Jichun Yang, Shuojiong Pan, Shiqian Gao, Yiheng Dai, Huaping Xu Biomaterials; 2020, 249, 120054. Thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) is an essential mammalian enzyme that possesses a selenocysteine active site. TrxR is overexpressed in many malignant tumors and has a close relationship with apoptosis, drug resistance, recurrence and metastasis of tumors. Recently, TrxR has emerged as a promising target for anticancer therapy. Herein, we developed a TrxR-interfering drug delivery system (DDS) based on RGD-PEG-PUSeSe-PEG-RGD self-assembling micelles for imaging-guided gemcitabine (GEM) chemosensiti...

Yiheng Dai, Ke Zheng, Yizheng Tan, Wentian Xiang, Banruo Xianyu, Huaping Xu Adv. Sustainable Syst.; 2020, 4, 2000072. Faced with ever-severe gold mineral depletion, it is meaningful to obtain a sustainable gold resource by utilization of accumulating waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Inspired by fischesserite, the first naturally occurring selenide of gold, a novel selenium-containing polyurethane (Se-polyurethane) is prepared. This material is able to extract aqueous gold in its elemental form with a selectivity 437 times over Cu and 443 times over Ni and a capacity of 802...

Shuojiong Pan, Jichun Yang, Shaobo Ji, Tianyu Li, Shiqian Gao, Chenxing Sun, Huaping Xu CCS Chem.; 2020, 2, 225–235. Thioredoxin Reductase (TrxR) plays a pivotal role in defending cells against reactive oxygen species (ROS) and maintaining a reduced intracellular environment. It has been discovered that TrxR is elevated significantly in human cancer, evidenced by its association with the promotion of tumor cell proliferation, inhibiting tumor cell apoptosis, as well as enhancing tumor drug resistance. Hence, finding highly selective inhibitors of TrxR is urgently needed. Herein, we develo...

Shiqian Gao, Tianyu Li, Ye Guo, Chenxing Sun, Banruo Xianyu, Huaping Xu Adv. Mater.; 2020, 32, 1907568. Considering the limited clinical benefits of individual approaches against malignancy, natural killer (NK) cell-mediated immunotherapy is increasingly utilized in combination with radiotherapy and target therapeutics. However, the interplay of targeted agents, immunotherapy and radiotherapy is complex. An improved understanding of the effect of chemotherapy or radiotherapy on specific molecular pathways in immune cells would help to optimize the synergistic anti-tumour efficiency. In thi...

Cheng Liu, Zhiyuan Fan, Yizheng Tan, Fuqiang Fan, Huaping Xu Adv. Mater.; 2020, 32, 1907569. Structural color materials with reversible stimuli-responsiveness to external environment have been widely used in sensors, encryption, display and other fields. Compared with other stimuli, visible light is highly controllable both temporally and spatially with less damage to materials, which is more suitable for structural color patterning. Herein, a new diselenide-containing shape memory material is prepared and used for creating patterns via visible light stimulus. In this system, the structura...

Tianyu Li, Shuojiong Pan, Hao Zhuang, Shiqian Gao, Huaping Xu ACS Appl. Bio Mater., 2020, 3, 1283-1292. Developing multifunctional carrier-free nanomedicine with high efficacy attracts tremendous attention in cancer treatment. Here, we develop selenium-containing carrier-free assemblies with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) property, which achieve the combination of cancer radiotherapy with chemotherapy. Under γ-radiation, diselenide bonds in the assemblies can be cleaved to form seleninic acid, which exhibits anticancer activity by upregulating the reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels i...

Peng Zhao, Jiahao Xia, Muqing Cao, Huaping Xu ACS Macro Lett., 2020, 9, 163-168. Wavelength-controlled Se–S dynamic chemistry was put forward recently as a convenient way to regulate the balance of a selenide sulfide exchange reaction. In this paper, we synthesized an asymmetric polymeric amphiphile linked with a Se–S bond and then induced it to self-assemble into vesicles in water. When the visible light was applied to the assembly solution with addition of toluene, Se–S bonds containing vesicles were ruptured. Thus, the wavelength-controlled light responses of relatively stable polymer a...