective CDs-enzyme nanohybrids for cancer therapy, which is envisioned to be a versatile strategy for multitudinous biomedical applications.

Vaginal drug delivery approaches for localized management of cervical cancer

Cervical cancer or cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) remain a major public health problem among women globally. Traditional methods such as surgery are often associated with possible complications which may impact future pregnancies and childbirth especially for young female patients. Vagina with a high contact surface is a suitable route for the local and systemic delivery of drugs but its abundant mucus in continuous exchange presents a barrier for the popularization of conventional vaginal formulations including suppositories, gel, patch, creams and so on. So the development of new pharmaceutical forms based on nanotechnology became appealing owing to its several advantages such as mucosa penetration, bioadhesion, controlled drug release, and decreased adverse effects. This review provided an overview of the development of topical treatment of cervical cancer or CIN through vaginal drug delivery ranging from conventional vaginal formulations to new nanocarriers to the newly developed phototherapy and gene therapy, analyzing the problems faced by current methods used, and advising the developing trend in future. The methods of establishing preclinical animal model are also discussed.