Xuegang Li

The aim of this work was to characterize polyethylene glycol (PEG) coated nanoparticles loaded with garlic essential oil and to evaluate their insecticidal activity against adult Tribolium castaneum . Preparation of nanoparticles was carried out using the melt-dispersion method, a very simple, convenient, and low-cost technique. The oil-loading efficiency could reach 80% at the optimal ratio of essential oil to PEG (10%). The morphology results and nanoparticle size showed that the nanoparticles had a round appearance and good dispersion, <240 nm in the average diameter, characterized by transmission electron microscope and dynamic light scattering, respectively. The abundance and percentage content of the major components did not show any significant difference between free and nanoencapsulated oil when analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The control efficacy against adult T. castaneum remained over 80% after five months, presumably due to the slow and persistent release of the active components from the nanoparticles. In contrast, the control efficacy of free garlic essential oil at the similar concentration (640 mg/kg) was only 11%. This indicates that it is feasible to use the PEG coating nanoparticles loaded with garlic essential oil to control the store-product pests.

Monocyte-derived tumor-associated macrophages (Mo-TAMs) intensively infiltrate diffuse gliomas with remarkable heterogeneity. Using single-cell transcriptomics, we chart a spatially resolved transcriptional landscape of Mo-TAMs across 51 patients with isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH)-wild-type glioblastomas or IDH-mutant gliomas. We characterize a Mo-TAM subset that is localized to the peri-necrotic niche and skewed by hypoxic niche cues to acquire a hypoxia response signature. Hypoxia-TAM destabilizes endothelial adherens junctions by activating adrenomedullin paracrine signaling, thereby stimulating a hyperpermeable neovasculature that hampers drug delivery in glioblastoma xenografts. Accordingly, genetic ablation or pharmacological blockade of adrenomedullin produced by Hypoxia-TAM restores vascular integrity, improves intratumoral concentration of the anti-tumor agent dabrafenib, and achieves combinatorial therapeutic benefits. Increased proportion of Hypoxia-TAM or adrenomedullin expression is predictive of tumor vessel hyperpermeability and a worse prognosis of glioblastoma. Our findings highlight Mo-TAM diversity and spatial niche-steered Mo-TAM reprogramming in diffuse gliomas and indicate potential therapeutics targeting Hypoxia-TAM to normalize tumor vasculature.

A novel magnetic field sensing system based on surface plasma resonance (SPR) optical fiber sensor and filled with magnetic fluid (MF) is proposed and demonstrated for the first time. In the magnetic field SPR optical fiber sensor, SPR is excited by Ag as metallic material and MF is filled into the capillary sealed with epoxy glue, which utilizes the tunable refractive index (RI) of MF, and the transmission spectrum will change with different magnetic field intensities. The magnetic-optic effect of MF and the high RI sensitivity of optical fiber SPR sensor are utilized to enhance the sensitivity of the novel magnetic field sensor significantly. In the experiment, the performances of the magnetic field sensing system are tested by applying different measured magnetic fields. The final results indicated that a sensitivity of 303 pm/Gs is achieved. Compared with other optical fiber magnetic field sensors, the advantages of the proposed sensor in this paper are simple structure, small in size, easy to make, low cost, high sensitivity, and anti-interference.