Hydroxychloroquine, a less toxic derivative of chloroquine, is effective in inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitroJia Liu, Ruiyuan Cao, Mingyue Xu et al.|Cell Discovery|2020 The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2/2019-nCoV) poses a serious threat to global public health and local economies. As of March 3, 2020, over 80,000 cases have been confirmed in China, including 2946 deaths as well as over 10,566 confirmed cases in 72 other countries. Such huge numbers of infected and dead people call for an urgent demand of effective, available, and affordable drugs to control and diminish the epidemic.
Surface chemistry and aspect ratio mediated cellular uptake of Au nanorodsYang Qiu, Ying Liu, Liming Wang et al.|Biomaterials|2010 Selective Targeting of Gold Nanorods at the Mitochondria of Cancer Cells: Implications for Cancer TherapyLiming Wang, Ying Liu, Wei Li et al.|Nano Letters|2010 We have observed that Au nanorods (NRs) have distinct effects on cell viability via killing cancer cells while posing negligible impact on normal cells and mesenchymal stem cells. Obvious differences in cellular uptake, intracellular trafficking, and susceptibility of lysosome to Au NRs by different types of cells resulted in selective accumulation of Au NRs in the mitochondria of cancer cells. Their long-term retention decreased mitochondrial membrane potential and increased reactive oxygen species level that enhances the likelihood of cell death. These findings thus provide guidance for the design of organelle-targeted nanomaterials in tumor therapy.
Time-dependent translocation and potential impairment on central nervous system by intranasally instilled TiO2 nanoparticlesElimination efficiency of different reagents for the memory effect of mercury using ICP-MSYufeng Li, Chunying Chen, Yuanyuan Li et al.|Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry|2005 The present study was carried out to solve the problems of long washout time and non-linear calibration curves encountered in mercury analysis using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Comparisons of the washing efficiency for different reagents to eliminate the mercury memory effect were made. Of all the selected washing reagents, mercapto reagents such as 2-mercaptoethanol and L-cysteine could efficiently clean the instrument. Taking the toxicity and odor of mercaptoalkanol into account, L-cysteine was preferred as the most suitable washing reagent and was added into the standard and sample solutions. A good linear calibration curve was obtained with the correlation coefficient of 0.9999. The detetion limit for addition of L-cysteine was 0.024 μg l−1. Addition of 0.18% L-cysteine into the sample solution also facilitates the washout of mercury even using deionized water. The recoveries of mercury in certified reference materials, i.e. human hair and dogfish muscle, were 97.2% and 98.3%, respectively, when using 0.18% L-cysteine in the sample solutions.